General Chat

It is a viking re-enactment group Mel Greg and Izzy both travel around to where they give displays. Like the Sealed knott re-enactment fro vikings instead of royals and cromwell's lot. In fact they are up in Whitby now with their group giving shows.

somebody forward the photos to Mel please as I still can't.

Thank you for sharing the photos of the wedding, AnnG.
What an interesting and beautiful occasion. I'm so pleased for you all that at last you were able to get together to celebrate their marriage.
I've only ever been to very conventional services, but all special in their own way.

Great that you had a fine day to ascend The Spinnaker and could see so far.
Lovely that you saw some ships to add to your experience there.
I don't like heights, but am fine if I am in a protected space and don't feel that I would fall.
There is absolutely no way I would walk on that glass floor :-0

Sounds like it was a great wedding. Who's the Viking fan?

I can't wait to see the pictures will you put some on your blog?

BIL arrived this morning and I found the manual to thye mower that was'nt picking the grass cuttings up so he fiddled with that after having a read and found what the trouble was. It was a tiny wire that formed a loop and it had come loose. So to try it out he mowed the grass within the wall again. I gave him lunch and he left to pick his wife up about 10 to 15 mins ago. Needless to say no sorting done today. I may go out and do a bit of gardening ass there's always something needs doing in this vast space. O I did dead head the sweet peas this morning and p[icked a bunch which I had on the table when BIL arrived. They are only very short stemmed now but smell just as delisheous. I can smell them now with my back to them.

That was an interesting read about the Viking Wedding AnnG. I am so behind the times I had to look it up. I also hadn't realised that black and white and all black wedding dresses were becoming trendy.

You did well to get to the top of the Spinnaker, I know I couldn't have done and would have shut my eyes on the ride part taking me up! It was good you got some clear views and could see so far into the distance. Thank you for sending the photos which are good and the bride looked lovely in her dress and I love her bouquet colours and the purple theme.

Vera we are falling apart too! You are in good company for a moan. OH came back from the match complaining about his back and took some Ibuprofen. This morning it was much better and I reminded him he'd been carrying the books in and out of the car in bigger bags than was perhaps wise. We are going to be extra careful carrying the food in this afternoon. It's a smaller order than usual again as I am trying to use up some of the older stocks. Yes I'm not sure I have enough space to lay out the material for the blind as OH has claimed the dining table. I might look at some readymade ones instead. Your roast lamb sounds very appetising!

Now I need to wrap these pastels I've sold ready to post on Tuesday.

Phew I never thought I would get all that on.

Thursday 25 August. When I looked out first thing it was pouring with rain, not good for the wedding. we had breakfast in the hotel, a very good buffet breakfast, nicely cooked and plenty of choice.
The rain was more drizzle now by 11am but wet under foot so, when we were ready son, Stephen drove us down to the Square tower and then took the car back and walked down (by then it had stopped raining), it was less than ten minutes walk. We had to be there for eleven thirty, we were a bit early but the front door to the tower was open so we could get in ok. It was fascinating to see, not only was the Vikings’ flag flying over the tower but inside, all the shields of their company were fixed high round the walls with Greg’s shield on the wall his side and Izzy’s shield her side. This was in the downstairs room where the reception was to be held. One of the funniest things to hear at a wedding was “where are we going to store our swords?”
The ceremony was to commence at 1200 so we made our way upstairs to the room set out for the ceremony. The celebrant was with Greg, his Best man and three other of his friends as attendants. The celebrant was in costume but the rest wore normal wedding type suits and waistcoats.

The ceremony commenced with the celebrant reading from the wedding ceremony words Viking inspired (The normal Viking celebrant was unable to attend so one of Greg’s friends had learnt the formalities). (This was not really play acting but neither was it any way a legal ceremony , but they take it all seriously). First the celebrant called in Izzy’s attendants (Known as her Viking family), although wearing floaty dresses they were not traditional bridesmaid dresses and all four of them walked in separately and stood across the front, left hand side. Greg and his attendants were standing across the right hand side.
Izzy came in next but not walking sedately like a present day bride but sort of dragging each other. Her Dad then sat down. Izzy had a pretty vintage style short white dress on a circlet of flowers and a very short vail.
The actual words then spoken and vows exchanged were very similar to a normal wedding and rings were exchanged. The Celebrant then performed a handfasting ceremony Izzy was then instructed to share a horn of mead with her family. (i.e. her attendants and her parents, brother, Greg’s parents and me). They were then pronounced husband and wife and told ‘you may kiss your bride. They and we then all filed out on to the adjoining flat roof where the bride and groom greeted us as we went out of the door.
Down then to outside the tower at ground level where we formed a double line and all the Vikings present proceeded to cross swords in an arch for the couple to walk under, they looked so happy, we had all been given a cone of paper with confetti in (made of small dried flowers) which we threw as they passed in front of us.
The starter for the meal was self service and was all sorts of cheese and cold meats and bread. The main meal was a vegan dish, a meat paella, a vegetarian Paella (all Izzy’s family are vegetarian) and prawns in shells plus salads. Wine was on the table plus fizz for the toast. The speeches were done as usual and then we moved while the room was cleared before we found seats for the evening. There was more food in the evening But I didn’t have a lot. It went on until 11pm but we left about 9pm to walk back to the hotel. It was nice to have the opportunity to talk as, for the meal, I was sitting next to one of Jon’s sister (Lyn’s late husband) and opposite me were Stephen and Judith (My son and daughter in law) Next to them were June and Dave who were Lyn and Jon’s friends who we knew ell and opposite June and Dave and just down from me were Ziggi and Begga, Jon’s ex uni friend and his wife from Iceland who we also knew well. Lyn and Joe of course were on the top table. For the evening we were able to sit in a group plus Jeremy and Chris and families were also around with particularly Inara enjoying the dancing. She dance with Izzy a lot. There was only really one sad moment for me and that was listening to and watching the first dance. I found that quite emotive.
It was a fabulous day, we all enjoyed it and it was so good that they could at last get everyone together to celebrate their marriage, the legal part of which was held in 2021.

I'm coming to yours Vera if your having lamb. I have been looking at a piece I have in the freezer for a couple of weeks now as oh wnet off lamb for some reason. I shall have to ask BIL and SiIL over for a roast and then I shall have an excuse to cook it.

Ann Oh that is very handy, most of our charity shops are sited with doors onto pavements so would obstruct if things were left.

Mel, that was a relief for you to have the lawns cut for you. Would you be able to manage yourself? It is good that people do help with things isn't it?

Saturday 27th August would have been our 62nd wedding anniversary so it was a hard day. We went round to Norton and bought some plants, two Sedum, (Black Knight and Seduction Rose Soiree) a Lobelia and a heather. Then when we got back Lyn put some log roll in for me and fixed the handle of the sun umbrella and Joe cut the lawn.

Vera Oh dear, Mr Crewcut is on the loose again! you will have to accidentally lose those shears or he may decapitate all the plants in his enthusiasm.

My cut and blow dry, done by the salon owner, costs me £26. and that has only recently gone up to that. Pensioners' rates.

We had a lovely time away. the wedding I will put on separately but the Spinnaker:
Wednesday 24 August. A glorious sunny day. We walked to Gunwharf Quays (about 15 minutes), where we had breakfast in the restaurant under the Spinnaker tower. We all had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup sitting outside watching the ships.
After breakfast we all went up the tower and spent an hour looking out over the views stretching miles in the distance. Really clear with trains looking like toys going to Harbour station. It took a while for eyes to adjust to distance viewing but we had a fantastic view of HMS Queen Elizabeth and H.M.S Prince of Wales aircraft carriers and the Gosport ferry going backwards and forewards.. I could also pick out Fareham creek and Portchester castle. And nearer to us The Square tower where the wedding was to be held. The Isle of Wight was very clear as was Gosport of course being closer. We could easily see the Fawley area and Southampton. We went up as high as we could go, the highest floor being accessed by several flights of stairs which proved to be quite a work out and certainly they made me puffed. We all walked/stood on the glass floor which looked right down through the tower to below. A very weird sensation and not one I particularly liked. We spent a good hour in the tower then reluctantly left as Lyn and Joe wanted to go on the boat trip round the harbour. I chose not to as most of what they saw I had seen before. I walked around the quays taking photographs and remembering the times before when I had visited with Tony each time we travelled down to see Chris and family.
When they returned from the boat trip we headed for Pret where we had a light snack and a drink before walking back to the hotel for a rest in our rooms.

Good morning folks

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip AnnG and I'm looking forward to hearing all about the wedding celebrations.

Fingers crossed that the fuel doesn't get near your clematis Mel. At least your mowing is done for now. Most summer weekends in the past we've heard the buzz of mowers as local people cut their grass but this year the lack of rain means no one has been mowing much.

Good luck with the Roman blind Ann. Let us know how you get on if you decide to make one. It might be an idea for a couple of the bedrooms here, though I would have to get mine made if I got any. No good me attempting it, lol.

I'm not a very happy bunny at the moment as my back has been giving me a lot of problems again. It's been about a week now and isn't getting much better but it does seem to take a long while sometimes. I try to keep moving but I'm not going for proper walks, apart from walking to the post box or round the rec. when I know I can get back if I am in trouble. What with my "inner workings", my back and my eyes I think this poor old girl is rapidly falling to bits. That's enough moaning; there's still lots to be thankful for.

The weather gizmo on the computer seems to have gone completely haywire. It had disappeared completely, this morning, now it has suddenly popped up and said 70 degs F and mostly sunny with a 5% chance of rain, the iPad says 20 degs C with a 1% chance of rain. There is a slight breeze but as it's from the North East there is a little bit of a nip in it.

I must go and get the oven on as OH has requested roast lamb today. As I try to fill the oven when I use it I think all the veg will be roasted as well.

Morning All,

Started with C and now it's back to F again! Slept well last night and lay in a while before showering and putting lunch on.

That's good BIL mowed your lawns Mel. It must seem like a herculean task unless he has big lawns himself. Your poor neighbour getting covid 3 times! She would be vaccinated too working in a home.

Some of our charity shops have signs up about fly tipping AnnG. We have 2 Age Concern shops in the next village and one has those signs up as things left would be in people's way. I rang that shop as there was no answer at the usual one we use and the lady said they only take clothes now, but that their other shop, which is the one we usually use anyway, would take them and she actually told me to leave them round the back!! That shop entrance is at the front in the precinct and the back entrance is along the road into Iceland's carpark. The back of the shops alongside all have land they leave open to the road for people to pick things up in their cars or leave things for the charity shop. The charity shop has even built a lean to to leave things in to keep them dry. We even used to leave stuff there before opening time during the pandemic so we didn't need to go inside the shop or mix with anyone. The Air Ambulance shop in the same block doesn't allow things to be left, but when Age Concern weren't taking books, they told us to leave them outside their shop and they would pass them on to them. There's no problem at the dogs' home as they have 2 sheds in the carpark where you can leave things. We don't tend to use the shops that don't make it easy for us.

Food drop today and I've already thought of some things I forgot to list! :-S

Morning all,

Bit overcast today with pale grey sky and pc is saying 16 degrees and sunny.

BIL mangaged to cut ll the lawns for me yesterday so I don'tt have to worry about those now for a week. What did upset me is that when he filled the mower up wit fuel he put some in the spouted can from the big container and said o its got some sh*t in it so just tipped it out on the grass behind the arch with the seat in it and not far from my clematis. I just hope it was'nt too near.

My neighbour called at dusk, Nicola, she said she'd had covid three times now as she works in Deer Park nursing home in Holsworthy.

Forgot to post this.

Good morning all. up at 0630 ready to wave off daughter and son in law as they head home. Hope the traffic is not too bad for them. They left just before 0730.
I have a load of washing in and next will be their bedding. House is not really untidy as they have not spent too much time here. so good to have their company and daughter did a couple of good jobs for me, fixed the sun umbrella and put in a stretch of log roll.

Now I have the hedgehog house there is no sign of the hog that was here so either it met a sticky end or has found other accommodation.

I will be back later to answer posts and to tell of the wedding.

Ann I did notice that you said you left stuff outside the charity shop. we are not allowed to do that in this area as it is classed as fly tipping.

BBL :-)

Afternoon All,

Bright and sunny here. I started off with centigrade this morning and it's back to fahrenheit again now. It's started happening on OH's PC as well.

Have you finished sorting the study yet Mel? I expect it is a big job.

OH has gone to a match and I have been catching up with emails. We decided we would take some of the other books to the other charity shop on Tuesday instead of this morning and both see what other things could go as well. More tidying of the garden is on the cards too as it is garden bin day next week.

I'm thinking about making a roman blind for the smallish window in here to fit over the opening rather than within it as the vertical blinds fit within it. I spend a lot of time in here and although we have the vertical blinds, it would help make it warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer and would take less space than ordinary curtains would and with less gaps round it. I might have a look at some of the online instructions.

I've just filled a 2 litre jug with blitzed tomatoes for sauces etc but only found just enough containers to freeze them in. I have plenty of saved containers and plenty of lids, but do any fit together......no!

I've also managed to sell one of my sets of pastels on ebay, so that is good. It was the biggest set of 30 and the most expensive one. The other 2 small sets were cheapies from The works.

I look forward to hearing about the Viking wedding AnnG.

Nice to see you pop in Anng. Enjoy your day whatever you are doing.

Good morning all. I have been reading but not had much time for commenting. Then, this morning I was up early while the others were still asleep, so decided to come on here and comment of the posts. However Firefox had other ideas as it was off line for well over an hour. Just as I was beginning to think it was my PC it came back on. And now I don't have time to write much as daughter will be wanting to start jobs.

I will tell you all about the viking wedding when I have more time it was great and went well. More later. Only 16 degrees here so far. BBL :-)

Morning all,

Sunny and blue sky pc says humid and 18 degrees for here and 13 partly sunny. I wonder which one is going to be right for today?

Went round Em's with her eggs yesterday evening and stayed a while and had a chat and she asked me to stay to dinner but I had cooked chicken in the fridge that needed my attention so I came home and had a huge chicken and salad sarny with lots of tomatoes on the side.

Need to go to the shop today for the paper and some bits then its back to sorting.

No, he loves his books Mel and I don't mind him getting new ones as long as the bungalow walls aren't all covered in them before he throws some out. lol He likes to buy books for me, but I'm running out of space too as I don't seem to have time to do as much reading as he does.

The rain seems to have made the Cobra beans pick up and I can see new green shoots, but it's goodbye runners and the courgettes will soon follow I think.

Another noisy week here with the mixer going over the road and banging. This is the seond week there. That sets the noisy dog next door off barking.

That was some good news about your OH's scan Vera. It is always a concern as you say. You got yourself a bargain with the present! I noticed the garden centre we went to today had a 'reduced counter' and I had a browse but nothing took my fancy . Just keep an eye on your shrubs!! My OH has recently taken to trimming some of ours alongside the garden path, but in the past to do it quickly his idea was to cut through thick stems at the bottom which then removes half the shrub!! All I asked him to do was trim back like a hedge as well so we could walk by. He's done a good job tidying up out there this afternoon and cut all the foxgloves down and taken the runners and their supports out and weeded so I'd better go out and do some dead heading now.

My computer seems to have gone back to Centigrade again and it says it's 22 degrees. It feels warmer indoors at the moment but we have been out most of the day so the house has all been shut up.

I don't believe it.....I just glanced again and now it says 72 F. What on earth is happening :-S

I'm sorry to hear that Colin's got eye problems as well Mandy. It is a worry for you but hopefully his September appointment will go well and it won't turn out to be too serious.

I have had a much better day today. It was the hospital again this morning for OH to have yet another bit of his body scanned. This scan was done by a doctor and she said the full report will go to our GP in a week or so but she did tell OH that she didn't detect any sign of cancer which had been one worry. So that was good news.

From there we went to Dobbies Garden Centre. I didn't manage to get the bits I went for but I did pick up a birthday present for a friend. Our group of friends try to limit our presents to each other to £10 or it becomes too expensive. This had originally been £17.99 but was reduced to £8.99. I think they were clearing some unsold stock to make room for Christmas lines.

While we were there we decided to have a bit of lunch. The cafe was quite busy but it is a fair size and we managed to get a table by the open door to an outside seating area so we were a bit tucked away and had plenty of fresh air. OH suggested a hot meal to save cooking tonight. He had f & c and I had ham, egg and chips, not the most exciting meal in the world but it was quite tasty..

On the way back we went to B & Q just to get some light bulbs for a couple of bedside lamps and OH managed to buy an electric hedge trimmer. We don't have a hedge!! When I asked him why he wanted it the answer was that it is such a pain trimming and shaping some of our shrubs with clippers and shears. We don't have many and I help too so it's not as though he is spending days at it. I rather fear Mr Crewcut, my very own cut-it-all-down king, who was fairly well known a few years ago on the Hobbies Board gardening thread, may be coming back to life. I was very restrained, bit my tongue and didn't point out that we had a very good hedge trimmer which he had given to the buyers of our old house as we wouldn't need one in this house.

Something is telling me it's time for an afternoon cuppa so I'm going to put the kettle on, make a pot of tea, and, while it's brewing, pop down to the corner to post a card, though goodness knows when it will arrive with the Royal Mail people now striking as well.

So he's not ready to give up getting new ones then Ann.

Sun came out this morning hwich was nice but its seems to have just gone in and its 18 degrees here now and pc says cloudy.

Morning All,

It's 66 F here. :-D. A nice sunny day and not too hot. We skidaddled early to the charity shop and left a big cardboard box and 3 black sacks of books outside. We then carried on and had brekkie at a garden centre and OH got some diaries he wanted at The Works in there. We wanted a small humper for weeding, but no luck. I think they have started making space for Christmas stock instead of restocking now.

I expect there are always some surprise finds that can bring a tear to your eye Mel, but it's a nice one and nice he had kept it all this time. I hope that fox keeps away from your girls. The young cubs are out and about now. Thanks for mentioning thos progs which I have recorded now. I thought I'd already recorded the first farming one, but found I hadn't. I liked seeing the old combine harvester in action as I remember seeing one like it being used at the farm opposite where we lived when I was a little girl in the early 1950s. I remember the flat belts and wheels driving the different parts and tray bits that shook but didn't know what it was all doing then. They had 2 retired Shire horses and a dock tailed cob, but as a child I assumed they had always had a tractor. I remember helping at harvest by putting the sheaves of corn in stooks too. I also used to climb the bales of straw in the open sided barn to look for eggs that the hens would often lay in there. It was fun sliding down the bales.

Oh Vera what a day you had! OH and I have 2 big brollies we got free from a garage in the past and I have a small one I keep in his car and a smaller one still in my own. I've not had one stick in the open position yet and doubt I could get one in the back of my 2 door car so it would have to go in the front somehow!! I hope you get your eye seen soon and then getting your hair soaked into the bargain as well after coming out of the hairdressers. The carpark charge had gone up a lot hadn't it and then to see your car telling you the battery was low. What a stressful day!! Good news from your youngest granddaughter though. She did well with her results!

More worry as you say Mandy, but at least having regular eye tests means any problem gets picked up early and any treatment started if Colin needs it. All these bargain haircuts! I used to cut my own when it was long till I was age 40 and had a mobile lady come to the house for a few years when we moved here. It is the colour (about 5 different shades) that is most of the cost but isn't every time, just 2-3 times a year. Yes, a pile of books are gone and we are taking a pile of the paperbacks to the dogs home shop in the morning. I think he is on a roll now as he said he wants to go through some more and sort which can go. He also added (with a twinkle in his eye) 'it will make room for some Christmas present ones!!' :-S