Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

I've hardly been outside today. Picked some runner beans, courgettes and tomatoes this morning and did a bit of watering this evening.

We had a horrid moment when the bedroom air conditioner stopped working. I emptied the small amount of water in it and OH fiddled with it and it started working again. Too noisy to sleep with We put on the fan that @Ladybird4 recommended instead, it's great.

 

Wise advice from @Obelix-Vendée and @Ergates for you @lizzie27. I would definitely go to the CAB. Depending on the topic they can often arrange a free 15 minute meeting with a solicitor. I would send a copy of their letter to you to your MP. I really dislike what I term 'bully boy' tactics from anyone.
Congratulations on your amazing win @redstar. I'm sorry but I'm a bit ignorant about car shows so can you tell me do you drive around in your winning car or is it purely for show?
I am signing out now. Got my watering and dead heading done today but boy does my garden need some serious attention. Another day mayhap! See you all in the morning.

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Good morning all. It was one of those odd mornings today where the outsides of the windows were misted up. Definite Autumnal feel but the sun is breaking through now and will soon clear the windows. Tea/coffee morning at Church today so a busy morning ahead. Wishing you all pleasant days.

 

I I decided on a whim to make a start on finding someone to repair the steps down into the back garden. They are faced with sleepers which are now rotten.I trawled through our new local Taders magazine left recently. Phoned a couple and left a messagenothing back so far, then tried a local number as opposed to a mobile.
I was somewhat surprised when a man picked up, "Yes, we could sort you out." He went on to arrange to come and look at the job between 12.00 and 1.00pm. He asked me if I was in for the rest of the day, yes, and then bizarly, did I live in a house or bungalow. What has that to do with outside garden steps. He said he was q

 

I decided on a whim to make a start on finding someone to repair the steps down into the back garden. They are faced with sleepers that are now rotten. I trawled through our new local Traders Directory magazine left recently. Phoned a couple and left a message, nothing back so far, then tried a local land line number as opposed to a mobile.
I was somewhat surprised when a man picked up and said, "Yes, we can sort you out." He went on to arrange to come and look at the job between 12.00 and 1.00 pm. He asked me if I was in for the rest of the day, yes, then, bizarly, did I live in a house or a bungalow. What does that have to do with outside garden steps? He said he was quite near where I lived, but as I am tucked away down a private lane, I explained I lived in a cul-de-sac, at the end of a row of 3 cottages, you have to walk across the fronts of Nos 1 &2 to reach me. I feel relieved I didn't tell him to drive around to the back of the properties.
He didn't turn up. It has left me wondering if he is genuine. Or has he "light fingers", and devised a clever way of sussing out properties.
It seems to be normal these days for businesses not to respond to enquiries. Very frustrating.

I topped up the pond and bird bath, and did a small amount of watering. I made myself a sort of carbonara for dinner, fresh pasta, tomato, asparagus, bacon, garlic, cheddar, Parmesan, and a squidge of sour cream. I don't have any cream cheese in the store cupboard. Enough for tonight as well.
I watched the Welsh 100 cricket and eventually The Bad Skin Clinic. I feel so sorry for everyone not able to have treatment under the NHS for some awful conditions, because they are now deemed cosmetic.
My sister and I used to both watch the 100% quiz show, then the next morning compare our respective results. Interestingly, sometimes I get most of the way through, other days I fall at the 2nd or 3rd question. My sister always did better than me.

I hope everyone is able to enjoy the heat wave, it is likey to be the last before the autumnal nip in the air begins.

 

At least you have a home phone number for the man, @Goldenlily26, so probably genuine, if potentially unreliable! I’m always worried about firms / services which only have mobile numbers or no website. I’m still waiting to hear from our tree surgeons, but they are notorious for delayed responses. I need them to look at our biggest silver birch which has lost most of its leaves, I'm pretty sure it’s way past its expected lifespan. They did response to my text and email, to say they’d message me in a few days, but that was over a week ago. Not worried though, I can always chase them if it was urgent, but it’s peak holiday time. Once they have set a date to do the work though, they always turn up promptly on the day, are reasonably priced and very friendly and efficient.
Love the sound of your carbonara alternative! I tried to do one years ago, and ended up with what I call ‘comfort spaghetti’. Used to be a chopped boiled egg, but is now an egg poached in with the spaghetti to save on pans! Some bacon or ham, grated cheese and a splash of tomato ketchup, preferably with a little mustard piccalilli to offset the sweetness of the ketchup,( but as I rarely eat it often enough to justify buying a jar, I add a little mayonnaise instead) It’s a good standby when I want a quick hot lunch, and good without the meat if I’m just relying on store cupboard essentials.
Haven’t done much yet this morning. Lazy breakfast and chatting with OH. He is having a long written conversation with his brother, who lives abroad. I’m chatting on here instead!

 

Hot and sunny again here and set to get hotter over the next 10 days with no moisture in site. Just evening watering for me then. Can't even get any projects done as the ground is too hard. I've got the posts and bars to make a new, sturdy support for a wisteria and some clems on my veg plot fence but can't even get the posts in just now.

OH is golfing today so, now I've topped up the bird feeders and water, I shall content myself with a stroll to see if anything is suffering badly from thirst and needing immediate relief then retire to my sewing room.

I'd keep quiet about your carbonara recipes @Goldenlily26 and @Ergates. BBC Good Food, now owned by the same company who took over the GW magazine, is in bovver with the Italians over their version of an "authentic" recipe for cacio e pepe - Cacio e pepe: Good Food pasta recipe sparks fury in Italy All very entertaining. Just wait till they mess with alio, olio, peperoncino! When we were on hols at the beach in Tuscaby restaurant staff would assume we were German - fair skins and eyes - and give us the English menu. When we asked for the Italian menu we discovered that version had no carbonara - it's a winer comfort dish so only done for Brits in high summer. Fortunately, Possum loved their spaghetti al scoglio. Oddly, she won't go near mussels or vongole now.

I hope your day goes well everyone and you enjoy whatever you"re doing.

 

In general, it depends on the car, some folks can drive their show car to some degree, some cannot. Some can only drive it out of the trailer and a couple blocks to the show destination. Some show cars have a Cheaper paint job, so nicks from little stones etc won't matter. My car is an piece of art it is the only roadster in the USA of that year, the paint on it, to fix little nicks would cost too much to, so its driven very little and only on sunny days. The other thing in driving about a fancy car, you really do not want people to know where they live, too many nuts out there.

You should google things like, Riddler winners, and Great Eight cars, those cars have millions of dollars put into them. A Great Eight is a car that is developed in secret in a shop, and unveiled for judging, if its the top then it becomes a Riddler winner.

Last month our car was put inside a building, with barriers around it, just for show. We were asked to attend the show up in Canada where we will be mid September.

We ran across a owner, Jeff Hess. he has a riddler winner, he has magazine people pay to have his car shipped places just to show it. its a whole different world out there. And we showed against that car

 

My Yellow wax bells are blooming now, the hummingbirds love it. it starts blooming end of July all the way to end of September, giving the hummingbirds their last nutrition before they fly south.

 

Afternoon folks.

Having a cuppa under the parasol, I was reading my book but I’m watching a dragonfly flit about plus numerous bees and a few butterflies on the Lavender. Trying to make the most of the outside before it’s too hot mid week or I’m working.

I hope everyone is enjoying a pleasant Sunday.

 

We are home and I've watered, picked toms etc., and now we're on the deck by the stream, which is the lowest I think I've ever seen it in 25 years of living here.
It's hub's birthday on Thursday and we go away Weds, so I must, must order his bird feeder and cam tomorrow. I can do it while he's on village watering duty.
Your car is a complete labour of live @redstar

 

Good evening to you all.

Yes A very hot day today with 38°C this afternoon. The temperature has dropped to 31°C - it is 9pm. Luckily, I have an air conditioning unit in the lounge/kitchen but none in the bedrooms although I have the door open to my bedroom and it is a mite cooler. Red alert for the French contingent - I hope you are inside, Jan, Sarah and Liz and sipping refreshing drinks! The week is going to be a Bobby Dazzler so the bike run will be at sparrow's fart!

Enjoy the rest of the evening, early bed for me with a good book.

 

Yes @Tui34 didn't measure it today but set to be even hotter tomorrow and oscilating between 39 and 33C for the next week or more. We keep our shutters down on the sunny side of the house all day and only open windows when they're in the shade.

I have pickled more cucumbers today and watered in the polytunnel. Now to start on the evening watering rota with the sprinkler to try and save my rose beds, other veggie beds and a few other ornamental borders before everything goes crispy.

The sparrows are having their evening conference in the hawthorn hedge that separates us from the lane. Noisy blighters. Cosmos is sprawled on the windowsill with his ears having a good twitch as he watches some of them them flit about to their nests in our eaves.

 

Normally up to the level
of the shale

 

Evening all, it's positively cooler here, only made 31c by midday! I joke of course, it has been far too hot to do anything in the garden so I've just been pottering on the shady east side of the house. That stream of yours does look low @Penny_Forthem which is a bit odd as ours in the southwest from natural springs in the hills to the west of us looked okay this morning.

Great excitement after a latish lunch, looked up reading from the newspaper and out through the side window to see a Red Kite circling quite low over the house! We think it may have been a young one perhaps looking for a new territory? We know they're now over Swindon, Marlborough and Devizes so not that far from us. I believe they can fly about 200 miles in a day?

I had a snooze for a good two hours this afternoon and feel better for it.