What are you all up to
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We've has a good couple of days at Skegness Sands (AS). A very well looked after site, even if the hardstandings are a bit 'car-park like'. They even have a machine for sweeping the roads on site to remove any stray bits of gravel that have found their way way on to the tarmac from the gravel hardstandings.
No rain (apart from a few spots on Monday). We popped up to the North Sea Observatory today for a drink and cake. Great views over the beach and sea.
David
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Unspoilt is a term often used incorrectly in travel literature but certainly not here. The capital of Boa Vista - Sal Rei, a few miles from the hotel. Many of the buildings go back to Portuguese colonial times, they only got independence in 1975. Very laid back and I loved it.
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Kj, best wishes for your op tomorrow.
Not such a great day today, bit cloudy and dull but we never got the rain that was forecast so that's a bonus.
We have the house upside down just now as we are having a new ceiling in the living room. Furniture scattered around the house along with pictures, clock and cupboard contents. Joiner has been here 2 days fitting new battens then new plasterboard. Just 1 more bit to finish off tomorrow then it's getting plastered on Saturday. New coving to go up and then painting to do. I'll be glad when it's done. New carpets will have to wait until we get back from our spring trip.
I've been busy in the garden on the nice days, still lots to do though. The grass is like memory foam it's got that much moss in it.
Second shingles Jag tomorrow, I wonder if my arm will be as sore as lastime.
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Best wishes for tomorrow KjellNN. I hope all goes well and you are successfully back home on Friday.
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We had lovely weather over the weekend and also on Monday but it has been a bit grey and dreary yesterday and today with a misty start yesterday and with the odd spell of rain. OH managed to get the grass cut yesterday before the rain so he is well pleased. I did my shift on the cathedral shop yesterday afternoon. I think I am beginning to get the hang of the till but I am glad I started during a quiet spell before it gets too busy. Our toaster gave up the ghost over the weekend and our kettle was on its last legs so new toaster and kettle purchased this morning. Hairdresser came this afternoon - such an exciting life! Glad you have a date for your MRI scan nellie. We wait to hear where you are going on your next trip.
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Good luck KjellNN hope it goes well and you're home swiftly.
Not much of interest to report, just jogging along. OH back on antibiotics for nasty cough. that hadn't really gone away. Full MOT by practice paramedic and GP. Sputum test, another chest xray included. Let's hope this will sort it 🤞
Interesting to hear of grass cutting, too wet here, hopefully it will dry out before too much longer. Lovely show of snowdrops and daffodils to which I've added in bloom crocus. I've added a hellebore to those we brought with us so getting more diverse. We have 2 large clumps of wild cyclamen which is and has been fabulous. I small amount of elephants ear I retained looks much better for its cull. Plus signs of life on various shrubs. Exciting times
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Think we need to grow webbed feet, very wet again here today, although we have had a few bright sunny days and a couple of very frosty mornings, but on the plus side the grass has not grown very much as it is a tad too cold, but the narcissus along the sea front are magnificent, we used to have a display of croci but they seem to have disappeared.
Had a very interesting talk on "Social Perscribing" yesterday at OH's stroke club, never new this service existed but it would appear if you have social needs these people can point you in the right direction, there should be a link into you local doctors surgery outlining how these people can be contacted.
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Couldn't agree more about webbed feet Rufus. It's raining here yet again. Lovely day for driving up the A1. Few days with friend from Scotland, so about halfway for each.
Having flashbacks about moving 😱 packing, loading etc. Easy part about moving is that everything goes 🤣. Warmer clothes take more space.......
Interesting about the social prescriber, I had an appointment at our GP surgery but had to cancel as I was unwell. Rearranging it needs to go on the to do list!
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Thank you to all who replied to my queries about cancelling my landline and changing my mobile phone, and broadband provider. Very much food for thought, plus what occurred to me when reading the replies, is that it often depends on where you live, as to what service you receive, so I am still thinking about whom to change to. I definitely agree about Sky Broadband though, as I too was with them and their service was awful, even though they frequently advertised that it does not drop out or run slow, it did on most days and I have read numerous comments all saying the same.
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Glad garden coming along nicely. My hellebores self seed easily, so I seldom buy any, unless it’s a shade I don’t have. Simply dig up seedlings, cull out the weakest, pot up, then into ground in Autumn. My originals came from woodland garden at Brodsworth Hall, so they do look nice, variety of shades from almost white to darkest plum.
Birthday shopping for Mum yesterday, after a nice lunch at a local tea rooms. We had gone to meet a lady who had ordered some of my jewellery. Turns out I used to work with her friend, so small world. She has ordered some more, so I am very pleased, like making to order. Dropped off a birthday present for BIL, had a couple of hours with them yesterday evening.
Bill Bailey Concert was very good, very funny, great musical evening, he’s so clever. Another body search, that’s two in a week, we do live🤣 Sniffer dogs as well. Mind, they couldn’t detect chocolate😉
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It is teeming with rain here again today
. I agree with the comments about webbed feet. Should we all be building boats?! The garden has lots of bulbs coming up I just wish we could get the weather to go out and enjoy it. I have narcissi, miniature irises, crocuses and hyacinths in pots and then more crocuses, snowdrops in the garden and lots of hellebores that I have had for years and they keep reseeding themselves. It seems to be a particularly good year for them this year.So glad you enjoyed Bill Bailey tda. We think he is wonderful, such a clever and versatile man. I have recorded a programme of pub walks that he is doing. We watched the first one last week. It was with Alan Davies.
Great photos Rufs.
We are off to meet some friends for lunch today. Hopefully it will take our minds off the dismal weather.
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Hellebores, I love them but they don't seem to do well here. Unless I'm doing something wrong. The leaves grow but as to flowers, very rarely does that happen. I bought a new one 3 years ago, flowered lovely that year, the following year it did flower but not as many last year I think I got 2 flowers on it if I'm lucky. The plant doesn't get any bigger either. What's wrong. I've had them in other houses and they did fine.
Dry day again today, very cold wind though so we are staying indoors.
Plasterboard all finished and we brought the TV back into the room. It will have to go back out again on Saturday when the ceiling gets plastered though.
Garden full of crocus and snowdrops, no sign yet of daffodils tulips have leaves up no buds though.
If we hadn't moved our timeshare weeks to January/February this year, we would be in Lanzarote now. Kind of glad we moved them as we missed all the horrible weather. Things should start to get better soon surely, 1st March tomorrow. Doubt we will be sitting outside for at least another 2 months though. Probably not until we get to France 😅
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Hellebores TG. I think they can take a while to feel comfy in a new space, but I was taught to cut all the old leaves off mine, leaving the flowering stems to take centre stage at this time of year. After flowering, the new leaves will grow. I cut my old leaves off some last week.
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Oh I didn’t know that hellebores self seeded, I’ll have to get some, I’m up for anything that self seeds. I’ve found lots of self seeded baby foxgloves that I need to bring on. We have a difficult garden as it’s so shady from the woods. I hate ferns but they grow better than anything here. I bought quite a few small plants recently but they are still in their little pots as the garden is still waterlogged and it’s raining again. I did buy some snowdrops a while ago, still not been able to plant them out and now the slugs have eaten them. The slugs have also started on the daffs we are inundated with slugs every year, maybe they come from the woods. I never put pellets out but Im sorry to admit that I do swiftly chop them in half with a trowel in the hope that they don’t suffer too much, I feel dreadful but if I didn’t I’d have no plants left. I throw snails over the wood but it’s true, they do come back, I marked some with a dab of paint to test this theory and yes I then found some with paint marks. It’s so bad that OH jokingly bought me some copper tape to go around the pots for my Christmas present, to stop me moaning about slug damage he said.
OH has been busy putting quite a bit of Ikea storage together in the spare bedroom, he is going to have it as a music room. It’s keeping him quiet, well apart from some swearing every now and then 😮
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Mrs One received her new passport this morning, took just 6 days, so not too bad at all. Whilst things are still unsettled on the home front we will probably wait till next year to go over there. Booked 3 nights at Barleywood so we can drop the van at the dealers before we come home. Got a second trip booked towards the end of March.
Generally when at home my car may clock up 10 miles/week but now brother is in a Norwich nursing home that’s shot up to 150 miles each week
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TDA, thanks, I do cut off the old leaves but no flowers yet visible, maybe they don't like the area of garden I've put them in. It gets a mix of sun and shade in summer but probably quite cold in the winter.
Debs, we get lots of slugs and snails as well. I thought encouraging a hedgehog would help but it must be a lazy one or just not hungry 😄
Going to be a cold night, we saw the snowplough spreading grit and salt earlier.
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Hope that Kjell's operation went well today.
Good to hear that your jewellery is going well, tda, and that you had a fun night at the show.
We have had decent weather over the last couple of days with the rain mostly in the late evening and night. To put Millie's mind at rest we are away at the moment. The photo may, or may not, give an indication of where we are at the moment.
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They are prolific seeders in our garden, and love shade so might do well for you Debsc. I’ve used coffee grinds around some plants to help stop slugs. My Sis loves pistachio nuts, and I have asked her to keep shell husks for me as well. We did the marking snails thing as well, ruddy things kept coming back🤣
Another plant that self seeds well, and gives good colour is Lychnis. Dense pad of green/grey velvety leaves, then you get tall flower stems that go all through Summer if you deadhead. Come in pure white, bright pink, and a lovely white with pale pink centres. Plants last a couple of years, then tend to die off, but you simply transplant the young plants that seed around to where you want them, or collect deed heads and bring on in greenhouse.
Thats a nice wicker feature Nellie, looks like a dragon🤔
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Hi Millie
I have had a share in a narrowboat for nearly 21 years and it is very true what they say that it is like having a hole in the water to put your money in! For the first time last year, I came back early on both occasions from my 2 fortnights, due to the weather, so I concur about the webbed feet! Saying that though, I have enjoyed every holiday I have had on the boat, even when it has been lousy weather.
I have planted helebores on a few occasions but they all died, so perhaps they only like certain types of soil - we have clay soil, where I live.
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I was talking to a friend yesterday who is a keen gardener vbfg and she said that hellibores just wont grow in her garden. She lives the other side of town from us and I think she may have clay soil. Our soil is not clay. They are also in a fairly shady part of our garden.
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Millie
I have a lone Hellebore in my front garden which seems to grow and flower OK, its not particularly big but it is in clay soil albeit by now probably mixed in with a lot compost. I should think about getting a couple more as they are one of the few things to provide colour before Christmas and before the spring bulbs start to appear. A not particularly good photo attached.
David
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Some hellebores are easier than others to grow, some don’t like it very cold and wet, as well as being soil sensitive. This year is so wet it doesn’t help any of them. Dreadful here today, icy rain, it’s only 1c🥶
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Beautiful and sunny this morning, cold but nice blue skies. Solar panels have been doing well, yesterday 9.6kwh we got. Not bad for February in Scotland. It's gone a bit cloudy now but still bits of sun getting through.
It has been very wet here, the fields are like wetlands. The birds are loving it, I've never seen geese on the fields near us but there's lots there now and many other birds that we don't normally get.
I will try to find the label to my latest hellibore to see what it says. The ground is good soil and not waterlogged at all as it's on a gentle slope. It's in front of some shrubs but get good light without it being full sun. Might have to consider moving it.
Went out this morning and bought the coving for the living room, plasterer coming 08.30 on Saturday to skim the ceiling, hope he doesn't make too much mess. We have moved most of the furniture out and have lots of covers so 🤞🤞
Have a good weekend all.
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We have a hellebore that's just coming into flower. We didn't hold out much hope for it especially as it has to compete with its neighbour, a Berberis. The soil is soaking wet as well. The Camellia is showing well, again a bit of a surprise. Maybe being ignored has worked for them. Not sure Mrs.WN has bought into the idea of ignoring the rest though!
Well, a busy morning as we had to collect MiL from hospital. Apparently she'd outstayed her welcome and peace and quiet will now descend upon the ward.
We're very lucky though. All of the other 5 in the ward have been there since at least November and at least 4 of them are destined for care homes. All are actually bed blocking at the moment as the staff have indicated there's nothing more they can do to improve their recovery. A sign of the times across the whole of the UK one assumes. I wonder if Kj is bed blocking or whether he's been sent home? Hope his operation went well.I started this post without reading too far back through other peoples' posts(
) so apologies if I've missed anyone's exciting news. I'll have a quick scan after this post sent.2 -
Good news about MIL Wherenext, hope that she continues to improve. Hope that all went well for KJ.
We went over to our daughters today so that OH could fit her motorised front wheel to our granddaughters new wheelchair. It took him many hours, a delicate job, but she test ran it and it appears to be ok. He also had to fit a new tyre on it and renew the brakes, it gets a lot of use, needs maintaining regularly, it cost a lot of money, and he’s her maintenance man. Fiddly things are more difficult for him lately as he now has arthritis in his thumb. Granddaughter very pleased with her new NHS wheelchair, it’s purple and sparkly, if a 19 year old needs to use one it’s good for it to be bright. Lovely to see her again as well.
I was in the kitchen making a cuppa when youngest granddaughter arrived home from school and was making some toast, I saw her thick woolly jumper move, asked her what it was and she pulled it down to show me Rosie the dragon, she was asleep on granddaughters chest. It seems straight after school Rosie gets a warm cuddle. I did mention to our daughter that Rosie was very near our granddaughters neck and face and what if she bit her. Daughter said ’they really do both love each other, she loves her cuddles she won’t bite. I think Rosie has struck it lucky - she now has a new vivarium twice as big as the one she came with, is obviously very well looked after and cuddled every day. Proud of the way our granddaughter looks after her pet and that it isn’t a one minute wonder. But I did graciously decline the offer of giving Rosie a cuddle under my jumper 😮
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Thanks all for the good wishes, I have indeed been sent home, and am feeling very well.
Arrived at hospital 07.00 yesterday and was checked in to my little cubicle to wait my turn. Details checked 3 times, wrist band applied, donned gown and long compression socks.
Finally taken down at 11.30 and was back up and awake by 14.00. All went well and incision not as large as expected. Surgeon very pleased. Nurse phoned DD to report then I had a short chat, though apparently I was not making much sense!
Had a bit of a snooze, but the immediate difference was amazing, I no longer feel tired all the time and have not even dozed off in my chair this evening, despite having been awake since 7am.
Doctors came round about 10 this morning and said they would do a blood test and then I could go home. That took a while, plus all the discharge paperwork, so it was 13.30 before DD picked me up. Went to her house to wait till Callum came from school, then we headed home.
Supposed to see doc in 6 weeks, but we will be away in caravan then, so will see her either earlier or later.
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Glad the dragon is doing ok Debsc👍 Inspirational indeed your whole family😁
Great news that your MIL is home WN, hope things settle into a good routine for you all, I will be in touch😉 Like your new avatar, thought it was a rose at first, but can now see Camellia😁
Our quest of enjoying events and short trips has had a boost today, we have got tickets for the England game at St James Park. Hurrah we said, we can stay at Old Hartley. Not a chance, I forgot it was being refurbed🤨 So we need some local help if it’s out there around Sunderland/Newcastle. Found a site at South Shields on coast, looks nice, if pricey. Looking at using Metro to City Centre, Monument, then walk to St James, then Metro back after game. Need to find out how late trains run. Failing this, looks like a drive up and back in a day.
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Great news all went well K👍
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