Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2026

Good morning from soggy Devon. It raining and the patio has its usual flood where the soakaway can’t cope. That sounds like a daft quote, @lizzie27. Our overgrown laurel hedge, about 80 yards long according to apple maps, is going to cost us £400. £650 to take down and dispose of a really huge silver birch tree which has died.
The mini break sounds lovely, @Penny_Forthem. Great when it’s somewhere you know and like. A change of scenery will do you good.
A day at home for us. I have bed changing, laundry and some tidying up to do. I emptied a drawer last week, and the contents are still spread out on a table waiting to be binned or redeployed. I am a bit of a hoarder, Im afraid. On the plus side, when OH is moaning that he could really use some obscure item or spare, I probably have one, and know just where to lay my hands on it.

 

Good afternoon ladies & gentlemen.

I very much hope that the appointment for your biopsy will be much sooner than expected, and also that it will bring a reassuring result @lizzie27 . Hedge quote does sound a bit steep.

A full Nor'Easterly gale blowing here and more rain appears to be imminent. Cold as well. A day only to venture outside from necessity.

On a happier note, a few more iris reticulata have bloomed and the crocuses look like they will bloom fairly soon too.

The late Scott Adams (creator of the Dilbert comic strip) had some works published with interesting titles (and much, much better than anything I could think up) for example:

Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business

Best wishes to all as always.

 

P. S. Your book title was considerably better than mine @Penny_Forthem .

 

Afternoon everybody.

Tired today after my shift as post operative nurse to Dad! The carer is there now making him a snack and he has a chicken dinner from me for later.

I’ll have a quiet afternoon now I’m back from my walk, although if the cats are asleep in the snug, I’ll mop the wood floor in the other room as it really needs doing.

Tree and landscape work is soooo expensive isn’t it! I always compare a quote of anything to how many hours of my job I would need to do for the price. Most of the time it’s sickening.

I hope everyone is doing ok. Take care.

 

Went food shopping, soo glad we did garden yesterday as it's wet and miserable again. Lunch out too, getting to be a habit when we go to these shops, but better than moping at home.

 

That is so true, re the cost of getting jobs done these days, @AuntyRach. I’ve often thought I’d recommend any relatives thinking of following me career wise, to look at plumbing instead!
I’ve changed the bed and put one load of washing on, tidied another drawer, and sorted several files in my finances drawer. I now have a load of ancient bank and credit card statements to burn, except that it’s too wet to venture outside. Very funny looking through old credit card statements, and realising how little our spending habits have changed! We are obviously creatures of habit, Waitrose and various coffee shops feature heavily!

 

What a thoroughly wet day. We went to meet a friend at our favourite small plates restaurant on the Wirral. It can be hit or miss and today it was a miss. I chose a new dish, Pollo al Marsala, with mushrooms. The sauce was delicious, but the chicken was as tough as old boots and our server was more concerned about chatting to her mates than serving.
Hub's g niece wants to be a dentist, but she has to pass her UCAT exam first.
I hope I sleep well tonight. Last night was a bit of a 'mare.
Hope you all do, too.

 

Hello all!

Not nearly so wet here as in the east of Ireland, but still uninvitingly damp all day. But I finished repairing my favourite small Parker Knoll chair, so I'm happy with that - though my thumbs are suffering from having to stretch the elastic webbing so I could hammer in the tacks to hold it taut.

I generously shared my cold with my OH. However, he's already almost fully recovered after 3 days of snuffles; it's fortunately not one of the horrid bugs going the rounds this winter.

 

It has rained all day. Our logs delivery arrived this morning. They had said this afternoon so I'm glad I opened the electric gate early. It all looked rather dangerous for the young man. I had expected a truck with a crane to lower the pallets stacked with wood. It was like a small removal lorry and he had a pallet moving sort of sack barrow. The lorry had a platform that lowered but he had to maneuver the pallet onto it and the lorry was on a slope. It nearly fell off the platform and would have knocked into him. Really dangerous. I had wanted the logs delivered onto the flat bit by the barn but he said he would have to drive under a tree. The tree branches looked higher than the lorry to me.

After that we went to the SM for the weekly shop. I bought a big tarpaulin for the logs as they weren't covered with plastic as we'd been told, they were covered with netting.

When we got back I tried to watch an Escape to the Country but the Humax Box recorder wasn't working. It wouldn't record either. I contacted the TV man. Meanwhile Cedric deleted a lot of programmes. It had said it was 48% full. Now it says 18% full, so we've lost a lot, but it has decided to work again. TV man says we probably need a new hard disc. He says watch as much as we want then he'll come with a new hard drive.

 

Well done @Liriodendron in getting your chair finished. I hope it gives you many more years of pleasure. I am signing out early today - need to do some baking. Hope everyone has restful sleep.

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A very good morning one and all. I am looking forward to our first Friday meal today. Picking up one friend near me then driving to Bestie's to pick her up. I started watching the opening game of the 6 Nations last night - Ireland v France but after a while I gave up as the adverts are just so intrusive and I wasn't enjoying the viewing. I have checked the result this morning and it was as expected. I hope everyone has a pleasant end to their week and all those with niggles have a more comfortable day.

 

Good morning to you all!!

I loved the "Day is Done" photo you posted @Ladybird. A picture of serenity!

Sunshine! Bike run first then markets. I feel a carrot cake coming on!!

You're right @Busy-Lizzie winter wet days are quiet.

Physio yesterday but I feel that it is not doing much as I still have much pain when I change position at night or want to stretch out my leg. I may talk to her and take a back seat for a while. I can still do exercises at home. I hope she won't take it badly.

Having solar panels and sunshine, today will be a washing day. Tomorrow rain is forecast again.

Watched the rugby last night. The Irish played a reasonable match and defended well. The French had some pretty feisty forwards.

I wish you all an enjoyable Friday.

 

Good morning all.

Surprise, not forecast, we have sunshine at the moment!

The SM had the biggest cooked prawns I've ever seen on special offer yesterday. Just under 10€ a kilo. I bought half a kilo for dinner last night which we had with salad, Marie Rose sauce and lemon juice. They were delish, like eating small lobsters.

 

OH very fidgety this morning, so we headed out to the seaside. Had to go the long way round (our direct route might be closed till August because the road subsided) but luckily the queues at the traffic lights on the main road weren’t too bad. Annoying, there was a cloudburst just as I was trying to pay for the car park, and I got drenched. The sun did come out after a while, so we had coffee and pastries and a walk on the seafront. That wasn’t too easy, the prom is covered in stones thrown up during last nights high tide, so we had to be fairly careful.
I’ve put some more laundry on, and burnt a pile of old bank statements. I don’t know what they print them on, but it’s not very flammable.
Will have a late lunch / early dinner, turkey strips pan fried with tarragon.
Good luck to your grandniece, @Penny_Forthem. They didnt have UCAT in my day, I had to look up what that was. Interesting to see the sample test papers, so I thought I’d have a go! I did very well on the first section of verbal reasoning, but struggled with the few I did on one of the others! I’m not sure I’d have been accepted now! At one of my interviews, the candidates had to bend a piece of wire with pliers, to follow a shape on cardboard. Also had to carve a cube of wax into a pyramid. We were told that it wasn’t part of the selection process, but would be looked at later on, to see if it had been a useful indicator of how dexterous we might turn out to be. One other (male) candidate cheekily suggested that maybe the girls could have been given embroidery to do! Different times back in the late 60s!

 

Hello everyone. My absence was not voluntary and, as it happened over Xmas and NY period, I've been incredibly busy and have got out of the habit. Lots of sewing - new coat for Possum, jacket and trousers for me, a new embroidery project and patchwork to do, photograph and document for tutos for my patch machine classes. 4 new ladies and 3 from last year

No gardening as we are drowning. Rain, rain, rain and strong winds so my daily trips to see the chooks are one long squelch. Everyone has grown out their new feathers and they're loking lovely tho Jasiri still needs a few new head feathers and still has a pale comb but is very perky and clever too. She knows to stay near me when I take their treats so she avoids the bullies.

4 eggs today. The first was laid 2 weeks ago and then we had one a day for a week and then 2 and now 4. Possum wants to go on a KETO diet from the 15th so the eggs will come in handy. Lovely fat, golden yolks too. The neighbours will enjoys some too.

I hope everyone is well and enjoing the longer hours of daylight. My seed potatoes and some garlic arrived yesterday and I'm itching to get going but no point while it's still so boggy. Chitting and plug trays for those then.

Have a lovely evening.