General Chat

Good morning all. 14 degrees here at the moment quite bright no sun at the moment.

Vera sorry that you have been under the weather for a couple of days, hope that you are beginning to feel better today.

I have to find something to do to pass the time until I leave for my hospital check up. My appointment is for 3pm, definitely not looking forward to seeing what is happening under this odd dressing. I am quite nervous about it.

Evening all

Mandy, your childhood home looks wonderful. I am jealous of the lovely places you all lived when young. I would have loved a more rural spot rather than the fairly gloomy downstairs flat in an old terraced house in a London suburb. Still, I had a happy childhood and there were lots of youngsters in our road so there was always someone to play with.

A day of memories for you AnnG. I know you will have many happy ones and hope they are a comfort on these anniversary days.

I haven't been too well the last couple of days. All I managed to do yesterday was change the bedding and do the washing. I'm still under the weather today but felt I had to try and get on with things as I seem to be getting further and further behind. I got the ironing done, did some admin like paying bills and cooked the beef joint that we didn't have Sunday. Then we had an errand in a town about 12 miles away and, of course the road we take into the town was closed off and we had to make a big loop to get to where we needed to be. After we had eaten tonight I managed to do half an hour in the garden and then came in and set up a Tesco order for Saturday. Now my back feels as though it's breaking so I'm going to get into bed with the pillows set up behind me and read for a while.

AnnG <3

Mel
Won't the vinegar still be alright for cleaning purposes.?It can be used for lots of things.

Like Ann, I have moved around quite a bit, but was born and grew up in an area where my parents had moved to as newly-weds and Mum was still living until she died in 2006.
Our bungalow was on a hillside and it was a long walk down hill to the village with all manner of old fashioned shops. Mum usually shopped in the Co-op with it's old little cash cannisters darting about the shop on overhead wires, but someimes we went to the village baker.
I loved going there, down the cobbled courtyard and into the shop door. Mr Wheeler the baker was often working alone, so there were times when he apologised and asked would we wait a minute, while he took something out of the oven, He opened a big hatch in the wall and we were treated to the most wonderful smells of fresh baking, as he carefully lifted the goods out on a long flat sort of paddle. No health and safety to worry us then.
Occasionally Mum treated us to one of his lardy cakes, but usually she made all the cakes we had at home.
Like some of you, we also lived near open country. If we went to play with one particular girl in our road, her garden had a back gate which opened onto a small patch of waste ground and beyond that to the hill slopes. As the hill was quite steep there, it was a popular spot if we had snow, because there was a good long slope down, then it evened out slightly, before dropping sharply to a lower slope. This caused many a tumble, but was exciting :-0
Gypsies used to camp on the top of the hill sometimes, so the womenfolk could collect branches to make pegs. I don't remember them causing any trouble or hostility due to rubbish etc. They just stayed a while then moved on. Their children would play with us on snowy days, their tin trays or old oven doors going much faster than our normal sledges. ;-)

Yes a great name for that house thats for sure.

I have cleaned the little loo and had the top shelf of the cupboard out that is under the water tank. You should have seen what came out!! I have been trying to get people to get me the bin bags with the draw string tops as Asda don't do those and I found three packets of them in the cupboard so I shan't need to buy those for a while. Loads of cotton rags I kept for when oh did the mowers so they are in a black bag now and are going out to the garage. Now I can get my plenty rolls in there. I also found my newer pair of rubber gardening shoes so I am going to throw the old ones away, more room in the bottom of the cupboard. I know there are two gallons of white vinaegar in the bottom too so that will be out of date so they can go too. Perhaps now I can get some different stuff in that cupboard. Next I need to have the things on the room divider down and give it a good wash and then the plate rack.

What a lovely name for a house Mandy.

I just looked at the meaning of Arcadia, it says ' a place of rustic innocence and simple quiet pleasure ' and it was . :-)

Yes Mel its a little river and we use to have wooden planks to drive over ,when I could see dad coming down the hill I would run to meet him and ride on the running board of the car ,just over the right hand side of the river was a well and beyond that was dad's allotment ,we use to have geese running about and I hated them as they chased me and pulled my hair .
When we had the house it was called Arcadia .

We nipped out to Tesco's and then called in to see son for a coffee had a good chat and came home, nowhere to park to go into Boots so we'll walk up tomorrow.

Morning all,

Cloudy here this morning and its 18 degrees .

Shopping day so I must get my box and sack barrow out so the driver can load it for me.

I opened a bottle of tonic water last night and the top was so tight I had a job to get it off. This morning the two middle fingers on my right hand really ache and are very stiff. I know how I did it and must remember not to do it like that again. They say we learn by our mistakes and its true.

Mandy the house looks lovely and do I see a little brook running by that you had to have a little bridge to drive in over? A lovely place to grow up in.

Woke at 6am for the loo and went back to bed and woke again at 9.12am so I am all behind today.

Gosh It is lovely Mandy, I could live there (if I could afford it). Still it is sold as no longer on the market.

Morning all ,

Cloudy here this morning but should get out and be about 23 degrees, then tomorrow should be up to 27 .
I have two bags to go to the clothing bank which we'll take today and I need to call in to tescos to fetch a few bits .
If I can park in town on the way back I can go I to boots for our tablets ,it's market day today but last week we only had the fish man ,I did read that they are reducing the cost of having a market stall I suppose they are hoping to get some market traders back but I think its a bit late they should have done that years ago before they all decided to go .

A day of memories then Anng make them all happy ones <3

Mel we had a willow tree in the front of the house ,dad made me a swing from some rope with a wooden seat and hung it in the willow tree and mum use to stand my pram ubder it and i would lay watching the leaves swaying in the breeze ,that tree has gone now but there is another over to the right of the house ,have a Google of the house its Brook Cottage Washbridge dereham .

Lots of memories today. It would have been our 64th wedding anniversary.

Good morning all. 15 degrees here and the sun is just coming up. Yesterday was a lovely day. I did manage to spend half an hour pottering in the garden, cutting off some of the large tomato leaves so the fruit could get more sun, and cutting down my large fuchsias because I think they have been attacked by fuchsia Gall mite. I wondered what was wrong with them as the plants have hardly flowered this year and Monty don showed us gall mite. I am hoping it will die off in the winter, if not the plants will have to come up next year,

I can't imagine what it would be like to live in the area that you grew up in. I have lived in 4 different counties, one of those twice. We/I have lived in my first home until marriage 20 years, then first year of marriage same town four different flats, Since then; six different houses. Hampshire, (two towns), Essex, Gloucestershire, Bedfordshire/Herts border, Gloucestershire. Longest house lived in is my current one (32 years). The minus to all the moving, and to being an ex Royal Navy wife, is that friends are scattered.

Picked Blackberries this afternoon and took them up to my neighbour with some apples. Then went and picked more plums and rang my other neighbour from the plum tree which is not far behind her grden. Had to walk round the front as I could'nt get past the stinging nettles to he back gate which opens onto my field. Went in and had a chat and a look round her garden which she has been changing this year. They have grassed the raised beds up the top of the garden and she now has dark green rectangles in the grass.

I think we all had such freedom when we were young. Behind the houses in Roding lane Souyth past the shops there was rough ground that a friend and I would spend hours. it back onto gardens of the house in the road and one had the most enormus willow tree and we played under that as the branches reached the ground. That was one of our dens over there. Another was under an Elder tree growing by the little stream that ran through and that too was a favorite. I always wanted to live in a house with a stream running through the garden but never have.

Evening all,

It's been a lovely day little bit of cloud at times but warmer than yesterday .
We weeded the front garden this morning and cut the grass ,talking to our neighbour and she said we have a hedgehog with three little ones coming into the gardens ,I had seen one on the camera but not the little ones ,she said it was about ten at night when she saw them so she put some of her cat food out and they gobbled it all up
This afternoon Colin had his hearing test and has his new hearing aids in ,they seem much better than his old ones .

I had a lovely childhood running over the meadows picking the wild flowers and I would be gone all day never gave it a thought as to what the time was mum or dad would come after me when it was bedtime ,I would take my jamjar on a string to catch tge stickle backs in the little ditches that ran by the lane beside the house and was always told not to go over the other side of the river where the bog was ,I remember mum sinking in when she was picking the watercress that grew near the river .
I had a Google and the house where I was born came up as it had been for sale ,it seems strange looking at the rooms in the house and it's now called Brook Cottage
The house is only a five minute walk from where we are now and I've passed it so many times walking the dog and shown the grandchildren the house .
It's also just down a hill from the school where son now works and where I and Colin went to school and son to ,seems strange he now working at the school he went to.

I keep thinking this is Sunday, it will be a short week this week with the holiday day, must remember ths bin goes out a day later .

Afternoon All,

It's been sunny all day here despite a wet forecast. OH was out weeding the front for an hour before I got up and, apart from digging up a cordyline that is making a vigorous comeback and a self set Buddlia, plus digging up a few more plants I'm moving into the back garden he's finished the weeding there and it looks a lot better. He's gone to a local match now. He rang me to say old age is catching up with him and he's going to sit in the stand as his hip is hurting!

Even when I was in my 20s we rarely went out on bank holidays, maybe just to the county show to watch the events and see in the tents. Since I met OH we have never bothered. I hate crowds and queuing, he hates traffic jams and would rather go to the quieter footie matches.

Yes, there were lots of things my friend and I didn't tell our parents because we feared not being allowed to go to places again if we did. As a girl about 7-8 while playing on my own on the big hill near where we lived I saw a man I thought was having a fit lying among the bracken and gorse bushes. I just ran by quickly and it was only years later I realised what he was doing! Mum never got to know about that! Also a friend and I decided to collect some blackberries we saw growing in a wood. We didn't know it was private land as a big gate was open. We ran for our lives when we heard a gamekeeper shouting and running towards us. We managed to outrun him but never told our mums. We never told our parents we used to dare each other to wade through the water in our wellies into the old air raid shelters at the side of a factory not far from where we lived and go round the corners in them into the dark. It's a wonder we didn't pick something nasty up in the stagnant water.

When I occasionally stayed at my grandmother's, even at the age of 5-8 I would just go off and play where I liked. There was a meadow near the houses where she lived and she would get me a butterfly net and send me off there. I also used it to go fishing in the canal at the bottom of her road. I would be told to keep away from any men and not accept any sweets and to be home before dark. When we moved to the city it was to be home before the street lights came on.

I'm having trouble with the Asda site on my usual browser because of Asda's cloudflare security system they are using now. It let me in today and I thought the issue was solved, but then when I tried to add groceries it blocked me from the site altogether. Now it says to contact the site owner, so another job for the 'to do' list! It works fine on another browser that seems to not have cloudflare, so it's a bit odd!

I see Sven has now passed away.

Still great out plenty of the yellow stuff and now its 19 degrees.

Just going to put a wash on the line. I have fed the birds and cleaned the loo. Hoover next on the list.

Morning girls,

Nice bright sunny morning here too and pc says 16 degrees and mostly sunny. There's still a bit of wind as I can see the trees moving, not been out yet as I had a lie in this morningtill 9.15am.

Nothing planned here either and we never went out on bank holidays either Anng. I shall probable do some painting of my minitures as I need some pretty bits on Ebay.

Good morning all nice bright sunny morning here but only 12 degrees. Absolutely nothing planned for today so I shall see what the day brings. would not want to be out on the roads today, If everyone who headed West on Friday is heading home later today, the roads will be chaotic.

Oh yes, as teens we would meet down by the creek and the boys would jump out of a disused warehouse into the creek.

The things we did when the parents did'nt know where we were or what we were doing.

I too lived in a bungalow off Roding lane and then the river was on the other side of the road past the allotments. As teens we met down the river and one of the gang had a wind up record player so we could have music down there. We had a large thick rope one of the boys had put up in the big tree and it had a tyre on the end so we could swing on it. Sometimes we we meet by the bridge nearby and just laze around on the grass and talk. Many hours of fun was had by the river.