General Chat

Good morning all 10 degrees and still grey. Off to Cheltenham today to meet friends for lunch in an Italian restaurant (not very large and quite noisy but good fun). So better get on and shower etc.

Vera yes Jake has now finished all my jobs and I probably won't see him now until the new year early spring when no doubt all the shrubs will have grown and need cutting down again. Yesterday they cut back two wild honeysuckles which will re-grow next year, tidied the end of a small piece of trellis that kept catching me as i got to the compost bin, pinned back to a post the main trellis down the garden that was moving in the wind. And Jake's Dad made me a large 2 foot X 5 foot X 2 foot deep planter in nice wood. It now stands on what was the slate hosta bed. they also filled it with good top soil and compost and I will try hostas in there and Heucheras next year. It looks strange now as it is empty but I am sure it will save a lot of hassle weeding and look much tidier.

Another grey, miserable day with plenty of mizzle, if you know what I mean I couldn’t see or hear any rain falling but everything was wet, including me. Not a nice day at all.

I am sure the school appreciated the loan of your poppies Gwyn. “Props” like that all help to flesh out the story and make it more interesting for the children. We used to have a lady in the village where we lived before make a house-to-house poppy collection but it’s never happened in the 11 years we have lived here. Perhaps it’s not allowed nowadays.

I hope your aching legs eased during the day AnnG. Has Jake nearly finished his jobs for you? I’m pleased you were able to order some liver but, like you say, who knows if Tesco will still have it in stock when your order gets picked. I did a Tesco order today for delivery tomorrow afternoon and I was surprised how much is currently out of stock. I am sure their website is programmed by a robot. Today I wanted a carton of mixed green veg with a ready meal. It was out of stock but the site suggested I might like to substitute it with mixed berry trifle. Well, that’ll taste good with the wild garlic butter and the gravy. It’s as though some artificial intelligence has just lighted on the word “mixed”.

Mandy, it’s good you didn’t have to hang around and wait for your jab. We always go in together. I hope your arms aren’t too sore. Our jabs are on Saturday and I’m not really looking forward to it. Your apple crumble sounds good, it’s one of my favourites.

Great to see the stoat Mel but you’ll need to be handy with your camera to capture it. They can move pretty fast. Isn’t it the stoat that turns white and becomes ermine in the winter, at least in colder areas? I’d love to see that.

I got to the Ladies Club meeting last night. Unfortunately the speaker from the local police had dropped out at the last minute. Someone had found a speaker prepared to come at the drop of a hat and talk about the Women’s Land Army in WW1 and WW2. The core of her talk was interesting but she didn’t present it in a very good way and was dodging about all over the place. At one point she seemed to start giving a talk on genealogy and suddenly put up a slide of a page of the 1939 register for no reason that I could see. At the end we all gave her a good clap as at least she turned out and drove a few miles to help us out. When I got home at 10 pm I found OH had forgotten to take the bin down the road for today’s collection so I ended up trundling it back down the road to the rec myself. That was the perfect finish to the frustrating day I had yesterday. I was glad to get to bed.

OH took my mini tulip bulbs that usually go in several low pots and planted them in a space he had cleared in a bed but decided he needed more so off we had to go to the garden centre. He wanted me to go too which was just as well as he’s not always good at visualizing how things will look and his choices were either too tall or the wrong colour. Eventually we agreed on a little yellow one called Honky Tonk that should only grow 6-8” high and OH bought 3 packs of 10 bulbs which will fill out the space a bit. Now we’ve got to think of something else to go in there that will come up in the summer as the tulips have died down.

I think it’s time to go and make a drink and sit down with the crossword. We all seem to be having bad nights so fingers crossed we all have a good sleep tonight.

Oh my goodness I'm so full ,I made an Apple Crumble and custard and it was so good ,we don't usually have a pud just a piece of fruit and there's enough for tomorrow night too.
I was really dark early tonight and its been a miserable day .

Got our jabs and she did both of us together so I didn't have to hang about for mine ,I asked what it was and it's the Maderna we had this time .
Yes Gwyn we managed to get to the butchers so all stocked up again ,I asked if Jake was about but he'd gone to take a delivery to the Bull pub five minutes from the butchers ,but as I left the shop he came in so had a quick word and then got stopped outside the shop by a friend so stood chatting for a while .

Oh Mel a Stoat ,didn't you see one a few weeks ago in the garden , hope you can get a photo.

Just checked Vera and they have got lambs liver, nothing else. I have ordered some, however there are three days for them to sell out before my order is due.

camera shy Mel

Iv'e just had a stoat run through the garden I was fishing leaves out of the opond put the net back and it ran past me into the back garden. By the time I had the camera and went back out it had run onto the edge of my pond and then on the decking and I tried to get a pic but it was just too quick. It then ran across the lawn and back out the front and I hav'nt seen it since.

The poppies are fabric, Ann, sort of silky material and quite realistic.

I remember many moons ago, my mother had a tiny spray of silk poppies, which she'd kept from when they were sold for Remembrance Sunday. It was always in a tiny vase on the mantlepiece in my parents' bedroom.
She always bought a new poppy each year, in fact for many years she was a poppy seller locally and back then there were collections house to house and everyone gave willingly, but the little spray was still kept.

Gwyn I am sure that the school were pleased with the poppies. I assume not real but paper?, Metal?
It is horribly damp here and very annoying as Jake was going to do the weed killing exercise. In the end I told him to get on and do it anyway(already paid for) as I didn't want it to just get lost in time so that has been done and a post attached to a very unstable trellis pole which is much stronger now. and they have gone off to cost up wood for making a planter and the soil to put in it. I assume (they didn't say) that is going to be done this afternoon with a couple of other small jobs. then that will be the garden finished for winter I think.

Dull, damp and dismal here.
Not raining, but rather dampness in the air and it's looking very misty over the distant hills.
I popped over school earlier to take some lovely field poppies, which we bought from the National Arboretum. They'd look nice here, but the Year 6 children are learning about the War, so they can borrow them.

I hope all goes well with your next phase of the garden project AnnG.and hoping your legs are less painful as the day goes on.

A shame the lady hasn't paid yet, Mel, so you could get her purchases off to her, while already at the post van.
Thinking of you today <3

Mandy. You are a busy bee!
I hope your son has a good birthday and that Colin is well enough for your vaccines. My Covid jab was painless and trouble free, so I hope yours is as good.

It is a good idea to have the basis of some meals ready in the freezer with the winter months coming. We try and make the oven worth putting on, when we cook and sometimes have cooked a chicken hotpot and just diced beef and onions in another casserole dish in the same oven. We can then freeze the latter ready for adding fresh vegetables another day. Sometimes we roast various veg. instead,
then use that for warming soup.
I hope you get time to visit the butchers today.

Morning all,

Another dreary start to the day and quite chilly .
I couldn't get off to sleep last night either , I was still awake at 1 o'clock then nodded off but got out a couple of times for the loo.
Need to have a hoover round and do dome ironing and then off for the jab ,if its not to late we might call at the butchers to see Jake and stock the freezer with some meat .

Morning Anng and all,

Sorry you had a bad night but perhap[s with Jake coming it was on your mind to be ready in time.

Its 12 degrees here cloudy and dark as usual amd I am getting fed up with winter all ready.

Have to go to the post van this morning and one lady still not paid.

Mine was sore but bearable Mandy

Good morning all, another grey day no break in the solid cloud and 10 degrees. Didn't have a brilliant night. stayed awake until 2AM, then slept until 6AM. Didn't then want to go back to sleep as Jake is coming this morning. When I woke up my legs were really aching.

Thank you Mel ,not looking forward to this jab with all the sore arms people have mentioned, but then its only for a day or two hopefully .

Gosh Colin beat me with my driving lessons they were £1 an hour and two pounds for the test. Hope it all goes well tomorrow for your jabs Mandy oh and I always went in together and had them done. Happy birthday to your son for tomorrow it would have been oh's birthday too thats how I know its your sons.

There is The Range as well Ann if you have one they sell those sort of things.

Evening all,

What a dreary old day its been no sign of any sun and certainly not anywhere near the 14 or 15 degrees they said it would be so hope tomorrow's a better day .

Oh Vera don't you just find that if one thing goes wrong then more things will follow but at least the dentist went well.

Mel enjoy your runner beans ,you were lucky to get a few more .

Ann ,that's good your getting new keys and saving a good bit of money ,what's the bet you find the old set now .
Colin still has a bit of a chesty cough so I don't know if he'll be able to have his covid jab tomorrow they usually ask how you've been so we'll see what they say ,his appointment is 11.45 and mine is twenty past twelve so I'm hoping they say they'll fit me in to save waiting but if they don't its not long to wait .

Son came this morning to collect his presents as its his birthday tomorrow and he'll be working most of the day, Jake came with him and they came in Jakes car ,he bought a nice little red citreon, he wanted one to tinker with so son is down as a named driver on the insurance so he can give him a few lessons before he has proper lessons in the new year in the better weather , lessons are an arm and a leg now ,I can't remember what I paid for mine now ,Colin said he paid 17/6 for his lol

Colin has bought a mobility scooter ,just a small one that will go in the car ,we saw it advertised and son took us to have a look at it ,it will save his legs as he just can't walk far now and will be handy to just go up town on ,so tomorrow will be ths first run out with it to go get his jab .

I wonder if you will make it to Ladies Night and the talk Vera after such a bad day! Some days you wish you hadn't tried don't you. That's a bit worrying if two people check meds and they still gave me some of OH's meds once. :-S

I'll have to check whether there's a B&M not far away AnnG. I don't want to go in the city with their car park charges and there used to be one at Hinckley, but there might be others nearer now. That's good you managed to do a bit more in the garden. We must get our garden bin filled again. I always feel we are getting our moneysworth with a full bin to be collected. :-)

I wonder why you can't load your pics on Ebay now Mel? I want to start selling a few things soon, so I hope I won't have the same trouble. I agree and hate the way they constantly mess around with sites when they work perfectly well as they are. My photo site was updated recently and I was looking all over for something I wanted that was under your nose before. Typical, as often seems to happen now, they had put it in a drop down menu to give you an extra step to follow to find it. But they don't tell you what they've done do they. Poor chickens, nearly bed with no supper!

I did the girls and thought I would walk down to the beans. I just picked another 5 ounces off the runners. There's none on there now so they can be cut down tomorrow.

14 degrees here but feels much colder and I have the heating on too.Its a cold house in the winter but lovely in the summer as it always stays cool then as well.

I have had a go at deleteing some of my photos as when I went in to see the pics I had downloaded they were'nt there or any just black spaces. I was so cross as I wanted to put a couple of things on Ebay but with their pics I can't do it. Anyway soemthing sold today and the buyer paid straight away so I did the parcel up ready for posting tomorrow and came back to the pc and tried pictures again and there they were!! Gremlins comes to mind :-S

Poor Vera not a good day then but at least you got your dental appointment done and out of the way till May next year.

They have changed the payment method on Ebay. When you sold something it used to go on your summery and be paid out once a month which suited me fine. Now if you buy something they take it off your balance which means they hang on to your money for longer. I did buy something today and made sure I looked and a box came up to take so much off your balance so I put nothing in the box but that did'nt work so I entered a £1.00 and that worked. You can also ask for a payout now at any time I think so I shall have to keep my eyes on the total. It gets me in a muddle when they change things like that and you have no options to stay the same as before.

I must ring Stuart and see who is going to who tomorrow or Thursday as I shall have to get the meat pie inards out of the freezer if he's coming here.

Better go and do the girls now or they will think I have forgotten them and go to bed.