General Chat

Good afternoon all.Alexa tells me it is 17 degrees here. It does feel quite warm outside and I have been out in just a long sleeve T shirt but it is extremely windy, gusty so fifteen minutes putting copper tape round my hosta pots was long enough out there today. A bit bored now as nothing interesting to do indoors. Shall have to resort to card making.

Florence I hope the storm is not too bad and you don't lose power.

Linda hope your OH manages ok to get all the blinds up. When it is all finished he won't know what to do with himself. But it sounds as if you will have a house to be proud of.

He didn’t get all of the blinds up Ann, he discovered that the clips they had sent were still too small. They were supposed to be size 24, but they sent size 22, even though it says size 24 on the order. He got the ones in the lounge up after a fashion with only three out of four clips on each of the four window sections secure. They had sent a couple of the correct size and they just fit perfectly. So we phoned them up yet again and they are going to send out another set, hopefully the correct size this time. He can then take down the ones he has struggled to fit in the lounge and put them up again. Then he can fit the four in the kitchen which he hasn’t even attempted.

It is still warm and sunny here, but the wind is starting to pick up noticeably

It is very windy here, with huge waves breaking on to the beach and dumping all sorts of rubbish. Next-door will have a field day tomorrow picking up all the drift wood for his fire. Sometimes the logs are too heavy for him to carry, so he goes down with his chainsaw.

OH went up to the village this morning and had trouble standing up. It was high tide at the time and the car got well soaked in salt spray on the way back! :-( The wind is very noisy, but so far no damage, unless you count the flowers on the camellia - the path is now pink.

Yesterday we had a sprinkling of snow and all the surrounding hills were white. It didn't last though and by midday it had all thawed.

Morning all

Its pretty wild here with the wind over 60 mph and staying up until tomorrow!

But we havent lost power so thats a good thing.

Yesterday daughter and I spent all afternoon making our new crafty things. Xmas centrepieces which will be for the xmas fayre later in the year. I wanted to see how they would turn out and get used to using my new glue gun! Took a wee while to get the hang of it but in the end we did quite well.

I painted the circular slices of wood with a gold paint, then painted the pine cones gold as well. The candle was white but have found some red ones online and ordered them. It was fiddly but fun and we made 8. I think they look jolly nice and would grace any table or windowsill at xmas. We also made some smaller ones with little pencil candles and they turned out ok too.

You may think its a little early, but as the weather prevented us from getting outside, we decided to be productive inside. Nothing like being organised lol

Hope everyone else is safe in this wind. No damage or flying pots etc so thats ok.

Happy Sunday all :-D

Florence in the Hebrides

They sound pretty Florence but where will you store them all? Not easy to store I think. Be careful storing the candles as, if we have hot weather in summer (if!!!) the candle will bend.

Good afternoon from blustery Yorkshire.
The weather isn’t bad here, quite warm and sunny, but windier than yesterday
I spent the morning playing with Esme so her mum could go out shopping on her own rather than having to take Esme with her.
I don’t feel well at all, my chest is tight, the glands in my neck are swollen , I have a headache and feel incredibly tired. OH is the same, but has the horrible cough as well. My daughter goes away in the morning, so I have no option other than to cope. I am taking Esme to the theme park tomorrow because she doesn’t go back to school until Tuesday. That is hard enough at the best of times, so I am not looking forward to it.

AnninGlous, had to laugh at your comment" if it gets hot" :-D :-D :-D it never gets hot here!!! I will store them in my wardrobe. The bigger candles are 1/2 size pillar candles so they wouldn't bend. The smaller ones are quite slim but only about 10 cm tall.

Can't decide on how much to charge yet. initially thought £10 for the large ones and £4 for the mini ones but shall ask a couple of friends who craft what they think. I don't want to overcharge but the cost to make was several pounds.

I have now finished painting about 100 pine cones with gold paint so when we make some more, it will be easier to have them ready.

Its horrid weather as still very wild and raining now. Thank good ness we don't have to go out anywhere.

Oh Linda, poor you & hubby. I suspect all the stress etc of moving has caught up with you and you are both run down. Is there not anywhere else you could go with Esme? I so hope you both feel better soon.

Off to enjoy a well earned coffee with a choccy biscuit now.

Oh Linda, as Florence says you are both probably run down and that is not helped by having to look after the children, especially Esme. I hope that your daughter and son in law appreciate what you do and that you should by now be being able to live a relatively quite life. I do admire your fortitude. Will Esme always demand so much attention and 'on the go' activities or will she settle down more as she gets older. I know you don't resent having to look after her but you must long for quieter times.

Ah Florence I had not thought of you using the thicker candles. with pricing, I have always known that whatever I make I could never try and include the time spent making things. If you were to cost out time and expenses you would never sell anything because it would be too expensive.

The only other place to take her would be a soft play centre and being up the top of a climbing frame at my age is not much fun. At least at the theme park, there are two half hour shows to watch, plus a half hour dance party, so I get to sit down for those while she dances away at the front. This theme park has been changed to under twelve’s, so there are plenty of tame rides to go on. She has a special wrist band, so we don’t have to queue, though I only used it once on Thursday as the queues were very short. They will also stop the rides when it is the type where the car slows down for people to get out and the next people get in. As she is only partially sighted and not terribly stable, she needs the car to be stationary and to be fair, so do I :-D

The weather has now turned and it is lashing down, so I hope it clears up before tomorrow

Getting a head start on your decorations is a good idea Florence, although it is a long time until Xmas

Afternoon everyone looking in.
Its a chilly 9 degrees here but the sun is shining and the wind slowly abating.
Gonna wait until tomorrow before sorting out the planters as need to remove the liner which is full of soil and then bring the 2 planters indoors to sand and paint.

The weather towards the end of the week looks like gales again!!

Not much happening around the village as still the school children on holidays so the rds are quiet and people still away.

Hope everyone else ok today

Florence in the hebrides

Hope you are feeling better today, Linda. Not much fun to be looking after a child when you are under the weather!

Well, that was a wipe-out of a solar eclipse!!

We were only going to see about 30% coverage of the sun, but we saw nothing!

Rain and cloud all day. There MIGHT have a slight darkening and then a slight li8ghtening of the cloud cover at the appropriate time, or that might have been our imagination! :-D

Disappointing when that happens Sylvia and it is the sort of thing that regularly happens here. Lovely bright night skies for days on end then, expecting an occurrence and it is cloud cover all over.

My daughter is in Boston , the American one, she arrived last night about 7 pm our time. I don’t know the time difference, so don’t know if she would be there for the eclipse.
I had a nice day at the theme park yesterday with Esme. She was as good as gold. My back and shoulders were aching last night because of pushing her around in her wheel chair all day. It is a children’s size chair, so means stooping to push it .
On the way back, we collected OH and all had dinner to her house. I did her bath and got her ready for bed, then left her daddy to it. She normally wakes several times in the night, but he never wakes up, it is always brown to my daughter. He said he never woke up at all, so goodness knows if she was crying. We went over for 7.45 this morning, so son in law could drive Eve to school. I got Esme up, dressed and gave her breakfast. She went off happily on the school bus, so we are home. We will go back for when she comes home and I will make dinner nd do bath time again. Roll on Friday when my daughter comes home.

I'm full of admiration for the amount of help/time/effort/love you give your daughter and the girls, Linda - especially when you're not feeling well.
As we get older, looking after children does become very tiring, even if we did it easily when we were young.

I hope you and your OH recover full health soon.

Thank you Argyll Gran. :-)
My back aches on one side, I think I pulled a muscle lifting the wheelchair into the car boot
My daughter said the eclipse happened while she was on the plane, she didn’t see it , it just went a bit dark.
It is vary rainy here now, it is cold as well, some have put the heating on. I really want to get out into the garden, but it is just too soggy

Afternoon all.
Well its turned out to be an ok day. Still windy but very sunny and now dry. Bin day too but for a change didnt get blown away lol

Have sanded the 2 planters on the kitchen table and I have painted one with the first coat. Daughter dong the other but I'm keeping an eye as she is very slap dash and I don't want paint on the floor!

Takes about 30-40 minutes to dry and then I can put a 2nd coat on. Once dry they will stay in the porch until properly dry overnight and can then go back outside ready for bedding plants later on.

Did a huge basket of ironing earlier too so a very productive day all round.

Not hugely hungry today so something very light for me tonight, maybe just toast. I seem to have lost my normal huge appetite. I am still coughing and my temp yest went back up to 100 so not completely over it yet.

Sylvia. what a disappointment you didn't get to see the eclipse. Some people had paid loads of money to travel to Niagara Falls and didn't see a thing due to the cloudy weather! About 8pm, I put on 2 pairs of sunglasses but didnt see much. Was only a partial eclipse here anyway.

Linda, hope you back improves soon. My goodness, what would your daughter & SIL do without your help? And why can he not see to his own daughters during the night may I ask?You and you hubby really need to look after yourselves as your health must come first.

Just heard that the river Arun in West Sussex burst its banks and holiday makers at a caravan park had to be evacuated and also on the Isle of Wight. Think everyone was ok but how awful for them.

Right off to make a drink then start the 2nd coat of wood stain.

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon all,
Well it's been windy and very wet here as elsewhere. It has stopped raining now and the sun has come out but still very windy. Not been able to do anything in the garden but hopefully will be able to soon .

1 fence panel down but not broken so g/son can fit it back in . Still no neighbours next door and the fences between theirs and next door to them have now got more panels down. If this wind keeps up we'll have open plan gardens around here. Not good for us as we have a dog to keep in.

Keep well everyone

Ginnie

What a horrid day! it hasn't stopped raining at all.

I have now finished painting the garden planters and they are looking great. The stain was a darkish brown but it shouldn't fade as its waterproof but it wont be today they get put outside grrr.

JustGinnie, hope you haven't lost anymore fenceposts. I wonder how long before you get new neighbours and hope they are are nice ones.

At least the kitchen table is cleared now so we can sit & eat as last night it was on trays infront of the tv which we rarely do!

Found a sweet & sour meal I made last month in the freezer so that's my tea with basmati rice and I made some Tzatziki to have with a naan bread I found too. Infact just realised the time so better go and put it in the oven.

Hope everyone looking in is safe & well today

Florence in the hebrides

This was another lovely day!

Yesterday, of course, was sunny, blue sky, light cloud and some gusty winds, just ideal to watch an eclipse, only 1 day late!

My Dad, who vey rarely swore, would have called it a "s*d's law" happening :-D

Today, I had to go to physio in the north end of town, just a couple of blocks from the harbour, and with views right across to the mountains on the other side. Clear view of them, but hardly any snow even at the very top. Snow build-up has been very poor, and so we'll probably be looking at major drought conditions, and very possibly/probably another bad wildfire season :-(

It has already been announced that drought restrictions will be enforced from May 1st here in Vancouver ............ that means automatic watering only on 1 day of the week, depending on your house number, and then only between 5-9 am. Hand-held hose pipes can be used between 7-9 am on that same day. Watering by bucket can be done at any time, especially for food plants and trees.

We had just parked in the underground parking at the physio's building, and were getting out of the car when the fire alarm went off. What to do??? Get back in the car and drive out?? Try to walk the 2 flights of stairs to the outside??

About 5 lots of the alarm had sounded by the time we'd decided to walk up the 1 flight to level 1 of parking, where we had to go anyway to pay for parking. As we got to that level, we realised we had not heard any more alarm, and the elevator door opened, so people were using it.

Deep sigh of relief for me, as I have to go up to the 2nd floor of the building, and just do NOT do stairs!

Got to the physio's, asked how I was, said about the alarm ........ they hadn't heard it!!

Apparently fire service people had been around during the previous week to 10 days testing all kinds of things, so my physio suggested it might be connected to that!

After treatment, as he walked out of the room, he turned round, gave me a grin, and said "Keep away from stairs"!

I've been going to him since 1996, so we know each other well!

It was announced yesterday that the flu and respiratory sickness season is over, and mask mandate regulations for health-care facilities have been removed. But the Minister of Health then added that the public has to realise that regulations are to be expected to be imposed every winter in future. Then he followed up by saying free Covid Booster shots will be available as of next week for everyone over 6 months who has not had a shot or a booster, and especially for Seniors over 65, babies over 6 months, people in long term care facilities, and those immuno-compromised. I await our emails!

Showers due tomorrow, then clearing for Friday and through the weekend ............... or so "they" say.

Take care everyone!

good morning all, bright and sunny with hardly any wind at the moment but clouds in the distance.

Sylvia. About 20 years ago (I can't remember the actual year at the moment. We had a couple of days/nights in Vancouver and stayed in a fairly large hotel in that area of town. Short walk to where the cruise ships were lined up.
The first night we were there, about 2 in the morning, the fire alarm went off. Fire exits turned out to be a walk across the roof tops to the fire exit stairs outside. a bit scary in a new place just blindly following other people and fire signs. I think it was a false alarm in the end. We had flown to Seattle and driven to Vancouver so it may have been our first night after flying. Luckily in our 50s so a lot younger then.