General Chat

Morning Anng and all,

You were an early bird again this morning Anng. Lovely memory to keep and the day before Midsummers Day too. Thats very special.

Lovely sunny morning here blue sky and vapour trails we have today.

Its Di's birthday tomorrow so I must do up her pressies and write her card.

Hoping to get inthe garden today and its F & C night so no cooking tonight just got to go up and get it.

65 years ago today I started going out with Tony, I had met him at church a week before but only to chat to. This time we spent the afternoon together at a garden party. two months before my 16th birthday and a month before his 18th. I also had my little sister with me as I was looking after her while my Mum was working a shift at the local cake shop. It is so clear in my mind really does seem very recent.

I really, much as I like Hydrangeas and other shrubs, want to keep the front to low growing plants now. Having just paid out to get two shrubs removed. so I am going to concentrate on alpines and maybe a Helebore or two at the back. so more of a rockery at the front. It is not a huge space. when I have cleared it I will send a photo. Trouble is I don't have spare time until the weekend to clear it. I am out for coffee this morning, have the nurse tomorrow morning and u3a photography Friday afternoon.At the moment there is just one hardy geranium in there which was allowed to spread under the yew. so far I am thinking Saxifrages, Ajuga, maybe aurbetia, primulas, snowdrops.Thyme and sedums.

Our bungalow is north facing and I have a hydranga to the left of the front door and it grows lovely there. I cut it right back each year.

Taking them all on board so thanks Vera.
Yes loved the man and boy.

A lot depends on the size of plants you are looking for AnnG. Some hydrangeas do well in shade and there are ferns like Polystychens (sp?) or how about Sarcacocca (sweet box)? It’s evergreen, slow growing so doesn’t get too big, white flowers, black berries and a wonderful perfume from the flowers.

I agree with you about Ann’s pictures, Mel. She is very talented.

I think I can safely says that our Ann is not a novice artist anymore. Todays pics were great.

The two bushes out the front have now been cut down. The stumps are still there but he said they should rot. I now have two areas to redevelop. The one under the kitchen window is quite dry and gets very little sun and is more or less north facing. I think maybe alpines in there but they need to be plants for shade. Not promising to use them all but any suggestions. Ajuga, is one and maybe a Helebores.

I’m pleased that your wound seems to be healing at last AnnG and the nurse was gentle and you’ve got some cream now.

I am happy again now. We left our boiler problem with British Gas for a quote and they have really got moving. They rang at 5.30. It’s MORE EXPENSE as Frank would say but the quote was less than we expected and the boiler will fit in the same space as the existing one so they haven’t got to knock walls about. There’s a 5 year guarantee and the annual fee we pay to cover things like the service and a few other things will come down because it’s a new boiler. But the best bit is that we are on their over-70s list so we they treat us as a priority and will fit it this Thursday :-D

O poor you Vera Lets hope its not too expensive to have a new one. I think we should be having a new one really but we are hanging on.

Good you had a nice gentle nurse today Anng it makes all the difference and now you have new cream too. Lets hope this does the trick for you. When have you got to go again? next week?

Just as I had finished indoors putting stuff away and doing our pills for the week and went to corn the girls oh decided it was time to sit by the pond with a coffee. So that stopped me doing what I was going to do, clear out the soak tray by the seats at the pond and get some plants up there. Its got lots of leaves in it from when the red tree was bitten by the wind or frost whatever it was. I did notice they have one at the crossroads up the road and whatever it was has got that one too.

He is out on the mower again now.

Oh dear Vera, that is not good. Every time our boiler is serviced I wait for that verdict as it is about 25 years old.

Nurse said the wound was looking quite good. The pharmacy phoned and I collected the replacement cream before going to the surgery. She was the most gentle nurse I have had so far.

I am not happy :-(. We have got to have a new boiler. The engineer has hung a label on it which says “Danger. Do not use”. He says the boiler was never fitted properly in the first place. I think it was put in when the house was built in 2009 and I suspect the builder used the cheapest fitter he could get. I did ask why it hadn’t been found at an earlier service and OH gave me an explanation which was a bit technical for me but sort of made sense. I dread to think what a new boiler is going to cost and wonder how we would get on if we couldn’t afford it. In the meantime we have no heating so good job it's summer, and we’ve had to put the immersion heater on for the first time ever so the leccy bill will go up.

Off to drown my sorrows in a cup of tea now.

I have cleaned the bathroom and cloakroom and dusted my bedroom.
Pharmacist has just phoned and left a message on the answer phone to say she has contacted the surgery and they have suggested another cream which she has there waiting for me so I will collect that before going to the surgery.

Tony used to be quite good at changing his slippers for shoes if he was actually gardening, as am I, but neither of us were/are good if just 'popping out'.

(Oh bought new flip flop slippers so he could go inthe garden with his old ones and keep the new ones for indoors. What did he do? the first time he had the new ones on his feet he wenty out to the workshop in them.

I am nearly through the wipe down but thought I would see if anyone had posted and you all had!!

Back to work.

This morning I had a spider suck up right through the kitchen bathroom little loo hall and bedroom.

It looks as though we are going to get a dry day at last, though it’s still chilly. It’s about 15 degrees but feels less because there’s quite a stiff breeze from the north east.

I hope the nurse is gentle with you AnnG and they can get your steroid cream sorted out. It’s very frustrating when something is prescribed for you and then isn’t available.

Mel, we pinch out our side shoots all the time. OH and I automatically check every time we’re by the plants and pinch them out when they are about an inch or so long. Mine are all outside in pots. That was annoying treading some muck in on your carpet. It’s so easy to do. I had a little go at OH this morning. We each have a pair of garden clogs that sit by the back door This morning he put his clogs on then, instead of going out the back door, walked through the utility, the kitchen and the conservatory to go out the conservatory door. Where’s the sense in that? I sometimes think he was back of the queue when common sense was handed out.

I laughed at the grandchildren’s plaque for Colin, Mandy. They obviously know him well ;-)

I have managed to hoover downstairs this morning and am trying to decide if I can tackle the ironing. Standing is the most painful for me. Oh has said he will do it if I want but it’s the one household job that he doesn’t normally do. He is sooo slow and can’t seem to fold anything so he drapes stuff over tables, chairs and anything else that’s handy. I obviously have never trained him properly.

We have British Gas coming this afternoon to service the boiler. OH only rang to book the service yesterday and was surprised to be fitted in so quickly.

I think I’ll slip a jacket on and go and walk round the garden. That’ll take about 30 seconds lol.

Morning All,

Another good sleep and I had a job to be ready in time for my course! The window cleaner has been as well so that's out of the way.

That must be the reason for the different charge then Mel. Like you we were just glad to be able to sort something at the start of the pandemic so I took the first thing I saw. Maybe I should look to change the day now as I would prefer a week delivery. We very rarely shopped at Asda before the pandemic, even though there is a large one almost next door to Sainsbury's just down the road. OH wasn't keen on the clientelle there! At the start of the pandemic I joined Sainsbury's on line shopping as well as Asda, We usually shopped at Sainsbury's before but they mucked about giving priority to others and you couldn't have recurring slots so it was too much hassle to book slots so we stayed with Asda instead. I must admit Asda save you quite a lot on your bill with their deals and we have found we now prefer some of the things they do. We also have a Tesco not far away but I haven't done weekly shopping there for a few years. I thought they tended to cater mostly for families with sizes of things at that time. I like Morrisons, but the nearest is in the city where the virus is worst so we wouldn't want deliveries from there

It was the last pastel class this morning and we did a big wave! The teacher is doing a one session brush pen flower class in a month or two, that I might join, but otherwise she'll repeat the classes we have done, till the Spring when she is doing an improvers class for pastels. I might try that. Just one more pen and wash class next week and that will be the end of those too.

Lunch next, something quick as OH has another meeting. He has his eye on the bacon from the farm shop, so I think a brunch/breakfast is on the cards.

What a game it is this time AnnG, with different nurses and now a shortage of the cream. I remember what a panic we had when OH's eyedrops were out of stock everywhere when he had his laser surgery. We ended up having to go back to the hospital to get some. I hope this nurse turns out to be good.

Better get started now before OH's meeting later so will BBL and read the rest of the posts.

Morning all,

Lovely sunshine here so we're getting some jobs done in the garden, I need to pull out a lot of the old bluebell leaves in the front so I can get my Dhalias in and the grass needs cutting and I need to weed as the rain has helped the weeds grow.

Anng I hope you get on OK today when you see the nurse perhaps she might suggest a different cream if this one is hard to get .

Looking forward to seeing Ann's pastel drawing for this week as they are always lovely

Hope Frank is ok its a while now since we've heard from him and he said he wasn't feeling so good when he last posted .

Yes Mel I had already taken some out when you saw the photo, then it rained and I forgot the rest but I have taken them all out now. It is only in the Sirley, the others don't need it doing they are bush tomatoes, more like tumblers only larger tomatoes, I shall see what happens with the tomatoes if and when they come. The basket tumbler has 30 small toms on it.

So annoying when that happens seeing different people so they don't really know what it was like the week before. I do hope it heal;s for you soon as its such a bother to have to keep going to have it dressed for you. Have you taken any side shoots out of your toms yet? You just need the main stem otherwise the strength will go to the side shoots.

It is 7 weeks since the op now Mel. The cream is out of stock, I read somewhere that there are problems with lots of medications being in short supply, I guess this steroid cream could be a popular one if the whole sellers didn't have it. I will have to wait and see what the nurse says this afternoon, unfortunately it is yet another different nurse.