Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Good morning all.

Enjoy your friend's garden @Ladybird4.

I think I like most things, apart from fat, gristle, French andouillette sausages, tripe and kidneys - but they are all meat foods - but I don't like horseradish, wasabi and butter beans.

We were on a yellow warning for rain and thunderstorms in the night but we only had about a teacupful.

I think I'll carry on with weeding the veg garden this morning. The sweetcorn are nearly ready and the figs are ripening at last. I hope the hornets don't find them.

 

Thank you Aunty Rach. I read your posting and had a look at the Age UK site. Useful and interesting.
My main concern is finding myself in the situation my ex was in, fully mentally competent, but unable to speak or move because of a stroke or other reason. The medical team caring for him warned my son and daughter he would never be able to go home and his chances of recovery were very low. He had serious health conditions for many years so why not let nature run its natural course? He was 85, not a young man. If that is being a control freak, then Yes, I am guilty. I do not want to put my children through what they endured with their father and I do not want it for myself, being selfish about it.

 

It is interesting how our eating tastes have changed. I was watching a Hairy Bikers progam when they visited Spitalfields butchers market where one stall specializes in offal. I enjoy slow braised stuffed lambs hearts, occasionally lambs liver and onions, kidney in steak and kidney pie, pigs kidneys with bacon and mushrooms, lambs kidneys on toast, I have tried brains and sweetbreads and enjoyed them but rarely seen for sale now due to BSE etc. I did try cooking pigs crispy ears but mine were not crispy, very chewy, I also tried cooking tripe but it was not for me. I probably did not use a good recipe. I remember my grandmother tucking into bowls of tripe and onions, sauce running down her chin! I enjoy well rendered crisp fat, not half raw, gelatinous, indestructible, chewy, fat and sinew!
My pet hate is brussel sprouts, under duress, I eat 2 with my Christmas dinner, to keep the kids quiet! I also dislike thin gravy, stews, especially the veg., and old, floury boiled potatoes.
One thing I really enjoy are light, fluffy, herby, suet dumplings cooked on the top of a casserole or boiled bacon.

 

Morning everybody,

Not sure what to do today. It's dry at the moment but we had an absolutely torrential rainstorm yesterday for about an hour - poor builder got drenched but carried on working. Must confess I was more worried about the paving than him! Thankfully he arrived early and is hard at work - more heavy rain is forecast later today. The cleaners have arrived so I'm sitting in my chair out of their way. The younger one's baby is due in October but she's insisting on carrying on as usual, just as well she's very fit and strong. The bump is growing! Strange we used to try to conceal our pregnancies as much as possible with very loose dresses but today's fashions do the opposite.

OH used to have the same problem at committee meetings @Obelix-Vendée , everyone would go off on a tangent, regardless of the subject matter. Most frustrating. As is your recent acquisition the freezer - ouch! Presumably there was not a 14 day change of mind option?
On the brighter side it gives you more room to freeze down all your future garden produce.

I really must have a cull of my laundry cupboard too, I seem to have a surfeit of towels and bedding. Trouble is when all the family come to stay I need 7 lots of stuff so most of it will probably stop in there.

 

Weekly shop done, new batteries in my watch and Possum's and order confirmed for 45 ring binders and packs of plastic pockets for the patch club. They will no longer have an excuse to "forget" their planning sheet listing all the workshops nor lose their instructions which we hand out for each workshop.

Brief shower as I arrived home but it only lasted a few seconds so leaving the towels out to dry has not brought on the rain. I have nothing left to wash.

@Goldenlily26 OH and I love lamb's kidneys devilled on toast or in a steak and kidney pie. We also like lamb's liver done Italian style with sage, onions and tagliatelle. If I can get them, chicken livers are lovely in a salad dressed with walnut oil and raspberry vinegar but they're as rare as hen's teeth here. Don't do other offal, loathe tripe and agree with @Busy-Lizzie about andouillettes which are just plain offensive. Don't eat Brussels sprouts either and nor does Possum but OH has some at Xmas, as long as he preps them. Love all the other brassicas except swede.

My patch committee colleagues are better disciplined now @lizzie27 but sometimes forget why we have an agenda and Minutes and launch into other subjects or out of order. I gently remind them we'll go faster if we stick to our order of play and cover everything in turn. That worked when I took over the dance club in Belgium too. Meetings went from 4 hours or more to 1.5 and time for chat and cake afterwards, even for those who had work the next day.

OH will just have to fork out for a fridge freezer at some point @lizzie27 - incentive for better listening skills......... Freezer sorting for me as the existing one needs a good thaw so it will be emptied into the new one. Not fun but fine once it's all done.

 

Just sent off for my driver's licence renewal. You can do it on line, they lied. I tried. Nope, not recognised. Try again. Still not recognised. Tears hair out. Reaches for paper renewal; done and in post with old licence.
I had this trouble last time, too.
Passport next.

 

Left OH to tidy away his painting and skirting board stuff, while I tidied the view from the guest room! Generated a large bag full of weeds from the pathway, and I edged the lawn, all looks very neat. Luckily I got it done before the rain started, we have had a couple of horrific downpours, great for the garden but I would prefer to have it happening at night! We decided to pop out for some DIY supplies, filled up with petrol, and on a whim, stopped at the neighbouring McDonald’s for a quick lunch! OH quite likes their wraps, and I had a sudden unwise craving for a limited edition burger. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I really enjoyed it! Now consumed with guilt for having eaten half my calories for the day in one burger, but it was surprisingly tasty. I’m now going to eat only fruit for the rest of the day to fill the gaps in my nutritional intake.
I’m not usually a big fan of meat, and definitely not offal. I do however absolutely love Brussels sprouts, I could eat them for every meal when they are in season!

Went to the nearest diy store this morning, meaning to then go on to the other version just up the road. However, OH seemed to find everything he wanted in the first shop, and wasn’t inclined to do any further ‘shopping around’ so we came home. A shame, as the other shop has more interesting stuff that I would have enjoyed browsing round, including a decent plant and garden section. I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed browsing with him fidgeting in the background, so I reluctantly agreed. Very annoyed now, as when we got home, the doors strips he had bought don’t match the others we already have, they are shiny silver finish rather than the matt finish we wanted.
So now we will have to go back, and go to the other store, where he now remembers that he bought the original ones. Grrrr! Still, I might get to look around the other goodies while we are there. I much prefer to shop on my own. I can spend ages just looking at stuff, and come home with nothing but I have still enjoyed the experience. OH is the type that walks into the first shop, if he sees something that will do, that’s it, buy it and go.

 

I had to stop weeding the vegetable garden after an hour as my back starting hurting. It's still painful. Been on the sofa watching TV and reading instead. We did take the rubbish up to the village bins though.

I wish we could have torrential rain @lizzie27, but not as heavy as it was when it flooded the utility room and the study.

 

Hello everyone. I had a super time with my bestie today but we didn't get to go to look at our friend's garden as his band needed to practice for an upcoming gig this morning. It was perhaps just as well really as we had lots of showers throughout the morning. It still rained when I got home and there were some amazing cracks of thunder at 16:00 - Cricket's tea time. I cannot remember that last time I heard thunder. @Ergates, I'm with you regarding sprouts. I love them as long as they haven't been boiled to mush. I agree with @Busy-Lizzie about andouillettes, they are absolutely disgusting. @Penny_Forthem you have just given me the heads up for my driving licence which is due for renewal in December.

 

Evening all. Been messing with gutters and downpipes between showers today, since last night I was woken up by the sound of large drips from the gutter hitting the concrete outside the window. All ok now, until the birch tree drops more leaves, that is.

It's been a great year for blackberries. I made another big pot of blackberry & apple this afternoon, to freeze for visitors in the winter. All the early eating apples are now picked, and I'll be trying to find somewhere to store the cookers tomorrow. Then it's just the Cox apples left to harvest in a few weeks, the fruit currently weighing the branches down so we can't mow under them. It's impossible to give apples away, because everybody's trees have fruited really well this year.

Other than very spicy food, I'll eat anything. Except coriander. Love sprouts, and indeed, any vegetable, as long as it's not boiled to oblivion...

 

A couple more heavy downpours, and we have a yellow warning for more heavy rain overnight.
Just back from the diy superstore! OH was hoping to fit the door thresholds before our first visitor arrives on Saturday, so he was prepared to drive back down this evening. Got exactly what we wanted, and I also got to look at the other stuff! Some very pretty cushions, which we don’t need and I didn’t buy. They did have a big selection of very healthy looking herbs. I’ll have to look up how well they overwinter. If they had stocked the hay rack wall basket to match my existing ones, I’d have been tempted to buy one and fill it with herbs for outside the kitchen door. Might have been a risky purchase at this time of year, so I’m glad I didn’t get carried away before I’ve done some homework.
I don’t envy you chairing the patchwork meetings, although it does mean you can keep them under control! I did a stint once as chairman of a residents association, and had a fair bit of annoyance with one member. He was in charge of writing to the council on a certain topic, would produce his letters to be copied and circulated to the committee members, but then wanted to insist on reading them out loud to us during the meeting. I think he liked the sound of his own voice! And the letters were unnecessarily lengthy and verbose. Quickly put a stop to that!
Now enjoying a glass of red wine and a tiny piece of cheese. Just finished a decent sci fi book (Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg) a bit fraught, so I shall now read a Jacqueline Wilson as lighter relief. I don’t like to miss out on books for children and young adults just because I’m in my 70s! At primary school, I used to read all my mums library books, and borrowed many of her favourite authors myself. After a diet of Agatha Christie, Ngiao Marsh and Dorothy L Sayers ( which did wonders for my vocabulary and spelling!) I wasn’t introduced to the Narnia books until I was at secondary school. So I still have a lot to catch up on!

 

I have a very young Cox @Liriodendron and even that has lots of fruit this year tho they're small. The Bramley looks much better but both are good given the drought.

There's a gene which divides sprout lovers from sprout loathers. Possum and I are among the latter group. We all love spicy food and I have a drawer with about 50 different spices including several kinds of chilli but I don't like anything so volcanic that it anaesthetises my taste buds to all the other flavours.

I have been deep in freezer sorting and cleaning all afternoon. Can't garden anyway so no bad thing. Your OH sounds a lot like mine when it comes to shopping @Ergates.

 

I have always loved reading @Ergates and always read at night whilst in bed. I remember visiting libraries when I was very young and enjoyed taking out as many books as I was allowed - usually just two but I could visit the library twice a week. I remember tha the first books I really got immersed in (and that often scared the heck out of me) were all of Dennis Wheatley's novels. I also went through a Georgette Heyer phase along with all the usual classics.
I meant to say earlier @Busy-Lizzie that you have been a bit plagued with your back this season so take things easy tomorrow.

 

I am going to say goodnight to you all now. I hope you all have peaceful nights and I'll catch up with you all tomorrow.

​

 

​

Well everywhere looks very wet this morning. I may only need to water the tomatoes in the GH. More rain forecast and a big drop in temperature. Single figures! I hope that at least it stays fairly dry for the big turn on of Blackpool Lights tonight. Bestie's son, DIL and granddaughter did the 'Ride The Lights' cycle ride on Wednesday night. The GD is a very confident cycle rider and puts me to shame. In fact, I would never venture on a bike again after my experience riding a bike on one of the French Porquerolles islands. No serious damage done - except to my dignity - but it did make me laugh!