General Chat

Good morning all. 12 degrees very bright and sunny but feels cold. Slept badly as leg played up a bit waking me every 2 hours or so. I think my mattress needs turning but it is not something I can do on my own it is too big. Needs turning round not over. Supposed to be done every few months and not been turned for over 2 years now.

Nobody commented so maybe nobody watch the D day programmes. I suppose the veterans will be returning to UK today. It was sad to read that one of them died on the journey, somewhat strange to think he actually died in a German hospital. He was 102 I believe and so excited to be going.

Ann our local garden centre had a lot of larger geraniums. I wonder if people have switched to buying them because they lasted the weather better last year.
You have some interesting input to your family tree now then. Nothing interesting at all on mine except for one fellow who was in at the start of making cricket bats.
:-( :-(

Potted on three tom plants and a cue. Took the Christmas wreath apart in the shed too and put it away for this year. Cleaned out the nest box and I think one of the new girls has gone broody and I did'nt think these chickens did that but she is always in the nest box whether theres eggs in there or not and she is clucking softly like they do with eggs or chicks.

It's definitely not the Asian Hornet Mel. No yellow feet as you say and the asian one doesn't have those black dots on the abdomen. It's still big and not something you want to be stung by though! Your jar is a good idea to trap them and the flies. It's good you got the damaged pieces varnished again and that was handy finding some more authentic tudor patterns for your work.

Apparently Diana is my 13th cousin once removed, so we can't share many genes that far back! I know there were some others including an American President, but I'll have to see if I can find them again and print off the results. I think the american one must be connected to the Quaker ancestor that settled in Pennsylvania. Again from my paternal grandmother's side. Up to now I've found nothing of interest on my mother's side of the family.

Two garden centres I've visited this week had almost no bigger geraniums, just the trays of seedlings sown this year. I can't decide whether they've sold them all or lost a lot during last winter like I did.

I've faffed about and couldn't get into anything this afternoon, so an early night for me I think. OH did go out and pull some big weeds from the bottom border and says the garden bin is half full now, but it will sink down in a day or two leaving room for plenty more!

I see you are going up in the world then Ann with Princess Diana connected to you and Ginger Rogers too!! Mum used to like Ginger Rogers. Apparently somewhere down the line I am related to Roger Moore but only by marriage.

Have sent a pic of the hornet and I don't think hes got yellow feet but it all wet now and mainly its dead. I always get a lot of them round the backdoor as I have overlapping tiles on the gable end of the bungalow. I caught one earlier on in my plastic sweet jar with a large hole drilled in the lid which oh hung on the wall up the top and BIL got it down for me last year. It also has lots and lots of flies in it. I charge it up with cheap jam, sugar and beer if I have any or cider and apples or plums as they love those.

Well done a bit of varnishing of the things I messed up yesterday and a tiny bit of painting and looked on the net for more pictures of Tudor slipware and found 4 more patterns I think I could manage to paint so they are filed away in my Tudor Ideas folder.

I thought just the same as the others about your Hornet Mel as you are supposed to report them to Defra. They will find the nest and destroy it, as they will kill all of our native bees which we need to pollinate our crops. If you still have it look to see if it has yellow feet which the Asian Hornets have. There has been a sighting and nest found in Exeter, so your's could be one of the Asian ones too.

I see Dr Michael Mosley's wife has reported him missing after he went for a walk in Greece. How worrying, especially in a foreign country.

Mandy do you know where he was in 1939 or would that not help if it's his 1921 whereabouts you want to know. I've only recently been looking at my tree since I had an email about people I was related to, two of which were Princess Diana and Ginger Rogers! They (Familysearch) had shown the family trees to see the connection and now I have more to add to my tree. It's all on my paternal grandmother's side.

Afternoon all,

Cloudy here with just a glimpse of the sun ,we did our shopping and then we went to the little garden centre in the car park of the football ground ,don't know if he was there when OH came there for the football game Ann.
I bought another blue Lavender to go in my tall pot which will match the other one I already have ,I also bought a white Lavender ,another Hydrangea which is blue and another Canna called Bronze peach with darker leaves than the red canna I have .

Mel I wondered if it was one of those invader hornets they were talking about them on the news the other day ,I forget how many honey bees they said they could eat in a day but it was a lot so you've done the right thing putting it in the water .

Ann I saw that about the military records on Ancestry but I have to say I can't remember when I last did anything on my tree it would take me ages to get back into some of it now and work out who was who again .
I would just like to see the 1921 census to see where my dad was and who he was with as his mother didn't look after him he was born November 1920 so he would have been a few months old .

Mel,

If you do have Asian hornets nesting, it would be helpful if you reported them.

https://www.bbka.org.uk/identify-report-asian-hornet

I hope you get your plumbing job sorted soon. My girls were fiddling around with our cistern last weekend and now it gives a much shorter, although adequate flush.
That should please the water company, who say that we use a lot of water :-0

Just swept a bit of my road down the steps off the patio and now have back ache so I am going to have some lunch too.

16 degrees and partly sunny here. Spent an hour and a half in the garden, needed to sieve my own compost so I could use it in pots, Just planted som bedding begonias, weeded a couple of places and cut back around the blue arbour (again). Now to have some lunch.

Hope that hornet was not one of the new invaders Mel.

I have done a short spell in the garden but spent from 0900 to 10.30 watching the D Day production on BBC. Beautifully put together, so emotional seeing all the surviving veterans and hearing some of their stories. Particularly touching was the parade of school children from a local primary school (that is named after a veteran) as they presented each veteran with a flower. Mostly white roses. At least those children will have some knowledge of the war and particularly the Normandy landings.

I am appalled that there are 19 and 20 year olds (and many others) in this country who had no idea what D day was about and, despite being asked what they knew about the 80th anniversary of d day. One young girl when asked when it was said she thought about 1970. (her maths is not up to much either.) Why have schools not given their pupils through the years at least some knowledge of why we have some measure of freedom.

My granddad too Anng.

I just went to put my wellies on about half an hour ago to go up the post van and saw something on the floor but could'nt make out what it was untill I got close to it. It was a HUGE hornet and I just happened to have my fly catcher a little way away waeting to be washed. I put it over the hornet and slid the slider across and then put the whole thing in a bucket of water. I don't like killing those sort of things but I was'nt having it indoors. I have had a lot of them flying around outside the back door so I hope they are not nesting in my roof.

Went up the post van and it was'nt there and a notice on the bus shelter said it was off hte road today. I thought Dave told me he was'nt going to be there on Friday this week. I shall try again tomorrow and if it s not there will have to post it on Monday. Iv'e let the buyer know.

Morning All,

It's 13 degrees and sunny here. I was up early and managed to plant up my big waist high pot with petunias I got yesterday as well as the front wall pots. Everything has been watered with fertilizer so I was pleased I got that done and before OH emerged. He went round and sprayed some areas with weedkiller and we both pulled up more weeds and started filling the garden bin again.

Mel I hope you have managed to salvage things and smooth the varnish ready for another coat. I used to find it annoying when I coach painted the carriages and was varnishing as a hair or bit of dust if I knocked something could mean doing it all again. I imagine your tiny things would tip over so easily. Oh no not another bathroom problem to sort out! There's always something isn't there.

Doing a bit of admin next and doing a wash load and then we are out for a light lunch offer and might go to another garden centre for more plants for some other pots!

The next job to be done now is to have the loo mended. The flush has gone so I am down to a bucket.

Good morning all a bit grey and 11 degrees but a glimmer of light so hopefully it might be a nice day.
D Day 80th anniversary. Watched various bit on it on TV yesterday and there are photos on my facebook of the fantastic light show put on at Portsmouth. My parents would have been so proud of their home town.

Morning all quite a nice morning here 10 degrees and partly sunny.

The only thing planned for today is go to the post van and then I can please myself but if its ot too windy I want to clean the girls out.

Hope you all had a better night last night and got enough sleep making you all ready to face another day.

If anyone is interested the military records are free on Ancestry till the 11th June.

They've said our water is ok now even if it may be a bit brown at first! The website says they are still working on it and it is taking longer than expected. A friend messaged me this afternoon to say that the land opposite the retail park where Everards had new premises built, luckily towards the back of the land, was badly flooded where the cafe and carpark were and that the outside tables and chairs were under a lot of water. She walks her dogs there, but she said she couldn't even have parked and the half of the main road ws still fenced off and flooded.

Sounds like here then I have seen the baby robins again today and he's not feeding them now.

I have done some pot washing and weeding and ironing so I think thats enough for today but I must go down and shut the shed and take the clean pots down there.

When are we going to get some nice programs on the telly, some nice old fashioned ones instead of them putting them all on channels you have to pay for. I am enjoying Dick and Angel and have been watching things on Iplayer and Prime.

There often seem to be a resident cat in garden centres, that one does sound lovely.

I suppose I should request a test as well, as if I don't have enough to be concerned about.
Daughter has just told me the birds that she has seen on her bushes, trees and feeders today. greenfinches, great tit, blue tits, coal tit, goldfinches, a Robin, sparrow and a blackbird all on the feeder. Baby blackbirds in the garden, a grey wagtail and pigeons.

I do hope you get a full lesson next week Ann and that someof the other say she was a litle quick for them too.

Mandy your lanterns sound nice I have some chickens tht throw patterns down when their lights are on that oh bought me years ago and I bring in every winter.

I* had a terrible morning, I had done quite a bit of painting but no varnishing so there was a lot to do. I knocked my arm trying to move them to the top of the rad where I let them dry even though its not on they are out of the way there. Loads got stuck together and I had such a job to part them all and had sticky fingers to start with which did'nt help and I have ruined some but I am hoping I can repaint the bits and revarnish them and they will be ok. At one point I had four pieces stuck in a line and all expensive things. I was so cross with myself for putting them all on one board instead of splitting them up but Iv'e learned my lesson now. I did have others that just had to have thier bottoms varnished on another board so at least they were safe.

Afternoon All,

:-) <3 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MANDY <3 :-) I hope you enjoy your day and that lovely box of chocs! :-D

Mel, you seem to be dreaming quite a lot lately and they are all very different dreams. I don't often dream, or at least I don't remember them if I do.

We had a phone call at just turned 8.00am and it was a rcoded message from the water people to say they were working on a burst water main and may turn our water off or that the pressure could be low. They said they'd update us at lunchtime, so we filled the kettle and some big plastic jugs we have, just in case. They now say they hope it will be fixed by 4.00pm.

Then I went to the village garden centre, hoping it wasn't on the way to the burst water main which it wasn't luckily. The traffic's bad enough through the village these days at peak times without any extra holdups. I found some of those little petunias (Cala something I can never remember or pronounce!) for the front pots in red and white (for the footie!). OH has never forgotten me getting white striped busy lizzies for the pots before when there was a world cup. I had to ding the bell as no-one was serving and the first employee on the scene was a lovely cat, who I later learned was called 'Spud'. He was unusual with a thick, stand up coat that was mid length and a plain browny grey mix. His head had short, pale grey fur in contrast with a tabby pattern and he wove in and out of my legs purring. I patted the counter and he jumped up so I could scratch behind his ears. Eventually after a few more dings I was served and the helpful lady packed all the plants in a tray for me. I then trundled my trolley to my car. As I drove out, who should be sitting at the entrance to all of the racks of plants and watching me but Spud! I think he must have plodded outside and followed behind me until he reached the carpark! lol.

My next job is to ring for a bowel test kit as I'm now past the age for getting one automatically. Then I may go out to do some of the planting of pots. I still need to sort bits and pieces with the bathroom and ensuite like the floor and wall coverings, taps handles etc. Plenty to do at the moment with weeding and HW too.

I spoke to my neighbour this morning and she is having the wall rebuilt between us that the amazon driver knocked down when he was delivering to us early next week. She's having it built a bit higher this time and wondered about damage to our border, but I told her it will be ok as we are changing it so feet trampling on it won't matter.

Yes, Cecilia was a determined young woman in the face of a 'man's world' wasn't she Vera. No degrees for women at uni in her time and held back in jobs too. She's a good role model and example of what resilience and determination can lead to.

I'm glad the man who gave the talk had improved and that it turned out to be enjoyable this time.

It's good you got to the chiropodist ok with the help of your stick AnnG. Yes, I imagine they must be a bit ungainly and a bit of a nuisance when you are carrying other things like a bag as wedll. It sounds as if the cough and leg are improving a little now which is good and you managed to do a little shopping. I think I am going to mention in the feedback for each lesson that the teacher was a bit quick for me and I think some of the others will too as one didn't finish anything. She won't be surprised as she said it had been said before. No photo's this time. We just built a figure of a man from shapes like circles, narrow ovals and triangles in the right proportions lengthwise and then added positions of eyes and muscles to that framework. The teacher drew and we tried to copy. It was harder than it sounds. We are doing the same next week but a woman's body next time.