General Chat

I have a bread maker, but haven’t used it for a while. When it was just the two of us, I just made one small loaf a week as we don’t eat much bread. My paddle doesn't get stuck in this machine, but it used to in a previous type. We get through a fair amount of bread with them being here, so I just buy it.

Oh joy, I am taking Esme to Lightwater valley on my own again tomorrow. Hopefully it will be the last time as they go back to school next week.

Its just one paddle Vera but next time, i will oil it and see if it makes a difference.

Forget to say earlier, family members were sitting on tarmac for several hours in Cyprus but they were very lucky and landed back in Gatwick around 9.30pm and were home by 11pm,

Some were not so lucky!

mmmn, just had a slice of me brown bread and blackcurrant jam and was delicious. That reminds me , need to put jam on me Tesco list for Friday.

Florence, have you tried greasing the paddles? I usually use a little bit of butter but I should think you could use oil. It doesn't always work, sometimes one paddle gets stuck in the bread and the other one doesn't but it might be worth a try. The bread machine manufacturers obviously expect the dratted things to get stuck as my machine came with a little hook implement for getting the paddle out of the bread.

Afternoon all.
Well its another showery day but the sun is trying to come out and its not cold. I managed in between a shower to get outside and de-head some roses and other plants and they look tidier for it.

Daughter is having a good time away and today she was going to a garden centre of all places, hope she brings me something nice back lol.

Anyone have a bread maker? Every time I use mine, the paddle gets stuck in the loaf and I have to try and cut it out!! its such a nuisance but not sure how to fix the problem. Anyone else have this problem?

Making a veggie chilli with rice tonight. haven't made one for ages so something different for a change.

So 1 1/2 hours of family tree stuff then tea time.

Hope everyone else well and ok

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon all looking in

Well Joan, its not rained but still overcast. At least its dry and i managed outside for some fresh air for 10 minutes.

Im seeing my bedding plants starting to die off, lobelia along with some other small plants. So if its brighter tomorrow, i may go and tidy them up, hate it when they are left to die!
Family members went to Cyprus and were supposed to return to Lodon Gatwick this afternoon but there was a major problem with the Control Centre and hardly any planes were landing or taking off. Last message at 2.30 said sitting on the plane and no idea if or when we will fly. No drinks or food being supplied as they said ut of their hands!!! Blooming awful especially with young children.

So I tried to look at flight radar but cant see anything yet! So hope they get home tonight.

Joan, I'm going to make lentil and veg soup tomorrow and a crusty loaf. Its not cold but i'm feeling it a bit chilly and soup makes everything better.

Daughter not far off her destination, about an hour to go and she's fine, such a relief for me!

I have carried on with friend's family tree this afternoon and made good progress without the usual interruptions lol.

Well better crack on

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning.
Our weather is a bit like yours Florence, the sun is trying really hard to break through the clouds & has been succesful a couple of times but it isn't lasting.

Happy to say that our internet has been working well since the engineer was here, being withut it does upset things doesn't it, my hubby has a laptop & it is his only form of "entertainment" now that he is confined to the bedroom, he was getting a bit "cross" when he couldn't access the things he usually watches, mostly motor sports & films.

Not been outside for a couple of days as I have pretty much caught up with things,
I am just waiting for our son in law to saw off a few more big tree branches, plus some woody bushes that I chopped down but couldn't manage to get all of the thick branches off.

They are sitting in the middles of a flower bed that I have been working on, it's a sort of circle with large stones going round the edge, once the woody stuff has gone I am going to rake out more of the old stuff then add new compost before filling with Wild Flower seeds.

Mucky scraper tatties again today plus bacon & egg, it's the last of the tatties so I'm hoping our daughter can get a new bag for us, hubby has so enjoye d them.
I made lentil & bacon soup yesterday & it was sooo tasty.

Best get on & make hubby his cuppa,
I hope all is well with everyone, will talk again soon.

Joan.

Morning everyone looking in today

Its overcast and about to rain here, so gloomy looking!

Daughter away and we were up at 4.30am :-( But she's on the other side now and on her way to the "Big City."

Just pottering around here doing bits & bobs, nothing too strenuous.

Joan, glad you got your internet sorted. When it stops working, we are so lost now without it aren't we? My master socket is in my lounge where the computer and landline are but its the only socket. To be honest we both have mobiles so don't need another socket in the house.

Linda, I hope you & hubby enjoyed your break and never mind if Esme woke them all up, you do your fair share! Never mind the diet either, your time away is a treat for you both.

Well I have some paperwork to sort out and then clean the bathroom so may be back later this afternoon and look in again.

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

Internet problems are really frustrating Joan. My house is relatively new 1997, but before we bought it in 2000, it had been rented out to a tv production company. I forgot the name of the program , but it was a weekly show a bit like Countryfile, but concentrating on the Moors and Dales. They put in some sort of state if the art box which they used to transmit their data to London every Friday. When they left, they took their fancy box out, but left just a junction box on the outside of the house and wires going to four telephone points running around the outside of the house. It caused us no end of problems over the years. The IT company always want you to plug your router into the master socket, but we didn’t have one.
We had lots of different routers, but always had problems with intermittent connection. In the end about eight years ago, we disconnected all the telephone points in the various rooms, had the wires in the junction box replaced and ran a new wire to the bedroom we use as a study. We had a modern master socket fitted there, so the router and the phone base are both in that room. We have four phones around the house, but they just pick up the signal from the phone base station. We have had a couple of new routers since then because they only last a few years before they need replacing.

My house is surrounded by fields as well Joan and the farmers are fond of using pig slurry, it makes me feel sick.

We are at our hotel in Dovedale in Derbyshire. It was built in the 1600’s. It comes under the heady of shabby chic as lots of these country house hotels do, but it is very comfortable and clean. We have a beautiful view of the hills and have just had coffee and scones, with the obligatory jam and cream of course. We have dinner on both nights, so my diet is well and truly blown out of the water.

The girls are currently visiting grandpa in his new care home, so they are going to try and FaceTime us later on once they get to their hotel for tonight. Apparently they are all tired because Esme didn’t sleep well and woke everybody up at 5 am :-(

Hello to all.
I didn't know if I would manage to get onto GR today due to having had internet problems over the last 3 days/nights.
Had to speak to our provider yesterday re the intermittant on & off & getting worse with each day, our daughter spoke at great lengths explaining what was happening & an engineer came to look at the problem first thing this morning.

He couldn't pin point any real problem other than the wiring in the outside junction box was badly corroded so he renwed that, also the telephone box in the living room was a VERY old style one so he fitted a much more upto date one.

Doing that seems to have fixed the fault / problem & things are now running smoothly once agan, long may it last.

It's a nice day here not much sun but it's bright & warm & no wind, not been a bad week all in all, a bit of rain here & there but nothing too serious.
I was going to do a couple of garden jobs today but our son in law was in the field that surrounds the house spreading slurry, the smell didn't last too long but I decided to stay indoors ! LOL.

Finishing off the last of the new ( mucky scrapers) tatties today, we have really enjoyed them, our daughter is gong to get us another bag whilst they are still available, lol.

That was some journey you had to Leeds & back Linda.

Better make a start on scraping the tatties, & prepare our meal, take care.

Joan.

Evening all
Mixed bag of weather here today. Sunshine & showers but we managed to get the washing out and dried with only needing 5 mins in the dryer which saved some pennies.

Everyday for me is like a bank holiday or a permanent holiday lol
My tassels for the book marks came and so I put them on and they look really good so hope they sell well.

Linda, you were brave driving to the big city! Once we drove down south and back and i made a mistake and ended up in the city of Manchester! Oh my an experience I shall never forget, was terrifying. One crossing had huge yellow box junctions and trying to get across was impossible. Still dont know how I managed it!

I hope you and hubby enjoy your time away, you so deserve it.
JG, I am a soap junkie and watch them all although if I miss an episode, it doesnt take much to catch up.
The storyline in Eastenders with Stacey's stalker is dragging on but I think he will be found out soon. When ian and Cindy return next week, I think they may be fireworks!!

As for Mackenzie and Charity in Emmerdale....getting boring!

Did a huge basket of ironing today so daughter has all her clothes for going away on Monday. The house will be so quiet but tidy lol.

Anybody watching Masterchef this week?

Joan and AnnG, hope you both are ok and well.

Florence in the hebrides

I have given up watching soaps Ginnie. I don’t watch much tv at all. I prefer to go to bed early and read.

Eve has glasses for distance work, but she didn’t like the frames. To be fair our local opticians had a very small choice of teenage size frames when she got them. They have been looking for some for a while, but only found some last weekend when they went to Leeds which is thirty miles away. The optician rang to say they were ready, so I offered to take her today. I was going to go by train until I checked the price of the tickets. I worked out that it was going to be less than half the price to drive.
Even with the Sat nav , I managed to go wrong at the very end. It was very busy and difficult with so many lanes to navigate in the city centre. Still I managed and we got her glasses. It took ages to get home, the traffic was horrible all round Leeds. I think it was because the Leeds Music Festival was just opening and everyone was arriving.

They have just left for their weekend away, so it is very quiet. We don’t go until tomorrow

Evening all looking in,

Hope you all enjoy your weekend , weather forecast for us is a bit mixed but it is a bank holiday after all. lol. We have nothing planned to do but most days are like that for us . lol.

Wonder if there will be anything good on tv over the weekend . I still watch 'Corrie' and Emmerdale but get bored with them sometimes as the story lines seem to be repeated over and over. Oh well I have plenty of books to read.

Ginnie.

I hope your dad is coping with his injections Florence. My brother and sister in law both have type two diabetes and have injection, but they have been doing it for years.

The troops are going away tomorrow straight after work and not coming back until Monday. They are stopping in a travel lodge in Manchester on Friday night, then going to Rhyl of all places for two nights. They are going to see Grandpa on Saturday morning as he has finally moved out of hospital into a care home. In his odd lucid moments he is not pleased at not being home. His daughter goes to see him and occasionally he knows who she is, but usually he calls her Peggy, the name of his long dead sister and he wants her to take him to his parents house.

We considered just staying home as usual, but decided to go away for a couple of nights as well. It has been a nightmare trying to find somewhere. Obviously being August bank holiday doesn’t help, but places we have stayed at before have become stupidly expansive. The nice country house hotels all seem to have weddings. We have ended up before with a disco blaring until the early hours and restaurant under staffed because of a wedding, so have avoided those. Every time we thought we had found something a quick read on trip advisor put us off. Finally we have found a nice hotel in the Peak District,I phoned to check if they have a wedding, but they don’t so we have signed up.

Esme had a great day yesterday. I was absolutely shattered by the time I got home.The little train from one side of the site to the other had come off rails in the morning,so wasn’t working. That meant I had to push her in her wheelchair, that was hard work.
I slept like a log last night, I normally wake a couple of times to use the facilities, but I didn’t wake up at all last night.

I was going to take them swimming today, but Esme is tired as well and doesn’t want to go out, so we are just playing in the garden. The grass is really wet, so there must have been a lot of rain overnight

Good morning all...just lol

Well we have sun again as I think it has been on holiday for the last week. We had rain and gales and I was getting so fed up being stuck indoors!

Had quite a stressy time last week or so with dad being put on insulin for his diabtes and him not really understanding it all so has been tel me lots to ask questions etc. He starts injecting today so am expecting a phone call soon and will see how it went!

Daughter is being taking away with a group for a few days with a local charity she volunteers with. Everything paid for, meals, trips, hotel etc. From mon-Thirsday.

Im glad she can go as it will do her good and boost her morale but checking her bag etc several times is giving me a sore head!! We have to be up on Monday am at 4.30am. She is being picked up and then over to ferry. The joys of going away!

I'm hoping a friend will take me out for lunch next week and I get to the shops for my sanity!!
Linda, hope the trip to Blackwater wasn't too tiring and you had an enjoyable time with Esme.

Joan, you have been busy as usual in your garden. You will have to open it to the public and charge an entrance fee :-D

Hope everyone else is well and ok

Florence in the hebrides

Linda....Not sure but I think it might be a YKS deliciay.

I have to say we really enjoyed ours tonight, they were delicious, not had them for a very long time as our Morrisons & Asda no longer sell them.
Our daughter bought them from a nearby village when she was out & about yesterday,

Best pressie I've had in a long time, LOL

Joan.

I like potatoes fried like that Joan. The hedges do become really thick. It made a huge difference to ours when we had them cut a few weeks ago. The one next to the path by the side of the garage was cut back to bare twigs, but it has some new leaves which is odd for this time of year.
This morning I drove Eve to her school to pick up some new uniform. She didn’t need much this year. Just a skirt and some tracksuit bottoms, both with the school logo on of course. The skirt was forty pounds, crazy prices.

I have just been playing in the garden as it is sunny, but Esme had a meltdown because I didn’t know the words of the Skyline Gang song :-( She has gone for a chill out in her bed, but will be back soon. Tomorrow bI am taking her back to Lightwater Valley, but going on my own. That will be a hard day.

Goodness me Linda, what stamina & patience you must have, how lovely of Esme to do all that for her mum.
I see our youngest grandson aged 4 yrs at least once a week & just the constant talking & asking questions wears me out, lol.

A very warm day here yesterday & the same today even without the sun shining.
I was out yesterday clipping the Rugosa hedging, it's really long but it just needed a tidy up trim, unfortunately it's become much deeper & I can't reach along the back edge.
Most years there are cows in the field along side the hedge & they keep that side of it clipped & reasonably tidy but there were none this year ! I'm hoping our daughter will manage to reach over & trim that bit for me.

Our 11yr old grandaughter came over on Sunday & put a 2nd coat of paint on the back of the potting shed, I did the rest but I can't get round the back of the shed like she can, lol.

I have just been scraping some new Potatoes, you know the ones, smallish & mucky skins but easily scraped off, LOL.
Firstly I shall boil them, then when they are cold I will slice them & then give them a gentle fry, (not like chips) just to heat them through we shall have bacon & egg with them, sooo yummy done like that.

Hope everyone is having a nice day & the weather if nice.

Joan.

Wow Linda, how wonderful, bless Esme. Proud nanna/grandma moment :-D
Isn't it wonderful when a child that has needs achieves something we all take for granted. Im sure mum was so happy with her too.

Well it hasn't stopped raining here all day grr so haven't stepped foot outside not even for a minute. Have noticed now the nights are beginning to draw in. Its not dark here yet but the light has faded. I guess without a sunny day, it makes a difference to the evening light.

I decided to start knitting a scarf tonight using 2 balls of wool. One is cerise pink, the other more of a deep lilac. They look good together, It will either be for my neice or my daughter for xmas, havent decided yet.

No Eastenders tonight grrr and not much else on so have switched to ITV Drama and Endeavor is on.

Florence in the hebrides

It had been quite warm here, but breezy. I have done a huge amount of playing with Esme today, various games of school and plenty of time in the garden. She makes me get on the trampoline with her and her “ babies”.
I thought that I would catch a sit down this afternoon while Esme went for a rest in her bed, but no, Eve came out as Esme went in, so we played boules, then catch. By the time, she went in, Esme was back out again :-(

Esme insisted that we had fruit salad for dinner again. She cuts all the strawberries up after I hull them. She also chopped the kiwis and melon. We ended up with a huge bowl full. They do chopping fruit at school, making smoothies, so she is used to it. She often takes a banana into the kitchen, helps herself to a bowl and knife and makes breakfast for her dolls. She pretends to feed the chopped banana to her dolls.

On Saturday morning her mum was having a sleep in while Esme was playing downstairs with us. She wanted her mum to wake up, but I said she had to sleep, but when she woke up, we could make her breakfast. After a while Esme wandered off and I could hear her in the kitchen, so assumed she was chopping banana. Eventually I went to see what she was doing and discovered that she had made breakfast for her mum. She had taken a tray from the cupboard, put kitchen roll on it. Then she got a small bowl, filled it with cereal and put the cereal away. She had managed to reach a mug from the high cupboard and had filled it with milk from the large bottle in the fridge. She did that without spilling a drop, which was amazing as she doesn’t have very good motor skills Normally the milk would be all over the kitchen worktop. She was just getting a spoon out when I came to see what she was doing. She was so proud of herself because she had done everything herself. I carried it upstairs for her and her mum was so pleased when she realised that Esme had done it all.