General Chat

Ann if you put them in a big cardboard box in the greenhouse thye should be ok or put the bubble on the glass of the greenhouse. If you cover them with polythene they will get mould I have'nt watered mine in the shed for months now I just keep taking off leaves that have gone brown. If the stems still look good don't worry about utting the tops off just leave them till it is much warmer and you can cut them back then.

How many have you got?

That's the plants in and the acer raised and positioned better so I'll see how that works. I had to half empty 3 medium pots to top it up enough as the compost had sunk right down, but all the pots could all do with a bit of fresh stuff mixing in as some have root tangles in them, so we will get some next time we go to the garden centre. I went in the greenhouse after and it was nice and warm. Some advice about my geraniums please. They mostly look fine, but the tips of the shoots on some have died back an inch or so. I'm thinking the tips need cutting back to prevent fungal growth, but what has caused it and does it happen to yours? It seems to have happened more on the tips that are near the glass so I wondered if it is too cold and I should put some bubble wrap over them near the glass, or is it just that the tips are more tender?

It was nice to lay in for an hour this morning and not have to be up early.

I twisted my worst knee a bit the other day climbing up to do the windows, but this morning it seemed ok again and I managed 200 pedals without it hurting! We've nothing on tomorrow so if it's dry I will see if OH fancies a short walk through the spinney to the canal and lock in the morning. It's near where I lived before moving here a couple ofmiles away.

It's good your tooth socket is healing nicely AnnG and that the plate is comfy. We don't show much tooth when we smile either so my single gap at the side of the front hardly shows. I have plenty of gaps in my back teeth now though.

Once lunch has gone down a bit I will go out and plant the stripey grass after topping up the pot a bit and raising the acer up a few inches.

How exciting going to choose your final earrings Vera. Sapphire or ruby will look lovely. I wear all white gold or silver now. I am so pasty with light blue eyes and with most of my hair white, yellow gold looks just a bit too yellow on me now. I still like rose gold though although I don't have any.

The sun's out again so I'm off to do the planting before I lose the will!

A parcel has arrived from my pianist friend Terry in London. He emails me occasionally and he asked if I would like one of the T shirts another friend gets made for him and which he sells. No charge for it, what a kind person he is!

I'll forward them to her now Mel.

Morning all,

Brightish this mroning but then again I was up late again this morning. I do wish oh would wake me but he just lets me sleep. I think he does it so he can have time on his own with the blasted tv blaring out. He's watching the winter olympics at the mo.


I had an email from Gwyn this morning and I forgot to put her on the email with the pics yesterday. Could I please ask one of you to forward them to her as I deleted them from the desktop and if I try to forward them it onlky puts on picture on it for some reason.

Nothing planned for today but I have a pile of ironing I have been ignoring trying to get some time to do my craft but I think its about to fall over in the uti room so it must need doing and I am not sure if I have any cleaned and ironed t shirts for oh so they will be first on the list.

Lovely garden pictures Mel. The snowdrops look wonderful but all the flowers and rose hips are looking good. I thought I saw a red admiral in our garden the other day but it disappeared so quickly I thought I had imagined it but now I’m wondering if it was there. It’s very early.

I like chaffinches but we only occasionally get one in the garden.

We tend to be late bookers for holidays and haven’t even thought about what we will do this year but if prices are going up that much I reckon we’ll be having a day at Clacton. After our disastrous holiday in 2019 we planned to go back to Vienna when OH was well enough but then the pandemic happened so we haven’t got there yet but I am still wary about going abroad to a hotel. We’ll have to think about that.

I managed to spend a short while in the garden and just tidied up one tiny corner but I was pleased to get anything done. My back is aching a bit now but it’s just an ache, not a real pain. I’m going to try to either do a little in the garden each day or clean another cupboard, depending on the weather.

OH has got an optician’s appointment in the morning and then in the afternoon we are going to the jeweller to finally decide on my birthday present earrings. The jeweller rang OH with prices and I am now down to a choice of 2 styles. I have decided on yellow gold rather than white gold as I am quite pale, even a bit sallow, and I think yellow gold will be warmer looking near the face and I am still tossing up between sapphire or ruby. I’m quite excited about it, mostly because my OH is always generous but doesn’t usually go in for romantic gestures like this. I had to smile when I was telling my son on the phone. He said he had been wondering whether to ring his Dad and tell him not to buy me something like a vacuum cleaner!

Great photos Mel love the butterfly in the snowdrops.

It's a long time since I saw a Chaffinch here and they are such pretty birds. OH wants the car in a metallic grey AnnG. His last 4 cars have all been metallic red, but we saw an electric one in metallic grey last year and he really liked it. He did like the white one we saw this morning as well, but as I pointed out 'was white a good colour for a man who never gets his car washed?'

Mel what lovely photos of your flowers and rosehips! My word where did that Red Admiral butterfly come from.....he's out a bit early. What a great drift of Snowdrops you have........absolutely beautiful to see!!

To be honest even people I mention it to here think it was cheap. I think I have said it is not an N.hS dentist but sort of half and half but I am sure I paid more for the previous denture. And also T had one with about three teeth on but molars and that was a lot dearer. Still I am not complaining. It is getting more comfortable and there is no pain from the tooth socket. Still mainly eating soft food, lots of mashed potato and Ambrisia creamed rice. I had forgotten how I liked that.

Just now I spotted a chaffinch in the garden, that is a first for a long time.

Oh yes Mel those were the days of the big costume dramas. Don’t forget The Forsyth Saga, how we looked forward to that one and I loved upstairs downstairs.

I read a lot of the outlander books but gave up as it went on to too many large books

Your garden is doing well Mel.

Ann it will be good to get your or rather OH’s new car. What colour?
It seems to me that we suffered by losing our holidays in the pandemic and now we are expected to pay so much more for the same holidays. Daughter booked both our weeks early and I don’t think it was a great increase. Both of them can be cancelled at no cost before a certain date but as they are both self catering we will go unless we are locked down.

From the Martin Lewis site and I must admit I didn't know you couldn't use up your old ones!

"Warning: Stamps that say '1st' or '2nd' class are going to become unusable from 31 January 2023"

If you try to use these stamps – which impacts all those with the Queen's head on them that say '1st' or '2nd' class, or any other price, or they're Christmas-themed – after this cut-off date they will not be valid and you will have to pay a surcharge. Though Royal Mail is yet to confirm what this surcharge is or how it will work in practice.

"Special" commemorative stamps, such as the Doctor Who collection, are the only exception, as these are not being phased out and can continue to be used after 31 January 2023.

Royal Mail will let you 'swap out' these stamps for free
You will, however, be able to exchange current stamps for barcoded ones for free under Royal Mail's new 'Swap Out' scheme, which opens on 31 March 2022 and will run until 31 March 2023.

To do this, you just need to fill in a 'Swap Out' form from its website (the page isn't live yet), or call it, or get one from a local delivery office (not a post office though). You'll then have to post back the stamps you want to swap to a Freepost address.
So we need to use them before then or swap them for the new barcoded ones by sending them with a form.

Afternoon All,

Slept well and had an early start to Nuneaton to have a second look at the car OH wants just to be sure. As we drove down the Longshoot past the big houses neither of us could remember which house was Larry Grayson's. I remember the turnout for his funeral as I was working at the Nuneaton office at the time. He's settled on the car now and it looks like Milton Keynes have the best deal. They will disinfect and deliver so I'm waiting for them to message me with the the cost for doing it! Otherwise we could collect it as it's only 44 miles away. It's a 4 months+ delivery, so I'm going to see if I can persuade OH to get the aircon fixed on his current car or we will swelter in a few months time.

I looked online at where we usually go for a week in Cornwall and was shocked to see the price was nearly double what we paid last year for the same week in May!! We wouldn't book anything till nearer the time anyway, but we think we may go somewhere different if we do manage to get away.

It sounds like your tooth is doing fine AnnG and wearing the denture at night wasn't a problem. That was very cheap wasn't it. I think I paid more for my 1 tooth years ago. When I sort mine out with extra teeth I either want a metal one (which OH has) or one of the rubber dentures that are supposed to be very comfortable. They are both expensive though and a few years ago I was quoted over £700. I hung on as I have 2 teeth that aren't in good shape and you can't add teeth to either the metal or rubber plates. My plastic one moved and got wedged tight between the teeth either side once and I nearly had to get the dentist to remove it. Yours sounds like a good fit though if you don't need polygrip as I always needed to use some.

Mel your garden sounds as if it is springing into life with the bulbs that are showing flowers now. I must check my tete a tete in a pot behind the shed!

Vera your 'studenty' grand daughter could do well as a hairdresser these days. Mine is single, drives a Porsche and is buying her own house. With courses and events she attends in her job, she gets to go to Italy and fashion events in London all paid for by her employer. It's a bit different to becoming an astrophysicist though!

OH loves his salad cream Mandy and even puts it on mashed potato!

Anng yes I watch the good K and call th emidwife and so does Mandy.

I love Shetland Vera and am always pleased when we get a new series of that. One thing I will say is that when we used to get good series they were much longer than they are now, I mean at the time of watching you would get perhaps 10 episodes and now you only seem to get 6.

For years I watched Outlander on our Prime but they had to stop filming in the pandemic and we are now going to get that back in March. It seems years since I have seen one of those.

I can remember when we had long running old fashioned series like The Pallisers and the Duchess of Duke Street and upstairs Downstairs but nothing like that now.

I'm pleased your teeth seem comfortable this morning and that you managed to get them in and out ok. Another day nearer to it all healing up.

We had a lovely sunny morning so I cleaned the big girls out and just as I finished and was coming back to the house to do lunch it started that horrid fine rain and its still doing it now.

I had a little walk around the garden this morning too to see what was coming out if anything. The camelia up the end of the border has lots of buds on it just showing colour. The New Dawn rose that was flowering has been bashed by the rain but it is still trying to flower. The snowdrops are well out now when the sun shines and there are quite a few yellow crocus and the occasonal mauve one here and there. My tiny iris reticulata I had in a pot behind the shed are out so they have come up onto the patio so I can enjoiy them with a pot full of tete e tete and the ones in the front tubs have a few flowers out on them. So quite a show for a February day.

I'm glad that all seems to be going well with your tooth extraction and denture AnnG. That was an excellent price you paid. At my dentist you would have paid £200 for the extraction with extra for things like X-Rays and at least £900 for the denture. They are fairly normal prices round here. It would be cheaper for me to drive to Glos. and go to your dentist! Several local friends are without a dentist as they can't afford private fees and can't get an NHS dentist. I have just googled NHS dentists around our town and 4 came up. One was 35 miles away and I know that another one has closed completely. The other two both do private and NHS work but aren't taking any new NHS patients. I don't know what people are supposed to do.

Of all the TV programmes mentioned the only one I watch is Call the Midwife and I usually watch that on iPlayer. I used to like Morse. I don't watch Vera as I think the books are better. The same author wrote the Shetland books and I do like to watch Shetland when it's on.

I haven't done very much this morning except sort out my Sainsbury order for delivery on Friday. Aren't the prices going up a lot? It's not one or two bits but practically everything. I only have a little bit of ironing to do so I am going to get that done before lunch and then, if I can brave the cold wind, I am going to try and do a bit in the garden while it's still dry.

Have a good day whatever you are doing.

OK I have had breakfast, cleaned my teeth, removed and replaced denture with no trouble and rinsed with salt water taken one paracetamol but no pain so far anyway so fingers crossed all is well.
I have only watched Vera once and was not that keen preferred Midsummer Murders, Lewis and Morse, Endeaver etc.

Anybody watch Good Karma hospital? I don't watch Holby or Casualty but I like good K and Call the Midwife, both on sunday.

Morning All,

Glad you did'nt have too bad a night Anng. Think I must have been thinking of you in the night as I have woken up with a lovely earache and neck ache both the same side on the left. I had a bit of earache before I went to bed last night and thought it may have gone by this morning but no its still with me.

Mandy yes I love Shakespeare and Hatherway too but I don't record anything I just watch it on Iplayer. I did watch the ones we had on this week but not sure if I kliked them or not. Oh thought they were the usual muck as he puts it. He only has to watch something for a few mins and know whose done it right away. He can't stand Vera or anything like that and I must admit Vera's vioce gets on my nerves now so I don't watch that now. Perhaps we have some good things coming up for the Spring.

Love to all of you who are feeling down. <3

Morning all,

Bit cloudy here and when I got the bin in I could feel a little light drizzle in the air .

Anng thats good you had a decent night with no pain ,hope the denture comes out OK if not I'd ring the dentist and see if it can be adjusted so it comes out easier .

Mel I noticed In next week's TV book there's a new lot of Shakespeare and Hathoway starting each day after doctors we like those so thats something to record .

Off to sons and dil's For a coffee this morning we were going tomorrow but son was helping on the Dinosaur Park trip and now dil is going to help too so we're going today instead .
Need to pop into Tesco's to as I forgot to put salad cream on the list I usually have a spare but must have used it and I do like salad cream on my salad.

Good morning all, I didn't sleep too badly, took a couple of paracetamols and had an extra pillow (making three so not that comfortable) had no pain in the night and none so far. Left the denture in as that made sense to me, only just up so I haven't taken it out/cleaned my teeth yet. a bit nervous about that so will see how it goes. When the dentist put the denture in it seemed a very tight fit with the clips so I am hoping it is not too difficult to remove and put in.
Mel my dentist always said to remove it at night but I never have. The original one I had with no clips just plastic I always removed because to me it was a choking hazard.

When I had my front teeth out the dentist told me to keep the denture in the first night.

I usually take them out at night but was wondering whether to leave them in as my mouth gets very dry at night but not while my teeth are in.

There's nothing much I want to see on the tv lately. I just look forward to Sunday now and Thursday for The Golden thingy on Now tv. I saved that for Saturday night.

Hope you can sleep ok tonight Anng and not be in too much pain.

Amazing how many people do have partial dentures. I first had mine in 1962 I had abcess after having our daughter. Those were plastic and I had them for ten years with no problems although I did sometimes use poly grip. In 1972 I needle another tooth on the denture and by now it was a different dentist. He got me a metal one made, since then I had another one made about ten years ago, another metal one (they have all had clips). And now another metal one and now four teeth. My dentist is not NHS they are partly NHS and partly private. I was expecting a big bill. But I had an X-ray and the extraction plus the denture and it cost £140. I was amazed.

Yes Mandy I will leave the denture in tonight. Actually I have never removed them at night. It will be a bit worrying when I do remove it the first time as it is a tight fit"

Angora boleros - I had completely forgotten them. I can only ever remember having white and definitely kept for best. Did any of you have knitted fair isle berets? My Mum knitted 2 or 3 every winter for me. They always had a beige/fawn background with coloured fair isle patterns. I hated the things. I've always hated wearing hats of any sort and still do. When I was about 4 I had a set comprising leggings, coat and hat in a brick red colour. I detested that hat and tried to leave it on buses, in doctor's surgeries and anywhere else I could but my Mum always retrieved it. Of course I didn't realise at the time what it had cost my parents in both money and clothing coupons. Looking back I think I must have been a bit of a trial to my poor mother.

I'm sorry your mouth is sore AnnG but at least the tooth is out now and 2 or 3 days with painkillers if needed and you will be fine I am sure. Have you had any problems with the plastic half plates they use for partial dentures? The reason I ask is that I have had an upper denture with four front teeth for more years than I care to remember, having lost the teeth due to an infection. I used to have a plastic half plate that snapped in half fairly regularly and each time it cost me £50 on the NHS for a new one to be made. On one occasion when the dentist was taking impressions yet again, I complained about it constantly breaking and the money it was costing me. He explained that because it was a half plate, even though it fitted well, it flexed when I ate and being rigid plastic eventually gave way. He said he could make me a metal one that would never break and would be so comfortable I wouldn't be aware of it but he wasn't allowed to do it on the NHS. He told me the price - I think it was £800 and this was about 35 years ago - and I originally said no. But OH said we could manage the cost so I went back to him and got it made. I am still wearing the same denture and it is so comfortable. The problem will be if I lose another tooth as I dread to think what it would cost to have a new one made now and also you need some teeth left to hook the plate round.

It was a bright day and out of the wind it was quite warm but there was still a cold wind. We both had an M & S voucher for Xmas and they have an outlet shop at Freeport (Braintree) which has goods cheaper than in the normal M & S shops but it's pot luck what they have in at any one time. We haven't been there since the pandemic started and expected it to be busy as it always was but there was hardly anyone there. OH got a nice lambswool jumper and I got some trousers and socks and still had £3 left on our vouchers so I got some nice handwash and hand cream. I've really been struggling to find trousers to fit as I need a longish leg length and lately they only seem to be available in the really expensive brands. I had to have navy blue which I didn't really want but THEY ARE LONG ENOUGH. I found a brown pair which I did want but they didn't have any sizes between 8 and 20! All our purchases came to £50 which was exactly the amount of our vouchers. In the normal shop they would have cost about £75.

Your yellow stripey grasses will brighten up your pot Ann. We had four similar ones around a curved bit of path but after flourishing for 6 years 3 of them suddenly died. I never found out why as the fourth one seems to be OK. With you and Mandy both busy at the window cleaning you've made me realise how much ours need doing indoors, particularly as the window cleaners came while we were at Freeport so the outsides are now nice and clean.

I also had a nice long phone conversation with son this afternoon with news of what his family are up to. His middle girl has in his words "gone all studenty" and has died her hair pink and his youngest cut her own hair quite short and raggedy, deliberately raggedy. After we came off the phone he must have told her to send me a picture as within minutes she sent a photo. It's a sort of elfin cut and looks great so she made a good job of haircutting. Perhaps she could go into hairdressing if she doesn't make it as an astrophysicist, her current ambition.

I've no idea how long this post is but I seem to have been typing for a little while so I had better come to a stop. OH is cooking tonight and he usually gets our meal for around 7 pm when he is doing it so he'll be calling me to eat at any minute.