General Chat

Vera they are lovely and such lovely colours. I emailed you.

Just come down from the border. Yes I actually got up there this afternoon. Another barrow load of dead stuff, twitch and I dug out 5 brimbles and pulled up some of the forget me notty nots white ones and blue ones. I have two or three foxgloves up there and all the flowers are blind so they went too. Heard a noise and looked up and the fox had tried to get through the little arch where I have a fence with a hole for the rabbit trap. He ran towards the orchard and turned and looked at me so I clapped my hands and he ran off through the orchard. When I came down about half an hour later it ran through the garden and out iunto the field behind us.

So we have all been in the garden today then. It started to spit with rain when I came down and has been cloudy all day with a bit of a breeze so it was comfortable to be up the top of the garden.

Hope Mandy and Colin have had a nice day.

Steak rolls for tonight and a nice bottle of Rose'.

Yes it is 22 degrees here and very hot I have done a very short spell of weeding but it was too hot. I have just been round filling up the bird baths and topping up the water feature.

Mandy I don't officially lip read, only partially and he didn't lip read too well either but we had quite long conversations and he was not afraid to try to speak, I could understand him when he did. He was a nice fellow. He finished early before Charles cam from his other job and he was sitting on the pavement in the sun I took out of the garage one of our old garden chairs which pleased him. so, the front looks nice and clean now and the shed has its new bolt which will save me a fight when I go to open the door, and hopefully he has fixed the lock. Time will tell with that one.

Crikey, it’s hot out there now. I’ve been in the garden for about an hour, just doing easy jobs, nothing too energetic, but I am wilting and had to come in. Our garden is in full sun for a lot of the day and today there’s hardly a breath of wind. My app says it’s 21 degrees and feels like 23. Never happy are we. We moan if it’s too wet, too dry, too cold and now too hot.

Mandy do you have to cook all different things for the children then??

Afternoon all,

Thank you for the anniversary wishes we are having a nice lazy day the family will be here later then the fun and games begin sorting out what everyone wants to eat .

We have sunshine after quite a lot of rain last night but it has filled the water butts nicely.

Gill you are getting there now ,I can see there will be a fight for the first bath lol ,thats naughty of the neighbours to put their rubbish in your garden i suppose as the place was empty they took the opportunity to dump but now you have to clear it .
Yes ring the council to check they probably won't be able to say if you can without seeing plans first so you might have to have plans drawn up.

I see you got to the eggs this morning Mel before Mona had a tuck in :-D

My cabbages didn't do very well last year so we haven't bothered with them this year, we have had three lots of radishes o far with lots more to come and I see there are several tiny cucumbers coming.

Anng I bet it looks a lot better out the front after having it pressure washed ,it's not until they start you realise how bad it was .
With the young lad being deaf too communication was probably easier as he would probably lip read as you do too so you both wouldn't turn away from each other as hearing people do .

Hope Frank is feeling less sore and bruised since his latest fall .

That's good you beat Mona to it today Mel. She'll be chicken soup if she isn't careful! That's good your courgette id doing well and your cabbages. I had a surprise when I planted out my replacement yellow courgette........it is a climbing one!! lol. we will have to find some canes for it when it gets going. We managed to plant the rest of the French Marigolds and some of the mesembryanthemums. OH dug up a tiny leafed Holly that has never recovered from those scale insects despite treating it. I didn't want it infecting our nice variegated Holly so it had to go as it was a sorry sight! We were bothhot and aching by then so came in. OH had already decided not to go to a match as the one planned had roadworks and diversions meaning it added many miles and time.

I am doing more painting now for an hour or so while it's cooler in here.

Happy Anniversary Mandy and Colin. I am sure you will have a wonderful time with the family and a meal too.

I got to the eggs before Mona this morning and I had three!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ones has a tiny miney dent in it but that will be ok cos I shall use that one tomorrow.

Was in the shed and suddenly felt very hungry so came in and did us both toast. Oh was watching the practise laps for the race tomorrow then later he has the qualifying to watch but for now he has gone back to the mower.

My courgette is doing well in its pot on the decking and so are the four cabbages I put in a big pot. I still have two to plant up but thats ok because we can't eat 6 cabbage all at once and if they don't grow properly the chickens will enjoy them whatever they are like.

Good morning everyone

You are all early birds this morning. I’ve also been up since 7 am but don’t seem to have done very much yet apart from walking down the road to post a birthday card. It’s quite warm out but cloudy. I think it rained quite a lot overnight but it is supposed to stay dry now.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MANDY AND COLIN. Enjoy your day.

It’s all happening at your house Gill. You might have to put up with a few months of dust and mess but it will be worth it. You’ll have a little palace when it’s all finished. That’s really bad of neighbours to dump their rubbish on your ground. They probably thought no-one would know. They didn’t bargain on whizz kids Gill and her OH getting the garden cleared so quickly. Did you ever manage to find out where your boundary is? If not, I wonder if your local council planning department could help as they often have old maps and plans.

It’s a shame you are losing so many eggs Mel. It must be frustrating to know they are being laid but getting broken. You’ll have to give that naughty chicken a good talking to.

Busy times at your house this morning too AnnG. I wish my OH would agree to getting our paving front and back pressure washed. It’s one of his foibles, he’s very anti pressure washing. This year because of all the rain and our own physical problems it hasn’t even had it’s usual going over with “Wet and Forget”.

It looks as though the sun is trying to peek through so I think I’ll go and see how many plants have been flattened by yesterday’s rain.

I slept okish, not as good as I would have liked but it was knowing I had to be up early for the lads coming to pressure wash the front, They have left one of the gand to do the pressure wash and the other two will be back later. At the moment I have a swimming pool out there and the Tesco man is due, hope he has good shoes on. He could be in for a paddle. The lad they have left is deaf so we will make a good pair if he needs to communicate with me, he seems like a good worker.

I have done a load of washing and that is half dried in the drier, I have watered the pots, just need to go down the greenhouse.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MANDY AND COLIN Have a great day. <3 <3

Morning All,

A good sleep and the sun is shining so I must get some more plants in now my knees will let me.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Mandy and COLIN and I hope you enjoy your day and a nice meal with the family. Is Lewis getting better from his croup now?

Good to hear from you Gill and how things are progressing with your bungalow. I can just imagine you having your first bath! Lol. It will feel luxurious and great to have hot water again. That's good the floor insulation is done. It will save on your bills and it was lucky that they found floorboards for you as modern ones would be different sizes. Now you can repair that hole as you say. My old house had skirting boards that didn't match any we could buy, but first OH working with wood was able to make a cutter to match the design and make some exactly the same. So when you alter your bathroom etc don't throw any skirting board away till you see if you will need it elsewhere. Fancy having all that rubbish from someone else to get rid of. Still once it's gone it's gone and your garden will keep getting tidier and bigger! You are making good progress and things often have to look worse before they get better so keep plodding on. Once the bungalow is in better shape with the building work done, you can do the more enjoyable decorating and see a real difference. I hope you can sort out what is wrong with your laptop soon. It does sound like it might need a new battery if you are running it off the battery like Mel says.

What a shame that naughty Mona is spoiling so many of your eggs Mel. It's a pity you can't get to them before she does or keep her separate at night at least as they usually lay early morning if I remember right.

It sounds like you slept well Anng despite your lie in yesterday so you must have needed it.

Better stir my stumps now and get showered then get some poached eggs on toast!

Morning Anng and all,

Quite a bright morning here but the sky is grey at the moment.

Lovely to hear from you Gill and another job done onthe house so you're getting there slowly it'll be good to get the heating in on Tuesday and then you will be nearly there all cosy and clean. Anng could very well be right about your lap top needing a new battery.

Not got enough eggs to give to Em today as I only have 5 and only been getting one a day if I am lucky as they are laying three a day but two are still getting broken. Have to go to the shop for a few bits and the paper and then the rest of the day is mine if oh dos'nt stop me doing what I want to do.

good morning all, good to see you Gill and good the under floor insulation has been done. Not long before you can see the end of it. what sort of rubbish is it that has been dumped, is it garden rubbish or landfill stuff, if the latter look to see if there is anything with an address on as that will tell you who dumped it. some people are not nice neighbours but I suppose that is what happens when a house stands empty for a long time. really the vendors should have cleared I suppose.
Is your laptop an old one, does it switch off if you have it plugged in to the mains or only when on battery? It could be the battery at end of life.

Oh, forgot to say, yes two of our neighbours have had loft conversions and next door has also had extensions done as well. I'm going to ring the council if we can afford to have the loft conversion done, to ask about planning permission and building regs. We'd like to have all the messy jobs done before we decorate and buy carpets, so I hope the quote isn't going to be to high.

Going to bed now, I'm shattered.

My laptop keeps switching itself off again, I had this problem a few months ago so I hope it sorts itself out soon.

We had the underfloor insulation done today, it only took just over an hour and the only floorboards they took up were the traps so I didn't have to move any furniture. They found a couple of pieces of floorboards when they were under there and gave them to me, so I'm going to use them to fix the hole in the kitchen floor as they are the same ones.....how luck was that? :-D :-D

The central heating and boiler are going in on Tuesday, so we'll finally have running hot water, what a luxury lol. The timing is just right as our shower is playing up and keeps going from boiling hot to freezing cold. Both of us can't wait to be able to run a bath and I'm looking forward to finally being able to colour my hair as it looks awful at the moment.

We've been doing some more clearing of rubbish in the garden again. We're not sure where our boundary is and someone, (we think the neighbour next door) has thrown garden rubbish right at the bottom of our garden so we've got to get rid of that and there's loads of it, so OH isn't to happy as it looks like we might have to hire a skip to get rid of rubbish that doesn't belong to us. Never mind it'll look lovely when it's all gone. The gardener is coming back tomorrow with his chainsaw to finish cutting the stumps of the big plants OH made a start on a few months ago, so that'll be another job out of the way.

Well, I'd better go before my laptop turns itself off again. I hope you are all keeping well.

My cautious friend and I were lucky today as the meeting ended very abruptly without chance to discuss who was meeting at the house next week!

My word Vera you and your OH have had a blitz on your house! Blinds sorted as well. We only have curtains as well as blinds in the lounge and 2 bedrooms to keep more light and hot sun out. Everywhere else has just blinds and I can't wait to get rid of the heavy, dusty wooden ones at the front! Those vision ones are nice aren't they. I haven't seen those before. I had a chuckle at Mandy and the red carpet.....I bet you forgot to hoover that!

I think you are right Mel that a lot think they are protected after their vaccines and have just gone back to normal. They don't realise they can have it and spread it without having symptoms themselves either. Seeing what happens in the next few weeks especially with less restrictions will show whether the vaccines we have are sufficient. The delta (indian) variant has increased 79% in the UK in the last week. A Lancet study report states that the Pfizer vaccine (2 doses) produces 5 times less antibodies against the Indian variant than it does against the original covid virus. Protection gets lower with age too. So it is spreading faster and our Pfizer vaccine is less effective against it. They are also testing the Astrazenica vaccine and awaiting results. We should get our booster vaccines in the Autumn.

I managed to contact the man who took an old mattress away for us a few years ago and have arranged for him to collect our old bed, old TV and old printer next Wednesday evening. We can leave them all outside in front of the garage door for him. The new bed is coming the day after. I bet we will have a few aches and pains after shifting that outside and cleaning where the bed fits!!

That was a nice walk in the sunshine AnnG and the play area looks safe for children. It was much cooler here today and we had a short shower of rain this afternoon.

So you never made it to the border Mel! You have had a good day though in your shed Potting!

Fingers crossed I don’t oversleep tomorrow as I have Charles coming with his lad to do a couple of jobs at 9am one of which is power washing the front and guess what Tesvo is due 10-11.

Still sunny here, had a drink down on my patio which was very pleasant and a time to think

Yes Mel the park is five minutes walk from here. The trees are on the edge of the park and next to the golf course.

The sun is still shining here.

Anng that looks a lovely walk all through the trees and the children's play area looks nice too I expect its been well used this past week with the children on holiday.

Vera you've had a good day you've got your blinds all sorted and the house has been given a good dust and hoover ,all ready should the queen decide to drop by :-D

Mel although you didn't make it to the border it sounds as though you've done some good with all your potting up .

Pouring here so it will soon fill the water butts up.

What a lovely walk you had through those shadey trees. I coiuld just walk through that myself. The parks nice for the children is it near your house?

Never got up the border AGAIN. The good thing is I have potted up 24 dianthus, repotted a gerainium I have had in the same pot for two years bought in Morrisons. Think I may have saved a bit of my low growing gerainium from up the border but it has couch grass all in it. I got out what I could to expose the bit of the plant that may be growing. Filled a big pot ready for the short beans but they are not ready quite yet to put in the pot they need to get a little bigger. Watered all the plants by the shed and the strawberry barrow and a few other things so a good afternoon in the shed really.

Just going to have a coffee before cooking a lasagne for dinner. I had the sauce in the freezer so only have to make the cheese sauce and put it all together.

Did a big towel wash too and just going to see if they have dried.