General Chat

Afternoon All,

Yes it's been cold here too but no wind thank goodness. While I went to the shop OH went for a walk and then went in the garden and spent a few minutes clearing and cutting the Michaelmas daisy and fuschia stalks. It spurred me on, so when he'd gone to footie I donned my old gardening coat and got my secateurs and went outside with a humper. It was quite depressing seeing the neglect and either I'm weaker or my secateurs need sharpening, but it was really hard to cut some of the stems on a big Hebe in one of the island beds. It was bought as a dwarf variety but it's so tall I can't see over the top of it now. I did some weeding of the gravel and a couple of pots too and filled the humper, so with what OH did the garden bin is half full. I noticed a couple of terracotta pots I grow different mints in and herbs have shattered with the frost and will have to check if they can go in the rubbish bin or whether to smash some pieces to go in the bottom of other pots.

I saw something stupid when I came back from the shop and was waiting with other cars in the three lanes at the traffic lights at an island. A youth going far too fast on a bike whizzed up to the lights between me and the cars waiting to my right, didn't even slow down and rode through the red lights and straight on at the island and did the same between the traffic waiting at red lights the other side of the island. He wasn't even wearing a helmet either.

Nice to hear from you Mandy and I was wondering how you were getting on. It's good to not do too much till you feel a bit better, just take your time and it will still get done.

I'm glad the fairy's legs stayed stuck AnnG. Knowing my luck I would have either put them on the wrong sides or one pointing backwards so she didn't know whether she was coming or going. Today I noticed my ladybird stones in the garden need a lick of paint. Even tiny tins cost a lot now so I might try my acrylic art paint and then varnish them.

It's not easy to know what happens with payments at times, but the idea is that they pass the bank charges they will have to pay themselves on card transactions to the customer paying by card.

I must remember to have enough cash with me in case my hairdresser starts doing that Vera as, like you, I don't want banking on my mobile. either. With tradesmen at home I can do a bank transfer on my laptop, but don't want to take that with me everywhere! I hope your neighbour's granddaughter will not need dialysis and hope she continues the small improvement. That was shocking the delivery driver doing that! Your parcel could have been stolen as well.

Mel did you get your inhaler ok? We had your hail today, but not here as it was a few miles away where OH was watching his footie match. That water bill does sound a bit steep for two months and only one person. We only seem to get post one day a week now and it is always Saturday lately.

OH got his appointment letter for the hospital eventually. He received it a month after the date on the letter and long after he attended the appointment.

Good to see Vera is ok and has just been busy.

Its 8 degrees here sunny and bright with blue sky and a few white fluffy clouds like you Anng. It feels cold inside though.

I just had the fright of my life sitting here I heard a great crash and thopuight whats up now. Went out the back door and on the plastic roof over the patio was a large male pheasent strutting around on the roof. I gave him the fright of HIS life when I put the broom up there and he chucked up and flew over onto the front lawn. Hope he'l think twice about going up there again.

Now Mandy you take thing a little at a time while you're still not back to normal. I heard somewhere that older people should do 15 minuets of jobs at a time. So pace yourself.

BIL called in this morning but did'nt stay long he had a look at my water bill as I thought it was a bit steep for one person as it was £116.35 for 1st Jan to the 27th Feb. It says my daily consumtion is 655.2L This is well over the consumtion of a house with 5 people in it according to there letter. Why do all these letters come on a Saturday when you can't ring up till Monday? I hope iv'e not got another leak and that the meter was read wrong. The last bill was £70 from Sept to December. I think BIL said he saw someone reading the meter when he came once, he said the man was bailing the hole out as it always fills up with water.

I was reading something on facebook where somebody had lovingly resores their hallway which has 130 year old tiles in a beautiful pattern. That set me thinking to when we lived in our first bungalow 1960-1967. No beautiful tiles to restore but the wide front doorstep that was under cover was red.tiles, as was the wide lounge windowsill inside. I used to clean both with red cardianl polish. anybody else use that in the past. the tiles lokked lovely after cleaning.

It has been sunny here all day blue sky and fluffy white clouds which seem almost static for ages. 12 degrees so not cold. Tesco has just been so that is all put away.

Vera I am pleased that their Granddaughter is making progress, fingers crossed that she wont need dialysis.

My chropodist is a bit naughty and I am sure it is illegal, he charges £27. if I pay cash £30. If I pay by card.

I do think it can be swings and roundabouts though as businesses could end up losing customers if the stop taking cards. Probably not the hairdresser though as cutomers are already loyal to them.

The fairy is sitting in the conservatory looking like butter wouldn't melt.

Pity you were rained off but still the thought was there.

Good afternoon all

I didn’t get on the thread yesterday as it was a very hectic day but I am OK, thank you AnnG. I am still laughing at your legless fairy and wondering what she will get up to now she’s been reunited with her legs

Good to see you post Mandy. Just take it slow and steady and don’t worry if jobs don’t get done.

Have you fitted your new plastic chain yet Annx? It sounds a bit of a fiddly job but you are good with your hands

Yesterday I fitted in some shopping with a trip to the hairdressers. She had a notice up to say that she would no longer accept cheques or credit cards because of the high banking charges. All the small traders are going this way now. I noticed a couple of ladies pay by bank transfer with their phones but I won’t put banking on my phone so I will have to pay by cash.

Don’t you despair of delivery drivers? There was a knock at the door mid afternoon yesterday and there was a neighbour from across the Close with a parcel for me. She had been in hospital and was discharged yesterday. When she got home she found a parcel for me left on her doorstep. It had a clear label printed with my correct address and both her house and mine has a clearly visible house number on the wall so why couldn’t the driver manage to knock at the right door? It was just by chance that my neighbour was discharged yesterday, otherwise the parcel could have sat there for days.

Then my friend M came with news of her granddaughter who is fractionally better but is on morphine for the pain and was moved into a dialysis unit just in case she needed to be rapidly hooked up to a machine.

I think the final straw yesterday was a call from the sister of an old and very dear friend. We knew he was ill and just receiving palliative care but he can no longer cope in his own bungalow and is being moved to a specialist nursing home for the short time he has left. It just seems to be one bit of bad news after another at the moment.

I was restless last night though I did get some sleep but I felt as though I just couldn’t be bothered to do anything this morning. So I gave myself a talking to and made myself get on with something. I decided to do the small bit of ironing that’s been hanging around all week and then.made a short list of garden jobs that needed doing. It was chilly but sunny so I put on a warm jacket, got out the tools and a kneeler and made a start. I did one small job, the sun went in and it started raining and that turned to sleet so I had to come in again. Looks like even the weather is against me :-(

Time now for an afternoon cuppa I think. Sun has just put his hat on again. I hope it’s sunny wherever you are.

Just little and often Mandy. Besides anything else I think maybe your confidence in yourself will need re-building up. Take care and good to see you.

Mel, I think giving her legs back might be cause for more mischief, you neverknow where you are with these fairies. ;-)

Morning Anng ,morning all,

Lovely sunny morning here but quite a sharp frost the car is white .
I have done a few jobs but just little bits at a time , going to try a bit of ironing this morning .

Morning girls,

Nice bright morning but o so cold. I have frozen hailstone on the rooves of both cars this morning. Its 7 degrees and pc says sunny. BIL may come today as he said he was going to mow today as he had'nt cut outside the wall or the orchard. Glad the fairy now has her legs back on as you never know what damage a legless fairy she could do!

Good morning all sunny out there but 2 degrees. I believe it is going to get warmer later on though. Hope so. I see there is a lot of snow on Hellvelyn.

good luck fixing the chain Ann. It is satisfying when you can fix things but I still had my 'fixer' here. The fairy seems to be stuck OK. Only problem was having to buy a large tube of a 'grab' glue to do it. Just hope it doesn't dry out before I need it again. (And hope I don't need it any time soon.)

Yes got more or less to part of the jobs list, the easy part. The jobs remaining list is quite long but the jobs are all big ones (clear out type jobs).

I don't think Vera was on yesterday so hope that she is OK.

I have a wash load half done and Tesco due this afternoon. I also need to post a birthday card.

Been to the girls and collected my one white egg and ckleaned out their nest box so thats all nice and clean for tomorrow. I chucked the litter out of the nest box into the house so thye can wipe their feet on that before going to lay. Bet they won't.

No Annx came as usual jeans and a t shirt with a jumper jacket with a hood. His back was wet when he came in and e went off like that.

Suns been out for a while now so I think I am going to venture round to the girl and give them their corn.

Sorry your back isn't improving as quickly as you hoped Vera. I don't think this kind of cold, windy weather helps either. My OH still has quite a few suits. He wore them daily at work anyway and he still does for some council meetings and hearings and for the school panels he sits on. Most are a bit big for him now tjhough, but all the new ones seem to have double vents in the jackets which neither of us like and prefer the way the single vents look and hang. My word your poor friends M&V must be worried sick about their granddaughter in hospital. Sepsis with infections can develop quite quickly so I hope they can soon get it under control. Very frightening for the young lady too.

After your experience finding a garage with no diesel I'm going to keep an eye on our local garages now.

Your BIL was good not only getting and bringing your bird fat balls but paying for them too Mel. I'm surprised he gets any time to do his home jobs with everything else he does. I hope he was dressed for the weather.

My plastic chain has arrived for the blinds so that's a fiddly job for me to do replacing the broken ones.

I was just wondering if you can get a rainbow with sun and hail and at the present time you can't. The skies very grey.

Here it comes again hailstones.

Just before 1 o'clock I was washing up and the sun went, it was a watery sun anyway and then it started to snow I watched as it then turned back to hailstones and BIL arrived. I opened the backdoor for him to get in quickly but he had hailstones all on his back. When he came in he said I'm not stopping just brought your fat balls for the birds down and some petrol for the mowers. He also brought me two more of those Co-op chicken and veg soups. I asked how much I owed him and he said nothing!! So now I am well stocked up with the four boxes of 40 fat balls which should keep them going for a while. Then he used the loo and left as he wanted toget something done at home.

Suns out again now but its only 7 degrees and rain expected later but gosh it feels cold. We seem to have a westerly wind here.

Afternoon Everyone,

I slept well last night and we decided to go and get a breakfast bap at a garden centre at one of the villages. It is owned by the garden centre nearest to us, but doesn't get as crowded and service is better. Easter seemed to be in full swing with all the goods and decorations and they have The Works there. OH found himself 2 more birthday books and I got some metallic colouring pencils which I liked.

We had a real downpour with the wind last night too and the fields were showing some floods again this morning. Sunny but chilly and windy so the garden is a no for me and I will catch up with more indoor things. OH has booked in for the Physio, but sooner than wait about 6 months or more, he is going to travel 15 miles to Hinckley where he can start in June.

You are getting on with jobs AnnG and I see Mel had rain too, but I'm glad we didn't get the hailstones.

Mel the book is called 'Humphrey Newton (1466-1536) An Early Tudor gentleman'. He is related on my paternal grandmother's side which had generations of hatters, further back the Quakers, then further back still the ancestors that married into these wealthier families. It just shows what surprises can be further back in your ancestry if you can trace them far enough back.

Better get some lunch now which we are having later today having eaten earlier. Will BBL to read Vera's last post.

Well 7 degrees out there and a NE strong breeze. I have just spent 45 minutes out there pottering and cuttin some winter flowering jasmine and ivy down, also untangled/untied the wiring for the solar charger for the fairy which was in behins the bussleia so awkward to get to. Had to come in as my hands were freezing. the wind is bitterly cold.

Just going to make up the bed now.

Morning all,

What a night it was thundering with rain in the wind when I got up for the loo. It was comeing from the west so hitting the bedroom window and I thought it would keep me awake but it did'nt.

Its 7 degrees here at the moment and pc is saying heavier rain soon but I got up to hailstones and it was really heavy then.Annx I pleased the book was'nt damaged by the postman dropping it through the letterbox. I know when Em's Ed sends books out they are wrapped in lots of bubble wrap and safe in boxes.

Not sure if BIL will come today because there's not much that can be done in this weather. I think he was hoping it would be dry so he could pick up the grass cutting he did last week or cut the outside grass as he did'nt do that last week.

Good morning all, 5 degrees and some sun, still breezy but I think the wind has dropped a bit. Nothing planned for today but bedding is already in the washing machine so that is a start.
I didn't really sleep that well but I think I had enough to keep me going!

Vera, oh that is a worry about your friend's Granddaughter. I hope things have improved there and that she is on the mend now.
Yes thank you the meeting went well. we did discuss some gardening bits but also put the world to rights in other ways. Lots of chat and lots of laughter.
Sorry that your back pain is dragging on, hope it does soon ease.

Mandy thanks for popping in good to see you. Have you got a follow up appointment with your GP? I think the locum shouls apologise for not looking more closely at your problem, although to be fair it is possibly the information they received from reception as to the cause of the appointment that was at fault.

Ann, how wonderful to be able to read and trace family in a book where a lot of work has already been done on your tree.

Mel, Stu does like his chilis doesn't her. Sounds as if you enjoyed it anyway. Sounds like his cut chips roasted are more like wedges. nice.

Stu cooked a chilli tonight and he put carrot and leek in it and we had it with chips, well his chipped potatoes roasted.

Thats good hubby will get more physio on the NHS now. Hope all goes well. The book on the Tudors sounds interesting what's it called please?