General Chat

Just spent fortyfive minutes out in the garden dead heading, cutting down rose branches out of control on the rambler and a bit of weeding. This year the old apple tree that was cut down 3 years ago is truing to grow, it keeps sending up shoots in the bit of lawn I have left.

O I see Anng. its 19 here now blue sky and big white clouds but not much in the way of wind today.

BIL here and he had to bring his wife home from work as she was sick this morning.

I have actually had a couple from the shop plant Alicante I have just stripped a lot of the large leaves off so that the green toms are more in the sun.

Mel I go to GRH for the op at 1230 Monday 19th. It won't be done immediately though that is my time afor attending the day op centre to be checked in. the op will be when they are ready.

Just sat out in the garden with my coffee in the shade. 17 degrees here now and sunny.
One lot dried and airing another lot drying. Using the drier though and have two more loads ready to dry now. Will do the beds and whites tomorrow.

Mandy I turned mine up to 4 with the warmer weather so I think that would be a good idea for you as you are getting higher temps than we are here is Devon.

I have had two cues and I have one tomato ripening on the plant I bought at the shop. I have some coming on the sungold and the BIG tom plants from seed from a neighbout who gave me one of her BIG toms and I saved the seed. Which reminds me its feeding Friday so must do them today.

Morning all,

Nice and sunny here ,we had a little rain in the evening yesterday and must have had a little in the night as there is a few puddles on the road.

Anng I love the little sungold toms they are nice and sweet, mine are still green ,you did well with your potatoes.

Mel there is lots of people with covid this way that we know have covid perhaps you should do a test to check as you were with lots of people at the wedding .

Ann ,we have the full fat milk so I know it doesn't keep as well as the semi skimmed etc ,I have never thought about turning the fridge temperature down ,I would have thought you'd need to turn it up with the heat , I never move the dial I think its set on about 3 I shall have to check .

I have the bedding in the washer so I have the bed to make up and I need to have a good hoover through and then no doubt I'll find plenty more to do .

Morning all,

Nice bright morning here at the moment pc is saying 14 degrees and mostly sunny so that good too.

Got a bit of a raw throat this morning and keep sneezing so I think BIL was right and we both picked up a cold at the wedding.

Remind me Ann when you go in for the op??

good morning all. Just a quick hello as I have a long list of things to do. Just seen them off on their journey back. Not used to them not staying an extra day so it does eem strange. Still a lot need to be done to prepare for a week of probably not being able to do too much with stitches (I assume) in my face.
I did tie up the tomato plants in the planter, had to cut them down too. had a handful of sungold little tomatoes and quite a few on the other plants near the house. Also got another 2 pounds of potatoes making 6 pounds in all off three plants so I am pleased with that.

Thank you Mel got the rain :-) just fine stuff to wet the road ,no puddles yet ,the gardens will love it if there's some over night .
Oh the plums look good .

Vera congratulations to your granddaughter, I hope when she's decided where she's going that she is happy with her choice .

Anng glad your home safe and sound ,the plants seem to shoot up so quickly when your away but so do the weeds .

Gosh Ann your arms are going to be full of pin pricks lol glad the nurse was good at her job and you didn't feel it .

Gwyn I hope keeping the seal on the milk stops it going off ,it certainly helped mine as just lately I've had a couple of bottles turn ,but then again it has been really hot which doesn't help.

I picked two big cues and two small ones today ,we've already had five small ones ,no toms yet they are still tiny and green .

Congratulations on such great news for your granddaughter Vera. :-D It must have been a relief to be cooler last night after the heat you have had where you are.

Mandy, we used to have some Asda skimmed milk go off before the end of the fortnight between our orders. Now we have no trouble with BoB or Cravendale skimmed milk which keeps well, but it does cost more. Did you turn the temperature down in your fridge in this hot weather as that helps things keep.

You had a nice trip out and a little spend up Mel and got some bargains too, which is always good. Those belgian buns sound lovely and plum jam sounds nice too!

Yes a lot of weeds are in the garden bin now Gwyn and he's worked hard and made quite an impact today. He does tell me I'm better at dealing with workmen than him, but I think he misses having a PA to delegate tasks to like he had at work.

It's good you are home now AnnG and sorting out your tomatoes already! It didn't sound like a great journey though. I expect it would feel warm to you after being cooler in the north.

Been raining here and now its 17 degrees shall I send it your way Mandy and Vera?

Sent pic of the plums and berries.

Did'nt get any jam done boo hoo well not yet anyway I will do it tomorrow now.

I forgot to cangratulate your granddaughter Vera. She's a clever girl and I hope she likes which ever place she choses.

Nice to know your back home safe and sound Anng. Hope you can sort out your tom plants ok. Remember to wash your hands with soap afterwards or you will get yellowy green on your clothes. When I wash with handwash it dos'nt remove it properly.

I only forgot to do the library today and now its shut tomorrow until Saturday and thats not a good day to go incase BIL comes.

Chickens are laying well three or four eggs a day now and the tray inside is full. I cleaned out their nest this afternoon as they had broken an egg in it and made an awful mess plus the red mites are back with this heat. All sprayed now and clean woodshavings nice and deep.

Afternoon all

Wonderful news about your granddaughter Vera.
Congratulations to her.! She has done so well :-D

I hope you get your scripts sorted out. What a change there, as you often used to praise the service you got. Why did they have to change it? :-|

Mandy,
Strange that you should post about milk going off, because today I had to remake my morning coffee, as when I added the milk, after pouring in the hot water, it all curdled and I had to start again :-|
The milk was still in date by several days, so next time I will try your suggestion about the seal top.
I know we are advised not to keep the milk in the fridge door, as it is the warmest place, but my fridge is too small to store it in the body of the fridge.

Mel
Your plums and blackberries sound great. I hope the jam works out well. What a lot of lovely fruit.
A friend of mine picked hedgerow fruits for jam one year, but unfortunately it didn't set. She boiled it up again, but the result was still not to her satisfaction. Eventually, several of us were given little jars of delicious jam, set to perfection. I had to smile at the label, where she had printed ' Third time lucky jam ' :-D

Annx
Gosh you must feel like a pin cushion! So good though that the nurse is such an expert and it didn't hurt at all.
I hope the window repairer can be dealt with successfully and that you have a clear weeded flower bed ;-)
Perhaps OH knows you are really efficient, so thinks he'll just leave those sort of jobs to you.

Anng
Good to know you are safely home. Isn't it amazing how a garden changes so quickly left to it's own devices? ;-)
I hope your plants are not really damaged.

The wind is really picking up here now and I can hear it really whistling outside. After the oppressive heat of the last few days, the slightly lower temperature and moving air is so welcome.
Still no rain in this south east corner. No wonder we were, I think, the first area in the country to have compulsory water meters. :-0
I think we are due overnight rain today coming in from the west.
The gardens could do with some.

Pleased you are home safely AnnG. It doesn't sound as though it was a very nice journey.

Thank you for your congrats for granddaughter. Things have changed since lunchtime when she phoned and said she was going to Keele. I had a text an hour ago saying she was just doing her acceptance for Keele when an offer came through from Nottingham that she liked better. So it now looks as though her course will be Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham but don't hold your breath it could have changed again by tonight! She is phoning for a chat tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Just a quickie, home now, quite a slow journey as traffic was very heavy and the first 2 hours was in heavy rain. dry here, cloudy and 24 degrees, feels very warm to us. Just had to tie up all my tomatoes as they had grown huge and got tangled in the wind.

Congratulations to your Granddaughter Vera.

Maybe BBL.

Its 22 degrees here now and I went up the post van and it was'nt coming today or tomorrow so it was a trip to Holsworthy to post the two parcels and of course you go to a place with shops and you spend money. I had a good bit of retail therapy and spent £38 odd in the factory shop, bought a sandwich in the Co-op. a linen and viscose shirt in the hospice shop for £2 half price and it will do lovely for gardening as it won't catch on everything and if it does it dos'nt matter for £2. Some sweets again in the factory shop and some solar lights, an ivy curtain of five strings of lights and two spotlight again in solar. They were now two for the price of one so I shall give Di one set of the ivy ones. Not quite sure where to put them yet. Went a got some diesel then and came home.

I was naughty and also bought two belgian buns in the Co-op as a treat with an afgternoon cuppa.

We have a good breeze here today too which is making it more comfortable but now I am goiing to stone 2lb of plumbs and make some jam in the micro. It should make about 3lb.

Afternoon All,

I didn't sleep so well last night, probably because I needed to be up early for my appointment at the docs for my 3rd tetanus jab. I didn't even feel it, as this nurse is really good at injections. Just the 2nd MMR jab to go now till the RSV one next month and then the flu and covid ones in October. I think it will be a total of 12 vaccinations I've had this year including the spring covid booster. I told the nurse I was running out of arms and should have been an octopus!

It's cooler here too at 19 degrees and rained a little during the night, but is supposed to reach 23 degrees later on. It is a bit windy too which is nice and dried our towels quickly. I'm waiting for a call from the window repairer as OH txted him this morning and he has said he will call back this afternoon on the landline. I was hoping OH would deal with him this time, as it always seems to be me that deals with anything that goes wrong at home, so I asked him to ring the man, but the little devil sent a txt in my name, so he will ask for me when he rings!!! He's disappeared into the garden now, I reckon to make himself look busy and be out of earshot of the phone! Still he will be doing more weeding which is still badly needed. He hates doing trivial jobs and then hanging around waiting for people to call back (don't we all,) but someone has to do them.

Heard from granddaughter. She got the A-Levels she needed and is going to Keele to read Physics and Astro-Physics :-D :-D

Good morning everyone

It was a bit cooler overnight thank goodness. It was still warm enough to sleep without any bedclothes but I didn't need the fan going all night. It's going to be another warm day. It's 21 degrees now and is supposed to get to 26 later on. I haven't been outside yet but it looks as though there is a bit of a breeze which should help.

Safe journey home AnnG. I expect you are well on the way now It sounds as though you had an enjoyable birthday.

I haven't had any trouble with milk Mandy and find it's usually fine for 2 or 3 days after its Best Before date. Do you buy full cream milk? I think that may turn quicker than skimmed or the semi-skimmed that we have.

I would have loved some of your plums Mel. I wish you lived nearby. I've always liked plums and often use tinned plums to make a crumble.

I know what you mean about "generic" online forms Annx. One size definitely doesn't fit all. I have this problem with travel insurance. I needed to add my eye condition to my medical details. I can do it over the phone and be charged £15 or I can do it online for free but the online form mostly only allows yes or no answers; there is nowhere you can add a note. If I say "no" to being asked if I am still receiving treatment and I need treatment while abroad they get out of paying up by saying you didn't tell us you were still attending hospital. So I have to say "yes" which makes things sound much worse than they are. Nowhere can I put a note saying I am attending hospital but only for checks and am not currently receiving any treatment.

Well, OH is waiting to go to our Thursday coffee meet so I'd better go. I am on tenterhooks waiting to hear from youngest grandchild with her A-Level results. She will be fine I'm sure and is predicted to do well but I had a text from her at 6.30 this morning saying she was "super nervous". She must be if she was up and texting at that hour of the morning!

Morning girls,

Dull and dreary this morning and we may have had a little rain in the night as the car looks very wet. Pc says 18 degrees and partly sunny er.

Have to pop up the post van this morning and may go to the shop and get some lemons and make some plum jam will see how many jars I can muster or how many I give away. Gone are the days when I would keep going out to the table out the front but it was good while it lasted.

Hope Ann has a safe journey home today and its not too busy on the roads.

Talk about changing everything they've changed ny phone provider to EE and I am not sure if I want it or not as I don't htink I get as much coverage with that here out in the middle of nowhere. I know BIL is on it and its cheeper each month but not by a lot.