General Chat

Morning Anng and all,

Sunny and bright here too today but when I look at the car outside it looks like we've had a frost. It's 7 degrees here and pc says Humid. Really feels autumninal this morning but at the mo its dry.

I picked 2 and a quarter pounds of tomatoes yesterday so some will be going to Em today along with two cues.

Don't know where this week has gone, it seems its no sooner Monday than its Sunday again.

Mandy hope the family soon recovers properly from the bug and all feel better soon. Have you anyone stayig with you this weekend, the birthday girl perhaps?

good morning all from a chilly 5 degrees glos.

well done on the car passing its MOT. I guess the tyres won#t have had a lot of wear in the past couple of years so that is one benefit (maybe the only one) of lockdowns etc :-) good that it was not a lot dearer than the previous service/MOT at the old garage and good that you have found another garage near to you Ann.
Sorry the bug has spread through the family Mandy hope they have all bounced back now.

Probably gardening on the agenda for today, although not very warm it is sunny and bright out there.

I'm glad you were pleased with the new garage and your MOT. Nice to get it out of the way for another year.

That's a shame the others are getting the bug Mandy but it must be hard to avoid it once one has it. At least Chelsea should be better for her birthday and will appreciate some money she can spend on what she likes. What a shame you forgot about the white Michaelmas Daisy, but there may still be some next week if you happened to pop there again.

The car passed it's MOT and it seems I have a couple of years tread on the tyres and the timing belt won't need changing for 3 years so all good news and only £20 more than last year's service at the old garage. They had parked it in the best position to drive away easily as well so I shall be happy to go there again. As long as I avoid the rush hours it is only 6 or 7 minutes away so much better than driving into the city.

Afternoon all,

It started off as a nice sunny day but clouded over about eleven and down came the rain ,since then it's been showery ,its quite chilly ,I did nip up to the hole in the wall to get some money out to put in Chelsea's birthday card for Sunday.
You asked Ann if the others had got the bug ,yes Chelsea and yesterday Katie so looks like its going through the house .
When I went to town its market day and I meant to look on the plant stall as on the Tuesday market he had a nice white Michaelmas daisy and I thought I would get one but I came home and only thought of it as i got to the gate .

Oh I can see blue sky so I think I'll just go down to the shed while its fine to look in the freezer for something to have for our meal later .

I hadn't realised about those dots before either Vera! lol. I just had a vision of you in a strong wind. Mine's that short it just stands on end! These men don't think to ask if we need anything before they make something out of bounds for a while do they. Mine stacked the full food crates in front of the cupboards I wanted to put the stuff away in last week. Still at least he got the job done which is good.

I've no motivation today either, but it's because of the waiting around till the garage rings. I don't want to change into clothes to do jobs and then have them ring and have to change back again and I don't want to do anything messy in the clothes I'm wearing.

You do get such a lot of wildlife Mel and such a variety of birds which is lovely. That was good the showerhead was just loose and needed tightening. I know I feel good when I manage to fix something that turns out to be easy. I wonder if you will find any 'lost' things in the drawers.

It is a Dobbies that used to be Wyevale AnnG. With not going out to this garden centre for 2 years I hadn't realised that Sainsbury's had been moved in too. It is strange as you say and this one has retained the old butchery section and baking section from the farm shop that was there before. I was glad to see they have kept Pavers shoes that was there. Nowadays the bigger garden centres seem to sell everything don't they. It's a wonder the Sainsbury's section wasn't selling their own plants!! They did have a larger selection of plants and bulbs but no Michaelmas daisies though.

Only 15 degrees here and really quite chilly My friend's delivery arrived and she came round. She needed me to sort some photos out for the next photography meeting next week which I did then we made a quick visit to the local garden centre as I wanted another plant for the gravel and also wanted some tulip bulbs. I got a lovely Heuchera a very dark reddish purple one and struck lucky as they were on offer at £7.99 instead of £10. And got two packets of bulbs. so that will give me something to do over the weekend, although I won't plant the tulips just yet.

Ann that sounds as though it was a Dobbies, they took over a lot of the Wyvale garden centres just before Covid and they have Sainsbury's in all their garden centres. I don't know anyone who is impressed by that. I don't go to garden centres to buy groceries. And since they opened the stores they did away with a lot of the specialist foods they used to sell in the garden centre. Yes, they are dearer than many of the other GCs although to be fair they usually have a larger selection.

Vera, and I suppose you couldn't complain as you had asked him to do it. never mind, a good excuse for not doing the gardening.

WE had a kingfisher in the garden on my pond once many years ago. Oh got a couple of photos but I don't know where they are now.I'm lucky in that we have so many different animals and birds in our garden.

I did think I may hear from BIL today but nothing so far and the grass is growing after all that rain we had.

I managed to mend the shower this morning so had a nice long one. All it was was the nut that holds the hose of the shower head had loosened so I tightened it up and hey presto it stayed on. I was so relieved it was something silly like that.

Its 17 degrees here now and it says expect partly sunny skies, the high wil be 17 degrees on this breezy day.

Morning All,

Nice to see 13 degrees in C this morning and lots of sunshine. :-). I was lucky taking the car in and must have just missed the traffic build up as it was nose to tail on the way home after OH picked me up at the garage. The children were on their way to school then too and you should have seen them loaded up with drinks, crisps and treats coming out of the Co-op on their way.

Our plan to burn OH's old work papers today have been thwarted as the neighbours one side came back from their travels this morning. We had hoped they wouldn't be back till tomorrow.

Gwyn I'm the same as you and used to go mushrooming with mum as a child. Now I just don't trust myself to be sure what is edible!

Yes your window cleaner is good doing the door Vera as is yours AnnG. I think ours dribbles more dirty water down the door instead!

We called in a garden centre we hadn't been to since the pandemic after dropping my car off and had a drink in their cafe which is huge with at least 100 tables. Two other couples were there sitting well apart and we spotted a neighbour from up the road was one. He and his wife came over for a chat before they went. We were saying we hadn't had a chat for over 2 years and then travelled this far to have one! OH found himself a book in The Works and I got some sellotape and clear glue. Some of their plants were nearly double the price of those in the village garden centre. Some of the franchises had gone like Peacocks and I have never seen Sainsbury's in a Garden Centre before! There were big gaps where they have started putting up their Christmas displays.

We pass a Christmas Tree farm on the way and thought they must have sold them all at first as we couldn't see any. Then as we got closer we noticed the whole field of them had died and were brown, probably all that heat we had. I meant to say that when I cleared the door pockets in my car doors a plastic pen in there had melted in all that heat we had, luckily onto a sudoku puzzle I always keep there! It's a wonder it didn't melt the car plastic too.

I hope your friend's delivery turns up early AnnG as it's a nice day to go out. I have never seen a Kingfisher.

Good morning everyone

It’s sunshine and cloud today. At the moment the sun is out but it looks as though it might cloud over again. 14 degrees but there is a strong breeze from the North so it feels quite cold.

How nice that the people where you went to eat remembered you Ann. Lovely to see the Egrets as well. According to the wildlife column in the local paper we now have Red Kites in the area though I haven’t seen any yet. Thanks for telling me how to set the widget thingie so the computer now shows centigrade. I hadn’t noticed the 3 little dots though I hadn’t looked very hard.

Mel, I had wondered about the baby birds as well. If they are swallows are they going to be strong enough to fly south in a week or two?

We have a sort of dressing area in the bedroom with a wall and a half of wardrobes with sliding doors. For months I have been asking to OH to fix some of the doors which needed just a little work done on them. Without telling me he did it while I was showering and when I finished he told me I mustn’t touch the doors yet so I can’t get to my hairdryer. I was going to dry my hair and then go and do a bit more in the garden but I won’t go out in this breeze till it’s dry. My hair stays where it’s put so if the wind blows it all about I’ll end up looking like something the cat dragged in. I’ve brushed it and will have to let it dry naturally which may take a while. I am not in the mood for h/w so I shall have to go and find something to do.

I think I’ll go and make a cuppa. That’s my answer to everything ;-)

If they are swallows Mel aren't they a bit late? Hope they are ok.

Ann, nice to meet up with people who remember you after so long. It will be nice for you if they do bring the carvery back.

Gwyn your weather sounds about the same as ours. I actually have long sleeves on today as it is quite chilly indoors out of the sun. (no heating on yet here.)
Lovely to see Egrets, I have not seen any here but I know tony did see one a couple of years back at the stream by the golf club. He saw a kingfisher there too.

Good morning both and everyone.

Not so sunny here today, but not cold.
Temperature shows 12 with a bright sun partially hidden by cloud.... seems about right, as now the sun is shining !

Are they true mushrooms Mel ?
If so, they have so much better taste than cultivated ones.
I've picked and eaten loads of wild mushrooms in my life, but strangely, I think I would be wary of gathering them now unless it was an area I had known them to previously grow.

Morning Anng and all,

Nice bright morning here today and pc says 14 degrees and a grey cloud and the local one says the same 14 degrees.

I have mushrooms all over the west lawn again today.

good morning all 8 degrees here, that is the lowest for a long time so hope it picks up soon, sunny though and looks nice.

Might be going out later but not sure as friend has to wait in for a delivery first.

I had tried what you suggested a little while ago Mel, as it had worked on my Windows 10 before but there was nowhere to 'save' the change on Windows 11 till you opened the widget. Why don't they tell you these things and why do they change them? :-S You made me more determined to sort it out though as I thought there must be a way! Were the birds baby Swallows?

We ate out at a place we used to go to at lunchtime and had tuna jackets. One of the waitresses who I met in the Factory shop a few weeks ago and the other lady we used to see there before the pandemic were so delighted to see us and we had a long chat. One had been really poorly with covid and the other had had it twice, once recently. Being younger they hadn't had the jabs as soon as us so we were lucky. They remembered all the things we had like decaf tea and a jug of water, even the extra biscuits they always found for us. There was only one other couple there, but everyone keeps asking for the carvery to come back so they are hoping it will be back next month, even if not every day.

I saw an Egret in the brook in the village where the yarn bomb was on the way. That's 2 I've seen round here this year after never ever seeing them round here before.

Ann glad you're now sorted with the temp. Did my explation help at all? I know you are on windows 11 and I am still on 10 but it must have been somewhere around there and you found it.

Just went in the filter shed and came back for my camera as there were two babes perched on a pipe in there just along from the nest. My camera light made one fly out and into the tree over the bantam and I was frightened it would'nt get back but it did and landed on the pole on top of the shed and then went in the shed. I got a pic but its all fuzzy.

Thanks Mel. The weather temp used to be there till I updated to Windows 11 and now it is where Vera describes and like Vera I clicked on it and tried to change the temp but it was still the same when I closed the window. Not one to give up easily I think I have succeeded now so this is what to do Vera. Click on the temperature so it opens that window with all sorts in. Where the weather and temp is shown at the top RH corner you will see a row of 3 white dots in the top RH corner of that box. Click on that and there is an option to 'customise widget'. Click on that, then on the celsius option that shows and on this screen there is a 'save' option below to click on and that seems to have done the trick this time for me. Thank you for the info about the shoe inserts and I will have a look at some. I wear small gel heel ones when I do my walk around the park to reduce any jarring on my knees so would have to see how that would work with them. It was good yu stopped in the garden when your back began to pull.

Mel I would love your amethyst stone! You must get it reset in the ring before long and a jeweller would make the stone safe and clean it for you at the same time. Five minutes in an eggcupful of Vodka cleans silver too.

It's good your back has settled down again AnnG. We need to do lots in the garden, but have been a bit neglectful as we want to change things a bit and decide if we want a new shed and what to do where the raised beds were.

I've emptied stuff out of the car and better go and hoover inside now as it is in for a service and MOT tomorrow. The new garage I'm trying is only a mile away but it's hard to know when to set off, as early when I'm taking it in it is usually queueing traffic all through the village from here due to the school and NEXT employees.

Back from town, was in there ages but had to wait almost half an hour for the bus both going in and coming home. going in was because a bus was cancelled, coming home I just missed one. Not so bad coming home though as there are seats. Bought several stocking fillers as some of the presents have to be ready by the end of October.

I did stop for a coffee and a bacon sandwich which was very nice.

I tried to get the bracelets fixed, One the jeweller said they couldn't do that one because it is gold plated, and the other could be done but was more complicated because it needed more than a jump ring. (I would be happy just with a ring to join it. so they will have to wait for now.

Well done Vera for getting a bit done anyway, and then while resting you cleaned the en suite.

My window cleaner usually washes down the front door and surround.

Gosh that was nice of them Vera. I don't have a window cleaner so we do it ourselves.

Tidyied up a bit more in the studyand am trying to get my three draw chest out. Kept gettijng side tracked by whats in the draws. I hav'nt been abe to get to it for years and theres things in there I had completely forgotten about.

Doesn't work like that on mine Mel. Mine is bottom left of the page and currently says 62F Cloudy. If you click on that you get half the screen filled with articles you can click on to read and all sorts of nonsense but no way of changing anything. It appears to be some sort of widget which opens in Edge, which we seldom use. At the moment the temperature dodges around between C and F. A short while ago it said 17C. I much prefer the BBC weather app on my iPad. I even sometimes look out of the window ;-)

I made myself go into the garden first thing. If I'd stopped to think about it I would probably have found reasons not to go outside. I did about 45 minutes tidying up before my back started to pull and I came in again. It's surprising how much difference cutting back a few bits and taking up a dead grass have made.

I then gave one of the en-suites a really thorough clean, not before time. Recently it's been a disinfect of the WC and a clean around the hand basin but today I was a lot more thorough, including cleaning the window and washing the floor. While I was doing that OH said he would clean down the front door and wipe the window sills outside. When we drove up a couple of days ago I remarked on how splashed and dirty the front door was. When he came in OH asked me when I cleaned it. I said I hadn't and he was supposed to be doing it then. I went out to look and it was spotless. We couldn't understand it till OH remembered the window cleaners had been a couple of days ago. We think they must have cleaned the whole door for us.

I'm not sure what I am going to do for the rest of the day. Enjoy the rest of your day whatever you are doing.