General Chat

good morning all, lovely day again.

Mel let me know if you can't get on the blog and I will check you still have the right address.

Ann we have just had the window cleaner. I handed him the money, he would have to stand close for 15 minutes and talk if your OH were to catch anything and it doesn't spread as easily in the open so I am sure he will be OK. Ours doesn't touch any door handles so nothing for me to wipe now he has gone.
Just had the confirmation from DiL of our shopping list and found two errors. Good job I check carefully, it is so easy to put the wrong thing. I did spot another she had got something slightly different but I will leave that one. Expensive one this time but it includes 4 bottle of wine, one of sherry and one of Gin plus dish wash tablets, and a large cod liver oil (for OH) which is £9 and will last a long time Oh and a tin of vanish Gold powder. Might as well get it all while not spending a lot else.

Morning All,

Another sunny day and my plans have been scuppered already. I got the veg ready for lunch, then went outside and planted the the new tomato variety I got in the last remaining greenhouse pot. It's small but we should at least get some tomatoes later to test them out. The gardener's delight we also have and love tend to have an orange patch at the top near the stalk lately so it would be nice to have some without if these are okI I was outside with my gloves on and ready to start planting when the window cleaner arrived!! I had to dash inside to help OH shut all the windows and doors before he came into the back garden. I just hope the young plants I left in the greenhouse don't wilt before I can rescue them. OH put his money in an envelope, but after saying to me he would leave the money outside for him to pick up, he handed the envelope to him over the gate which I thought was stupid, even though he said they were both at arm's length, when the man was mixing with everyone going house to house.

OH has a webinar now and then I need to get lunch before we go out so the planting may have to get done when it cools down later.

I had forgotten about the hogs getting ticks Mel and know the ones I have seen in the past often get them on their heads poor things. Ticks have become more widespread so they say and when we used to go walking I always wore socks and boots with my trousers tucked in even though I would get hot. I'm glad we don't get leeches like in the jungle though. The weeks do go by quickly as you say and I must plan out our meals ready for our next delivery next week. I ordered a few more ready meals with our last order for the same reason, otherwise you are stuck in the kitchen too long every day! Asda don't do many that I like with me not liking beef, but there's shepherd's pie and I could always get some of the weightwatchers ones for me. OH particularly loves their beef lasagne one and we are trying the toad in the hole with some baked beans this week. I rarely have sausages , but needs must at times!

Oh the window cleaner has gone and OH has wiped the door handles in case they were touched so I'm off outside again now.

Morning all,

Another beautiful morning here and once again a forget me knot blue sky and not a cloud in sight.

So what are you all planning for today? Iv'e nothing planned but want to do a bit of tying up today. The clematis on the patio needs a bit of TLC and so do the ones out the front of the bungalow in big concrete syterns. All heavy with flowers and not much stems.

Got up at 9.06am and went back to bed for an hour. Just had some toast amd marmalade so all set to start the day off now with osme work.

Arm just looks a bit bruised this morning but all the swelling has gone down.

I must take a look at Anng's blog as the day she put picks on there I could'nt get he internet to find her address for it.

Sounds like things may be getting sorted with your holiday site Ann. I hope you can get it worked out so you get your voucher. You have been going there a few years now so are a good customer.

Yes oh got his glasses on and we went out on the decking in the sun so he had good light and some directions from me as to where to postion the tweezers and pull straight up steadily. I must have picke dit up up the border as thats the only place I can think of where the foxes and deer go and of course the hogs so I hav'nt done too bad considering and am surprised I hav'nt had one before.

You got on well in the garden today Gill by the sounds of what you have done. It sounds to me as though those Red Robins were dug up from the ground and put in pots with all the soil around them with it being clay. Now you have your conifer where they were and thats nice.

Shame you did'nt get the card finished but I expect you will get it done tomorrow.

This week has flown by to me and I only have tomorrow and then its wipe down day again. We are trying some different ready meals so we can go in the garden and I don't have to cook too much.

Not done anything this afternoon just flopped about here and there and not achieved anything. Played cards on the pc and had a day off really.

Hope you all get some well earned sleep tonight and see you all in the morning.

AND WHERES OUR FRANK? Hope he is ok and Jane had a nice day with Hannah etc. <3 <3 <3

Mel good that your OH got it all out. Not sure my OH would cope with that. Hope it is not too painful for you and watch out for ticks wherever you got it from.

Gill wow you were up early. I don’t think I hacpve ever been out in the garden at that time. However it is good to hear you happy with what you have done together. Hope you can get rid of all the rubbish. Our garden bin is almost full again, collection day Tuesday.

Ann glad your back/side was better today hope you can have a good sleep tonight again.
Also hope you can get your holiday sorted. Such a problem. We still have a week in September booked, no idea if we will be going but only the deposit paid so far.
I did make almost one card today just needs finishing off tomorrow.

That's good the tick is out now Mel and that you have disinfected the site! :-) It will be good if you can get some cuttings going of the Pond's Cream scented rose. I see you are potting up self sown seedlings too. I must see if I can do a bit more planting tomorrow, but we are at last taking those paper shreddings in the morning so I hope it won't be too hot by the time we are back. Maybe they didn't have a passport Mel....bit naughty though if that was the case.

Blow me when I looked at the holiday agent's site on line they had changed the rules about rebooking without sending us another email with the changes on!! We can now use the voucher they sent to book holidays on line next year now without having to do it by phoning them!! Great I thought and decided to go ahead and rebook for next May. As we get a discount through a small health insurance we pay I tried to do it as I would usually through their site, but there was nowhere to put the voucher code in. I then went through it all again on the booking agent's site and spotted where to enter the voucher code. However, because I couldn't go through the other site no discount was applied so it is showing a balance to be paid. I just hope when they email the invoice in a few days they will have sorted that out or it will mean more hassle and trying to ring them to sort it out as they promise to match the price you paid. :-S

I have done nothing this afternoon and am still ready for an early night again. It must be the heat sapping my energy.

Well the garden is finally finished for now, we've put a tall conifer where one of the big Red Robin's was and it looks much better there rather than where it was before. We've been in the garden since 6.30 this morning as we were up earlier than usual with going to bed before 9pm last night. It was a lot cooler so we got quite a bit done. OH is hoping to get rid of all the rubbish tomorrow if the queues aren't to long at the tip just in case his boss rings with some shifts for next week, or he hears back from the jobs he's applied for. I can't believe how much rubbish there is and it'll probably take him all day to get rid of it.

I'm absolutely shattered now, OH is watering the garden and then we'll both have another early night.

I still haven't caught up with the posts so hope everyone is okay, I'll try and catch up with them tomorrow as I could fall asleep on a washing line right now lol.

Oh has just removed it for me and got the lot out. It was only tiny and I have washed my arm and put TCP on it and now I stink.

Ann perhaps they did'nt have a passport to send seeds through the post.

Tick is still on my arm. I have smoothered it in Vasaline as they breath though their skin. It has swollen up a bit now, my arm not the tick. Its stinging a bit at the mo.

Potted up 8 self sown bunny rabbits this morning. Seedlings off the big one that been on the aptio growoing in the gravel about three or four years. The stem from the root is over an inch thick.

Afternoon All,

Phew it was hot again when we had our Lamb Shank lunch outside, just 4 veg today and I must stop adding a potato or two to my plate as my weight has started going up! The trouble is if I cook them I want some!

I still feel quite lethargic, but after taking paracetamol last night and rubbing in the gel and turning over carefully, I had a reasonably good night, just waking a couple of times. I rubbed more gel in this morning and got OH to bend down to get the steamer out and put plates in the warming drawer and my side is much better and on the mend I think. I'd better still be careful for a day or two though. OH even got the hoover out and hoovered around so that was good.

How nice to hear from your grandson Vera. It is a shame he won't be able to do his archery to the same level anymore. My friend who's husband's funeral was a few days ago got shoulder arthritis from archery and couldn't do it anymore. It must be hard on your joints.

Oh Mel I hope you managed to remove the tick if it was one. I've read they need to be attached for 24 hours to be a risk for Lyme disease. There are warnings here at Bradgate Park where there is a herd of Deer and they do come in your garden. Not all the way from Bradgate Park though! lol. :-)

I am just messing around today too AnnG. I might do a bit of painting and I need to order a new picture card for my camera..

I'm going to renew my efforts to contact our holiday agent tomorrow. I think with the situation we should ask for a refund and not rebook next year as we planned to do now. If I still can't get through I will contact the credit card people about making a claim. I think it is called a section 75 claim or they can do a reverse charge or something.I am concerned now about them going bust and us losing all our money! I don't know at what point our balance we paid gets transferred to the site owner, but, as the last communication from the agent was to rebook or transfer our booking and they were not answering the phone, I assume they are still holding our money. :-S

I had some squash seeds come from China the other day for the yellow Patti Pan squash. On what appeared to be the customs declaration on the front they were declared to be pumpkin earrings! Was that to avoid some regulation to do with importing seeds I wonder? I just have a suspicious mind as to why call the contents earrings?

Afternoon all

I haven’t had time to put my nose out of the door yet this morning but it looks a lovely day again, although quite windy. My iPad has just changed “my nose” to “moose” :-D. I definitely haven’t put the moose out today!

I hope the weather doesn’t change this week as we have arranged for two local friends to walk round to us on Wednesday afternoon, come in our side gate and sit in the garden for a chat. We’re all looking forward to it as we’ve all been staying home and not seeing anyone.

I’ve just had a lovely long phone call with grandson. He’s not as good as the girls at communicating so I was really pleased he called for a chat. He’s started doing a bit of gentle archery practice with a very light weight bow - he calls it a bent stick - but he doesn’t think the shoulder injury he had will ever recover enough for him to get back to the top level of competition. It seems such a shame but there it is.

We are supposed to be having a 2 o’clock dinner so I had better get on. Pot roasted brisket of beef today, done in the oven as I didn’t have time for the slow cooker, and lots of veg, followed by vanilla ice cream with a raspberry sauce.

Enjoy your afternoon everyone.

good afternoon, another hot day but rain forecast for tuesday. It will be a shame if we go from this to wet and windy again, as we often do in 'flaming June'.

I have prepped the veg for this eveing, OH has done the downstairs floors (I dusted yesterday), and he cleaned the cloakroom. Now he is out in the garden.(for a change). I am messing around on the PC, probably just going to catch up with the news. I have some bits stamped and coloured ready to make a card so maybe ought to do that. Keep intending to make a cake or more scones but the will isn't there at the moment (maybe if it rains!!)

Hope everyone had a good sleep, it was hot but I dug out my PJ shorts so was quite cool and slept reasonably well.

Morning all on this gloreous day,

I can't believe its the end of May where has this year gone? Bit of a breeze today but still lovely sunshine.

I have just looked at my arm and don't remember catching myself on a thorn anywhere and I think it may be a tick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That'll be nice if you can look at the cattle in the field Ann. A good lookout post.

Well I hav'nt sone anything much today but we had a nice steak siner tonight and a nice bottle of White Greneche. Strawberries to follow oh has had icecream with his and mine are waiting for a little later in vanilla sugar befor eI put the cream on them.

Hope the heat patch helps your side Ann even if it does make you hot. I am still using my wheat bag n my knees at night asit seems to help. I can always put my feet out of bed to cool those down.

My cutting from my old fashioned rose I took two years ago is flowering in a pot down by my shed. That too smells of Ponds Cold Cream as many of the old roses do. It came as a cutting from my cottage in Suffolk. I shall try to take some more this year and if I get lucky I may send you some.
I only got one out of four cutting I took and I have to wade thriough the stuff up the top garden o get to the big one thats up there.

I used to love to smell mums Ponds Cold Cream in her makeup drow in her dressing table whn I was young. The little white jars with the pink lid and a bee on top.

Hope Vera is feeling better now and has a good night tonight and that Frank can get a good nights sleep and all other who find it hard to sleep.


Hope Jane had a good day with Hannah and Gareth and had her feet in the paddling pool to cool down.

How too that Vera gets more sleep tonight and dos'nt hurt so much in the morning from her fall yesterday.

Where Frank? Sending love and wishes for a speedy recovery. <3 <3 <3

I always had long hair I cut myself till I was aged 40, but it was long enough to comb round to the front to be able to trim it then. I had a fringe at times, but that was easy enough to trim once you got used to reversing what you saw in the mirror. I also always cut both my husbands' hair, but I still wouldn't like to attempt cutting the back of my own short hair. It is getting more straggly by the day now with waves and kinks appearing as soon as it is dry so goodness knows what it will be like in July when it will hopefully get a trim!

It sounds like you escaped without too much damage after your fall Vera so that is a relief as it could have been worse. Yes, I was thinking last night (in my bed of pain!) that the heat pads would be my next resort to try, and just put up with being hot! I have a few of them as I always like to keep some in. I did use the shower head this morning to play some hot water on it as that can be good on my knees at times as well. The knee gel will get rubbed in tonight Mandy :-) It just feels sore sitting here now, but I shall be in the lounge tonight if lying down again is a problem.

I thought the update tonight was very good in the explanation of how the virus could rapidly increase and be slow to bring back down again if people don't stick to the advice.

Mandy that yellow rose is a super one isn't it. I love the different shades of yellow and it must smell lovely. I love the sound of Mel's smelling like Ponds Cold Cream too.

We seem to have quite a few antirrhinum seedlings popping up so OH has been behind the shed and found me 2 old pots I can plant up with some. He also found a lump of the blue slate and I can use that to raise the height of my lookout steps where I stand to look at the cattle in the field. :-)

<3 <3 <3 <3 Happy Anniversary Jane and Chris <3 <3 <3

Forgot to say that earlier, sorry.

Oh and I had lunch and both threw ourselves on the bed. Woke and got up at 5.17pm !!!!!! Lost the whole afternoon, blast.

Oh is now out mowing and I have just washed up and now I need to corn the big girls as I did the bantams after I got up. When I went down to the little girls there in my big tub of long beans a female pheasent was sitting. Blimmin cheek she must have found it nice and cool in there where it was nice and damp. I have now put the wire on it so she should'nt be able to get in there now.

I must go and have a look at the pics you sent.

The white rose is beatiful Mandy but I also loovveee the yellow one. I lost my yellow rose up on the south facing wall. The one that knocked oh off the mower when the seat broke if a small flowered pink one and is just starting tocome out now and the perfume from that is beautiful just like Ponds cold cream.

<3 <3. Happy Anniversary Jane <3 <3. Enjoy your BBQ with Hannah and Gareth. You have lovely weather for it.

Mel, I am glad OH didn’t get badly hurt when his seat back broke. It could have been quite nasty.

Now you have a painful side again Ann. If you can’t take ibuprofen you won’t be able to use Voltarol will you? I hope your knee gel helps. I know you are probably very warm at the moment but would a heat pad help, or even an ice pack? I wondered if Naga Munchetty normally cuts her own hair. I have a friend with short straight hair and she always cuts her own and it always looks good. She uses plenty of mirrors to see where she is cutting at the back.

Mandy, those roses are so gorgeous. I can almost smell them :-)

How are you today Frank? I hope you are resting up and not trying to do anything.

I am stiff and sore today but I haven’t really got much pain, apart from my left foot. I thought my back would be bad but it’s just a bit achy so I have been lucky I think. I didn’t sleep much last night and am supposed to be resting on the bed so I might lie down and try and get 40 winks now.

I know what you mean about getting into some craft things Mandy. I haven't done any beading for weeks now. I have started a painting but it's touch and go whether it goes in the bin at the moment which doesn't encourage me to carry on! It's good you managed to get the fat quarters though and they are there ready for when you feel motivated. Your white rose looks fantastic with all the flowers and it must smell lovely near it too!

<3Happy Anniversary Jane and Chris <3 It's good you will still be able to eat outside. It's good you were able to see Janice and Larry too and have a catch up. Is James still working from home or is he due to go in to the office yet?

Gill what a shame about the red robins! I would have been tempted to repot them in better soil after cutting them back to see if they grew any better. Sometimes once they get weakened there is no hope though.

That looked a very nice walk on the blog AnnG with plenty of space to keep the distance. The lights in your garden must look lovely at night. I keep saying we should get some and then forgetting.....more senior moments! You have lots of plants in bloom too. I won't use Voltarol as it has diclofenac in it and I had an unpleasant reaction to that after an operation. I suppose like Ibuprofen, it may be ok in a cream as it isn't in the bloodstream. I might ring the pharmacy and ask them.

I made OH laugh this morning. He wandered into the kitchen in his birthday suit after his shower while I was stirring something on the cooker with my back to him. 'Here's your treat for today' he said and without looking up or batting an eyelid I said 'Oh is it 2 of your biscuits again like yesterday'. He wasn't expecting that! :-D

I'll try sending the photo now.

Jane sorry I forgot to wish you a happy anniversary.

Mandy glad you liked the photos, it is a long time since I saw teasels as well. I used to collect them and keep them for Christmas decorations.
Sometimes when it is hot I don't feel like ceafting at all.

Loved the photos of the roses. I think it must be a good year for them.

Happy Anniversary Jane <3 <3 just the right sort of day for BBQ enjoy .

Gill put plenty of after sun cream on your arms to help get the moisture back ,
Fancy the plants being in clay no wonder the poor things died the water would have just run off round the edge of the pot so they didn't get any water .

AnnG i meant to say lovely photo's on the blog from your walk ,i haven't seen Teasels for a while .
Your garden must look pretty when its dark with the lights ,we have some little tiny white lights round the Gazebo and along the wall that come on after dark .

I took a photo of the white rose in the front garden the other day and the yellow one again so will send them on the perfume is to die for .

Ann keep rubbing the cream on and i'm sure giving it a good rub helps the muscle too.
I did see the beach road at Wells has been coned off so no one can drive down to the beach but people were still walking along the narrow path down to the beach and no way could you be two metre's apart on the path as it's narrow and has drop to the beach one side and a steep bank on the other .

I really must try and do some thing this week with the Harry Potter fat quarters i bought but i just can't seem to get in the mind to do any crafts .