Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Morning all.

Im optimistically doing some washing today as the days of line drying are dwindling. Need to nip to the town for some new work shoes today.

Have a lovely day all - productive or relaxing .

 

Hello all, we got back last night from an overnight stay at a hotel in Oxfordshire. My brother and his partner were also staying there so we had time for a good catch-up. On Sunday we joined all our other cousins and their partners for our remaining (out of 6) uncle's 90th birthday party on a boat cruising down the Thames. There were about 40 of us and a good time was had by all.
The wooden seats were a bit hard though after 5 hours! Thankfully it was dry although rather blustery late afternoon. Saw some fantastic large luxury houses on the river bank. We drove under a ginormous very black cloud around Swindon way on the M4 coming home but it didn't rain hard until we got home - typical!

I'm tired today so had a lie in this morning and apart from doing two washloads, haven't done much. The builders have been back rebuilding the last cracked wall by the birch tree and finishing off the re-mortaring on the front walls. Hopefully, that's it.

 

Good afternoon to you all!!

What a weekend some of you are having!! I agree with @Busy-Lizzie and @Obelix-Vendée that Meteo France is off way off course. Today is supposed to be cloudy with rain - it was sunny and there are a few spits starting now.

I have been busy cutting and chopping vegetables for ratatouille - some to eat and the rest into Marmite pottles for the freezer. I have a glut of aubergines but have plenty that I have cooked and frozen. The freezer is starting to groan as there was a special on chicken legs last week!! So I too, had a big clean up. I also make my own yoghurt once a week in the slow cooker and it gets a hard ring around the milk level as it warms up. All the big pots are now clean and away! I have made a mushroom and onion tart for my dinner tonight - good with a salad.

No moon watching here either as it was cloudy but it was full and bright on Saturday evening. We sat out on the terrasse sipping wine and wiling the warm evening away.

I hope shoulders are feeling better @floralies and @Goldenlily26

After my surgeon's visit on Friday morning - I need to have an ultrasound as he thinks the pain in my left hip is due to tendonitis. Have made 2 appointments on line and both have been cancelled and I have to make another. Hopefully third time lucky. I have the proverbial anti inflammatories to take for 10 days. Otherwise his work as hip surgeon is good and I have no pain when standing or walking - only in bed or when I stand up from the table etc. We live and learn.

I hope you all have a pleasant remains of the day!

 

Warm and sunny here now @Tui34 and 5° hotter than forecast. Saturday is now looking damp which is not good for the Forum des Associations but who knows? Only 2mm in the day and that'll disappear on current performance.

Lunch was very good at a restaurant which knows about seasonings and combinations. 19€50 for starter and main course. I had a velouté of cauliflower, lightly spiced and garnished with a poached egg and strips of beef tataki with its ponzu dressing. Utterly yum. Duck breast for main course came with gratin dauphinois and a red cabbage salad. More yum. Then a coffee for me.
I think we're ready for the Forum but with 3 new committee members it'll be interesting to see how they cope.

Home via the fabric shop as I needed some felt and ribbon for Easter projects to show next weekend and needed to buy the gift vouchers for the 3 people leaving their posts after 6 years. They're only having a special fabric sale where you get 10% off if you buy a metre and then up to 50% if you buy 5m which suddenly makes more quilted Indian fabric very interesting..... Need to have a think.

Glad the end is in sight @lizzie27 and that you enjoyed your family get together.

I don't make yogurt but have used Greek yogurt to make labneh to stuff dates and fancy having a go at making cheese like Wensleydale or Caerphilly or maybe even Lancashire as the French don't do crumbly cheese. Finding decent milk is the first challenge and then a culture.

 

We all seem to be in an Autumn gear.
I've ordered jam jars and Kilners (not killers, stupid autocorrect) for hedgerow jellies, chutneys (last of the tomatoes, apples and chillies) and fruit liqueurs. Wish we could get the alcohol des fruites that we could buy in France. Sigh. Even cheap gin isn't cheap any more. Still, think Christmas hampers.
We were sorry to leave our little bolthole in the hills, but will return on Thursday.
I have dentist tomorrow and OH, the chiropodist.

 

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Good morning everyone. Sorry I didn't call by to wish you a 'good night' but I was so busy thinking about the quiz night last night that I only remembered when I was walking around to my friend's house for the lift to Bolton! It was only a friendly match against a team who are hoping to join the league next year - we were beaten by a couple of points! Then four of us had to pose for a little video and still pic for our application to go on The Bridge of Lies programme. We have applied in the past to go on Bargain Hunt and Pointless but not heard back - apart from an acknowledgement of our forms - so we will have to wait and see. The moon last night as we set off was very low on the horizon and was a beautiful shade of peach and on the return journey it was bright, shiny silver. I expect your sleep will have been disrupted @Busy-Lizzie. I wish everyone a wonderful day. I am visiting a friend and taking a cake for her. She has just had a chair lift fitted in her house so guess who will be having a ride on it!

 

Good morning. I'm on parade early as I had to go and let out the chooks and give them their daily rice - 3 grains, garlic, thyme and olive oil. Now that things have cooled down we're getting proper eggs. Birds fed and coffee made so i'm all set for the day.

The moon last night was hazy and blurry and definitely not bloody here and this morning it's a pale, mis-shapen thing hanging over to the west. Clear sunshine expected all day but they think we'll get 6mm of rain overnight. Seeing is believing.

I have errands to run and some sewing to do and the sunflowers to pull up and save seed before letting the birds have the rest. They were wonderful shades of burgundy red with gold edges or centres.

Have a great day everyone.

 

This morning is the first time in a while that the outside temperature has been in single figures but it does look as if the day will be pleasant. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your descriptions of delicious foods this morning. Definitely made my mouth water. They make my bowl of cereals - even with the banana and raspberries seem very mundane.

 

Good morning all.

I must get up, still having coffee and reading the news in bed. The chimney sweep is coming so I must open the electric gate.

I'm hosting the Garden Club Rose Group this afternoon. I made a lemon drizzle cake yesterday and I'll make sausage rolls and cheese scones today. Another member is bringing a carrot cake.

I need to do a bit of tidying. I hope the chimney sweep doesn't make much dust. I have a wood burning oven in the breakfast room and a wood burner in the sitting room.

Not many roses out at the moment, between flushes.

 

I am sitting watching a waterfall of water pour down my window where the gutter is overflowing, we are having a torrential downpour. The forecast said it was going to be a nice morning. Ha!

I did a lot of washing up, and a lot of putting away, not much else. I made some apple juice and a pot of lentil soup.
My daughter called in for a chat and to regale me with my son in law's story of having a large splinter run into the palm of his hand when out with the dive club. He and my daughter tried pulling it out but failed. They went to our local A&E, by appointment only, where they insisted on him going 8 miles away to Truro A&E for an X-ray, they refused to do an X-ray, saying wood wouldn't show up on an X-ray, nothing they could do, he ended up with an ap. this morning to see an orthopedic, hand specialist at the main hospital. He was given a new fangled seaweed dressing to stop it from becoming infected. Fortunately, the wound is clean due him being in salt water.
I suppose he was being looked after but really, for a splinter!

I think today is for pottering and doing not a lot.

Have a good day everyone.

 

Morning from a fraught N Wales.
I set my alarm clock, ready for the dentist, but we must have had a power dip in the night (elec clock) and when I woke, I discovered it was 9.10 and dentist was at 10.... eeek!
I made it with a minute to spare, was called in on time and was out less than 5 minutes later! No change from a year ago, phew.
Now enjoying a leisurely coffee before running hub to the chiropodist (he had offered to catch the bus, but we are popping up to the van after, so may as well take him and wait)
All washing has been hung out and will have that 'freshly line dried smell'.
How exciting @Ladybird4. Will keep everything crossed for you.

 

Hello all! Just reading back to see what you've all been up to. It seems that Autumn is approaching fast! We have had a lot of rain and today the air is very damp with low cloud and only 14c, I can't take these big swings in temperature now as I get older!
I've had two sessions of physio for my shoulder and have gentle exercises to do at home, early days yet, I'm not to think about getting my hip done yet!
OH is still trying to do the tiling on our patio but there's not enough time between rain showers to get on so it's seems to be permanently covered with a tarp.
I do like watching Bridge of Lies @Ladybird4 I hope you manage to get on it!
OH has cut our pumpkins, not a bad crop as they were second sowings as the slugs ate the first ones, pumpkins and melons have done well this year, aubergines have been rubbish!

 

Hello again. It's gone grey and cooled to 20C but, having run all my errands this morning, I've now changed into shorts and strappy top and had my lunch so am ready for a bit of gardening.

Splinters can be dodgy @Goldenlily26. I got one once and couldn't get it all out and my thumb swelled to double size and was extremely painful so went to the GP, a locum, who excavated about 3mm of splinter and told me to bathe it regularly to soak out any poison. 3 days later gentle squeezing produced a 13mm splinter and only then did my thumb heal and return to normal service.

Can't stand that Ross Kemp fellow so if Bridge of Lies comes on the TV goes off or I leave the room. Nevertheless, I hope your bid goes well @Ladybird4

Sorry for your trials and tribulations @floralies and hope all the exercises help. Feel free to send your rain this way.

Don't need an alarm when you have felines like mine @Penny_Forthem. Cosmos is always keen for his breakfast.

 

We have been given yet more damsons!
Can't look a gift one in the mouth, so to speak!
So damson curd may be on the menu.
As soon as Mr Amazon delivers my kilners, damson gin will be on the go.
I ordered a new outdoor lantern for the van a while ago. Evri was supposed to deliver it yesterday, but didn't. Said I'd receive an update today, but haven't.
Not happy. At least I paid PayPal, so will get my money back.
I don't like the presenter of the BOL either, but the show is interesting. I wanted to go on Pointless, but never even applied!

 

Evening everyone.

I’ve been clearing windfall apples (cookers) - so many small ones this year as presumably they didn’t swell as so dry. There’s a few good ones but mostly out of reach (even with my 6 foot picker) but I have enough to make a couple of crumbles for now. I’ll buy some non-sugar tomorrow so I can do one for Dad.

I hope everyone is doing ok. I’l be settling down for Bake Off soon - enjoy if you watch - it’s biscuit week.