General Chat

Using the carpet in the garden is a good idea. When we had the allotment, I had a very large fruit cage. I used old carpet in that to keep the weeds down, it worked well.

Are you still planning to have that big poly tunnel? You could use the carpet to kill off the current growth. Friends are always happy to have old carpet for their allotment to put down over winter.

Afternoon all
Not a nice day here at all. Showery and very blustery wind. I will have to venture out a bit later and water all the new pots as didnt do that yesterday.

Daughter has gone off to hospital as shes having a wee procedure tomorrow and had to drink some awful medicine just now.
She said it had lemon in and made her feel sick, so they put blackcurrant juice in it and she managed to get it down poor thing!

She should be back on Friday bless her.

Joan, you made me chuckle with "skippers" on toast. Hope they stay still long enough for you to eat them lol.So glad for you that hubby had 2 lots of soup, you will have to make some more lol

I can't keep the carpets in the house as the hallway is simply not big enough. The only thing I can do if I cant find anyone to take them away other than the council, is get bin bags and wrap the carpets and secure with tape so they wont get wet outside.

Linda not all in one go as couldnt manage that. No, 1 room at a time a week apart. Daughter has managed to empty all her bits and pieces into plastic boxes and they are now stored behind the sofa! She only has 2 chest of drawers and a single bed so the easiest room to empty.

I have had 2 days of greek yoghurt but today need a hot meal so making a veggie stir fry with some rice. had plenty of veg in the fridge needing to be used.

Anyone watching masterchef ? Semi finals were on last night but its not celebrity just ordinary folk. A few good ones among them particularly an Indian gentleman who is an accountant.

Well enjoy the rest of the day ladies, id better get on with some tidying up.

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon everyone.

Fine & dry for us today, the same as yesterday, a bit of wind, not much sunshine but comfortably warm.
I haven't been outside much today, just at the back of the house so far to see how my new plants are doing, they are coming along & pleased to see they have taken.

I did a bit of weed killing yesterday & still a bit of a gravelled area to do today, safe enough even with the wind, nothing to damage in said area.
I heed to fill up the bird bayjs as well, will get a lot of exercise doing that as there are several of them around the garden.to do. .

I made Lentil & Bacon soup yesterday & hubby really enjoyed it, so much so he is going to have the portion that was left over, hoping he will enjoy it again today, it's such a relief to see him eat something with great relish !

Just a light meal for me today, after eating 2 large portions of soup yesterday my stomch needs a bit of a rest, lol., so I'm going for Skippers on toast, delicious,

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Joan.

Well so much for my lazy day, I decided to do a litter pick and collected a whole bin bag full. That is the second one this week. I have a modified trolley to fit the bag on because I can’t carry it. Even so, I am shattered, so I will sit with my feet up while I have lunch

As far as "bulky uplifts" by Highland Council (my area) is concerned,
anything which is likely to soak up water - carpets, soft furnishings, mattresses, etc - has to be covered to protect it from rain while it waits on the roadside for the pre-booked uplift.
That's not so easy, if it's something really big such as a lot of carpet.

Linda's right - a man with a van is much more expensive - but at least he would presumably collect the item from inside the house, if it can be kept indoors until he arrives.

It is a glorious sunny day here,it has been warm for a few days now. Summer is finall here.

I hope that you had a nice time with your daughters friend Florence. Are you having the carpets done in one go Florence? I think at one time you said you were going to spread them out. Getting rid of them is a problem, you can probably hire a man with a van to take them to the tip.There are lots of people like that round here, but it would probably be far more expensive than waiting for the council to take them.

My daughter has gone down to London this morning for a work meeting, she got the 6.30am train and will be away over night. That means daddy is looking after Esme, she is not pleased about that obviously

I don’t have anything on the calendar today, so I will have a lazy day. The only thing I need to do is to transplant some tomato plants which the neighbour gave me into a grow bag.

Good morning everyone.
Daughter announced that her friend who has recently passed her driving test is coming over today for a visit!

She has not been here since we moved, so daughter is quite excited she is coming and i was thinking, oh no what will i make for her lunch?? So late last night, gave her a list to get in Tesco lol problem solved.

Its a very grey and overcast looking day with low cloud so might plump a shower or 2.

AnnG, the carpet chappies have said we wont need to move the sofas as they can work around them and move them for us which is a huge relief. The only other heavy items are our 6 chest of drawers. The computer desk is fairly light and the printer station on wheels, so thats easy enough.

But the problem is afterwards as to what do I do with all the defect carpet as they wont take it away? I shall have to ring the council and ask as they do a service where they will uplift 5 things for £25 just not sure how that works with carpet although 3 large rolls plus the hall is 4 items isnt it? So maybe it will be ok.
Except, its over 3 weeks so the old carpet will have to be put outside and possible get wet? And where will it go, lying on the front lawn? Hmmm!

Hope everyone else looking in today is well and hope the sun shines on you all.

Better crack on, get a quick shower before daughter's friend arrives at 10.30!
Bonus of the visitor is. she can take daughter to local PO and post a few things for me including friends family tree....sorted

Florence in the Hebrides :-D

Good morning all 7 degrees here but supposed to be warm later. yesterday it was very hazy all morning then the sun came out until it clouded over in the evening. I had a good wander round Cheltenham yesterday but didn't buy much just a couple of bits I wanted, no clothes. today after lunch my friend is taking me with another friend to Dobbies garden centre to get a few more plants I want. I also want to get a new hose but that depends on me seeing the one I want,

Florence no sooner have you got back to normal after having your friend to stay than you have the upheaval of carpet fitting. Be careful moving furniture around don't go giving yourself an injury. As you say, if it rains you won't have to water the garden. I hate to say it but our gardens here could do with a good shower.

JG. another one busy in the garden, no veg planting for me but you can't beat fresh veg. Your bench sounds a good buy.

Joan, hope your granddaughter is healing well. And hope the weather is kind to you so that you can get out into the garden.

Morning all
Well so glad we got all the planting done yesterday as the dark clouds are looming and very soon it will downpour but then i wont have to water all the plants...every cloud lol

JustGinnie, your bench sounds lovely and storage too, what a bonus.

Just lots of chores today, dusting, vacuum, ironing etc and also have to prep room for when the first new carpet is coming 7 jun. So packing away all my little nic-nacks etc and in daughters room(shes the first room) as she has less furniture to move out.

Will be an awful upheaval but worth it and hopefully this carpet will last longer than 2 years.

Right hope all ok, off to be busy

Florence in the hebrides

Hello everyone,

Well it's been another lovely day here and we have been out in the garden planting some veg plants that OH bought and some roses that I took a fancy too. I have a small flowerbed that gr/son planted some wild flower bombs in and they are starting to look quite pretty .The neighbouring council have done a lot of the grass verges with wild seed planting and they do look lovely in the summer .

Sorry to hear about your gr/daughter Joan, I hope she heals quickly.

Florence it sounds like you had a lovely time with your friend. Your garden will look stunning with all your new plants.

I bought a wooden bench from the Range and am very pleased with it as it has storage which will hold the cushions. Just the job for our small garden.

Take care all.

Ginnie

Afternoon everyone.

Well all the plants have been planted...phew is all i can say. Glorious sun this morning and I took full advantage to get cracking with planting up. But oh my, it really was soo hot at one point, i felt a bit dizzy so went inside for a sit down and a cuppa.

The garden is now looking lovely and soon when everything is in full bloom, it will be a picture.
Joan, so good to see you posting but so sorry for your grandaughter. poor wee thing, how awful for that to happen. I'm sure she will be fed up missing her team games. Hope she makes a good recovery.

Yes difficult with hubby's food but I would make whatever and then make sure you have some rolls or a quick thing handy so you can give him something else but yes its a nuisance when you have actually cooked a meal.
Im sure your cross stitch will look amazing when you have finished it. I started crocheting a blanket for a single bed 2 years ago and then lost interest in it but actually if i went back to it, it really wouldnt take long to finish it plus the tassels arggghh.

AnnG, yes was disappointing she didnt have room. She only bought a small cabin bag and goodness knows how she fitted enough clothes in it for 5 days! It would have only done me overnight lol but she didnt need towels, shampoo etc as i provided them to ease the weight and space in her bag.

I shall have to parcel it up but she left me money to cover the postage so all ok.

I have made a dinner with long grain rice and chicken cooked with spices and a stock cube which i shall mix together very soon and serve with poppadums.

I have watered the smaller pots but may have to again later after sunset as th soil was very dry in the compost bag.

I did feel like we were both on holiday as went out everyday somewhere with no men telling us to hurry up out of the gifts shops :-D :-D :-D her hubby would have been bored trailing around with us like most men!

Right off to finish the tea.

Florence in the hebrides

gorious here too. I have just been weeding and cutting back but came in for lunch as it was too hot. Joan your poor granddaughter how upsetting for her.

Linda just shows the difference between private and council run education but I suppose the speaker is paid from fees. Glad you enjoyed it anyway. do ordinary schools have speech days now?

Florence what a lovely week you had, one to treasure as a memory. Lovely for you to get out and about too. what a shame she couldn't get the information in her case now you have the trouble of getting it posted. I bet it will be heavy too.

It is a glorious day here Joan. I have just been out for a long litter pick walk, I got a very large bag full.
Your poor granddaughter, being part of a team is so important to them at that age. Luckily she is young and they usually heal well and quickly

Morning girls.
It sounds as though you had a really lovely time with your old friend Florence, it must have been such a nice change for you.

Well it's a wet day today after some rain in the early morning, it's off just now but there's a bit of wind & not at all warm !
Only been into the garden once this past week to do some odd spots of weedkilling, thankfully it stayed dry after I did it so it should have been able to start working.

Other than doing some household jobs during the past week I have been quite lazy, I got back to my crosstiting project, I haven't done very much of it for such a long time. It's quite a large picture of Edinburgh Castle & I have been doing it on & off for a loooong time now, it's coming along nicely but I will be glad when it's completed, it's going to be some time yet though, lol.

Hubby is not too bad, he varies from day to day, meals are the worst for him, he fancies things & then when I produce them he changes his mind , then I worry about him not eating as well as he should !

I'm going to have to go without my garden helper (11yr old grandaughter) for a few weeks, she broke her Collar Bone on Friday at school, looks a nsty break from the X ray pic, she is gutted as she is in the team at her Netball club & with lot's of games coming up she is not going to be able to be part of them, such a shame.

Well hubby will be looking for his his cuppa so I had better go & make it.

I hope everyone is well & the weather is better than ours.

Joan.

I am glad that you had such a lovely week Florence. It sounds like your garden will be lovely with all those new plants

This morning we went to my granddaughters school speech day, so posh frocks all round. They actually do two in one day, the poor staff must be shattered. The junior and middle school had theirs from 10-12am, then the upper school ( years 10 and 11) and sixth form had theirs in the afternoon.
We went to the morning one, it was very good, not at all like the boring things we used to have. The keynote speaker was Kevin Sinfield, he was excellent. They always have a huge posh marquee in the grounds and everyone gets an afternoon tea box , complete with Buck’s Fizz or orange juice. The food is always excellent. It is all free, well out of the fees of course :-D

Delighted you had such an enjoyable week, Florence.
Lots of good memories and photos!

Good morning chit chatters :-D

Im back after the most wonderful week with my oldest and dearest friend,

She arrived on Monday afternoon but the plane was an hour late arriving which did nothing for my BP! I started crying as soon as I saw her walking down the plane steps but after we hugged and cried a bit more, we were both fine.

So went to the car hire and then walked over to the car but it wasnt what I had hired!! This was a brand new 23 plate, a Nissan Duke with only 300 miles on the clock.

My friend said there was no handbrake or key for the ignition :-S Anyway was about to send daughter back over to the airport, when the 2 young men who served us came over. The handbrake is a little button and you start it by pushing a button!! All very hi tech and far too modern for us :-D :-D

Drove around the car park several times to let her get used to it and then ventured out on the main rd and headed into town. all was fine and did some food shopping etc, had a coffee and a look round the factory shop.

Headed home late afternoon.

She loved my little bungalow and wished they had something similar where she lives in Sussex.

So everyday we went out, to a local beach, the standing stones for lunch etc, over to my last house and visited my old landlady. Took lots of pics there as the scenery is beautiful. Went shopping in town and to a hotel for a meal on the thursday.

Also managed to the garden centre where I spent £100 on plants and a large bag of bird seed. She helped to plant up lots until the weather changed mid week. Nut we had 3 good days and then it was windy and rainy but it didnt matter really.

She flew off yesterday afternoon and today, i have been stripping beds and tidying up etc as you do after the guests have gone.

In all was the best week I have had in the last 2 years . Was so lovely going out to all these places and showing her around plus having coffees here and there.

All very quiet here now and myself and daughter are missing the chatter and laughter.,

She was amazed with her family tree and just couldn't believe how many pages it took and big it was. She is desperate to show her family but sadly it wouldnt fit in her cabin bag so left me money to post it to her.

So all back to normal now :-(

So very quiet on here, hope you all are well?
Not seeing Joan at all? Joan if you are looking in, please say hello, worry when we don't see you posting.

AnnG and Linda glad you both are ok.

Well loads of washing and tomorrow ironing for Scotland lol

Back soon

Florence in the hebrides

She always sounds a very bright little girl and, from what you are saying she is able to cope with her disabilities at her young age. I am sure she is fascinating to watch playing and the hoist should be photographed and shown to other parents. Your OH is a clever man Linda. Is there any progress with the house buying?

Ah yes Florence was expecting her friend to stay so hope that is the reason.

I saw your photos, it looked to be a really good day out.

Florence was having a friend coming to stay, hopefully that is why she hasn’t been on the thread.

We went to the local garden centre for lunch today and I bought a few herbs to fill some spaces in my large herb tub

OH has been busy making a toy hoist for Esme. Four out of the six people in her school class are in wheelchairs, so they have to be hoisted in school, some of them use the vertical standers to be moved around as well. She loves playing schools and pretending to hoist her toys is always part of her games. She is quite inventive and often attaches them to a helium balloon and mimics the motor noise as she pretends to move them around. I bought her a small basket ball hoop on a stand last week, but it hasn’t made it into the garden. She declared it was Santas stander. She has a huge stuffed Santa which comes up to my waist which she loves to play with. He can’t walk, so he wears her old AFO’s ( leg braces). I managed to attach part of an old seat belt to the stand, so she can clip Santa on and move him around.
OH decided to make her a hoist out of wood, he even painted it pink. It has castors so she can move it around. I made the sling part. When she saw it, she was squealing in delight. She hasn’t stopped playing with it all night. A resounding success, but another thing to clutter up the house

:-(