What are you all up to
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More beautiful photos @DSB you have certainly been blessed with decent weather on all your trips.
Good to read that there has been no more excitement in your area @Takethedogalong (got it to work this time!) and as I have been out of town all day I have not found out what occurred down our street.
I took the car in for it's service and MOT today and it turned out to be a long and expensive business!! It failed the MOT, as the rubber shoe on the trackrod end was split and needed replacing. I had left home at 7:45 and got back at 18:00, having had a long wait at the dealers. I managed a couple of decent walks, getting a bit wet just before getting back on each occasion, but fortunately missing a huge and prolonged downpour on the first occasion. We can now book the first of the sites for our next trip.
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We too have just had our tow car (VW Touareg) in for service and MOT, this year it passed without any extra expense. The cost of the service was bad enough!! Not a VW dealer even. The cost of the oil is very significant these days.
Not a bad day here today, sunny from mid morning, and not too much rain. More work on the new toilet floor done, but discovered I could not apply the sealant round the edges as I had left my tools at DD’s house. There has been a run on spurtles in my Etsy shop recently, so have spent some time making several more. Will soon need new supplies of beech blanks, which means making a trip into the city.
After discussion with DD at the weekend regarding the merits of different types of patio doors, we have decided to go ahead with replacing our dodgy wooden patio door with a new aluminium one, much more expensive than uPVC, but less likely to suffer from the effects of heat on our directly south facing balcony. Also less “chunky” in appearance. Joiner coming to measure up soon hopefully.
Letters received with appointments for Covid and Flu vaccinations, so have re-arranged those for after our October break. No earlier dates were bookable, unlike last year when we had them in September, before we went away.
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It started off a lovely sunny day today but then the showers started around lunchtime and it is now much cooler. We had a trip over to the Springfields outlet centre at Spalding today as OH needed some new shoes. The cobbler said he just couldn't repair his old much loved pair anymore. He does have plenty of other shoes however but these were his favourites and he wanted a similar pair! I bought some trousers and a jumper - ready for the cooler weather. Yesterday I met up with old work colleagues and very good friends for our monthly coffee get together at our local Blue Diamond garden centre. There are fewer of us these days unfortunately as some have moved away and some are no longer with us. We still had a very enjoyable morning nevertheless. Another visit to the chiropractor in the afternoon and the sciatica is much better - fingers crossed.
We had a really lovely afternoon with the new little family of 4 on Sunday as baby and Mum are now out of hospital. I got a cuddle with our new great grandson this time and his older brother (aged 5) proudly showed me his new shoes, new school bag and new water bottle ready for starting back to school tomorrow.
Sorry to hear that your MOT and service was so expensive @nelliethehooker. Maintaining a car seems to cost more and more these days.
Lovely photos again @DSB despite the slightly inclement weather.
We have had similar problems @Takethedogalong. There was what seemed to be a 'domestic incident' one evening a few weeks ago at a house nearly opposite us when the police were called. It was such a nice area when we moved in. What is the world coming to?
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@KjellNN we had the notifications some while about our flu and covid jabs and the first dates on the system were for October so perhaps they have decided not to do them in September this year?
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We too have had notifications of appointments from our GP practice but only for the flu jabs. It was by text with a link to book the date but as we are not yet sure when we will be home from our upcoming trip we will phone up and book sometime in October. Perhaps then we can get our Covid jab at the same time.
Sounds like a lovely day you had with the new born and his brother @milliehull you must be very proud. As far as the cost following the MOT, as the service dept receptionist said, it much cheaper than buying a new vehicle!!😆
Pleased to hear that your car passed its MOT @KjellNN I see you are as busy as ever. Have you booked your sites for your next trip?
We have had a mostly dry day so managed to get most of the stuff loaded into the caravan this morning. After lunch we both had appointments with our dentist, for a check up, and then a teeth cleaning by the hygienist. Nearly ready for the off in the morning.
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Have a safe and pleasant trip @nelliethehooker Where to this time?
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Nellie…..we have booked some…….Seton Sands…..York not yet booked……..CAMC Hebden Bridge………. Crabmill near Broughton not yet booked……..and Spital Caravans.
We have not finished the bookings as apparently DD’s garden work may be delayed, and as they have time away booked and paid for, we may need to alter our plans.
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We went for a decent walk yesterday. Only local, a lovely ancient woodland area, it’s where we used to walk daily with our dogs. Left pooch at home fast asleep for a couple of hours. Lovely sunny morning. Called into a very nice nursery on way home and bought……………a Christmas Tree🤭 It’s a living one, in a large pot, and it’s going to live outside, being potted on each year until it can eventually go into the garden. Beautiful blue spruce, it’s for outside our bay window, on the paving, so we can put lights on it. (Our house is the “wrong” way round, built a very long time ago when front roadway was merely a path, long gone and incorporated into garden, so folks now arrive at the “back door” so our big lounge just looks down our garden, very private) Also left my number with one of staff who used to be Mum’s gardener, he will text me when they have their Autumn sell off. Last year I got £100 worth of lovely perennials for £10. A bit of over Winter TLC, a new pot, and by Spring they are growing lovely ready to go into ground.
BIL arrived to look at Mini yesterday, thought he might like it…..whoops, that bird flew a couple of weeks ago🤭 We had a nice hour with him in garden. He’s a gardener as well. Stuck my hand into pool yesterday……🥶might need wetsuits from now on. It hasn’t been sunny enough, for long enough to raise temps. Going to let it have September though, it might just turn hot again🤞
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Friend of MiL turned up for her weekly chat yesterday with 2lbs of Sloes that she and her husband picked locally. So my job this morning was to go out and buy enough Gin and sugar to convert them into Sloe Gin. As I writing the pair of them are pricking the Sloes. I'll have to watch where I place my feet when I go into the kitchen to avoid splattering the spilt ones.😁
The dishwashers delivery put back by a week. Annoying but liveable. Our Hoover, a Shark, stopped working yesterday. I think OH may have scolded it enough for it to change its mind. Time will tell.
Hope those away/ going have a good time. We might if things fall right get a night away on Friday.
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Off out to friends tonight for a meal. I offered to bring pudding, they are on a diet apparently so I’ve just made a fresh fruit salad. Thunderstorms and rain here of biblical proportions. I often make sloe gin, I notice there are a lot of them around this year. After pricking them with a cocktail stick I then freeze them for a while as they say sloes are better once there has been a frost. When I had the allotments I made blackcurrant gin, it’s lovely. But the blackcurrant bushes I’ve put in the garden don’t seem to do so well, probably the shade.1
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Thanks @milliehull we are now on the C&CC's Boroughbridge site on a trip up the North East this time and into Scotland. Next is a CL at Bedale, then Bernard Castle, Powburn, Dunbar and Linlithgow. We have not planned where after that.
Hope you manage to get away on Friday, @Wherenext and that the Shark has learnt it's lesson and behaves itself again. If you get the opportunity of getting some OH suggests that the ladies would like Damson Gin or Vodka for a change.
Looks like a good trip @KjellNN are you thinking of Cherry Tree Cottage at York?
We were able to get the caravan out and loaded in the dry this morning but it started to rain before we set off and that continued for the next 65 mls. Thankfully the weather cleared up before we arrived at the site so we were able to set up in the dry. There has been the odd short shower throughout the afternoon but fine this evening. The site is only about 1/3 rd full tonight.
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Nellie…..we were thinking of using the CL we used at Easter, Foss Dyke, but having just had the joiner here to discuss fitting a new patio door, it looks like we will need to do some re-arranging of dates in the interest of getting the door in place sooner rather than later.
That will mean cancelling our booking at Hebden Bridge, coming home after Seton Sands, and resuming our trip using our booking at Spital Caravans, then to Wales to visit my friend. We can make it all the way home straight from there, but may decide to fit in a stop en route as it is over 200 miles.
It was very sunny here earlier, but now we have heavy rain.
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OH has been wanting a new pair of walking sandals for most of the Summer but there's a huge obstacle. She hates shopping for shoes and clothes (especially shoes). I have checked and can confirm she is a genuine female, just a weird sort of one.🤣
Anyway at the dying embers of Summer she decided today was the day to go shoe shopping, goodness knows how long the courage took her to make that decision but nevertheless we headed for the most local place to have them, namely the Retail Outlet Village in Ellesmere Port, almost adjacent to the confusingly named "Chester" club site. Of course there's no show without Punch so MiL tagged along, why wouldn't she? I think she must have hogged the Shopping gene all for herself through pregnancy.😁
Yep, the only pair of footwear bought now belongs to MiL, a pair of Ugg slippers which I've asked to be included in the will as they'll still be worth a fortune no matter when they're passed down. I did get a metaphorical clip around the earhole.
We went to Pizza Express to get rid of some of our accumulated vouchers.
Somehow we managed to be in shops or having lunch whenever there was a downpour, quite frequent. No thunder though.
We did see a beautiful moth on our wall at home when we got there. I've mentioned it in the What have you seen thread but it deserves a wider audience I think.
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Hope you get the patio door replaced soon if today's rain is to continue through the winter @KjellNN and that you are able to get away as you now plan after the work's completed.
@Wherenext perhaps your OH should have a look at Clark's Shoes on line as they have a good variety of walking (ATS) sandals on there.
We had heavy rain through the night but it stayed fine and warm until mid afternoon. We had just got back to the caravan, after having a couple of decent walks around Staveley Nature Reserve, when we had a few peals of thunder and then a heavy downpour for more than an hour.
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@nelliethehooker - I think she's decided on an online purchase of the same ones she wears at present from ECCO.
She wasn't that impressed with the Clarks shop in the Outlet Village. Mind you she wasn't that impressed with any of the shops, specialist ones especially.😀
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@Wherenext I have Ecco Sandals now on my third pair and gosh they are expensive now even more over here, great photo of the Red Underwing Moth have seen some Orange Underwing moths here but not red.
Well we had an awful thunderstorm early yesterday morning certainly beats an alarm clock ha ha and ended up with 14.7mm of rain and nearly 90mm in the last week more than we have last in the last month but the grass is looking green again and growing also the garden looks better even got some more flowers on different plants.
OH suffering from a bad back could be Sciatica so a bit slow at present and he usually pretty good without back troubles but he was sorting out the gate out as difficult to shut due to oak tree next to the gate pillar and it moves it slightly heyho but all done and he took all tools etc back to his shed in a wheelbarrow and that is what has made his back ache so a quiet day for him today and ibuprofen tablets do not do anything for him so gave him some of my extra strong hemp cream to rub on and will see how that works on him.
Have a good weekend folks.
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Traveled down to Norfolk, which by the way is still in summer, and to our home for the next week. It's right on a broad and just fantastic. Here with all the family and we even get our own boat. Currently sitting out having a beer. Just pure bliss
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We have also arrived in Norfolk today @Cornersteady and yes the weather is beautiful. We are on the coast. Here for the rest of the week.
Our trip has been overshadowed though by the news that a great friend of ours (one of the group we regularly meet up with for Sunday lunch) had a very bad car accident on Tuesday evening and is in Addenbrooks in an induced coma. His stepson has set up a WhatsApp group so that he can give us all updates. We await further news.
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Well today was the first completely dry day since we arrived almost 2 weeks ago. We had deluges yesterday. We made the most of it and visited Snowshill Manor and then a walk around the grounds. I visited the church at Snowshill and then had a wander around the village, lots of building work going on there with many village houses being made bigger. The Cotswolds are certainly changed and changing since my youth. Then on to Broadway for a leisurely drink sitting outside. So it was a lovely day. We have visited the Manor many times over the years it’s so packed with treasures that there is always something I missed seeing before, so worth going back. Strangely though this time all the exhibits showing Charles Wade, the previous owner, and his families heritage, plus the plantations owned by the family in St Kitts have been removed, with just a very small tucked away notice referring to this and his mixed race. Lots about the man but now nothing about him growing up or about his family. I think this is sad as it was very interesting and explained a lot about him and his family. The NT can’t change history or just ignore it.2
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Really sorry to hear your news @milliehull. It's going to be difficult to enjoy your break. Fingers crossed for some good news but you're probably preparing for the worst.
I agree with you @DEBSC. You can't rewrite or hide history and that shouldn't be the remit of NT.
We've managed to get away for the 1 night. At a lovely Independent site near Bodnant Gardens. Any photos will be tomorrow as Internet connection not very good. We stopped at a little reserve, new to us, just outside Prestatyn on the way. Somewhere to return to in the appropriate season, too dry at present. Bodnant was lovely but I'm a bit lacking in energy at the moment so it was a pootle and a few sit downs. We've mainly come to this area for an Open day event tomorrow morning. Check your Open Days for September, there's plenty available.
Hope everyone has as good a weekend as possible.
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Today seems to becoming a new normal for us as we have to organise outselves without the use of a car,hopefully only tempoarily? We both had blood tests at the surgery which is only about a mile away but too far for either of us, Margaret can and does use the bus but that is an adventure I have yet to experience! We decided to use a taxi but were a bit unsure whether they would accept a relatively short journey. Fortunately they did and were, in fact, very efficient A Fiver each way was probably not much more than someone would pay on the bus (without a bus pass?) so not a game changer and very convenient. It looks like a lot of taxi journeys in the immediate future given the number of appointments that are coming along. A couple of the appointments are to do with Margaret's second hip replacement which seems to be gathering speed! Quite a lot of excitement in MK today as a stage of the Tour of Britain started in CMK. We have recorded it to watch later.
David
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I have every sympathy with your OH @RedKite . I have recently had sciatica - very painful. My Mum used to suffer with bouts of sciatca from time to time and said it was like toothache in your leg. I have had a few visits to the chiropractor this past week and ìt is a lot better thankfully. I hope your OH improves soon.
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Pleased to read that you feeling much better after your treatment @milliehull but sorry to hear of your friend's accident, here's hoping that he make a full recovery.
I too agree with you and @Wherenext about not being able to rewrite history @DEBSC In my opinion there it too much emphasis on political correctness and whitewashing of our nation's past history.
Enjoy your night away @Wherenext, are you on the Bodnant site at Llanwrst, as that is where we stopped on a THS on our last trip?
Hope that it is not too long before Margaret has her operation @DavidKlyne
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After a clear sky last night we had a ground frost this morning. It has been fine and sunny for most of the day, although it did threaten rain in the afternoon which thankfully never materialised. We had a walk along the embankment of the River Ure from just outside of Boroughbridge this morning and the a picnic lunch on the village green in Aldborough, the site of the Roman Town of Isurium Brigantum. We then visited the parish church, St Andrews, which is a Grade 1 listed building, built in the early 14th Century, and is believed to lie on the site of a temple to Mercury. We ended our visit with a short walk between the river and the navigation canal at Langthorpe, where the Battle of Boroughbridge took place in 1322, between the forces of King Edward II defeated those of the rebel baron Thomas, Earl of Lancaster.
The wear and Salmon Leap at the battlefield site.
St Andrew's Church, Aldborough
The church's East and West Windows
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The site has filled up somewhat today and is now roughly half full. The surprising thing is that all but one of the 26 non electric pitches are occupied, helped by the being a club meet of the Association of Lightweight Campers occupying 11 of the pitches, whereas there are about an equal number of EHU pitches occupied, ie around 25.
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Sad news for you @milliehull I hope your friend makes a good recovery.
@Cornersteady that looks a cracking holiday, have a good time with your family.
@DavidKlyne hope you enjoyed the Tour highlights. Hope you are still recovering well. Some places have Community Transport Services which might be worth exploring for you at the moment?
@Wherenext enjoy your night away.
@DEBSC we always enjoy Snowshill Manor. Fully agree about history. Slavery happened, and it wasn’t just the terrible transportation of Black Africans, plenty of other examples throughout British history. Removing evidence doesn’t help, the stories need telling so that such horrors and inhumanity are never part of our culture again. Likewise with Colonialism. Exploitation is never nice.☹️
Nice weather here today, not far from you either @nelliethehooker a frost😱 Interesting around there.
It’s our big town show this weekend, so we are going out tomorrow to avoid it, as we live close by. OH will be viewing Classic Cars on Sunday though. We stuck our jam thermometer in pool this afternoon, it was 14c🥶🥶🥶 Time to start emptying for this year. It’s been great fun though since late April. Water gets recycled in various ways.
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@DEBSC we also agree that this pushing under the carpet of certain parts of our history is wrong, or at least not helpful. History is just that, it’s history and should be learnt about. OH volunteers for the NT and ‘his’ house had a connection to sugar plantations and the attendant issues surrounding such, it’s not talked about but it’s in the background. I’m sure many, if not most, of our historic houses and estates were involved to some degree with the triangular trade or colonialism.
@milliehull (won’t go red!) enjoy your break, and hopefully you receive better news about your friend.@DavidKlyne glad to hear you are progressing well and hopefully can get back to driving soon. Good luck to Margaret for her surgery. I’m due to have my operation on Monday. 😳
Have a good weekend to all.
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All the best for Monday @heddlo and for your recovery. Thank you for your good wishes.
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Best wishes for your op heddle, and for a swift recovery.
OH has had a bad pain in her left leg for several days, reading about those with Sciatica, I think that must be what she has too. She rang our surgery first thing yesterday, but they have referred her to their physiotherapist on Monday afternoon, rather than one of the GPs, hopefully she can get stronger painkillers. Getting into bed is painful, and getting out even more so. I read that it can take weeks for it to resolve.
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@KjellNN yes, sciatica can be awful, and it’s often worse when in bed. Only time I had it really bad, I had spasms of pain almost constantly during the night, which of course doesn’t help as you end up sleep deprived. I wasn’t as bad in the day, just had to be careful what I did. Neither paracetamol nor ibuprofen alone touched it, I think I was advised Co-codamol, but you don’t want to take those for more than a couple of days! And not without asking a GP/ medical person first. I managed to break the spasm cycle, but get the odd flare up occasionally, and use ibuprofen at once, so it doesn't get worse. I hope your OH gets sorted asap. Physio is a better alternative than drugs. We changed our daily furniture as well, we were both getting back ache as our fireside chairs were too low. That made a huge difference to our aches and pains.
@heddlo all the best for a quick recovery and good hospital stay.
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