General Chat

Yes AnnG, we thought the same and they didn't want the job, but I've got a feeling who ever we ask to level the ground is going to be expensive as it's a massive back garden. I think the quote for the new drive and the quote for the side gate and fence panels was about right though, but it's still a lot of money so we'll have to save a bit more before having those done, but like you said I think we'd be better off levelling the back garden ourselves even if it does take the next two summers to do it.

Going to do the dishes now, I don't have a dishwasher, unless you count my OH ;-) ;-) :-D

Anng I have emailed you .

I think you managed to catch up with the posts Gill. Well done and it sounds as if you are getting on with the boarding. Gosh that is a horrendous amount for the garden. Sort of makes me think that they don’t want the job. I am sure you will be able to do it yourselves.


Thanks Mandy, with the next stitch do you go across horizontally ior at a slant?

Received tracking details for my air frier and not overjoyed that it is Evri given the mess they got in with parcels over Christmas.

I'm splitting my time helping OH and finally going through my emails and noticed some off the thread. I've not had any spare time to go through them so sorry if my comments are a bit late.

Love the knitted animals Mandy, you're very clever I wouldn't have a clue where to start and I can knit, mind you I've only knitted jumpers and cardigans so not a lot and I haven't knitted for years. I fancy doing a bit of knitting now, pity I don't have the time, but something to do again once we're all sorted.

What lovely flowers off Don, AnnG, they're very pretty. Enjoy your day out.

Love the paintings Ann, is that Alan Sugar? It looks a lot like him if it's not. You're very talented, I wish I could paint, although I do a good stick man :-D :-D :-D

All those fox hounds Mel, I'd of been a bit nervous if they had come to close to me but I suppose you're used to it. Lovely photo's though. What a pity you missed the library.

What a nice thing to do for the family Mandy, the sponges will go down well. Your dil sounds like me........very busy. She's going to be so grateful of your kindness.

Well I'd better get back to the cement boards, I'll be glad when this room is finished as we're down to the fiddly bits now around the chimney breast and into the alcoves, so lots of measurements for me to get my head around and it doesn't help when the boards are 4 foot square. Luckily one of the cut off pieces I used for right in front of the chimney, which made measuring a bit easier.

Just either side into the alcoves to do then the room will be finished and we can make a start on moving our bedroom furniture into there so we can cement board our bedroom next. All that'll be left to do then is the hall and kitchen, then we can start decorating and sorting out a new kitchen. I just need to contact the fella who did our back door to straighten it then the boards should go down okay.

It's taken me ages to write this post with having to keep stopping to help OH. The photo's were worth it though. :-)

Hi all, sorry I didn't post yesterday I spent 8 hours doing DIY in the kitchen and by the time I'd had something to eat and a shower I was so tired I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 7am this morning. I had to watch The Apprentice on my laptop this morning as it didn't record on the freeview box last night, the machine kept turning itself off every 2 minutes so we gave up in the end and decided to watch everything on catch up. Normally we don't have any free time but we were waiting for the plumber to arrive to fix a couple of leaky radiators so OH didn't want to set up everything to do some more cement boards until after he'd gone, so we actually spent some time together without working for a change ;-) ;-)

Needless to say we're doing the cement boards now. I measure the boards and he cuts them and screws them down. Talking of him cutting it's gone quiet so I assume he's ready for me to measure up the next one so I'd better go.

Oh I nearly forgot we finally got the quotes for the garden levelling, the new drive and a gate plus two fence panels and the total cost was £15,100 Just to level the garden was £7,000 so we've decided to level the garden ourselves. You could of knocked me down with a feature when I saw the quote. The double glazing people sent a quote to which was just under £2,000 and that was just the front door, they said they couldn't do anything with the back door so we're going to ring the fella who put the back door in to see if he can straighten it.

Well, I'd better go OH has just asked me to measure the next piece of cement board, he's hoping to have it finished today.

Morning all,

Very cloudy here today still thars better tan the white stuff , yesterday was a lovely sunny day .

Anng I didn't realise you hadn't finished the gloves, I stitch them up right sides up so you go through the v bit of the stitch on one side and then the other side it gives z nice even finish.
You'll be on your way now so I hope you enjoy the trip out .

Mel thanks for the photo's I'm glad there was no damage done in the garden ,the horses could have chopped up the ground with their hooves .

I've just made the family a couple of sponges for the week end ,dil has been helping out at the school, she's been doing days for about three or four weeks now and with her job at the doctors she's been so busy so I thought I'd do a bit of baking for them .
The school is so short staffed she has been helping in the nursery and hearing the children read ,thats an extra bit of money for her so can't be bad .

Dil has an air fryer it's a Breville one that has the shelves in rather than the draws so they can cook more in for a family ,it has a rotisserie bit and a drum to do chips in ,last week end son did a chicken it took just over an hour so much quicker than the oven and it heats up much quicker too ,it did look good lovely and brown with crispy skin.
I watched a bit on you tube or it might have been fb where they cooked a piece of gammon in the air fryer and the skin on the gammon came out just like the crackling on a pice of roast pork.

Morning Anng and all,

Enjoy your day out with friends Anng. It was quite bright when I got up but now it has come over cloudy and pc says 9 degrees. My thumb tells me it is going to get cold again as it has cracked open at the side of the first joint before the thumbnail. I have put some vasaline on it so hopefully it will clear up in a couple of days.

Guess what? I forgot the library again yesterday!! I had it in mind the day before and I was going to put my books on the counter in the kitchen but I have tiny rubber moulds all over that. I should have put them in a bag in the doorway. I am on the last book of four and am not very interested in it as the first tape would'nt play at all so had to start it on the second one so not sure who's who and theres a mother to someone called nellie and she has a daughter called Mel and both names sound the same by the reader.

Better get on. Let us know how you get on with the air fryer Island.

Good morning all. up early as being picked up at 0900. Will be out all day so have a good day everyone. As usual when I set the alarm I didn't sleep well once I woke around 3.30 for the loo. :-)

Vera that was a lovely day, store those memories up. That is the type of day I miss. I have lovely days out with friends but they don’t really match up.
I am going to Tetbury 7 of us going. We hope to look round the police museum and the town, maybe go to the royal shop.

Mel thanks for the photos, they could have done a lot of damage. Glad they didn’t.

Mandy I have just finished the fingerless gloves. I had forgotten I started them and put the knitting away. Just need to sew them up now. It says use mattresses stitch I looked that up and couldn’t fathom it out. Did you just do a regular seam?

Island have you used it yet?

Thanks for the pictures Mel. I don’t think I would have been happy to have those dogs running over my land.

Glad your air fryer arrived on time Island and I hope yours comes at a convenient time for you AnnG. Have a nice day out tomorrow. I think you told us where you were going but I’ve forgotten. My brain’s like mush these days.

When I suggested to OH that we had lunch out I was thinking of one of the ordinary cafes or pubs in town but he was feeling generous and took me to a nice pub/hotel at Long Melford. We had a lovely meal. He had a venison ragu on polenta and I had slow roast belly of pork with potato, roast carrot, caramelised apple and some greenstuff. We both had Bramley apple and cinnamon crumble with ice cream. It was quite pricey but when OH went to pay we were told that if we took one of their loyalty cards we could have 50% off today’s food bill, so we took a card. We don’t have to ever use it again but it made today’s meal a lot cheaper :-)

When we left it was still nice out so we went for a drive around which was very pleasant and will have kept the charge up in the battery.

I see interest rates have gone up again. I bet they don’t go up on savings!

Sent the pics of the fox hounds.

I went out to corn the chickens and there were two female pheasents coming down the garden and as I looked out the window there was also a deer and behind that was Phil pheasent after the girls. The deer got spooked and ran off but Phil stayed with his girls so I went and corned the chickens and no sign of Phil and Co. Ltd so round I go after gettting the corn out of the bin and releasing the mouse that was in there. Corned the girls and turned around and there was Phil feeding his face without the girls.

Ordered the sir fryer but didn't pay the extra postage as I don't want it to come tomorrow. I found the ordering a bit of a faff. why is it always more difficult when you are already a member than when you are not? I couldn't remember my password so clicked for a new one. that seemed to confuse the whole issue. In the end I went back in as a new member and joined again so I will probably now get a load of emails from them How can their records accept me as a new member when I must be in their records already? anyway order has been confirmed and hopefully they will eventually give me an idea of delivery. It could be any day up to next Thursday.

Island is it very heavy in its delivery box?

Well went for a walk to post a letter, can't say I feel refreshed (at my age probably not possible :-D) and my legs ached the whole 15 minute walk but I do feel more awake. My problem is being out from 0900 tomorrow for the day. I am wondering whether to just order it and not pay the extra and hope it doesn't come tomorrow. Who delivered it? that was impressive service though.

AnnG, I was very impressed to get the 'delivery between 9 - 10' email and no messing about with the standard 'between 8.30am and 7pm' which means checking until they narrow the window - which is fine if it's something they can fling over the back gate without damaging LOL
I hope I'll be as impressed with the goods :-D

I hope you're feeling better now. Waking up less than refreshed is not nice.
What's 'waking up feeling refreshed' anyway? I don't remember :-(

Good morning all showered and hair washed and dressed but not had breakfast yet.
8 degrees here now so quite mild. Nothing planned for today. slept well but seemed to crawl out of sleep feeling like I had been drugged with a thick head. Better since I showered and had a drink. I do find a dream a lot lately so maybe that was the reason (and no, it was not alcohol :-D I just had one light G&T

Ah sorry Island, I was obviously talking to myself. :-D I am easily confused even by me it seems.

Gosh that was a good delivery, glad you got it in time, I assume you paid for the quicker delivery. Hope you have fun with it but if you are stuck I may be able to help. Sorry again for muddle brain!!! :-(

AnnG. Delivery was a minute early - 8.59. £3 well spent I say :-D

Morning Mel!

Morning all,

it rained last night and its not nice this morning either its all dampy out there. Pc says 10 degrees and it is warmer but miserable with it.

Nothing to report and I will download the pics today and send them. The dogs did'nt do any damage but when I first heard them and went out and looked because I could hear them barking a deer shot across the back field and across next door and then the dogs came in here. I think thye smell the fox and thats why they come in here.

Morning Vera, cross posting. You are correct.
I hope you are well.

Morning AnnG and all
'Confusion' - 1 Feb 2023 20:48
'Well done Ann I hope they don’t run out before I order but I can’t risk it being delivered Friday'

As I couldn't see a post from Ann, I wasn't sure if you were referring to mine re Lakeland? Never mind, just trying to be helpful - if you order before 7pm it will be delivered the next day, £3, express delivery. Mine is due 9am -10aam today.

I haven't so far had any problems with Hermes/Evri but that wasn't the :-S