General Chat

ZZzzz thats interesting. My mum was the oldest of three her name was Biddy and when her friends called for her they would say "Is Bid coming out to p[lay?" It annoyed my nan so much that she called her second child Roy thinking they could'nt shorten that. The third child she called Joy thinking the sdame as before but she could'nt win as when her friends called for her they said "Can Joycey come out to play?" so they lengthened it instead which annoyed nan even more.

My Mum didn't like our names shortened either and reminded OH several times that Gwyn was a boy's name.
I am therefore known by different names to relatives and friends and it becomes interesting at Christmas remembering how to sign cards.
My 2 nephews still sometimes call me by the name they used as children, when they found my name difficult to say. My sister and I still sometimes refer to them as 'the boys' even though they are well over 40 !

Like ZZzzz I wouldn't call anyone by their shortened name unless invited to do so.

I've always been called by my shortened name, so have got used to it now. I'm only called by my full name if I'm in trouble ;-) ;-)

OH's had to go to the doctors himself as they would't post a sick note to him or sort out his meds, they said he had to fill out a form for his meds and pick his own sick note up, so he was left with no choice but to drive. I couldn't believe how unhelpful they were.

I'm plodding through all the washing at the moment but I have to put it all in the drier as I don't have a washing line. It's very annoying especially with the weather being so sunny today. Even if I did have a pole and the concrete to put it in the ground with all the hedge rubbish still there and the pot plants I brought from our old place, there's no room to put a line up anyway.

My drier's just stopped so I'd better go and put the next load in.

I usually get called Mel or Melly by oh even mum called me Mel. When I went bell ringing they sometimes called me Melly or the man called me Mel.I don't often get called Melanie. Mum go tthe name from reading Gone With The Wind as she thought the character was a nice person and she had only chosen a boys name of Stephen but when the nurse asked her what was she going to call her little girl she just said Melanie. There were two Melanie's when I went to secondry school Myself and Melanie Cats.

Yesterday while out in the garden I had a lovely Peacock butterfly with me on the flowers I was sorting. Today on the patio searching the flowers was a Humming Bird Hawk Moth. Thats the earliest we have seen them inthe garden.

Poor oh having to go to the doctors to collect his sick note. You would have thought that they could have done something on line for him with his injury when he was told not to drive. Have you had to change doctors since moving Gill? or is it the same one?

Evening all,

It's been a beautiful day here we have been outside most of the day putting the gazebo together ,this year we remembered which bit went where .
I stripped the bed and got all that washed and dry on the line ,i got my little solar lights out ready to get some charge and then i can make sure they work ok before i twist them round the top bars of the gazebo .

Yesterday i put the runner beans in my little cardboard tubes and also some dwarf beans and peas ,i put all my other trays in the green house but the night before last the frost caught my cucumber plants ,i brought them back in and they perked up ok there's just one that has a tiny bit on the end of the leaf that looks dry so i'm leaving them in doors now .

Mel thats great OH got the digger going again he'll be able to get all his jobs done now .
Thats good your hip feels a little better today ,do you think going out and doing some gardening might have started it off .
I had a nasty crack in my thumb and i wondered if it might have been wearing my gardening gloves i do think they can make your hands dry .

You've been busy too Vera i stripped the bed today too .

Gill that's badness them making OH have to go in to get his sick note ,i hope the driving hasn't aggravated the muscle again . how long does the sick note last , it won't be good if he has to do that every week poor chap.

I hardly ever get called Amanda only when i go to the doctors and dentist it's always been Mandy by all the family and Colin some times calls me Mand .

No Ann yesterday or Frank hope they are both ok

Wonder where Ann is, most unusual for her not to make an appearance do hope she is ok.
And Frank too.

Well I had the minor op on the BCC on my back today and now apparently have five large stitches there which I can’t see of course but it is sore. I have been told not to lift or reach up to protect the stitches and have to wait fourteen days before they come out. So I am fed up as I can”t do all I want to in the garden.

It was so nice that I sat down the garden again with my G&T. Got to take advantage while we can

Yes I was wondering where our Ann is. I hope she is ok and she's just been busy or the switch over has been sorted. The last we heard was she was trying to fathom out the new printer.

Mandy thats a shame your cues got frosted and I hope they will be ok now you have put them back in the conservatory. I cut back my two hydranga cutting too early and the frost has killed all their lovely new buds. Oh is going to put them over the west wall where he has clear the old hazel tree out. They were both cutting from Em next door and should have been mauve but they were'nt.

Anng hope your surgery heals quickly as you will want to get out in the garden if the weather stays nice and you have all those new plants to play with.

My hip and back are still playing up. I did hoover today and then went out int he garden and did two of my three holed planter with strawberries in and a couple of pots. I also rang Mole Valley and the girl told me they did have the compost I wanted so Iam really cross that yong person I spoke to said they had'nt got it. I also ordered some cylindrical beetroot seed and some salad bowl lettuce seed and some mower oil for oh so another bill of 42 quid.

My tom plants are growing well in the uti room and I have to turn them around ever day.

The bantams had three lots of vine weevils today about 20 at a time. Think thats where my back ache comes from leaning over the wheelbarrow sort through all the compost bit by bit. The barrow load of soil will go up the border as I have put them in fresh compost.Wshed the barrow down first thing with some jeyes fluid but I have to be so carefull with it because of the bantams and fish.

Where's our Vera too as well as Ann and Frank.

Vera did pop in Mel.

Off to bed now to try to sleep.

Good morning all another bright morning and already 7 degrees. Took two paracetamo; before bed and slept well for four hours then had snatches of sleep the rest of the night but not too bad really. still painful, sore and stiff so a reminder not to over stretch my left arm. typing mainly with my right hand. can't do much so a day of pottering I think.

I have sent a few photos out.

Morning Anng and all,

Another bright one here also and I still ache from yesterdays gardening.

Hope your soreness dos'nt stop you doing too much today but you be careful you don't want to pull those stitches, just mossey about. Lovely pictures you have a nice lot of colour in the garden and what a wonderful peacefull place you scatered T's ashes.

Big wipe down this morning and he's coming a bit earlier. Lots of subs and one is milk they have sent me 1 bottle of Cravenday milk instead of two four pints of semi. It makes you wonder what people are thinking when you ALWAYS order two four pints to send you one 2 litre. Crazy or what? no bloomer and thick corned beef instead of what I ordered but thats ok and big mushrooms instead of button ones and orange, grapefruit and lemon marmalade instead of orange. Both oh and I should'nt eat grapefruit because we are on statins. Grapefruit was my favour fruit and squash and I really miss it.

I put this on anther thread but I thought I would repeat it on here.

I think with the lockdown the phrase if you don't use it you lose it has come true for many of us. When we stayed home for all those weeks we may have been protecting the NHS but we were not doing ourselves any favours, our bodies have got used to being inactive. I know I have put back on the weight I had managed to lose by the beginning of 2020. And with now having to not do the heavy gardening I was beginning to enjoy without suffering for it I wonder if I am going to revert to not being able to do much.

Photos on the blog.

Did the wipe dopwn and Em called for her eggs I forgot to take on Saturday. We had a little walk around the garden together which was nice as she had'nt seen all the sunflowers Vincent painted on the back of his workshop. She asked if I had done it and I told her it was entirely Vincent.

She dasked too what the colours were on my shed and how nice it looked so I think she may be painting her sheds the same. She said its easy on the eye in those colours.

Then I did the rest of the wipe down just 5 things and prepared lunch.

Now where is our Frank and Ann? I am getitng worried about them both now. <3

Island too please pop in.

I wonder if with Ann it is to do with the internet and the switch over?

It’s a funny old day here. It’s not cold but there’s not much sun either. Every so often it brightens up for about 10 minutes and then gets all overcast again.

OH’s back is giving him trouble again. He injured it a bit nearly 60 years ago and every now and then it flares up again but I have noticed that over the last couple of years the flare-ups are getting more and more frequent. He has aged quite a lot in that time too. People used to be amazed at how old he was because he was so active and fitter than many men half his age but not any longer. I have slowed up a bit as well. Of course, it comes to all of us as we get older but it would be good to keep that stage at bay a bit longer.

I had an appointment to pick my new prescription sunglasses up this morning. While I was doing that OH was going to put some cheques in the bank and take the last of our bits to the charity shop. Then together we were going to stop at Argos to pick up something I had ordered and then go to a garden centre. I thought we might have a nice drive out to one of our favourites and maybe even have a scone and coffee in their lovely outdoor seating area. There was no way that OH could have walked around so we gave the garden centre a miss and I dashed around town doing all the other jobs myself. Disappointing as I was looking forward to a little trip out, but there you go.

After lunch I worked for just over an hour in the garden but came in when I could feel my back beginning to ache.

AnnG, I hope your back heals quickly. You are absolutely right when you say “use it or lose it”. My jobs in town involved a fair bit of walking from one area to another and by the time I got back to the car park I was really dragging my feet and feeling tired. Yet we always walked a lot. I think my lack of walking exercise started when I broke the bones in my foot as it was quite a long while before I could walk much at all and because the bones have healed out of place the foot still aches a lot. Thanks for your garden pictures. I haven’t looked at the blog yet but the photos in your email were lovely and that looked a perfect spot for T’s ashes. I am sure he is resting in peace there.

I hope your hip and back are less painful now Mel and that Ann, Island and Frank are all OK, and your OH as well Gill. It’s terrible that he had to drive to the doctor. You would have thought the hospital would have issued him with a prescription for his meds and surely the doctor could have posted the sick note.

What a shame the frost got your cues Mandy but they will probably recover. Does anyone know how long rocket takes to germinate? I had assumed it would be quite quick but I sowed some seeds almost 2 weeks ago now and there isn’t one single bit of green showing through yet.

Right, I had better go and take the bins down the road now – a job OH usually does. It’s recycling and garden waste collection tomorrow and the vans can’t get up our road so we have to take them down and put them on the edge of the recreation ground at the bottom. A woman’s work is never done. ;-)

Vera sorry to hear that your OH is suffering with his back, has he had it scanned or Xrayed recently just to check it out? Maybe physio would help with it. Not that it helped T.

It was not until after T had died that when looking at photos of him taken in the autumn of 2020 that I realised how old looking he had become. Like your other half until 2019 people never believed he was over 80. He seems to have aged with the lockdown. And I did know that he started walking like an old man with a stoop.
Hopefully our walking ability will return.
On leaving the hospital yesterday I walked up into town, it is not that far, and went into M&S as I had vouchers adding up to £60 which were due to expire quickly spent them and walked back to the bus with a quarter of a mile walk home and today my legs ache.

Vera sorry to hear that your OH is suffering with his back, has he had it scanned or Xrayed recently just to check it out? Maybe physio would help with it. Not that it helped T.

It was not until after T had died that when looking at photos of him taken in the autumn of 2020 that I realised how old looking he had become. Like your other half until 2019 people never believed he was over 80. He seems to have aged with the lockdown. And I did know that he started walking like an old man with a stoop.
Hopefully our walking ability will return.
On leaving the hospital yesterday I walked up into town, it is not that far, and went into M&S as I had vouchers adding up to £60 which were due to expire quickly spent them and walked back to the bus with a quarter of a mile walk home and today my legs ache.

Afternoon All,

We are both fine, just been busy. I did one post yesterday and forgot to send it! I had courses yesterday and today which takes out a chunk of the day as well as the time setting out and clearing up. The dust from the pastels seems to be irritating my throat.

Today I must have spent nearly an hour trying to phone my bank and then chatting to them online. I'm so disgusted, as I couldn't transfer all the money in one account to the other I have with them online and I couldn't open a free of charge account with them without going into a branch and the nearest is in the city now and has no carpark near it. They kept suggesting I use phonebank to arrange an appointment to go into the branch. I'm certainly not staying with them now.

Gill did your OH do a self cert for the first week? It's a pity the hospital didn't do him a cert when they said he would need to be off work for 6 weeks. I wonder what the surgery normally do if no-one can get to the surgery?

The internet has been ok AnnG but Sky has been weird. Having had our recordings screen just show blank squares and unable to play them they all came back yesterday, so we have been watching and catching up with some. We think it will be a new SKYQ box next Monday when the engineer comes and you lose all your recordings then anyway. That will be nice to have your memory spot in the garden where you can sit and have a G&T. As you say, it is use it or lose it, but we always get stiff when we start gardening at the beginning of the year. It's the same with the brain too, which is why we persevered with the cryptic crosswords at the start of lockdown and a good reason for me to do these courses online. I had to slow right down a few years ago with my knees and it does worry me about muscle wastage which is why I keep trying with the cross trainer. To think I used to play Badminton and played in tournaments and walked and cycled miles once. I hope you heal quickly after your minor op so you can get to work outside again. Thank you for your garden pics, it is looking very colourful, much more than mine is!

I hope your OH's back soon improves Vera. It's a shame it's playing up just as we can start going out a bit more.

Mandy it is so easy to forget these things and then feel awful because we have! We have to run through a checklist every time we go out now and OH nearly forgot to take his mask once. I see summer has arrived at yours with the gazebo going up! It must be nice with the lights round the top. I think I will have to buy some runners as there's no sign of mine (last year's seed) yet the french beans are doing well. We are hoping to go to a garden centre tomorrow if we are up nice and early.

Mel the Robin must have thought it was his lucky day spotting the vine weevils! If he had chicks it would have been an easy meal for them.

No problem with anyone trying to shorten my name! lol

I've found a stand with a shelf for the new printer to raise it up. It should come on Thursday and I can set it all up then.

We had 4 Buzzards gliding above the field today.

Glad you are ok Ann. Busy busy then. Sometimes it is as if the banks don’t want our money isn’t it?

Did nobody ever lengthen your name.mwhen Infirst worked they called me Annie for a while.


I can imagine that the crayons cause a lot of dust

I don't think they do AnnG. Their 3 best free accounts pay interest, but they are only for students, graduates and the young! Who has most money in our accounts for them to earn money with to pay the interest......yes us oldies and it's time they treated us more equally! I had decided to stay with them as they are the only bank who say they guarantee to refund all your money in cases of fraud as long as you haven't been negligent, but they are all supposed to do that, although some are unwilling. Now I shall do a switch to a building society in the next village. The lady there said she could deal with everything over the phone and that I shouldn't have to provide any ID as I had an account with them many years ago and she checked that I was still on their records. A different attitude and even thanked me for considering a switch to them.

Oh yes I'd forgotten about name lengthening. Mum and dad called me Annie Get Your Gun when I was little as I liked horses and would pretend dad's saw horse was one and I made skipping rope reins and wore my cowgirl outfit! When I had ringlets in my hair they called me Corkscrew Annie as well. I was only ever called Ann at school, but people often spell it with an 'e' at the end thinking I was named after Princess Anne, but she was born a few years after me.

Off to watch the recording of the jewellery prog now. Last week it was interesting to see them using the tools my friend and I used at the workshop where we made our silver bangles and rings.