General Chat

Anng, it was the doctor who told me I would have swollen ankles but he did say that he'd consider a change of meds if they don't go down in a few weeks. I am waiting to hear from him anyway as he asked me for some BP readings which he has now got but hasn't responded to yet. I think it is just unfortunate that everything has come together. My left foot has never gone back to normal since I broke the bones, and combined with the BP tablets and the hot weather, it has all been just too much for my poor feet.

Mel, I do try and lie with my feet higher than my heart but the trouble is after 5 minutes I'm bored!! You can't do much in that position, even reading or watching TV is awkward and I've never been one for dozing off or cat-napping.

However, I did manage to get my old shoes on this morning and took myself off for a short walk. It was barely a mile but at least I got out so I am feeling a bit happier now. The shoes I can wear are an old pair of Hotter lace-ups but they are way past their best. It looks as though the sole is starting to split now. Goodness knows what I'll do when they give up. It's not the brand as I have 2 other pairs of Hotter shoes that I can't get on so it must be that particular style which they no longer make. When you see an old lady in those big boottee slippers with velcro fastenings tottering towards you, give a wave. It'll be me.

OH went out to clear the gutters at 8 am this morning and has just come in. He has cleared them out but it is getting quite hot out there now so he says he'll wash them tomorrow. Then I want to get all the outside window sills and doors washed as they are looking spotty grey instead of gleaming white.

I am not sure what I am going to do for the rest of the day but it will involve keeping cool ;-)

EDIT: Forgot to say that the article about milk and yoghurt was interesting AnnG. If I think I am not going to use the milk up before the Use By date I normally freeze some of it which is OK but you have to remember to take it out of the freezer well before you want to use it.

Morning Vera, Anng and all,

Nice bright sunny morning here with clear blue sky and I think its going to be a stinker .
It could well be gongalong weather so look out for a little short fat person in a pair of navy blue dungarees and not much else on. Oh is already out with the mower and I am on my COC of the day and sitting in a nice cool kitchen.

Sorry to hear your ankles are swelling Vera. Take it easy and try to lay with them higher than your body. That should take the swelling down a bit.

Anng that article was interesting about milk and yogurt. I can't stand yogurt but oh has them each week if I can get cherry ones but I love milk.

Good morning all. Oh dear Vera, I sympathise with the swollen feet/ankles as I have a tendancy to that with my BP tablets, Or rather I did. When my BP started to show low rather than high I was able to drop from a 10mg pill to a 5mg and the swelling is nowhere near as bad. the heat does make it worse Vera too. Have you reported the swelling to your GP they mau find an alternative medication.

Just reading Mail on Sunday on line and was interested in the following after a conversation on here a few weeks back.

Food retailers have also been advised since 2019 that milk can now show a ‘Best before’ label rather than a ‘Use by’ label, unless there is a food safety risk.

This advice, which also applies to yogurts and other dairy products, is vital because ‘Best before’ refers to the quality of food, meaning it is still safe to eat past its best.

By contrast, ‘Use by’ refers to the safety of food, indicating that it should never be eaten after that date. It is also illegal to sell or redistribute food after its ‘Use by’ date.

Yet The Mail on Sunday’s analysis of supermarkets in Surrey, Hertfordshire, London and Essex found every store put ‘Use by’ on its own-brand yogurt and milk cartons.

According to food charity Feedback Global, households waste 85 million pints of milk – worth about £10 million – every year because they follow ‘Use by’ dates and needlessly pour milk down the sink when still safe to consume.

Research by the University of Chester has previously discovered that milk from four UK supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – kept in a fridge at 4C remained safe to drink seven days after their ‘Use by’ dates.

Interesting as last week I again was drinking milk past the date. Pleased to know I was safe.

Good Morning everyone

It’s going to be a hot day. It’s already 15 degs and is supposed to get to 27 later. I found yesterday unbearable. I was having an “off” day anyway and the heat made it worse. I just couldn’t get motivated to do anything and spent most of the day just lying around.

I’ve been a bit fed up anyway as my ankles and feet are so swollen from the pills I’m having to take that I can only wear one of my pairs of shoes. With the heat yesterday making the swelling even worse I couldn’t even get those on and struggled to force my feet into my big, old garden clogs. So it’s difficult to go for even a little walk at the moment which isn’t good for me physically or mentally.

I’ve got my Moaning Minnie hat on again haven’t I? Onwards and upwards, things can only get better. i’ll sign out with a smile :-D :-D. Have a good day everyone. Might BBL.

Yes Ann we have never used the hose unless it is a long stretch without rain but I have only watered pots for ages now so thought I should water some of the garden. I didn’t water the lawn though. It concentrares your mind when you are on a water meter.

Good that you have got the TV sorted and a useful contact too.

Hav'nt done a great deal today but I dsid pot up my short beans and tied the tomatoes up watered most things.

We did sit by my pond with coffee a couple of times today and watched the fish feeding. Its been too hhot togo up the border. I think I have 5 pinky ones and have seen at least 10 little black ones but there's bound to more of those.

When oh's brother came the other week my fish were starting the next generation all night and all day.

Thats a nice saving on your house insurance Ann.

Anng good on you for doing the hose and watering and winding it back up. We have three of those.

I too wonder how Gill is getting on with all the alterations. We need to know whats going on as we like to keep up to date.

Phew! The engineer rang and came as promised and has reset the tv again as we had noticed the deliverymen that came, skipping through things at speed this morning. He's a very nice man who seems very dedicated to his work. He demonstrated more things to us today, how you can tell it you want 4k etc. He also set up my google account for me and gave us lots of tips. He sorted the problems out for us with switching off and checked everything again, sky boxes, dvd player. Nothing is too much trouble. He even checked that the men who set it up this morning had assembled everything properly. He told us he does freelance work too and has 30 years experience working in computers and to just ring him if we have any problems with tv or computers that we need help with.

Yes Island we could guess where cases would be here and the maps and statistics seem to support it! I expect children have played a part in spreading it as well even if they had no symptoms themselves.

You are getting everything shipshape in the garden AnnG and have mastered the hose now too! That makes the watering easier when it is as hot and for as long as now.

Mel it is a devil's job trying to photograph birds of prey. We see the Buzzards here but they fly so high, by the time you try to zoom them in, you lose them on the screen and have to zoom out again to find them! I wonder if the Kites were watching for rodents with the silage being cut. I haven't caught up with Gardeners World yet, but will look out for the walled garden. I usually love a walled garden so it will be interesting to see what you mean.

I've been looking at blinds online today and was pleased to see they make blackout vertical ones now, just what we want for our front bedrooms and the study. Not only will they block out Mr O's headlights opposite when he leaves and returns at ungodly hours with his big van, they will keep those rooms cooler on hot days. :-) I've sorted the house insurance and saved £40 so that was good and paid some bills. I think we are both ready for an early night tonight and a bit of a lie in tomorrow......just because we can. :-D

I wonder how Gill is getting on with her alterations now. Things have to get messy before they get better with those kind of jobs.

We turned the telly on earlier and Oklahoma was on. My favorite old musical is Brigadoon with Gene Kelly. Saw that for the first time in the 70's while wrapping Christmas present.

We have just had four Red Kites flying over the field next to us. I tried to get some pics but they are not too good. The first one I took I only got the wing tip. When I was at Em's this morning they were flying over the fields oppasit her whcih are owned by her dad and her brother is cutting sillage in the field next to us.

Hav'nt done much today as its so hot and then just as I got into something oh caled me to see the Red Kites.

I seem to be on my own here. Spent another hour and a half in the garden can’t get another leaf in the garden bin, stuff grows when I am not looking. Discovered that the loganberry that we were not keen on has regrown after T chopped it down so I have cut that back again
I have had another go at tying up the peonies and that does look better. Cut back loads of Hellebores. Then The sun went in so I decided to have a go with the hose, I had never unreeled it before.But I am really pleased with myself as I managed it and managed to water almost the whole garden. Next step was reeling it back up but that was surprisingly easy.

Just came in from the garden for a breather and to record something on TV later a photography think Ann. Oklahoma is on, I saw it with T in 1956. Am I the only one on here old enough to remember how wonderful all these musical films were in amazing CinemaScope? They seemed so big and colourful to us.

I did read that a lot of the unvaccinated cases were in the secondary school age group. (and it was half term and they may have been mixing in large groups at the pub. or cafes. There was also a piece on line that a large number of anti vaxers have now had their first jabs and ditto a large number of the ethnic population have changed their minds and got vaccinated.

I would guess the large number is among the young teemagers.

Anng - my youngest brother never started any squabbles - yeah right LOL Amazingly, our mothers misguided favouritism never drove a wedge.

Annx - I wonder what age groups those unvaccinated cases are and from which communities given where the cases are. I'll say no more.

It seems the more things they put on these TVs the more there is to go wrong. Hope it can be fixed permanently now.

Yes I saw that, it gives a bit of confidence for not being entirely hermits I think

I imagine it's a smart tv AnnG. It has youtube, iplayer, itv hub and you can stream things etc which we also had on our old tv. We watch those except for streaming. I haven't looked at the booklets properly yet.

Interesting news from Public Health England today that two thirds of those infected with the indian (delta) covid virus were not vaccinated. It shows you get pretty good protection from it if you are.

What a palaver Ann, I sincerely hope my TV doesn't go wrong as it would be a real problem with only me here to sort it.

Do you just watch TV on it or do you use it as a smart TV and put PC stuff on it? Ours is a smart TV and I think T did use it occasionally but I just use it to watch TV.

I was six and a nalf when my sister was born and we never got on, compered to me she was spoilt and allowed to do things I never was when she was older but she was a whiny child and if we squabbled it was me who got told off. We are ok now but not close.

Morning AnnG and All,

As you say AnnG it would be good if they gave am or pm like the bed people who delivered did. Well they came at 8.00am and the saga continues! They said they couldn't leave the new tv without taking the faulty one away!! We explained that that was arranged with Curry's with the engineer being available the same day which one wasn't. The men understood perfectly about it being collected after the engineer had been so we weren't without tv, but several phone calls later Curry's wouldn't budge. The delivery men said they were installers too unless it was a wall fixing job and none of us could understand why the separate engineer company was being used as the tv isn't going on a wall and we were asked all that when we ordered it. In the end they installed it as well as delivering it and they switched it on and off and back on again quickly and it seemed ok. After they had gone and we switched it off, after a little while it switched itself back on again!!! So this tv has the same fault as well!! We are hoping Curry's haven't cancelled the engineer from knowhow, but OH has his phone no now and will ring him if we don't hear from him as he thought he might be able to fix the problem. So we are back to square one again and what a hoo haa to just get a new tv!! More wiping down after they had gone and I wasn't impressed they were wearing their masks around their necks all the time either. Not much point having them on.

How lovely you have another great grandchild to look forward to AnnG. You are right about not being so much a playmate for Inara though. It will be a good education about babies for Inara. My sister was born when I was aged 9, my brother when I was aged 15, so they weren't playmates and got into my 'stuff' if it wasn't hid away! I still have childhood books with my sister's scribbles over the pages.

I don't know why but I seem to have a bit of that plantar fasciitis in my right foot since I got up and my legs are achey after all we have done the past few days, so it may be a day of paperwork for me today.

Yes the bungalow has nice windows again except the conservatory which needs a few new panes. No point doing those till we decide if it is being replaced though.

Island that sounds like something I have done before and it is very painful. The doc said it was the interstitial muscles between ribs I think. I know it took a while to get better and hurt to even breathe. Be careful to not aggravate it and make it worse.

Nice to hear from you Elizabeth. Hope you have a nice weekend too.

I like walled gardens and I loved the old wall. I also liked some of the grasses. But I did not like the garden in general. It cried out for colour and roses would have looked lovely on the wall with the grasses in front of them. She was all about not using roses as being too traditional. eg old, but then used lots of old shrubs. I don’t know if I liked the house or not really, don’t think we saw enough of it to judge.

I meant to say I hope Island is feeling better today with her back and is up to a little light gardening. Sending a gentle ((hug)) and love. <3

Morning Anng and all,

Bright morning here but still got grey sky at present lets hope the suns breaks through the cloud and we have a nice day today. I bet oh says he wants petrol for the mowers today to muck everything up. Still we hav'nt been for fuel for ages and it will be a little ride out.

Chickens still misbehaving and breaking at least two eggs a day so maybe none again for Em this week as I have to keep some for us.

I must say its so nice to hear from Elizabeth as I was getting quite worried that she was ok.

Better go and see what sort of mess they have left the nestbox in I suppose and they need cleaning out today before any gardening.

Anyone see that walled garden on Gardeners World last night. I thought the house was horrible and did'nt much like the garden either, all so drab or is it just me? My shed looks cheeryier than those brown boards looked.

It looked as if the Queen is back on form again. Lots of pictures of her smiling and laughing in the mail on line. And didn't she look lovely in her summery froc?