General Chat

Those boxers make it look so easy! Hardly move their wrists and just leave the ground enough to clear the rope.........and the speed they go at!

We were always doing handstands up to the wall and see who could stay up the longest! The blood's rushing to my head thinking about it!! :-0 Rolling down a hill in summer to see who would reach the bottom first or doing it head over heels. Children don't seem to do these things anymore.

Cartoons on the telly and computer games is the reason for that Ann

Morning All and Evening Kim,

Cloudy today but we have had a bit of sun here and there.

I see you have been recalling the old games we used to play when young.

What about turning yourself over on a bar of a bridge or something like that. I saw one of the boys doing it on the hand rail up to the church at Black Torrington when I used to go ringing. It brought back memories to me then. I was never much good at skipping but remember we used to see how many we could get in skipping all together with a huge long rope that you could hardly turn if you were on the ends. I never did that thing with the big long elastic rope though.

Hope Gordon's finger is not too sore after his bite from the small parrot yesterday Ann. They can give a nasty bite as their beaks are so sharp on their edges. I remember my african Grey bit my dogs nose once and she did'nt half yelp!! :-S :-S

We are off out for lunch today at Homeleigh as oh is treating me. I think he starts ringing tonight after about a month off as a lot of ringers have bneen away for ringing holidays.

He is in the hsower as I type so I had better do the chickens and be ready when he is.

See you all later.

I had an email from Sheila yesterday so she is home safe and sound.

Morning all,

I see a few of you are remembering old "playground games" see we haven't run out of memories !!

Doctor wouldn't inject again, so gave me more cream to rub in. I will try it on my hands/shoulders and neck. Getting quite a bit of pain from those areas.

Will get the pansies in today. They will need to be kept fairly warm till the get established. So will try to make room in the conservatory. I have a tray of Lupin seeds in there at the moment, they are starting to show through.

Ros is still busy making jewellery. She has just shown me one thats very long. It seems they are in fashion. Do hope she does well on Saturday, it will give her a boost.

Glad Shelia is home safe and sound, we will here all about her travels, no doubt.

William, At last you will be up and running..

Mel, Enjoy your lunch out today, and don't eat and drink to much!!!

Well I had better got those plants in. See you later.

Wow it is midday .Where did the morning go!.I have just sat down for my coffee and a chocolate hob No* :-D.I have spent most of the morning bagging up all of Hannah's clothes that have been left here since she moved to London.Jess had a good pick through the other day and will be going home with some lovely bits.
I think the Cransley Hospice shop will be pleased with most of the clothes as there are some smashing things.I have been sneezing my head off while sorting it all .I think it has been just gathering dust over the years :-S

I am waiting for a call from the men to let me know what time they will be here to check how wet the floors still are.Anytime up until 6.
I think this afternoon I had better get another load of tomatoes squeezed and strained otherwise they will be going to waste.My Plum Tomatoes all seem to be going rotten.I haven't been able to pick any of those so far :-S :-S

Frank I use that Voltaro* Pain Ease cream sometimes and find it really good.Is this the kind of thing you have got for your knee?

Ann you reminded me of something when you mentioned handstands against the wall.I remember my Dad doing it and he ended up with the most horrendous nose bleed.He had to have the Dr!!!.I think it was Polyps that popped.He never did a handstand again :-D

Ann
Amazing Parrot photos.Your pics just get better and better :-D :-D

Well I feel a right tit

Cannot get my remote control to do the necessary on this change over malarkey.

So most of my channels are just showing no signal.

When I go to info it again says no signal.

Am I thick or have I missed something? :-S

David, The best thing to do is unplug the whole system for a few minutes and then plug in again. It works for me,

Jane Yes that's what he has given me, Enonough to last years, they didn't have a small one, so can use it like hand/body cream :-D :-D :-D

For you gardeners, I have found the best wat to get the plugs out of the tray. DON'T DO WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT PUSHING THEM UP FROM THE BOTTOM. get a smallish pair of scissors, open them up, and poke one pointed end down from the top, the plant can be eased out so quickly, and all the root is still whole. I tried the old way and gave up after half dozen plants. Once I tried the scissors I had the tray empty in five minutes, all I had to do then was transplant them. All done and dusted in no time.

Jane, I was awake at 4.30 am this morning, laid awake till seven when I got up. I have been pottering around, and just noticed it's 1.00 pm. How time fly's when you are enjoying yourself.

Shepherd's pie, with cabbage tonight. so easy peasy.

Afternoon everyone,

A nice sunny day here with quite a wind ,been to the car boot today ,didn't buy any thing and it was really chilly there first thing ,i was glad to get back into the car !!

I use to like skipping ,i remember tying one end of the rope to a post and getting Dad to turn the other end , i liked running in as the rope was being turned , wasn't one of the chants Salt ,Pepper , Vinegar , Mustard !!

I also liked Hop Scotch and French skipping with the elastic bands ,never could get the hang of the hula hoop, or doing Hand Stands .
And my Roller Skating was a bit dodgy too.

Is it a Digi box David ? sounds as if it needs to be tuned in to get the channels .

Right i'am going to have a look at these Parrots now . BBL

You are right Mandy ,and the chant got faster as the rope was swung faster.
No sun here ,It is all cloud and wind.Just really dull.

David has the remote got batteries in????? I thought my mouse was broken for ages until Chris asked if I had checked the battery.I didn't even realise it had one :-S :-S

Just had the call from the man ,and he will be here within the half hour.
Must have a cuppa first I think .BBL

No rush for those discs Jane, whenever you've got a spare moment.

I'll try that tip Frank, I usually push them up from the bottom and pull from the top and end up with half the compost still in the little pot. Don't think I'll be doing much more gardening this year, probably mow the lawns one more time. I prefer to use the garden like Pat ....... book in one hand, a glass in the other ...... :-D

We are off on the 18th October Ann, for 10 days. It's the same place I went to before when my friends daughter was living out there only this time we will be in an hotel as friends daughter is living back home now.

Back. Had steak and kidney pud, chips and peas and a glass of fresh orange juice for lunch so I don't have to cook tonight now........Good. ;-)

Oh is not going ringing tonight he has just informed me.

Ann were any of your photos you sent off accepted?? Can't remember where you said they went now..................

Have had light rain here and when we got half way to the nursary the roads were completely dry and it was sunny. Just as we left it was raining there and when we got nearly home the sun was out and it was dry!! Really wierd. We were going to buy a coupl.e of water hawthorns and a lily I had never seen before. It was bright yellow with a flat single flower on it but when I lifted it out the tank it was covered in blanket weed and so were the hawthorns so we decided to leave them alone.

Bought 3 20 ltr bags of pond compost and two bags of large gravel and six more pond baskets to slit the yelllow iris up in oh's pond.

Afternoon All,

Just back from the best carvery place, so too full up to do any jobs for a bit.

David, try retuning it again, might work next time.........or perhaps your ariel isn't strong enough?

Frank that cream sounds good stuff!! Glad the Pansies arrived safely. That's a good tip you gave about getting them out of the pots. Here's another I discovered planting the shrubs this year. You know when you have something in a pot to plant that is potbound with a forest of matted roots. They usually say tease the the roots loose around the edges with your fingers. That's fine if it isn't badly potbound and you have strong fingers, but if it is really matted, just take a pair of large scissors, open them a couple of inches and dig them into the roots and twist! It pulls the roots apart and you can do it all over the surface.......much easier and more effective than using fingers.

Yes, I think there is a lot of long dangly jewellery about, also a lot of beaded collars, but they look quite time consuming to do. Does Ros find she wants to keep a lot of her stuff she's made? I want to try making some little boxes to put things in. Mandy sent me an email that had a part that showed how to do this. I made one out of newspaper and that worked so next I will try to make the 'real' thing.

Oh yes, flipping over rails ........and hanging from your knees! Us girls had to tuck our dresses in our knickers before doing these 'upside down' things! :-0 :-0Hope you enjoy lunch out Mel, OH was showing me the pinch mark on his finger this morning!!

I watched Wartime Farm OH had recorded last night and quite enjoyed it. It brought back memories of dad ripping up old lino and there being newspapers underneath it that they used to lay it on.

Mandy, get ready! 'All in together girls, never mind the weather girls, when they call your birthday please jump out'. That's one I remember well. lol. I never did french skipping, but roller skating was dodgy with those skates that fell apart when the wing nut fell off, to say nothing of the trip up surfaces we tried to skate on.

I hope you floor is dry enough now Jane! :-D I bet Jess is chuffed with her rummage through Hannah's stuff she doesn't want. The shop will be pleased with what's left too. I remember when I got married mum made me take ALL of my stuff with me. I think my sister would have had it all if I hadn't!!

The Ariel is OK Ann
There are batteries in the remote Jane.
No digi box,the Free-view is built in Milly.
I will see if plugging after un-plugging does it Frank.

It's annoying.I wonder if E"s playing with the remote? :-S

Tools down now for me.I have had a very productive day.That's one good thing about not having my car I can't go out so get more things done :-D
The chap reckons no longer than 2 weeks before we are dried out :-D :-D.He is coming back in 10 days time to check again.

I have done all the tomatoes and made a nice pasta sauce with garlic,Basil ,mushrooms and pancetta cubes.So all I need to do tonight is cook the Pasta.

Oh my! hanging upside down on those bars at school.I think we had 2 bars.One low one and one high one.The lower one I used to lean over with my tummy resting on the bar and somehow roll over and over it.I remember suffering bad tummy ache one time had lots of bruises on the tum.For some reason it didn't click that it was the bar causing it and Mum took me to the Doctors.He couldn't find anything wrong,and then I think my parents realised in the end that it was the bar.So I was forbidden not to use it any longer.(Not that I did as I was told of course) :-S.And yes everything was tucked into our pants lol.So unladylike .

Well it sounds like Ann and Mel you have both had a feast today.I'm afraid Steak and Kidney Pudding is one thing that I just couldn't eat.(It's the Kidney) :-S

I put towels out on the line earlier....then it flipping rained :-S.So they are still hanging there.They can stay there now until tomorrow.

It is nice here without James and Jess.Hopefully they have arrived safely in York.
I was very peeved with Jess this morning(although I didn't say anything).She never gets out of bed until half way through the morning,and today James was wanting to get away by 9 so that the whole day wouldn't be wasted .She was a right misery having to get up at 8.I just thought how selfish it was as James has arranged and paid for 2 nights for her Birthday.She could have made an effort .James said she was behaving like an ungrateful bit**.Face like a wet weekend as they drove away.
She is a lovely girl ,but sometimes I just to give her a good shake lol

Still no Sheila!!!.Hope she is ok.

I think I will go and get myself a nice glass of wine now and then watch 'Come Dine with me'.

We watch that too Jane. Some of them are so confident they are going to win and then come last!! :-S

Just planted 80 bulbs I bought today. Last year I did'nt get the tulips planted and they shirveled up!! Cost a lot too so I thought I would do it now and then it was over and done with. I just hope the bantams don't dig them up!!!! :-| :-| :-|

I forgot to say I slao did;nt get my sweet peas planted out until very late so I put them in the tunnel. Yesterday I picked my first bunch and they are here on my desk sending perfume across the kitchen. They remind me of mum as I used to grow them each year for her as she loved them so much. Her dad would grow them for her and he showed me, when I was quite small how to grow them with long stems as he used to show them.

Raining here now ,it looks as if its set in for the evening .

I don't remember hanging upside down over the bars ,i used to hang upside down on my swing ,lay on my back on the swing seat and twist my legs round the ropes of the swing .
Another game was Whats the Time Mr Wolf ,one step forward for one o'clock and so on, and another game ,take one step forward if you had a certain colour on or had a certain letter in your name .

So how do you get the Sweet peas to have longer stalks Mel? mine are always short little stumps !! didn't grow any this year .

Hubby's pleased his van has gone through its MOT , he's had this week off to sort a few things out ,ordered three more new windows for us another big one for the conservatory like the last one ,a smaller one for the end of the conservatory and a new one for the kitchen.
The chap who runs the window firm has let hubby have them at cost price as hubby has ordered lots of windows from him lately .

Love the Parrots Ann, yes that one does have a look in his eye :-S hope OH's finger soon feels better .

Hi everyone. Got my new pooter up and running, just got to add all my bits and bobs, programmes etc, but getting there. Very pleased with it, so fast I can't believe it.
So I'll be keeping an eye on you all now more often and hopefully get time to update any news (or disasters from yours truly)

Meanwhile, keep on keeping on.

Congratulations on getting your computer up and running William! :-D :-D I hope it doesn't go faster than you can. :-S

Those school wall bars that swung out were very unforgiving Jane. I could never see the point of them somehow and didn't those ropes 'burn' if you slid a bit!!

The bars we used were those 'staple hoop' shaped handrails that were overlapped to stop us running out of the playground Mandy. We either went over forwards and under, holding the top with our hands, ( like a budgie on a perch!!!!) or held on with our hands and lifted our feet between our chests and the rail and hooked them over up to the knee to hang from. Mum used to say we'd 'knock our brains out if we fell'. I never had a swing but the swings at the park had big rusty chains that were freezing in winter and left orange rust marks on your hands. The ground under them was hard tarmac then too, to stand the wear and I remember my sister knocked herself out once falling off. Mum's comment to her was that she must have been 'acting daft'. Not one for sympathy, my mum. :-S

I remember What's the Time Mr Wolf and what was that other similar game, Mr Crocodile will you let me cross the water to see your daughter? something like that!! All those old school games were great icebreakers and got all the children joining in.

Mel, I'm guilty of doing that with bulbs too. :-S (note to self.....must plant Snowdrop bulbs!!) My first FIL was a keen gardener and grew those big, ball Chrysanths, and other pot plants as well as veg. He also grew Sweet Peas on a cordon system with them slanting on canes. He said that was the way to get long stems. His BIL was a Sweet Pea judge from Coventry. I grow mine straight up an obelisk. They start off with long stems, but towards the end the stems get really short. OH has just cut mine down. They always end up with powdery mildew on them.

William .I better behave myself then if you are going to keep an eye on us lol

Just getting ready to watch 'Who do you think you are'.