General Chat

Anne .We don't have a cat flap in the house ,but had one put in the Summerhouse for Thomas.He loves sleeping in there in the daytime so if he is ever shut out at night that is where he will go. He is very keen on bringing Rabbits home :-S :-S.Usually without heads !!!.We do have to very careful about keeping the back door shut when he is out as we have already had several of his kills brought in.One was still alive and was running around the lounge!.
He eats mice all the time and brings them to eat on the patio...I hear of so many people who have cats that just turned up out of the blue.It is obviously a common thing.
Our friend Fitz has a cat called Podge who drags all sorts through the cat flap.Pheasants,Squirrels,Moorhens, Rabbits.You name it Podge had had it :-S :-S
Cats are lovely arent they !!!!!!! :-|

I think it is an early night here for all of us.Just going to have a tidy up and then I'm off.
No doubt I will hear James getting ready about 4am .He says he will have to leave hear by 5am.

Its nice to hear about all your family Anne. Our pets are chickens bantams and fish.

Mandy mentioned a fish in her post called Big Bertha and thats the name we gave our big girl koi. fancy the otter taking all those fish, how heart breaking it must have been to find them eaten. They are not cheap fish and to replace them would be tempting fate again me thinks.

When I went to shut the big girls in tonight I must have surprised a deer in the back field behind the chicken run as thee was a great rushing through the long weeds and it must have run into the trees. They have now lost their gingerish coats and have turned a brown colour so are harder to spot as they tone in with the dead weed. they are still coming into the orchard for their apples.

Well Frank we have NEW Lewis on Wednesday I think so that should please you.

Did anyone see the new thing on bbc last night? I thought it was a bit slow and morbid and not sure if I shall watch the next two episodes.

Well I think I may sign out now so saying night night.

Off to bed myself now, I have to be up early in the morning to sort this place out ready for the Agents son.

See you all tomorrow
Night Night

Good morning everyone

I have just been reading some of your earlier posts, feeling too lazy to do much this morning.

Gill, one of my husband's brothers was an RSPCA inspector in Ellesmere Port where he met his first wife who came from there. We visited them there when our 3 were very young. They later moved to Horsham where the RSPCA are based.

Mel, I love chickens my great Aunt Kate who mum and I lived with during the war
[the cottage in the picture] she had two old railway carriages where she kept her girls and I used to love helping her collect the eggs, she also had goats and I had a pet one called Bussell , geese. ducks and angora rabbits. One of my earliest memories was going out to the tiny island in the middle of the duck pond and treading on a rancid duck egg, my mother was not amused as my pristine white socks were a lovely shade of green and we were just going into Tenterden.
The reason we lived with her at the time was because Dad was in the 8th army and a desert rat serving under Montgomery and he felt that Hastings [our home town] wouldn't have been safe for us.

Our other pets here at home are Koi carp and gold fish. We have two ponds the top one leading into the other by a small waterfall. We only have 3 Koi now which are very large and their pond stands above ground as well as deep down. The goldfish have a smaller pond, we bought 6 a few years ago and have now had lots of babies, I have this netted as there is a heron that tries his luck now and again. We had to fence this part of the garden off when our 2 granddaughters were tiny, they are young teenagers now.

It's just started raining again now so no walk again for Amy she doesn't like getting wet but as she is an old lady of 11 years old who can blame her.

Well better get some breakfast.

Bye for now

Anne

Morning all and evening Kim,

Not a bad morning for shopping day. Its quite bright today but has been raining.

Anne we have koi and goldfish in my pond. Oh has just made his koi pond about a foot deeper by raising the edging up about a foot. It is now a comfortable height to sit on and its wider too. It must be at least 5 foot deep now. It is big enough for me to swim in if I was aloud.

My aunt had a farm in Buckland Brewer and when we went down there I loved to collect the eggs. I had my first chickens in 1979 in the back garden in a six by six square run that the hutch stood over on legs. They also had the run of the garden at times but when we moved to suffolk we took the girls with us and when we moved from there to here our girls came with us too. Oh had them in the van and I had the two cats and the parrot in his cage on the front seat with the seat belt round the cage. My oh at the time had the two Jack Russel's too.

Hi Frank I lived in Upton Lane for a while, Forestgate nearly next to the Spotted Dog Pud. I worked down Roman Road until I was about 20yrs. only in school holidays or Saturdays when I was an apprentice.
When we went hopping me and my cousins had to hop over the fence at Waterloo station to save on the fare,my Nan was as hard as nails when it came to money, the ladies of the family, my Mum and all my aunties had to ask to be paid at the end of the week, if we stayed out of trouble (or didn't get caught) we would get an arrowroot biscuit and a glass of lemonade.
I'm retired now and looking to downsize and move to Wales. I'm looking forward to the fishing, flyfishing is about a third of the price than here.
Regards Harry :-)

Hi Harry. my oh used to do fly fishing. What part of Wales do you fancy? I had my only son in Forest Gate Hospital in 1969.

Morning all, Evening Kim,

How nice to see Harry and Anne posting, hope you stay will us.

Well the veg were burnt to a cinder in the oven, so had to be binned and I had to start again. We had dinner about 7.30 pm

Harry I was always a freshwater fisherman until 1970. I still did it but took up "DEEP SEA FISHING" I started a club in Kettering Northants, and had over 70 Members. We fished the south coast during the summer and the easy coast throughout the winter for the COD. We also got up private trips to Scotland and Cornwall. I only tried fly fishing twice., but didn't get on with it.

Anne, It's so surprising the number of cats that just turn up. I have had TWO who have done that. The last one "my friend" stayed with us for almost TWENTY YEARS, and died in my arms a few years ago. We have thought about getting another pet. But I feel at my age (almost 77) it's too old. Who is going to take them on when we go !!! (MORBID) but has to be considered.

Jane, Ros came HOME sUNDAY FROM THE TRAIN (sorry) with a large bag of conkers. They are everywhere around the corners and windowsills in the bungalow. She seems to think they work, but we still get those big BLACK ONES !!!

My Ann, you and G have a major task on your hands in getting that house empty, and with all the restrictions that you can put in a bin. :-P :-P :-P Can't you cover it with other stuff. or put it in other things ??? If not where do you take it ??

Well we have the rain again this morning. Ros wanted a couple of bushes dug up, but I'm not getting wet doing that, so that's another job that can wait :-D :-D :-D

Hope you all have "A GOOD DAY"

The sun came out here for quite a while but seems to have gone behind some clouds now.

Frank the bushes will wait I am sure.

Just been hooverinn g up my cobwebs yet again and all the leggy sppiders and dozy flies we seem to have at the moment. I can do the webs today and tomorrow they will be back but I go all around the edges so where do these bl**dy spiders come from??????? :-| :-| :-| :-| :-| :-| :-|

Hello Frank

I am 77 in December but can't imagine a life without a pet, have you thought about adopting an older rescue dog whose owner isn't able to care for it anymore?

One of our neighbours has a recued Staffie and she is such a lovely friendly dog.

My youngest son Richard still lives at home so helps with our boxer walking her week ends etc. He can't afford to buy his own place as property around here is so expensive, a small one bedroom flat has just sold for £177,500.00 and that was below the asking price. The family home has 4 bedrooms so he has a large room for all his things another of the rooms I keep for my granddaughters and they stay over often as their Mum and my middle son Paul have split up and it gives him more time to spend with them.

It's still raining here so its indoor jobs today plus the evening meal to sort out later we are having pork chops with sprouts, runner beans, carrots and new potatoes
I probably wouldn't cook so much if I was on my own

My husband died in November 2013, he had a very aggressive brain tumour which didn't give him any pain but severe dementia, I looked after him for as long as I was able until he kept falling over and the doctor advised he went into a nursing home , he was there for about 2 months and looked after very well, unfortunately he was moved to Windsor 20mins away by car so I had to rely on my son to take me every day as I don't drive.

I have some conkers on the window sills plus a few copper coins which are supposed to work as well. I won't kill anything so have a humane spider catcher
if I spot one.

I now have a very wet cat sat on my lap :-D

Anne what date in December is your birthday ?? Mine is the 22nd I had a twin sister and a brother 7 years older on the same day. You certainly live in a nice part of the Country, I expect all property is very expensive. It's bad enough here in Northants.
When I think my first three bedroom semi was only £1,685.00 in Hullbridge Essex. I expect that would be worth £300,000 nowadays.

I try to catch spiders and put them outside. My son is petrified of them. He has 3 or 4 of those spider catchers. So always has one close by !!!

We have just had the most horrendous STORM. The rain was like stair rods. The sky is as black as your hat, so more to come no doubt.

My dear silly wife is off out with Carolyn at two o'clock to get some odds and ends. In this weather. NO THANKS !!!

How are the rest of you doing weather wise ???

Hello Frank

My birthday is the 16th of Dec so I'm teeny bit older than you. I have only one brother who was born just after the war after Dad was demobbed. I don't get to see Colin very often as he lives just outside of Edinburgh but lectures abroad a lot I have just had a postcard from St Petersburg but I expect he is home by now. I would loved to have had a sister but I have my husband's 2 sisters, one older and one younger , I met Peter when I was 18, he had just finished national service, so the younger one was only 9 at the time. We met at a dance on Hastings pier and married 3 years later

I don't live in the most expensive area around Windsor but on the outskirts of Bracknell a new town when we first moved here in 1966, the house we are in now we bought for £80,000. in 1988 but because it has a garage and we added a conservatory they go for about £320,00.00 but it means nothing as I don't intend moving at the moment

Well its stopped raining so will now take Amy for a small walk.

Hallo again Anne,

A lot of my friends and my wife were the only Child, and all say how they missed not having a sibling. I was the youngest of 10. My eldest brother being 21 when I was born. It is said that when I and my sister were born. My elder brother 7 years older asked my dad what he had got for Christmas. When Dad produced us two, he said I don't want them I want ###### Whatever is was he wanted. :-D :-D :-D The are only three of us left in the family now TWINS 3 yrs 9 mths older than me and YOURS TRUELY. I meet my first wife just before I did my National Service. We divorced after 17 years of marriage,when she decided to have an affair !!! You didn't see my tail for dust. I have been married to my present wife for 37 years now and still counting.

Friends of ours have an apartment on the sea front at Hastings just down from the pier going towards St Leonards. We go down with them twice a year if we can, for a long weekend.

The rain packed up a while ago, giving way to beautiful sunshine. It's nice enough to sit out in at the moment.

I hope Annx didn't get caught in all that raid while trying to clear the house. HOW'S IT GOING ??? :-D :-D :-D

Liver, Onions, peas and Mash tonight. for dinner. I know a lot of you don't like it. I am also partial to stuffed Hearts, kidneys, and most offal. BUT not TRIPE. it just doesn't appeal. :-P :-P :-P :

Back to my book while I have peace and quiet.!!!!

Afternoon Everyone.

Ann I am sorry to hear that you lost your dear husband and not that long ago.It must be a comfort having your son at home.
I have my son at home too.He is 29.I know he would love to move out but at the moment it just isn't practical .So here he remains !!!.
I have just heard from him and he will be flying back from Germany about now and should be home (without any hold ups) about 9ish.
I have a Daughter 32 who lives in London and is doing a Phd in Addictions at Kings.

What a filthy day .Such heavy rain at times.I could here the rain gushing out the bottom of one of the drain pipes at the front earlier and when I had a look it looked like a little swimming pool :-S.
I have had my chefs hat on today and made a Lentil and Veg Minestrone .It has a bag of Kale in too and is very tasty :-D

Thomas is tearing around the garden like a loony at the moment.Making most of it until the next big downpour which doesn't look too far off.
He still hasn't got the hang of the cat flap in the summerhouse.I think he must be a bit thick LOL

I think I might go and have a nice soak in the bath .I just fancy one.

James is just going through security at the airport in Stuttgard .I hope the weather isn't too bad flying into Stanstead later.

Frank I know if Chris knows you are having Liver and Bacon he will be dead jealous.I can't remember the last time I did Liver.Sometimes when we go out for a meal and Liver is on the Menu he will choose that :-D

Downstairs is now all 'CONKERED' :-D.I will take the rest upstairs when I go up for the bath.
Our Window cleaner was here before 8 this morning.I was still in bed !!.Chris called up the stairs to warn me lol.So I quickly made sure all the curtains were pulled tight.I think he was trying to get as many jobs done before the rain came.it has gone up £2 to £27 now.Can't really complain about that as we have been paying £20 for years so it is not a huge increase.We have the windows done every 2 months and he does a great job even cleaning all the surrounds and sills.
I woke up at about 4am when I heard James up getting ready to go.I got up to say cheerio and was shocked to see him looking so dapper in his suit and new tie.Clean shaven and hair all really neat.It didn't look like my James LOL.I bet he will be cream crackered by the time he gets in tonight.

I haven't been out at all today.(Chris asked if I was feeling ill ) CHEEKY :-S..
Tomorrow it is the Cinema in Northampton. Bill Brysons Walk in the Woods.I think lunch will be Pizz* Expre**..
It is nearly 2 weeks now since we got back from Italy.....and it seems a life time ago.
I would be quite happy now to go back again :-D :-D

Chris is in the Summerhouse painting and I see Thomas is in there now on the settee.
So now I will go for this bath :-D

Great minds think alike Jane, I've just had a lovely hot soak in the bath, it was lovely. Enjoy yours :-) :-)

Everyone has been so chatty on here today, it was nice to hear all about your family and lives Anne and Harry. I don't live in Ellesmere Port anymore Anne. I left just over 10 years ago and moved to Wales, but missed England and my mum to much so moved back to the Wirral to be closer to mum, not to far away from Ellesmere Port. OH and I are hoping to move to Devon but the price of property is slightly higher than it is where we live now, so we might have to stay around here for a bit longer and save the difference as OH isn't to keen on getting another mortgage.....We only cleared our mortgage last December so he doesn't want to start again with another one just yet.

We've had lovely sun here so I decided to paint the side gate which I managed to finish with 10 minutes to spare before the Agents son turned up with his assistant. They were very helpful and suggested a different way of me showing people around. I've never sold a bungalow before so started at the front and worked my way to the back, which meant I was showing people the bedrooms first then the living room etc...but she said to take them straight through to the living room first, then the kitchen, the dining room, and finally the bedrooms and bathroom as some people have never lived in a bungalow so expect to see the living areas first. I'd never thought of it that way, so will be doing it their way in the future.

I carried on with some more painting after the Agents son had gone and had just finished the garage when the heavens opened and it rained really hard, needless to say some of the paint was washed away onto the floor so I'll have to touch that up on Thursday when the weather is suppose to be sunny again. I also have a second coat to do on the side gate and a couple of coats to do on one side of our back gate. I asked if the Agent could take another photo of the front of the property now the drive is clean and the gate is painted so I'm waiting for them to get back to me. I'm hoping it's going to be on Friday as my sister is back from Cambridge on Thursday and is visiting mum, so I'd like to go and see them both Thursday afternoon.

Well, I'd better go and dry my hair then sort out dinner. I'll catch up properly with all the post later :-)

Forgot to say Rosie showed up this morning, so the dead squirrel on next doors lawn wasn't her after all :-D She was a bit nervous though. It has been over 3 weeks since she was here last and I had my hair up so maybe she didn't recognise me. At least I know she's still alive, so that's good. Sandra is thrilled <3

Oh I am so glad Rosie has turned up again Gill :-D :-D.Hope you have plenty of nuts for her.She will have missed them.I wonder if something had scared her away for a while,especially with whatever had been about to kill the other Squirrel.

Just cooling off now from the bath.I always have it so hot I need a lie down afterwards.
I have been up there for ages trying to swill away all the bubbles and foam but have given up as it is taking so long lol

Ann my mind boggles each time you tell us what else you have found at the house !!!!!
It sounds like 'hoarding' .I wonder what is on the film reels? That would be interesting to see.I had not idea they could combust :-S :-SDo you think there might be any film of OH when he was a little boy???That would be great :-D :-D

One of my thumb nails has split right down the middle :-S :-S half way down the nail.I have spent all day trying to get plasters to stay on but they keep falling off once wet.BUT I have just found fabric plasters(the scretchy kind) and I think that will work
The thing I don't like about them though is that they leave sticky gooey bits on the skin But I will put up with that as long as the plaster stays on and I don't keep catching the nail.I will have to keep a plaster on until the nail grows out now :-S :-S

Mel you asked if anyone watched that new prgramme Darkness? I did .Yes it did seem a bit slow but I think it is going to be a good one :-D :-D
Chris is just catching up on Downton now.I have been standing outside to cool off from my bath :-D..No sign of Thomas..Chris said that when the rain came down he came through the flap in the Summerhouse like a bullet :-D :-D..So he does know how to to use it.I checked just now and he has gone,so must have got back out through . :-D :-D
He will be out looking for mice now :-D We have seen 3 eaten today :-S.But at least no more Bunnies .

Anne it made me laugh when you said one of your cats was walking across your keyboard.Cats do seem to love doing that :-DJust to annoy us :-D

Evening All,

Luckily it didn't rain here till late morning and was just spotting with rain when we unloaded both cars at the dogs' home charity shop. We went earlier today and managed to get to the floor one side of the box room. Great heavy bags of plaster and boxes of heavy ceramic wall tiles. With all the heavy tools above it's a wonder the lot didn't come through the ceiling below! At least another 5 pairs of scissors turned up in there, some broken but still kept. I emptied MIL's sewing cupboard and we decided she was as bad as FIL for keeping stuff. Why would someone keep all the narrow strips of fabric from skirts that had been shortened? We've taken no end of boxes of old towels and sheets to the dogs' home. We keep a few old towels ourselves but not a carfull! We are having to empty everything out as I found brand new paintbrushes in the middle of one box of towels. We tried opening the loft hatch and thought we'd succeeded, but found there was another door on the hatch underneath! OH couldn't shift that with any of FIL's 3 home made poles with hooks on so I think we'll have to get the steps another time and apply a bit of brute force!

What you can throw where gets very complicated Frank! If you throw any things in the skip that aren't allowed you get a surcharge! You can't hide anything because they go through the skips when they get them back, to sort out what they can recycle. As you probably know, if you take stuff to the the tip it is all marked into bays and you have to seperate all your rubbish so eg you put paints in one bay, wood in another, paper in the next , lightbulbs somewhere else etc. OH went to the tip nearest the house this morning to try and just put 4 bags of rubbish in the general waste and the man there wanted him to open the bags and seperate out all the rubbish. Luckily the man got into an argument with someone else with black bin bags of rubbish and OH just left his there and came away. Then things are further complicated by the fact that not all tips will take everything, also with the cutbacks they don't open every day. This tip didn't take tins of paint so that will have to be taken to the tip near us, 15 miles away. I'm beginning to understand why people fly tip now! Where do they want people to empty all the liquids you can't put in skips? Surely it is worse pouring them down drains to get in the water supply than have them go in landfill?

What a shame the rain didn't hold off a bit longer till your paint was dry Gill. I think OH is finishing our fence bits on Friday. It looks like it will be fine for a few days now. That is great the dead squirrel wasn't Rosie. It's good she visited you so your minds were put at rest.

That was a shame about your poor husband Anne and it must have been a difficult time for you. (people are always confused about putting an 'e' at the end of our name aren't they!) We learned just a few months ago that my 94 year old FIL has 2 kinds of dementia. He was diagnosed just after my MIL became terminally ill and died recently. He is in a home now and very settled at the moment after a difficult start.

I meant to say Jane that I expect Fitz is excited at the prospect of a grandchild!
:-D I think he will be a very good grandfather!

There is some film of OH as a toddler in the 1950s Jane as FIL played it to us a few years ago. We don't know what is on the rest of the films though and gawd knows how you work it all. We both think it is on the 'edge' of hoarding too. The difference is that it is neatly arranged all over the house, not piled in a heap like hoarding usually is. It might have been in another 5 years though!

Evening all,

Another dreary day here ,started raining just after lunch and was quite heavy at times .

I have a Toby Anne but my Toby is a dog :-D he's a poor old boy now he will be fifteen in Feb ,he's getting very wobbly on his back legs ,some times he goes down the garden like a rocket as if he's a puppy again.

Ann, hubby said those skips are called Roll on Roll off and should work out cheaper than having two skips, just make sure no one else dumps any rubbish in especially any Asbestos !! keep an eye on it as if that goes in it will cost you a fortune as it will contaminate the whole skip ,hubby had a skip and some one shot in Asbestos over night he never noticed and when the skip was sorted they found it and he had to pay !! a lot !!
Also when you go to the tip don't say it's not your rubbish or they won't take it ,at our tip we're not allowed to dump rubbish that's not ours ,so don't say it's not yours just in case your tip has the same rules .
I wonder what you'll find in the loft !! :-0 :-0

What a shame the rain came down and washed some paint off Gill ,and after all your hard work too !!
Oh i'am glad you've seen Rosie about again .

The picture looks lovely Frank, he has made a good job of the new frame .

Your soup sounds nice Jane ,we like soup in the winter especially home made goes down a treat with some crusty bread .