General Chat

I would love to see Noddy Vera.I always loved Noddy and have a little Noddy ornament I had as a very young child.Mind you I wouldn’t want a 7 foot Noddy in my front garden.They should have Big Ears too lol

Ann I just have Orchids on the house no other houseplants.I don’t think the flies are from them.We have loads of blooming spiders and cobwebs.Those spiders than spin in the web when touchedThey seem to multiply overnight :-|
When we had our dear old dog Chester he used to catch all the flies and eat them.
Thomas likes to catch moths on the lawn in the early evening.its like he does a dance to catch them by pirouetting on his back legs as he jumps up :-D

I have come up to bed now to have a read and then Watch Joanna Lumley at 9(if I’m awake) At least tomorrow it is not an early start as I don’t need to be at the hospital until 1 o clock.I would prefer it to be a bit earlier really so I could be home sooner.I may go a bit earlier as they may well be ready for me.
I have remembered to start my steroids today. Not like last time when I had to have that massive dose by I V and stayed awake nearly all blooming night.I have 4 tablets to take at breakfast in the morning and another 4 at lunch time.Then another 8 the day after the Chemo.Pne thing about them is that they do seem to improve my appetite which is good as I know I will not fancy much food for a week or so. I have to try and keep my weight stable if possible.

Did anyone watch the Drama Anthony the other night? I thought it was excellent and so moving at the end .I was in tears.It is well worth watching if you haven’t.
Night Night all.I hope everyone has a good sleep tonight.

Gill I am so pleased G got some antibiotic at the dentist and an injection will work better on the spot its needed. Hope he soon feels better.

Vera I would love to see Noddy if you can get a photo and what a thing to have in your front garden!!

I had ordered smoked salmon trimmings for oh (can't stand it myself) and they sent two steamed salmon steaks. Not sure I would like that but I may try it with a salad at lunchtime and I can always drown it in vinegar but then oh won't eat it so maybe just a little and he can have the rest. Last week I ordered cooked beef slices and corned beef they sent me two corned beef with the same date on. I ordered him taramisolata and they sent houmous, something else I shan't eat and other things that I can't remember now.

Hav'nt been in from the garden long. I climbed up on the rockery and cut the box hedge with my little trimmer then the front a bit and then round the other side after charging it up again. I hav'nt been in long about 10 mins and I think oh will want soemthing to eat so its pizza and chips tonight.

Frank hope you find more books you like on ebay. What did Ros spend her money on today?

Hope you get on ok with your chemo tomorrow Jane and the time passes quickly for you. They won't recognise you with your new haircut. We are always thinking of you. <3

I have just finished watching the repeat of Broadchurch. I had forgotten what an excellent series it was and there were lots of bits I didn’t remember. Great cast and lovely scenery.

Jane here the flies hatched in an orchid! Or rather in the soil.

Vera oh do grab a photo, wonder why they have such a big model of Noddy, bet the children love him.

Mel you have Been busy, like the others I have only had a couple of subs with Tesco.

Jane hope all goes well tomorrow shall be thinking of you. If the weather is hot you may be grateful for the cold cap. <3 <3

I keep meaning to tell you that the swallows hatched their eggs in oh's filter shed. Not sure how many there are though, at least two and they made the nest 2 inches deeper.

I had a lovely butterfly in the shed today. Must look it up and see what it is. Also one o f those green and red metalic beetles.

Frank that painter is like a photo copier on a bigger scale and on rails. I wonder how long it takes to do one of those pictures as it is really speeded up.

This large and powerful butterfly is one of our most widespread fritillaries and can be seen flying rapidly in a range of open sunny habitats. The males look similar to the High Brown Fritillary, which is far rarer but sometimes flies with them on bracken-covered hillsides. The two can be distinguished from the underwing markings, visible when they are feeding on flowers such as thistles.

The Dark Green Fritillary has declined in parts of central and eastern England but remains locally abundant in western England, around the coast of Wales and in Scotland.
Size and Family

Family: Fritillaries
Size: Large
Wing Span Range (male to female): 63-69mm

Conservation Status

Butterfly Conservation priority: Medium (but a regional priority in several England regions)
European status: Not threatened

Caterpillar Foodplants

Common Dog-violet (Viola riviniana) is used in many habitats, but Hairy Violet (V. hirta) is also used on calcareous grasslands, and Marsh Violet (V. palustris) on moorland and wetter habitats in the north and west. Other violets may be used occasionally.
Lifecycle

Habitat

Occurs in a range of flower-rich grasslands often with patches of scrub, including coastal grassland, dunes and scrub; chalk and limestone grassland; moorland and wet flushes; acid grassland with bracken; and occasionally woodland rides and clearings.
Distribution

Countries: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland
Throughout Britain, but in discrete areas. Rarer in the east and in Ireland.
Distribution Trend Since 1970’s = Britain: -33%

Morning all
Nice pics Mel you will soon be having those toms :-D
Cloudy here this morning but really warm.
Mind you I am hot after having a bath cleaning the shower and getting bath mats in the machine.So I am going to sit and cool off now.
I have to have a really early lunch today which I don’t like but can’t take food with me to the hospital as it is difficult to eat anything with that cold cap and big chin strap on
Plus my mask too :-S I have a drink with a straw to take as o should be able to poke that I some gap.

I meant to say Anng I am glad your appointment went ok at the hospital and that you don’t have to have anything done just yet a while.

Chris has just dug the first of the Charlotte potatoes and boy they do look good.Hope they taste as good as they look.I think sauté potatoes are on the cards soon as Charlottes make good sautés.
I think we shall be giving some away as there are loads just off 2 plants and there are lots more to come.
Coffee time now

Pots sound good Jane enjoy them could have it temoved sooner but ee arr going to Lyndas

Morning Jane, morning all

Sunny here today but it’s not that warm yet. I had to wear a light jacket when we went out.

Lovely pics Mel. I’ll have to look that butterfly up in my butterfly book.but it sounds as though it’s quite rare in this area.

Jane, my mouth is watering at the thought of those potatoes. I like Charlottes anyway but newly dug ones will be yummy. It’ll be a Tesco ready meal for us tonight as I’ve got a delivery this afternoon so I ordered one of their £10 meal deals for convenience.

We went to Pets At Home this morning as I wanted one of their big packs of sunflower hearts for the birds. I plucked up my courage and went in on my own and it was fine. All the customers and the staff had face masks and were keeping their distance. Then we went to the chemist to pick up my meds and it was a bit different there. They were only allowing 2 customers in the shop at one time but they’ve relaxed that and there were 4 lady customers but only 2 of us had masks. I wouldn’t want to pre-judge as I know some people have medical reasons not to wear a mask but 2 out of 4 people seems a high proportion to me.

I’m now going to potter about for a while, then shower and have lunch and then clear the decks for the wipe down. I spoke too soon about it being sunny. While I have been typing it’s come over very grey :-(

Thanks for the photos Mel, your toms look about like ours just about to go! We had a small picking of runners last night which were delicious. We usually get all our fruit, veg and meat from a farm shop, but growing what we can ourselves is super nice! Before we came here, we had a large garden and grew all our own veg including potatoes, new and main crop! Tbh, I'm glad not to have it anymore, I think it would be just too much for us now!
Quite sunny here so not quite sure what today will bring!!
Jane, good luck with the chemo, I hope the cap works and that you don't feel too done in afterwards.

Good morning all,

First A BIG MOAN. We had a BED/CHAIR in the conservatory, that Lewis liked to sleep on as a child, and I used to watch my football. A couple of weeks ago Ros and Martine had a blitz on the conservatory. They cleaned the bed chair and covered it, and put it in the garage. I rang the HEART FOUNDATION, and asked if they would like it. It has a fire certificate, and they arranged to collect it this morning. When the driver arrived, he looked at it and said to Ros "too old fashioned and far to big." Ros said WELL IT IS A CHAIR BED.So they didn't take it HOW ungrateful can a CHARITY SHOP GET. That's the last thing I will be offering them. !!!

Very cloudy here at present. It certainly looks like we will get rain, which is a bit of a blow, as I was going to try to mow my lawns. So it might be telling me something.

Ros is stand ironing two washes, so theres quite a bit to do. It will keep her out of mischief for a while. lol lol

Shopping was mainly bits for the cupboard, but I did notice TWO TOPS and a sun DRESS.

Jane I hope your chemo goes allreight today. I'm the same after a shower, wetter when I come out, than when I am in there.

What are you all up to today, ?? When I have posted this I will be reading my book. I will get a sarnie a bit later with a coffee. Ros is doing a Lasagne for tonight. So no cooking for me.

I spoke to Simon this morning, All good with them. He is 55 and has a chance of early retirement, but realises that he still has 22 years before getting his OAPension. I said, whet on earth will you do with yourself, stuck in doors day after day. He agreed and said he would need to do something to keep him occupied. With Sally only being 50, she has a long way to go, before she can consider retirement. These youngsters, !!!

I see the ironing pile is going down, so I will see if Ros wants a drink. See you later. BE GOOD. !!!xxxx

Love the butterfly photo Mel, we have had one of those in our garden in previous years but not this year so far.

Jane I could just eat some of those potatoes with our salmon ssalad tonight, throw a few over please :-D :-D Hope the chemo goes well and all runs to time so you are not too late home.

Vera, I suppose, being a pharmacy, there is more chance of people being in there with hidden disabilities. enjoy the wipe down.

we did an in between shop this morning so still had a wipe down session, mainly meat and veg, not forgetting the tonic!! all well in Tesco, not that busy - it is onlt a Tesco Metro but is reasonably well used. Everyone wearing masks and stayin fairly distant. Had a long chat with the lady on the till and I don't know if OH has any idea but I have not got a clue what she was talking about behind her mask!! I just nodded and looked as if i knew.

After the shop we went to the golf club and had coffee sitting outside where there were only a couple of others and the tables are well spread out. OH needed to pay for his next block of points. Those will last until the winter now.

Frank, I like ros's style, strange how those tops etc fell into the basket with the food. Unfortunately the Tesco we are using at the moment don't have any clothes, except socks! :-( :-( :-(

Afternoon all,

Not a bad day here today and oh is out mowing. He let me lie in this morning but I lost most of the morning only waking up at 12.10pm so nothing done this morning except read your emails and now its time to get the lunch!!

Hope Jane gets on ok with her cold cap today with the shorter hair and that its over quite quickly for her. Lovely pic of her Charlotte potatoes. They are one of our favorite too and we alway grew a lot of those when we had the BIG veg garden. Its all overgrown with trees now as niether of us is up to doing it anymore with both having heart truoble.

Heard from Island today and she has woken up with a ceased up hand so no crafting going on there today as she will be resting it.

Frank those duckling with the cat were just lovely. When I had the pet hsop I had a duck which came with the shop. I called it Sir Frances Drake, its name was Frances, and he lived in the big rabbit runs and thought he was a rabbit! Some times I woud put him on the fish tanks before I cleaned them out and he would have a lovely time diving and shaking his wings and splashing about. He always had a cat litter tray in the run filed with water eash day so he could bathe. He was an Appleyard duck a breed that nearly went but was saved by one of our customers at that time and he bred them and brought the breed back. I am taking about more than 27 years ago.

Well I better get myself into gear and prepare soemthing to eat for oh and take my pills so will be back later on.

Afternoon all,

Nice and sunny here now after a cloudy start ,the family came this morning so we had a lovely chat, the girls had a skipping rope so they played and Lewis was happy just watching ,he had his first tooth come out yesterday so the tooth fairy had been and left a pound :-D

Thanks for all the lovely photos ,AnnG nice toms and cues ,we've been getting lots of the small toms the bigger ones are just beginning to turn and we've had so many cues I picked another four big ones so DIL took two home again ,the children love them .
There are still more I can pick so I've bought a marrow and a cauliflower and will make some Piccalilli.

Jane the spuds look really good you can't beat home grown for the taste ,hope all goes well with your chemo session and the old cold cap at least this time you will know what to expect with it .

Mel that's a pretty Butterfly and the bettle too,your toms are turning I see won't be long before you can try one .

Frank I think the charity shops have so much stuff that people have cleared out over the lock down that they just can't take it all such a shame when there's nothing wrong with it though and some one some where is crying out for one .

Ann the postcard picture is lovely and I think it's a lovely idea to sell them to make some money for charity .

Gill I hope OH is feeling better after being given the injections by the dentist ,pity she didn't give him them sooner so he didn't have to put up with all that pain.

Vera I'm longing to see this Noddy :-D :-D

A!ways good to see the family Mandy. Ours live a bit away so we don't see an awful
lot of them especially as they are all grown up! The eldest is 23, the youngest 13!
Our daughter lives about 60 miles away, and our son roughly 30, so it's always a bit of an expedition!! Two are at University, one at sixth form college doing A'levels the youngest at school. Luckily they are all pretty bright which has been a bonus during lockdown!
Funny old day, cloudy one minute, hot and sunny the next. Cuppa tea outside I think!

Lovely day here today. I have just made a blackberry and apple crumble. The last one I made was good (I have not mad any before that one. This one smells nice but the crumble seems to be soft. OH will eat it and give his verdict later but I wondered if anyone has a fail safe recipe. Although I don't suppose they vary much. (I didn't cook them before because OH always said he didn't like crumble. Then he had a couple elsewhere and this then 81 year old changed his mind. Never too late I suppose.

I was cross because I had a letter from the hospital with a date for early September - having agreed with the doctor that it should be in October. Anyway OH rang them and I now have the 1st October.

Afternoon all, The day turned out completely different to what I expected. Bright sunny day, with a nice breeze.

I didn't get round to doing the lawns due to the fact I have spent most of the day with my "WHITE FRIEND" Without going into the gory details, I took a light laxative last night. It worked at 3.00 am this morning and continued through the day.So I have been reading my book most of the day, I have just ordered FOUR MORE books.

One of Ros's tops has a splattering of something all down the front. She has tried everything to get it out, without any luck, so that's gone in the bin.

FG our children. Mine and Ros's are quite away from us also. My Simon is close on 20 miles away, Harvey Ros's eldest is close to 30 miles away and Conrad the youngest is mainly in SAN PEDRO Spain. He comes home to DEVON a couple of times during the year and for a week or so at Christmas. We go down there every Christmas to spend with him and Jan his partner. My eldest daughter, could be anywhere, I haven't had words with her in over 20 years, also her three boys, Now men, and I believe might be married, with children. She just decided to cut me out of her life, which I find very upsetting at times.

Mel, like you we have lots of toms coming along. I was down the greenhouse yesterday and picked what I thought were ripe toms, where in fact Ros tells me a lot are still green. My colour blind again. lol lol

What a nice evening it is outside.I have been sitting out for an hour or so, to get a bit of fresh air.

I hope I will feel like F & Cs, when he comes round about 6.30/7,00 pm. I've only had coffee and tea all day,so I need something solid in me.

AnnG, Well after all the towing and throwing, you have an appointment at the hospital, I hope everything goes well.

How did your Chemo go today Jane. ?? I hope you don't suffer too much from it. I really do feel for you. xxx Your spuds look great. I miss my allotment, but after my stroke, had no option but to give it up. Nothing quite like fresh veg just picked and cooked.

I spoke with Harvey this afternoon. He will get my CREDIT CARD from Lewis and bring it up to me on Saturday afternoon, and will pick up the BED CHAIR and take it to the tip for me. Martine has offered, but can't do it for a couple of weeks as they are going to the Caravan tomorrow, and won't be back until Sunday Week. Alright for some. lol It seems a shame to throw it away, but we no longer need it, and it's just taking up space in the garage. In fact I must look on the local notice board, as I offered it FOC to anyone who wanted to collect it.

Have a pleasant evening, whatever you might be doing. See you in the morning. xxx

We were the same with our garden Frank , we got to the point that we just couldn't manage it anymore + the house was far to big for us! Mr Fg had a spell of bad health a few years ago, so we made the decision then to move into the town with virtually no garden, and here we are!! We don't regret it for a moment. A bit far from our daughter but she's always out and about busying (as we say!) and doesn't mind the drive! The Park opposite us is lovely with many bushes,trees and flowers and a big grassy area, all looked after by somebody else!!! Sorry about your daughter, My SIL is estranged from her daughter who now lives in Australia, (she told her mother briefly after the move!!!) and hasn't seen or heard from her for years. She's also got four children who none of us have seen! It's very sad and upsets my SIL a lot. :-(
Macaroni Cheese for supper tonight,easy,and not too much clearing up!
Hope your tum feel a better soon.

Fg, we did much the same as you. We had a large garden that was getting a bit much for us. Our health isn't bad for our age but it was becoming a bit of a chore and being in a tiny hamlet we had no facilities and had to drive to everything. So we decided to move to town and downsize. We did downsize the garden and just have a very small one now but the house is only fractionally smaller than the one we had. I do still miss my veg patch - there's nothing quite like fresh picked veg is there? Btw, your mention of Middlemarch got me reading it again. All I can say is my brain must have been a lot more active 60 years ago when I did it at school. I can only read a chapter or two at a time now and I am finding that quite hard going at times, but I will persevere.

I hope your tum has settled down now Frank. I seem to have an email from you headed Fabulous Photos but there is nothing there, so I don't know quite what has happened.

I hope everything went well with you today Jane.

I'm glad you got your hospital appointment sorted out AnnG. Will you be at your daughter's in September? I can't remember what you said. I am wondering whether to invite ourselves to our son's a bit later in the year. They always say that we are always welcome to go when we want but we don't usually impose. It would be nice to have a little break to look forward to.

I seemed to take ages with the wiping down today and was shattered when I had finished. Only one sub and it was just a different brand to the one ordered, Cathedral City instead of Pilgrims Choice, but it was the right product (mature cheddar) and the right size piece so I was happy with that.

Before Tesco came this afternoon I went for a walk and went round the "Noddy" road to see if I could get a photo. Unfortunately, there were people around the house and I could hardly walk into their garden and also 2 cars had been parked on the grass immediately in front of him. However, I got a photo of his head from a distance as I was walking up the road and when I got back I zoomed in on that photo to get more of a close up. The trouble is that the picture lost all definition so it's a bit blurry. I'll send them round later tonight. It will give you an idea of what I am talking about though it's a shame I couldn't get the whole figure. You are all such good photographers that I am a bit ashamed to send it but taking it on a mobile phone with dodgy eyes and shaky hands doesn't make for a good photo.

As he is no longer so vulnerable and tomorrow is supposed to be good weather so we can sit at a distance in the garden, we are going to visit my brother. Although we phone and email all the time I haven't seen him for nearly 5 months so I am looking forward to the trip. He's 6 years younger than me but we are very close. He can at last have his birthday present which we had planned to take down just before his birthday in April.

I'd better go and get our ready meal in the oven or OH will think he's not going to get fed tonight.

EDIT: Forgot to say I love the cat and ducklings video Frank and that's a smashing little painting Ann. I hope the postcard paintings sell well and make plenty of money for charity.

Frank sorry to hear you've been visiting your white friend again today. Hope the tum settles down so you can enjoy your F & C's.

Vera it will be lovely to see your brother after all these monthsbut he will enjoy his present having waited so long for it and its nicce to get presents when its not your birthday.

I like both Pilgrims Choiice and Cathedral City mature cheddar and I never mind if it one or the other.

FG we had a huge veg garden years ago and used to sell the produce on a barrow outside in the village hall car park. Both of us have had heart trouble so it has been left to go wild. Its now full of self sown trees. I used the tunnel till it blew away in a gale.

Crumble was very nice so that S Ok.

Frank I had the email but nothing with it. Hope you recovered to eat your meal OK..

Vera I opened two photos and appeared to have two moe items that wouldn’t open. Noddy is a cheeky chippy. Maybe you can get more of him another day.

I am always exhausted after wiping down. Wish we knew if it does any good.

We are going to daughters for two weeks all being well, at the end of August, in September we are still booked in to our usual self catering cottage in Dorset.