General Chat

thank you Island, I am storing up all the suggestions for future use. Probably when nothing more needs doing in the garden!!!!

Aren't those prices ridiculous. I am hoping that nobody s desperate enough to hire the places charging such exorbitant prices. so greedy.

sounds like you are going to have a feast of veg from the garden soon then, well done.

I took so long to type my news that I missed Annx. Yes, new estates of 3/4 bed houses in our area too but locals can't afford them - all those green spaces lost forever :-|
I saw on the news hugely inflated prices for holiday rentals in St Ives 10K a day for one family size house! Who's going to pay that? Millionaires?

Afternoon all

Just had a stroll round the garden - it had to start raining of course :-|
Veg all looking good but slow. Pleased to spot some fairy size beans, runner and climbing French, exciting! Plenty of flowers on the toms and cues but they could all do with some sunshine - the weather is just not balanced.
Yesterday, I shook my fist at the grey cloud and put next years PSB in the ground inside the cage. I also planted 4 caulis in the raised bed - tempting fate there!
I'd planted the purple peas in the PSB cage too as instructions said 'protect from birds immediately'. They are vines rather than bush and are quite tall with lots of pretty purple flowers so we have been stapling matching yarn onto the frame to hold them back.
We haven't seen any butterflies this year, especially the dreaded cabbage white, so I thought I'd risk leaving the cage door open so that bees (we have those) could go in and pollinate, then I spotted the first purple pod! They can be picked and eaten as mange tout or left for podding. I might pop some of these pea seeds in the raised bed to see how they go.
So fingers crossed we should get a few meals out of the garden.

My arty mojo has been in the dumps due to the pandemic but I managed a few things. At the moment I'm sewing cheapo cotton pull-on trousers for staying cool sitting in the garden - ha! they won't get worn out will they!
Otherwise, my 'go to' craft is crochet which I find relaxing and not taxing - as long as it doesn't give me hand/wrist ache.

Anng, back in covid free days, I enjoyed just playing with paint by experimenting to see what different effects appeared. It was just for fun but could be cut up for cards or books. I need to get into it again.
Printing with found objects is fun too, using any type of ink or paint - spud printing for grown ups!
I also did some alternative brass rubbing - going through the log store looking for bark and sawn ends and rubbing with wax crayons onto light weight cotton fabric.

How about Batik? You could just draw onto fabric with a candle or wax crayon and brush over it with watered down fabric paint or watercolours, then iron between brown paper when dry to remove wax. I'm sure there's kits available but that would be MORE EXPENSE LOL if you didn't take to it.

How about polymer clay to make beads or key rings?
Self hardening clay such as DAS?
Paper beads?

8/8 grey cloud again. When is it going to go? It is very depressing and tedious. It's like winter without lighting the stove.

Morning All,

Still a bit breezy here and the sky looks stormy. The farmer is collecting in the silage bales in the back field and OH is working.

We went to the farm shop first thing and we were first there till someone else drove in just after, but why oh why do they park right next to you when the rest of the carpark is empty? There's less space to get out of your car and this silly woman next to us nearly opened her car door into mine as she opened hers, oblivious to the fact I was there. They seemed lower on produce this week, no chicken breast quarters I wanted, no pork chops and a few other things. We still filled 2 carrier bags though. Then we went for a shortish drive to charge my battery and see what's been going on in some local villages (mostly building more houses!) . Apparently house prices are shooting up round here like many other places,with some Londoners finding they can mostly work from home and so are moving out of there. We are less than an hour by train from London. That must be why there is a market for the bigger detached houses they seem to mostly be building.

Reading is most certainly a hobby and is OH's main one I think with footie.. You can learn so much about everything from books, including about people and their differences in thought and way of life. Like travel it is supposed to broaden the mind.

I weighed me on the wii this morning.......bad news but not surprising.........4 pounds up! I'm getting the cake habit again lately and need to say no to OH keep giving me some of his biscuits methinks! :-0

Better get lunch now, we are a bit late for us today.

Sun and showers all morning. I have just found the most amazing bracket fungi. Oh asked for the old bakers tray from behind my shed and when I went round there through the docks on the side of the old ask stump there was a while village of them. Iv'e taken some pics but I am into something else at the mo with my poly clay.

Suns out here now but we just had a heavy shower like someone turned the tap on.

Must put a new head on my leccy toothbrush.

Hope Island is feeling better today. <3

Still very windy here Mel and just white sky.

Morning you two and all,

Bit grey here today but I have just seen a little bit of blue sky as the clouds pasted out the front. There seems to be very low cloud moving to the east very and white clouds above that are stationary. trees are only just moving so its not too windy.

Just having my coffee and then going to feed the chickens and see if I can get at least one egg today. Hav'nt had one since last week.

Good morning Vera and all. Grey and dry here so far and 17 degrees so warmer than yesterday.

Vera no I was not good at them all I would actually say I was average at most but I did enjoy doing them. I think we did do a bit of basketry at school I vaguely remember making a waste paper basket but that is all, it doesn't really appeal to me although when I see somebody practising the old crafts with intricate design it fascinates me and I admire it. You are right in that I have never tried jewellery making. It appeals but, like card making and papercraft it does require a lot of things that one 'needs' which puts me off a bit.

I am sure that you said somewhere that you used to do dressmaking, that is a craft/hobby even if a necessity as is gardening. And I do think reading is a hobby. papercraft (card making and scrap booking) is the one I have really stuck at. Cross stitch I did for several years but patience and eyesight failed me with that. And, like you Vera, reading is a life long hobby.

Nothing to do today, unless it stays dry enough for the garden and I have a lot of horizontal tall wild flowers which is not a good look when tomorrow I have the u3a gardening interest group coming for a visit in the afternoon.

Good morning all

It’s another grey day with more rain promised for this afternoon. After all the heavy rain yesterday I shouldn’t think there is much more up there. Just as the tall grasses and salvias and other plants were starting to stand up from the last battering they have got flattened again.

Mel, just to make you jealous we had lamb leg steaks last night and they were delicious.

AnnG, I am very impressed. Is there an art or craft you haven’t tried? I bet you were good at them all. Jewellery making, basket weaving perhaps? My late mil did basket weaving for a while. I feel useless as you all do so many things and I don’t think I have any hobbies. I suppose genealogy was a hobby but I’ve gone about as far as I can with that and it’s just tinkering round the edges now. I do read all the time but I don’t think of that as a hobby as I have always done it. It’s part of my normal life. I can’t ever remember not being able to read.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing today. OH is out for his walk and will be back soon so I’d better get dressed and have some breakfast.

Thank you for all that, maybe I should clarify what I have done over the years, knitting - made Aran sweaters for the grandsons when young, sweaters for me and T. Embroidery, cross stitch, have two pictures on the wall here, photography since I was eleven including developing and printing black and white. Written my life story, in fact it was on Gr chapter by chapter, written but not published stories and poems, dabbled in painting, one on the wall but not as good as Ann’s, tried but didn’t like crochet. Way way back I had a knitting machine and sold things I made, I sewed most of the children’s clothes and made dresses and skirts for me. I used to make pictures with pins and sparkly thread, did a course on pottery and one on stone polishing. Gardening you know used to be walking but not for me on my own

I actually went off the idea of cushions but still have the shirts.

i TOO LOVE LAMB AND FORGOT TO PUT IT ON MY LIST THIS WEEK SO NO LEG STEAKS FR US THIS WEEK. iT'LL BE THE FIRST THING ON NEXT WEEKS LIST THOUGH.

Sorry did'nt mean to shout I had been labeling some files.

I hav'nt had a good day today as Jane has been on my mind all day. I used to get a call from her on her birthday. Its just thrown me today.

I have however half deep cleaned the shower, well the tray. With oh doing all this grinding on the mowers there has collected rust particals round the plug hole and they have marked the tray. Then I knocked the leccy out when I turne dthe shower on to rinse it all and lost interest after that.

Anng Ann has had some good ideas for you to try. Lots of work in an aquarium, I have had several over the years. Embroidery could be good if your eyesight is good enough for some projects.

Poor Vera I do feel for you when you've had a migraine. I have been lucky over the last few years and not had one for ages now. I hope you feel back to normal tomorrow. I would'nt want to cater for all those fussy eaters, good luck with that. My oh eats whatever I put in front of him too. Tonight its Chinese chicken thighs and drumsticks and chip so I better get the oven on.

Nice to see you pop in Island and it's natural to miss your doggie friend as he was a big part of your lives for a long time. I had to smile at his attentiveness when you had an icecream. :-D My toms are a little bigger than yours but are growing quite slowly as are my 3 courgettes!

I wondered if it was your migraine that kept you away Vera, but the foggy head is better if not good as you say. The begonias were a bargain at half price and will 'fill the gap for now' as you say. Crikey, that meal will be a challenge with all those different requirements. Dishes of all sorts and help yourselves I think!

AnnG, there is always painting as you say and my eyes are so bad I need a magnifying glass by late afternoon. What about doing those shirt cushions from T's shirts that you kept? Big needles and chunky wool would make a nice matching scarf for that hat you made for Inara. Think of her surprised face to receive it. As for new hobbies, how about embroidery or cross stitch if you haven't tried them? Two things I want to do are to make a mosaic picture from bits cut from magazines, also to decoupage a box I have. Have you written up your life story for the grandchildren yet? You could learn a language, enter photography competitions online, set up a little tropical aquarium, learn calligraphy to use on your cards you make. Have you tried crochet or wool felting? As Mel said there are so many tutorials online.

Poor John is in a bad state isn't he Frank. The feeding by tube may give him more strength, but he can't be forced. Poor Carolyn must be grateful for your and Ros's support just now. Ohhh I love lamb!

Back from the hairdressers, gosh it is blowing a gale out there. As I drove the car this morning I thought I would walk this afternoon for the exercise, I had not realised quite how windy it was, good job I didn't have my hair done because I was going somewhere.
Vera yes I think you are right about the patient having to understand the consequences, in T's case the sister also asked daughter about the tubs and she said 'no, no tube if he said he didn't want it he knows what he is doing'. We knew by then that he had given up. But strangely to me anyway, at the beginning when he went into hospital he hated not being able to eat and very much wanted to. But not one person in any of the hospitals seemed bothered that he was not eating, they just gave him yoghurt, which he could eat. I am sure he never saw a dietician.

sorry you had an off day Vera but hopefully back to normal tomorrow. that sounds quite a challenge with the menu for that meal.

I didn’t come on yesterday as that migraine knocked me for six and I spent the day feeling I was wearing someone else’s head. Today I’ve got my own head back but it’s full of cotton wool. Still, horrid though these migraines are I mustn’t moan. As I’ve said before they are a hundred times better than they used to be.

My daughter is 56 today. How can I be the mother of a 56 year old ? I’m far too young ;-). She was coming here for a meal tonight with her son and daughter and a very close friend (a last minute arrangement), but she found she was supposed to be attending an important meeting at one of the schools she is involved with, and at the moment I don’t want to be cooking much so we changed the date to Saturday. That’ll give me more time to work out a meal plan. Apart from the things I can’t eat because they upset my “works” and my shellfish allergy, I have to cater for a complete carnivore, a vegetarian who is also not good with dairy and eggs, someone who is mostly a vegetarian but does sometimes eat meat, and a diabetic. Thank goodness for OH who just eats what’s put in front of him.

Of course today is also dear Jane’s birthday so I have been thinking about her a lot.

It’s a long story to do with botched workmanship when the house was built so I won’t bore you with it but OH took a bit of skirting board off in the hall and made a small hole in the wall between the hall and the en-suite shower. Today he wanted some building materials from B & Q for repairs so I went with him and picked up 2 packs of 9 begonias for half price. We have a bare bit in the garden but we haven’t yet decided what is going in there permanently so I thought the begonias would give a bit of colour there for the time being.

I am pleased you are OK Frank but sorry to hear John is so poorly. Like AnnG’s T. my fil also refused to have a feeding stent/tube fitted when he could no longer swallow. I think the doctors have to have permission to feed someone through a tube but they also have to be sure that the patient understands the consequences of refusing permission.

I’m sorry you have not been very bright Island. Doggy was a much loved family member and grieving is a long process so be kind to yourself.

My eyes are going a bit squiffy now so I’m going to finish and hopefully come back tomorrow.

Forgot to say I liked the bracelet Mandy. Will you wear it or give it to one of the girls?

Thanks Mel, yes an idea.

Sorry about that then Anng. You will have to try and make some nice bookmarks then fo the charity shop. You have that nice new foil printer so could use that.

glad you are ok Frank. John is sadly going exactly the way T went with the being unable to eat, if he can't make himself swallow nobody else will be able to. They might tube feed him but I think he has to give permission for that. T categorically refused permission.


I meant to say Mel that knitting would not be a new hobby which is what I was looking for.

Afternoon to you all, Nothing happening here for me to report. We are both O.K. Carolyn was here Sunday for a little while, after we had been out to Lunch. All I had was a starter of Prawn Cocktail. Ros and Carolyn had Roast Beef.

John is no better. They have told him he must start eating, or he will just DIE. From what Carolyn says, he has a job to swallow anything solid.He is down to under 9 stone,he was around 14 stone. So not looking good.

Ros has just popped to Tesco's to get a few bits. I have been reading my book in the conservatory.

Lamb Chops for dinner tonight, with all the trimmings.

Take care of yourselves, see you tomorrow. xxxx

thanks Mel, Actually I am not that good at knitting, or rather these days I can't knit for long periods because my hands and eyes let me down. (eyes if the light is not good). and I am not good at sewing things up which is why I tend not to make baby clothes. But Thank you for the ideas. No patience to make boxes I'm afraid and have a drawer full. Painting, maybe?