General Chat

Morning All,

Sunny and warm again and I slept like a log. OH has found another 30% off coupon that's still valid in his wallet so we are off to the White Horse for lunch to use it! We can then post off our old passports in the same village and buy some of their lovely rolls and ham for tea later.

Yes it's the speed all these new houses are going up that's a problem, as we can't go on doing it at this rate for years and years or we will end up being one big city eventually. They are knocking down all the character buildings with large plots of land to do it and put up quite characterless houses in their place and any mature trees are being chopped down whether or not they are in the way. Our village roads are becoming single lane roads now with all the cars parked along them with many on the pavements as well. I used to enjoy sitting in my car in the carpark in the next village and look at the dogs on the park and listen to the birds while I read the paper. Hardly anyone else parked there during the week, but now the carpark is always full.

OH is getting ready to go out now so I will BBL. :-D

Good morning all cloudy sun and a bit cooler than yesterday. Sleep was a bit patchy but not too bad. Might be a walk at Maryport then have second eldest great granddaughter for a couple of hours and the family cockerpoo arrives for the weekend this afternoon. No peace here :-D

Morning all,

A beautiful morning here with sunshine and 13 degrees but pc says mostly cloudy so perhaps a bit cooler today.

I must put some more strings up for the Clematis to the left of the step down off the patio as some of them broke and its climbing quite fast now. There's lways soemthing to do that needs my attention when I want to get on with other things but thats gardening.

BIL may come today or tomorrow so he said when he dropped in for the sackbarrow the other day. Hope he's got the bits for the mower and that can be fixed as the grass dos'nt stop growing here and its getting long again.

I know that people need somewhere to live and we need houses. But it does seem to me that we are in dange of killing if all our lovely villages and ending up with huge sprawls of houses. With thousand of new houses built in several large estates in three villages. (Ours included). They have suceeded in joining the villages, doing away with the fuelds and trees and causing huge problems with traffic on the small country roads.

It was probably three times I had to come in to turn the leccy back on but its hard on the old knees.It used to be my job when oh was doing the filters so he did'nt have to keep coming in.

People are never satifies until they have completely mucked up the usual lay of the land are they? All this new building causes lots of problems in other ways. I bet nobody has thought about the extra cars and lorries on the roads that are usualy bloked with the incoming new people in the area. They shoudl'nt be aloud to build on land that is liable to flooding either. Don't think I would like to live in a house built on the hospital grounds would you?


Cleaned the little bathroom today and had a good hoover of the kitchen and dining area then my back hurt so I gave up onthe other rooms but did do the little loo and as I had washed al l the mats its now nice and clean and tidy. I have cobwebs in the big bathroom which I shall gather up on the brush and put them out for the Goldcrests cos I know where they seek for them now.

Everyones doing planting and sowing and I hav'nt done any yet. I have repotted most of the strawberries though which ar enow looking much happier and flowering.

Evening All,

It's been 20 degrees here and was really hot in the conservatory earlier. OH has fetched his shorts out today, so it must be hot! lol.

We were up early for my jab this morning and my arm is quite achey now if I raise it but not too bad. Afterwards OH suggested a garden centre and bite to eat so that's what we did. I got a couple of packs of dwarf french marigolds as the butterflies like them as long as they aren't the double ones. We called in the shop on the way home and got a new kind of cream trifle with peach and raspberry which was delicious. When we got home I took some photos to finally apply online to renew our passports which is over £11 cheaper than doing it by post.. It accepted OH's photo first time but kept saying my eyes looked closed and there were shadows. In the end a wide eyed photo did the trick, but it isn't at all how I usually look! We need to send our old passports back tomorrow.

OH was doing more weeding on the front as two neighbours appear to be away now and he got quite a lot of the gravel clear of bigger weeds. I went out and repotted a shrub till I know where it should go and weeded a bit more of the island bed as I need to get it clear to plant the french marigolds. I half filled a small humper before my back and knees twinged and it was getting very hot, so I came inside then before I set back the improvement. My cheeks still feel hot and I feel tired, so I think it must be the jab or hay fever as I've been sniffling too.

The back and knees weren't too bad this morning after the first 10 minutes Mandy, Yes, he's a devil for a book! lol. He gave some recent footie programmes to a friend at a match the other day which has given him extra space and he's had the stool out to sort his shelves out this afternoon. They look pretty full to me already, but he says they aren't. Well it was a good day to get your hair cut with it being hot. Are your Gladioli mixed colours? They are lovely flowers , but I always think of Dame Edna Everidge now! I had side effects from the diclofenac in Volterol in hospital once, so am wary of using it in any form now. I remember Jane used to find the gel good though. I did slap some ibuprofen gel on my knees this morning though. It's good Holland and Barrett will have the tablets for you tomorrow. Now you need to see how you get on with the new blood pressure tablets and do some readings. Fingers crossed you will be fine with them.

I hope the pussycat has scared off Mr Mouse Vera and that he won't be back again. The talk didn't sound so good with a sales pitch included. As AnnG says you could feel obliged to buy something but I'm glad you stuck to your guns and didn't! It must be lovely to have nice clean carpets everywhere now. I'm torn whether to have hard flooring in one of the bedrooms instead of carpet (which is in need of a good clean!). It would be easier to move the bed to clean under it, but there would still be rugs to clean and it wouldn't be as safe as carpet as we get more doddery.

We pay a subscription for one of our newspapers and are sent vouchers to use to pay with. You do get a good discount as you say. We have a palaver paying our bill as there never seems to be anyone serving in our newsagent who speaks any english! The bill obviously changes when a delivery is missed, so OH writes it all out for them now in the hope they show it to someone in the family who does speak english! We pay the local paper by direct debit and we have no idea who delivers that one!

I hope your daughter and SIL had a good sleep after their journey AnnG as OH has said it would be a good run from their place to yours. Yes, the motorways seem to get worse, especially if there are roadworks. Thanks for the pics of ypur garden and as I replied, your garden is coming together and looking good now.

Mel I think 5 times to put the leccy back on would start to drive me mad too. Is it the same for your neighbours as well? It seems the Heron is raiding other ponds for the fish so it's good yours are well covered. Do the 9 Koi have the big pond to themselves? You must have some goldfish that were born in your pond.

Remember me talking about the old Chapel on the site of the mental hospital half a mile from us? Well there is a large golf course on the same site that is half owned by Santander and the local council. Now they are proposing to put 800 houses on the land, plus on other land on the site. A mile down the road from us is the motorway junction and now extended retail park. Every morning the traffic backs up from the motorway and there are queues to get off it in the evening and gridlock around the islands at Christmas. With all the extra traffic the proposed big warehouses will bring if they go ahead, how worse will it all be with the cars from 800 houses as well! They are still building the 4,500 houses at the other end of the village as well that have started to cause new floods.

Mandy I have 9 big koi and I don't know how many goldfish. Iv'e not seen the heron anymore but I do know that Jono and Hazel have lost their fish and so have Phil and Val, Em,s mum and dad and that pond is in the house they let out just off my front field.

I can't send a pic of the koi as I have put blanket clear in the water so its all misty.

Evening all ,

Phew it's been a hot one today lovely sunshine all day ,we had our haircut today so apart from popping out to homebase after lunch we haven't done much at all but I still feel tired .
Oh I also popped into Holland and Barrett but they didn't have the gentle iron tablets I wanted in the shop but she ordered them for me and they should be in tomorrow.
Had a phone call from the pharmacist at the doctors for my tablet review ,I had one of my blood pressure tablets changed a few weeks ago but I hadn't started them because of feeling poorly so I have to start them on Saturday and then she booked a blood test for a fortnight later ,then after a month I have to do a week of blood pressure readings and take them in .

Vera what a todo with the newspaper delivery glad you got it sorted out in the end .

Ann how's the back and knees today ,I put some Gladioli bulbs in yesterday and by last night I could feel my back twinging so I got Colin to rub some voltarol on last night and this morning and it's not been to bad but I do need to pot up my hanging baskets tomorrow if I can ,I might sit on the bench and do them I stead of bending over the compost bags .
So another book lol is the new bookcase gradually filling up now :-)

Mel that must be a bind having to keep switching the leccy back on ,how many fish have you got now we haven't seen a photo lately they must be very big now ,hope the heron has stayed away .

Thats what I said green. I used that a lot in the garden years ago.

Its 20 degrees here and I have been faffing around with treating the ponds five times I had to come in and turn the leccy back on because I had unplugged soemthing and plugged something else in.

I am ready now for a cuppa.

Is daughter there now Anng? or did she just phone.

Mel we only had one hand rail when T was alive and it was sage. And the other one I had made which was too thick and heavy was also sage,

Traffic is horrendous on the motorways today but luckily no real problems.
Sun is shining and it is warm probably about 18.

Done some dusting and washing all the bathroom mats suns shining and it is 18 degrees. Washing machine is singing to me so I better put it on spin as I only had it on a short wash so I can get more in.

Morning all,

Another misty moisty morning here so I am hoping its going to be another nice day with sunshine later onwhen its cleared the mist.

Going to try and get more done in the garden today and I want to wash my hair.

Thanks for the pics Anng, thats a bright bench and the rails look good. I think you had them pale green when T was alive and put the first one up.

Hope there's no more mice in you garage Vera. They say if you can put your index finger under a gap or through a hole then a mouse can get in. You'll have to get a plastic box to keep your garden cushions in in the future.

Daughter and SiL have just gone up to bed. They had a good journey down but are tired now so I am just catching up on here.
I dislike those type of talks Vera, you sort of feel a bit under pressure.
Good the mice seem to have packed their bags. I hope they stay awwY now.
That was a bit of a marathon with the paper saga, glad it was sorted in the end. I don’t think anyone round here has papers delivered these days. We don’t even have a local newsagent.

Evening everyone

It has been another lovely day, cloudy this morning and sunny this afternoon and very warm but I haven’t had time to get outside at all.

You’re still keeping very busy in your garden Mel. It must be hard to keep on top of it with so much ground to cover. It’s good your joints and back are standing up to all the work but I bet you ache at the end of the day. Nice to see the orange tip butterfly. We generally see a few in late spring/early summer but I haven’t seen any this year. There do seem to be quite a few bumble bees about and lots of ladybirds.

Did you manage to get your tum friendly iron tablets Mandy? If they suit you perhaps the doctor will prescribe something along the same lines for you.

Lovely to have a big Waterstones near you Annx. One has recently opened in town and I am hoping it does well and stays. Our only independent bookshop closed as did the book part of W H Smith and we don’t have anywhere else for books, except the charity shops.

I hope your daughter had a good journey and arrived safely AnnG.

Last night I went to the Ladies Club meeting but I wish I hadn’t bothered. There was a lady speaker and what she said was little more than a sales pitch for various products made with Aloe Vera. There was an order form and a pen on each of our seats but I took one look at the prices and decided I could find a better use for my cash. There were about 40 of us there but I don’t think she sold very much.

I was up about 8 am this morning but started by moving all the furniture back in place after the carpets were cleaned yesterday. It wasn’t the really heavy stuff but chairs, bedside tables, and all the million and one bits and pieces we had moved out of the cleaner’s way, including all the things that had been plugged in such as lamps, bedside clocks and so on. When I finished I realized it was 10.30 am and I hadn’t even had any breakfast. I did have more bedding in the wash while this was going on so I got that hung out and turned to the next job – sorting out our paper bill.

A problem arose this week with our papers. For years we have paid for our daily newspaper with an annual subscription which gives us a good discount on the price. We get sent vouchers every 3 months which we hand over to our paper shop and then all we have to pay each month is their delivery charge. This has worked fine for years but then the owners of the paper shop decided that they would not be delivering after 6 April. We had the choice of making other arrangements ourselves, nigh on impossible here, or having a sort of national delivery service based in Stockport take over. We opted for this and everything, including our vouchers, was supposed to be transferred to them. A couple of days ago I received the first month’s bill from them for £98!! I’ll be typing half the night if I tell you the whole convoluted story but suffice it to say that it has taken me hours of emails, phone calls etc to the old and new supplier who apparently couldn’t talk to each other “because of data protection” – what nonsense. I paid the £11.70 that I knew we owed so that we weren’t in the wrong and eventually I got a phone call late afternoon from the new supplier to say they had now found our vouchers in an unallocated file. I was pleased but cross that they hadn’t double checked in the first place when I told them there should be vouchers allocated to our account. It would have saved me a lot of stress and hassle and made life easier for them and the old supplier to whom I had to apologise for more or less accusing him of not transferring them. Grrr. Sorry, rant over but it’s done me good to let off steam.

As to the mouse problem, there is no sign of a mouse in the garage at the moment – no fresh droppings, nothing else chewed. There has been a cat in there as we could see some paw prints on the roof of the car, so I hope it has either caught or frightened the mouse away. I have found somewhere that can supply a couple of seat cushions at a reasonable price though not in the same colour. The current ones are a rather boring dark beige. I’m not bothered about having all the same and this place can do quite a nice deep amber so I think I’ll order a couple of those but not tonight – I am getting far too tired. I should think you’re all tired too if you have read through this lot so I’ll bid you all good night.

Not heard anymore about the fire or the dog but ot seen Em since she told me. I took some pics of the tree coming down and they chipped all the smaller branches and Simon said I can have some of the chippings for a mulch in the garden so that was nice. Janine his wife came down and saw the garden and she bought a dozen eggs off me so that was another plus.

I have just come in from the garden having another scrap along the front of the moss on the tarmac. I want to get this first bit done under the bathroom window and oh's study up to the front door then I am going to start on the edges of the road dwon the garden to the house.Don't some weeding out there and had swept up a nice big pile of stuff from in front of myar and under the bird feeder and while I was up the other end of the bungalow Phil Pheasent came along with his loud voice going whoop whoop and kindly pecked around in the sweepings so now I have to sweep it all up again. He thought it was his birthday I think party all set for him to destroy. He's out there now chucking up so calling his girls to come and see what he's found.

Came in cos I needed a cuppa and I had a couple of ginger nuts too to dunk in the tea.

I have a nice piece of smoked haddock for tonight with a jacket pot and broccoli so a nice easy dinner.

Afternoon All,

Another warm, sunny day here and 20 degrees. Yes you were right Mandy about my poor old knees and our backs recovering and hubby had to rest up with a paperwork day too. We went to Waterstones on the retail park yesterday morning and had the nice coffee and bacon buttie deal at the Costa in there. OH had done a bit more weeding on the front in the morning but jumped at the chance to go and look at some books and of course he bought one while we were there. I hope you manage to get some tummy friendly iron tablets from Holland and Barrett today. Your DIL's cats reminded me of the gory finds Jane would have with Thomas's gifts!

I read about the fire online Mel and it was bad with needing firemen from so many firestations. I wonder where the poor dog is. If no-one has picked it up it is likely it may have made it's way back to the farm. The thatched pub we used to pass that burned down has only just re-opened and must have taken nearly a year to rebuild. It was listed though and that can hold things up getting plans passed and permission.

So you are going to have a new view with the Ash tree down. It took us a while to get used to without our Fir tree and the neighbour's Fir tree, but at least we don't worry about the wind now. It's years since I saw an Orange Tip butterfly.

At last your painting is finished now AnnG and I bet it looks good and you must be pleased it's finished now. Good news that the baby is better and it must have been such a worry for Jake and his family. When I had pneumonia the first time before I was school age, the advice then was to have a fire burning day and night and I was lucky that penecillin had recently been discovered. I remember the doctor visiting to give me the injections in my derriere. I was too weak to sit up and when I was first able to go outside my legs were like jelly.

Oh no Vera, not you with mice in the garage now! The little blighters chew all sorts and they even chewed through a thick polythene lid on a container of birdseed here. What a shame they have spoiled your set of garden chair cushions. I do hope you will be able to get some more that match. When I moved to my previous house, it had a sagging, timber garage, and as we had kept and bred canaries and budgies at our old place, we still had part filled paper sacks of their birdseed which we put into the garage. After getting a bit straight after a few weeks, we decided to put the birdseed in one of the spare bedrooms, as the whole bungalow was to be gutted and nothing would spoil. Well I unfolded to top of one of the two bags and several mice were scurrying around on top of the birdseed!! We made a quick exit outside with the bags again and took them down the tip in our little trailer we had. After over 20 years, and since having the roll up garage door, we haven't had any this last year, but we used to end up with a row of traps along the inside of the garage door. It was funny when workmen needed to plug tools in inside the garage and we had to warn them about their toes and the traps!! :-D

OH has weed killed the drive while my car wasn't there this morning. I was late watching TV last night as I started watching the film, The Beekeeper, so I was up late again this morning. Lunch was a make do affair, some old baking potatoes turned into oven baked chips, so as not to waste them, with fresh salmon, mushy peas, bread and butter with a banana afterwards. I must be up early tomorrow for my covid jab.

There having the big ash tree down by my drive in and its going to look very strange out there now. I am going to go and take some pictures.

Morning all,

Not so nice here today its very cloudy but I think they said the sun should get through by this afternoon.
Off to do some shopping later as its haircut day tomorrow.
We've seen a few butterflies there was a cabbage white flying about yesterday and there's been several ladybirds too on ths plants .

Morning all,

Misty moisty orning here this morning but pc says mostly sunny and 10 degrees. I meant too say when I went round tto corn the chickens the other day I saw two Brimstone butterflys and I think they call them an Orange Tip. It was mostly white with a black body and orange tips on its wings. I looked it up and the males have the tips on their wings.

I think the sun is just trying to peep through.

good morning all, it looks as though it will be a nice day, 11 degrees already. Yesterday it went up to 20. I am sure that there are still some weed needing shifting so that is probably the job for today. Daughter arriving later. :-)