General Chat

Hello Joan, great to see you posting.
After my mum died, I got all the family photos and sorted them into 3 piles. One for me and 1 pile for each brother.

I made 3 albums. One of all my baby and younger days photos, one of mums baby pics and through her life and the last album I filled with all the family weddings and gatherings.

It does bring back memories and naturally its very emotional but all the cards and photos you have kept will remind you of happy times and memories. I have shown them all to my daughter and my friend when she came. It helps to keep the memories of our loved ones alive. So whenever you feel a bit down, get out the photos and look at them, I guarantee they will make you smile even if there are a few tears too.

It did clear a little here but is still dark and showery looking and quite windy.

My dad tel from Sussex earlier and said he had awful weather, gales and pouring hard so was going to spend the afternoon at an indoor garden centre and then have a bite in the cafe which is all under cover.

Linda, hope the storm isnt too bad and you don't lose power!

Better get on with the dishes now and then the kitchen is all sorted.

Joan, hope your weather improves so you can get in the garden. So glad your swallows came back too, lovely to hear that.

Florence in the hebrides

It has turned really black and the thunder has been rolling round. For a while there was no rain, but it is coming down hard now. We have fireesat for the TV, the signal keeps breaking up and it went off for a while. Daft OH has just gone outside to check the gutters

It is very good to see you Joan.
When my father died quite a few years ago now, I took charge of the family photos which were just in a leather case. As mum was still alive, I sat down with her and went through them writing on the back who the people were. I then put them into albums in as near to chronological order as I could estimate.
OH was given a lot of old photos of his family and is always saying he is going to sort them out, but he never gets round to it.

Yesterday I went out for the day with my daughter son in law and the girls. We went to the designer clothes outlet at York. SIL went off on his own because he needed to buy a suit for next Saturday when Eve’ s school speech day is. It is always quite a posh affair and as he has put weight on, he needed something new. He said he had bought a green suit, but when we got home it is actually pale grey.

I wanted to look for a black jacket as I have a couple of very smart dresses, but no jacket to go with them. My daughter managed to get a new dress and some sandals and the girls got lots of bits, but with looking after them, I didn’t have time to look for myself. :-(

So this morning, I went into Harrogate in my own and managed to get a jacket from Marks which will do nicely. I went early and before I left, I checked the supposed stock availability and should have had a choice of three different types, but when it came down to it, there was only one in my size. I also bought a summer dress from Seasalt because they had 20% off today.

This afternoon we have put up lots of the pictures in the house which makes things look much better. There are just some large collage ones to go up in the study and one of the bedrooms, but they can wait until later.

Hello to everyone.
Sorry to have been so long in getting back to the thread.

I have not been my best recently, I am still finding things difficult & trying to adjust to the big change in my life is not easy, the days are long & the nights are even longer.
Our daughter does her best to help me but she has plenty to do without me to worry about.
....................................................................................................................
Anyway girls it sounds as though you have all been very busy with one thing or another, Linda with the new house & various projects, Florence in the garden, I hope those of you who have had the Cobid jabs are feeling better now.

I have not been able to get into the garden much, not been great weather here recently, we have had rain, fog & wind, with a bit of sun here & there.
I would like to tidy up the Daffies but it will need to warm up a bit for me to venture outside.

I spent the weekend sorting through the old family photos, they were so mixed up, but now they are in a better order & each family & various places in different labelled boxes.

I also went through all the various cards that we have kept over the years, Husband/Wife birthday & anniversary cards, Get Well cards that Jack was sent whenever he was ill or in hospital over the years, Fathers day / Mothers day cards including some home made ones from when the children were much younger.
There are even some old letters from people that are long gone.

Oh my, such memories, I shed a lot of tears over the wekend I can tell you.
I really should throw the various cards out but I just can't do it so everything has been put back in the ottoman which holds all the "family stuff"..

I had a nice surprise yesterday when I noticed one of our Swallows had come back, they are a few days late this year & I was worried they weren't coming !
Jack loved having the Swallows here even though they made quite a mess on his garage floor.

Our daughter took me to Home Bargains this morning & as usual we both spent more than we had intended !
I always write a list but I never stick to it, lol.

Time to go now & have a think about what to have for my tea, take care everyone.

Joan.

Afternoon all.

Another foggy and damp wet day here so an indoor day again today!

But I have done a basket of ironing and usual chores so all tidy now. I have just got a bargain of 3x 40l compost free bags for £21.00 instead of £36.00 :-D :-D :-D

I have 3 large tubs to fill plus smaller tubs so that will do the job nicely. Should have it next week the delivery says.

As its a bank holiday here, the roads are quiet but buses as normal 2 hourly and all shops open except the banks and council offices. No postal deliveries either.

Off to make some light lunch and decide what to do for the remainder of the day..choices choices lol

Florence in the hebrides

Well I went out and delivered the scones to my neighbour and we chatted for 10 minutes. But then the fog reappeared and has been here all afternoon , the sun went and def not come back. The air feels damp but at least the plants are still wet from last night so that gives them a chance to settle and no need to water again tonight.

No idea what to make for tea tonight but nothing heavy, maybe a salmon salad or something similar.

Was doing some family research but reached a dead end for now. Shall go back to it later.

No sun, Florence.
We have the same low mist/fog that you have.
I can only see the lowest part (about a quarter) of the hill on the other side of the glen.
Cool and damp. Not exactly raining, but the air feels wet, if you know what I mean.

Afternoon everyone.
Well as predicted the sunshine has gone and thick fog, damp and drizzly instead....back to normal weather!!

So whilst I was in a baking mood, I decided to make the oven flour scones as i had promised the chappie next door I would make him some this weekend to say ty for his invaluable help with my plant.

The first batch were ok but think I put too much syrup in them and not enough milk as thought they were a little dry but with some jam they were tasty enough. So made a 2nd batch and they turned out great. I cut 3 large rectangles into 6 squares and once cooled, I shall pop round to the neighbour with them.

One of the good things about living in a very rural off grid area is that, folk will always help if they can and they don't always hold out their hand for money. Making a batch of scones or some cakes for a small job is very acceptable. I guess its from days gone past when people didn't have much money so they returned a favour by helping out with something else rather than exchange money.

Linda, glad you got the phone thing sorted!

ArgyllGran, have you still got the sunshine today?

Joan, I do hope you are keeping ok, cant help but worry about you as not seeing you for awhile. <3

Well amazingly just now, the fog seems to be lifting...yay and the sun is trying to peep through the clouds :-D :-D

off to get some fresh air and inspect the plants I potted yesterday to see if they survived!

Florence in the hebrides

He hadn’t just come in Florence, I misheard that. He said that he woke up and was worried that his bike time trial ( he is one of those mad keen Lycra clad cyclists) was on Saturday morning not Sunday morning as he thought, so he got his phone out to check. He then put the phone in his pyjama pocket while he went to the loo and must have pocket dialled me. When I rang him back, he saw my number and was worried in case some was wrong at my end until he realised that he had actually called me.

Oh well at least he was fine. I could never have gone back to sleep if I hadn’t rung him back to check.

Oh Linda that's hilarious :-D :-D :-D

Who indeed checks their phone at anytime whilst sitting on the loo? I'm never in the bathroom that long! But if my son rang me at 1am, I would have been furious especially as I don't sleep that well.

I turn off my phone when I go to bed. If there was some emergency, I cannot get anywhere in the middle of the night etc so people can phone after 8am if its urgent.

Well its still very warm & sunny and hardly a cloud in the sky. It probably wont get dark here at all tonight. In mid June, the light fades around 11.30 but not dark, then after about 12.30, it starts to get light again.

Not very hungry so shall go off now and just make a bowl of my greek yoghurt and fruit, something very light and maybe one of those long ice pops for desert ;-)

Well, the walk was interesting, but very tiring. Just over and hour turned into one and three quarter hours. As soon as it had finished, we went for coffee and cake to reward ourselves.
I feel very tired, mainly because my phone rang just before one this morning. I have it set so that it doesn’t ring unless the person dials three times. The only exceptions are my immediate family when it will ring straight away. It was my sons number on What’s app, I could hear him in the background, but then it went off. So I rang his mobile, I am sure he said that he had use come in, but I was groggy, so might have misheard. He then said that he had woken up and gone to the loo and had been checking his phone. Who checks their phone on a nocturnal loo visit :-S. I will ring him tonight and find out what was going on. It took me ages to go back to sleep again

I'm glad you've still got the sun, Florence.
We had three hot days, but today is cool and cloudy. There was a little rain during the night, which the garden was needing.

This morning planted out some lettuce seedlings which my daughter-in-law gave me yesterday, so I hope they survive and grow well.
They're in a raised planter, to keep them away from the rabbits.
I also have some at a much earlier stage, which I sowed a few days ago, in a seed tray on the kitchen windowsill.

The seed tray also contains a couple of red lentil seedlings, which weren't intended.
The lentils fell onto the compost by mistake when I was cooking a few days ago.
I just left them there, and now they're growing .
That'll be interesting. Google has varied opinions on the flavour of the sprouts.

Phew, its hot!! So I have been very busy but now retreated indoors as was getting a mild headache. The sun was on the back of my head for awhile.

So I planted up the pansies, 2 in each rectangular hanging pots on the fence. I have 4 planters in all and they do look very pretty now.

Next I got a large pot and put a mixture of pansies and some other pink flowers?? That is outside the front door and looks lovely too. Her friend bought a ceramic pot and some plants and asked me if I could plant them up and she will call next week for it as she has no clue about plants!! Its a huge pot and used loads of my compost to fill it, she's not that daft about plants lol

So now, Im indoors with a coffee in the cool front room as the sun has now moved round towards the back. Once the sun goes down later, we shall begin the mammoth task of watering all the flower pots, takes ages.

Told daughter not to buy anymore bedding plants until the end of the month.

Linda, hope you and OH enjoy your walk this afternoon.


Ann the gloss paint used to be so strong and yes it would give you a headache and also used to make me wheezy with my asthma.

Shall look in later

Florence in the hebrides

It is grey and overcast here, about twelve degrees, but no rain forecast. We have signed up to go on an archeological walk around the town this afternoon. It is just over an hour and on the level, thank goodness for that because it is a really hilly town

My daughter drew the short straw today and got to take Esme to Lightwater Valley. I did offer , but she chose mummy.

The paint doesn’t smell Ann, it is all quick drying these days and the gloss is water based. I think it was the old oil based gloss which had that awful smell. OH is putting all of the brass fittings back on the internal doors. He took everything off to clean them up as they had years worth of paint on them. It is taking him ages because the hinge covers are so fiddly. We didn’t have the double doors between the lounge and the dining room painted because we are going to replace them with glazed doors. Next to the newly painted frames, they look really yellow. We need to find a joiner to replace them, the one who did the floors was supposed to give us a quote, but we never heard back from him. As well as hanging the new doors, we also want the direction in which they open changing, so it is slightly more complicated

I have been holding off buying plants for the wall baskets as well Florence as it is too early. The two hanging baskets out the front which the girls got me for my birthday are fine because they are mainly pansies, but eventually, I will refill them with summer plants

Morning all.
Well its already 16 degrees and going up to 19 by midday but it is a bit cloudy just now,.

looking ahead, tomorrow sees the temp going back down to around 11/12 so back to normal.

Daughter bought some plants yesterday although I said its a bit early, so I shall have to try and plant them up. im still aching in my thighs! I have a little square table which is very light to carry so put some paper on that and then the pots on top and that saves me bending down when potting up.

For those that have none, sending down some sunshine as its good to share :-D :-D

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

I am another one who provides a good meal for midges and mossies. I always got bitten when on holiday and my OH hardly had a bite on him.

I am sure that you will be able to get lots of jobs done now Linda with the painter gone. It is very disruptive having workmen in, whether indoors or out. But Indoors is worse of course. Does the whole house smell of paint? I hate that smell, always gives me a headache.

I hate midgies as well Florence. I can sit next to OH and he doesn’t get a single bite while I am covered in them.

Thank goodness the painter has finally gone and no we won’t be giving him a review. OH is going round counting up all of the things he needs to touch up or put right :-(
There is still a reasonable amount of painting still to do, but OH will do that in his own time.

It will be lovely to have a lull with no workmen in, but I have just asked for some quotes to install a Nest thermostat instead of the current one. It is only three years old but is in a stupid place tucked away in a corner under the boiler. You can’t get to it to see to programme it. We had a Nest in our old house and it was so much easier being able to control it from my phone or iPad

To celebrate having the kitchen back to myself, I have made three batches of soup this afternoon. Pea and courgette, Leek and potato and Carrot and red pepper. I now have nineteen of the plastic microwave mugs cooling down ready to go in the freezer. When we moved, obviously the freezers were defrosted. I have a fridge freezer in the utility room, but another full size freezer in the garage. There was not much in that one until yesterday when I had a bit of a restock, but there is still plenty of space for the soup. It is a pain having to go out to the garage to get to it, in the last house, there was a door from the kitchen straight into the garage which was so much easier. Roll on June when the new kitchen goes in. I am having a full size floor to ceiling fridge and a full size freezer built in.

I hope that your aches subside Florence, my arm is a lot better today, so last night I was able to turn over in bed without waking myself up.

There was a wildfire not far from here yesterday.
Five fire engines, and a road closed for some hours.

Hmmm the midges will be here soon enough so out with the SSS spray, it does help me as they eat me alive! This weather is set to change on Sunday so will be back to our usual then of 12 degrees and chilly breeze lol

Wildfires! I don’t think that will be a problem down here. The ground is still sodden and plenty of water still in low lying fields.

Not looking forward to the mozzies and midgies when the weather warms up.