General Chat

We have had quite a steady rain since i posted and the wind seems to have got up too.

Mel your photos of the sunset are lovely but your poor peas they have had a feast, my peas are up the canes and I noticed yesterday there are flowers.

Oh yes Ann we had some of those nylon sheets I think we had a blue set ,my goodness didn't you get some static from them I can hear the crackle now lol

Anng I hope the nurse was gentle this time and that the scar is still healing nicely .

I hope we hear from Gill and that she now has the boiler in .

Morning All,

A good sleep, but I am woken up around 7.00am most mornings by Mr O's big van opposite. Why people sit with vehicles ticking over I don't know.

I remember having wincyette sheets as a child too Mel. I bought some of those awful, hot nylon ones once after I was married. They were bright orange too!! lol. Never again!

Oh I get more of those cramps these days Vera and you want to move, need to move, but just daren't move and have to suffer for a minute or two. Then it's a case of move slowly and gingerly! Bad backs are awful and take a while to get better. With pain in my r foot I've noticed my left side has begun to hurt and my left knee more than usual. The very best thing I ever did for my back was get a hard mattress! Frank has one the same for Ros's back and he said it was like sleeping on a board! lol. Since having it my back is either better or much improved the next day. Glad your OH got his cement.

We have had some of that fine rain and it is still spitting, but the forecast suggests torrential rain which is not what we want. I noticed a first flower open on one of the courgettes this morning. There won't be any bees around to pollinate it, but maybe the rain will do the trick. I'm glad it's cooler today though, but I see at Palm Springs yesterday it was 51 degrees centigrade!!!

It would be worth your friend joining NT if she enjoys these trips AnnG. It would be cheaper to do that. I hope your change of dressing is ok and that the nurse is gentle.

OH is busy writing notes and I need to txt the tv engineer that came to see if I am ordering the right adapter he said we need to connect Wii to the new tv. Then I want to finish this week's watercolour and there is the Asda order to do and I have a zoom meeting with friends this afternoon.

I must have a look at these photos next.

Mel, she used to belong when her husband was alive but is not sure whether she will get the value out of membership. But she is quite happy to pay the entrance fee.

Vera yes the walks around Croome are lovely but there is also a buggy down to the house and back up if wanted. Sadly the RAF museum on site is not open on Wednesdays but the church was. That area was an RAF base during and after the war. we visited the museum when T and I went with the RN group. T was able to tell the man in there a lot about the place as he had worked there (flying in) as he was Fleet air arm and had to fix a planes radio problems.
Have you had your back Xrayed? Might be wroth it if not. It is so frustrating when you enjoy walking and can't.
Is it connected at all to your foot injury (walking awkwardly maybe).
Pleased OH got some cement.
I have just ordered some golf ball small screw light bulbs from Amazon, I had one bulb go a few days ago and the three wall lights have 6 bulbs in them, when one goes the rest usually follow and they really don't seem to last long these days.

It has rained here all morning, nice gentle steady rain so that is good for the garden, must remember that doesn't mean the greenhouse has been watered. :-)

Just seen your pics Mel. Lovely sunset. Your veg look as though they are doing fine except for the peas. The mice had a feast there and didn't leave you much.

I've only got 8 tomato plants and a trough of rocket and they are all outside, but after a slow start they have all suddenly taken off. The tomatoes are getting flowers now and we've had several pickings from the rocket.

Great pictures of Croome as well AnnG. The grounds have a lovely natural look to them with plenty of good walking (though at the moment I am wondering whether I am ever going to get back to walking any distance again). I think we must get back to using our NT membership a bit more now. We have Melford Hall close by and that's ideal for a little stroll about and a coffee. Ickworth is not much more than a 30 minute drive and Anglesey Abbey, which we used to visit regularly, is only about an hour away.

Still pouring here and only 14 degrees now but it still feels warm and muggy.

I hope your scripts are at the shop ready for you Mel.

Yes, Mandy, OH got two bags of cement. There had just been a delivery. One bag will probably be enough but he got two to be on the safe side.

I've just sorted out my Tesco order for delivery on Sunday and am about to compose a letter that OH has asked me to do for him as he says I will word it better. After that I am not sure what I will do.

I don't know what to do with my back at the moment. It seems to be getting worse and worse instead of better. I can self refer to physio but I've already got their sheets of exercises they gave me last time and I am trying to do them a couple of times a day. I suppose it will get better in time but at the moment I feel so frustrated.

The suns well out here now so sorry you have had rain Mandy. The plants wilkl pick up after a nice soft drink of rain. At least they were'nt battered.

Anng do you think that your other friend may join the NT and you can all go out together again? Its nice you have found friends to go around with out and about. It will break your days up with a visit here and there.

Must get on I want to go down the shop to see if our scripts are in and if mine ar'nt I shall have to try again ordering them online.

Morning Mel,Vera and all,

I think we've had rain most of the night ,it was coming down when we went to bed and I got out twice for the loo and it was still raining ,all the poor roses and baskets look a bit sorry for themselves, it wasn't a heavy rain just that fine stuff but it clings to everything.

Hope OH has some luck today getting the bag of cement he needs Vera ,oh cramp doesn't it grip you I had that the other morning when I first woke up ,I stretched and boy it gripped my leg ,I did wonder if I hadn't had enough drink the day before I did say to Colin we should have a bit more water with this hot weather.

Not a lot planned here for the day if it keeps raining well find some indoor jobs no doubt, it's dry at the moment .

Good morning all. Still dry here and fairly bright. No rain here so still watering for me, we do need rain but not the heavy sort. We are forecast 4 hours of heavy rain and storms Sunday (nice to look forward to (not)).

Vera last night you sneaked in in front of my post. Yes I think we probably will go out together again as we all had a good day. Even though a member it still cost me £9 (just below) as I bought the lady who took me lunch. But worth it for me.It cost the other lady more as she is not a NT member so the day cost her at least £20. She will do something about petrol money but they are friends from school so have different arrangements.

Thank you for the pics Mel, love the sunsets. Not many peas left there then!!

Nurse this afternoon and, as far as I can tell not Jane. Hope I don't get one of the couple I am not keen on.

You sneaked in ahead of me Mel :-). Your weather is a lot better than ours.

Good morning

Grey, wet and much cooler today. According to the forecast we are going to have rain most of the day with possible thunderstorms and it’s only going to get to about 17 degrees. That’s a bit of a change from the 29 degrees of a couple of days ago.

I kept waking and dozing last night so I don’t feel very refreshed this morning and to cap the lot as I got out of bed an hour ago I got quite a severe cramp in a calf muscle. I shouted out a few choice words I can tell you.

I haven’t got anything planned so I’ll take it as it comes today. OH has just gone out to the builders’ merchants to see if they have any cement in yet. Apparently there is quite a shortage of sand, cement and gravel so a lot of small building projects are being held up.

I hope the weather isn’t flattening all your plants. Some of mine are looking a bit bedraggled.

Morning all,

Nice dry morning here and it looks like we may get sun later on. Its bright and the sky s blue with little white clouds.

Must pop down the shop today and see if they have oh's scripts and mine as I ordered them online and his went through ok but I was'nt sure about mine.

I had mended sheets when I was young and hated feeling the seam as it was sort of rough on my legs and you'd catch your toenails in it. I still have one of the coloured sheets mum bought for my bed when I was young. One set was pink and the other set was blue. I liked the blue ones best and thats the one I still have. Its pure cotton and so soft but not worn out. I can also remember mum taking me with her when she bought them and standing in the shop looking up at all the sheets on big shelves in the shop. When really small I had winceyette sheets in the winter.

Glad you enjoyed your natter and coffee with your friends Vera.

Yes top to bottom. My Mum did it and I did it too when first married. I didn't have a washing machine until I had been married for ten years (including having two babies. I had a baby burco which boiled sheets and nappies and a spin drier and T's RN shirts and collars and sheets all went to the laundry, collected and delivered to the door. first washing machine was a twin tub.
It would be difficult to do (well impossible really) top to bottom now with fitted sheets for the bottom sheet.

Mandy, my Mum did “top to bottom” but that was changing the bedding. The bottom sheet went in the wash, the sheet that had been on the top went on the bottom and you had a clean sheet on the top. There were 3 beds to change and no washing machine so sheets went to the laundry. I doubt if my Mum could have afforded to send more than 3 sheets at a time.

“Sides to middle” was a sewing job. It was usually the middle of the sheet that started to wear thin so you cut the sheet lengthwise up the middle, brought the two sides into the middle and sewed them together, the cut edges from the middle were then at the sides and just had to be hemmed. It gave the sheets a new lease of life but meant you had a seam right down the middle of the bed.

Aren’t you glad we have today’s modern materials and machines? :-D

I also remember having darned socks. My Mum, bless her, was a good knitter but not a good sewer so she didn’t so much darn as what she called “cobbling together”, so instead of a nice smooth darn in my socks I got a rough old ridge.

I remember having to learn to darn in the Brownies. We also had to learn to wash and iron a shirt and wrap a parcel for the post with brown paper and string. We were clearly being prepared to become good housewives. I bet the little boys in the Cubs didn’t have to learn these things. It rankled with me even as a child that we were treated so differently.

I can’t remember now Mandy I am talking sixties. I vaguely remember it was a flat seam that would be down the centre of the bed. But I probably only did a couple of sheets myself.

Turned a lot cooler here now no rain so far but I thought I heard a little thunder this afternoon .

It was make do and mend years ago not like now where so much is thrown away ,I know mum would make herself aprons from her old dresses and turn dads collars on his shirts .

Oh no Ann they never do , yuk , what ever must the sheets be like after a year .

How does the sides to middle work on the sheets ? mum use to do top to bottom I seem to remember .
We've had sheets get a bit thin and Colin has put his foot through it lol

Hope the meat pie turned out ok Mel and you've enjoyed it .

Turned quite dark here now ,we need a nice steady rain but I bet it will tip down and spoil the plants

Annx I used to put sheets side to middle when first married Not sure why they used to wear out then but this one yesterday is the first one I remember splitting for about 50 years. It was actually quite an old one being a fitted sheet it would be a hassle to get anything but rags out of it.

I actually slept really well last night from 11pm to 0630.

I have put photos of Croome on my blog site.

It rained quite a bit during the morning but it was mizzly rain rather than a downpour. It was too wet to sit outside so we sat in our friends' living room with windows open and enjoyed our coffee and a chat and they witnessed our signatures on a form. They were a little bit on edge as their Asda delivery expected about 10 hadn't turned up. It arrived just as we were leaving at 12.15.

Turning sheets sides to middle, now there's a memory from the past. There's always someone glad of all these bits and pieces. We have a friend who also volunteers at a local cats' home and all our group give her old towels for cleaning cloths. They like the towels as they are more absorbent. A couple of us who have regular paper deliveries also save our papers for her and they are used for lining litter trays.

A few days ago we were talking about the Suffolk Punch horses. Today I had a "letter" from the one I sponsored who is at the Suffolk Punch Trust. She tells me that she is being introduced to the breeding programme next year and this year 2 fillys have been born at theTrust which is good news and there is still one foal to be born. It would be good if that's a filly too.

Croome Park sounds lovely AnnG and it's good that you ladies got on well. Will you plan more trips out together?

I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with your foot again Ann. I hope the sandals with a bit of a heel will help. With your knees and now your foot, walking must be quite painful at times.

I hope you are feeling a bit better this morning Frank and that everyone else's aches and pains are bearable.

The air is getting very heavy and humid again. I almost wish we could have a good old thunderstorm to clear the air a bit. The computer is telling me it's 19 degrees and partly sunny. It feels a lot hotter than 19 degs and we haven't seen any sun all day! Time for a nice cold drink I think.

Got the meat cooking for a nice meat pie tonight. We only have pastry on the top and very thin so it should be nice and tasty.

I started to clear out some books just before lockdown and they are still in the boxes waiting to go to the hospis shop. Two big bin liners of clothes too in the uti room I have to get past if I want to put soemthing in the dryer. I have to get the pipe out the window and the ironing board is in the middle of the room.

Afternoon All,

We had a lie in this morning as the heat made us so tired yesterday. That's a good idea to get more use out of that old sheet AnnG. I'm sure they will appreciate it. We had the new fitted sheets come for the new bed this morning. I had said to OH the other night that we have some new ones in the cupboard that won't fit the mattresses on either bed now and like Mandy mentioned I had decided to make pillowcases with them once I get my machine out. They are duck egg blue like the new ones so will go together well. I remember when I was young cutting sheets that were worn in the middle in half and sewing them back together with the worn bit to the outsides. Money was short and it made things last longer. I used to cut the best bits of worn towels to make face flannels too. I can't imagine youngsters doing it these days. Did you see that study done by a bed manufacturer that found one third of people only change their bedding once a year!! Yuk.

My foot is still giving me gyp so I've found some sandals that have a small heel which seems to help a bit. Another day catching up with painting I think, HW will have to wait although I did clean the ensuite sink this morning.

We had chicken breast quarters from the farm shop today with a few chips, peas and a cauliflower bake.

The Works we went to is very open in part of this garden centre Mandy. No-one else was in there or I would have left it. Like you we wouldn't have chanced it. We sped through and yes more BOOKS!! He keeps saying he is going to have a clearout soon! lol. The garden centre just down the road has a big Works but we know it is busy there so went to this one a few miles further out.

I hope you enjoyed your coffee morning Vera.