General Chat

No gardening for me today. I cleaned the car instead. It had so much green on it around the trims and windows I had to use a toothbrush to get it out. I even washed all the insides of the doors which never get done when oh washes it with the pressure washer. I have even got the rust runs off the doors where they had put cheap clips on and they always go rusty and it runs down the doors in a big line. We have to go past so may dirty farms to get anywhere where we live its not surprising it goes green with all the manure thats thrown up on the car.


It sound like you have all had a lovely weekend and have been out and about. We never go out on a bank holiday or in school holidays around here.

Nearly time to shut the girls in and I must get something to eat, not that I am hungry but I suppose oh will be. The I am going in the shower as I feel all itchy today. Go and have a good scrub I think then relax fr the rest of the evening.

Glasd you told us Thomas came home as we were all worried about him Jane.

Morning all

Another lovely sunny day, I could get used to this :-)

Safe journey today AnnG, hope the traffic isn't to bad and you are right and they will all be travelling North you may end up with the whole road to yourselves lol. Let's hope the weather stays nice for you. Will you be taking a laptop with you or staying off the thread until you come back, I know Frank takes his, so I just wondered?

What a pity about the cupcake flower display Ann, I would of loved to have seen a picture of that. It sounds like you had a lovely time and bought lots of beads that OH paid for. Were you right, did he have a footie match he wanted to go to?

I was saying to OH the other day our car needs a good clean Mel with all the dust from next door so I think he's going to do it on Wednesday if the drive is finished and all the rubbish has been taken from the front garden. I don't think there'll be anymore dirt after that as the rest of the work will be inside. He said all the fascias and windows need doing to, so lots of cleaning ahead of him. He was even talking about jet washing the drive and paths plus the patio's, but I'm hoping he leaves those for a while or he'll end up taking on to much in one go and it's really hot out there.

I've been pottering around the back garden this morning moving a few pots around. The Tulips are past their best now, but the bluebells are looking really nice so they have replaced them and I've put a few freesias here and there to. I love having a pot garden it's so easy and quick to change the borders around and we never have to see the old flowers dying away as they can be moved out of sight. :-D

OH is at his mates today, he was going to go tomorrow but i said I didn't want Sandra and I to be here on our own with all the trouble the drive caused the other day, so he's going to be here with us while they finish it off. At least we won't be so scared then as it got really horrible the other day with all the shouting. Even the boss joined in and so we heard from another neighbour, started shouting at Lynn the new neighbour, he was swearing at her, so I don't fancy being here with Sandra if anything like that happens again. Apparently the boss of the drive told the other boss he would kill him if he ever did anything like that again, meaning not paying for the job. By the sounds of it, it got really nasty. I'm determined to enjoy the last day of peace and try not to think about tomorrow, we've had a lovely weekend and I'm not going to let them spoil it.

Going to take another look at OH's family tree today, it's the last day Ancestry have their records open for free so I thought I'd go back to the 1700's and see what records I can find for him, then take it from there. Sandra is still asleep and OH has just gone out, so it's nice and quiet.

I'm going to have a cuppa outside first, it's so nice and warm and it was lovely watching the birds eating earlier, one little bird nearly fell off the feeder in his hurry to eat and then he sat at the bottom of our water feature and had a drink.

Oh I forgot to say I nearly had a hedgehog walk over my feet the other night. OH and I were outside when this tiny hog came walking down the garden towards us, he obviously didn't know we were there and didn't notice us until he was about a foot away, he soon went running back down the bottom of the garden though when he realised he wasn't alone. I didn't realise how fast hogs can run. We also saw our first bat last night to. It's all go at night isn't it?

Morning Gill and all,

I think its going to be another nice day here too today but its a bit hazy at the mo. The sun is shining but I don't think it that high in the sky yet.

I still hav'nt seen any hogs in our garden. I think we had been abandoned since they cut the long grass behind the bungalow and cut all the brimbles and stuff back in the field next to us. You would think that with all the stuff growing in our top garden they would be in there though.

Anyway if I can fine the car polish I may do the car today. It gets so hot up the top border I may not be able to take it gardening up there but I really do need to get up there.

Afternoon All

Nice day again here ,but its quite hazy with a bit of a breeze. I had to go to Tesco earlier for essentials eg Loo Rolls,,potatoes ,veg. There were no Charlotte Potatoes or any kind of Salad potatoes , no Sourghdough bread,no Rump Steaks . It was heaving there and the queue to get out of the car park was ridiculous. I was in agony with my hip as I wrenched it yesterday getting in the bath. As I was lowering myself in my arm slipped on the side of the bath and I kind of twisted. I felt my hip go straight away,but it wasnt too painful until last night in bed. I had to put a pillow between my knees in hte end which did help. So now I will not be dong anything else today other than dinner tonight.

Mel, Chris said he thought we might be getting some Sahara Dust later today :-S. The cars are so bad already with dust that you have to wash the windscreen before driving.
But if we have the rain forecast hopefully it will wash it all away.

Gill, fingers crossed all the bad tempers will have calmed down tomorrow and the drive will be finished with no more agro.

I do hope that AnnG's journey down to Torquay will be good. At least she is not too far to go with being in Gloucester .

Ann, did you go to the Dun Cow pub in Dunchurch?. Hannah used to go there sometimes with work collegues when she worked at Onley Prison.
OH isnt going Kettering v Rushden Diamonds match today is he? I think I heard there was a match on the radio.

Mandy ,I hope all the eggs were found and none melted :-D. I can just imagine the eggsitement :-D I hope too that the children weren't sick after having too much chocolate :-D

Hannah reminded me yesterday that we needed to book out tour of the Warner and Edwards Gin place near Rothwell. We had a voucher for Xmas and had completely forgotten about it. So Chris has just been on line to book and we got the last available place in May.The voucher runs out on the 2nd June!. Phew!!!. Just in time.

Is Frank coming home today?

Afternoon all,

Phew it quite warm out there today even with the bit of breeze that has picked up .

Mel what a lovely photo of the two little Robins and i loved the egg and flowers for the church .

Gill hopefully the drive will be finished tomorrow and then you can all relax and get back to normal.

Hope AnnG has a smooth drive down to Torquay and the weather stays good for their time away .

Oh goodness Jane you could have done some damage to your hip slipping in the bath like that and ended up in hospital sooner than you wanted ,i know Colin use to say his hip was painful if he twisted wrong and when his hip got so bad it use to click !!!
You'll have to have a good rest today and have some pain killers .

The children did the Egg hunt in the evening as they went to the Dinosaur park with DIL's parents ,i was a bit worried the eggs would melt after the heat of the day so i popped them all in the fridge for a while to harden up a bit before hiding them in the garden ,son usually rings to say what time they will be here so i know i can get them hidden just before they all come

I had a lovely Easter present from the daughter of my friend that died ,a four figure sum of money :-0 :-0 what a lovely surprise that was .

I think Frank should have come home tomorrow but he said they were coming home on Wednesday now .

Yes Frank said they were staying till Wednesday. They must be having a lovley time.

Hope Anning has a good journey down and enjoys her stay.

I polished the car this morning. There is already all dust on the windscreen and the roof so I think we could have the Sahara dust already Jane.

Mandy did Max get any of the eggs? How many do you put around?

Oh's pump down the well has'nt been working. He uses the well water to do the koi pond when he does the filters he pumps the dirty water out and refills with the well water. Today he has had the pump out of the well and taken it all apart and the bit with the electrics in was full of water. The casing of the pump was comeing apart at one point and he tore a bit off with his fingers. That should never have happened so I think its a new pump.

That was a good idea putting the eggs in the fridge Mandy :-D Ooh what a lovely surprise with your little Windfall(or big windfall) . It shows how much you have been appreciated Mandy. :-D. Any ideas what you might do . Little break away maybe?

When my Aunty Betty died she had a wonderful lady who had helped her .I think she maybe started out a cleaning but became a very good friend and she was with Aunty Betty when she passed away in the home. She was just the most caring of people . Not able to read or write and had nothing much . Janice and I decided it would be nice to give a little something from the money Aunty Betty had left us.We pretended that it was Bettys wish that she had this sum of money as a thanks for her friendshp and care over the years. It was £1,000 .It meant the world to her and she had never seen a thousand pounds .I think she booked a little holiday :-D She deserved it .

So it is Wednesday Frank is home. Good job it is not today as an extra day at the coast is great ,and not stuck in a car on the motorway .

Mandy I really thought I had done something to my hip. I am dosed up to the eyeballs now :-D :-D.

Mel which way is the wind coming ? if you think you might have the Sahara Dust now it will coming up from your way. Which way is the Sahara??? :-D :-D I will make sure I shut the windows on the back of the house tonight (just keep them on the security latch.

I have some lovely pics from Hannah from yesterday . They were down on the farm where Gareths Dad keep his Cows and Bull.t is a friends farm (the yare retired now so don't actually farm but let a field free for the Cows. It looks so beautiful there as you will see from one pic in particular. It is Hannah with a Cup of Tea . The view is really something. Gareth was helping clear a fallen tree and also tagging a calves ear. He would have been in his element there :-DHannah and Gareths Sister on the Quad Bike :-D
Will send them now.

Oh Jane, how awful to have slipped that way, I really hope your hip isn't to sore and the painkillers work. Love the photo's you sent, what a beautiful view. The little calf is so cute. How is Hannah with her pregnancy, hope she doesn't have morning sickness, or if she has, it's not to bad.

So you have the Sahara desert dust already Mel? Hope it doesn't mess your car up to much now you've cleaned it.

Yes, I think Frank said they were returning home on Wednesday.

Good idea to put the Easter eggs in the fridge before putting them outside Mandy. At least you knew when to put them out with having the phone call first. Hope Max didn't find any and children enjoyed themselves. What a lovely present off the daughter of your friend. You'll have a nice treat with that.

I wiped some of the window on my car and it came out sand coloured on the sponge. The wind seems to be blowing south east.

Mel I am going to send you a PM

No Mel Max didn't get any eggs ,i always count them out and count them again when they have found them ,we were one missing but Lewis had dropped a few near the green house and when we went out to look one had rolled under the garden brolly stand .
There were 30 the size of Eggs and 156 tiny little ones ,i bought six bags when we went to the chocolate shop and the 30 eggs were in an egg tray , it sounds a lot but they are shared by five .

Our car is covered in dust ,i noticed it yesterday ,we also have this enormous splodge of bird muck on the back window ,i think the poor bird must have been very constipated and must have been so relieved to have deposited that lot :-0 :-D

Lovely photo's Jane ,what a view to have while you drink a cuppa .
I've no idea what i'll do with the money it was such a surprise it's still sinking in .

Oh no Mel blooming dust and you'd only polished it this morning .

That's a lot of Easter eggs Mandy, good job you count them all so Max doesn't eat any that weren't found.

OH was going to wash our car but with all this sand around he's just going to do inside the car and leave the outside for now. I caught the end of the weather and it's going to pour down on Wednesday with thunder. The rain will save us watering the garden, but no doubt all the weeds will back shortly after.

So you're car is covered again Mel, it might be best to leave it for now or you'll be cleaning it everyday.

I hope the journey for AnnG went well and they arrived safely. Hope they don't have the rain we're having while they're away.

Evening All,

We are being spoiled with all this sunshine aren't we!

Mandy what a lovely surprise to be given that much money and to know how much what you did for your friend looking after and helping with her bungalow was appreciated. I was thrilled and got a warm glow just reading about it! :-D It was a great idea to put the eggs in the fridge before the hunt. I bet little Lewis dropped the egg with having butter fingers with excitement!

Gill how horrid having all that rowing going on next door! I hope they just want to get on and get the job finished when they come back tomorrow. Thank goodness it is nearly done so you can go back to normal.

We did a good stint in the back garden this morning. OH has scrapes, hit his finger with a hammer repairing the fence and is generally battle scarred after his stint!! lol. There are plastic bags of garden rubbish and prunings the length of the bungalow down the side, ready to go to the tip which luckily is only half a mile away. I potted up some of that black grass that starts with an 'O' in 2 pots as it tends to creep where we had it so I'm keeping it under control in pots now. It looks quite nice in one of my red pots. :-)

We went to the carvery down the road afterwards and are amazed how little traffic and few people were about, just like yesterday. We called in Sainsbury's after for a few bits and some fuel from the garage and could park right outside the doors. OH did have ideas about a footie match today, but seeing as he wants to go to 2 other matches this week, he decided to take me to Bottesford to see the church today instead!! :-) I was interested as I had read that it had a few alabaster tombs of the past Dukes of Rutland and I wanted to see them and I think he did too! The church was in a lovely setting with a brook running around the edge with ducks paddling about. The tombs were quite something with some still with the paint intact which was a surprise as I never knew they were painted after they were carved. One tomb dated from the 1200s. There were some ugly gargoyles outside. I'll send a few pics after I've downloaded them. Then we called for a coffee at the garden centre in Melton and had a naughty piece of cake!! :-0 It was serve yourself and OH asked the staff if it was 1 slice when he got his as it was so big!!! We haven't wanted any tea after that .

Jane it is really horrid for you to have hurt your hip like that!! You must have wondered if you had damaged yourself so you couldn't walk till you tried. I hope the dosing up has made you more comfortable. No doing the Highland Fling for you tonight! :-D Hopefully after a night's rest it will have settled down. The pics were lovely and I would love to have that beautiful view to sit and look at while I had a cuppa.

What a shame the dust is covering your car Mel after you had worked so hard on it and even polished it, I must see if the Sahara has reached my car yet.

Journey down was fine, traffic not that heavy going south and we made good time. We spent three hours plus with our friends in NewtonAbbott hadn’t seen them since last July so plenty to chat about. Hotel is very nice right near the sea front and Tor Abbey, nice room too and even a parking space with our name on. Dinner was ok, starter of soup we didn’t like, supposed to be potato and leek but just didn’t taste like it should and felt greasy. But main was fine, I had duck and OH had chicken. Then he had sticky toffee pud which was ok but just served with sauce no ice cream or custard. I had Elton mess which was ok but hardly any meringue and a Sunday glass full of juice and black urrants, blueberries, blackberries and grapes. The lovely Latvian watresse said when I left some of the fruit. That she didn’t think it was proper Elton mess :-D There are some beautiful gardens right near, must be over a thousand tulips in there, orange and purple and yellow wallflowers and blue forgetme nots. I will have to send a photo.

That's good you had no travel hiccups AnnG. The hotel sounds ideal being close to the sea and good your parking spot has your name on it so there will be no problem of anyone mistaking it for their's! The flowers sound gorgeous, so looking forward to seeing a pic, not so good for your dinner though. I would have wanted some custard with my sticky toffee pud......bit dry without, and eton mess usually has a fair bit of meringue doesn't it!

Good you had a nice journey down Anning. I have never heard of Elton Mess is that different to Eton Mess? I would have had the chicken too as I don't like duck. It must have been nice to see your friends after so long and lots to catch up on.

I asked oh where the Sahara was from here and he told me it was south east and thats the way the winds been blowing today so it must be that dust on my car.

I had a sweep up outside the bungalow this afternoon and moved some pots about from the patio down to the shed and everything down there was dry as a bone so I had to water that lot and the Strawberry barrow. They are just showing flowers so this year I may get some strawberries if I cover them up from the birds.

Jane lovely photos of the farm. was that a big tree they had cut down they were moving about? Lovely view too to look out on with your cuppa and Hannah and her sister in law looked good and happy on the byke.

Morning all,

Bit hazy again this morning but its early yet so maybe the sun will come out later on.

Shopping day AGAIN. Why are they coming around so quickly? I no sooner fill the fridge up than it wants doing again.

There's quite a bit of dust on my car this morning.

I wonder what Frank did yesterday? Did we hear from him?

Morning all Mel, morning all

Hazy here to but still very warm, the workmen are here so OH is keeping an eye on them. They are very quiet and told OH they should only be a couple of hours so that's good.

Pleased to see the journey down was good AnnG, your hotel sounds nice and a private parking place brilliant. I'm the same and would of preferred some custard on the sticky toffee pud. How nice to have a catch up with your friends. Some of OH's ancestors came from Newton Abbot. All those Tulips would of looked lovely.

What a fascinating story about the tombs Ann, I've never heard of them being painted either. Hope your OH isn't to sore today after his stint in the garden yesterday.

Looking forward to seeing all the pics everyone is sending.

I noticed how quickly the past few days have gone Mel, the weeks just seem to be passing by.

I did quite well on OH's tree yesterday and I'm hoping to sort out a bit more for him today. Ancestry don't have their records open for free now, so I hope I can find what I'm looking for.

Good morning all,

I thought I had better let you know all is good at this end, I don't want you sending out a search party. lol lol.

I really don't know where yesterday went. I was up at 8.00 am showered. shaved and dressed. I a bit of toast for breakfast. and wandered down to the Harbour. Found a seat out of the breeze, and looked along the beech to the pier. The tide was roaring up the beech. I sat and read some more of my book, and come home about 11.00 am.

Ros decided she would like to go to the "WINKING PRAWN" at Salcombe. We arrived there around 1.30 pm to a heaving mass of bodies. Every man and his dog seemed to be there. Jan went inside and found a table. (most people wanted a table outside) She got in the cheque and ordered a massive plate of Lobster, prawns, mussels, Scallops Salad and fries, It came with three different dips. To say the least I was in my element, as was Ros. When we left about 3.45 pm we stopped at a Garden Centre that Jan said hadn't been open long. I stayed in the car while they went walkabout. Came out with NOTHING. We then made our way to IPPLEPEN. The place where we get the Christmas meats. They have a very large G.C. there, so the girls were in their element. Came out with TWO trolly loads of plants. Most,I am pleased to say, were for Jan's Garden. Finally arrived home at around 6.30 pm.

I assume AnninG arrived safely in Torquay. xxx and is going to enjoy a few days of DEVON weather. Jo phoned on her way home from Kerry's. To say the southbound M4 and 5 were reasonable clear, but the northbound were THREE LANES at a standstill for getting on for 25 miles. So I am glad we never had to travel yesterday, and pleased also, to stay the extra day here, and hopefully have a reasonable journey home tomorrow. We won't be any great rush, so will leave late morning, and hope to be home around 4.00 pm. I must ring Tony to let him know we are staying the extra day, I don't want them worrying something has happened to us. !!!

I trust you all had a wonderful Easter, and hope you didn't eat too much Chocolate.

;-) ;-) Ros bought me an Egg which as yet I haven't touched. I expect she will consume most of it anyway.

I left Ros to get herself showered and dressed, as yet I haven't seen Jan. She could be in the garden planting all she bought yesterday. I will pop out and see.

Another nice day here, I think the forecast says rain and wind from tomorrow. So it hasn't interfered with out lovely break, and to think this time next month. we will be sunning ourselves in SPAIN. for three weeks.


Have a nice day whatever you are doing. xxxx

What a wonderful day you had yesterday Frank, I bet you had a lovely nights sleep afterwards. Yes, I noticed the rain for tomorrow so hope your journey home is okay, just take your time as the roads could be slippy with the Sahara dust around. Let us know when you are home so we know you got there okay.

The workmen have gone to get some more materials so hopefully the drive will be completely finished today. The young boss is there today, not the one for the drive, the one for all the other jobs, so hopefully the rest of the smaller jobs will be finished soon and the new neighbours can move in. They are hoping to be in by the middle of next month.

We had a lovely long weekend of peace and quiet and our stress levels were right down......no migraines so that was good.

Today I'm just going through OH's side of the tree and hoping to do a bit more for him, apart from that I've nothing planned.

A card has just arrived for Sandra so I think it might be yours Mandy. I've put it to one side ready for her big day. I must wrap up all her presents, we've gone a bit mad this year for her. We're hoping to take her to Chester Zoo, weather permitting, on the day before her birthday then she can go shopping afterwards if she wants. With her birthday being on a Sunday we thought the day before would be better as there isn't many shops open on a Sunday.

Going to get a cuppa now then take another look at OH's tree.