General Chat

Glad you are now in your new place Pat. Good luck with everything and I am sure you will get it just as you lie it. Have a nice time away for a few days.

Dinner sounded lovley Jane and she sounds like a good little cook.

I am sure Sandra will give you a lot of help with the Christmas dinner Gill and it will be a good experience for her. Don't forget the crackers as I bet she loves those. <3

Going to watch the other program on bbc 1 now and see if I can get into it a bit more tonight.

Not more tools Ann!! You are getting there and don't forget you shoud get more for the house than the probate price as they usually keep that down.

See you all in the morning night night.

Morning all and evening KIm,

What a beautiful morning we have at the moment. I wonder if it will stay??

I had better get the washing machine on.

Oh has just taken the trailer up the top as the tin for the roof of the shed is arriving soon.

Morning All ,Evening Kim,

Hi Mel , we have a sunny autumn morning too.

OH ordered 3 fruit tree's and was going to plant them in the front garden. but when he showed me where he was thinking of putting them, My answer was no thank you. that will block my view and I hate not being to see out into the street, makes me feel shut in,
so he is in the back garden now deciding where he will put them instead.

Morning all

Half your luck with the weather Mel, it's dull and damp here today.

At least you have the good weather for your OH to do the shed roof. Hope it stays nice long enough for him to finish the job.

Sandra is wanting to do something for Christmas, she loves it and can't wait for the big day. We have bought some presents for the family so I'll wrap them up with her today. She keeps looking on the TV for Christmas films, I'm surprised she's actually found some, I'd of thought it was bit early. She is so excited, bless her....What a difference from this time last year when we were all upset at Michelle leaving. It's nice to see her happy again and having something to look forward to.

I'll just finish my cuppa, then we'll make a start
BBL

Morning Fiona didn't see you there.

So you have the good weather too? Hope we get a bit of sun later. At least it's nice weather for planting the trees. What sort of fruit trees have you got? Yes I think the back garden is a better place for them, plus no one can take the fruit off it, although I can't say the same for the birds. They got to our fruit before us, so we only had the apples left. Luckily for Sandra we have her strawberries in the greenhouse away from the birds.

It's started raining and because OH is at his mates doing his garden Sandra thinks he might come home and see what she's bought for him, so she doesn't want to wrap the presents up till tomorrow now when OH is on a 12 hour shift, so she's got us watching the X Factor instead.

Morning all, Evening Kim,

Clear blue sky's here with plenty of YELLOW STUFF. Everywhere is very wet, so I will look at the lawns around 4.00 ish to see if it's dry enough to cut.

Ros has taken some cuttings from some plants, and has been potting them this morning in the kitchen. I found her rooting powder, so she's used that.

Glad you are in now Pat. I bet you slept well in your own bed !!! It's good that the kitchen will be done and dusted before you go away for a few days. Enjoy your break. ;-) ;-) ;-)

My old school pal goes for his cancer operation today, two weeks ahead of schedule, as he has responded to treatment better than expected. The cancer is in his throat and has had to be tube fed for a very long time. Each meal (Liquid and medication) takes FIVE HOURS. So any improvement after the operation will be a BIG BONUS.

Glad you had a nice day out yesterday Jane, I trust you behaved yourself ;-) ;-) ;-)

No plans here today. I have got some Lamb Shanks in gravy out of the freezer for tonight, I will do them with Mash and Veg.

Enjoy whatever you are doing today, and don't overdo things Ann and Gordon. A little today and a bit more tomorrow !!!

Thats it Frank you tell them........ :-| :-| :-|

Lovely you have new fruit trees Fiona. We would like to know what Frank has bought please?

Oh has most of the tin on the roof of the shed.

Now he is asking me for a coffee. BBL

I need to sort out my cutting too Frank, the ones I did last year are now planted in the garden and have grown so much, they're fuscia's in cream and purple, I got them off my mum's neighbour and they are still in flower at the moment and looking very healthy. It was the first time I took cutting in the Autumn I normally do it in the spring so I'm made up they didn't die on me :-) :-)

Glad to hear the weather is holding out for you Mel, will your OH have the roof finished today? He's such a hard worker isn't he?

The sun has come out here now so that's good. OH checked the freezer in the garage before and there is condensation on the top, it's the second time it's happened so we've unplugged it for now, I was a bit worried something bad might happen with the water being quite close to the socket. Lucky he checked it as I was going to stock it up today, good job I didn't get round to moving the stewed apples into there with not being well for a few days. It's now being de-frosted until we can work out how to use it safely.

I started watching Grand Designs off the planner in bed last night and fell asleep before it finished, so I'm just watching the end again

Hope Ann and Gordon aren't over doing things today.....a little at a time, then before you know it it'll all be done, it can be put on the market then.

Off to watch the end of my programme now
BBL

Afternoon All,

A lovely sunny day again and it was very pretty with the mist on the fields before 8.00am this morning when we dropped more paper shreddings off when we went to the house. My word the traffic queues through the village were really bad and we both said we were glad we were retired now and didn't have to go through that every day! OH dismantled the wardrobes and cupboard, nearly dropping a big door on his toes ...........isn't that melamine stuff heavy!! We even found rolls of carpet between the wardrobes and wall as well as carpet on top of them and sheets of wood and glass behind them!! We'll move all the wood downstairs next time when we are fresher! I packed the rest of FIL's clothes (3 big suitcases full!) Then we crammed as much as we could in the car for the charity shop at the dog's home and dropped it off on the way back.

Best wishes to your friend having the operation Frank. I hope ll goes well for him as he has had a really tough time by the sound of it.

Great news for you Pat and now you will be able to settle in more with your own things around you. It's good the dogs get on so well and miss each other now! I hope you enjoy your break. It's a good idea to get away and relax for a few days.

Sandra would have liked it at the garden centre here just down the road Gill. We popped in for some more boxes after lunch and all the christmas decorations are up and the trees all hanging with baubles and twinkly lights. It's good she's looking forward to helping with the christmas dinner. She will feel so proud to be so useful to you and as you say, lots of encouragement and practice is the way forward. It's a shame you have condensation on the top of the freezer.....is the lid sealing properly? Try standing something heavy on the lid and see if it still happens.

Back & Front lawns all cut but no edges trimmed yet. That can be done anytime. Even though the green bin is full I managed to get 4 boxes of grass cutting in there.!!!!

Dinner all prepared, so now I can have a sit down and a read of my book.

It is Ella's birthday today SEVEN going on TWENTY !!!! She had a party yesterday with NINETEEN children. They are all going out for a meal tonight. Jan, Jo, Kerry and Ella.

It looks like Jan with be bringing Kerry back on Wed / Thurs. She will stay the weekend with her and come to us Sunday. She will stay the night and go to Leicester Monday Morning, as she has an appointment with the Accountant. Then the long haul back to Devon. She doesn't seem to mind the driving/ She will go M6 and M 5 then onto Torquay..

It's starting to cloud over here, so I expect we will see a drop of rain later.

England play again tonight, so I will force myself down the pub to watch them :-D :-D :-D :-D

Hi folks,

Bet you all thought I'd got lost! Well, not as such but we have had a lot of appointments between us and I seem to have been caught up in lots of things to do and time passing too quickly. I can nip in and out of Facebook quickly but if I come on here I need time to think what to write and try and write it correctly. Is it my fingers or my keyboard? Never mind, I'm here now.

Carmel is not too well today. She had a bad night, got up for breakfast then slept all morning till lunchtime. Now she is asleep on the sofa again. She also has a lot on here mind regarding her brother Harry over in Dublin. His wife Deirdre has been going downhill with Alzheimer's for some time now plus the osteoporosis in her limbs is becoming very severe. A few weeks back there she just slips off the sofa whilst Harry's back was turned and ended up in hospital with a broken hip. They have done a replacement op, which she really wasn't up to, but now her bones are too weak to even allow her to stand. Carmel spoke to him on the phone last night and there is a big dilemma building up. The hospital want to discharge her, the authorities are saying she should go in a home as the house isn't geared up to her condition - and Harry won't hear of it. He is saying if she goes into a home, then he goes with her. They have never been parted, have always had a very close marriage and even now he spends most of his time at the hospital with her. If you add into this that he has a lot of health problems, you can see why Carmel is so worried about both of them. Of course it doesn't help that we are on the other side of the Irish sea and Carmel is no fit enough to make the trip over.

I bet you are all wishing I hadn't added a post now, but it helps to unburden even if it is only words on paper.

I'm sorry I haven't been on to catch up with all your posts but I need to be able to concentrate on here and if Carmel calls me or needs me (which is often these days) then I hate to drop things half way through.

We don't have sop many appointments this week and the two we have we have managed to condense into the same morning. Carmel's hearing is getting bad and at last she has admitted that she needs a hearing test. We have to go to a certain opiticians (should have gone to!!) on Thursday where Carmel will get her test. Following that, I need new specs, my prescription has changed and I'm not allowed to choose my own frames as Carmel has never forgiven me from coming home once in the past looking like Joe 90. So any frames I choose now have to have the royal seal of approval. So this it's for this week, whereas next week I'm at the dentists to have my filling replaced (temp in at the moment) and a back tooth extracted. Then the next day Carmel has her diabetic clinic. Oh what a jolly exciting life we lead!

Other than that we have had a few good days when I've been able to get into the garden and clear some of the planters, borders etc and try to make the place tidy for the winter. I'm hoping I can save the lovely trailing fuschias we've had this year along with some nice geraniums. A week or so ago we had a couple of fellas come in and decimate our oak tree pollarding right back hard. We can actually see daylight and no oak leaves to hang about (they don't rot!) - add to that the say guys previously cut down our next door but ones tree that was occupying three gardens with it's limbs. That's another load of leaves I won't have to put up with, yipee.

Better go, I've just made a Christmas card for a model chum and I want to get it finished - I know that sounds early but his arrived this morning - he always sends them out around now. There's more to that story but I won't bore you all with it.

I'll try and look in a bit later. Take care and best wishes to you all and thank you for your patience. (I'm not going to read this over as I'm sure there will be a mistake somewhere!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ELLA <3 <3 <3 <3

I've got a great nephew who's older than his years, he's 9 now but has always been very bright Frank. Is your school pals op over yet? Hope it all went well.
I remember the M5 when my sister used to live in Plymouth, we'd get on at the beginning and get off at the end. Such a long drive and not one we enjoyed. She lives in Liverpool now, so a lot closer to us.

It sounds like a maze of stuff at MIL's Ann, you never know what you're going to come across next. The dog's home is doing well out of it though. Have you got much more to do? Gordon was lucky he didn't drop the wardrobe on his toes, it sounds like you need steel toe cap boots and a hard hat with everything being piled up everywhere.

Yes Sandra loves looking at all the Christmas trees Ann, when they are lit up in our garden centre. Around the middle of November they open really late and have carol singers inside and a snow machine outside, there's also mulled wine, but Sandra doesn't like that and lots of nibbles, it's a lovely evening out, very Christmasy and she loves it. There used to be a cat living there but she passed away last year aged 18. Each time we visited throughout the year Sandra would go looking for her, she was quite upset when the garden centre put a notice up letting everyone know she'd passed away with a little picture of her. Hopefully she'll be alright when we go again next month. There is also a hand made Christmas fair on near us just after my birthday at the end of November so we're going to that too.

My freezer doesn't open at the top it has a door on it in the front so OH thinks it's because the top might be getting a bit warm with the motor and because it's in an un-insulated garage that's what's causing the condensation to form. So nothing we can really do about it which is why I've turned it off.......better to be safe than sorry.

Sandra's just gone to the shops with her dad as she spotted the "Glee" DVD we always get her for Christmas. I had to laugh as she said when she came in earlier "I wish I had £17 as the final one of Glee is in the shops" I think she was hinting that she wanted me to buy it, so OH has took her to the shop to buy it. I said you can have it for Christmas so now she's happy. She had to go with OH as we don't know which one it is and I wouldn't want to get it wrong. I've bought her all the Glee DVD's since they first came out so she'll have the full set now to keep and watch again. It's full of music which is loves.

Better go and make a start on dinner, they'll be back soon
See you all later <3

Hello William, didn't see you there.

It does sound like you and Carmel have had a bit of a time of it lately, hope things work out ok for Carmel's SIL and brother, it can't be easy being so far apart from each other.

I know what it's like being a carer, so don't feel bad telling us all, you know we're here for you. At least you don't have to clear up all those leaves now so that's a bonus for you and more light into your garden isn't a bad thing either.

It is a bit early for Christmas cards, I'm curious on the story now you've mentioned it.

Keep your chin up, we all look forward to hearing from you when you can get on here, you're never forgotten <3

Evening All
What a chatty lot you have been today .Brrrrr! it is feeling blooming chilly now.The heating is on and Thomas has just come in .Much too early :-S.I might pop him out again in a bit and hope he comes back again before it gets too late.

Frank I hope your friends operation has gone well today and that he makes a full recovery.Sounds like he is really going through the mill with everything.

Pat you will be happy now to be in your own place even if you still have things to do .It will be nice for you both to get away for a few days next week.Are the dogs going with you ?Hopefully the weather will still be fine for you.

Yikes Ann more 'stuff' !!!!!!!It's never ending :-SI would have loved to have seen their house lol

William ,good to see you again :-D..Sorry Carmel hasn't been to well.It must be a huge worry for her about her Brother and his wife.If Harry is having health problems too ,then maybe both moving into a home might be the best for them both.It does sound as though it would be very difficult for him to look after his wife at home at the moment.
I saw your wonderful Sunsets again on your FB..You certainly have some cracking good ones where you live.

Gill you said about turning the chicken over in the oven.Was it a whole Chicken? I never turn a chicken :-S..I may have misread and maybe it was Chicken Breasts
I think it was great Sandra managed to cook it and enjoyed it too :-D :-DYou might find yourself redundant soon when it comes to cooking LOL :-D

Fiona I think I would have agreed with you and not had the fruit trees in the front garden.Mind you once Chris makes his mind up about putting something somewhere ,even if I opposed, it wouldn't make any difference lol.He would plant where he wanted to.

Mel what did you think of the second episode of Darkness? I watched it too this morning and thought it much better.We now have a proper gist of things.But there is something in 'her' past in the Police which is obviously a bit dodgy.Can't wait now for the next instalment .

I can't remember if I said last night in my post that I have got tickets for me and Hannah to go and see Eddie Izzard in February in London.I have always liked him.I find him fascinating .A very clever and interesting man.He speaks so many languages fluently,has done all those Marathons back to back ,acted ,stand up comedian and all sorts.Chris can't stand him..not sure if that is to do with the skirts and nailvarnish lol

Must get dinner in .It is just ready made Moussaka and lots of veg.
Frank I like the sound of your Lamb Shanks.Are they the usual ones you have?

Gill ,where in Plymouth did your Sister live? That is where I grew up :-D
After leaving Plymouth and moving to Bristol for 3 yrs the journey back home wasn't too long.But then moving here and it then being at least a 5 hr drive it became more and more arduous the older I got :-S..When Mum had Dementia and still living on her own I was up and down that M5 like a YoYo and each journey felt longer :-S and exhausting.It got to the point when I was doing that trip almost every week.I was a wreck :-S :-S

I think we might just have a bit of rain.Chris says he can see some spots on the study window.I will go out the back door and have a gander :-D

Back again so soon while I've got a moment.

Thank you Gill for your kind words, I know I can always find sympathetic ears (eyes!) on here. The story behind the Christmas card is as follows. The card I had is from a model Club chum I've known for ages but as he lives in London, it's all now done by correspondence and I always send him our model Club magazine, of which he is a member, together with my latest letter. Well' I hadn't heard much from him this year and I told Carmel I was worried about him. So the latest magazine was ready and I spent yesterday typing a long letter, got it ready and took it round the post at 8.30am this morning. The our mail came at 12.30pm with his Christmas card and a short note in it as follows "Early as always as I like to get my cards out. Things not so good since I lost Pat, as I told you previously. Not so well these days either". Well in a nut shell, he's never mentioned a 'Pat' before, always known him as being single - and what's more I've hardly heard from him this year!! (Oh yes, and he's moved back to his Wimbledon house, whereas he previous post was sent to a Chelsea address at his request)
So I've now made his Christmas card, I'm about to write yet another letter and just hope he has forwarding facilities from his old address. Hope you understood all that. Also, a mutual pal rang me this morning and was just about to say he hadn't heard from him in a long while either, so I brought him up to date.

Jane, thanks for the praise on my sky photos, but it's Mother Nature who deserves the medals. We do get a good view from our back bedroom window, be even better if they knocked all the houses down :-) - Of course, it's better now that we have less trees to block the view. Earlier sunsets mean I have to be on the look out sooner, they go so fast it's blink and you miss them.

Jane did you see my poem on Facebook - Childhood 1940? I know Frank saw it and did a 'like'. It just all came to me after reading a little book about civilian life in the war years, came flooding back like a cameo. Old age I guess, I regressing, I think the word is.

Right, must get off to write this letter - again !!!

Evening All

In and out with the blood tests this morning Then put the washing on the line
after cleaning the washing machine out first lol Clare had washed the dog blankets and hadn't had time to do that..Managed to get in dry today
We then went to the Big Tesc* off the island for a food shop and some door mats.. Had lunch then walked the dogs along the beach they hadn't had one for a few days..Then walked to the Florists to buy some Flowers for Clare to go with the big bar of chocolate..Now watching Corrie.

Thanks everyone for the good wishes on the house move and Jane thank you for the card was a nice surprise..

You have been busy Frank with your grass cutting Alan cut the grass here the other day but it was still wet in places I think this will be the last cut now this year

We are renting a little Cottage Jane that takes dogs,,They will be getting confused now where they will be living lol.

Well are new electric heaters here on the walls are working well..Havent seen these types before..I also will have to get used to using a electric oven as well when it has been fitted..

DAVID IRVINE IS BACK HOPING EVERY ONE'S OK