General Chat

Just walking round the garden an there are quite a few honey bees around but normally this time of year there are also lots of bumble bees but there are hardly any this year.

Been busy doing HW. Arn't I a good girl? I have swept down all the cobwebs in the kitchen off the light and all round the edges and througherly hoover kitchen and diner and a bit of the hall.

The sun came out mid morning and its now 20 degrees. I have washed down the doors in the hall and wiped the skirtings. Also had a go at a bit of mold in the bedroom on the wallpaper and in the spare room where the drainpipe goes down the wall on the outside and it had come away from its fixing and the water was running down the outside of the down pipe so the wall got a bit damp. BIL fitted it back on for me a couple of weeks ago.

I shall have to go and have a look at those poppies as they sound lovely. Its a great idea and I think more places should do it.

High to Gwyn nice to see you popping in. Are you all keeping well?

I bet you're glad the dentist is over Anng. Nice weather for a walk there and back but I hope the leg is ok tonight. Are you still doing the wheat bag?

Its good G has'nt tried to take the coating off the new dish washer tablets if they are liquid. You'll have to get those in the future. Its a bit off the builder leaving the cement untidy your side I would have thought you could have mentioned it to your neighbour and he could have made him come back and do something about it. as he did'nt do the pointing your side. Its a bit off leaving a mess but you seem please the walls a little higher now.

Afternoon all,

Gwyn those railing look lovely with all the poppies attached .
I think the link seems to have widened our pages again ,I wonder why it does that , oh thats better Gwyn I see you've removed it , I just manged to see the poppies before it went .

Been shopping and bought two balls of red wool ,only went in qd for wool but also came home with Miracle feed,a tray ,more outside lights and a new plastic container to hold some of my fat quarters .
Went into Aldi for our weekly shop and I bought a nice pot in there that I'm going to plant one of my Hostas in and that was the morning gone
Suns out and it's really warm again so I'm going to sit out this afternoon and do some poppies .

Afternoon everyone.

Just been deleting my previous post, which had s t r e t c h e d the screen so it was hard to view :-|
Well done Ann. I know you like to walk if you are able, so I hope your leg doesn't pain you after your exercise.

Mandy
You are doing well with your clear out of the shed and now are starting on your crochet project.
In Folkestone, the war memorial is set at the top of a fairly steep hill, where the troups marched down to the docks to embark for the First World War, many never to return.
Later, in their memory, the road was renamed The Road of Remembrance and the railings alongside have an ever-growing collection of knitted and crochet poppies.

Morning All,

Sunny here and 15 degrees but it feels warmer. I saw something I'd never seen before on my way back from the shop. The cars in front seemed to have slowed down and then I saw a Kite being chased by some Crows. Then to my left another Kite was flying quite low and swooping to try and catch a little bird in a flock that were trying to escape. Luckily they all did.

I was still smiling at OH and the dishwasher tablets this morning Mel. The new ones are like little dissolvable cushions with liquid inside you can see instead of powder, also dissolvable but with a thicker dissolvable bit so he hadn't thought he needed to take that off those with having liquid inside. That was lucky spotting the Barn Owl. I haven't seen one for many years now.

After his two migraines yesterday, OH woke with one of his bad headaches on one side of his head this morning and took some paracetamol. They often seem to happen in bed and he thinks the way he lies might be one cause as the doc told him it could be his osteoporosis. The latest doc seems to think they may be connected with the iritis he had a few months ago. The scan should show if it's that. He lay in this morning and seems much brighter now. He'd fetched the washing in while I was out and put it away.

Silly me I hadn't thought to hose the car down AnnG, so that's a good idea! I hope your leg will be ok when you go out. I think some things just take time to get better. My knees feel a little better each day, but it's taking longer than I would like. It's really hard getting in and out of my low car at the moment as it's the right knee that's worst and the one you use to straighten with your weight on it. I just have to take my time and be careful. Yes, OH thinks the builder was a bit of a 'bodger.' It was just him and his wife who mixed the cement and clened up the old copings and bricks for him. He hasn't even smoothed the cement between all the joints between the bricks our side of the wall and left some of them with rough cement hanging out as he'd left it too long and it had set. At least it's done now though and looks much better than it did and is a bit higher.

I don't fancy any of the jobs I should get on with and have just cooked a brunch for us. I sprinkled a little grated sheese on some large open mushrooms to have with it and they were really tasty. I know, I'd better sort the house insurance next.

Back from the dentist. managed the walk round and back OK, I will see how my leg is later. but it feels ok at the moment. Not completely pain free but a lot better than it was. Just got to wait while my mouth unfreezes so I can have some lunch now.
Beautiful day here at the moment sun shining and 17 degrees.

Morning girls,

Dull and grey here today but its 15 degrees. Pc says mostly cloudy. You get used to having nice sunny bright days and then this and it makes you feel down. Got up at 6am for the loo and then slept till 9.15am !!

Eight years old Anng. I can't beleive it its like Mandy's Jake first he was alittle boy now he is at work. The years go by so quickly.

I must get on as I have to get up the post van before it leaves at 11am.

Good morning all 12 degrees already so it is getting warmer. Hopefully we will get a bit of summer.
Dentist at 11.30. This time I am more concerned by having to walk there and back than the actual treatment. :-)
Mandy well done on getting rid of all the stuff from the shed. No doubt you will soon start to fill it up again.
It seemed strange to me when I gave the barbecue away as we were still having barbecues well into the Covid year. T liked to do them, it was the only cooking he did. I am used to the space now where it stood and have utilised it.
Ann, that was not a good builder then who built the wall, not very thoughtful. No way should you have bits of cement/concrete left on your garden. Not very thoughtful of your neighbour either, they could have warned you re the dust. Have you thought of turning the hose on the car to get rid of the gritty dust?
It is my Great Granddaughters 8th birthday today. don't the years go so quickly? Seems only a couple of years since she was born.
Mel glad you have got rid of the tick. It must be the deer that have brought them in. You need to cover up when going into the longer grass area.

Gosh I had to laugh at that Ann but never having a dish washer I would'nt have known they had a coating on them. Do these new ones not have a coating that you can see? or is he still taking it off? Another man who dos'nt read instructions I suppose.

Its been a beautiful day here again and I went and had my tiny tick off and I asked the nurse if she had got the head out and she said yes and opened up the piece of lint stuff she had and said O its still alive , pressed here fingers togther and said Its not now!

Vera your slabs are looking great. My patio is in those same slabs and oh used to pressure wash it for me but I shall have to do it myself now. I did do half the decking and BIL did the rest for me. I still have the top decking to do too but am a bit frightened as to whether it will go right through it the way its rotting.

Mandy what a lovely idea to cover the pill box in poppies it will look great. It will also keep you busy for ages. Good you got rid of another scooter today and the BBQ to your son you'll soon have so much room in the shed you won't know what to put in it but you can always put wood in it for the winter. I agree about the blimmin football. We hav'nt had Doctors all last week and this.

As I went out the back door just as it was getting dark I saw a flash of white behind the big beech tree down Prickerly Bottom and looked and the Barn Owl flew right past me on the edge of the decking where it goes down to the back field. Its the first time I have seen it this year. I used to shut the chickens in at twilight and thats when I used to see it but I don't do that now.

Evening All,

Got another wash dried overnight and OH has just put another out so I hope it stays dry. It’s been sunny here today and the builder came back at last and appears to have finished the wall. I wish I hadn’t said it didn’t matter about him trampling on our border now, as he obviously chose to do that rather than tread on the neighbour’s own garden! All the soil is as flat as a pancake with lumps of cement everywhere for us to clean up. I’d left my car close to the garage door but in the driveway and only realised he was here when I heard him using a grinder to clean the old coping stones and saw a cloud of gritty dust heading for my car! I was doing my course online so couldn’t move it and OH was laying down with the aftermath of a second migraine. Later I took the car for a spin to the shop and it has blown most of the dust off, as the screen looks clear again now. After a few more trips to be sure all the grit has blown away I’ll take it to the carwash. I don’t want them rubbing the grit and scratching it with their big chamois leather mitts.

Mandy that’s really good that you are finding good homes for your shed items. People will be detouring past your front garden to see what you have next if word gets around. What a good idea to crochet some poppies to help the lady making them. It’s a nice feeling to know you are helping. I have a bead pattern somewhere for a poppy, yet another project for me to do!

Vera and AnnG, thanks for reminding me to cut and paste in Word which I am now doing. I have done it that way before but keep forgetting. It’s the new layout of this browser. You could open different sites, one on top of the other, then close them one at a time by clicking the cross top right hand of the screen. Now there is a bar at the left hand side with an icon for each screen and where you click to close each one. Clicking at the top right, which I can’t get out of the habit of doing, just closes everything!!

Mel there have been warnings put at the big park with the old trees I used to go to to check for ticks because of the Deer there, as they are apparently attracted to large animals. It’s good it is where you could see it and must be good to have got rid of it.

Vera your slabs are cleaning up really well. It makes such a difference to the look of the garden when they are all clean. You must have been glad that the talk turned out to be interesting so you enjoyed the evening.

I reported so many scam emails last night (2 days worth) I reached some sort of limit and had to send the rest today. I also got one of those scam phone calls in the morning saying they were my bank, unusual activity blah blah. No asking who I was or saying which bank they were, so clearly a recorded scam. It’s the first one of those I’ve ever had.

OH made me chuckle tonight. He deals with the dishwasher, does most of the loading, runs it when full and empties it. He noticed some dishwasher tablets I’d recently bought and wanted to know whether they were the same as the last ones I got as they were much better than the ones he was using before. ‘What was wrong with the old ones’ I asked and noticed they were ones I’d used before with no problems. ‘They’re awful’ he said. ‘In what way?’ I asked. ‘Oh they fall to bits as you put them in the dishwasher compartment and the cellophane takes ages to get off’.’ Cellophane?.....the penny dropped! He’d only been peeling off the clear, gel coat on them that holds the contents together and that dissolves during the wash!! lol. :-D

Evening all,

Oh Ann I'm glad I'm not the only one to loose a post but it's so annoying as I seem to lose it right at the end of all the typing ,hope you manage to post OK today.

Oh Mel I expect you got the tick from all the weeding you've been doing ,you said the other day you had a thistle taller than you ,hope the nurse has got it out for you .

Vera the slabs will look so much better when they are done it's surprising how bad they get ours were quite green in places where they don't see the sun.

Colin has cut the legs off the two troughs he made that we tried to grow veg in with not much success and he's going to put some trellis on the back of them and I thought I would have a couple of honeysuckle in each one with something else in the front but I haven't decided what yet ,I want something that will come each year and something about two foot high .

Son came this morning and took our barbecue and gas bottle so thats some else out of the shed, we haven't used it for a few years now and they needed another one so we said have ours it saves them buying another one .
Another scooter went that I put out the front so I'm pleased that we haven't had to take these things to the tip and that someone will be able to use them .

The blooming football seems to throw everything out of the way on the tv channels ,I noticed eastenders is on bbc 2 and the sewing bee tonight.

I've started on crocheting some poppies ,on fb the British Legion were asking if anyone could help make poppies to cover over a pill box they have in a reflective garden near the railway station ,the lady said it would take her quite a while to make and tie all the poppies on a net to go over the pill box so that's why they were asking if people could help make some ,I had to hunt for red wool and all I had was a small ball so I've only made three so far until I can buy some more red , it gives me something to do and will be nice if I can see mine in withe all the several hundreds I should think they would need to cover it .
It's been really warm out today let's hope it lasts.

Just had my shower and I noticed a little black spot on my chest. I think I have another tick!!! Got an appointment this afternoon with the nurse to remove it. I thought I had an itch and just scratched it and did'nt think anymore about it till I saw it today. Its only tiny.

Morning girls.

Been up since 7.38am and when I came back in the bedroom there was a stag and deer out the back. I stood and watched as the stag was going towards the doe and then he disappeared into the trees but she tayed eating the bushes and things in the back field and then I saw a quick movement I think twice and I am wondering if she has her baby thats very quick or is it two again. We've had one with two before a few years ago. I shall have to keep my eyes peeled. Its too tiny to get over the fence at the moment but I shall watch out the back and if theres a chance of a pic I will take one.

Its 13 degrees here and pc says mostly sunny so after the shopping has come I may do some more gardening today. I can't get into anything till I know its come and pout away. I have one sub today and its a meal for one beef dinner and I have never seen that on Asda before so I tried to look it up but I can't find it. Its a sub for the minted lamb and colcannon mash.

good morning all up early again. 9 degrees and bright. Hope it is going to be another nice day. Not that I have anything planned.

Vera hope you slept ok last night, so annoying when you wake after only a couple of hours and can;t get back to sleep. I woke at 5am this morning and then leg started to ache as it had stiffened up in the night. Well from previous waking at 2ish. anyway got up at 0615.
Strange about that tire. I suppose it is not possible that it was let down by some joker going past your friends house?
Those photos of your slabs just show how dirty they get and we don't realise. I was amazed after Jake did mine to see they were not stone coloured but almost the cotswold cream colour.

Mel hope you had a good night too. and Ann how annoying to lose the post. I, like Vera, sometimes draft my reply and Copy and paste it.

Hope you have a good nights sleep tonight Vera, sweet dreams................

Its so annoying when you lose a post and most of the time I can't remember what I wrote in the first attempt.

I am signing out now so see you all in the morning. night night.

What a beautiful day it has been. Summer seems to be here at last, though it could be gone again tomorrow.

Just got in from our club meeting tonight. The speaker had a good clear voice so she was easy to hear and she talked about some American film stars and what they did during WW2. She concentrated mostly on James Stewart, Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich who were all very patriotic and very brave. It was particularly difficult for Marlene Dietrich as she was German born; her home town was Berlin and her mother was still there. It was more interesting than I expected. I even won some biscuits in the raffle so it was a good night all round.

Mel, we haven't done anything about the "puncture" as the tyre appears to be fine. On Friday OH pumped it up enough to safely do the 5 minute drive back from our friends' house. Later that night he pumped it up to the correct pressure and it hasn't gone down at all. He's checked it several times. It's a complete mystery :-S. We'll see what happens when we next drive it. I don't think we are out tomorrow. I was going to take the car to town to collect my meds on Wednesday but I might get OH to come with me in case the tyre goes down again.

Sorry you lost your post Annx. If I am doing a long post I often type it in Word and then c&p it.

I shall shortly be off to my bed as I've been awake since 3 am. I will probably read but if I am in bed and feel my eyelids drooping I can put the book down, turn the light off and snuggle straight down.

Evening All,
Lost a post earlier, so will try again in the morning. :-|

I meant to ask aboiut the puncture Vera. Have you had it done and did it go down again?

Done the big pond filter and corned the chickens and done a bit of painting. Fed the fish and did a little drill out of some jug handles. Now I am going to have a cuppa. Its been a beautiful day and I thik after my COT and a danish I may go and have another go at the road.

Keep it up Ann I used mine on my arm that time I hurt it and eventually it worked.

I have been up the village and posted a pardel and bought myself a naughty cake for afternoon tea. Just had some toast and marmite for lunch and before that I cleaned the big pond filter again. With this expensive food I bought which is the one oh always used during the summer I have not had so much foam on top of the filter which is good as it seems to be working much better now.

Aunty Joy rang this morning and we had a good old chinwag for 44 mins. I'm pleased she rang me! She had a hip op 2 weeks ago and she is one of those people who can'nt stay indoors and has to be out most of the day. She did work in the charity shops in Bideford to get her out of the house. I bet she is so bored not being able to go out. She tells me her second girl is thinking of moving to Exeter from Bideford as she was to see her grandchild grow up. You would really think it would'nt be too much trouble to go there once in a while but there you go. If it was me it would'nt stop me going once every month or even twice a month. Its about 42 miles from Bideford to Exeter.

I also asked about my aunt in Woodford Bridge, Mum's brothers wife, as I did'nt have a card from her this Christmas past.

Its funny the things you remember thinking about Aunt Yvonne she was married to mums brother Roy who has now sadly passed but mum never called him Roy she called him Pim. I asked her once why? but can't remember what she told me. It could have been that Joy could'nt say Roy so she called him Pim but she never did when they were older.