General Chat

Good morning all 13 degrees and a bit dull, ground very wet as we had a lot of rain yesterday, the garden should be happy anyway. But I can't get out there now to do things when it is so wet.
Have my heating engineer due around lunch time to fit the valve. A bit apprehensive as he has to get into the loft, not been opened for over a year and then nobody went up there. Still he is a strong young man and fit so hopefully will sort it.

So sad she was a great queen. RIP our lovely lady nobody could ever take her place. <3

Certainly the end of an era it does seem strange. I can remember how strange it felt going from having a king to a queen. And now back to a king again.

Oh no, the Queen has passed away. I can't quite believe it and she worked almost to the very end at age 96. Much change will be afoot now. :-(

I see your meeting went well AnnG and you didn’t have wet footmarks everywhere. Yes, I remember reading about the RM bombing in the papers and being quite shocked. My cousin wasn’t living there then. She tells me that every year there is a parade on the anniversary of the bombing and there are 11 gaps left in the parade for the 11 men who died. It must be so moving to watch.

It’s sad news about the Queen. I keep hoping for the best but when all the family gather like that I fear the worst.

Well, our day has been a mixture of good and bad. We walked down to the museum and by the time we got there, just before 11.30, the rain had stopped. I had checked it was open today but hadn’t checked the times. It didn’t open till 1 pm. There was something I wanted in the High Street so we wandered up there. I couldn’t get what I wanted but came across a lovely little bits and pieces shop. I saw a birthday card in the window I liked so went in to buy it. I came out with 5 cards, a little “tree present” for my daughter at Christmas and a pretty little bag for a friend’s birthday. The shop owner even gift wrapped it for me. I was really pleased with my purchases.

It was still a bit early for lunch so we continued further up the road, beyond where we had been before and came across a sort of manor house. This turned out to contain various businesses, the council chamber and the Mayor’s Parlour. It was on the edge of a small park so we had a lovely wander round there. There was just us and lots of squirrels. Eventually we walked back to a huge pub which had been a hotel for lunch.

So far, so good. We ordered a drink, a starter and main for OH and a main course for me. Drinks came. About 10 minutes later the starter came, the lad brought it to our table, then decided it wasn’t ours and gave it to another table who had ordered the same. We waited a few minutes, then there was a conflab amongst waiters and one approached us to say the original waiter thought we had said the starter wasn’t ours (???), but OH’s was being cooked and would be with us shortly. It duly arrived with both our mains and two plates were put in front of OH. The lad was amazed when OH pointed out that by the time he had finished his rather large starter his main course would be cold. He offered to keep it warm. By this time OH was quite grumpy and said he didn’t want it all dried out and they should cook him a fresh one. This was agreed and after his starter they checked whether OH was ready and brought his main course. What a shambles. We paid the bill but OH didn’t add a tip although he is usually quite a generous tipper.

On to the Dickens Museum...Dickens never stayed at this house, staying at the Royal Albion Hotel where we had just eaten or Fort House, later renamed Bleak House. He became friendly with Mary Pearson the owner of the museum house and often visited her. He apparently based Betsy Trotwood in David Copperfield on Mary Pearson. We stood in one room with other visitors while a lady told us something of the history of the place and of Dickens himself which was interesting but not much of it was new to me. Then we looked into a room set up as a nursery and one as Miss Pearson’s parlour. The final room had a few display cases with 19th century artefacts, a bridal dress of the time and other bits and pieces which I suppose put Dickens in the context of his age but there were only a letter and a couple of playbills that related to the man himself. It wasn’t bad but was a tad disappointing.

As it was still quite bright OH suggested we explored some of the roads we hadn’t walked down. After a couple of minutes I realised it was coming over black and before we could get cagoules on the heavens opened. I’ve never seen so much rain fall so quickly. We dashed over the road to a shop with a canopy and stood under that putting our cagoules on and then struck out for our accommodation. By the time we got here we were soaked from head to toe and had to change everything. Even my hair was wet even though I had it all covered with the hood.

I am typing this while OH is watching an old black and white film. I’ve probably put in far too much detail so I hope I haven’t bored you. If I ever write a book, it will need drastic editing, lol.

It was the gardening interests meeting and it poured all afternoon but no harm to the carpet. A very lively meeting and two hours soon went.

Yes all very sad about the Aueen although of course she is 96. There are several rumours about her health but whatever the problem is she has looked frail and I guess we all know where this is leading even to BBC news people already wearing black ties.

I think Harry has gone up on his own as has William.

Afternoon all,

Nice and sunny now but we had a very heavy shower this morning and in the night .

Sounds very serious Ann if all the family are going up to Balmoral .

I have had a good hoover and dust through all the bedrooms and given the upstairs bathroom a good clean ,also hoovered the stairs and hoovered downstairs so now having a sit down .

Vera I hope the rain finaly eased up so you managed to get to the museum ,it not nice to get wet and have to walk about in wet things.

Hope it's dried up for your meeting this afternoon Anng you don't want wet feet all over your floors.

It's sad news that there is more concern about the Queen's health and concerning that many of the royals including Harry and Megan are on their way to Balmoral. OH said that he saw that apparently some of her recent mobility issues have been due to gout. I do hope she will be ok.

No all those wet feet are not what you want AnnG. I have 3 identical doormats placed next to each other in the front porch. It sounds like overkill but makes sure the shoes are dryer before treading on anything else. Is this a photography or a garden meeting?

That does sound as if it was his low blood pressure Vera. I am sure he has been told that with his low BP he must not stand up too quickly. Pleased he is ok this morning Hope the rain eased off for you to get about a bit.
Annx it was lovely here until half an hour ago but is dark now and threatening rain, in fact there is a lot shower now, just what I don't need nine pairs of wet feet.

Morning All,

Lots of rain here in the night and another shower half an hour ago. The Pigeons and Blackbird are busy pulling my alpines out now to look for grubs!

It sounds like you had a nicer day yesterday weatherwise Vera and have fallback plans for today. The Dickens House Museum sounds interesting. It's good your OH seems better now and it does sound like he might have stood up too quickly for his BP. I have to be careful some mornings in the shower after my meds. Enjoy your day, whatever the weather brings. I think I prefer a drenching to that awful heat we have had!

It sounds like you will have to test each plug in the shed to see what it switches off Mel, even if it trips the leccy.

Lunch needs a check.........BBL

Well, we are still here as it has been raining heavily non-stop since I posted earlier. Even with a bit of wet weather gear we will be drenched before we get anywhere. OH wanted to go back to Margate to visit a couple of places that weren’t open on Monday but there are several minutes walking between them and we don’t want to be spending all day in soggy clothes. So on to Plan B. If the rain eases a bit we’ll don our cagoules and walk down to the little Dickens House Museum to pass an hour, then have lunch in one of the pubs or restaurants and make it our main meal. Then, after a snack tea here, we might have an evening of cards or board games which we don’t often do at home.

Last night we had a table booked at another Italian restaurant so when we got back from my cousin’s I went to wash and change. When I came downstairs OH had fallen asleep on the couch. I woke him and he tried to get up but couldn’t seem to get his balance and kept falling back. In the end I had to haul him up and he was staggering around the room. It was a bit frightening and I wanted to cancel our booking but he insisted on going. He didn’t seem very steady on his feet but said he felt OK and ate a big meal though I noticed he stuck with water to drink (I didn’t comment. If I’d said anything he would have dug his heels in and ordered wine or beer.). He seems fine this morning if a touch quiet. I am hoping that maybe his blood pressure, which is always low, had dropped a bit too much or maybe his blood sugar levels had dropped and being woken suddenly from sleep didn’t help.

OH says the rain has eased up so we are going to go out now. Have a good meeting this afternoon AnnG.

Have a lovely day Vera. you are having a nice varied break so I look forward to seeing where you have been today. I remember that awful bomb. during the 80s we used to go to several R Marine concerts at the Albert hall. we could buy ticket as employees of the MOD. we loved them and were very fond of the bandsmen who were almost regulars at the time (by sight of course not personally). so that bomb made quite an impact. I still love to hear a RM band.

Mel, no not frozen, it stopped working before T died and I thin just got old, it is not a large one and I am sure we could fix it if we tried. I have a fairy water feature too and must remember to empty her and turn the charger away from the light so it doesn't try to charge in the winter. The main water feature is kept switched off in the winter although occasionally run to keep it going and stopping it freezing.

got to get the room ready now for the meeting this afternoon, ten of us today.

Have a lovely day Vera.

It must have been nice to see your cousin and catch up with whats been going on after a long time.

Morning all

I hope Frank manages to do a post as it would be good to hear from him and catch up on some of his news.

There are notices up round here about avian flu in wild birds. Thankfully we haven’t seen any dead or sickly looking gulls.

We had another thunderstorm last night. OH only heard the loudest clap which sounded right overhead but it was rumbling away for a long while. The forecast for today and tomorrow is for showers, some thundery, all day long so I think it will be a couple of days of taking cagoules out with us and trying to dodge the rain.

Yesterday we walked to the shops and bought some bits for a snack lunch and stopped at a nice little tea shop for a morning drink. Then after an early lunch we went to my cousin’s and had a pleasant few hours there. After a cuppa in her garden we went for a walk round the area which was lovely. She lives in the area where 11 Royal Marine bandsmen were killed when a church they were playing in was bombed in 1989. There is just one part of the church left standing and a small memorial garden to them there and their names are on plaques round the bandstand on the front where they used to play. It was quite moving.

After our walk it was back to the house for more tea and cake in the garden before saying goodbye. It was really nice to see my cousin and her OH again as we don’t meet up very often.

OH wants to go out shortly and I’m nowhere near ready so I’ll post this now and come back later. Have a good day everyone

No its not solar powered it is plugged in somewhere but I don't like to take plugs out as it knocks the leccy out then I would have to come indoors to turn it back on again and also the airpump would'nt work if there was no leccy and I have to have that on to clean the filter.

The pump in your water feature could have frozen in the winter and thats what has made it stop. I always tip the water out of my fairy fountain on the patio in the winter and lift it up one side so water can't get to the pump or I cover it with a poly bag.

Good morning all 14 degrees here and cloudy bright PC is saying mostly cloudy.

Mel is the filter that keeps running by any chance solar?
I dread having to get to the pump on the water feature by my patio as to do that I have to remove loads of pebbles and the pump is somehow buried under the large rock that the water runs out of. I guess I just would not be able to do it but will need to get someone to do it as if left it would start to smell. The small bird bath/water feature down the garden, the pump packed up before Tony died, I think it has to be taken apart to fix it or replace it so maybe when we have more time daughter can help with that one.

O meant to say about the pigeon don't worry about it as my percy pigeon just sits on the road in the rain. He even manages to get in a bit of a puddle sometimes and lays in it and he will also lift a wing to get the rain underneath. It is a thing they do and they do look stressed sometimes.

Morning all,

Its been raining in the night but is dry at the mo and quite bright but pc says rain coming and its 15 degrees here by the local one. I had another go at the pond filter yesterday but still can't seem to turn the pump off. I managed to turn it off from the pond but there are three filters in the shed and one keeps running.

I have a couple of calls to do today. I do hope Frank posts today as it will be lovely to see his name pop up again.

We've had those sart plugs a little while ago and they are good. I can turn my magnifying light on with it and the outside light. Then oh bought another set of two and put one on the pond scimmer but it would'nt work it.

It was getting dark when Echo decided to upgrade so I coud'nt turn the dining room light on over the table. I turned the side lamp on instead till she'd finished but it took a while.

I do hope Frank does post tomorrow he told me he'd had a couple of falls and broken his toe on one foot and then broke one on his other foot.

Don't know what to eat tonight but know I must.

Very true AnnG. So many of the sea birds nest so close together it must spread between them easily.and then there are all the migrating birds including the geese. Ours seem to have stopped their practice flights so must have gone now I think.