Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Good morning everyone.
I'm not usually up and dressed by this time in the morning, but I was wide awake before 6am (there's a snorer in my hostel room!). Breakfast isn't until 7.30, so I'm going to read until the doors open.
The innocent expression these cats display seems to be common to them all, @Ladybird4 . "Look Mum, a dead thing. Must have come in by itself..."
I'll have to see if the comet and/or meteor shower will be visible from my neck of the woods. Thanks for the heads-up!
I'm hoping to catch the 9am train this morning, to get home by lunchtime, though if the Luas (Dublin tram) is uncooperative I'll be 3 hours later. Fingers crossed.

 

Got everything crossed here that you are not held up @Liriodendron. You must be getting excited now about getting back home.

 

Good morning to you all!

Fingers crossed for you @Liriodendron Lovely country photo. Safe travels.

That's pretty sad about the building plan @Ladybird4 Unfortunately, the same thing is happening here - the next village seems to be creeping towards us with these 3 storey apartment blocks which sell like hotcakes for retired people leaving cities to live out their lives in the sun.

Thank you @Ergates for the pencil pleat - it is akin to rufflette. Standard material width here is 1m50 width, (you can get wider) but I haven't made curtains f'ages.

Actually, I have taken up my knitting again which has been "safely stored" in a cupboard. I have started on the armholes - the garment is knitted in one piece, so my head needed to be firmly on to count the stitches and the pattern doesn't always give the stitch count after casting off. Still, it seems that I can knit the back now. I do tend to put things away "for a better day" when instructions get intricate!!

Yesterday was overcast with intermittent spits then sun. Today looks the same. After my bike/run with Fizz, we will trot down to have coffee with a friend who is leaving for a holiday on the Ivory Coast this Friday.

It's the middle of the week, so for the working contingent, the weekend is in sight!! Do I see a show of hands for the workers? No. I thought not! Every day is a Sunday!!

 

Good morning all.

We arrived back last night. The plane was a bit late and the cottage was chilly. OH put on the heating and lit the wood burner. We had soup and hot chocolate and went to bed early. Bliss to have my own pillow!

On our last morning we went to have a look at the hotel beach and the surrounding area which we hadn't yet visited. There was a funicular down to the beach as it was steep. There were boats and a little chapel on an island a short walk from the beach and you could see the planes on the runway that has been extended out over a salt water lake.


Our hotel is behind the trees on top of the hill.

 

Yes, @Ladybird4 , I am indeed looking forward to getting home! I did catch the early train, so I've primed OH to put the lunch together.

 

Greetings. Shame about the building plans @Ladybird4 . There really ought to be a planning rule about provision of services - medical, education, transport - before allowing more homes. After all, they'll be occupied by rate payers funding such provision.

I like my own pillow too @Busy-Lizzie cos it's a special one for dodgy necks tho I can cope with hotel ones for a short while.

You'll be pleased to be home too @Liriodendron. Our huntress never looks innocent. She's a chatty pussycat and always announces her catch with lots of miaows and chirrups. OH managed to rescue her latest offering last night and release it.

@Tui34 good luck with the knitting. Lots of it about at our club now and crochet which I did try but it seems a very long, slow process to get something I could have sown much faster - eg patchwork instead of grannies and with attractive fabric. I really can't cope with the gaudy stuff in bright clashing colours.

OH and I have taken advantage of the dry morning to get the last of the roses in. Now to to let it settle a bit then start on the alliums and daffs. I've just been sweety shopping on a site offering 50% off beared iris, hemerocallis and peonies, amongts others and have indulged so that's some perennials to add before the deep wood chip mulch goes on.

Lunchtime now then broccoli to plant and seedlings to check. The ones I potted on are all doing well and I even have a few more parsley coming thru.

Happy wednesday everyone.

 

What lovely pictures, @Busy-Lizzie. I’m afraid I’d want to spent a bit of time watching the planes coming and going! I am a bit of a nerd in that respect! On our past trips to San Francisco, we have spent our arrival night in a hotel overlooking the Bay with a view of the runways. Great fun!
Glad you are home safely, and that @Liriodendron didnt run into any delays.
We have been out for a walk by the sea this morning. The sun popped out a few times, but we are back home now, and it’s like evening, have had to put the lights on. Just starting to spit as well, we have been warned of heavy rain and winds moving in overnight.
OH is supposedly finishing off some flooring in the airing cupboard, but I’ve made him a drink and he has got distracted by the Women’s cricket. I’ve prepared some Brussels sprouts to have with dinner, which will be a ready to cook pie, and some sort of potato.

 

Rain has stopped play! Months and months and months since that has happened and now only because my gardening jacket is no longer waterproof and I was getting soaked. Not good for arthritic bits.

We are expecting more and strong winds overnight and tomorrow as Benjamin hits France and south west UK. Sewing for me then and weekly shop tomorrow. Hoping it will be dry on Friday as we're off to fetch my Bernina from its service and then take Possum to lunch in Pornic. She's never been and has this week off before her last week at Benetteau. Unfortunately the tide will be out again but by the time wev'e had lunch it'll be on its way in again.

Salmon and scallop crumble for us tonight.

 

Hello folks, we slept till 9 this morning so am a few hours behind with everything. Sunny and dry and quite pleasant before the expected storm overnight. If Ergates has drizzle just starting, it's hit us in a few hours time I expect.

Hope you're safely home by now @Liriodendron and looking forward to a nice dinner with your OH catching up with all the news. You've had quite the adventure with all your journeys, fascinating to read all about them.

Home for you as well @Busy-Lizzie, your pics look good, especially the one with the plane gliding along in the background! Hope your garden's still looking good.

That's a real shame about the building plot behind you @Ladybird4, I guess we're all rather apprehensive that the same could happen in our neighbourhood. I accept that we need a lot more housing but they do need to put in the infrastructure as well. I was reading about a similar situation in Moreton in the Marsh, a very pretty Cotswold town we travel through quite often.
There's only one main road right through the middle which is always chocker and the place gets rammed with coach parties. I hate to think of the queues to come. The land around is mostly flat though so they could put a bypass in perhaps but bet they won't.

We enjoyed a stroke and cuddle this morning with our favourite neighbourhood cat, a pretty little black and white female. She was up an oak tree nearby until she heard our voices and then came tearing down to meet us. I'm a bit jealous as she appears to favour OH more than me. I bet she's like that with all the boys!

I got one potted rose planted up today, in the spot where I'd dug out the Lavatera earlier. I'm hoping it's a cutting from my lovely Penelope rose which is ailing now but I lost the label. It's a beautiful apricot/peach/cream colour.

 

We have visitors on Saturday, so i have been forced to do some housework!
I've polished the copper warming pan, ordered new cushion covers (current ones are dog nibbled), polished furniture and discovered cobwebs lurking where they shouldn't be.
Also cleared the greenhouse, ready for its winter inhabitants.
I think everywhere, except the remotest places, is under threat of development.
Our village was turned down for expansion because of lack of school places and, of all things, the inability of the sewage system. There has been no major development for many years, but I'm sure the march of 'progress' will continue.

 

I've been having a very quiet day so I've been looking at jumpers online and ordered a couple from Seasalt and a couple from Weirdfish. Having a quiet day is expensive but they both had Sales so there were reduced prices I must throw away some in France that are over 20 years old. I keep thinking that they will come in handy for gardening as too tatty to give to charity. Should have thrown them out when I moved house, though I did give things that were too small to charity.

 

This year, I'm 'into' burnt orange and cornflower blue. Seasalt have some lovely 'handybands' in those colours.

 

I bought this jumper in FatFace sale recently, and it got an outing this morning. Got complimented by the girl in the coffee shop! It’s slightly more rust and cream than it looks in the photo, and the rust coloured bits are very textured, like a woolly sheep! It is quite unusual, and very warm. It’s fun to find something a bit different, especially when it’s reduced in price!
I must look at the Seasalt and Weird Fish sales, I have found things in like in both those stores.

 

You could use your old jumpers to line hanging baskets @Busy-Lizzie - they won hands down in a test by AT years ago for the best liners - but I expect you don't bother with baskets cos of all the to-ing and fro-ing.

Not buying jumpers this year as I don't need any but I did "hit the sales" today and got 50% off perennials which will make me and my garden happy.

It has persisted down for a couple of hours now so another reason to be happy but the wind is getting up ahead of tomorrow's gales. We might be in for a noisy night and no chance of any star-gazing @Ladybird4. Westerlies too so the catflap will be flapping.

I hope all your cleaning has made you feel virtuous @Penny_Forthem and satisfied. We too tend to find cobwebs we've missed when doing a pre-visitors deep clean.....

I looked up your Penelope rose @lizzie27 but think i need stronger colours here as the sun tends to bleach paler roses.

Have a cosy evening everyone.

 

I can remember having had a really good clean up before guests arrived, and settling us all down with a pre dinner drink. Happened to glance across at the sofa, which had legs and could be seen under, and catching sight of a couple of huge balls of fluff! I was hoping there wouldn’t be a sudden breeze and they would roll out like tumbleweed in an old Western town!
I’m usually more worried about another bad habit of mine - that of arriving home, collapsing on the sofa, wriggling out of my bra and slinging it onto the back of a chair. Can come out in a cold sweat wondering if I’ve forgotten to move it before any visitors arrive!
The drizzle that started earlier has developed into a proper downpour. I’m not looking forward to the clocks going back next week. The benefits in the morning seem to disappear within a couple of weeks, and the dark evenings are quite depressing.