General Chat

Ah Annx yes, of course, that is a sunflower. I had not realised that you were looking at a previous set of photos to the latest. I had to go back and check, It was a sunflower that came up with the wild flowers, I have never been able to get them to grow here before so I was very surprised to see that one.

And yes I can see that making a landscape a square photo would change your way of thinking. Does the rule of thirds still aply?

I thought the interview with the royal children was sweet, lovely to hear them all speaking. such a different attitude to Meghan and Harry.

Afternoon All,

Well I was slow dropping off last night (after 2.00am) but slept well and slept in! It rained all morning but is lovely and sunny now.

The square photo is because the teacher wants us to take a different shaped picture to make us look at the landscape and our composition in a different way than we are used to AnnG. I have adjusted one of my existing photos now and made it black and white. It's good your arm was better for sleeping last night. I was convinced that single, very tall vertical flower after the lovely white rose was a sunflower. I must get some more sedum as the butterflies love them and I want to attract more to the garden next year. I had wondered about one of those patio Buddlieas if they stay small as leaves and gravel aren't a good combination.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO COLIN!! Have you baked him a cake Mandy! That must have been nice to see the little ones. I expect they were full of chatter about school and Max would have been pleased to see them too. I love it when you can cook 2 days meals at once and find the second one seems to taste better! You are so handy being able to do things like adjust Katie's school trousers and I bet she loved her face mask with the dogs on! I expect the children enjoy seeing each other's masks with designs.

I thought David Attenborough with the Royal children was so nice. Little Louis asking him what his favourite 'amamal' was made me chuckle, bless him. :-D

It is annoying when you order something the wrong size Mel. You could always make some rag wreaths with them too, although you have plenty to do with making the others I expect. Yes, I find when I get up late, by the time lunch is got and our crosswords done and then the darker evenings, the day has gone!

<3 HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN <3

Hope you've had a wonderful day with the little ones. Enjoy your dinner. x

Afternoon all,

Dreary here again but son came with the three little ones as it's Colin's birthday so that brightened our day
It has been raining but has stopped at the moment .

I've put some elastic in another pair of Katie's school trousers and made her a mask with some Lady and the tramp material ,it has little dogs on it .

Easy meal tonight as there's stew left over from yesterday ,usually we go out for a meal on Colin's birthday but not this year but he's quite happy with the stew as it's one of his favourite meals .

Glad you've had a better nights sleep AnnG it makes you feel so much better when you get a good night .
I meant to say how good your garden is looking ,you still have lots of colour ,our hanging baskets are all over now and this week we will take the green house down ,we need a new one for next year as the zip has gone on one side of the door .

Love to Jane <3 hope she's comfortable .

I hope everything is ok with Gill and family and that Sandra is settling back in ok with them it's been a few days since we heard from her .

Right cuppa time now .

Ah, thanks Annx I have just checked and yes I found the Aspect ratio and 1:1 so will try that when the weather is more friendly. that will be interesting to try.

Morning Anng and all,

Glad you had a better nights sleep Anng. It makes so much difference. How did T sleep?

Its pouring here so no change there then and windy with it dull and dreary.

Hope others had a good nights sleep and feel refreshed this morning.

good morning all, dark as night out there and tipping down with rain. I had a really good sleep, bed at 1045pm, woke at 0115 for the loo, opened my eyes and looked at the clock at 0615, next thing I knew it was 0815. Must have found a comfortable place for my arm. Swelling still not gone down so better not spend too much time on the net today straining my eyes. :-)

Ah right thanks I shall have to check that out tomorrow. Was there a reason for taking a square photo? Proportion or something.

Not sunflowers in the garden but Rudbeckia. They have been marvellous this year and seem to go on and on.

I just looked too and your garden is still looking very colourful AnnG. I love the sunflower and Dahlias. Ours still looks bright in patches due to the french marigolds and snapdragons but I still have some bare patches round those steps. Yes, for someone who didn't stray much from the AUTO setting I think I'm in at the deep end! The others are all more experienced, but I'm learning fast and the tutor says to email him about anything we don't understand which is good. Next week we are looking at 'light metering' which I know nothing about!. I found an adjustment on my camera to do square pictures. It is called 'aspect ratio' in the menu if you want to look and a square setting is 1:1. He did say you can also use low tac tape on your screen to make a square or to crop when you download instead.

Thanks Mel looking a bit bedraggled now though

Only just looked at your photos Anng. The garden does look wonderful and I love the combinations of daisies and marigolds and dahlias.

Thanks for that info we will be fine then, no different to getting a taxi and cheaper.

Gosh that is quite advanced photography. Do you make the photo square by cropping or is there a more technical way?

This is the govt advice AnnG. Yours is a necessary journey, unlike the trip to the footie match so you wouldn't be breaking any rules.

Car sharing
You should try not to share a vehicle with those outside your household or support bubble. If you need to do this, try to:

share the transport with the same people each time
keep to small groups of up to 6 people at any one time
open windows for ventilation
travel side by side or behind other people, rather than facing them, where seating arrangements allow
face away from each other
consider seating arrangements to maximise distance between people in the vehicle
clean your car between journeys using standard cleaning products - make sure you clean door handles and other areas that people may touch
ask the driver and passengers to wear a face covering.

Yes OH will be soaked to the skin I expect when he gets home. That's the trouble with outdoor winter hobbies.......dripping clothes around the house. :-S

I didn't get any suitable photos the other day, but the teacher clarified for that assignment that we pick photos from the landscape photographer we choose, not do our own versions. This week's homework is to do a square black and white photo that isn't 'traditional' and he suggested a couple of photographers for inspiration and said we can use existing photos we have and manipulate them if we wish. One does little intimate vignettes he referred to (Sally Gall) and the other does some sharp minimallist pictures. (Michael Kenna) Another option was to do low light morning or evening photos with a tripod to create emotion or mood!

Annx I hope it doesn't rain too hard where your OH is as he could get wet feet. The things they do for sport!!

You didn't say if you got any photos when you went out the other day )landscapes?)

When OH goes for his scan our neighbour is taking us in the car. I don't think there is anything specific stopping that in this area and we will wear our masks.

I only lived in one three bed bungalow in Fareham Hampshire with my parents except for two years in the war when we evacuated away from where we lived right next to a RN establishment to a two bed bungalow in Purbrook Hampshire. After marriage OH and I lived in three rented flats and one rented house (the first flat was private, the other rented properties were RN Hirings) We then bought a 2 bed bungalow, then moved to a 3 bed house all in Fareham/Gosport area. OH then left the RN and we moved to Essex to a three bed house, then to The Forest of Dean Glos, bought another 3 bed house (all properties so far semis.) Next to a 3 bed detached in Bedfordshire and then to this four bed detached in Gloucestershire.

That's amazing how you all went to the same school! 4 of the schools I went to have been knocked down since and another one is the Richard 3rd Visitor centre now.

This is the 10th house I've lived in across 2 counties. With mum and dad I lived in 7 places and 3 more since I was first married. Grandma's cottage, then a prefab, detached 2 bed bungalow, a flat for a year, a semi, a mid terrace in the city with a workshop for dad's business, a 3 bed detached house. Then when I was married, a 2 bed detached bungalow, a 4 bed chalet bungalow and now a 3 bed detached bungalow.

As for schools I went to 6 in total. It would have been 7 only I made such a fuss at the last school as I was in the middle of '0' levels, that my parents let me stay at the city grammar school I was at even though it meant 2 buses and an hour and a quarter journey either way including a half mile walk from the bus stop down an unlit country lane to home. Dad had a workshop in the city then and the way to it was near my school at one point so he would drop me off in the morning and I would catch the 2 buses home after school.

I ment to say thanks for the info on our William Ann. Its good that G's friend decided to go to another match so no problem there with social distancing. Its lovely when you see a load of birds together foraging for food. I wonder if they talk to each other because as soon as I fill up the feeders they all seem to appear from nowhere. Either that or they are watching me all the time. I know the Robins do that.

Anng I hope your swelling goes down soon as it can be a bit annoying when your glasses are in the wrong place for you to look though. Can you not put tem down your nose a bit and miss the swelling? You just have to move your head a little more to focus properly. I have to do that sometimes if I get a swelling under my eye.

We hav'nt heard from Frank????? Hope they managed to get down here ok.

Mandy that was nice of the teachers to include your son in the bacon roll party and what a lovely idea to give him the fruit for his children. I am pleased he is enjoying the work once again and it is'nt so bad if you know the people you ar eworking with. Fancy you all going to the same school!!

No Gill again. Hope she's ok.

I ordered some wreath rings the other day and ordered the wrong size!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I was using 8" rings but when they arrived I can see they are smaller than the rings I usually use. Sould have ordered the 10" silly me. Anyway I can use them for other things.

Still not started that garland yet. Can't seem to get motivated.

Its still pouring with rain and windy here and it dos'nt give you any get up and go.

I did get up at 7.23am for the loo and oh was still sleep so got back into bed. He will leave me too late to wake me and then it puts me all behind for the rest of the day. There's not enough hours in the day anyway but that just makes it worse.

Fancy that lady sticking her tongue out to have her temperature taken. Must have been a long while since she had that done to think it was going under her tongue.

Afternoon All,

Steady rain and gloom here and no sign of it improving. I slept well again and feel much better for a good sleep. OH has gone to a match near Nottingham and has wrapped up well and has his big brolly. One of his older footie pals rang yesterday and was going to go to the same match and offered OH a lift!!!!! OH said no, but I wasn't happy about him seeing his pal there.......would social distance be kept from his friend if he didn't even know about not sharing his car? OH said with big brollies they would keep distance and he would wear a mask and that his friend would have been careful with being the age he is and his wife being vulnerable too. I said no he hasn't, not if he has been giving other people lifts or having lifts in their cars. Anyway, his friend had decided to go to a nearer match with an artificial pitch by this morning, as he doesn't like a wasted journey if a match gets called off if the pitch is too wet, so I was glad about that.

Oh Vera I couldn't believe that lady sticking her tongue out to have her temperature taken!! It sounds like they were well organised at your surgery, even if some of the patients weren't. It's good you have that job done now and did your foot hold out ok going in there and back out again?

Thank you for your good wishes Elizabeth and I hope you have a peaceful weekend too.

AnnG it didn't sound as if your OH gave the irritation in his stomach from the old tablets time to settle before giving up on the new ones as well. They may not have been the cause. Still, at the end of the day it is his decision what to do. That's a nuisance the face swelling affecting your vision with your glasses. Roll on Friday when the stitches will go and when it should fully settle down.

Mandy it sounds like your son is enjoying his job and it was nice he was included in the bacon rolls! It's good he was able to take the snacks home to save them being wasted. I expect the teachers had taken what they wanted too, but what a waste if they had been thrown away like you say. Someone hadn't been on the ball with what they ordered knowing there would be less children in school. At work we would have had 'public money being wasted' trotted out if something like that happened. OH has seen similar things happen at some of his schools. I hope you get your light fixed soon now the darker nights are coming and that Max could see what he was doing. :-S

I'd better see if I can write up my photography notes now so they make sense. I started to do it in the conservatory but got distracted watching a flock of Great tits and some Blue tits working their way through the shrubs and fences looking for food.

I hope Jane is comfortable and that our other absent friends are all ok.

AnnG I've moved twice ,once with mum and dad and then moved into this house when we got married , Colin has never moved .....he was born in this house

Vera that woman obviously remembered being aske to put out her tongue at some stage when visiting the doctor and also remembered the in your mouth thermometers that went under your tongue. Wonder where she has been all these years. We felt nothing from our jabs, either at the time or afterwards.

Mandy not quite sure what to do to bring the swelling down, I think it is either a small gland or maybe my sinuses on that side. I have tried holding a cold flannel against it but haven't any other ideas. I can't get the stitches wet.
I can't imagin still living in the town/village where I went to school OH grew up in Buckfastleigh and I grew up in Fareham hampshire and neither of us are anywhere near where we lived and have moved four times since we left Fareham.

I think it's because all of sons children have gone to the school so he knows all the teachers well and the fact that he did the job for a few months before that has helped him settle in well .
Son also went to the school and so did Colin and I but there has been a few extra class rooms added .
When Colin and I went there they had open fires and they thawed the little bottles milk by the fire .

Oh Vera I think I would have had a bit of a giggle when that woman stuck her tongue out ,but she was very lucky that they didn't chuck her out those poor girls have to put with a lot don't they.

I think the rain has eased up a bit now ,when we had lunch it was tipping it down.