General Chat

Usually I like to consider the bigger decisions. And we discuss annual holidays because although neither of us like beach holidays (although we do like seaside places) and prefer to investigate places more, we may have different ideas of where we'd like to go so we have to decide where we're going to head for. But we often get up in the morning, look at the day and take a day out on the spur of the moment. Or we might suddenly decide on some project in the house or garden and get down to it.

It's windy here today and the leaves are beginning to fall. Do you have a favourite season of the year?

Summer ..what summer we get !

Do you have a window cleaner ?

(We have a dorrmer bungalow. he won't clean the windows at the front! no flat roof so I do it myself with a struggle ) )

Yes we do and I'm so glad as we have a lot more windows and bigger ones than in our old house. Our bedroom window is a dormer too but our window cleaner brings a foolhardy youth with him who's willing to clamber and stretch a bit from the balcony outside our daughter's room which helps with the height he needs to get to. Otherwise I'd said I'd do that one. It's got two side openers and a central fixed pane and with my long arms it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I'd not get round to it very often and they come once a month.

What housework chore do you hate the most? For me it's ironing (especially when I'm in a bad phase of hot flushes).

All of them .lol...no I don't mind the ironing, my hubby has a shirt every day for work I can do it in under 5 mins !

What's your fav garden shrub ?... I 'm looking to take 2 conifers out (hate the things) and replace them with perennial shrubs.

I love my herby ones the best, like rosemary, sage and lavender.

Has anyone else started growing veg for the first time this year and how have you got on?

I've never had the space before and I've had some things go really well and others not so hot.

Our garden was just like a mountain when we moved in32yrs ago,,just wild grass.
My maternal grandfather born in 1880 was a keen gardener , huge garden with veg of all sorts, fruit trees apples, pears, plums, glass house for toms cuc and lettuce, soft fruit raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb( ugh) and his special plot for his beloved roses.
My dad also had a big garden, and he grew his own veg, whatever we liked.
He worked 9 to 5 but maintained his garden growing most of our veg and fruit.
Hubby had no background like this when we moved in, but we also have a large garden (third of the size of my grampas')and I couldn't see it go to waste. 100ft by 50 at the back, front is smaller and has perennials and shrubs only, I have a flower garden at the end of my patio at the back .
With quite a bit of hard work on both our parts, we now have a large veg plot with flowered borders at the back, and a large lawn.
Hubby grows every veg we like,and at the moment since my dad died is also planting his garden with our fav veg( the soil is must finer and fertile there )
The finer soil is better for carrots .pots... well basically most things.
We have clay soil which has been well fertilised over the years but is still heavy and holds water. ( Me--Garden freak for picking the veg and admiring the flowers, it's now hubby's full time hobby )
Just give what you like a try.

Do you have straight or curly hair ?

I have straight hair. In fact it's so straight that just to be perverse my favourite uncle always nicknamed me curly. I used to dream of curls but whenever mum tried to give me some, or later I tried myself they'd always gone in half an hour. My hair won't hold a style unless it's permed and even then it's hard work. I did once go for one of the eighties big hair curly perms, but big hair wasn't in it. My hair is very fine but it seems I have a lot of strands. So the curly perm made me look like a primped poodle. Had that grown and cut out as soon as possible. I was never able to grow my hair past my shoulders either. I suppose being fine it's also weak though I've always tried to look after it well. Now it's short and straight but orange - to match my car! My daughter and her friend persuaded me. I'd never had my hair coloured before, then my husband bought the car for me a mini convertible and the girls said when I put the hood down I'd have the same colour soft-top. They went on about it for a joke and they were going to get their hair coloured together - one platinum blonde and one almost black and in the end I said you book it I'll do it. Thought I'd only keep it till it washed or grew out but I liked it and now every time I go the hairdresser plays with different effects.

Have you ever done anything you never thought you would?

Yes, looked at a dead person.
As a child and young teenager I never was taken or went to any relatives funerals. I must have been about 20 when I went to my first funeral which was my grandmothers in 1975. but I never went to see her in the chapel of rest,
since then I have now attended many funerals of relatives and friends, but still not wanting to see the deceased person before the service, then in 1999 my mum past away and I realised that I not only had to support my father in going to see my mum but I wanted and needed to say goodbye to her and I would never have forgiven my self if I had not gone.

After seeing mum a whole weight lifted of my shoulders and I realised that when the time comes that my dad passes on he's in his 80's now that I will be able to say goodbye to him. After Seeing my mum I felt very proud of myself.

Have you ever been asked to make the decision whether you want to be buried or cremated?

Yes.. my dau and I fall out big time regularly.
She couldn't see why she should pay board and lodge although she was working and bought loads of clothes, jewellery etc, although we paid all her uni fees! She has' been working 2 yrs!
She is now contributing to the household fund::::) by direct debit! into our account.


Do you have all your teeth, or dentures or crowns ? I had to have a replacement crown today!

I still do thank goodness. But I get unnecessarily scared of the dentist. Luckily when I went a few weeks ago I didn't need anything doing. Also I'm always scared when I have to have all the little MOT checks to do with all my girly areas too and am naughty and try to delay them as much as possible. But I had to have a biopsy after one of them a few years back and somehow I was brave about that. It's not made me any better though - I wish it had - I know I'm being silly to myself.

Do you avoid doing things you really should get down to?

I love the house we have now. We will have been here a year at the end of the week. It's in the countryside, it's big and detached, I have an aga in the kitchen, and we have a river at the bottom of the garden and the other side of the river there is farmland with cattle on the field and sometimes we see deer over there. But we have lived in a couple of real shockers on the way and it's taken a lot of determination and a leap of faith to achieve what we have now. We moved from London (which I also liked for other reasons but I wouldn't go back to the rush and hustle) and it's surprising how much further the pennies go here.

If you had the choice what sort of home would you like and where?

Getting married, closely followed by the birth of my second child ( first was horrendous very close to an emergency C Section)

What was your worst memory ?

It depends
I'm a libran ...sits on the fence ,.... tries to see both sides .(whichever way you look at it .lol)

At work I always speak my mind , sod the consequences !
With personal issues I tend to be the opposite as I don't like upset.

Do you have a cleaner (or like me ) do your own?
My friends have them and send their ironing out!!

I do all my housework myself, never had any one come into my home and pay them to do any jobs apart from general workmen,(carpet fitters, Gas men etc)
My Hubby is very good at DIY so prefers to do the job himself rather than paysome one.


Off to a Cliff Richard & the Shadows concert to night. have you ever been to a concert to see a favourite person on stage?

Ronan Keating..

Do you nutting in the autumn for hazel nuts. .?

Dad an I used to when I was young, but he continued for yrs after, and he used to put a box at the top of the stairs and his dog used to go and nick them :)))sometimes ate the shells also!

No I've never done that, but this is my 2nd year making sloe gin so we've been out on a few sloe hunts so far this autumn. Where we used to live there was a whole long road that had horse chestnuts along it so it was fabulous for conkering with the kids. Used to collect them and put some of them in a bowl on the hall table while they were really shiny. I don't see many conkers on the trees in our new area. But some of the trees have had to be taken down.

Have the horse chestnuts in your area been affected by the disease that's been going round?

No, they seem to be ok, we have more chestnut trees in our area, although not many people bother picking them up in the woods.


Have you put your central heating on yet ?

Not so far, but I'm thinking it might be soon. We have an aga so the heat does go through the house a bit taking the edge off the ground floor and upstairs, but we all like to sleep in cool rooms anyway so no-one complaining yet. We haven't even lit the lounge fire yet and that's downstairs where the heat doesn't get to so that's always the coolest place in the house.

I see we've had our first frost last night. Our gardens seem to have been protected from it but it's still lying on the farmland over the back the other side of the river. I protected my tender plants yesterday so not a moment too soon. And now I can go off and pick my sloes for gin as the best ones are on the footpath over the farmland that got the frost.

Do you collect and use country harvest for anything during the year, and what do you make?

I pick blackberries to go with apples for a pie and blueberries to sprinkle on ice cream or cereal. I also like to roast the chestnuts from the nearby forest.

Where I live the colours on the trees are just like America in the fall, have you been lucky in your area with the same thing ?

The autumn colours are really coming along now. It's been so lovely the past week or so watching them develop, especially on my drive to and from work when I get lovely views over the Wiltshire Downs. Reminds me - must look where I'm going. There was a balloon flight going over on my way home today.

Have you ever done anything like that? I missed out on holiday last year as I was ill on the day but I've been up in a WW2 plane which was fun.