Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Had a busy day, but no gardening. Went to the supermarket in our nearby town, with a short list. Didn’t have half the things I wanted. Had to go round to the chemist, and they didn’t have them either. Both shops seemed to have reduced their range of items. I came home with alternatives, but rather sorry I didn’t make the extra journey to our usual store.
Got the car washed, while OH watered some of the plants in the front garden. Refilled the bird baths and the bird feeders. The suet nibbles have been disappearing very quickly, we’ve been blaming the jackdaws but today saw a magpie who has developed the skills to help itself. The blue tits are still taking food to the two bird houses.
I got my window cleaning pole out and finally cleaned the seagull poo off the bedroom window. I think it actually looks worse now than it did before!

 

We had a lovely day out, with 2 not-too-long walks (we're getting old, and don't appreciate the heat) either side of a good lunch in a hotel. We shared some pavlova for pud, and didn't need a lot of tea.

Both walks were around Loch Graney, a quiet and picturesque local lake. Before lunch our walk was through mature deciduous woodland on the north side, mostly old knobbly oaks interspersed with holly and bilberry bushes.



It was wonderfully peaceful - we met nobody. Down by the lake edge were clumps of royal fern, iris, bog myrtle, willows and Scots pines. The oaks are descendants of those in the temperate rain forest which has been pretty well wiped out in Ireland, except for a few remaining pockets.

After lunch we walked on the south side, through much younger trees, on the edge of the outflow from the lake. The vegetation was very different - foxgloves, stitchwort, bluebells and the amazing "blue-eyed grass", Sisyrinchium bermudiana, native of Bermuda and 3 counties in the west of Ireland. Lovely again.

 

I had a successful day at the hospital yesterday, and didn't get home until after 8pm. Absolutely shattered!!
It was so good to return, minus the sleep apnoea machine, and put that part of my life behind me. It feels as though a weight has been removed, even though the threat of it remains.
I feel empathy for those who suffer from sleep apnoea - including both of my sisters.

I can hear the early birds twittering away outside. A gentle song.

Today I can look forward to the plumber coming, and being able to get in the garden. There is plenty to do out there.

I wish all of you a day that contains at least a little happiness. Au revoir!

 

Lovely pictures @Liriodendron, thank you so much for sharing them. I used to have sisyrichium in my garden and my Mum and Dad had the yellow one.
Great news @Fourmerkland after what must have been a tedious day at the hospital. Hope your plumber turns up and you get whatever needs sorting, sorted.

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Good morning to you all!

Sunny and bright and warmer this morning. The horsemen(Les Cavaliers) winds have arrived and it is very blustery indeed. My younger plants are being battered around, I hope they stand up to it.

Fizz first after a shower and then down to the markets. I find that artichokes are very expensive this year. Is it the same with you?

Lovely photos @Liriodendron Good news about your hospital stay @Fourmerkland Rest assured.

Enjoy your Friday everyone. I hope it is pleasant.

 

I felt "off" when I got up so decided to have a quiet day before going out for a final dinner with the family. Checked my BP which was 96/62. I wish I knew what causes these dips in my BP.
In the evening we went to a restaurant in Fowey, interesting menu. A new to me idea, when booking the table online, you are informed you are booking a 2 hours slot, Fowey is very small and extremely busy so I suppose it gives them time to serve more than one sitting and excuses the staff from needing to "kick you out". A lovely time before saying goodbye to my son, he is on the train right now.
My son and daughter managed, after a somewhat dodgy start, to get the necessary paperwork sorted out in Truro, to help them with their father's financial arrangements. It took them all morning, visiting the various Building Socs., etc., some were much more obliging than others.

 

Morning all, beautiful pictures @Liriodendron , looks so peaceful.

That must have been such a relief @Fourmerkland, my late brother had to have one of those awful machines and his wife complained that the exiting cold air blew right down her neck. Enjoy your day in the garden.

@Goldenlily26, that BP measurement was actually very good, is yours usually much higher?
I believe it rises throughout the day and after eating/drinking so if you took yours when you got up, that might be why it was on the low side.
We used to love staying in Fowey, one of our favourite places but our lovely hotel on the headland changed hands and got too expensive. Coupled with the long journey from Somerset and as you say all the crowds, we reluctantly stopped visiting. Such a shame you had to say goodbye to your son, it must be sad to know he's so far away. It's good that your daughter lives closer though and that they were both able to sort out your ex's finances, not easy at the best of times.

Hope we don't get Les Cavaliers here @Tui34, I want to do some more gardening today. Our nice sunny weather is due to end at the close of next week - just in time as usual for the Bank holiday and start of half term so I need to get cracking.

Enjoy your Friday folks, hope you're all looking forward to the weekend.

 

Hope you are feeling better now, @Goldenlily26. That BP is certainly on the low side. Safe journey back for your son.
One of the bird feeders ended up on the lawn last night. It looks as if the wire holding it onto the branch had rusted through. Luckily the feeder wasn’t broken, but there was a crack on the squirrel dome, which had fallen down as well. OH has spent the morning doing a temporary repair and finding a new thing to suspend it from. Quite hard work hanging everything back up again, difficult with the sun in his eyes, and an angry crowd of robins and blue tits, who were watching impatiently from the branches above. They couldn’t even wait until he had finished, and started grabbing the food while he was still lifting the feeder into place!
Both the bird boxes have baby blue tits in, so there is a lot of demand for food. I did see a little feathered face looking out of one of the boxes, so maybe it won’t be long before they fledge.

 

Sunny here but very windy. SM run done this morning but no gardening this pm as I have to cook. Garden club committee meeting at 6pm and we have apot luck dinner afterwards so we can chat. I'm taking a carrot and tarrgon tart.

Not much gardening this weekend either. Fête des voisins tomorrow so I have the doings to prepare for koftas for the apéro, chicken thighs to marinate in spiced yogurt for the BBQ and an apricot frangipane tart for pud.

There's a vide grenier market at the local chateau on Sunday and I have some sewing homework to do for Monday's patch.

Just checking and watering babies then.

Yesterday, while OH was golfing, I used up my old bottle of topical weedkiller on the new bed I've marked out in the grass. Told him this morning and he asked if I was getting someone in to dig it all over or expected him to kill himslef using the rotavator. The latter I said. he complained it doesn't work well and is hard to use. Humph! It was expensive and he doesn't look after it properly so he needs to get it fixed and either sell it or use it. Now he's grumping too.

Your walk sounds lovely @Liriodendron. I managed to grow some blue sisyrinchums in Belgium but only the taller cream ones cope here.

We grow our own artichokes @Tui34 but usually end up leaving them for the birds cos they're not rewarding enough given all the work involved.

Have a lovely day everyone, whether working, playing or resting.

 

Afternoon all. It’s gorgeous here so catching up on weeding the gravel beach area. They pull out easily in the dry dust but oh so many! I did let it ‘go wild’ the last couple of years so it’s just organised wild now - Aquilegias, stonecrop, primroses, and a few forget-me-nots. My verbena bon didn’t come back (ok I might have pulled it up) but it has left seedlings everywhere - mainly on the patio. Just having a cuppa whilst the shade comes round to finish the last bit.

I hope everyone is ok and enjoying Friday.

 

Good early evening everyone. Its been a great day today but I have a list of tasks I want to work on tomorrow. I am happy knowing that I do not have to go out anywhere tomorrow except into the garden. I found a new plant growing in my orchid trough and I had no idea where it had come from - I suspect it is a bird pressie because I took a picture and went to the plant I.D. site and it turns out it is Leycesteria formosa which I have never had in my garden before. I will have to get it moved before it becomes too big - another addition to the jobs list!
@Ergates I have a bold little robin who - once he knows Cricket is far afield - will eat the feed from the feeder as I am filling it on the back door step.
Bestie comes home tomorrow from her holiday but it will be somewhat a sad return as she learned that her next door neighbour had passed away. @Obelix-Vendée she was a patch worker and my Bestie has some exquisite pieces she made. She was also a cat fosterer for a local rehoming centre and had just permanently adopted a really sweet little old cat called Pixie. I expect Pixie will go back to the rehoming centre unless one of her daughters can offer her a home. Its all very sad. The funeral I sang at this morning was really nice and I'm sure that people driving passed will have assumed it was perhaps a wedding as everyone was dressed in beautiful coloured gear as requested.

 

I am signing out for now so have lovely evenings all of you and I'll see you in the morning.

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We had an audit of the work carried out by Flintshire care and repair (after my
broken arm) this morning (banister and front doorstep and rail). He asked why we only had one rail. Upshot is, we're getting another one on the right of the step as you come out of the door. Super dooper service.
My poor NDN has been in hospital with pneumonia. I'd asked her round for coffee, but it's on hold.
However, her hub was going to Tesco, which is opposite B & M, so I hitched a lift and came back with 3 bags of compost.
All set now to crack on and finish planting.
Going to catch up with Race around the world, while hub is at a work reunion at the local.
No alarm set for the morning

 

I forgot to post this morning and I won't have time tomorrow morning.

I had my haircut cut this morning, I was getting very shaggy. This afternoon I was gardening.

Tomorrow we are going to Greenwich to collect my grandson's stuff. He's taking the train back to Poitiers, France and he won't be able to carry it all. We'll have to keep it until our next trip to Norfolk as we are going back by plane on Tuesday.
Must leave early tomorrow so I'm off to bed.

 

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A very good morning one and all. Safe journey to Greenwich @Busy-Lizzie. I hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday, achieving their goals. It looks as though you will be having a good potting time @Penny_Forthem and I will be unwrapping my new tall troughs and deciding where to site them. I am quite tempted to make them alpine troughs after last night's GW but we'll see.