General Chat

o THATS GOOD YOUR EYE WAS CLEAR THIS MORNING fRANK AND HOW NICE TO GET A CALL FROM THE OPTICIAN TO SEE HOW YOU WERE.

Sorry did'nt mean to shout !!! but I am not typing that again. :-|

I was just getting into my crafting this mroning before going to the shop when the phone rang. It was Jane Cox telling me it was my turn on the flowers for the church and they need them done for Rememberance Sunday. Panic panic we've had two nights of hard frost and the hydrangas I was going to use with a few nerines were all frosted and brown and the nerines had gone all glassy. I rushed round the garden and cut beech leaves, some ice plant flowers and found a bit of that mauve tall stuff, can't think of the name. One nice branch of paper flowers and some rose hips that the birds had'nt eaten. Also cut some yellow leaves off the spirea and some evergreen yellow and green edged stuff the name of which also eludes me. Did lunch and then went to Em's with some apples but she was'nt in so I pinched a couple of her hydrangas, muggy mauve ones. Also cut some of the black middles of the rudbeccia and some seed heads off the chinese anenemones. On the way out of Em's there is a varicated bush thing Euonemus and it had lovely berries on it in pink with orange seeds showing I pinches a couple of bit of that too so all in all I had enough stuff after cutting three large heads of hydranga that was sort of greeny with a bit of pink that was under the frosted lot. So that was my afternoon gone. It took me about 2 hours to do the five arrangements and when I got back oh asked why it took so long to stick a few flowrs in vases of water. Men I ask you. I was please with the arrangements I did though but forgot my camera and phone so no pics.

Do we get to see Lola having her tum tickled Frank?

Fancy having a bit of snow this morning Gill. I bet Sandra was beside herself with excitment. How lovely.

I did'nt tell you that I lost another old girl the other day did I? thats two since I had the new ones. They are mixing more now and are outside much more when its not raining. When I cleaned them out I put a large plastic Catch Bait box in their house and filled it with woodshavings so they could have a good old dust bath or scratch. I had another egg this mroning and it was darker than Daisy's again so perhaps someone else is laying. I shan't know for certain till I get two the same day.

Ann that cats sound really good with their toys and the things they do. My nails sound just like yours so you know what I meant about them going at the sides and towards the middle as you said. The left index fingernail is doing it at the moment but when my nails are short I can't hold my craft thigns or pick things up or turn pages etc. so annoying.

Must get the steak on now or he will want to know when its ready.

I thought you were doing BIG TYPING to help Frank's eye Mel! Oh what a panic that must have been to find something for the church flowers. It was lucky you had some things you could use, also finding some nice bits from Emms too. Your cheeky OH!! lol. :-) They have no idea and would just plonk things in a vase themselves wouldn't they. I expect he was winding you up though!!

Yes Frank can we see the video of LOLA's tummy tickle if you can send it on? I bet she was loving it. That was an early Christmas card wasn't it.......don't be expecting mine for some time yet. lol.

Mandy, the edges of my nails flake at times too, like the edges of slate splitting!!!! :-) Yes, those houses must be a money pit really with something always needing doing. What amazes me is that nothing seems to have got thrown away in the past as they keep finding useful old things to use or re-purpose in modern lingo. I like Stephanie? and her jolly french mum who is so happy with everything too. I didn't think much of the wedding garden they did at the other Chateau though. I kept thinking that after a few drinks, guests would fall over that low wall around it where there seemed to be a big drop the other side. Fancy leaving those wilted flowers on the pagoda thing too. They don't seem to have much idea. Somehow, although Angel is very individual with her hair and clothes, which aren't to everyone's taste, they really suit her and she always looks smart and tidy and is such a nice person and very clever with her ideas. I wasn't sure the distressed mirror tiles would work but they did with the fretwork over them.

Mandy I meant to say that the sheppherd lady has an artical in the country living christmas mag and she has written a book and its only £7.99. I may buy it as I think she is wonderfull looking after all those children in the old fashioned way. They always look so happy. I am enjoying the new series and can't wait till next Tuesday. I missed the last one of the last series, boo hoo.

Ann I love Angel and Dick they are so in love.........and he does anything she wants which is really nice. Its marvelous what they have done together with the chateau.

Morning all

Bright but with a little frost this morning.

I wonder what the thudding noise is Ann, maybe you could buy a little camera with night vision on it and place it on the window sill, that way you'll know for sure what's making the noise, it'll put your mind at rest and help you sleep better, once you know what it is.

Have you tried filing your nails Mel, I find that works if they've broken near the pink bit and are hard to cut properly.

So you've had your first Christmas card then Frank, it sounds like Jan and Conrad have a good sense of humour. Have you displayed the card, or are you putting it away until nearer Christmas?
I'd love to see the video of Lola having her tummy tickled.

Sorry to hear your cold turned into a cough in the end AnnG, I know that's what you didn't want. I hope it doesn't last long and clears for you soon. <3

Thinking of Jane and hope she's not in to much discomfort. Sending hugs to you Jane <3 <3

Morning Gill and all,

Miserable again here this morning but no wind so thats a change from the norm.

I need the light on to see what I am doing. Heatings on and the boiler seems to be coming on after only a minuet or two.

Big breakfast day today and maybe I can get on with some crafting.

Afternoon all, We had a late start as we both slept in a bit (not too long but by the time we got downstairs it was gone 10 o'clock. I slept in the spare room last night and actually didn't have too bad a night. the cough is still with me but not all the time, just a bit tickly and catches me sometime. We watched the cenotaph ceremony (or rather OH watched part and then went out to dig up his dahlias and I watched the rest on my own. Then we went round the local garden centre where card holders got 20% off Christmas stuff so we bought some lights to go out the front (sorry Sandra they are ice blue) and and a new more modern candle arch to go on the kitchen windowsill. Also bought a couple of sedum for a pot. so that was the morning gone.

Afternoon all,

Very frosty this morning which soon went when the sun broke through ,now it's just started to rain .
Family came this morning ,the two older ones were with friends so it was a bit quieter with just the three little ones.

Not a lot happening here ,Colin has just lit the wood burner and we're going to watch a little tele ,meat balls for us tonight so nice and easy.

The sun came out late morning and its been quite nice since. It is very chilly in the breeze though.

I spent the morning tying plastic bags over my holly berries as the blackbirds are starting to eat them. I don't usually get any off my own holly for my wreaths but I am determined to have some this year to save me having to climb the bank to get to Phil's on the edge of his field. His tree has'nt that many this year but I did have a lot of it last year and your not supposed to cut the berries every year. I think its about 5 or 7 years but I can never wait that long.

Then I did our big breakfast and am going to do something in the way of craft while its still light.

Afternoon All,

We had a lot of rain in the night but it had stopped by morning. The sun tried to come through but hasn't made it yet. I managed to sleep past 3.00am this morning, so I hope that's broken the habit now. OH came home with a sore throat last night so I hope I don't get it next. He's finished off the rest of the bottle of cider I used for our somerset pork lunch, so I expect he's looking at the back of his eyelids now as Mandy would say! lol. He did manage to clear the tomato plants out of the greenhouse earlier which was good.

Sorry you have a tickly cough now AnnG. They can be so annoying and exhausting. I was advised to use simple honey and lemon for sore throats and tickly coughs, so there can't be medication clashes, I make a small glass up with some water as a small drink to take to bed with me to sip if I wake up coughing. I keep meaning to ask if Inara is fine now? I have the non reflective lenses in my glasses now, but the drive safe ones are supposed to be much better (and more expensive of course!). The lady who went through the charges etc was wearing them herself and held them up to a picture of car headlights for me to see and they made quite a difference, better than my own glasses. She said she had been dubious at first, but was very pleased with them.

I couldn't believe all the fireworks going off last night. I hope they 'fizzle out' now till the New Year. I don't mind the organised dos but the ones round here are in gardens every night for ages now.

I've been filing some papers away today and checked my bank account to see if my premium bond double win was a mistake like the papers said had happened. No the money was all still there, so I fished out the bond numbers from my pile of filing and the numbers were different so that's good! I found a cardboard box to keep my wool in for now so that looks tidier. I want to get one of those lidded plastic boxes with wheels to keep in the corner under my desk as it would be easy to pull out and put back when needed. Ikea have them but theirs are a bit bigger than I want.

Mel, that's a good idea to cover you nice red berries so they won't all be gone when you do your wreaths. I'm leaving pruning our variegated Holly till nearer Christmas. I like to wedge some sprigs round our house number and Robin.

Gill, if we are staying here, which is looking likely, we intend to increase security, so may well do that. It will be sooner too if we hear any more noises. I was wondering if you have any churches nearby as they often have carol services that Sandra might like if she would be happy to go to that sort of thing?

I think I'll get on with some beading now before the light goes.

Very cold here but lovely and sunny. OH finished getting his dahlias up, apparently two have rotted so a oood job he has got them done now. He has been watching rugby while I have been sorting out some very old photos of the garden (pre digital 90s), I also made one birthday card but have not really done much else. We have lamb shoulder tonight, only have it because it was reduced, bought it and froze it so hope it is ok.

Mandy nice sometimes to just have a lazy do nothing day, although you did see the family, I envy you that, seems ages since we saw ours

Annx Inara seems fine now or at least nobody has said she isn't. My cough is not too bad, occasional few minutes of coughing but not constant, worse when I lay down so shall go back in the spare bed tonight. OH doesn't seem to have caught it yet although there is still time. Hope your OH's doesn't turn into a cold. That is the trouble you can take all the precautions you can but maybe he is like mine and is not too bothered, it is worse if they mix with a lot of people too and I am sure my OH often brings cold bugs home from golf. Fortunately the last couple of times he had a cough I managed to avoid it. I like hot black currant that seems to stop a tickly cough.

Glad you retained the double win, well done.

Oh yes, hot blackcurrant sounds good too....nice and soothing. Yes mine wasn't too bothered and I'm sure thought I was fussing keeping away from him when he had colds in the past till I was ill for 6-8 weeks on a few occasions. Then once the doctor told me to come for flu jabs and a pneumonia jab, he said he would pay for flu jabs himself to help protect me. He was working full time then and had 500 staff and was travelling and visiting offices miles away so exposed to a lot of bugs. Following a footie team that had bigger attendances than the matches he goes to now didn't help either. Now he works in schools there must be even more bugs with all the children. Once we both had flu jabs we noticed we both got far less colds though and he does keep his germs to himself more now and we both use hand gel and I wipe cupboard and door handles and light switches. As you say, you can only do so much, but it seems to help. I hope you get a good night's sleep tonight without it disturbing you.

Back to a bit more filing now. I wonder who will be leaving Strictly this time?

I do filing sometimes I open the desk top and chuck it in. No I do file the important things but oh never does just leaves piles of letters and bills on the second desk in his study. I don't do his study as I get blamed if things are lost. The only thing I take out of there is empty biscuit packets and dirty coffee mugs. He has the habit of getting another out of the cupboard if he has'nt brought the other one out. I dread to think what the place would look like if I was'nt here.

I managed to finish four santa pegs today. I had to taek one apart a bit and then another one would'nt open once I had his hat on so I had to change the back of that peg. Then the beads fell off the holly leaf on his hat and I knocked an eye off one and could'nt find it on the carpet. I was going to put them up for £1.50 but I think they will be £2 now. Hav'nt started the snowmen yet.

Mel I guess you won’t be making too many more Santa pegs then.

Annx I am sure we don’t get as many colds since having the flu jab strangely We never had it at first, neither of us had ever in our lives had flu at all and very few colds. Even while working. I only ever in all my working life had five days off sick. I put our colds these days down to not mixing with people as much and travelling on buses. We do try and minimalise the risk by wearing gloves on the bus so touching handles, rails etc that mucky kids on the way to school have touched is not so much of a risk.

That's a good idea to wear gloves AnnG. I even use my little finger on lift buttons as I know I don't touch my mouth with that one and use elbows to push open doors! I had pneumonia twice as a child and that nasty Asian flu as a teenager but haven't had flu a lot otherwise. I remember dad having that Mao flu. He was so ill he couldn't feed himself and went from smoking 20-30 a day to never, ever smoking again!

Mel you did make me laugh picturing your antics with the peg Santas! Sometimes things just happen to drive us mad don't they. :-D I hope the Snowmen are kinder to you. I daren't touch OH's stuff either, but he's very tidy anyway and even newspapers he reads are neatly stacked at the side of him. He's already gone to bed looking a bit worse for wear, so I'm going now. I want to be up early if I can and get some bits for the craft class before others take the 2 parking spaces they have.

Night night x

Good idea to cover the berries Mel, that'll keep the birds off them until you're ready to use them yourself.

I hope all the coughs and colds clear up soon for you all, it must be awful if it stops you sleeping. Have you tried putting Vic on the soles of your feet, it really works and helps you breath easier. OH and I do that when we can't breath properly or have bad coughs that keep us awake. OH thought I was silly when I mentioned it to him, but gave it a try anyway and was really surprised how well it worked. It might be worth a try.....just a thought.

OH and I have just been looking outside at Sandra's lights, I can't get over how good they look and the plants we have in the planter look really good to. I never thought it would turn out as good as it has when I first thought of the idea and to think it would never of happened if next door hadn't put up a new fence so we had to take ours down, we used that fence to build the planter and everything evolved from there.

Sandra loves it and looks at it every night. I'm pleased to see the extension lead we used worked, I wasn't sure if it would with all the rain we've had, but it's holding it's own and is working perfectly. We shall use that idea again rather than paying a small fortune for the electrical cable. So long as it's waterproof where the connection is it works. So we're all very pleased with it.

I've been very busy on OH's tree today, it took me most of the day to find a marriage, it didn't help when their children had different spellings for their mother's maiden name on their birth records. I found the marriage eventually and then added the two children I found for them. The only problem I've got now is there's a 13 year gap from when they married to the first child I found for them being born and I just can't seem to find anymore children for them.

At the moment I'm sorting out the family of their son and also noticed he was only 16 when he married and his wife was 15 years old. According to the 1911 census they had 8 children 4 of which had passed away by 1911, I only have 3 children so need to try and find the other 5 now.

I'm so close to finishing OH's tree so hope I can find the rest of the people fairly quickly as I haven't done much for Christmas yet and need to get organised before the big day is here. I'd really like to finish his tree before I finish things for Christmas, but at this rate I don't think that is going to happen.

I've also got lots of sorting to do, I seem to have accumulated lots of stuff I don't really need, so desperately need to sort it all out, then I will be able to claim some of the rooms back. Good luck to everyone else with their sorting.

Morning al

Wet and windy here today, the leaves are really starting to blow off the neighbour's tree now, so it looks like we'll be raking them up again very soon. At the moment they're at the bottom of the garden so I'll just keep an eye on them and rake them up if they start blowing nearer the bungalow, we don't want them blowing down the grids.

Well after taking a look at the 1911 census last night I noticed one of OH's rellies had 8 children, with only 4 living, so I think I've found all 8 of them, 3 weren't even named, but thankfully the mother's maiden name was on their records so they're now on OH's tree, I'll pop the last 5 on today. I've worked really hard on his tree since April and can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel now. Hopefully the tree match I have will be completely copied over soon. He has a lot of mistakes though so I'm having to check every person before entering them onto OH's tree. It's taking an age to do so I'll be glad when it's finished, then I can finishing sorting out Christmas before I run out of time.

I'm hoping the weather is going to improve soon, I just need a couple of days to go Christmas shopping and buy some of the Christmas goodies to eat, so if the wind and rain give us a break I should be able to get out and about.

How are you all getting on with your Christmas preparations, it's six weeks tomorrow to the big day?

Right cuppa time then back to OH's tree, with a bit of luck it'll all be finished this week.

I hope everyone with coughs and colds had a good nights sleep and are feeling a little better today.

Morning Gill and all,

We have sunshine and showers this morning its sunny out the back and very grey out the front and its raining at the mo and there is a stiff breezey wind.

I really must find out when the craft fair is up the village if I am going to have a table there this year. I now have quite a few new bits to put on the table and some stuff to take to Torrington and then I must start on my wreaths. the weeks seem to be going so quickly this all or is it just that I am getting older?

I meant to say whenI turned the pc on this morning I had a picture come up of rainbow eucalyptus trees. They have the most amazing colours. Never seen anything like it before so google them to see many pictures.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=rainbow+eucalyptus+trees

It sounds like you have the same weather as us Mel.

Wow, what beautiful trees Mel, OH and Sandra want some now ;-) ;-) ;-) I'll have to see where we can buy them from, although I should imagine the colours would be on mature trees, but what a lovely colourful tree. I think every garden should have one :-D I hope you manage to book a table for the Christmas fair after all your hard work. I see you're making your lovely wreaths again, you are very clever with all the things you make. <3

I've just said to Sandra I'll make her a hot chocolate once her dad has been to the shop to buy some milk. OH sat on the sofa so Sandra said "Come on mum said I could have a hot chocolate" and practically pushed OH through the door. She's so funny sometimes.

It's very cold wet and windy here today, so definitely a hot chocolate day and I don't mean the 80's band lol :-D :-D :-D

I'm doing really well on OH's tree so should have the bit I'm on finished soon, then I can check the tree I'm copying for anymore people. I think there is one more section to do then it'll all be copied over. I've found another mistake on that tree though, so it's a good job I'm checking each person before putting them on OH's tree.

It sounds like my washing machine is about to finish so I'd better go and sort it out. Keep warm everyone, it's not a nice weather day today by the sounds of it.

Good afternoon. Well done gill for getting on with the tree. You will have to give yourself a deadline as to when you stop to start on Christmas.
Although I have not coughed much at all since I got up I didn't have a great night, woke up coughing almost every hour, not chesty, just annoying and tryin to sleep almost sitting up gave me neck and back ache. Never mind it is ok today and will soon go I hope.

Mel yes it might be a good idea to find out the date or you will miss it.

We have had sun all morning but chilly and It looks like rain this afternoon.

We have been busy in the kitchen we have been sorting out food cupboards. It takes two of us as I can't reach safely and OH can. Ashamed to say several packets and tins dated back to 2013, not stuff I would use out of date either. We binned a lot of stuff and I don't know whether to feel proud of the tidy cupboard or guilty at the food waste. Start again now and hope to be more careful at using things.