General Chat

It is quiet here as the girls have gone swimming. I did a large Tesco shop yesterday, but forgot to put on3 vital ingredient for tomorrow’s meal on the shopping list. So I popped back this afternoon to get that and a couple of other bits. I left OH doing the ironing, but got a call to ask if we have a spare iron as the on he was using had just blown up. We don’t, so I looked and had a choice of four in Tesco. I got one for £26 which was on offer. When I got back I checked and it is £47 on Amazon. They did have a couple of cheaper ones, but he deserve s the best :-D :-D. He is happily ironing away now bless him

That reminds me of my lovely OH Linda who was always quite happy doing the ironing and loved being bought a new iron.

Good afternoon everyone.
Not much has happened here for several days due to the wet & COLD weather, but at long last it is much nicer today, no wind,bright & some sunshine & much warmer than of late, yesterday it was freezing, more like the winter months.

I have managed a couple of hours outside today, tidying up the flowers that are dying off, I can see some new plants peeping through, Potentillas, Liliums, Bleeding Heart, Cranesbill,
One of my Bleeding Hearts at the back of the house was doing really well & the flowers were out but this past weeks weather has ruined the flowers, so disappointing.

Our Swallows arrived back, only seen a couple of them around the garden so far this morning but hopefully there will be others, I love seeing them, they will no doubt be building their nests in the garage & old steading before long.

Our daighter was over yesterday bringing with her my 2 new garden seats that have beeen waiting to be put tgether, she did that for me for me, they look lovely, black in colour & steel.
Her next project is to put together my other new seat, also steel & black but no ordinary seat, it's a Gliding one, I bought it last year & have been waiting patiently for it to be put together, looking forward to having a glide on it soon, LOL

Hubby is not too bad, he's quite chirpy considering he is now confined to the spare bedroom & we can't chat as much as we would like, but he is much safer not having to climb the stairs to get to the bathroom now.
I am getting a LOT of excercise going up & down the stairs with his meals etc, lol, I can maage but it's not always easy carrying food & drink.

I hope all is well with everyone, & having some nice weather.

Hoping for a nice day on Saturday for the Coronation, really looking forward to seeing Charles & Camilla crowned, just need to get some nibbles in, lol.

Joan.

Afternoon all.
Good to hear from you Joan and glad all is ok. Our weather over here has been pretty cold and I have had the heating on as well! The sun is coming out now and little wind but its still chilly.
You have been a busy bee and I hope you enjoy "gliding" on your new chair, sounds wonderful.
The cuckoo has been heard elsewhere but not in our village yet but shouldn't be far away

I have been beavering away on my friends family tree which I have now finished. She will be here on the 15th May and is really excited to see it and be here with me.
The whole thing filled 42 A3 sheets of paper!!!

I have new trellis for the walls and pots ready to fill but i'm waiting on a small drill/screwdriver which is cordless to put some nails in the wall so I can attach the wooden trellis to. Quite excited as never owned my own drill before and cant wait to
use it.

I'm making salmon fillets, new pots and peas tonight as we haven't had this for ages...yummy.

Does your hubby have a radio in the bedroom to listen to Joan, just an idea?

I'm seeing a loch across near me and the sides are showing the water level well below. We just haven't had any rain for weeks now except an odd shower. if we don't get a decent downpour soon, we will be on a hosepipe ban, heaven forbid!

Hope everyone else looking in, Linda, AnnG, JG are all ok and anyone else.

Florence in the hebrides

Good afternoon all. We have had good gardening weather for three days now, Saturday, Monday and today so I have managed to get quite a lot done out there tomorrow is hairdresser and Thursday is Gloucester royal to have my hearing aids checked over, both involve a fairly long walk so it is bound to rain.

Joan you have managed a bit of gardening and your seats sound lovely.
At least your hubby is safe in the spare room but I hope he doesn't get too bored. has he got a TV in there. talking of carrying food and drinks upstairs. Have you got somewhere upstairs you can have a kettle and all the things to make a drink. maybe not milk but it would be safer to carry a jug of milk up once a day than to carry hot drinks up for him.

goodness Florence that is a lot of A3 sheets, Is she expecting that much?

AnnG, she did say it was going to be a big tree but, I hadn't banked on several having 10 children or more!! It got better as it was more up to date as from 80's onwards maybe 2 or 3 children at the most so that bit was a lot quicker.

Before I started researching I wrongly thought that that although my ancestors might have had lots of children as they didn’t have birth control, that lots of the children wouldn’t survive, but my tree is not like that. My fathers side came from Northumberland and the good country lifestyle meant there were very few child deaths. My whatever it is g grandmother in the mid 1800’s had fifteen children and all but one of them survived. My mothers side came from Yorkshire and although they worked in the mills, it was in country areas and again the children were healthy.

Having said that I did a tree for a friend and her family was centred on the poor parts of Manchester and sadly the child mortality rate was really high.

It was another teachers strike today, so I have been entertaining Esme all day as her parents were working, thankfully she is back at school tomorrow

I needed to make a GP appointment today to discuss some blood test results. Our system works well, you ring at 8am. I did it on the dot and was third in the queue. If you need an appointment the gp will ring you back sometime during the day and if they decide that they need to see you you go more or less straight to the surgery. Most of the time just a phone call is all that is needed and they get through more people with this system. Before this new system, it took days to get an appointment because they were all face to face,this way is much better. They do say that it could be anytime up to 6.30 pm before the GP rings, but it is usually in the morning.
Anyway I needed to do some shopping, so went to Aldi, I was in a queue, I was next in line to put my stuff on the conveyor belt when they announced they were opening another till. So I leapt over to that one and unloaded all of my stuff. I had just put the last thing on and the cashier was just about to start scanning when my mobile rang and it was the doctor. Luckily the woman behind me just had a few things in a basket so I told her to go first while I explained to the doctor that I was going through the Aldi checkout. She thought it was funny and said it was Sods Law, so she said she would ring me back in ten minutes. That gave me time t get back to the car, so we could have a nice quiet chat.

Teachers strikes must be tiring for you Linda.

I bet that woman behind you in the queue was pleased that you had the doctor's phone call right then. It sounds as if your system works well. Our surgery is so large that even getting to the phone dead on time seems to make for a long wait on the phone. I find it easier to call in to the surgery, but that usually means asking somebody for a lift down and back as it is quite a walk.

We have a call back system on the doctors phone Ann. When you ring up and it tells you that you are number whatever in the queue, it gives you the option to either stay on the line or to have them call you back when your turn comes. They put in a fancy new phone system a few months back which automatically calls you if you opt for that. It saves you having to stay on the phone for ages if you are lower down in the queue

The house is so quiet this morning as they are both at school. I am being very lazy :-D

Morning all...just
A very grey and overcast day here and sooo chilly too.

Postie just delivered me a letter saying my Blue badge is ready and once I have paid the £20, they will post it out so I shall have it when my friend arrives :-D

Had an unsettled night as although we enjoyed the salmon last night, itt kept repeating on me and this morning, I can still taste it yeeeuk. stomach is rather unsettled but managed some toast and marmalade and took me tabs.

I'm not doing much today as am feeling rather tired and anyway everything is up to date date so just sitting and chilling until I feel better.

Daughter went off to town for the day so I have peace and quiet at least. She bought 8 large plastic union jack flags and have put them in my flower pots outside so we look a little patriotic. Another village has bunting out a few miles up the rd but don't think there is much happening around here to be honest.

We shall be watching it on the tv complete with soft drinks and nibbles.

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

Morning everyone
The wind has picked up here but its dry and the sun is peeking through the clouds.

My new drill is hopefully arriving today so I can do some work...damage lol to my outside walls. I have a box of screws/nails/rawplugs so think I have all I need.

Just got to finalise my Tesco order for Saturday making sure we have lots of nibbles etc to watch the Coronation.

Linda, you are probably correct re large families. They didn't have birth control and women had babies nearly every 9/10 months until they were in their 40's.

I couldn't imagine having any more than 4. I mean how would you sleep 10 kids in a 3 bedroom semi? As I neared the end of my friends tree, it became apparent that the families were smaller from the 60's onwards. Most only had 2 or 3 and the odd one had 4 but no larger than that.

My nanna once said to me when I was in mid teens, the best birth control was to say NO and cross your legs :-D :-D :-D Bless her but.....she had 14 children I kid you not so that didn't seem to work for her :-D :-D

Off to the shower now and then the chores before hopefully using my drill this afternoon.

Florence in the hebrides

I will listen out for the ambulance Florence :-D :-D :-D

I had to go for get another blood test this morning, the doctor is checking for all sorts of obscure things, so they took seven phials out. I hadn’t seen this women before, mercifully she got the needle in in one go thank goodness. The problem was every time she took one tube off, she reached over to the table to put it down and pick the next one up, the needle was twisting in my arm and it was painful. I was just about to tell her when the girl who was typing came and started to pass them to her.

I am off to Tescos again to get food for the weekend. It is odd because we had a street garden party for the queens jubilee and a few weeks ago when I was talking to the person who hosted it, she was keen to do it again, but was worried because it might be bad weather. Nothing has been said since, so nothing has been arranged. I is a shame because there are a couple of us who would be happy to host it. On the other hand, the weather doesn’t look good, so it wouldn’t be the same as if it had been a nice summers day

:-D :-D :-D :-D Linda, no ambulance required lol
I managed to drill 1 hole after I got the hang of it but it was soooo windy and is again today that I shall leave it until the weather is calmer. Otherwise I shall have little chips flying everywhere which could get in the eye. I guess I should wear sunglasses or goggles!

Its a bright sunny day but oh my the wind is blowing a hooley, in fact far too windy to put washing out if you want to see it again :-D :-D

I did a huge basket of ironing in 1 go and really should no better as i took a dizzy turn after 1/2 hour but managed to grab the chair beside me to sit down until it passed. I then made a cuppa and sat for awhile before finishing off
Standing in one position isn't good for me but i was determined to get it all done.

New hoover arrived and is working perfectly so old one up for sale and hope it goes quickly as its in daughters bedroom for now.

No street party here Linda but we have union jack flags up in the window and outside. Im making lots of things to have all day tomorrow. Basket of chinese chicken wings, rolls with smoked salmon and salad, variety of snacks, Danish pastries and some soft drinks. That should keep us going for most of the day lol

Dads having a great time in Corfu. Sundowners on the balcony every eve at 6pm....Large Archers and lemonade.

Hope all is well with anyone looking in today

Florence in the hebrides

Hi to all.
An awful day here today, started off really windy & very cold with it, as the day has gone on the wind is still banging on & now the rain has started, so yet another day indoors.

I am feeling a bit low at the moment & having to stay inside is starting to get me down, & hubby is not been feeling well these past few days & so the worrying about him is not helping.

Had the nurse in yesterday & thankfully hubbys pressure sore has almost healed, she was really pleased about that, me & hubby also as it was quite nasty.

Hubby doesn't have a TV in his room but he does have his laptop which he watches quite a lot, down loading whatever he is interested in, films, motor racing, factual programmes.

I'm about to make a start on our teas making our Friday Fish & Chips as usual, but hubby isn't eating very much atm so not sure if he will actually manage it this time !

Take care with your new toy ( drill) Florence.

Best go & shuckle the chips, hope evryone is well, talk again soon.

Joan.

I am sorry that you are feeling down Joan, it must be a hard time for you when your husband is not well.

We have just had thunder here, it is really dark and the rain has started. OH is going to get wet as he walked into the market square to meet a friend for coffee. I could have gone, but needed to go shopping for the weekend. I went to Aldi for a change, but I can never get all the things I want there. They can wait until next time I go to Tesco, except they had no skimmed milk and we get through lots of it OH will have to get some from the square tomorrow

Oh dear Joan, sorry to hear how you are feeling. It cant be easy as you are quite isolated where you live and you don't drive or have a bus you can use.
If its any consolation, since my brother went back south(Apr), I have not seen a single soul, had no other visitors or spoken to anyone except my daughter.

I do at times get quite down as well. Conversation runs dry in this house as daughter doesn't have the same interests as me or watch the news etc so I have noone to exchange views.
Obviously the weather plays a huge part in our lives as it dictates what we do daily.

Its still really wild here too so I cant get outside to play with my new toy :-(

Have you not been out with your daughter for shopping at all?

The feelings will pass but I can understand your anxiety what with hubby not being well.

Pop on here as much as you want just to say hello as there is always someone around to talk to.

When the weather stops you going outside, make a plan of jobs to do indoors no matter how small or mundane, it gives me a sense of purpose and something to do.

So enjoy your fish & chips today, lashings of salt & vinegar please
:-D

Linda, thunder? Oh my thats terrible. Hope hubby didnt get too wet.!

Right a pizza I made earlier needs my attention and a bowl of salad to make to go with it.

Florence in the hebrides

We have a thunderstorm at the moment Florence. It is odd because they are watching it on the Lightning map as well as looking out of the window. It is really

hello Florence & Linda.
Thankyou for your kind words.

Florence, yes I am still managing to go out with our daughter for the weekly shop, but I worry about hubby being left , he has very limited mobility now & he has to "promise" me he won't move out of his chair whilst I'm out, it takes us about 90 minutes including travelling time.

Having the nurse coming in once a week meant I had to leave the house unlocked on my shopping morning as they didn't always know which day they were coming, !!

I look forward to the going out for the shopping as I can see those I have come to know over the years & catch up with all the news, be it good or bad, it's really the only day I get out of the house & other then our daughter I don't see another soul from one week to the next, not sure how long I will be able to continue though,

I just wish the weather would get better & last for longer then a day or so, getting into the garden helps me, it cheers me up seeing all my plants flourish & watching the birds visiting the bird baths & feeders etc, & now our Swallows have arrived back.

Anyway enough of my grumbling, it's Coronation Day tomorrow & I am so looking forward to it.
I was 6 yrs old for the last one in 1953 & I remember it sooo well, the street party the fancy dress parade the decorated houses in our street & all the folk that lived in it, the Coronation mug that the children were given & I think we all got a Half Crown coin as well, what a day.

Joan.

Yes enjoy the Coronation tomorrow. We shall be sitting all day with a feast of goodies and I for one shall not be doing a single piece of housework lol.

I was only born in 1961 so this will be a first for myself and my daughter.

I was three when the last coronation took place, so I don’t remember it. There was a tea party fir all the local children in the Co-op hall. I have a photo showing the long tables with all the children sitting around them, wearing paper hats . The hall was decorated with lots of bunting. We were all given a china, cup, saucer and plate which I still have