General Chat

You must have needed that sleep Gill but, goodness, that’s a long while to be in the land of nod. I assume you woke occasionally for the loo or a drink of water. I hope you are feeling better now and can get back into some sort of sleep routine.

Mel, like AnnG, I am confused about your electricity and the meter on the shed. Do you mean that someone has actually been using your electricity? If so, what for and how are they getting at it? If you think the meter should be showing a different amount, could it be that the meter itself is faulty?

it’s been a bright, sunny day today but so cold. I haven’t wanted to be outside. In fact, I haven’t really done much at all. I slept very little last night and today I couldn’t seem to rouse any enthusiasm for doing anything. Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.

I’ve peeled some potatoes and chopped some parsley. I’ve got some cod so we’ll have it with parsley sauce, mash and a green veg, probably peas and green beans. Enjoy the evening and sleep well tonight everyone.

goodness gill that was a long time to sleep, I bet you were dying for the loo when you woke up and hungry as well.

Mel what could they be using the electric for from the meter in the potting shed> It is not something that you can carry away. Or have I misunderstood. Is that where it records the electric that you send to the N Grid? The only thing I could think was if people could plug in a charger to an electric car. But maybe I am confused (nothing unusual there).

I walked down to Irene's with a carrier bag full with stuff surplus to requirements from the kitchen drawers. came back, dried a load of washing and then wrote a resume of out meeting on Thursday and a letter to my second cousin.. did a bit of updating things on the internet and now going down to dust the lounge and have lunch. My new CD player came yesterday so I have been playing a few CDs on that to check it out.

Gosh Gill you slept for 48 hours!!! is that usual if you take a sleeping pill?

BIL is here and he said there's about £20 worth of leccy on the meter up the potting shed now. I took a picture of the meter and have written it down in the dairy. He's gone up to change the battery on the new mower now so I expect once he's done that he will have a look at the door. I think he may take the fuses out of the box up there so no leccy can be used and we will see how it goes from there.

Hi all

Well so much for having a good night's sleep the other night I couldn't sleep at all I ended up awake for almost 48 hours and couldn't sleep so I took a sleeping tablet and slept for two days which is why I've not been on here. I'm back in the land of the living again now :-D

I've coloured my hair so that's on doing it's job. I've gone so grey over the past year, probably down to stress. I say grey it's coming through bright white so I've decided to go blond. I always said when I went grey I'd go lighter. I used to be blond when I was younger and coloured it dark now I'm back to blond. OH said he's getting used to it :-)

OH has taken the car for it's MOT I hope it passes as he's got his MRI tomorrow.
Just had a phone call off the hospital asking if he's still going and giving directions to where it is on the hospital grounds. I asked about parking charges and there isn't any on a weekend, so he'll be pleased to hear that when he gets home.

I've not caught up with the posts yet so will read them once I've gone through my messages. Hope everyone is ok. I'll pop in again later.

Morning girls on this bright sunny morning here in deepest Devon. Its 6 degrees and pc is telling me its partly sunny so I expect it will cloud over later on.

BIL should come today as he did'nt turn up yesterday but we'll see.

I'm please there were quite a few who attended the funeral yesterday Vera it shows how much people thought of the person to give them a good send off.

I have got the insurance policy in my file so I know I have paid it and got it. It had gone up £86 this year but when I did it over the phone she gave me £29 off. Can't remember why now it goes in one ear and out the other lately.

Hope the rest of you slept well as I see Anng did. You need enough ZZZZZZ to get you through another day as we get older. Foot still a bit sore underneath and on the side I broke the bone and my toe next to the big one is still bruised and red but not black anymore.

Good morning all, a dry bright morning so far and 2 degrees at 8am. Nothing planned for today although I will probably walk down to Irenes with bric a brac (stuff from the kitchen drawers) for the monthly charity market she and her husband organise.
I also have some admin to do, a letter to write. (Might get that done before I walk down as it can be posted.) That will make three 'snail mail' letters to postAlso have two email letters to write.
slept reasonably well but woke at 6 and couldn't get back to sleep then.

Vera pleased that the funeral went ok and that was good that your group went. so sad as we get older to think there will not be many to mourn us as we outlive friends.

I wish I could get to Waitrose to buy fish on Fridays, nice to have plenty in the freezer. that was a bit of a concern though when you found the electric was off. Pleased it soon came back on.

Mel, do your insurance comany send out a letter when you pay as well as when you don't? Maybe wait a few days then check they got your payment.

I'm not with Nationwide either. It would be nice to get some money back. At the moment I think our pockets have got holes in them, the money is pouring out so fast.

I hope your follow up appointment and OH's ECG went well Annx. It does sound as though the neighbours are going to have more building work. I should think the last thing you want right now is delivery lorries and construction vans up and down your road.

Mel, have you checked that the insurance company have covered you now they have got your payment? You'd think they could have given you a day or two's grace with the payment but I suppose they have to stick by their rules. I hope they have reinstated your cover now.

I had to smile at your friend's story of the wren raiding the robin's nest AnnG. They may be little birds but they are really feisty. When they were nesting at our old house our cat used to like to lay under one of the chairs on the patio and the wren used to fly down and perch on some trellis and chitter loudly at the cat till the poor cat couldn't stand it anymore and slunk away.

The funeral yesterday went as well as could be expected. Our little group had 7 people there and another local group had 3 people and I was so pleased the 10 of us went because there were only 18 in total. It was only by chance that one of our group saw the notice in a local paper.

We went out to Waitrose at about 10 am as I wanted to stock up on some fish for the freezer. I got a load of fish, some milk, veg, salad stuff and scones and we were back before 11. Opened the fridge to start putting stuff away and no light came on - there was a power cut. So I put all the food in the coldest room in the house which gets very little sun and had no heating on. I couldn't use the internet of course but I could still google on my phone so I managed to find out that a high voltage underground cable had a fault and 401 homes were affected. It said they expected to restore power about 2.30 but some might be a bit earlier and some a bit later. We were lucky as ours came back on about 12.15, much earlier than we expected so I was able to shove everything in the fridge and when the freezer got back to its correct temperature I was able to freeze my fish.

~~~~~~~~~ A quick wave to Gill and Gwyn and I'm off to prepare our dinner.

Ah, I don't belong to Nation wide so I didn't get one of those. However, I belong to a money back type health scheme and yesterday had £65 in my bank account from them which I thought was very odd as I had not made a claim. today I had a letter in the post saying they owed me the money because I had overpaid contributions. Now seeing that the scheme was set up when I was at work, the money is taken straight from my Civil Service pension each month and simply Health tell the pension people what I need to pay monthly for the next year. So how come 'I' overpaid. do they mean 'they' have taken too much from me. whatever happened to admitting the blame when wrong?

A couple of small jobs done today. I sorted out two of the smaller kitchen drawers which were full of all sort of bits that I might need at some time. Both drawers have a lot less in them now.

And I received a new CD player as mine stopped playing CDs a few days ago. Goodness knows why, no way coud I get it to go again. Anyway new player arrived and I have set that up now. I think the shock of playing CDs again after 4 years without being used was too much for it and it just seized up.

I had one of those £50 gift letters the other day too Mel. I had one last year as well. There might be another 'fairer share' payment later in the year. It's nice to get something back. :-) Hopefully the Wrens might leave home in time for the Swallows arrival then.

I have sorted another drawer and found a lot of the tops in there fit me now. There are a few for the charity shop and a couple I will wear round the house for doing HW etc. A bit more progress!

Something is going on at the end of the close where the house and 2 bungalows were built. A huge lorry with a trailer has reversed down to collect a digger, so it looks like either the asian house or bungalow at the bottom and out of sight are doing more building work. They have only recently finished adding a large extension on the back of the asian house and before that the attached garage was converted to a room on the bungalow and they built a seperate garage. New people have moved in now though so may be changing things.

I just brought in yesterdays post which I forgot to bring in when I did the chickens last night. I have had a letter saying I am not covered by my house insurance as I did'nt pay it by the 14th feb. but I did pay it a day later. Another letter was from Nationwide building society telling me I am going to get £50 put into my account by the 30th April.Its a one off payment so if you have a nationwide account you will get it too. I don't mind letters like that and thank yopu very much. :-D :-D :-D

My Mr. Wren is building a nest on top of the Swallows nest in the filter shed its the same place as last year so I am hoping Mrs. Wren lays her eggs and they go before the Swallows arrive like they did last year.

I have had a good hoover of the kitchen and diner and sucked up lots of cobwebs too.

Now I am going to clean the kitchen windows as far as I can reach without using the steps and wash the front door down as I noticed its very dirty when I went to the door for the shopping man on Tuesday. mI will empty the hoover first and then do the hall and bedroom.

Morning Folks,

Lovely sunshine here and I can feel it's heat through the windows on the front. I slept well and fell asleep watching The Dog House where they match rescue dogs with new owners. I didn't wake till nearly 7.00am and feel more with it this morning.

I have a follow up appointment at the surgery this afternoon to see how I am now and OH has an ECG there an hour later as part of his cardio follow up. He didn't do the cardio rehab yesterday due to his pain and he won't be able to go next week because of his scan, so they have paused it now till he gets the results with the rhuematologist. In the meantime he's going to gradually up his walks instead. It seems to have taken the pressure off him a bit as he seems more cheerful this morning.

It's good the chickens are laying well now Mel. It makes me wish I lived nearer and could buy some from you as I know how nice yours are. How nice these Robins are getting tamer too. Maybe they are related to the one that would come on your hand and will do as well eventually. If that's what your OH said about Pike, I definately won't be tempted to try it in future. Yuk!

Mandy no thanks to you for reminding me I need to strip the bed too! lol. I'll get it done before we go out as I know I won't want to face it when we get home. :-D I need to at least do a bit more sorting in the bedroom too as doing a little at a time seems to be the best way and I don't get bored.

That was a funny story the lady at your meeting told AnnG. It must have been entertaining to watch the crafty Wren nicking the Robin's efforts with the nesting material. I hope you get a few things from your job's list done too. At least it's satisfying ticking them off.

Morning Anng ,that must have been fun to watch ,poor little Robin , I love the little wrens they are so quick when the flit about

Good morning all a nice bright morning and 1 degree, I can't see any sign of frost now but it might have been frosty soon as it was certainly a clear night with a lovely bright moon at 3am. slept well and didn't want to get up when awake early at 0630, got up for the loo and got back into bed and kept dozing off again. Nothing planned for today so maybe housework and a lazy day otherwise.there are quite a lot of jobs on my to do list that could be done so I will see.
The meeting went off well yesterday but I have to admit there was more discussion about non garden related than actual gardening. One lady amused us with her story, she has an open veranda otside her lounge and first they watched a wren building a nest up in the corner, then a few feet away a robin started building a nest in another corner. However every time the robin left its nest to look for more stuff to build it, the wren stole the bits from the robins nest. This went on until the wren had finished its nest, both birds are still nesting there.

Morning Mel,morning all,
There was frost on the roof of the car when we went to bed last night but no frost when we woke up ,suns shining but it's very chilly .

Not sure what we're doing today just see as the day goes along ,i do have some ironing to do and I've stripped the bed so got to make up and i need to hoover through ,all exciting things I don't know how I'll cope with it all :-D

morning all,

Its a bright frosty morning and I think its going to be a lovely day again. Its 1 degree out there and pc is saying cold weather. I don't mind if it cold as long as its dry with it.

BIL should come at some point today but I never know when he is coming or what time.

Hope you all slept well last night or at least got enough to carry you through the day.

I don't now where the day has gone today. Em called in for eggs and we chatted for quite a while so that was the morning gone with feeding the chickens birds and fish. Then in the afternoon I did a lot of painting of tiny things I made the other day and got most of them varnished. then it was time to feed the girls again and my pair of Robins and they are getting tamer and coming for the fat sticks before I have walked away. Maybe because its so cold even though the suns been out and there not much in the way of a breeze. Then it was time to do the dinner and I was a bit late with that so Iv'e only just read the posts.

I don't think I would have liked the Pike Mousse either. Oh had had Pike and said it was a fish that had a lot of bones in it and it tasted earthy. As to the toast with duck fat and mushrooms, yuk the sound of it is enough to put me off. I don't really like mushrooms and if I have them its ususally the chesnut ones as they seem more meaty to me. The white ones I am off of completely at the moment. I put button ones in the stew I cooked last week when I thought Stu was coming and that lasted me three days and I gave a big jar full to BIL when he came.

Hope the funeral went off ok Vera and oh managed to stay pain free with his tablets. Some church pews are a bit hard to sit on through a service.

I am having 4 eggs a day now so I was pleased Em had a dozen and a half today.

Anyone else watching Belgravier? Its the second series 8 years on.

That's good you got one of the boxes you wanted Mandy and I hope it's as sturdy as it looks. You were lucky to not get a good soaking in the rain. Yes it's Fitz's second hip that needs replacing. It's at a private hospital that the NHS are using. He and Jane both had their first hips done at the same time and limped out of hospital together. He is really struggling now and uses a stick so it will be good when it's done now and he's out of pain. I didn't fancy the mushrooms with toast with duck fat on either!! I remember once when with Jane he tried to persuade both of us to try some of his Pike Mousse..........we both declined!! lol. He is much more adventurous with food.

Yes, the potholes are getting deeper and more dangerous now, especially when they are filled with water and you've no idea how deep they are at night when most street lights off. Cyclist have little protection in a fall and motorcyclists could be thrown off too and injured or killed. I never thought they would let them get this bad.

Max is good waiting for you to towel him down when he's got wet outside. :-)

Evening all,

It's been showery all day and very chilly too ,we went to Aldi and they had the storage boxes so we put one in the trolley and paid for that first before we did our shop ,as we wheeled it out to the car the heavens opened but we parked fairly close so we didn't get to wet and by the time we had done our main shop it had stopped .
I opened the box to have a look at the storage box and it looks quite sturdy but we'll see when we put it together.

Vera your birthday tea sounded nice and I think its a good idea to ask for a doggie bag for the left overs ,its been paid for after all.
Good you managed to get the tablets for OH and they seem to be doing the trick as he's managed to go out with you today.

Ann, I think I would have liked your lunch but don't think I could have tackled Fitz's toast with duck fat , is he keeping well apart from waiting to have his hip done ,it was his hip not his knee wasn't it.
The pot holes are getting worse round here too ,I wouldn't want to be riding a bicycle on the roads ,imagine hitting a pot hole thinking its just a puddle ,you'd be over the handle bars .

Friday again tomorrow, I don't know where this week has gone.

Evening All,

A dry and sunny day here till 4.00pm and then it rained for about an hour. I was awake from 5.00am so got up at 7.00am and had a shower. The alarm man arrived and did a service and fitted a new battery so that's a job ticked off the list.

Both the traffic and potholes were horrendous when I went to meet Fitz. The journey used to take me half an hour, but this morning it took me an hour and the traffic ws nose to tail all the way home too. Neither of us were very hungry so I had a snack as a first course, some chicken croquets with a caesar dressing followed by a chicken and pea rissotto with a creamy sauce. Fitz had a chinese crispy pork starter followed by toast with duck fat and large mushrooms! We couldn't manage a pud so just had a coffee.

I had an email from Dell not long after midnight (they are in America) to say my keyboard had been delivered (it hadn't) but this morning I went and had a look around outside in case it had been left which it hadn't. The courier tracker still said it was due to deliver this morning. It has arrived now this afternoon. I can't believe how thin it is, but will take it to Ed in the village on Monday to fit so I can use the laptop over the weekend.

Vera it's good you were able to buy some of the tablets for your OH and that he was able to go to the funeral with you. The birthday tea sounded very nice and I wouldn't have been able to eat all of it either.

That was lucky Gill finding 5 new cousins for your tree! I'm not sure whether I've found all of mine, there are so many. It's good your OH's boss understands your OH has to be careful with his back pain. It's good some of your outside jobs will be getting done soon too.

Fancy little Maya being two already AnnG. I was still thinking of her as a babe in arms.