Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Hen house scrubbed with enough energy to mean I had to strip off my outer fleece and forgot it when I went up to get fresh water and cloths for rinsing and drying. Brrr! nest boxes all scrubbed and dry, seed mix done, hen feeder suspension bar fixed. Just need to put fresh straw on the floor under the bench cos that's where the new ones will hide till they realise they're safe.

OH has a lurgy - aching shoulders and wobbly tum. No idea what that might be and he took ibuprofen to sort it yesterday after golf - fat lot of good for his tum n'est-ce pas? He's only just told me about the tum and has taken nothing for either today so I've made him take some paracetamol and lie down. Men!

Pity about your postbox toppers @Ergates. I've always enjoyed your photos.

Nothing wrong with a day with no gardening @Busy-Lizzie. It has to remain a pleasure, even if only in seeing the results of some, at times, hard work.

We were supposed to be wet tomorrow but now they say dry until night time and then it will persist down till Monday morning. That scuppers plans for walkies and lunch out on Sunday. Humph!

Have a warm and cosy evening everyone.

 

Good evening all. Well the VM engineer took me by surprise today by arriving 1 hour early. I wasn't particularly bothered. He was a very pleasant young fellow with a broad scouse accent. During the chat I had with him it turned out that he had lived in Skelmersdale - where I had taught and there is a distinct possibility that I taught his parents! He made a note of my name and the subject I had taught and was going to tell them tonight. Another of these interlocking threads in life. I now have a new box and a gizmo that will switch off both the box and the TV. Before this upgrade I had to have separate gizmos for the two items.
I have just been outside to put some rubbish in the bin and it feels a little warmer than this time last night.
Is your wish dosher up and working again now @Penny_Forthem? It was interesting to read about the Rufus moment - I thought the same as @Ergates. I hope that the 85 year old's birthday is not spoiled by some twonk putting the wrong number on the invite - but darned annoying for you.

 

Well done @Obelix-Vendée on preparing the des rez for the new chooks. I hope that they settle in soon and delight you with their little personalities.

 

How odd, @Penny_Forthem. Maybe an innocent mistake.
I found an email in my junk folder yesterday. From someone I know whom I’ve been in touch with very recently. However, the message wanted me to confirm I’d received it, as they needed a favour. Couldn’t ring me in person, as they had a sore throat from tonsillitis and couldn’t talk.
Certainly couldn’t ring me in person, as they don’t have my phone number. Very obviously one of this scams.
However, my immediate reaction was that the person it was supposed to be might have wanted something legitimate, perhaps information on something going on locally, or contact details for another mutual friend. Luckily I took some time to think about it, we weren’t big friends, and I didn’t remember immediately that he didn’t have a phone number for me. I’m sure it wouldn’t have got any further, eg wanting me to part with money. I’d like to think im pretty savvy, but what if it had supposedly been someone I knew well, and wouldn’t have hesitated to respond to in the first instance?
I’ve contacted the person who had organised the mailing list, to warn him that his details may have been compromised. Annoying, but hopefully I’ll be a lot more vigilant in future. Might have got a bit complacent after never having had anything like this happen before.

 

Nope, @Ladybird4 wish dosher is not fixed. Depending on the cost of repair, it might be a new one #notpleased

 

That was very sensible @Ergates. Scammers are so clever with some of their activities that it is best to be hesitant with any email that looks either vague or dodgy. @Penny_Forthem, that is no age for any 'white goods' to fail. If it were me and I didn't get any joy from the seller/manufacturer I would get a new one. Just another darned annoyance.
I am signing out for this evening. I do hope that you don't wake up with a migraine tomorrow @lizzie27 and I also hope that your OH recovers soon @Obelix-Vendée. @Busy-Lizzie, your garden isn't going anywhere so don't be too concerned about missing a day out there.
See you all in the morning.

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Evening everyone.

Another cold day here but at least the sun was out. Minor disaster in the pond as the bottom waterfall ‘step’ had fallen in and ripped the lining so the water level has dropped considerably. I wonder if the lining dried and became brittle in the Summer. Anyway - a job for after Winter now.

That’s quite sweet re Rufus @Penny_Forthem. My one cat used to spring up when he heard the peacocks call on Traitors!

I hope you are all doing ok.

 

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Good morning everyone. I did manage to get one more cake baked and iced yesterday ready for tea/coffee morning tomorrow. Forgot to tell you I had a warning light on the car dash to say my tyre pressures were low so I had to dig out my foot pump in the boot. This had lost a critical nut so wasn't working correctly and I actually let a little more air out of the tyre! Minor panic! I then had to comb through all my 'stuff' in the garage and kitchen drawers until I found a nut that would fit. Luckily I did so was able to finally get all tyres sorted. I think I should see if there is an electronic tyre inflater on the market as both my legs are now letting me know they had a 'workout' yesterday. That task was definitely NOT on the 'to do' list! With only a fortnight now until the Christmas Fair, I will be flat out crafting now.

 

That’s a nightmare tyre situation, @Ladybird4. We are rather lucky that OH has a compressor in the garage ( bought when he was planning to build a plane - long story!) so when he checks the tyres, can top up the pressure in minutes. I wish he would also remember to update the car computer to store the pressures! We have set out on at least three long journeys, only to get a tyre pressure warning advisory. Twice we have had to find a garage with a working air pressure machine, then having to unearth the right change to operate it, only to find that everything was fine.
Only a month ago, he got caught out again. He hadn’t stored the data on the computer as he hadn’t had to change the pressures when he checked them, so decided he didn’t need to. Obviously the computer wasn’t impressed with his excuse. This time we just stopped in a lay-by and set the current pressures. I reckoned that if there was an actual problem, the tyre would continue to deflate, and the warning would come up again. It didn’t, and all has been ok since. Hopefully he has now learnt his lesson!
It’s very dull and looks miserable out. I’m relaxing with a coffee while OH watches a recording of some Formula 1 thing. Eventually I shall stir myself to make some breakfast.

 

Good morning all. Warmer today (5C) but quite Novembery - dull & damp.

Modern cars are very clever with all their warning lights - I remember just walking round older cars to see if the tyres looked ok! And checking them at a garage before a long journey, if we could find a working machine. Glad you got your tyres fixed eventually, @Ladybird4 ; I'm sure there are combined pressure gauges and pumps, which plug into a USB port in your car these days.

We hired a car this summer in Finland. On a long drive across country, the tyre warning light came on. (Fortunately there was a tyre symbol under the light, or we wouldn't have known what it meant - the handbook was entirely in Finnish!) It was a Sunday, but we found a garage which was open, and the kind owner spoke a little English and checked the tyres for us. All the pressures were OK, of course; he then had to wrestle with the instructions in the handbook for resetting the computer. We tried to pay him but he waved us away!

I might have to start the mammoth task of preparing the house for young visitors, today. The spare bedroom is full of craft projects, including sub-standard woollen items received from the mill for "un-knitting", sorted into piles of different colours and different wool weights. The visitors aren't arriving until after Christmas, but I'll need to find somewhere to stash everything so it doesn't get mixed up again. And in the hall there are various items destined for charity shops, but some won't be accepted at the local one (they have too many books!), so I'll need a trip or two to Limerick. Must get organised...

 

Morning. Funny you should be talking about tyre advisory lights, as ours has come on. I checked it on the onboard 'pooter, but will pop it round to the local garage on Monday as they will check it for free. I admire your tenacity, @Ladybird4
I have a recipe for a 'Christmas kraut', using red cabbage, apple and spices. I have a hankering to make some.
My RSPB Christmas cards are arriving today; I send fewer each year and have given up the Canadian, American and European contingent altogether. I used to print out labels, but, since changing from my 'business pooter' to my laptop, I've lost them and I'm sure it would now take twice as long to set them up again, as writing the blinking envelopes!
Off to the hills with the pooches this afternoon. Might need my waterproof over trews!

 

It is cold here. -4C this morning when I went down to spread straw under the bench to keep the new arrivals cosy and hang the feeder out of rodent range. All being well we're collecting them at 2pm.

Much too cold to garden so I'm prepping for Monday's Xmas workshop, copying patterns for Xmas card embroidery and a patchwork wall hanging with a central panel of an embroidered Xmas tree. Rain coming late pm and persisting all day tomorrow so not going out at all except to check on chooks. I shall have to raid the freezer for tomorrow's dinner now.

Good luck with the coffee morning @Ladybird4 and you with your sorting @Liriodendron. I now sort my sewing and crafty stuff in see through plastic boxes with lids so easy to sort, stack and stash. Cardboard boxes or bin bags for charity stuff tho they're so fussy about fabric and clothes these days I recycle as much as possible for gardening clobber.

Tyres are OH's province. He has a pressure reader and a small pressured pump and has now shown Possum how to check and fill hers regularly. Harry is young enough to have a tyre pressure warning system but Sally, going on 19, doesn't so we need the kit.

 

Hello all.

I used to pump up my car tyres with a foot pump but then Cedric took over and he uses a pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter but he has just bought a battery one. The tyres rarely need pumping on my current car and the car computer tells me what the pressures are.

We have been to the monthly farmers' market in the village hall. We met friends there for breakfast and coffee. I bought some cake. Didn't need any veg today.

After that we went to the village hall in the village the other side of us as they were having a Christmas craft fair. I particularly liked one stall, a lady artist who paints pictures of horses, especially Suffolk Punches. I bought a framed print of 2 Suffolk Punches ploughing a field. She told me they were the winners of a ploughing competition she went to. Cedric is going to hang it in our bedroom.

 

Rufus and Bryn

 

Lovely photo @Penny_Forthem

We now have rain after a fairly sunny, tho chilly day. We've gone from t-shirts last week to double jumpers and a warm jacket today.

We have 4 new hens. They didn't have enough to give me the 5 so offered 3 and then he asked if I'd like to take one that was looking a bit off as she'd be better in our garden so the 3 are now installed in their new shed tucking into the feed and the sickly one is in Rasta's old cage in the polytunnel so we can keep her safe and warm and separate till she perks up. She's messy tho and has already tipped up her food and water bowls.

One of the new brown ones is braver than the rest and has been out in the pen trilling to our remaining white one but the other pair ar much more cautious. Lots of building up and feather growing to be done.