General Chat

Do hope that your rain stops soon Bridget It sounds as if it has the potential to cause a lot of problems.

And Wow!! £4 for a Moorcroft vase, what a bargain. How many years ago was this? Don't drop it.

I will try and get around to writing something again later.

OH NO!!

We have now been flooded in the ground flor part of our house. OH is down there sweeping out the water and he assures me that there is no long term problems. Our home is on the side of a small mountain, the road is right at the top and then we walk down about 10 steps into our main living quarters. We have a large dining / sitting room, a medium size kitchen, a small store room where the cleaning materials are kept, a special cupboard for veg and fruit and various bits and pieces. Two large bedrooms, ours with the fairly new extension for my computer etc and almost like a garden room out side the sitting room is the Veranda I often mention with the wonderful views.
Down stairs, wher the rain has penetrated is another ful living area with one bedroom with double and one single bed, can also take a full size cot, has built in furniture, a shower room and a large sitting room with great view of the garden and pool, and another computer. We have two book cases down there as well and a decent size settee and a couple of decent chairs.
This is where the water has penetrated.
Thankfully OH copes very well but ........

Had to stop there as OH came up went into the computer room and called out that water had also penetrated in there...not much but some chair seats now have to be dried. The water came through one of the joints in the ceiling.
All sorted now, so hope that the rain stops soon.

Bridget


:-( :-)

Gerard

You are of course quite right, the vase is perfect and when the rain gives a little respite I will go down stairs and check all the details. We fell in love with Moorcroft and everywhere we went we would search second had shops, car boot sales, etc and soon had quite a collection. Of course now and again we had to pay a pretty high amount but it was always worthwhile. In the last couple of years in the UK we bought some of the more modern Moorecroft as well.
We also collect Waterford Crystal, and I have many happy memories about our trips to Ireland and in the last few days going to the factory / shop to see if anything caught our attention.
You have now given me a new idea of what to write next, about holidays...thank you.

Your finds also sound very interesting, especially the encyclopaedias, and did you manage to read any of the newspapers ?
My grandmother had a wonderful treadle sewing machine and I first learnt to use it from the age of about 4 when staying with grandma. Only caught my finger once!

Daily report from Peniscola.
It is raining, in fact it is torrential rain, the palm trees are swaying, the sound of water cascading down from the roof, is almost musical, we do not have gutters as in the UK, the water flows over the roof tiles straight down to the ground. The rain is not deterring some building work somewhere to the west side but I have no idea of what or exactly where it is coming from. In a way it is rather like music, the dripping of the water, the rorential noise from the sky, the swaying of the trees, the occasional bird song..all coming together, and in the background the sound of the pool water being emptied to stop it from over flowing......a whimsical thought no doubt.

Ann, thank you for your ideas re the photos etc I will keep this just in case.
I also have a large amount of original birth certs, wedding certs and army papers. I thought that if my children really do not want them then I will give them to a school or museum.

I wonder if anyone else we be on here today? I hope that everyone is well.

OH abpnd I are trying to loose weight, and so far it seems to be working quite well as several people have commented and I have two pairs of trousers which simply do not stsy up!! Now, do I dispose them or should I keep them?? I hate wasting anything. We are trying to eat healthily and with smaller portions. Truthfully it was the amount of food we were eating that caused the problem. We have found that what suits us is two meals a day, and plenty of fruit. We still have one or two glasses of wine on most days.

I need some more slow cooker recipies, so praying that some are added to the Culinary delights.

One thing we are enjoying is making our own smoothers. I had forgotten all about this piece of equipment and found it down stairs in the china cupboard.
Even OH is enjoying these and normally does not eat fruit apart from the occasional apple.

Time for a coffee now,

Bridget
:-D

Four pounds for a Moorcroft vase - well you lucky lucky person!!! I have watched Flog It! on BBC2 and Moorcroft vases go for about eight or nine hundred pounds. Don't tell me - yours was perfect, no cracks or chips either!!
I have some Encyclopaedias from around 1935 (No mention of Hitler) that my dad collected weekly. Later when you had collected them all you sent them off and they came back bound in three volumes. I also found in a sale three bound volumes of the Spectator, which had belonged to Sir Robert D'Arcy and they are dated MDCCLIII (1753) for 10 pence each - It is fun trying to read 250+ year old printing. I also have my Mum's Singer Sewing machine from circa 1935 - I have no idea if it still works, or if it worth anything, but I kept to remind me of my Mum, who used to make all of her own clothes, curtains and etc. Treasures!!!

Regards
Gerard :-)

OOPs Gerard

I apologies, in fact I profusely apologies, I should have know that being "connected" member of the family you would indeed have such good table linen.
Maybe you are correct about the silver serviette rings and now I have a good idea what to buy my next grandchild, a silver serviette ring with a box containing the first knife, fork and spoon.
All my children had these as gifts from their Godmothers and I still have them. One day when I know that they are living somewhere permanently I will give them to each one to keep.
I used to trawl the secondhand shops when living in the UK and go to Car Boot sales, sometimes one could find several wonderful things and on other occasions there would only be rubbish.
In fact once about 16 years ago i was at a car boot sale not far from where we lived and I found some books which I thought I would enjoy, then my eye caught a beautiful vase, had a quick look at it and hastily paid the full £4.00, yes it does say £4.00 not £400.00
I then took it to someone in the antiques business and it was exactly what I thought, a very old piece of Moorcroft........it has been authenticated and now is just one of my 40 or so pieces.

Sorry to ramble on. OH is watching yet another TV programme about the first world war!

The weather continues to be very very white and cold, the down stair part of our house which is self contained had water enter through the door, so we have put sand there and large towels on the inside. This has only happened once before so not bad as we live on the side of a mountain and considering that the water has to find its' own way down.

So good night everyone

Bridget

Bridget - I have some linen serviettes about six and a beautiful linen table cloth, which I got from my mother's house, what I meant was that people don't give silver serviette rings as presents any more!!
Gerard :-)

Gerard

May I suggest that you buy some linen serviettes, usually they are for sale in the second hand shops. I have about two dozen of these including six which came from my mother. Now of course we do not use these everyday but when friends come to dinner, or on a special day, or if it is wet, cold and miserable weather, such as today.
Maybe you will by now have learnt that we are not take away foodies, or eat from a tray people.

Ann, I am delighted to find someone else who is interested in keeping photos.
When my mother in law died we found several albums that we knew nothing about, these are very precious now and include pictures of her with her Land Army friends, a delightful baby album with photos and comments of her son, her only child. Interesting for family history including names of people that I had not heard of before.

I will write again in about 15 minutes, just have to decide what to write!

Bridget in very wet, very dark, and rather cold Spain.
:-(

My most treasured item:
There are lots of items around the house that I wouldn't like to be without, a car, the PC, the TV and etc., but all of them are replaceable and not treasured. I have a giant box of photographs too, but any or all of the ones that are really wanted to be kept are on disc or on the PC.

It is a silver serviette ring, given to me over 64 years ago as a christening present, I have just given it a bit of a clean, and realized that it was in constant daily use for nearly 20 years. I found it again a few years ago, when I cleared mother's house, following her companion's death. It can't be replaced, in these days of paper serviettes, it is not likely to be used again. Looking at it brings back happy memories of family meals when I was a child. I certainly wish I had looked after it better, there must be at least twenty dents in it, some of them not so small, but the memories it brings are making me smile right now.

Gerard :-)

Sorry, I will try to come up with something else later. Interesting though Bridget. I love photos and have hundreds of them as well including a few albums of my fathers, he was always taking photos with his concertina fold Kodak. But of course all the photos are quite small. He did name a lot of them which is a help. Maybe, if you don't think your family will take them you could leave a note with your will to ask them to take the collection of old photos to the Family History society that the people are connected to. Or, if they are really good photos with dress worn of the fashion of the eras, to a local museum in UK.

My Most treasured item.

As I wrote those words I realised how hard it is to choose just one item. So, being rather naughty I have chosen my Photo Albums, which are all kept together in a book case.

My earliest photos are of my great grandparents on my maternal side and everyone looks so stern, and yet they must have been sitting for a while waiting for the flash of the light from the camera. The amazing thing is not only how well they have kept but also how the genes have passed down so that the facial similarities are still within the family today.
I am not sure how expensive it may have been in the 1800 hundreds to have photos taken but judging by the clothes and the number of photos they must have been reasonable well off.
I have some very interesting photos of my grandfather when he was serving in the Army in India. The sad thing is that I do not know who the people are who are also in the photos. None of them look underfed, or tired and are being kept cool by Indian boys using fans.
I have photos of all my uncles and aunts again from my mothers side of the family, my husbands family going back to around 1910, but only family photos for weddings etc
At last count I have about 2000 photos, and wonder at times what will happen to them when I am no longer here.
Someone once said to me that as the photos are only one moment of a persons life why bother keeping them, well maybe they were right,I would certainly have more space!

If I could only take one item it would have to be a set of photo albums in a box with just one picture of everyone in my family, which I copied a long time ago.

Bridget

My other question I decided to answer is about what I would like people to remember me as or by...or something to that wording !!!!!!!!

I would like to be remembered for being a good wife mother and friend. One who has time to listen as well as talk, kind and considerate, I always try to think of others before myself, sometimes to my detriment ! A good cook, fanatical about reading and words having started to read at 3 I can honestly say I have never stopped.! A person with diverse tastes in music and reading, with an open mind and not prejudiced, at least I try not to be..we all have our lapses. But most of all I hope I will be remembered for just being me..not perfect..slightly flawed but always just me...I believe everyone who knows me could not say..well you never know where you are with her...what you see is what you get..just me

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend, its been very misty here, the first time this year..had our daughter, son in law and step grandson here for lunch.

Regards Jan

When I saw that I was the only person to add an entry yesterday I was very surmised, I do hope that you are all well and that some one joins me today.

I have just ventured onto the verandah and I can hardly believe my eyes. The sky is black, the rain must be the worst I have ever seen it here in Spain, and I cannot see the castle or any of the houses apart from the one each side of our house and the one in front.
The noise of the rain is similar to tiny stones hitting the ground.
Jet and Joe, my dogs, are nervous so chiggers down in all the rooms except the large glass doors, 4 of them which look onto the veranda.
Just as well that we have plenty of food and drink in the house, yes, including wine.
I am now just praying that the computer does not go down along with anything electrical.....have candles which we could use, but ....

We do not have any gas, except for the BBQ, so I suppose we could use that if there is a real problem. We are not allowed to have gas up here, not sure why.

Last week, when our friends were here we went inland on one of the days, and went to look at reseviours and the water is still only about a quarter of what it should be...this Is quite worrying for not only us people who need water but also for the loss of the magnificent birds that used to fly around and the Hawks etc seem to have disappeared. The family owned restaurants have nearly all been closed this year so hoping that most are able to open next year.

I am eagerly waiting for Ann and Gerard to write more as there experiences in their entries about holidays are fascinating.
If the electricity stays on I will write on here later today.

Take care of yourselves and I hope that you all have a good day.

Bridget in Wet Wet Wet Spain

Good morning to you all.

Here in Peniscola it is a grey, wet day. It rained all night and whilst not the torrential rain of earlier, it is still, cold and wet.

We have justarrieved home from visiting the supermarket and bought lots of different fruits, apples, pears, tangerines, bananas, pineapple and mangos.
OH has decided that in our efforts to loose some weight we should eat more fruit! He made a splendid drink when we arrived home, he used apple, banana, pears and some yogurt with fruit flavour. It was quite filling, and looked good.
We are having pasta for our main meal, and cutting down on the Vino.
If anyone has any healthy recipies please add them to Cullinary delights, thanks.

I have to do some more baking as we need a cake for Christmas and Oh has asked for another cake but not the traditional Christmas Cake. Any suggestions welcomed.

We both feel less stressed today, I think we wore our selves out with all the visitors this year, culminating with the last couple.

Today I hope to start the crochet shawl I have promised for next grandchild. I was so pleased to be asked.
Granddaughter who caused us all so much worry after her accident is progressing slowly and looking forward to her birthday on Xmas Eve and then her Xmas presents. So please keep her in you positive thoughts and prayers.

My story will be on here by Monday, I promise!

Thinking of you all,

Bridget

just a quick visit this morning, as I have to get our home back to order..the washing machine is on...again..and the sun has just broken through so perhaps I will not have to use the tumble drier.

The amount of dust around is driving me mad, so I will do each room and close the shutters and the doors to those we do not have to use.
Then iwilldosome ironing, can put my brain in order during this time as I can think how to write my first piece for on here.

We are back to trying to loose a little weight each week, so back to two meals a day. We have a good Brunch instead of breakfast and lunch, and then a cooked evening meal.
Last night I made a soup from the left over pieces of chicken and the carcas, add chopped up veg, mushrooms, a few green beans, and when I had taken mine I added some sweetcorn for OH. Along with home made bread this was delishes.

Well the washing is now spinning so must go, will be back later today.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones,

Bridget
:-)

Oh Bridget no wonder you are tired... I have to say people who have health problems and do not really do anything to help themselves annoy me......No doctor of any merit would surely say smoking is good for you....would they ?

Glad you liked our holiday write ups......I shall leave it till next week before I inflict another on you !!!!!!


Regards Jan

PS Put your feet up tonight.

I have had a quick read through the new entries and found them very informative and interesting.
I am exhausted now our guests have left for home. Although somewhat younger than me or my OH both of out guests are always on various medication, the lady smokes, even though she has a dreadful cough, is diabetic, and visits her GP every two weeks. She becomes very angry if anyone tries to persuade her to stop smoking...she claims that her GP has informed her that smoking is GOOD for anyone ......,,!

Her husband has to use a cane to walk around, has knee and hip problems
Plus a variety of other health issues. However they are kind people and that is why we like them.

My husband took them to the train Station at 05.30 and waited to make sure that they bordered the right train for Barcelona, and they should be in the UK by now.
We went to a quiz last night and I could not believe that myself and two ladies came in first!!

Will be back tomorrow when I do not feel so tired

Bridget

Good afternoon to you all.

We have been very busy whilst our visitors have been here and the last two days have been exceptionally busy. Neither of our friends are in good health, the wife has diabetes which is controlled by diet and the husband has to have medication as well. On top of that one has severe asthma and the other has breathing problems, heart not as good as it could be and uses at least one walking stick to get around, the amount of medication between them both was mind boggling and they are both only just into their sixties! However the manage to fly here there and everywhere and then stay with us for a relaxant time!!

OH took them to the station at 06.00 hrs and stayed with them until they boarded then he came home. Meanwhile I cleaned their room, put the washing on and started to clean the house.....I simply do not have the energy I used to have and am now exhausted !!
Last night we went to a quiz night which was great fun and my table of OH, another female friend and of course me...won, by one point. We have a good bottle of wine and some rather nice looking chocolate cakes, the lady with us had the other half....
Well going to have a rest now as I cannot concentrate, taken me ages to write this and read all about the wonderful holidays...

Take care of yourselves

Bridget ....zzzzzzzzzz

Gerard, thanks for your remarks about the holiday write up. I will later put on my similar one to yours in Atlanta although we don't have a relative there with a fantastic house :-( :-( Your holiday sounds fantastic, a lovely area and a bonus to give up smoking.

I do remember reading Revelations many, many years ago when in my early teens - frightened me to death and a difficult read for a young teenager, must have been Bible class I imagine (Baptist and I don't attend these days.)

I am sure your OH feels much lighter with her hair short, it is amazing what a difference a new hair do makes.

My OH likes Michael Macintyre, falls about laughing when he is on.

Thank you Ann and Jan for those wonderful holidays - they remind me of my lovely trips to the USA, where my brother lives.

OH and I went to Atlanta - October 2006 - We called it second honeymoon as the first time round it had been a bit of a let down, because I suffer from severe tinnitus whenever I fly - It didn't start off too well - we had to wait two hours at Gatwick to check in because the plane hadn't arrived from USA, a lot of sitting around. Once in the air we made good time and eventually we were only half an an hour or so late. My brother was meeting us so we were anxious to get through customs and immigration.
Well - three hours later - we eventually boarded the train that takes you to the terminal, and we collected our luggage, met my brother and off we went to his house which is in Roswell GA, (not the Roswell where the alien landed!!) He has a beautiful house there, lots of rooms and we spent several days relaxing there, before we hired a car, our base then was to be my brother's house by the lake in the Blueridge Mountains of Georgia, (not the same Blueridge Mountains that Laurel and Hardy sang about), the previous time we went it was August (too hot) - this was October it was perfect - the lake water was still warm - and temperatures like a normal summer in the UK. We spent nearly three idyllic weeks there, using our car to make trips to Cherokee, Atlanta (the Home of Coca-Cola), Stone Mountain and of course sunning ourselves by the lake. We went shopping one day and found one of the last Drive-In movie houses in Georgia, and we went later in the evening to see the movies on show from the comfort of our hired car - a different experience (the sound came out of the car radio tuned to a specific frequency) - before the trip we had decided not to smoke [my brother didn't approve of smoking anyway] so we took this holiday opportunity to give up the dreaded weed - and it worked - still smoke free after more than five years!
We eventually returned to Roswell to stay with my brother again, before returning home to a cold and foggy London in November.

Looking forward to the book reviews, at the moment I have the task of reading the Revelation of St.John the Divine in the Bible (Stephen King eat your heart out!) - a difficult read, but either a dream whilst on LSD or just someone with a fantastic imagination, written nearly 2000 years ago! and to help to get into a lighter mood also reading Michael McIntyre's autobiography "Life & Laughing".

OH had her hair all cut off yesterday, makes her look about fifteen again! But she likes it and so do most of her friends, especially as she has put her photo on Facebook! I'm always jealous when it comes to hair (not had much for such long time now!!)

Later I will be off to my voluntary work, and tonight will be going to an Advent discussion group (with the church) - tonight looking at the Creation - should be interesting.

I hope Bridget is well - and wish good health to all participants on here
Take care - and everyone have a good day
Gerard :-)

Yes, maybe she has visitors, unusual for her not to pop on though. Maybe the PC is down.