Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Evening all, we've got lots of windfall apples as well @AuntyRach so I've decided I'll put a crate full at the bottom of the drive tomorrow for passers-by. My small freezer drawer is full!

I've actually had to do my own housework today! Heaven forbid! My brother and his partner are staying overnight tomorrow on their way home to Manchester so needs must. Didn't take long although OH has still to do the vacuuming. I had hoped to carry on putting back all my pots on the terrace and refilling the shed today but frequent showers put paid to that.

Here's a photo of my new sitting out area, really pleased with the way it turned out.

 

Message from Mr Amazon. The jars due today will be delivered on the 12th.
As my damsons are defrosting in preparation for imminent delivery, I am not happy..
Is this Non delivery day?

 

Our Coxes are teeny too @AuntyRach but I've been very pleased with my first crop of Bramleys. I currently have 20 perfect apples in store and another half dozen still swelling and not ready to crop. We also had half a dozen windfalls that became crumble last weekend. I use stevia for the fruit but fine cane sugar in the crumble with oats and almonds.

Digging for Britain is recording while I sort out some bits before watching the Sewing Bee and the Bake off is also recording. We'll watch that tomorrow after dinner as OH likes that one too and Possum is working on her website homework for class on Thursday.

You must be so pleased it's all over @lizzie27 and to have a cosy corner out of the wind. Hope you enjoy your visitors, tho just passing thru.

Still no rain here so I've been out watering the young trees and shrubs that have suffered in the heat and am very pleased to see a whole crop of teeny new leaves coming on my gingko and my seed sown eucalyptus is doing well. Liriodendron has recovered but hamamelis and prunus cerasifera very unhappy.

Possum not too happy now either as the French are revolting tomorrow with a general strike and road blocks so her route thru La Roche to get to work will be blocked and there are roadwork closures already on the best route to avoid Le Blocage. Loads of fun.

 

Good evening everyone. Just finished watching Sewing Bee - no spoilers. @Obelix-Vendée I cannot stand Ross Kemp or Alexander Armstrong (or Victoria Coren Mitchell whilst I'm having a gripe ) I do doubt we will get there but I'm just backing up my friend's OH who quizzes with me.
Just after Sewing Bee finished I caught the start of the news and was horrified to see the news about the bombing of Doha. This is where my Ozzie relatives stopped over on Sunday on their return to home. I am so glad that they missed that by a day.

 

@lizzie27 your patio looks lovely. I hope you get all the pots put back where you want them and that we get some more good weather so you can have some nice 'sit outs' before the end of the year.

 

I had a lovely visit with my friend. We sat in her conservatory and watched the bird life on the feeders in her garden. She loved the cake and we did have a piece with our coffee. I got to ride on her stair lift and it was great fun.
I am saying goodnight for tonight and I'll see you all in the morning.

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Good morning everyone. I heard from my niece this morning and she too had been shocked at the news from Quatar. So thankful that she and her husband are safe.
It is looking very windy outside and I am hoping to get to the bank in town today. I hope that Possum manages to get to work this morning @Obelix-Vendée.

 

Good morning all.

Your seating area looks great @lizzie27. Lovely paving stones.

Yesterday's rose group meeting went well. I was able to give away some of our glut of figs and cooking apples. They all said how healthy my garden looks, despite the hot dry weather. A couple of them brought posies of roses from their gardens but the others said they had nothing worth bringing. We talked about Persica roses which are good in drought. The tea went down well.
The chimney sweep has a problem with his car but is hoping to come later this week. He was meant to come yesterday morning. I won't be able to light the wood burning oven until he's cleaned it as it smoked badly a few months ago. Don't need it yet.

 

We have dribble! They say it will become proper rain later. We'll see.

Possum has taken Harry to work today @Ladybird4 so she can use his satnav to try and weave round Le Blocage. OH is coming back from St Malo today and may hit problems in Rennes and Nantes. We'll see.

Very pleased with Sewing Bee results last night but no spoilers.

Sewing for me today then. A new frock I can wear for dancing this autumn - not glam, just cotton and sleeveless for ventilation and comfort. Then it'll be time to start on OH's linen trousers so he's comfy too.

Enjoy your day everyone. Hugs to all those with pains or frustartions.

 

It was very much a "not do much" day for me. It rained heavily on and off all day, dark, grey and miserable. Not nice.
I dug Rob's crate out of the corner, it had a throw over it for his privacy and then a big pile of my patchwork "stuff", mainly my memory quilt started for my daughter, on top of it. I cannot fathom how to dismantle the crate. I will ask my neighbour to help, as a veterinary nurse, I am sure she will know how to unravel it. My next job will be to give it a wash down and see if I can find it a new home. I found lots of dust and dead spiders and flies! I also found his winter jackets and waterproof coats, which I must wash. It could well mean another trip to the RSPCA centre.
I decided it was high time I vacuumed the stairs, loooong overdue. I had to dust the vacuum cleaner before using it!
I am going for an MRI scan this afternoon to see what has been going on with my leg and dead foot. The only possible treatments suggested by the physio were surgery, an anti-inflammatory steroid injection, or nothing, apart from continuing to exercise it. I have begun to get used to driving with it, a bit unnerving to start with.
floralies I hope your shoulder responds to the exercises etc. and you are soon able to use your arm more easily. It will take time. My shoulder is still complaining about my "cutting back" the senecio. I have found all sorts of muscles I didn't know I had because I had to stand astride the plant and balance to do the job.
I watched Bake Off, some dreadful messes because of the heat, and Sewing Bee. Again, some disasters, a shame Kit was eliminated, I thought he was in with a good chance of winning. Maybe they thought he was trying too hard to impress. I never watch Ross Kemp's programs, I am not keen on him.
Penny, what a scare to wake up and find you are running so behind with your planned schedule. It puts you out for the rest of the day. Well done for making it through. I regularly lose or gain a day, very disconvovulating!

 

Morning all, drizzly here and blustery winds forecast I think. Pleased you all liked my new sitting out area, I've already tried it out and sat there with a glass of wine last night!

Sounds as though Possum will have a dreadful time trying to get to work @Obelix-Vendée , hope she and OH manage their respective journeys. We've had roadworks with traffic lights along the high street which started a few weeks ago and there's no easy route around it. It's a new gas main pipe they're installing which will take until October - deep joy. It's causing absolute havoc at school times as you can imagine - we have a primary school nearby with around 600 pupils.
Of course the Council in their wisdom decided to close off the only other road which could have been used as an alternative.

I'm defrosting some blackberries to make an apple & blackberry crumble for tonight, thought I'd cook it in advance to save juggling oven shelves tonight.

Do hope the MRI will successfully identify the source of your leg problem @Goldenily26 and that you won't have to wait long for the results.

Trying out a stair lift sounds like fun @Ladybird4!

Have a good day everyone.

 

Oh no @Goldenlily26! You've said who left the Sewing Bee and I haven't seen it yet. I was going to watch it while doing the ironing this afternoon. @Obelix-Vendée said "no spoilers".

Did the weekly shop at Lidl as OH wanted to get wine there to take to England. I wish they sold fresh milk, means I will still have to go to Leclerc.

 

Hello all! We've just had a door delivered, we are rearranging a couple of rooms and making a new doorway. Now that the door has arrived OH isn't sure he can manage it on his own as i am rather useless at the moment so it looks like we will have to find a man who can!!
No trouble at all when we went shopping this morning with any blockages, in fact it was very quiet now that all the holiday folk have gone home. I also didn't want a spoiler for the sewing bee!!

 

TBH @Busy-Lizzie and @floralies after his first comment to the judges I was hoping he'd go. Cocky! And he didn't know about gussets last week either. You'll enjoy the programme even knowing who goes.

No neighbour or friend who could help him hold it @floralies? Maybe quicker tho if you can find a man who can. When we bought our first house together in 1983 we needed to replace the back door asap as it was badly warped. OH hung the new one without using a spirit level so I took over all DIY - painting, decorating, shelves etc - but not leccy as OH's dad was an electrician so OH rewired us and added sockets.

We have had some proper rain for a while and the garden is happily dripping. Over due tho a,d the sun's coming out now and no more rain till Saturday night which suits me as I won't have time now to do any sowing as i'll be busy prepping for and manning the stand at the Forum this Friday and Saturday.

Possum says she got through OK this morning but I expect the protestors will be more organised by the evening rush hour. OH will be coming that way too on his way home from St Malo. Happy days. Quick-to-cook spicy Chinese prawn and veg stir fry for dinner so it's OK if they're late.

I've tried pasteurised milk from our Leclerc @Busy-Lizzie and it's usually off by the time I get it home or not long after so I give in. Only use LIDL for wine and tinned cherry toms when they have an Italian week so sometimes see a plant or bit of kitchen or garden stuff I like but otherwise stick to Leclerc. Passed by Grand Frais on Monday and was very excited to see they had smoked trout till I saw it was grown and smoked in Turkey. Just bought French grown curly kale and bean sprouts.

Tea break over. Back to my sewing then.

 

It’s seems to have been raining non stop here since 5pm last night. It was really noisy at bedtime, I expected to see more flooding this morning.
Too wet for walks this morning, so we took our visitor to the big garden centre as he wanted to buy some shoes (it’s a big centre!) I’d planned to sneak off in there and buy some herbs, but decided it was going to be too wet for much gardening for a few days, and I’m going to extra busy with cooking for the next week, so I didn’t bother. Then we went to the seaside, where there are more shoe shops. We had coffee and pastries and then I did sneak off and looked in some clothes shops. Interesting to look, but saw nothing that I could justify buying. We did manage a very blustery walk on the sea front as the rain had subsided to a light drizzle. The sun has now come out!
The new sitting area looks so inviting, @lizzie27, glad you got to ‘christen’ it with a glass of wine!