General Chat

Poor James, Jane he's having a rough time of it lately isn't he? I know how you feel about staying up all hours, I spent the whole night up with my sister when she left her first husband and came to live with us, we went down to Plymouth, (drove through the night) picked her up and came straight back home. OH shared the driving with his brother so they could take it in turns to sleep, but my sister and I stayed up the whole time and again when we got back to ours. She was so tearful.

Her husband was one of the soldiers who went missing in Borneo in the 90's and when he returned he had changed and started hitting her son so she decided to leave him and bring herself and her two children to stay with us.

She finally had some sleep during the following day but I was doing craft fairs back then with my cakes, so had to carry on working and do the craft fair so I didn't have much sleep for a few days. So I know what it's like and the feeling of wanting to take their pain away from them and knowing you can't is hard. I hope things start to improve for James soon, he could do with some good luck.

So you're going to be able to have your first bath soon then, I know how OH was and it wasn't as long as you. Do you have plenty of bubble bath to hand so you can pamper yourself?
Don't forget the bottle of wine lol :-D :-D

It sounds like you've both had a lovely day AnnG and Pippyn. I can imagine it would be a bit busy with the good weather and being a bank holiday weekend, but it's still nice to be out and about.

I was only outside for about 20 minutes, obviously even that amount of time was to much for me. The weird thing was I didn't feel hot, just off colour. I'm okay now and OH is back from seeing his friend so is finishing off the screws for me at the top of the framework for the screening to be hung onto.

I'd managed half of it but thought better about going back out, it's cooled down a bit now so it shouldn't take him long to finish. It's a good job I decided to make a start today though as OH had bought the wrong size screws, so I had to ring him to change them. The shop he bought them from was closing half an hour from the time I rang him and wouldn't of been open again until Tuesday, so it was lucky I decided to start it today and not tomorrow.

I watched the weather and it's going to be 30 degrees tomorrow, we're the hottest area in the country according to the weather maps, so I doubt we'll be doing any of the screening tomorrow. Monday looks cloudy so we may carry on with it then.

Going to make OH a cuppa now, he's finished the screws and is watering the garden now, so I'll run him a bath shortly. It's a good job the painting is finished in the bathroom. OH's been so busy lately painting the outside of the bungalow, the bathroom and he's painted the hall to. He said he's going to paint the doors in the living room and the whole of the kitchen next. I'm so lucky having a man who doesn't mind painting, it's one job I hate, but he seem to enjoy it and he's very quick to.

Dear All

Hello

Just popping on to say whatever you are doing this bank holiday weekend,
try and relax and take things easy.

Travel safely.

Take gentle care
Love Elizabeth, EOS
xx

Its still hot here. We have eaten and oh has gone to bed.

So sorry to hear about poor James Jane. I hope he cn find some peace soon. As you say 10 years is a long time but if its not to be its good he has found out now and not when they were married.

My heart goes out to you all and I hope things settle down for all of you soon.

EOS thanks for the kind wishes and wish you too a happy weekend. God be with you.

Good morning

A bright day here again and it promises to be even hotter than yesterday.

Thank you EOS for your good wishes. I hope you and your family enjoy your bank holiday weekend

Jane, what can I say? James is having to cope with so much at the moment and my heart goes out to him. I feel for you too. I’ve seen my daughter through two broken marriages and my son through one so I can understand the worry and pain you are going through. You see your child suffering and you feel so helpless. Just be the listening ear when James needs to talk. Knowing you are there whenever he needs you and he has your support will be a help and comfort for James <3 <3

Gill, do stay out of the sun and don’t do much physical work while it is so hot. It sounds as though you may have got overheated and dehydrated the other day. Sandra is a good daughter to try and help you.

Mel, it’s lovely that you are able to keep the dog show going. They can be great fun.

Frank, my next door neighbours have artificial grass. It’s pretty good though it doesn’t look or feel quite the same close up but £25,000 is a lot of money! It’s not completely maintenance free. My neighbours have it vacuumed and cleaned every so often so that costs money as well.

Ann, I absolutely love your bracelet. It’s just the sort of thing I like. You must have put a lot of work into it. The yarn bombing pictures are good too. I’ve never seen it ‘in real life’ but I remember seeing a lot of pictures in magazines a couple of years ago.

We had our usual Saturday coffee with “the gang” yesterday and as we were all leaving one couple asked us to go to Melford Hall with them for a lunchtime snack. Melford Hall is a small NT place only about 15 minutes from here. It was lovely. We all have NT membership so don’t have to pay. OH managed a slow walk from the car park to the cafe and we sat outside under a big canopy just chatting and enjoying some delicious sausage rolls. These little unplanned events often turn out the nicest.

Well I had my morning cuppa at 7.30 so I suppose I had better get dressed and have some breakfast. Have a nice day everyone.

Oh Jane, they are always our 'babies' aren't they, we do feel for them when they go through bad times. Our daughter too was divorced way back in the 80s after 6 years of marriage and they were both devastated, they just didn't want the same things from life. Strange thing was, he wanted children, she didn't. After the divorce she met her future partner and within a year was pregnant and went on to have the three boys. Then we had to be there for her again when her soul mate died. But things do work out and, as you know she is happily married again. I hope, with your support James can come to see that his instinct was right and he has done the right thing. Hope he can find his forever partner sometime soon and that his job prospects get sorted out.
Do come on here and chat though because we can provide the balance you need in what is a sad time for you.

Vera how nice to have an unexpected visit for lunch to a NT property. And well done your OH he is doing so well.

Annx I think I did say how much I liked the bracelet and the yarn bombing photos too. Probably said it in emails though. We do occasionally have yarn bombing round the docks here and once saw it in Bristol where there was also a bike. these people are so clever. I think if it was me I would be upset when it all got wet when it rained.

We were all happy last night as my numbers won £10 on the bonus ball lottery, then not so much this morning when silly OH realised that he had not renewed our online lottery ticket :-( :-(

Off to a garden centre this morning via back roads I think to avoid bank holiday traffic.

Morning Vera, morning all

Lovely and sunny again today, but to hot to do any work outside, I don't want to end up ill like yesterday. I did get the screening out to wire it up but when OH and I moved the bench the heat from the sun on my head was quite warm, knowing it's only going to get hotter I decided to put everything away and leave the work for another day. I was hoping to get started this morning thinking it would be cool enough, but I guess it wasn't, so OH is going to paint the bench in the shade, it should be finished by the time the sun comes around, it's a job that needs doing but the weather has been to wet lately and like I said to OH before I doubt we'll have hot weather like this again this year. He's just waiting for his work clothes to dry on the line, they've been out there since 7.30 and should be ready to wear in about half an hour.

I see you had a lovely time with your friends yesterday Vera, like you said the little unplanned events do tend to turn out the nicest. How is your OH now?

How are you and James today Jane, I hope you've both managed some sleep. I remember my mum finding me crying in the living room in the early hours of the morning when I split up with my first husband, I'd moved back in with her, she sat with me for ages and it was such a comfort. She even took down the wedding photo of us as it was to upsetting for me to see. Poor mum she didn't think to take it down straight away and apologised for it being there. All you can do is be there for James, be a shoulder to cry on and support him as best you can. Time is a great healer and each day will get better for him, I promise. Sending big hugs to you both <3

Thank you EOS for your wishes, I hope you have a lovely weekend to.

Love the pictures Ann, what a wonderful idea, I think I've seen something like that on the news a while back. Love the picture of the bike, that must of taken ages to do. I would never of known they were taken from inside your car, I didn't notice a mucky windscreen ;-)

Going to take another look at OH's tree today, Ancestry have their records open, but they have confused me so much I haven't been able to do any work on his tree. I can't seem to find the family I'm on now all together and the tree I have access to doesn't have any proof, that I can see of most of the children. I don't like to enter people onto the tree without some sort of proof. All that is on the tree are baptisms with just the parents names. The surname is Brown (quite a common name) so they could be anyone, not necessarily the couple I have, so I'm not to keen to add the children without further proof, just yet. With a bit of luck and some more searching I might find one or two of them on a census with their parents, at least I hope so, otherwise I won't be able to go any further with that branch. I have three more branches to do for him then his tree will be completely finished. It'll keep me out of the sun and give me something to do, if it doesn't drive me mad first lol :-| :-| :-|

What is everyone else up to today?

I missed your post AnnG. Oh dear what a shame your OH didn't renew your online lottery and you must of been quite excited at the thought of a win to. Has he renewed it now? Hope you have another win soon. Enjoy your time at the garden centre, don't forget to pop a hat on with all this sun and take a bottle of water with you, you don't want to feel like I did yesterday.

Wow, it's certainly hot here! OH watered the veg garden at 7.30 this morning , so we were up pretty early!! Weed killing will have to wait till this evening as its far too hot to be carrying the equipment on his back!!
Hope your son feels a bit calmer today Jane. As has been said, hard though it is, it's better now than if they'd been married with a family!
We were planning to go out this afternoon , but it's too hot and if yesterday is anything to go by, too crowded, so we've decided to stay put!
We've got some friends who have got artificial grass, it's certainly not maintenance free particularly in summer when it needs quite a bit of regular attention! I'd rather stick to mowing, it's less hassle!!
The garden calls, I must pick some sweetpeas, then we're having a nice cool Shandy under our biggish apple tree!

Morning all,

You have all been busy posting and there's me sleeping late.

Vera tat was a nice surprise visit to Melford Hall. I know the place as before I lived in Suffolk I had a childhood friend who lived in Long Melford and she and her hubby took us there when we visited them. It was'nt lived in then but had been in the film The Witch Hunter General. There were lime trees all along the drive with mistletoe growing on them. The trees have since gone I think. My son went there on a school visit when everyone was dressed in old fashoned clothes andthey were living like a certain year which was educational for the children.

Nowe Gill you stay well away from that screening today and do your oh's family tree to keep you out of trouble. We can't have you swooning with the heat you naughty girl. Be sensible and stay inside today.

What a shame about your oh not renewing the lottery ticket AnnG. Better luck next time. So disappointing when that happens.

It overcast here today but dry and its still very warm. Oh is out on the mower doing the final cut for the dog show tomorrow so I better get on.

O Pippyn that sound nice a cool shandy under the apple tree. Enjoy your day whatever your doing.

Re the lottery we have a line each and since Christmas mine has won several times, last time first week in August, only small £10 wins except for one that was £100. Luckily yesterdays was not a big one as then I would have been cross. He will renew later today, we only do Saturdays lottery.

Gill, very sensible to stay in out of the sun. It was busy on the motorway but not too busy so we went that way as it is quicker. Inside the garden centre is air con so it was fine, didn't venture outside for long. Just bought a couple of little bits in the sale and a reduced orchid.

Mel, I think your visit and your son’s school visit were to Kentwell Hall, rather than Melford Hall. They are both at Long Melford. Kentwell is owned by the Phillips family and they bought it in 1971 when it was in a bit of a state of disrepair and have restored it pretty well. They are the ones who do all the historical recreations and all the school visits and I know it has been used in several films and TV programmes.

afternoon all,

What a scorcher. slept on top of the bed last night with the window open. As soon I was up this morning 6.30 am I opened all drs and windows, to try to get a breeze through. Haven't done a thing today, apart from showering and reading the paper.

We did go round to Pam and Denis for coffee which we had in the garden. Good old me !! I sat on a bench and put my Ass straight through the slats. We then transferred to the metal chairs at the table further down the garden. They showed me the garden where Joy lived before her death TWO YEARS AGO, It's a total disgrace, that anyone could let a property go into such disrepair. There is BAMBO growing in the middle of what was the lawn, and spreading everywhere. They are going to approach the local council, to see if they can make her daughter do somethings about the state of things. I wish them luck. I think I would be incline to spray weedkiller over the fence as far as I could reach, as least it would stop the weeds coming over the fence, into their garden.

I would imagine to be on a narrow boat,or any boat, would be so perfect. on a day like today. I just loved my Deep sea Fishing days, on days like this. I would come home extremely well tanned. ;-) ;-) ;-) (BURNT) lol

Poor old Harvey got caught up in a rail back after an accident. He spent over two hours to travel 7 miles. So in total it took him 16 hours to get there. Simon and Sally are just starting their 2nd week on theirs. I bet they are loving it.

A very traumatic times for James then Jane. I have been there and got the T shirt. Imagine after 17 years of marriage, to find your wife was having an affair with another person, and then TRY TO BLAME YOU, as having an affair, whereas I was with my friend Alan Beddow's all evening. The very next day I packed and left, never to return. All you can do is give him all your support, and LOVE. !!!

We have the table booked for 3.00 pm at the calvary. Ros has changed into her gardening gear, and is doing more weeding etc. Silly girl, I told her to sit and relax before we go out. I think it's far to hot,to be doing anything strenuous today.

Back to my newspaper and a cool beer. See you later. xxxx

Afternoon Everyone
I am really grateful for all your kind words and support at what is a particularly sh*t time.I do appreciate it. One of Jame's freinds text yesterday to see if he would like go today to some waterpark with him ,partner and 2 little ones.
I am happy to say he has gone :-D. I really didn't think he would. It will be good for him. Us too having a stress free day :-D

It is really far too hot.I have just come in after sitting under the shade ofthe patio parasol chatting to my sister for 30 minutes .But even in the shade I find it too much. So it is back by the fan again. Chris cut the bottom bit of the lawn really early this morning (all around the veg patches and Green houses).That is his physical work done for today. There is a nice cold bottle of Prosecco in the fridge for later :-D I say later (it may well be open in a minute :-D ;-) )

Love the Yarn bomb pics Ann :-D :-D. Especially the cycle. so colourful .

£25,000 for artificial grass!!!!!!! . I think your friends are crazy Frank. They seem to have so much money . Do they ever give to Charity? It must be a large area of grass for it to cost that much.Personally I think it is ridiculous. A small artificial lawn I think would maybe be fine . This sounds BIG :-S

Vera we are members too of the NT but there as so few places around here . We just tend to get to see places when we are away on holiday. One year we even used our cards for a garden in Italy.I think it was somehere around Lake Como.

Think I might just open that Prosecco :-D

FRank, I hope there is plenty of good aircon when you have you meal. Don't break any chairs !!!!!!!!!! Enjoy your meal. I still haven't thought what to have for dinner this evening. Whatever it is will have to have lots of runner beans with it :-D James picked another load for me yesterday. I cooked up one lot with garlic,tinned chopped tomatoes and Oregano . No one likes that other then me and I love it cold too. I could eat a whole bowl of it :-D
I blew up the baby paddling pool just now and have been sitting with my feet in it.It was just heaven :-D. I bought the pool thinking I could use it after my op but with havign to keep those blasted compression socks on for 6 weeks it never happened. But today being so hot I though it was time to have a little paddle :-D

Afternoon all,

Phew to hot to sit out today ,last night we sat out in the evening and it was lovely and cool but as soon as we came in we were hot again, we also slept on the top of the bed with all the windows open .

Oh Jane poor James what with the redundancy and now the break up he's really going through it i feel so sorry for him ,that's good he has gone out with his friends for a while and it will give you both a bit of time to have a stress free day ,it must be so hard to know what to say to him with out upsetting him . <3

Son came this morning and has helped us to fill in the claim for the pool we had to send photo's and even a short video now we have to wait for them to contact us .
We're still waiting to see if the CCTV cameras in the church yard will show any hing , i did go in the church house and the chap told me they don't have any thing to do with the cameras there it's all done by a firm in Norwich and the chap from the firm will be coming to the church on Tuesday so we just have to wait .
We are going to paint on some of the Anti climb paint on the top of the copings ,the policeman we went to see said it's a paint that is very hard to wash off hands and clothing and it does leave lovely finger prints :-D he also mentioned putting on the wall spikes , i did say i didn't know if they were ok and he said well there are a lot of pigeons about in the church yard and gave a wink and said you can have the for the birds .

Mel the field is looking good for the dog show ,i seem to remember last year was a wash out wasn't it ?
Will you have a look tomorrow ?

Oh Ann that 's a lovely looking bracelet i love all the colours in it .
Wow someone has worked hard on the yarn bombing cycle that must have took a while to wind all the wool round the wheels
A few weeks ago they had lots of wool decorations in the trees here in town it was for the War weekend ,there was Pom Poms ,bunting and flags all knitted in red white and blue ,lots of crochet squares all sewn together and tied round the tree trunks .
I did wonder if i could do some bunting to hang on our Gazebo but i thought it would only stretch when it rained .

Oh Gill you silly sausage going out in all that heat and making your self feel bad ,it sounds like you had heat stroke ,you'll have to leave it until the weather turns a bit cooler before you give it another try out there , i hope your feeling better now .

Enjoy your Prosecco Jane ;-) ;-) Pleased to see James has gone out with his friend it'll do him good and give you and Chris some alone time to.

Air con in the garden centre sounds bliss AnnG, they don't have any of that by us and with the glass roof it's gets far to hot to visit on days like this, even outside is to hot to walk around for long. I see you bought a few things and some bargains to. Yes, you were lucky it wasn't a big win you lost out on, but still a win is a win so now your OH is going to renew the lottery you can check the numbers knowing if you do win it's yours.

Oh dear Frank fancy falling through the bench seat, you're not safe to be let out lol ;-) :-D It sounds like Joy's garden is in a right mess, hope it's sorted soon. We put our two planters up against the fence we built between us and Mr Grumpy last year and this year the lazy so and so couldn't be bothered to pull the weed up on his side so they grew about three foot tall behind our planters. I wouldn't mind but they were nettles. I have a grabber so managed to get them down a bit, but to get rid of them completely we'd have to move the planters and although they're on wheels they are still quite heavy. I put artificial Ivy on the backs of the planters which is why we didn't spot the weeds earlier. We'll need to keep a closer eye out from now on as they're bound to grow back at some point.

Mr Grumpy has now fell out with his neighbours on the other side because they put a fence up between him and them and he can't get his car right down the drive now. The reason they did it was because he was using their drive as well as his own to drive his cars down to his back garden. Apparently he's not talking to them anymore. At this rate he'll have no friends at all. No one in the street likes him and every time I try to talk to him he's either very rude, or just ignores me. I think the name Mr Grumpy fits him well, that along with Victor Meldrew lol ;-) ;-)

Going to watch a programme with Sandra and OH now, all the jobs for today are finished, the bench has been painted and put back into place and we've had our Sunday lunch and the dishes are done, so I'm sitting by the fan keeping cool. I'm glad I made the decision not to do the screening today, I think I would of melt in this heat. I had all my washing washed, dried and put away before 10am this morning, it was so hot it dried within in a couple of hours outside on the line.

Didn't see you there Mandy. Yes, I'm feeling much better today thank you. I'm not very good in the sun at the best of times and although I didn't feel hot, OH thinks it might of been a bit of dehydration and possibly heat stroke that made me feel so unwell. A lesson learnt there I think and I'm now staying in doors until the weather cools down, then I'll tackle the screening job. The Police are very good at getting around things aren't they, what a good idea to blame the pigeons for having to put the spikes up. The paint is a good idea to. I hope the Church camera caught something and those horrible people are found and dealt with by the Police. It's such a shame though as a dip in your pool today would of been wonderful in this heat. Maybe you could do the same as Jane and pop your feet into a paddling pool :-D

So feet in a pool and a glass of cold wine in your hand, that's you sorted for the day then Jane lol :-D :-D :-D

Talking of beans Jane, we've got a brilliant crop this year! Like you I love them cold with garlic dressing. We're having some for lunch with our chicken and new potatoes (from the garden!) I'm hoping to freeze some beans as they are good for putting in stews, I've frozen a load of courgette too as well as giving away about 4 marrows!! Trouble is that everything comes at once and you cannot eat it all!!
Glad your son is having a day with friends Jane, I'm sure that he will eventually be totally certain that he's done the right thing for both their sakes . When our son's marriage broke up, it did seem very bleak, but tbh, fond though we were of his wife, his second wife is such a lovely person and is much more like him in outlook and attitude, so, much as perhaps I shouldn't say it , with hind sight it was a sort of ' blessing in disguise'! for both of them. I'm sure things will eventually work out the same for your son.
That chicken is ready!!