Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

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A very good morning one and all. Thank you sooo much for the explanation about Virgin Media @Songbird! I usually blame them for everything but was too hot to bother on Friday.
Pleased to read that your OH has bounced back @Penny_Forthem and I too cannot understand the hesitancy about allowing seniors to adopt elderly dogs when there is such a great need. I must admit that I was torn when I took on Cricket because, without being morbid, he could last longer than me and I did discuss this with the Cats Protection people I adopted him from. They said to me that I could have him for a while and I might get knocked down by a bus so I wasn't to worry about taking on a replacement for Lily. They have a free service called Cat Guardians who take back the cats if/when anything untoward happens and find new homes for them.
It sounds like you dropped lucky with the waterproof cushions @lizzie27. I wonder when you will get chance to test them! My garden says 'Soon, please!'

 

Good morning all. Woke at 5am, seagull stomping on the roof, but managed to get back to sleep until 8.30. Bright out, but a lot cooler. I have a list of gardening jobs to get done today ( haha!) I might have to set the alarm to start work, otherwise I could easily be sitting here with another coffee and scrolling for hours! Mind you, I can write some of that off as gardening research!

We have two lots of visitors planned for the end of the month, so we have an incentive for doing a late summer clean, and tidy up inside and out. When we were working, it was often only the prospect of having guests that meant we actually got any housework done!
Hope everyone has a good Sunday. (This is my second in two days, I spent yesterday convinced it was Sunday, just relieved I haven’t woken up thinking today is Monday!)

 

Good morning all.

I've just seen your post on the gardening thread @Goldenlily26. So glad you have found a good man for your steps and for the brambles.

It will be another hot day today. Thunderstorms are still forecast for Tuesday.

I was watering from 8pm to nearly dark last night then left the sprinkler on the veg garden for an hour. Some plants, especially autumn anemones, raspberries and runner beans have sunburn marks on their leaves. Despite watering, the ground is pretty dry and hard. A robin and her baby, still had a freckled breast, were following me about. No worms in sight though, they must have gone down deep.

 

Penny, have you tried talking to your local vets? Quite a few people go to their vets to rehome their animals before going to rehoming centres as a last resort. My neighbour is a veterinary nurse and has tried several times, to persuade me to take on another dog. When my son was forced to rehome a dog he went to his vet and the dog was found an ideal home within a few days, it also means that people in touch with vets care about where their pet goes. Just a thought.

 

Sod's Law.
A workman just waved at me through my window, dressed and already to go, strimmer in hand. I went out and happened asked him if he was with the crew working in the back garden. No! He was the 1st chap who had disappeared. I told him he had said he would get back to me to come last week then didn't. I doubt if he has learned a lesson in dealing with customers. A job lost for him.
I sort of feel I should feel guilty and have given him more time but on the other hand I feel it was his fault an I do not feel guilty at all.

 

Good Sunday morning to you all.

The mercury hit 40°C at 6.30pm last night. I went outside to "test the water" and it was like standing on the tarmac in Singapore behind a 747!! I don't have aircon in the bedroom but left it on in the lounge with the door open and it stayed at 27°C throughout the night in the bedroom. Naturally Miss Comfort was in the lounge on the tiles with a nice 26°C. We were out this morning again early with a light 24°C. It's 32°C here now (11.30am).

I'm a bit like you @Ergates The house gets a thorough going over if there's company - otherwise a quick sweep of the tiles and maybe a mop to wet dust it, is my effort. I'd rather be out in the garden faffing!

The ground is hard here too @Busy-Lizzie in spite of regular watering. Why do the weeds grow!!!?

I wish you all a Happy Sunday!! Stay cool!

 

Good morning. Bit of a reprieve today as they've dialled the forecast down from 40 to 32 but it's muggy and the ground is bone dry so no weeding/planting/installing posts for trellis........

I am about to try my hand at making crumpets and then some more fridge and cupboard sorting. Interesting exercise so far as I have found a comprehensive supply of assorted Korean, Thai and Japanese spice and miso pastes but have had to bin 3 jars of home-made pesto that had fermented. That'll larn me. Tomorrow I'm going out to buy a new fridge freezer.

Well done on the cushion front @lizzie27 and you too for tardy strimmer man @Goldenlily26.

I too was watering after dark @Busy-Lizzie - emergency rations in the veg plot after finding our younger fig tree had suddenly lost most of its leaves yesterday. I don't get figs off the mature one as the birds nick them all so I need to save the younger.

Clever Fizz. I hope we get cooler nights soon @Tui34 as the night time heat is not restful.

@Penny_Forthem barring accidents, on current fitness levels OH and I have a good 20 years in us so longer than a doggy lifespan and most felines too. Madness to count us ineligible to home a rescue.

 

Good morning all. Just back from church, followed by a coffee with friends in a local cafe. Sent OH a text telling him why I wouldn't be back at the normal time, but he didn't read it...

The number of biting things in the garden has reached unacceptable levels. I now have to spray myself with DEET every time I go out, even just to take in the washing. 23 bites of various types and counting... I think I'll need full armour this afternoon to pick the blackberries!

I'm definitely in grumpy mode at the moment - apologies! The garden is still full of butterflies and colour, so there's actually plenty to smile about.

 

Good afternoon everyone. Well done @Goldenlily26 you did the right thing and yes, you do not need to feel guilty at all. @Liriodendron, have you tried Avon Skin So Soft moisturising spray as an insect bite preventative? It works for me and apparently is bought in bulk and used by the SAS. Its nice too.

 

Fancy the SAS having Avon Ladies

 

Ding Dong!

 

Thank you, @Ladybird4 - yes, I've tried Skin so soft, but it didn't work for me, unfortunately. The only thing which works is max strength Jungle Formula (which contains 50% DEET). I've also got a fisherman's midge hood which I was known to wear when working as a gardener. Not a great look, but effective, though it makes you hot. And not effective against harvest mites or horse flies, which are plaguing me at the moment. Not bothering OH though, which seems very unfair to me - he's only had one bite all summer and never uses repellent!

Lots of flowers are loving the heat this summer; we're fortunate to have had just about enough rain to keep them going. Cosmos are lovely, and Verbena bon is magnificent, standing tall and covered in butterflies and bees. And the 'Bishop's Children' dahlias which I grew from seed last year, and left in the ground over winter, are flowering really well this year. I'm pleased to find they're not as tall as advertised, so I haven't had to support them. The Cosmos was supposed to be a dwarf variety, so I planted out the seedlings around the roses I'd put in their final homes this spring. A couple have behaved themselves, and are complementing the rose flowers, but one is taller than I am... its flowers are beautiful (see below) but I can hardly see them, being above my head, and it's dwarfing the poor rose bush!

 

I feel your frustration @Liriodendron. OH is rarely bitten or stung but I am a harvest mite, horsefly, mozzie, wasp magnet. I haven't found a really effective deterrent so always have cortisone cream and anti-histamines on hand.

We currently have a plague of lies in the area. I thought they were just cluster flies but no, they're all over the village a few kms away. As well as the crumpets, I've been busy making spiced blackcurrant jelly and a lemon and blueberry cake to deal with fruit from the dying freezer. Then I cleared all the kitchen surfaces and washed them down along with all the stuff on them.

Asked OH to vac the floorand the annex so I can wash floors too and, following a discussion on male and female logic the other day, he has, of course, gone about it backwards and started at the far end of the annex. I've left him to it but it means a dealy washing floors in the right sequence and putting everything back. Late crumpets too.

I didn't sow cosmos this year as they were a comlete failure last year. Must buy fresh seeds and try again next year tho as they are pretty.

 

Normally it's OH who gets bitten or stung but this year I have been bitten a few times too.

There is a very old pear tree in the orchard. Usually the few pears just fall off and rot. Sometimes I put them in the compost. I tried eating a couple in the past but they were horribly bitter. This year there are lots of pears. I ignored them, then I noticed that hornets were feasting on them so I tried a pear and it was sweet, but a bit grainy in texture. The tree is tall, I reached a few but they seemed very hard so, braving the hornets, I picked up a bucketful from the ground. I've stewed them in sugar and red wine. Unfortunately, they were nearly all badly bruised and some were also badly eaten, but I have managed to get 4 desert bowls of them, so pears in red wine for pud tonight and more in the freezer for another day.

I also did a load of dead heading before it got too hot.

 

I've mentioned the lovely food shop on the outskirts of Périgueux that we sometimes go to. I've just been transferring photos from my phone to my laptop and I found these two. Took them 10 days ago. I think they look lovely and colourful. Le Grand Frais, @Obelix-Vendée will know it.