General Chat

Pleased to give you a laugh. I actually laughed myself good job it was sunny and warm.

24 here and blimmin hot.

That made me laugh with your hosepipe. Oh just asked if I was alright!! He's in the study I am in the kitchen ust starting dinner.

No sign of the rain here yet and the washing's dry and all put away. Our garden is looking bad too and we dug out 3 dwarf rhododendrons that had black leaves this morning, emptied the pot filled with violas as well and pulled some self set ones up that were in the borders. It's garden bin day tomorrow, so OH trimmed off some tattered rhubarb leaves and a few off the courgettes where the workmen caught them.

Yes OH surprised me Mel as he doesn't usually watch women's football. Your OH must be feeling better if he went out mowing. Is your grass very brown or has there been enough rain to keep it green where you are? Everywhere here the grass is an orangey colour.

Hello Kitty is back sitting near the end of the close almost in the middle of the road again. He just sits there staring at the bottom of the hedge and ditch and doesn't even move when the cars drive around him. OH thinks it is only a matter of time..... :-(

Mum and dad had a shoe box too. It had a divider down the middle with a slot so you could carry it. As Mel said, tins of Kiwi polish (I never realised the picture on the tin was of a Kiwi till I grew up!) and brushes for black and brown and woebetide us if we used the wrong ones! Dad was a stickler for clean shoes from his army days so I had to clean mine every night for school. Mansion Guardshine was kept in ours too for doing the furniture.

25 now so quite hot still. OH gave himself a good soaking like that once AnnG. He was having a chunter at the time and was all ready for work in his suit and tie. It soon shut him up as his reflexes weren't as quick as yours.

I wonder why, on normal days when I wake at six and get up about 6.45 I have enough or plenty of energy. But today when I slept until 0858 and just got up twice for the loo and immediately back to sleep, I don't have much energy. I did walk to the post box and pulled up half of one of the overgrown grasses I want to get rid of but other than that I have not done anything.
Oh I did fill up the watering cans, one from the water but which now has a trickle in it and the other from the main tap using the hose which, as I was going to turn it off decide to part company with the spray head coming off the main hose straight at me. Luckily my reflexes are quick and I managed to turn the tap off but the lower part of one of my crops legs was very wet and my face and glasses had a good wash. That is twice that has happened. It needs sorting out.
It is 25 here now.

I keep meaning to ask if G watched the womens footy yesterday? Oh watched it and he dos'nt like football usually.

Perhaps thats just what oh fancies and I bet its ham.

My pigeon (Percy) has just eaten most of the seed I put onthe bird tabel for the little birds, greedy pig...eon. He also bathes in the bird bath and empties it and then poos in it.

We had a wooden shoe cleaning box as well. It sat on top of a cabinet in the kitchen. I have a vague recollection of a number being stencilled on the top so I wonder if it could have been left over from Dad's wartime stint in the Army.

It's 22 degrees here and sunny at the moment though it does keep clouding over. It's very muggy as well. You're lucky if you've got rain forecast for tonight Ann. The last forecast I saw for here was that we just may get some light rain on Thursday, or we may not :-( OH is watering the garden but it really needs the hose left running for a few hours and that's not good for the environment or our bank balance. He's doing his best but the plants are really just getting a quick drink and lots are suffering now. We've got a couple of Hydrangea Paniculata and they are blooming better than I've seen for a couple of years but I noticed today that lots of the leaves have turned brown and are starting to drop off. The agapanthus blooms are fading more quickly than usual as well.

Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot and the Ladies Club is holding its annual afternoon tea party in someone's garden. I hope there is plenty of shade. I think I might put an umbrella and a hat in the car in case I need to provide my own shade. I've just been to find out where the house is as I am driving someone else tomorrow and want to know where I'm going. In fact it was much closer than I had realised.

I did a couple of loads of washing earlier which must be dry by now so I need to get that in. Looking at the state of a bird bath I think I need to give that a good scrub out but I'm not sure I've got the energy at the moment. Dratted pigeons, they are the ones who make everything mucky. I think I need to hire Mel's OH and his airgun to get rid of them for me.

Tesco are coming this afternoon. Apparently there is nothing missing and just 2 acceptable subs. One is a Mary Berry salad dressing that OH likes. They only had the size I wanted in the "light" version. As long as it tastes roughly the same OH won't even notice. I had also ordered a 200g pack of tenderstem broccoli and they are sending 2 x 120g packs so that's fine.

I've just heard the kettle go on so OH must be getting our lunchtime snack. He seems to have taken over that job which is nice for me. The only trouble is he tends to make us the same sandwich every day so I do sometimes have to gently point him in a different direction so we get a bit of variety.

Have a nice afternoon and stay cool

Ah yes my Dad had a box similar to that Those were the days when shoes were mended at home. The shoe last ended up being a boot scraper by the back door. Wonder what happened to that?

Just walked down to the post box and back, it is 21 degrees and still very muggy, only a short walk but I was shattered when I got back it was so hot.

Morning all,

Partly suny here and 21 degrees. Nothing planned for today just to find something for dinner and then get on with the rest of the day.

Oh must feel better as we are having cream teas on the front field for the church and village hall and he is cutting the front grass ready for it. Lets hope it is dry this time they want to use it. If its not they do it in the hall.

I don't know why but it may have been in a dream but when I woke up this morning and lay there for a min I suddenly thought of our old wooden shoe cleaning box from when I was a kid, with its two lots of brushes, one pair for black and one for brown, a suede brush and whitening for my sandles and dads tennis shoes and the shoe last kept out in the shed. Then I thought about the other things in that box Seggs and Blakies and football boot studds that dad had to renew on his boots. The boots were leather and very hard and he used to clean those with Dubbin which was also in the boot box. Now what on earth made me think of all that on wkaing up?

Morning All,

Slept well, 17 degrees and we both did a 1 lap walk and fed the ducks some stale bread. They were so excited and were paddling like mad from the far end of the pond! Disappointing some morons have sprayed grafitti on the raised decking with fence around though. More broken glass along the path too. The roadsweeper was in action outside the park, getting surplus gravel up as they had gritted it after all that heat. There must be a lot of that needing to be done.

AnnG, 3 of the butts are side by side at the back of the shed between it and the fence and so are out of sight. They are on raised slabs, different heights and when one fills, water runs into the next from an overflow pipe and also into the 3rd when the 2nd is full. The other 2 are behind the greenhouse, 1 each side at the end of each gutter. We are thinking when we renew the shed we might get one of those big rectangular tanks like Vera has. We saw one at an open garden we visited and thought how neat it was. Water will never get cheaper and we pay for every drop on a meter.

No sign of the window cleaner yet so it looks like he isn't coming today. :-( I think we are safe to get showered now without him getting an eyeful! ;-)

Then I need to help OH manouvre the table top out of the garage so he can put everything back. Then he wants me to help him sort an ISA out online, then it will be lunch and hopefully then I can get on with some of my own things. How did we ever find time to go to work?

The washer is on as OH said the rain isn't due till tonight. I hope he's right.

good morning all overslept and woke at 0858 this morning I have never done that before as long as I can remember. Good job I am not going anywhere.

Ann 5 water butts, good heavens! Where do you keep them all?

Mandy, try harder! lol. :-D I think my rain dancing days are over now! Still no rain, but I think the forecast is for storms the next few days so we'll see. All our (5) butts are empty now.

Thank you for the list Vera. I will keep that until I start to buy plants.

We had quite a bit of rain so no need for me to water tonight thank goodness.

Vera, it's surprising what the thought of lugging a bucket to and from the kitchen sink will prompt :-D

Got lovely rainwater here ,bring your buckets and I'll fill them ,sorry to heavy to post :-D

Good thinking Island. That wouldn't have crossed my mind. When we moved here we got rid of our big water butts because there was nowhere suitable to put them. Instead we bought a slimline one that only holds about 100 litres and sits on the back of the garage wall. The top of it is high up so I don't think I could reach it to fill it. I suppose I could stand on the top of the steps dragging the hose behind me and hope there's enough power to make the water run uphill to the top of the butt. On second thoughts, perhaps not ;-)

Vera - it hasn't tipped it down where I am either. In fact, I've had to fill the water butt with a hose 'just in case'

Anng you might not have got out in the garden but you've got lots of other jobs done ,enjoy your roast chicken .


Ann I'm not sure I have any puff left after blowing the rain Veras way for two minutes :-D but I'll give it a go later as I'm full up from our meal now

Mel I love a nice fruit salad and yours sounds lovely but i haven't made one for a while
the girls like to make a fruit salad when they come and they helping to chop the fruit ,I usually put my fruit in orange juice .

We had Lasagne with salad tonight finished off with strawberries and cream .

Rain has stopped but there's plenty of black clouds about, one good thing is no watering needed tonight only the greenhouse.

Sounds yummy Mel though I'm not a huge fan of Pimms.

I wish all you lovely people would stop talking about the rain tipping down because it ain't tipping down here :-(. Around lunchtime there was a tiny little shower that barely wet the path. It was just a few drops and was over in about 2 minutes. The sun's out at the moment and it's 24 degrees and muggy.

AnnG, some years ago the plantswoman Beth Chatto turned a car park at her gardens into a gravel garden. It is never watered and has flourished and looks wonderful. Some of the drought resistant plants she suggests are:

Agapanthus
Ballota
Helianthemum
Hylotelephium (Sedum)
Iris
Nepeta
Perovskia (now Salvia)
Santolina
Stachys
Stipa
Thymus
Verbena

It might be worth you considering one or two of those.

Evening Gang,

24 degrees here and quite muggy but there is a little breeze. We had some rain in the night but most had dried up by the time we were up so I don't think it was much. Please blow harder Mandy so some comes our way too. :-) Lots of black clouds but they just passed over us all day. That's a good idea to put water out for the hedgehogs. I'm not sure we still get any but I will put a garden pot drip tray out with some water in, just in case. The Pigeons are turning up every day to bathe in the water feature if I don't spot them first. The poor water lily gets a bashing and they have 2 ponds in the field they could use instead.

Mel that does sound like a big fruit salad. The Pimms would be nice in it too.

I've cleaned the fridge and tomorrow we can put all the pots, tables and chairs back in place as our backs have had enough getting the food in and away today. No subs for once!

The Firework Agapanthus does look pretty AnnG. I managed to change the bedding this morning and have paid a bill and done little else apart from putting food away. OH seems to be taking over in the kitchen now (not the cooking unfortunately!) and changing where I put things in the fridge and cupboards so the things he uses are handiest! How very dare he, I have changed them back seeing as it's me that uses most of what's in there! lol. :-)