General Chat

Meant to say hope GD is safe with you now Vera. I bet hse's had a wonderful time with the turtles. What will have happened about the card payment from her dad for the room?

Morning all,

Its 16 here this mroning and sunny. we had a nice coolish day yesterday but today looks like its going to be a blazer. Theres big white clouds in the sky.

Think I may continue with the spider hunt today. I did get a few in the hall when I collected the charged hoover ast night.

Blast wrote this and did'nt post it.

Good morning all. It was 21 degrees when I went to bed last night but I slept quite well, only waking a couple of times and it is only 14 degrees now.

I hope Granddaughter is safely tucked up in bed at yours Vera and you enjoy her short stay with you. I am sure she has lots to talk about.

I think I told you that son has got tickets for next Thursday (I think it is Thursday) Can't say I look forward to it if it is still hot and I too wonder how the flowers are surviving. I will be really disappointed if we can't go.

Actually I am concerned about going to MK for the week if it is hot. the bedroom I sleep in is small and not cool at the best of times, however, I think I do remember there was a fan in there although last year I didn't use it.

Ann that must be so stressful having to keep quiet all day. I am not sure I could have managed it. What about when you flush the toilet? Is your OH on a contract for them or can he get out of it now seeing that he is voluntary.

Mel the spiders certainly make work for you don't they?

We might have been sensible but granddaughter is having none of it! She is coming to us tonight. I am not too worried now as she was out of the airport much quicker than expected and so it won't be late when she gets to London. They landed at 7.15 and she rang me at 7.50 and she already had been through all the controls and collected her baggage. The trains are very frequent and only take 30 to 40 minutes into London. She has worked out a route that means she doesn't have to move outside the various stations. She just keeps hopping from one train to another. She has also said she will keep me updated.

I don't know why we worry. She has just turned 20 and is quite a resourceful young lady.

I am now going to take a deep breath, have a cup of tea and maybe see if it has cooled down outside a bit.

We haven't heard anything from our garage man so I expect it will be tomorrow before we hear we did say we're in no rush if anything needed doing .

No Anng we don't have sky anymore we changed over a few weeks ago we have a BT box and have full fibre broadband and our phones with them and it's half the price of sky .

Another lovely painting from Ann I shall miss seeing the paintings each week .
That was a long day for OH with his zoom meeting it must be really hard to keep quiet in the house for so long .

Vera thats good your granddaughter is getting a room ,much safer for her than travelling on, when she gets to yours there will be lots to hear about her trip I'm sure .
What a shame you won't get to see the flowers but with all the heat you wonder what they will be like , wilting I expect as will we will be as its heating up again tomorrow.

I have just made lasagne for dinner tonight and I have a pot of mince and veg for a sheep sh*t pie which will go in the freezer for when I need a quick dinner.

Washed all the spider poo off the window frames and sills and their discarded empty bodies from their dinners. They are so mucky and we get loads of them.

Vera at least granddaughter will be safe in the inn for the night. You can't be too cafeful in these times we are living in with drunks and druggies around. She is very brave to travel like she has all on her own.

I must admit my telly has gone blank occasionally but I just turn it off wait a few seconds and turn it on again.

I think you are very sensible to get your granddaughter to book in the Premier Inn at the airport when she lands Vera. I find there are enough 'odd' people that hang around the stations in London in the day so can imagine some of the undesirables there would be at night. Years ago when we used to go to London Theatres sometimes we didn't like travelling on the Tube after the show. Premier Inns are usually fine for a night's stay and not that expensive. I bet she will be full of chat about her trip when you see her. That's good you spotted that the pop up PO has popped up. A shame about not seeing the blooms in London though, but I know I wouldn't enjoy going in those kinds of temperatures either. I wonder how the flowers are coping with all this heat too.

Speaking of which, OH has turned the hose on so I'd better help and water the wall pots.

I hope your car got through the MOT with no problems Mandy.

It must be difficult when your OH is working from home Ann. I’d be sure to forget and go barging into the room at just the wrong moment. Your last painting for this course is another interesting one. Like AnnG my first thought was it is very impressionistic. I do like the blend of colours. I’ve really enjoyed seeing all the different styles you are trying out.

We met up with friends for coffee this morning which was very pleasant and while in town I picked up my meds. Walking through the precinct we saw the pop up PO has at last popped up in an empty shop.

Around 9 am I got a text from granddaughter saying that her flight was delayed at least 2 hours. That stretched to 3 hours. It eventually left around 3 pm and is now not due to land at Gatwick till after 7. Baggage is very slow coming through at the moment and with all the other delays it could be quite late in the evening before she gets out of the airport. I was concerned she would be stuck late at night at a station in London waiting for the last train down to us and, at that time of night, there are often drunks and some funny folk about. I had a word with son’s wife and we are in agreement. We’ve both texted her to say that she is to go to the Premier Inn on the airport, get a room for the night and call one of us. We’ll give our card details to the desk clerk over the phone to pay. So I guess it will be getting on for lunchtime tomorrow before we get to see her.

Would you believe we had tickets for Superbloom today but decided we would rather spend time with granddaughter. I also have tickets for next Tuesday but if the temperature in London is going to be about 36 degrees as predicted and we have to get two trains and a tube to get there we won’t be going. It will be more money down the drain but at least I haven’t bought train tickets in advance.

Well, I had better start thinking about what we are going to eat tonight. Enjoy your evening and sleep well tonight.

Afternoon All,

Slept well again after waking up hot once like the night before. It's 23 degrees here now and overcast but feels muggy as there's no wind at all today.

I have been confined to the bedrooms and study today as OH has been and still is sitting on a zoom appeals panel since 9.00am. It means I can't hoover, microwave, put the kettle on or make any noise at all or keep popping in the kitchen. OH said once the schools broke up he would catch up with all the jobs that have had to wait, but he keeps finding things that are stopping both of us from doing anything now. Other appeals panels he sits on pay him, but I found out today this is one he does on a voluntary basis! It is so badly organised he is fed up himself today and has decided this is the last voluntary one he will do thank goodness! It has saved us having 'words'. lol. :-D

The 2nd man turned up at 8.30am to give us a quote for doing the drive and paving and seems very conscientious and there's another coming tomorrow so we should soon be able to get it all done. The oil patch may not all come off, but might with the stuff they will treat it with!

Our tv goes off after so long if nothing is touched on the remote. We just have to press any key on the remote to stop it going off. If I am too late at night in the bedroom, because the sky box goes onto an economy mode, I have to then switch the mini box off and on again to reconnect which is a faff as the plug is inside the back of a cupboard. I haven't experienced signal switching though so don't know why that affects things.

I see Mandy and Mel have been busy doing some HW. The spiders do seem very active just now.

I hope your car gets through the MOT Mandy and no work needs to be done. Mine is due in September and I will have to try the garage in the village this time.

good luck for your car Mandy.

I assume you have sky Mandy. Yes daughter has that with her TV usually a bit of a panic to find the remote. Actually last time I was there they missed seeing it but they soon got it back on again. I don't have sky and I am pretty sure mine is some sort of switch over between signal stations.

Afternoon all,

A little cooler today sunny at times and then it clouds over ,last night there was a few spots of rain but if you blinked you would have missed it .

That's very odd with your television doing that Anng at least you know if you unplug it it will start up again ,somehow or other the timer thing comes up on ours telling you it will switch off and we then gave to press no and it keeps on .

I have hoovered through and done a huge pile of ironing that has been laying there for a few days ,as it was cooler I thought I'd better it all done .
The car has gone in for its mot so fingers crossed it doesn't want anything much doing to it .

Toadflax will come up anywhere even in dry stone walls and crevises it is pretty but can get a bit out of control.

I have picked two small cues and I have one ripe tomato. Fed that lot and tied them up and then I started on the kitchen divider with all my china and things n it. Now it is all clean and I feel I have done a good job this morning. Its the plate rail next.

yes I know Mel, I often have music played and often ask her questions. Yesterday I asked her the temp but I was on a different alexa (in the kitchen and after giving me the answer she said. 'I must say, it is really nice to talk to you;. I just can't imagine what my Mum would make of it, she struggled to understand video.

That pretty little cluster blueish flower I sent with the Toadflax. I have found the label, it is (Or was an Adenophora (Fairybells Gaudi violet) It is a Campanula relative height 28 inches spread 20 inches. Well it produced a short stem and one little flower. As it was so pretty I might look out for a new one in the autumn. I have moved the one I have but I don't hold out much hope. It says suitable for a larger container or cottage garden. open sunny well drained soil trouble is the self seeded Toadflax swamped it.

Anng you can ask her anything and she will play songs for you or give you the weather forcast or anything really. I am always asking my Echo whats the time as when the lecdy goes out mylock on the micro loses the time? and I say goodnight to her every night just to see what she answers.

Yes I think it is the switch over causes it, but why sometimes and not others I don't know. It was raining after the heat so maybe that had something to do with it.
Ah with Aexa sometimes she works and sometimes not. as it is only turning on/off the water feature that I use her for I don't bother about it. She was never my 'toy' anyway.

Morning Anng and all,

What a todo with the telly last night Anng. I think we get a switch over about 9pm on the leccy and that sometimes affect the telly but what a nuisance it taking all that time to get it right again. I think the plugs can work themsselves out if we get small surges in the leccy. Ours do that sometimes.

Did you get alexa sorted after she would'nt do something for you?

Have to do some housework today. The spiders are about again and they leave all the sucked uout bodies on the window sill in the kitchen.

Its a bright morning with a little sun and 19 degrees and says mostly sunny.

Good morning it is bright again this morning, yesterday evening it was like autumn already, although still very warm it was also very dark and rained a bit, enough to help the garden anyway.

I had a frustrating evening. At 5.15 the TV screen suddenly went black. It is so frustrating when that happens and I can never remember what I did before when it happened. I am sure people think I am just a dotty old woman who is confused when it happens but it goes back now 2 or 3 years and it was after 'they' did something changed where the signal comes from or something. At around 5.25 sometimes there is a definite click and usually nothing happens except sometimes the screen goes off and comes on again and sometimes like last night it stays off and shows a no signal message. almost like a power reduction/change and maybe there is a weakness in my TV which can't cope with it. I remembered I have to switch off at the plug leave five minutes then switch it back on again and the signal returns, meanwhile I can watch on the aerial (but no recordings of course).

Anyway, it was not until daughter said (when I emailed her) about the other TV upstairs that I realised I have that check I can make and that was working ok. Then I vaguely remembered that it never usually corrects the first time of switching off. (It is not helped by how difficult it is to actually get to the plug.). I was so tired by that time that I got cross, switched off the TV and pushed in the plugs (although goodness knows how they could have worked their way out where they are), then switched the TV back on and it came up with the welcome message. I knew then it would sort itself out. All this took me over 3 hours to sort, meanwhile getting my meal ready and eating it etc. So not a good end to the day. (But one that would have probably been no different had T been here.

Nothing planned for today although had maybe better start to sort out what I need for next week.

It sounds as though you have had a nice day Ann. I am glad our cards turned up in time.

AnnG, your daughter's side bed looks so pretty and colourful. She must take after you as she obviously has a good eye

Good to see you post on here Gwyn. It must have been lovely and cool inside the church and the teachjing staff must be very glad of your help with the children. I wonder if the cygnets you saw were the original ones. They probably were as swans can go quite a long way up and down the river.

I'm not surprised you slept this afternoon Mel as I expect we are all having restless nights because of the heat. I wish I could sleep more. OH seems to have no difficulty in watching the back of his eyelids.

I don't know if I mentioned it but the other day OH picked well over 300g of blueberries from my two bushes. Today he picked another 660g so we have had about a kilo so far. Not bad for 2 old bushes in pots.

I went to the hairdressers this afternoon. Gosh, it was hot. I was glad to get home. On the way back to the car park I walked through the little shopping precinct and there was not a sign of the pop-up PO. It's either not popped up at all or it's popped off somewhere else already.

Tonight it has RAINED. Mind you, it was only a light shower. There was barely enough water to wash a dolly's face but it settled the dust a bit and the air smelt nice for a few minutes. This is the driest part of the country anyway but they were saying on the local news that since January it has been abnormally dry.

Can you believe my granddaughter has been in Greece for 6 weeks? Where has that time gone? She was supposed to come home next Wenesday but there has been a slight change of plan and she is coming home tomorrow. She is coming to stay with us for a couple of nights before going back to Yorkshire. The arrangements were made by text this morning and are somewhat vague. She is going to make her way from Gatwick to our nearest main station about 15 miles away and we will pick her up from there but we have no idea what time. With the chaos at the airports at the moment she could have to wait ages for her luggage to arrive in the baggage hall. Thank goodness for mobile phones. I suspect it might be late evening before we meet up with her.

It is so hot and muggy still. The weather app is saying that it's 24 degrees but feels like 28 and it doesn't look at though the temperature is going to drop more than 2 or 3 degrees during the night, so another night with the fan working overtime. I hope we all manage to get some sleep tonight. Night, night, sleep tight.

Mel thank you for your lovely card which the nextdoor neighbour has just brought round. She said she doesn't look every day in her post box on the outside wall and the postman had put our post in her postbox, probably a few days ago!! She had to tape up the letterbox in her door as the dog (the barker!) rips anything to shreds that comes through the door. :-S

We had a few spots of rain when we got home AnnG, but that was all. An automatic will be easier for your friend. A friend of mine loves hers and my sister liked hers too. As you say, longer trips are not so good with an electric car just yet. I was reading about these speed limiters that are on all new cars ordered from the 6th of July this morning. Apparently if you don't reduce your speed they cut the power to your engine so the car slows down anyway. I hope there's plenty of warning or they could be downright dangerous if you were overtaking when your speed was cut. OH's car was giving it's warnings this morning. A new one we've discovered is that if you are turning left and the traffic in front of you is queuing at say traffic lights, if you get anywhere near the car in front, even if there is room to do your turn left behind it, it warns you you are close to another vehicle.We think all these distractions from your driving aren't good really as you have to take your eyes off the road to read the messages and some are just not necessary.

An early night for me I think. A chap is calling in to quote for the drive at 8.30am in the morning. We are on his way to a job he's doing so fingers crossed he will turn up!

I threw mself on the be this afternoon and I have just woken up!!

I am going t read your posts now.