General Chat

good morning all. got home at 11am, left MK at 0910 so a good run considering it is mainly ordinary roads with just a bit of dual carriageways.

so quiet here but lots to be done. Path outside the front door needs a bit of a sweep where Andy used the pressure washer and it must also have rained after he filled in the cement. Then I see I have a large amount of ripened tomatoes to pick on the Alicante and the other plants. (can't remember the name. I haven't been to look at the Cobra beans, will do that in a minute. I am half unpacked and now just having a coffee. BBL

Morning all,

Overcast here and nice and cool with a good breeze 22 on the pc and cloudy. We've had rain again and its knocked all the mollis down do there must have been quite a lot in the night.

Had a lie in this morning so all behind and I thought it was late when I got up as Phil is waiting by the chicken run for his morning corn.

Nothing planned for today now its all wet out there. I was going up the garden yesterday afternoon but rain stopped play. Sorry Vera.... I know you are wishing for rain. I'll try and send some up to you.

I read that French bean seeds can be sowed in july. I'm giving it a go, nothing to lose.

Good morning all

It’s a bit overcast but already 21 degrees and the app tells me it feels like 24. It’s likely to get to 30 degrees today. We are getting desperate for rain now.

I knew if it was too hot I wouldn’t feel like cooking so we had our roast chicken yesterday. It will be a nice easy cold chicken salad today.

The only plan for today is to pop to Roy’s when they open at 10 am and get some more compost. I want to pot some plants into bigger containers and we are out of compost.

Stay cool and have a good day.

My flowers fell off my bans too Mandy but I thought it was just me. I have spotted two beans on them now. Sungold is the tom I alway grow and it usually ripens before the others. I have had two ripe ones so far and theres more coming on those but the gardeners delight has just started turning too. I bought that plant down the shop but the Sungold I sowed from seed of last years seed. My two cues in one pot are doing quite well and I have had three already but they are tiny ones. The short beans are flowering but no beans yet but I sowed those late.

I have done a little casting today and played with my poly clay making toadstools,Shaggy inkcap ones in miniture.

Went to the shop this morning and dropped off Em's eggs and did'nt see her again. Thats three weeks running I have been round there and they have been out.

Phil pheasent is back from his travels and looks really tatty as he's moulting so lots of feathers missing.

We had the deer and her baby in the garden twice today. They eat the fallen tiny apples in the orchard after having starters onthe border.

Afternoon all,

Nice sunny day here blue sky and patchy cloud .

Anng its nice your with your family today then and I'm sure you'll all have lots of happy birthday times with T to remember <3

We had the three young ones with us after school yesterday as son and dil had the end of year party at the school, the children had tea with us and dil came for them about quarter to eight .

Oh Vera I'm sorry to read you had a flood thank goodness you had a handy neighbour to help you out ,hope you don't find any damage done at a later date but its good the insurance will cover it if you do .

Ann my Cobra beans are just about over ,we've had a few good pickings and I've put some in the freezer .
My toms are now ripening especially the Sun Gold ones and they are the sweetest tom I've ever had ,definitely having them again next year .
Runners suffered in the heat ,lots of the flowers just dropped off ,I watered well to but the heat was just to much.
The cucumbers have just gone crazy lost count of the number we've had but it must be over thirty .

Right going out in the garden to do some beading in the shade ,I fed all the plants and dead headed this morning so time to sit and relax.

Afternoon Friends,

Slept well again, but still feel tired. I'm thinking the 20% reduction in my thyroid tablets may be some of the reason. They said I needed another blood test to check the levels again this month but no sign of the form I need yet.

These anniversaries are sad AnnG, but think of all the happy times you had as Vera says. He would like that you remember him, but I don't think he would want you to be too sad.

OH has decided to go to a match today so I might go out with my camera. I can always tell as (unasked) he has watered the garden, got the pans out for me to do brunch and done some weeding. He's also taken 3 big sacks of shredded paper to drop off at the verge for the smallholding that uses them.

The house with the cakes has started doing the beading workshops again. I am tempted and OH thinks I should go, but I'm not sure how spaced out they could manage where they do them and it would mean mixing all day, so I don't think so. I might ring and ask how many people they have now as that would give me some idea how spaced we would be. I'd have felt better if I'd been able to get my 4th jab.

Fitz has been in touch again. Apparently Luton Hoo still haven't opened for lunches for the public to book as yet. So we can either have a posh, dainty tea there or meet up at a local haunt for lunch like we did with Jane instead this time. He has been lucky in avoiding covid up to now.

We went fir a walk this morning round Lodge Lakes. I have been there before and it is a pleasant one mile walk. We saw a heron, a woodpecker, swans and cygnets and moorhens and babies. We then went to a cafe called Lilly on one of the estates and the meals even breakfasts were all foreign we think maybe Turkish or Moroccan. Son and I had Musahan (or something like that. It was minced chicken and caramelised onion with warm spices in a flatbread. DiL had Humus with something and flatbread. Only comeback was we waited about a hour for the meal. Drinks were nice I had a cocoPiñata which was pineapple and coconut milk whisked with ice.

I am sure he's with you Anng on his special day. I shall be thinking o fyou too and sending love. <3

Good morning

Dry and bright today. I think it’s going to be a hot one and hotter tomorrow. I’m not sure what I'll be doing today.

Remember the happy times AnnG . Thinking of you <3

Good morning all, dry and sunny here.
An emotive day for me as it is/was my beloved T’s birthday he would have been 84.

Morning all,

Cloudy this morning and 15 degrees pc says sunny so we will see what happens later on.

I must check the asda order today as oh has been fiddlig with it and I need to know everything is on there and not just what he wants.

No I decided zi wouldn’t show so. Up by going down the slide. Joking apart it is very fast.

Sorry a Island I don’t know how that happened. Thinking about it I have to add you on the iPad group for some reason and after deleting Gill and Frank I forgot. I shall remedy that now.

My runners have plenty of flowers and I did spot one half inch bean yesterday.

Vera poor you two water does such damage but you were lucky to have a friend in the close to give you a helping hand with the plumbing.

I have had a little fiddle with my craft today and been out in the garden and done some dead heading and picking up bits off the box hedge which keep falling out. I did my little trough with 4 bracycombe (sp) in it as there were so many dead heads on those plants it took me ages.

Pasta for dinner tonight so nice and easy and I had the sauce in the freezer too.

It sounds as though some of you have had worse floods than me and at least mine was downstairs so I didn't have to worry about water coming through the ceiling. The isolator valves are a good idea if you can see them and reach them. We wouldn't have been able to get to the one on the toilet pipes/hoses without the tool that our plumber neighbour was able to produce.

You're absolutely right AnnG. I was really looking forward to whizzing down the slide ;-)

The sun has come out now so I might be closing the blinds again before it gets too hot in here.

Afternoon All,

A nice cool night so slept well and woke to see we'd had rain! I don't think it was much but the car was well wet.

Oh what a nightmare Vera. It was a good job your OH spotted it before it got worse and over more of the floors. Lucky you having such a handy plumber in your close and that you have those valves on your pipes. We had them fitted here once we redid the kitchen and bathroom as first OH had fitted them at my old house and we are on water meter here. You can just switch water off to where the problem is till you get it fixed then. I bet you feel worn out now after all the cleaning up to do.

Get some insect repellant to dab on Mel before they eat you alive! You are all making me wonder whether to try another blueberry now!

Did you go down the slide AnnG? :-) It was a shame you never got to see your grandson and lucky he took a test before coming home.

I've done lunch, picked more cobra beans and a few toms at last. They are the new variety, not cherry ones like I thought when I got the plants, more golf ball size with trusses far and few between. :-( On the other hand, the 1 gardeners delight plant has more trusses with strings of toms. I shall try and stick with those next year. The runners are pathetic.

Nightmare Vera! I feel for you, having been flooded from above three times when I lived in a flat - all different occupiers, twice due to lack of awareness and the third, ongoing because them upstairs poo pooed my assertion that they must have had a leaky fitting under their bath. They couldn't possibly remove the bath panel to check because, well, it was 'an expensive panel'! The managing agent (equally stupid) eventually conceded to make them remove the bath panel - I was right from the start! Livid!
The one that soaked the hall and living room caused the most damage though. Silly old begga upstairs started to run a bath and fell asleep in his chair - at least he got some flooding too.

Superbloom pics Anng? They don't seem to have come my way :-D Got the kitten and lavender though.

Oh goodness Vera what a horrible end to the night/start to the day. I sympathise having woken up to a soggy floor in 1994 but this was on the landing from the bathroom and through a small hole in the ceiling to the dining area. My fault as I inadvertently left the bathroom tsp running, something soaking in the sink so plug was in and we discovered the sink had been put in slightly sloping so the overflow didn’t get the water before it ran over the front edge of the sink. Insurance paid out for all new carpets even though my fault and let us choose the carpet shop.
Hope it can all be fixed with no further problems.

Yes it was lovely to see the flowers. And, sad person that I am, great to be by the Thames and see Tower Bridge again after many years. Last time I was in London was for our golden wedding. I was also impressed to use the ticket for the train on my phone and for the tube by using ny contactless credit card. (See easily impressed, I need to get a life.

Yes the cream tea was a lovely treat as well and that bit was a surprise.

One thing about the flowers Vera I am sure your biggest disappointment was to miss going down the slide. :-(

Morning all

Thanks for the Superbloom pictures AnnG. The flowers look pretty and colourful and it must have been nice to finish with a cream tea. It’s a shame you won’t see your grandson.

It’s dull and a bit cooler here and we had a couple of showers in the early hours but the rain barely wetted the garden.

We haven’t had a good start to the day. I couldn’t settle to sleep and tossed about from 11 pm to 1 am when I got up. I stayed up reading through various supplements in last weekend’s paper and went back up about 2. I dozed fitfully and around 4.30 thought I could hear OH moving about a lot. Then he appeared at the bedroom door to tell me that there was water all over the downstairs cloakroom and the hall. He had turned the water off at the stopcock under the sink but it was still pouring in the cloakroom and he couldn’t see where the problem was. Luckily the neighbour at the bottom of the Close is semi retired from his own plumbing business which is now mostly run by his son so the poor man had OH knocking on his door at 5 am.

He found the problem, a flexible hose behind the WC which had worn and split but he had to go back home to get a special tool to reach behind and feel for a valve that could be turned off. That stopped the water running. Now it has all got to be fixed.

The biggest worry is how much water has got under the floor. Some will certainly have got through the tiles in the cloakroom and hall but it was pooling by the lounge door and if it has got under the sill then we could have a problem with our wooden floor in the lounge. It may be quite a while before any damage there is noticeable.
The underfloor heating worried me but OH assures me it’s well sealed and the insurance company seem happy about it as it is gas and not electric.

OH took some photos before we did any clearing up and managed to squeeze his phone round the back and get a picture of the broken flexible pipe. He has spoken to the insurance company. They accept it was an emergency and we had to get someone in without contacting them and said to get back to them when the plumbing job is done. As for the floor it’s been left open ended. If damage from the water appears at a later date they will cover it minus an excess.

Sorry to bore you with the saga in detail but I was feeling a bit het up and it helps to get it off my chest. I can’t believe I have been up 6.5 hours and it’s still only 11 o’clock.

Enjoy your day. I hope you are having a better one than me.

Good morning all, dry here and sunny but cooler.

Not sure if we are doing anything today as the electrician is here fixing extractor fans. Daughter in law needs to rest as she has fibromyalgia and yesterday was tiring for her.

Just heard that heavy rain is expected at home, good for the garden but Andy was due to finish the drive. He has messaged to say he will do it tomorrow.