Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Just to add. I wish you all a pleasant Friday.

 

Oh my goodness @Tui34. Such a desolate scene - I would be heartbroken indeed. Was this because of wild fires?

 

Good morning all,
It’s gearing up to be another hot day here. It will be a warm walk to and from the hairdresser today. I could take the car, I suppose , but it’s only a 10 minute walk to get there, so I’ll walk. I’ll put plenty of sunscreen on.
Yes, it might be worth asking about your bins being collected for you @Goldenlily26. It would help you if they do offer such a service.
Goodness me @Tui34, that fire has caused devastation. The owners must be very upset, franchise or not. Still, if it is a franchise, I hope they’ll get the support to get it back up and running asap.

 

Hi Lorraine,
Yes, I have Assisted Refuse Collection set up.
Available for anyone aged over 80 years old.
It took me 5 months and numerous phone calls and directions to achieve but I got there in the end. I live at the end of a 800yds private lane and we have to put our refuse on the verge of the road along the top of the lane. Quite a hike when you are not A1.
Now I "only!" have to carry my sacks through the house, up a flight of steps to a collection point at the back of the house. Still takes a degree of effort, the crews still miss me out occasionally so I now just leave it where it is and they have to take double when they next call. There are a lot of restrictions about where the crews can go, not allowed inside the garden, no dogs etc.
Logically to me, it seems a waste of time and money for me to have a special truck come and collect my rubbish, going past my neigbours sacks etc. and my neighbours have to wait for a separate truck to come, on the same day, to collect their rubbish. I am sure someone, somewhere, in an office, will have "to them" a reasonable argument as to why it has to be that way.

Very hot again today. My neighbours lovely Dad came last night at 8.00pm and did some more work on her porch he is replacing for her. He had to use a head lamp and tried very hard not to make any noise, bless him.

I ate my first mini cucumber with my lunch, so sweet. Lovely. Today is going to be another non day, rather too many of them at the moment.

 

Morning from a cloudless Welsh riviera (in my dreams!)
What a heart breaking image @Tui34
We had a 'conversation' with a local rescue yesterday, about 'Bentley'. There is another interested party, who may be a better 'fit' for him. We may learn more today.
Back to more mundane things, like watering (hub is watering round the village today), shopping, laundry and keeping cool and hydrated.

 

Hot.

I’ve put up an extra curtain in the lounge as there’s only thin, voile-like curtains. It’s a vintage William Morris (‘Blackthorn’) patio door curtain. It’s a bit short, but is making a big difference as the sun will be shining on the TV at peak tennis time otherwise.

Take care in the heat folks. My top tips:

Drink plenty (not coffee or alcohol);
A warm/cool shower then dry off in front of a fan;
Spray bottle of cool water to spritz over self;
Curtains and windows closed until tonight;
Wear cool fabric (no bra if possible);
Stay indoors or in the shade. If you are outside, loose, light clothes that cover will be cooler than bare arms/legs covered in sticky suncream;
No calories in an ice cream during a heat wave so go for it!

 

Hot here. 32C forecast by 5pm but it was already 34C at 2pm on the way home from the weekly shop. As it's too hot and dry for sowing, planting or weeding we popped into the DIY store for posts for my new wisteria and clematis supports along the veg plot fence. That job will be done early on in the day before we get baked.

Feeling weary now. Wednesday night was a bad sleep cos they were harvesting wheat in the field across the lane till after 2am then at 5am Minstrel came in with her very vocal mouse catching chorus and then I had to be up early to go to Nantes for a medical procedure. All clear but it involved a general anaesthetic and they always take time to get over. Bed early last night to catch up but sleep broken by a kerfuffle at the catflap at 5am. I went to see what was what and the visitor just sat looking at me then swore when I went to get his/her food bowl. Charming. On the other hand, he/she no longer runs and hides but sits waiting at sundown for supper.

Dreadful sight @Tui34. Even with funding from HQ and insurance the staff will have been shocked and demoralised by the waste. I visited one of the better ones here on Tuesday looking for hakonechloa but they had a single pot of the plain green variety and wanted 24€. I want several to grow round the base of my eucalyptus so then went online to hunt seeds. Surprised to find it's not reliable from seed but found a site selling festuca glauca seeds at half price. They'll cope well with dry conditions too.

Stay cool and safe everyone.

 

Just reading back through the posts for the last few days.
We have been away for a last minute mini break! We stayed in converted officers quarters in the Royal William Yard in Plymouth. Feels as if we have been away for weeks, and thousands of miles from home, despite it only being just over an hour’s drive from here. The area was built as a victualling yard for the navy in the 1800s, and has been restored to include restaurants and apartments. We hopped on and off ferries to Mount Edgecumbe in Cornwall, which has some beautiful gardens and a lovely restaurant in a converted orangery. Looked really nice, but we had eaten a large breakfast included with our accommodation, so too full to try out the goodies. We took another ferry to and from Saltash, amazing views as we went under the Tamar bridges, plus close up views of some warships. It was a bit cooler by the coast too. Definitely planning to return in the future, lots of places to stroll and views to enjoy, plus plenty going on.
Now sitting in a heap, trying to summon up the energy to make a late lunch / early dinner.
Great to have pockets in a dress, @lizzie27. I’ve just bought a couple ready made pocket liners from a new haberdashers in town, and am hoping to insert them into the side seams of a favourite summer dress.
Very hot here, the car was showing 29.5 degrees earlier, but I moved the pot plants into the shade before we left, and they all look ok.

 

We left the Norwich Garden Show earlier than planned, too hot to lunch there. We stopped on the way home and had an excellent prawn salad sandwich, then ice cream in a pretty pub.

It was more a garden sale than a show! I thought there would have been show gardens but there weren't. I didn't buy anything. OH bought some cheese in the food sales hall.

 

A very hot 32 degrees here by lunchtime. We went to watch granddaughter’s rock concert first thing. They have a music club at the school and youngsters can choose what instrument they fancy trying and form little bands. I have no idea what pop song her little band of 6 year olds, the “Orange Rabiits”, were playing but they were all very enthusiastic Some of the older children were very good, especially a couple of drummers in the top year.

We had a canal walk afterwards, luckily a good part of our usual circuit has some dappled shade, but have stayed indoors all afternoon. I will venture out and do some watering later on. Our next door neighbour is building a summerhouse all day, not sure I could do that in this heat.

It’s interesting that Hakonechloa won’t reliably grow from seed @Obelix-Vendée I have also found it quite temperamental when divided. Seems prone to sulking and takes ages to recover. What I have found is that it will spring up from any little bit of roots. I’ve moved some and invariably little ones pop up in the old spot. Takes an age to bulk up though.

Hope everyone is managing to stay cool, calm and collected

 

Hello everyone. I feel bad, complaining about our 27C today, given the temperatures you all seem to be suffering... but it's pretty hot for this neck of the woods! Yesterday was "only" 25C, so we cut the grass, having looked at the forecast for the next few days. It's due to be hotter still tomorrow, which is a pity because we have family visiting from Galway, and we were planning a walk. Don't think I'll be going out with them, because I really don't cope well with hot weather; I'm trying to persuade OH that he'd be better to stay at home too, but I may not be successful - he's a Man.

I haven't helped the kitchen temperature by doing some cooking, but we're going to have to eat tomorrow, and our daughter has to have quite a restrictive diet because of food intolerances. I've made some oat bread (which is actually rather nice, so the rest of us can share it), and some lemon squares for teatime, which have a sort of crumble base and topping, with a mix of condensed milk and lemon juice & zest in the centre. A bit indulgent, but I only bake for visitors these days, or we get fat... I was interested to see the result of stirring the juice of 2 lemons into condensed milk. I'd been worried this would make a sloppy mixture which wouldn't work as a central layer in the tray bake, but the juice stiffened up the condensed milk.

We'll be having something called "Maple mustard chicken crunch salad" for our main meal. I've not made it before, but it's in our daughter's book of approved recipes and sounds pretty good... and there's not a huge amount of cooking to do for it. We'll be having raspberry pavlova for pud, so I'll make the meringue base this evening so it can dry out overnight.

 

Good afternoon everyone, very hot 32 here on the way home. Had quite a week, two hospital visits, Tuesday and yesterday. All routine but they take time. At long last I'm now on a list to get the joint on my bg toe sorted. Saw a consultant at Whittington hospital, never been before, very impressed. Yesterday's was MRI scan on my neck. Today the old Toyota was in for service and Mot, it seems to be holding up better than me at the moment, all done now. While that was happening we went to a GC in the little car, still came away with a load of plants, just got to find space for them now.
Trying to stay cool indoors now.

 

Wilting gently...
We don't think Bentley is the dog for us. He can't live with children (OK) but no visiting children either.
We were offered a 10 month youngster, but we want a mature hound.
No cook supper tonight; prawn cocktail in half avo, with smoked salmon and a pasta salad.
We hit Lidl. When I heard the bill, I nearly fainted!
Being on the waiting list is good @Allotment Boy
@Liriodendron mum used to make a gorgeous lemon meringue pie with lemon and sweetened .c.m.

 

My mum made gorgeous lemon meringue pie too, @Penny_Forthem , though not with condensed milk. But unless I can master shortcrust pastry without wheat flour, I won't be able to make it for my daughter. However, we do have a family favourite called Lemon Dainty, which is a very old recipe, I believe; it makes a very light "self-saucing" pudding, cooked in a water bath. It uses only a very little flour, so I'll have to do some experimenting. Maybe cornflour might be a suitable substitute...

Anyway, OH and I tested the lemon squares. Not earth shattering, but quite acceptable.

 

Good evening all.

Anything lemon-y count me in!

Everyday is a school day… I was watering the pots and sprinkled the hose over the back step to clear the little seeds dropping from the large Ceanothus. The water started foaming. What? It kept coming! Lather like shampoo! Well, what I have just learned is the Ceanothus is also called a Soap Plant! There are particles in the seeds (saponins) which make a natural soapy lather. Wow.

I’m going to open windows soon as the temp outside is ‘down’ below the temps upstairs. Wishing you all a cool sleep.