General Chat

Morning Mel, morning all,

Glad the hips feeling better Mel ,are you giving the big shop a miss this week?

We've had rain this morning and I think it's now trying to brighten up ,Jake has been here for a while he's now left to meet his friends to go swimming ,he didn't want to go with the others to Norwich where Chelsea has to go to see the orthodontic lady ,one of her front teeth is coming through at last but coming through at an angle so they have to take her to Norwich once a year ,she might have to have a brace fitted if it doesn't straighten up .

We're going to see Colin 's sister this afternoon as we haven't been for a few weeks with having the children here .

Mel there's some lovely things to make on that site ,I just had a quick look but I'll have another look this evening .

Love to Frank if your looking in ,hope your feeling a bit brighter today <3

Hi Mel, glad to hear your hip is better and that your feeling more yourself. What a shame about the dog show, it must have been very disappointing after all the work you and OH put into it
We're all fine! We had a very busy w/end, and yesterday Ian started at the hospital again, then in the afternoon we went shopping for horse/dog food landing up in Tesco's!! Today apart from the daily trek we're not going a anywhere so a much more relaxing day! Ian now has 9 more sessions (no weekends)so we begin to feel that we're on the home straight!
Nothing much else to report from here. My windows are beautifully clean!! and Cas is very happy now she's reunited with her ring!!!
I hope Frank is feeling a bit better. I'm sure he'll rejoin us when he feels able to.
Just had a phone call from Ian! The hospital has had a power cut just as he was about to be zapped!! Apparently it takes 45minutes to reboot the machine so he won't be home much before 3 at the earliest!! Hey ho, happy days!!!

Its been raining here and still is that horrid fine stuff that gets everywhere. I have just been up the shop for some milk and ham.

O Anne you will always be missed I am sorry if I upset you but I don't know how I did.

Where is Gill? Hope she is ok too.

I'm making plum jam this afternoon !! We've got SO many plums it's the best crop we've ever had I think! M has just rung and he's coming tomorrow to use the welder - supper for three again!!! Cas isn't that keen on Jasper so she spends the evening in her crate!!!
Have a lovely holiday Jane.

The suns put in an appearance here and now its quite nice out there.

Had lunch and now I am going to do some HW!!!!!!!!!!!! Well the two loos need a good going over and I have some ironing to do so that will keep me quiet for a while.

Liz I should go up and pick some damsons. We gave most of our plums away this year as there were loads and loads. Plums like a dry year.

My Granny and my mother used to make Damson Jelly Mel and it was delicious! In those days people used to bottle fruit, make jam, marmalade, put down eggs, and store apples and veg on special racks! What a lot of work it must have been!! Remember kilner jars?!!
Ian got back about 2.30, so not too bad!! We shall be glad to get to the end now as he is beginning to get a bit weary with the travelling, also his hips ache a bit which is perfectly normal but is dragging him down a tad.
Nice and sunny here, so must walk Cas, and get on with supper!! Ian has picked yet more plums!! apparently there are some takers at the hospital so he's taking some in tomorrow! Also M wants some to take home at the weekend. Plum crumble methinks!!

Anne please don't leave us , i think Mel meant it would be quiet as Jane would be off on holiday , i don't always post every day as you don't but i know we would be missed if we went .

My mum use to make Damson jelly and Crab apple jelly too all drained through a muslin bag, she had some big brown pots that she would use for pickled onions and red cabbage and put brown paper on the top of them held down with string .

That's good you have some takers for the surplus plums Liz ,i hate to see things going to waste , i bet the wasps have had a field day with the plums.

All packed Jane ? i hope Thomas settled in at the cattery ok and didn't escape :-D
Have a good time away and don't forget your flappy fan .

Not much fun for OH then today Liz with all the hanging around waiting for the machine to reboot :-S Hopefully he is home now.
My neighbour has a glut of plums .I don't know what she does with them all. I do love a plum or Damson Jam.

Anne ,please don't leave us !!!! I have emailed you :-D

I thought Cas and Jasper got on well Liz. Is Jasper a bit too boisterous and wanting to be Top Dog?
It has turned out to be a lovely sunny evening here after a very overcast day. Totally clear blue sky.

Mandy i hope you have had a nice afternoon visiting Colin's Sister and that Chelsea was ok with her visit to the Orthodontist .Not a nice thing though .How old is Chelsea now? Hannah had trouble with teeth .One growing sideways and an over crowded mouth .She had lots of baby teeth out and then a brace and she now has a perfect mouth of teeth :-D
I am just going to give my Sister a quick call to wish her all the best for her Knee op tomorrow.

Yes Jane we had a nice couple of hours with Colin's sister , she is now getting to her feet and walking a little way with a frame ,today she said she hoped to be back in her home by christmas ,she just has to learn bladder control because she has had a catheter ,apparently there is a catheter that has a tap so as the bladder fills you get use to the feel of needing to go again and you can turn the tap to go then once the bladder is trained it's taken away.

Chelsea is eleven next month ,they were pleased with how the tooth was growing but she will have to have a brace in about two years time .

Hope all goes well for your sisters knee op tomorrow ,hopefully this one will be better than the last and she doesn't have as much pain after .

Yes Jane, Cas finds Jasper too boisterous and although he means well he tends to frighten her!! So she stays cooped up while Jasper has the run of the house!!!
It's only for 2.1/2 hrs, every few weeks so not worth making a fuss!!
Anne, I would echo what others have said. Obviously it's your choice, but Mel really didn't mean anything detrimental to anyone. Like others, I don't post everyday, and I do tend to stay on the fringe of the chats, but it's nice to keep in touch and join in as and when.
Again Jane, Have a good time away.

Yes have a safe journey tomorrow and I shall be thinking of Janice tomorrow too. Hope it all goes off well and not like the last one with her in so much pain for such a long while. <3 <3 <3

We shall want pics of your holiday you know and as Mandy said don't forget your fan.

I did'nt get round to picking the damsons but there is always another day.

I did cook some blackberry and apple though but did'nt put a crumble on top so oh had some with a syrup pud and cream and I just had the B & A and cream. it was lovely. :-D

No Gill again??????????

Morning all

We've had a bit of rain by the looks of it and it's very cloudy today.

We've been soooooo busy these past few days finishing off the front garden, all the bulbs are planted there now and putting in the last few plants in the borders, then yesterday we spent all day sorting out the back garden, taking all the summer plants out and putting in all the winter ones. It's times like this I wish we didn't have so many pots to move around, but I suppose a couple of days work is worth it when we have a lovely garden to look at all through the year.

I still have some more bulbs to plant in the planters when we get around to buying some structural plants to put in them and of course I still have the artificial Ivy to put on the back of the second planter. Talking of the second planter, we noticed that the back wasn't on properly so I had to take out all the compost and plastic I'd put in there to get to the screw, I struggled to undo the screw but got there in the end, I then clamped the back in the right place and put the screw back in, took the clamp off and the back popped off again, so OH had to drill two new holes and put some of our screws in, luckily that worked so I then put the plastic back and filled it back up with the compost. OH was painting that one, why he didn't tell me the back was coming off before I put the plastic and compost in I'll never know, it would of saved me some time having to do it all again. Never mind it's done now and once the Ivy goes on the back, which I'm hoping to do tomorrow, we can plant them up and put the remaining bulbs in there. Then we are going to make one more planter to put around the back. We put the finished planter in the front to see what it looked like and it's looked better than where we had it in the back garden, so it's back to plan "A" and both the planters are now going side by side in the front garden as originally planned.

We can't have the shed my mum's neighbour is selling as we don't have the space for it to go, so all the wood it now down the side of the bungalow until we can find somewhere dry to store it. We were going to put it in the new shed for now. Most of it will probably be used for the planter, so I'm sure once OH sorts out his shed there'll be some room in there to put it. Well I hope so anyway.

So all in all we haven't stopped for the last few days and today I need to catch up with all the HW and TV programmes as we're running out of space on the planner. I have a form to fill in today for Sandra so that'll probably take up most of the day, they want to know the in's and out's of everything.

I haven't caught up with the posts so I'll do that now.

Oh Anne, please don't leave us, I'm sure Mel didn't mean to upset you. I hope you are back with us soon.

Frank, if you're looking in I hope you are starting to feel better and are also back with us soon.

Enjoy your holiday Jane, love to see some pictures when you're home. Hope Thomas's ear is okay and he didn't escape before you had the chance to take him to the Cattery. Good luck to your sister on her op, hope all goes well for her.

Pleased to hear your aches and pains are going now Mel that must be a relief after all this time. Pity the dog show didn't go ahead, let's hope it's back on again next year. Yes I was saying to Sandra this morning that Christmas will be here soon, I also can't get over how quickly this year seems to have passed. Mind you it's not been a good one for me so I'll be glad when it's over. I'm hoping next year will be better.

I used to wear a brace Mandy when I was about 13, I think that's around the age everyone who needs one has them put on. Hope all goes well for Chelsea as her treatment progress's. Pleased to see Colin's sister is doing well, it'll be nice if she can make it home in time for Christmas.

Poor Cas Liz being frightened of Jasper, at least she has her cage to go to which will make her feel more secure and like you said it's only a short time every now and then. I used to make jam with my mum when I was a child, we'd go strawberry and blackberry picking and come home and make jam together.

Going to get a cuppa now then make a start on this form.

Afternoon all,

Dry morning here and a bit of sunshine too so thats nice to see.

I thopught you may have been busy in the garden Gill but its good to know you are all ok.

My hips are a lot better again this morning but I shall still take some pills to make sure.

Oh is talking about making the chicken run bigger for them as they still have no grass in there. He talks of dividing it into two so we will fence off one half and then the other when they have eaten all the grass in one half. I have never known chickens to eat so much grass as these ones do! After last years wet wet wet the only thing that ever gets to grow in there is a plant they don't eat. They even eat thistles wehn they poke through and docks.

Must go and get something out of the freezer for dinner or we won't be eating tonight.

Its a quick hello and goodbye from me.We are ready for the off.I haven't stopped today and have one hour to sit and put my feet up before Fitz gets here.

I hope Frank will be back on board by the time I get back :-D

Au Revoir ,Tatty Bye xx

Much better day here all round!! The weather looks set fair for a few days and Ian had his treatment this morning without any hitches!!
We're having a frozen lasagne tonight with salad, + a plum (!!)crumble! I know I should have made the lasagne, but I just feel too weary to do both and neither Ian or M will mind at all, so I let myself off a job!!
Did a load of housework this am so that'll do for a while! This afternoon Ian will finish picking the remaining plums then that will be that till the apples!
I may start a bit of weeding in a minute, our veg patch is sorely in need!! The strawberries need sorting out and we need to start thinking about putting the garden to bed for the winter.
We don't record that much TV as having it on too much just gets on both our nerves! Apart from the lunchtime news we hardly ever watch it in the day particularly in the summer and only for a while in the evening if there's something we especially want to watch.
Well, best go and survey the veg patch!!

How's your OH getting on with the chicken run Mel. At least you have the weather for it. It's brightened up here and gone quite warm, I'm hoping it's going to be nice tomorrow so I can make a start on the Ivy on the second planter. Pleased to see your hips are still okay.

We did all the weeding yesterday Liz so our garden is ready for the winter now. We had lots of leaves in between all the pots so they've now gone, although they'll be back again soon I should imagine. Pleased Ian's treatment is going well and there were no hic cups today with power cuts. I used to make my own Lasagne but found a lovely family one in Iceland which taste just as good and cost less than making one from scratch, it lasts us two days to, so great value for money. I miss our apples now we've taken the apple tree out, but I don't miss all the fallen ones we were picking up every day. Sandra ate the last of her strawberries ages ago, so I ended up buying her some the other day.

So much for me doing the form, I did read it and it's just tick boxes so won't take long to do. I was going to post it tomorrow then thought it was to important to sit around all weekend at it's destination, so I'll fill it in over the weekend and post it on Monday instead. We've caught up with all our soaps. OH is at his mates today so it was nice to spend some time just Sandra and I. OH's not bothered about the TV like us.

Have a great time away Jane, see you when you get back.