Hobbies and Crafts

The extension is very big Ann and I'm surprised they didn't need planning permission for it. Apparently they can build it under permitted building rights. When we looked into that, the size of extension we could build was half that size, so the rules must of changed. They cut through for a window on the side of the bungalow yesterday and now we have lost all our privacy as the window is very near the corner at the back so they can see right into our garden and also into our kitchen. OH and I aren't very happy about it as we spent a fortune putting up screening to give us privacy when we took our garage down. We're now thinking of buying some very tall plants to block their view and also to try and hide the very big wall of the extension.

That's all we can see out of our kitchen window now and it looks worse that the ugly garage we took down. At least the new neighbours are nice people so it's not all bad and I'm sure we can do something in our garden to make it look better than seeing a brick wall. The extension is only about 6 foot from our boundary, so it's very close and it's only going to get higher once the roof and lantern window go on. I just hope once they've had the wall rendered it will look a bit better.

The whole point of us taking our old concrete garage down was because it looked awful right outside the kitchen window and now it's been replace with a massive wall. We've worked so hard on our gardens and they were just starting to look nice, now our eyes are drawn to the wall and not the pretty plants. We're both quite upset about it, but there's nothing we can do and we don't want to fall out with the new neighbours, so we'll just have to put up with it and not say anything. Hopefully putting taller evergreen plants along there will hide the wall and make our garden look pretty again.

Gill it sounds as if the extension next door to you is big and intrusive. I assume they had planning permission for it all?

I'm okay Vera, just very busy at the moment. I've just been on the bird thread to thank Ann for the lovely Christmas card she sent Sandra and I. Sorry to hear you got soaked getting your washing in. I pegged mine out the other day but managed to get it in before the rain came, which was lucky as my dryer had stopped working.

We have lots of workmen next door as the the new neighbours are having the place gutted and a new extension built. Last week they had a porta loo delivered which went in the front and with the high winds it got blown over and broke our fence. It's been very stressful and now we know the skip is being emptied most days we've had to move the car onto the road out of the way. The fence only went up six months ago so OH isn't to happy about it. They said they would fix it but whether they will or not remains to be seen.

OH met the new neighbours the other day and I said to OH why don't we offer to put their pots plants in our garden. They had brought them to their new place weeks ago and they were getting damaged and covered in concrete splashes. The new neighbours were thrilled and took us up on the offer. I cleaned the plant and weeded the other pots for them, so they are now safe on our side until the building work has been done and they move in. They're hoping to be in by February.

Apparently the lady is a keen gardener like me so it'll be nice to have something in common with her, she said our front garden was lovely. I've not met them yet, this is what OH has told me, I'm pleased she likes all our hard work as it wasn't easy to do in the heatwave. They haven't seen our back garden yet, so I'm looking forward to showing it to them. They are a lovely couple just a bit older than us and very friendly from what OH was saying. I'm so pleased we're not getting grumpy neighbours like Victor Meldrew the other side of us. Or Mr Grumpy as we call him.

I'm having my washing machine and dryer fixed at the moment. The washing machine tells me what cycle it's going on and if I try to put it on the cycle I want it makes a funny noise. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon. The dryer stopped working but then started again so I'm not sure what he's going to do with that. So long as he doesn't take any of the appliances away I'll be happy. Hopefully he'll be able to fix them here.

Gill is ok Vera, she is on Mel's thread. I think she is a bit hassled with their next door neighbours having a lot of building work done.

Will it ever stop raining so I can finish sorting the garden for winter? I managed to get out for a very short while between showers on Sunday and cut a couple of plants back but the ground was so wet and I came in covered with mud.

Today started mild and fairly bright so I hung out the washing, came in for a cuppa and planned to go and try to finish the garden jobs before lunch and guess what....the heavens opened again, the washing got wet again and OH and I got soaked trying to quickly get it in :-|

Gill hasn’t been on this thread or the bird one for a week or so. I hope she is OK.

What did he do with the others Vera? :-D

I’ve also bought my cards at the library Cards for Good Causes shop. I like theirs as much more of the money goes to the charities concerned. All my local friends and members of clubs I belong to know I make a charity donation instead of buying cards for them but I still manage to send about 50 cards to friends and family that we don’t see a lot.

We have had a lot of rain this week..... so no gardening again :-(. Yesterday and this morning was also very windy with leaves blowing everywhere. After lunch the rain stopped and the wind eased so OH said he would clean up the mini-pond a bit. He has just come in and said there are only two frogs in it this year but two’s better than none. So that’s another job done for a few months.

You've all been so busy !

I have bought cards at the library, where they always host Cards for Good Causes and I have stamps, but few presents yet.
Like Ann, we have friends and family all over the place having moved a lot with my husband's work.

This week has been wild and wet, but milder. I haven't done much gardening myself, but have enjoyed noticing other's efforts , when I've been walking or on a bus locally.
Anthirrinum,marigolds, geranium,gazania and begonias are still flourishing in many gardens and I also saw everlasting sweetpeas and a magnificent bed crammed full with beautiful Jersey Lilies..... so still a lot of colour about.

Go to the top of the rose pruning class then Liz :-) :-) As you say, praise indeed.

I did have a little wander round the garden but it has been horribly dark and grey and cold all day so, after a small Tesco shop (They have their six bottles of wine 25% off) I have been indoors. OH has been fixing up a couple of CCTV cameras on the front of the house, a long job and a cold one standing up the ladder. While I was looking round the garden I see my Mr Choppit has been at it again. We usually trim the hardy fuschias down to about 12/18 inches so only the tops get caught by frost. We have three large bushes and all are down to about 6/8 inches. Let's hope the survive the frost.

We still send over 80 Christmas cards, and that is a reduced number. It comes of having moved around a lot since we got married leaving friends in each place. I don't mind the postage I buy stamps gradually through the year. With some people it is the only time we have contact and it is good to keep up with them.

I have also wrapped all 16 year old Granddaughters bag of presents up this afternoon.

Glorious day here so we've spent most of the day in tbe garden! OH has planted loads of bulbs which hopefully will look a treat next spring, as well as a tub full of miniature daffodils. I've pruned the climbing rose and been told that I've done a 'good job'! High praise indeed!! I've also cleaned out the birdbath, cleaned two sets of outside windows and written some Xmas cards!! We don't send anything like the number we used to in the old days so its not that much of a chore anymore. Oh, and put out and brought back, washing!!
Now we're back in the sitting room thinking about a cuppa!! :-D

Lovely news about your new great great niece Ann.

Gill, your winter cherry sounds lovely. I would never manage to keep track of so many pots. I would have to have them listed on paper or the computer.

It’s a bit warmer today but still a very grey day. We have had quite a bit of rain so no watering needed, even on the pots. The garden is looking much more bedraggled now though there are a few things in bloom still. The penstemon have surprised me this year as a lot of them are still blooming and there are a few Japanese anemones still going strong. A viburnum has just started coming into bloom and now that the dogwood has dropped its leaves its lovely orangey red stems are showing.

I haven’t managed to do anything in the garden this weekend apart from cleaning the birdbath. OH did manage to clear up a lot of the leaves but I found something that needed doing indoors before he could grab the secateurs or shears. I am getting quite devious in my old age.

You ladies are well ahead of me in getting ready for Christmas. I have bought two presents because they have got to be posted and that’s all I have done so far. Usually I end up with several people here for Xmas but this year we are planning to go to our son in Yorkshire. I just need a few bits of Christmas food handy in the freezer in case we have to stay here for any reason.

EDIT Well done to your granddaughter Magpie. Four unconditional offers is superb. You must be very proud of her.

Your winter cherry sound lovely Gill. With so many pot plants you could do with keeping a garden diary noting down where you bought each plant as you buy them. Could be on line or in a paper diary. :-)

Thanks Ann for letting me know the dates for Australia, I didn't realise it was that early, I'd better get the presents wrapped and the card written so I can post them off next week.

We have a winter cherry tree and it's showing signs of flowers, there are lots of buds on there, it's pink and looks lovely in the winter. It was in the ground this time last year so I'm surprised it's flowering in it's first year of being in a pot. I wish I could remember where I bought it as I'd love a few more. I've not seen them in the garden centres so I've just got the one. We bought it years ago I think over 10 years and think we were living in Wales then. I buy so many plants it's hard to keep track of where I've bought them all. The winter Cherry is around 12 foot tall, it's a brilliant plant as you have the leaves in the summer and the flowers in the winter, so the best of both worlds.

The brickies have just left and the grounds men are back tomorrow to put in the floor, then we have a day off while the concrete sets then the brickies are back again on Wednesday. I've decided to go Christmas shopping on Tuesday while they're not here, then hopefully the birds might come to the feeder while it's quiet. With having the builders around doing next doors extensions they haven't been coming to the feeder which Sandra is disappointed about. We've just had a quick look over the fence at how the extension is coming along and it's going up very fast

OH spoke to the men as they were leaving when OH came home and they said they will be finished in a week, then there's only the roof to go on and the rendering to do for the outside work. I'm hoping when they start work inside they'll go in and out of the front door, then the birds might venture back, which will please Sandra.

Sandra's watching her favourite Christmas film at the moment, so I'm going to do a bit of work on my family tree.

Thanks again for the Australian Christmas dates. <3

Gill, parcel force to Australia is 7 December, letters date is 10 December. I picked up a little leaflet at the post office yesterday. Very grey here most of the day although the sun came out late this afternoon, and there was a beautiful sunset.

Not a lot in our garden gill, Just some winter flowering Jasmine and a few pansies/violas.. I did put some photos of the garden in November on my blog, looking very wintry and sorry for itself. On the other hand the conservatory is full of colour, geraniums, pelargoniums, fuschias, Christmas cactus and cyclamen.

How lovely Ann, a new baby in the family, what lovely news. You're doing well with your Christmas cards I haven't started mine yet apart from two I gave my mum the other day to pass onto my nephew when he visits her in a few days. He lives miles away so we don't see him very often and the day he's visiting mum we're out ourselves so won't be able to see him. I must find out what the dates are for postage to Australia as I need to send a parcel as well as a card.

I haven't done much in the garden lately, just a bit of watering as we haven't had a lot of rain lately and with having a pot garden I do need to keep on top of the watering. I noticed the large (10ft) Red Robins were looking a bit droopy but after a good drink they soon perked up. I've moved a few pots around so I can see the flowers better, but apart from that and tidying up a few leaves there's not a lot to do.

How are your cutting coming along Gwyn? I have quite a few Salvia cuttings on my kitchen window sill which are starting to take over. They seem to have done better this year than ever before. I also noticed that my peace lily flowered for the first time in years this year too. I wonder if it had anything to do with the heat wave we had as it's still in flower.

I still have lots of flowers in the garden to, even my fuscia's still have flowers on them, mind you I did move them to a sheltered spot a few months ago so that might have something to do with it. We had a bit of a frost for a few days at the beginning of the week but it's gone quite mild again today and the sun even came out which was nice. I sat outside having a cuppa when I got up this morning and it was lovely and warm. The nights are still a bit cool though.

How lovely to have a new baby girl in your extended family.
I expect her sisters will dote on her.

You are organised Ann !
A good idea to have them ready for a lift to the south. That in itself will save a bit of postage.
Daughter took my overseas cards to have them weighed at the Post Office yesterday.
That relieved me of quite a few pounds..........

It's a cold wind here today, so I don't want to venture into any more garden tidying.
I was walking in the local area earlier and noticed quite a few summer plants still in people's gardens. We haven't had the harsh frosts that some have had, so there's even begonias and nasturtiums in bloom. Lots of berries on the holly bushes too.
My own garden has little colour, just some wind-sown marigolds, which often bloom all year.

Cards all written, addressed (well address labels stuck on) and stamped. Presents to weap now. Some have got to be done by 6 December when they are off to be delivered down south.

Another grey day today, doesn't tempt me into the garden, I am definitely a fair weather gardener. No birds around either although we did have a visit from a robin yesterday.

I think we may have lost a lot of the bird population in the summer's heatwave.

One good piece of news I had this morning, My great niece had her third little girl last night, so that make five great greats. Two great great nephews and three great great nieces. <3

Oh, thank you AnnG! She is aiming for Oxford!! but that WILL depend on her A level results!! But whatever her marks are, she will have secured somewhere which is brilliant!
Christmas cards? I knew there was an outstanding job waiting to be done!!!

How lovely Magpie, well done to her, Unconditional is great, I wonder how she will go about choosing her favourite.

Glad the roses are pruned, that is another job out of the way. Our climbing roses were cut back a couple of weeks ago, we don't have any bush roses, I love them but they don't, for some reason, thrive in our garden.

I am writing Christmas cards.

Roses are pruned and looking good!!Apparently we still have the strawberries to 'sort out' but they can wait till later on!
Elder granddaughter has just rung and she's been offered an unconditional place at four universities (spoilt for choice!!) for next autumn! We are SO chuffed, it's really made our day!!