General Chat

Thats a good idea Vera I havv'nt looked at mine yet. IV'E FINISHED sent pics just got to dump the barrow load of stuff near the bonfire so it will burn slowly once I start it.

Oh dear Mel, more tooth problems. I hope it doesn’t cost too much to get it fixed. You’ve done well if you have nearly finished clearing your path.

You’ve been busy too AnnG clearing drawers and wardrobes. I hope your back ache clears up quickly.

I’m glad you found the picture of Vita in her going away outfit Mandy. I think you would have loved the bride’s and bridesmaids dresses. The lady that made them is very talented. I was blown away by them, particularly as it wasn’t just the clothes but all the accessories.

I’ve said it before Annx and I’ll say it again - your OH and mine came from the same mould. I did laugh at his mishaps at the lunch table and I know exactly why you spent the meal on tenterhooks. I am always on the watch for glasses of wine or plates balanced precariously on the edge of the table or sleeves trailing in the butter, and you can guess who managed at the tea we went to on Thursday to tilt his bowl of strawberries and cream and spill cream on the floor. He then stood looking at it helplessly while I balanced my own bowl in one hand, grabbed a couple of paper napkins to stop anyone slipping on it and found an organiser to get a cloth. And I am the one with the dodgy eyes and the intermittent tremor.

Granddaughter was feeling a lot better today. I hadn’t realised that she was going back to Yorkshire and would normally have left this morning but she came and had lunch and spent 3 hours here before starting back. It was so lovely to see her. Her theatre work doesn’t bring in much money so she has a job that she can do from home with phone and computer but she has to be in one place to do it, she can’t be on the road. Her next session starts at 8 am tomorrow and I think it’s a 10 hour shift and the same Monday and Tuesday so she’ll stay at my son’s and drive back to Scotland on Wednesday.

I don’t think I want anything else to eat yet but I might make a cuppa now and sit down with the puzzle pages from the weekend paper.

Its not the new plate but they added teeth to the old one. I have broken it in an arch. My tongue found the sharp bit which made me look at them.

Just come in for a drink of water as I am nearly there!!!!! HOORAY!!!!

Is that the new plate Mel?

Iv'e broken my tooth on the top plate. I had some musili for lunch and I thought there was a hard bit in it. Shall have to ring the dentist on Monday.

leg is not too bad mandy, I walked down the road this morning to take some tee shirts to Irene for charity and it was not really painful at all, just a bit stiff.
Back is aching now though as I cleared out a drawer in my bedroom and then sorted out the rails in my wardrobe, putting tee shirts and summer stuff on the lower rail and sweater on the high rail.

Afternoon all,

Funny sort of day here cloudy with a few fine spits of rain then nice and sunny the next minute ,it's quite chilly as there is quite a bit of wind .
Had a good hoover through and got some ironing done this morning and this afternoon I think i will be lazy and do a bit of my knitting .

Ann, it sounded a lovely birthday meal with lots of things that I would have picked ,poor OH catching his glass and soaking his trousers thats the trouble with lots of dishes on the table its so easy to knock things over I'm sure we've all done at one time or another but at least you enjoyed it and came away full up ,you'll know next time they have cushions if you need one ,you'd think with people asking for a cushion they would have a think about replacing some chairs but on the other hand people would leave the table sooner if their uncomfortable and it can be rebooked again .

Vera I had a look on the NT Knole website and saw the paper going away outfit, my goodness it doesn't look like paper at all ,I would have loved to have seen all the paper outfits they must have taken a lot of work .
Hope your granddaughter is feeling better and can come today .

Mel as I said in the email clearing all the path must have been hard work but it's looking good now and it's nice when you can stand back and look at your hard work ,give yourself a pat on the back .

Anng how's your leg today after your walk round the shops .

16 and partly sunny here. Been doing a bit of casting this morning.

Still only 13 degrees here Mel and PC says 15 and cloudy.

Morning Anng and all,

15 degrees here and pc says mostly sunny so I hope yours says the same Anng.

It must be about 2 or 3 years since I scraped the brick path so a long while. Its just one of the jobs you forget when you don't go up the caravan anymore.

I think BIL may pop in today as he saw a yellow Wagtail up on the top field yesterday and wants a picture of it if its still about.

I did'nt have my shower last night as I was tired so need to have one this morning as I feel all itchy with the midges yesterday.

Good morning all, very grey at the moment and 11 degrees, supposed to get warm later so we will see, also supposed to be showers, that will probably be the bit that comes true.

Ann it sounds as if you had a good productive day and a nice lunch, with OH providing the entertainment. Are his hands a bit shaky maybe? Or his eyesight not as good as it could be?

Vera that does sound an interesting house. I think NT places are always more interesting if they have (or still do) a connection to a family or person you recognise. That Vita Sackville West exhibition sounds just the sort that I would enjoy. Imagine the skill to make the costumes from paper. I did try and find info on it on line but had no success. But it was late by then and I was tired so gave up. Maybe I will have another go later.
Thanks for the photos, I got tired just looking at them. You are gradually making a difference though. How long is it since you scraped the path.

O gosh what is he like Ann? It sounds like you had a good meal and a good laugh. Sleep well.

Evening All,

Thank you all so much for my birthday wishes and for your cards, which are all lovely and are now on show in a prominent position! I kept waking up last night and then couldn’t get off to sleep again, so hardly had any sleep at all. I expect it was because I needed to be up by 7.00am to shower, do the BP checks and see the nurse for my blood test at 8.17am. I got there over 10 minutes early with the children being off school now, so I got called in before my time and knew the nurse so asked her more about compression stockings the doctor told me might help for now with ankle swelling when it’s hot. There are so many kinds I wasn’t sure what to get and she told me the pharmacy would measure me and tell me what to have. Now why didn’t the doctor tell me that. Then we went home to swap to my car and went to fill it up, then called in the shop and got another magazine file. We were only a mile from home, so called in the garden centre on the way back and I got a couple of nighties and two T shirt tops from Edingburgh WM.

I didn’t take a cushion to our meal in the end as I wore a coat with it being chilly and folded and sat on that instead. They tried to sit us almost rubbing shoulders with the only other couple in there, so I frowned a bit and the girl suggested a much better table where we could chat without whispering. It also had marginally better seats too! I had to smile a bit later as a lady not far from us asked for a cushion! They went and fetched her one, so I must remember to do that if needs be. It was a tapas type meal so I chose roasted vegetables with a chicken and ham skewer and some deep fried dough parcels filled with mozzarella in a tomato sauce. OH had fishcakes with cubed, deepfried potatoes with cheese shavings and also mushrooms in a creamy sauce on sourdough slices. He also had garlic bread and I had some as he couldn’t manage it all. The only trouble with tapas meals is all the dishes and bowls for everything on the table. So it wasn’t long before OH caught the edge of his glass of water and sent it cascading over his lap, followed by his precariously balanced knife. Luckily it was water and he wasn’t wearing pale trousers. Lol. He managed to use all my spare tissues I had in my handbag for my own emergencies to clear up with. Next he was trying to transport his sourdough bread with whole mushrooms balanced on them to his plate with his knife and fork. Honestly, why not just pick the dish up, tilt it and slide them onto his plate with his knife. My nerves were on edge watching him and the wobbling mushrooms and few close shaves later he got them to his plate but the sauce had dripped everywhere on the table as he didn’t move the dish close to his plate first. Having soaked his own paper napkin, he used mine to clear the mess up. I had to chuckle, as did he and I just looked at him, then the table and said that they’d think a two year old had been sat at our table when they saw the mess he’d made or think that I’d brought Mr Bean with me! IHaving run out of tissues by then, it was probably lucky that with eating less lately we couldn't manage or should I say risk a pud!!

I’ve already written enough to have you nodding off and am really tired, so will get the BP monitor whirring yet again and go to bed and catch up with your posts tomorrow.

Sent a few pics of the path.

Just come back in from outside again. I started to scrape the path along the rockery bit and up the orchard. It looked like grass but I am tired now so thats enough for today. Salad and home cooked ham tonight and I think I have earned it.

AnnG, it's near Sevenoaks in Kent. I'm not a huge fan of coach travel either but we'll have to get used to it if we want to go out and about. These trips have been going for years and I think the organisers have run out of places closer to home. 2.5 hours is about our limit.

To continue:
Knole is an extremely large house, one of the largest in England. It’s built over 4 acres and there is another 1000 acres of parkland. The Sackville-West family still live there. A lot of it isn’t open to the public but there is still a lot that is and it was really interesting. It took us a couple of hours to get round the open rooms. Although there were people around it wasn’t overcrowded at all and we could take our time. OH is a great one for asking the volunteer room guides questions and they were very knowledgeable and informative so we were standing around talking to them quite a lot and then only moving slowly from room to room and I think that is what made my back so painful.

In one hall they had an exhibition about Vita Sackville-West, her life at Knole and her wedding. She was born and brought up at Knole, an only child but when her father died she couldn’t inherit because she was a woman so Knole went to the nearest male relative. She married Harold Nicholson and moved to Sissinghurst with him. I think she designed the famous white garden there but she is probably most famous for her books and her many affairs with both men and women and in particular her affair with Virginia Wolff. I had seen a similar exhibition about her at Sissinghurst pre-lockdown but this was a little different in that there were various tableaux about the wedding and this is what I think all you crafty people would like to see. The first one we saw were life sized models of 2 bridesmaids, 1 older and 1 younger, and a pageboy. The clothes were beautiful but it wasn’t till I read the board in front of the display that I realized everything was made of paper. I think the model figures themselves may have been a more durable material but all the clothes, hats, shoes, flowers and even hair were paper. A little further on we found the bride with 1 or 2 other bridesmaids and it was impossible to believe it was all paper, I think the paper for the wedding dress was specially printed as Vita had a figured gold and white dress. Finally there she was in her going-away outfit. I wish we had taken photos. It was allowed provided you didn’t use flash but for some reason neither of us took any. The best I’ve been able to find online is a picture of the going-away outfit on the NT Knole website in the section on Vita: Discover a Story of Life and Love at Knole, and there is a picture of the wedding dress “material” on the delicarta.wordpress.com site under New Exhibition at Knole.

With all this we had very little time left to explore the parkland. Knole is renowned for its deer herds and we did have about 45 minutes before we had to leave so had a wander over the grass. One of the deer groups we saw had 3 albino deers with them. At least I assume they were albino unless they were a breed that are normally white. When we used to go when we were young you could picnic among them. You still can but it is discouraged as people will feed them all the wrong food and they can also get a bit aggressive as they try to get at your picnic. These days it is pointed out that they are wild animals and the NT prefer people to picnic in a fenced off area with tables and chairs. We do have a photo of our son aged 7 or 8 with a bag of crisps and a deer has got his head in the bag. He wasn’t deliberately feeding the deer, he just didn’t move his crisps out of the way fast enough, so it’s probably better these days to stick to the designated picnic area.

Well, I seem to have written a book again. You’ve probably all dozed off by now so I’ll leave you in peace and go and see what I can rustle up for our meal tonight.

Knole is in Kent Anng near Sevenoaks I think.

I have just come in from the garden and made another mess in the orchard as I cut out some brimbles from the box hedge and an Elder and then some low branches off the apple tree and then the battery ran out. I had to come in anyway cos I have war wounds from the brimble and was bleeding on both hands. That'll teach me to get my leather gloves on but they were in the back of the car and I did'nt go and get them. Then after putting the battery on charge, yes I actually managed to get the small one off, I went out with the strimmer all round the apple trees and down underneath the box hedge down to the house and then I was thirsty so came in for a cuppa and read the posts.

I did hoover the kitchen this morning after a hunt for the pipe for the cordless. I had left it right over the side of the lounge and could'nt see it from the door. Also gave it another haircut.

Waiting for continuation now :-D

Vera I get really frustrated that my head thinks I can do something and my body doesn’t agree.
I did go to town on the bus this morning. I took my stick folded in my bag. (Disadvantage of that us that it is quite heavy to carry.). But I walked round the shops I wanted to go in, didn’t go all round town, it was busy lots of young teenagers around. And when I got home I had not used the stick at all. So I was quite pleased with myself. And very tired.. and we had a really old bus that demonstrated just how awful our roads are, so uncomfortable, no wonder the buses don’t last long.

I did buy two tee shirts in M&S as they had some new colours in, I didn’t really need them but my Sparkes had 20% off tops. I did try on shoes as well but they are all such hard stiff leather and not at all comfortable so I will make do with what I have. Sadly can’t wear heels any more. Live in trainers normally.

That NT visit sounded good Vera, where is it geographically. Ok I know I could look it up so just asking because I am too lazy to do that. I would have been interested in the conservation area, surprising there were not many people in there. 2.5 miles is a long drive though, I am not a great fan of coach travel.

Is that the same Mr Nobody who regularly visits us? OH wanted to rehash the security light in our porch the other day. It took 3 hours – 1 hour to do the job and 2 to locate the bit he wanted for the masonry drill.

Goodness Mel, that mower seems to spend more time being repaired than it does mowing.

AnnG, I know exactly what you mean about strength and stamina seeming to disappear once you get past a certain age. I swear I have aged 10 years in the last 2. I struggle to walk far now, yet up until recently I could still walk a fair way at a reasonable pace. Now I get exhausted just walking round town. Today I have vacced right through the house and spent an hour in the garden just deadheading and a bit of gentle weeding, and now I am yawning away and struggling to stay awake. I don’t know if you feel the same but I get quite frustrated as my mind isn’t ready to go into old lady mode yet.

What a kerfuffle over OH’s scans Ann. It’s a bit disconcerting when the doctor doesn’t know what she is supposed to be talking to the patient about. I hope OH doesn’t have to wait much longer for his bone scan results. I suppose there are so many medications available that the doctors can’t know everything about them but a lot of people don’t read the leaflets so wouldn’t query whether their various tabs would mix okay. Good job your OH did read it. Some while ago I bought some Kalms herbal pilIs to help with sleeping. I asked the chemist if they would be alright to take with the tabs I was taking and was told they were fine as they were “only herbal”. When I read the leaflet it actually mentioned my beta blockers by name and said not to take Kalms if you were taking this beta blocker. I took them back to the pharmacy and the chap was very apologetic and embarrassed. Anyway, I am rambling on. I hope you had a lovely birthday lunch. Did you go to the Italian place you like and did you take a cushion?

On to Knole. We had a good journey there and back, about 2.5 hours each way. OH and I both thought the coach driver took a slightly long way round but maybe he had heard something about hold-ups on the route we would have taken. When we arrived most people went straight to the café for coffee and cake but we decided to wait till lunchtime and just get on with seeing all we could. We went first to the Conservation Studio where a chap told us all that was going on and we could watch from behind a barrier as a large painting was being worked on. OH mentioned restoration and was very firmly told “We don’t restore, we conserve”. The NT have 2 of these conservation studios but this is the only one the public can go in. Even so we were the only ones there.

From there we made our way to the Gatehouse Tower. Edward Sackville-West had rooms there at one time (can’t remember when but possibly 1920s). His bedroom on one floor and his music room on the floor above are open and you can go up another floor to the top of the tower and look at the view. Well, I hope Edward S-W didn’t drink much or he would never have made it up the narrow stone spiral staircase to his rooms. I went up to the music room but going round and round was making my head a bit woozy so I didn’t go on up to the top to see the view. OH did and I started to make my way down. I was terrified of meeting someone coming up and trying to pass each other so at each floor where there was a space to pass I stood at the top and yelled down the stairs “Is anybody coming up?” But I made it to the bottom safely and OH appeared a couple of minutes later.

Then we went for lunch – jacket potato for both of us with a cake and a pot of tea. NT tea is always nice and strong which we like and their cakes are good too. I had a slice of a blueberry bakewell tart and it was yummy.

I’m doing a c&p but as this is getting quite long I think I will post this part and then carry on with another post.

Yes Mr Nobody seems to like making a mess in the shed and leaving things all over the place so eventually we have to have a good tidy instead of putting things back where they belong .
All tidy now until about a months time when we can do it all again lol

Oh no Mel not trouble with the mower again ,hope bil can get it sorted so he can mow .

Looks more like rain here now very black clouds looming .