General Chat

I hate midgies as well Florence. I can sit next to OH and he doesn’t get a single bite while I am covered in them.

Thank goodness the painter has finally gone and no we won’t be giving him a review. OH is going round counting up all of the things he needs to touch up or put right :-(
There is still a reasonable amount of painting still to do, but OH will do that in his own time.

It will be lovely to have a lull with no workmen in, but I have just asked for some quotes to install a Nest thermostat instead of the current one. It is only three years old but is in a stupid place tucked away in a corner under the boiler. You can’t get to it to see to programme it. We had a Nest in our old house and it was so much easier being able to control it from my phone or iPad

To celebrate having the kitchen back to myself, I have made three batches of soup this afternoon. Pea and courgette, Leek and potato and Carrot and red pepper. I now have nineteen of the plastic microwave mugs cooling down ready to go in the freezer. When we moved, obviously the freezers were defrosted. I have a fridge freezer in the utility room, but another full size freezer in the garage. There was not much in that one until yesterday when I had a bit of a restock, but there is still plenty of space for the soup. It is a pain having to go out to the garage to get to it, in the last house, there was a door from the kitchen straight into the garage which was so much easier. Roll on June when the new kitchen goes in. I am having a full size floor to ceiling fridge and a full size freezer built in.

I hope that your aches subside Florence, my arm is a lot better today, so last night I was able to turn over in bed without waking myself up.

There was a wildfire not far from here yesterday.
Five fire engines, and a road closed for some hours.

Hmmm the midges will be here soon enough so out with the SSS spray, it does help me as they eat me alive! This weather is set to change on Sunday so will be back to our usual then of 12 degrees and chilly breeze lol

Wildfires! I don’t think that will be a problem down here. The ground is still sodden and plenty of water still in low lying fields.

Not looking forward to the mozzies and midgies when the weather warms up.

:-D :-D :-D names, that made me chuckle.

Just seen we are on an extreme warning now for wildfires. Hope people are not not using disposable bbqs as we have this hot sunny weather. Our grass is bare and very dry and it only takes a spark to set it on fire.

When the moor here goes on fire , it spreads and is out of control in a short space of time. Thankfully we do have a hosepipe and so do our neighbours and a large loch nearby but even so never underestimate the wind or direction as it can change here very rapidly.

Good morning all.

Its another glorious day with few clouds and the sun is hot already!

My legs and arms are still aching with all the hammering and bending sorting out "the tree." I feel like someone has run over me lol. I guess as I am not use to using my leg and upper arm muscles, it will take a few days for them to feel better but never mind it was worth it.

Linda, what a palaver?? Hoe could it have been delivered at 4.30 when as Ann says, you got that message an hour before?? :-S

Hope your painter gets on and then you can get shot pdq.

My dad down in Sussex had the most dreadful storm on Wed . He said it was so loud he thought the roof was going to blow off but thankfully no damage.

I found a rellie in Sydney Australia, related to him through my Grt grandmothers family which I have not fully researched but I have basic info. He gave me the ancestor to which he hails from but I haven't worked out the exact lineage yet and obviously someone emigrated to Australia years ago so this is keeping me busy today.

Daughter will be back at tea time so my peace and quiet will soon disappear however she has her uses as the lightbulb has gone in the kitchen and I need her to stand on a chair to change it. I have a small lamp that I have been using for 2 evenings which was fine.

Well better get busy and tidy up now

Florence in the hebrides

I wonder if the painter will ask you to post a review :-0 ;-) ;-) :-D

I just contacted Amazon, or at least the bot. It isn’t easy to find the correct route through, but eventually I settled for part of the delivery is missing. It immediately offers you an option either to refund or to replace. I chose refund and the money will be back on my card in a couple of days. It is a small supplier, so I was able to find their website and there the hawthorn is out of stock, yet it is still available to order on Amazon.
So we googled and found somewhere else which still has them in stock, they should arrive in 2-7 working days excluding bank holidays which Monday is of course.

The painter was here at 9 am on the dot which took us by surprise as he is always late. He is finishing off the gloss and that will be the end of him thank goodness. There was a list of other things we wanted doing, but we have told him not to do any of those. I just want to get the house back in order and get it cleaned as there is lots of dust all of the time.

Over the weekend OH is going to put all of the pictures up on the walls which will make it look more homely

Linda, the first problem is, how could it be delivered at 4.30 when you got that message an hour before? There is something very strange there. I hope that you are able to sort it out with Amazon as, even if it arrives now, it will most likely be dead.

Well, the Hawthorn saga gets sillier by the minute. It is 3 pm and it says that it was delivered at 4.30pm :-S

There is another road just around the corner which this street gets confused with. This is Gardens and the other one is View. Oddly, I have just been round to talk to the lady in our equivalent house in View because we got what looks like a birthday card delivered here this afternoon. I asked the neighbours but no one knows the name. They suggested trying View, I had a nice chat with the lady who lives there , but it wasn’t her either. I will have to go and see if she has my hawthorn.

Edit, I did go, but they hadn’t been delivered there. We have been out since 3.30. looking after the girls as it is my daughter’s day to be in London. I know no one has been to the house since we went out because I have checked the doorbell camera. So tomorrow I am going to have to try and sort this out with Amazon :-(

Afternoon everyone
Well another glorious day here but there a breeze blowing too but just as well as i have done my bed.
Argyllgran, yes we get the best weather in may & September and it says it will last until the weekend so making use of any outdoor jobs and enjoying some fresh air in me lungs too.

AnninGloucs, the roots were all together and I watered it well last night. Time will tell if it takes. There are some white flowers and more to open. Still cannot believe it eventually grew and so huge too!

Jacket potato for tea with some cheese, a salad and home made coleslaw. I made it with shredded white and red cabbage, onions and grated carrots. I mixed Greek yoghurt with some salad cream as hate mayonnaise and its really tasty.

I'm working on some family tree research this afternoon as I'm home alone and wont get interrupted so should get a lot done.

Hope all of you with sore arms from the jags feel better soon.

Sylvia. hope you enjoy your daughters visit too.

Linda, where on earth is your Hawthorn i wonder? Is there another street in your area or similar to you they could have got wrong maybe? Can you track the delivery online? What a nuisance anyway, so annoying.

JustGinnie, how sad for your friend after such a long friendship.

Joan, haven't seen you for awhile now so hope you are ok?

Well better crack on just now.

Have a good afternoon all

Florence in the hebrides

Still no sign of the Hawthorn heading, so it is probably in an Evri warehouse somewhere waiting to die. We can’t do anything until tomorrow when we can ask for a refund. Then we will have to try and find some more, but it is getting very late to source some. .
We had a saunter down to the polling station as we are electing a regional mayor for the first time.

Hello all,

Weather has been dry for a couple of days with just a shower or two overnight. We have managed to get our veg planters all sorted ready to plant the veg in . Hopefully we will get a good crop this year.
My roses are still growing well so very pleased with my bargain purchase. Always good to get a good deal. .

Our oldest friend died a month ago after a short illness. My OH knew both her and her husband first as he worked in the same factory and I met them when I started to go out with OH . so 58 years ago.


Have a good day everyone whatever you are doing.

Ginnie

Found which vaccine we had we always had Pfizer before. This time it was Spikevacc which used to be Moderna.

Very warm and sunny here yesterday - lovely!
And so far it looks like being the same today.

May is usually when we have our best weather here in the west of Scotland, and this year we've had a couple of good weeks in April, too.
The midges don't usually start until later in May, so we're still able to do things out of doors in the longer evenings in the early part of the month - it's by far the best time of year!

A lovely morning for the 20-mile drive to town to stock up on groceries, and I also hope to find some cheap(ish) tubs for the patio.
Then I'll cut the grass in the afternoon, by which time the dew will have dried off it.

Well, that's the plan, anyway!

Sylvia the tiredness could also be due to the covid jab. But good that you have had it.
Enjoy your time with your daughter and hope all gets sorted re the Power of attorney.

Florence. That was a very old Rhododendron to move. I hope the tap root was complete and that it takes OK.

wet here this morning so no summer here yet. Disappointing as yesterday was lovely. so an indoor day for me.

I am so tired!!

Florence .............. I was sorry to hear about your aunt. It is always sad even when expected. That was a lovely story about your Rhodo!

I finally had my Covid shot on Monday after cancelling appointments and making new ones. We're asked which we want, Pfizer or Moderna. This was my 8th shot and I opted for Pfizer again, so that's now 6 Pfizer and 2 Moderna. My arm is sore when I lift it high or across my body, or take something off a high shelf. But that is what has always happened.

Our daughter arrives tomorrow for a short 6 day visit into which we are now fitting appointments to get Powers of Attorney in place. OH and I were at the notary this afternoon setting up what we wanted for Power from him to me, me to him, and daughter to both of us. OH & I have to go back on Tuesday morning to pick up the forms and sign ours in front of the notary. But then daughter has to go to another notary to sign hers ........... apparently a regulation set out when the provincial government licensed notary publics! I got another request out for recommendations!

I had to ask on our Community Board about recommendations for a notary public in the neighbourhood as the one we used years ago retired during the pandemic.

But the really tiring bit was finishing off the vacuuming before tomorrow! Why do we always leave it to the last day?!


Take care everyone

That is some story Florence. I am surprised that it grew at all, it must have been really pot bound.

We ordered a hundred Hawthorn whips for the new hedge which were supposed to be delivered today by 8 pm. They were ordered through Amazon, but from a small seller. They were still in the depot this afternoon, but then out for delivery about 4 pm. There is no sign of them and it is now 9.30 pm. Normally you can see where Amazon is on a map, but this is VOC which apparently stands for vendors on carrier. It is worrying as they are bare routed plants and have been in transit for a few days.

Well I had a very busy day.

Firstly at 20 degrees, blue skies and sunshine all day. think our summer has arrived yay. my cheeks have gone red with sunburn eeek!

So to the plant. Bit of a story behind it but here goes.
Over 20 years ago, I bought 2 Rhodendron plants and they were £8 each. For some reason we planted them straight into the ground without taking them out of the pots???

The day after I had planted them, my ex who was strimming, came in to say, he wasn't sure what he strimmed but I had better come and see. As you can imagine, I was fuming as he had strimmed both of the new plants!!! they were in bits and nothing to salvage.

He didn't care really as was only interested in mowing and strimming, never took an interest in my plants.

So one did survive but even after 5 years hadn't grown much and produced 1 white flower. So fast forward to recently when he said to my daughter, if i wanted the plant back, i could have it back. he has since moved away anyway and only my son lives there now.

So yesterday daughter and a friend drove over to the house with a spade etc and after 2 hard hours managed to dig it out of the ground. But its over 2 ft high and like a small tree now! Anyway today, we set about trying to get the pot off but crikey it was hard word. We tried to smash it to crack it with my hammer and also used my small drill until daughter broke the bit!!

So she then decided to go off elsewhere until Friday leaving me to cope grrrr

Eventually, I went to my next door neighbour chappie and asked for help and he said no bother. Long story short, bigger hammer, bigger drill, he cracked it. Got it off then trimmed away all the straggly bits and I managed to lift it into its new home.

It weighed a ton but it fitted well and I added lots of soil. i shall go out shortly when the sun goes down a bit and water it in gently.

Needless to say my left hip and feet plus my finger joints are all very sore but,.... a very productive day and so glad we cracked it....literally :-D :-D

I was so surprised at going straight in I neglected to ask the question. I will have to find out.