General Chat

Afternoon everyone looking in today
Overcast and damp and a good breeze here too. So a day for indoors unlke yesterday where it was 20 degrees and we managed a lovely afternoon walk out. Taking my time, i actually managed to walk further than i have before so was very pleased.

Of course my feet were very swollen when i got home but it was lovely to spend time away from the house.

My 2 new card display units arrived yesterday and we put one together last night. I decided to make 4x4 inch xmas cards this year and not the bigger ones. With less on the cards, they actually look far better and more attractive and the display units look better than the baskets i had on the tables.

My cauliflower leaves are enormous but no show of a cauliflower yet. Not sure what to do with the leaves as if i had friends who had chickens or pigs, i would give them away but i don't.

So bed to strip, ironing and a wardrobe of clothes to sort out for our holiday. Sorted out the travel insurance and all the bits and bobs, so very organised really.

Hope noone gets the thunderstorms they are predicting!

Florence in the hebrides

It has been a nice day here as well.
We bought two bare root fruit trees earlier in the year. They were reduced in the local cheap shop where they don’t really look after their plants. They just put them outside the shop no matter what the weather. They don’t get watered properly, but we thought these might be OK as the roots were wrapped in plastic. OH put them in the garden, but they did nothing at all. They had some buds, but I suspect that they had been frosted, so OH dug them up and put them in plant pots . Amazingly, the apple has suddenly growing, so that is back in the garden. The pear still looks dead, so it can just stay in the pot until next year.
OH is still working on the paths. He had the flagstones sloping down, but I wasn’t happy about that as I don’t feel steady on slopes, so he has made some shallow steps into the slope, which is a lot better. He still has some more to do, but we need about another five flags. We bought them second hand and he broke three cleaning the cement off the back, then the builder broke up two of them to use when he made the proper steps. I am keeping a look out on the Facebook sale groups, but there haven’t been any of the correct size, so we may have to buy some new ones.

I have been busy going into the school to hear the children read and this afternoon, I was volunteering at the memory cafe. It was a talk by the town crier, which was very interesting.

Argyll gran, it must have been a nice surprise when those 2 roses to show growth after a long wait.

I bought potted ones as the bare rooted ones where not available, they cost a bit more but heyho !
They look good againsts the fairly low wall that I have set them, with luck they should scramble upwards & sideways & cover the wall & over towards the wild part of the garden.

Behind this particular wall I have purposely stacked lots of thinner tree branches, ( shelter for the wild life ! )
They run along the length of the wall & are stacked to the same height, so the Roses have plenty to scramble over.

I have been outside today as it's really nice today, spent most of the time weed killing & pulling up by hand the taller ones.
I'm having a wee problem with my electric weedkiller, the bit that fits on the burning end keeps falling off, I will have to find something metal that I can tie around it to stop it dropping off.

Joan.

You mentioned roses, Joan -

away back in the Spring, I bought two bare-root roses, and planted them.
They looked like dead twigs for months, but thank goodness I didn't pull them up!
Just in the last couple of weeks they have finally produced some green shoots!

Evening all.
It's been a lovely day here today, sunshine all day warm & no wind,a big change after yesterdays hailstones.

I have spent much of the afternoon pulling up weeds, a never ending job, still a way to go yet as there have been a lot this year, that;s what happens when I don't keep on top of the garden jobs but my heart wasn't in it last year.

I have also planted up the 3 new Roses I bought recently so happy to get that done, they are quite big & full of flowers so fingers crossed they take & put on a good show for the rest of the summer.

The sun is still shing but I'm too tired to do any more garden work as my back is aching, hoping it will be a nice day again tomorrrow to get the last of the weeds up, & I must level up the hedge which is still waiting for me to make it look better.

Joan.

Afternoon all
Overcast day but bright and breezy. Did some weeding from the large raised bed at the bottom of the garden and tidied up the remnants of the daffies and tulips so looks neater now.

ArgyllGran, when my friend came last year, we hired a car from the airport and it had no handbrake and no key!! We had to ask the guys to show us how to operate the car as it was brand new and noone had driven/hired it out. Turns out a button replaces the handbrake and a button to start not a key.

all far too modern for us.

So glad you kept your car and hope it gets sorted soon.

No thunderstorms up here, think we have escaped it this time.

Just cooking smoked haddock, new pots and peas for tea. Something not had for awhile.

JustGinnie, hope your neighbours turn out to be nice ones. Keep us posted.

Joan, we had a shower of hailstones last week, unreal for june!!

Got my appointment for my other eye for the cataract but its a few days before my holiday which is no good so shall be ringing to morrow to change it to after we come back. i want to enjoy the holiday!

looked out my crafting things this afternoon as i had ordered some new white cards 4x4 inches. So started making some xmas cards :-D :-D :-D yes you heard me. No time like the present to get ahead!

Right better go and check the dinner before we have mashed pots not boiled.

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

Hello all!
I somehow got out of the habit of looking on here, but have now read all the posts and think I've caught up with what everyone is doing.
Thanks for getting in touch, Florence!

My car got a dent and scrape a few weeks ago, when I had parked at the local recycling centre to drop off some garden waste. A woman who had been double-parked just ahead of me reversed gently but firmly into my front offside bumper.

She was very apologetic and immediately admitted responsibility - but then of course the insurers got involved. What a lot of faff and confusing paperwork, emails, etc, from various bodies dealing with different aspects of the claim, all over a small dent which wasn't even my fault.

I was very afraid they might decide to write the car off just because it's 14 years old, but thank goodness they have authorised the repair, which will be done in July - the soonest the local bodywork man can do it.
The car's perfectly driveable, and in fact I've got so used to the small dent that I hardly notice it now!
The repair will only take a couple of days, so I won't need a courtesy car, thankfully.
That was another worry, as a courtesy car would have been no more than 5 years old, and would therefore have all sorts of modern gadgetry which I wouldn't have known what to do with.

So much stress for such a small stupid accident!

What a change in our weather, after several weeks of lovely sunshine the rain showed itself last week with regular daily showers, this afternoon the heavens have opened up & we now have Hailstones, they are bouncing off the windows.
The cows in the surrounding field have taken refuge under some of my trees.

I have had to put the living room light on as it's so dark at the moment.

Joan.

Oh yes Ann we were wanting rain a week or so ago but know we are getting it we would like some sun. lol. Thunderstorms may hit us as well but I am hoping they miss us.

Linda sounds like you have a full house again. Hopefully your son will be able to find a new house nearer to you . Not good what the sellers tried to do, I thought you were supposed to declare any neighbour disputes when selling.

Had our annual gas boiler check yesterday and thankfully all was ok.

We may have neighbours again, well there is some work being done and we saw a man cutting the grass in the rear garden and he also weeded the front so it looks tidy out there now. :-)

Take care all.

I am back home now, daughter and son in law staying a couple of days. Not that anything much can be done outside as it is pouring with rain, and before we went away I was wishing for rain. Never satidfied are we?

sylvia, stay safe from either fires or heat.

thunder storms are foecast here.but it is still only 11 degrees.

Sadly no need for air conditioning here Sylvia. It is cloudy and we have had a lot of rain.
We spent part of yesterday touring round parts of Harrogate with our son, looking at the local facilities, so he can widen his search area for a new house. Not that he seems to be in any hurry to start looking at individual houses, he seems to be settling in happily with us! He is still going through all the boxes in the garage looking for things which he needs, at least he is labelling the boxes now. From Monday he will be back at work, so he has set up his large desk in an empty bedroom. We use one of the bedrooms as our study, but only have a small desk as we just have a laptop on it. He has an array of three monitors, so needs a bigger desk for all his gear.

Yesterday was also the day when my daughter went down to London to work, so OH got up at six, to collect her and take her to the station, he then drove Eve to school while son in law looked after Esme. We went to their house after school, to play with Esme , cook dinner and stayed until she was in bed. We normally stay until it is time for OH to collect our daughter from the station and bring her home, but she wasn’t getting back until 10.45, so we came home once Esme was in bed and sent our son to collect his sister, We might as well make use of him while he is here :-(

Florence ........ I live in the south of the province, right at the coast, and so we are damper than the drought-ridden areas where all the fires are. We could be in danger at some time, because we have lots of trees and green areas, but not at the moment.

We've just had a weather warning ......... high pressure ridge building over us, temps to be high for this time of year from now and through into next week.

Glad I've got my air conditioner brought up out of storage and working! It does make a lot of noise, but keeps the place cool.

‘Flamin June’ Not here, more like a choice of freezing or drowning. I was shivering eating my brekkie this morning and as OH has to go out to the drs I suggested he pick up some things from the shop in case the rain gets a lot worse over the next couple of days.

Afternoon all
Slightly better day as the wind has abated but its still breezy and showery so not very summery.

Been busy spring cleaning today and still have some chores to do but not much else to do on a day like today.

Plants in the tunnel will of course need watering later on anyway.

Hope everyone looking in is ok today

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon all from a very "wild west"

Crikey its been stormy all day here and yes like JG it was also bin day for us.

Had to leave early today to take daughter to airport and didn't reach back until awhile ago. hence my kind neighbour rescued my bins that blew along into her garden!! She kindly put them back for us.

The wind is sooo bad its like a severe gale in winter.

Joan, lovely surprise you had, so nice and kind of the person to do that.

Linda, you will have to educate your son for when he moves back out lol

Ann hope you enjoy your wee jaunt away and the weather is kind to you.

Sylvia. glad you are ok out there as i had seen some bad forest fires and thought of you.

No walking on a beach tonight, feet up infront of the tv.

Florence in the Hebrides

Since we came home, we have had a lot of rain. Good for the garden, but not when I am trying to get all the plants in. The steps are finally finished and OH has extended the rockery with all the stones we found at the bottom of the garden. His next job is to create two paths going in opposite directions from the bottom of the steps. At the moment the paving stones are just loose on top of the soil, so they need to be bedded in properly
My son moved in yesterday, silly man didn’t label any of the boxes when he packed them, so he is now going through them looking for his clothes. I have given him a marker and he is now writing on the boxes as he opens them. He has lots of jars, bottle etc from his kitchen, they need using , so I am trying to cram them into my cupboards. His house sale went through yesterday, so now he has to start looking for another house to buy, which will take months. It is so annoying that he had to pull out of buying the house he wanted because of the dishonesty of the sellers. Never mind, at least he could come here, so he didn’t lose his own sale

Yes it's a bit like that here with the weather changing from sunny to rain and back again also very windy over the last couple of days. I have put a cardigan on and took it off again twice this morning. It seems to be bit brighter at the moment and the wind has dropped thankfully
Bin day today so was a bit worried about the bin being blown down the hill but so far it's ok.

Lovely to have a surprise bouquet of flowers Joan. Have you tried your weeder toy yet?

Enjoy the rest of your holidays Ann. Hope the weather is kind to you.


Hope everyone is ok and take care.

I know the feeling Sylvia much the same here in Yorkshire where I am on holiday.

Joan ................ how lovely to get a bouquet of flowers out of the blue like that!

29C and sun on Wednesday

19.5C on Thursday, ca 6 mm rain

21C on Friday, cloudy am clearing in the afternoon

16/17C on Saturday,10+ mm rain

17C promised for today, cloudy am then mainly sunny

What does one wear?????

It was so nice that you were given a bouquet Joan.
It is our last evening in Northumberland. Yesterday we went to Alnwick Castle, definitely the best place we had been to. They had lots going on for children, so Esmd really enjoyed herself. There was quite a bit which I didn’t get to look at and I would have liked to spend much longer reading all the displays, but with Esme that isn’t possible. The tickets are valid for a year, so maybe OH and I can have a short break away. We also went yo Barter Books while we were in Alnwick as it is a tourist attraction in its own right.
It was raining really hard overnight, but it stopped by about ten this morning, which was good as we went to Holy Island. It was incredibly windy, but warm enough, this evening, it is very humid. We have been lucky with the weather as a few days ago, the forecast was for lots of rain, but we have avoided it.