General Chat

Well I've calmed down now. Yes Mandy, I realised the ex would have seen the announcement in the paper last week and that's how she knew FIL was still alive too. The paper also shows when and where the funeral is, but maybe she thinks better than to turn up there. It was just the same Frank. OH said she had far more to do with MIL when they were splitting up than ever before!!! Maybe my mind was running on a bit before and MIL didn't have as much contact as I think, but she did try to put OH's name on the wreath and probably would have done if we hadn't happened to call that day. I agree it's sad about FIL Mandy, but better it is just another day than have him distraught again. He's so frail now I don't think he could stand much more upset and can't even stand up without help now. It does look like we shall need umbrellas tomorrow doesn't it!

Yes, you are quite right about what a nuisance they can be Mel and it's no different to killing other vermin really but I would have to get you to come and shoot mine for me!! lol. It's probably because I had a much loved pet bunny till I was about 16.

The neighbour popped over earlier to say that the court judgement was made today saying the builder had lost his claim to the neighbour's land and that they had charged the builder the costs! Good!

I must go and get the car filled with fuel now. I'm taking my car tomorrow as well as OH taking his so that I can take one of OH's cousins to catch a train afterwards. I've never actually met her but she does FH too so we should be able to swap notes so to speak.

Yes it will be interesting to hear how Fiona got on!

It sounds like you had a wonderful time Fiona with your Australian visitors. How lovely of your friend to give you the balloons, cards and gifts, what a nice birthday surprise for you <3

I'm glad you're feeling a little better now Ann. I really wouldn't worry about tomorrow, just concentrate on Gordon and yourself and you'll be ok. Like I said earlier it's going to be hard enough without worrying about what might or might not happen. Yes, it does look like you'll need an umbrella, Hurricane Henri is due tomorrow, I saw it on the news earlier, although it seems to be more down south than anywhere else, so it might not be to bad for you.

Great news for your neighbour. It's good the builder has to pay costs. Do you think that'll be the end of it and he'll leave your neighbour alone now?

Thanks for the advice on storing the apples everyone, I shall stew and freeze some of them and store some in the garage too.

I'm so tired after a very busy day today, think I might have an early night tonight.

They used to say the best place to store apples is under your bed wraped in paper and not touching one another. Also you are supposed to be able to bury them so deep in a big tin or something like that and cover them with earth. The deer come and eat the fallen apples in our orchard and the fox too. I know the fox eats them because he leaves me large calling cards full of apple. He left me one the other day with a bird in it and now I have a little rib cage left on the grass just where I walk to the chickens.

I am going out early in the morning shopping as I have the docs at 4pm about my hands which are still not healing up. The trouble is I HAVE TO wash them so many times a day.

Shall be thinking of you when I go round the supermarket tomorrow Ann and Gordon. I am pleased the builder had to pay the costs!! ha ha ha he he he. GOOD serves him right for being dishonest all along.

I'm going to bed now, I'm sooooooooo tired.
Night Night

Morning all and evening Kim,

Well not such a bad day here this morning as they forcast rain and high winds. We have sun blue skies with strips of white cloud.

I am going shopping soon as I have the docs this afternoon at 4pm.

Why is it that I type a sentance and only half of it comes out? When I did the first one it only came out to morning and the rest was'nt there when I looked up! It has done this a few times now. So annoying when you have typed a load and its not there.

Morning all

Dry but a bit cold here today, it's starting to feel like autumn now.

Hope everything goes alright for the funeral today Ann. I'm thinking of you.

So you are still having problems with your hands Mel, hope the doctor can help you today, it must be getting you down now.

I slept from 10pm till 8am last night, I've never slept that long before so I must of needed it.

I've just found 18 tubs that we had takeaways in from the past that I kept, so I'm going to stew some of the apples today and use the tubs. They stack so should go into the freezer quite well, then each time I empty one I can fill it back up with more apples which I'm going to store in the garage. That'll keep me busy for a while LOL.

OH has just started painting the small room ceiling, so once he's put a couple of coats on I'll be able to see if there is anymore filling to do. If there is to much then we might just get the ceiling plastered. We're trying to avoid that if we can as our friend, although good, is a messy worker and we don't fancy plaster all over the place now we've just decorated everywhere, so hopefully there won't be much more filling to do and I'll be able to do that myself.

Going to get a cuppa now, then make a start on the apples. It looks like I'm going to have another busy day today.
BBL

Thinking of Ann and G.

Morning all, Evening Kim,

I expect Ann and G are on their way to the funeral. I do hope it stays dry for them. Nothing worse than a cold rain at that horrible time.

I have tried putting a piece of tissue across my bridge but it keeps slipping down.
I am going to choose new frames later today, will ask if they can make it URGENT getting my new glass's.

Would you believe it The trainers I ordered for Lewis's birthday have been Credited to my account and not replaced. I made it quire clear I wanted the correct size replacing the wrong size sent. I just hope they can get the right ones here before the 25th Sept.

I had to get out at 3.00am and only dozed till 7.00. Ready for a sleep now.

I had a call from the doctors yesterday to say, the bloods they took last week haven't come back good, so I am having another lot done on the 24th.

Ros is washing the bedding this morning. At the moment we have a reasonable sunny morning. BUT they talk of heavy rain in the South and East later .

Mel, Why don't you eat the rabbit you shoot. ?? I loved a rabbit pie or stew when I was young. Mind you that's all we could get on a regular basis. So it was the case of LIKE IT OR LEAVE IT :-D :-D :-D

Glad everything went off well with your visitors Fiona. Did they go away with much information.??? I suppose you will now be able to stay in touch.

Shower time, so will see you later.

Hope Jane is behaving herself ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

Morning all,

Thinking of Ann and G today <3

Nice morning here ,is it the calm before the storm i wonder ,we should get heavy rain later this afternoon.

Hubby has just replaced the bit of glass in the shed door that got broken and has got a few other jobs to do then we should be off to a shop that is having a sale i'm hoping i might find some curtains for the lounge , we have to get two long pairs one pair for the window and the other pair for the french doors.
We have an invite to look round before it opens to the general public on friday .

Glad you had a good day yesterday with the Australians Fiona , nice of them to treat you both to lunch , i expect they now have lots they can add to their tree after the tour round.

Coffee time now .

BBL

Sorry to hear your bloods didn't come back good Frank, hope it's noting serious, mind you, if it was they would of had you in earlier than the 24th I suppose. Hope the trainer situation is sorted in time for Lewis's birthday. I bet you'll be glad when you get your glasses sorted it must be driving you mad by now. :-| :-|. So you had another bad nights sleep by the sounds of it. Maybe a little sleep with help, but not to much otherwise you won't sleep again tonight.

How nice to have an invite to the shop before it opens to the public, Mandy. I hope you manage to find the curtains you need and maybe a few more bargains along the way. It sounds like your hubby has been busy putting the new glass into the shed, that'll keep it dry if you get rain later.

It's warmed up a bit here now and the sun is out. It was quite chilly this morning so I put my fire on to warm the place up. OH has just started the second coat of paint on the ceiling after helping Sandra and I peel some apples. I've filled three pans ready to stew but it only took one bag of apples, so I have another 21 bags left. Hope they store well in the garage otherwise I'm going to lose them. I'm going to give some away as there isn't enough room in my freezer to stew them all and even after storing some in the garage they wouldn't last long enough and it seems a pity to waste them.

Well, I'd better make a start on stewing them now, I just have a few more to chop up first then it'll be all systems go for the rest of today. It was like a product line here with all 3 of us peeling and chopping for the last hour ;-) ;-)

Hope the funeral went well and the weather was kind to you Ann and G <3

BBL

Gill, you can just slice the apples and freeze you don't have to cook them ,you can freeze them whole too,just peel and core then freeze .

I had to nip to town to get hubby some new cord for the garden brolly ,i bought two metres the other day and i thought then that doesn't seem very long for the brolly but thats what he asked for .....wasn't long enough was it so i had to get three metres today.

Years ago we used to store apples on an apple rack in the garage, they were fine for the winter. Mandy is right though Gill, all you need to do is peel and core them and then freeze them in a freezer bag. They separate really easily, then you can just cook what you want. I've done a few cookers this year, but not that many as we don't eat puddings that much.
Not a bad day here, considering the forecast!

Well I have shelled out for new glass's I had 25% off and still came to almost £200.00. They have marked it as "URGENT" so hope to have them by Monday next week. Not soon enough I can tell you.!!!!

We rushed around Town as Ros had put the sheets and whites on the line. We could see the dark clouds building, so didn't stop at B & # to see what price the bags of bark were. I will check on line. I will then ask a couple of friends if they can better their price as they are in the trade. Won't bother asking my son, even though he could no doubt get it also.

Haven't heard back from NIKE while I have been out, so will send them another email.

I just don't want to eat. No breakfast and no lunch. A piece of Roast lamb for tonight, I have done all the veg. and the meat is in a bowl of water thawing . It won't need to go on till 5.00 pm so plenty of time.

I thought you would have known about Freezing apples uncooked Gill. !!! Even I knew that :-D :-D :-D :

Someone has got an electric machine on somewhere, it's kicking up a right old row. I think it need seeing too. !!!

I would expect Ann and G are back home again now, having a quiet afternoon. <3 <3

Did you get all your shopping done Mel, You can't be running out of OHs Cider ;-) ;-)

Catch you all later.

Hello from a Very Wet Lake Como
It is abysmal .Thick mist and pouring all day
Tomorrow we are going to Bergamo on organised tour .not sure what the weather will be. Have been out all day in wet weather gear lol .but despite all the wet we are enjoying ourselves.
Haven't read posts as I don't have Internet all the time
I just wanted to Say I have been thinking off Ann and Gordon todayxx

I will try and look later to see what's been happening

WELCOME STRANGER. You are having the weather that we are expecting any time soon.

I went on line about the Bark. 4 x 100 litre bags for £24.00 instead of £7.36 a bag. So I thought as it's OAP day today we would get our 10% off. Don't kid yourself, as they were on offer NO DISCOUNT. But still not a bad price. So tomorrow I will get the barrow up and unload the car. I couldn't lift them in the car, so I will have a job getting them out :-D :-D :-D

I can see why I don't go out much. The drivers out there haven't a minute to breath. Cutting people up, so as to get one car in front. Changing lanes with no indication. I did nothing but complain, so Ros will be pleased she doesn't have to take me out too often ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

Just having a COT. The sky is getting darker so quickly, I expect we will get the rain and wind shortly.

I've only ever frozen apples once before Frank and I cooked them, glad to find out you can freeze them raw, will get onto that now, it's going to save me so much time, thanks everyone for all your advice.

Talking of cider Frank, maybe I could make some with all these apples I have LOL :-D :-D :-D. I have been looking for recipes for different things I could make with apples....There's only so many apple pies and crumbles I can eat. I'm thinking of an apple cake with cinnamon and nutmeg, I have a recipe for that somewhere.

That's a lot of money even with 25% off, at least you'll have them soon which will make all the difference.

Nice to hear from you Jane, shame about the weather though, hope it brightens up soon. Glad to hear you are still having a good time. Enjoy your tour tomorrow, hope it's sunny for you <3

Off to peel more apples, then I can pop them in some freezer bags raw. I like to learn something new each day, so that's todays lesson sorted ;-) ;-) Thanks again everyone <3

We have the rain ,it's pouring !!

Well we nipped to the sale but we didn't see any curtains that we liked ,did get a memory foam pillow reduced from fifty pound to thirteen , so that was bargain .

Oh Jane what a shame about the weather ,hope it's brighter tomorrow for the tour for you.

Glad you got your specs sorted Frank, so not to long to wait if you can get them on Monday .

Wonder how Mel has got on at the docs this afternoon ,it's been a long time trying to heal now !!

How did you get on at the doctors Mel? Hope he can do more for you this time as the cream doesn't seem to be working does it?

You did well with your memory foam pillow Mandy, pity you didn't find any curtains you liked though. Did you have to travel far to the shop? If it's not to far away you could try again another time, they may have new stock in then.

We've still got the sun here, but we'll probably get the rain everyone seems to have later.
My shoulder is hurting from all the filler I did yesterday so these apples are taking a while to chop. OH and Sandra are helping me again by peeling them for me and we are getting through them quicker than we did when I was stewing them and not so much washing to do either. We're on our third bag and now I'm freezing them raw. I have put them in freezer bags instead of the tubs I was going to use. I managed to fill 5 tubs with the cooked apples so at least I can see which one are cooked and which are the raw ones.

I've just popped some chicken breasts into the oven with some oven chips for dinner as there's no room left in the kitchen to prepare anything else, so that'll be done soon. We'll carry on with the rest of the apples tomorrow after this bag is done as my shoulder is to sore to do much more tonight.

Better get to the apples
See you all later

Afternoon All,

Thanks for your kind thoughts for today. The weather was very kind and luckily we had no rain and it all went very smoothly and everyone seemed to really like the service and OH's eulogy. Inside the chapel the seating was facing a wall of window so you looked out onto rolling fields which was nice. As we suspected, there were flowers from 'you know who' but at least they didn't turn up!! I didn't notice anyone bend down to see who they were from, so that was good. I really liked OH's 2 cousins I had never met and I took the one who had to catch a train to the station after. We both feel much better now it is over and OH is in the bath relaxing now. We can focus on clearing the house next, not an easy task, but we can do that at our own pace. The home rang this afternoon for permission for FIL to have a flu jab and told OH again that he seems really happy now. We know as his illness progresses it could change but it's good he is as he is for now at least.

Well I'm the same as Gill and have always cooked apples before freezing them too. I shan't in future though as it would be much easier to do what the rest of you do. When I lived at my parents the apples were stored on those slatted wooden trays like grocers used to used. The apples were wrapped in newspaper and the trays could be stacked on top of each other. Gill, does your OH like cider? A friend at work used to ask for people's windfalls and made cider every year.

It sounds like Jane has the rain that will be coming here. Hopefully she should get the sun when it blows our way!

Frank I was saying the same to OH about drivers last night. I was waiting with traffic to the left of me till the traffic lights changed and a motor cyclist raced through the gap between us and twanged my car mirror. They don't even look round to see if they've done any damage either. Then I was cut up on the main road by someone just driving nearly into me when they realised they were in the wrong lane. Like you say, no signals just rude barging. If someone signals I nearly always let them in as we can all end up in the wrong lane at times. You must really be missing your glasses so I hope they get a move on with the new ones for you.

It's a pity you didn't see curtains you liked Mandy, but it was worth having a look. Let me know how you find the memory pillow as I have been thinking of trying one. Now I sleep propped up a bit more it's hard to get the pillows at a nice slope, so I thought memory pillows might 'mould' a bit better!

I hope the doc has come up with some different treatment to try for Mel's hand.

I'm looking forward to a bit of telly tonight (the last episode of The Ascent of Woman is on :-)) then a nice lie in for a bit in the morning will be nice.

Here I am and I see trouble has posted. Hope the weather is better for you tomorrow for your tour Jane.

Done the shopping and been to the docs and now I have to wash my hands with E 45 cream but they did'nt have any at the surgery so I have to pickit up tomorrow. I have some Aqueous cream which I have used before so am washing my hands with that now and I have only done it once and they look better already!! They get a bit itchy sometimes. I wash my hands a lot during the day with getting lunch and doing the chickens and washing the hog bowls and always after the loo etc. He told me I wash them too much!! I just hate dirty hands and do use rubber gloves for washing up and in the garden. O well another part of getting old I suppose. He did say our skin gets drier as we get older so I asked him how old he was as he told me he was retired really before. He is 62 but he dos'nt look it. Like Janes Chris he has a grey beard and a full head of hair.

Going early shopping I met all the lorries going into Bideford so a slow journey in but the shop was'nt too crowded. I wanted to get some more K*t Ka* Mocha and could'nt find them anywhere and then as I went to the till I spied a box. picked up 4 and when I got home they were the ordiary ones........I was cross.

Cumberland sausages for us tonight with colcanon and runners fromt he garden onions and onion gravy for oh.

Gill stewed apples take less room in the freezer but peeled and cored are quicker. You could have some nice rings of apple with some pork chops or sausages. Put some out by your gate in bags with a notice free to a good home.

Must let the bantams out for a run and get on with dinner.

Oh made the front of the shedframe today while I was out. It has been a nice day here with only a little while of grey sky and we hav'nt had any rain.

The squab in the red tree by the pond fell out the tree last night and landed in one of oh's fish nets. We watched it for a while just sitting on the rim of the net and then it flew into the beech tree at the bottom of the garden. We had'nt seen it all day and then suddenly it flew out the red tree again and into the patio doors. It was ok and after a while it flew onto the decking rail and then back up the red tree where the nest was. Not long after mum came along and fed it again so that was alright. I do worry about my little friends in the garden...........