General Chat

Good morning all, a bit damp outside and obviously rain overnight so that is good, the water butt will soon be full at this rate and there will be water there just when we don't need it. such is life!!
Boiler being serviced today so hopefully that will be good for the winter.

Ah, yes Ann, I forgot those plants, daughter's late husband used to have cacti and he had some of those. too cold in my conservatory for them in the winter I think. If you do buy the Sedum in flower as I did, be careful when planting them on, maybe do it indoors as the bees try to get to the flowers even as you are doing it.
I spent a long time yesterday trimming off the lavender flowers from my large bush and a very angry bumble bee kept buzzing at me so I had to stop until it moved on. No honey for them in the lavender once the flowers have died but I guess the perfume attracts them.

I think your other half would also like Hay on Wye for the book shops, although I am assuming they are still going strong, years since we went there.

Vera is there a book of general instructions in the house? You might find something in there about the windows. I am sure there will be a way of releasing the limiter. I have found that since Covid a lot of the booklets and instructions have been removed from lettings which is not good. such a book might have informed you about Margate being shut for two days. But how counter productive for tourism and a shame too for you. Still it solved one thing, you (and those of us who read your posts) won't be visiting Margate. what a shame to let a lovely seaside resort get so shabby.

But what a great idea to have that bus on a loop, especially (or maybe because of) with pensioners' free bus passes. I hope today is more of a success. I look forward to hearing about Ramsgate. Being quite ignorant about Kent, I have just looked at the map and can see that where you are leads itself easily to a loop for a bus route. Looks an interesting area to stay, On my map I see there is mention of a viking ship. I wonder if Grandson has been there. See how your holiday improves my knowledge. :-) :-) Have fun today. I love taking the bus on holiday and giving the car a rest. Not that I can do that any more as daughter and son in law are not old enough for a bus pass.

Morning all,

Still windy here and its quite bright at he moment but thye forcast rain and thunder for later in the day and pc says rain off and on and it has'nt got the degrees on it but the local one says 18 degrees.

As you say, Ann, there must be a way of opening the windows fully in case of fire but I haven’t investigated that. If you are ever in Alnwick you must take OH to Barter Books which is in the old station. You might never get him out again!

There’s no sign of rain yet but I have just heard a couple of rumbles of thunder so it’s probably on its way.

Here there is a bus route called the Loop which goes round in a big circle and the bus calls at Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Margate amongst other places, so today we decided to take the bus to Margate. Big mistake. Everywhere closes on Monday and Tuesday. Turner Gallery, closed; Shell Grotto, closed; Margate Caves, closed; even the Tourist Information Centre was closed. There’s a lot of money been invested in the town to attract visitors but back from the beaches and the attractions everything was very shabby. Even Poundland was closed.

We met another couple outside the Turner Gallery and spent nearly an hour just chatting to them. Then we had a wander along the front and up into the town to find a snack. Eventually we found a Costa Coffee and I had a panini and OH a toastie with a pot of tea. It was very busy, probably as it was the only halfway decent place open. We then got the bus back to Broadstairs and decided to treat ourselves to an ice cream at Morelli’s. We had 2 scoops each in a cardboard tub and said goodbye to £11. However it is lovely ice cream and we are on holiday so it was worth it.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to take the bus and see what Ramsgate has to offer. We may go to the Ramsgate Tunnels. I’ve checked they are open. It will be a play-it-by-ear day as a lot will depend on the weather.

There seems to be quite a bit of thunder now and the rain has started.

That's a nuisance with the window limiters Vera with it being so hot where you are. We were the same at a Premier Inn once and roasted at night, but during our next stay at a Premier a fellow customer told us how to release their particular ones by a series of twists, lifts and unhooking. It was many years ago now and I suppose the regulations are more strict but you must be able to get out if there's a fire.

Books anywhere, new or old (if in good condition) are like a magnet to him! The devil scuttled off into The Works as soon as we reached the Garden Centre. The good thing is he loves a bargain and doesn't spend a fortune on them. He waits till the price comes down on new editions and loves what he finds for under £2 in charity shops. Often they've only been read once.

No doubt your OH's BIL will be in your thoughts tomorrow. I must admit I have thought about having a similar funeral, as I'm not one for any fuss, but I can see a supportive gathering may help those you leave behind. I look forward to hearing about what you did today and hope it ends up a bit cooler for you tonight. We have had a shower of rain this evening that's helped.

Yes we did miss the rain Gwyn. We had a few drops of rain this morning but it really was just a few drops. There’s thundery rain forecast for tonight and then showers for the whole of the rest of our stay. It’s not sunny but is very hot and heavy at the moment. The weather app is saying it’s 22 degrees but feels like 26. As we are back at the house now I have opened the bedroom windows as far as the limiters allow but I fear it will be another hot sleepless night.

I’m not a great fan of fish and chips. On the rare occasions I do have it there’s always too much for me. I’ve noticed it’s gone up in price a lot. At one cafe we were in recently I noticed that a perfectly ordinary plate of fish, chips and peas was £21.50.

It sounds as though you have found a good garage to do your MOT etc. Ann. I did laugh at your OH finding ‘must have’ books. He might like one of the shops here as it’s a bookstore with a bar. You can sit on a sofa looking through a book while sipping a beer or glass of wine. How civilised is that.

OH’s bil is being cremated early tomorrow morning. There will only be the funeral directors there and possibly his wife (OH’s sister). I am not sure about that. It is sad in a way but he had let his wife know that was what he wanted so at least she knows she is fulfilling his wishes.

The internet is a little bit dodgy here so I am going to post this now but I may bbl to tell you what we have been doing today.

No it wasn't as large as from the F&C shop, especially the fish. The chips were delicious and crunchy, but a tiny pot of peas. I can't eat the chippie portions either and this was plenty for me and I gave OH half a dozen of my chips.

The pebble plants are too tender for outdoors unfortunately but are a bit cactuslike and I have mine in a pot in the conservatory. They don't need much water and don't seem to mind the heat in there and are desert plants I think. I saw a nice sedum at the garden centre called Carl. It was full of pink flower and the bees were loving it.

It's bins tomorrow so I'd better go and change the kitchen bin liner.

I've noticed that fish and chips seems to be getting more expensive, when my friends and I go out to be ' Ladies that Lunch ' but £40 really does sound exceessive :-0

I'm like you AnnG in that there are far too many chips for me.
I like to go places where they will offer a smaller portion. There is a great F & C place right on the seashore, not far from here, where last time we went, several of us had a child's portion, which had a medium size piece of fish and generous amount of chips, but not overwhelming, - all for £6.50 and freshly cooked to order.... very tasty too :-D

I wonder if Vera missed the storm like we did.... Not a drop of rain here overnight or since, so the garden still has deep cracks over one foot deep.
It's been a warm, sometimes hot day, so the sun protection cream is still sitting at the ready next to the bathroom sink.
Since my problem last year, I have made sure that I have always used factor 50 on my face and 30 on the rest of me..... and I've had good use out of my sunhat too.

Only 17/18 here Ann so a way below yours, still feels quite warm although we have had heavy rain this afternoon which I am actually pleased about for the gardens.

Gosh that was expensive fish and chips, was it large? so often these days I don't manage to eat the huge plates of chips they give you.
Good to get your MOT booked in, sounds as if they will be OK then.
what sort of plant is the pebble plant? Is it a type of cactus? Drought resistant.Your OH is on a mission to fill up his book shelves then?

Afternoon All,

It's 23 here and 24 is forecast so too hot for my liking. We had lots of sheet lightning at about 2.00am too AnnG and then we had thunder and a nice drenching of rain later which was good for the garden. I couldn't get back to sleep for ages so was up late this morning.

Our surgery has a new telephone system and you can leave a message to cancel an appointment now so I cancelled my next vaccination (MMR) this coming Friday. I decided to get the flu and hopefully covid ones done first as I don't want any side effects to delay me having those. Then I tried the garage and there was still a disconnected sound so I rang the garage the other end of the village and booked a service and MOT. They sound very good and obliging and quoted me the cost (reasonable!) there and then. Amazingly the owner knew Terry from our old garage years ago and described him as a lovely old boy which he was.

We then went to another of our old haunts not visited since before the pandemic for lunch and were the only customers all the time we were there. We were going to have jacket pots but weakened after seeing F&C, but my word over £40 for 2 F&C and a pot of tea!! How prices are climbing! We called in the garden centre nearby next and I got 2 packs of Alliums to plant and a different reddish pebble plant to put in with my others. I got a notepad and ruler from The Works in there and OH found 2 'must have books' and stationery items so those shelves won't have gaps for long. He has said there are more to sort and go though. We came home via the smallholding that takes shredded paper, but still no sign out, so the bags can go with the recycling next time.

Mrs O is still away since over a week, but the workmen have still been coming. This is the 4th week they have been here Mon to Fri, so goodness knows what she has been having done in the back garden. The roof is going on the extension to the asian house now. We don't think it was the old chap the ambulance was for now as OH heard a neighbour ask if their son was ok. We wonder if it was the son who arrived drunk shaking the gates in the early hours that time.

ERNIE has shelled out another £50 for me which is good and will help towards my painting course. Speaking of which another place became available again on one of the 2 landscape ones this morning but had gone by the time I looked at my emails. It was the same day as my portrait one so would have been a bit much anyway.

I need to order some things on ebay next, one of those standby plugs for a start for the tv in the main bedroom. The plug is high up behind the tv and hard for me to reach so it gets left on standby at the moment. It will be nice to be able to get rid of the standby light (and electric cost) by switching it off while lying in bed.

Forgot to say Sheila is coming at 2.30pm to sort out the service and see what readings we will have.

I'm here Anng. I have just had a good go in the bathroom. Cleaned everything and got rid of a lot of dust off the top of the cabinet in there. Its quite high up so I had to use my little step thing to reach.

It is quiet without Vera and Ann, Gwyn and Island.

Wow is everyone ok, nobody been around since I came on here at 0735.

Good morning all a lovely bright sunny morning looks like a real autumnal morning.
I slept ok but did get woken by lightening just after 12. put my hearing aids in but I didn't hear any thunder. It was sheet lightening so making the room very bright. Scared me a bit at first as I thought it was the fire alarm I have which would wake me with light flashing. I think the storm must have been some way away.

It looks like there is a fair amount of scrap paper being recycled then as both Ann and Mel have found a lot.

I wouldn't like to try and count the books in this house but they do tend to be mainly fiction. I rely more on the internet for looking things up these days. I am gradually getting rid of books though, having recently had to dispose of a lot of T's stuff I realise what a task I would leave family with the amount of stuff I have.

Gwyn a walk by the sea, I am sure that was good for your mental health. I was only sad that we were not able to stay in the Portsmouth area much longer as it was so lovely to see the sea.

Vera, you too walking by the sea and well done for the mileage. you were probably enjoying the different area so much that you were relaxed and your body was not tensed expecting to hurt. don't overdo it, maybe a car trip today would be a good idea as you want to see your cousin.

Morning all,

We have a nice sunny morning here at present pc says 14 degrees and cloudy so how long the sun will last we'll see. Other local one says 18 degrees with a grey cloud with rain drops on it.

I did'nt take the recykling up yesterday because it was raining os hard so it must go up there soon. They do come a bit later now and if I do miss it it will have to come back down.

I had very little sleep last night because of the heat. Even OH kept waking and he’s usually a good sleeper. I got up at 8 am feeling dreadful but after a cup of tea, a shower and some muesli I managed to pull myself together and we went out for a walk around town and then along the coast a little way and back again. We had a toasted sandwich in a cafe and a slow saunter back to our accommodation. Later on we went back to the front for a meal in a pub restaurant there. We’re now back at the house and feeling quite tired.

I was surprised that in all our slow sauntering we had covered about 5 miles which is amazing considering that I could barely move on Tuesday. The weather was lovely which helped. It was very warm but with a good breeze. It’s very hot in the bedroom again even though we have had the blinds drawn to keep the sun out.

Gwyn, we are thinking of going to Deal later in the week as I have a cousin living there and would like to see her as we’re so close. I’ll probably try and ring her tomorrow..

OH is pursuing his favourite hobby of watching TV with his eyes closed so I think I’ll brave that hot bedroom and take my book to bed. I hope you all sleep well.

I'm sure you are right about the shelves filling up again Gwyn! That's ok as long as he parts with some from time to time so we aren't overun. He says just the same as you as most of his are non fiction, things like THe History of the Post Office as well as lots of other history books and he likes to check things and refer back to them. It sounds like a really nice walk with your daughter along by the sea.

It's amazing just how much room papers take up when you bag them up. We have a car load of bags of shredded paper to take to the smallholding, but last time OH was going to drop a bag off they'd taken their signs down requesting it. We are hoping they may just have been away.

Evening everyone.

Annx, I don't think OH is going to have spaces on his shelves for long, at that rate :-)

I really ought to think about thinning our book collection, but a lot of them are non fiction and I sometimes want to refer back to them. Daughter mentioned today about doing a project on weather and I immediately thought of a book we have here somewhere about whether or not there is any truth in the tales about ' red sky at night ' etc.... Will have to see if I can find it on a shelf ...or is it perhaps somewhere 'safe' in a cardboard box :-S

I hope Vera has had a good day. I thought of her this afternoon, because I was unexpectedly less than 20 miles from her, when elder daughter and I went to Deal. It was really warm in the sunshine and there was just a very gentle breeze as we walked along the seafront looking across the very calm sea.
I hope it was good further round the Kent coast too.

Pouring here now and has been raining all afternoon that fine stuff at first but I can hear it now so its harder. I don't mind really but I need to take the recykloing up the top.

Been on the phone to two SIL's today.

For the last hour and a bit I have been going through a big box of papers in oh's study. I now have a nice big black sack full of waste paper for the bin men on Thursday.

I forgot the library AGAIN this week and was reminded but a while ago so by the time Thursday came I must have been doing something else at the time and only remembered yesterday two days late. I do get a double bash at it if I miss the morning one here it goes to Shebbear in the afternoon after lunch and I do that sometimes.

He certainly has a wide range of taste AnnG! He's passed 2 Noel Fitzgerald books he had to me to read. I think he actually got them for me but decided to read them himself. I haven't done much today either, mostly planning what to do tomorrow! :-D lol. One thing I want to buy is some more Alliums for the garden. I have a few, but want to dot some more between the shrubs to add a bit of colour. I will looknat some sedums too. I can't face another summer with so much watering to do!

It's good your shed will be nice and dry now. Ours needs replacing as it's pulling apart because the base has cracked and moved, but we can't decide what size we need till we've sorted the garage which we can think about starting now it's become cooler.

that sounds like two books that couldn't be more different Ann.

I don't seem to have done a lot today but I am tired. I did strip the bed and was the bedding and re-make it. Then put away the Tesco order. Sorted out some stuff that needed putting away from when Andy was working. I could do with cutting a bit more down but there is absolutely no room in the garden bin. I thought we were going to get some rain as the sky came over really black but no, no rain. Fed up with watering now.
I did go down and look at the shed now Andy has made it waterproof, it does need clearing out but I need to start that when I have plenty of energy early in the day. So I shut the door and came inside.