General Chat

O how sad Gwyn swans mate for life so if one has lost its mate then that seems to be that.

I have been in the gaden all afternoon clearing the side of the road again. I am now past where I got up to last year on the left hand side. Came in for a wee and BIL arrived and I had the BIG trailer in the road so he had to park up the top and walk down. He's gone now to pick his wife up from work. She's the manager of a hospice type shop in Barnstaple but I don't know which one.

She has just made a life size Bert Bassett which she is raffling in the shop.

That's an interesting topic, Ann.
I look forward to hearing your ideas.
I hope tonight is a better one for you and you get more rest.

Hope everyone else has a good night's sleep too.

Someone asked a little while ago about my local swans.
I really don't know what has happened over the last 2 years.
You may recall that they had a local nest in 2023, but didn't hatch any of 2 clutches of eggs. The following year, they didn't nest, but I occasionally saw the pair on the same waterway in town.
Now there only seems to be one lone swan, which swims between here and town, -and no nest at all, - rather sad :-(
Someone has even made a postbox 'topper' about the situation, showing watery colours and just a lone swan swimming on top and a liitle note explaining what it's about.

The subject this month is to illustrate a poem, song, hymn etc with a photo. Yes I have five photos ready. I will try and send them afterwards.

Morning girls,

Sorry you had a bad night Anng. It seems it comes to us all sometime or another even those who sleep really well most of the time. Hope you're ok for photography this afternoon. What was the subject I seem to have forgotten? and did you get the pics?

Its mostly sunny here and 9 degrees so lets hope it stays all day today and I may get some more gardening done without any interuptions from BIL as he said he would be here next week. He still never lets me know when he is coming and now he keeps his mower up the top he parks his car up there so I don't kjnow when he is here. I could hear mowing the other day and the posty came down and I asked him and he said yes he was mowing outside the wall. When I spoke to BIL later and told him he said the ostyold him he was in the dog house!! He turned up yesterday late afternoon and I was in the bathroom and he knocks on the back door and I usually hear him if I am about the house but when you're having a good wash you can't come quickly. He dos'nt seem to understand to let me know when he is coming.

Moan over hope the rest of you had a good sleep and that Vera feels better today.

How's the potting bench Mandy?

Good morning all. Bright sunny morning here, only 4 degrees though.

My turn fir a really bad night, I suffer with heart burn and possibly have the beginnings of a hiatus hernia. I have not been to the doctors with it as I can normally manage it which they seem to prefer to surgery etc. However about twice a year I do get a bout of reflux, usually at night, wakes me from sleep, as it did last night after I had been to sleep for 2 hours. so that was 1.15, I then stayed up for over an hour, being wary as I didn't want it to happen again. Put an extra *3rd) pillow on the bed but just laid awake most of the rest of the night. sort of drifted off around 5.30 but was not comfortable with three pillows so soon woke again.
Photography this afternoon. I should be a lively member there!!

Iv'e been busy all day and should be going to Stu's now. BIL tuurned up late and fitted the two new UV lights in the filter shed. I was in the bathroom when he arrived just going to wash my hair but that did'nt get done in the end.

I have done some weeding and potted on my tomato plants all four of them and done some strawberries and orchids I had found in odd pots here and there and there are now three in one pot so they'll look nice on the patio when they flower. Picked all the dead stalks off the bean wire and sowed runners and french beans, just a few for myself.

Must go it clouded over here about 2pm but its been dry all day.

BIL said he saw the white pheasent and got a couple o f pics but they were a bit out of focus.

So Mandy you now have your potting bench.

Vera I know just what you mean with oh putting things on your bench. They always know where to find these things but can never put them back where they got them from.

Good afternoon ladies

I'm still feeling very tired and drained but I'm feeling a bit more cheerful generally so hopefully I am on the up. You are quite right AnnG, the retinal vein problem I had has stabilised and the hospital are happy with that. The eye troubles I have at the moment are to do with migraine. The centre of the migraine pain, which is excruciating, is always above my left eye and spreads from there right round my head and neck. I get odd, wavy lines in front of my vision, cannot see properly to read anything and occasionally lose the vision in my left eye completely. Anyway, I don't want to bore you any more with my pain. You all have your own pains and problems too and at least mine are much, much better than they used to be.

I've had 2 good things happen today. I have been worrying about driving OH to and from his cataract op next week. If I'm OK there shouldn't be a problem but what if my eyes are not good? Last night our neighbour knocked. As it happens on that day they have to go and pick up some medical supplies at the hospital just a couple of miles from the cataract clinic so they have offered to take OH, then go and spend 2 or 3 hours round the shops till he is ready and then bring him home again. If I am OK on the day I'll go as well but I won't have to drive. Isn't that kind of them? It's a weight off my mind.

The other thing was that I had to go and collect my next lot of meds - I wish our docs would give more than 28 days at a time. I was wondering what would happen after the kerfuffle last time trying to get one of the meds but this time everything was available and ready for me so that was a relief.

I've managed to clean and sort out a set of 3 drawers in the kitchen, OH has worked his way round the cupboards and I had already given all the dining area a thorough clean so there's just another set of 3 drawers and 3 shelves to do and the kitchen-diner will have had a good spring clean. I've also managed to pot up the 6 tomato seedlings that came from Mel's seeds so at least I feel I have done something today.

Mandy, you might be OK if your potting bench is outside. Shortly after we moved here we got rid of the shed in the garden and instead use half of our big double garage. OH put me up a potting bench in there. Bad mistake! It has become OH's dumping bench. Anything that he has in his hand when he walks in there is dumped on the bench and I have to move everything and put it in its rightful place before I can do any potting.

I have read all the posts but won't respond to them all as my eyes are beginning to get a bit blurry again and I don't want to push my luck.

Clouded over here and now quite chilly, soup would go down well to warm us up , heatwave coming next week could be 26 degrees so we'll want cool drinks and ice creams so we go from one extreme to the other .

Afternoon all,
Cloudy start to the day but it's sunny now, shopping day ,I went to Lidls as I saw they had the Geranium plants in but when i got there they'll be in this Sunday ,I did get some petunias from Aldi and a new long wall planter .
The potting table is cut :-D but he didn't do anything to it as he had the other part of the cupboard to cut up but he had to get all the screws out first and there was loads so who ever put it together did a good job.

Anng you asked where it was going ,it will stay outside in front of the shed but behind the fence out of the way .
I was going to ask how your potatoes were doing ,I think I might save some of my washing up water to water the garden it will save using the water butts as they are not filling up with no rain lately .


Oh Vera you are having a rough time with all your headaches and not sleeping ,I hope you'll feel better soon.

Ann that was a surprise them having a pastel colour ,I wondered where the dresser was going when they took it out , don't think I would like all my clothes on show on those rails and in those drawers from the shop , I thought the bedroom looked a but empty as it was so big .
I thought that's an odd place to put the Hydrangea on the slope ,they like plenty of water and it's just going to run off on the slope .

I bought two crochet kits today in Aldi one is a hedgehog and the other a bear but I mustn't start them until I've finished the latest rabbit .

12 degrees here now and mostly sunny. Been down the garden most of the morning, a bit of weeding and ivy chasing, planted up a couple of cuttings that friend gave me. Sorted out the compost bin, you should see the worms in there busy doing their job. Maybe do a bit more weeding this afternoon. It is still quite dry in the soil which is not helping my potatoes.

Morning girls,

Nice bright morning here today 10 degrees and a high polen count.

I slept like a log but got up twi8ce in the night for the loo and right off to sleep again afterwards then woke early and had a little lie in and watch the clouds pass by the window. There were'nt many but we both used to like to see what we could make out in the clouds and its stuck.

Stu texted me yesterday to say Thursday for dinner at his and he is doing a chilli.

Just havin g a sneezing fit at the mo so be back later.

Good morning al a bit grey but 9 degrees. I don't think it rained in the night which is a pity as my water butt seems to be empty now, Another day with nothing planned. I have to say I get more little jobs done in the garden on those days.

I slept well last night. Vera hope you managed some hours sleep last night and all of you others did too. Although mel ans mandy don't seem to have a problem.

Mandy what happened about the bench?

Ann it is always worrying when things start to go wrong with a car that you have had a long time. Have you tried the window again?

Hopefully he'll see your point Mandy when he's thought about it! I find OH doesn't always think about the practicalities of when you use something. It might be a 'man' thing. Well we were all wrong about the bedroom colour weren't we. At least it wasn't a bright neon pink. Where was the old dresser they showed us going to go as I didn't see it in the bedroom? I hope they replanted that Hydrangea after the filming. It looked wobbly and not deep enough to me. I wondered whether it would be too dry for it at the top of that steep slope as well, as all the rain would run away from it. Yes I hope they do another series. It would be nice to see it when it's all finished as well. Thanks for reminding me and I'll record the Owen family.

Sorry you are having all the eye and bad head trouble Vera. It must really take it out of you with the lack of sleep and be so tiring. We said the other day that the throbbing pain OH was having behind his ear that would wake him up at night has stopped now and might have been caused by the inflammation they have discovered.

Mel I hope Stu has let you know now when you are going for dinner as it's hard to know what to sort out for yourself until you do. I don't think OH would ever wear a cardi, but he does have a black v neck jumper he could wear. AnnG he does layer up well for footie as you say, but I think when he's writing notes or on the PC, he feels restricted by layers. He did change and put on a lightweight fleece when we got home. I like those as they come out of the washer almost dry. I think about the electric bills too! It's good some more of the work has got done and will hopefully be finished next week.

Well we got a phone call from the garage during lunch and they started telling OH they were doing a complimentary check etc and wanted to look at other things, saying his MOT was due soon. He cut them short saying he hadn't asked for this and was more interested in them doing what the car was booked in for and to be able to get it back quickly! We were able to fetch it just after lunch, but again they started telling OH the oil was a bit low (not low enough to trigger any warning light though). He had to cut them short again as the car is already booked in for a service and MOT at the garage in our village. They are obviously looking for work they can do and charge top prices for! They did wash the car though so that was a bonus we didn't expect.

Then on the way home I discovered my passenger window is stuck shut. There's a noise as if it is trying to open, but I don't want to end up with it stuck open. I can't grumble, as apart from servicing, it has only cost me a new tyre in nearly 10 years. It still has the original brake pads, light bulbs and exhaust. I hope it isn't the start of more bills now though.

I decided that I would remove the weeds and Ivy from the plot that Jake cleared the pots and rubbish from That was I know the roots are not left there. Jake is coming on his own on Tuesday morning. He will finish off the jobs that need doing. I have decided to have a couple of slabs put into that space so that I can stand pots on it.


One more job I have done is to put linking sticks round the peopnie which is starting to show buds. If I leave it any longer it will be flopping all over the place. I just found these sticks in the shed I had forgotten we had them.

Sorry you are not 100% Vera. It is such a pity that your eyes are giving you problems. I actually thought that they were sort of sorted from the last hospital visit. It sounds like it is your eyes causing you headaches. Do you think you should try and see a doctor again. Maybe some help to get your sleep pattern organised?
It sounds like a vicious circle. You are not able to do the garden because of the problems with eyes and head but not doing the garden etc is causing you some stress which will affect your head and then your eyes.

Good afternoon all
This is just a flying visit. I'm OK but not 100%. I'm not sleeping and am having a lot of trouble with my head and my eyes so I am stayiing away from screens as much as possible. I am just about keeping up with the washing and general h/w and OH has helped by cleaning some kitchen cupboards out for me but I haven't done any more in the garden or potted up any tomato seedlings yet. I'm waiting for Tesco at the moment and then when the groceries etc are all put away I'm going to rest my eyes again. I've been lazy and ordered a ready meal for tonight so I've only got to pop it in the oven.

Well, Jake and Rory made a flying visit this morning instead of this afternoon. I told him it is a good job that I am felxible. They were only here less than an hour but did the extra strip of membrane that got forgotten and moved all the rubbish and old pots and put me a handle on the new gate. The place where they moved the pots from is not finished so they will make another quick visit next week to level it out. so at least the pots have gone. Luckily it stayed dry.

Lol Mandy. Ooh Men!!! Deep breath, cup of coffee and keep out of each other's way for a while. :-D :-D

I've come in before we have serious words ,why he can't just cut it up I don't know
Its got to be measured so this bit hangs over like that bit, told him I don't want a bit hanging over like that I'll catch myself on it ,does he listen no so I said just cut it up for firewood and came in .
I can hear the saw going so bets on , potting table or firewood ,I'll let you know later lol

I wonder why your OH doesn't like wearing 'layers' Ann, He must wrap up warm when he goes to watch football. Maybe he is happy to pay for the extra heating but it is not pleasant for you if you find it over hot. I am a 'cold' person so, as the heating has gone off here I have three layers on, two thin ans a thicker sweater. I am just about warm enough when sitting still.

Mandy pleased that you are OK. It sounds like that table will be very useful for you, will it be set up outside or in a shed?

Mel, difficult not to know when you are getting a meal, hard to plan ahead for you.