Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

I will be doing my research @Busy-Lizzie
The good old days of comedy @lizzie27

 

​

A very good morning all. A bit overcast here this morning but incredibly warm. At least we don't have to worry about tsunamis.
Back is a tad easier this morning but not enough to make me think I should be doing anything too 'heavy' either in house or garden today.
@lizzie27 I'm not up to speed with the costs of hard 'landscaping' these days but I'll bet they are eyewatering! I am a 'researcher' too @Penny_Forthem - and that is for everything. I had a sudden rush of blood to my head yesterday when I was in 'sco and - don't think I can even type this without feeling faint! - I bought a new iron! I do have two valid reasons - 1) I have a very pretty white linen top that does require the application of a hot metal thing to make it look presentable and 2) I have promised to shorten some trousers for a friend and sewing is the only other time I like to have an iron for finishing off. Hope I can remember how to use one! This one can be used either corded or cordless so it is one step on from my old iron whose plastic bits biodegraded with age and exposure to sunlight on the windowsill where I had parked it. This one will be kept in the shade!

 

Good morning to you all!

Still windy here but the days are sunny and not too hot (for here : 28°C) The nights are so much cooler and easier to sleep (when it comes).

Travelling has rocketed up everywhere @Penny_Forthem A sign of the times!! Even a trip to the SM is scary!! A weekly shop for a few essentials is coming nearer and nearer to double figures. I don't find Lidl or Aldi to be worth it except for fruit and vegetable of which I have. So with gritted teeth @lizzie27 you will have to accept the stone and consider the job to be well done.

Thank you and yes @Obelix-Vendée We had out first bike run yesterday morning - I shortened it and although a kilo lighter, Fizz ran beside the bike instead of ahead towards the end of the run! She ate a small bowl of her dried food on Monday evening - only because I put some mozzarella and chicken fat from cooking over it. She hardly touched her food last night - but that's probably it isn't to the precieuse's liking. She's on anti biotics but that can't be good on an empty tum. She played with her mate Patch yesterday so a bit of mental stimulation - I suppose - Patch is a bit Doh!!

That's nice @Busy-Lizzie that you are still in touch with the old crowd. I wonder too what happened to Nanny Beach? Her posts always seemed "breathless" and hurried to me. I'm not surprised that @Ante1 is quiet as I imagine he has his summer work cut out for him.

The tsunami news doesn't look good for the Pacific Ocean area. Wouldn't like to be cruising around the Islands on these big liners although the ocean is probably safer than inland.

 

Good morning all.

@Ergates Punkdoc sends you his good wishes too.

Cool and cloudy this morning. Did some more deadheading yesterday but it got too hot in the sun.

OH is taking me out to lunch today in a local village restaurant.

 

Good morning @Tui34 and @Busy-Lizzie. Good to read that Fizz is still managing to get out and about and enjoying a bit of 'play' with a pal. Maybe the extreme heat you have had lately has proved a bit sapping for her too. @Busy-Lizzie after your joyous weekend with the family it must be nice to not have to think about cooking a meal - even better - no clearing up afterwards!

 

We had a very enjoyable lunch with D and Gd and the caterpillar cake was thoroughly enjoyed. Carrot cake is one of my favourites @Obelix-Vendée but not sure I have ever tried a chocolate version? I can’t decide if so fancy that or not.

We have a bit of sunshine this morning instead of the forecast cloud. Not sure what we are going to do yet, might have a day out somewhere.

Glad to hear old forum members are well and busy elsewhere and Fizz sounds brighter and better.

Hope the building work continues to progress @lizzie27 and happy ironing (is that even possible) @Ladybird4.

 

The sum total of my activities yesterday was to waddle to the end of the lane and back and put the broom around the conservatory and I forced myself to cook a couple of small slices of liver with refried new potatoes, onion gravy and fresh watercress for dinner. Fresh cherries for dessert.

The postman knocked, very loudly, and gave me a package. My mind went into overdrive.
What was it? Where had it come from? What had I ordered and forgotten about? Handwriting vaguely familiar, not my own.So well taped up I couldn't get it open, as usual. Had to cut it open.
My niece had sent me a small knitted sunflower in a pot with a message saying
"Life can be tough sometimes, but remember, so are you". The whole thing is beautifully made.
What a lovely thought.

I am looking forward to seeing my son today, before he leaves for Canada.

 

Top of the morning to you all!
Pleased that Fizz is responding, if slowly, @Tui34
What a lovely surprise for you @Goldenlily26. That would lift anybody's spirits.
Steady on there, @Ladybird4. I find irons to be the one thing I can't get enthused about (buying or using them!)
I have the opticians today. Not Specsavers, but a small independent one, close to home and with good parking. Then I will nip across to Morrisons to get a passport snap.
But first, better whizz round with a duster.

 

Greetings all. Not full of energy today. Theis cat nursing lark and lack of sleep are catching up on me. He is now eating (and pooing) for England, France and Belgium - 3 tins a day plus 12% cream. Still nervous but really enjoys being brushed and leans his head in for cuddles but is not cooperative about his eye meds. Last night he devoted quite a lot of energy to trying to dig his way out of the catflap which is locked and blocked both sides, just in case. Looking and feeling cleaner and smoother, chatty too but his eyes are still a mess.

Don't feel up to gardening so I'm going to sew OH's trousers as a "toile" for when I do them in linen. We have 3 irons and tables @Ladybird4 - one high steam for general ironing and any quick bursts that need just steam but not pressure that lives downstairs with the widest table, a "normal" steam iron in my sewing room and a teeny, almost hand sized iron that's used by patchworkers for small seams. I have two ironing tables up there - narrow and normal widths according to what I'm sewing plus a sleeve board.

Pleased that Fizz is doing well @Tui34 and hope she makes a full recovery soon. If she'll eat it, try her on som eorganic yogurt or kefir to rebuild her natural stomach flora and help recovery.

All sorts of different offers available for crossing the Channel @Penny_Forthem if you shop around and avoid August in general and school and national holidays in particular. Ferrysavers site should help.

Hope the building work is going well @lizzie27 and that the materials don't break the bank.

I trust you are now connected @Liriodendron and that all holes have been filled.

@Butterfly6 I started doing the chocolate carrot cake as she wouldn't eat carrots so i'd hide them in cakes. Then I made it as small buns, without the icing, to take for elevenses at school. It's very chocolatey and moist and not too sweet. The original icing is a mix of whipped Philly and white chocolate which is very rich so I tend do a dark chocolate ganache these days.

Sunny spells here again and mid 20s so very comfy but drizabone.

 

Not a fan of ironing! Years ago, I bought a steam press, and it’s still going strong. A friend who did B and B had one, so I was able to see it in action and have a go before I splashed out on one. Another friend who had three teenage sons, had hers set up in the utility room, and if the boys wanted ironed shirts, they had to do them themselves! Tended to be used more before nights out than school/college days! I do have a regular steam iron as well, but neither get used much these days. OH’s shirts get put on hangers as soon as they come out of the washing machine, and he seems happy enough with the results!
We are just back from breakfast out and a walk round the donkey sanctuary. The dog has thankfully fallen asleep, so once I can muster the energy, I shall go out and tackle the end of the bramble patch I'm working on ( there are others which are even bigger, but they will have to wait!) OH has kindly offered to shred the brambles from yesterday , so I can continue with the pulling up bit.
We’ve also been watching reruns of ‘Yes Minister’ and ‘Yes Prime Minister’. They don’t make them like that any more! Tried to watch a new series called ‘The Assassin’ and gave up halfway through the first episode. It’s a real struggle to find anything worth watching these days. I’m really anti BBC at the moment , the thought of them spending our licence money to pay presenters of sports, news and pop music programmes, the equivalent of several NHS consultants, maybe 8 resident doctors, or double that number of nurses. Makes my blood boil - maybe I should keep those thoughts for the Latest Moan thread!

 

Afternoon all, haven't done much yet apart from our usual walk to the shops. I took a bagful of stuff into the charity chop which is further away so we decided to walk the long way back home. An hour's useful exercise although my hips didn't seem to want to work well, hope I'm not going to have trouble with them. The steroid meds I had been on for the last two years seemed to have kept most aches and pains at bay, pity one can't stay on them.

We have two irons here, a small one for me and a cordless, bigger one for OH (who occasionally does his own ironing). I also bought a very dinky one to keep at my son's house as my DIL's is far too heavy for me to use. It is also cordless and was a pain to use with different coloured LED lights, red for when you had to put it back on the stand to heat up again - frequently! and green light to use. Hopeless! With four people in the house, including school uni, poor DIL has masses of ironing to do so I like to do a stint when I'm there. Doesn't help though when they all only wear clothes once only before washing, unlike us. It seems to be a 'thing' with younger people. I have suggested that the 17 year son is quite capable of ironing his own shirts etc and needs to learn before going to uni next year!

Glad Fizz is getting better @Tui34.

Hope you enjoyed lunch out @Busy-Lizzie and that the optician's visit went well @Penny_Forthem.

We decided we had to keep the building work cost down so have asked the builder to re-use the old stone blocks. He says he can render the nasty, concrete block side that faces the windows so it'll look far nicer.

 

Good news from the optician, in that with the new glasses, I will have 20:20 vision. Bad news is, it has cost quite a lot, but is worth it to keep driving safely. I felt I had more personal, less rushed, service than I had from SS.
Then I had my passport photo done. Well, that was quite a shock. I thought the camera had taken some old bat by mistake, but realisation dawned; it's me.

 

@Ergates OH always wore a suit and tie to work and liked his shirts ironed and trousers pressed. By the time I arrived on his scene he was a habitual and fairly competent ironer. I just taught him the correct sequence for ironing a shirt and how to be gentler with my blouses. We bought him a trouser press in the sales. he still does all the household ironing and I just do it when sewing.

His new trousers have what seems to me to be a very narrow back pocket si i've come down to find out how wide a golf score card is but he's disappeared down the garden. Maybe Google will know. He's been tackling a mugger that has completely swamped my white hebe and has ambitions to take over the barn wall and the rest of the bed, swamping a cotinus coggyria, a Hildine clematis, a yellow flowered rhosdendron and so on. Can't remember what it's called but it has tiny leaves on thin, wiry stems and glistens beautifully after a rainfall. I was given it as a teeny rooted cutting and no warning that it is an absolute thug.

Rendering sound like a good solution @lizzie27. We like creative builders.

Enjoy your new specs @Penny_Forthem. I'm very pleased with mine and their detachable polaroid lenses. I have yet to try them with the anti-glare ones but that'll come when the nights draw in.

 

I agree with you about the BBC @Ergates. Did I mention that Punkdoc sends his best wishes too?

We enjoyed lunch, just a pretty little village restaurant but it was full, mostly French, an English family and us. We were all on the terrace under canopies. It's very good value, only about £16 for a three course meal, simple, not much choice, but nice. I had a warm provençal vegetable tart then a chicken caesar salad then profiteroles with a very good chocolate sauce.

Warm but not too hot at the moment. I've almost finished the deadheading and done some watering. Did the ironing in front of recorded GW.

 

Hello all. What a lovely gift to receive @Goldenlily26 . I would have been delighted too - especially with the thoughtful message. Fear not @Penny_Forthem, I did have a local anaesthetic going through the check out with the hot metal thingy. Not sure when its will have its inaugural run yet. I am hoping it will not be like the one you describe @lizzie27 but suspect it may be. I think I will just be using it as a corded implement. My second in department at work told me he had been told categorically by his wife that he had to iron all his own clothes.
@Ergates, I couldn't agree with you more about TV especially the Beeb these days. I get so annoyed when I look at the listings and virtually every single programme is a repeat. "Hello, but I've already paid my licence fee to view this lot" thinks I. Most unsatisfactory.
I am signing out for today - just been to put mine and neighbour's bins out for tomorrow's collection and its raining. See you all tomorrow.

​