General Chat

Good morning all, alll packed and just about to clear up ready to leave. Very grey and damp looking but not raining at the moment. It must be dry as the peacocks are around again they don’t like the wet. There are lots of tiny baby rabbits out on the grass and yesterday a blackbird was feeding his baby right outside our patio door on the. Seal o y. He had a piece of bread which he held I. His beak so the bs y could peck at it.
There is also a completely white peacock.

Evening All,

A chilly day here, but no wind and some sunny spells this afternoon. We lay in this morning as OH had 400 pages to read for his voluntary meeting yesterday. He said everyone was complaining when they gave them another 100 pages to read during the meeting, so he had a nice rest this morning, but is out again now. Last night I couldn't seem to get my right knee in a position where it didn't start aching after a few minutes and it was the same when I woke up this morning. I expected it to be bad today, but when I stood up and walked about it went off. All I have done today is get lunch, pop to the shop and catch up with some admin, so I have lots to do tomorrow.

Vera you sound as if you got on about as well as I did yesterday! You'd never think someone carrying a washing up bowl had lots of seed packets in it! lol. It is annoying when systems for getting our meds change. Our chemist used to have our tablets ready to just pick up, but not anymore, which means there is always a queue now while people wait for them to make them up. I don't remember Minadex either, but I do remember being given some Famel Medicine out of a flat, faintly bluey green tall bottle when I was ill in bed and it tasted foul and made me screw my mouth up. It looked like clear water and I can see that teaspoon zooming towards my mouth now! I also had syrup of figs but didn't mind that or the codliver oil and malt.

Mel, I used to like to enter local shows as you know and have had some successes and didn't signed any of my paintings through lockdown as they obviously don't accept signed ones, as they need to be anonymous for the judging. But sadly we haven't had any local shows since the pandemic and I keep looking out for them. I expect it is an area where the council can save money. You have been busy with your miniatures and it is a good idea to make things that others don't, as people will want to buy things they don't often see. I hope you feel a bit brighter watching the Carpenter's Tribute tonight. We like them too.

It's a shame it was wet again for you today AnnG and that other people wanting to keep out of the rain had the same idea so it was a bit crowded inside. It's a pity your legs are very sore and the steep stairs wouldn't help. It triggers too much pain if I try to climb steep stairs with my short legs and bad knees, but I can carefully manage the very shallow ones. Maybe all the walking you have been doing has made them sore.

It looks like it should be dry and sunny tomorrow so I think I will get some more washing done and see if I can do a little stint of weeding again. I need to email the bathroom people with some questions too!

Hope you enjoyed the show Vera you will have gone now. Hope oh enjoyed it.

BIL turned up here quite late with the new belt for the mower and he tried to get it on but has failed so he's gone home and will ne here tomorrow.

I have been sorting my meal worms for Robbie. I have to keep them clean and have been sorting out the sizes which takes ages but I now have a good lot of big ones I have grown on and sort ed the beetles that lay the eggs and got those in clean litter. I have gone from porridge oats to bran now as I think its going to be easy to sive them.

We have had two wet days now. We were soaked yesterday getting from the car park to the visitors centre and then back to the house. The house was interesting but crowded, everyone wanting a day in the dry. And as for my legs, they are very sore today as there were lots of quite steep stairs in the house. Today is not quite so wet but still wet and Misty and yesterday we were driving in Thick fog.
We have been to Morpeth today a walk round the shops in the rain then lunch in an Italian restaurant, good food bad service. Just having a rest before packing..
Yesterday the internet was down from the afternoon until ten o’clock this morning.

You did well winning all those local show awards in the past Mel. With luck, you'll find a couple of categories to enter this year. I'm sure you'll win something again.

It's been cloudy and not very warm all day and now the wind is getting quite gusty but at least the rain has stayed away today.

I had a dreadful night, eventually falling asleep some time after 7 am and being woken by a noise outside at 9.30 so I have been tired and grumpy all day. All I want now is a drink and a sleep but instead we have to go out. Many moons ago we used to quite like The Carpenters brother and sister duo and OH loved Karen Carpenter's voice so when I noticed there was a tribute to them on at the theatre in Colchester and it's OH's birthday week I bought tickets. It's only on for one night and our plan was to go down early and have a meal in the theatre cafe/bar before going to the show. I couldn't feel less like going out but I can't disappoint OH by not going (or waste the money I shelled out for tickets). .We want to leave here around 4.45 pm so I had better go and change and tidy myself up.

Its quite windy here too Mandy and still a grey sky. I have had a little hind out the back this morning but hav'nt taken a pic. Robbie is still feeding his chicks like crazy and eating me out of house and home. Must fill the bird feeders up today but I am getting the Jackdoes and they eat everything in site and are so noisy.

Morning all,

Very overcast here today we have had the sun peep through for five minutes then it was gone ,its 13 degrees and might get to seventeen, its also quite windy .

Morning girls,

Not raining but a grey sky and pc says partly sunny and 11 degrees. Slept really well it must have been the big dinner I ate but I woke up thirsty.

Nothing planned for today so perhaps the ironing will get done unless I get sidetracked again. Its so easy to do now I am on my own.

era I love yourlong posts so don't stop. I have never heard of Minadex. I used to get Syrup of figs and I liked it. I also liked it in orange juice as a child!!! Mum always told me that on Sunday nights her and her brother and sister woud be given Senna pod tea. Thats it give them a good clear out before going back to school on Monday. Mum also said she would know which day of the week it was by the dinners they got as they had the same thing on each day every week.

I have done nothin g inthe garden today and got sidetracked from the ironing by doing miniatures but I got a lot preped and a few cast and cleaned up and some painted . Just going to start another lot of Tudor slipware as I sold the first lot right away. I try to make things that other people don't do if that makes sense. I also made another plate of food from the shells Gwyn sent so thats two now and I have made a lot for myself.

I see down in the shop on Saturday they have the local shows booklet of entries, I wonder if they will have one this year I can enter as there was nothing in the way of needlework that went with my two Tudor people or my Witches cottage box I made in lockdown. they did'nt even have anything in the way of woodcraft in the last one and there's never anything to do with miniatures in there either. One year when I was first down here they had a catigree (sp) for a miniture garden in a tray or pot holder and I did a tiny wooden arch and a brich path going athrough it and tiny terracotta pots with real miniature flowers in and that tiny moss that grows and I got first prize. Then another year when I wa swith oh and we were doing the veg and fruit growing I won with raspberries and blackcurrant and the fruit class I put in 5 figs and they did'nt know what they were. I also won the best in show with a beautifull basket plant I can't remember the name of but it smelt wonderful. My picture was inthe local paper with it too. I could'nt believe it at the time.

It rained all night and it rained heavily all morning and this afternoon it has been on and off heavy showers. I am wondering if I ought to start building an ark!

I hope it hasn’t been as wet where you are AnnG and that you enjoyed your visit to the NT property.

Annx, we always called Garibaldi biscuits Flies’ Graveyards as well. As children we thought it was quite funny. What a performance with your meal. Are you sure you hadn’t booked in to Fawlty Towers? All this going backwards and forwards with cutlery, glasses etc would make a great farce on stage. I hope we have better luck when we go out to lunch on Sunday. As it’s OH’s birthday we’ve booked a table at a rather nice restaurant about 30 minutes drive from here. We laughed at the confirmation email we were sent which told us that they “respectfully require the table back by 3.35 pm”. How precise is that? We’re booked for 1.30 so should have finished eating and they have a nice lounge/bar area where we can linger over coffee if we want to so it’s not a problem

We’ve been quite busy again today. I tidied up generally, got the ironing done and gave the downstairs cloakroom a good clean. By then it was nearly midday and I noticed the rain had eased up a bit so I decided to go and get my script before it started pouring again. The pharmacy was packed. I joined the queue outside the doors. Eventually it was my turn and I got my tabs. I have three lots that come on what they call automatic batch and I just have to collect them every 4 weeks. The rest I only take if I am in pain and when I am getting a bit low I just ask the assistant to order me another lot to collect with my next automatic batch lot. Not any more – the system has changed, yet again!! Now I have to ring the pharmacy when I have 7 days worth of tablets left and they then order them for me to collect. How am I supposed to know when I have 7 days of pills left when I don’t take a regular amount or take them every day? I’ve decided that a week before I have to collect my next automatic batch I’ll ring up and ask for them to be ordered regardless of how many I’ve got left. I also discovered that I am 6 months overdue for my annual medication review with the doctor. In the past the surgery have rung me with an appointment time. Now, apparently I have to ring the surgery and book a telephone consultation with a clinical pharmacist. By the time I left the chemists today I was pretty fed up.

It didn’t get any better. The car park I was in is right next to Roys shop so I popped in and just got a net of 3 onions and a birthday card. There were 2 checkouts open and I joined the one with a fractionally shorter queue. This was at the counter where they sell the lottery tickets and tobacco products. The queue moved along fine till we got to the man in front of me who just had a washing up bowl to buy. At that point the cashier announced we would have to wait until someone could take over from her as she had handled raw chicken and couldn’t touch anything till she washed her hands. I’m not sure how or when she could have handled raw chicken as Roys doesn’t have a butchery but that is what she said. We all stood there like lemons for quite a few minutes waiting for another assistant to turn up. Apparently they were all busy but eventually one came and took over. That was when I found the man with the washing up bowl had it full of seed packets, all of which had to be rung through individually. His total was £107 so you can guess how long it took to put all these packets through the till. Eventually I got out of the shop and drove home only to be collared by my neighbour who wanted to tell me all the ins and outs of her latest illness and I just couldn’t get away from her. By the time I got indoors I was tired and headachy and all I wanted was something to eat and a cup of tea.

Sorry this is rather long winded but I couldn’t tell half the story of my time in town today.

Going back to childhood memories, does anyone remember Minadex? We ladies were talking Monday evening about how we were all given Syrup of Figs every week but none of them had heard of Minadex. My mother used to dole it out to my brother and me if she thought we were looking a bit peaky or seemed off-colour. It was some sort of tonic and was revolting. It was a horrible yellowy-green colour, quite thick and sickly sweet; it had probably been saturated with sugar to hide the taste. I googled it earlier and it looks as though it might still be available but I bet the formula has been improved. I hated it.

My posts don’t get any shorter, do they. I shall have to learn to condense everything down a bit. Have a good night, ladies and may all your dreams be nice ones.

Well after you talking about fish and chips I went down the vilage for some for my dinner. I was a bit late but they had no fish left so I had a burger and chips. Shall have to go down earlier in future.

O Ann what a todo with your lunch thinking of it I may just go and get myself F & C's as the vans there tonight. You've made me fancy it now and I have a nice bowl of strawberries for dessert.

Afternoon All,

We were up early again as OH had an appointment to get his blood test and was then going to pop to the shop for me afterwards. It was pouring with rain, which he hates, so was wrapped up in waterproofs and hat. When he got back he said the traffic was awful and he went a different way to the shop after seeing traffic queuing as far as the eye could see on the main road. It had caused him to do a detour last night when he had a meeting and he only got there just in time as everyone else was taking the same route.

We decided to have F&C for lunch, so he popped to the local chippie, to find it was shut despite checking the website and seeing it open today. So next we ordered online from another place, but soon after they said they couldn't fulfill our order. I suspect they were closed too, but why don't these companies update their websites? So, we got out of our 'round the house scruffs' into some decent clothes and went out to the Best Western to eat there. Well the day didn't improve. We ordered the F&C from the light bite menu as there is a discounted pud wth that if you want and asked what the pud was. Sharron went off to find out after leaving a jug of water and glasses. Then another waiter came and noticed we had no cutlery so went and got some for us. We were both looking at the vicious steak knife he had given me in error and didn't notice him waltz off with our glasses! Sharon came back with our pot of tea but forgot to ask what the pud was and said she'd bring us some hot water to top up the teapot and more glasses . The man who brought the cutlery realised he'd given me the wrong knife and exchanged it, then we got the pot of water, so I asked Sharon if they'd stopped giving biscuits with the drinks. No she'd forgotten, so went to get some, including the extra ones she always gives us along with extra teabags. The F&C arrived then with homemade tartare sauce and were very nice. We had to ask again about the pud, but, as it was a meringue filled fruit and cream, I decided not to risk having cream and OH wasn't fussed so we came home.

Today's trip round a house is a good idea for a rainy day AnnG and will be easier on your leg while it improves too.

Vera, some roads in our village are impassable for ambulances and fire engines because of cars parked both sides of the road on pavements. I don't know what the answer is either. Hopefully it won't be to force all of us oldies off the road! How sad your 94 year old friend has passed away and another funeral attended.

Mel the stag and young bunnies always look cute, even though I know they are such a nuisance in a garden like yours and can increase rapidly.

Mandy I got some pale lemon wool and some that was a greeny grey. I wanted small balls really, but they don't have any now. We still have 2 garden centres with The Works, but they have closed in another. They've stopped doing the packs of 5 little detail paintbrushes that I used to buy and just do packs of mixed sizes now. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jake! He seems to be doing really well now and enjoying his job. Yes, he'll have to get a bit quicker with his sausage making won't he.

Its just started raining here as I was going to corn the chickens. we've had sun most of the day till now.

Thank you Mel for the photos of your 'visitors'. So lovely to see wildlife like that from your window.

We haven't had the heavy rain experienced by others, but the morning was overcast with dark clouds. A very brief shower at lunch time soon stopped and the sun is now shining brilliantly. There's a fair breeze, so it's probably not that warm yet, but I'm busy indoors anyway.

Morning all late on parade as I had two parcels to do up and get down the post van.

Mandy I did that once with a hammock I threw myself in it and it split right down the middle and I ended up on the grass and had to roll out. I still have a rope hammock but don't dare put it up now so think I may give it to Em.

Vera you've had a couple of very busy days so sad wehn an old friend passes. <3

Anng you have been very lucky with the weather and been to some lovely places so a day inside a house will be good out of the rain if you get any.

It was slinging it down here this morning so hard and windy with it but its brightened a bit now after the downpour. The sky is still grey but its much much lighter now and I think the suns trying to come out a bit.

Went up the post vasn this morning and it did'nt rain then so that was good. I had to rush around and do the parcels up as I had'nt done it last night.

It is so annoying when a shop you like disappears and you lose all the bargans and bits you used to find in there. I found that when we lost the Factory Shop in Holsworthy but its back again now but I don't think its as good as it used to be.

Well I be3tter get on and do something today as I did'nt feel like doing much inside yesterday goin inthe garden and doing some out there. I have piles of ironing to do so I think thats what I will be doing today.

Glad you liked my little stag and Winking Blinking and Nod. Thats what mum used to call the three diamonds in her engagment ring so I called mine the same. They would be good names for the new chickens too? Hmm may have to think about that.

Morning.Anng Morning all,

Wet morning here so no going out in the garden not that I feel like doing much.

Hope you enjoy the walk round ths House Anng at least you'll be in the dry if it's wet .

Vera mum use to buy the broken biscuits in Woolworths and the slab cake ,there was fruit cake and is it called Angel cake the tree colour one .
We use to have the smell of Macintoshs chocolate factory in Norwich oh the smell was so strong .

Mel lovely photos of the deer and bunnies your garden is their restaurant.

Ann I always make sure I've had some food before my tablets .
Oh another book and a thick one too but that was a bargain for three pound, I see you have some wool what colour did you get , sadly our Works shop is now shut and I use to get lots of nice little things from there especially at christmas ,when ths children were small I use to get the children's books 10 for ten pounds .
Oh I'd never get out of a deck chair now lol ,we use to have some of those little fold up chairs for the beach ,we'd had them for several years and one day on the beach one of us i can't rember who now sat down in one and the whole seat rip and ended up with legs in the air .

Brightened up a bit now since I started typing but it's still raining .

Good morning all. Not dressed but awake. Not raining yet but forczdtvwas not good. We are off to a NT place today so as it is not a garden as such but a house we will be in the dry.. we can’t or shouldn’t complain as we have been so lucky so far this week. I am reading posts but it finding time to reply sometimes. Mandy hope that you are feeling better.

Thanks for the lovely pics Mel. It must be annoying when the deer and the bunnies chew your plants but it is lovely to have so much wildlife around.

It sounds as though you have had quite a good day AnnG but maybe you have overdone the walking and need to have an easy day to give your leg time to recover a bit.

Yes, Annx, it is a shame when the front gardens of houses are left untended or else become glorified car parks but I don't know what the answer is. Cars are a way of life now, particularly if local public transport is poor and people have to put them somewhere but a lot of people don't seem to be bothered about the appearance of their homes.

We have had quite a busy couple of days again. Yesterday we had to go to a funeral in the morning. The lady was 94 and had been in poor health in recent years but she had once been a member of one of our clubs and had come on all the outings and holidays with us and until the pandemic got a hold she would join us at our Thursday coffee meetings so it was very sad.

We got home from the funeral about 1 pm, grabbed some lunch and then I managed to get 3 loads of washing done and on the line before cooking our evening meal a bit early as we had a club meeting last night. Our speakers were a husband and wife talking about walking part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. It was quite interesting and they showed some nice slides.

This morning we had to go to the travel agent in the next town to sign a couple of forms and take in our passports for them to take down the details ready for our trip to Vienna. I had a short shopping list so decided to go to the large Co-op there. As I couldn't get the first 3 things on my list I gave up and went to a nearby Morrison's instead and got everything I wanted. It all looked nice and fresh. This afternoon I spent doing various admin jobs and rang the hospital as a couple of weeks ago my next eye appointment was cancelled. The email I had was very vague with no mention of whether I would get another appointment. The chap I spoke to checked and said I am definitely on the list for a new appointment but he had no idea when it would be. Goodness knows what is happening there as they are usually very good with their appointments.

I've spent a while this evening trying to find a suitable present for our dil whose birthday is on Sunday (same as OH's). In the end I decided to send her flowers in a gift package with a bottle of a cocktail based on tequila which I think she will like. I've not used this company before so I hope it's OK and arrives at the right time.

Tomorrow I must try and have a h/w day and also do something in the garden, weather permitting. At the moment it's still raining. Oh, and I will have to go into town to pick up my script as I will run out of one of my tabs on Thursday. Right now I think I'll go and have a wash and then maybe read for a while. Sleep well everyone.

Just come in from the garden again and cut down nettles and brimbles from under the two seater chair under the arch in the orchard. A nettle has stung me on the back of my finger on my right hand and it feels like a fairy with hobnail boots is walking over them.

I have sent pics taken through the bedroom window when I got up this morning and this evening as I was washing y hands on coming in from the garden on the grass from the kitchen window I saw first one then two then three Winking, Blinking and Nod. Blast so the rabbit population is now increasing rapidly as I saw two bigger ones round by the chickens this morning too and Big Mumma.