General Chat

Island, I love cauli cheese but do keep the gravy separate from it. I was actually surprised that they did It and no broccoli or sprouts. Maybe they couldn’t get it. It was very filling but really nice. I didn’t snooze but I didn’t do anything much..

Do you think people will be planting wheat in their back gardens? Would be interesting but I think I will stick to tomatoes.

Never mind beans and tomatoes, grow wheat and get milling!

AnnG - The cauliflower cheese would have been enough of a meal in our house!
I find cheese sauce with gravy very odd, why not just the cauli? It does seem to be the norm at carveries though.
Did you have to have a little snooze when you got home? :-D

Like many others he's been an idiot all through the pandemic Vera, we've seen him popping in people's bungalows higher up the close before. Not long after the start of the pandemic OH would leave his money in an envelope on a windowsill so he didn't touch his hands and then started paying him for 2 months at a time, as he made a beeline for OH if he saw him outside and didn't bother about social distance. You seem to have got a lot done today and I had to smile at your OH's arrangement of the solar lights and wondered what my OH would have done with them left to his own devices! I bet they will light up your garden nicely now!

I have been gazing at our easter eggs today to the point where OH said he was going to put them on the 'Critically Endangered List!' I can't see them lasting till Easter. :-)

I’m glad you enjoyed your trip out AnnG. I expect the first visit to the golf club was a little bit stressful but it will be easier next time. Your meal does sound filling, You won’t want much more today.

Your window cleaner sounds a bit of an idiot Ann, but he’s not the only one unfortunately. Some people seem to have got very casual about getting infected and passing it on to others. I do think we now need to be living some sort of normal life but we are trying to do it by managing the risk as best we can and being considerate of other people.

I never did get out for my walk as I kept finding other things to do but I did get some fresh air in the garden. I am resting now as my back is definitely telling me it’s had enough but I am pleased with what I have done today. I’ve done the ironing, prepared a large casserole for dinner tonight and tomorrow and got that slowly cooking, planted my tomato seeds and even pulled out some dead foliage from my agapanthus plants. I also supervised OH as he put out a dozen solar lights we were given for Christmas. He’s an engineer and sees everything in rigid lines and he had them in 2 straight lines with an equal distance between them, just like little soldiers on parade. Needless to say, they have now been rearranged.

We’ve also been to the Farmfoods shop, though I only had to sit in the car and walk round the shop. About once a month they put a leaflet through the door and if they have any products on offer that I would normally buy anyway I stock up a bit. So today I got 2 of the 2.1 Kg bags of McCain’s Oven Chips and 4 of the 1 litre Carte d’Or Ice Cream for just under half the price I would have paid at Tesco or Sainsbury’s.

OH then went out for a walk while I put the stuff in the freezer and got the casserole in the oven before coming up to rest. I’ve just heard him come back so I’m hoping he might put the kettle on and bring me a cup of tea :-)

Oh I missed you there AnnG and Mandy!

So it was a lunch for big appetites then AnnG! It does sound a lot for one, but better than measly portions. You won't want much for tea! lol

Mandy it was a small rusty coloured butterfly that I saw. I didn't know what it was, only that it wasn't a tortoiseshell butterfly. Colin's having a good paint of things isn't he. Your flowers will all look lovely in their newly painted homes.

You missed me Ann, you will see the meal was excellent and I ate too much. Very enjoyable but also very hard. Still done now, be easier next time.

Afternoon All,

It's sunny again and 14 degrees here now. I slept well but didn't stir till 10.00am as I was nice and comfy.

My left leg was feeling the effect of yesterday's walk when I got up, but has eased up now which I didn't expect yet, but OH has suggested I keep out of the garden today which is wise, so I'm finishing my seed order instead. He has a face to face meeting this evening. He also should have had one this afternoon, but it was cancelled yesterday as so many were off sick with covid. :-S In this district, figures this past week are up 57% on the week before.

I forgot to say that when the windowcleaner came last week, OH went out to put his money (in an envelope) on a windowsill for him. As the windowcleaner advanced, OH said to him to keep back as we have covid in the house. The windowcleaner said, 'oh that doesn't matter and walked right up to OH to take the envelope from his hand. A few minutes later OH saw him going into nextdoor's bungalow for a cup of tea!!!

That was an interesting chat you had with your friend AnnG. What an interesting early married life she had. I'm sure it must be a bit strange going back to the club again and without T, but once you have been and chatted to your friends it will seem easier the next time. I hope your lunch was nice!

Don't be tempted to go too far Vera!

Hi all, back now. It was a really nice lunch b ut I think their portions are geared to hungry golfers. Much too much meat for me and four large roast potatoes plus chipolata sauce pig in blanket, stuffing, mixed roast sliced veg, carrots parsnips and onion, cauliflower cheese and red cabbage. then Panacotta for pudding. I am 'suffed' now.

Afternoon all,

A other lovely sunny day we've been out in the garden, I've had a tidy out in the front garden and Colins been painting some more hanging basket brackets.

Thank you Mel the parcel came this morning ,I'll fit the littlebirds on the hat between the nests ,I love the little bunnie in the pot I might keep that one for myself :-)

Anng hope you've enjoyed your Christmas lunch and had a nice chat with friends ,did you have turkey.

Ann you mentioned you saw a butterfly ,I saw one yesterday too a tiny little one with orange wings.

Morning Anng Vera and all,

Its a bright morning here with a hazy look to the north but the sun has been out and we had a lovely red sky last night so I am hoping ofr a lovely dry day. Washing is in the machine waiting to go out and I see there's a pile just infront of it so someones been busy this mroning and left the ret to me and disappeared up the caravan.

Have a nice lunch Anng it will be good to see old faces at the club and enjoy your yourself.

Morning AnnG and all

Your friend sounds as though she has had an interesting life AnnG. It’s always good when you can chat about something other than the usual weather, price rises, illnesses and so on. Enjoy your lunch today.

I didn’t sleep too badly. I woke several times but got back to sleep fairly quickly. I’ve no plans for today. It looks as though it is going to be dry with intermittent sunshine and cloud, much like yesterday, so I might try a short walk.

Have a good day everyone.

Good morning all. I have known a bit about her travels for a while but she loaned me a book written by one of the passengers and then talked a bit more about it yesterday.
Only 4 degrees here but quite bright. I think it is supposed to be dry. Our Garden visits group have the long delayed Christmas lunch today at the golf club. Mixed feelings about it. The first time inside the club since the September before T died. Being picked up at 11.45 so may be on here later this morning.

That was an interesting afternoon then Anng and you did'nt know anything about it before.

Getting tired now so am going to get ready for bed as I was up early this morning.

Hav'nt the nights drawn out? clocks will soon be springing forward.

Night night see you all in the morning and hoping you sleep well tonight.

My conservatory is not heated Mel but it has seemed to be frost proof in the past so I am not too worried about the little plants. No frost forecast for tonight anyway.

Vera sorry your back is still bad but I expect it made you feel better that you managed to get some seeds planted

Ann and Vera , yes thank you had a good two hour chat with my friend. She was telling me about her early married life, she met and married her OH after a ferry trip to Norway (he was the barman on board. they both then worked for a Norwegian ship company. Their main cruise, both working, was the first one on a new ship purpose built for cruises to Antartica, a small ship holding about 100 passengers. The ship was called The Lindblad Explorer (If you google there is quite a bit about it) I think this first trip was in 1972. the ship ran aground in Antartica and they had to be rescued by a Chilean ship that was a patrol ship checking on various intslilations/stations run by all different countries. So although the passengers and crew were safe on the Chilean ship they could not be taken back to South America until they had finished all their calls.The abandon ship call was 31m can you imagine? She actually knew Sir Peter Scott quite well from being crew on that ship and often met up with him at Slimbridge later.

Vera I cooked us a quiche for dinner tonight with salad and a few new pots. Great minds think alike. Sorry your back is still so bad and I hope you can get an answer to it when you see the doctor.

Did a bit of crafting today but did'nt seem to get anywhere if you know what I mean. Did'nt really have anything to show for it mind you it was very fiddley.

I sowed my tom plants the other day and they are sitting in the sun in the uti room siouth facing window. Its always warm in there as the chest freezer is in there.

Yes, it's the 6th day positive AnnG and Vera. Apparently you can test positive for 10days or even weeks but wouldn't be very infectious. If you test positively for Covid you are advised to stay at home and avoid contact with others for at least five full days. I wouldn't have gone anywhere near anyone anyway because I still don't, but it isn't like a park with swings etc so it was really quiet. Next month when most people have to pay for tests, they will still be free for the over 75s!! :-) I hope you enjoyed your chat AnnG. Well done on getting the sky done on the jigsaw.

We soon got/get tired Vera and have been going to bed very early all this past week and are still doing little. The fresh air has helped and we manage a 20 minute weeding session in the back garden but stopped as soon as we started to flag. I saw a butterfly! OH noticed that our almost new garden bin is split all down one edge. It must have happened when they were emptying it, so he'll have to let them know and see if we can get a replacement. Sorry your back is holding you back, but it's best to listen to it isn't it.

My OH took over putting the washing out when he retired. He used to do the ironing, but with wearing T shirts mostly and non iron shirts there is little to do. Now he's eventually realised (from doing the ironing himself) that if you put things on hangers to dry, you can get away with not ironing them so they even go on the washing line on hangers now!

I’m glad you managed a little walk today Ann. How is the testing going? I was reading today that Covid can make you feel tired for longer than you expect so don’t overdo it.

Did you enjoy your cuppa and chat with your friend AnnG?

After lunch I had this plan to get various seeds sown and then cut back the hydrangeas but I didn’t get very far. I did a seed tray with the Tom Thumb antirrhinums and then found a nice smallish trough that was ideal for the parsley and got that sown and OH carried it outside for me. I then planned to sow some tomatoes in the window sill propagator that I bought but my back was so painful again by then that I had to give up. I’ll have to restrict myself to doing just a little at a time till it’s really better but it is so frustrating.

OH cleaned out our bee box and every single compartment had been filled with the rolled leaves from the leaf cutter bee or blocked with earth by the red mason bee. We see the bees go in and out but have never seen new bees emerge. Presumably they do. He put it back up and also put up another bee and insect box that one of the granddaughters got us at Christmas.

Then he got the washing in for me. He is trying to help and I appreciate that but sometimes his help makes more work for me. I iron the minimum so try to keep as much as possible nice and neat, often using hangers for shirts and things. He just pulled everything off the line, dropped it in the laundry basket till it was overflowing, came in and tipped the basket on to the table and twice more went back for another lot. The great heap on the table was all jumbled up, including the 28 socks that I had sorted into pairs before hanging them up. When I was putting my smalls away in the knicker drawer I noticed the ones he put away for me last week, all carefully turned inside out and folded. I had to query that with him. Apparently he had turned them all as he knew the label must be on the inside of the garment. In this case the “label” is a tiny brand name tag on the outside which he thought was very odd, but he didn’t think it strange that when he had turned them inside out all the seams were showing on the outside. What would you do with him?

I’ve taken some painkillers and have been sitting on the bed with pillows behind my back but now the meds have kicked in I had better go and take our quiche out of the freezer and start preparing some salad.

Are you still testing positive Ann? Good for you to have a walk in the fresh air it will have done you good.
Lunch sounded nice. I am just about to do something with mince!! Not sure what yer, probably with pasta I think.

Afternoon All,

It's 12 degrees here and sunny as well, a lovely spring day.

We went out this morning and OH called to get our meds from the pharmacy as they have been there for a week. I felt well enough to do the short walk so we went by the Hall. Nobody else was arround as workmen were near the ice house repairing where it floods across the path when it rains and had closed the footpath at that point. We went slowly down the pine walk and through the churchyard and past the farm as was, so went further than planned, but despite a few sniffles I felt ok. If we'd met anyone I would have given them a very wide berth.

We had an easy chicken and bacon pasta with avocado and other bits added so nice and easy too. I have booked us both eye test appointments for next month and OH is catching up with some work.

Next job is to put the washer on and to see if I have any courgette seeds left from last year!

It’s mild but with intermittent sunshine and a slight breeze so it feels a bit chilly when the clouds come over. I did need a jacket on when I hung out the washing - 4 loads and I haven’t done the towels. As Mandy says, where does it all come from? There are only 2 of us and I don’t even have pet bedding to worry about.

I really need to do some work in the garden but am so wary of setting my back off again. We’ve got 2 of the paniculata type hyndrangeas and I think I might be able to give them their annual prune without too much bending or stretching. I’ve put some pots of cuttings and a fuchsia outside to get some air. They were in the conservatory and I’ll bring them back in later as it’s still quite cold overnight.

I didn’t have a joint yesterday so there’s no leftover meat. I think we might have a vegetarian quiche and some salad tonight. Nice and easy.