Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Good morning all. What a lovely day yesterday, pottered doing not a lot. I had a hairdresser's ap. at 2.45pm, had a phone call to ask if I could go in at 3.45pm, I said Yes, then was asked if I could get there in half an hour for 1.45pm, it was 1.00,
I said Yes, so a swift lunch snack then out. What a relief to be shorn, my hair had grown so much it was driving me mad.
When I came home I tied in the sweetpeas, lots of flower buds forming, fingers crossed they have the chance to mature.
I have the blind faith of getting a load of washing dried outside today. It is blowing and NOT RAINING! There is a full eclipse of the moon tonight, 7.30pm to 9.30pm recommended watching times. The further East you are the better your chance of seeing anything, my chances are pretty low here in the far West.
Thanks for the cleaning products suggestions for my log burner glass window. I will investigate.

I did my shoulder in washing down the inside of my large conservatory, because of health issues I hadn't been able to do it for at least 2 years and it was really bad, loads of mould etc. It took 3 wash downs, a dirty first wash, a second prep. wash and a third clean, wash down, including all the nooks and crannies missed in previous washes. I knew it was too much really, it took me 6 weeks to complete, taking days off between washes and breaking down the actual washing sessions, by the time I had finished it I couldn't lift my right arm and soooo painful. It took several months to calm down and even now twinges with certain movements. I know I have arthritis in the joint which contributes, I did try to do short spells of work but it is the repetitive movement that does the damage.
To everyone recovering from aches and pains, take it slowly. Just because it doesn't hurt so much is no excuse to dash around, 'catching up' on jobs that have been left for the time being.

I finally got around to phoning the local hospital to ask about my appointment with the Ear Care Clinic. After going round in circles trying to find the correct tel no.(the number on my ap. card is no longer in use), I finally got through to the central booking centre in the main hospital in Truro). The first question I was asked was "Are you alright, you sound strange" "Thanks pal, I know. I have already apologised to you because I have lost my voice"! Then a surprised "Oh yes, you should have had an appointment in August". "Yes. That is why I am calling". Of course it was explained how busy they are so I have to wait until Oct. for a new appointment. Surprise, surprise.
I am slowly working my way through my pending list of 'projects to do' list.Next is to get an ap. to see a Dr. about my voice loss. I think no voice for 8 weeks might count as urgent so hopefully a same day ap. Surgery closed for the weekend so I have to wait until Monday, why worry for another couple of days.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.

 

Mine is a full-blown multi-fuel burner, the deposit on the inside of the glass window is like hard black tar.

 

Oh dear, @Goldenlily26, your stove door sounds like a job for the professionals! I wonder if it would be worth ringing one of the many oven cleaning firms that seem to have proliferated in recent years? I’ve never used one, but friends have amd have been amazed at the results. One lady brings a special bath in her van, removes the glass and immerses it in whatever chemical they use.
I’m not surprised that you hurt your shoulder cleaning windows! I have to pace myself, and only do a couple of windows in a session, otherwise I regret it for a long time afterwards. I have been trying to use my left hand as well to spread the load, but it’s not very effective. When I was a student, we were trained to use both hands, and I could give injections and take teeth out with either hand! Sadly I got into bad habits over the years, and my left hand is definitely nowhere near as useful. When I had my right hand out of action after a carpal tunnel operation, I was shocked at how many everyday tasks I struggled with.
Our visitors are back from Plymouth, and are going to spend the day looking round some local NT properties. I have laundry to catch up on, and I’ve also just discovered that I should have been deadheading the cyclamen in my hanging baskets. No wonder I’ve never been very successful with them in the past! I have catching up to do! OH will be pottering about between Formula 1 and rugby by the sound of it.
Have a good weekend, all.

 

Bright and sunny here today, as predicted, so I shall take at least an hour off this pm to do a last bit of sunbathing to try and balance up my leg colour - paler front legs - so I can avoid wearing tights as long as possible. I wear mostly trousers in autumn and winter but they're too hot for dancing and pasty pale legs don't look good bare.

I've been messing with patch club stuff then sorting out the larder fridge as a new shelf has arrived along with 2 door drawers. Free to garden now once I've identified our summer visitors that aren't barn swallows. I think they are sand martins with an occasionl house martin.

Enjoy your family gathering @Ladybird4. Warrington proper or the Cheshire side? I spent my teen years living in Grappenhall when Warrington was still an industrial town in Lancashire and not a new town with "executive" housing built on the local cow pastures at the end of the village and the farmhouse, cowsheds and barns became a community centre.

I can clean windows with either hand @Ergates and lots of other things too but sewing by hand or machine is definitely a right handed affair. I do exercises to keep the arthritis at bay and have recently bought some scissors with 4 finger grip positions to reduce risk of carpal tunnel - Appliquick if anyone's interested - and they're microserrated so never need sharpening. Small, but excellent for embroidery and close work rather than cutting out fabrics for clothes.

I'm so glad I don't have a conservatory @Goldenlily26 and I suspect your crusty blackened glass would also respond to 3 cleaning sessions with an appropriate cleaner and not do in your shoulders. Have you tried turmeric supplements? There has to be bioprene (black pepper) in the mix for the active ingredientto be absorbed but turmeric is a good anti-inflammatory for arthritic joints. Garlic, ginger and cinnamon are good too - Best Spices for Arthritis

Have a lovely day everyone.

 

The family drama at the wedding week was eye rolling. Its husbands side. The grooms mother, 60 years old did an adult temper tantrum.
She wanted her wedding guests to stay on the Queen Mary, which we did, the pictures of it showed nice rooms etc, but the boat is historic, ok with me. Getting to the room, it only had one tiny round table and two tiny chairs and two beds, the room did not have any temp. controls so you put up with the general cooling that the ship wanted, there was a window to open to help with warming up the room, and the sink clogged often or drained slowly. Walking on the carpet my feet would get dirty, white cloth to wipe them off showed dark gray soot. So I put on facebook of the sparsely furnished, and not like the pictures, and the clogged sink. leaving off the dirty floor, and later shower went cold half way through for husband. Cost of room $280.00. So grooms mother, got bent out of shape, accusing of being negative about the Venue,, a hotel room is not a Venue. The wedding was within the ship, but floors above in a large rooms. Even husband at breakfast sounded off, how bad the room was.

And that area of California is nuts, the traffic is nuts, 7 lane cars on highways. Other drama is husband and his sister have been on the outs for years, not talking to each other, that's another story, sister is the nutty one. But the nutty sister coupled up with the nutty grooms mother in school again fashion. But as the drama continued to go on, I know one thing, that husband is not wanting to go out there anytime soon, for years I hope.

The thing is spending too much money to fly out there, and have a room like that. As a wedding guest a host should steer you to stay at a decent location. Right. She had been on the ship. Whatever. SMH. Thanks for listening. Monday we leave again, this time for Canada. .

 

Crikey @redstar that sounds awful and very expensive.

Hello all.

I'm late today because I've been trying to do artistic things to decorate the church for Creationtide. Volunteers had been asked for so I thought I would have a go. They said it would be crafts and all would be provided but it was mostly painting. There were 4 women, one man and me and I know them all. I thought there would be more though. It was fun. My first job was to stick little seaside creatures, like crabs, turtles, seaweed, shells and fish, onto a canvas of the sea and sea shore, not too hard. Then I was handed a canvas and acrylic paints and asked to paint a picture of God's creation, but not the sea as they had enough. I found a photo of a bluebell wood on my phone so I thought I'd paint a bluebell wood. Think I should have chosen a landscape with hills and fields, might have been easier. Linda, who is an artist, said don't bother about too much detail and keep it impressionist then handed me the acrylic paints, a palette knife and a huge flat brush. Panic! I've never painted with acrylics and I haven't painted a picture for over 20 years! That was watercolour. Anyway, I painted the bluebell wood. I think it looks blobby and amateurish but they were nice about it.

One lady had brought soup and bread for lunch. I enjoyed that bit and the chatter!

I hope you have a great time at the family gathering @Ladybird4.

 

@Goldenlily26 when I had a greenhouse I found it easiest to clean using a microfibre mop with a long handle, especially for the outside.

 

@redstar what an experience. As you say, an old ship now and obviously not been kept up to spec.
We went out for lunch but our first choice was hosting a fell race and not a parking space to be had.
Our second choice has more variety on their menu, and I had a very tasty veg risotto. It hasn't made me feel stodgily full.

 

Evening everyone.

Tired arms tonight from dismantling poly greenhouse plus hedge trimming and sweeping, but supper is cooking away so looking forward to that - made a Chinese-style concoction with chicken and veg and a (bought) crispy chilli beef side dish. Wonder if I have any prawn toasts in the freezer?…

I hope everyone is doing ok and have (had or will) something tasty to eat too this Saturday evening.

 

The online pictures were false compared to reality.

 

I had a really wonderful day today. It was lovely seeing my niece and her OH and she brought me the news that her brother and his wife in Sydney are expecting a little girl in November. They brought their wedding forward so that my brother (their Dad) could attend their wedding before he passed away. My youngest sister and her OH came down from Newton Aycliffe to see them and was pleased that she was going to be beaten to Grandma status by our Sis-in-Law. The old photographs did produce much laughter. Warrington became part of Cheshire many years ago @Obelix-Vendée when the then Government decided to move county boundaries. This caused much disquiet for residents of Warrington as once they had a Cheshire address their Council Tax bills shot up. It is Penketh where my two brothers live. They did similar to me as suddenly I discovered I didn't live in Lancashire any more but in Greater Manchester. Because I (and many of my friends I might add) am an ornery critter, I refuse to put Greater Manchester whenever requested for my address and I always put Lancashire. Post still gets to me.
It must have been interesting doing your painting @Busy-Lizzie. I bet @Penny_Forthem would have had some handy hints.
Good grief @redstar! What a to do! You can really do without that kind of stress, not to mention the expense.
Signing out now. See you all tomorrow. Hope you all have restful nights.

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Hello all. I was woken up at 04:00 by Cricket bringing me a little pressie. I managed to rescue and release the mouse and then, of course, I couldn't get back to sleep. It was really dark this morning and looking at the tree movement outside the wind is very strong. A strong cuppa required. Lunar eclipse tonight and a blood moon. Probably won't see it here until much later.
Church first and then some gardening. I did pick all my ripe tomatoes yesterday before I went out but this year has not been a good year. Some of the plants are now bare and need removing and composting. Its on the jobs list!

 

Morning all! Not as wet & windy now as it was last night, but still not very inviting.
Unusually for a Sunday I'm still in bed - normal church time is 9.30, but today we're having the harvest festival, at 3pm in an attempt to attract more people. We cleaned and decorated the church yesterday afternoon, and it looks and smells (lots of apples!) lovely.
Our previous home was in west Yorkshire, but had an Oldham postcode so we were supposed to put Lancs on the address. This definitely went against the grain for Yorkshire folk, and like you, @Ladybird4 , the post still arrived OK if it had the "real" county on the envelope.

 

I do the same kind of thing when I clean my greenhouse, except I use a soft broom, in fact I use the garden hose to wet the inside of my greenhouse, wash down with Jeyes Fluid solution then rinse off with the hose. Same for the outside. No problem.
I also use the hose and broom technique when cleaning the outside of my house windows. Except I use a little washing up liquid in the bucket of washing water and dry them off with an old terry towelling teacloth.
My conservatory is a whole new ball game. It has lots of decorative 'coving?' over the internal frame work, air vents, etc. etc. and is 16ftx8ft and about 12ft high to the ridge, with a ceramic tiled floor, as opposed to my greenhouse which is 6ftx8ft and 8ft to the ridge, with an earth floor. I was spoiled this year as my son washed the greenhouse down for me when he was on his last visit.
I managed to get two loads of washing dried, found another chicken dust bath at the base of my lavender bushes, and also found some flower buds on the Ipomea which I hadn't noticed before.
I spent about an hour giving the senecio a hard hair cut. Next on the list is the water forget me
not in the pond. I haven't worked out how to do it yet. I have at least one resident in the pond, I saw some movement when I was standing looking at the pond, cogitating on the best approach to dealing with the forget me not and pond weed etc.
I did some cutting out for my own pot holder, having given my daughter the one I made for myself initially.
Made some apple juice and did some washing up, so pottered.
It is dark and raining so no outdoor activities yet. No moon eclipse. I looked out several times but there was a sky full of cloud. It is supposed to clear up later when I will go and pick up windfalls, again, check the greenhouse and pick some beans.

What a disappointing wedding weekend for you, and so expensive. I think I would say nothing to the family who booked it, but write a fu Weddings and funerals seem to bring out the worst
in some people.
I would say nothing to the family who booked it but write a very stiff letter of complaint, listing each point you were unhappy with, and send it to the Manager of Housekeeping on the vessel. They should be told or they cannot put it right. She is a very old lady now and was never designed or built to do the work she is being asked to do now. I am guessing the people responsible for running her today are cutting corners despite their charges, to make up for the increase in cost of living, etc. but they should not be allowed to think it is OK for such low standards.
My son had a wonderful day fishing, he had to get up at 4.30 am to drive around and pick up 5 of his friends to go to the heliport. The two pilots were very friendly and after a singularly disappointing unsuccessful effort at catching fish, 3 fish between all of them, the pilots took them on a scenic trip around the mountains, glorious weather so excellent viewing. A long drive home then bed, tired but happy,

 

Got woken at 7.30 by very loud thunder, which continued for about an hour, then some heavy rain. The Met Office (just down the road from here) issued a yellow weather warning at almost exactly the same time, further reinforcing my suspicion that they do their forecasting by looking out of the window! We abandoned our tentative plan for a walk this morning, and our visitors have headed off home. Next visitor will arrive on Tuesday for a week, so I’ve got the first lot of washing in the machine. Leftovers for lunch today, and I’ll review the contents of the larder and fridge before a supermarket trip tomorrow.
We reviewed last nights recording from the security camera in the garden. Several visits from a tawny owl, who came to look at the badgers supper! No doubt hoping to grab one of the opportunistic mice who often visit, but no sign of them. I think the owl may have eaten a few slugs or beetles though.