General Chat

I have a water meter, so definitely don’t have an outside tap. I have two large barrels which collect water from the roof. I use that to water the pots and the hanging basket, OH uses it to wash the car. I only water plants in the garden when they first go in, after that they are on their own

AG - I think that a lot of people down here would also say we’ve got more water than we want at the moment. More due any minute.

I knew that one could get extra strong wind proof tunnels but I can’t get the picture of Florence hanging on for dear life whilst sailing over the gardens out of my head :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D@names
That made me chuckle today.

Most of the plants outside get a good watering when we have rain and I dont have to water them but in recent weeks, we have had no rain and so i have had to water them myself.
I may get a water butt to catch the rain water and have that beside the polytunnell.

Im planning to grow more flowers from seed and also veg like cucumbers, tomatoes, beetroot.I hope to have a long bench with shelves underneath to put all the pots and then, the top will be my working area for planting up things.

Its an exciting project to be planning for next spring.

If its that windy, I can assure you I don't venture out of the house but I can hang onto the steel washing line poles incase I fly away lol

No water meters up here at all but that doesn't mean we waste water just because we can. I prefer to fill the watering can for the pots as the hose is too fast and some gets wasted. If we don't get any decent rain, we will be on a hosepipe ban!

Its another drab grey day, no sun but breezy.

Daughter will be home later and no doubt will untidy the house in 5 minutes with the contents of all her bags!!Honestly, I ask her to go to Tesco for a pint of milk and shes comes back with 2 bags full of other things lol

Hope the weather has improved for those that got the downpours. My friend nr Wincanton drove through 2 ft of water and said it cam e down so quick, was dreadful.

Hope you are ok Joan and hubby too.

Well better crack on with cleaning the bathroom, next on me list of jobs!

Florence in the hebrides

It s actually sunny and warm outside, so I am going to go out for a litter pick. There are intermittent showers though, so I won’t venture too far from the house. I can do various small loops, so I won’t be too far away, I have just looked outside to see if the bird bath needs filling and wouldn’t you know it, it is raining :-(
Hopefully it will soon stop and then I can get out

The rain did stop quickly, so I went out and collected a large bin bag full of litter including six wine bottles. Then the rain really set in, so I came straight back. My most interesting find was a spotted nylon bag which had been thrown in the bushes on the side of the rough track which is a short cut through to the housing association estate. The school kids use it and throw all their cans and bottles into the bushes on their way home. I was intrigued as to what was in the bag, so I had a look. There was a nice plastic lunch box, which seemed to contain the remnants of the ingredients for a cookery recipe. There was a bag of flour, a whole block of butter with only a thin slice cut off it etc. In the bag was also an almost full bottle of golden syrup. I threw all those away, but have given the lunch box a good wash, Esme can use it when she makes her pretend picnics for all of her dolls.

Linda, I wonder if a child had their bag stolen from them and then thrown in the bushes.

I have a water meter thank goodness, we were much better off once we had it fitted. I do have an outside tap but am careful how much I use it. I have a water barrel as well. And the outside tap is turned off inside over winter . It is still off.

Linda, the contents sound like a child who had a cookery lesson maybe and maybe someone snatched their bag and through it into the bushes?

Probably Ann, but it was near the edge so would have been easy to get out.

We have a power cut here, it went off about 4.45pm. Son in law was on a zoom call with America demonstrating some software they are trying to sell to them :-(

It is off over a large area, they said it may come back on at 6pm, the lights flicked on and straight back off again around that time. Apparently they have got some people reconnected, but the latest time for us is now 7.30pm. Luckily I was making a Harissa chickpea stew with couscous for dinner. The stew part was cooked in one pot on the gas hob and I only needed to boil some water in a pan for the couscous.

Hi to all.
Well at last the sky is blue after several horrible grey misty days, it's a much better day & the sun is shining though we do have a bit of wind which can be so annoying.

I have been into the garden for a good hour, so that was a nice change after being couped up for most of last week, the most I did was some weedkilling over the gravelled areas, so that was a good jobe done.

I had to give the weekly shop a miss last Thursday due to our car breaking down !
Our daughter came for me as usual & swapped her car for ours as she always does, I don't like going in daughters car as it's a bit on the low side a "sporty" type & she is inclined to go too fast for me !!
She sticks to the speed limit obviously but that's too fast for ME, lol, Our car a POLO is better for me to get in & out of & travels at a more sedate speed !!

Anyway as we left the drive & travelled along our house road/track, there was an almighty bang, (thought to be a spring) it scared me to death & rather than get into daughters car I chose to stay home, not a happy bunny but no choice.

The car is now booked into the local garage to be sorted.yet another expense to have to deal with along with having to have a new hot water tank fitted as the current one has a leak, it's dripping at the bottom of the front, we are just woundering what the 3rd problem is gong to be !

Hubby not great, some days he's really down & not eating enough, then another day he's quite chirpy & enoys his meal/s, he's on salads at the moment.

Well it's time to get the pots washed etc before I sit down & rest whilst doing some of my crosstitching project.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Joan.

Oh dear Joan, I hope the car isn’t too expensive to repair. Do you drive it? It must be an expense just to keep it for your daughter to drive you.
It had been sunny here, but not very warm. The girls went out this afternoon, so I ended up doing extra housework. My daughter managed to drop an open carton of Apple juice on the kitchen floor this morning, she attempted to clean it up by just wiping it with a cloth. That just spreads the stickiness out, so while they were out, I did it properly with the mop and wood floor cleaner. The whole downstairs has oak flooring, so I did the lot while zi was at it.

Another hour and Eurovision will be starting, it is a family tradition to watch it. My daughter is keen, I am not so bothered. Eve wants to watch it, I suspect that is because she can stay up very late :-D

Hi Linda, no I don't drive, never have.
It is a bit of a pest having to keep the car but I prefer to travel in ours than daughters, I got stuck trying to get OUT of her car last time I tried it., never again, lol.

Whilst I am able & want to go out with her for my weekly shop we will stick to ours, hopefully for a while yet, I would miss not choosing my own food things & I would also miss having a chat to all the people that I have come to know over the many years we have lived here.
I really missed not going to the supermarket last Thursday.

Joan.

It is a nice sunny morning here, but not terribly warm.
I went to my slimming class this morning and was in the naughty corner for putting weight on, so I had better be good this week.

I went to Tesco and Lidl to get the food for the week. In theory I shouldn’t need to go again, but no doubt I will to get all the things that we suddenly can’t live without.

I hope everyone is OK with no great traumas.

The thread was almost on page two, I hope everyone is OK.

Oh dear I hope Florence is ok she never usually misses. Has she got visitors? I can’t remember

I had a really good day last Tuesday at the national memorial arboretum. Over 400 separate memorials as well as the main national military memorial. All so beautifully done, mist impressive
Since then it has been no. Stop gardening to bring it up to where it should be this time of year. Not there yet but I will get there.

I saw your photos, it looked to be a really good day out.

Florence was having a friend coming to stay, hopefully that is why she hasn’t been on the thread.

We went to the local garden centre for lunch today and I bought a few herbs to fill some spaces in my large herb tub

OH has been busy making a toy hoist for Esme. Four out of the six people in her school class are in wheelchairs, so they have to be hoisted in school, some of them use the vertical standers to be moved around as well. She loves playing schools and pretending to hoist her toys is always part of her games. She is quite inventive and often attaches them to a helium balloon and mimics the motor noise as she pretends to move them around. I bought her a small basket ball hoop on a stand last week, but it hasn’t made it into the garden. She declared it was Santas stander. She has a huge stuffed Santa which comes up to my waist which she loves to play with. He can’t walk, so he wears her old AFO’s ( leg braces). I managed to attach part of an old seat belt to the stand, so she can clip Santa on and move him around.
OH decided to make her a hoist out of wood, he even painted it pink. It has castors so she can move it around. I made the sling part. When she saw it, she was squealing in delight. She hasn’t stopped playing with it all night. A resounding success, but another thing to clutter up the house

:-(

She always sounds a very bright little girl and, from what you are saying she is able to cope with her disabilities at her young age. I am sure she is fascinating to watch playing and the hoist should be photographed and shown to other parents. Your OH is a clever man Linda. Is there any progress with the house buying?

Ah yes Florence was expecting her friend to stay so hope that is the reason.

Good morning chit chatters :-D

Im back after the most wonderful week with my oldest and dearest friend,

She arrived on Monday afternoon but the plane was an hour late arriving which did nothing for my BP! I started crying as soon as I saw her walking down the plane steps but after we hugged and cried a bit more, we were both fine.

So went to the car hire and then walked over to the car but it wasnt what I had hired!! This was a brand new 23 plate, a Nissan Duke with only 300 miles on the clock.

My friend said there was no handbrake or key for the ignition :-S Anyway was about to send daughter back over to the airport, when the 2 young men who served us came over. The handbrake is a little button and you start it by pushing a button!! All very hi tech and far too modern for us :-D :-D

Drove around the car park several times to let her get used to it and then ventured out on the main rd and headed into town. all was fine and did some food shopping etc, had a coffee and a look round the factory shop.

Headed home late afternoon.

She loved my little bungalow and wished they had something similar where she lives in Sussex.

So everyday we went out, to a local beach, the standing stones for lunch etc, over to my last house and visited my old landlady. Took lots of pics there as the scenery is beautiful. Went shopping in town and to a hotel for a meal on the thursday.

Also managed to the garden centre where I spent £100 on plants and a large bag of bird seed. She helped to plant up lots until the weather changed mid week. Nut we had 3 good days and then it was windy and rainy but it didnt matter really.

She flew off yesterday afternoon and today, i have been stripping beds and tidying up etc as you do after the guests have gone.

In all was the best week I have had in the last 2 years . Was so lovely going out to all these places and showing her around plus having coffees here and there.

All very quiet here now and myself and daughter are missing the chatter and laughter.,

She was amazed with her family tree and just couldn't believe how many pages it took and big it was. She is desperate to show her family but sadly it wouldnt fit in her cabin bag so left me money to post it to her.

So all back to normal now :-(

So very quiet on here, hope you all are well?
Not seeing Joan at all? Joan if you are looking in, please say hello, worry when we don't see you posting.

AnnG and Linda glad you both are ok.

Well loads of washing and tomorrow ironing for Scotland lol

Back soon

Florence in the hebrides

Delighted you had such an enjoyable week, Florence.
Lots of good memories and photos!

I am glad that you had such a lovely week Florence. It sounds like your garden will be lovely with all those new plants

This morning we went to my granddaughters school speech day, so posh frocks all round. They actually do two in one day, the poor staff must be shattered. The junior and middle school had theirs from 10-12am, then the upper school ( years 10 and 11) and sixth form had theirs in the afternoon.
We went to the morning one, it was very good, not at all like the boring things we used to have. The keynote speaker was Kevin Sinfield, he was excellent. They always have a huge posh marquee in the grounds and everyone gets an afternoon tea box , complete with Buck’s Fizz or orange juice. The food is always excellent. It is all free, well out of the fees of course :-D

Morning girls.
It sounds as though you had a really lovely time with your old friend Florence, it must have been such a nice change for you.

Well it's a wet day today after some rain in the early morning, it's off just now but there's a bit of wind & not at all warm !
Only been into the garden once this past week to do some odd spots of weedkilling, thankfully it stayed dry after I did it so it should have been able to start working.

Other than doing some household jobs during the past week I have been quite lazy, I got back to my crosstiting project, I haven't done very much of it for such a long time. It's quite a large picture of Edinburgh Castle & I have been doing it on & off for a loooong time now, it's coming along nicely but I will be glad when it's completed, it's going to be some time yet though, lol.

Hubby is not too bad, he varies from day to day, meals are the worst for him, he fancies things & then when I produce them he changes his mind , then I worry about him not eating as well as he should !

I'm going to have to go without my garden helper (11yr old grandaughter) for a few weeks, she broke her Collar Bone on Friday at school, looks a nsty break from the X ray pic, she is gutted as she is in the team at her Netball club & with lot's of games coming up she is not going to be able to be part of them, such a shame.

Well hubby will be looking for his his cuppa so I had better go & make it.

I hope everyone is well & the weather is better than ours.

Joan.