General Chat

Morning our Mary ,a nice morning again ,runner beans now in ,plus a few replacement broads ,so all that's left to do later today is the lawn ,and this evening ,the last row of cabbage to put out.
I can then start the de weeding out front ,but that can wait until Monday ,is goin' to Have Sunday off.
Liz was told she could walk around and sit in the shade outside ,so i have opened up the parasol for her ,so she is sat on the patio ,with her lappy doing her emails ,lol,and her games of course,and the cat has been instructed to alert me if she DARES to do any work ,an amble round the back is allowed if she wears a hat ,but that's it. :-|.
Going to slide off now ,while i go out and buy some Rhubarb so that i can put my plants out this evening ,what's left of it will come in handy to make crumbles with ,see you later peeps ;-) :-) <3

Morning all, Happy to hear Liz is on the mend. Sounds like she must behave or" someone" will enforce the rules :-D
Our weather is now changed again, the temp this a.m is 1. The folks who put their plants in will be in trouble if they are not covered. Mine are still tucked up in the green house so will get them next week after I am sure of no more frost.
Even the bears have settled down with the cold, perhaps they think winter is comeing back :-)
Glad you have somew company Mary. A little help with John will be welcome I'm sure.
Hope everyone is enjoying the week-end, see you soon. Edith <3

It was coolish here overnite but it is hot again today, you would almost think it is July/August. Hopefully we don't pay for this later.

Went yard sale-ing this morning and then onto the Farmer's Market. They had a band down there today so we bought snacks and sat looking over the water and listening to the music.....very nice.

We bough 250 ladybugs yesterday and released them last nite. They should get rid of our aphids...but this morning there is no sign of any of them. Perhaps they snooze in the sun?? Hopefully today we will see them flying around if not it will be back to the drawing board.

Glad Liz is doing better Fred. You keep a good eye on her. And Edith I saw a video about the man who was attacked by a bear. He was apparently sitting on the outdoor loo and left the door open so he could see the view.....now there's clever...not!!

The garden in is....yea!!!!
Lesxx

Hello Hi Les, If he had closed the door, the bear would have pushed it over , can you imagine what part the critter would have had in his mouth?
Methinks head before bottom in this case.
He's back home in Winnipeg now but still getting rabies shots. His family lived here for several years.
Still chilly to-day hoping for better tomorrow. Edith <3

Morning all... we have a lovely winters day with sun and 9c.. at 7.30 this morning.. going up to the high teens..now that is what I call a nice winters day... :-) :-)
Am off to church and then a bit of shopping on the way home.. then its a me day... :-)

Glad Lizz is on the mend but make sure she does as she is told or else...... :-D :-D :-D :-D

Nothing much happening here so have a lovely weekend and you people with summer keep warm... :-D :-D

Love Mary xx <3 <3

Morning all ,and what a lovely one ,heat mist when i got up first thing this morning ,so first off i had a nice cuppa ,sat outside on the patio coming on 6 am. :-D.
Thinned me calabrese out ,warered my veggie patch ,then re dusted the soil around the brassica to stop the flies laying eggs around the roots. :-|.
The next 2 hours i spent taking the missus her drink up at 7 am ,watched the news ,wished i hadn't and saw what the mad man had done to his own country people ,and this a so called devout muslim? my Lord ,he will have a lot to answer to on THE day of reckoning,no pardon for him ,but eternity to ponder his crimes.
I went back out at 9 am and got cracking with the mower ,doing both lawns ,and then packed in until it cools down a lot.
I will be running the hose out front this evening to feed the front lawn ,and then do ditto in the back
Tomorrow ,apart from checking the pest in the veggie patch and then getting the car cleaned before it goes in for a service on Tuesday ,i am having the day off ,to be a lazy git :-D.
I think i may go down to the youngest sons tate in the morning after cleaning car time ,to take him his tomato plants and a new regulater for his B B Q seeing as i pinched the one he had late last year to get my new gas fire up and running :-).
If the weather keeps up ,i will uncover our B B Q sometime in the week and fire it up, yum yum ,that time of year again :-).
Nice to hear your garden is fine now Les ,it makes such a difference when you look outside .
Ordered the new mint plants today,one apple mint.one ginger mint and one basil mint,which means i will be moving the chive from the big urn ,so that all the mint plants will be in together,i have a smaller urn spare which i can shove the chive into.
Dinner is ready ,fish ,poached ,new tatties ,Asparagus out of the garden ,with carrot and a little cabbage ,the parasol is up ,ready ,dinner out side today ,with no bear threat here ,sounds good to me . :-D.
Catch you all later ,take care peoples :-D :-) <3 xx

Evening all you crazy lot ,from another one ,lol,here we are at the start of another holiday weekend ,and i am looking forward to a relaxing one after going at my garden hammer and tongs ,so that i can have a nice laid back laze about :-D.
My three mint plants have arrived,Ginger mint,Basil mint & Apple mint and are all in their new home next to the patio table in the big urn ,i thought it would be nice sat there with a cuppa in the sun ,with the lovely smell of mint pervading the air :-).
Have a full house out back now ,apart from the row of winter cabbage that won't be ready for three weeks.
Trees ,fruit ,i now have my plum ,apple ,two pear. along the back of the house ,with the new Bay tree ,the olive tree being out front ,sunk halfway in the small round bed ,where it will stay until late autumn when i will put it back in the greenhouse for the winter.
Glad everyone is still busy and cheerful .as here he he,'specially as i have just bugg**ed the bathroom shower mixer taps ,so now i will have to take the panel off the side of the bath to expose the piping and get a plumber in to replace the tap with a new one ,and plumb it in .
Expensive job i know ,and was thinking of a power shower until i thought ,well ,that will mean removing all the bathroom tiles so that the fixer can sink both cable and water pipe into the wall ,then replace the tiles with new ones,probably as dear if not dearer than the straight replacement of the mixer taps.,so ,i am in the middle of getting quotes for both jobs ,i should maybe ,ask Les' seeing as she has been through this chore lately , :-(.
Hope everyone is enjoying their company ,for the first time in three months we have Chris here for a couple of days ,so he helped polish off the stuffed Marrow i did for the dinner ,scooped out ,and filled with a mixture of brown rice ,a tin of Skip jack Tuna ,diced red onion,ditto red pepper,salt, pepper ,And a dash of tobasco ,very small dash so as not to swamp the Tuna,the whole wrapped in foil ,and slid into the main oven ,the small oven still U/S until the 7th of next month,i did some roast tatties ,parsnips ,and red onion to go in to make it worth while putting the big oven on,and did a few old tatties for mash ,along with veggies in the steamer.
Tea wise i brought some Paninies from Morrison's,cheese and Chive ones ,which i will shortly knock up with a filling of emmental cheese thinly sliced tomato, home cured ham ,,thinly sliced red onion ,and chicken breast ,finishing with a dusting of sea salt ,pepper ,and another layer of Emmental,slid into the press and toasted for 4 minutes :-D loooverly .
Catch you later peoples ,enjoy your weekend. :-D <3xxx

Fred, if you want a power shower then bite the bullet and do it. Our basement shower room now has a new shower head that can massage right down to your bones. Yes the whole endeavour was a royal pain but soooo worth it. So take the tile off and get it plumbed...I think you both will be in heaven. BTW depending on what is behind the tile you could just cut out the entire tiled wall on that side and replace the back board and then re-tile it...easier, quicker, less messy and a better looking job. Altho in this shower we replaced all the walls, previously we have replaced just the "water" wall and done just that,cut it out and then replaced in with aqua board and new tile...pretty easy if you only have white tiles, not so much if they are patterened and discontinued...been there and done that as well.

Finally have some shoots coming up in the garden and the toms seem to be doing OK. The weather has turned cold and wet and we have had the furnace on over the last few days. Norm won $75 on the Lotto yesterday so we went out to Bare Bones for fish and chips last nite. I had halibut in panko crumbs and Norm had salmon....yummy!! The we went to the Sugar Shack and treated ourselves to some home made chocolates....a good day!!

Today I have another tiling project at the back of the stove. Previous owner did not continue the tile to the bottom of the cupboards or down behind the top of the stove...lazy bu--er!! So finally we found some similar tile and I will get started on that. The stove will be out in the middle of the floor so will have to cook on the bbq....let's hope the rain goes away.

Have a good weekend everyone. Later Lesxx

I all..Sorry haven't been in but have had nothing to say much..Its been very quiet here and my life is just the same..very boring.. :-D

I planted some more Chinese greens where something else dinny come up and they seem to be showing their heads already..so I will have lots of greens.. :-D :-D

Have a lovely weekend all and Fred go for that shower,,they are lovely..not that we have one but our daughter has and I love it when I used to visit her..

My g/daughter in Spain graduates from the Uni there on the 16th of this month and her family are getting ready to go over for the big occasion..will be lovely for her and the family..

Love Mary xx <3 <3

Morning to all ,from a Newcastle ,where the forecast said fine and sunny [yesterday] but is cool and showery ? ,i'm sure our lot use a lump of sea weed tied to the outside clothes line ,and have a feel in the evening to see if it's moist ,or dry ,he he.
Taken your advice peoples ,regarding this shower ,and the lad is coming on Wednesday morning to fit it in after a long discussion on options.
Les ,no chance with the tiling ,lol, all three walls are solid brick ,with the old build of the house ,engineer brick at that ,you even have trouble getting a masonry drill bit to go into it he he ,you should have heard the language when the chap was here putting the tivo box in for the update of the virgin media box,some of the words i had never heard before.
Anyway ,i will have to take the panel off the bath to allow the pipes to be connected,but that isn't too bad a job ,the skirting board ,and the trims are held on with white mastic ,so removal is easy.
The panel when it is off will need a bit cut out to allow the pipes to come through,and he is going to use chrome piping where the pipes run across the back wall to the unit,so it won't look out of place ,the unit being chrome as well .the downpipe will be copper so that i can paint it the same colour of the wall to blend it in.and there is no need for an electrical connection ,which i was worried about in a bathroom.
I was a bit upset at the loss of the shower ,glass panel ,because the pipes wouldn't go behind but ,then thought ,that is a blessing in the event of myself ,or the missus needing help to get out of the bath ,at least then ,there will only be a curtain to move out of the way.
Glad your Pak Choi is coming through okay Mary ,i have just put my second lot in too ,along with two troughs of Parsnip.
These troughs are working well for me ,and i will get two more for carrot and a third Pak Choi.
The missus is well enough now for me to put a chair in the greenhouse,for her to now put some sweet peppers ,and jalapeno 's into the pots ,me now having the greenhouse clear of all seedlings ,apart from the late cabbage.
We are going to buy two largish electric propogaters for the coming winter ,somewhere i can start my own leek and onion seedlings off instead of buying them,and besides ,it will give me an interest early in the year :-D.
Sounds like we are ALL suffering with weather conditions ,nothing seems to be going very well with the temperatures going up and down like a yo yo,even poor Edith will be scurrying round her Verandah wondering if spring is ever going to arrive ,and her Bears will be in and out of their hidey holes wondering what's going on :-(.
We WERE going outside to have our holiday B B Q :-( but now i am making a Cottage pie with grated cheese on top,but if the drizzle is still hanging around tomorrow ,i am going to get the George Foreman electric grill out and doing it indoors ,lol :-) before the buns go stale.
Catch you later peoples ,time to check outside ,heel ,i am thinking of getting mini wipers fitted to my specks ,so i can see what i'm at out there :-| :-D <3

Hello all. This will be my last post for a while. I have tried several times the last few days and the site freezes. None of the other sites are doing this so I am sure it is just Genes.
Please contact me at my e-mail address. The frustration it takes just to get to the site is too too much. Surely they could fix it.
Hope to hear from you all soon. Edith <3

Well Edith I am on here OK....wonder what the problem was??

Meanwhile it was bitterly cold here yesterday so much so that there were folks out walking with their winter coats on. I sure hope that we don't get a frost....arrgghhh!! what will that do to my veggies that are just starting to show. A friend messaged that is was so cold in Vancouver this morning that she neede her parka and winter boots....I think they have nick named it Junuary.

Dau has just leased a garden plot at the The Maples Garden Coop in Langley. You can google for a peek. She sent me a pic of her plot...nice size but really weedy and grassy. I am trying to see if she could someone to rototill that for her....too much digging/ forking otherwise. She already had pots of veggies waiting to be planted...what a gal!!

The new tiling in the kitchen looks really good, dunno why we didn't "fix" that years ago, so now we will tackle the next job which is to repair the back door where Bella has scratched to come in. Think I am going to get a piece of moulded stainless steel to wrap the jamb so that when she jumps up again it will not wreck the wood.....jobs!! always jobs!!

OK I am off to make brekkie....a late start today. I am hoping by this afternnon it may warm a little so that I can put in my dahlias....fingers crossed and all that. Lesxx

Morning Les'Edith and Mary ,plus the other visitors who sometimes show up from time to time.
Think the problems that Edith is having ,is a lot to do with her provider .Les .a lot of people are bitching about conflict on there ,while others seem to be managing okay,i get on a lot better using Google instead of Internet explorer and M S N,which is nearly always conflicting with genes at some point. :-(
Mant thanks for the input over the shower ,by the way ,after consideration we went ahead with a Gainsbrough mixer shower ,and what a difference ,wow ,the wife used it for the first time this morning .
Took her a cuppa up ,nudged the door open with my foot and was enveloped in sauna like waves of steam ,lol,and powerful,she said she had to turn it down to save being knocked over before she could sit down to do her hair :-D.
NOW ,the only problem i will be having is getting the old turkey out in the mornings ,so that i can have one myself ,lol :-( .
We are going to be busy with finishing off in the bathroom today ,with fitting the new bath panel we got yesterday ,it needing pieces cut out so that it will fit round the pipes ,and under the bath slot at either end.
Couple of other bits to do to finish off as well ,but nothing as sever as re tiling as you have had to do ,a job i don't envy you at all .lol.
Hope your daughter gets her new plot rotovated and set up quickly Les '. power to her for growing her own produce ,i is jeal' lol .but i had many yers of fun with two allotments in my younger days ,and still get satisfaction from my garden .small as it is :-D.
got some pics of the new arrangements out back ,and front ,including my little Olive tree in pride of place in the front garden ,and my Bay Tree ,and second Pear out back.
My last row of winter cabbage are showing in the greenhouse ,so the back will be full up in three to four weeks .
Need to stir myself ,and the missus now to get upstairs with a piece of paper and tape measure ,to get some idea as to where these cuts have to be made ,then downstairs to the kitchen ,wher i will have to cut the panel ,it piddling down outside again :-| ,have to get a rattle on as well ,because the fellas are coming from Curry's this after noon to fix the cooker ,so ,catch you all later guys,take care and be safe .Fred. :-D <3 xxx

Hi everyone.. we have winter here at last..down to a cold 9c at night and up to a lovely 17-20c during the day.. :-P :-D :-D

Edith I use IE and have no problems getting on..do hope you can get it sorted and get back soon..will miss you.. <3

Fred Your garden is looking so lush and green,,is it all the rain you have had that is doing this... :-D :-D..The seeds of chinese greens are coming up everywhere.. I must have dropped a lot but anyway they will do me when the first lot are used up,,Still got to get something to put in the tub I had the toms in..They were a complete failure,,Might try some more silver beet perhaps..
We had the Ocupational Therapist here last monday and they are lending us a high lift easy chair that will help John to get up out of a chair as he is now finding that very difficult. To buy they cost around $1200 so it is good to get one for nothing..The Motor Neurone Association are fantastic when it comes to equipment to make your life easier..All on loan...
Hope you lot in the UK enjoyed the festivities and extra holiday..We had to watch it on the tv and it dinny come through till 10pm our time and went to 3am,,Afraid not to many stayed up that long to watch it all...The did play highlights the next day so not to bad..Pity the weather wasent so good and it looked so cold..and they all wore skimpy summer dresses..bet they froze..

Have a lovely weekend all..

Love Mary xxx <3

hi to all ,The garden is so lush looking Mary ,because ,as you say it gets tons of water ,and i don't skimp on feeding it every couple of weeks .
Any way ,not talking to you ,lol,in fact i may report you to the world wide office of fair trading ,he he ,how very DARE you report your winters temperatures both night ,and late daytime ,and both higher than our early summer ones ,hmppppph ,not fair . :-P.
You found anything you can plant in that tub yet?I don't know what to suggest because i have no idea as to what will happen to your weather over the next couple of months ,i am having enough troubles with ous as it is he he,still thinking of going for a rice crop .lol :-).
I finished painting the bath panel this morning ,so as soon as it is dry i will move it indoors ,and replace it with the skirting board as soon as i get it sanded down,i can't do the painting anywhere else at the minute with all the rain we are getting. :-|.
spent three hours yesterday trying to get Sweetim.com out of my puter ,after getting too clever with myself ,not wanting to spend as long downloading Adhobe from the parent site,i chose a mirror site ,which downloaded adhobe quicker ,yes ,but put Sweetim in as well ,it being imbedded in the mirror image,,so ,be warned peeps ,slow isn't always the worst thing to opt for ,lol. :-0 .
i,m off for a lay down now,i am either getting old ,or the cat is getting me up too early too often ,or both ,i was out painting the bath panel at 5 am this morning ,ruddy cat [bless her ] she is keeping me active after all . :-D.
Catch you later everyone ,Fred. <3 xxx

Morning everyone from a sodden Newcastle ,where the only bright side of the morning is finding out that both of my water butts by the greenhouse are full to the brim. :-).
we caught to tail end of the storm clouds from Wales yesterday afternoon ,and found out just why they suffered so much ,i have never seen it rain so hard since i was in Aden ,the rain bouncing up six inches as it hit the patio,it must have been even worse than it looked on the television ,a wonder that there was no loss of life due to drowning :-(.
Done today's housework already and i am now off to do dinner ,a bit of lamb,some home cooked Ham ,stuffing and the usual trimmings .
Be back later when i have plodged out back in me wellies .to feed my greenhouse plants ,all of which must be smiling because they are in the dry ,lol.
Fred. :-D <3 xxx

Sorry to hear about the weather Fred....we had a sunny day yesterday, the first in maybe a week and a half. I was starting to get cabin fever..LOL
Did a bit more planting in the garden, will try and take some pics today if it "suns" up, cloudy at the mo. We also had our furnace on last week, the big one, and even this morning we had the gas fireplace on in the living room. My toms are slow. They were perky when first planted, it was warm and sunny then, and now they are just sitting there....dunno what to do about that...nothing I guess. The plum tree however has the most plums on it that we have ever seen and the branches are already starting to droop with the weight. My neighbour has a sour cherry tree and ther are parts of it that have so many baby cherries you can no longer see the leaves....what a weird year.

Normie and I went to our favourite garden store yesterday, Naesgaards, to buy a few more pots for the garden. They have a big sign on the highway that says "pot sale", it has become a local joke. Anyway it was a lovely day, nice breeze, and we wandered around and looked at all the pots....they have thousands. I must remember to take a pic for you, but meanwhile you can take a small peek at www.naesgaards.com They have a wonderful "greenhouse" and the inside of the store has unusual crafts and gifts from all over the world, a treasure trove.

We were supposed to have company this weekend but one of their kids got sick so last night we had a feast all to ourselves. I slow cooked a chicken, with only garlic stuffed in it, for about 3-4 hours. It was very juicy and yummy. We ate mountains of corn on the cob and I made a big pot of Irish smashed spuds. Dunno what gourmet feast I will cook up today I might make baked spaghetti.

And so on that note I am off to find breakfast....goodness me, it is all food today. Take care you lot. Lesxx

OK you lot...who sent their rain down under..We have a wet day and lots of rain coming down,, :-P :-D

Public holiday today for the Queens birthday..ok we know its not her birthday today but the wise men of this country want to celebrate it on this day,,don't know why they cant use her correct day but who am I to question their wisdom... :-P :-P :-P

A couple of old crocks here,,John had a fall on sat. and I went flying tripping over a parking bay divider in the super center,,was to busy looking for the car to see where I was going..as I said a couple of old crocks.. :-D :-D

Saw a beautiful bush turkey wandering around the place this morning..They are protected and are lovely birds,,about the size of a domestic turkey and they build huge mounds of earth for the female to lay her eggs in and they cover it over and keep it at a certain temperature so that they hatch together..love to see our wildlife free and wandering about..Some people call them Brush Turkeys so google them and see what comes up..He didn't like the rain to much so was wandering about looking for somewhere to shelter I think..lots of places for him so no worry..

Australia has honours it hands out for the Queens Birthday Celebrations and our son in law got a mention this year for his army work..Much deserved ...he worked hard for the job they had him do for 18 months...

Well with yukky weather it is quite dark and lots of grey clouds,,so might have a quiet day and let my sore knee that copped most of my fall recover and have a ME day,,,

Lots of love
Mary xxx <3

afternoon to Mary and Les' ,and no Mary ,Not guilty about the rain ,i think 'Im upstairs is in a playful mood ,lol ,and we will have to put up with it.
sorry about your trip and fall,not done that one before ,and it sounds very painful to me ,sorry about John as well, you neither of you seem to be having much luck lately.
I remember you talking about another place you took trips to Les' the pics showing a railway ,and shop complex.
going shopping there seems to be more of an adventure to me ,than the usual ,mundane shops we have here,still ,we go with what we have.
When we go to Blackpool there is a large garden centre with carp fish for sale ,garden furniture ,other garden stuff and a huge coffee shop .all made from an old coal mine /canal railway line which ended where the longboats were loaded with coal for the city ,the returning boats loaded with grocery goods and vegetables for sale ,we spent four hours there last time.
Next year i will not be growing Broad beans ,my nemesis in this house ,much as i love them ,still ,you always get one sort of veg 'that ,for some reason or other ,will not grow properly.
The space i have been using for them ,i will split between more runner ,or climbing French ,and an extra row of brassica.
yep ,our plum is going daft too ,must be all the water ,and i don't mind that at all ,it will make up for the lack of apples this year ,and i may yet get a few pears off the bigger of the new trees.
The olive will have to go into the greenhouse for the winter ,it being non ,frost tolerant,so it goes in there with a fleece overcoat :-).
Soup for tea tonight,parsnip and ginger,and i have to admit ,it looks good ;-).
I am just about to send for a set of shower curtain clips that fit to the shower tiles ,a barrier to shower water getting out of the enclosure ,not bad at £6 for 3 carriage paid from E Bay ,but i think i will send for 2 sets ,so i have spares .it's all systems go now as the fella has been out this afternoon and fixed the weeping joint.. :-D.
That's it for now apart from sending our Edith an email in case she is still isolated ,can't be having our Pal out on her own can we ?.
Take care all ,specially our Mary :-| got my eye on you lady ,you have to be more careful as to where you put your feet ,that's MY trick you just pulled ,lol,you find your own ,and less painful if you please <3
Catch you all later :-) ;-).

Evening to all ,so tired after today that sleep is alluding me at the minute [bu**er]So i am going to add a few lines before i try the bed again :-).
Well ,i isss up to date with the garden again ,out front with the daft cat at 5 am this morning ,clearing out the weeds from the rest of the borders aand getting all the rubbish into the rubbish bin before the bin men arrived ,both bins chocker ,lol ;-).
Sean is with you Canadians for the night ,[Alberta] having flown out this morning in a C 17 on a long haul trip round the continent.
The aircraft stays at Alberta overnight,loads up in the morning and flys onto Reno,and California over the next two days ,with another stopover in California,before flying home via the Azores ,cor ,i wish i was young and fit again ,he he ,i miss my flying days a lot. :-).
We did get down to B&Q as planned today ,and i got the bits for the shower,and got cracking as soon as i got home,with the result that it will be finished tomorrow morning once i have fitted the curtain clips which arrived this afternoon,must admit ,it is looking pretty good.
It won't cost any more really to run than the old one ,the only power it uses is the little pump under the bath that boosts the water pressure when turned on,all the hot water coming from the combi boiler ;-).
Glad i got the rest of the garden done ,well worth tiring myself out for too because it looks like the high winds and torrential rain are on their way back Thursday and Friday,must make sure i get the slate chippings put around my Olive tree while it is still dry,cause i ain't going out in the rain to do it.
I will save putting the turnip seeds in the cups until then ,something to do while the weather is so lousy,and then i can transplant them into the troughs in a few weeks time ;-),they will go in at the same time as the winter cabbage ,the last of the planting for this year.
Going to try getting some sleep again,so ,catch you later guys,take care all :-D <3 xxx