General Chat

I only had one sub yesterday and that was a good one, almost the same as last week. I ordered a litre bottle of Gordons gin on offer for £21 and got two 70Cl bottles for £17.

I am not sure why the children being off should affect stock Mel. I think it is still the shortage of HTV drivers so the stuff is not coming from wholesalers, together with a high incidence of sick leave maybe at the wholesalers so nobody to load stock. The hot weather will affect availabllity of things like salad stuff, barbecue packs and beer/cider because of all the barbecues but can't think it should affect normal stuff.

Morning all,

Bright and sunny and 23 at the mo.

I have just done the asda add ons and take off's and am not dressed yet! I suppose with the children now off school for the holidays there will be lots of things out of stock. They hav'nt got my salad cream or oh's beer he likes which was on special or my small hovis wholemeal. I can't get through a large one in a week but the small one suits me fine.

Vera what a great surprise having your book published. I can't wait to see the lovely work thats been done.

Hot already out there so think I shall be staying in today.

Morning Anng ,morning all.,

Phew looks like another hot one again blue sky as far as you can see ,we did sit out yesterday in the morning first thing but came I just before lunch as it was really heating up.,I need to pop to boots for out tablets as there was no pharmacist there on sat so I couldn't get the tablets and Colin is out of one of his ,they do funny hours now as they never seem to have a regular pharmacist .

Ann I posted your card in the post office box but our post office is closed because of staff away so not sure if they will empty the box I hope they will but the post office is shut until tomorrow ,just in case you wonder where it is .

Vera sounds as if you had a lovely day with all your family and what a surprise to get your book published, looking forward to seeing it .

Mel your miniatures are lovely ,I love the little creamers ,must be very fiddly work for your fingers though .

Right boots here I come before it gers any hotter, bbl

Good morning all, had to get up before 7am as I was so hot in bed, didn't sleep too badly despite the heat but woke several times. 12 degrees here.
Not doing anything this morning but going out at 1.30 with friend for coffee.
PC is saying it is mostly cloudy, obviously in a different place to me as we have a clear blue sky at the moment.

Ann I hope the burglar alarm eventually went off and you had a quiet night in the end.
I think all our plants are suffering equally (well except mandy's who seems to have been very successful with her cues and beans etc. My cues seem to set then shrivel up. I do have two beans on the Cobra beans, that will hardly make a meal but there are more flowers on them. hope I have removed the black fly so maybe I will get a crop later on. tomatoes have struggled in the heat but I have a lot of fruit on them they look the right sized fruit for ripening but are still remaining green

Having seen photos of the beaches yesterday, it won't just be Glastonbury spreading the virus. Imagine all those queues for ice cream!

Vera, what a lovely day you had. While we are a fairly close family (My side not T's) we don't have regular get togethers. In fact some of the family hardly meet up at all. However we are all quite regularly in touch, with the cousins it is the adult generation who keep in touch so I wonder what will happen as we oldies fade away. I am the matriarch of both maternal and paternal sides of the family now.

what a lovely thing your Granddaughter did for you with the holiday boof.

It sounds like you have a great time when you get together Vera. What a lovely surprise and how exciting about your writing about your Russian trip being made into a book. It was very thoughtful wasn't it. I look forward to seeing a photo.

We have watered everything again tonight and both feel hot now. The toms had wilted again so all in all my toms are not doing well this year and neither are my cues. Now someone's burglar alarm keeps going off! I was sent outside to check if it was ours as OH is in his jimjams. It wasn't nor was it his car alarm. I think it is from one of the new houses. It keeps going off with short breaks so it sounds like the occupants are out. If they are I hope they will be back soon. OH said he hopes they haven't gone on holiday!!! :-0

Off to bed now. We could end up standing outside in our birthday suits in the early hours if we don't cool down.........or in the shower! Hope you all manage to sleep well.

26 degrees now so it’s cooled down a tad but still too hot for my liking. Never happy are we? If it’s cold we moan, if it’s hot we moan! If it’s too wet or too dry we complain.

Ann,, when we talk about family we really mean my father’s side. It’s the family descended from my paternal grandfather and his siblings so doesn’t include my rellies on my mother’s side. Of course, there are always some who can’t make it for various reasons. They may be unwell, on holiday or the date has clashed with something else but there are usually around 60 people there. Surprisingly there are no “cliques”. Everyone just seems to get on, possibly because we are always there for each other when needed but we don’t live in each other’s pockets and all have lives outside “the family”..

I did have a lovely surprise from my own immediate family yesterday. On my birthday in February I had potted up bulbs, bouquets of flowers, chocolates and wine from my kids and grandkids and a meal for 10 was organised in a restaurant near here for the first weekend in April. Then my daughter and her partner got Covid and it had to be cancelled. As I missed out on my special family meal they decided to get me another present. I had earlier written up on the computer the story of our trip to Russia in 2017 and they have had this made into a beautiful little book for me and given me 2 copies. It was the idea of eldest granddaughter who made all the arrangements with a printer and got it into a format he could use. The book is hand sewn and bound in red leather and granddaughter was asked if she wanted an ISBN for it so it could be sold or go into a library. She said that wouldn’t be necessary. Wasn’t it a lovely idea? I was so touched. I must send you a photo so you can see what it looks like.

If it doesn’t cool down soon I’ll be spending the night sitting in a bath of cold water. I hope you all manage to sleep well in spite of the heat. OH has had the hose on the garden so now the sun is going down I am going to give my tomatoes a can of water.

It's 28 degrees here now too Vera. Phew! I just fetched an Ice lolly from the garage and went through the conservatory. It was like a furnace despite all windows and the door open. I was just trying to imagine our garden with my 104 first cousins and their partners plus uncles, aunts and partners another 32. That's just them. lol. Some will have passed away, but goodness knows how many children they had. It must be lovely in the ways you describe to have such a close knit family, but I suspect often with a huge family there tends to be several groups of them that get on the best.

How lovely to see the baby Swallows leaving home Mel.I bet they will be glad to leave the hot nest today though.

One of the baby swallows is out of the nest and flying with the parents.

26 here now. still very hot out there so I am staying indoors.

It is now 28 degrees and supposed to get even hotter. I am dreading Tuesday when it is supposed to get to 32 degrees and I will be sitting in a hot hairdressers.

I hope your bites are less itchy now Mel. They can be so uncomfortable in hot weather.

You are doing well with your gin AnnG. I find Tesco are usually pretty good with their subs.

Going back to yesterday, it is difficult to describe the annual family party to other people. To us we are just an ordinary family like everyone else but we are frequently told we are unique. I suppose it is quite unusual for such an extended family of close relatives and distant cousins to all meet up regularly. There are also a number of traditions that have grown up over the years. A group of the fellas always do a song where they have put words about our family to a well known melody. Yesterday they were singing to the tune of Bachelor Boy. Another thing that has grown out of a joke event about 40 years ago is the giving of an award to one of the group who has done something particularly silly or funny, or something special in a good way during the previous year. It can seem a bit overwhelming to people who maybe have just married in to the family and come to one of these events for the first time but the children grow up with it and even normally stroppy teenagers wouldn't miss it for the world.

All that sounds peculiar when described to someone else but the upside is that such a close knit family can offer a lot of support when it's needed.

Enough about us. I've got unbearably hot sitting at the computer up under the eaves so I am now off for a cold drink and a sit by the fan for a while. .

Went back down and watched a bit more and Novak seems to have the measure of the Australian but they are well matched. Novak is a much calmer player.

I was reading in the shade on the lower patio but have come in now. It is 26 degrees and humid with it even though there is a very slight breeze. I am getting like T even when sitting down reading I am seeing things that need doing and getting frustrated because it is too hot to do it.

I caught a bit od the tennis (I don't actually watch it. But I got the impression it was not a particularly good match to watch as is often the case when One player can out hit the other all the time. He (the Australian) is a big brute isn't he?)

I bet it did too Mel and all those people will have taken it to wherever they travelled from. Cases are showing as up 38% here in the past week and as much 62% in some districts around the city and have steadily increased the past few weeks since the Jubilee. As AnnG says, not everyone will test now and there are more asymptomatic cases spreading it now more are vaccinated. The government also collect data and can see where cases are and if they are increasing from the tests they do on sewage which will have virus in it so that helps give a more accurate picture. Good idea of your OH to do some mowing and have a break from the hedge in the blistering sun, especially if he doesn't feel so steady today. Does he get bitten too? My OH rarely gets bitten, but I put it down to his funny blood that protects him against Malaria. Maybe he has a smell that doesn't appeal to the biters and stingers. When he was knocking all those wasps off me, none of them attacked him!!

Lunch was lovely and we had the rest of my chilled, alcohol free wine which was nice. OH has put the washing out and is washing the pans from lunch and I have hoovered through the bungalow and sucked up some spiders. That is it now and he will watch TV while I do more painting till it gets cooler later on. I have rooted some spearmint I want to pot up then.

It's reached 25 degrees here now...........too hot for me!

We won't know the full picture now as you don't have to report a positive test. so as people are not usually very ill with it those that caught it at Glastonbury may not have reported what seems to be a cold. And as tests are not freely available they may not even have tested.

There has not been much mention about the virus increasing since Glastonbury has there? I bet it did......

Its 26 here now and blazing sunshine. I have filled the bird feeders and cleaned out both bird baths and filled them up with nie clean cold water so they are ok now. The girls have been fed and its now time to start the lunch. Oh is mowing. He said he did'nt feel too steady on his feet this mroning.

We think we may have 5 baby swallows in the nest and I must try and get a pic before they fly as they are so big now it won't be long.

Morning All,

It's 22 degrees here with a slight breeze so it's nice and cool inside as the sun isn't shining much at the moment. I slept really well again and didn't wake till 8.30 am. The bedroom was getting warm by then as the sun is on it first thing, even with the blackout blinds which are helping a lot.

I bet it was a relief to see the garden was in shade Vera and that you could enjoy the family meet up in comfort. I bet you had a lot to catch up on with having to miss them for a couple of years.

Mel I get the same reaction with bites and stings. I have been taking antihistamines for a few weeks now, but I was shocked that you are able to get them on prescription. Even when I was covered in those wasp stings and they were concerned about sepsis, they didn't prescribe them and even though they prescribed antibiotics, they just told me to double the dosage of the antihistamines I bought. At least they are cheap to buy from the supermarkets though. I am using dabs of Deet when I go out now as well and it does seem to work in keeping the insects away, fingers crossed! It sounds like you need a beekeeper suit for the garden.

We went out last night and watered all the back garden and the pots, as so many things were starting to flop with the heat.

We have another chap coming to quote us in the morning for doing the patios and driveway, so OH needs to move his car so they can see the oil patch.

Lamb shanks for lunch and I've done enough veg for tomorrow as well. I can defrost some chicken in a sauce I froze, add the cooked veg and some peas and we can have it with the 2 minute rice.

A few birthday cards have arrived and OH has squirrelled them away till Tuesday for me. :-D My Boom Box has been squirrelled away too and some other things! We have decided to go to the garden centre in Rutland that has the huge airy restaurant and have a breakfast there instead of a lunch on the day as we know there is no-one in then. We forgot to look at the garden rooms when we were last there so we can do that as well. We might have gone back to the Italian restaurant but their seats were so uncomfortable, plus the tables were close together and the virus is increasing again now.

Oh is cutting the hedge again today .

I had to cover my blueberries as the blackbird was eating them before they are ripe and last night when I went down to shut banty in on of the baby Robins was under the net. How it got in I do not know but I managed to get it out. it stood in my hand for a while before it flew away. I wndered how long it had been in there? If it had had any food or drink as it was so hot yesterday.

Sounds the perfect garden for the do yesterday Vera with it being nice and shady and good to have a chin wag and catch up with all the news after so long.

Morning all,

Bright and sunny here this morning too. 16 degrees at the mo. Nothing planned for today on ly to watch the grand prix so an easy day.

May do a bit of casting and I want to wash my hair as its all itchy from getting too hot and getting bitten.

I have bites on my front below my neck the inside of my left elbow and the inside of my left leg and don't they itch at night. I have asked at the docs for some anihystamins and a nasal spray but they were'nt at the shop when I asked yesterday. I have a very bad reaction to horse fly bites and if I hav'nt got the pills I swell up badly at the bite sight and it goes hot and hard.

Morning AnnG and all

It’s already 19 degrees here and was very hot during the night, so I was quite restless and am feeling a bit tired now.

We were in the right place yesterday. My cousin’s house and garden only seem to get the sun early in the day. By mid afternoon most of the garden was in shade with a bit of a breeze and by about 7 pm several people were putting on jumpers, so it never felt too hot. it was a lovely day with lots of laughter and chat.

I can hear our guest stirring so I must go and make him a coffee. I’ll bbl.

Good morning all bright, sun shining and 12 degrees. Got up early as I was too hot in bed. Hot last night too took ages to get to sleep. Sat out in the garden until 7pm reading and have two bites to show for it and of course the heat makes them itch.

Just had the Tesco receipt and, it worked again. Gin on offer  for a litre for £21. Out of stock so subbed by two 70cl for £17.00.  If they do that with too many people it must cost them a lot.

Just Tesco delivery this morning, nothing else planned. :-)

Hope your afternoon and evening was good yesterday Vera.