General Chat

Glad they have turned up for you Anng. Less worry if its done incase it rains.

Suns out here now and Iv'e had a nice shower and am ready to face whatever the day throws at me now. I want to wash all the big pots for the toms and cues and get the big square tub done for the courgett. My runners still hav'nt come up and thats the second lot of a different kind Iv'e sown now. The second lot of cues are up and Iv'e potted on four courgetts still 4 to do. They all came up.

wMorning all,

Been busy in the garden Mel ,we filled some pots ready for the tom plants and we're back out filling some more this morning , I think if the plants do well I'll be able to supply tesco as I have thirty six plants :-0
The suns shining so it's going to be another lovely day .

Ann thats good the appointment to show how to inject went OK I hope they can help with the pain.

Vera you had a good day yesterday getting all the errands done , look after that plant well as it cost you plenty of pennies .

Anng thats a nuisance about having to wait to get the roof finished but when little ones are poorly it's a worry .

Better get out in the garden before it gets to hot .

Well that changed and they are here now. Jake's partner is looking after little one.

Morning Anng and all,

Its quite bright here this morning andpc says mostly cloudy and its 13 degrees. Hope it brightens more later on.

Just the shop to do this morning and mayempted to the pink drumstick primula down there. I have deep magenta and orange but I seem to have lost the other colours.

Its a shame you are having difficulty get to your rain water butt with the roof stuff in the way but the week will soon go quickly and I am sure he will come as soon as he can. I hope his little daughter is ok and can get the treatment she needs poor little soul.

Now wheres our Mandy???

Got the pics yesterday Annx it looks lovely through the little cops. It reminded me of the time oh and I went on the canal boal back in 2010 with all the lovely fresh greens in the trees.

Good morning all. 8 degrees and sunny.
Jake has had to cancel again as his little daughter has had him up all night as she is still quite poorly.
She is the youngest of their 4 children and I get the impression that she may be the only one who is actually his.
He is now hoping to come on Friday.It is a nuisance as the remaining stuff for the roof is down the alley between my house and next door (the alley is mine and has a secure gate on the road end but the stuff is actually in the way if I need to get to the water butt for new plants.

It’s been a sunny and warm day. In fact this afternoon there was hardly a breeze and it got really hot.

It’s a shame about Jake’s young daughter, AnnG. I hope she is OK. It’s frustrating for you not getting the work done today but better that he stays away than tries to work when he is so tired and has an accident. Fingers crossed that the weather will stay good and he can quickly get the roof done for you.

My goodness Annx, that was a long hair appointment. I would have been getting very fidgety. My appointments take about 30 minutes and I go every 5-6 weeks. I get my hair washed, cut, blown dry and I’m away again. It’s good you’ve got your laptop sorted and OH has had his jab. Hopefully it will be plain sailing with his appointments from now on.

What are you like Mel, lol. Fancy forgetting you had ordered some nemesia and then buying more. They are pretty little plants and keep flowering away all summer without much attention. I’m thinking of getting a few more.

As usual I didn’t have a very good night but I’ve kept going all day though I am a bit tired now. We decided this morning to get some errands done so made a list of all the places we needed to go and worked out the best route round. We started off going into town and left a load of stuff at one of the charity shops, then round to Specsavers to get some clip on sunglasses to wear over my ordinary specs. My old prescription ones are no good since having all the treatment on my bad eye and then the cataract done but I don’t want to pay out for more prescription ones until my other eye is done. £15 clip ons will do me for this summer.

Then we went to Boots for some bits OH wanted; then back to Roys where we were parked for 3 big bags of compost. All the town car parks are run by the local council and all charge the same but Roys is a little bit different. The council run the car park but Roys own the land it is on. The ticket machines there issue a ticket to display in your car and another one. If you are shopping in Roys and spend more than £5.00 you give the cashier this other ticket and they take £1 off your shopping bill.

We left town then and drove to a large builders’ merchant/trade centre where OH got some bits he wanted and then off again to a Pets at Home shop for Sunflower Hearts for the birds. From there we drove to our Perrywoods Garden Centre. We had a large Choisya that died this year and OH dug it out and wants to replace it with another Choisya. I suggested the variety Sundance which we had at our last house and they had some in stock. They had little ones at a reasonable price but they would take quite a while to grow to any size. They also had bigger ones at £45. I gulped a bit at the price but at least you didn’t need a magnifying glass to see them so we came home with one of those.

I was pleased with all we’d managed to get done. After a quick sandwich OH fell asleep and slept for 2 hours! I went outside for about an hour and a half and got some weeding done and planted up another trough and had a general tidy round outside. It was quite hot and my head was aching by the time I came in but at least I feel I’m beginning to make a bit of progress at last

I think I might go and pop myself to bed with my iPad and watch something on iPlayer. I’ve recently seen the first 2 programmes in the David Attenborough series The Secret Garden and really enjoyed them so I might watch another one of those.

It was this morning that they couldn’t come all being well they will do it tomorrow morning. Just hope the rain holds off.
I have my Covid booster tomorrow PM.

Evening All,

More sunshine today, but it's just overcast now. OH went off to his free AI session at the council offices this morning and I rang the computer support people we use. Because of the problems using the laptop it was hard to get into their site so they could access it remotely. They uninstalled lots of Apps that load and run in the background that I never use like AnnG thought of and did various checks. Anyway, the upshot was that my mouse input was faulty. I told the helpful chap that I had been thinking of getting a new laptop as it's getting old in PC years, but he told me that it is a high end one and so why change it if it does what I want and I manage fine with the plug in keyboard. I thought he had a point! So OH went for his covid jab next and they told him they had been waiting for confirmation from the hospital that he had started treatment before making him an appointment for his jab. It sounded a bit lame to me as they'd told him he wasn't entitled to it! Anyway the Head Nurse who did it said to see her from now on so hopefully he won't have further problems as he will need blood tests from now on, We went to Curry's and one of their staff sorted us a wireless mouse, or thought he had till we got it home and it didn't work!! We checked and he'd given us a Bluetooth one instead, so back we went and swapped it. OH took the opportunity to fill his car at Sainssbury's and we said we were lucky these places are less than a mile away. The laptop is fine and whizzing along now and it has sorted the cut and paste issue as well. :-)

AnnG it is good you have another stay at your son's to look forward to so you must be a good guest! I hope Jake's poor daughter was well enough for him to come and finish your roof today while the weather is still good. I hope your hearing aids are working well now as they are so necessary when you need to have them.

Yes my hair colour usually takes half that time and I don't think she had anything on her mind as she was chattering away about her holiday and makeup. I think she might have forgotten she hadn't finished my hair as I was out of her view! I usually take somehing to read the times I have the colour done. I told OH I should have taken his copy of War and Peace the time it took.

Mel, mum used to plant Nemesias in a raised bed when I was little and they are a pretty flower. I didn't know you could root cuttings from them in water though. She also had Lupins and I loved the bicolour ones of those.

Yes shoes do vary a lot Vera. I won't bore you but I used to mark and cut ladies' sole shapes for a process dad did for shoe trade customers. It was amazing how the widths varied in the different styles and these were just the high heeled ones. I have always preferred comfy trainers for walking too. I called in a garden centre today for some leather gardening gloves and had trouble getting any to fit me. My hands are quite broad but with shortish fingers, so not pianist hands! The small gloves in various styles were too tight to get on easily and I ended up with medium ones, but with some of the styles with those the fingers were over half an inch too long and no good for pulling up smallish weeds. Your trip out sounded good apart from getting there and back which must have taken longer than usual and you are going to have a nice display with the planting you have been doing.

Better get my evening tablet now and check we are locked up

Been potting up courgetts, the nemesia that arrived in the post and had to come in for the silly little labels I bought online. They are so small I shall have to use both sides just to get what they are on there.

Had to come in for a drink anyway.

Posties just been and I had forgotten I ordered 6 plug plants of Nemesia and two are the same as the ones I bought up the shop this morning. There should have been a pink one in the six.

Just been up the village to post a parcel and outside was all new plants and I just could'nt resist three lavender and pale yellow Nemesia at £2 each. They are nice bushy plants and I may be able to get some cutting off of one of them. I'll let you know.

Morning all,

Quite bright here this morning and its 12 degrees and no wind to speak of. Stu was really hungry when he arrived yesterday evening which was good cos I cooked loads and a pineapple upsidedown cake for sweet.

It sounds like Vera and Annx had really bad parts of their day yesterday. three hours in a hairdressers would drive me barmy. The trip out and home sounded awful with all the holdups but it sounds like you enjoy the house with it not being too busy inside. I always think May is such a good month to visit gardens with all the fresh green trees and spring flowers out.

Annx your hairdresser sounds like she had things on her mind yesterday leaving you all that time with the silver foil on your head. Did she realise she had left you all that time? Glad I don't have to go through all that, I would be bored out of my mind.

Mandy it sounds like the funeral went off ok and when you mentioned about the two young boys it put me in mind of William and Harry all those years ago.

Did I say BIL came and mower twice yesterday? he cut the front lawns with the mower that dos'nt pick up then with the mower that does. This time too he did the orchard which was about nearly a foot high as he's left that for weeks. It dos' nt matter as I don't like all the bulb leaves cut down till June so the leaves help with next years flowers.

Well I think I have bored you all enough with my writings so I will now leave you to the rest of your days.

Good morning all, 8 degrees and bright but quite a threatening sky. I slept ok, a bit disjointed with dreaming, a bit of leg pain (expected because of all the walking yesterday) and knowing I mustn't oversleep because oj Jake coming. BUT.....

My plans have changed, Jake has cancelled as he has been at the hospital all night with his young daughter, this has happened before, she seems to suffer badly with colds, coughs etc (sounds like asthma actually) Anyway he has had to cancel as he has been up with her all night. (Can't say I want him up the ladder having had no sleep.) Annooying but can't be helped. Hopefully he will come tomorrow morning.
That sounded a bit of a nightmare, tiring journey on your trip out. Traffic is so bad these days I wonder we ever get where we are planning to go.
Nice to meet with your friends and wow, you have been busy in the garden again, must be some energy there somewhere.

ann that was a bit of a long hair appointment. I am glad I stopped having colour on my hair. Actually it is more or less now the colour I was lways hoping for.

I wonder what is wrong with your PC, It sounds as if something is downloading on start up and stays running on the background. Hope somebody can fix it for you.

Evening All,

I'm off to bed soon as It's been one of those days! lol. Up early and showered ready for my hair appointment at 9.00am. Somehow she got confused and I didn't say anything, but she was cutting and shampooing my hair first before putting colour on instead of colour first and I just thought she was trying something different as she sometimes does. Her next lady arrived and she sorted coffee for her and then remembered about colouring my hair, so off she went to mix the colours (3). She put the foils on then moved me to another chair and started on her next lady. Well the time passed by and another lady came for a different hairdresser and sat next to me. After 2 hours I was getting bored and uncomfortable and starting to worry whether the chemicals should be on my hair that long and having visions of my hair coming off with the foils!! She actually finished the hair of the lady who came in after me first, then she came and removed the foils, etc. She usually puts a treatment on. leaves it for quarter of an hour and then does a head massage, but I made an excuse I needed to be somewhere else and it was still just under three hours by the time I got into my car outside as it was. She does a great job with my hair, but my goodness!!

I then dashed to the shop and I was so late there was just the last, tatty copy of my paper but no WW magazine like yesterday again, so I asked the girl at the counter. They have now moved the magazines from the top shelf where I and others couldn't reach them and have put them on the bottom shelf where half are out of view under the shelves above and you need to get on your hands and knees to look and it's alongside where people queue for the tills. She said she'd put them out yesterday morning so they must have all been sold. She added that when the information from the tills fed through, more would get sent. I couldn't help but say that by then, customers would have gone elsewhere and she agreed and added that they could see the problems but weren't allowed to change anything. So off I went to the 'little' newsagent the other side of the village where it's harder to park to get one.

After the trouble yesterday with the surgery refusing to book OH's covid jab, and not phoning him back like she said she would, last night he he found a text from them couple of months ago telling him to come and get a covid jab once he started treatment! The woman never rang him today or apologised, but this morning he had a text 'reminder' for an appointment he was never given and it's for tomorrow!! They had obviously never sent him an appointment like the reminder implied as she'd have seen it on his records yesterday. What a disgrace, never apologising and then trying to cover their tracks.

My PC's on such a go slow and I've checked it has all the recent updates and have scanned for viruses, deleted loads of things, so it looks like I'll be phoning someone tomorrow. You'll know why if I'm not around.

Lovely that your son has invited you back for another visit soon AnnG and it’s good that your hearing aid is fixed now. It sounds as though the girl you saw knew what she was talking about. I hope Jake and his dad are able to get your roof work completed tomorrow.

Annx, I wish shoe companies would standardize their sizing. I have EEE in one pair of shoes, H in another and other weird sizes. I have shoes where insoles can come out and others where I can add a shaped ¾ insole that I got from the chiropodist. I also go for adjustable straps. Part of my problem is having to wear various toe props and separators which really need to be worn with socks or tights to keep them in position and I prefer sandals with bare feet. I might stick with wider trainers for general wear but get the recommended sandals and wear them without my various toe bits on the rare occasions I want to look more respectable. I apparently need width 2V which means it adjusts between EE and EEEE. Isn’t life complicated! It’s good that OH managed his injection so well and I hope he can get his Covid booster sorted out soon.

Mandy, the funeral for Anna sounded as lovely as these things can be. It must have been hard on the little boys and you wonder how much they really understand but it might be important to them in the future to know they were able to say goodbye to their mummy. RIP Anna.

Mel, I’ve learnt something from you about nemesia. I like them and can usually keep them going for 2 or 3 years but I’ve never thought of taking cuttings from them. I have some little glass pots that I use for rooting cuttings in water so I might give it a go. You have been busy lately with your ponds and plants and miniatures. It must be quite tiring. Does your inhaler help with your breathing?

We had a good day out yesterday though the journey wasn’t much fun in either direction. I don’t know if there was a problem on the A12 but our driver went all round the houses to get to the Dartford crossing and then we had to join the M25 which was living up to its reputation as the biggest car park in the world. Coming back we hit a very slow moving, at times stationary, traffic queue about 10 miles before the Dartford crossing and it turned out to be the sheer volume of traffic funnelling in from the roads leading to the crossing. We had about 5 hours at Polesden Lacey and, although there was a chilly wind, the weather stayed bright and dry for us so we were able to walk around the estate a bit and see quite a bit of the gardens and lawns and walks. We also spent some time in the house. It wasn’t busy at all and often we were the only people in some of the rooms which meant the guides had time to chat to us and tell us all sorts of anecdotes. On these trips there is always a raffle with 3 prizes. The money collected covers the cost of the prizes and a tip for the driver. I won one of the prizes yesterday; a beautifully packaged set of bath products. We were both tired when we got back home and forgot to put our bin with the general rubbish out so it will be another 2 weeks before that is emptied. Luckily there wasn’t very much in it as we recycle as much as possible.

Today I did a couple of odd jobs and then went for our Thursday coffee and chat. This afternoon I’ve managed to plant up a couple more troughs and cut down the rest of the penstemons. We also walked down to the polling station, only just down the road, and we met our neighbour there so we walked back together and stood chatting outside his house for another half an hour. Before I knew it, it was time to cook our dinner. I’m sure the hands on the clock spin round faster these days – time certainly flies.

I reckon it’s time to have a drink and the last tabs of the day, make myself some overnight oats for my breakfast tomorrow and then take me and my book to bed. Sleep tight everyone, sweet dreams.

Stu came and I did pork bacon and maple syrup sausages, broccoli, roast carrots, roast pots and onion and a big yorkshir pud. I also cooked a pineapple upside down cake which we had for sweet with a little cream. I could'nt at all my dinner so I have a sausage a couple of roast spuds and a bit of carrot for tomorrows lunch. Been very aquiet on here today. I also had to go and pick up my scripts I ordered 2 weeks ago!!! They like you to give them 5 days but thats silly. I had forgotten all about them till I went to fill my pill holder up.

Wonder what the others have been up to today???

I didn't sleep too badly got up at 7.30ish as I didn't want to go back to sleep with neeidng to catch the bus to get to the hearing services appointment. The hearing aid was fixed. strangely it was a fault with the tube not the actual arm.speaker part. I don't know really what caused it but the tube was blocking any sound even when the aid was switched on. The audiologist thought the tube must have been stored for a long time before being used. anyway she changed both aid's tubes to be on the safe side. A young girl very interested in what was happening and answered all the questions I had.
Aftr I finished there I walked up to town, had a coffee and an almond croissant then looked round the shops, finally got home at 2,15. Our little cul de sac has traffic lights on the end. pavements being dug up in the adjoining roid, part of what is going to be a more wide spread disruption lasting 20 weeks. hopefully it will be done in sections and ours may be over first. Can't think what the company is called is it United Utilities? anyway a very large trench has been dug on the pavements where they duf a small trench for Wifi not so lung agao.

Morning Anng and all,

Quite bright here this morning and its 11 degrees and pc says sunny so maybe a good day.

I have a llittle parcel to do up today I think and I hope its paid for so I can get it up the shop.

I must do some baking today too and have a clear up incase Stu comes tonight for dinner.

Hope you all slept well, I did up at 6am for the bathroom and back to bed for another hour or so.

Good morning all 7 degrees and bright at the momeny. I have an appointment to get my hearing aid sorted this morning so have to walk to the bus stop on the next main road to catch a different bus in to town to get to the hospital. (10 minute walk not too far.

Jake and riley finished one sode of the roof repairs and will do the other side on Friday. A good job done so far but the other side is a bit harder to access as it is in the passageway down the side of my house fairly close to the house next door.

Ann hope you have sorted out the email problem now.
Pleased that your OH was able to manage the injection. sounds just like the injections daughter has for he Diabetes now that she has moved from type two to type 1.

Annx I only found them today so tomorrow I am going to sow some and will let you know and if any come up I can send you some back. How does that sound? Iv'e been in the shed and need to have a good sort out of the bench where I sow, repot and take cuttings.

Do you remember I bought some special Nemisia the year before last? I lost a few but still have one pink one and when I tidyied it up I cut two bits off I did'nt mean to. I stuck them in my tiny glass pot on the windowsill and in two weeks they have rooted. I'm so pleased but its a shame I lost the mauve and yellow ones. One Iv'e had for years and it must be 6 years old and its still flowering so I have taken a cutting off that one now.