General Chat

Island what are you arty crafting today?

Oh my goodness Gill, what a story, talk about a lucky escape!! I have found a poor soul who had a illegitimate child at 19, married someone else at 22 and had two more sons,and after a pretty hard life ended her days in the Workhouse! I felt really sad for her! I've walls found a cousin who emigrated to Canda. Two younger children + wife died soon after arrival, the cousin and remaining daughter went on to America, I know where and although I looked at American archives and originally found them, I think they eventually moved on as I've now lost track of them!!! Think I've hit brick wall!!
Hope your OH gets a good result tomorrow.

What a miserable day today. It poured half the night and most of the morning and the rest of the day has been grey skies and showers. Not a day for gardening or for ripening up my green tomatoes which are showing no sign of changing colour.

Jane, I am so sorry to hear that you have been in pain. I hope it turns out to be a minor problem. Just keep looking forward and concentrating on that December baby. Sending you love and hugs.

I’m glad your hospital appointment went well AnnG and pleased that the Covid tests for little Lewis and his Mum came back clear Mandy.

Island, you will have to send us pictures of the things you make. I would love to see them and I am sure others would too. I so admire anyone who is “Arty-Crafty” as I am not. I’d be an ideal candidate for a Mr Men/Little Miss book. It would be called Little Miss Fumble-Fingers,lol. I did used to do a bit of knitting and sewing many moons ago and made a lot of clothes for myself and my daughter but that was mainly because we didn’t have much money then.

I hope you’re not getting a cold Frank. “Listen With Mother” – that brought back some memories. I particularly remember Daphne Oxenford and her slightly plummy voice. I loved the programme because I sometimes managed to keep my hyperactive son still for 10 minutes while it was on.

Isn’t it frustrating when you lose a post Ann. That’s why I generally do mine in Word and then C&P. The downside is I can’t add emoticons.

I’m pleased you found your battery Mel. It’s wonderful how these things turn up but some things seem to get sucked into a black hole and disappear for ever. When we moved here nearly 7 years ago we had 9 everyday tumblers in a kitchen cupboard. Suddenly one day there were only 8. Now there are only 7 but we haven’t broken any so where have they gone? If the fairies have taken them I wish they’d bring them back!

Like you FG I am not interested in collecting numbers for the family tree, though after years of research by my brother and myself, we have got a lot of people on a number of different trees. What really interests us is the history of their lives and the times they lived in. When you delve into them there are quite a few stories there – some sad, some funny, some impressive. One story my brother and I learnt “at our mother’s knee” was that someone in the family had been an entertainer and died on the stage. For years we had sort of assumed that he/she was a music hall artiste but he turned out to be earlier, b. 1801 and he was our several times gt. Grandfather. He was apparently pretty well known in his day. He didn’t die on stage but collapsed shortly after coming off stage in Dublin. He was carried to his lodgings and a doctor was called. The doctor bled him and he died shortly after. Later when “bleeding” had gone out of fashion, a learned doctor wrote that he would probably have lived if he hadn’t been bled. One of the best finds we came across when researching him was a letter he had written to Joseph Grimaldi, the celebrated clown. The original is in the archives at Harvard but I emailed them explaining the connection and our research and they kindly emailed me a copy of the letter.

Our new computer came today. OH hasn’t set it up yet so I am desperately making sure I have back-ups of all the stuff that is important for me, mainly all my family history stuff. I also want to go through all the addresses on our contact list and make sure I have them in a paper address book. Last time we had a new computer – some years ago – OH was short on time so we let PC world transfer programmes from the old to the new. They managed to lose all our emails, including all my saved ones to do with FH, all my family trees, all our contacts and much more. I had all the information from my trees on a back-up USB but I had to reinstall my Family Historian programme and it took me hours and hours of going through files before I managed to find the code to do this. I know I will have to reinstall it again this time round but at least I now have a note of the code in three different places so I should be able to do it quite quickly. Needless to say, PC World aren’t being let anywhere near the computer.

You will see from the length of this that I am getting myself back to normal. I am still hardly sleeping and am still having to force myself to go out but I am getting there. Early yesterday morning a friend rang and suggested that we met her and her OH and had a stroll by the river together and then had a drink at the outside tables of a pub near our homes. I was a bit nervous but went. We met at 11 am and had a gentle stroll by the river and then got to the pub when it opened at 12. I was fine at first. As it was early we were the first there and could pick our table. Our two husbands both put on masks to go in and get drinks and my friend and I had both taken hand gel with us. However soon after 12.30 other people started to arrive and none of the customers seemed to be bothering with face coverings and I started to feel quite twitchy so we left soon after. However it was a pleasant time spent with friends and I was glad I made myself go.

Well, I hope we all have a good night tonight. Sweet dreams everyone.

A lot of ancestor's unfortunately ended their days in the workhouse back then, like you said it's very sad FG. There are one or two in my tree to and I expect in lots of others. Some of my ancestors went to America and Canada which is why I've hit brick walls with them. Let's hope we can knock the walls down on both our trees soon.
Yes, I'm hoping the dentist finally gives OH some antibiotics tomorrow.

I'm the same as you AnnG where painting is concerned. I'm a bit of a wannabe to. :-D

So you've found the battery now Mel, that's good and you sorted the socks out as well......bonus. Now you can sort the garden when the weather brightened up. They say it's going to be quite nice over the weekend with high temperatures. The sun has finally come out here but it's very windy and cold. I hope your begonias give you a nice show, now they've been potted on.

I was thinking the same as you Island, it doesn't feel like July at all. At least we have the nice weather to look forward to soon. Yes, what were you arty crafting?

Afternoon All,

It was raining nearly all day here and quite windy too with a couple of heavy hailstorms. I was up in time for the zoom session on 'Art for the Terrified' and found it to be very useful as she went through all the materials and how you could use them etc. I am also booked on her watercolour session tomorrow, another first for me.

Frank what a storm it was near you. It's lucky it didn't reach you.

Mel you have got far more done than me today. I wonder what you decided to eat in the end?

That's a good tip Island, but the cursor pad seems to be disabled when you use a wireless mouse instead which is what I do as I can't stand the slowness of the cursor pad. I think it may be the CTRL key I must catch somehow? Well after I got further down this post I lost it again......BUT I got it back again this time!! It's worth trying if anyone else loses their post in future. All you need to do is put the cursor in the empty reply box, right click your mouse and at the top of the menu that pops up is 'UNDO.' Click on that and your disappeared post reappears!!

FG from a survey for National Smile Month done only a year ago, 'Younger adults are nearly twice as willing to share their toothbrush (55%) compared to their parents.' I would have thought younger people would have been more health conscious! I worked with a few people in the 80s that shared toothbrushes and towels with their spouses. As you say 'Yuk!'.

That is exciting news for you Jane and I expect H & G feel much happier now the scan is over. I hope the blood test results are good and nothing to worry about.

Early rising tomorrow again to see if the window cleaner turns up. A skip arrived over the road at an ungodly hour this morning and judging by what is sticking out of it, it looks like they are having a new kitchen!

The new shredder is here already and decontaminating in the porch. I've been painting this afternoon after lunch but it isn't going too well at the moment! OH got snapped at for banging boxes around and making noise when I was trying to concentrate and when I walked out of the study he'd made and stuck a 'Do not Disturb' notice on the door! lol. My eyes need a rest I think and I'll try again tomorrow.

Gill I watched all of Bob Ross's series a few years ago and he was another reason I got interested in starting painting, although he paints in oils. He was a lovely gentle soul and died far too young. I have watched some of the recent repeats again and he makes it look so easy doesn't he! :-)

Glad it all went well for you at the hospital AnnG and that your OH was able to go in with you.

Mel, so much for arty craftiness! I need to social distance myself from the sofa and the laptop LOL not entirely wasted time, I got hooked on a genealogy trail. It's hard to put it down when there's new stuff to find.
I did find my way to my craft room though and did some 'urgent' tidying. I have a lot of 'experiments' which I think I'll cut into squares and embellish with bits and bobs. Just for fun and inspiration.

Annx I couldn't disable the cursor pad on my previous laptop and the wireless mouse didn't disable it. The same goes for my present laptop re the wireless mouse but I have yet to look into disabling it - I've only had it since January LOL

must fly >>>>>>

Good morning
It looks a nice bright day but I haven’t ventured outside yet. Is anyone doing anything interesting today? We have no particular plans so it’s just seeing what the day brings. Enjoy whatever you do.

Good morning all, grey here, looks like rain is on its way. We are probably going to a garden centre OH needs something he says, actually I think he has a list.

Morning Vera and Anng and all,

Still windy here and grey sky but dry and we have had a bit of sun. I just hope it dos'nt rain today so oh can get on with painting his workshop.

Just tidying as its the big wipe down soon. I have todo all the work surfaces so I have a clear space.

Lots of subs today too some of which I am not pleased about but oh says they are alright so he can eat them. I'll have eggs with my chips and he can have the veg pizza as I don't eat peppers and there is bound to be those on it.

You two girls did'nt say how you slept last night? I hope you got some nice rest. I slept like a log.

I am hoping if it stays dry to get out in the garden this afternoon.

Hope T finds all the things on his list Anng.

Morning All,

I slept like a log too and my alarm didn't go off so it was a rush to be showered in time for the watercolour class on zoom. It was excellent and explained so much about the basics I might order a few supplies to try it now! This was a free session but she is doing a paid for, several weeks course in September that I may enrol for.

Island, I just checked my cursor pad again and it isn't fully disabled after all. I had only tried tapping it (which is disabled), but it seems to do things if I swipe!! lol. So I might be losing my posts from catching it. I am so excited at being able to get them back now though!

Good luck with the wipe down Mel. I think we are getting more subs with Asda now than we did at the start.

I think I will get some poached eggs on toast next and we can have lunch a bit later. I have some cooking apples still to use from a neighbour so will see if I can do an apple crumble. I haven't made one for over 20 years so the recipe book will be coming out!! :-D

I'll get OH to find the chippings for the steps later and finish that if I can and there's lettuce to repot and washing to do as well. Still no window cleaner.

Morning All
It is quite a nice morning here and warm too.Washing nearly ready to hang out.
I slept well too last night after taking a stronger painkiller.I don’t really want to take too many of them though as they will make me constipated :-S

Sorry you seem to be getting lots of subs from Asda.We are lucky with Tesco and hardly get any.They are very good.I think we might go down to a fortnightly order as Chris now goes to Waitrose once a week.He is just back now and is unpacking.He keeps coming in to me to show me what he has bought!

Nothing planned here either today other than my telephone consultation about 2.30.I think it will be with the Registrar rather than the Consultant which will be a waste of time as I think she is pretty useless.I really just want my blood results from yesterday which will show if I am ok to have my Chemo tomorrow.

Washing ready to go out now.

Why is it that men (in this house anyway) never think to wash the butter dish and just plonk a new one in :-| :-|

Good morning to all you lovelies. lol lol

CONGRATULATIONS to Hannah and Gareth. I might be lucky and have him born on my Birthday. Have they got any names lined up yet Jane. ??

Not a great nights sleep. Ros said I kept waking her up with my coughing. I didn't know I was coughing, So it must have been in my sleep.

Ros has been down to water the greenhouse, and says there are lots of ripe Toms, ready for picking, so I will go and do that little job. She couldn't pick them herself, as her hands were full of weeds.

I made Sheep S@@@ pie yesterday afternoon, while madam was at the hairdressers, I made one for Valerie also, which Ros has taken down to her. So we will have ours tonight. I minced the beef that was over from Sunday. There was loads of it. In fact there is still enough for Ros to do a Lasagne , which we can have Thursday. As tomorrow is F & C night. I also have a nice piece of leg of pork, that Madam bought yesterday, and I haven't any room in either of the freezers to put it. So that's in the fridge. I hope it will be O.K. for Sunday.

Very overcast here, the clouds look full of rain. Ros has gone shopping (Not that we need anything) with Carolyn. I expect they will have a good nosey round the various shops and garden centres. She is bound to find something to buy. !!! She always does.lol lol

I'm going to get on my Ebay, and find some more books to read, I am down to my last two. I pass them on to Harvey, when I am finished with them. Then I believe they go to the Charity shop in Toddington.

I hope you all have a lovely afternoon, doing whatever you are doing. See you soon. xxxx

Good morning to all you lovelies. lol lol

CONGRATULATIONS to Hannah and Gareth. I might be lucky and have him born on my Birthday. Have they got any names lined up yet Jane. ??

Not a great nights sleep. Ros said I kept waking her up with my coughing. I didn't know I was coughing, So it must have been in my sleep.

Ros has been down to water the greenhouse, and says there are lots of ripe Toms, ready for picking, so I will go and do that little job. She couldn't pick them herself, as her hands were full of weeds.

I made Sheep S@@@ pie yesterday afternoon, while madam was at the hairdressers, I made one for Valerie also, which Ros has taken down to her. So we will have ours tonight. I minced the beef that was over from Sunday. There was loads of it. In fact there is still enough for Ros to do a Lasagne , which we can have Thursday. As tomorrow is F & C night. I also have a nice piece of leg of pork, that Madam bought yesterday, and I haven't any room in either of the freezers to put it. So that's in the fridge. I hope it will be O.K. for Sunday.

Very overcast here, the clouds look full of rain. Ros has gone shopping (Not that we need anything) with Carolyn. I expect they will have a good nosey round the various shops and garden centres. She is bound to find something to buy. !!! She always does.lol lol

I'm going to get on my Ebay, and find some more books to read, I am down to my last two. I pass them on to Harvey, when I am finished with them. Then I believe they go to the Charity shop in Toddington.

I hope you all have a lovely afternoon, doing whatever you are doing. See you soon. xxxx

Good afternoon Back from the garden centre which is one of the ones with a well organised coffee shop so we had coffee and shared a toasted tea cake.

Mel, sorry, meant to say that I had a very good nights sleep last night.

T got all the bits he wanted plus some netting to use over the Greenhouse windows. So he spent £30 of his birthday vouchers. We also got a rather nice dahlia that he wants to put by the steps outside the conservatory. I am not sure there is room but he is the dahlia expert. We also bought a Cornish pasty to share for lunch. It was a good trip out and everyone was well masked in the shop.

Jane hope your phone consultation goes well. What is it about registrars (I am sure there must be some good ones). I had an op about 10 years ago to remove two basal cell carcinomas on my front about2 inches under my breast. This had to be done in day surgery as because they were almost joined it was quite a big op (In fact I was kept in overnight). My consultants registrar did the op (I don't know if it was under supervision) But when I came round there was a bit of a panic as they had lost a tiny piece of metal that was part of something so I had been taken for Xray while asleep to check it was not inside me (it wasn't as far as I know). And my sister who has secondary breast cancer in her lungs, when she went for a consultation it was the registrar and and she found out afterwards that she had been given all sorts of wrong information. So much so that she refuses to see the registrar now. anyway hope the blood test says it is ok for the chemo.

Annx pleased that you managed to get to see the painting video. I bet you now produce a masterpiece.
Glad you had a good night as well. Did you make the crumble?

Vera, so good to see one of your long posts yesterday, hope that it is now onwards and upwards for you.

Frank, did you find any good books on Ebay? And did Ros come back with a full shopping bag?

Islad have you managed to be crafty today? I am procrastinating a bit at the moment, finding all sorts of reasons why I am not starting on painting or even making cards.

Just a quickie to let you know OH is back from the dentist, he gave him two antibiotic injections which are slow release and will see him again next week. If the injections don't work he'll give him antibiotic tablets then.

I hope all goes well for you Jane and you can have your Chemo.

I haven't caught up with all the posts, so hope everyone is okay. I'll try and catch up with them tomorrow.

Hope the antibiotics work for him Gill.

Quiet afternoon on here today.

Oh good Gill, that's a relief. I'm sure they will do th trick and your OH should feel a lot more comfortable.
Got MrFg's pills, so that's a good job done for another month! Apart from hoovering and bit of dusting it's been a lazy day!
I do hope your phone call went well Jane and that your chemo session can go ahead.
I must admit, MrFg is ok over butter dishes, but other things such as looking in the freezer for whatever, he is bordering on dim! 'It's not there ,' or 'there's only one loaf' until..... you/me move something, then low and behold, there's what you want staring you in the face!!!,? Why is it they can't look properly!!!!grrrrrr! :-| :-|

Oh Gill OH is going to feel so much better very soon now he has had some antibiotics.He should have had them before really.
My phone call with the Registrar went fine.When I saw her 3 weeks ago she was going to book my next scan but as I thought she hadn’t done it!! So she said she would do it right then.I should have the scan in a couple of weeks time.

It has turned really dull and cloudy now and quite breezy.At least the washing is dry.

Frank no baby names yet.I think they might have a couple in mind but are keeping it under their hats for now. I bet Ros is relieved to have finally had her hair done at long last.

Not sure what to have to eat.I had 4 Duck Croquettes at lunch time which went down well and I still feel full. I never eat Duck either but this was like shredded and nice and soft .So they will be on the next M&S list :-D

I might just have some porrage.I seem to have a lot of that .
So tomorrow it is Chemo and cold cap again.At least with my hair shorter it will be easier for the nurses to shove it in the cap.I dread the first 15 minutes as my head freezes as it is really quite painful.I will have my crossword pad and Kindle to take my mind off it.

We keep getting lots of blow flies in the lounge
Bit have no idea where they are coming from.
Horrible things.I can see one now on the curtain by the patio door so will see if I can shoo it out.

Jane have you got any plants in the lounge? When we had a plague of flies in the kitchen one year we found they were coming out of a pot plant presumable where a fly had laid eggs. Eighteen they are nasty aren’t they? Or are they coming in from outside through the door?

It’s good your chemo can go ahead Jane. I hope the side effects aren’t too bad this time. I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow <3

Your OH will start feeling better now he’s had some antibiotics Gill. I wonder why the dentist didn’t do something to help him earlier.

Sorry that you had several subs with your delivery Mel. I have heard other people say that they get quite a lot of subs with Asda. Like Jane, we hardly get any with Tesco.. i’ve been having a delivery every 10-14 days but I’d like to gradually extend that and shop for my veg and one or two other bits myself, so I’ve got a delivery tomorrow and I’ve booked the next one 17 days after that.

Frank, thanks for the latest video. That painting machine is an amazing bit of kit. There won’t be anything for people to do soon, everything will be computerised.

I’ve just remembered something I meant to tell you. When I go out for a little walk I’ve stayed local but explored various side roads etc that I don’t usually go down. I was walking down one the other day and just stopped dead as I rounded a bend. Now I know some people like garden gnomes but this was a bit extreme. I found myself facing a huge model of Noddy :-S. When I say huge........well, it must have been 7’ tall. It’s colours were well faded so I imagine it had been there a while. I couldn’t stop laughing. If I am up that way again I’ll try to get a photo.

OH has just said dinner’s ready. He has done it tonight, just cold beef, chips and beans so I’ll go and eat now.