General Chat

Anng Shells arrived safely this morning and thank you very much. I am sure I can use a lot of these. X

You did reply Ann - that's what I said :-D Perhaps my words read completely different to others? Very confusing, could be why princess tippy toes got the hump? :-S

Island I did like your photos. I am sure I replied on the email to say I liked the colours. :-)

Morning girls,

It only seems to happen on GR. Anyway its a nice bright but chilly morning here 9 degrees. There was either a little rain in the night or a very heavy dew. I just hope it was'nt a frost as I have a couple of gerainium cutting out on the patio.

I don't know why my typing won't come out and by the morning I have forgotten what I was going to say. I put new batteries in my mouse the other day but they were new but very old if you see what I mean. Perhaps I should try putting new batteries in the keyboard, good ones.

Another thing went on Ebay yesterday so it will be a trip to the post van on Monday.

Just the shop to do today and then perhaps I can get stuck in to some more miniture painting.

This Martian is signing out for the time being.

I think Mel's typing with her mouth full. :-D

Morning Ann and Vera, I'm glad you liked the photos. Good of you to reply :-D :-D

Morning AnnG and all

I wondered if you had taken a course in Martian and were practising on us Mel :-D. AnnG is right, you need to get someone to sort it out for you. Perhaps you need a different sort of keyboard. Does the problem just happen on Genes or with other sites or emails?

It’s cool but bright this morning. I notice OH has put an extra layer on and it is definitely colder at night.

I haven’t any plans for the day. I’ll try and get a bit more done in the garden.but I can only manage a short spell at a time before my back starts giving me problems. Still, every little helps, as the man from Tesco says.

Have a good day everyone

good morning all, the sun is shining first day of autumn and 7 degrees out there at the moment.
Tesco this morning otherwise nothing else on today. I do have a few plants waiting to be planted in a container so I ought to do that.


:-D You have a whole new language Mel. But I get the gist. You do need to get somebody to look at either your keyboard or your PC.

M itwtype agin

Evening All,

What an upsetting time for your friends with the seriously ill sister Vera. They will appreciate your kindness and sympathy listening to them at this time as talking can help, as does having a little normality for a while. I see what you mean about our getting older and the effect of hiring and car insurance. All too soon it will start affecting us too,although I hadn'treally thought about it. So unfair if you are fit and well and have had few accidents, that the more experienced have to pay more. I'm not sure I fancy the electric bike suggestion on our main roads that OH made! I hope you can sort out the travel you need to do and manage till you get the car back.

So a jab in each arm as well now Mel. It's our turn a week on Wednesday. OH said when he called for our meds yesterday, that it was chaos at the pharmacy with people wanting jabs. He said some where sitting on the wall outside filling forms in. Isn't it a pain when you can't find something you know is SOMEWHERE. We found lots of FIL's spanners clearing one side of the garage, some huge ones we would never use, so they and some other old tools will be going to the auction in the next few weeks, as we will never use them and I don't fancy the effort of a car boot sale any more. What are the UV lights for......to kill the algae?

What was the subject for your photography this week AnnG? We found it really chilly tonight and so like you 'tested out' out our heating for ten minutes to take the chill off. Like you say, we wanted to be sure it would work ok before it gets colder. I've seen 3 Squirrels in the last couple of days, so it looks like they are stocking their larders now there's a chill in the air.

I had a chuckle with a neighbour last night after OH had gone out. He had agreed that we would fetch a parcel off their doorstep as they needed to go out earlier and she had now come to fetch it. I handed the parcel over and she told me it was a wet suit for her husband. He is a quiet man and she said she had been getting him interested in different hobbies as she was concerned what he would do if anything happened to her. They have already joined the bowls club in one of the villages and like it and her son had decided to take his dad to try out swimming at the local diving centre at one of our disused quarries. I asked 'is he wild swimming then?' and she said he was with a giggle and that he had enjoyed it. So the wet suit was for the colder weather, but she said she thought his waist might now be too big for a wet suit. I told her it would most likely be good and hold it in well and that it being too tight in other important places might be more of a problem and we both had a good laugh. :-D She's going to let me know how he gets on with it. :-)

Good afternoon all

How are the arms today Mel? I hope they are not too sore. With bil’s help you are getting your pond sorted but sn’t it strange how you can never find the tool you want for a job even though you know you’ve got one somewhere?

The weather is strange today. It was really chilly for a while this morning, then the sun came out and it got quite warm, now it’s overcast and breezy and looks as though it might rain at any minute but there’s no rain forecast. The weather app is telling me that it’s 17 degrees but it doesn’t feel that warm.

I had a bad night and it took me a while to get going this morning but once I got my act together I gave my en-suite and the bathroom a thorough clean and disinfect. I didn’t wash the floors but that can wait until I have the cleaner out for the downstairs tiles. I cleaned some other sinks as well and after lunch managed to do a bit in the garden. Mostly I was clearing pots and troughs of annuals that were near enough dead. They suffered badly with the extreme heat and no watering while we were away. The neighbour and I will have to get together and make sure we don’t go away at the same time again.

Now I am going to check my diary and see what I have on in the next couple of weeks and work out how to get there. I know I have a hair appointment that I can manage by walking there and getting a bus back, but I also have a birthday lunch in an out of the way pub so I shall have to ring around and see if I can cadge a lift to that.

Had Em here for eggs and we talked for quite a while then BIL turned up with two new UV lights for the big pond. He fitted one but needed an adjustabele spaner to get something off. Of all the tools oh had do you think we could find one or a paair of swan necked pliers and I know he had two of three pairs of those as I bought them forr him. No luck there either so we could'nt get the end off to clean the glass tube the lights fit in. So I have one new buld thing in there and an old one. He could'nt stay for lunch as he had to go shopping so off he went. So now I am £45 lighter and had to raid the chickens egg money and my float to pay him.

I did a wash before they all arrived and still had to drain the machine again twice before it would rinse and spin.

Morning Anng and all,

11 degrees here and pc says partly sunny. The suns out at the mo and the deer was lying against the fence out the back when I got up. I had three in here yesterday and BIL took loads of pics. It seem I have a young one with no mum and mum and baby. I have seen them all in the garden twice now.

This morning I have two sore arms so I am going to stay off the pc again today.

BIL said he may come again today but he would see how it goes.

Did'nt wake up till 9.15am this morning which is late for me lately. I did take the extra two paprs last night though and my arms did'nt hurt a bit in the night.

Good morning all, a lovely bright sunny morning but still only 7 degrees and the windows are all misted on the outside. autumn is here it seems and goodbye to whatever short bursts of summer we had. I actually tried out my heating yesterday evening, only on very low but I have been caught before in October by a boiler not working.
That reminds me I had better get the boiler serviced sometime soon.

Nothing planned for this morning but photography meeting this afternoon.

You are welcome Mel I hope they survive the zroyal Mailnwithout being crushed. And that they are the sort you can use. I will be interested to see what you do with them.

O Thanks Anng I will let you know when they arrive and thank you once again for finding some for me.

They only hold the flu cklinic and covid jab at the docs on a certain day. I am back now and I had two nurses one on each arm at the same time but the flu jab hurt more and took longer than the covid jab. All done now anyway and I picked up my ompresol and made an apponintment with the chiropodist (sp) so thats not till 20th Oct which is wear pink for breast cancer day so I shall have to remember that.

Just having a COT and a hot cross bun.

Vera its going to be a long while without the car I hope you manage ok. Its not till its not there you really miss it. When we lived in Alphamstone we only had a bus once a week. I lived oppossit where the bus stopped and was always having to go out and tell people sitting on the seat under the horse chestnut tree that it was'nt coming for another week. Mind you that was over 30 years ago. We did have a community car thing but I only went on that once with a friend from the village.

good afternoon all. I decided to go into town as it was dry and sunny. I got back home at 12.45. I needed to go to the post office to post your shells Mel. I actually forgot to put a covering note inside but my name and postcode is on the back of the envelope. The shells are in a small pink box so you will know they are from me. Let me know when they arrive, I sent them 2nd class.
I am not sure that you should have the jab in the arm that hurts it might make it worse. Maybe you should have one jab this week and leave a week before having the other. My daughter has to do that as she has Lymphoedema in her left arm.

Vera life is certainly a bit hectic for you at the moment, not good for you not to eat properly but I suppose it was unavoidable. I hope you were able to comfort your friends anyway.

Ann I didn't see anybody wearing a mask in town today but I did notice the queue in the post office was well spaced out instead of all bunched up. I must admit I actually took and used hand gel which I have not done for ages and wore gloves on the bus. Buses were relatively empty today actually and windows were open.

Afternoon all

We had some very heavy rain during the night but it’s a much calmer day now. It’s about 17 degrees and sunny with just a bit of a breeze so it’s quite pleasant but I think we are due for more rain later on.

Mel, I hope your flu and Covid jabs are OK this afternoon. Ours are coming up in just over a week. I know it will be hard for you but you might have to stop working outside and rest your arm completely for a week or two. As you are always busy on the ponds or cutting back brambles and other things your arm isn’t really getting a chance to heal. Just do whatever is essential to keep the fish and the chickens alive and let the rest go hang. You might need to get someone in to look at that Ash tree in case there are other branches that might break.

OH took the car in this morning and managed to get a taxi back from a nearby Tesco. We haven’t got a courtesy car, Ann, as we decided not to put this job through the insurance. I’m not sure we would have got a courtesy car anyway without paying quite a bit as extra insurance because of our age. It’s difficult enough once you are over 70 but hopeless if you are over 80. Some 10 years ago a neighbour backed into us. He said he would cover all costs and, living in the middle of nowhere then, we hired a car just for 3 days. Even having it with just OH to drive we, or rather our neighbour, had to pay quite a chunk of money as insurance because OH was over 70. Anyway the body shop that now has the car has said they will update us with progress every Wednesday. How many Wednesdays do they think they will need to keep it?

Yesterday was a strange day. We were supposed to be visiting friends who are going through a difficult time. Apart from their own ill health and other problems, the husband’s sister was receiving 24 hour palliative care in her own home which is in a tiny Close just near us. Sadly she passed away yesterday and our friends spent several hours organizing everything but left their car at our house so that there would be room at sister’s for various specialist people who had to come, including a hearse to take her away. I kept putting off cooking us a meal while we were waiting for them to arrive back with us and they didn’t get to us till 7.30 pm. They looked so shattered that we sat them down with tea and biscuits and they wanted to talk so stayed till 9 pm. By then I was too tired to bother to cook and eat a dinner so we just had some cheese and biscuits.

OH has just called that he has made us a lunchtime sandwich so I’ll go and eat that now and then we have a Tesco delivery this afternoon.

morning all, Nice bright mornig here today with nice sunshine but pc says 10 degrees and mostly cloudy so \I hope its wrong.

Arm hurt in the night again after a visit to the loo and now I am sneezing as I type and it hurts my hip!!

Docs at 4.20pm for my flu and covid jabs wich I am not looking forward to as its one in each arm which means thats soemthing else for my arm to take discomfort wise.

Thanks for your anniversary wishes. Some days it seems less than 20 years, other days more! It would have been 54 years on the 13th if I’d stayed married the first time………..except it wouldn’t as he passed away in 2012…….asbestos related. His much younger second wife passed away two years ago as well.

Thanks also for the info about your phones which was helpful as I was a bit wary of having an iphone as I thought it would be complicated. I have an old (very old 10 years plus Samsung) at the moment. We are going to Curry’s in the morning.

I agree and hope the facemasks don’t have to come back as well AnnG, although I can see it would be harder for you. Yes it doesn’t seem any worse than the other ones, just more infectious and with no needing to report or isolate, even more likely to spread. At least us ‘oldies’ had the extra booster in the Spring as well as the one we are getting soon.

Boy it was windy this morning and we’ve had more showers, but that’s ok as, like Vera we need it here. The grass still looks quite brown on the verges. I nipped to the shop this afternoon and had to come to standstill as soon as I turned into our close coming home. One car was parked at the roadside and another woman was in another car in the middle of the road talking to her. It’s a blind turn into our close one side as there’s a high hedge, so it was a dangerous place to stop so close to the end of the road. The car moved on and I followed and she turned right in the ‘T’ at the end where our narrow road goes straight on, then nearly reversed into me as I started to go past the back of her into our road. I think she had assumed I would turn round as well and was waiting for her, as she looked embarrassed as she drove away. Judging by the time it was, I think both cars were there to wait to pick up children from the school near the village about a 10 minute walk away. I know there has been a lot of trouble with parents parking on drives and verges next to the school and blocking residents from getting to their driveways, so if that’s been stopped I hope they aren’t going to be a nuisance here instead. I must drive past the school sometime and see if they have been stopped from parking outside the houses there.

Well that’s a long time to be without your car Vera, so I hope they manage to get it done sooner. Was there no courtesy car for you? I expect it would cost even more than a taxi to hire a car. I know what you mean about the future and getting to places when both of you can’t drive any more. I think about it and although we can order food and meds online, we have to go into the city to the hospitals and there’s no bus route from here to the doctors. Mum never did learn to drive, but got a mobility scooter, when she couldn’t walk as far, for local errands and then used taxis for other journeys. I must admit that OH’s parents used taxis almost daily when they gave their car up, saying what they saved running a car covered it, but they only did short journeys. Maybe there will be driverless cars for us to use by then! That was a nice £20 saving on your shopping!

Mel, maybe you need to just give your arm a bit more rest. If it’s your right arm, it wouldn’t have been easy for it to be cleaning all your outside windows the other day. It might help to give it a few days off and as you will be seeing the doctor it would be worth mentioning as there might be stronger patches? It’s a shame about the tree and I hope it didn’t damage your shed. At least getting it trimmed will make it safer in these winds we get and it will still be there to look at. I wish I lived nearer to buy some eggs off you.