General Chat

Morning girls,

Grey skies this morning here and pc says 16 degrees and partly sunny but I hav'nt seen any yet.

I have the shop to do this mroning and I should really take my library books back and get some more as I like to listen to them when I am getting lunch, dinner and washing up.I have read this 4 so need some more.

We will all be thinking of you on Monday Ann so just picture all of us around you nattering and it will soon be over. Its great that Cynth is taking you and picing you up. She's a good neighbour to have.

Good morning all. 8 degrees, a bit misty but the sun is coming up so it looks nice. Having been awake early two days running my body clock decided I needed to get up early this morning too. I have for a long time, been waking early but usually doze for a while but brain was too active this morning. so my bed has been stripped and bedding is in the wash.

Continuing the list of post holiday jobs today but the list is getting shorter.

Yes Ann, I should be home the same day Monday. (although once about 20 years ago I was kept in over night for observation. No idea why and had to beg for a slice of toast in the evening (I had not eaten since the day before) and no breakfast as the day centre is not catered. That was under a general though, Monday is a local.
Cynth is taking me and will come and get me when I let her know I am ready.

Evening All,

Well it hasn't felt as cool as it says here today, but it was freezing in the surgery this morning. I was in knee length jeans so I didn't need to undress and take more time but I had to wait over 40 minutes before I was seen and their seats are not comfy for that length of time.

It does sound funny to turn the fridge dial up to turn the temperature down Mandy. Just keep an eye on things to see they don't freeze! I nudge the dial up a bit at a time and turn it back when it gets cooler. I found it handy during the pandemic and started keeping the fridge just above freezing and lots of the food like salad and the veg kept a lot longer too.

What a shame the delivery driver hit the car. It must have been quite a bump, but at least he tried to find the owner. It's good your son and Jake will renew the shed roof. Jake will be learning too. The parking is only free here in the small villages and the retail park. In the bigger villages they sneaked charges in by starting with 10p, but we knew they would soon go up. Now with all the EV charging stations being put in, even the carparks have less spaces.

You may have caught yours from BIL Mel, but I hope it clears up quickly. Cases of covid are rising here too and OH had people unable to come to meetings because they had covid before the schools broke up.

Oh Vera, I hope things will be right with your scripts now and that you can convince the pharmacy to give you the packs. I had a saga to sort myself today. I had 2 different art magazines from the same company for a while and because they were so similar I cancelled one. Instead of refunding me they added the rest of the year's cancelled magazines cost to my annual sub so it extended the renewal date. Unfortunately, they didn't change the existing renewal date, so I started receiving two of the same magazine for the past few months as my account still had two subscriptions. They suggested doing the same as before and extending the subscription with an extra number of magazines, but I decided on a refund instead and starting from scratch again!

After whirring into action, I then booked my RSV vaccination and a blood test, booked my car in for it's service and MOT, rang Boots and my stockings are ready, sorted the window man to come Sunday morning and paid some bills. OH kept busy out side and weeded a lot more of the garden and cut off some of the brambles coming over the fence from the field and has filled the garden bin now.

Not long to wait now AnnG. I expect you will be home the same day, so is anyone able to give you a lift?

I'm off to bed now and OH is watching some sport !

Oh dear Mandy. I feel sorry for both the delivery driver and the owner of the car he hit. It sounds as though your car parks are like ours. At the moment we get 3 hours free and the long stay car park is £2.50 for the day. The local council have been trying to bring in charges for years and years but there is always an outcry and it gets dropped but it now seems to definitely be happening. Free parking is about the only thing that attracts people from the outlying villages to our town. If they have to pay to park they might as well go to one of the bigger towns with more shops. Do you know what temperatures are indicated by the numbers on your fridge dial? I set the actual temperature on mine. I’ve got it at 5 degrees which works for us but I think we are usually told it should be below 5.

Your plums and blackberries look good Mel. Mmm, plum jam - love it. It brings back memories of childhood teatimes. I hope you haven’t caught a cold.

Gwyn, you are quite right; when others were moaning about the problems getting their scripts I was bragging about our wonderful system. The NHS are trying to save money by preventing people from ordering and stockpiling drugs they no longer need or often don’t take anyway. That’s fair enough I think but our docs have taken it to heart and instituted a difficult system that just doesn’t work efficiently. I have spoken to the surgery pharmacist this morning and she explained that it will all come right when I have reached 6 scripts so it has to be reissued. Then everything will be on one script. In the meantime I’ve got to go back to the pharmacy where I collect meds and persuade them that they have to give me another 3 packs of one of my meds. Doesn’t it make you want to scream :-P

On a happier note, thank you all for your congrats for granddaughter. It will be Nottingham and I am delighted for her and very proud. It’s one of the Russell Group of unis and very involved with research. The MRI scanner was invented and developed there in the department that E will be joining. I think it will suit her down to the ground and she has done well to be offered a place there.

It was a horrid sticky night again but seemed a bit cooler this morning. That didn’t last long . It’s now 24 degrees but feels hotter and “heavy”.

I took some chicken pieces out of the freezer this morning and need to decide what to do with them. Some sort of tray bake perhaps? Right now I think a nectarine and a drink would go down well.

Its great that Jake and your son are going to do the roof of the shed for you. It will be interesting to see how many cars are about once they put parking meters in.
I am still jam making. \It won't set but I forgot to bring it to a rolling boil before putting in the sugar and the lemon juice and should have brought it up to a boil then before timing it.

We had a delivery this morning of sheets for the shed roof the sheets on there have done well as Colin put those on when he built it over 35 years ago , son and Jake are going to put the new ones on .
They said delivery would be next week so we were surprised when he turned up this morning, but the poor driver hit a parked car on the estate as he was trying to turn round ,we've no idea who's car it is as people park and walk through to the town so someone will have a nasty surprise when they come back as it pushed all the front wing Into the wheel arch so I don't think it can be driven as the metal will catch the tyre
The driver went round a lot of the houses asking if it was there car so he did try to find the driver ,his manager came from the builders merchants and took some photos and also left a note on the screen , there's always people parking out the front as we're so handy for the town its only two or three minutes walk through the churchyard to the town and its going to get worse as the big car park is now going over to parking meters so people will now have to pay ,up until now all the car parks have been free to park ,some have a three hour parking limit.

Just spent fortyfive minutes out in the garden dead heading, cutting down rose branches out of control on the rambler and a bit of weeding. This year the old apple tree that was cut down 3 years ago is truing to grow, it keeps sending up shoots in the bit of lawn I have left.

O I see Anng. its 19 here now blue sky and big white clouds but not much in the way of wind today.

BIL here and he had to bring his wife home from work as she was sick this morning.

I have actually had a couple from the shop plant Alicante I have just stripped a lot of the large leaves off so that the green toms are more in the sun.

Mel I go to GRH for the op at 1230 Monday 19th. It won't be done immediately though that is my time afor attending the day op centre to be checked in. the op will be when they are ready.

Just sat out in the garden with my coffee in the shade. 17 degrees here now and sunny.
One lot dried and airing another lot drying. Using the drier though and have two more loads ready to dry now. Will do the beds and whites tomorrow.

Mandy I turned mine up to 4 with the warmer weather so I think that would be a good idea for you as you are getting higher temps than we are here is Devon.

I have had two cues and I have one tomato ripening on the plant I bought at the shop. I have some coming on the sungold and the BIG tom plants from seed from a neighbout who gave me one of her BIG toms and I saved the seed. Which reminds me its feeding Friday so must do them today.

Morning all,

Nice and sunny here ,we had a little rain in the evening yesterday and must have had a little in the night as there is a few puddles on the road.

Anng I love the little sungold toms they are nice and sweet, mine are still green ,you did well with your potatoes.

Mel there is lots of people with covid this way that we know have covid perhaps you should do a test to check as you were with lots of people at the wedding .

Ann ,we have the full fat milk so I know it doesn't keep as well as the semi skimmed etc ,I have never thought about turning the fridge temperature down ,I would have thought you'd need to turn it up with the heat , I never move the dial I think its set on about 3 I shall have to check .

I have the bedding in the washer so I have the bed to make up and I need to have a good hoover through and then no doubt I'll find plenty more to do .

Morning all,

Nice bright morning here at the moment pc is saying 14 degrees and mostly sunny so that good too.

Got a bit of a raw throat this morning and keep sneezing so I think BIL was right and we both picked up a cold at the wedding.

Remind me Ann when you go in for the op??

good morning all. Just a quick hello as I have a long list of things to do. Just seen them off on their journey back. Not used to them not staying an extra day so it does eem strange. Still a lot need to be done to prepare for a week of probably not being able to do too much with stitches (I assume) in my face.
I did tie up the tomato plants in the planter, had to cut them down too. had a handful of sungold little tomatoes and quite a few on the other plants near the house. Also got another 2 pounds of potatoes making 6 pounds in all off three plants so I am pleased with that.

Thank you Mel got the rain :-) just fine stuff to wet the road ,no puddles yet ,the gardens will love it if there's some over night .
Oh the plums look good .

Vera congratulations to your granddaughter, I hope when she's decided where she's going that she is happy with her choice .

Anng glad your home safe and sound ,the plants seem to shoot up so quickly when your away but so do the weeds .

Gosh Ann your arms are going to be full of pin pricks lol glad the nurse was good at her job and you didn't feel it .

Gwyn I hope keeping the seal on the milk stops it going off ,it certainly helped mine as just lately I've had a couple of bottles turn ,but then again it has been really hot which doesn't help.

I picked two big cues and two small ones today ,we've already had five small ones ,no toms yet they are still tiny and green .

Congratulations on such great news for your granddaughter Vera. :-D It must have been a relief to be cooler last night after the heat you have had where you are.

Mandy, we used to have some Asda skimmed milk go off before the end of the fortnight between our orders. Now we have no trouble with BoB or Cravendale skimmed milk which keeps well, but it does cost more. Did you turn the temperature down in your fridge in this hot weather as that helps things keep.

You had a nice trip out and a little spend up Mel and got some bargains too, which is always good. Those belgian buns sound lovely and plum jam sounds nice too!

Yes a lot of weeds are in the garden bin now Gwyn and he's worked hard and made quite an impact today. He does tell me I'm better at dealing with workmen than him, but I think he misses having a PA to delegate tasks to like he had at work.

It's good you are home now AnnG and sorting out your tomatoes already! It didn't sound like a great journey though. I expect it would feel warm to you after being cooler in the north.

Been raining here and now its 17 degrees shall I send it your way Mandy and Vera?

Sent pic of the plums and berries.

Did'nt get any jam done boo hoo well not yet anyway I will do it tomorrow now.

I forgot to cangratulate your granddaughter Vera. She's a clever girl and I hope she likes which ever place she choses.

Nice to know your back home safe and sound Anng. Hope you can sort out your tom plants ok. Remember to wash your hands with soap afterwards or you will get yellowy green on your clothes. When I wash with handwash it dos'nt remove it properly.

I only forgot to do the library today and now its shut tomorrow until Saturday and thats not a good day to go incase BIL comes.

Chickens are laying well three or four eggs a day now and the tray inside is full. I cleaned out their nest this afternoon as they had broken an egg in it and made an awful mess plus the red mites are back with this heat. All sprayed now and clean woodshavings nice and deep.

Afternoon all

Wonderful news about your granddaughter Vera.
Congratulations to her.! She has done so well :-D

I hope you get your scripts sorted out. What a change there, as you often used to praise the service you got. Why did they have to change it? :-|

Mandy,
Strange that you should post about milk going off, because today I had to remake my morning coffee, as when I added the milk, after pouring in the hot water, it all curdled and I had to start again :-|
The milk was still in date by several days, so next time I will try your suggestion about the seal top.
I know we are advised not to keep the milk in the fridge door, as it is the warmest place, but my fridge is too small to store it in the body of the fridge.

Mel
Your plums and blackberries sound great. I hope the jam works out well. What a lot of lovely fruit.
A friend of mine picked hedgerow fruits for jam one year, but unfortunately it didn't set. She boiled it up again, but the result was still not to her satisfaction. Eventually, several of us were given little jars of delicious jam, set to perfection. I had to smile at the label, where she had printed ' Third time lucky jam ' :-D

Annx
Gosh you must feel like a pin cushion! So good though that the nurse is such an expert and it didn't hurt at all.
I hope the window repairer can be dealt with successfully and that you have a clear weeded flower bed ;-)
Perhaps OH knows you are really efficient, so thinks he'll just leave those sort of jobs to you.

Anng
Good to know you are safely home. Isn't it amazing how a garden changes so quickly left to it's own devices? ;-)
I hope your plants are not really damaged.

The wind is really picking up here now and I can hear it really whistling outside. After the oppressive heat of the last few days, the slightly lower temperature and moving air is so welcome.
Still no rain in this south east corner. No wonder we were, I think, the first area in the country to have compulsory water meters. :-0
I think we are due overnight rain today coming in from the west.
The gardens could do with some.

Pleased you are home safely AnnG. It doesn't sound as though it was a very nice journey.

Thank you for your congrats for granddaughter. Things have changed since lunchtime when she phoned and said she was going to Keele. I had a text an hour ago saying she was just doing her acceptance for Keele when an offer came through from Nottingham that she liked better. So it now looks as though her course will be Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham but don't hold your breath it could have changed again by tonight! She is phoning for a chat tomorrow afternoon/evening.