General Chat

Evening All,

Brrr it's cold outside now and a bit breezy! Only a glimmer of sun today, mostly dull.

If the Wren chooses a nest let's hope she likes another better than the Swallow's nest. How long have the Swallows been returning Mel? Tudor man will soon be in the post hopefully then and off to a new home. :-D

Yes it is annoying to have to pay the same standing charges whatever fuel you use, as you can't make any savings on that. I suppose the maintenance of the pipelines etc is the same for everyone regardless of what fuel we use though. There are some that have no standing charges at all, but obviously they charge more per unit for the fuel used.

Mandy that sounded gruesome with the poor Pigeon. I wonder if the shock caused it to lay an egg? I bet the children were excited about World Book Day. OH said they had been talking about it at the schools he goes to and the Head Teacher tonight was dressed up as something he couldn't recognise. He said most of the little girls seemed to be princesses.

More progress today with your garden then AnnG and nice clean slabs. I go to bed really early these days as it can take ages for pain to settle and you get to a point beyond which you just can't nod off. Frustrating isn't it when you want to sleep and it just won't happen. I hope you have a better night tonight.

We had a fresh 30% off voucher for the carvery so went there for lunch. They didn't mention on the voucher that it was just for a normal size carvery this time (small is usually enough for us) so not such a good saving and the carrots were quite hard and they did Kale which we found chewy. Never mind, it save me cooking and the rest was ok. :-) We called in the factory shop afterwards and bought 2 bath towels, a pack of thick boot socks for footie for OH and a pack of 4 plastic lidded containers for the freezer batch cooked portions. Someone was stabbed to death in the road we went along at the same time yesterday. It seems you aren't safe any time of the day or anywhere anymore. It's quite a small old coaching town and not a rough area at all.

I leapt out of bed early when I heard a car pull up to deliver the paper and saw it was parked on the road in front of next door's bungalow next to our drive like used to happen, but it was a different car! Now I'm wondering (hoping!) it is the regular delivery person and that the one parking on our drive was temporary or filling in for someone. Miss Marple has left her car at the bottom of our drive again to see who comes with the paper tomorrow. :-)

Two patios and a path pressure washed - wonder how much water that put on my meter. Definitely looks cleaner but difficult to tell until it all dries out. Small patio down the end of the garden has already had sand and weed killer added, just waiting for rain to wash it off. I had forgotten how pretty the bricks were on that patio lots of different colours.Top patio has larger cracks between paving stones now filled with water so the sand will wait until next week.

Then three long strips of log roll hammered in. That looks nice and tidy now.
It was a long job about four hours.

Just two jobs left on the list now. Two hand rails for the steps and one seat needing painting.

Come over all cloudy now and we've had a biting wind all day. I have put my Tudor man on Ebay.

No I don't think there was any photos Mel .

Cloudy here and looks more like rain is on the way as the clouds are getting black .

Sounds like great fun Mandy did they take a picture???? Would love to see one please.

Yes I thought I would just leve the nest as last year the swallows laid 5 eggs in the nest and that was that thye disappeared a while later.

I believe the male Wren makes about three nests and the Mrs chooses which one to lay in.

Afternoon all,

Sounds as if there might be a bit of nest Share going on ,hopefully Jenny Wren will have finished with the nest before the Swallows want it.

Yesterday we heard a thump on the conservatory window ,a bird had gone into it ,we think it was a Hawk that had a pigeon as there was so many pigeon feathers outside and some blood and looking on the camera we saw a flash of brown as the bird flew off with something in its beak.
There was liquid all down the window and when I went out to wipe it I could see it was all yellow like the yolk of an egg .
What a job we had to sweep up all the feathers ,the poor thing must have been bald by the time the bird took it off .

Been shopping this morning and called and got eggs for son so dropped them off and had a coffee ,dil was at work and as its World book day she had gone into work dressed as the Cat in the hat and Lewis went as Harry Potter.

If she is going to use it Mel I would leave it, it is not our place to interfere with nature I think. The swallows will sort it if necessary.

8 degrees here now too. I keep meanimng to say that Jenny Wren has taken over the swallows nest in the big ponds filter shed. She has loads of moss up the back of it and round the edge. Now I am not sure whether to remove it as the swallows may want it again this year. What do you think?

I think I was probably over tired. Fell ok today so must have had enough to keep me going. Jake has just been to check jobs and is coming back in an hour or so to power wash the patios at the back, clean off the wall to the wall garden outside the conservatory and lay some lawn edging around a couple of beds. 8 degrees now.

Suns our a bit here and its now 8 degrees.

Morning all,

Not such a nice morning today pc says strong gusty winds in an hour and 6 degrees and its very dull and grey.If we could have as many sunny days as we have grey ones everyone would be happy.

Another Thursday has come around. the weeks are flying by to me.

Sorry you had a bad night Anng you would have thought with all the walking you had done you would have slept really well last night.

Good morning all. a bit misty this morning not a thick fog (yet) like yesterday. Hopefully we are going to get some sun it is 6 degrees and no frost.

Yes Vera it was a bit tiring on my legs but I enjoyed it, good to be walking around in the sun. Unfortunately I didn't sleep well, Just could not get to sleep, no reason but was still awake well after 2am. I then sort of slept in snatches so am tired this morning, nothing planned except Jake is going to call round to discuss the next job.

Apologies ladies, I seem to have missed your afternoon posts earlier.

It sounds as though you have had a good day AnnG but it sounds quite tiring. Perhaps you’ll sleep well tonight.

I hope you get the camellia you want Ann and I hope that chap takes the hint now you’ve positioned your car differently.

You are right Mel about giving with one hand and taking away with the other but, having said that, our electricity bill went down by a reasonable amount last month even though I feel I am using more power. We pay by monthly direct debit so I suppose it could go up again at any time.

GREAT NEWS FROM EDF

The cost of using energy is going down from 1 April.

With global energy prices falling the energy regulator, Ofgem, has reduced its energy price cap*. This means that overall energy spend will fall significantly for the vast majority of customers - and that is despite the fact Ofgem has also increased some standing charges due to increased costs. You don’t need to do anything or call us, as the changes will be automatically applied.

Ofgem reviews the energy price cap every three months to make sure prices are fair and reflect the cost of energy. From April the energy spend for a "typical household" on a standard tariff will go down to £1,690 per year from the current £1,928 - that’s a reduction of £238*.


Yeh yeh yeh they give it in one hand and then take it with the other.!!!!!!!! Then it says:-

What does this mean for me?

Electricity You currently spend £1,512.05

New spend from 1 April 2024 £1,352.47

Change in spend (over next 12 months) £-159.58



These annual spend estimates are based on your energy use from last year. They assume no further price changes. They include any relevant discounts, or charges like VAT, but don't include any Warm Home Discount rebate.

They put up the standing charge so do we really get cheaper leccy I ask myself?????

Afternoon all

Misty here this morning, then the sun broke through and it stayed fairly bright for quite a while. Now we are back to grey cloud. It's apparently 10 degrees but it certainly doesn't feel like it.

I'm glad your journey to and from the hospital wasn't too fraught yesterday AnnG. At least you have some buses that cover your journeys. I've kept my bus pass but I don't know why as I rarely get the opportunity to use it. I used to occasionally go to Ipswich by the one-an-hour bus but that got changed to a bus every 2 hours and the 9.30 am bus is now 9.15 am so bus passes can't be used. The next one is 11.20 and takes well over an hour as it goes round various villages. Once there you don't have time to get something to eat and do a bit of shopping before having to get a bus back. I accepted the lack of public transport when we lived in a rural hamlet but now we live on the edge of a town of 25,000 people. I wish we could use our car less but all the time we are safe to drive we will have to continue to do so.

The overcharging in the Co-op is odd Annx. I hope it is inefficiency rather than a fiddle going on as it's horrible to think that the assistants may be dishonest. I always ask for a receipt.

I slept quite well last night so got up with a bit more energy this morning. I hoovered through and did the ironing and several odd jobs. Dinner is all prepared. I had a wander round the garden earlier and thought I really ought to do some work out there but the ground is sopping wet and I get discouraged as it's not the garden I planned. I try not to say much to OH as I know he is trying to help but he will plant things in totally the wrong spot and chop things down at the wrong time of year. He's a hands-on sort of person so never bothers to google a new plant and find out how you are supposed to look after it which is why I now have another dead plant in a pot in the garden. When I googled to try and find out why it died I found it should have been brought inside for the winter. Ignore my moans, I think I'm just in a bit of a grumpy mood today.

The Ladies Association AGM yesterday went off OK in the end. The expected fireworks turned out to be damp squibs. The "difficult" people are 3 ladies that I know reasonably well and they were sitting at our table of 6 so it could have been embarrassing. One of them was going for treasurer and had been nominated by one of the others but she withdrew at the last minute so it didn't come to a vote. She is one of our coffee group and I would have voted against her which could have been awkward. The other one of the three ladies had been put forward as secretary. Very diplomatically and without naming names the chairman announced that a nomination had been received by a non-member and the committee didn't feel that it was appropriate but wanted to see what we all thought so we voted on whether we could take nominations from non-members and there was a nearly unanimous "no". I was amazed to find the lady wasn't a member. She had been on the committee at one point and had resigned a couple of years ago. She has been to some meetings since then, though not every one, so she must have been coming as a visitor. In the end the existing committee were voted in en bloc.

Things got more jolly after that as glasses of prosecco came round with plates of finger sandwiches and cakes. Hopefully all the unpleasantness will now be forgotten.

I have just seen the time. I must go and get my casserole in the oven. You'll be glad to see the back of me with my moaning about buses and gardens. Here's a smile to end with :-D :-D

Ann I don't make the dolls themselves. the moulds I am making are of Clarice Cliff things I made back in the 70's when I sold my miniatures to shops. I also sold them at the market in bideford when there was a shop in Butchers Row and I did the market twice a week with our plants.

Lol I have made good use of the bus pass since I reached 60, at first we just got half fare then after a couple of years it went to free. T and i used to go to town more or less once a week. for me now I find it easier to catch the bus into Gloucester or Cheltenham than walk to Tescos, although I rarely buy groceries in town. It has been a glorious day here once the fog lifted, sunny and warm with blue skies. The bus times have been a bit iffy but still better than most people have. This morning the 0948 was said on my phone to be delayed to 10am and sure enough that is when it came but, being late and with a trainee driver it was a slow journey as there were queues at all the stops. Still I was not in a hurry. coming home when I got to the Bus Hub there were a lot of people waiting as the one due to go before the one that just came in didn't run, or at least it shuts its doors and went off empty so it could catch up time so then ours which luckily was a double decker was full. so full that I actually had to ask the young girl teenager to move her bag off the outside seat so that I could sit down. She actually did it with a good grace. She was actually sitting in the seat that says to give up your seat to anyone with mobility problems so she didn't have a choice really. The young man in the seat across the gangway took a lot longer to move his bags but gave in in the end. then when the person got off he sat with his foot in grubby trainer on the seat.

I had a coffee in town with a cinnamon whirl, while I read the free Metro paper I picked up on the bus. Then I walked down to Gloucester docks and had a good wander round with my camera taking photos of the boats and buildings as we have a 'reflections' project coming up in a couple of months. I crossed the canal basin and walked down past Gloucester college, pausing every so often to sit in the sun and people watch. I walked as far as Llantony Priory and realised that although I had always looked at it from the tow path and I had never been close so I walked right round the grounds reading information and taking photos and then I went into the visitor centre. I felt like a tourist but it was really interesting and the information was well presented. Back then to visit the Quays shopping centre where I had a traditional (can't say Cornish) pasty and a coffee for lunch, then into M&S where I bought 'Jeggings' and a shirt top before walking slowly back to catch the bus home and I got in at 3.15PM, Back ache from carrying my bag etc and legs and feet ache but happy. I did take my folding stick but didn't use it. That is heavy to carry as well.

Mandy yes I wonder how Vera's AGM went.

Called round the village garden centre after the shop this morning. I was a bit late going, so the garden centre carpark was well full with an uphill walk from the bottom spaces so I didn't stop. I went to see if they had any Camellias and spotted some very pretty bright pink ones from my car, so I might pop back early on Friday and see what else they have as well. I need to get cracking in the garden soon and dig out what plants I want to keep from the narrow border next to the drive as some re bulbs and replant them round the back or pot them up for replanting elsewhere on the front.

I stopped the man coming onto our drive this morning by parking my car at the bottom at the side of OH's. I'll do it tonight and tomorrow and see if he gets the hint. Probably not, but worth a try first.

Mel the water in the pond must be really cold so not a nice job to do. I didn't realise you made the figures in moulds too. I've managed to clean the glass oven door, the microwave, hob and sink. The kettle needs doing as our hard water leaves deposits around the top and down from the spout as well as inside it, but that can wait till tomorrow now.

I've sorted a toilet for the ensuite that is higher than the current one but not too long or wide as our ensuite is tiny and the all important quick release seat that is soft close and will be easier to change than the current one in the future when we are doddery. lol.

It 11 degrees here now. Washing blowing on the line and the suns still shining.

I have done the big pond filter and am just going to hoover the kitchen and diner, put another coat on my new moulds and do a bit of drilling on some miniatures.

Morning All,

No fog or frost here and it's 4 degrees so a bit better than for Mandy and AnnG.

You must be hankering after bus trips now AnnG! lol. Why not take advantage of your bus pass and pop into town. :-D Although I haven't been on a bus for years I still keep my bus pass, just in case the cars are out of action and I have to be somewhere and OH is out. Handy for ID too.

I thought it might be a fiddle going on Mandy. So many people don't bother with a receipt and pay with a watch or card. It leaves things wide open for people to be overcharged if they buy a basketful. I don't know how they balance the till takings against stock, but it just seemed odd. It was a different assistant, but they were both new in the past 6 months.

OH is out again today at Grantham. I would have gone with him to be dropped off at the retail park, but it sounded like he would be at least 2-3 hours so a bit long for me to hang around. I might go tomorrow as I might find something he would like for his birthday.