General Chat

It warmed up during the night, here on the west coast.
When I went to bed last night the garden was white and the paths icy.
This morning I awoke to the normal green and brown garden, with no sign that we'd ever had snow.

Unfortunately it means we'll soon be back to the usual rain.
The frosty weather brought sunshine and blue sky.

No snowdrops in bloom yet, but many just about to burst forth. I can see the white in the partly open buds.

I thought it was supposed to be getting warmer this weekend, but it is zero degrees and everything is white. The birdbath hasn’t defrosted all week.
It is chilly in the house even though the heating is on. I have just been playing monkey kerplunk with Esme. The original kerplunk game has marbles, but this one has little plastic monkeys instead, they have hook tails, so catch and dance on the sticks which makes it more fun. Luckily Esme likes it when the monkeys fall down and she thinks she wins if she has more than anyone else. Having them here means that I get to play all the childhood games again

Hello all. Like you Joan we have a nice day here, not exactly warm, 7 degrees but lovely sunshine and blue sky looking out from indoors it is so much better than those horrid grey skies.
I have not done a lot really, just several outstanding small jobs like emptying the airing cupboard and putting clothes away, made some left over veg soup which was very nice for lunch and did my Tesco order for tomorrow. Then, like Joan I went down the garden and gathered up a lot of cuttings I had chopped off of a large old honeysuckle that had blown away from its fixing on the fence in the gales. The garden bin is now almost full.

Hope all are ok on here and enjoy the fish and chips Joan.

I am different and hate using the ordinary conveyer belt tills. We have the scan and shop system at my Tesco branch. I spread my bags out in the trolley, then zap the items as I go along. That way I can put things in the bags the way I want them to make them easy to unpack. I just go to the self service till, point the hand set at the screen and pay. It is far quicker and easier, I don’t have to take everything out of the trolley onto the belt, then put in all back into the bags again. I hate it when I have to go to a supermarket and they don’t have the scan and shop.

It has been very cold again today, but it is now three degrees, so getting warmer.

Not all AG, i hate the self tills too as they never work for me lol.

But I had unloaded half my trolley and then was packing a bit but didnt expect someone to to stick their hands in my trolley and unload. i too have let someone ahead of me when i had a big trolley and yes others have done the same for me.

But I have a system when i unload to the conveyor belt, i start with tins, then fridge, freezer stuff, light things, veg. Its then easier for me to put it away when i get home. What he was doing was throwing it all together which i didnt want. If he had asked me did i require some help, that would have been different but he was in a hurry and let everyone else in the queue know about it!

I hate self-service tills!
They always seem to come up with an error message for no apparent reason, and anyway, I'd rather deal with a person at a till - and help keep them in a job.

I avoid them at all costs. Even on the odd occasion when I have only a couple of items, I'd rather go to a manned (or womanned, more often) till and wait patiently in the queue .
However, I find that on those occasions, the person ahead of me with a trolleyful will usually offer to let me go ahead of them, which is very kind.
I always accept gratefully - and I do the same for other people when I'm the one with the trolley.


EDIT:
Oops! that sounds as if I'm criticising you, Florence! I didn't mean that at all!
You had obviously started unloading before the man came along.

Aw Joan, how rude of this woman to do that to you!! What right does she have to push you along with her trolley, honestly. i have had that happen once when a man who was also in a hurry decided that whilst i was packing my shopping, he decided to empty my trolley onto the conveyor belt without asking me.

The checkout lady had made me look at him and i said,what do you think you are doing with my shopping? he said it would get him to the till a bit quicker. I was furious and told him to leave my shopping alone, and he had no right! He continued then to grunt & groan as he only had 2 items and my trolley was full.

I said to him, why dont you go to the self serve tills? There is noone at them. But he stayed at my till.

The supermarket is the worse place on earth for rude people, they have no patience but its a shop and you have to queue, thats life!

i hope you dont have bruises on your legs joan?

What a shame about the fuel pumps not working and losing the voucher, just typical eh!

Well I made gluten free oven scones using the xanthan gum and gluten free soda and they are ok. A little drier than my usual as i find the flour is a bit gritty and not as fine but they will pass lol

So off to try one with some jam :-D

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning everyone looking in.
Last night about 9.15, I heard the sound of a car boot shutting so I peeped out of the window as was a bit late for visitors.

Shock horror to see Tesco van and the guy with 2 crates walking towards my front door. i panicked wondering if I had forgotten I had placed an order???? Was I having a huge senior moment???/ I opened the front door and said to the guy, are you sure this is for me as i had a delivery last week and im sure I haven't ordered anything else? He asked if this was no 1 and I said no 2 doors up the way.

He had the wrong house and was a new driver!! Thought I was going mad.
But whilst the door was open, my neighbours cat who constantly sits on my window ledge meowing to come in had infact run into my house lol

So I started calling the cat to come and no sign .All of a sudden the cat appeared out of my bedroom and made its way into my lounge. Well, it had a look around before jumping onto my computer chair and then curled up :-D :-D :-D

I looked at the cat and said, cheek of you! I tried to get the cat to follow me out to the door which it did and then i quickly shut the porch door but the cat jumped up on 2 legs and tried to push the handle. He is a big cat i might add.

Anyway by this time with the front door open, a snow shower was coming inside my house and it was freezing. The cat was not happy with me trying to put him out but after 20 minutes, i gently nudged his behind and out he went before shutting the door.
within 2 minutes he was at my window bless him.

I do like cats but he lives next door!

After a busy day out and chilling in my lounge, this wasn't quite what i had in mind late at night.

Anyway a letter was waiting for me when I got home and its for my brain scan. I had to change it as it was at a mobile unit on the mainland and i cannot mount stairs. So the helpful lady rearrange for my usual hospital on 20 Feb at 10.45 which fits in perfectly.This brain scan will only take around 30 minutes and not the full 1 1/2 hours I had previously but that included the spine as well.

Anyway good i havent had to wait too long,
Daughter returning today so I guess, washing machine will be on all day and my tidy house will become a bomb site :-D :-D

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

Evening all
Well I had a lovely day out with my lovely friend. We went into town and parked near the shops as she has a blue badge, so very handy.

Had a look around although not much to see really but I got my conditioner that wasn't available last week from Tesco and was on offer so bought 3 shampoos and 3 conditioner's and used a gift card which paid for most of it.

We then ventured up to the big supermarket and had a coffee and a snack as i was feeling a little lightheaded and my legs were aching. We then went round and i bought a few things i needed, crumpets being my fav.

Of course, I met quite a few people and we got chatting. before we knew it, the time flew by and it was 3.30pm!! The snow started coming down as well, so we quickly finished off the shopping and headed home. Thankfully it didn't last long and here where i live miles away, it has all melted.

i should sleep well tonight after all the walking and fresh air, if i dont i jolly well should do lol!

Joan, Salad??? um yes a bit chilly is right hehe but he who must be obeyed eh?

JG, I know what you mean about gathering things. I have about 100 balls of wool, in drawers, the hall cupboard, my shelf in the wardrobe but i wont part with it.

When i start looking at old letters and postcards, i stop to read them and they all end up back in the box!

Whilst im sitting on my computer chair, i have a thick wool shawl over my legs and its really cosy.

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

Hello everyone,

We have had a dry day although it did snow overnight but by lunch time it had all gone. Still not good for line drying the washing but not as dismal as it has been. The damp weather doesn't help my aches and pains .

Been doing sorting out of my craft stuff that I no longer want and have passed a fair bit to a local school that does a lot of crafty things with the children. I had collected a lot of stuff over the years as I think all crafters do, some of it just trying new things out but then deciding that it wasn't 'my thing' lol. but just putting it away in a box.
Next I want to go through my tree stuff and tidy up a few ends I could be gone a while as I tend to wander through looking up and adding new things as I find them.

Hope everyone is well and managing to keep warm

Ginnie.

Ah, peace perfect peace :-)
Esme has gone back to school today after two days off. She keeps getting stomach upsets, she was sick four times on Sunday. It is odd that she is suddenly having all these bouts.

It was OH’s birthday yesterday. In recent years we would do a city break abroad somewhere, but not since Covid obviously. We went somewhere in the UK last year, but didn’t do anything this year, we are just so tired with having the family here.
We did go straight to the local Italian after picking Eve up from the school bus. Because of my diet, I usually go for pasta, but as everyone else was (having pizza, I decided to go for that. I had a seafood one, but didn’t enjoy it, it had an odd taste. It was huge, so I left lots of the crust and just ate the middle.

One bit of good news is that my daughter has accepted an offer on the London house. The buyers have a cash buyer for their flat, so hopefully it will go through quickly. They need to find somewhere to go now, but as they are already living here, that won’t hold the sale up. They have missed out on a couple of houses which they couldn’t put an offer on because theirs hadn’t sold. They have seen one which is currently two flats, but with planning permission in place to turn it back into a four bedroomed house. It is in a fantastic position and will be amazing once the work is done. It is over budget though and they are going to have to get a mortgage to do it. That rather defeats the objective of being mortgage free up here. He has insisted on putting an offer in even though my daughter isn’t so sure because if all the building work which needs to be done. It has gone to sealed bids and they will find out today. I hope they don’t get it,but there is nothing else on the market they like. As the spring approaches more houses will come on the market and hopefully there will be something suitable

Afternoon all.
We still have snow laying around and a few showers about but hoping it will be away tomorrow.
Felt much better today after having daughters cold/cough she left me. better appetite and energy so i did a load of ironing but left my duvet cover as legs got tired.

Tonight I have made a veggie pasta bake with popadoms and cant wait for that.

I had my PIP tel call at 12 and all went well(see PIP thread)

I also managed out to the bin with a bag and some more cardboard!! The blue bin is nearly full now but will get emptied next Tuesday. I have 1 large box still to break up and it will just go in the bin.

Hope everyone else ok today

Florence in the hebrides

Your soup sounds nice Joan, I make a leek and potato one which sticks to your ribs.

I did the litter pick this afternoon. There were so many wine bottles which had been thrown out of car windows, that I could hardly carry the bag back. My arms are aching so much that I think I need to get myself some sort of trolley

In April all the local councils are being amalgamated into one super council to save money! I can’t see that happening. My area has lots of reserves, so we’re bringing forward all sorts of schemes to spend it, so it won’t be passed on to those areas who haven’t saved. Of course now they have all been told that they are not allowed to start any new schedule ahead of the reorganisation

Well bin lorry came but they didn't help today! Anyway, I managed and it was a bit if fresh air into me lungs, fresh being the operative word lol.

The gritter has been up and down twice this morning eeekk.....never seen them at all usually they must have pots of money in the fund to use up!

Battling with a headache but nothing shifting it. I've decided t have a dry tea, a baked potato with beans and grated cheese. Good comfort food and warming.

Hope your soup tastes good Joan, we need something warming in this chilly weather.

The roads are clearer now but the temp is so low, its already freezing so will be icy soon. The box my toilet rolls came in was huge and so much paper packing. I sorted out the packing into smaller pieces, just got to tackle the huge box and break it down for the recycling bin.

Off to be busy
.

We have a local Wombles Group which started off in the near by town, but one of the main women works in my town, so she spends her lunchtime collecting here. She really is obsessed with it. We use special Keep Britain Tidy bags which are supplied to us.
The nearby town have a designated drop off place in the centre of the town, so they can leave the bags there . It has now taken off here, so we now have our own group and we have a monthly pick as well. We choose a different area to concentrate on every time. The bags are left out in one place and we notify the council and they come and collect them the next day.

Some of us go out picking during the month, some people collect vast amounts, but at present I don’t have much time, so only go out a couple of times. Annoyingly our. council won’t nominate a drop of point for us, so we either have to put the bags in our normal bin, or make a special visit to the council tip. Before the family moved in, I always had plenty of room in my bin, but we have more rubbish now, especially Esme’s nappies which take up a lot of room. I would do more if I could get it in the bin. We are trying to get the council to give us a place where we can take the bags, but they say if people saw our bags, it would encourage them to add to the pile and fly tip. I don’t know why they say that as it isn’t a problem in the near by town and it is the same council.

Each spring the local Friends of the Earth Group organise a 5K country Lane litter pick. A 5K circle is drawn around the town and every single B road radiating out from the centre is cleared. Being a rural area, that is an awful lot of roads. I take part in that as well. If we come across any fly tipping we use What Three Words and notify the council who come and clear it.

The travellers site is permanent and they do have normal bin collections, but they use the wooded area outside the gates to dump all manner of junk as well as extra bags which split and blow everywhere

While I was coming back from the supermarket this morning, I noticed quite a bit of litter on the road near my house, so I will go and get that this afternoon. It is freezing here, there were some snow flurries while I was out, but they have stopped now.

True names. if the bag isnt actually in the bin, our bin lorry wont take it.

Street bins aren’t for household rubbish however it is collected. That fine could have also been attached to anyone’s address that was amongst the litter. Mind you, householders should do their own checking after the bags are put out. Round here the bin men don’t even pick up the litter they have dropped out of the bins.

Organised litter picks have to make arrangements for the disposal.

Morning all from a snow covered village!
Oh yes, the snow is back and its brrr outside as i had to drag the bins out.

There was about 2inches on top of the bins and trying to drag them to the edge of my driveway was hard but i eventually managed. Bin lorry , no sign yet and the wind is picking up as another shower is approaching.

Im still sitting wrapped in my shawl ready to go out and bring the bins in as soon as unless i get the nice young chappy who takes them back for me :-)

Im coughing and sneezing since yesterday as daughter obviously left her germs behind...how kind of her :-(

I have my PiP review by phone tomorrow so need to get all my paperwork together later ready for that.

Linda, where do you put all the bags of rubbish you collect? I ask because there was a lady who decided to pick up litter in her street from bags foxes had split open and she put the rubbish in a street bin only to be fined for it. They said she was "fly tipping." She told them it wasnt her rubbish , but rubbish lying in the street and thought she would do the decent thing and clear it up.

Her council were awful to her and wouldnt budge on the fine(think about £400).

I think the traveller site where there rubbish is should be reported to the council.

Florence in the hebrides

Goodness Linda that is a lot of rubbish But it looks like the bulk is from the travellers' camp, do they not have a 'bin' collection. I am assuming this is a legal permanent camp?

Oops, I got the number of litter bags wrong, it was actually 65. I thought they had added the two drop off points together when they said thirty, but that was just the area we were picking in. The other 35 bags were from near the travellers camp, so 65 in total plus the other rubbish.

The total number of bags for 2022 was 3180, from just a small dedicated group of people