General Chat

Morning Vera and all,

Another hot morning here today too and its going to be another scorcher. Its 23 inside alredy.

Tried to ring the doctors and still no joy there. I shall have to go on to the E consult thing and see if I can get any of my results from there.

As to people not still wearing masks I think it is so silly and I for one will still be wearing mine. I think its our personal duty to protect others and ourselves in the dreadful pandemic. YOu only have to look at the latest figures to see people are going on holiday and the number of cases in our area has gone up a lot. I'm sorry but I think we should all be in lockdown again especially with the school holidays looming. You still can't go in our local shop without a mask on not sure about more than two in the shop at the same time.

Good morning

It looks like it’ll be another scorcher today. It’s 21 degrees already. OH has gone for his walk and I might try and go for a stroll fairly early today before it gets too hot.

I’ll probably do the washing today butI have no other plans

Well, here we are, “freedom day” and cases still rising. I don’t know who first named it that but I think it’s given a lot of people the idea that it’s no longer necessary to be cautious. My hairdresser is quite worried as 2 or 3 of her customers have already told her they won’t use masks anymore. If she insists she’ll lose their custom and, after the last difficult 18 months, she can’t afford to do that. The chiropodist has also said that we must continue to wear masks and Tesco has emailed asking customers in the shop to stay masked so businesses are worried.

Enjoy your day everyone

Vera can’t take much credit for gardening, daughter worked hard stri Ming and clipping lawn edges, weeding and dead heading, SiL cut the lawns, I just dead headed petunias in baskets and cleared some of the cut grass from the path edges. It does look nice now, her Addams would be proud of her garden.

Sleeping arrangments sound good to me Vera.

II have just baked a sausage, onion, apple and stuffing flat pie. I was hoping to have it cold but its only just come out of the oven and not sure how long its going to tkae to cool down. Oh likes pasties cold but meat pie hot so I may put it in front of the fan to cool down. Goodness knows what its going to be like!!

Yes was'nt the vase beautiful and I can well understand how upset Ann must have been when oh broke the one she'd had for 40 years. Its good she found a replacement.

It is now 30 degrees in the kitchen but I suppose having the oven on has taken the temp up even with two fans going.

I do hope you all get some sleep tonight.

Ann I want that vase. I love everything about it and I have the perfect spot for it so if you get tired of it I’ll give it a home. You were so lucky to find one the same as the broken one. Keep OH well away from this one. Those fireworks sound frightening and must have turned the neighbourhood cats and dogs to jelly.

So you’ve been getting daughter’s garden ship-shape AnnG. I expect she was pleased to get some help but it must have been hot work. This morning I put on a large straw hat (I hate hats!) and did some deadheading and a tiny bit of weeding and had to come in after half an hour as the heat was too much.

Funny how we all do things differently isn’t it? Mel feeds her courgettes, I never did. At the old house I grew three plants each year and always got a huge crop. I’d give them away, use them to thicken soups, make all sorts with them including cakes, and every year I’d say I’d only grow one plant next year. Come next year it never seemed worth opening a packet of seeds for one plant so I’d do 3 again. Are yours in pots Mel? Mine were in the open ground so that might have made a difference.

OH picked another 800g blueberries today, to add to the 700g he picked the other day. I’ve only got 2 bushes in pots but they generally do well. It looks as though there are quite a few more to come yet.

It was too hot to have our dinner at our usual Sunday time of 2pm so I’m cooking it now. The sun isn’t quite so fierce and there is a slight breeze now so we’ll eat outside. We’ve done that for the last two nights and it has been quite pleasant.

I hope you all sleep well tonight in spite of the heat. OH is still sleeping upstairs and it’s quite hot up there but he can put a fan on or open a window. I’m sleeping in our room downstairs which is the coolest room in the house and I have a wonderful German fan that we paid a lot for last year., but has been worth every penny. I think I got the best of the temporary sleeping arrangements :-)

I am not sure but could the fireworks have been for Eid? Is it likely?

It has been hot here today, we have not gone anywhere as lawns needed cutting and edges needed sgrimming and weeds needed pulling. It looks lovely now anyway. I read outside until I got too hot and came into the dining room with the bifold doors open.

My theermom here in the kitchen is reading 28 degrees and I have a fan on too.

I must admit to feeding my courgette at nearly every watering but the leaves are going yellow on that. I gave it a miriclegrow feed yesterday instead of the tomato feed or the seaweed feed. May have to give it a top up of fresh compost.

When those BIG BANGS go off it always seems to hit me right in the middle of my ribcage. They have had some like that here att he big house in times past but I think they banned fireworks altogether now as Suzanne has horses and a pack of dogs.

Yes, the pretties are fine aren't they Island. I think this one was a ' Hurrah we will be free on Monday' type of do. The gardens are small for a wedding, but I agree with you about these 'wedding egos' and people setting out to impress with big spending. We just hope others don't follow suit round here. Our neighbour who would have been first to report them was on holiday! :-S

That's the spirit Vera, we have to be thankful for the good things we have. It's going to get harder to mix and avoid infection with the increases and less protection measures soon. I hope you can still have your break. I feel like we are in no man's land for the next few weeks!

Lunch was huge so we will ordering the child size next week. We could only manage half, so the rest is in the fridge to hot up for tomorrow with some chicken strips and peas! :-D The hinged trays with clear lids it came in will make nice mini greenhouses to put seed trays in.

The food delivery is in about an hour (not what you want on such a hot day, but at least it comes with icecream!) and it's a smaller order this time.

Mandy, after Mel said, I feed mine every week now. We have just started to get some tiny ones growing at last. :-) You are doing well with your beading. It's like knitting in that once you get into the pattern of what to do you get quicker. I'm busy with another picture at the moment, but want to get back to some unfinished beading soon.

OH managed to spill beer in a big patch on the lounge carpet square yesterday (didn't tell me), and tried to wash it clean with washing up liquid. I don't know whether he didn't clean it or rinse it enough, but now there's a big stain and I can't find the carpet cleaner! He's always making (me) more work!

Well I think I will have to move from here as I am so sticky I might evaporate with the heat (if only some bits of me would!). I think I'll put the fan in the kitchen for doing the wipe down.

I hope Frank is feeling a bit better and that Gill isn't working too hard in this heat!

We all like pretties Ann but those explosions really should be banned - as you say, no consideration for animals outside or indoors or other people.
I wonder if it was a wedding with daddy's wallet booking a display for his 'princess'? I hate those sort of egos.

Afternoon All,

Phew yes it's hot! We went out earlier to water the pots and greenhouse, then straight into a cool shower. I don't feel too bad now in my strappy top and knee length shorts, but I think you are right about the temperature Vera as the thermometer in here is reading 27 degrees and I think we are supposed to be hotter in the Midlands! It isn't even the afternoon yet!

Last night about 9.00 pm we got an awful fright with a terrific bang that sounded how I imagine a gas explosion would be. It actually shook our bungalow! Thirty seconds later it happened again and was so loud it went right through us. It continued another 6 times over the next 15 minutes and Barry up the close had come outside to try and see where it was coming from. Then there was a loud machine gun noise for a few minutes. Others up the close were trying to see out of their windows. Then the firework display started and we could see it was about 200 feet away at one of the new houses they built a few years ago. It was part of their fireworks/ more like explosives? I hope they've been reported as fireworks can't be let off any old time anymore and they will have heard them at the Police HQ just down the main road. These bomblike fireworks can only be intended to shock and frighten and these were the worst I have ever heard in my life. The morons have no thought for pet cats roaming around or wild animals. The smoke cloud from them across the field looked like a rain cloud. The cost too as they must cost over £80 each from what I have seen in the shops, so those alone without the rest must have cost about £600. What a waste of money, yet we are supposed to believe young people can't afford this and that and are worried about their jobs and mortgages!

Oh a txt says lunch is on it's way! BBL

And friends on here Vera. :-D :-D :-D :-D

Afternoon Island. I am in at the mo in front of the fan. We do have a slight breeze out and oh is out there working on the mower but said he was coming in soon and going in the shower. He's grinding rust of metal parts of the big mower. Its all coming along nicely now.

I have fed the fish and the chickens and bantams and the wild birds I now have to scrub out their bird bath and make a sausage and onion pie for tea. Bought the pastry so don't have to make that but have to roll it out. More mess to clear up. Did'nt buy pasties yesterday so I have to make something. It may turn out to be sausage rolls see how I feel.

We have the grand prix this afternoon and I'm not sure what time it starts so I better get myself into gear and do something.

I'm dressed in my gongalongs and a very thin shirt which dos'nt actually go right round me anymore but buttons up just past the bib so not showing anything I should'nt!! :-S

Morning all,

Phew it's hot I've been outside pottering doing this and that but it's too hot now so thats me inside until it cools down this evening ,we sat out last night until half past nine and it was lovely and cool slept well but I think tonight will be another matter with this heat, I keep the upstairs curtains closed and that helps to keep the rooms a bit cooler.

Lovely photo of Anng with her daughter ,what a good week weather wise she picked to go away.

Ann thanks I've given the cues some extra feed will see if that helps .

I noticed yesterday the little midges were about so the corn must be nearly ready to cut .

Colin has made new doors for the wood shed so he's out hanging them but I see he has a garden brolly up for some shade .

Been doing a bit more beading and I should have some more seed beads come today.
As son ordered some for me yesterday.

Morning everyone

This must be what it’s like living in an oven. I went for a short walk about 9.30 and it was sweltering then. It feels even hotter than yesterday. My weather app doesn’t always get it right but I think it’s spot on at the moment when it says it’s 26 degrees but feels like 31. There is no breeze at all.

We moan about the heat but, as Island said, we wouldn’t want to be in Germany or Belgium right now. Those poor people. I have been trying to check on the computer where the floods are as I am concerned about my German friends but I think they are OK. I might email but even that’s a problem as the wife has dementia and no longer knows how to use the computer and the husband, in his 80s, has his work cut out looking after her and only occasionally checks his emails.

We are supposed to be going to stay with son and family next weekend but that’s now a maybe. One day last week the 15 year old was sent home from school to self-isolate because someone in her “bubble” had tested positive for Covid. She is being tested every day and so far, so good. Provided she doesn’t test positive before the weekend we will go as she will be coming to the end of her 10 day isolation and it is such a big house that we can easily keep a distance. We don’t sleep on the same floor even and don’t share a bathroom so I think it will be OK.

My eldest granddaughter is also self isolating till Wednesday as she had spent a couple of hours with her Dad and next day he tested positive. She is also testing every day and all negative so far. Her Dad (daughter’s ex.) is OK. He felt very groggy for a couple of days, but no worse than a bad cold. Luckily he is double jabbed.

What a miserable post this is. Let’s be positive - there’s a roof over my head, food in my stomach, friends at the end of a phone line, the sun’s shining, the garden’s looking good and the bird’s are amusing me with their antics on the feeders. It’s not a bad life and will be even better tomorrow :-)

Morning Ann and Mel

Blazing sun forecast all day here and it's too hot for me already. I see no sense in just sitting in the heat with no breeze. If I was at the coast with a lovely sea breeze and air I'd love it but it's a different matter when you are bang in the middle of the country.
We'll stay indoors in the cool - I have plenty of sewing to catch up on.
I wouldn't want to be in Germany, those poor souls. :-(

Morning Anng and all,

Clear blue sky here and wall to wall sunshine and its getting hotter. Oh is out fiddleing with his big mower and I have only been up about 20 mins. They say this is going to be the hottest day today.

Pitty all those who can't stand the heat. Mum would not have known what to do with herself as she hated the heat. Thionking of our Jnae too as she would have been in front of one of her fans on a day like this.

Good morning all at 7am it was clear blue sky and sunny but it has clouded over a bit now, still warm though.

Only been in from the garden for about half an hour. I got so hot and I was covering the frame fopr the blueberries as mine are just on theturn now. If I don't cover them the blackbirds have them all

Just about to start dinner, its only burgers so easy really but I am just having a little glass of wine first. Oh said I am turning into an alci what with the G & T at the pond this afternoon and now wine!!

It must be nice to see how Inara has grown and I know what you mean about being the size of a seven year old as Em's George is like that. Its his birthday next week and I forgot to get hi m a card today at the shop. I may have one in my store.

I remember Wast Water as very quiet AnnG but it is a good many years since we were there.

I stood for ages chopping mint this afternoon and have made two jars of mint sauce ready for the winter. Every year I wonder why I bother as the jars are cheap to buy in the supermarket but the home made stuff somehow seems to have a better flavour.

Sadly dil and her sister had to give up on their marathon walk as they weren’t feeling good and were showing early symptoms of sun stroke. They got half way which I thought was pretty good going in the heat which was even worse there than here, but dil is upset and wants to go back another day to finish the course. I think she feels she has let down the people who have made donations. That’s nonsense of course as she trained very hard and was very fit and has done that distance before. My son has said that if she is determined to do the second half of the walk he will do it with her.

Just seen the time...our dinner will be burning so I’d better go. We’re eating outside again tonight :-)

Vera I had not been to Wait water for about 10”15 years. When we used to go it was quite quiet but yesterday in parts the water was busy with people swimming, canoeing and paddle boarding. Nobody but us seemed to be there to see the wonderful scenery..

Inara and her Mum and Dad have just been , feel sorry for mum who is five months pregnant in this heat. Inara has grown since I saw her in February and is still a bundle of energy and as big as a seven year old. (She is 5).

Because they are low paid and she has free school meals, she qualifies for a free holiday scheme. All sorts of activities such as a whole week of football, cricket, a bouncy castle, lots of other activities and with older children they have things geared to their age. Altogether over the ages about 200 different activities. I suppose it is a help to working parents. Well those who are lower income.

You were very lucky to find that vase Ann. I think you said you had had it for a long while. Still think I would have a go at mending the other broken one.