General Chat

Morning all

Joan last night we had what we call here the "pre gales" . It was very stormy and a local power cut affected a village several miles away but not us. It is now sunny and calm but its later tonight, the wind is supposed to strengthen. Here the local website give out extreme warnings etc every time but we are so use to it, i dont take much notice as quite often it is scaremongering and it doesn't happen!!

All I do is take sensible precautions like secure the bins and small flower pots by moving the pots into a sheltered spot. I have always a good supply of batteries for the torches and now a flask which i may fill again later on.

The problem with the news channel is, is that they do repeat every 1/2 hour. I prefer to have the radio on, at least news and weather is only every hour.

I have my friend and neighbour popping in later for coffee and a catch up so looking forward to that. I think she's quite happy to escape her hubby for an hour on sun afternoon as he watches a lot of sky sports and she cant stand it lol.
Tesco cancelled her order yesterday afternoon so she had to drive 60 mile round trip to buy her own things!

Call the midwife tonight and Vera(last one) so good viewing.

Stay safe everyone

Florence in the hebrides

Morning Ann.

I mean on TV, I watch GBNEWS channel a lot, unfortunately they show the weather forecast every 1/2 an hour & it's far too often IMO.
They scare the living daylights out of me when they tell us about coming storms & show the UK map with all those scary symbols swirling around, we might need to now things like that but there are oldies out there like me who live on thir own & get very worried about forecasts like that.

Joan.

joan do you mean on TV or radio. I find it easier not to listen or watch the weather and news sometimes.

good morning all, 10 degrees here and dry but dull and rain promised later.

Good morning.
A nice sunny, calm morning at the moment, & I'm happy to say that the snow has almost gone, there is still some on the house road & around the edges of the fields.

I thought the storm had started early for us last night, around 8-00pm the wind got up & carried on for a couple of hours then nothing (i was glad about that) but the weather folk are ot in force today scaring folk like me to death with how serious the coming storm is going to be.
I really don't need that.

I hope all is well with everyone.

Joan.

It was freezing when I went to Tescos . There were massive gaps on the shelves, they didn’t have any bananas at all and a very poor selection of apples, no Granny Smiths for instance. Luckily Lidl is just over the road and they had plenty of bananas there. I also got some dishwasher salt which Tesco’s didn’t have. Everything must be stuck on ships having to come the long way to avoid Yemen.

Despite eating chocs Florence I managed to lose a pound this week.
I am very naughty Linda I don't eat enough fruit. I would eat bananas but they are not good for a low carb diet (strangely a lot of fruit seem to fall into that category) I do like and eat berries and Kiwi fruit when I can remember to get them.
Joan glad you sorted the latest water problem.

It is supposedly warmer here, but we have been out and it was still very cold. My daughter came with Esme and we went to the nearby town. She had ordered a sheet of Perspex for a project in the new house. It was cheaper to pick it up from here than order it in line.
We went shopping as Esme wanted some “perfume” of her own. Eve uses perfumed body spray and Esme has been coveting it. So we had a trip to Suoerdrug, so she could buy some. She also had her feet measured, but they hadn’t changed. The sale was on, so she bought a pair of very sparkly trainers with flashing lights on the sole. They were half price, so that was a bonus.

We then went to the garden centre and had a very nice lunch. Eve was supposed to be coming, but she stayed behind with her daddy. He was supposed to be doing his tax return, but I bet neither of them actually did anything.

I need to venture out to Tesco now as we are very low on fruit and we eat lots of it.

I am pleased that your snow is melting up north. I hope the storm doesn’t cause damage.

Hello~~~~~~

Well the temperature has rsen a wee bit, enough for the snow & ice to get away.
It started shifting yesterday, quite quickly considering how much we had, the sun helped.
No sun today so the thaw has slowed down, the snow is slushy & wet & the house road is difficult, worse today than when it was just fresh snow, but daughter managed to get to the hose with care.
It looks awful outside, slush, wet & sooo mucky.

The water situation had changed this morning, after flushing the loo it started to re-fill but not properly, just slow plopping, the bath & sink taps were running a bit slow, anyway daughter coame over & checked the holding tank again & it was still full, so it looked like there was an air lock.

Opening up the water presure pump then opening the 2 bathroom taps, & waiting for the spitting & fa__ing to stop all was well again.
Our friend hasn't started to look for the break in the wiring yet, it's not safe for him to have to use the ladders in this weather, I would rather he waits until this mucky slushy weather has gone.
I don't want him to have any accidents with the ladder, the holding tank is big so I should be ok for water for a good while & daughter will check on it to make sure it's topped up.

re Chocolate.....I'm not a big chocolate fan but I do like the Thorntons Classic selection, I can eat almost all of them, just 2 types that I'm not keen on, but only because my teeth couldn't manage them, LOL.

Not looking forward to the forthcoming storm Florence.

Joan.

Morning all

its cold here as a very windy NE wind and getting stronger. Storm Isha will make its mark later and so just now we have emptied the bins, secured them and shifted a few small flower pots into shelter.

I had a moving around morning and so shifted various vases etc. It now looks more streamlined in the lounge & hallway and less cluttered.

Postie just left me something I ordered but oh my!!! A pair of soft trousers, elasticated and loose fitting/wide leg. But they are at least 33 in side leg or more and look like they would fit someone who was a size 24 !!

So another thing to send back. I really despair when I order anything these days as clothes never seem to fit properly.

Here's hoping in Mar when I go for a hospital check up, I shall get to the big shopping centre and go on a spree then lol.

Joan hope your water supply is fully working today and the young man found the fault.

AnnIn Gloucs, I will probably end up throwing some of the chocs away. i had a box of the Shell chocs. Belgium ones but not a fan of them. The milk Tray dont even taste the same either. Oh well I lost 2lbs this week so onwards and upwards.

Hope everyone keeping warm and staying safe

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning all. 4 degrees here so a lot warmer.
Joan what a performance with the water, thank goodness for your friend, hope he can get it sorted for you.
Florence good that the snow has disappeared and you are now stocked up a bit more again.
Linda, it must be frustrating not knowing when you will be moving, hope it all goes through soon so that you have some sort of date to work with.
Chocolates, Hmm! yes three boxes for Christmas and I am slowly eating them before getting back on the low carb diet as I put on weight over Christmas.

I am glad that you have your water back Joan. I hope that the electrical problem isn’t too bad and you neighbour can sort it out for you.

You are all very naughty tempting me with chocolates. That won’t do my weight any good :-0

If I eat too much chocolate, it makes me wheezy so have to restrict to like 2-3 squares of chocolate or 2 say milk tray. It's because of my asthma.

I just fancy a nice boiled fruit sweet like Foxes fruits but I haven't got any and couldn't see them on Tesco either. Infact there wasn't a great choice of fruity boiled sweets.
I cant really donate any of mine as they are all open with a few missing from each box ;-)

I have a lot of Christmas sweets, too, Florence, and don't know what to do with them, as I very seldom eat sweets, and don't want to start.

I might donate them to the local foodbank - though not exactly nourishing for their clients!

No Ferrero Rocher, thank goodness - my least favourite.

:-D :-D :-D @names def not :-P :-P :-P Cant stand to watch that dreadful programme, makes me feel sick first time I ever saw it!

Fav pizza, big fat chips for me, soup and half a pizza for her,

We still have loads of sweets from xmas, quality street, after eights, maltesas etc Im just fed up with them ,oh and a 24 tray of Ferrero Rocher.

Is Florence’s daughter a fan of I’m a Celebrity……
A bit chewy perhaps.

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Hi Florence. I hope your daughter has bought some lovely teats for you both to enjoy.
Yes our friend is a lovely man, only young, a very kind person.

Daughter has just been here to check on the holding tank, it is now full to the top, she has switched the generator off.
I am so relieved, our friend just needs to locate the breakage in the wiring now, once that's been sorted the pump with do it's own thing in keeping the tank topped up.

I just hope there are no more problems, I don't think I can take much more stress.

Joan.

Oh Joan, what a lovely man and so glad he can help you by giving you a generator so you are not with out water. Those kind of people are hard to come by. thesedays and those that are ready to help charge the earth!

Daughter just made it for the bus and now home with bags of goodness know what lol
I have just put the heating on now as the temp seems to have dropped sharply so it will soon be warm in here.

Linda, my estate agent said that the local authorities are the ones that take ages to answer all the questions about land etc... we have no chain and just the buyer and seller and she said end of Feb beg of Mar hopefully. So until all the paperwork and land registry forms have been dealt with, they cant give you a date yet. The searches here have all been done and completed.

Hello Linda, I do hope the house sale goes well for you, you deserve something good to happen.

Our friend has been to check out the water situation, it would appear there is no power reaching the pump, he will need to check the wiring that connects the pump to our electric supply, in the mean-time he is going to connect his own generartor so as to get some water from the well up to the holding tank.

I don't know how we would manage without him, he is an electrician by trade & very knowledable re plumbing so he is very useful, & very willing to help.

It is thawing nicey here just now, icicles have gone & most of the deep snow on the roof has cleared, the guttering however is full of snow !

Lots of deep snow all over the garden not touched yet, many of the shrubs can'r be seen at the moment & I reckon it will be a while before we see the mass of Snowdrops.

Joan.

And then it was gone......

Afternoon all. Had a very sleepless night as my sinuses are really bad and just kept sneezing and blowing me nose every few minutes, just awful. But then the rain came and was lashing on my bedroom window at 4am!

However I eventually nodded off after sleeping sitting up with loads of pillows but when I got up at 8am, opened the curtains to find most of the snow had vanished as if by magic :-D

So daughter away to town to collect some things and then back at 2.30 . I have made another pan of lentil soup today as she really enjoyed the other pan.
We did do some baking but.... my cinnamon swirls were not the best. They were edible but not that tasty and wasnt worth the pile of washing up either afterwards!!

Anyway no baking today.

I am carrying on with the friends family tree to get it finished asap. Daughter is working on a Diamond Art I bought her for xmas and its keeping her busy.

Joan, Oh my no water upstairs!! Gosh what next? I so hope your friend can sort out the pump for you. Yes phone the hospital and explain your situation. about not being able to do any washing. Here's hoping you wont need a new one, maybe its just because of the freezing temp and snow maybe.

AG, that's a real nuisance with the freezer but its lasted pretty well. Think my mums old fridge was about 25 years when it finally gave up. I sometimes wish we had space for another or larger freezer to build up a good supply for when we cant get deliveries. My fridge freezer has 4 drawers so not huge but there is only 2 of us but like you we are rural. I don't have a garage or shed and although kitchen is a good size, there really isn't room for any other appliance.

The courier has just been and delivered me a large Thermos Flask I ordered last week. One of those things we just never got round to buying. Its 1 litre in size with 2 cups and will be handy especially as there is a big storm heading this way next few days so perfect timing :-D

Well better check on the soup and make some crumpets for me lunch then more family tree work.

Hope you get sorted Joan

Florence in the hebrides

Oh Joan, the water problem is just what you don’t need. It makes me appreciate our mains services. I hope that your neighbour can get you up and running again

I have spent all morning answering queries from our new buyers solicitor. So it looks like they did buy the searches from the previous buyers and everything is progressing quickly. I just wish we had a timescale so we could have a rough idea when we will be going, assuming everything goes through smoothly of course