General Chat

Good Afternoon everyone looking in.

It has been lovely weather again so done a bit more in the garden . Moved some of the pots around and sorted out the ones that needed it. Still need to clean some of my ornaments that are looking grubby and a few need touching up with some stone paint. I have quite a lot of ornaments as had some from my late sisters garden one is a large bird bath with a owl on which is very heavy and really nice to look at. I have a lot of dog ones in various sizes as well.
The lilac has been lovely this year and also the lavender , the lavender in the front hasn't flowered yet but it is usually a good show.

Glad you are out in your garden Joan and sounds like you had a good bargain when you went shopping .

Sorry you had such a bad fall Florence hope the lump goes down soon.
Lucky you were able to return the items free of charge that you brought, always a risk when you buy on line from China or anywhere really. I saw a programme a while ago where Gloria Hunniford was speaking about the sites that have a lot of sellers that are copying genuine designers and selling below standard items. Not just clothes but accessories as well. We have to be so careful now.

Take care all
Ginnie

Good afternoon.
Florence the lump & bruise on your leg sounds nasty, i do hope it clears up soon & there are no after affects.

A nice dat here so far, no sun but it is bright & warm, no breeze today.
It rained during the night so I needn't have watered various plants or filled up the birdbaths yesterday !!

I was out for the weekly shop this morning,I don't have much to buy now but I still like to cover what I need for a week.
Our daughter got the 2 birdtables for me yesterday,they are really lovely, I have just been placing them in the garden, one at the front & the other at the back so that I can see them when in the L room & kitchen.
The 2 old ones are still ok to use & so I have placed them elsewhere in the garden, I can't see them from the windows but they can be seen if sitting on the garden seats.

My B12 jab is due tomorrow, not looking forward to it but I have to have it, maybe I will get a bravery sticker, lol.

Joan.

Morning all.
Another misty, windy and rainy day, no good for washing!

My bruise is awful but thankfully not visible to anyone except me. There is a huge lump and it looks like I burst a blood vessel as it looks like its bleeding under the skin. I am feeling my left shoulder and upper arm aching today as I guess, I strained myself.
However it could have been a lot worse as i could have broken my leg or hip so a lump, a bruise and some pain is minor really.

But some good news. The clothes I ordered I can send back free of charge. Yay :-D :-D
When I went on the site to request a return, it said I get one free return. So as daughter was going to town, I quickly put all the clothes back in the little bags they came in, printed off the returns form and found a thick black refuse bag and packaged it all up securely with half a roll of parcel tape lol

So hopefully refund will be back in my bank account within 7 seven days.

Gentle pottering about today, nothing strenuous anyway.

Hope everyone looking in is well and ok

Florence in the hebrides

Florence, what a shame your weather has changed.

I feel a bit better for getting some outside jobs done, but my heart isn't really in it !
Life has changed soo much for me now.

We don't have a shower & I am not able to get in & out of the bath so bathing is a pain nowadays, I can't afford to get a shower fitted & to be honest this old cottage wouldn't enjoy the upheavel !!

Linda let's hope your bulbs do take, it's worth a try.
When I was going round the garden today I noticed several new Primroses have appeared in places where I wouldn't put them, obviously self seeded.
I won't be moving them as I like plants that self seed & trying to get them out of the gravel would likely damage them..

Joan.

Joan, you must have taken my sunshine away lol as we now have rain & gales! But its ok, the sun was made for sharing. My you have been a busy bee and quite right to have wee breaks. Bending in the garden is back breaking for anyone.
Hope there's a good afternoon film on for you to watch.

Im feeling a bit better now and yes the bruising has come out, black and blue with a bit of green, very colourful.

Yes clothes I have ordered in the past from Temu and others have come up small but these trousers and tops were really huge!! I only ordered them as the prices were so good but there we are, thats how it is,

daughter will be back later as she had a hospital appointment shes been waiting for for 4 months but its a buy clinic where she went.

I'm still waiting to hear about my cataract surgery from January, another busy clinic here.

No phone call from Estate Agents yet but still time today to hear something.

Jacket potatoes for tea and ill make some coleslaw and a bowl of salad and that will do us tonight.

Florence in the hebrides

Oh dear Florence, that sounds very painful. I rarely use the bath these days because I hate getting in and out. I do use the shower cubicle every day, so I don’t smell :-D

I pulled some more dead ivy out of the top of the hedge this morning, I should have had a long sleeved top on instead of a t shirt because I have scratched my arms :-(

I also planted some lily bulbs. SIL has ordered quite a few plants from an online site. He signed up for newsletter which tries to encourage him to buy more, but it also gives him special offers. The latest one was thirty lily bulbs for just a pound. The catch was that they had already sprouted so needed planting immediately. Some of them had sprouts about fifteen cms long at a crazy angle to the bulb. He gave half of them to me , so some are in a pot and the rest in the garden. I don’t know if they will survive, but it us worth a shot

Hello to all.
Florence the result of your accident sounds nasty, i hope it's not too serious.

Well now we have a lovely day here, sunny & much warmer than of late with a bit of a breeze which keeps the heat down a bit.

I have managed outside for a short while, swept the drive, clipped back a small tree thet groaws against the old steading ( now garage) wall.
I have managed to cut back a few more Daffies as well.
I have had to water some of the Primroses I put into the borders last winter & this spring, also the various pots needed a good soaking.

I do have to take regular rests inbetween jobs as my back soon starts aching.
I have come inside now, I have done enough gardening for today, the afternoon film will be on soon so will settle down & watch it with a cuppa.

I hope all is well with everyone.

Joan.

What a fright for you, Florence! Baths and showers can be so slippery.

That's a shame about the clothes, too. I seem to remember that you had trouble returning something to China another time, quite a while ago.
If ordering clothes online, I only order if I know they can be returned easily - ideally free of charge, though that's not always possible.

It's surprising that clothes from China are too big! They often tend to be on the small side.

It's both sunny and cloudy here today. We're expecting rain tonight and tomorrow, but I hope it will stay off long enough for me to cut the grass later this afternoon.

No I guess not and also they came from a company in China so i would have to pay loads probably to return them. maybe daughter can sell them on her FB for me.

Ouch florence that does sound painful. those mats don't always stick, I use one as well.

Will you be able to return the clothes if you washed them?

Morning all.

I did get up much earlier today and then disaster struck. I fell in the shower!!

In the bath we have a non slip mat, the sort that sticks when wet to the floor of the bath. We have a shower overhead which is what I use. as I lifted my right leg over the bath whilst holding on to my cupboard for support( what I normally do as its safer) the mat wasn't stuck and slipped so right leg went one way and my left leg, the bad one slammed into the side of the bath.

I now have a large lump and bruise inside the bend of my knee, the worst possible place. I have never felt pain like it in years and yes it reduced me to tears.

I did mange to carry on and shower and wash hair but was wincing in pain.

I am now dressed and hair is dry and sitting with a hot coffee and lots of sugar as I started to shake. Think the shock set in. I will recover and the lump will subside and a lovely shade of purple will appear later on I'm sure.

I guess I should have checked the mat was stuck before I ventured, but usually it is but daughter isn't here so shower wasn't used before me. In future, I shall now check the mat is secure to avoid any further mishaps. I am very careful in general and can manage but in this instance, think I was rushing too fast!

Anyway, today is very windy ,overcast and not a nice day at all. i know someone going on the ferry to the mainland and really don't envy the choppy crossing at all.

The clothes I ordered arrived yesterday but so much disappointment. The tops just hang, no shape so baggy looking. The trousers are enormous and several inches too long. The red jacket is cheap material and looks awful. So after waiting all this time, I'm back to where I started.

Lets hope if I have time when I'm away to Glasgow. Sparkles or the other shops have something I like.

Not sure I will manage the chores today so for now, i'm sitting reading all the news online.

Florence in the hebrides

ArgyllGran, oh ty for that info. I didn't realise they wouldn't survive a winter though as I'm sure mum's plants stayed outside all year round. We didn't have a conservatory and cant remember where she put them??

Well in that case, think i shall keep them in the pot they have grown in and bring that in during the cold months as the pot fits on my window sil in the lounge and likes the light.

Florence -
Coleus should be OK outside in the summer, but they're not hardy in the UK, and will have to be brought indoors in the winter.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-solenostemon-coleus/

Does anyone know about Coleus plants? They were my mums favourite so i bought a packet of seeds and now the plants have grown really well. But they are not houseplants so If I now repot into a larger pot and put outside, will they be ok?

Joan, your birth baths sound a good bargain, hope the birds will visit you often. My bluebells that my old landlady gave me have grown well this year. The bulbs originally belonged to her mother down in Oxford many years ago so they are very old but looking lovely.

It turned out to be a great day and I still have washing out which should be nearly dry so shall get it in soon.

oh dear Linda, your poor ears! be glad though you didn't get flooded how, how dreadful for those that did. Cant imagine how they feel.

Right off out to get the washing in and then make me coffee and see what's on the box tonight.

Florence in the hebrides

I have really missed the birds since we moved here Joan. We had so many visiting in the last garden, but there are practically non here. There are two water baths in this garden, but I have only seen a single bird in one of them since we moved. There are woods at the back of us and I can see plenty of birds in the trees, but they don’t want to visit us.
I was up and out early today to take Esme to her hospital appointment. She was in a very bad mood demanding to go back to bed because she was tired. She had woken my daughter up at six, shouting for her nappy to be changed. A soon as it was, she just turned over and went back to sleep. My daughter had to wake her up to get ready, but she was not a happy bunny. I was glad to see the back of her at the hospital. We then went to look for tiles and to the supermarket. This afternoon, we went out again to look at more tiles and bathroom fitments . In the end we went back to the place we had started off with this morning and have chosen some from there. At least we have ordered a sample to bring home, but that won’t arrive until Friday.

Just after we got home, I got a text to say that the footstool I ordered to match the sofa had finally arrived. Annoyingly we had just driven past the shop on the way home. OH went back while I started making dinner.

When I went to get my ears hoovered out this morning, he said that there was no wax in them and it didn’t look like they were infected. He wrote a letter for me to take to the GP . I tried my hearing aids when I got home, but I can’t hear much from my phone through them. I can’t believe that both my hearing aids have suddenly stopped working, it must be the Eustachian tubes which are blocked. Whatever it is, it is annoying.

I started off wearing a dress this morning as the forecast was good, but it was so cold that I got changed. Of course this afternoon, the sun has come out and I am too hot now.

The situation in the town was even worse that I thought this morning, apparently there were thirty one houses which were flooded out

Afternoon everyone

After the last 2 days of fog and drizzle, the sun is coming out and its a pleasant day with little wind.

I had a bit of a morning! I didn't sleep well last night but as per zonked into a deep sleep around 5am. I woke around 9 but was still tired. Anyway, had me coffee and was attending to quite a few emails etc so wasn't dressed .But I wouldn't usually get early visitors so wasn't bothered that I was in my pjs and dressing gown at 10.30.

Imagine my horror when I heard the grasscutters outside!!! Eeekk I ran off to the bedroom and got dressed so quickly but got my left leg in the wrong trousers leg and was getting all flustered as I really cant rush. My heart was thumping far too fast. Thankfully, they started the grass without knocking on my door so at least i was dressed when they did knock.

Daughter went for the bus and 2 neighbours and when I did open the front door, i could see her laughing as she knew I would have been flustered!!

Anyway, they only mowed the front as the back hasnt rown much and we have put seed down 10 days ago so they will be back in 2 weeks and now Ive marked it on the calendar.

They did say last month, they would start in may but never heard when.
See what happens when you slop in Pjs, unexpected people turn up, not good for the BP. Must set the alarm for 8am and be more organised tomorrow.

my internet has been a pain so far today. Up & down like a yo yo. I typed a long letter to someone then tried adding some pictures. For some reason it stopped and started and when it eventually sent, only 2 pics were attached grrr so i had to do another email and reattach. All of this took me nearly 1/2 hour.

So now its mid afternoon andI i haven't got a lot done.

I ordered some new clothes online and they arrived today but oh my. In the bag, all the clothes were squashed in like sardines so after taking them all out, they are now in the wash and hope the creases come out. The items look ok but not sure about a red blazer as its looks a bit thin looking and not quite the red but more orange so not sure if I really like it. Anyway, we shall see once all dried and ironed.

Linda, sorry for those that got flooded but glad you were ok. Sorry for your daughter and hope they can get the gaps soiled as that is the last thing they need, to be flooded. sorry to hear about your ears, hope you get that sorted out soon as nothing worse.

Ann, the postie will deliver the peat bags and leave in porch inside the front door. my garden is right outside so i can open the bags in the porch and fill pots from there or will fill medium pots and then transfer to larger pots if that makes sense.

Im waiting on the estate Agents to phone me back hopefully with some good news. If all goes to plan, we could exchange at the end of the week fingers crossed.

I haven't eaten today as just too busy so better go and make a sandwich.

Hope all is well with anyone else looking in.

Florence in the hebrides

Good afternoon to you all.
What a lot of rain some of you have had, no rain for us over the past 2 days which makes a change.

I have managed out into the garden today & cut back a few more Daffies, the Bluebells are up & in flower however some are growng through some of the Daffies so I have had to be careful when cutting those back so as not to damage the Bluebells.

I managed a bit of spot weed killing as well, but it does nothing for my poor back, I filled up the various birdbaths as well.

When I was in Home bargains yesterday I noticed they had some lovely Bird Tables, however they come ready built & I couldn't get it into Jacks car & so our daughter is going back tomorrow to buy me 2 of them, her car is biggger than Jacks & she reckons she can get 2 of the tables into it.

I do hope so as they are really nice, & at £29-99 they are a bargain especially as they are really strong & MUCH heavier then the ones I have in the garden at the moment.

Well time to go & see what the afternoon film is like today, it will pass some time if nothing else.

Joan.

Apparently there was two inches of rain in an hour. Sadly about ten houses in one road were under about a foot of water, so everything is ruined.

We were up and out early this morning as Esme had an early hospital appointment which clashed with her daddy driving Eve to school. So we collected her and dropped them off at the hospital. We then went to look for tiles and to Morrisons to do the shopping. We have found a tile we like, but are going out again this afternoon to look somewhere else.

I haven’t been able to hear very well for a couple of weeks. My hearing aids are blue tooth, so act like headphones. If I get a phone call, it goes into my ears, but I haven’t been able to hear it. I thought it must be wax, so have been using Earol to try and get rid of it . I had an appointment this morning to get them hoovered out, but he said that there was no wax, so it must be an inner ear problem. Kindly he didn’t charge me for the appointment. I haven’t had my hearing aids in for a few days, I have just tried them and it does seem a bit better. If it doesn’t go away, I will have to see the doctor

Good morning all. That sounded like a very heavy storm Linda. We do seem to be getting extremes now with the weather. glad you don't have any leaks and hope your daughter can get hers sorted.

Joan photos can bring back so many memories but mostly in a good way. Well done on getting them sorted. I am like you with the cards. I don't have as many as you seem to have but there is a large carrier bag full in my wardrobe and I have a suspicion there is another one in the loft.

Florence that looks like a large job with all those large tubs to fill etc. When they deliver it will it be to where you can use it as if they are large bags you won't be able to move them.

I spoke too soon about the rain, it was monsoon like. There have been quite a few houses flooded out in the town and some of the roads are under water.
We FaceTimed my daughter during the storm and you could see the water cascading over their guttering. Being a barm conversion, they have double height windows in one section. They had a couple of minor leaks high up. Not from the actual windows, but from where the enormous bolts go through the beams. They will have to get them sealed. We seem to be water tight, so that is one good thing