General Chat

Morning AnnG, Mel and all

Another grey day but I hope it might brighten up a bit later on.

Ann, those yarn bombing pictures are fun. There are some clever knitters in that village.

I hope Mr & Mrs Crow do well in the competition Mandy. I am sure no-one else will have put so much detail into their scarecrows so it deserves to win.

Safe journey to Devon, Frank, and then on to Spain. I hope you and Ros have a lovely break.

Life has been a bit hectic this week so I haven't managed to get on here for the last couple of days.

Thursday we went on a trip out. We had a large coach (52 seater?) but only 16 people on it and our names on our allocated seats. It meant no-one had anyone sitting immediately in front or behind them or directly across the aisle. Normally on these trips a large bag of sweets gets passed from seat to seat two or three times but this time we were each given 3 sweets in an individual bag. We went first to the Transport Museum just outside Lowestoft which opened up early specially for us so we had it to ourselves for well over an hour and had a little ride round on an old trolley bus and a tram which brought back childhood memories for most of us. We also had a little railway ride up and down a narrow gauge track. Then we got a sandwich in the small cafe there which was well organised with a one-way system and constant cleaning of the tables and chairs. By this time the general public were coming in and it was getting quite busy but we wandered around various exhibits and watched a short film about the live-in vans used by the roadworkers. I enjoyed it more than I expected and it all felt very safe.

Later we went on to Lowestoft for a couple of hours. I haven't been there for many years and it is now quite run down in parts (I hope I'm not insulting anyone from the area). There was a trawler in the dock that we could have a look round but otherwise not a lot to do. Had the weather been better we might have gone on to the beach but instead we had a slow saunter along the front and then found a decent looking place with tables outside in a bit of garden and had a pot of tea. We were amused to find several others from the coach had the same idea.

Anyway we have now had our first proper trip out in a group and I felt safe and comfortable.

Yesterday OH had to go to hospital again for a CT scan. Apparently they did it once, then injected him with a dye and did it again. That was the morning gone with the drive there and back and the time spent in the hospital. He was fine to drive home so I needn't have gone but I felt happier being there "just in case". I flew around all afternoon, sorting food, making sure bathrooms were clean and had wipes and sanitizer available and making up the bed for the visitors who were coming Sunday. Then the two fellas arrived. They went to bed early as they had to be out this morning by 6.30 am. We also had a phone call from OH's sister to say she had got to go to hospital at the crack of dawn on Monday for another eye operation so they would not be able to come and stay on Sunday after all. I now have a fridge full of food and not much spare space in the freezer if I freeze the excess.

I had virtually no sleep last night. As OH is quite a lot better and the spare rooms were going to be in use anyway, I had gone back to our bed with him and everytime I started to doze off he started snoring again. At one point it was like lying next to a growling dog :-| So I was up and out deadheading and tidying up in the garden at 7 am. I've now got a stinking headache so I am going to shut the computer down and not look at a screen for a while.

Morning Anng and all,

So we could have had a chat then last night. I too was up not long after going to bed as I had to go to the loo twice last night.

Its bright here this morning and we have had some sun but the blue sky is a bit hazey.

I am so looking forward to hear how Mandy gets on today with the compition and hope Mr and Mrs Crow behave them selves and win the compitition. I hope Mandy takes some pics of the others as I love seeing what people think up for their scarecrows.

Good morning all grey/white here again, forecast was good though so hopefully they were right as I need to get back out in the garden after the Tesco delivery.
mel I was still awake when you posted that last one, took ages to get to sleep and got up for the loo at around 0040am. awake until about two for some reason.

good luck with Mr and Mrs Crow Mandy. :-)

That knitting and crochet work is just great. They certainly have some good knitters in that village. I liked lots of the picks especially the ducks as I thought they were really good. I would'nt have like to knit the man in the deckchair.

I have cut down the barrow loads of prunings and brimbles from up the border this afternoon. Oh's bonfire is growing by the day but I have had to put it all to one side.

Relly tired so am off now and hope you all sleep well tonight.

Ours tend to be small planes It is not really a passenger airport. I love the sound of the old planes. We used to live near Ild Warden in Beds, all old planes there, and not very far from Duxford as well.

I expect you do get a huge amount of aircraft with the airport close by AnnG! We do get some. including the noisy jets from RAF Luffenham flying low sometimes, Bruntingthorpe isn't far away and within a mile the Police, Next and Everards have Helicopters. The ones we will be hearing tomorrow will be vintage planes for the air display. They make a different sound and we will dash outside to look at them. I've only ever been in an airport twice! :-0

I'm feeling like one of those wind up toys that needs winding up today. I don't know where my energy has gone.

It was 21/out there and I did an hour in the garden, threw out three tomato plants that had finished, still three more with a few tomatoes on. Also cut back a thug honeysuckle.

Yes Ann any socks that grip make my ankles swell.

I usually buy small stickinfpg fillers all year so it is good to be catching up

Those aircraft are fantastic aren’t they?

I chuckled when you said about aircraft noise as living close to Gloucester airport we have planes around all day every day including helicopters with the air ambulance based there as well. So I am used to the noise.

Afternoon All,

The sun here seems to be switching on and off every few minutes, but it is nice when it is out and the garden is still colourful.

I hope it stays nice tomorrow for the Scarecrow Competition Mandy or the lady scarecrow will need her long draws on! :-) Good Luck and it's good they will be on show for a few days for more people to enjoy.

It's good you got some things at the garden centre AnnG. As Mel says it is nice to have something new. I have swapped over totally to the soft grip socks now as they are more comfortable aren't they. The only long sleeves I have now are on my cardigans that I can slip off when I get too hot. Everything else has short sleeves and I avoid thick T shirts in the summer as they make me hot. It's good you got some lightweight tools for the garden the other day. I know when OH bought me a lightweight Bentley border fork and spade it made such a difference, less tiring.

After getting OH to open 3 jars for me this week (and even he had difficulty!), I have ordered a gadget to do the job! The one we already had slips off those jars with sloping lids and this one can't.

It's the Air Show in the next village where the yarn bomb is this weekend so we'll be hearing planes come over the next few days. I'll send a few pics of some of the yarn bomb as it includes some planes too.

I should do a bit more pruning but we had lunch very late as OH had a webinar to watch, so I might leave it for today and do some in the morning. There's always plenty of other things to do.

Another good spend up then Anng. Always makes you feel better with something new.

Did a bit of ironing this morning waited for my one egg of the day and got it but there was a broken one in there when I first looked in and Daisy was sitting so I just whipped the shell out.

I am going up the border now as the suns still shining and its quite warm today. Must remember to take something incase theres any more blackberries up there before I cut the brimbles down.

Had a good trip out, bought myself a three quarter sleeve winter weight top, some soft grip socks and three or four presents as well as two lots of violas for baskets.

Morning Anng and all,

We have sunshine this morning and it makes such a difference to the way you feel. The sky has some little white clouds in it but theres lots of blue too.You'll have gone now but enjoy your trip out and your coffee with a friend at the garden centre.

Nothing planned here for today but dinner which will be minted lamb leg steaks my new pots and my long beans and not my mushrooms.

I may go up the border today and cut back some more stuff.

Good morning all

grey/white sky 14 degrees so a bit warmer and not so windy. Off out at 10 o'clock, just to another large garden centre.for coffee

being picked up at 10am. normally there days I am awake by 0630 today, because I need to be early it was 0715 because i couldn't get back to sleep at 4am and when I did I slept on. still I am showered and hair washed and dressed and off for my breakfast now. Have a good day. :-) :-)

night night all. Hope you all sleep well tonight and good luck Mandy for Saturday.

Evening all,

Been busy and tomorrow the girls are coming again for a couple of days .

Ann scarecrow competition is Saturday, I've added some more bees to the sunflower on Mr crow they are on wires so they move about also added a butterfly on wire to Mrs crows hat :-D

Island love the little cameras and I hope that nasty cough soon eases up for you.

Mel love the little boats and the pom poms .

Nice to hear from Gill and i hope you can soon find the trades people you need so you can get things moving .


I had an email saying they would like to have the scarecrows on display in the church over the weekend and for a few days next week so we won't have to collect them on Saturday.

Anng that poor woman all that after just pricking her finger ,makes you think doesn't.
Hope you enjoyed your afternoon with your friend ,must awful for her to be unbalanced but what a difference for her when she has the switch on ,they can do some marvellous ops these days .

Sorry, I missed you there Ann.
I'll catch up tomorrow

Strepsils Mel? I need the big guns :-0

I managed to pull out the mangy peas and bag up - masked and gloved.
I wouldn't have wanted to forage through them for a bowl of peas, not worth the risk with resp issues. What with being away for nearly a week then being poorly for another week and a half, they were rather neglected. Next year PSB, in the same cage hasn't been affected.
I did a colour wash on two sheets of A3 ready to make a mini sketchbook and that's it for today. I'm pooped. Early bed and hopefully have less coughing and more energy tomorrow.
I hope everyone had a good day.

Evening All,

A rather dull day here t but I did go out and prune another humperful of the Bottlebrush and Viburnum. It's lucky OH paid for the bigger garden bin that holds plenty and I think one more go at those 2 shrubs will finish them and I can move on to the rest!

You are doing very well with the garden Gill and it sounds like you will be busy planting all those bulbs next! At least when you do a place up there is always another job you can do if there's a holdup with other things. I hope you can find a plasterer and electrician soon so that you can get your bathroom and kitchen planned out and fitted. At least you will be warm with the new boiler and rads. Sorry that Glynn still has a painful shoulder. It must be frustrating when you both want to be getting on with things.

The 'new' old mower sounds good Mel and it was good that someone else commented on it too. How was the apple and blackberry crumble? It made my mouth water thinking about it! The company that deliver our Sunday lunch have trackers on their employees. You can watch them on a map on your screen getting closer with your lunch! I expect it is important for them to know so they can see where their employees are if another delivery is needed and to see who would be nearest to do it next.

As AnnG says things were very tight in the Civil Service. Every visit or tour of visits we did had to be logged with where we started and whether from home or the office with the time and our mileage with any excess mileage shown and the reason for it. We never had mobiles for many years and were still sharing and signing for them by the time I left. We would leave our tour of visits with our manager and if you didn't turn up on time where you were supposed to be, managers would scramble to go and look for you. At the end of your visits we had to phone the office on our return home or our boss's home if they had gone home to let them know we had gone home. It was good though as one person was murdered on a visit. Home to work mileage had to be deducted if you started off from home when you claimed for your mileage and expenses were checked by your manager, then by his/her manager then had to go to Regional Office to be authorised before they paid you! I started in the 70s when we were in an old factory with brick walls and concrete floors and old furniture. Phones were shared between us, only one adding machine between about 12 of us, no calculators were provided, new biros were held by the supervisors and you had to produce your old one to get a new one and questions would be asked if you needed a new scrap pad too often. The public still thought we were in our ivory towers drinking coffee all day though! By the time I retired in 2003 we had computers and laptops and there was software with lots of codes where we had to identify our time spent on different activity throughout each day, eg training, meetings, visiting, casework, interviews and so on. I hated having to do that! Any gossiping at the photocopier went with the introduction of robust targets that were increased every year Island. If you didn't acheive them, your pay and so your pension were all affected, or could lead to you being sacked!! :-S Targets were good in some ways, as the good managers didn't mind us Inspectors doing a lot of work from home as long as we were producing the results. In short almost everything we did was tracked!

As Vera would say, that's enough of me for now! I can't believe how dark it is outside! :-0

Strepsils are good.

That made me google it too as michaelmas daisies often get a lot of mildew (mine are ok so far).

Inhaling mold spores may cause allergic reactions, most commonly from July to early fall, but because mold grows both indoors and out, allergic reactions can occur year-round. Symptoms may include coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing.

I think it is more worrying in people with low immunity.

Have you asked the pharmacist for medicine Island? Not sure if there is anything over the counter off prescription though.

We would not have got away with that in our office Island. Although I am talking the 90s here, I retired in 2000. But working for the military you play it by their rules. although we were on flexi time that had to be abandoned if a job needed finishing past out allowed home going time., open plan offices aso always on show. However we were allowed to chat a bit as long as we didn't take advantage but that depended on which officer you had in charge of your office, I had one who was a bit of a swine, didn't like females, and particularly civilian female officers. But the last one I had was lovely.