General Chat

Is the wedding in a hotel Mel? Or registry office.. What about shoes? Sandals would be fine. Is this the first time you have seen family since OH died.

I have the wedding in August, in cumbria. difficult to be planning for it knowing that a hospital appointment in the wrong place could change all my plans.

Oh morning Mel you popped in while I was typing.

Morning Anng ,morning all,

Very overcast here today and its 14 degrees.

You were saying about marigolds ,I put two lots marigold seeds in a couple of trays and not one has come up but I did have lobellia and pertunias in the trays so they must have been in the compost from last year ,the marigold seeds were from last year but must have been past their best although according to the packet still in date.

I was going to say I expect the bridesmaids are going to be in those colours ,I think unless your the bride or grooms mother people don't seem to really dress for weddings any more they wear something that can be worn again .
Some nice trousers and a pretty top would be fine I would think ,I can't remember the last time I had a dress on and I don't think I have one in my wardrobe, but I did havs a look at the dresses in Bon Marche the other day as they had one on a stand that just caught my eye it was really pretty.
We were only saying the other day that we haven't seen a wedding at ths church for ages ,years ago we have seen three in one afternoon.

Yes Ann I've been getting on with ths poppies ,ill send a photo of them .

Morning all,

Yes I had thought of that Anng and think I will go for black or navy trousers and a pretty top. I have a denhiem jacket I can wear if it chilly.

Its 15 degrees here and there's a picture of a full sun so I hope its going to be a lovely day.

Just the shop to do this morning and maybe out in the garden this afternoon. I stillhav'nt got my 7 sweet peas in. Those begonias I bought in a pack of three arn't doing well one took a long while to shoot and the other two I put outside but they have been battered by the wind and they just don't look good. I also have the little Nemsia to pot on that I bought in plugs they have made nice little plants in the shed. I wonder what this new potting compost is going to be like? I am just on the end of an 80 litre compost I bought two years ago. They did'nt have that one so I had Westlands or something like that. Its peat free with John Innes in it too. There's so many to choose from now and I must admit to having a bale of peat inthe shed which has been in there years. Its only a small one but I may put some around the Rhodos.

Good morning all 14 degrees so far. I thought I was up early well before 7 o'clock, but I have already seen on FB that my sister and my son and wife are all up already too.

Mel, I expect her bridesmaids/ Maid of honour are wearing mauve/lilac colours. Maybe you could wear something pink or blue but deep shades of those colours. Maybe black or Navy trousers with a pretty top.
I am wary of buying clothes on line but my sister buys a lot from Freemans and she always looks nice. Although she is the opposite of me and could do with puttting on half a stone. :-(
Whatever you buy Mel, make sure you feel comfortable in it and that it hopefully will have a life after the wedding.

The wedding is oh's youngest sisters daughter. She booked the weeding before oh died and its down here in Devon thinking he would be able to come. The thing is she's asked if people would not wear mauve or lilac and thats what I mostly wear. I could have worn my nice thin MAUVE velvet trousers and a fancy mauve dressy shirt oh bought me a few years ago. Trouble is if you buy things online they don't always have the fit you need so it may mean going to Barnstaple.

I am glad you said that Ann I thought I must have missed mention of a wedding for Mel. Nice trousers and top and maybe a jacket would be fine. I never wear hats to weddings, they don’t suit me.

I am hoping we get some rain for the garden soon.

I'm glad your migraine has gone now Vera. It sounds like a good night's sleep is what you need next. Today being hotter has made me very tired, plus little sleep last night. Oh no, fancy your OH's trousers going missing. Your happenings and mine sound like a tv farce sometimes. I do hope they soon turn up. There are two Waitroses not too far from here, so I must have a look at their fish, as we like fish and get a card and remember the 20% off Fridays. That was a good saving you got. I tend to forget about the shop since the one in the next village became an Iceland.

You have had a nice little shop for things today Mel. I don't recall you mentioning a wedding, so who is getting married? I tend to wear comfortable trousers and a loose top that won't crease for any dos these days as I don't wear dresses anymore or even skirts, now I can't do 'heels' with my knees. Unless it's a posh wedding, I think a nice top and trousers with sandals,as it's August, and a bit of jewellery would be fine and few people wear hats these days unless you wanted to. You could keep an eye out when weddings are held at your church and have a look at what the guests are wearing.

Started to rain here about 15 mins ago so I thought I better go and pick my strawberries. I got 4 and 12 hulls so something has had a good feast.

Went to Holsworthy today as I needed chicken food and some compost. I needed to take my three library books back too but they are not open on a Friday so I had to leave them in a safe box never done that before.

Bought chicken food and a little oyster joint of ham, some drawstring bin bags and some bird seed. Two sacks of compost but they did'nt have the one I like so I got Westland mult purpose peat free and 4 4' canes. Then I went into town to look at tops for the wedding in August. I don't know what Iam going to wear as I don't do dresses and I have put on a lot of weight lately so now I must try and be good and not buy cream cakes or have butter on my toast etc. I am sitting here with a black coffee after eating a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich and two crumpets. I shall have the quiche again tonight and that will be it.

I bought two nice smooth skinned pears in the greengrocers. I don't like the rough skinned pears they make me shudder. Always been the same with rough things, like stockinged feet on a carpet when you turn. I think it was ever since seeing tripe in the butchers shop window as a child.

Bought a pretty apple green top in The Factory Shop and then went and got some diesel. Now all I have to do is get the chicken food and compost out of the boot and into two sheds.

Your school journey was similar to mine AnnG as I caught a bus into the city, then walked to the bus station and caught another bus home to the outskirts of the city. Then my parents moved to a village about 8 miles from the city and the bus would take a while as it called at other villages on the way too. My parent's house was in a group of 6 houses midway between two villages and surrounded by fields between the villages. The only streetlight between the villages was just one that was outside our group of houses, so it was very dark walking home in the winter from the bus stop in the centre of the village.

The dentist fixed OH's tooth but wants him to ask the hospital about the extraction of two loose ones next time he is there in case they think he should be referred to them to extract them rather than him, due to the medication he's on for his osteoporosis and the fact they are getting small flare ups of infection.

His scan results are back and they told him to book a telephone appointment which he's done now. I got a letter today telling me the bowel test, which I had returned to them yesterday is now 'on it's way' to me. :-)

Next task is the food order.

Afternoon everyone

I slept OK last night and the migraine is almost gone now but it’s left me completely drained. I feel exhausted yet I’ve hardly done anything today. We went into town this morning and OH took some stuff to a charity shop and went to the gentlemen’s shop to pick up some trousers that were being altered to fit him while I went to Waitrose. His trousers appear to have gone missing but that’s another story. I wanted to stock up with some fish from Waitrose. Their fish is good but expensive. However on Fridays it’s 20% off if you have a Waitrose card. I paid £47 for my purchases but full price would have been £59 so it’s a discount worth having.

When we got back I cooked our main meal as we are out tonight so it’s easier to eat at lunchtime today. We’re going to our little local theatre to see Second Best Bed which is a one woman show. She is supposed to be Anne Hathaway talking on the night of Shakespeare’s funeral. I’ve got a very vague feeling I’ve seen it before but OH can’t remember it so perhaps I’ve muddled it up with something else.

Annx and AnnG, it’s a pity about your French marigolds as mine are doing well. I can’t grow them in the ground as slugs and snails demolish them as soon as they are planted so I’ve got them in a half barrel with copper tape round it. I’m trying to think what compost I would have used. I think it would have been a mixture of old stuff used before, some new compost which would have been a cheap one from Roy’s and a few handfuls of gravel to help with the drainage.

You are getting on well with those poppies Mandy. You must send us some pictures when they are on display.

I’d better go and find something to wear tonight. We certainly don’t need to dress up and I’ll probably only wear trousers and a shirt but I do at least like to look tidy when I go out and the “home” clothes I’m wearing at the moment are decidedly scruffy.

True we always grew French marigolds and put them in the borders with lobelias and other small plants and always had a lovely show. Maybe I should fill the pots with garden soil. I did notice when I planted them out, and they were flowering and looking good, their root systems were not developed very well, just tiny thready roots yet the plants had grown too big not to plant them out. And mine came from two different garden centres. So frustrating.

Yes we used to finish school at 4pm and the school buses would leave from outside the school at 4.15. Other than very local children all pupils would be on the buses as it was a High School that took pupils from a wide area. My bus journey was a bout 45 minutes and then I had to get another bus home from town. Hard to imagine 11 year olds doing that now.

That's interesting AnnG as the french marigolds I put in pots aren't thriving. Some that I haven't got round to planting and are still in the nursery tray look far healthier and are flowering well despite being very cramped now. I was wondering if the move away from peat was part of the problem, although years ago I planted my own French Marigold seed in ordinary soil and they were fine. It is strange and even the front wall pots are not doing as well as they usually do. The petunias in a big pot are flowering, but seem to be standing still. I know it isn't slugs or snails and I haven't seen any weevils in any of the compost.

It seems you also have the traffic backlogs at school finishing times too, so it must be general. OH's meetings are often at the end of the school day so he has the problem travelling to his meetings as the parents are all picking their children up. Half hour journeys take an hour now because of it. When we've been out for lunch, we've seen laybys full of school buses waiting to set off. School days seem shorter at least at senior schools these days. We see the children walking past our close by 3.15pm whereas we didn't finish till 4.00pm and would catch a 4.15pm bus.

Ann yes thanks, leg is not too bad today, a bit stiff but I have managed a walk down to Irene's to take some more books back for her. That is the May holiday reading material now returned.
I am beginning to despair of having anything nice growing in the pots as, stuff planted this year is not all thriving. the bedding begonias seem to be coping ok but I have lost practically all of a dozen French Marigolds I planted. and they were planted in ne basket and container compost. I think we are suffering from the no peat law. I will have to speak to my gardening friends as see if they have found a solution.

we have five schools spread around this village. Two senior schools and three combined Junior/infants. And at 'home' time which is a bit staggered so it covers from about 2.45 (because parents get there early to park) to way past 4 o'clock the surrounding roads are clogged up causing tailback for miles. The problem is that when children attended school in their catchment area many of them could walk to school but now they come from all over and there are the school buses to add to the problem.

Morning All,

It’s 21 degrees here now and I woke up early despite having been awake till 4.00am. OH was already up and had done some of his work and put washing out. He’s gone to the dentist now as he broke a tooth the other day biting something hard. It’s meant his tongue was very sore with rubbing against it so I fetched him some Bonjela. I did suggest he talk a bit less. Lol.

Crikey Mandy, you don’t hang about once you get started on a project! You must be pretty quick at crochet to have already done that many poppies! I bet they look lovely. You mentioned the school traffic and when we popped to do a few errands earlier, we passed the little park where I did my short walks and where the old ice house is. It was before 9.00am and the car park was already nearly full. Then a bit further on we noticed a lot of women were walking on the pavement and OH said he bet they had all parked on the little carpark then walked their children to the school on the corner. OH often has problems getting past the school on his way to some meetings as the parents park all along a slip road opposite the school, including blocking people’s driveways. The school is right on a road junction too and he says it is chaos there when the school finishes for the day as there are only about 3 parking spaces in a little layby and the road is too narrow to be able to park at the roadside.

I bet your BIL was pleased to have some of your homemade sausage rolls and a quiche to take home Mel.

Yes it does give you a boost when things work out well and you find something nice to buy and take home AnnG. I was pleased how my knees coped and the trip out didn’t make them worse again today, so I’ll be ok to pop out in the garden and pull another small patch of weeds up. I hope your leg is ok after your walk yesterday and continues to get better.

I think I will have to start again with fresh plants in the pots I’ve planted as they aren’t thriving at all. I removed a lot of the old compost and mixed in fresh as I usually do, but I think there must have been some of that awful compost that nothing grew in last year left in them. So out with the lot I think and start afresh. No wonder nothing grew last year, not even the beans.

I hope Vera managed a good sleep last night

Better get on with some HW and another load of washing next.

Good morning all on this LONGEST DAY. Its all down hil after today and the days will get shorter.

That was a long post I lost yesterday and I had copied some of it in the thought that I may lose the lot and then when it went I forgot.

After mowing all the lawns yesterday BIL took out four sponge filters out of the big box filter where the water goes before going back into the big pond and we washed them but he put four new ones in. The whole thing wants a good cleanout but I think that will be for another day.

Vera yes I did make two quiche yesterday and sausage rolls and cooked the spare sausages. I asked him if he wanted quiche for lunch or take it home so SIL would'nt have to cook tonight but he said he would have quiche. Gave it to him and he had just cut into it when I said I had sausage rolls and did he want those instead. He said yes so I wrapped the quiche for him to take home for dinner.

He also took off the old solar light battery boxes as both sets of light had gone and I need to find the new set to put out there.

I am posting this.

Morning all,

Lovely blue sky here and we should get to 24 degrees today then cooler tomorrow which is how I like it day after day of heat is very draining ,next week as Ann said it should get really hot .

Oh dear Mel have you lost a post again :-( yesterday I was typing away and the whole page just closed down ,I think I catch my finger on the little cross at the top left hand corner of the tablet it's so annoying .

Poppies are coming along 19 so far .

Off to Tesco in a while we usually wait until all the school traffic has eased .

Good morning all 15 degrees already. Sun is shining and the sky is pale blue. Another lazy day today although maybe I should do a bit of the dreaded H/W.

good job you C&P that lot Ann, it would have been a pain if you lost it. As Vera said mel. better try copying and pasting if it is going to keep on happening.

Annx that sounds like a very productive morning that you obviously enjoyed. It does make you feel good when things work out well doesn't it?

Evening All,

I got up the same two times as you Mel. Fancy turning the heating on by mistake. I bet you are glad you hadn’t then gone to spend an hour or two in the garden afterwards. It’s easily done though. Did the quiches turn out ok?

I wonder if the tyre valve hadn’t seated properly the time it was pumped up before you visited your friends Vera and had gradually lost pressure. Any jolts from road humps or potholes in the meantime might have hastened it going flat. Then when your OH pumped it up again the valve might have seated itself properly again and stopped leaking air. I have a feeling that when I was first given one of those cakes I tried to peel the rice paper off too!

OH is glad he just gets the visual disturbances now. He used to get the headaches with sickness too many years ago. I used to get them mid month that were hormonal, so they went as I got older. The headaches that are sometimes waking him at night now do usually respond to paracetamol enough to get off to sleep again, but he takes ibuprofen next if they persist. He finds bending brings them on worse too and those were the sort I used to get. He wondered if the migraines were changing again, but the doc after questioning him this time has some other ideas. I hope yours is soon better again as they are really debilitating and leave you shattered. He’s fine again today, which is good, as he had been asked to do an online talk slot to about 500 people today. It was to be a long meeting with various speakers and as my knees are feeling a bit better each day, and I couldn’t boil a kettle, do washing or hoover because of making a noise, I decided to do the same as AnnG and give my knees a bit of a test by going out and about. I called and posted my bowel test first, but the usual box has changed their collection time, so I had to go to another. I called at the shop next, then a small garden centre. It was quiet there considering it was mid morning, so I had a small brekkie and latte and read my magazine. A lot of plants were ‘leggy’ so I didn’t buy any and went another 17 miles to the Factory Shop. I found a nice, loose weave cotton top so got that and found a few other things I want to get. I forgot to bring a discount card we have though, so will bring OH to get those and anything he wants.

The pot will be good with a Hosta Mandy, but with hindsight I wish I’d lined my pots of them with polythene to help get them out now they need dividing. Aldi have some good buys don’t they.

Re the bumble bees we are the same as you AnnG. I saw a lot and quite early in the spring too, but I haven’t seen any for a while now. At least the miner bees seem to have disappeared from the island bed this year. They were a nuisance last year every time I poked my trowel around one seemed to fly out.

I noticed the temperature is shooting up next week too. I am going to meet up with an old friend I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, so I hope it isn’t too hot!

(cut and pasted Vera and AnnG!! ;-) )