General Chat

Morning all
Was rudely awoken before 8am to the sound of very loud thunder eeeek. I stuck my head under the duvet waiting for the flash of lightening but it didnt happen thank goodness.

Very wild and wet here with some hefty showers. Today we are going to be having a full tidy up and early Spring clean followed by some baking later this afternoon. I have wet washing to get dried off as tomorrow the forecast is yet again pretty stormy with winds of 70+ mph!

Aside from that its very quiet here. hardly any post thesedays and village is like a ghost town as I guess everyone is stuck indoors. Even the busy road is quiet today. No ferries so shops will be empty as no ferries either tomorrow. So lucky we got all our things so are fully restocked now.

Hope all is well with everyone

Take care

Florence in the hebrides

Very wet here - but not particularly windy today, for a change.

I hope it calms down soon for you, Florence, and the ferries start running again.
The lightning you waited for last night had already happened . It comes before the thunder - or at least appears to, as light travels faster than sound.

I've given in, and ordered a new freezer, but smaller than the old one. The old one is a tall freezer, but the new one will be under the counter.
Had a terrible time trying to pay for it online. My Android phone, which I use for receiving One-time Passcodes, seems to be getting a very weak Vodafone signal this week, although my ancient basic phone has a good signal, and usually the Android is good too. Maybe the recent stormy weather (which did include some lightning) has affected the mast.
I just wasn't receiving any OTP when I tried to pay for the freezer. Had to pay by Paypal eventually, as I had a different phone registered with them.

Now I wait, as delivery won't be until 9th February.

I hope you're OK, Joan, and that you now have a date for your move, Linda.

Good afternoon everyone.
I only have one banana, so need to go to the supermarket this afternoon :-D
Florence, I forgot that because I am so ancient, I get an annual eye test.

Yesterday morning we went to see the new house to measure up for curtains etc. We both thought that it was smaller than we remembered and a lot more dated. The dated bit doesn’t matter because we are going to replace just about every single thing in it. OH worked out that the lounge is 83% of the size of this one and the dining room is 80%. The kitchen is larger though at 105%. Having said that the rooms here are large, so downsizing is not a bad thing at our age.
Thankfully they have decided to leave the lounge and dining room curtains, plus the blind in the main bedroom. The curtains are going to be replaced along with every thing else, but at least we will have some until we get round to it.

Our buyers for this house came this morning to measure up as well. They said that they are hoping to exchange by the end of next week and complete a couple of weeks after that . We better get packing. The timings have to be agreed with the people in the house we are buying of course. I felt sorry for them because they were all ready to move before Xmas, but when the chain collapsed, they lost the house they were going to move into. So now they are going to move in with her mother until they find somewhere else.

I hope everyone is fine, especially Joan who hasn’t listed for a while

Well I decided to make my vegan cupcakes and add mashed banana to use up some of my extras! The cupcakes are made by whisking oil and milk, van essence and golden syrup before adding that to the dry ingredients. Its a great recipe for me as eggless and fatless. Not sure how they will turn out as the banana mixture has made a slightly thinner batter but i'm sure they will be edible.

Daughter then wants to put vanilla icing on top, a Betty Croker tub.

A bit worried like you Linda as not heard from Joan for a few days. So hope all is ok?

Daughter is going to make some oaty biscuits using GF oats. She made some last week and my neighbour said could she make more as she is GF, so of course she said yes. So kitchen hype of activity but.....i have washed up all my bowls and jugs so work top was all clean and now I dare look ;-) But she is a good baker just messy lol

Boy im coming out in sweats today as that's the steroid injection getting into my blood. My cheeks feel like they are burning! It will settle over next 3 days and I shall be pain free and my sinuses also all cleared so well worth it.

So just waiting on me cupcakes, cant wait to have one later once they are cool.

Curry for tea, naan, Tzatziki and rice can't wait for that either mmmn

Still raining hard and very windy and so glad we are both indoors all cosy.

If you add oil to your cupcakes, how are they fatless Florence?

It is a nice sunny morning here, somOH is giving the car a good wash as all the motorway join the rain recently made it very dirty.

The people buying our house came yesterday to measure up. He said that they are hoping we can exchange contracts by the end of this week. Then we could agree a completion date, probably within two weeks from then. I hope we can find a removal van easily, but until we exchange , we can’t book one.

I have been through all of my shoes again this morning and put even more in a bag for gage charity shop. I have packed the summer and smart shoes into a box, so I just have my winter selection downstairs in the utility room.

Still no sign of Joan, I do hope that she is OK.

I have just done the rspb annual garden bird survey.
We had blackbirds, blue tits, coal tits ,collard doves , magpies and a robin.
We do have other species, but they come at a different time of the day, so I couldn’t count them in my hour watch

Afternoon all

Well its wild at 70+ mph just now and really surprised electric is still on but not complaining!

Linda by fatless I mean no butter, margarine etc and no eggs but yes veg oil is used.

Been going through all my nail varnishes etc, lipsticks, lotions & potions and have thrown out some things that are more than 2 years old So that cleared a huge space and now I just have a smaller basket for those smaller beauty products.

Broken up boxes from xmas too that we really don't need as have loads in the hall cupboard , ...well we did but I have broken them up and cleared a good space so I can now see where things are. Infact i found a large jar of Nescafe!! Must have been on offer and bought 2 so this is a spare one.

Hope you exchange soon linda. We have to wait for the Freeholder to complete the questionnaires on the property and that can take ages so the sol said!! So I am just waiting now.

I'm going off as the wind is gusting really high just now and dont want to lose the post.

Stay safe all

Florence in the hebrides

Well, its a bit calmer now and we only lost power for a very short time.

Daughter made some more GF baking so Im sure the neighbour will be round for a coffee as she is GF too lol.

Im running around today as the steroids have kicked in and given me so much energy plus I have full smell & taste which is wonderful. :-D Face is still feeling flushed but hopefully by tomorrow that will subside.

Hope everyone else looking in is keeping safe and warm

Florence in the hebrides :-D

It has been a calm day here, although it was cold this afternoon. Yesterday, I noticed a lot of McDonalds rubbish thrown out of a car at the top of my road, so I went out for a litter pick this afternoon. I picked that up and then at the end of the road, I turned right onto a country lane . OH and I always clear about two miles of this road in the spring as part of the 5k spring clean challenge, but we won’t be here this year. So I decided to do some now. I didn’t get very far before I had to stop and turn back because my bag was full. Luckily I had my litter picking trolley with me because the bag was so heavy. There were lots of vodka and beer bottles which people throw out of car windows. I don’t know if I will have time to do any more as packing will be a priority now.

Morning all

All calm now after the storm and the sun is shining, so a lovely day. Bin day too and normally wet and windy but so pleased its not.

A long list of things that need my attention this week including lots of paperwork etc. Ironing basket is overflowing too. I also want to finish the family tree im working on before doing another thats half finished!. I just want to tie up all those loose ends as hate having things half finished.

Finished the book The Thursday Murder club and really enjoyed it. I have another 2 in the set to read by Richard Osman.

Yesterday, I gutted my makeup basket and oh my.....so many nail varnishes and old lipsticks so I decluttered and threw out the old ones. Looks much tidier now.

You will be missed Linda doing the litter pick. Having a Macdonalds that close must be a nightmare!

Joan if you are looking in, just say hello. We worry when we dont hear from you. Hope everything ok.

Well better crack on with all me chores. Shall pop in later

Florence in the hebrides

Good afternoon,

It s a horrible day here, it has been raining all day. I didn’t realise how much rain had fallen overnight until I went out this morning. The roads are all flooded, we even have water standing on part of the garden.

This morning, we have taken all of the pictures down in the lounge and packed up all of the ornaments. It is looking very bare now. .I can pack the spare bedding, but after that there is not much I can do until nearer the time. It is all coming on well, so it shouldn’t be too bad at the end.

I am worried about Joan as well, I hope she is OK.

I have just had the sad news that Joan’s husband passed away peacefully in the early hours of Saturday. She asked me to let you know. Her children are rallying round to support her and she will come back to the thread when she feels up to chatting

So sorry to hear that.

Very sad news.

Aw so sad for Joan and the family <3

Very sad news indeed <3

Sorry to hear that. Joan will be feeling lost at the moment. Sending her love and it is good that she has the family round her. <3

Well what a night! The storm was horrendous and still is but we have power so thankful for that.

No buses or ferries and people have heeded the warnings to stay at home as I have only seen 2 cars passing recently.

My nephew was 7 yesterday and SIL had make a cake and set up a family tea party for 4-5pm as he had had a bowling party on Fri evening with all his school friends but...brother somehow managed to cut his hand so badly probably with a stanley knife(work tool) and ended up in A & E at 4pm!! He didnt get seen until 6pm so the tea party didn't go to plan. Think he was getting stitches but didn't hear anymore.

Hope everyone else looking in is safe and well.

Keeping you in our thoughts Joan, Love & hugs to you and the family. <3

Florence in the hebrides

Oh dear, your poor SIL, just what the family didn’t need

It was really wild last night here as well. I just couldn’t sleep last night because my head was going round in circles with all the house things we need to do. I heard from our solicitor this morning, she had got the signed contract we sent back yesterday. She had been trying to talk to our buyers solicitor, but they weren’t replying. Anyway, she hopes we can exchange contracts on Friday, oe Monday at the latest. She also wanted to know our preferred moving date. Anything is good for us and for our buyers as they aren’t moving in on the day we complete. All of their stuff is in storage and they are living with their daughter, so they can move in at their leisure. It all depends on what the owners of our new house want. It would be helpful to us if we could move before Monday 19 th as our annual house insurance is due that day.

We had a fruitful afternoon, we need to take out the fire surround, chipped marble hearth and horrible old gas fire in the new house. We have been looking at fireplace showrooms and despairing because they all seem to be stoves or high end fancy media walls. Luckily one of the shops recommended that we go to a showroom in our local town. As soon as we walked in, we knew we were in the right place. We have chosen a new electric fire and marble hearth, plus narrowed it down to two surrounds. I was worried that it would be too far for them to do it, but they work all over. The woman was just so helpful and sensible, so that is one thing ticked off.

Good morning all
Good to get something that is quite a big 'thing' sorted Linda. And nice to find a helpful assistant as well. There are some around and they do seem to be in independent shops generally speaking.

It is lovely and sunny here but very cold, still only 5 degrees, ten minutes ago it was 3 degrees so maybe the sun is warming things up.


hope you can fix a date soon.

Florence hope your brother's cut hand is OK.

Sending Joan a <3 <3 <3 Hug.