Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Drum roll…

Potatoes a success!!!

Pic on Potato Thread.

Guess what’s for tea?

 

Garden visiting today with L-Asphodèle gardening club. Medieval style garden this morning, built 30 years ago to enhance an impressive tower which the council had bought and restored. The garden is divided into 4 squares - aromatic, medicinal, culinary and sorceror (poisonous) - and each square also has 4 squares to represent the 4 elements, the 4 pillars of Catholicism etc. There's also an orchard, as decreed by Charlemagne so people had fruit to eat in winter, and an impressive pigeon tower with nesting slots for 4000 birds tho it is now inhabited only by a Little Owl.

The afternoon was the garden of a woman whose family is in agriculture so they have land. We began with our picnic lunch under the shade of two huge oak trees in a field where they have assorted hens running free. Both are now retired and have handed the farming reins to their daughter who's gone organic and that leaves time for Odile to develop her garden - sloping down to a small stream and filled with mature trees and shrubs, herbaceous perennials including brightly coloured alstroemerias and hemerocallis, lots of ferns and hostas and a veg plot and orchard.

She also has a tetrapanax that has babies and I can have one at the plant swap in November.

38C outside this pm so now I'm home I've had a cuppa and stayed indoors where it's mid 20s. I was up early again this morning watering the rose beds before 8am as they're in full sun once it gets up over the hedgerow across the road until 5 or 6pm.

Possum and I really dislike the sound quality of live pop/rock music @Penny_Forthem and I have never liked Neil Young's whiny voice so we were surprised to find OH listening to Glastonbury on the kitchen TV while he sat and had a beer on the terrace. We turned it off. Not good.

Apparently a decree has gone out banning smoking on beaches, in parks and in bus shelters as of today. A good measure for health and environment but should also help reduce wild fires in some areas.

Well done with the potatoes @AuntyRach. Good luck with that terrace project @lizzie27. It'll be worth it.

 

Hello from another Holiday Inn, this one at Helsinki Airport. We fly to Dublin at 7.45 tomorrow morning, so it's going to be an early night.
Today's train journey wasn't the trouble-free experience we've come to expect in Finland, where almost all trains run on time; serious damage to the track near Helsinki meant our inter city train had to terminate some distance from the capital (in a thunderstorm!), and people needing to get to the airport quickly had to squeeze into taxis. We expected to need to wait for the replacement bus, but our kind Finnish friends, who we were due to visit today, drove a long way to collect us, and we spent most of the day with them. They have the most beautiful house - not big, but very Scandinavian, all white and airy...

 

Hello all.

I got up late this morning, partly because daughter Gaby rang before breakfast. Church was 11am so no rush. It was a Benefice service with a coffee morning afterwards so the big church was pretty full. The coffee morning was good for finishing up the cakes left over from yesterday's tea party!

We stopped for a beer in our village pub on the way home. The new couple, but it's nearly 2 years now, are doing a big renovation of the very old, beautiful thatched pub. The front walls have been stripped and rebuilt and lime plastered and the rotting wooden windows have been replaced. It's a listed building. They have brought life back into the village, with their events, meals, real ales and enthusiasm.

We had the Cromer crab that I bought in the market yesterday for lunch, with salad, sitting in the garden. It wasn't so hot today and there was a lot more cloud - still summer dress weather.

This afternoon I altered a dress from Sea Salt. I take Petite and they hadn't got it in Petite so the waist was too low and it was too long. Fits better now.

I've also been looking up holidays in Corfu for October. OH has never been and I've been 3 times, a long time ago, starting with my honeymoon.

I read that about smoking in France @Obelix-Vendée, but they haven't stopped smoking on restaurant terraces which I would be happy about.

 

Apparently if the restaurant terrace is near a beach, park or school, smoking is banned there too now @Busy-Lizzie.

OH played golf today - competition sponsored by a gardening company offering trees as prizes. OH missed out by 2 points and has won a set of BBQ implements in a smart metal box. I am not impressed! Apart form anything else he's desperate to cook on his BBQ but clueless. Managed to cook slices of belly pork and chipolata sausages to bits last night. Kizened and dried out.

Humph.

I grilled tonight's chicken kebabs. Nuff said.

Hope you have a safe journey home @Liriodendron and not too big a culture shock when you get home. Sounds like you've both had a great time.

 

Good evening all. I had a lovely day today at my nephew's. Handy brother was there too. we sat and ate outside - a wonderful lasagne and green salad followed by affogato and the cake I had baked for afters. @Penny_Forthem I was really looking forward to Rod Stewart at Glasto tonight but at one stage the sound from his mic couldn't be heard. I suffered the same disappointment as you felt listening to NY.
I am signing out now and I'll catch up with any new news tomorrow.

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Good morning everyone. It was shades of Autumn this morning as there was a thick mist outside but I'm sure the sun will burn it off. I meant to say last night @AuntyRach - was it chips?
Don't forget we have a real fest coming up:

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The weekend seems to have gone by in a bit of a blur. We spent a lot of it on edge. Mum-in-law had a stroke on Friday so has being in hospital. Luckily a very mild one and no obvious lasting effects so she is already home. Doesn’t want visitors today so we will probably drive down tomorrow.

Not much else to report, still hot here and due to be very hot today. I think we are going to get an early walk in around Sutton Park but not sure what after that.

I must get on and measure up for my planned new water butts. I did start clearing the last of the remaining ivy off our back fence yesterday so might continue doing that. It’s in the shade. I would happily let it grow but the neighbours behind always rip off any that grows through to their side and it’s damaging the fence. I would like to cover the fence with something but it will need to be freestanding and happy to be clipped. That way it won’t grow through the fence or dare to lean over the top. Anything a whiskers breath over the fence line gets chopped back. I wouldn’t mind but they do it so brutally so branches etc are left broken or split.

Also thanks for the reminder @AuntyRach I must also rummage around my potatoes, am sure it must be time to dig them up.

Hope everyone has a good day whether it’s smashing stone troughs, pootling, watering or working x

PS if anyone knows a guaranteed rain dance please send me the details

 

Morning folks.

I hope all is well with Mum-in-law @Butterfly6.

Wimbledon starts at 2pm so looking forward to that.

Team meeting tomorrow and I usually bake a cake but that might be hot work today!

I hope the start of the week is kind to you all.

 

We're off home today; we had a sneaky extra night, as the grandkids are busy with end of term jolleys.
Neighbours have put our brown bin out.
First job will be clothes washing, second, watering.
I will give everything a good water here before we go.
Awful for your MIL @Butterfly6 but thank goodness not too bad.
Keep cool out there today

 

I had a dreadful day again, seemingly unrelated pain everywhere. Just drank water and stayed quiet. Interestingly Covid has just flitted through my mind. This quarter is the first time I have not had my vaccination and I did wonder. At the moment I seem to be developing a cold.

My sister's little ceremony went well, my daughter is coming over today to tell me all about
it. The location of the grave is lovely, a clear view out over the sea. Four of the attendees read short poems or quotations so it was very personal, quiet and private. Right up my sister's street. She was never one for any fuss. I hope now my niece can begin to move forward.

Onwards and upwards!

 

Good morning. It's already 36C here and the hottest part of the day is usually around 5pm so scorchio. I have the last patchwork group of the year this afternoon and then A round of watering this evening. Thursday's rain has gone away.

I hope MIL makes a full recovery @Butterfly6 and is followed up properly to avoid more episodes.

I did a wash last night @Penny_Forthem and OH has hung it out to dry and is now ironing while watching golf froma very ugly looking links course in Kent. I will not be watching any tennis - too much huffing and puffing and screeching for me these days.

I hope you all have a good day and your treasures are safe if you're having a heatwave too.

 

It’s very warm outside today. Around 30 degrees at the moment. Sitting indoors with the fan going and a nice refreshing cup of Earl Grey tea.
It was the coffee morning natter group this morning and the room we were in was lovely and cool. Normally we hold it in our church, but some internal work requiring scaffolding is taking place this week so we were offered a community hall this week instead.
No plans to do much else today, other than bring in the washing I pegged out earlier when it’s dry (which won’t be long) and water the plants this evening. The ironing can wait.
I’m not a tennis fan either @Obelix-Vendée so won’t be tuning in. It has never interested me.

 

Afternoon folks, I've had to retreat inside to cool off, 26c and rising. Neighbours are having work done on their drive I think and there's a very noisy digger going so quieter inside.

Oh help! Just had a text from my daughter, she's coming up to stay after all later today! I didn't think she was coming so not at all ready, not much food in as I've been eating up freezer left overs and bed's not made etc. I'd better get a move on.

So sorry you're still feeling so poorly @Goldenlily26, could your daughter pick up a covid test for you on her way over just in case? Your sister's farewell sounds really nice in a very peaceful setting. Look after yourself.

I couldn't cope with 36c heat @Obelix-Vendée. I agree about the tennis though, can't stand it at any price.

Sorry to hear about MIL @Butterfly6, hope she gets better soon.

 

Rather cloudy this morning, so we skipped breakfast, apart from coffee and a shared apple, and headed out into the garden. OH has cut some grass, and I did more weeding in my ‘flower bed / kitchen garden’. (Not planning to have flowers, herbs or veg, named because it is outside the kitchen window!)
I had meant to weed round then refresh the soil around a miniature kalmia I planted last year. To my horror, it was really dry and hadn’t put any roots out from when it was in a pot. I’ve lifted it and soaked it, and refilled the hole with plenty of fresh compost, then covered the area around it with damp cardboard, and a mulch of pine needles on top. I do hope it survives, it had quite a lot of flowers this year. We have a very old and very large version elsewhere in the garden. Very healthy, but it is in the shade, and only has a few flowers each year.
After all that excitement, we had both got very hot and sweaty, and the sun was breaking through, so we had a shower and headed out. Lunch at the Donkeys ( where else!) We have shared a chicken and bacon wrap, OH had chips with his, and a piece of carrot and pecan cake to follow. Feeling rather virtuous having only had half! I think I’ve earned a short nap this afternoon, will do some more garden stuff when it starts to cool down. Also got to put the rubbish out. I was surprised to see our neighbours rubbish bin out alongside the recycling, only gets collected every three weeks, and it seems to have come round rather quickly. Lucky I saw her bin, otherwise I’d have missed it. We don’t generate a lot of rubbish, so I think I’ll only have one black bag of stuff to go in it.
Hope all are managing to keep cool and hydrated. Wimbledon seems to have come round quickly as well. I’m not a sports fan, and OH is refusing to watch it because they have allowed players from a certain country to participate. However, the end of Wimbledon usually signals the end of my hayfever season, so that’s good!
@lizzie27, ask your daughter to pick up some stuff on her way to you, if she passes a supermarket.
Hope you start to feel better soon, @Goldenlily26.