General Chat

Good evening
Where has the time gone today? I can't believe that it is turned 6 pm already. This morning I dug out from their summer storage all the spring bulbs that we plant in pots. I have to take them up in the summer so I can use the pots for later flowers We do seem to have a lot, even though when I took them up April/May time I made up some packs with about 10 bulbs in each and they were sold on a plant stall at a club coffee morning in June. We've made a start on them and I've planted 3 low pots with mini tulips. They are either Heart's Delight or Honky Tonk or a mixture of both. I don't know because OH dealt with some of them last year and got things in a right muddle. While I was doing that he planted up a large half barrel with some tall white tulips. I still have 3 different sorts of daffs to go in big pots and two packs marked Mixed Daffs with a question mark, again a result of leaving OH to his own devices last year!!

Having done that I came in and prepared and cooked a roast dinner, followed by lemon cheesecake from the freezer. Then I came upstairs to the computer for a little while. Two and a half hours later I'm still here. I rarely touch my family history these days but I wanted to look on Ancestry for something and by chance came across my father's baptism. I was surprised to see he wasn't baptised till he was 8. He and his brother aged 7 were christened at the same time as his new baby sister. Dad was born in 1913 and his brother in 1914 and I suppose WW1 got in the way. After that I suspect my grandparents forgot all about it till they had another baby and decided to get all the children done as a job lot. The trouble with FH is you get absorbed and forget how long it all takes.

Mel, I looked at the cute birds but I have to admit that I thought straight away that it was computer generated. I could be wrong.

I am glad you had a good day with your grandson and the boys AnnG What a shame they had a rotten journey home. My daughter sent me a WhatsApp message around 7.30 Friday evening just to say she was home. It pinged onto my phone at 7.30 this morning. How could it take 36 hours? Good job it was nothing urgent.

I hope your fitter does a good job tomorrow Annx.

I had better close the computer down or OH will think I've left home. He'll tell me he's been reading or watching TV but he's the only person I know who can do these things with his eyes closed ;-)

Afternoon All,

Slept well but lay in for a while. Tomorrow we have to be ready for the fitter to arrive after 8.00am so no chance then. There are boxes of things everywhere again and I know despite throwing some things away it won't all go back in the new cupboards.

That video has been popping up a few times so I've seen the cute birds before and ones with a different bird. It made me wonder if they were AI generated. It's getting harder to know what is real now, but it does look lovely. It's dull and cloudy here too, so the sun seems to have gone to Many's today.

AnnG I was an only child till I was nearly aged 9 and was very quiet. It must have been good to have a catch up with your grandson, but the gt grandsons happily using their tablets sounds like so many others nowadays.

Better tidy up in here now before the food delivery arrives. Only 2 subs this time and they actually have our salads we like at last and we'll have tomorrow with the fitters being here.

Vera, the dogs sound lovely. I wonder if the reason Benji is chipped is because he belonged to somebody else before the bad place. Or maybe he was the original dog there before it all went downhill.

It was a nice day with Grandson and the boys although we only sat and chatted. that initself is hard woek, Grandson has always been quite introverted, happy in his own little world but he does, these days make an effort. However I seemed to be the one starting conversations. He did get a bit animated talking about his 'new lady friend'. The boys, as usual were quit 8 and 12 year olds don't hold conversatins, but they give lovely hugs and are always good mannered and seem pleased to see me. They spent a lot of time sitting in my office with their tablets, but they were here 4 hours. Then they had a rotten journey home as, they had not realised that the M4 was closed for maintenance so they were sent off on a diversion. Actually from what C said it sounds like the way that T and I always used to take going their way as it avoids part of the M4. they actually stopped at a servie station and had a meal in the end as the boys were hungry.

Went outside to have a look at my beech tree as I have been taking pictures of it as it loses its leave and looked across to my shed and there sitting on the string of fairy light was Robby. He must have been in there when I shut the shed up last night. At least he had plenty of food in there as I leave him fat sticks and sunflower kernels in one bowl and mealworms in another. I get loads of flies in there in the winter and have fly pen round the window so have to sweep up lots and lots of dead bodies but there were lot inthere yesterday I did'mt sweep up but they are gone this morning so he must have had his fill.

Mandy your kitchen will be smelling lovely again today. its many years since I had a homemade Christmas pudding. Mum used to make them when I was younger to my grans recipe. That is something I have never made.

Morning all,

What a difference to yesterday morning. I did hope we may get two nice days on the trot but no this morning is dull cloudy and grey but its 12 degrees. I need to do a bit of potting today abnd take some plants round to a neighbour if they are in.

With all the pond work with BIL yesterday I forgot to go to the shop!! Nothing urgent though I only get some ham and my Saturday paper and sometimes some other bits. I'll ring them and ask them to save my paper.

Anng I don't have the sound on when I watch youtube but I thought that little mother bird was amazing I just had to share it. I wonder if it is real or something people have made up?

Morning all,
We have lovely sunshine after such a dreary old day yesterday ,I have another pudding in the slow cooker so that will toddle along all day .

Vera that was good the dogs were OK at yours ,poor old Benji having all those teeth out but it must have been such a relief if he had pain from them, nice to know his right age too .

Anng did you have a nice day with your grandson and his family yesterday .

I think we're having a lazy day today ,I made a shepherds pie yesterday and there's enough for today so just need to do a few veg.

Oh Mel that little bird with her wings sheltering her babies so cute.

awe!!

Good morning all dry bright and 9 degrees. It was 11 just now and dropped suddenly.

Those birds were cute Mel but for some reason I got stuck with awful music and had to shut my PC down and restart to get rid of it.

Nothing planned for today so may, after a shower and washing my hair do some HW then wrap a few presents.

Bedding is in the washing machine so that is the first job.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ng8FrFsPIh8

Just look at the little bird

Did'nt have anything to eat in the end but put on roast tatoes, sprouts, roast carrots and roast beef in gravy so I am having a roast dinner and am just about to dish up. Mmmmmmm........

Now I am going to get something to eat as all Iv'e had today is a milky coffee.

How lovely to know just how old Benji is and have his birthday. I bet they could both tell stories you would'nt want to hear anyway.

I have just come in from the garden as BIL left about half an hour ago but he did help me get some leaves out the big pond but we broke the net and its a huge landing net so I am going to see if I can mend it as it has a very long handle which reaches right down to the bottom of the big pond.

I also managed to get some bits of the red waterlily out of one basket and some of the next one to it out of that basket too. They are now in a bucket of water each so I don't get them muddled up. I have also put all the netting back round the pond and BIL moved the very heavy wheelbarrow of that awful plaant over onto the road off the grass and the other barrow too. Thats horrid as the tyre is coming off the wheel on the silly barrow.

Posting this before it goes

Benji is becoming an older gentleman then Vera so he might be slightly deaf or just pretending! Having said that the Shih Tzu nextdoor is aged 15 now and small dogs do seem to live longer. Wouldn't it be good if they could tell you about their earlier life. It seems like he had a good start in life with owners who had him neutered and chipped, but not good once he was part of that huge amount of other dogs. It's good they both have a lovely home now though.

Afternoon All,

Lovely sunshine here now and 14 degrees. It did rain in the night though, which is the best time for it to water the garden. OH had physio this morning and I went to the shop for the paper and a few bits. While I was paying an elderly lady came up to the counter to say a girl of a different race had walked past her to pick up a bottle of wine and had gone out of the shop without paying and it appeared that a man was waiting for her outside. The man on the till quickly phoned someone to deal with it, but it didn't surprise me as the Co-op have reduced the staff to just 2 in the shop and they have to deal with everything now between serving customers and I often have to go and find someone to serve me. I have joked that they need a bell on the counter. A nice surprise when I got home was that OH had cleared the bottom of the porch cupboard ready for Monday. It had no end of stuff in there, the heavy hoover etc and a small chest of plastic drawers, ice spray for the cars and other things like umbrellas, walking poles etc. I'd assumed I would do it to save his back, but he'd taken each small drawer out like I was going to do to carry and had put everything in the conservatory.

I remember cleaning weed out of my pond and it being a stinky job! The frogs and birds used to bring duckweed into it from the pond in the field and the irises used to spread and need dividing. I still get duckweed in the little water feature with the lily competing. It's sensible to keep away from BIL while he has a cold Mel. It's hard to know what virus you have that gives you a cold these days with Covid and Flu around just now as well as RSV.

OH has gone to a more local match at Rugby now so I will tax my car online next and finish the food order for tomorrow.

Good afternoon everyone

I haven't really put my head outside the door this morning but weather apps all say it is 13 degrees and it looks quite bright out.

AnnG, I hope your grandson arrived safely and you are enjoying spending a little time with him and his family.

Annx, daughter was originally told that Maggi was around 2 years old and Benji was 6-7. The RSPCA told daughter that Benji was the only one amongst the 100 or so dogs in that awful house that had been chipped. Now that daughter's own vet has seen the dogs and checked the chip he said that it showed Benji's birth date so we now know he was 8 on 23rd October. It's hard to work out why he would have been chipped and also neutered when none of the other rescued dogs had. All the animals seized were riddled with fleas, lice, mange etc and several had tooth problems. Poor Benji had to have 24 teeth out before he could even start to eat enough to put on a bit of weight. Lack of teeth hasn't stopped him crunching on the treats he gets when he's done something right ;-) As for his slowness in learning and responding to commands I think it's just a case of "can't teach an old dog new tricks" but they will get there in the end.

Now I must stop talking about the dogs or I will bore you all rigid. I have to set up a Tesco delivery now. Normally I would have had a delivery around Thursday or Friday of the coming week but, all being well, I will be at the hospital on Thursday for my cataract surgery and I would like to leave Friday clear just in case there are any problems, so I'm going to try and get a slot on Tuesday.

Oops, just seen the time. Perhaps I'd better sort out some lunch first,

He's now sweeping up leaves off the lawns with the mower. No mowing today.

BIL is here and he has a nasty cold so we are staying away from each other. He has pulled the massive load of parrots feather weed out of my pond which grew into a red water lily and the marsh marigold in the corner now its my job to get the waterlily out and repot it and some of the marsh marigold so I am up to my elbows is stinking water and weed.

Morning Anng and all,

Beautiful morning here too and 11 degrees same as you Anng. Its so good to see the sun after endless dull and dreary days. It mkaes you want to get on with things which I will do soon. I want to strip the bed and get the machine on while I am not paying for any leccy.

Am dying to drink my coffee but Iv'e made it too hot!!

Raven was knocking on the door again this morning.

Good morning all. A bright morning and 11 degrees. Last night the moon was high and bright and the stars were shining, the sky was clear, if it had been a normal year there would probably have been a frost but the temps are abnormally high at the moment.

Not sure when Grandson will arrive, he normally emails when they leave but I shall have to wait and see.

Yes all finished and all put away ready for grandson and the 2 greats coming for the day tomorrow. I have got all the stuff back in the cupard and fins that, having moved a couple of things to another cupboard and got rid of a couple more things there is a lot more space in there now. Which is absolutely nothing to do with the new taps.

I am not as keen on the new tap as the old one I had. This one is a lot taller spout, so much so that if I accidentally knock it while it is running I will wash the windowsill. Oliver did tell me that the sort I had before is not made any more. Anyway it is a tap and hopefully won't leak water sound the sink.

I wrote this this afternoon and forgot to post it.

I did manage to get three more presents wrapped while he was working. I hate sitting around doing nothing and had to stay near in case he wanted anything.

Oh the little dogs sound lovely Vera and it's so good it all went well with them. I can't remember if you said, but do you know how old they are? Maggie sounds a bright little spark and learning fast. I wondered if Benji was younger and less inclined to concentrate just yet! They will be great company for your daughter and good for both you and her to be happy for them to stay with you. I'm off to bed now and the fireworks are in full swing here, so no chance of sleep yet.