General Chat

Before I started researching I wrongly thought that that although my ancestors might have had lots of children as they didn’t have birth control, that lots of the children wouldn’t survive, but my tree is not like that. My fathers side came from Northumberland and the good country lifestyle meant there were very few child deaths. My whatever it is g grandmother in the mid 1800’s had fifteen children and all but one of them survived. My mothers side came from Yorkshire and although they worked in the mills, it was in country areas and again the children were healthy.

Having said that I did a tree for a friend and her family was centred on the poor parts of Manchester and sadly the child mortality rate was really high.

It was another teachers strike today, so I have been entertaining Esme all day as her parents were working, thankfully she is back at school tomorrow

I needed to make a GP appointment today to discuss some blood test results. Our system works well, you ring at 8am. I did it on the dot and was third in the queue. If you need an appointment the gp will ring you back sometime during the day and if they decide that they need to see you you go more or less straight to the surgery. Most of the time just a phone call is all that is needed and they get through more people with this system. Before this new system, it took days to get an appointment because they were all face to face,this way is much better. They do say that it could be anytime up to 6.30 pm before the GP rings, but it is usually in the morning.
Anyway I needed to do some shopping, so went to Aldi, I was in a queue, I was next in line to put my stuff on the conveyor belt when they announced they were opening another till. So I leapt over to that one and unloaded all of my stuff. I had just put the last thing on and the cashier was just about to start scanning when my mobile rang and it was the doctor. Luckily the woman behind me just had a few things in a basket so I told her to go first while I explained to the doctor that I was going through the Aldi checkout. She thought it was funny and said it was Sods Law, so she said she would ring me back in ten minutes. That gave me time t get back to the car, so we could have a nice quiet chat.

AnnG, she did say it was going to be a big tree but, I hadn't banked on several having 10 children or more!! It got better as it was more up to date as from 80's onwards maybe 2 or 3 children at the most so that bit was a lot quicker.

Good afternoon all. We have had good gardening weather for three days now, Saturday, Monday and today so I have managed to get quite a lot done out there tomorrow is hairdresser and Thursday is Gloucester royal to have my hearing aids checked over, both involve a fairly long walk so it is bound to rain.

Joan you have managed a bit of gardening and your seats sound lovely.
At least your hubby is safe in the spare room but I hope he doesn't get too bored. has he got a TV in there. talking of carrying food and drinks upstairs. Have you got somewhere upstairs you can have a kettle and all the things to make a drink. maybe not milk but it would be safer to carry a jug of milk up once a day than to carry hot drinks up for him.

goodness Florence that is a lot of A3 sheets, Is she expecting that much?

Afternoon all.
Good to hear from you Joan and glad all is ok. Our weather over here has been pretty cold and I have had the heating on as well! The sun is coming out now and little wind but its still chilly.
You have been a busy bee and I hope you enjoy "gliding" on your new chair, sounds wonderful.
The cuckoo has been heard elsewhere but not in our village yet but shouldn't be far away

I have been beavering away on my friends family tree which I have now finished. She will be here on the 15th May and is really excited to see it and be here with me.
The whole thing filled 42 A3 sheets of paper!!!

I have new trellis for the walls and pots ready to fill but i'm waiting on a small drill/screwdriver which is cordless to put some nails in the wall so I can attach the wooden trellis to. Quite excited as never owned my own drill before and cant wait to
use it.

I'm making salmon fillets, new pots and peas tonight as we haven't had this for ages...yummy.

Does your hubby have a radio in the bedroom to listen to Joan, just an idea?

I'm seeing a loch across near me and the sides are showing the water level well below. We just haven't had any rain for weeks now except an odd shower. if we don't get a decent downpour soon, we will be on a hosepipe ban, heaven forbid!

Hope everyone else looking in, Linda, AnnG, JG are all ok and anyone else.

Florence in the hebrides

Good afternoon everyone.
Not much has happened here for several days due to the wet & COLD weather, but at long last it is much nicer today, no wind,bright & some sunshine & much warmer than of late, yesterday it was freezing, more like the winter months.

I have managed a couple of hours outside today, tidying up the flowers that are dying off, I can see some new plants peeping through, Potentillas, Liliums, Bleeding Heart, Cranesbill,
One of my Bleeding Hearts at the back of the house was doing really well & the flowers were out but this past weeks weather has ruined the flowers, so disappointing.

Our Swallows arrived back, only seen a couple of them around the garden so far this morning but hopefully there will be others, I love seeing them, they will no doubt be building their nests in the garage & old steading before long.

Our daighter was over yesterday bringing with her my 2 new garden seats that have beeen waiting to be put tgether, she did that for me for me, they look lovely, black in colour & steel.
Her next project is to put together my other new seat, also steel & black but no ordinary seat, it's a Gliding one, I bought it last year & have been waiting patiently for it to be put together, looking forward to having a glide on it soon, LOL

Hubby is not too bad, he's quite chirpy considering he is now confined to the spare bedroom & we can't chat as much as we would like, but he is much safer not having to climb the stairs to get to the bathroom now.
I am getting a LOT of excercise going up & down the stairs with his meals etc, lol, I can maage but it's not always easy carrying food & drink.

I hope all is well with everyone, & having some nice weather.

Hoping for a nice day on Saturday for the Coronation, really looking forward to seeing Charles & Camilla crowned, just need to get some nibbles in, lol.

Joan.

That reminds me of my lovely OH Linda who was always quite happy doing the ironing and loved being bought a new iron.

It is quiet here as the girls have gone swimming. I did a large Tesco shop yesterday, but forgot to put on3 vital ingredient for tomorrow’s meal on the shopping list. So I popped back this afternoon to get that and a couple of other bits. I left OH doing the ironing, but got a call to ask if we have a spare iron as the on he was using had just blown up. We don’t, so I looked and had a choice of four in Tesco. I got one for £26 which was on offer. When I got back I checked and it is £47 on Amazon. They did have a couple of cheaper ones, but he deserve s the best :-D :-D. He is happily ironing away now bless him

Florence you really need to drill a hole and use a rawl plug to put a nail or screw into the wall otherwise it might just crack the brick and fall out. Unless you are puttingg them onto wood when you could use a screw.

Afternoon all.
Lovely sunny day but chilly in the breeze. Got a load of washing out and drying nicely.
Dad arrived an hour late in Corfu but had a pleasant trip with no problems. he got his Nisan Micra delivered to him today for the next 13 days and has gone for a short drive out somewhere this afternoon.

My garden trellises arrived today with the 2 rectangular planters. They are 6ft x 1ft and are perfect. The planters were such good value and very sturdy, so have ordered 2 more but am going to plant beetroot in 1 and carrots in the other as they are deep enough.

Just not sure how to fix the trellis to the wall. I'm thinking of banging in a few nails and can then tie the trellis to the nails?

Joan, I haven't seen you around all week so hope you have either been busy in the garden or elsewhere. Hope your hubby is doing ok?

I have made chicken tikka for tea with rice tonight and cant wait for that as smells delicious.

Well off to be busy and check on the washing as should be nearly dry.
Hope all ok with everyone else looking in today

Florence in the hebrides

AnnG, hes flying from Gatwick but this year, he decided to pay for a taxi there and back from his house and hang the cost! Both him and friend have sticks and will get special assistance with wheelchairs so will help them both.

2 years ago, he insisted on walking himself and promptly tripped on the escalator and a pile of people fell on top of him!!! He managed to recover and was only his pride that got hurt. He laughs about it now that wherever he goes, he seems to cause some trouble :-D :-D :-D

I shall be looking at the live webcam later to watch the plane land hopefully.

I slept for Scotland last night as only woke at 9am!!! So all behind now and need to carry on with writing up this tree before daughter back this afternoon.

Sun is peeping through the clouds but its chilly outside.9 degrees here

Right off to be busy

Will look in later on.
have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning all. 12 degrees here so far (0730) but a bit misty/grey looking so maybe rain later,
Pleased that your daughter is ok now Florence. Goodness your dad is obviously still fit if he is happy to travel these days. Last holiday for me abroad was 2019. I am not sure if we would be still going abroad if OH was still alive, the airports are the problem these days. Maybe he can fly from a less busy airport. Good luck to him anyway.

Morning all, what a cold horrid day brrr.

Its so cold, i may have to put the heating back on and it hasn't been on for a week or more now. I think snow is forecast in the highlands as well. Hope you don't get it Joan!

Daughter all settled back into normal regime thank goodness so I did sleep better last night.
Father is off to Corfu no less with his friend tomorrow for 2 weeks. 86 and still loving going away, I do worry though about his driving!

So with mums photos all now sorted and stuck in 3 albums, today is all about restarting my besties family tree as I have been neglecting it recently and she will be here soon.

I have written out 4 A3 sheets this morning so just having a quick coffee break and then back to it. As I'm home alone, I can spend all day writing up without interruptions as daughter will be back tomorrow.

Hope all looking in are ok today.

Joan haven't seen you all week so hope everyone ok with you and hubby.

So quick read on the news and then back to research etc.

Florence in the hebrides

Linda, when my daughter was 6 she had an aggressive cancer and of course the Chemo destroyed her iron and platelets so she had to get regular infusions .On average you should have 350 platelets give or take but if they ever go as low as 20, you would need an infusion.
Is your iron level a bit on the low side as well?

My you will be like a pin cushion with all the tests!

Im sure your GP will do all the usual, FBC, LFT U's & Es etc standard practice if yours are below levels.

Im sure whatever is the cause can be resolved. If its your iron level, have a beetroot sandwich everyday and that will boost your levels very quickly without the need for iron tablets.

Well its been a beautiful day and quite warm. I managed out and about for 15 minutes and enjoyed the fresh air. I have just hung out 3 bits of washing and im sure it will be dry as there is a good breeze now.

I am glad that your daughter is OK Florence, hopefully you will both get a good nights sleep tonight.

I am going to look like a pin cushion by the end of the week. We keep getting invites from the doctors to take part in trials, I guess they get money for drumming up custom.

OH is currently doing a heart monitoring one. He has a little device he puts his fingers on and it takes a reading which is automatically sends. He has to do that four times a day for three weeks.When he finishes that, I will do it.

I signed up for a second NHS one called Our Future Health. Apparently they are trying to get data from five million people. I had to go to a nearby town where they had a mobile centre in a supermarket car park. They did, height ,weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and heart rate. They do a finger prick for cholesterol levels ( which was fine), then a blood sample. If anything is wrong, they tell you of course, so I am expecting to hear from them.

I had already arranged this when my doctors arranged an appointment for my annual, review which involves a blood test, so,I had that done in the other arm earlier this week. I always have low abnormal results for all the ones to do with white blood cells and platelets, but this time they are especially low, so the doctor wants to repeat the test. I will do that on Friday, so will have had three blood tests in a week.

I am hoping that it will be OK as all these low things are signs of infection such as lupus or bone cancer. Best not to read about it, as there are too many nasty things. I will just ignore it for the time being.

It is quiet in the house today as the girls are at school, but Esme has tomorrow and next Tuesday off because of the teachers strikes, so there will be no peace for me tomorrow

Just had a phone call, daughter is ok and sugard stable but she waiting to hear from the Diabetic nurse at the clinic to chat about tonight's doses. Phew!!!

I can now relax a little this afternoon.
I have ordered 2 small trellis and 2 planters for each side of the front door.

Cant decide what climbers to plant in them?

Anyone know of a good long flowering climber i could get? Something colourful.

Hope your daughter has recovered Florence. Good that you are able to progress with the sale of the flat, hope it sells quickly for you.

A dry day here as well but still a bit chilly .

Not been doing much except the usual tidying up. OH has been pottering around the garden . The cherry tree has some beautiful blossom at the moment.
Hope everyone has a good day.

Ginnie

Morning all.
Well I had a very sleepless and worrying night!

My daughter fully recovered from Covid decided to go and visit her elderly nanna who has become very frail so much so that the aunty has come home to look after her for a bit.
Yesterday afternoon, daughter went out for a walk. She took her insulin around 4.30 but then.....when she was having her food did she not take another 24 units by mistake so 48 units in less than 2 hours!!!

So, panic stations set in. She rang 111 and was in the queue for an hour. She then waited an hour for someone to phone her back. So that was 2 hours waiting in which time her sugars had dropped loads and had to keep eating and drinking to avoid a big Hypo.

The aunty is a qualified nurse thank goodness, so 111 decided she was best placed staying at the nannas house for the night with aunty/nurse checking her sugars all night every 1/2 hour.

I never slept a wink worrying whether she would end up in A & E. I checked her Whattsapp and she was last seen at 6.15 am and not heard a word from her. I guess shes probably sleeping if she was up all night.

When she has a Hyper(high sugars) its actually easier to control by givinng insulin to reduce the sugars but when its the other way around, its much harder toi get the sugars up to a stable level and probably will take a couple of days to get back to normal levels.

Just when I thought I would have a couple of days to myself, peace and quiet and then it all goes pear shaped...what next.

Hope all is well with everyone. The sun has made a comeback today..yayi :-D :-D

Florence in the hebrides

Morning everyone
Well I'm feeling better but still chesty and to my surprise, got a delivery of more steroids yesterday. Apparently they had shortened my prescription as was out of stock so I have another 28 tablets. I'm glad as they do me the world of good so shall take 4 a day for 7 days and hopefully clear my cough once and for all.

Been quite busy in the house tidying and sorting out things ready for my friend coming. My new plant pots arrived and some ceramic rectangle kitchen dishes too which are lovely. Just right for individual crumbles or lasagne or for dips/chips etc

Just my cast iron casserole dish to come and then I can make my veggie hotpot, its actually a bit lighter than cast iron but looks like it.

We had some hail/snow yesterday but didn't come to much however the temp is down even with the sun out. The high temps we had last week have long gone.

The DWP have concluded their investigation into mums estate and no action to be taken as it would appear everything was in order, so that's a relief.

Hoping the estate Agent going round this Friday to value the flat.

Hoping everyone is well and ok.

off to sort some more laundry for the drier now.

Florence in the hebrides

Well the chicken wings went down well, they were delicious. The coleslaw made with greek yoghurt and a dash of lime juice was so tasty, daughter said to make it again :-D

I did not make the crumpets today as was just too busy and think I will wait until i have finished the shop ones in the bread bin.

AnnG, I was borderline pre-diabetic last year so to keep it down, i made a few changes but nothing drastic. I switched to sweeteners instead of sugar, sugar free volvic flavoured water instead of fresh orange juice.

Reduced my intake of bread, pasta etc. I dont eat many cakes anyway.

if you cut out carbs altogether, you develop key tones which isn't healthy. We all need some sugar in one form or another otherwise we would have permanent hypos and that would be dangerous.

Everything in moderation i say.

What a horrid, cold wet & windy day today. Its like we have gone back to winter!

I started filling my albums with mums photos from her life after sorting roughly into years. Helpful nanna put dates on the back because bless my mum, she never wrote anything on any of them! I have 2 albums left to do and thats another job all done and dusted.

2 weeks tomorrow and my bestie from down south will be here so i am a tad excited as the last time she was here was in 2000!!!

Right dishes are calling me

Florence in the hebrides

good morning all. booster vaccination for me this morning so nothing else planned.

As I was pre-diabetic (almost) with my last blood test, I am now, before my check up in October, going to try the diet that helps to keep daughters sugar level down. I won' do it as strictly as she does but will try. she is on a no carb diet and it does work. she has an arm patch and a meter on her phone that monitor the blood sugar level. Luckily she can afford to do this as although the first two patches are free, the subsequent ones cost her £100 a month!!

Anyway for me that means no bread, biscuits, cakes, potatoes rice, pasta and a host of other things. and a list of things I can eat if I cook them myself using almond or coconut flour. It sounds draconian and she is very good at sticking to it. Her main reason was to get herself off the drug that regulates blood sugar levels but caused her constant stomach problems for years. I don't have to be as draconian as she is (she is Type 2 and has been for 10 years now). just reduce my carbs as much as possible. I will see how it goes. First step will be to go in to town this week to buy Almond flour.