General Chat

Anne, sounds like you both are good value.

I have 4 credits left from those that came with my recent standard subscription.
can I buy anything for 4 Credits?

Australian Eastern summer time finishes tonight.
and boy am I glad. Its been very hard to get going in the morning last week.

Autumn is well and truly here, today is warm and clear blue skies, and my sheets and towells are flyong in the warm breeze.
The humid weather is over, and I can breathe more easily.
Night are for a blanket last week and warmer pjamas.

Monday we have an invite to grandson's school for Granparents' Day.

Last year it was very nice. We went to the hall and the children put on a play and songs and dance.
Then we went over to the classroom to look at their best work that was on display.
After that we were treated to a lovely afternoon tea of sandwiches cake and coffee or tea.
I am looking forward to Monday, and this year Grandson is more excited because his grandpa is coming too.!

Hi Annette,
I love it when we go to school to see the grandchildrens work, plays etc. all the children look so sweet and take it all very seriously.
I hope you and grandpa enjoy it. I'm glad we are starting to get warmer weather now, the winter seems to have dragged on and on and I am not a winter person.
Hope you are well,

Cath xx

Hi everyone, grandparents day was very special. A warm sunny day.
we went to the hall and Young Man came to sit with us.
The junior choir sang Eidelweiss and My Bonnie lies over the Ocean.

The Junior school Blow your own Horn band played Theme from Beauty and the Beast and Scott Joplin's Rag.
The music was pretty good even though they havent played much together yet. The band formed at the beginning of this year with a group of new players.

Then we heard the headmaster speak on how special grandparents are.
Youn man took his pa to the class room and showed him his handiwork and painting and clay modeling. I noticed his handwriting has improved a lot.
Afternoon tea was made by the year 9 and 10 hospitality class. I especially enjoyed the fluffy poppy seed cake.

Annette, sounds like you had a lovely time at grandparents day, bet you felt very proud of your grandson.
I think I've read on another thread that Ann is not in Glos but in Tenerife at the moment, if so, I hope she's having a lovely time.
Weather here has been mild and sunny, long may it continue.
Haircut today before I go on holiday next week and also my last morning at work (never want to go back to work after a holiday). Packing is all done except for my father in laws headstone!! Mother in law wanted a slab of Guernsey granite and has someone lined up to engrave it when we arrive. I can't believe it's almost a year since we lost him, I still expect to see him pottering in the garden or in his workshop making or mending something. He was a lovely man and I still miss him dreadfully.

Hope everyone on here is well,

Cath xx

Dear Cath
anniversaries are sometimes very difficult, so I hope your trip is all you want it to be. connecting , resting, and restoring.

I remember some nice things about my father in law; he was a very generous man. if it wasnt for him I wouldnt be living in this home.

we are having lovely mild sunny days here too. Autumn is my favourite time of year.
Im not going away this Easter holiday, but my brother and his wife are coming here this weekend.

I Hope Ann is having a great time in Teneriffe, probably reading all those books, swimming, partying etc.
How does one get there? Fly or boat?

Happy holidays to you all.
I shall check in next week

Hi all
xxx


we're having some lovely weather at the moment .................... chilly nights (down to 2 or 3C), but lovely sunny days, and about 11/12C


We have one lottery here in Canada that is currently $50 million plus 27 $1 million extra prizes!

It starts off at $1 million, if that isn't won, it's added to the next week, and so on. Once the jackpot reaches $50 million, it doesn't get any larger, but they start adding the extra $1 million prizes. That goes on until the big one is won


we keep hoping!!



My father-in-law was lovely. My m-i-l was something else again, especially in the last 15 or so years of her life. You might describe her as the person from h**l

Pity ...... 'cos daughter has very unhappy memories of her



sylvia
xx

Hi, I do have my netbook with me here in Tenerife so come on here occasionally. Annette, we fly here, as we are in North Tenerife we fly via Madrid, or in our case this time because of a cancelled flight, via Barcelona. The weather was cooler than normal at first but the last couple of days have been lovely.

Catherine, enjoy your holiday.
sylvia, pleased that you too are enjoying good weather, we all needed it after the winter.

Thanks Ann I will although it will still be strange without my father in law.
I am looking forward to the absolute peace and quiet of rural Ireland though and the chance to walk, enjoy the wildlife and catch up with some reading. Hope you are having a great time, I am not taking laptop so wont be around for 2 weeks after next wednesday.
Hope everyone is well,

Cath xx

It must be quiet where you are going Catherine if it is absolute peace compared to Guernsey!!!

It Is Ann. We might venture in to Wexford town once or twice where its busy but the rest of the time we shall have just sheep and cows for company..........Perfect.
Guernsey is ok but far too much traffic now for such a small area and too many people rushing around. I would be happy to relocate to Ireland but for the fact I'd miss my grandchildren terribly.

Catherine is on her way to Ireland today, enjoy your break.

Cool here today and no sun, so summer has been and gone?
Hopefully not as we went to the garden centre this morning and got lots of lovely plants, including the tomatoes for the greenhouse ready to grow on. !!!
I now have the job of emptying the large pots and keeping them watered and warm enough too.

I have got pansies and they are hardy enough and I just love their little faces.

Hope everyone absent from here is fine

Linda :O) XxX

Linda
Nice to hear from you again.
Gardening time for you all ! Hope you end up with some tasty tomatoes in a couple of months.
Pansies are very cute and so colorful. Did you choose a mixture of color?
Here in Aus I am watching as the jonquil and daffodil bulbs push through. They all seems very keen to get growing. Meanwhile the bushes and trees are losing their leaves, and I must get ready to prune my roses next month.
My grandson helped me cut back the geraniums on the weekend; they had got too lanky, so soon they will bush up again and flower.

The cold weather has begun. on Sunday night I lit the fireplace for the first time this year . After such a lovely week of warm autumn weather, overnight It suddenly turned very cold. I quickly found my woolly socks too.

Hoping all you ladies are enjoying your well earned holidays.

Annette

Sylvia
dont get me talking about m-i-l
For the last 3 years she has been in a nursing home with advanced dementia. Its sad to her degression, and really hard to visit.
She clings on and cries loudly to be taken out of "this prison"
(her words)
After family visit the staff say she is very naughty.
So my OH and his sister visit her only once a week.

O always found it hard to get along with her, as nothing I did was any good. Eg at Christmas or birthdays when everyone got together we were all expected to bring food to contribute towards the meal.
Usually what I made and brought was put aside,, "for later"

I was really hurt by this as it happened many times.

anyways thats in the past, and now she has to eat what ever she is given.
so i tend to think what goes round
comes round. Ying and yang.

Annette

Annette, you said the daffodils are pushing through, are they like here and bloom in what will be your spring, or do they bloom in your winter?

Just seen a gorgeous butterfly on the patio (in Tenerife still), The sun is shining and it is quite hot. Off back outside now.

AnninGLos,

the daffodils dont usually start coming up yet, as its only mid April. They are about 3-4 weeks early.
They Usually flower in late August early September.
So it will be interesting to see just when their flowers come this year.

We have a large shrub here in this district called the butterfly bush.
The butterlfies sit all over the long mauve blooms. The blooms are the shape of a long triangular tassel with many tiny florets within it.
Maybe Tenerife would have this too.

Take care and have fun
Annette

Hi all


Annette .... is your Butterfly Bush's real name Buddleia?


We have an introduced Buddleia here, which we call Butterfly Bush .... it grows like a weed! It has actually become naturalized in a lot of areas around Vancouver. The most common form comes from China.


It is a beautiful bush, but ......................................



My m-i-l went so far as to tell OH on a couple of occasions, after he'd made special trips to England to see her, that he should divorce me as I was no good for him, and that if he didn't she would re-write her will to leave his half of her money to our daughter, as I was only in the marriage for the money!

I wouldn't have minded, but she didn't have a lot of money to leave!


Nobody was ever good enough ...... no matter what you did, nor who did it, she would say "That is good BUT so-and-so does it better".


Strange thing though was that she seemed quite fond of me until after her husband died. Then it turned out that she had to have someone to blame for when things went wrong. It had been her husband ...... then became me.



The funniest thing happened a couple of years after we got married.

In the late 60s, English people still cooked veggies to death, meat was always well-done, etc. That was how I was raised. But Americans cooked differently ..... and it didn't take us long to realise that we really liked crisp vegetables, rare or medium-rare meat, etc etc.

In-laws came to stay with us in Vancouver after we'd been over here for a couple of years ....... so we were well into the different style of cooking.

OH's cousin let us know (laughing madly about it), that m-i-l had gone round telling all her friends "Poor xxxx, his wife can't cook, she serves everything raw."


By the time we had our first trip back to the UK in 1973 .................... m-i-l was serving crisp veggies, medium meat, etc!


take care everyone


sylvia
xxx

hi
Buddleia Davidii
yes that the one, ours is mauve, but it comes in white also. and I have seen a pink one in a garden in the city. Butterflies of all kinds just love it. the nectar must be perfect for them.

I guess it can get a bit wild, if its not cut back.
My oh cuts this one back with the chainsaw when it gets too much, and pulls out the old woody stems that die naturally.

Yesterday oh fell off a ladder and has badly bruised his knee.
I knew it was really hurting when he went to bed.!
Doctor ordered an mri scan ti check for blood clotting and anything else that may be damaged. Scan showed no clots and no major damage. He has been given anti inflammatory tabs and pain relief.

Grandson is with me 4 days now, as its school holidays. Today is much warmer and sunny blue sky, so we played outside until time for lunch. The other day when it was raining I gave him his first sewing lesson on the machine.
He had been pestering me for months to let him use the machine.
I said he just cant sit and sew by himself, he has to learn how the parts work and how to put the fabric.
He said "right, then lets do that"
I taught him how to thread up and what all the parts do.

my s-i-l said to put an old needle in and try him first with paper sewing. straight line sewing, then we tried different patterns.

Then we sewed 2 small squares of fabric to make a rectangle.
and made an edge all around with different patterns.
Tomorrow he wants to sew again.!
How unusual is it for a boy to want to do this?

I dont have a gran daughter, so this is great for me.

Hi everyone


Annette ..... not that unusual.

You might find him designing and making things for you!


My brother was 10½ years older than me. He knitted a pram cover for my pram before I was born

OH used to use a sewing machine in his laboratory ... stitching 2 pieces of paper together for certain experiments he did. He was asked a couple of questions by the powers-that-be when he ordered the sewing machine on his grant! He can sew a straight seam better than I can ........ and I've been sewing for over 60 years!


It poured with rain today .... and there was even snow around, down here at sea level!

It rained overnight and today is cold again. I have the wood fire burning well.
Im on my own for a few days, men are at the farm. grandson gone home.
I am so enjoying listening to my old records while I sort out my family tree, back another generation. I cant believe that Im back in the late 1600's.


Im taking this time to be quiet and get my energy back.
Also
We are preparing for passover celebration, and this year there will be 15 or more of family and friends getting together at a friends home.
The lamb shanks are going in the slow cooker so the meal will be ready early.
And then we also celebrate Easter as well.

The children are on holidays from school for another week. However its quiet in my street, neighbors must have gone camping with their kids.
We have a good mix of ages in this street, though I have missed my friend from the corner whose home is up for sale. They moved all ready before the house is sold.
I saw her yesterday at the house cleaning up the garden, so I stopped to say hello. She said they have to drop the price again as there are no buyers looking at all. The real estate market has plummeted in the last 3 months. People just dont have the money to buy any more.
If this house is not sold by the end of April they are going to rent it out.

Plenty of people looking for rentals she told me, so I hope they get good tenants.