General Chat

Afternoon All,

:-) <3 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MANDY <3 :-) I hope you enjoy your day and that lovely box of chocs! :-D

Mel, you seem to be dreaming quite a lot lately and they are all very different dreams. I don't often dream, or at least I don't remember them if I do.

We had a phone call at just turned 8.00am and it was a rcoded message from the water people to say they were working on a burst water main and may turn our water off or that the pressure could be low. They said they'd update us at lunchtime, so we filled the kettle and some big plastic jugs we have, just in case. They now say they hope it will be fixed by 4.00pm.

Then I went to the village garden centre, hoping it wasn't on the way to the burst water main which it wasn't luckily. The traffic's bad enough through the village these days at peak times without any extra holdups. I found some of those little petunias (Cala something I can never remember or pronounce!) for the front pots in red and white (for the footie!). OH has never forgotten me getting white striped busy lizzies for the pots before when there was a world cup. I had to ding the bell as no-one was serving and the first employee on the scene was a lovely cat, who I later learned was called 'Spud'. He was unusual with a thick, stand up coat that was mid length and a plain browny grey mix. His head had short, pale grey fur in contrast with a tabby pattern and he wove in and out of my legs purring. I patted the counter and he jumped up so I could scratch behind his ears. Eventually after a few more dings I was served and the helpful lady packed all the plants in a tray for me. I then trundled my trolley to my car. As I drove out, who should be sitting at the entrance to all of the racks of plants and watching me but Spud! I think he must have plodded outside and followed behind me until he reached the carpark! lol.

My next job is to ring for a bowel test kit as I'm now past the age for getting one automatically. Then I may go out to do some of the planting of pots. I still need to sort bits and pieces with the bathroom and ensuite like the floor and wall coverings, taps handles etc. Plenty to do at the moment with weeding and HW too.

I spoke to my neighbour this morning and she is having the wall rebuilt between us that the amazon driver knocked down when he was delivering to us early next week. She's having it built a bit higher this time and wondered about damage to our border, but I told her it will be ok as we are changing it so feet trampling on it won't matter.

Yes, Cecilia was a determined young woman in the face of a 'man's world' wasn't she Vera. No degrees for women at uni in her time and held back in jobs too. She's a good role model and example of what resilience and determination can lead to.

I'm glad the man who gave the talk had improved and that it turned out to be enjoyable this time.

It's good you got to the chiropodist ok with the help of your stick AnnG. Yes, I imagine they must be a bit ungainly and a bit of a nuisance when you are carrying other things like a bag as wedll. It sounds as if the cough and leg are improving a little now which is good and you managed to do a little shopping. I think I am going to mention in the feedback for each lesson that the teacher was a bit quick for me and I think some of the others will too as one didn't finish anything. She won't be surprised as she said it had been said before. No photo's this time. We just built a figure of a man from shapes like circles, narrow ovals and triangles in the right proportions lengthwise and then added positions of eyes and muscles to that framework. The teacher drew and we tried to copy. It was harder than it sounds. We are doing the same next week but a woman's body next time.

Afternoon all,

Thank you all for the anniversary wishes we don't buy each other a present just a card but son and dil always like to get us something we always say to them don't spend your money on us but they like to do it .

We have been out in the garden ,Colin has put the first bit of boarding up on the wall and I had to hold on to it while he drilled it ,one piece up one more big piece to go and a small bit by the rose ,he had already put one piece up by the wood shed.
I hung washing out and got it in when there was a few spots of rain but it didn't amount to much so I've just put them back out .

Oh that was a lovely surprise yesterday Ann getting a win from Ernie you could treat yourself to some art equipment :-)
I called the lights lanterns but they are like big jam jars with a solar light in the top the sides of the jars have a honeycomb pattern on them and cast a pattern on the wall .
The cakes I made them were choc chip buns ,a cold tea loaf, raspberry jam sponge and dil asked for cheese scones too .

Vera you've been busy but doesn't it give you a nice feeling when you can look at what you've done and know you've had a good clean up, sometimes doing small jobs you can't see what you've done .
That's nice your neighbour still brings you his latest bakes he must like doing his baking .

Mel I meant to say yes we watched Dick and Angel and enjoyed it ,looking forward to the next one now.

Anng glad your OK you probably did mention the chiropodist but we had forgotten ,your usually the first to post so we wondered if you were OK.
You'll have to rest the leg now or you might feel it a bit more tomorrow after walking quite a bit .

I can see lovely blue sky out there now but it's really chilly out today I had to have a jacket on while helping Colin and I think the pollen count must be high today as I've had a runny nose and been sneezing.

good afternoon all. I am ok no worries! I think I may have mentioned somewhere that I had a chiropodist appointment this morning. That is in town so, as I am not speedy on my feet at the moment, I didn't get on here before I left for the 0948 bus. Which was an annoying single decker and therefore full by the time we got to town. for some reason there were lots of people waiting at every stop too.

Anyway, going slowly with my stick (oh don't they get in the way as well?) I got to the post office, had a cup of coffee and got some salad, veg and fresh local (Wye valley) asparagus in M&S, my appointment was at 11.30 so, no time for more shopping as it was a ten minute walk from the centre to the chiropodist. But luckily he is quite close to the bus station. So, leg is aching a bit but not too bad and cough is still around but not bad at all.

Happy anniversary Mandy and Colin I hope that you are having a lovely day. Nice to have presents. My family have never done anniversary presents except for special ones.

Ann, maybe somebody should ask the tutor to repeat what she has just said and explain that in that medium it is difficult if she is speaking too fast. I hope you managed to learn something other than the bit about the actual programme etc. Are you drawing from a photograph again this time?

still only 13 degrees here now but sort of sunny/bright.

Vera, goodness you must be feeling fit today, you have done a lot. Please would you come and have a whirl around my dirty conservatory.

Better have some lunch now I think.

It’s quite chilly after the mild weather we’ve been having for the last couple of days. At the moment it's alternately sunny and cloudy but I think rain is forecast for later. I’ve had a busy morning and hoovered right through downstairs, including having a real go at the conservatory. I haven’t been cleaning it much because it’s been full of plants over the winter but now the last of them has gone outside I decided it needed doing. The paintwork and floor could do with a wash but I’ve moved everything and got rid of all the cobwebs and all the dead insects covering the window sills and swept up all the dirt and muck on the floor and it looks a different room.

The gas engineer arrived about 10 minutes ago and is busy servicing the boiler. After that he checks out the hot water tank and the upstairs radiators but the gas people don’t do anything with the underfloor heating valves and controls.

That was nice of your son and dil to bring you presents for your anniversary Mandy and I expect they were pleased to get the cakes from you. You keep them well supplied. Our neighbour is still doing a bit of cooking from time to time and on Monday he brought us in 2 squares of a dessert he’d made. OH couldn’t remember what he said it was called but it had a thin biscuit base with something like a soft, creamy cheesecake topping with some very, very finely chopped herbs scattered over it. It was quite lemony and I think the herb might have been basil. It was delicious.

Lovely that Ernie came up trumps for you Annx. It’s good that you found your charcoal and got started on your course but how annoying to waste a chunk of the time talking about the organization. That’s not what you paid for. They could have directed you to a website to read about that in your own time and then got straight on with the lesson. As you say, there is always one irritating person in any group. If he is so good, why isn’t he leading the group?

It sounds as though you might have a few years’ grace before this plan for 800 houses gets off the drawing board and even then it might be quite a while before full approval is given as there are bound to be objections and changes to the proposals etc. It will at least give you a breathing space.

I hadn’t heard of Cecilia Payne but have googled and been reading about her. She sounds quite a woman and you are right – if she were a man she would be better known. Most people have heard of Crick and Watson and the discovery of DNA but how many people know the part Rosalind Franklin played in that? Things are slowly changing but it’s still a man’s world.

Perhaps AnnG is busy this morning or out with a friend. I hope that’s what has stopped her posting early, and not problems with her bad leg or her lingering cough.

Last night’s Ladies Club was much better than expected. It was years ago that I saw the speaker and I think maybe he had only just started his talks-cum-entertainments; now he has refined them and has a much smoother delivery. It was pretty good and very entertaining.

Gas man has finished and left so I’d better go down and have a think what we are going to have for lunch. I’ve also got a couple of phone calls to make but maybe I should leave those till later as it’s nearly impossible to get hold of anyone between 12 and 2 pm.

I hope the weather’s being kind to you. Enjoy whatever you are doing for the rest of the day.

Hope Anng is ok as she has'nt posted this morning.

<3 <3 Happy aniversary Mandy and Colin <3 <3

Have a lovely relaxing day.

Happy Anniversary Mandy & Colin. Have a lovely day.

Happy anniversary Mandy and Colin.

I hope the sun shines for you on your special day <3

Morning all,

A much better morning today with some sunshine but still the pale grey clouds too. Pc says 12 degrees and partly sunny so maybe a stint in the garden again today.

I slept well but after my visit to the loo I went back to sleep and dreampt of David Beckham just him amd me by a big pond or canal and showing him how to fish with this big long pole with nothing on the end. Very weird as I don't really like Beckham.

Gosh Ann I that was a long post and lots of interesting things to read about. Glad you found your charcoal. As you say you paid for a lesson to be told about the organization so I hope you don't get that on the next one.

Evening All,

A good start to today with a nice £900 for me from ERNIE this month. We went to the garden centre and had a bacon sandwich and were joined by a Robin that was eventually hopping onto our table! There was another one as well and they have put signs up asking people not to feed them as I expect they are a bit too bold now! Then we went to look at the sprayers for the weeds and OH changed his mind after he looked at the one there that he saw online and bought a lighter one that was half the price. We got some moss killer and a small weed spray to use on the borders on some deep rooted weeds. Needless to say, the same as AnnG, it started raining and rained all afternoon. Still at least we are ready for action now.

How brilliant your granddaughter hopes to study Astrophysics Vera. It's good to see women doing these things nowadays and I was only reading about Cecilia Payne, who was an astrophysiscist born about 1900, the other day who never gets a mention or a plaque, yet she was the first person to discover what the earth and the sun were made of and I think that the stars were mostly hydrogen. Her mother wouldn't fund her education, but she didn't give up and I think she completed her studies in America. Imagine if a man did all that and never got mention. It wouldn't happen would it! That was quick service for a boiler service tomorrow, but I suppose they are less busy this time of the year. I hope you don't yawn too much at tonight's talk and singing!

I watched them too so have recorded the Strawbridge prog Mel. Did you see that there won't be more series of Rueben from The Yorkshire Farm? I suppose losing his friend to lorry driving wouldn't help. I've read that he may do Strictly or go into the Jungle prog.
That'd good you have the bathroom lights sorted now and gave the chap some tins of lager for his help, plus the bathroom is sparkling now after your efforts, but it must be annoying you forgot about the heater in there.

I hope you hear very soon about your hospital appointment AnnG, as all this waiting with it on your mind isn't good for anyone. I would perhaps think about phoning them soon to make sure it hasn't been overlooked somewhere along the way, as these things do happen. A prompt can also help move it along!

Your wedding anniversary gifts from your son and family sound lovely Mandy. Are the lanterns the sort you put candles in? What sort of cakes did you make for them?

I found my charcoal in that high cupboard this morning and cleared the decks and tidied so I could fit my big pad of cartridge paper in front of me. I nearly didn't manage to join as my Zoom decided I needed to do updates before it would let me, but it finished just in time. The teacher is nice, but goes so fast several of us could hardly keep up! The trouble is, if you look down to draw, you miss what she is showing you and her paper kept moving out of range of her camera. You needed to watch closely as she was doing lots of measurements with a pencil. There is one man in the class who apparently had done something like it before and seemed to me to be a bit of a clever dick. He always seemed to finish each task first and was adding things we weren't asked to do. There's always one isn't there! lol. We have to practice doing a man this week and send her our efforts. It was a bit annoying that she had to spend the first 20 minutes of the lesson telling us about the history of the organization that runs them, when what you have paid for is to be taught the whole time. I think they should just give a link that tells you about it instead.

OH called to see the event at the council office about the latest propsed new development of 800 houses this afternoon. He got chatting to a nice chap who was one of the facilitators, who was trying to tell him about section 6 and OH had to tell him nicely he knew all about it with dealing with schools. Then he started to explain what part the council played and the process and OH had to point out that governance was his forte in the work he did before he retired and that he did work with councils now so was aware. The chap then wanted to know about OH's past work so they had a good chat. It seems that until the council produce their Local Plan for the land in their area, no actual planning application can be made, so nothing will happen till 2026. The proposal is just to find out people's concerns and suggestions so the eventual planning application can try to address things before submitting a planning application.

Goodness that lot must have sent you to sleep, so I'm off to bed now and hope you all sleep well. :-)

That was nice and quick for your boiler service Vera. This electrician I have known since he was about 5 years old. He is the youngest sone of the person who taught oh and I to ring back in 2000. I remember him starting to ring and oh made him boxes to stand on cos he was so short but now he must be 6' plus and towers over me. He only lives in the next village. All the family ring bells his mum and her mum and dad and dads brother and sister. All passed now except for Ali's mum.

Hope your club man is a bit better than when you saw him before and you can enjoy the evening.

Neighbour ran to ask if I had a sack barrow they could borrow as their funiture and fride and cooker is comeing tomorrow so I told them to just come down and take it and told them whre to find it in case I am still in bed.

Did a bit of painting today but not much as I mucked it up so I was cross with myself.

Shopping came and no subs so that was good and a driver I like Carl who had a young lad trainee with him today so not a nice long natter.

Better have a look in the oven as I have pork and leek sausages and roast tatoes and carrot in there and broccoli on the hob.

Evening all,

It's been quite a muggy day here with a little sunshine at times then about three o'clock we had a little shower .

Son and dil called in this morning ,its our wedding Anniversary tomorrow and they came with two nice lanterns for the garden, chocolates and a card ,they are both working tomorrow so won't have time to call in then.
I baked some cakes for them yesterday so they took them home .

The forecaster wasn’t far out. It’s been raining since about 4 pm

The post came at 2 pm today and there was a letter from British Gas saying our boiler service was due. OH rang at 4 pm and quickly got to speak to a real, live person and our service is booked for tomorrow morning. How speedy is that! It certainly makes a change from the normal snail’s pace of these organisations.

It’s quite a pleasant day out there at the moment as the sun is now shining after a cloudy morning and it has been quite warm. Unfortunately, the wind is now getting quite blustery and the computer is telling me that it is going to rain in 42 minutes. How can the forecasters be so exact?

I had a better night last night, sleeping from midnight to 5 am and then dozing on and off till 7. I’m still yawning and still headachy but at least I have got a bit more energy today.

We went to Perrywoods, our local garden centre this morning. It sure is easy to spend money there. I just wanted a few more Bizzie Lizzies to fill another trough or two as they grow quickly, keep blooming and are colourful. I ended up getting 3 packs of 6 and then we bought 6 good-sized coleus to fill 2 large pots. It would have been about £45 but everything I chose was discounted for customers with one of their loyalty cards so the bill came down to £36. OH is planting everything up now though I made sure in advance that I put the relevant plant by the pots or troughs where they should go, lol.

I am sure your electrical man appreciated the lager Mel. OH has at times done odd jobs for an elderly spinster lady of our acquaintance and, of course, won’t take payment from her so she usually buys him some beer. Unfortunately, she always gets a citrus flavoured one that he isn’t keen on at all but he hasn’t got the heart to tell her so he just thanks her and accepts it. Mind you, he was very touched when she unexpectedly bought him a very nice bottle of red wine for his birthday.

We have a ladies’ club meeting tonight. It is a chap talking about music hall and he sings a few songs but I saw him years ago at another club we belong to and he wasn’t all that good. I will go as I think if you join clubs you should support them if you can but I’m not particularly looking forward to it. Maybe he will have improved since the last time I saw him.

I hope everyone is free of aches and pains or they are at least improving. I’m now going to get the vacuum cleaner out and hoover around upstairs as I haven’t done any h/w for the last few days. I can’t say I’m very enthusiastic about h/w but needs must so here goes.

raining here now. friend called in earlier so that put paid to my planting of the stuff I bought yesterday and now she has gone and it has just started to rain. At least if there is enough I won't have to water the plants already in pots.

Morning all from a grey morning with slight rain.

Its 15 degrees and pc says heavier rain soon. Not nice after the lovely weather we have had recently. I may have wasted a gardening day yesterday doing the bathroom but I am pleased its done and will just need a quick once over daily now. I only use the bathrrom for showering and the loo in the night otherwise I use the little loo. I forgot to say to Nick yesterday that the bathroom heater has packed up too, he could have tested that while he was here and told me if I needed a new one or not. He would'nt take payment but I gave him 4 cans of lager which he accepted.

good morning all, I am awake early and couldn't get back to sleep so I thought it would be better if I got up. Rather than lying there thinking about whether I am ever going to get this hospital appointment sorted.
Very grey out there but 13 degrees already. If it stays dry I can hopefully get the new plants in. I know it seems that I have spent a lot over the past few days but really it is no more than I would have usually spent as I didn't buy plants early on tp bring on in the conservatory and greenhouse. I decided to do it a different way as it was a 3 week break and Cynth next door was away for one of those weeks. It just means that I am late starting. By now my baskets etc would always be well on the way
Hope that you were able to sleep better last night Vera. I woke once for the loo but otherwise slept onish.

It’s been quite a pleasant day today but it is still 17 degrees and a bit muggy now. I think it’s going to be a warm night again. Like Annx, I got quite hot last night. In fact I had an appalling night yesterday, hardly sleeping at all so I was very sluggish this morning and am drooping again now. I haven’t been a good sleeper since my twenties but I am definitely getting worse.

Once I managed to get myself going today I did get quite a lot done. I changed the beds and did 4 loads of washing which all dried well so I could bring it in by about 4 pm. I had a walk round the garden really looking at what we need to do to improve the look of it and decided that a large fern will have to come out by next spring and various other plants reduced in size. We have 2 large clumps of day lilies that were a sensible size when we put them in a few years ago, now they are threatening to take over so they will have to come up and a couple of smaller bits put back and so on. I am trying to think what I did after lunch. I know I kept busy so you’d think I’d remember what I did but I think it was a bit of this and a bit of that.

You all seem to be doing well with your gardens. I’m amazed at how much you manage to do Mel. I’m exhausted just thinking about all your work. Your new plants sound good AnnG. I am sure your garden will look a picture.

That’s good you’ve got your bathroom lights sorted Mel. As you say, at least you will be able to shower after dark now. My OH isn’t too bad round the rest of the house but he always puts all the lights in the living room on and sometimes it’s like Blackpool illuminations in there.

I hope you found your charcoal and that you enjoy the drawing course Annx. We’re all looking forward to seeing some of your work again. Yes, granddaughter loved her earings. Even if she hadn’t she would have thanked us and said they were lovely but we have had two very happy texts from her saying how much she loved them, that they were stunning and “timeless” and she will be wearing them forever. I am very relieved as I wasn’t sure if they would be to her taste. You asked if she knows what work she wants to do. She will definitely be going to uni. Her A-Level subjects give her a couple of options but she is most likely going to opt to read astrophysics. She has got offers from several unis conditional upon her A-Level results and the entry requirements are high. Her first choice wants 2 As and an A*. As an insurance she has also applied for a slightly easier course that doesn’t have quite such a high entry requirement. She is a bright girl and deserves to do well as she really puts in the hours and works very hard.

Right, I think I am going to get myself ready for bed and hope for a better night. Sleep well folks.

Well we both had an energy slump after lunch, but I did plant up the pot and also another one for the other side of the arbour. I pulled up a few more weeds and so did OH so the full garden bin is on the front now ready for tomorrow's collection. We got out the weedkiller to both to make a start on the gravel at the front, but I hadn't realised it was the sort you spray so we'll get a sprayer tomorrow morning while we are out. OH insists on getting a 5 litre one, although I found a smaller 3 litre one on online that would be easier for me to handle. I suppose I could just half fill it if I use it. He's keen to keep the gravel and drive weedfree now he's seen what hard work it is after things have been let go, but I'll have to watch he's not waving the spray over the plants and not looking what he's doing. He will get the big areas of gravel and the drive done much quicker than I would though and I have to say that doing short stints every day is having some impact now and not putting us out of action for days afterwards.

We were surprised to see that Mrs O's side border on the front that she created a few years ago has now been planted with three berried shrubs and covered with light coloured gravel. It had no plants last year. Her OH came across to OH while he was on the front and said she had been asking him to do it for ages. It looks like we are all trying to reduce some of the work and watering since the heatwaves!

I still haven't found my charcoal yet but suspect I must have been banished to a top cupboard in the study, so will look there tomorrow. I don't know how this teacher will do things, but I might need it if we have to use it during the class. With the last teacher, if we wanted we could listen and watch and then do what we were taught after the class.

Is that the thumb that was hurting Mel? You need a finger stall or a finger cut off a rubber glove, but I suppose with tiny things to paint it would be a bit clumsy if it is your painting hand!

It's interesting what you say about plants doing well when they are happy where they are Vera. We have a huge patch of lily of the valley, but not planted by me, who has tried to grow them in the past and failed! No these have decided they prefer our garden position to our neighbour's garden and come under the gravel boards to catch our south westerly sunshine. They've been neglected, the soil isn't good there as it's behind where the raised beds were with the soil trampled down. OH even chopped them off with some of the soil with a spade last year to try and reduce the spread but they have come back as strong as can be! You have got a lot done and watering for your neighbour too.

You have bought some nice plants while you were out with your friend AnnG. I have to admit that I bought the smaller compost bags last time for the same reason as you. Now you will be busy planting tomorrow.