General Chat

Brr, it is so cold outside and really windy. I went to help at The Memory Cafe yesterday and was just about blown over the car park. There was a new man there, who I thought I recognised, but I couldn’t place him, it turns out that he had just moved to the town and had come along to Slimming World last week, which is why I recognised him. At the Memory cafe we always make sure to talk to new people and to include them in the group. I think that he must of thought that I was interested in him because at the end he asked me if I was married while pointedly looking at my left hand. I said that I was, he then asked where my husband was now. Ughh really sleezy I told him OH was at home and walked away from him. I will avoid him in future

I have been looking for a holiday rental in the Lake District for the May half term week. My son is coming as well as my daughter, SIL and the two girls. We could have gone for a whole week, but Eve will be in the middle of her GCSE’s so we decided on four nights instead. As we are going for a shorter time, we have treated them to a swim spa type of hot tub. We found it through Airbnb but when I was booking it last night, the app was being very awkward. It needed to verify who I was by taking a photo of my driving licence, then a photo of me to compare it to. It seemed to crash half way through. When I tried to start again, it said the dates weren’t available, but that was because it already had my PayPal payment. In the end I sorted it out and the booking was pending, waiting for the host to approve us. This morning, I had to give lots more information about our group, ages etc and why we were wanting to book. I guess they just don’t want hen or stag parties . In the end I was approved, so all is well, except that when we got the address we googled it and discovered that the house is actually on sale on Right Move for £1.55 million. It isn’t under offer though, so even if it does sell soon, the legal things take ages, so it hopefully won’t affect the rentals

Afternoon all

Daughter arrived safely around 11 this morning and we picked her up of course. As she was up before 5am, shes now sleeping lol

Its getting windy again and worse to coming over the weekend and into Monday. Lucky I got my Tesco delivery and freezer full.

I have just made a white chocolate and raspberry chesecake for tea and have to say...its tastes scrummy :-D :-D

Linda, hope you enjoy your break and the hot tub. Hope you dont have far to walk to it in your costumes in this brrr weather!

Hope everyone else looking in is keeping warm today

Florence in the hebrides

Hello All

Time I randomly popped in again Linda lol

Lots of lovely comments from you all after Florence's revelation a week or so ago, thank you very much - and as Florence said, we are very happy together <3

White chocolate and raspberry cheesecake Florence, you just made me even happier!

Duncan

Agingrocker in the Hebrides!

Hello all it's wet windy and cold here so not going out as done an Asda shop as needed to stock up the store cupboard.

Just pottering today around the house and then later may go on to do a bit of family tree research. Don't do as much now but still like having a nosey to see what I can find.

Hi Ginny.
The sun is shining for us but a chilly wind is spoiling things.
We had some snow on Tuesday & hailstones yesterday, then rain after that, just been outside but only to pick up 2 of the bird tables, again.

Joan.

I am glad that your daughter got back safely Florence.
The break I booked isn’t until May, so hopefully it will be warm by then.

Today is my daughter’s birthday but we can’t go out for a meal tonight as Eve has her climbing activity for her D of E. We are all going to the house and will have take away pizzas about 8.15pm when Eve is back. Tomorrow is the opening day for Lightwater Valley, but my daughter is taking Esme instead. That is because her wheelchair bound friend is going. It takes two people to lift hare onto the rides and it is too much for me. I will be back in harness from the following week. We are all going out for a carvery on Sunday to celebrate

Afternoon all

My oh my what a day!! Hailstones, sleety snow, gales and some sun. 4 seasons in one day here but the wind!!! So strong when we were parked in the car a gust came and I felt the car move eeek was quite scary.

Finally sold the tumble dryer to a local person 10 mins up the rd so very happy its gone as was clogging up space.

So indoor day now and just general chores, some dusting washing etc. making chicken sweet & sour, rice and naan bread for tea later on.

Hope everyone else is ok today

Florence in the hebrides

PS Cheesecake all eaten :-D :-D

I'm not surprised the cheesecake was all eaten, Florence - it sounded delicious!

Extremely changeable weather here today, too. Black clouds and hail one minute, then bright sunshine the next.

My daughter and gr-daughter enjoyed their trip to Glasgow on Tuesday - up to a point. As expected, the jeans gr-daughter wanted were out of stock, but she found a different style she liked. They went to an Italian restaurant for lunch, then caught an earlier bus home than intended, as they were fed up with the city!
They were lucky to get seats on that bus, as they hadn't booked.

As church treasurer, I've had to order heating oil for one of our church buildings this week. 148.50 per litre, plus VAT!

My brother, who has dementia, went walkabout from his care home in LA this week.
He was eventually found at a small supermarket about a mile away, having somehow managed to cross a busy road, walk quite a distance along the pavement beside that road, then cross a large and busy shopping centre carpark, all without incident.
Somebody at the supermarket noticed him looking lost, and phoned the police, as the care home and my s-i-l had also done.
S-i-l says she's relieved that friendly deputies answered the call, and not ICE agents who might have shot him as a "domestic terrorist". I'm not sure if she's joking or not!
From now on, he'll wear a GPS bracelet, and the care home will improve their alarm system on exit doors.

AG Oh dear that sound awful that your brother managed to walk all that way. Walking is not a regular occurrence in LA, especially along and across busy roads. The traffic is horrendous there. Hopefully the improved security at the home will stop any future 'escapes'. Pleased he was found safe.

Morning all

Hope you all remembered to put your clocks forward an hour last night!

ArgyllGran, so sorry to hear what happened to your brother but so very glad he was found safe.

So hope the home will improve the security so it cant happen to anyone else. Must of been a huge worry for you and the family when he went missing.

Still being buffeted by gales here and had torrential rain at 7am which woke me. just seems continuous and no let up.

Happy Sunday everyone

Florence in the hebrides

Fortunately, I didn't know about my brother's "escape" until after he was safely returned, but my s-i-l and the home were certainly panicking.
He has a lovely one-to-one carer for much of every day, and usually follows him around everywhere, but that day he'd seemed settled in his room, so the carer left him there for a while. Perhaps he went looking for the carer, and somehow managed to go outside.
Anyway, it ended well, thank goodness.

Today's a repeat of yesterday weather-wise - frequent swift changes from blue sky and sunshine to dark clouds and heavy hail showers.

Is Calmac's current lack of operational ferries affecting your island, Florence?

Another horrible, horrible day here again, lots of rain & constant wind, soo cold, & soo depressing.
The Daffies are getting a terrible battering.
Trying to eke out the H oil is not easy with this cold windy weather.

Joan.

It is 8 degrees here and a bit grey but no rain. Feel cold because we had those few days of warmer weather.

I am glad that your brother came to no harm AG

It is very windy and cold here. It says ten degrees, but feels much colder. We all went out for a carvery lunch then back to my daughter’s house. On Thursday my daughter is taking Esme to see The Wiggles in Manchester, they saw them last year in York, so couldn’t miss them again on their return to the UK . I have made a Tree of Wisdom costume ( a Wiggles character) for Katie which is Esme’s newborn doll. It turned out rather well, they are going to take the doll to the concert.
My daughter got a hot tub for her birthday, it is for Esme really as she has several hot baths a day to help her muscles. They had finished setting it up today, so Esme and my daughter tried it out this afternoon. We were standing there freezing in our coats while they were in the hot water My daughter bought them Rash tops, which are the long sleeved tops surfers wear to keep them lovely and warm. The problem is that Esme will want to sit in it all day long.

Another awful day!

had to go over to town to the ferry office to book a trip in August as online kept crashing. It was very wild and snow showers too brrrrr was freezing.

There are 7 ferries out of action on the whole fleet so smaller islands have had their timetable depleted much to the annoyance of visitors and islanders. Businesses are suffering terribly as people are being put off that if they do manage to get somewhere, they may not get back!

We are on the main route and ok for now but....if for any reason our big ship goes wrong, then we will all be up the creek without a paddle!!

Yep Joan likewise the flowers are getting a right old bashing but thankfully the tulips are not quite out yet and the daffies are nearly done.

As for heating, I have had to keep it on a bit longer as normally at this time of year we start not having it on as much.

Can you not just heat your living room in the eve joan?Rather than use all the radiators or turn down the thermostat. What temp have you got it on just now?

Grace is on ITV at 8pm tonight so been waiting ages for the next 4 books. Its 2 hour specials every Sunday for the next 4 weeks.

Amazingly the sun is out mow lol but dark skies in the distance and gusty winds still.

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon everyone.

Well the gales have subsided but its still cold and showery. So apart from watering all the plants and veg in the tunnel, Im staying put where it is warmer.

Roads are fairly quiet with traffic too as school kids on holiday so less cars back and forth.

I ordered 2 lovely climbing roses which are a lovely purple colour which will grace either side of the front door against the trellis. Not sure how quick they will grow from the bare root plant or if they will flower this year but when they do, they will look amazing.

Hope the hot tub is being well used Linda and you dont all catch a cold!

Florence in the hebrides

I haven’t been in the hot tub, but Esme was in for an hour this afternoon. She Facetimo me while she was in it. She was lovely and warm, but her mum was bundled up in her coat, working outside on the picnic table next to her.

Your roses will be lovely once they are established, but it will take them a couple of years to climb up.

Morning all

Well after a wet morning, the sun is out and its drying up for a change.

Home alone after OH had to take car for a service and daughter had appointments as well. So have sorted the laundry, done all the ironing and now having a break.

Linda can you tell me the shop where you bought a decent swimsuit please?

I have been looking for months and still cant find a decent one with underwire, large cup size and good support. I did buy one last year in haste but its not really what i wanted but did me in jersey.

I prefer block bottom colour and patterned top half. So any suggestions other than usual M & S , Evans, Klass etc...

Hope everyone else looking in is having a good day so far.

Florence in the hebrides

I bought my swimming costume from a local independent shop Florence, I looked and the brand is Fantasie, they specialise in fuller bust swimwear There are some good offers on the website Fantasie.com. My problem is that I need long body length ones and they are hard to find in store, I need to try things on rather than order on line, but I know that you don’t have that option Just after I bought it , I found one in the M&S outlet store for a really good price, a size too large really, but it is fine for the local swimming pool where the chemicals fade the colours.

We got the bus to Harrogate this morning as OH wanted to buy some new underpants and socks - from M&S of course. We had lunch out in our favourite cafe while we were there

Aaagh! The tick season has started!
While showering this morning, I found two on me, which I must have picked up yesterday in the garden.
I had only wandered round the garden picking daffodils which had been blown flat - a large bunch.

This year I'm going to try using bog myrtle soap, which is supposed to be a natural repellent against ticks, midges, etc. Also treating all my usual gardening clothes with BushWear No Tick Wash . Anything's worth a try to avoid Lyme disease - and the 3-week course of strong antibiotics!

We're bracing ourselves here for Storm Dave on Saturday, into Sunday.
I do hope it doesn't result in a lengthy power cut.
Storm Amy cut us off for 3 days, both electricity and mobile phone signal.

Today it's calm and fairly sunny, though cold. Hard to believe a storm's on its way.