General Chat

Good morning all, feels a bit chilly, but it is early, I don't seem to be able to sleep beyond 0600 these days. 10 degrees out there, it has been raining but the sun is shining now. Another day with nothing planned.

I somehow missed your last post Vera. I am surprised how many small new weeds are growing here too and when I saw those on the front garden this morning I thought 'hoe'.It's because it got neglected last year and the weeds were able to produce and scatter their seeds.

I was interested in what you said about being paperless and looking at the hospital portal. No-one has ever suggested this to us and I don't know if we could do it as we can be sent to any of the three city hospitals or even a Drs Surgery out of the city like today. I might ask the Dr about it next time I go. We've still had nothing in the post at all. It's a good job we have mobiles and got the text reminder. :-S

The heavens opened when we set off for OH's scan and there was fork lightning on the way with thunder. One bridge we went under had a queue as everyone was crawling through in the middle of the road, but still making bow waves as high as the cars. When we got there we were amazed to find the big carpark locked with those bars that go up and down and a keypad next to it. No-one was parked there, so I assume they must lock it after surgery. I've never seen a surgery carpark locked before. We drove back up the side and near the front there were just 3 spaces made at the side that were full but one car was pulling out luckily. It was a private, mobile scanner parked outside and OH was finished before his appointment time, which was good and it sounded like a CT scan being so quick. Then we had a journey home full of traffic queues everywhere, which tested his patience! We changed our route a couple of times as we thought they were all heading for the retail park, but it was just as bad coming into our village the back way. We noticed the traveller site not far from us not only has the sliding security gates now, but they have fixed boards on the back of them so no-one can see through and a bit concerning have put a six inch deep iron bar across the opening a few feet in front of the gate along the grass verge which I thought wasn't their land. It makes you wonder why?

Your car tyre is a mystery Vera, but AnnG and Mel have come up with possibilities. If he hasn't already it might be worth creeping the car along your drive and stopping and looking to see if you can see anything in the tyre. If he's checked the pressure today it is odd, unless Mel's suggestion is right and he's parked over the puncture. The tyre place will check it for him though and I suppose it could be the valve sticking like AnnG said.

Sun's out now, but there's admin to do and a bed to be changed so I'd better get on.

The rain started around 11 am which is why OH had to stop cleaning the paving. It was on and off for a couple of hours and then we had quite a thunderstorm. We didn’t see any lightening but the thunder sounded as though it was right overhead and the rain just fell out of the sky. So much for flaming June! I felt at this time of year we should have a salad for lunch, instead I took some peppery leek and potato soup from the freezer to warm us up.

Mel, I think air would still escape even if the car was parked so any damage was underneath the tyre against the ground but OH will check again in the morning and if necessary will move the car. AnnG I asked him about the valve but he said it seemed quite tight when he attached the pump.

While OH was doing the paving this morning I thought I ought to be working in the garden too. My back isn’t good today so kneeling and stretching over beds to weed didn’t seem like a good idea but I got the hoe and managed to hoe out a lot of the small, creeping weeds that seem to want to take over our garden. I was going to clean the bird baths next but the weather defeated me.

I hope OH’s scan went well and didn’t take too long Annx. It’s annoying that he didn’t get an appointment letter. Do you think the hospital hasn’t sent it or is it still stuck somewhere in the postal system? I am registered at our hospital to go paperless so my information comes through texts and emails, although I often get a letter as well. I am also registered with the hospital’s portal so I can go into that and check on upcoming appointments.

Sun’s just come out but I can see the trees blowing around so it must still be windy. I think I’ll make a cuppa (kettle is always on in our house) and watch this morning’s Trooping the Colour on my iPad.

Morning All,

It's raining that fine stuff here but not cold. We are off to the other side of the city for OH to have his scan soon. Still no appointment letter in today's post so he doesn't know what kind of scan it will be but has dressed in a tracksuit and t shirt with no metal anywhere.

The builder still hasn't been back to finish the wall, so I've put my car back on the drive for now.

Your garden is looking lovely AnnG and a credit to you looking after it on your own. As I said, your pink rose is stunning! Your elderly neighbour sounds a bit like my first FIL. He was a very keen gardener, grew and sold plants and grew veg in his 100 foot long garden. When his wife passed away, he carried on with what he had always done in his garden, but just left everything she used to do which was all the flower garden and pruning and clearing up.

Vera I was really fancying your meal you had with the birthday girls. It's a lovely idea to have your birthday get togethers, but sad that two now have dementia. The episode of the Piano at Cardiff station had a 90 year old father with dementia sitting and watching his daughter play a beautiful, moving welsh hymn called I'll send you an angel. He had sung all his life and his daughter said when she played it he would cry. A welsh male voice choir were there singing too and you could see the recognition in the old man's face as he started to mouth the words and remember. Even Mika was so moved by it there were tears in his eyes.

Mandy you are doing well with your 'garden gifts' you lay out. I bet you are wondering what else you have for the tip that could be given away like that too. It saves loading up and taking them to the tip and unloading and people who can use the things would be chuffed with them.

Mel what is stopping you from using the new keyboard? I bet BIL would plug it in for you if you aren't sure what to do. It sounds like you have had more rain than us. It's been showery here but they have been short.

Better get changed to go with OH now as he's allowing a lot of extra time to get there as usual.

Oh just as they leave the parade ground to March to the palace and just as the king got into his carriage it chucked it down. The poor men marching. And in sympathy it suddenly rained hard here.

I think its something that I hit by mistake somewhere at the bottom of the keyboard.

I wonder if you have something in your tyre and that it just happened to be parked on the punchture and thats why it did'nt lose any air over night?

Still got the broody and when I left them after faffing around out there I looked up and only had three hens in the run. I looked in the nest box and there were three hens in there, a black one and two white ones. Only had to turf her off one egg this morning so I am expecting two more today.

Vera could a valve have become loose and leaked air which was tightened after the last time OH pumped it up? As you say a mystery.

I have had a lazy morning sitting watching the Kings birthday parade. I love tha pageantry and the guards are great to watch. It was good too to see The Princess of Wales in a carriage with the children

Morning all

13 degrees and windy but it doesn't feel all that cold. Rain is forecast and it is just spit-spotting now. OH decided that if he waits for 2 or 3 dry days all the paving will never get cleaned so he has made a start this morning and will work till the rain starts to come down harder. The machine uses a fair bit of electric power and probably quite a bit of water but if we get someone in to do it they are still using our power and water. The year before OH bought this machine we paid a company £400 to do it. That was probably 2019 or 2020 and the job they did was OK but no better than the result OH gets.

There's something odd about our "puncture". OH only drove about 3 miles yesterday and the tyre was OK when he left home. 4 of us saw it parked on our friend's drive with a flat tyre. OH pumped it up to get us home and put it in the garage. First thing this morning he went out to pump it up again to get him to the tyre centre and found it hadn't gone down at all. So he is going to check it again later We are a bit puzzled. If it isn't a puncture what made it lose so much air parked for 2 hours on our friend's drive?. If it is a puncture why hasn't it lost any air over 14 hours in our garage?

Mel, it's worth trying your other keyboard as AnnG says though I'm not 100% convinced it's that unless it has a delete button that somehow gets stuck. I've noticed that when you lose a post it is often deleted from part way through a word. This suggests to me that your cursor is in that position and somehow or other you accidentally hit a key that deletes everything behind the cursor. Can you remember at all what you are doing immediately before you lost the post? It's a puzzle, isn't it and very frustrating for you.

It's gone very quiet so I think OH might have given up for today. I'd better go and make my worker a cup of coffee.

Morning all,

Bright morning but windy and we've had rain pc is saying 14 degrees and partly sunny so I expect more heavy rain during the day so another day not in the garden.

Just have the shop to do this morning and I don't think BIL will come today as he could'nt mow as its so wet. I have had 4" in my wheelbarrow twice and the rian has filled the big pond up well over the last day and a bit.

I bet the big trailer out the back full of weeds also has a lot of water in it so thats not going to burn up quickly.

I lost my old brown chicken the other day she must have been at least 6 years old if not more so I am down to 6 now and one of the black ones has dropsy but she is still eating and getting around so she can live her life out here where she was happy.

I am going to post this before it disappears again.

Thank you for the photos, Ann. What a lovely range of colours in your garden. It's looking good after all your hard work.
I love the curved paths leading on to the next area...

Really dull here with thundery showers forecast, but the sun is making a valiant attempt to put in an appearance first. :-)

I guess you still have not changed the keyboard Mel?

Pouring with rain here at the moment.

nd I bet the big trailer is full of water as well as weeds

Lost the lot again...............................

Good morning all, 9 degrees here but it is still very early, I got up at 0615 as my leg is worse if I lay too long after waking up. Slept reasonably well although woke twice.
Nothing planned for today so just a bit of pottering. Tesco due this afternoon. I will see how my leg is and may manage a short walk to Irene's to return books.

Vera, pleased that you enjoyed your lunch I love fish and chips when it is well cooked.
When your OH gets a puncture has he actually driven in the same area as he has got them before? I ask because my friend had a problem with punctures, three times in a row and she worked out she was driving locally past where builders were renovating a house. Seems there were nails etc in the road. Or it could be pot holes I suppose causing them. A real nuisance.
Strange you should say about noise on Sundays, I don't think everyone bothers about it these days but we were always careful about not making too much loud noise on Sundays (drilling etc), It was how we were brought up. Also not doing anything noisy before about 9am.

Glad you all liked the photos. Strange I still look out and see a garden that is not up to T's standards. But those standards were achieved by both of us I suppose and he spent hours and hours out there. Since all the work done by Jake and Rory it is definitely a garden needing less maintenance thanks goodness and it is only my leg that holds me back a bit not wanting to put strain on it.

Got all the pics Anng and I must say your garden is a credit to you it looks really lovely. Wish my garden looked as good. I hav'nt touched the border this year and it really needs a lot of work done on it. My roses are flowering on the wall but so are the brimbles.

Well I think we had 93% rain today and not sun as the pc said and its still raining now. I meant to over my strawberry plants with some polythene to keep the rain off but I did'nt get a chance to get any on them. The rain always ruins them and they are just getting ripe now. I have had two pickings off of them already this year which is much better than last year.

I can't believe its Friday already and now its another weekend. Why does May and June go so quickly? Its only two weeks till Midsummer day, Di birthday.

Thank you AnnG; I've received all the photos. You have a lot of plants in bloom and they all look healthy. Your garden is looking lovely, better than mine and a great deal tidier and that's down to all your hard work out there, so well done you.

There were 6 of us at our lunch. There should have been 7 but one had a tooth problem and was at the dentists. There used to be 11 or 12 of us but the years have taken their toll and a couple have died and two now have quite severe dementia. However we had a very nice day. I'm not a great fan of battered fish and chips but we saw some being taken to another table and it looked so good that 4 of us chose it. It was very tasty with a nice, crisp batter and delicious chunky chips. Knowing we would be having cakes later I didn't have a dessert but a couple of them had cherry pie and custard and you could see that the pie had been hand made there. Afterwards we went back to the birthday girl's house and spent a couple of hours chatting and enjoying our cake.

OH seems to have picked up another puncture this afternoon so in the morning he will have to pump it up enough to get him to the tyre place and get yet another new tyre. That will be the 3rd time it has happened in recent months and new tyres don't come cheap so he isn't a happy bunny.

Someone will be pleased they have got a free scooter Mandy and you are doing others a good turn by putting stuff out for them to take.

Although showers were forecast the rain has mostly held off today. OH had planned tomorrow to start cleaning all the paving round the house but there's rain forecast again and, as he's going to have to get the car sorted first, I don't think he'll get any done. Sunday is supposed to be better weather but the machine makes a bit of noise and I don't like disturbing people on a Sunday.

I've got a couple of emails to answer so I'll get on with those next. Have a good night everyone.

Pleased you got them Mandy.

Thank you Ann I got them all ,your garden is looking really good, pretty roses and your Lavender is doing well, well everything is ,I love the poppy ,my yellow poppies are out and the orange ones but I'm waiting for the pinky red ones to open up.

The scooter has gone so thats good I didn't put anything else out as the sky has looked so black all day and this afternoon we had thunder and lightning, I had just got some cakes in the oven so I had my fingers crossed we didn't lose the electric .
I've made son and dil some coconut tarts and some Welsh cakes .

Hope you've enjoyed the birthday lunch Vera what did you have to eat .

Ann we've had our heating on too a few times lately, I've never known it to be so chilly like this in June ,I have to say today has felt a little warmer ,we did a few jobs in the garden this morning and I had a jacket on but the sun peeped through a few times not for long but when it did I had to take my jacket off .
We had some runner bean plants left over from the ones we planted a few weeks ago and they were just laying out in the pots so we filled a couple of tubs and used them up they might give us a few extra beans .

Hopefully you should be getting some garden photos. let me know if nothing arrives.