General Chat

Afternoon all.

Another foggy and damp wet day here so an indoor day again today!

But I have done a basket of ironing and usual chores so all tidy now. I have just got a bargain of 3x 40l compost free bags for £21.00 instead of £36.00 :-D :-D :-D

I have 3 large tubs to fill plus smaller tubs so that will do the job nicely. Should have it next week the delivery says.

As its a bank holiday here, the roads are quiet but buses as normal 2 hourly and all shops open except the banks and council offices. No postal deliveries either.

Off to make some light lunch and decide what to do for the remainder of the day..choices choices lol

Florence in the hebrides

Well I went out and delivered the scones to my neighbour and we chatted for 10 minutes. But then the fog reappeared and has been here all afternoon , the sun went and def not come back. The air feels damp but at least the plants are still wet from last night so that gives them a chance to settle and no need to water again tonight.

No idea what to make for tea tonight but nothing heavy, maybe a salmon salad or something similar.

Was doing some family research but reached a dead end for now. Shall go back to it later.

No sun, Florence.
We have the same low mist/fog that you have.
I can only see the lowest part (about a quarter) of the hill on the other side of the glen.
Cool and damp. Not exactly raining, but the air feels wet, if you know what I mean.

Afternoon everyone.
Well as predicted the sunshine has gone and thick fog, damp and drizzly instead....back to normal weather!!

So whilst I was in a baking mood, I decided to make the oven flour scones as i had promised the chappie next door I would make him some this weekend to say ty for his invaluable help with my plant.

The first batch were ok but think I put too much syrup in them and not enough milk as thought they were a little dry but with some jam they were tasty enough. So made a 2nd batch and they turned out great. I cut 3 large rectangles into 6 squares and once cooled, I shall pop round to the neighbour with them.

One of the good things about living in a very rural off grid area is that, folk will always help if they can and they don't always hold out their hand for money. Making a batch of scones or some cakes for a small job is very acceptable. I guess its from days gone past when people didn't have much money so they returned a favour by helping out with something else rather than exchange money.

Linda, glad you got the phone thing sorted!

ArgyllGran, have you still got the sunshine today?

Joan, I do hope you are keeping ok, cant help but worry about you as not seeing you for awhile. <3

Well amazingly just now, the fog seems to be lifting...yay and the sun is trying to peep through the clouds :-D :-D

off to get some fresh air and inspect the plants I potted yesterday to see if they survived!

Florence in the hebrides

He hadn’t just come in Florence, I misheard that. He said that he woke up and was worried that his bike time trial ( he is one of those mad keen Lycra clad cyclists) was on Saturday morning not Sunday morning as he thought, so he got his phone out to check. He then put the phone in his pyjama pocket while he went to the loo and must have pocket dialled me. When I rang him back, he saw my number and was worried in case some was wrong at my end until he realised that he had actually called me.

Oh well at least he was fine. I could never have gone back to sleep if I hadn’t rung him back to check.

Oh Linda that's hilarious :-D :-D :-D

Who indeed checks their phone at anytime whilst sitting on the loo? I'm never in the bathroom that long! But if my son rang me at 1am, I would have been furious especially as I don't sleep that well.

I turn off my phone when I go to bed. If there was some emergency, I cannot get anywhere in the middle of the night etc so people can phone after 8am if its urgent.

Well its still very warm & sunny and hardly a cloud in the sky. It probably wont get dark here at all tonight. In mid June, the light fades around 11.30 but not dark, then after about 12.30, it starts to get light again.

Not very hungry so shall go off now and just make a bowl of my greek yoghurt and fruit, something very light and maybe one of those long ice pops for desert ;-)

Well, the walk was interesting, but very tiring. Just over and hour turned into one and three quarter hours. As soon as it had finished, we went for coffee and cake to reward ourselves.
I feel very tired, mainly because my phone rang just before one this morning. I have it set so that it doesn’t ring unless the person dials three times. The only exceptions are my immediate family when it will ring straight away. It was my sons number on What’s app, I could hear him in the background, but then it went off. So I rang his mobile, I am sure he said that he had use come in, but I was groggy, so might have misheard. He then said that he had woken up and gone to the loo and had been checking his phone. Who checks their phone on a nocturnal loo visit :-S. I will ring him tonight and find out what was going on. It took me ages to go back to sleep again

I'm glad you've still got the sun, Florence.
We had three hot days, but today is cool and cloudy. There was a little rain during the night, which the garden was needing.

This morning planted out some lettuce seedlings which my daughter-in-law gave me yesterday, so I hope they survive and grow well.
They're in a raised planter, to keep them away from the rabbits.
I also have some at a much earlier stage, which I sowed a few days ago, in a seed tray on the kitchen windowsill.

The seed tray also contains a couple of red lentil seedlings, which weren't intended.
The lentils fell onto the compost by mistake when I was cooking a few days ago.
I just left them there, and now they're growing .
That'll be interesting. Google has varied opinions on the flavour of the sprouts.

Phew, its hot!! So I have been very busy but now retreated indoors as was getting a mild headache. The sun was on the back of my head for awhile.

So I planted up the pansies, 2 in each rectangular hanging pots on the fence. I have 4 planters in all and they do look very pretty now.

Next I got a large pot and put a mixture of pansies and some other pink flowers?? That is outside the front door and looks lovely too. Her friend bought a ceramic pot and some plants and asked me if I could plant them up and she will call next week for it as she has no clue about plants!! Its a huge pot and used loads of my compost to fill it, she's not that daft about plants lol

So now, Im indoors with a coffee in the cool front room as the sun has now moved round towards the back. Once the sun goes down later, we shall begin the mammoth task of watering all the flower pots, takes ages.

Told daughter not to buy anymore bedding plants until the end of the month.

Linda, hope you and OH enjoy your walk this afternoon.


Ann the gloss paint used to be so strong and yes it would give you a headache and also used to make me wheezy with my asthma.

Shall look in later

Florence in the hebrides

It is grey and overcast here, about twelve degrees, but no rain forecast. We have signed up to go on an archeological walk around the town this afternoon. It is just over an hour and on the level, thank goodness for that because it is a really hilly town

My daughter drew the short straw today and got to take Esme to Lightwater Valley. I did offer , but she chose mummy.

The paint doesn’t smell Ann, it is all quick drying these days and the gloss is water based. I think it was the old oil based gloss which had that awful smell. OH is putting all of the brass fittings back on the internal doors. He took everything off to clean them up as they had years worth of paint on them. It is taking him ages because the hinge covers are so fiddly. We didn’t have the double doors between the lounge and the dining room painted because we are going to replace them with glazed doors. Next to the newly painted frames, they look really yellow. We need to find a joiner to replace them, the one who did the floors was supposed to give us a quote, but we never heard back from him. As well as hanging the new doors, we also want the direction in which they open changing, so it is slightly more complicated

I have been holding off buying plants for the wall baskets as well Florence as it is too early. The two hanging baskets out the front which the girls got me for my birthday are fine because they are mainly pansies, but eventually, I will refill them with summer plants

Morning all.
Well its already 16 degrees and going up to 19 by midday but it is a bit cloudy just now,.

looking ahead, tomorrow sees the temp going back down to around 11/12 so back to normal.

Daughter bought some plants yesterday although I said its a bit early, so I shall have to try and plant them up. im still aching in my thighs! I have a little square table which is very light to carry so put some paper on that and then the pots on top and that saves me bending down when potting up.

For those that have none, sending down some sunshine as its good to share :-D :-D

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

I am another one who provides a good meal for midges and mossies. I always got bitten when on holiday and my OH hardly had a bite on him.

I am sure that you will be able to get lots of jobs done now Linda with the painter gone. It is very disruptive having workmen in, whether indoors or out. But Indoors is worse of course. Does the whole house smell of paint? I hate that smell, always gives me a headache.

I hate midgies as well Florence. I can sit next to OH and he doesn’t get a single bite while I am covered in them.

Thank goodness the painter has finally gone and no we won’t be giving him a review. OH is going round counting up all of the things he needs to touch up or put right :-(
There is still a reasonable amount of painting still to do, but OH will do that in his own time.

It will be lovely to have a lull with no workmen in, but I have just asked for some quotes to install a Nest thermostat instead of the current one. It is only three years old but is in a stupid place tucked away in a corner under the boiler. You can’t get to it to see to programme it. We had a Nest in our old house and it was so much easier being able to control it from my phone or iPad

To celebrate having the kitchen back to myself, I have made three batches of soup this afternoon. Pea and courgette, Leek and potato and Carrot and red pepper. I now have nineteen of the plastic microwave mugs cooling down ready to go in the freezer. When we moved, obviously the freezers were defrosted. I have a fridge freezer in the utility room, but another full size freezer in the garage. There was not much in that one until yesterday when I had a bit of a restock, but there is still plenty of space for the soup. It is a pain having to go out to the garage to get to it, in the last house, there was a door from the kitchen straight into the garage which was so much easier. Roll on June when the new kitchen goes in. I am having a full size floor to ceiling fridge and a full size freezer built in.

I hope that your aches subside Florence, my arm is a lot better today, so last night I was able to turn over in bed without waking myself up.

There was a wildfire not far from here yesterday.
Five fire engines, and a road closed for some hours.

Hmmm the midges will be here soon enough so out with the SSS spray, it does help me as they eat me alive! This weather is set to change on Sunday so will be back to our usual then of 12 degrees and chilly breeze lol

Wildfires! I don’t think that will be a problem down here. The ground is still sodden and plenty of water still in low lying fields.

Not looking forward to the mozzies and midgies when the weather warms up.

:-D :-D :-D names, that made me chuckle.

Just seen we are on an extreme warning now for wildfires. Hope people are not not using disposable bbqs as we have this hot sunny weather. Our grass is bare and very dry and it only takes a spark to set it on fire.

When the moor here goes on fire , it spreads and is out of control in a short space of time. Thankfully we do have a hosepipe and so do our neighbours and a large loch nearby but even so never underestimate the wind or direction as it can change here very rapidly.

Good morning all.

Its another glorious day with few clouds and the sun is hot already!

My legs and arms are still aching with all the hammering and bending sorting out "the tree." I feel like someone has run over me lol. I guess as I am not use to using my leg and upper arm muscles, it will take a few days for them to feel better but never mind it was worth it.

Linda, what a palaver?? Hoe could it have been delivered at 4.30 when as Ann says, you got that message an hour before?? :-S

Hope your painter gets on and then you can get shot pdq.

My dad down in Sussex had the most dreadful storm on Wed . He said it was so loud he thought the roof was going to blow off but thankfully no damage.

I found a rellie in Sydney Australia, related to him through my Grt grandmothers family which I have not fully researched but I have basic info. He gave me the ancestor to which he hails from but I haven't worked out the exact lineage yet and obviously someone emigrated to Australia years ago so this is keeping me busy today.

Daughter will be back at tea time so my peace and quiet will soon disappear however she has her uses as the lightbulb has gone in the kitchen and I need her to stand on a chair to change it. I have a small lamp that I have been using for 2 evenings which was fine.

Well better get busy and tidy up now

Florence in the hebrides

I wonder if the painter will ask you to post a review :-0 ;-) ;-) :-D

I just contacted Amazon, or at least the bot. It isn’t easy to find the correct route through, but eventually I settled for part of the delivery is missing. It immediately offers you an option either to refund or to replace. I chose refund and the money will be back on my card in a couple of days. It is a small supplier, so I was able to find their website and there the hawthorn is out of stock, yet it is still available to order on Amazon.
So we googled and found somewhere else which still has them in stock, they should arrive in 2-7 working days excluding bank holidays which Monday is of course.

The painter was here at 9 am on the dot which took us by surprise as he is always late. He is finishing off the gloss and that will be the end of him thank goodness. There was a list of other things we wanted doing, but we have told him not to do any of those. I just want to get the house back in order and get it cleaned as there is lots of dust all of the time.

Over the weekend OH is going to put all of the pictures up on the walls which will make it look more homely