General Chat

Valerie, we are driving back so etting off on Wednesday morning very early as we want to miss thepeople going to work aroun Barcelona, it can be a nightmare to drive around...I tried it once and we arrived at the major airport!!!

The Blessing of the marrigae is on the Saturday so we should have an easy journey. We are driving because we are taking some things back with us including quite a lot of Waterford Crystall which we are giving to my son and daughter in Lax=w as a present. I am also going to give my eldest son, when he is 4o this year a rather smart coffees set which his father and I bought when we had our firs anniversary, so it will be 39 years old and it is still in fashion...eldest som=n is very artistic and has often commented on it.
We should be home on the following Tuesday or Wednesday, so I may nit be on here very often during that period of time.

I shall be wearing a Pim=nk and Brown outfit and I have the matching bag, shoes et and have only worn iy once before so jolly pleased that I had kept. We do not dress very formally in Spain so it seemed siily to rush out and bye another outfit.

I am the omly one awake. OH is sound sleep as are Jet and Joe, the females must have more stamener than the males,

well wishing evry one a good nights sleep and if you are just waking to a new day please enjoy your day

Bridget#23.30 hrs Spain :P

We had rain at last about 4.30 this morning, the garden feels fresh but it has made little difference to anything else.

Got reprieve today from gardening but will be back at it tommorrow. I'm keen to get things straight before I go into hospital,......if I ever get there, still waiting for a confirmation letter.

Hope everything goes OK Spanish Eyes.will be thinking of you.

I have a committee meeting at my home this afternoon, I am a WI president for my sins...no I love it, if someone had told me ten years ago I would belong to the WI I wouldn't have believed them. My ladies are a lovely bunch, and some have had a difficult year healthwise, but we all bounce back. My OH is going to empty the compost bin while we talk, just to keep out of the way !!!. Though I have given instructions in advance, as to where we should move the bin to !!!!!
:O

Greenfingers, aim taking a quick look on here whilst having a coffee. Noted that you are interested in Wiltshire, which part are you interested in. This is my main interest and I am so excited because when I meet my sister she will be giving me copied records from the the present to the 1700hs, with births deaths and marriages all transcribed from the original documents. I feel as if Christmas has arrived early.

I started by looking for Fords, and Jukes, have many more.

Well coffee getting cold so must go


14.47 hrs Spain

Hello,

Bridget, your sons will be well pleased with crystal and the coffee set I am sure. Have a good trip, travel safely and you can tell us all about it and the wedding Blessing on your return. Your outfit sounds very nice. JBay is also a very informal place, in fact when we arrived here we were told that we had joined "the tackie and tracksuit brigade" :-).

I am still waiting for the birds to find the food which I have put out for them in the feeder, I wish they would get a move on.

Val.

15.26.

Greenfingers, back in 1969/1970 I lived in Essex and a new WI was started up in the evenings. The intial meeting was at the local primary school and it was heaving. I went home from that meeting as treasurer, a post i held for three years until we moved away. I loved that WI, we were very informal but had some great speakers and it was a good social life, we were nearly all under 40 at the time. I was in my early 30s. Twice since then as we moved around, I have tried to join the WI but each time the age group was 60 plus and it was not at all lively, friendly enough but only about 15 people and sadly not for me. I think i was spoiled by our evening WI as mostly round here they are in the afternoon. I hasten to add that I am 70 so have no objection to the members being older in body but I would like them to be young in spirit.

Val, any birds yet? They do take ages to get used to new feeders.

Bridget, your outfit sounds nice. I hope you enjoy the blessing, give my love to my home county wont you?

Thank you for the comments about the WI , yes some of my members are in their 70's but young at heart... unfortunately I guess our youngest member is about 60, but hey you are as young as you feel, and we are a lively lot, such a pity you don't live near here... we would welcome you with open arms.

Spanish Eyes.. re Wiltshire, my father had an Aunt Winnie who lived in Devizes and her husband was the blacksmith. I know they existed because I visited with my parents in the 50's but I cannot ascertain as to what her married name was. She was an Evans born in Poplar and her mother was an Elizabeth Markham. Winnie had a brother Wilfred. I have tried so many ways of getting to the bottom of it all....I have various feelers out with other people on the GR trees, but as usual I am still waiting for them to reply...only one has replied so far Hey Ho...have a lovely time and if you can help with Wiltshire I'd be eternally grateful

Last night just after 10pm. out of nowhere came a loud peal of thunder and then down came hailstones of varying sizes, didn;t last long and the ground wasn't even covered with the hailstones and then just as suddenly it was all gone. Not something we see here often, in fact in the 16 years we have lived here it has hailed just once before. This morning the sun is shining again and there is quite a srong wind blowing.

No birds yet Ann but perhaps to-day. When they discover the feeder I will be able to watch them from the lounge.

Is the WI a church ladies group? Up until the end of last year I was a member of our Ladies Fellowship, we met once a month and had interesting speakers and demonstrations on various activities.

I gave my husband a haircut yesterday and I must say I did quite a good job considering I am not a hairdresser. He won't go to a unisex place and the local barber seems to have disappeared so he was at my mercy :-).

Packing all done Bridget?



Val.

8.13

Greenfingers

On find Ancestors the is a chap named Victor Harvey whi is brilliant at finding records from Wiltshire, he has recently done a lot of what I call "confirmation work " for me.

I also would be delighted to help once I am back from my jaunt to the UK. Please pm any info you have and I will start looking for you asap.

Val, backing will be done this morning, should only take a couple of hours, as we are going in casual clothes apart from the wedding Blessing. We are sealing the presents in bubble wrap and placing it in a cold box, then we will buy the wrapping paper in the UK. The box will then be filled with food to bring back from the UK.

Jet and Joe my cocker Spaniels are booked in for the Kennels and Jet will be a little cross and make a fuss but they are very well looked after, so we know that they will be OK.

The sun is shiny and everything is calm today.

Val, the hailstones make a dreadful noise, don't they. I cannot instantly recall having hailstones for about 10 or 12 years, when I was still in the UK.

Well time to get that packing done

08.41hrs Spain :P

Hooray, birds at last :D, this morning one little weaver arrived and boy did she make the most of her visit, then two little doves appeared. I sat and watched them from the lounge it was lovely. Now hoping that others will find their way.

Bridget, I hope the wedding Blessing goes well have a great time on your visit and come back safely.


Val.

14.14.

Spanish Eyes

We will catch up when you get back.

Been out in the garden again today, and then went on line and ordered two euphorbia and 2 perennial geraniums. I love both these plants as they are such good value. Perennial geraniums stay green all winter and you cut off the flowers when finished and then they flower again. If you haven't bought plants on line use Crocus.co.uk. We bought two trees 5ft plus high from them they arrived in big pots, lots of roots, well packaged. In fact it took us an age to get the trees out !! Delivered as they said promptly taking into account that this was when we had all the bank holidays , so we decided to order some plants, will let you know how they are when we get them.

Til tommorrow X :D

Hello to all. This is Dumbo. Well, I should be called that after what I realised this morning.

My children gave me a mobile phone a few years ago and it is paid for on my DIL's business plan, which allows for more mobiles than she has - so it costs nothing and allows for $15 worth of calls per month - which I don't make anyway, I only use it to receive texts and reply to them (rarely).

After a health scare more than a year ago, I make sure I keep it charged up and not only take it with me wherever I go, I take it to bed with me too.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a text and when I replied, it wouldn't 'send'. Again, this happened a few days ago and when I tried to make a call to check it, it wouldn't work either - and triggered a message saying that my pre-paid account was zero. I don't have a pre-paid plan, so DIL is sorting it out with the providor - who obviously changed it by mistake.

In the meantime, I have been carefully keeping it charged and taking it to bed with me each night - in case of emergency.......It was only this morning that I asked myself "why am I doing this?". If it doesn't work - what good is it to me?

I'm claiming 'old age'. Anyone else do silly things like this?

I like the perrenial geraniums (Cranesbill) as well GF. Although in the past couple of years we have dug one or two up because they were taking over the garden and were too big for it (both height and spread).

Berona, maybe your subconscious was thinking it was going to miraculously recover!

Alnnin Glos

Only just had time to write today, as had plants delivered 2 new geraniums and 2 euphorbias from a company called Crocus if you live in the UK you can find them online. Only ordered Sunday, arrived today. Well packaged and in beautiful condition have also had 2 trees which arrived promptly. Delivery of £5.99 for however many you order. With the trees the size was such that we couldn't get them in the car, and local delivery from Garden centres is exhorbitant. Lots of info on site and plants listed alphabetically with good photos I have become a fan !!

Have had some rain today but not enough to make a difference

See you all tommorrow X :D

Just popping in to say good morning, nothing to write about today. It is a quiet morning here.

Greenfingers, sounds good. Shall be spending money on plants tomorrow no doubt. As long as it doesn't rain we are going to the Malvern Spring Garden show. Always an excellent day out so we are looking forward to it. Not cheap any more though, plants the same price as shops mainly but a lot more choice with specialist growers.

Had more rain today, just after OH put in all the plants that we had from Crocus and the local garden centre where we had coffee and an early snack lunch..

Garden beginning to look really great.

I finally had confirmation of my op today and unless cancelled will be going in on June 6th it cannot come soon enough , I am so tired of being in pain !!

Went in to local florists and order my daughters wedding bouquet and one for the bridesmaid (my lovely neice) so another step forward.

Night all will close now and finish watching Murdoch...Ohhh Yannick Bisson, if you haven't watched this series its very good, even without Yannick !

Regards 7.45 pm Norfolk UK

Beeen thinking of you to-day Bridget, hope you all had a lovely day.



Val.

16.56

Nothing much to report. Still can't use my mobile because I am waiting for a new simcard. That's what was wrong with it. The other one was 'old hat'. I take the landline extension to bed with me in the meantime.

I'm now going to watch The King's Speech. It was part of my present for our Mother's Day, last Sunday. I remember the King well - and also I remember singing God Save the King each morning at assembly, before going in to our classrooms. We had a very loyal headmistress!

A few days ago, our temperatures dropped suddenly, and although still around 17, a cold south-westerly wind made it seem much colder than it really was. This has continued and reminds us that winter is on its way (1st June). It's also a time to plant our bulbs, which we have kept in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks until the soil is ready for them. Winter woollies are coming out now.

I know 17 doesn't seem cold to UK people - but when you are used to temps being 26 to 40 for six months, and very little wind - it's a bit hard to take a sudden drop like that.

It's a quiet Sunday here, cloudy and cool.

I thoroughly enjoyed the King's Speech Berona. When I was a younger we were part of the Commonwealth and God Save the King used to be played at the end the film at what we then called bioscopes, to-day they are referred to as the movies.

We are also going into winter here, I prefer the colder weather the summers are just too hot for me.

We have Municipal elections here on Wednesday which will be a Public Holiday. There are going to be endless queues so I am expecting to spend quite some time standing around.


Val.

8.30 a.m.

Morning everyone from Norfolk UK

Just bought Kings Speechh, not watched it yet. I lived din London when our Queen had her coronation and watched the procession, it was magical

Had more rain yesterday, but managed to go out into the garden again, looking better all the time. Nothing much to say today just a quiet Sunday

Thought of you yesterday Bridget I am sure it all went well

XX.