General Chat

Two Magpies in our garden so Joy :-D The group of Magpies I see here is when they are after road kill .
Mel the pics of the twins are lovely. Who do they belong to? I am sure you have said .
They are identical .

Sid and Percy are gorgeous Mel and they have lovely curly hair don't they. Not that they will like it when they are teenagers.

My Nana always covered Mirrors(I think) if there was a thunderstorm. Yes shoes on the table,comes to mind and something about passing someone or something on the stairs!. I am not superstitious . But not keen on walking under ladders . Why would anyone want to do that !!!.

Ann every time I do chops Chris asks if the are Barnsley Chops LOL That comes from you.I just mentioned to him years back now about you having Barnsley Chops. I tell him every time they are not PORK chops :-D.I don't do Lamb Chops. Maybe I will just have to do the Barnsley ones once to keep him happy :-D :-D

I made my Sister laugh just now when I said the beef juice was cooling off on the window sill waiting for the fat to settle on the top . She said that is what our Dad did .That is probably why I use the window sill even now :-D I could quite easily just pop it in the fridge which would be quicker. I had never even wondered why I use the window sill. How funny things stick in your mind even though you are not aware of it.

I had a chuckle at Chris and the Barnsley chops! Once something is in your head it sticks doesn't it. The reason we have them is you don't often get lamb as a choice eating out and we both like it and the Barnsley ones are a double chop really and very tender from the farm shop. We like pork ones too and they are much bigger and better value. I remember years ago you would get them with a bit of the kidney as they were sliced, but I haven't seen those for a while.

Now I'm sure first MIL used to say something about passing on the stairs?

I just checked my tree again as I thought I had traced more first cousins a while ago. This is the picture now. Mum had 9 siblings, dad had 8. I had 26 first cousins on dad's side and 32 on mum's side, although one was adopted so not a blood relation. That makes 58 first cousins altogether. It also means with me and my 2 siblings, one set of my grandparents had 29 grandchildren and the other set had 35 grandchildren. There might have been even more only 2 of mum's siblings never married and one died as a child. The oldest of my cousins was born in 1921 and most were born in the 20s and 30s.

One of dad's older brothers, who I first knew of from the 1911 census, had 12 children, which included 3 sets of twins, but it looks like only one child of the twins survived. His wife had the first child when she was 21 and the last at age 53.

The fireworks have started again!

Mum always said not to put new shoes on the table, I have heard about covering mirrors in a thunderstorm and not walking under ladders but oh always walks under ladders as he did while in his job. Mirrors broken 7 years bad luck and opening an umberella indoors but I hav'nt heard the one about hanging mens pants next to womens but funnily enough I never do that anyway!! Heard about throwing salt over your left shoulder and I think it is into the devils eyes. Never heard about not doing washing on New Years Day though.

The twins are a friends daughters children. Vron is gran, Vron's the friend.

I have made a nice caesar salad with apple out the garden and 18 sausage rolls and three sausages with twists of pastry round them, less fattening that way so oh says!!!! Ha ha. but it used the pastry and the sausages up.

O yes I missed out not passing on stairs another of mums saying when we visited people with stairs. I have only nce lived in a house with stairs and that was the cottage in suffolk and it did'nt have many.

Morning all,

We have another bright and sunny morning here today. Its showin g up all the dust!!! so guess what I shall be doing?

Tomorrow is my dentists appointment and then I shall pop into Lidl on the way home and then hopefully in the afternoon do the shopping.

But today is HW day as I did'nt get hoover yesterday I have it to do today then I shall dust and maybe do some ironing. Now I have my day planned out I wonder just how much will get done? O and I have to wash my hair too.

Morning Mel, morning all

Dull and cold here today.

Sandra told me some of the insulation I put in her room has come away from the wall so we've just took her bed out so I can get to it to stick it back down. I could of done without that job today as I really need to get on with the insulation in the other room. If I don't get on with that soon I'll run out of time to take the left over insulation back to the shop as we only have 45 days and there's only a short time left now. So it looks like I'm going to be busy for the next few days getting those jobs out of the way.

It looks like you're going to be busy today to Mel. Hope you get through all the jobs and don't run out of time.

On a positive Lewis Hamilton won the race last night, giving the team enough points to win the constructors championship and with him already wining the drivers championship it would of been celebrations all round for the team last night and probably today to. :-D

Oh paid to see the race Gill as we don't have sky. It was a good race was'nt it. What a todo with young Max. Oh said he went and punched the driver that it him.

I give up I have been sitting here typing away for over an hour, AND BOOM IT'S ALL GONE !!! Will try again later.

Poor Frank. Make your posts smaller then you can post them before they disappear. You can always do two or three if you have a lot to say. I know it is very frustrating as I have done it myself soemtimes. I seem to hit a wrong key on the keyboard on the left and whoosh its gone. Sometimes you can click the back arrow at the top of the page and then it comes back.

Meant to say we keep getting heavy rain showers then sun again and every time oh goes up the garden to do some tree pruning and chopping down it rains and he comes back down again. I think he has given up now as the last time he came down he said he dried his seat on the digger and sat on it and still got a wet bottom.

Sorry to hear you've lost a big post Frank, that must be so frustrating, I hope you have better luck next time. It's happened to me before and like Mel I've tried clicking on the back button which sometimes brings the post back. Maybe you could try that, you never know it might just work and you won't lose your post.

We've got the same weather as you Mel, OH wanted to put his big saw away in the shed and he had to time it in between the heavy showers of rain.

Yes, it was a brilliant race last night, but Max wasn't happy at all. I saw him pushing the other driver around, but didn't see him punch him. Max was trying to get Lewis to agree with him when they were in the room together before they went on the podium, but Lewis wasn't having it, saying that Ocon had the right to unlap himself. I thought Ocon was very mature when Max was pushing him, he just put his hands up and didn't hit him back. Max is very young, no excuse I know, but I'm sure he'll grow out of it in time. If not, one day, he'll pick on the wrong driver and not come out of it well. He'll then learn the hard way and stop his childish behaviour.

Well, we've decided not to bother insulating the spare bedroom after all as we think it might come off the wall, I noticed the insulation in the dining room is loose in the corner and Sandra's came off a little bit, so I don't want to go to the expense and time doing the job if it's not going to work. Instead we'll just keep an eye on the wall behind the bed and when necessary wipe the wall to get rid of the mould and touch it up with a bit of paint. It's only at the bottom so no one can see it anyway. I'm going to buy a big canvas picture to put above the bed as I can't wall paper that wall now and it looks very bare.

I started unpicking the material I was given the other day last night so I'm going to finish that off today and I've bought a new picture frame so I need to put the picture in it from an old frame that I want to get rid of. Then I think I'll settle down and watch a few Christmas films I've recorded with Sandra and OH.

Firstly though, I need to sort out the spare bedroom and put everything back, including the bed and I've got a few things that need going in the loft which OH will do when he gets back from B&Q which is where he is now taking the insulation back.

Poor Sandra will have to sleep in the living room again for a couple of nights as OH is going to paint the wall I insulated when it's dry tomorrow, it'll save us putting her bed back only to take it out again in the morning, unless she wants to sleep in the spare room. She's not keen on that as it's to light for her and the neighbours make a lot of noise very early in the morning with their cars taking the kids to school and it wakes her up. It's up to her, the bed's there if she wants it.

She's just got very excited at all the starling's on the bird feeder again. There must of been around 15 of them, all squabbling, trying to get to the food. I noticed a blackbird sitting on the fence watching them.

Afternoon All
We have had some showers too this afternoon . Hannah says she has had thunder and lightening in London.Here is now a really.clear sky and feeling cold.

Gill what a shame the insulation is not staying put after all your hard work !!!. Is it because the walls are damp which is making it diffficult for it to stay stuck? At least you can return what you havent used and get some money back. I guess Sandra just likes to stay in her own room when ever possible. Does it unsettle her if she has to move bedrooms?

Oh Frank,it is so easy to just press or knock the wrong button to lose a whole post like that. I bet the air was blue.Did Ros need earplugs :-D :-D Have another bash.

Oh wet bottom would have been uncomfortable for OH Mel :-S How much housework did you manage to get done :-D. I havent been out at all today so have done hoovering, ironing ,more washing and getting spuds and veg ready for dinner. How exciting it is being a housewife :-D :-S Chris went on one of his long walks this morning as it was lovely weather then.He saw a Muntjac in the middle of a country lane just mooching about.

My phone has been continually pinging with messages back and forth from Hannah and me about the table plans for the wedding meal. Its quite a flpping headache trying to get things right. I think she is just about there now after several changes. It is not so easy as it is at a pub and not a massive room with large tables or a Marquee .Its big enough but sitting who with who . Hannah has now left me with table number 3 LOL We will get there in the end :-D

Evening all,

Been nice here all day but by the middle of the afternoon you can feel the temperature drop .

Oh Frank when you lose a post like that you don''t feel like doing it all again do you , hopefully you'll have better luck next time .

Oh dear Gill you worked hard getting the insulation on the walls too ,is it because the wall was a little damp ?
It was better to return the rolls you didn't use and get you money back as you can always go again and buy some more perhaps in the spring when the walls are dryer and it will then stick better .

Oh Jane i don'y envy you having to sort out the seating ,we had that job , we tried to mix it a bit some from both sides of each family sitting together on a table but it's so hard knowing who to put together as usually family like to sit together .

I hurt my foot this afternoon when i walked Max ,i saw a big dog off the lead in the churchyard so decided to cut across the grass to keep Max away as he usually wants to see every dog that passes and i wasn't sure if it was the dog that had a go at him once before so i nipped over the grass , it was all ruts and my foot found one ,now the side of my foot is really tender .

Tomorrow we are having another turn out in the front bedroom ,i wonder how much dust we'll find tomorrow :-0 it's the top of the wardrobes that get bad but it's nice when it's all done and you know it's all nice and clean, well for a while any way .

I bet your your foot will feel bad tomorrow Mandy.It could look a bit black and blue :-S
Hopefully it wont get any more painful. I was often wary of some dogs when I took Chester out.I only had one bad experience when some kind of Terrier went for him.It was horrible.I had to actually kick out at the dog
:-S
I need to have a go at the top of our wardrobes.They should have been a long time ago!!! :-S :-S

We will get the table seating sorted for table 3 Mandy .I have a plan :-D

Dinner ready now

Sorry to hear about your foot Mandy, I hope it doesn't take to long to feel better. Did you go over on your ankle, it's very painful when that happens?

I know how you feel once you've had a good clean around, I feel much better now the spare room is almost straight. I just need to put everything back in the wardrobe as we emptied it when we thought it needed moving out of the way for the insulation.
We've decided not to bother with the insulation at all now, it was quite a big job with the wall being 8 foot tall and there's no guarantee it'll stay on,. I did the dining room years ago and it's now loose even after all that time, so it's easier not to bother. No one uses that room anyway, so I'll just keep an eye on the wall behind the bed and give it a wipe down when necessary.

How are you getting on with your seating plans Jane, have you got it all sorted now? How many people do you need to sort out? I hope everyone gets on, there'd be nothing worse than putting a few people together on a table that don't see eye to eye with each other.
Yes, Sandra can get a bit anxious if things change without her knowing about it. With her already having a few nights in the living room when I insulated her room, she's happier doing that again rather than sleeping in the front bedroom. OH is going to paint the wall tomorrow then Sandra can go back in her own room, she'll only be in the living room tonight and maybe tomorrow night if the paint is still wet, so not as long as last time.

I've finished unpicking all the material now, so that's going to be packed up for now until I have some spare time to do a bit of sewing. Sandra's changed her mind about sewing something for her room, she said she prefers to make cards instead, so I'll make something for her room for her. Not sure what yet though.

Thats ne job I don't have to do, wardrobe tops. OUrs are in mums old bedroom and they are built up tothe ceiling so no dusty tops. There is a free standing small cupboard in the uti room but I have plastic bags of the garden seats on that and there's a small wardrobe in oh's study which also has things on top and I don't clean his study.

I got the hoovering done today of the kitchen and dining area and spiders and cobwebs went up it too. I also did a lot of putting things away in their right places. I had allsorts of craft things out that I was'nt using.

GOOD NEWS FLASH we have had two different hedgehogs in the garden this evening. One had a white bottom and the other one did'nt. I threw a load of dried food on the grass and saw the one with the plain botty again but as I turned the light on it went under the decking between the two ponds.

Morning all,

A sunny start to the day and I have the dentists this morning so will probably be back later on.

Hope you had a better night Frank and got some sleep at last.

Good morning Mel and all,

Yes thanks Mel, I slept very well last night and only got up once. So I was in bed around 11.00 and got up at 6.45. Had a nice pot of tea to myself .Ros came out about 8.30.

John rang to say the weekend to Hastings is off. Carolyn has fallen down the stairs this morning, and hurt her ankle, leg and arm. Roa is going round later to see if she needs/wants to go to A & E. John hasn't bothered ringing anyone. I was thinking of a way of not going, so I got a result, but I didn't want it that way.

I had a phone call also from John my Nephew, to say Fran. my SIL was taken to hospital yesterday with a swollen ankle and leg. Never a good sign, as I remember my dad and his swollen leg, which turned out to be the BIG C. Also my sister has ben fitting again, and they have discovered a large growth in her stomach, which they are going to investigate. WHAT A LOVELY MORNING and it's not 10.00 am yet. :-P :-P :-P :-P

I see you have a good job Jane. You must be careful who you put with who, you know what relations can be like, or perhaps you don't !!!, As you are from a small family. ;-) ;-) ;-)

A white bum hedgehog, is something I have never seen. What on earth can cause that.??

Gill it must be very frustrating having the damp proofing peeling off the wall. Why don' you get Professional advise on what the best material to use. i.e. A WATERPROOF PAINT or similar. Just a thought.

I bet you are a bit sore this morning Mandy, how far from him were you when you twisted your ankle ?? Did max take any notice of the other dog. ?? You would think that dogs would be kept on a lead walking through a crematory (sp)

Denis and Pam are having ALL the drive and front garden concreted over. The large cement lorry has been twice this morning, both times with the wrong mix. The guys who are doing the job are not at all HAPPY. Just standing around in the cold.

I have just put the line up for Ros to hang out the sheets etc, when I noticed that two pains of glass had slipped down one the greenhouse, so I had the job of finding new clips and managed to put them back into place. Coming back up the lawn I tripped A over H and landing in a heap on the lawn. Now my joggers and T shirt are wet, and I have had to change. I am now going to sit down as I am shaking all over (ELVIS) lol lol

Nice sunny cold day here, hope you are all well. xxxx