General Chat

It's strange how things are in different places as I haven't seen any aphids here yet this year. Our Hostas haven't been touched by slugs and snails yet either, which must be a first. I have seen more Ladybirds and also their larvae though, so maybe they ate them all. A lot of Buddleias are very vigorous and we had to cut one right back that OH had in his previous garden. It was planted by the builder in such poor soil, but soon outgrew it's space and was huge as OH had never cut it back and it took us all morning to cut it down to a maneagable size again.

It's feeling hot here and says 24 degrees so I'd better get a cold drink from the fridge. I haven't been able to settle to anything much today as OH contacted me from the meeting he's gone to 30 miles away on an ipad of someone else's to say he'd forgot his mobile!! I'm not very pleased as he can't contact me or ring 999 if he needed to or the breakdown people if anything happened with his car. He also said before he went that he had no idea when he would be back and is likely to be delayed with traffic with it being a Friday, so I don't even know roughly when to expect him. I doubt he's eaten anything either and didn't take anything with him like we decided he should when he's out for hours.

BIL has gone as he has broken the handle on the collecter after I asked him to drop me a bit for the chickens. I meant for him to empty it on the side over the nettles but he did'nt understand what I meant. Its raining now anyway so he has gone off to do his washing and get everything ready to go to a wedding tomorrow in Birmingham which he is not looking forward too.

I had strimmed the back garden down to Prickerly Bottom so he could pick it all up when he mowed but he did'nt get that far.

Gosh Vera I laughed at your granddaughter saying she had had a “quarter life crisis”.
Bless her. Does that mean I have a three quarter life crisis and one year??

BIL did'nt even notice the trees down at the front or that I had washed the patio and decking. He did bring me 4 boxes of fat balls, a small bag of peanutes and seed and sunflower seed all of which I did'nt need and he bought me a fat ball holder that takes about 4 balls but its squirrel proof. I thought I was getting some room back in the lounge where I keep the fat balls and birds seed which is'nt as far away as the uti room for a quick pick up as I feed the chickens but now I am back to a huge pile of boxes of fat balls. Never mind I am now well equiped to keep them all well fed.

Could morning all. I seem to have wasted away the morning so far reading theMail on line and neglrcting all the jobs inside and out that need doing. And now it is coffee time so I shall get going after that.

Vera that was a lovely long read. A pity about the traffic, on days out you can well do without being stuck in the coach extra time.Still it was good to have lunch organised and waiting for you when you got there.
I am cutting the Buddleijas down and then will cut them right down as usual next spring. If they then have the same problem they can all come out. I think it might have been the weather pattern that caused it with no rain to wash off the aphids when we didn't have any real rain for about 6 weeks. Several people at the garden meeting have had similar problems with other shrubs and apple trees.

Morning All,

I was up early to go in the garden before it gets hot and have planted three pots with geraniums and added bacopa in the bigger pot. I pulled weeds as I walked around and cleared some weeds where I want to plant more Marigolds and have had enough now and come in for a COC and sit down before I shower.

Oh Vera I feel for you! A beading friend used to go to antique fairs at Lamport Hall and said how nice it was. Travel is becoming a nightmare these days with traffic and roadworks, but your meal sounded nice. We don't have the banking app either as we don't like the idea of banking on our mobiles. With all the branch closures still going on I wonder how long it will be before the one I went to the other will close. It's a worrying time for their staff too. When we called in the big Co-op yesterday, the lady in the kiosk called us over to pay with her instead of at the self serve we were about to start. She said 'it will help save our jobs!' As for your prescriptions, can you order them with your NHS app? We registered with our doctor's website at the surgery and with systemonline on there and can order our repeat prescriptions and for one off ones on their website. We nominated which pharmacy we wanted and we just then collect our meds after a few days. Sorry if you are already set up for this.

That's good you were able to contact your OH's eye clinic and that they have been able to sort something for him. With the NHS clinic OH couldn't even get them to answer the phone a few months ago and we had to keep visiting instead.

I think it's wonderful your granddaughter has got a horse! I don't know how I would have coped as a teenager without mine as he was an excuse to be able to go out! When I was aged 15 my parents moved to a house in a group of 6 with fields all around them and a ten minute walk each way to the next villages and no street lights, so I was very isolated and miles from my friends. Horses are good for destressing and giving a hug to when you have parents who never did and I always felt safer on a horse than I did walking on lonely lanes. I think mine taught me to enjoy the moment like he did instead of worrying all the time. I hope she sends you a photo we may be able to see.

The sun's gone in now and the breeze has got up. OH has gone to a council meeting at Melton Mowbray and went early expecting traffic holdups. I'd better get showered next.

Morning all,

Today would have been my mums 101 birthday.

Its better than it was yesterday with sunshine and its 16 degrees.

BIL just pulledup outside so I better unlock the back door.

Here we go with part 2. I am going to try and give you a brief outline without all the tedious detail. Brief??? I don’t think the words Vera and Brief have ever met, lol.

On Sunday OH had some problems with the first eye that had the cataract removed. So Monday morning it was a phone call to the clinic. They were able to reassure him and sort out some other drops for him and it’s been OK since but it was worrying for a while.

Monday night I barely slept and got up feeling quite ill but knew I had to get into town. I must have looked ill as OH decided to come with me so I didn’t need to drive. We carried a heavy sack of books and clothes to a charity shop, then went on to the bank. Walked in to be faced with a large notice saying our branch is closing at the end of September. We are not happy. We do a lot of banking online but only on our PC. I told the chap serving us that I won’t have a banking app on my phone. Apparently I have a choice. I can do some things at the local post office (which is the end of the counter at a small local Morrisons) or spend a lot of time driving many miles to one of the major towns and pay a fortune in parking fees. Hey ho……

Next to the Pharmacy. On my repeat prescription I have 4 things that come automatically and 1 that I have to order when I’m running low. I only take that one when needed so never know how long a pack is going to last. Never been a problem before but now the assistant said they are no longer allowed to order for a patient. I have to do it myself by dropping the script in at the surgery. They said the GP Surgery had brought this new system in. The surgery is a longish walk from the pharmacy and it was a hot, sticky morning but we trudged down. Rather than just drop the script in the box I took it to the in house dispensary. The dispenser was amazed and knew nothing of this and said the pharmacy could have ordered them for me as usual. Talk about left hand not knowing what right hand is doing.

It didn’t get better. The machine in Waitrose refused my credit card for no apparent reason and I had to scrabble around to find enough cash in my purse. That was embarrassing with a queue behind me. Went to Roy’s and they didn’t have what I wanted. Eventually got home still feeling ill and with a stinking headache as well by now. I was glad to have OH to do the driving as I’m not sure how safe I would have been at the wheel.

I then spent the afternoon ironing, having a shower and hairwash and getting our bits and bobs ready to go out on Wednesday.

Yesterday we were up early and I got some food and drink ready. Even though we usually buy a lunch I always take stuff with me since the time we were held up for hours and then were forced to stop at a service station as the driver had passed his allotted time for a break. We left home just after 8 am, drove into town, parked and walked across the road to the bus station where our coach was. We left sharp on 8.30 am and should have been there about 10.30. Unfortunately there had been an incident which resulted in the closure of a long, long stretch of the A14 and our driver had to find a totally different way to Lamport Hall. He did brilliantly but it added an hour and a half to our journey and we didn’t arrive till noon. I won’t go in to the other problems there were getting in to the place but the whole thing was turning into a joke.

When booking we had the chance to preorder a light lunch and about a dozen, us included, did that. They were all boxed up and marked with our names so we just had to pick them up. We had cheese and ham quiche and salad. The box looked fairly small but when we opened it there was a lot of salad, a little pot of coleslaw and a decent wedge of quiche, all for £7.50. They also laid out tea and coffee for us to help ourselves at no extra cost.

Apart from our coach there couldn’t have been more than 12-15 cars parked there so it wasn’t crowded anywhere. It’s not a huge place and we just wandered around at our own pace. Each room had excellent guides to answer questions or just entertain us with stories about the house or people who lived there. The gardens, I think, only stretch to about 10 acres but plenty to see and the walled garden is the largest in England. All in all, it was a very enjoyable visit. We left at 4.30 pm and the driver told us the A14 had reopened so it only took just under 2 hours back. There’s always a raffle on these trips and we won a bottle of wine.

Today we’ve been to our usual Thursday coffee and I’ve had a Tesco delivery but don’t seem to have done much else. Tomorrow I’ve got to make a cake for our Club fundraiser on Saturday and see what I can find for the plant stall and book stall and as a raffle prize.

Today is another granddaughter’s birthday. She is 25. Would you believe she has bought a horse which is being delivered to her tomorrow? She made me laugh when she texted me and told me she had had a “quarter life crisis”.

Well, you are now thinking you’re glad I decided to be brief. How long would this have been otherwise? It feels as though it will be a hot night. I hope everyone sleeps well.

Hallo everyone
I am going to attempt to do a post about what I have been up to for the last couple of days without writing a book.

First, AnnG my buddleias had the leaf problem last year. Mine were mini ones in half barrels but nothing I did seemed to help so we disposed of them. I had given a cutting of a red one to a friend and that was in a large pot and got the same disease. She simply cut the whole thing down to soil level and left it. This year it’s doing brilliantly. If yours are very big it will be difficult for you to try cutting them right down. Could you take a small piece into a garden centre and ask their advice? It sounds as though you had a lovely time at Prinknash.

I hope you managed to get round the shops today Mandy and the knee held up. I’ve heard the ice packs are very good though I haven’t tried them myself.

I’m glad you got your gun and fishing tackle sorted out Mel. It sounds like a reasonable offer for the fishing gear and I think I would have taken it too. Have your trees come down yet?

Oh dear Annx, another medical cabinet to return. This is the trouble with online shopping, you are never sure whether you are going to get the right thing. I hope the extra painkillers and the ibuprofen gel help with OH’s pain. You are doing well in your efforts to water your neighbour’s plants over the fence but make sure neither of you stretch too far or reach awkwardly. Trying to find a way to keep your emails out of spam I couldn’t find anything that said something on the lines of add to safe sender list but I found a junk button on the ribbon bar at the top so clicked on that and it came up with various options including Never block this sender. Clicked on that and the pc then told me you had been added to my safe sender list. We’ll see whether it works when you next send an email. Re. the work on the house – it is due to start on Monday and so far we have had no phone calls or emails to say it’s got to be put off again so fingers crossed.

I hope you are continuing to make a steady recovery Gwyn.

I’ve written a fair bit and haven’t yet started on what I have been doing. I don’t want to lose this so I think I’ll post it now and then follow with another post.

O I meant to say I went down the shed and have picked 4 oz of strawberries which I shall have tonight.

It rained here up until about 4.30pm and some of it was really heavy and persistant. When I went to corn the chickens the sun had come out for the first time today but when I locked them back up and turned to put the scoop back in the garage it started to rain again and in went our one bit of brightness of the whole day. Its really grey out there now.

I would have taken his offer too Mel. I wouldn't have a clue what something like that was worth and he offered you a fair bit more than the other chap and it gets it off your hands and out of the way. The forecast showed a lot of rain your way today.

Just got in. Been to Bude with the gun and fishing tackle. When the chap added it all up[ he said I had over £600 worth of tackle. He offered me £300.30 and I took it. Better than the £200 I was offered by the builder. I am just stuffing a pork pie in my mouth whilst typing as its the first thing I have eaaten since a slice of bread and butter before I went out. Feel like I have been away a week. On the way home there were road works gettting into Bude and I could see long tailbacks. I hit it on the way home and must hjave crawled along three cars at at ime for about twenty mins. When I left I thought it was late but went into Morrison and got some shopping and came out of there £50 lighter and then got Deisel another £25 thought I would pop in Brook garden centre and get a dab weeder thing but I hade reaD THE TIME WRONG ON MY PHONE AND THOUGHT they were closed but when I got home it was'n even 5 o'clock so could have popped in there too.

It was pouring here when I left and right up till the time I started for home when it stopped.

Evening All,

We had some rain at last this afternoon, but it came so heavy we could hardly see across the fiield and the cows vanished very quickly. I can't remember if I said that the outside tap to the hose was too stiff to turn yesterday, but a night of soaking in oil did the trick and it turned on ok this morning and OH managed to just reach over the fence with it to water the neighbour's plants. Of course that was before the downpour!

AnnG that sounded a nice trip yesterday and I hope it's a good meeting today. I wish I had your energy, as I usually need a few days rest after we have been away.

Very I hope you get on well with all that's keeping you busy and that the work you are having done hasn't had any more holdups.

I hope your knee was ok for the shopping Mandy and the ice pack sounds good. Mine that uses the clutch in the car has been painful today when I went out, and I was wondering if I'd have to get an EV or other automatic car, but it was much better travelling home for some reason. OH went to the docs this morning and has been told to use some ibuprofen gel like I have for my knees on his painful back and he's issued more painkillers to add to the others. If he hasn't had a hospital appointment come through in the next fortnight, he's to go back and the doctor will escalate it.

Mel has Aaron started on the trees yet, or was he just looking at what he's going to do? I hope you managed to find and load the other fishing tackle ready to take. You brought back memories of me jetwashing our drive years ago. I wore knee length sorts, but got filthy just like you!

It's been bearable here today with a nice breeze but I think tomorrow will be a bit hotter. I haven't done much today other than fill my car with fuel, pop to the shop and cut OH's hair. I did manage to spray more seedlings of the nasty weed in the back garden that have popped up. I have some admin to do next and and to pack another medical cabinet I ordered to return as it is too flimsy! So a trip to the post office tomorrow. OH has just gone to a meeting only a few miles away.

Mel yes a friend is taking me.
No rain here yet, it sprinkled a bit then stopped, didn't even wet the patio. :-(

Yes Mandy my back seems ok now, pretty sure it was partly the travelling for 4/5 hours then shifting chairs around for Grandson coming etc then a bit of gardening.
Vera, sometimes I wish I was so busy I didn't have time to sit and do nothing but think and remember. However, you seem to not be able to take a break at all at the moment and that can't be good.

Morning girls,

Raining here and has been since I got up at 6.15 for the loo and probably beffore that too. Its 17 degrees here with a thunderstorm warning so just right for a trip to the seaside I don't think.

Hope the knee holds out for shopping Mandy and that the ice pack did its job.

Have a good meeting today Anng is someone taking you?

Morning all

Just popped in quickly to wish you all a good day. I hope everyone’s aches and pains are improving. Life is so busy at the moment that I hardly have time to breathe but I will try and do a proper post soon.

Morning Anng, morning all,

Sunny here and it should get to about 24 degrees ,we might get a little rain later which will save watering ,I just hope it's not that heavy rain as it bashes all the plants down.
Shopping day and my knee doesn't seem to bad so I think we'll go and get that done, I used the ice pack in the evening so I think that might have helped a but

Yes your right Anng these things do seem to take longer to heal , is your back OK now .

Just having a cuppa then we'll go .

Good morning all. No sun this morning but 13 degrees. forecast rain, I hope that is right as again the garden needs it.
Gardening interests group this afternoon but not here, somebody else is having it at theirs this month.

Mandy I hope the new ice pack works for you.All these aches and strains take so much longer to heal the older we get, so eery little extra help is very welcome.

Sounds as if you enjoyed the walk Anng with the little Chapel for a time of reflection ,on a hot day they are a nice cool place to sit quietly .

I haven't really done that much it was nice sitting out this morning for our coffee ,I started off in the shade but there was quite a wind and I felt a bit chilly so I moved into the sun for a bit well ths dappled shade really I don't sit in full sun .
I sent for an ice pack from amazon and I put it in the freezer and now have it on my knee you can also heat it up ,it has a pocket that you fit the gel sachet into and a strap to wrap round your knee to hold it on .