General Chat

Morning girls,

Started cloudy this mroning then the sun came out for a while. Blue sky and white clouds at the mo. 18 degrees and pc says light rain.

Don't know if BIL is coming this week as he did'nt come yesterday amd as I asked him if he would help get rid of some of the brimbles outside the wall he may give an excuse.

I am going to have a look up the west wall today and see if there are any blackberries to pick as a kind bird dropped me a big one on the road outside the house yesterday. This means somewhere inthe garden there are ripe ones. I must also have a look at the damson trees outside the wall.

Hope you all slept well. Thanks Mandy for the link and I have replied in an email.

Still can't get into my card games and I really miss them as I usually do them with my morning coffee.

Good morning all 17 degrees, not too hot at the moment. cloud cover, no sun. I wish we could have at least some rain, the soil in the planters is so dry it is like sand. I am lothe to put too much water on as it just goes straight through and would be water wasted.

The Charlotte potatoes are very nice but I don't think I will grow potatoes next year. I don't eat many so not really necessary. I need to find something that is really drought resistant to grow in that planter now.

today, if it stays dry I am going to try and tidy the plants in the pots that are looking like they are on their last legs. Strangely the hosta is not doing to badly, presumably no slugs around.

Tesco due 4-5, otherise nothing else to do once Cynth's baskets have been watered.

Morning all,

Raining here this morning so the gardens will be happy and I'll be happy I don't need to water ,still very muggy and I must do my ironing today I have already hoovered through .

I agree AnnG, we can't avoid all risks. It seems growing your own lettuce is the best idea! Your bargains you got from Primark sound good. Primark took over the BHS store on the retail park near here when it closed and I haven't been there for ages now. I must bear it in mind, although I haven't space for more clothes just yet.

Past my bedtime now and OH has already gone ages ago, so goodnight and sleep tight! I think tomorrow means more rain here........I'm not complaining though as the weeds will be easier to get out.

I wish it was cool here Mel. I am sweating like mad just sitting at the computer. It is so hot and humid. Our thunderstorms warning has just been moved forward from tomorrow to tonight and I can't wait for the storm to break..

Annx, it's really good news that your OH is doing so well and interesting to hear about the water used for flushing and the redesign of toilet pans. As for the nasties that can be picked up from foodstuffs - if we worried about it too much we'd all end up starving. I just stick with common sense rules such as wash fruit and veg well, particularly salads, take care handling raw meat and make sure meat is cooked right through. I am very careful with raw chicken and use disposable gloves if I have to handle it.

You are right about your email to me going in to spam but as I've said in my reply to you it didn't arrive till after 10 am today even though you sent it early yesterday evening. Anyway I have responded but you might have to look in your spam for my reply.

What you said about collecting tomato seed etc was also interesting. I really hadn't thought about cross pollination. As I've said before our tomatoes are pathetic this year but we have 2 of Mel's potted up. One has 4 tomatoes on it so far but I don't think they are going to be very big. The other one only has 2. I've also got 2 pots with Money Maker and 2 with Gardener's Delight but none are doing very well.

I think I am going to sit on the bed with my book or a crossword as I've got my wonderful fan in there. We bought it from Germany 2 or 3 years ago and it's the best one we've ever had. I hope it isn't so hot and humid where you are and that you all sleep well.

We're sitting out in the garden there's a lovely breeze now so we'll cool off before bedtime

Been in the garden again. I have pegged downabout eight new Strawberry plants, weeded pots of plants, repotted a Heuchera and my Cafelandra ?, fed the beans dos'nt sound a lot but I have been out there at least an hour and a half. Its lovely and cool out there.

Ah well I love seafood, not keen on mussels although many of those are farmed I think and less likely to feed on sewage. Prawns, scampi, crab, lobster.

Strangely you can catch norovirus from lettuce leaves..

I think if we worried about all the bugs we could catch we would starve.. salmonella from eggs goodness knows what from chicken etc etc.

I had tuns for lunch and taramasalata on crackers. Tonight is a ready meal of steak ragu.

Those of you that are growing Mel's saved tomato seed are unlikely to get the same tomatoes from your plants as I tried to explain before. You need to cover the flowers where you want to save seed from the tomatoes so no insects can get in to pollinate them before they open. Then when they have pollen, take the polythene bags off and pollinate them from other covered flowers with a paintbrush and cover them again till you see the tiny tomatoes appearing to grow. Any seed you then save from those tomatoes and plant the following year should all bear tomatoes the same as the parent plant. If you leave the flowers uncovered the insects will bring pollen from other different kinds of tomato plants in the surrounding area and pollinate yours, so those resulting tomatoes will produce a variety of crossbred seeds for the next year then. It's the same with my Antirryhinums. I started with a tray of red ones and a tray of yellow ones, didn't try to save any seed, but now the ones that self set each year are all sorts of colours, some very drab, some more than one colour and another a pretty orange colour.

Afternoon All,

Phew it's hotting up again, 25 degrees now and a bit humid. I've had a couple of busy days, cleaning the workmens fingermarks from inside the original wall cabinet then cutting plastic sheets from Ikea that I used to line the shelves of the new cabinets as it's easier to lift out and clean, then putting everything back into the cabinets. I had a look at the toilets with the bathroom in mind at the shop as we want one with steep insides to do a more thorough job when you flush (apologies if you are eating)! It's useful to know what I was told though as manufacturers can now only make toilets that have a 6 litre flush instead of a 12 litre flush in order to save water, so are engineering the insides of toilets differently. I don't see how it saves water if it causes you to flush more than once though.

OH had his final cardio assessment yesterday and walked briskly an extra 500 metres in the time than the first time when he started the course. He said his pulse hardly increased and he had no breathlessness. The nurse is pleased with him and his diet and walking. They would normally refer him to a course at the gym next, but want to wait till he starts to get treatment first as he is unable to do some of the arm exercise involving his neck and back yet.

Your trip out to the garden sounded good AnnG and I would have enjoyed your flatbread lunch. The U3a talk sounded interesting and I didn't know there were kings buried in Gloucester. It's a bit of an art with a talk to include enough of interest but not make it too long.

Vera I think my last email must be in your spam. It is of the rain we had yesterday. Re shellfish I've never fancied them although I confess I do have scampi sometimes. Like Mel I don't like fish pie either. Also we don't always know where they have come from and what also put me off was reading that they can have bacteria like salmonella, norovirus and other harmful things like tapeworm eggs, particularly mussles. The farm shop sounded good and you got well stocked up there. I like the name of the jam! Generous portions in the restauant too. I prefer the local meat at our farm shop.

I hope all of those bites are itching less Mandy. I've not heard of that bite stuff you used before. It's hot where you are today. Yes I wondered what would happen to the front of those stick out dresses when you sat down. I remember the stiff net petticoats I had one of as a teenager would lift at the front as I sat down so I had to hold it down with my arms.

Your toms and cues have soon grown Mel. I wonder what the toms will all be like. Yes leave the ironing for now. At least we haven't had to water today.

I hve dead headed the patio plants this morning and fed the chickens and cleaned out their nest box but not the house as its really warm now but not as warm as you lot have had its only 20 degrees here and the suns just gone in. I looked at my ironing this morning and walked away. Watered the sweet peas in the big tub and wound the long beans round their supports and fed the toms, cue and beans and the short beans.

The squirrels are in the Hazel tree already and dropping all the husks on the floor so they'll need sweeping up and I must water the beans down the garden under the Hazel tree.

25 degrees here, still humid but there is a slight breeze, no sun.

It’s the same here Mandy. I did get my ironing done soon after 9 am but I couldn’t see what I was ironing anyway because I had all the blinds closed. I then spent half an hour in the garden on deadheading and easy jobs and planned to come in and vac through downstairs. That didn’t get done as it was becoming too hot and humid so since then I’ve just been blobbing about. Looking forward to some rain tomorrow if the forecast is right.

Phew to hot here for ironing and hoovering it's 28 degrees and so humid just moving makes you hot ,I did get the feeding done before it got to hot but the ironing can wait there's nothing in the pile that we really want .

Bathroom and cloakroom done so that is the H/W for this week.

Just dusted and vacuumed the lounge and dining room, gave the kitchen surfaces a wipe and now thinking about doing the bathroom and cloakroom. 21 degrees and again very humid.

Morning all,

We had some rain in the night as there are puddles ,I had the bedroom window open as it was so muggy but I never heard any rain ,this morning when we got up it was sunny but its now clouded over a bit ,might be in for a few thunder storms over the weekend .

I must have a hoover through today do some ironing as the pile is getting bigger and feed the cues and toms , so that will fill my morning .

I have a load of washing in and have watered the tomatoes and also done a bit of Admin on the PC. Now better have breakfast.

I still can't get into my card games I play each morning with my coffee.

Morning girls,

17 degrees here and pc is still telling me expect 1 to 2cm of rain on Sunday. It grey and overcast today not even a glimmer of blue sky.

Nothing planned for today so I suppose it will be a little more housework, ugh........... need to finish the hall and do the big bathroom and wash my hair so I think thats quite enough for today.