General Chat

Afternoon All,

It's very mixed here this morning sun one minute and clouds the next, but it's not too hot and not too cold so I shall do a stint outside planting up the front wall pots with some nice violas I got from the village garden centre first thing this morning. I would have liked a heather for each of the pots too but they were only being sold in trays of 6 mixed colours so I left it as I might find something at the other garden centre out in the sticks that is always quiet. I also got a tray of 6 red wallflowers to have in a pot near the back door so I can plant those too! We were surprised to see how they are covering over more of the village garden centre and extending their farm shop as that was a tiny corner inside. I thought businesses were struggling!

Oh yes denim is heavy as you say Mel so would cost more to post. Are you nearly finished getting all the brambles out of the borders now? They soon root at the ends and spread don't they. We get them in the bottom border from the birds fetching the berries and they come under the fence from the field. That was a long time to wait for your F&C!

I'll carry on with the course for now AnnG and see how it goes as I did learn a few things I didn't know. Although it's a course for beginners and improvers, the teacher doesn't demonstrate like the teacher I like does. He assumes you know all the art terms and know how to do them. Yes, I agree about the 'toddler' comparison. I better make a start on one of the pictures later today.

Well I opened the second letter from the hospital today and this one tells my doctor they have discharged me, but will be happy to see me again. Still condusing though as they told my doctor in the first letter I was discharged and in his care now, whereas the surgeon told me to just contact the department or himself if I want an appointment in the next six months. They have shifted any blame from themselves re the missed appointment by saying it was due to a communication error, but not saying whose!

Better check the washing now and water the toms.

O lovely to see you Frank and know you had a lovely time in Spain.

What did you give Ros for her birthday? as we are all wanting to know as you but her such nice presents.

I have been ironing as its not nice out there today its that mizzley rain but its really fine and more lkike a mist in the air. It get everywhere and makes everything clammy.

Well here I am again. Had a nice few days in SPAIN with Conrad. Came back with Jan last Saturday. Ros drove home after lunch Sunday (her Birthday) Not done anything since being home,

I trust you are all well, Sorry I haven't got round to reading all the posts. But I can see you have been busy.

Will get back again later, or tomorrow. xxxx

Morning Anng and all,

Cloudy here and feeling quite chillyand we have just grey sky and no blue at all and its 17 degrees and "computer says" partly sunny!!!!!!!!! Don't know where that came from.

Yesterday afternoon I went up the border to the corner and dug out 8 brambles while oh mowed the lawn to pieces this way and that. I also got a lot of ivy off the wall and managed to bruise my little finger on my left hand.

Went down for F & Cs last night and htye were so busy and I had to wait an hour almost and was getting cold as it was growing darksh and I only had on a sleevless t shirt and my gardening smock (sailors smock) as I don't get caught in the brimbles with that on and my little finger was cold and I kept holding it never looked at it then. A youngish man in front of me asked me if I was a potter!! Probably because of the smock with paint onit here and there and my rubber shoes on. Got in and got out of it as quick as I could to put my cardy on. Still no card amchine at the van so just as well I have taken out some money when I went to the post van.

You enjoyed our outing with friends yesterday Anng and a friend coming today for ideas for Christmas cards so thats good.

Ann the dungarees were denium thats why they were so heavy and I knew they were going to be expensive to send back to China.

Wrope this at 9.25am and forgot to post it!

Good morning all,bright, mostly clear sky with blue and white clouds and 15 degrees so looks like being a nice day. Have a friend coming this afternoon for ideas about making christmas cards otherwise nothing else on. Back later I expect better get dressed.

Annx I bet you don’t sleep until he is in though.

It will be a pity if you don’t feel like completing this course. Maybe you will find something in it that suits a bit further on. I am not a fan of abstract, to me the paintings often look like a toddler has done them.

Is your other half going to check that out with his GP a friend had a hernia strangulate a few years back, it was not nice.

Evening All,

Busy day today, OH was most of the day on one of his voluntary jobs, as a member of a local schools appeals panel and now he's at one of his school meetings so he'll be tired when he gets home. One of the city schools has had to close for now as I think I read over half the pupils and 40% of the teachers have covid. I didn't realise how big some of the schools were till OH told me that there are 3 schools close together on the edge of the city that have 3,500 children between them. Image all that lot turning up with parents and cars at the same time morning and night if you lived nearby!

I had my first lesson of the new course and found some youtube videos the new teacher had made and watched a couple of those first this morning so I could see what to expect. OH burst out laughing when I told him it might have been the same name and also an artist, but when the class started it was a different man!!! lol. Not sure I will like it as he seems to assume a lot of knowledge and some have followed his other courses he's done. He's much more into abstract paintings and one of his he showed us looked like a full brush had flicked splats of white all over it. The splash it on quickly and 'feel' the movement and suggestion in it isn't really my style and I think he will find what I do a bit restrained, probably with rigor mortis the way I fuss away and like detail. lol Lots of homework to do, up to 3 paintings ideally.

Vera what a job it is contacting people now. That was best to ring just before closing, it's either that or first thing to get hold of a 'person'. At least you got sorted in the end and things are moving forward in finding the reason for your OH's pain. My OH seems to have a hernia his other side now and it's getting worse and you can feel a swelling now like he had the other side before they operated. His face was an absolute picture a while ago when I asked him if he'd looked in the garage among his parents' things in there to see if he could find his dad's truss that we discovered when we cleared their house!! I may have already told you that before.

I'm afraid I didn't get your email reply again and I checked spam and trash too! We seem to have a gremlin between us which is odd? I couldn't get a Camellia to grow in my old garden, even though I thought it was in an ideal shady spot, yet it is taller than me now in this garden! All it gets is a feed of used teabags around it's roots! We had a lot of clay there as a previous owner allowed a sewer to a small new estate at the back of the park behind to be brought through the drive. Digging it the length of the garden had brought all the subsoil to the surface. You could have made bricks with the clay.

Tonight I joined a virtual meeting and talk about the Allergy Service at the Hospital which was interesting. I never knew that if you were allergic to a particular tree pollen, you could then become allergic to the fruit off the tree, also that you could say be allergic to a fruit when it's raw, but not when it's cooked.

I bet you hair feels nice now it's been trimmed AnnG. I do like the head massage I get with a haircut. It's good you enjoyed your meeting.

Oh Mel, the cost to return must be why I got to keep my dungarees. That is a lot isn't it and a pity you couldn't have sold them.

My 2 sedums arrived today and I don't want to leave them wrapped up so tomorrow the plastic packing will get a wipe and I'll get them planted. I hadn't noticed till after I ordered that the red one is only half hardy so I might put that in a pot in a sheltered spot till I have propogated some more from it.

OH is still not back yet, but I am off to bed now. Hope everyone sleeps well and that we soon hear from Frank.

No Ann, the problem is with the central booking system here. I think it covers the whole area served by the West Suffolk Hospital which is pretty big and the phone lines get overwhelmed. Ringing just before 6 pm was a good plan as OH got straight through and is booked in for tomorrow morning. Both his X-Ray and blood tests are at our local health centre on the edge of town, only a couple of miles from here. The only problem is there is an hour and a half between his two appointments so he has to decide whether to come home in between. I might suggest I go with him and we have a gentle stroll by the river and a coffee on the verandah of the local hotel. Sounds good to me :-D

Sorry to hear about your friend.

Vera, is it anything to do with the shortage of test tubes do you think or is it your surgery and a general problem? Good that you both managed appointments together anyway.

I was surprised that people arrived not wearing masks and everyone accepted it. I can’t say I was too comfortable with it but I suppose we were a large group of smaller groups. So people like my garden interests group who have met without masks and other groups the same so people assume we are all ok. Let us hope so anyway we were all vaccinated.

My friend who is three years older than me has her appointment fir the booster.

Sad news about my friend who had uterine cancer, she died yesterday.

Vera I am intrigued what wa all the banging you had coming from downstairs :-D

It’s a lovely day, a bit misty and grey first thing but it quickly brightened up and is very warm now.

OH had an appointment with the doctor and I had a chiropody appointment and they very conveniently tied in, so we went into town together. OH stopped his tablets about 3 days ago and hasn’t felt any worse so he will leave them off now. No-one seems to know what caused the sudden attack of severe pain in his shoulders, arms and hands but the doctor has ordered more blood tests. She has also ordered an X-Ray to see if that indicates what’s causing the pain in his groin that is affecting his walking so much. Booking the X-Ray – no problem, all set up for tomorrow morning. Booking the blood tests – a nightmare. When you ring you have to listen to a longish message that ends with “If you get cut off, ring later”. Of course, you get cut off every time. Another possibility is to book online but every time OH tried that he got rejected. We’re going to try ringing again just before their closing time of 6 pm in the hope of speaking to a human being.

After lunch I did an hour or so in the garden till I got too hot and my back started aching so I came in and prepared tonight’s meal.

£17 seems a heck of a lot for posting some dungarees Mel. What on earth did they weigh?

I’m glad you enjoyed your trip to Cerney AnnG. I hope your haircut and today’s U3A meeting went well. I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’ve found the majority of people round here are still wearing masks indoors. The only thing that has surprised me is how many people are now walking straight past the sanitizer at the entrance to shops etc. People seem to have forgotten all about it and, tbh, I think my OH would be one of them if I didn’t remind him. Yet he doesn’t forget to put his mask on.

I hope you enjoy the new painting course Ann and I look forward to seeing some of your work. Thank you for sending the poem. As I said in my email Will had finished posting on here before I started but I have seen his name on the thread. I should think most of us can relate to what he wrote. Yes, the soil here is pretty good though it sometimes drains a bit too well and dries out quite quickly. At our last house we had that very heavy London boulder clay. It was sticky when it was wet and rock hard and cracking open when it was dry but it was very fertile. However it could take years for a plant to get its roots down. Once it did, then it would take off. I once planted two small pots of bay which stayed alive and looked healthy but just sat there for about 5 years. Then they suddenly started growing into a short hedge and before many more years OH was having to keep trimming this hedge to keep it to about 6 foot. It eventually became a lovely screen to hide some of the garden so you didn’t see it all at once.

There is a lot of banging from downstairs so I had better go and investigate. Sending a gentle hug to anyone with aches and pains or anyone who’s not feeling too good at the moment.

EDIT Sorry AnnG. I somehow missed your last post. Glad the meeting went well.

Beautiful day all day here and 21 degrees at the moment. I am shattered now. walked round to the hairdresser for 11.45 appointment, back home by 12.30, had lunch, got changed walked back the same route only not quite as far for u3a meeting at 2pm but needed to get there by 1.45 as it is renewal day. No speaker today just introducing new committee members and talking about groups and maybe new groups forming. a motion was passed (individual u3as are told to make their own policies regarding covid vaccinations. Our members voted for the motion that nobody is able to attend groups unless they are double vaccinated and group leaders have the authority to ask at meetings. That is a big relief to all group leaders as we didn't really know what to do.

It was a good meeting, a lot there chairs spaced out, except some moved chairs to fill spaces.which is annoying. doors were open both sides of the room so quite airy. as I was early I got a seat right at the front so felt reasonably safe.

Its sunny here but only 12 degrees. Oh is out ont he mower. I have just been up the post van and returned those dungarees I bought oh that were too small. I should have given them away as they cost me £25 something and they will take the return postage off that price. The postage was £17 something so I lost out there big time.

Enjoy your day out Anng for your hair appointment and be careful.

Good morning all, it was misty/foggy here too early on Mel but is sunny now and 13 degrees. Hair appointment at 11.45 then home, quick lunch and the walk just up the road to the U3a main monthly meeting. this is a fingers crossed we will all be ok as it is a bigger meeting although in a large church hall so well spaced out. Hopefully masks will be worn. It is to celebrate U3a getting back to some sort of normalcy.

Morning All,

Nice bright sunny morning here now but when I got u at 7.29am it was all grey and misty. Went back to bed and woke to blazing sun shining rainbows on the ceiling from my crystal inthe window.

Just typed loads and it stopped going on here. so now I am off.

Good evening, sorry Got sidetracked and forgot to add on here. Didn’t get home until 3.30.


Had a really nice day todat. Four of us in Barbara's car and we all wore masks because one of the ladies is waiting for an eye op and is having to stay clear of any bugs. But, boy it was hot in the car with the mask on. Last time we went to Cerney house gardens it was spring so it was good to see an autumn garden and it was really pretty. we then had lunch in a pub just down the road in North Cerney I don't think it was far from the hospital so you know the area. There were nine of us and they fitted us in but that was easy has they have absolutely loads of tables outside and we were able to all sit together. I did take photos but not downloaded them yet.

I have also sent your email on to Ann, Vera.

Just sent you the second email again Ann. Let's hope it's 3rd time lucky. Last time I forwarded on the email that the others received. This time I've written a new email for you and re-attached the photos. If that doesn't work I'm flummoxed.

Vera my bruise is still dark red with green and yellow on the outside now and I hurt my elbow too and yesterday when I took my gardening smock off oh said had I bruised my elbow too? I looked in the mirror and have a 2 and a half inch round bruise there. I had looked before but it had'nt come out then. Glad you enjoyed your lantern tak and show and was comfortabloe with the others inthe group.

Just having a well earned G & T after comeing down from the corner of the border again. Both been up there and three more big trailer loads over the bonfire. It would'nt be any good us having a garden bin!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope Anng had a good afternoon out at that garden with her friend and has some pics for us to see.

Love to Frank and Island and come on Frank tell us about your holiday. <3

No I still haven't had a second email Vera. It is odd that I got the first but not the second and I have looked in trash in case it was there, Perhaps someone else could kindly try forwarding it to me and see if that works ok? The talk you had sounds quite interesting. I see you have the same trouble as us with plants becoming giants! . The Gaura has hopefully reached it's potential now! Is your soil nice and easy to work, with no clay? Ours is the easiest here of anywhere that I have lived and I think that may be the reason. The Choisya might be about the right height though, although that has some dieback now and is very old so may be a bit stunted. Your Tesco does better than our supermarkets for subs. We can't stipulate anything about subs either and just get given what they think, if we say we will accept them.

Doing that with the bottles does save time doesn't it Mel. OH makes me smile as he has a glove on one hand and puts everything that isn't being wiped into the trolley with that hand to be left a few days. The other sanitised hand is used to put the wiped goods on trays for the freezer or next to the fridge for me to put away after. I think our next order will only be a small one which will be nice.

I start the new landscape course tomorrow in acrylic paint this time. The teacher is an artist himself and he will be talking about other artists on the course that I probably haven't even heard of! He gave us a pre course question to answer about a painting which was a surprise, so I think this course will be much more serious. I hope I will like it!

I'm not surprised your beading is selling at the garden gate Mandy. You make some lovely bits and pieces. I can't wait to see your Christmas makes. What a performance with your jab. You must have been cross. We get ours at the doctors' surgery and they started several days ago but we were on holiday, so I rang this morning. We were given an appointment for 5th October but while the receptionist was on the phone I asked if there was any news about the Covid booster jabs as I wondered if they would do the two together.. She said they had only just got all the information but were getting set up to start on 11th October and we could have an appointment then for both jabs. So on 11th I will be walking around with 2 arms aching - a good excuse not to do any h/w :-)

I hope you have enjoyed your garden trip AnnG and the weather was kind to you. Yesterday was grey all day and raining on and off all afternoon but today is lovely here. I have had the patio doors wide open. It gets a bit chilly when the sky clouds over but is lovely when the sun is out. We have our friends M & V about to arrive for a cup of tea and we can sit in there with the door open without getting frozen.

I hope the 20 dwarf hebes we have planted round a semicicular bed round the birdbath don't grow like yours Ann or they will have to come out. These are not meant to get any taller than 50 cm max. Plants do tend to take off a bit in this garden. We have a white gaura, planted this spring, which is supposed to have a maximum height of 1m 20cm. It must now be well over 2 metres tall and is winding it's way up through a crab apple tree. Btw, did you receive the second email with the woodwork pictures? I resent it to you yesterday.

Mel, I hope your big bruise is no longer black. Is it a pretty mix of green and yellow yet? Don't overdo it with all your work in the garden - you don't want to set yourself back again.

I hope Island and Frank are both OK.

Tesco delivery went well yesterday. Nothing missing and only 2 subs, both of which were fine. I had ordered 2 Hovis wholemeal loaves and they only had 1 so they sent me a different brand of wholemeal loaf for the second one. I had also ordered 4 tins of Tesco prunes and I have a note that they can sub for another brand but they must be in juice not syrup. They subbed with their own brand of pitted prunes in juice but as the tins were slightly smaller they sent me 8 for the price of the usual 4 I buy.

We then went to our club night which worked very well. 19 members turned up and 16 were wearing masks. The room had been cleared of all unnecessary furniture so appeared a lot bigger and the chairs could be much more spaced. These is no door to the outside in that room but we left open the door that led to the reception area which is very, very big and has automatic doors to the outside so anytime anyone went in or out we got a blast of fresh air. The speaker was talking about Victorian magic lantern shows and had lots to show us on an original magic lantern that had been converted to use electricity rather than its original paraffin lamp. It was a bit different and quite interesting.

Our friends normally arrive about 2.30 so they are a bit late. I'd better finish and go and put the kettle on ready for them.