General Chat

Ann yes thanks, leg is not too bad today, a bit stiff but I have managed a walk down to Irene's to take some more books back for her. That is the May holiday reading material now returned.
I am beginning to despair of having anything nice growing in the pots as, stuff planted this year is not all thriving. the bedding begonias seem to be coping ok but I have lost practically all of a dozen French Marigolds I planted. and they were planted in ne basket and container compost. I think we are suffering from the no peat law. I will have to speak to my gardening friends as see if they have found a solution.

we have five schools spread around this village. Two senior schools and three combined Junior/infants. And at 'home' time which is a bit staggered so it covers from about 2.45 (because parents get there early to park) to way past 4 o'clock the surrounding roads are clogged up causing tailback for miles. The problem is that when children attended school in their catchment area many of them could walk to school but now they come from all over and there are the school buses to add to the problem.

Morning All,

It’s 21 degrees here now and I woke up early despite having been awake till 4.00am. OH was already up and had done some of his work and put washing out. He’s gone to the dentist now as he broke a tooth the other day biting something hard. It’s meant his tongue was very sore with rubbing against it so I fetched him some Bonjela. I did suggest he talk a bit less. Lol.

Crikey Mandy, you don’t hang about once you get started on a project! You must be pretty quick at crochet to have already done that many poppies! I bet they look lovely. You mentioned the school traffic and when we popped to do a few errands earlier, we passed the little park where I did my short walks and where the old ice house is. It was before 9.00am and the car park was already nearly full. Then a bit further on we noticed a lot of women were walking on the pavement and OH said he bet they had all parked on the little carpark then walked their children to the school on the corner. OH often has problems getting past the school on his way to some meetings as the parents park all along a slip road opposite the school, including blocking people’s driveways. The school is right on a road junction too and he says it is chaos there when the school finishes for the day as there are only about 3 parking spaces in a little layby and the road is too narrow to be able to park at the roadside.

I bet your BIL was pleased to have some of your homemade sausage rolls and a quiche to take home Mel.

Yes it does give you a boost when things work out well and you find something nice to buy and take home AnnG. I was pleased how my knees coped and the trip out didn’t make them worse again today, so I’ll be ok to pop out in the garden and pull another small patch of weeds up. I hope your leg is ok after your walk yesterday and continues to get better.

I think I will have to start again with fresh plants in the pots I’ve planted as they aren’t thriving at all. I removed a lot of the old compost and mixed in fresh as I usually do, but I think there must have been some of that awful compost that nothing grew in last year left in them. So out with the lot I think and start afresh. No wonder nothing grew last year, not even the beans.

I hope Vera managed a good sleep last night

Better get on with some HW and another load of washing next.

Good morning all on this LONGEST DAY. Its all down hil after today and the days will get shorter.

That was a long post I lost yesterday and I had copied some of it in the thought that I may lose the lot and then when it went I forgot.

After mowing all the lawns yesterday BIL took out four sponge filters out of the big box filter where the water goes before going back into the big pond and we washed them but he put four new ones in. The whole thing wants a good cleanout but I think that will be for another day.

Vera yes I did make two quiche yesterday and sausage rolls and cooked the spare sausages. I asked him if he wanted quiche for lunch or take it home so SIL would'nt have to cook tonight but he said he would have quiche. Gave it to him and he had just cut into it when I said I had sausage rolls and did he want those instead. He said yes so I wrapped the quiche for him to take home for dinner.

He also took off the old solar light battery boxes as both sets of light had gone and I need to find the new set to put out there.

I am posting this.

Morning all,

Lovely blue sky here and we should get to 24 degrees today then cooler tomorrow which is how I like it day after day of heat is very draining ,next week as Ann said it should get really hot .

Oh dear Mel have you lost a post again :-( yesterday I was typing away and the whole page just closed down ,I think I catch my finger on the little cross at the top left hand corner of the tablet it's so annoying .

Poppies are coming along 19 so far .

Off to Tesco in a while we usually wait until all the school traffic has eased .

Good morning all 15 degrees already. Sun is shining and the sky is pale blue. Another lazy day today although maybe I should do a bit of the dreaded H/W.

good job you C&P that lot Ann, it would have been a pain if you lost it. As Vera said mel. better try copying and pasting if it is going to keep on happening.

Annx that sounds like a very productive morning that you obviously enjoyed. It does make you feel good when things work out well doesn't it?

Evening All,

I got up the same two times as you Mel. Fancy turning the heating on by mistake. I bet you are glad you hadn’t then gone to spend an hour or two in the garden afterwards. It’s easily done though. Did the quiches turn out ok?

I wonder if the tyre valve hadn’t seated properly the time it was pumped up before you visited your friends Vera and had gradually lost pressure. Any jolts from road humps or potholes in the meantime might have hastened it going flat. Then when your OH pumped it up again the valve might have seated itself properly again and stopped leaking air. I have a feeling that when I was first given one of those cakes I tried to peel the rice paper off too!

OH is glad he just gets the visual disturbances now. He used to get the headaches with sickness too many years ago. I used to get them mid month that were hormonal, so they went as I got older. The headaches that are sometimes waking him at night now do usually respond to paracetamol enough to get off to sleep again, but he takes ibuprofen next if they persist. He finds bending brings them on worse too and those were the sort I used to get. He wondered if the migraines were changing again, but the doc after questioning him this time has some other ideas. I hope yours is soon better again as they are really debilitating and leave you shattered. He’s fine again today, which is good, as he had been asked to do an online talk slot to about 500 people today. It was to be a long meeting with various speakers and as my knees are feeling a bit better each day, and I couldn’t boil a kettle, do washing or hoover because of making a noise, I decided to do the same as AnnG and give my knees a bit of a test by going out and about. I called and posted my bowel test first, but the usual box has changed their collection time, so I had to go to another. I called at the shop next, then a small garden centre. It was quiet there considering it was mid morning, so I had a small brekkie and latte and read my magazine. A lot of plants were ‘leggy’ so I didn’t buy any and went another 17 miles to the Factory Shop. I found a nice, loose weave cotton top so got that and found a few other things I want to get. I forgot to bring a discount card we have though, so will bring OH to get those and anything he wants.

The pot will be good with a Hosta Mandy, but with hindsight I wish I’d lined my pots of them with polythene to help get them out now they need dividing. Aldi have some good buys don’t they.

Re the bumble bees we are the same as you AnnG. I saw a lot and quite early in the spring too, but I haven’t seen any for a while now. At least the miner bees seem to have disappeared from the island bed this year. They were a nuisance last year every time I poked my trowel around one seemed to fly out.

I noticed the temperature is shooting up next week too. I am going to meet up with an old friend I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, so I hope it isn’t too hot!

(cut and pasted Vera and AnnG!! ;-) )

Oh dear Mel, I can see the steam coming out of your ears from here. You must be feeling really frustrated. Why not give the copy and paste method a try. It might save you from losing so many posts.

king tins

FART FART FART

We all have those senior moments Mel, but you certainly wouldn't want heating on today. Did you get your quiche cooked?

It is a lovely day here and is now 21 degrees. It is supposed to get hotter next week but I hope it doesn't get too hot, particularly at night. I did get in the garden first thing before it got too warm and did a bit of weeding and deadheading but constantly bending was making my head swim so I didn't stay out there long. I am getting better but I still have the pain over one eye and down one side of my face and head.

I haven't done any h/w today though there's plenty that needs doing. However I have replied to emails that have come over the last couple of days. I also seem to have been on the phone half the morning. I now have a telephone consultation with a clinical pharmacist at our GP surgery for the annual review of my meds. That's for Tuesday, I have a hair appointment booked for Wednesday and our next Covid jab and flu jab booked for 9th November. I had just put the phone down from these calls when son and dil rang from their car. They are on the way to the Isle of Rum where they are camping and foraging for their food etc. I think it is some sort of short course. They must be mad! They've recently done a weekend course in blacksmithing and made knives.

Well, our tyre is still a mystery. I don't think we'll ever find out what happened for it to lose air but it certainly isn't a puncture. It's been pumped up since last Friday night now and has been driven and it's still fully inflated. AnnG's suggestion of some idiot letting the tyre down seems the only logical answer but we don't think that could have happened. We don't get much of that type of vandalism round here and our friends live in a quiet cul-de-sac off a quiet road. But the main thing is that our friends have a very short drive and the car was parked right by the front door and window of the living room. It was the front nearside tyre that was flat and that would have been right by the front window. Anyone fiddling with the valve would have been in full view of the men who were in that room. I know men aren't always very observant but I think even they would have seen someone bobbing about the car right in front of their eyes.

My eyes have had enough now so I think I'll close the computer down for a while. I hope you have all got good weather too and are enjoying the day.

I decided this morning to stop trying to not do anything involving walking as I was beginning to feel I was treating myself like an invalid. so I took my folding stick and caught the bus in to town. took the folding one as I thought I might try going around without it. It was quite busy in town, a lot of teenagers around, as usual for this time of year with some exams finished and some having study time off etc (How it helps being in Primark I am not sure!!). I didn't feel confident enough with so many youngsters zooming around to stop using the stick. Any way my leg behaved well and my balance seemed fine too. Coming home before I got on the bus, I folded my stick and put it away in my bag (sticks are a real nuisance on the bus and in cars). I then walked from the bus stop round to home without the stick and I was fine.
Leg is a bit sore/tired but really not too bad so hopefully it is on the mend.

Gosh its hot Em's been for eggs and BIL is mowing so I have had a natter with both.

I was trying to get a couple of quiches done but I hav'nt started yet!!! I turned on the hot water this morning and thought its going on for a long while and I had turned the heating on instead and I don't need that on today as it is so warm and I found out just in time and the rads were'nt that hot. Thats my senion moment for the day I hope.

Now lets see if I can manage not to burn the quiche.

Morning girls,

Another bright sunny morning but it was'nt at 6am when i got up for the loo. Went back to bed and slept till 9.33am.

Wonder what time BIL will arrive to mow? I better get dressed and ready and tidy the table.

I too googled the poppies and thought they looked so lovely. All that work the ladies have put in it must have taken ages and all for the lost souls of our lovely country. Bless. <3

I too hope Vera and G feel much better today after their migraines. I went through a time of them but hav'nt had one for years now, touch wood. Aunt Joy suffers with them though.

Good morning all. Looks like it is going to be a hopefully nice day. It is 12 degrees now at 0730. I slept well last night I got up once early in the night, then leg woke me early this morning. I think it had stayed in one position for too long.

I hope your migraine is now clear Vera and Ann's OH's is too.
Glad that you have bumble bees Mel. Early on this year when they first emerged there were quite a few but I did keep seeing dead ones laying around so I wondered if there was a disease getting them.

I googled the poppies as well, how lovely Gwynne, so many of them.

Ive got lots of bumble bees. The bees love the bunny rabbits all self seeded on the patio.

Got red stripes in the sky at the moment so I hope we get a nice day again tomorrow as BIL is coming to mow as he has wifes grandson coming for the weekend with his girlfriend. Think I have that right. It may be wifes son and girlfriend.

Phew, it’s like an oven in the study here. The room is under the eaves and my desk is under a sloping roof section so any air coming in through the open window misses me altogether. It’s apparently 14 degrees but it feels a lot warmer and I think it is going to be another hot night.

I googled the poppies on the railings in Fokestone Gwyn. They make a lovely display. Since 2018, the centenary of the WW1 armistice, we have had a cargo net of poppies cascading down from the tower of a local redundant church. I think it’s put up by the fire brigade around the end of October. I don’t think it was put up during lockdown but I think it was there last year. I believe it contains something like 23,000 knitted and crocheted poppies. If it goes up this year I’ll try to remember to get a photo of it.

You’ve done well passing on so much of the contents of your shed Mandy. I expect local people will be popping by your house for days to come to see what bargains they can find and I bet it won’t take you long to fill all the extra space in your shed.

I did have a giggle at your OH picking the gel off the dishwasher tabs Annx. He might prefer the ones I buy which are in the old fashioned paper that you take off. I get them because FarmFoods sell 2 very large boxes for about £20. They are made by Finish and clean the dishes very well but work out quite a lot cheaper. Another reason your story made me laugh as that it brought back a memory of my father. Dad was taken ill while visiting me one time and ended up in hospital for 8 months so I often took him in little treats. One day I took him a pack of 6 coconut macaroons. The next day when I visited he told me not to bring him those cakes again as he couldn’t get the paper off them and so had to throw them away. He had been trying with his badly deformed fingers to peel the edible rice paper off the bottom! I do feel for your OH with his migraines and hope they can get to the bottom of them. Does he find paracetamol work? They don’t even take the edge off my pain so I have a strong co-codamol prescribed, though I am very careful not to take more than absolutely necessary.

I have been out of action a bit myself yesterday and today because of a migraine which started Monday night with my eyes going blurry and out of focus with colours merging into each other. After about 30 minutes the eyes cleared and the pain started. At least I don’t get the terrible sickness these days. Yesterday I just kept laying down for a while, then getting up and just sitting in a chair, then going back to bed. Today I had to go to the pharmacy but still wasn’t safe to drive so OH took me. Apart from that and getting some food ready I have done nothing all day again so I am all behind now.

Mel, it's a good job you noticed that tick and the nurse could get it out for you. Horrid things. You’ve been busy with your h/w today on top of all the garden work you do. I wish I had your energy.

You did well with walking to the dentist and back today AnnG. I can’t believe your gt-granddaughter is 8 already. Where have those years gone? 19th June is obviously a good day to be born. My eldest granddaughter and one of my step-grandsons both have their birthdays today.

I think my eyes and my head have had enough of looking at a screen so I think it’s time to wish you all goodnight and sweet dreams.

Just walking round the garden an there are quite a few honey bees around but normally this time of year there are also lots of bumble bees but there are hardly any this year.

Been busy doing HW. Arn't I a good girl? I have swept down all the cobwebs in the kitchen off the light and all round the edges and througherly hoover kitchen and diner and a bit of the hall.

The sun came out mid morning and its now 20 degrees. I have washed down the doors in the hall and wiped the skirtings. Also had a go at a bit of mold in the bedroom on the wallpaper and in the spare room where the drainpipe goes down the wall on the outside and it had come away from its fixing and the water was running down the outside of the down pipe so the wall got a bit damp. BIL fitted it back on for me a couple of weeks ago.

I shall have to go and have a look at those poppies as they sound lovely. Its a great idea and I think more places should do it.

High to Gwyn nice to see you popping in. Are you all keeping well?

I bet you're glad the dentist is over Anng. Nice weather for a walk there and back but I hope the leg is ok tonight. Are you still doing the wheat bag?

Its good G has'nt tried to take the coating off the new dish washer tablets if they are liquid. You'll have to get those in the future. Its a bit off the builder leaving the cement untidy your side I would have thought you could have mentioned it to your neighbour and he could have made him come back and do something about it. as he did'nt do the pointing your side. Its a bit off leaving a mess but you seem please the walls a little higher now.

Afternoon all,

Gwyn those railing look lovely with all the poppies attached .
I think the link seems to have widened our pages again ,I wonder why it does that , oh thats better Gwyn I see you've removed it , I just manged to see the poppies before it went .

Been shopping and bought two balls of red wool ,only went in qd for wool but also came home with Miracle feed,a tray ,more outside lights and a new plastic container to hold some of my fat quarters .
Went into Aldi for our weekly shop and I bought a nice pot in there that I'm going to plant one of my Hostas in and that was the morning gone
Suns out and it's really warm again so I'm going to sit out this afternoon and do some poppies .

Afternoon everyone.

Just been deleting my previous post, which had s t r e t c h e d the screen so it was hard to view :-|
Well done Ann. I know you like to walk if you are able, so I hope your leg doesn't pain you after your exercise.

Mandy
You are doing well with your clear out of the shed and now are starting on your crochet project.
In Folkestone, the war memorial is set at the top of a fairly steep hill, where the troups marched down to the docks to embark for the First World War, many never to return.
Later, in their memory, the road was renamed The Road of Remembrance and the railings alongside have an ever-growing collection of knitted and crochet poppies.

Morning All,

Sunny here and 15 degrees but it feels warmer. I saw something I'd never seen before on my way back from the shop. The cars in front seemed to have slowed down and then I saw a Kite being chased by some Crows. Then to my left another Kite was flying quite low and swooping to try and catch a little bird in a flock that were trying to escape. Luckily they all did.

I was still smiling at OH and the dishwasher tablets this morning Mel. The new ones are like little dissolvable cushions with liquid inside you can see instead of powder, also dissolvable but with a thicker dissolvable bit so he hadn't thought he needed to take that off those with having liquid inside. That was lucky spotting the Barn Owl. I haven't seen one for many years now.

After his two migraines yesterday, OH woke with one of his bad headaches on one side of his head this morning and took some paracetamol. They often seem to happen in bed and he thinks the way he lies might be one cause as the doc told him it could be his osteoporosis. The latest doc seems to think they may be connected with the iritis he had a few months ago. The scan should show if it's that. He lay in this morning and seems much brighter now. He'd fetched the washing in while I was out and put it away.

Silly me I hadn't thought to hose the car down AnnG, so that's a good idea! I hope your leg will be ok when you go out. I think some things just take time to get better. My knees feel a little better each day, but it's taking longer than I would like. It's really hard getting in and out of my low car at the moment as it's the right knee that's worst and the one you use to straighten with your weight on it. I just have to take my time and be careful. Yes, OH thinks the builder was a bit of a 'bodger.' It was just him and his wife who mixed the cement and clened up the old copings and bricks for him. He hasn't even smoothed the cement between all the joints between the bricks our side of the wall and left some of them with rough cement hanging out as he'd left it too long and it had set. At least it's done now though and looks much better than it did and is a bit higher.

I don't fancy any of the jobs I should get on with and have just cooked a brunch for us. I sprinkled a little grated sheese on some large open mushrooms to have with it and they were really tasty. I know, I'd better sort the house insurance next.