Vinnitsa, Uman, Kyev, Lviv, Babi Yar – all places I have visited

Stood with head bowed at grave sides, appreciated the beauty of the countryside and the cities. Now I am frightened to listen to the radio and worse still, watch the television. Just now I did watch a report about the wonderful neurosurgeon Henry Marsh and his colleague David Nott deliver online advice to 200 Ukrainian doctors and surgeons

A Ukrainian surgeon who spoke of his intense sadness.

In happier times, in what seems like another age, Henry Marsh and a visiting Ukrainian neurosurgeon atttended the annual fundraising concert in London that we used to hold to support the Jewish community in Lviv. Then we worried about raising enough funds to run the school, pay the salaries and feed the children. Now we just beg NATO to keep Ukrainians alive.

President Zekensky talked just now of the decimation of Vinnitsa – a small city where we once had friends. TG the girl we knew there and latterly her parents relocated to America many years before the obliteration of their homeland. How sad they must be as they watch the horrific destruction

Goats and futile gestures

25 hours without watching the horrors of war. Now the sabbath has departed and I am once again glued to my screens

Back at The Gables the British Goat Society yearbook arrived
I had forgotten that I had been asked for a photograph and a few words about our Golden Guernseys

Stuck in the mud!

S and P brought Tufty and son, now named Theo, back today. They had borrowed Tufty to tup their three Jacob sheep (hopefully due in April). They drove into the field and then disaster struck. After so much recent rain the car sank into the mud and couldn’t get out

We used planks under the wheels, we pushed and then Jeremy’ set to work with our little tractor but nothing worked
Tufty and Theo wondered what was going on. we let them out to join the rest of the flock.

After many muddy attempts we decided to come on and have a cuppa whilst I telephoned a local farmer. Bless him he was here within 15 minutes, got them out of the muddy field and on their way !

The animals and Friday cooking distracts me from world events

I bought pickling cucumbers at Aldi yesterday
Lentil Dahl
Tomato quiche
Salads

And plenty more – aubergine gratin, red cabbage, leek snd celery soup, stewed blackcurrants and ice cream. I’m just about to make macaroni cheese as grandson and a friend are coming to stay tonight

And we must have chocolate chip cookies snd chocolate fudge cake on Sunday for other grandson’s birthday celebrations

On with mum’s jacket (we bought it for her in St Neots about four years ago)

It felt lovely to wear her coat. I wear her jumpers nearly every day because they became too big for her about three years ago.
I went to see the baby chicks. Mother hen is teaching them how to eat Click below

Then it was off to St Neots – library, post office, bank and Aldi where the cashier and I discussed Ukraine and she told me that customers are buying extra bags of nappies to donate to mothers who have run away with nothing. She told me ( she might be correct) that Putin is mad!