General Chat

He still turns up then Anng. Did he have a sit inthe conservatoey?

I have been down the forest and picked up a lot of what I call fluffy stuff that had been blown off the fir trees down there. Then I went the other way towards the crossroad and got some moss off the bank there. Came back and the potting sheds door was open so I had to lock that up. Found a nice candle holder inthe potting sheds so beought that down.

Took the stuff to the shed and remossed the advent ring fed the chickens and bantam and came in for a well earned cuppa which we had while watching Tiupping Point.

Now I have to prepare dinner of roast chicken pieces and mixed raosted veg which is always nice and quick once I have peeled all the veg and made oh some stuffing. Too many chicken breasts so I shall save a couple for a sandwich tomorrow or I may make a chicken and brocc plait with them.

Had a good trip out, didn't spend a lot except on lunch for us both. Did buy one sircular stepping stone as there is a part of the garden I can't get to without stepping on the mud. I didn't need much having spent quite a bit in Bourton. I did buy a small cat toy for Milly and Mollie to share. Cynth gas a houseful for Christmas so she bought some crackers. completely plastic free so should be interesting. Fireman andy is due tomorrow at 11.30am.

Skinny came to visit as I got home but he has gone off again now.

Morning girls,

1 degree here too but we have a little sun now and then. Did'nt get up till late so I need to catch up on some things.

I have done some washing which I will put on the line after posting this. I need to go up the top to the road to get some moss and pick some fresh green stuff for the advent ring.

As we don't have a service every week at our church and the first Sunday comes before the next service they light two candles then. Then there is the carol service but they do manage to light them all in the time.

Enjoy your trip out with Cynth Anng.

Must away and get on BBL.

Morning All,

Quite a covering of snow here overnight and the PC says it is -2 degrees which it was yesterday too, so quite chilly although it looks warmer with the sunshine.

If you have the snow too AnnG, there may some nice photo opportunities at the garden.

I have the washer on and got a pasta with chicken, mushroom and ham and veg ready yesterday afternoon. I just need to add a sauce with some philadelphia and hot it up. I always pre-cook pasta since I found out it was better for your blood sugar and it will save me time with my watercolour course today. We were supposed to have an orange, lemon and lime for today, but I only have an orange and wasn't going out in the snow just to get the rest, so my next job will be to print off photos from the internet to use for the others! :-)

Having received 2 blind samples the same, despite them saying they had sent the 2 I wanted, I tried to order the second one again last night. Guess what, it seems they don't do the design I wanted now. :-| I have emailed them to double check and you'd think they would have said they were discontinuing them when they sent the samples. I could be back to square one.

Good morning AnnG and all
My weather app is telling me it’s -1 but feels like -5. It’s sunny but there’s a heavy frost. Think I’ll be staying in today. No plans but I have plenty to keep me busy. Enjoy your coffee trip AnnG but wrap up warm.

good morning -1 degree out there and frost on roofs. pretty pale pink and blue sky but very cold. Cynth is taking me to Trioscape, a garden about 15 miles from here this morning for coffee (well she is driving I am buying coffee), so I hope the roads will be ok by the time we go. Hopefully they gritted them but these days we cant be sure because of lack of drivers. (and that seems to be a convenient excuse for everything.)

Ooh, I remember the Avon cream perfumes too, especially the little Topaze pot with the 'jewel' on top.
I think I had a little silver coloured apple on a chain / necklace which unscrewed in half to access a cream perfume... Was that Avon too?

My 2 daughters are very practical and can lend their hand to many D.I.Y. jobs. They didn't learn that from their Dad, as he came from a Services family, who had lived in rented accommodation for almost all of his childhood and so a maintenance team would always be available to fix any problems.
Daughter who lives with me is great for fixing internet issues and figured out what to do when the bathroom pull light switch broke. She sought advice from an electrician, who assured her that she could easily buy a new part and fix it herself, so the 2 girls fixed it together, as it didn't actually involve any new wiring, just a new part.
I will try to sort things around the home if I can, but I must admit to being glad of the help from the girls.

Ooh Vera if you were here you could change my light bulb for me. You are six inches taller than me. Well five and a half. Strange that you find waist in dresses are in the wrong place. I find dresses difficult as although only five foot two & a half) I am short waisted so the waist on dresses is not in the right place. I actually don’t have a problem with sleeves but trousers are difficult as I have quite long legs for my height M&S short are too short regular are sometimes about an inch too long depending g on style. The ones that fit me best are ankle grazers. They are proper length for me.

Ann daughter learnt to be practical when her first husband was not practical and she got divorced when she was still in her twenties, bought her own house and with her Dad’s help learnt all about DIY.

Strangely I had six months on my own with a three year old when Tony was away in the RN but I don’t remember having any problems in the house. I lived near my parents so I guess maybe Dad did things he was very handy and taught T decorating etc. I did learn gardening from Dad though.

I used to like Avon perfume and the pretty jars and bottles I can remember Topaz.

That's a real shame about your fairy Mel. I hope your OH can piece her together again. I know how you feel as I once had a life size china dalmation dog that sat beside my couch. It cost OH about £300 over 30 years ago. It unfortunately got knocked over and a leg was broken. OH managed to repair it and we put it in a safer place on the landing but after many years OH's repair gave way and we had to get rid of my dog. I was really sad to see him go. I was wondering about the advent ring as well. If the church doesn't light the first candle till next Sunday, they will only get three lit by Christmas, so when do they light the fourth? Or have I misunderstood what the ring is like?

I hope your day has improved AnnG and you haven't had anything else go wrong. It must be difficult doing all these jobs on your own. I can do some things but I have started asking OH to explain what he is doing when he is tackling household repairs. The trouble is I forget what he has told me. I need to do a few things myself so they get fixed in my mind. Being married to an engineer is an advantage in that he is practical and automatically does all the jobs around the house, but the disadvantage is that he can always repair things so I don't get much new. I had high hopes of having a new rotary clothes line as mine kept slipping down but he managed to make a plastic peg that now holds it up beautifully.

Am I the only tall person on the thread? Height isn't much of a problem for me as I am 5' 8" so I can often reach things. My problem is with sleeves and trouser legs often being too short. I haven't been able to buy a dress for years as the waist is always in the wrong place.

I had forgotten all about Avon cream perfumes. I used to quite like them. I remember my mother had two very small bottles of perfume in her dressing table; Evening in Paris and California Poppy. I expect they were both cheap and cheerful as she didn't have much spare cash but, as a young girl, I thought they were very sophisticated.

It was a nice bright day today but very cold. It hasn't got above 2 degrees all day. I was going to cut down some helenium but I was so cold just pegging down some fleece on my pots of agapanthus that I came in again. OH was supposed to have put the fleece on for me but he didn't anchor it very well and it had been flapping about in the wind and wasn't covering the plants at all.

I also washed towels and wrote a few more Christmas cards and cooked us a nice roast dinner. It was loin of pork today with plenty of veg, apple sauce and gravy which went down very nicely with a glass of Albarino. The trouble is it's made me feel quite sleepy and I am yawning away while I am typing. I don't want to doze off or I won't sleep tonight so I think I need to go and find something to do that will keep me occupied.

Ann I have the same problems as you with my height. Now I have put on weight round the middle and have to have a size 20 in shirts and cardi's etc the sleeves are much too long. Do they think that cos you have a big tum you also have extra long arms?

Just nearly dasrk here and pc says 7 degrees and cloudy.

I suppose I realised that I might well be on my own one day AnnG, so I learned whatever I could in case I would have to do it. I lived in my own house on my own for almost a decade after my divorce and one thing my resentful first OH did was loosen all the wires in the fuses before he left, so that the electrics would soon fail, so it was a good job I knew how to sort that out. I used to deal with the finances anyway (still do with most of them!) so that didn't change. How did your daughter learn to be so practical?

Don't start me on lack of height!! I was thinking of the problems it causes me the other day. Long sleeves are always too long on blouses and cardigans as are jacket and coat sleeves. Cropped trousers are full length on me, others need shortening. Dress waists are an inch and a half too low, also on waisted jackets. I can't reach top shelves in supermarkets or lift down clothes on their top rails. Car pedals need to be further back for me so that I can get out without battling past the door hinge. Steps can be very high when you are short too. Most chairs leave my legs dangling above the floor and if I sit back on most sofas my legs stick out horizontally like a toddler's. :-S

It's showing 0 degrees on the PC now and we have another snow blizzard. Mrs O was outside earlier, picking pine needles off her drive again (for the 3rd day running) and brushing away furiously.

My oh does all the pc tec for me and without him I would be lost so its a good one to know Anng.

Oh has picked the fairy up and all the bits and retrieved the leg from the pond. She's now drying out a bit on the decking. He is going to try car body filler to put her back together again but has to get some first.

I have fed the chickens and bantam and the wild birds had a couple of games of cards on the pc and shot a rabbit that I caught inthe trap.Now I am going to do the big breakfast.

Gwyn I make the advent ring for our little church and have done for over twenty years. I have a flowers stand with an adjustable height so I wire the ring to that and it is lit the first Sunday in December that we have a church service.

Mel Cynth just looks to see the kitchen blind has been pulled up.

Ann That actual light bulb to my knowledge has only been changed about 4 times in 29 years and the last one which was not one of the old sort only lasted 6 months.

I have never done the fuses because T was an electrician and always did them. He did tell me how to see which one was affected as there are several drop down switches to potentially go off. He was always going to label them but they are so high up in the garage I couldn't see if they are labelled with my varifocals. However I could see that there was only one dropped down so from the second step of my kitchen step stool I could reach it ok. It is not until you are left completely on your own to run a house that you realise how many things you actually do not completely know. for example a couple of people I have spoken to have admitted they would struggle with the finance side of things. As I have always handled that I don't have a problem. I did have a friend many years back who had never written a cheque (this in the days when that was a common way of paying bills). then there are those who know very little about technology. I think I have done very well so far in sussing out solutions to problems. So,etimes my main problem is lack of height.
Maybe if I had not been married to an efficient techie I would be more knowledgeable.

Mel,

Thank you for the photos.... your poor fairy certainly took a battering, - what a shame, but as you say, it would be even worse if she had pierced the pond lining.

Still very windy here, but lovely sunshine too, but I bet it's cold out really.

What are you doing with the Advent ring? I'm sure it will be lovely.

Will they not be lighting the 1st candle today?

Morning All,

Frosty earlier but sunny and quite pleasant now.

It's such a shame about your poor fairy Mel. I hope you will be able to repair her somehow.

AnnG I can't believe you have never dealt with fuses before. At least these days the switches just trip so you can press the switch on again. At my old house you had to wind fresh fuse wire (the right size) between the 2 screws and tighten them and then replace the block they were in in it's socket. Our fuse box is in a corner high up in a built in wardrobe and very awkward for me to reach. We have plans to get it moved lower down. It's the same with switches to the fans to the showers in the bathroom and ensuite. They are above the doorframes and impossible for me to reach. That's workmen for you, they put things in with no thought of us shorter folk being able to reach.

Ooops! The timer has rung in the kitchen. BBL

Morning Anng and all,

We have sunshine and no wind which is lovely.

Oh has been doing something on my pc for me so I could'nt get on here earlier.

Nothing planned for today but I need to do the church advent ring so I shall be busy today.

There's so many dead branches and twigs down inthe orchard so thats another job back permitting.

Anng you need to put a long life bulb in the stair light or nave the fitting changed to one you can lower down to change the bulb. If it the light in the window Cynth looks for you could put one of those seed light strings that runs off a battery on the windowsill that you could use if the bulb goes again. I have those and use them in the hall to give light when the solar lights arn't working. They stay on for 6 hours and then turn them selves off or you can do it manually.

maybe that was it, got the error message

good morning sunshine no wind, very cold 1 degree and all the birdbaths frozen solid but the water feature is fine so they are ok there. Bit of a manic start this morning, came to go downstairs to pull up my kitchen blind to stop cynth worrying that I am not ok. Switched on the landing light and the bulb went but not only the bulb, it blew the lighting circuit so no overhead lights or wall lights in the lounge. This has not happened before when a main bulb has gone, although it has with wall lights in the lounge (which are also on the main circuit. However, I have never before had anything to do with the fuses in the garage. checked with daughter that what I thought I needed to do was correct and went out with step-stool to the garage and luckily could see the fuse that had dropped out so switched it back on and all is fine. So now have no light on the landing. No way I can change it, it is at the top and near the edge of the stairs. maybe the fireman can do it for me when he comes or it will have to wait for Joe when they come in three weeks. While out the front I had to retrieve the bin that had 'walked' in the wind and the drain cover. drain was now full of leaves so had to clear that out. walked through the lounge and noticed one of tony's prize (golf) clocks has stopped so have to work out how to change the battery in that next. Wonder what the third thing will be?

Wind dropped quite a bit here now.

I don't think oh will be buying me new one of those Fairies as it cost me £275 a long while ago and now she's £375. Others he has bought me in the past are now double their price. I have the day dreaming fairy sitting on a mushroom and the west wind fairy which is my all time favorite and he broke the first one he bought me so he bought me another and not long ago he broke the wind on that one but I stuck it together. and I have the celtic fairy all toscarno statues.

http://www.statue.com/Products/Fairies/Archer-Rhiannon-Garden-Fairy-Statue.html

Stripped the advent wreath this afternoon ready to redo it.

Oh Mel thats a shame you've lost your fairy like that perhaps OH will treat you to another for Christmas

Oh Ann yes I use to have those little perfume cream pots from Avon Topaze in the little yellow pot with the yellow gem on the top .

Wind seems to have picked up here and its been raining quite hard.