General Chat

Afternoon All,

We've got most of the funeral arranged now so that is a big step forward. There was no prepaid plan or any wishes expressed in the will so we've just done the best we could. We can't register the death till Friday as there's been no-one at the hospital to do the paperwork we need!

We then popped for a bite to eat at the fav carvery. They seem to be cutting back on the variety of veg they usually offer as there were only 4 different veggies today and there's usually at least 7. :-S

Gill, I hope it isn't a roof leak, sometimes the wind can blow rain between the tiles. It sounds like you had some heavy rain too. I see you are cracking on with the decorating. :-)

I hope your tum is a bit better now Jane. I've always been fine with onions, but I think I might be getting the same problem with icecream!!! I stopped having any for the past week and have been fine. I know as you get older you can stop producing an enzyme needed to break down milk. Hope you have a nice lunch at Fitz's and it is sunny like here.

That's a lot of teeth to come out at once Mel!!! Will you have many left? The new washing machine sounds good. It might be an idea to patch the leak in the old pond liner and put the new one on top of it. I take it your OH will have an extended warranty on the new liner too.

I'm off to a bead sale at the house now. :-)

We had another downpour about an hour ago but thankfully the sun is out now. The only problem is there's so much water in the garden it's going to take quite a while for it all to drain away. Let's hope we don't get any more rain for a few days so the garden has chance of drying out. I should think I won't have to water it for some time yet :-D :-D

Did you get my card Ann? I posted it on Monday but it probably didn't leave the post box until Tuesday with it being bank holiday. At least you have made a start on the funeral, I'm sure anything you have chosen will be lovely. Nice to see you are both having some time to relax. Have they said why they have changed the menu at the carvery? Didn't you say they have made other changes too?

I wonder how Liz's and Jane's days out went, hope the weather was kind to them.

How are you getting on with your book Frank? Have you finished it yet?

I'm sitting here with a hot water bottle on my back, Sandra and I have just moved a heavy piece of furniture and it started my back off again. Hopefully it'll ease soon as we only have one more piece of furniture to move out, then it's just the pictures and a mirror to take down and it's all done, then I'll be able to put the dust sheets down ready for OH. I don't know how much more my back can take :-(.

I thought OH was here on Friday afternoon but he has an exam after work for his NVQ, so it'll be dinner time by the time he gets home and a bit late to start moving furniture around. It'll have to wait until Monday when he starts his 2 weeks holidays, before we'll be able to put everything back in place. Michelle arrives on Wednesday so we'd like to have everything sorted by then. Sandra's room might have to wait until Michelle goes home.

Afternoon all,

It stayed fine this afternoon, so I got the back lawn cut. It looks a treat , with all the lines up and down, and it's so green. The rain has done a lot of good.

Glad we haven't got the rain like you Gill. The land round here is very quick to drain, I have never had a problem.

FINISHED MY BOOK :-D :-D :-D It has over 13,000 pages I am just over the 1,000 mark. At the bottom of the screen it shows over 29 hours of reading left and I've read 4% Will let you know when I finish. !!!!

How did the trip go Liz ?? and Jane I hope you behaved yourself this afternoon at Fitz's.

Have just put the oven on to heat up, then the pie can go in. I will pit the veg on also. So dinner will be soon after 6.00pm

I don't think I will bother about going out tonight, I can't see that there is any football on, and anyway I am quite achy.

Evening all,

Goodness Gill you have had a lot of rain if your garden is flooded ,what a good thing you had the drains cleared ,or you might have had water in the house !!
Your poor back you'll have to rest up for a coupe of days ,you don't want a bad back when Michelle comes ,you want to be able to enjoy her visit .
I bet you haven't seen Rosie about with all the rain .

I'am sure you'll give MIL a good send off Ann, fancy there being no one at the hospital to register the death ,but on saying that i can remember when Mum died we had to wait for the paper work as they only worked a few days a week .
Is the bead sale at the house with the nice cakes ? :-D

Gosh Mel that's a lot of teeth to have out all at the same time ,does that mean you will have to have another plate made up :-(

We have had a nice sunny day here ,just one little shower this afternoon and that was when we came in for a cuppa so it didn't stop work ,hubby has now finished laying the pavers round the front lawn ,i did some weeding and we also went to the tip again .

Oh my word Frank that book will keep you busy for a while :-0
What ever made you sneeze like that !! not the cat as she 's gone home ,it's not a cold is it ?

We had a nice roast beef tea tonight ,but my goodness the blooming flies we have had in today in the end i had to close the back door to stop them coming in ,i suppose they could smell the beef !!

After a very LONG lunch at Fitz's we are home now .We did sit out and had a bit of lovely hot sun .Then the rain came .Fitz brought out 3 umbrellas!!!!! LOL.Anyone seeing us would have thought we were totally 'MAD' We probably were ,but it was fun.
Then Fitz persuaded me to do Podges 'Worm stuff'.The drops on the neck.Fitz held him and I did the deed.
Frank, I have to say we all had too much wine !!!But of course I behaved myself as I always do :-D. :-D
We ate so much I don't need to cook tonight :-D.Maybe a snack later.

Ann I am sure what G and you have chosen for the funeral will be just fine :-D <3 Do you have a date yet for the funeral?

LOL Jane , we have sat out in the rain with brollies up when we've been on the beach ,you see everyone packing up but if its only a shower it's nice to sit in the rain .
I would love to have a house with one of those verandas all round so when it rains you could still sit out , doesn't Liz have a sheltered place to sit under when it rains ??

That's a lot of pages Frank, it's going to take you forever to get through it all. It'll certainly keep you out of trouble for a while :-D :-D

I hadn't seen Rosie for a few days Mandy and was starting to get a bit worried but this afternoon when the rain had stopped she turned up all wet and muddy and ate absolutely loads of nuts, as if she hadn't eaten for a while, she then went to the large puddle and had a drink.

She was so hungry as I was putting the nuts down outside the back door she went to take the nuts out of my hand and bit the end of my finger, it made me jump and the nuts went everywhere which in turn made her jump, but it didn't stop her eating them. Luckily she didn't break the skin on my finger as it wasn't a hard bite.

I assume the rain wasn't as bad as it was here Jane when you were sitting out in it. It's nice to have a silly moment every now and then. Glad to hear you had a good time.

I've decided to put the dust sheets down and move the rest of the furniture we're keeping in here to the middle of the room tomorrow. My back is quite sore and I'm absolutely shattered. Think I'll be having an early night tonight ;-) It does look bare in here now.

Going to get something to eat now. I still have some beef casserole left over from last night and it should be warmed up nicely by now.

One thing arranged then Ann. I hope it all goes off ok. Are you going to tell FIL or not. It may be best to not say anything and keep him happy with his friends in the home.
Thinking of you both as I know there is so much to do at a time like this. Love to you both.

Hot dogs and chips for us tonight as I was so tired after getting back from the shopping and oh told me not to cook the leg of lamb I had bought so we will have that tomorrow. Iv'e bunged it in the fridge along with the sprouts.

Hope your backs a bit better now Gill. You need a nice rest after all the lugging around of furniture you have done lately.

Must look at the chips .......

yes Liz has a covered area outside her house they can sit under.

Gill your card had arrived when I got back from the bead house. Thank you very much, it was very thoughtful of you and Sandra. <3 Yes, watch your back won't you and an early night is a good idea so you will be nice and fresh in the morning. It's good that Rosie knows where she can get a meal if she's hungry!

There is a lot to do as you say Mel and more besides, so we are letting the funeral director deal with as much as possible! Today we have been inundated with charity envelopes, all in their redirected post and all requesting money from them!!! We are using the enclosed reply envelopes to send them back marked 'GONE AWAY'. MIL has been daft enough to give to some of them and no doubt her details have been passed on. OH has already found lots of thankyou letters for money she's given to various things. I'm still having to copy the POA document and send it to different places as well.

Yes, you are right Mandy........the house with the free cakes, nibbles and today.........a nice chocolate assortment! :-D I'd enrolled for one of her one day classes to do beaded flowers, but it was full, but she's going to fit another date in and let me know. I got a few more free patterns, two look like a challenge for winter evenings!! I also got all the beads for them and used the £5 off £30 voucher they'd sent me. Two of her cats came in while I was there and one took one look at us and fled!! lol. I bet your front looks great now with the pavers round the lawn edges. :-)

I thought Liz meant she was going on an archealogical dig at first! I had visions of her on her knees with a brush and trowel.

that book will keep you busy for ages Frank. Did you miss your visitor today? I bet Ros will love the painting.....what is it of?

I can just picture you with your brollies up in the rain Jane! I must admit I like the smell of the soil and plants you get with rain on a warm day.

It's good everything is settled for your move now Pat. I think the builder will have to buck his ideas up when you are 'one the spot' and able to keep an eye on him......I hope so anyway.

The builder here with the plans in has given up trying to grab the big chunk of the neighbour's garden. Now we've to see if he just tries pinching bits to try and squeeze the 3 properties on the land or if he will settle for building two.

Off to bed now, last night a neighbour's car alarm went off at 4.00am!!

Just saw your post Mel. OH went to see FIL this afternoon and said he is even more frail than a fortnight ago and struggles to get up out of a seat now. He did ask if mum had gone now and whether the house had gone, but OH realised the address he was talking about meant he was talking about his own mum and her house!! It seems very important to him that OH is settled and ok, as he asked this again today, bless him. If he doesn't mention MIL, neither will we. The home think he did his grieving when he was crying and inconsolable before and agree with us it's best not to upset him while he seems content now. He said again today how he likes it where he is, so that is a worry less.

Morning all

No rain, so far today. We were quite lucky yesterday as I noticed on the news that a spring had burst it's banks and really flooded parts of Moreton which isn't that far away from us. They said we had 2 months rain in 1 day, no wonder everywhere was flooded. OH said it actually came into the home but luckily in a part of the home where the residence don't go. They had to turn the electrics off in that area and try to mop it all up and then put towels down to help keep it at bay. It looks like we may of had a little more rain in the night, but looking at the garden today I can actually see the grass now and there are only a few puddles here and there on the patio, so it's starting to drain away, slowly. Yesterday most of the grass was under about 3 inches of water :-(

Glad to hear you got the card ok Ann. Sounds like you had a great time at the house with the beads and a chocolate assortment as well as cakes yum yum. How did you get on with the website address I passed on to you, was it any good? I think there were free patterns on there too.
So you're not going to tell FIL about MIL? From what you were saying I think it's the right thing to do, he sounds really confused now and there no need to upset him any further <3
Leaving the arrangements to the funeral director is a good idea too, once they know what you want they'll be able to sort it all out for you, so it's one less thing to worry about. My nan used to give to charities and I think you're right they do pass on people's details then more people contact them for donations, hope you can sort it all out soon.
Glad to hear the builder has finally given up on his idea of taking parts of the neighbours gardens. That'll please them, now the problem is out of the way. Let's hope the builder doesn't cause anymore problems for anyone.

Well, OH is still asleep so I'm going to put the dust sheets down, move the sofas out of the way and make a start on the gloss painting in the living room. I had an early night last night and feel so much better for it today.

Just going to grab a cuppa first
BBL

Just started my THIRD ATTEMPT at posting and it's gone again. Will try again later.

Morning all and evening Kim,

Dull grey and miserable here this morning but I think it was brighter earier on. Oh woke me at 10am today. I was having a lovely dream but can't for the life of me remember what it was about.

Well oh hoovered through the other day as I told you but looking around this kitchen and dinner I can see four spiders sitting in their webs that need cleaning up and goodness knows how many there will be in the hall and uti room so I think thats a job for today. I also have a haystack of ironing to do which shall keep me quiet for the rest of the day.

Hope you all had a good restfull sleep last night.

Wishing poor Iris's dau better after her ordeal. Love to Iris <3

Morning All,

Yes, I thought it was a great website Gill. I think I said I would be making the necklace that was like bunting. I thought it would be nice to wear on holiday. It had lots of good ideas for other things too. My word that was a lot of rain you had!! :-0 I think it is forecast to be dry here the next few days so I've got washing out and more in the washer. I hope the decorating goes well today but get lots of ventilation so the fumes don't get to you!

This morning OH has arranged for the bed and other equipment to be removed on Monday. They can't give him a time but he can start sorting some stuff out while he's there. He popped in there for something yesterday and had some bad news from the neighbour who used to be called on to help MIL and FIL. She has had some hospital tests done and they think she may have bone cancer.

We had a good night's sleep last night but the dog was barking from 7.00am. OH has started calling it the bl**dy dog now and it's not like him to swear!!

We are asking about hiring a room for after the funeral at the place we are getting a bite to eat today, then trying another newly built place next to the canal that would be nearer to where they lived for any neighbours. Goodness knows how you know how many to cater for at these events though?? :-S

Goodness Ann, I think I'd be having words with your neighbour about the dog!! Why on earth do they let it bark like that particularly so early in the morning?!!
We had a fab day yesterday, sun in the morning, cloud in the afternoon, but no rain!
We went to Old Sarum where they have recently discovered a medieval palace buried under a stoneage fortress. We went round the old castle and generally had a lovely day. Ann, we would love to go on a dig, but I think we're a bit too ancient ourselves now!
Nothing doing here, just a bit of washing and hoovering, and that's it! No ironing as I hardly ever do any!!!

Oh yes, I remember you saying about your beading now and how you'd found things to do off the site I told you about. Glad you found it useful.

Not again Frank, you really aren't having much luck lately with posting on here are you? Hope you can sort the problem out soon, you are hardly on here nowadays and we miss you ;-)

Glad to hear you had a nice time out yesterday Liz and that the weather was dry for you.

Well, I've gone and done it. I was moving yet more furniture and now I've really hurt my back so can't help OH anymore today. I'm in so much pain and have had to move my laptop into the bedroom to lie down for a while.

Going to take some painkillers now to see if that helps, then maybe a hot soak in the bath later with some muscle soak in it.

Why indeed Liz!! Some mornings the dog is barking from 6.30am. I think she leaves the dog outside so it doesn't get under her feet while she gets ready to go out. If she goes out in the evening it can be barking after midnight. It's a spoilt little dog, so suffers extreme separation anxiety. Thankfully it doesn't happen too often, but when she goes out in the day and leaves it in the garden it will bark and howl for hours till she gets back. She could put a gate across the path to stop it coming down the side within a drive width of our bedroom window, but I just don't think she cares. It barks at everything it hears near the gate at the front, milkman, postman, bin men, US!! We never hear 2 other dogs that live in the close. The place you visited sounds very interesting. I would love to help on a dig, but know I would have trouble kneeling and bending now!! Poor old soul!! lol.

Gawd we got the solicitor's bill today, a whisker under 4 figures and following on fast from the Power of Attorney registration at £600........MORE EXPENSE as Frank would say.

Oh dear Gill, I hope your back soon feels better. A hot bath might help it as you say.

What a shame Frank, it is so frustrating when it happens.

It's the Village Show this Saturday, the one they told me I was within the boundary to enter, so I might be brave and enter one of my paintings or photos for a giggle!

Afternoon All
Oh Gill,your poor back :-(...I think a nice soak in the bath sounds a really good idea.I thin kit sounds like you have really overdone it with moving all that heavy furniture .

Liz it sounded like a wonderful day at Old Sarum..I haven't been there.I was thinking of somwhere totally different near Cheltenham.

Ann funeral directors are great at organizing everything.You shouldn't have any worries there.As for catering I have no idea how to work out how many people to cater for.it qill be a bit of pot luck there I think.
Our Neighbours dog 2 doors up is always let out about 6.30am and he barks a lot then.But it doesn't go on for too long.It is when the other one next door is let out t the same time..You should hear it then :-S :-S

I have pulled the muscle in my calf and am hobbling.I felt it 'go' this morning when I was helping Chris shift the load of logs that were delivered.Golly is it painful.

I see Frank hasn't managed to get back yet !!!! I don't blame him giving up after 3 attempts.

We have picked so many Runner Beans today.I have stringed a good 1/3rd but the rest can wait until tomorrow now.I think Chris reckoned we might just get one or two more pickings and then they will be finished :-(..I dropped a very long one on the kitchen floor an Thomas thought it was a great toy LOL.He was chucking it around all over the place :-D
Not a good night last night.I had indigestion and couldn't seem to get myself comfortable.I think I disturbed poor Chris a lot.Then Thomas jumped on the bed about 3.30 and woke us both up :-S..The air was somewhat 'blue' from Chris.He can't be doing with it whereas I don't mind being pummelled by cat paws and hearing a lot of purring :-DI find it rather comforting :-D

Ann I bet your neighbours at the end are relieved now that the builder has given up on trying to get their bit of garden :-D.Lets hope he goes back to the original plan of just 2 houses.

Hannah and friends have now arrived at the Wedding Venue.I think the wedding is on Saturday.I know Hannah said that the Bridesmaids dresses were all going to be professionally steam ironed or some such thing after being packed up to travel.She did say they crease like mad.Everyone should be there now.I think a couple of guests are arriving today and the are the last now.

Have cooked a nice Pork Loin Joint this afternoon. What a pity no-one eats crackling as it turned out a treat !!

Is'nt it always the same with crackling, if you want it to eat it never turns out right! I could'nt eat it now and it was the best bit of a pork joint.

Well my day did'nt go to plan. Oh asked me to order the gear he wants for the pond and then he started clearing the decking so I helped with that. The only thing was I got the washing on the line and that nearly dried before we had some rain in the air. Came in and had a cuppa and a bun, washed up and now its time to start on the dinner.

Glad you had a nice interesting day out Liz. I would love to go and see a dig in progress. I used to like Time Team but they don't seem to have made any new ones since Mick died.

Gill I think it is time you gave your poor back a rest and let oh do the heavy work. Now take care and rest please and thats an ORDER.

Stayed cloudy here all day but it has been mostly dry. I did get all the hog bowls washed and some plant trays and pots for the shed and they are put away now.

So roast leg of lamb for us tonight so I better get on with it or I shall be at the cooker until late and he dos'nt like his dinner late now.

We have the LAST series of Dowton Abbey starting on the 20th of this month and I must say I shall miss looking forward to the next lot of stories but think it was trailing off a bit in the last series. There is also another new series starting this Sunday but I can't think what it is!!! Signs I'm getting old........... :-(

Ann it is good FIL is settled where he is and seems very happy there. I don't think he needs to knwo about MIL. Just let him get on with the rest of his life and he won't remember when G visits again that he was talking about his mums house. Did he reconize you when you went to visit?