General Chat

Afternoon everyone ,

Not a bad day here nice and sunny but a bit chilly in the wind .

Happy Anniversary to you both Vera I hope your having a nice relaxing day together.

Son and family came this morning with chocolates ,flowers , pink roses and a nice mug with an A Initial on for Amanda , not many people call me Amanda these days .
They stayed quite a while as he put the box together for us ,ordered a brown garden bin for us and some seeds for the garden . Oh and a new coat stand .

Anng I had a sort through my tin draw just before Christmas ,there were lots in there that I don't use very often so I put those In a cupboard in the corner but that's a cupboard that could be sorted through as I seem to put alsorts in there that "I might use one day "

Ann thats good your pleased with the fitter and July will be here before you know it ,also it gives you time for any little tweeks to be made if you change your mind about things .

Oh I wonder where your Sunday vanished too Gwyn ,its bad enough losing the hour it always seems to be a quick Sunday when the clocks go forward but I don't know why as we try to go to bed a bit earlier to make up for it , the day always whizzes fast but then so do the weeks ,nearly April already .

Mel you'll get to see all your property from above with bil's drone handy for having a look at your roof .

Ann fly tipping is disgusting. Although maybe the stuff is outside a house waiting to be picked up by the council. I know that most councils have the scheme whereby items can be collected for a charge.

I think I have finished for the day now. Potatoes all planted. two lots in potato pots and thee charlotte potatoes in the planter, a different position to where they were last year.

I have also changed the bed and washed and dried the bedding. And of course cleared out that cupboard under the oven.

I just have to go and dsort out the flowers that son had delivered.

Well that was not as hard as I expected so, another kitchen cupboard sorted and washed out and stuff put back. several bits in the bin and a collection on the dining room table waiting for me to find a home for it. Possibly it will go to Irene.

Morning All,

<3HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Vera and B <3. I hope you have a lovely day.

Thank goodness most clocks change themselves these days! I have to change my little travel alarm and still need to do my car clock and OH usually does the big lounge clock and the cooker.

Well the 2nd fitter arrived and exactly on time which was good. He was very helpful, but it seems we can't have a shower as close to the floor as we'd like, being a bungalow with concrete floors. They would have to be dug up to lower the drainage pipe and we might not get enough flow to drain the shower properly, but it can be a bit lower. Otherwise everything will be fine. He sent us a quote overnight and would be looking at July to do the work. The quote seems reasonable and he's enthusiastic. It will seem a bit disjointed as we order the materials from the shop and for the skip the day before the work starts and he does the work and organises his electrician. As I said before I think the bathroom shop is reducing and may do away with their own fitters. It saves them paying them when they aren't as busy and saves them paying sick pay and the new extra NIC employers have to start paying as well as not needing as many vehicles. I suspect more places will start doing the same. We think we are going to go with him as his price was less than expected and he seems very obliging and helpful and organised and has done a lot of the same work.

The end of our close is round a bend before an 80 yard straight bit of road with hedge one side and a high fence the other to the junction at the end. As all the bungalows are beyond the bend we can't see the end straight bit and yesterday we saw someone had fly tipped three mattresses, leaving them propped against the fence. The tip is only half a mile away as well. I hope they don't start making a habit of it!!

Gwyn I was measured for and had some of those compression stockings made for me last summer. I can't get on with mine at all as they slide down my calves despite gripping so tight they leave a deep ridge in my legs round the top. They seem too loose around the ankles where most of my swelling happens, so don't help where it is needed most either. My ankles improve during winter so I have left them off and will go back to my GP in the summer. A friend has a contraption to help put hers on, but she asked and was referred to a lymphodaema clinic and they are ordering some different ones for her. She has an infection in her leg. I am hoping doing less sitting and losing some weight will help mine.

Better get lunch started so will catch up later.

And then I fotgot to say Happy annivesary Vera.

Managed to get the actually shelf/wire tray thing back in. Some stuff already gone in the bin and some put aside for taking to Irene.

Just had some lovely flowers delivered from son.

So much for not having anything to do. ent to put away a baking tray in the pull out tray in the lower cupboard of my built in cooker and the whole tray collapsed. So I have had to empty the whole cupboard. I can well see why it collapsed I will do a tally in a moment of the number of baking trays etc, I have obviously not got rid of some of the older, hardly used very heavy trays and just put new on top. The next thing will be to work out what to do with surplus trays. But it looks like being a long mornings work.

Morning All,

Happy Anniversary Vera and Mr. Vera enjoy your day whatever you do.

Its bad enough losi g an hour let alone a day Gwyn, I wonder what happened there?

It bright and sunny and 11 degrees and no wind so as soon as I got up the phone rang. Guess who? BIL to say he and his wife would be over in 40 mins. I was'nt even dressed thinking I had the day to myself and slop about and have a nice long shower etc. Now I have to go and get ready. They said they would do it another day but BIL has brought a drone and he wants to test it in the garden and yesterday it was too windy. So I am off now to get dressedd and do my hair.

Hope the others had a good night I got up once and then went back for a lie in as nobody was coming and woke at 1015am.

See you later.

Happy Anniversary Vera and your OH.
I hope you enjoy your special day.

Ann, you've been busy sorting your clocks. How lucky that the battery went before you needed to alter the clock :-)

Daughter came down this morning and said that she could cope with losing one hour in the night, but when she looked at her phone to complete a daily puzzle that she does with her siblings, it told her that it was Monday 31st March :-S
What happened to Sunday?

Supposedly 12 degrees and mostly sunny here, but I hope the chilling wind from yesterday evening has eased or it will feel much cooler.

I hope you all have a good day, however you spend it.

good morning all. It is bright and sunny here Alexa is saying it is 8 degrees and there looks to still be a breeze so maybe a bit of gardening or maybe a lazy day. I had a realy good sleep last night. Deliberately stayed up later so the 'hour' didn't mess me up. All clocks done except the kitchen one on the wall. Went to do it and realise the battery had stopped so will do that today. At least it didn't go the day after I changed it!

Hope you are all in the same time zone (i.e.put your clocks forward!! :-D :-D :-D

I am sure you are.

Good morning

It seems to be a bright, sunny day but very windy. I haven’t put my nose outside yet to see what it feels like but weather app is saying it’s 10 degrees but feels like 4. I have no idea what I’ll be doing today. It’s our wedding anniversary but we’re not doing anything special, our plans for lunch out having gone awry.

Enjoy the day everyone.

So most of us have been in the garden today pottering about. BIL came and mowed and I went up the shop for my paper and bits and bought him a hot pasty which he ate whilst mowing the front field. I swept part of the front of the bungalow and potted up some plants and weeded my big pots of those tall things with blue flowers on long stalks. Can't think of the name at the mo!!! O Agapanthus???? One had docks and grannies bonnets growing in it so they came out of their pots which was a struggle and were put back in with a fresh bit of compost.

Having trouble with Ebay as they seem to have lost the button where you can get an invoice sent and I need to send one for three items bought by one lady.

Hope you all sleep well tonight, see you in the morning. :-D

We lost the sun around 1230 and it is really feeling quite cold out there. There were a few spots of rain just now as well. I did a load of washing then, when the first drier load finished I walked down with books and clothes for Irene and posted a card. Had coffee when I came back then I did an hour and a half in the garden. I dug over the planter where the potatoes are to go ready for planting in a week or so, I then planted up the four plants I bought last tuesday and cleared weeds after a lot of the tubs standing down the end of the garden with no plants in. I think one might have a plant of some sort in there so will leave it and see if it sprout. I have got three lettuce I planted in a trough and three that I planted in the new planter. Both lots have plastic covers over them like mini greenhouses.

Vera at least you got some done.

Gwyn, crumble for me too please.

I hope that you have finished with medical things for a while now. As Vera said it will be hot in summer if you have to continue to wear the stockings. I remember having those that you buy for flying when we were doing long haul, it was a real fight to get them on, especially cominh home when we were all hot in the high temperature. Good luck with them.

I had had enough by then and it was late for my lunch, it had also got colder so I came in and had lunch. Also today I did the lounge floor and did some admin on emails.
I find despite discussing and telling everyone at the meeting what the next 3 subjects are for photography, it is necessary to also follow up with an email repeating what was said. That also helps the ones who didn't make it to the meeting..

I have had a mothers' daqy card from Lynda and she has told me there will be money in my account tomorrow to buy myself something.

It’s not quite as warm as yesterday and there is a nip in the breeze but it is a beautiful, bright, sunny day. I have pottered in the garden for a while. I am trying to do just a little bit each day that it is dry as I find my back can cope best like that. Today I cut last winter’s dead growth off a couple more plants in the garden and tidied some perennials in pots and troughs. My early daffs are now all fading so I’m deadheading them like mad and I will soon be looking out on a bed of dying leaves. I’ve got several large pots planted up with later varieties and they are just beginning to show some bloom. I’m also pleased with my tomato seeds which are now sprouting in their seed trays.

It's a good job the audiology people could fix your hearing aid quickly for you Gwyn. My hearing is reasonably good but I sometimes have trouble understanding what is being said, especially if English isn’t the doctor’s first language. I can just imagine how difficult it must be if your hearing isn’t good. I hope your legs are not too painful now. Will you have to wear the compression stockings all the time? They could make you a bit hot in the warmer weather. Please can I come for a meal when you have rhubarb crumble, one of my favourites.

I hope Gill is OK; we haven’t heard from her for a few days now.

I hope you all have weather as good as ours and are outside enjoying the sunshine. Don’t forget to change the clocks tonight.

A beautiful morning here with the sun shining brightly.
It seems to have been a very busy time lately and I can see that many of you have been very busy in your gardens.
I haven't done much at all in ours apart from an odd potter, but I was pleased to see yesterday that the rhubarb seems to be doing really well and is thriving in the pots after a very wet winter. Daughter will be looking forward to that first crumble. ;-)
There seem to have been several medical related checks recently, - nothing major, but hopefully we are back into 'normal' mode now. Antibiotics for infection in lower leg at last seemed to help aided by Betnovate cream, but I've now been told that if it happens again then I have to have a 2 week course at the outset, so we'll see what the GP surgery says about that should it happen. The treatment for the swollen legs was keep active, but rest with legs elevated as much as posiible :-S :-S so it's been a bit of a juggling act trying to function normally and hence why extra seasonal jobs have gone by the wayside and I now have to catch up.
In the midst of all the to-ing and fro-ing, my hearing aid decided to pack up working and I would especially need it for a clinic appointment that I had been waiting 9 months for,after a referral :-0
All was well, daughter phoned the audiology department at the hospital and they arranged an appointment to fix it the following day, which they did :-D the day before that important clinic appointment.The NHS is great when it works well.
Next trip will be for a fitting of my prescribed compression stockings, when they come. I will probably need to get up half an hour earlier on 'school' days to wrestle with them !

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend and enjoy the sunshine. Summertime starts tomorrow, so I wonder if the weather will reflect that?

Morning all,

I have been on to Ebay again this morning as I can't find where to send an invoice. They are having troublewith invoices so my buyer will have to pay the postage on the three items she has bought and then I have to send her a refund for two of the postges. What a faff..............................

Its 9 degrees here and quite sunny and looks as though it may be a nice day but there will be a high pollen count.

Just the shop to do this morning and don't know if BIL is coming as he said he may not this week but you can never tell with him.

Slept well and hope you all did.

Good morning all, another bright one but cooler at 5 degrees. I don't know if we had a frost, they did say we might. No sign when I got up though. Nothing planned for today, better get the 4 plants in I bought though so that is a pot of two to prepare.

Gosh what a thing to put on a dreary card Vera!

As to yesterdays washing up Stu did it all before I left and dried it off so I came home with one big ceramic pot I put all the veg in one basin I had had the chicken in and a enamel tray I did the creamy leeks in and the pot I took with the broccoli in which I forgot to dish up. I'm having that tonight with my stew and dumplings meal for one.

I have done a lot of ironing today, cleaned the sink and washed up yesterdays baking tions I cooked the chicken and veg in so just the two to wash. Spied that the rabbit trap ws closed so walked up the garden to that after corning the girls and there was no rabbit in it but a female pheasent. Poor girl she had broken most of he lovely tail feathers but I managed to let her out and she ran off as fast as she could to the big arch to escape me.

Annx I was wondering if I should cut my bottle brush back a bit as it hanging over the lawn and BIL moans about having to duck under thing when he's on the mower. Mum planted it so I don't really want to lose it. At the moment my Magnolia is in full bloom and looks wonderful.

Better get dinner now.

I hope the bathroom fitter due today turns up on time Annx as the other one doesn’t sound very reliable. One of my aunts always had sterilized milk as well and I didn’t like it either. Oh, I’ve just remembered OH’s mother used to have a bottle delivered 2 or 3 times a week just for making custard.

My goodness Mel, wasn’t it a bit of a performance taking the meal to Stu last night? As AnnG said, what did you do with the washing up? You certainly fed them well and it sounds as though they enjoyed it. You’re probably wise to only garden on alternate days and let your hips and back recover on the in-between days.

The forecast seems to be for it to get warmer and be dry next week so you’ll probably be able to finish painting your fence then Mandy, but don’t get tempted to carry on painting for too long or you will make your back painful again.

I wonder if it is hay fever you are getting AnnG. I love the smell of daffodils but different people are affected by different plants and smells. Our son used to get dreadful hayfever when oilseed rape was in bloom. We lived in a very rural area then and were often surrounded with rape fields. Poor lad. I was told that hay fever is connected to migraine and son was diagnosed with migraine at the age of 5.

I had a dreadful night again. I turned the light out at about 11.30 and just lay awake till 2 am when I got up and got a mug of hot milk. That didn’t help at all so I lay there awake till 4.30 when I got up and took a pill, eventually falling asleep sometime around 5 am. The trouble is I was still awake at my normal time and up by 8 am so I feel a bit like death warmed up today. This morning was sunny though not as warm as yesterday but this afternoon the wind has got up and it keeps coming over very black though it hasn’t rained yet.

On Wednesday I went to the pharmacy to collect my script to find 1 item there but not the rest. As we only get 28 days at a time and I collect every 4 weeks on a Tuesday or Wednesday, everything should have been ready for me. The assistant went to check and said that the 1 item comes on a different prescription (why?) and the doctors hadn’t sent the other prescription through to the pharmacy. So I had to ring the surgery pharmacist who gave me a complicated explanation about their end date being different to the end date of the pharmacist I use, blah, blah, blah. It made no sense to me at all but I pointed out that, in spite of all she was saying, I (the patient) was left without necessary medication. I told her I would completely run out of one of my pills on Friday morning. She said she would get the doctor to sign everything off and get the script to the pharmacy on Thursday. I went in again this morning and she had done as she promised but I was still one batch of pills missing as the pharmacist is having trouble getting hold of them and has no idea when they will be available. I was given a sort of IOU but I can’t swallow that! Of course, the pill that is missing is the one I have run out of, and is probably the most important one for me to be taking at the moment. The really annoying thing is that for years there was a wonderful system in place that was easy to use and never seemed to go wrong. Then some administrator decided to “improve it for the patient’s convenience” and it has been a pain in the proverbial ever since. He or she needs to write out 100 times “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Rant over.

While we were out we popped into a couple of shops and in one I was looking for a birthday card for our grandson and saw what I thought was a very strange card. Would you send this to anyone? The card was completely blank. The front was coloured grey and in black print, in the style of handwriting, it said “Glad to see you are still existing”. That was it.

Cup of tea time now I think and then I may try to get an hour’s rest before cooking our meal.

Afternoon All,

Lovely sunshine here now although there is still a chill in the air. We both went outside and filled a medium humper each with cutting back overgrown shrubs. The tall bottlebrush died over the winter, but was producing less, smaller flowers so OH has been cutting that right back and we might be able to get the root out easily eventually.. I might get another, different and less vigorous variety of it as it does look splendid when in flower and is evergreen so no winter leaf drop to clean up. I cut more back the other side of the garden and the rock edging can be seen again now. I have some Disco Marigold seeds to plant tomorrow. :-)

I hope the 2nd fitter comes today as well Mandy! If not we might have to let the shop's own fitters do it even if it means waiting till autumn. It's good to wait a bit longer to carry on with the fence painting till your back is ok.

I shan't bother getting a quote from the first fitter now AnnG unless he has a really good excuse for not contacting me. Your tickly cough might be hayfever. I have had a tickly throat and runny eye a few evenings and thought it was pollen. What is the subject for the photography group this time. I know I thought you had some interesting subjects coming up.

That was quite a big meal Mel and I would have enjoyed it! Wish I was like James though and could eat what I like without my weight changing. :-S

A memory came to mind this morning lying in bed. My grandmother (maternal) born in 1877 who wouldn't have the electric put in. She always had sterilised milk in the taller, different shaped milk bottles and wouldn't drink any other. I hated the taste of it, but I suppose she'd lived through a lot of TB outbreaks and it was safer to drink than pasteurised milk.

That is quite a performance mel to do a meal for Stu, having to transport everything to his place. Did you take all the dirty pots home or wash them up there?

the north west wind has come up again, it is till sunny but with cloud and 11 degrees but that wind is cold.