What are you all up to
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On Saturday we drove south, the first time for years. The family of our old friend who died last month - (Dementia, a terrible disease) - arranged a memorial service in a small church where he grew up (sort of near Chepstow). It was a warm sunny day and we met up with mutual friends, who we had not seen for a long time, in the churchyard, then a lovely service that was all about our friend.
We continued with a wake at an old pub just the English side of the Severn Bridge. A bonus was meeting up with our youngest son, who came down from Derbyshire. A 500 mile round trip to meet him!
We didn't fancy the "breakfast in a box" at the Travel Lodge, so called in at Gloucester Services for some proper food.
Considering we drive what is usually called a "gas guzzler" (Landrover Discovery) we were very impressed with the fuel used. The App on my phone tells me it was 39 mpg. There's something to be said for keeping just below the speed limit - the same App tells me the average speed on the motorway was 59 mph.
Aren't statistics wonderful!
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I remember previously fuel rises made people drive more slowly and carefully, round here diesel varying from 1.88 to 1.75. Glad you managed the long journey Goldie and saw your son too. Gloucester Services certainly do decent food but as we once found out they're limited on opening times.
Hope Triky's trip goes well.
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Well I know i said take a day out in LOS Cyberyacht, and maybe have a bacon buttie or sauaage sannie at the shack, but i did not expect you to go the whole hog and get GAFIRS involved
for the non Hampshire members GAFIRS=Gosport and Fareham inshore rescue service
p.s. i should say this was not a very serious situation, i think there was a bit of a rip tide today and I think the guy got caught up in the current, but all ended with him safe and sound at the yacht club
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I should have filled up yesterday, it's gone up 2p
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I booked our spring booster jabs today. We did not get an invitation but I decided to be procative and booked via the NHS website. All booked for next week. We are going to N Ireland at Easter so I am pleased to get them done before we go.
Pleased the memorial service for your friend went well Goldie with the added bonus of meeting up with your son.
Nice mild day here today but not a lot of sun.
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It was a lovely morning here for a while so we took advantage and had a good long walk. When we got back the sun had gone and it was a tad nippy when working outside.
A normal day here.
Glad to hear about boosters for boosters starting. We're waiting for MiLs appointment. They don't end to do NHS bookings here. Anyway they do tend to follow the 6 month rule so looks like she'll be having hers mid April.
Talking to one of the neighbours today and he told us that there's a bunch of people further into the village, including one of his friends, who have Covid having picked it up at a funeral. One man admitted going to the funeral even though he knew he had Covid. He didn't tell anyone there about it and when asked why he had gone and been so selfish he said he was giving the Eulogy so felt he had to attend.
Proof, if proof were needed, that you don't necessarily get any wiser as you get older. Locals who caught it are livid.
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I bet they are WN!! I would be as well. We have 2 funerals to attend - one on Friday for a very old and dear friend who had Parkinsons, and one next Monday for the son of one of our friends. He was only in his 50s and died of cancer, so very sad. As the covid numbers are rising and OH is claased as clinically vulnerable we have made the difficult decision to only go to the service at both and not go to the wake afterwards.
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Knock on effects WN. My OH has had his scan, due tomorrow, cancelled today. COVID has hit staff.☹️ Then two hours later, my phone pinged, my long overdue meds and health review has been cancelled on Thursday. Again Covid. ☹️Not an issue for me, but it’s a worry for OH. More waiting a round now to see what will follow. However, we might just fit another short break in.😁
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I read an article the other day whereby the author stated that patients were abandoning the NHS to go private. I actually feel the NHS is abandoning patients. Not deliberately but people would be happy to use them except the waiting lists and the cancellations are just dragging on. As you say Ttda, knock on effects.
Hope OH gets his scan soon Ttda and take care at those funerals Millie, no hugging now.
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Lovely day up in Fife. After the essential shopping trip we headed up to East Lomond Hill car park, where we had our picnic and then walked up over the top, down the other side to the view the lime kiln, and back round the base. Unusually there are more units on site tonight than there were over the weekend.
Hope all those with Covid are soon recovered, and those awaiting cancelled appointments get their new ones quickly.
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Whilst the blue sky is tempting, it's not very community minded to go anywhere with Covid, even if it is outside. The pic looks like a Hobie cat. Even with the spring tides, I'd have thought he'd be able to make progress. Having said that, I remember misjudging it once while racing my 5-0-5 at Stokes Bay and having to struggle against the current to round the racing mark.
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"Whilst the blue sky is tempting, it's not very community minded to go anywhere with Covid"
comendable but dont get too hooked up on this, i could name 2 Education establishments where as a general rule testing has been abandoned, and the attitude is, if you are really unwell stay at home, which for many means go to the nearest skate park, if not rock up...
well the days just get better, all we need now is for the news readers, newspapers etc to have headlines shouting out good news instead of all this gloom and doom, just off out with the dogs before the pup wrecks the joint.
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Did try to catch up and post yesterday, but the site wouldn't let me in
I did mange to get in once but so slow it had logged me out! Re going out with Covid, had a walk along the towpath yesterday, met a neighbour from the next street out with his dog, he said " don't get too close I've got Covid" Needless to say we beat a very hasty retreat. Made me think just how many people are doing the same?
It's another lovely day, all washing pegged out on the line blowing gently in the breeze, and I really don't fancy having to go into work.
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H&T
I reckon there are quite a few walking around with COVID otherwise the figures wouldn't still be as high! At least he warned you so you could take avoiding action.
I finished cleaning the van today. I started last week on the side I could get to where I store it in the back garden. Then we had the dreaded "Dust" so today I got it out on the road and washed the whole roof again and then attempted to polish the side I didn't do last week. So now in almost showroom condition!!! Need a lay down now!
David
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Stunning day, walked the dogs at a place called Browndown, this is MOD land used by the army, marines etc to practise beach landings and the like, it is also a site of scientific interest.
The views are quite stunning out to the IOW and across to Portsmouth, gorse is just lovely
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It was such a lovely day today that we decided not to enjoy ourselves but actually do a job that we've been putting off by saying "We'll do it when the weather's nice".
KJ, look away now.
We cleaned the whole garage out from top to bottom and threw out, yes threw out, some stuff (but not quite as much as Mrs.WN wanted to😅). Swept it clean, rearranged all of the paint pots, cleaning jars, caravan stuff etc. on the shelves in some order so that I can maybe find what I'm looking for, then went to the tip with a load of different things to get rid of. Did find £0.50, yahoo.
Finished about 3 o'clock, just in time to put some red cabbage stewed in cider on for a long slow cook. I was instructed that we needed an earlier meal time tonight as MiL has something to do tonight.
Hope one and all, who manage to get on here that is (you were not alone Helen!), have a chance to enjoy the next few fair weather days.
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Well we didn’t get either of the houses that we liked. Offered on the second choice one and told that the vendor will only accept offers way over the asking price! Why don’t that just put the price they want in the first place - we’ll we think it is to get people to bid up against each other. We just bowed out on hearing that. Offered on the loved one, that went on for three days, we went up three times but stopped at our absolute limit, (a bit over actually) then someone went higher. I think even if we had gone higher they would have upped their bid again. I always thought buying a home by open auction was not a good idea but to be honest I think even that would be better than these bidding contests, at least then you can see what others are bidding.
Youngest granddaughter now has covid, all the rest of her family had it several months back but she never caught it. We have only seen her briefly but have had, and now have, her sisters staying here, fingers crossed but we shall see.
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Another lovely day here, about to go down to DD's to work on her study doorway. She has just had the room renovated.....extra sockets.....new lighting.....all plastered, and has decided to change the white painted woodwork for oak, to match the rest of the house. So new skirtings, new window sill, and new door facings.
To avoid rebuilding the whole door frame in oak, I am routering out a 12x45 section all round, to inlay a strip of oak, the join and the rest of the painted stuff will be covered by the existing oak door stops on the hallway side. I have done this on 5 other doorways so far.
The old timber in the sides of the door frame, from the 70s, is very good quality and very hard to remove, so it is taking a long time. However, the top of the frame has been lowered previously, about 10 years back, leaving the old taller structural frame in place, and the stuff used there turned out to be MDF, so I will remove it to work on in the garage.
She still has 5 other doorways where the visible facings are oak but the frames and woodwork on the other side are white, but 4 are into cupboards and the fifth to a bathroom, so I don't think she will be wanting them changed any time soon. Price of oak has almost doubled since last time we bought some, about 18 months back, so that is a big disincentive to change anything!
Today and tomorrow we are looking after the little people in the afternoon, as usual, but today Mummy has had to go into the Office, first time in over 2 years, so she is not here as "back up". OH has had to stay home to await a huge parcel of smoke and heat alarms, as per new scottish gov. requirements, too valuable to just leave in the porch as we made a bulk order to do 5 houses in the family, and after that has a long shopping list sent by DD, so sounds like I will be alone here until at least 3pm.
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A lovely warm sunny day here - perfect for a bit of filming.
Judy Hobson and a cameraman were here this morning, filming a segment for tonight's Look North West.
If you miss it live, it will be on iPlayer later. All 2 minutes or so of it.
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Beautiful weather in Brixham this morning.
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Gorgeous sunny day in South Cheshire too, Goldie !! ( Beware ABM WILL be watching
)So much so that I dug out the Cutting Gear, hedges for the tidying of, charged up the Li-ion battery ( 15 mins max !! ) then got stuck in !
Think by now the birds will have discovered that I have shortened their landing strip
, but they will be standing tall if they want to access the feeders but dont want to cling on 
. I've put the tackle away, taken the pain killers and came on here ( desk top so a comfy office seat !! ) to rest the aged bones 0 -
Got around to cleaning the caravan, which wasn't in too bad a condition seeing as we were away in a lot of rain.
Decided to try out a "dry wash", which means spraying a liquid onto the caravan
. Anyway it worked better than expected, in fact it was excellent. Trouble was it was too good so I ended up doing more than I expected. Mrs WN meanwhile gave the garden a good working over, particularly the weeds so she was a bit stiff and sore after 2 hours of bending etc.Then off after lunch to a Click and Collect and to the library, plus buying birthday card and Mothers Day card for MiL. Reminder to all those with mums to thank, it's this Sunday!
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Been gorgeous here as well last two days. Warming up nicely by 10.30am, so I have had two solid days out in garden. Busiest time for me, as I leave fallen leaves on beds as a mulch and frost protection, then get stuck in revealing all lovely little shoots through February and March. I have lost a Clematis, it was caught out in last years late frosts, and doesn’t seem to be making any effort this year. OH enjoyed a nice canal side ride on his conventional bike, so he has had fun, and the pooch enjoyed his day in the garden as well. Modelling his brand new collar at the moment, bright orange. So he’s sort of a doggy Jaffa Cake🤣
Mum day tomorrow.
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Doing a bit of bird food buying on line just before 6:00 pm today with Radio Stoke in the background when two little fuel related items popped up :--
First was that a Gentleman noticed an un-named petrol station had just put prices UP by 2pence so the reduction would not bite too hard into his ill-gotten profits
BUT another said that Morrisons Supermarket , in Newcastle Under Lyme had, whether instructed or off his own bat, a security man who told folks at 17:55 ish to go away and return in 10 minutes 
. As the Late Larry Grayson would have said, HMM, He seems like a nice Boy 0 -
Have to say our Clematis is looking resplendent with plenty of new buds Ttda. We didn't even protect it during the winter as we've not really had any serious frosts. The first ones of the year were this week and they were mild. So, we're rather surprised seeing as neither of us have any gardening skills, well I have none and OH has a bit as her Grandfather was a gardener in an Estate house in Scotland just before the WWII, so some must have rubbed off.
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Started out a bit misty this morning but gradually cleared and warmed up too. Left site and had another easy drive across to E Dumbartonshire to another CL that we've not used before. Very pleasantly surprised by the rural nature of it as it is only 5 mins drive from the M80. Temperature was up to 18 C so got my shorts on for the first time this year. All was fine until this evening when for some reason we lost mains power to the Alde heating system. It was working fine before our evening meal as it heated up the water but when we went to put the heating on later there's no mains power showing on the control panel, although all other mains electric are still working. We do have a small portable fan heater, and will have to use gas to heat the water until we can find out where the problem lies.
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I have around 20 different ones WN, love them, and I like to see them throughout the year. I have exactly same one elsewhere and it is doing fine. Still time I suppose🤞
My family have gardening in their roots. My Grandad worked for Earl Fitzwilliam in his younger years, Mum has always loved it, still interested, and the bug bit me badly once I retired and had plenty of time. I’d rather do back breaking gardening than flick a duster around a house🤣Jewellery projects for family to wear at wedding are all completed as well, just hope they like things now. Going to work on stuff for me next, got all sorts of sparklers to choose from🤗
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Very frustrating week as so many plans distrupted. Our hairdresser has had covid and thought she would be OK to come by Monday but was still testing positive. Luckily she has now had 2 negative tests so is coming tomorrow afternoon. Also I was supposed to have an online college meeting today but they now have Ofsted in so the meeting was put back and then brought forward and finally cancelled. I didnt know whether I was coming or going! The upside is it has given me a free day to spend in the garden so lots of planting and tidying done. I was also supposed to be having lunch tomorrow with 2 of the college staff but that has also been cancelled because of Ofsted so I am going to see a friend and her new kitten. Her husband had to go into a care home before Christmas and she has been very lonely. The kitten is great company for her and she sounds much happier. OH is very nervous that I will now want a new cat. It is now nearly a year since we lost our lovely Charlie.
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BEWARE OF KITTENS, MillieH !!
Aged sister had to have her old cat, Alfie put to sleep some time back, and was determined that, at HER age, no new pets were coming thro her doors, so there!!
Well it didn't come through the doors, But it did sneak in through an unlocked CAT-FLAP and was swiftly taken over despite earlier statements ~~ "Well I have to use up the cat food don't I " !!
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