General Chat

Its ok I have done it now.

For what Mel?

Yes I do realise that Mel. I really want her to pack her bags and leave of her own accord. I am actually not composting stuff at the moment, any waste is going in the kitchen recycle bin. I will just have to buy more compost next year.

I meant to say to Anng, if you don't want the hog in the garden and your compost bin you need to get rid of it now and not in the winter when it will sleep in there. You have to give it time to find somewhere else for a nest.

Morning all,

Bright and sunny here this morning and 22 degrees already.

Oh is putting my chest of draws together and its making an awful mess on the kitchen floor. There's so many pieces to it!! It will be good when its done though so you know what I shall be doing today..... putting stuff in the draws and then I won't be able to find a thing. When I am untidy I know just where everything is and when I put it away I can't find a thing but I am hoping if this is all craft stuff if I want something it will be in those draws. Do you understand what I mean?

Need to pop up the shop for the paper and some bits and thats all for today.

Good morning all 11 degrees here now, it was a cool night which made for better sleeping.

Yesterday evening while it was still light I saw a fairly big hog run across my patio and heading for the area down the side of the house where it could get out into the close. Would never have thought it would go down there as it would be an obstacle path. I assume that is the one that has taken up residence in the composter. Much as I like them I wish it would move on.

Vera I think it depends which family of travellers you have that have moved into the field. some seem to be law abiding while other groups take trouble wherever they go, hope yours are the former.

Anng I had three meals off my three Cobra plants but that is all. I pulled them up yesterday. Tomatoes (outdoor) are still going strong. Threw out the greenhouse ones

Nothing planned for today. :-(

I just scrolled back and like you Vera I wouldn't like to have a gun. I did go to a shooting club once with first OH, but I hated the noise and the kick back. When I lived on my own I used to sleep with a carving knife under my pillow, then it made me think when current OH said that was all very well, but if someone broke in and got the knife off me, then they would have a knife and I wouldn't. :-S Even when I hear shots in the fields at the back I won't stay in the garden in case there's a ricochet!! Good idea to get any cooking for the visitors done now while it's a bit cooler too. It takes the pressure off and you can spend more time with them then as you say. I hope the travellers don't cause a problem. The men who cleaned our drive said they were glad we were in a close as the travellers in the area had given them grief and considered round here to be their patch for jobs like they were doing.

It wasn't as bad as you thought with your car then Mel, but still makes a hole in your pocket! Cars are lasting much longer now they rustproof the bodywork better. A neighbour let her son that lives with them have her car when she gave up work a few years ago. It is an 02 reg so old too, but the parents still wash and look after it so it still looks pretty new and is always cleaner than mine. Did I miss something? I can't remember what you ordered from Mole Valley. You made me sit up saying you had bought a mug for Em for Christmas. It's only a few months to go isn't it and we know how the weeks fly by.

Well I managed to get a grip on my toms in the greenhouse and tie them in. There were sideshoots everywhere that needed trimming. OH has chucked out the cues now as only the wrinkly stripey ones were left and he did a bit of weeding and watered the pots and filled the cans. I did some deadheading of the geraniums and watered the wall pots. I'm not hopeful about the runners and cobra beans now, but there are a few flowers so I've left them for now. most of the leaves are scorched and brown so next week's heat will probably finish them off. The Radishes are looking good though and we had some yesterday.

21 degrees here now but with a decent breeze so it doesn't feel too bad. From Sunday on it is supposed to get hotter and hotter and by Wednesday the temperature could be back up to 30. I'm not looking forward to that. On the local news today the weather girl was saying there is unlikely to be any measurable rain here for another 2 weeks. It is supposed to be a cooler night so I am optimistic that I might get some sleep tonight.

I hope the hospital can sort out OH's teeth at last Ann. He's had such a long wait to get anything done. Like you I've been cooking today. I'm getting some stuff in the freezer as OH's sister and her husband are coming for 3 days next Friday and I want to have most of the food prepared. I'd rather spend time with them than stuck in the kitchen cooking for them. They were coming last autumn but had to cancel at the last minute as sister was called to hospital for an op. Then we were going to them about a month ago but OH wasn't well so we didn't make it. We're hoping it will be 3rd time lucky.

Glad you got your car back and she's all fixed up Mel.

Island, you are right about the most damage being caused by humans. Did you see the television (I think it was on the news) when they were showing the disgusting mounds of plastic and discarded rubbish around our shores and rivers? They showed a chap having to disentangle a cygnet from a discarded face mask and a nest with eggs laid on a mound of filthy old bottles and containers. Even my OH was moved to say what a disgusting lot we humans are.

My neighbour knocked last night to inform me that travellers (or gypos as she called them) had moved onto the rec at the bottom of our Close. I'm not sure what she thought I could do about it. We were a bit puzzled as to how they got on the field. There are locked posts along the edge to stop vehicles driving on there but when OH went for a walk this morning he said a couple of the posts had been unlocked and laid down properly. They weren't broken so it seems that they have a good lock-picker amongst them. I'm trying to be fair minded. I don't think we have a travellers' park all that close by and they need to stop somewhere but, sadly, they do seem to leave a certain amount of chaos behind which costs money to put right. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Time for me to make a cuppa I think. Enjoy the rest of your day as I intend to do.

Back from Holsworthy and when I went to go to Brandis Corner the road was closed again so I had to go round the long way. When I came back I went past Brandis and on that road to Black Torirngton and I am sure thats much quicker so if the road is closed again I shall go that way in future.

Got it anyway and got some more garden canes and a mug for Em for Christmas.

Afternoon All,

It's reached 18 degrees now but is much pleasanter being cooler. More black clouds but no rain. I managed to face cooking today and did a traybake of parsnip, mushroom, carrot, peppers, onion and our own toms and courgette, with fresh salmon and garlic and garlic bread.

Several of you mentioned the old shoe lasts and dad had one too as he worked in the shoe trade before starting his own little engineering business and he was still using it to mend our shoes when I got married. He even made me a pair of shoes as a child once but they didn't last very long. Yes paint them up Mandy. It's nice to see these old things as you say.

OH had a call from the hospital yesterday offering him an appointment on Monday to assess again what to do with his teeth. The dentist had unwillingly agreed to try to do a filling recently, but clearly still wasn't happy about it, so OH was glad he had cancelled the appointment because of a migraine now the hospital have at last offered him one. He is going to make it very clear this time that the dentist doesn't want to do it as almost 3 years of being passed back and forth between hospital and dentist is really not on.

As our taps take ages to run warm for washing up what doesn't go in the dishwasher (things we use every day as the DW doesn't go on every day) OH is filling a big jug thing I have for watering the wall pots as soon as he puts the tap on now and I can use that for watering them now the butts are empty. I read today that some are doing the same with their showers and filling a bucket till the shower runs warm and using it to water the garden.

Sounds like Skinny isn't to blame for your bites then AnnG! Yes I saw that we are due another heatwave next week. :-( I was looking round the garden last night and the big shrubs which have had no watering look ok, especially those either next to a fence or with bark chippings around them. I think we need to do more of that next year and I will fetch spare rocks we have behind the shed and put them here and there in the borders with some at the base of plants to stop evaporation. I'm surprised how the fuschias in the borders have held up well too as they have hardly been watered. I think our garden needs more shade as well so I will have to get my thinking cap on!

Morning Anng and all,

Nice bright morning here and pc says 17 degrees. There are clouds in the sky big white fluffy ones but at least its not quite so hot with a breeze.

Just rung Mole Valley but no news yet on our purchase and she said she'd ring us back wich means one of us has to stay indoors.

They just rang back and so I shall be going into Holsworthy.

good morning all, sun is shining, sky is blue and a cooler 11 degrees. however the forecast said the next few days are going to be hot again.

Good that you have your car back Mel, it has done very well. I suspect that these days it does very few miles so hopefully it will keep going for a while yet.

Forgot to say I got my car back. £400 odd pound lighter now. It needed new brake shoes and pads and the rattle on the steering just needed tightening up so no new part there. So she is going like a goodan now dear old car. She is 18 years old now.

Just seen the forecast until next Tuesday sunny tomorrow and #1 then Saturday until Tuesday full sun every day, no rain, 23, 24, 27, 27. Poor garden

I know squirrels are considered to be vermin, I still think they are cute. I couldn’t kill one.

Ann you asked if Skinny has been in, he hasn’t actually for a while. He is regularly treated for worms and flees though. But they are midge if mossie bites I get, they must be sneaky, probably lurk around where I fill the watering cans.

VERA, NO - you aren't stupid at all.
The species which causes the most damage is homo sapiens :-|

Guess what? I had two eggs this morning and a broken one and I have just corned the big girls and there was another egg in the nest box so I would have had full production today. That the first time for years. Still three replaces what I used today in our sandwiches lunch time.

See they can do it.

I don't remember either Vera. I was born in 1949 so I think thye may be a bit before my time of knowing things like that.

We used to go to a coffee bar in Wanstead and I can't even remember the name of that!! I think it may have began with an E. I was 16 then and just left school but most of my time was spent down the stables from 13 had my own pont by 16 as when I left school I saved my £1.50 a week and gave mum the other £1.50 for my keep. I managed to save up £18.10s and found the pony I wanted down the stables and he was for sale for £100. Mum told me she would buy me a pony when I was 16 but when asked what I wnated for my 16th birthday and I said a pony she told me She had'nt said she would buy me one. Anyway I told her and dad I had found the pony I wanted and she asked me how much I had saved and I told her The £18.10s and she said she would make it up to £50, still £50 short.....Dad said he would give me the £50 so I bought Little Red a red roan cob type pony.

I do remember the Golden egg cafes, not sure about the other one. I remember the Cadena cafes where they sold beautiful cream cakes especially meringues. I think the cafes and coffee shops in my home town were all independents. We did have a Wimpy in the late 50s.

You’ve been busy AnnG moving stuff around and sorting out your drawers.

Mel, you’re braver than I am. I wouldn’t trust myself with a gun. I’d probably accidentally shoot a neighbour’s cat or something. Tbh I don’t think I could kill anything even though I understand about them being vermin and causing damage. I have to steel myself to even use a fly spray or bug killer on plants. Stupid aren’t I?

While we were waiting for the plumber I did some deadheading and a bit more garden tidying and OH cleaned and refilled the bird bath but half an hour outside was enough. It felt so hot. There does seem to be a bit more breeze now so it feels very slightly cooler.

Plumber came and seems to have fixed things, so everything is back in place and finished off. He’s told us not to use it for a couple of days and then to check that things are OK. OH has said if it is all OK then we will pay the bill. We usually make it a policy not to use anyone we mix with socially to do paid work for us because if we have a complaint about the work or a quibble about the bill a good friendship could be ruined. But as it was a middle of the night emergency and we were grateful to him for helping us it would have seemed mean not to give him the job. So we are treading a fine line between insisting the job is completed properly and staying on good terms with a neighbour.

Going back to the title of this thread, does anyone remember the Golden Egg cafes? I think they were a franchise and there were several around. How about Kardomah coffee shops? Not sure if they were national or just in London. Both the Golden Egg and the Kardomah would have been around in the 1950s and 1960s. We were talking about them over lunch yesterday, discussing our “courting” days with our friends.