General Chat

Sorry AnnG. Yes you did ask but I had to pop out again with OH and shut my PC down before I could send your photos on, but have done it now. It didn't take you long to get home which is good.

Back home now. got home at11.45 (left MK at 0935 so a good journey.

Vera I did send photos to AnnX and asked her to foward them. (Or I think I asked her to fotward them. If they don't get forwarded I will do it later when I have unpacked.

I slept quite well too. I got up at 7.30 am and OH had already gone out for his walk. He's getting earlier and earlier. I've changed my bedding and there are 3 loads of washing on the line but it keeps coming over very dark. I hope it's not going to rain. I've got to walk up to the pharmacy this afternoon for my next lot of tablets.

Tonight we have a club meeting. The speaker is a local historian whose family have owned land here for centuries. He's talking about our town in the '60s and '70s. Most of the members of the club are incomers since the '70s so it will be interesting for us and, if he gets anything wrong, the 2 ladies who were born in the area and have never moved away will be down on him like a ton of bricks.

I only had avatars from Mel and Annx when I started typing but now they are all back minus the writing underneath, though that is visible if you put your cursor under the pictures. Talking of pictures, have I missed something from AnnG? The last ones I had were from Ascott House but it sounds as though she has sent something since then.

OH is just making a quick sandwich so that I can get off to the pharmacy early. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Morning All,

Slept well and was up at 7.30am to take my tablets and shower before going to Costa, then to fill OH's car up and the shop. Diesel here is 190.9 a litre now at Sainsbury's. Not sure what I'm doing today. It's a battle between what I ought to do and what I want to do. We were going to some of the pretty villages Northampton way today so I could take some photos, but OH has to prepare for a hearing tomorrow now and he has work things tomorrow and Wednesday, then I have Drs/nurse appointments Thursday and Friday morning. I might just pop to a garden centre I haven't been to for a while to see what plants they have in now, then do some jobs and take myself off with my camera tomorrow.

AnnG those gardens on your photos are absolutely stunning aren't they! What a lovely display. Nice to see one of you and your son too. :-) I hope it's a good journey home and that the weeds aren't knee high! (only joking, as we haven't had the rain to make them grow too much.)

Our post box on a post at the end of the close fell over (or was pushed) a couple of weeks ago, but I see this morning that it is upright again. I though they might just take it away till they replaced it with the new sort, but no, it is back which is good as it's handy for us.

I've got no writing under the pictures today Mel.

Better get going to the garden centre now.

Meant to say I slept well last night and did'nt get up till 8am for the loo. Don't think I have gone right through the night like that for a very long while.

Morning girls,

Safe journey home Anng.

Another beautiful morning here and 7 degrees and probably like it all day.

When I logged in I had no pictures under our names and its still like it till Anng's post tis morning. Strange.

Just two little parcels to post today and then I must do some washing and hoovering.

Meant to say i slept well last night must have been fresh air and walking among trees

Good morning all. Sun is shining and I am just sorting out the last bits for packing. We leave here around 0930 so should be home lunch time. Then son will come straight back

Yes I dragged myself outside and got a humper, secateurs and a trowel Vera. I trimmed and tidied the shrub I asked OH to leave in the top border, the orange potentilla. Then I did a bit of weeding and then tackled a varietated Euonymus that was hanging 18 inches over it's rock edge and onto a potted hosta. There's still more of it to cut back, but my humper was full, so I called it a day. The garden bin is full now ready for Tuesday's collection and OH has a sack of trimmings and pile of prunings to cut down ready for the next collection. Ouch! I bet that hurt your toe! I am always catching mine on the castors under the edge of the bed. You'd think they were well out of the way wouldn't you. I've had that sort of trouble with Amazon recently too when trying to arrange a collection. It seems to assume delivery arrangements from the past and just asks for payment. I have thought the arrangements must be on the next page, so clicked to pay and then found it's already assumed delivery. Sometimes by trying to make things easier for us they seem to make them harder! They can't leave things be that have worked well!

Your tea sounded lovely and plenty of it AnnG and Waddeson Manor has been on my list some time too. It is a very grand and huge place isn't it and the flowers and trees would be looking so fresh with the new foliage. You have had a good week, as you say and I hope you have a good journey home tomorrow.

Yes I dragged myself outside and got a humper, secateurs and a trowel Vera. I trimmed and tidied the shrub I asked OH to leave in the top border, the orange potentilla. Then I did a bit of weeding and then tackled a varietated Euonymus that was hanging 18 inches over it's rock edge and onto a potted hosta. There's still more of it to cut back, but my humper was full, so I called it a day. The garden bin is full now ready for Tuesday's collection and OH has a sack of trimmings and pile of prunings to cut down ready for the next collection. Ouch! I bet that hurt your toe! I am always catching mine on the castors under the edge of the bed. You'd think they were well out of the way wouldn't you. I've had that sort of trouble with Amazon recently too when trying to arrange a collection. It seems to assume delivery arrangements from the past and just asks for payment. I have thought the arrangements must be on the next page, so clicked to pay and then found it's already assumed delivery. Sometimes by trying to make things easier for us they seem to make them harder! They can't leave things be that have worked well!

Your tea sounded lovely and plenty of it AnnG and Waddeson Manor has been on my list some time too. It is a very grand and huge place isn't it and the flowers and trees would be looking so fresh with the new foliage. You have had a good week, as you say and I hope you have a good journey home tomorrow.

Oh dear Mel sometimes BiL seems to try and do things too quickly. A bit of a liability.

It was a beautiful warm sunny day. We drove to Waddesdon Manor, there were a lot of people there families picnicking and enjoying the sun. Children playing, some rolling down a grass t slope, so lovely to see.
The flowers were beautiful and the trees with their young leaves green and vibrant. After sitting in the sun and wandering around taking photos we had a lovely cream tea, first a plate of savouries each and then a scone with jam and cream, and then a plate of little cakes. And as many cups of tea as we wanted and. It was quite sad as we walked to the bus to return us to the car park as I knew this was the end of my lovely week with Stephen, Jay and Sophie.

We have been so lucky with the weather.

Your bil is so helpful to you Mel but he does seem to be a bit of a liability Your mower always seems to need repairing after he has used it.

I hope your cream tea was tasty AnnG and you enjoyed the trip. Safe journey home tomorrow.

Did you manage to do a short stint in the garden Annx? I got out to the garden while our Sunday lunch was cooking and managed to do another couple of jobs. I also pointed out to OH that he should cut down 3 tall grasses we have thinking that would keep him busy for a little while but he just whizzed across them with an electric cutter thing and was finished in about 10 minutes.

After we had finished eating and had cleared up I showered and washed and dried my hair then came on the computer to order a birthday present for a friend from Amazon. I had a code to put in for £3 off if I collected it from one of their parcel collection places and I knew I had collected from our local PO once before. Could I work out how to arrange this? Could I heck. There was nowhere to say where I wanted to collect it from or anywhere to put in the relevant code. After a lot of googling and going into different bits of Amazon I discovered I was set up with the PO as my preferred collection point so ticked that only to get a message telling me that the PO wasn't available any longer. So more hunting around and I found a local Co-op I could use and got that entered, only to get another message telling me that the company I was buying from didn't deliver to collection points. Why couldn't ihe site have said that in the first place? So a job that should have taken me 5 minutes took me over an hour and I couldn't use the £3 off that I had been given.

Right I must go and get in my cuttings and overwintering plants that I am putting out during the day to harden off. It's supposed to get quite cold tonight.

Oh, a word of advice. Do not try to walk through a doorway while you are still swinging the door open. I did and crashed the door straight into my foot. Just call me Mrs Blue Toes ;-)

BIL came I heard him mowing so knew he would be down later. I forgot to tell him he lost ALL my bookmarks for me so I could'nt make him a cake. He always talks the hind legs off a donkey and its hard to get a word in edgeways. Anyway he went out to mw my back lawn round my pond and what did he do????? ran over the old leccy fencing and got it wrapped around the mower blades. Got off the mower and yanked at it to which it broke off got abck on the mower started it up and put the blades into motion and there was a terrible noise. So he has to come next week now and take the deck off again and see if he can untangle it as by this time it was time to go and pick the wife up from Barnstaple.

I did manage to get the piece of metal out of my loppers by undoing a nut on the side so shall have to remember that for future ref.

Now I have come in for a drink and to take my pills as I was pond dipping.

Afternoon All,

Sun's out so I might do a little in the garden after posting this. OH has walked up to the village this morning and did a little weeding while I got lunch. We had the Sainsbury's ready cooked lamb shoulder today, but it didn't have as much flavour as the Asda lamb shanks. I also bought their lamb shanks to try, so will see if they are better. We had red onions, purple sprouting broc, red cabbage, parsnip, carrots and green beans and mashed potato with it. There's veg left over and I think I have a bought pasta in a sauce that needs eating up so tomorrow I could use that with the veg mixed in for a quick lunch. I've also got the slow cooker going with pork steaks and a casserole mix of veg, enough for two days, so I might freeze half.

What a poor night Vera with your dancing legs! You must feel worn out, so it's no wonder your brain isn't functioning as it should. We both laughed at your and Mandy's comments about my potential appearance on TV crime progs after my experience with the new shop tills. I think I am so used to OH usually paying while I pack when he comes with me that my mind was elsewhere!

I see no-one slept well last night, but I had a better night than usual. What I have noticed is that with still feeling tired like this morning, that it isn't tiredness that makes me yawn like lack of sleep so much as body weariness. :-S Maybe the hay fever tablets need a few more days to work properly.

Mandy, could you sprinkle salt on those weeds where people come through with the dogs?

I hope you enjoy your visit to the NT property and enjoy a nice cream tea AnnG. The week has gone quickly but the weather has been good for you. It's good you got mostly packed up ready for the journey tomorrow before going out too. You won't have it to do after your day out then.

I hope the achey arms improve today and I'd better go and do a short stint in the garden now. I think OH is watching sport on the tv. BBL

O I had a very achey arm last night but its a bit better today. :-)

Morning girls,

A beautiful day here and at the mo its 11 degrees. I had a dreadful night. I awoke for the loo when it was still very dark and did'nt look at my phone for the time as I sometimes think that keeps me awake. Anyway I lay there and I could hear my heart beating and did this till it was well light. Got up for another visit to the bathroom and this time I looked at my phone it was 7.35 so I thought I would have a liein as it was quite cold in here. Fell asleep did'nt I !! woke at 10 15am so I did get enough sleep I suppose but did I ache.

Mandy there are weed killers that don't affect dogs, cats or animals.

Vera glad you had some sleep and Anng safe journey home tomorrow and enjoy your last NT garden and cream tea. :-D

Morning Anng ,morning all,

Suns out and it should be another nice day so hopefully we can do a bit more weeding ,we've been weeding along our wall on the footpath ,we can't use any weed killer as people walk through with dogs .

Anng that week has soon gone ,enjoy your cream tea this afternoon an safe journey home tomorrow.

Oh dear Vera ikow what its like having those fidgety legs ,even the tablets I take for it doesn't always help ,hope last night's sleep was a better one for you. Oh see it was ,I missed your post until I now looked back after posting .
Oh yes I remember now Gwyn did say she might not be on because of the Internet .

Good morning all. Last day today, yes Vera home tomorrow. Lovely sun here at the moment, very quiet, granddaughter has been up and gone to help her friend paint her room. Others are still in bed as not going out until eleven. Going to another NT place with a cream tea this afternoon.

I didn’t sleep well but did get some sleep so feel ok. I was up early so used the time to sort my stuff out.

Good morning ladies

It’s bright and sunny this morning and 6 degrees at the moment. I got some sleep last night so I’m happier today. I hope you have all had a good night. I’ve got a roast beef dinner to cook but no other plans so it will be a pottering about sort of day.. I’ll probably pot roast the beef. It keeps small joints more moist and tender than traditional roasting. We were both up early this morning and OH was out for his walk by 7,45. He’s usually about 40 minutes so he’ll be back soon.

Enjoy your day whatever you are doing.

Well I paid for my really good night by literally sleeping for 1 hour last night. Every time I started to doze off the RLS started up again and my legs were jumping all over the place. I'd get up, walk about till it eased, go back to bed and it would start all over again. I went to bed for a couple of hours this afternoon but the same thing was happening. I've been fit for nothing today as you can imagine. I haven't done anything much but slob about. I've also done stupid things, like put the salt and pepper in the fridge and the butter in a cupboard and let our smoked cod dry out by cooking it for twice as long as usual. My head is all over the place. I am going to bed soon and hope I sleep through sheer exhaustion. That's enough of my moaning.

Dear me Annx, what are you like? I'm expecting to see a wanted poster showing your face on Crimewatch soon, but it's easy to forget the process on the self-service tills particularly if something has flustered you. It certainly sounds as though you could make a little money with your vintage clothes. Unfortunately mine aren't so much vintage as plain old ;-)

You have had a little shopping spree today AnnG so you'll be busy with some planting when you go home. Is it Monday you return?

Mel, you have been busy again today. Could you take a bottle of water or something out with you when you're working outside? It won't help your digestive problems if you get dehydrated. I hope you don't have any after effects of your Covid jab. I just have a very slight ache in my arm now.

Mandy, you have been busy as well with grass cutting and weeding. We have to make the best of the weather while it's dry and not too cold. I'm annoyed I didn't have the energy or motivation to do anything in the garden today. You mentioned Gwyn not coming on the thread. I think she said that she would be without the internet for a few days.

I am now going to bed and crossing my fingers that I'll be able to sleep tonight. I hope you all have a good night too.