General Chat

Hello to all, I hope all is well with everyone.

What a dreadful night last night, the wind was horrendous, after a windy day it really whipped up later in the day & once darkness fell is really had a go, as the night went on it became unbearable ( for me at least ) the banging against the house was frightening.

I spent most of the night constantly checkking on hubby or cowering in a chair in the corner of the bedroom I was soo scared, if it hadn't been dark I'm think I would have coped better, being able to see what was going on outside !
I have experienced a lot of storms & fierce winds in my area but last night was really scary & it is STILL very windy.

I can't believe the power is still on !!
From the window I can see my garden seat/glider has been tipped forward & it is strapped down.
I am not venturing outside until the wind has abated, just too dodgy to do that at the moment.

No flooding for us Florence, too high up, we didn't have much rain through the night.

What a carry on for you re your mums house Florence, such a stressful time for you & your family members, let's hope new estate agents can do a better job of things.

Oh my the sun has just come out, makes things look a bit better, just need the wind to stop now, I'm so fed up of the noise.
Take care everyone.

Joan.

Hope everyone is safe, I have been watching some of the news reports and it looks awful in some places.

Florence I was wondering if you would change to another agent with the usual method of selling . I know nothing about the auction method your agents use but it certainly isn't working for you and they don't seem bothered . It's a lot of money they are asking you to reduce by. I do hope you get better luck with the new agents.

I had an email from the solicitors today to say the HMRC and the council have finally sent the correct paperwork and refund that was due to my sisters estate. The end is in sight at last.

Have been looking at baking with Almond and Coconut flour so OH can enjoy puddings and cake every now and again and more so at Christmas when the rest of us are tucking in. We don't eat cakes very often but the low carb ready made ones are so expensive . Any one baked with these flours before and maybe have a recipe they like and would share ..

Stay safe all.

Ginnie.

I'm glad you're OK, Florence and Joan.

Storms do always sound worse when it's dark.

We got off very lightly here, after all.
The very high winds were supposed to continue until this morning, getting worse before they got better, but in fact the wind had dropped to a normal strength by late yesterday afternoon.

The garden, and roads in the area, are littered with leaves, twigs, and small branches - but I haven't heard of anything more than that.

I am glad that you are OK Florence, I hope Joan is as well. The rain is lashing down here and it is very windy, the lights keep flickering, but have stayed on so far. I have had a record quick shower and hair wash in case the power went off while I had a head full of suds.

We were supposed to be driving down to near Leeds, just about forty minutes according to google maps because I need to get certified :-D :-D :-D

We had to send three lots of proof of identity to the conveyancers so we could prove we aren’t money laundering, OH passed, but mine didn’t. They said this happens all the time and they never know why, just that some people aren’t on certain data bases that are used to run the checks. I need to take my documents to a solicitor or a financial advisor etc to have myself certified. They would charge for that of course, or I could take them into the conveyancers office and they would do it for free. We decided to choose the latter option and we’re going to combine it with a shopping trip, but it would be really silly to go today, so we have put it off until Monday.

We viewed a house yesterday and have put an offer in this morning. I didn’t sleep last night worrying about it, I was still awake at 4.30 am, OH was fretting as well.

We have realised that we are never going to find another house in as nice a position as this one, we are really private, not on an estate, on the edge of the country side, but just a few minutes walk from the market square. Unless we win the lottery, we won’t be in a position to find something as nice close to my daughter. The reality is that we will have to downsize and be on some sort of estate if we want to be within reasonable walking distance of the town and close to a bus route for when we can’t drive.

We could just stay here of course, but it is a thirty minute drive to my daughters and it would be up to us to go there as she is working and has her hands full. When my parents were old and needed my help, I was a thirty minute drive from them, but at least I was retired and had the time to go. Even so, it would have been nice to be able to just pop in to keep an eye on them when they were ill. The house we have seen is just an eight minute drive from my daughter, so it will be much more convenient.

We might not get this house of course, especially as the vendors haven’t even started looking for somewhere to move to, They have lived in the house for nearly thirty years since it was new, so I don’t think they are up to speed on the concept of chains. Obviously you can’t have an offer accepted on a house until you have accepted an offer on yours, but in the meantime you should have been viewing properties and have somewhere in mind. When we explained our situation and that we needed to move quickly, they said that they had somewhere they could go and wouldn’t hold us up. I suspect that was because their son who lives with them is just buying a house with his girlfriend. I don’t think they understand the reality of what they said. The double garage was rammed packed with things including three motor bikes and I suspect the loft is full as well. It is such a stressful time, but on the plus side, I have lost some weight this week.

I feel for you Florence with the estate agent problem. We have one in the town who is notorious for putting things on the market at too high a price and then having to reduce everything. On the other hand, you don’t want to go too low. We have five estate agents in town. Two I would describe as the major ones. One we went with, but the other one was very disparaging and wanted to market it at 50k less than we have accepted , thankfully we didn’t choose them

Edit, you posted Joan while I was typing. Poor you, having had such a dreadful night. Hopefully it will pass and you can have a good sleep tonight

Afternoon everyone and so glad all is well with you Joan but poor you last night. In the dark its a lot worse as you said because you cant see what is flying about outside and the banging noises are scary too.
So glad you didn't lose power, that's a blessing so at least you have warmth with heating.

JustGinnie, i forgot to say, was your new drier very expensive? Such a pain when that happens. i initially bought a cheap one for about £140 but it didn't have reverse drying like my previous one so last year, I sold it for £60 and bought a reverse action drier. That way the towels didn't get rolled into a bundle and dry quicker.

I tel our sol today and was told as they came recommended by the estate Agent, we cant continue to use them!! So now shall have to find another one. I suggested to bro that we use the local one we used for probate near him as they are opposite the estate Agents and that would make life easier.

So Linda like you, we shall have to start from the beginning and upload the ID all over again which seem to take me hours to get it right bearing in mind, once I had uploaded all the things required, I then had to fwd the link to my brother for him to do the same arrrghhh!

Oh yes such stressy times indeed. However the young lassie at the estate Agents was so helpful, I have a better feeling about this already. She was genuinely pleased to assist and go the extra mile for us. I'm also happy to give our business to local businesses as well as in these times, local places need support to survive.

Shall keep you posted when i get news.

On a lighter note, I have some wire rings used for wreath making left over from years ago. So today for another project, I have ordered some scrapping assorted material with xmas designs and hopefully will make some xmas wreaths and if they are good enough, then shall sell them.

Right better go and make a cup o soup and slice some of my bread i made yesterday as tummy rumbling.

Its still very windy here and not going to subside before tomorrow afternoon so the storm hasnt gone away yet but its dry and sunny.

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

Ooh, we put n an offer on the house this morning and stressed that we needed to move quickly and were worried about the vendors not having started looking for a house etc. their estate agent has just phoned back and said that if we pay 5k more than our offer they will take it and they have agreed to move out to suit our timescale. We of course agreed as we had been prepared to pay the full asking price if need be.

So now I can start fretting about the actual move and then about all the work we want to do in the new house. Knocking out part of a wall and a new kitchen and utility room are top of the list and to be tackled asap after we move in :-D

Oh my goodness Linda, sounds so stressy!!

Florence I had an 8kg Beko condenser dryer £260 . My old one only had 2 programmes hot and gentle dry but this one has several and should be more economical to run.

Just checking in to see if those of you up in Scotland had a better night and those in the midlands where it seems very bad as well of course.
Things have calmed down here, the wind has dropped and it is just damp and drizzly

Morning linda et al.

Yes all ok up here as wind has finally abated although its still raining but not torrential.

Having a lazy morning as still tired from lack of sleep!

However, have written a list of jobs to do for the coming week and would appear, the list is growing arms & legs lol. With birthdays and xmas parcel for Australia, these need to get posted asap.

I saw the storm warning was also for mid country and not just for the highlands so if anyone in those other areas, take great care or stay at home if possible.

Right need to get busy and horse on with me chores for today.

Florence in the hebrides

Hi to all.
Another wet & gale force winds with us uvernight, the winds haven't abated at all here, & so another night of next to no sleep, the constant noise from the wind hitting the house has been just dreadful.

It doesn't look like things are going to get better any time soon, it's still raining & trees & palnts are getting a right battering, & still on the dark side.

Joan..

Afternoon all.

Finally the wind has def abated as it was up again last night but now, sun is shining and I slept like a log!

We have had a very busy day here. Daughter decided to change her bedroom around....major job. It is already full with an "Aladdin's cave" of goodies lol Anyway, she had been beavering away and it's nearly all sorted.

I seemed to have 4 loads of washing today as with the bad weather, we didnt do any last 2 days. It was dry enough for an hour so we managed to get 3 full lines out and dried before a shower came but it was nearly all dry which was fab.

I have made salmon fillets with new pots for tea and peas plus small salad. There is some soup left from yesterday to finish as well so that's the eve meal all sorted ready for cooking.

After vacuuming and tidying up, the house is looking a bit more respectable as last night daughter had all the fayre stuff out of the boxes all over the lounge floor!! But she condensed from 4 boxes to 2 boxes so less carrying on the day.

So now, i'm having a well earned rest with me coffee and catching up on emails, news etc.

I hope Joan, your wind has gone down too and you are having a better day?

Your plants will recover i'm sure, they always seem to somehow.

Hope everyone else is ok as I saw parts of Derbyshire under water too and Yorkshire I think. Linda are you near any floods?

Take care

Florence in the hebrides

You & your washing Florence, are you sure you are not running a "chinese" laundry, at your house, lol.
A MUCH better day here today, the sun has been shining all day, not much of a wind a bit chilly first thing but not too bad now.

I did manage to get out & clear some leaves off the drive & around the Potting shed, I filled 3 garden sacks, hoping to lift some more tomorrow from the front garden if a dry day.

I managed to get the garden seat/glider upright, it is a steel one & quite heavy & was starpped down with 4 trampoline starps, the fittings were deep into the ground & still the storm up turned it.

Joan.

I am glad that things are better for you Florence and Joan.
There is no flooding near here for a change, it is mainly in South Yorkshire. There is some in York of course, but that is just normal.

Today, I decided to do the first bit of packing. I have a typical cupboard under the stairs where in the small pointy bit, I keep the Xmas decorations. They were in five smaller cardboard boxes and some carrier bags , but in the new house, they will have to go in the garage. I had one very large plastic box, so bought a second one. I thought that they would all fit in there, but had to use another smaller plastic box as well. They are now out in the garage, it is odd because the volume of the three boxes in the garage looks huge in comparison to when the contents were under the stairs. I will have to have a good prune at Xmas because we can’t possibly need all of them.
I am going to give away the artificial Xmas tree as well and get a much smaller one. We always had real trees, but when the children left home and we started going to hotels to have the extended family all together, we stopped getting a real tree. One year I bought what had been an expensive artificial one in a sale just after Xmas. It is very large :-( It is incredibly realistic though, it takes ages to put it up as I have to spread all the tiny twigs out to make it look real It takes up a lot of room which is fine here, but won’t be when we move

A lovely calm sunny day here, making all the autumn leaves glow - those that are left after the gale, that is.

While tidying up in the garden this afternoon I discovered that a small tree has blown down at the far end of the house, at some time this week.
Not a very tall tree, but bushy, and festooned with lots of clematis and honeysuckle.
That's going to be a big job, cutting up the branches and getting rid of them - as well as trying to disentangle and salvage as much of the clematis as possible.
It just missed my clothes line, but I'll have to clear most of it away before I can hang any clothes out.

Linda, it's only when you move house that you realise what a lot of stuff you have!
It's good that you've already got rid of a lot during your marathon deep-clean.

Afternoon all.
Hopefully I wont lose this message as the last one disappeared because the internet keeps going off so 3rd time lucky...better keep it short lol.

Joan, daughter some times changes twice a day but she has OCD and she did strip her bed. her fluffy duvet cover fills the whole machine so that was a load in itself but your comment about a "chinese laundry" made me laugh
:-D :-D

Linda I bought fairly recently a new tree in a sale as the old one was 6 years old. This is 6ft tall and yes opening up all the branches does take time but I love doing the tree. When I have finished decorating it, it is a work of art. I think I must have some OCD too as the tree is symmetrical all round with alternative coloured baubles in just 2 colours. This year it is teal & silver for a change instead of purple and silver.

Was always my job when I was younger as my dear mum just threw all sorts of tinsel and decs on, in no pattern and I hated that so when I was about 14, I took over the job.

Joan so glad, you managed outside and sorted out your seat. At least its still in one piece. Im sure there are thousands of leaves to keep you busy too,

Linda, is this new house much smaller? When i moved here, i had to be ruthless in getting rid of things but now, I just have things i need and use and not things buried in boxes in the wardrobe or hall cupboard.

Florence in the hebrides

What a shame about your tree Argyll gran, I hope the clematis etc can be rescued.

Linda you have got plenty to do even though you had already started on clearing the house of things you no longer wanted, but you will get there.

I was outside just now to shut up the shed, whilst outside i took a walk round the "best" bit of garden at the front of the house, sooo many branches have come down during the storm, not thick heavy ones, just thin but quite long, plus lots of shorter twiggy bits lying all over the place.

A job for the grandchildren maybe, 10p a twig do you think, LOL.

Joan.

My tree is always silver and red baubles Florence, I don’t like a messy tree either.

I hope you have managed to rescue your clematis Argyll Gran. It will probably be too difficult to untangle, but pruning it back will make it come back agin.

I see we are due for lots more rain tomorrow, I am not planning to go out until after dinner, so hope I have an easy day. We need to go to my daughters and stay over on Tuesday night as she has to leave very early on Wednesday morning to go to London.

We had a bit of a long day today. We had to drive forty minutes to near Leeds so I could be certified :-D Or have my identity certified at least. While we were there we also filled in the forms to do with buying the new house, so got that out of the way.

We then drove forty minutes to Howden, to the factory of Howdens kitchens. They have a massive showroom there, much bigger than the average kitchen showroom. They were having a special expo event this week, so even though it is early days, it made sense to go as putting a new kitchen in is going to be a priority in the new house. The current one is so badly designed that it is seriously lacking in storage space. It was excellent to be able to see such a huge range, it isn’t the same when you see things on line or in catalogues.

We have been agonising over what we could do with the layout, so it was good to be able to spend time with a designer I took the floor plan and my iPad as there is a 3d tour of the house on the estate agent website. She was great and we now know that we are on the right track. We may not use them of course, but it was a really useful day.

Then it was an hour and a quarter home, some am tired now.

When we had a tree it was green with red, gold and silver baubles and mini bows but we haven't had one for a few years . I put the cards up and a couple of wreaths and some ornaments on the mantle piece and window sill. We used to do lots more when the gr/children were small but they are all adults now and doing there own thing.
Still love Christmas and have the table set and some nice extras that we like just have to have ones that suit our different diets.

Busy time for you Linda with so much to do . Hope all goes smoothly with the sale and the new kitchen .
Take care all

Ginnie

Afternoon all

The day started off bright and sunny, a bit breezy but chilly but overall a nice day.

However the sky is clouding over, sun has gone and very windy...again!

Not feeling energetic today as a bit wheezy so needed inhaler which I havent used for ages. Dr tel for daughter and whilst she was on the tel, i asked her about getting an echocardiogram as still not had it and its overdue. She said she would chase and see if she can get me an appointment asap.

I have been getting breathless if I move too quick or bend down to pick up something, all symptoms i had back in 2019!! It's just worrying me that the heart repair may not be working as it should or its come apart. Either way, I need some reassurance so hopefully my GP can work her magic!

Hope everyone's weather has settled now and noone flooded.

Joan, hope all ok with you and you are sleeping better. Have you managed to pick up the bird baths?

Hows everything going Linda, all certified now lol

JustGinnie, I have a special red linen tablecloth I use at xmas with a sparkly runner. Special mats, glasses etc and red dining candles. Like the tree, the table is a work of art as well even though there will probably just be me & my daughter, just a tradition but i love doing all the prep and getting organised.

We havn't had any milk since Saturday when it ran out. The ferry didnt sail and on Monday, there was no milk in the shops!! Daughter had managed to get some today but wont be home til nearly 5pm. So looking forward to a coffee :-D :-D

Hope all ok with everyone

Florence in the hebrides