General Chat

Morning all,

Another sunny morning I think its heading that way at the moment anyway. Clear sky and -6 degrees here and pc says sunny.

Must get this wreath done today for Phyllis up the road and try and do some flowers for mum and oh.

What are you all up to today.

Its -5 here now. Its been a beautiful sunny day but o so cold. I went up the garden and picked some yellow conifer, rose hips, and ivy flower heads or seed heads and a few ivy leaves to put around the flowers. Also picked the holly berries I had covered up with plastic bags. The birds ate the rest. Did a wash today but it did'nt dry so now its on the airer in the hall by the rad.

I have done a load of washing and made some more mixed vegetable soup (clearing old veg from the fridge). And then topped up the bird feeders. They have eaten a full half coconut since Monday. Now catching up with emails and then maybe make some cards.

enjoy your chat Vera.

Only -1 but sunny and blue sky at the moment so it looks more cheerful. We put the little prelit tree up on the low table under the window and I managed to find some small lightweight decorations for it and a small star for the top. It doesn’t look bad but I do miss the big, bushy real tree we usually have. OH tried decorating the window with the lights that normally go on the tree but we didn’t like it and I suggested we could maybe bunch them up somewhere in the room. When I came back in he had somehow bunched and draped them down the stem of a standard lamp. They are a warm, golden colour and the lampshade is a deep gold and it looks surprisingly good. Brownie points for OH.

Just had a phone call asking us round to our friends for a cuppa this afternoon. Normally we walk, 10-15 minutes, but it’s still so slippery we’ll probably go by car.

OH has just arrived with a lunchtime sandwich so I’d better get eating.

Probably a good idea to not put a tree up this year, you have made an effort and got some bits around, just do what you are comfortable with. It is your first Christmas on your own and I do know how that feels, Just relax, eat what you enjoy and let it pass by. I am sure, also that making the wreath for your OH's grave will evoke many memories.

Iv'e got 4 magpies and two black birds (crows?) and the buzzard up by the top arch. The buzzard is sitting on the fence looking into the top garden and the magpies and black birds are in the tree above waiting for rabbits I think. I have taken some pics.

Morning Anng and all,

I slept really well too and got up at 9.20am !! Its sunny and bright here too this morning with a clear blue sky and its -2 degrees. Everywhere is covered in frost and the deer is in the orchard eating apples with the blackbirds.

I have a wreath to make this week for a lady who has had one from me for years now and I also have to do the flowers for mums grave and oh's.

Still not put the tree up and I don't think I will this year but I have my ceilig lights on and my card strings and other bits and bobs. If the weather clears up and the frost goes I may have a trip to Bideford and have a wander around Morrisons later and may get a chicken crown. I have a nice big piece of gammon too so I won't go hungry.

Good morning all, had a really good sleep of about 8 hours last night. And getting a bit excited here as there is pale blue sky instead of solid grey and some sunshine

BUT the temperature here at the moment is -11 degrees yes you read that right minus eleven degrees. Apparently it went down to -12 overnight.

Not doing anything today so might do a bit of card making, the birthday card box is getting low.

Pleased you got home safely in the end Vera but do be careful.

BIL came today very unexpectedly and brought me £18 worth of diesel and put it in the car for me. He did'nt come in as he was full of cold and I did'nt have my hug either. I think he is now coming next week.

Good that you may have sold the laser cutter Mel.

That lunch sounded good AnnG. What a shame you needed blankets to keep you warm

More snow Mandy! That’s just what you don’t want. Our Close is like a skating rink still as the little bit that did thaw has frozen over again. You are lucky to be getting post. I think Royal Mail are on strike today and tomorrow and they seem to be concentrating on parcels rather than letter post anyway.

Once we got out of our Close and the next bit of road our journey to Southend was fine and took the usual hour and a half. We decided to start for home earlier than we usually do when we go there in case everything iced over again and we wanted to avoid the rush hour. Well, there was so much heavy traffic and everything moving slowly that it took us just over 2 hours. Never mind, we got back safely.

Evening all,

Brr another cold day ,I gingerly walked down the front path to see what the road was like round the car but it was like a sheet of glass where it had thawed yesterday and froze again over night so I gingerly walked back up and we left it until about one o'clock when there was a good thaw ,didn't have to scrape the car as it had all melted so off we went to Tesco I had read that it took some people near.y an hour to get off the car park yesterday but we sailed in but when we came out it was another matter ,it didn't help that there was traffic lights for road works further down the road and by then we had snow !! It was great big flakes coming down .
I suppose it took about twenty minutes to get off the car park and then we got held up by the road works but we got home safe and sound .

Oh Mel thats good you've sold the Lazer cutter ,how are the girls doing in the cold weather I bet they keep in ,do you get as many eggs when it's cold does it put them off laying .

Ann thank you for your Christmas card ,we seem to have been getting our post most
days ,some yesterday and again today.

Anng that sounded a very tasty lunch you had and the others too I could just eat some of that pudding
Shame you got seated near the window though where it was so cold .

We had hair cuts yesterday and mine was blown dry and looked good when I went out today but coming out of Tesco's I hot covered in snow and now its all flat to my head

Well, good that it is sold anyway.

Back from lunch now and trying to warm up. It was freezing in the restaurant, it is an old pub and hard to heat, a couple of us were in the window and it was really cold but they did give us a couple of blankets which helped. And the car park was a sheet of ice.

The meal was lovely. I had slow roasted pork belly, pancetta and savoy cabbage, roast potatoes, port soaked raisins and mustard reduction followed by Warm treacle sponge pudding with clotted cream. This was all delicious, beautifully cooked and presented. And so much of it. The sponge was a thick slice and the top was covered in syrup that had sort of gone a bit like toffee and served with a biscuit type crunch, cranberries and a slice of peeled orange and we think there was orange in the sponge, it was lovely. Everyone else's looked nice too, four had turkey and one had venison cottage pie with rosemary and stilton crust and red cabbage. Two had starters instead of sweets They both had double baked Worcester Hop cheese souffle with cream and nutmeg. That looked good too. (2 courses £25, 3 courses £33) This was the Christmas menu

I may have just sold the laser cutter but he wants it after Christmas.

still minus three here mel, there was a glimmer of sun that lasted all of five minutes.

Morning all,

We had another sprinkling of snow yesterday evening just as I was thinking how frost free my car was after the long run to Holsworthy the day before. This morning its all iced up again on the windows and has a nice white hat on.

Its 1 degree here and pc says cloudy and its right.

I think the last post we had was Friday. I have had 20 out of the usual 70+ sad isn’t it. And a lot of mine will come when I am away so won’t even get put on display
Have a good trip to Southend.

Yes lots of memories of places visited with passports. But your post with Colchester and Southend and the A12 brings back many happy memories of living in the area in the late sixties early seventies with two young children. Oh to go back. (But with the financial security of today).

That was a nice little bonus AnnG. I am sure the bank will change them for you. I expect seeing OH’s old passport brought back memories of places you had been together.

I hope you managed to get your business on the phone sorted Mel. These jobs seem to take such a lot of time and effort. I’m pleased my card arrived. We have had no post since last Thursday and they are on strike for the next 2 days so the earliest we’ll get anything now is Friday.

I thought I’d better do some h/w so hoovered right through and did some ironing. Then we popped out after lunch. Our cul-de-sac and the road it turns into are lethal. I nearly went flying outside our garage just getting into the car but once we got onto the busier roads it was OK. We did see a couple of cars at the side of a road off a roundabout and it looked like quite a nasty shunt but the people in the cars seemed to be fine. OH got what he wanted at the builders’ merchant and filled up with fuel but I wasn’t so lucky at Tesco. It was really busy and I couldn’t get some things that I wanted and then at the checkout I got the droopy lad who was probably doing a holiday job. Not only was he very slow but he messed up completely when it came to me paying by card so we had to start all over again.

I hope you get to your lunch tomorrow AnnG. We’re going to Southend and we should be OK once we get on the main roads. Usually we go cross country through the lanes and pick up the A12 one junction south of Colchester but, to my relief, OH has said we’ll go straight down the main road and get on the A12 at Colchester. It will bring back memories as the last time we went that way was for my brother’s funeral in February 2021. It had snowed heavily the day before and there were still snow showers on the day and we didn’t know if any of the restricted number of people we were allowed would manage to get there.

We’ve just had a cup of tea and I’d better go and sort something out for our meal tonight and wrap the couple of presents we need to take tomorrow.

Thanks for your cards Mandy and Vera.

Still not managed to get anything to eat yet but I have brought the post in and hoovered the kitchen.

I'm sure it will be fine Mel. Nice of him to send me a Christmas present. Can't think why I didn't find it after he dies as I turned that cupboard out. didn't think to look through an old passport.

I expect they will change them for you Anng as I have found some of mums stashes over time and they have always done it for me. I do it at the post office.

I have been on the phone for over two hours trying to get soemthing sorted.

Now I am goinf to have something to eat as I hav.nt hand anything yet just a COC.