What are you all up to
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Great news B2, best wishes to you both..
We are now finished our planning/booking for our next little trip. DD has organised to use a load of holidays to have a 3 day week until July, so we have added a few days at the start of our trip and she and Callum will join us for a few days.
We will start off at the CAMC site in Ayr, so not too far for her to drive to, then continue to Garlieston as planned, Next stop is CCC Kendal, then a CL near Chester.
From there we go to CCC Cardigan Bay, then a CL near St David's, and next to one near Cardiff. Going north we will stop a few days at CCC Alton. Average site fees for the trip will be £17.50 per night, so we are happy.
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Great to hear your news. B2. Hope that things continue in the same vein, as it were.
Glad to hear that those that have returned home have done so with mishap, and those just setting out have got to their sites safe and sound.
Today was our last one at Dornoch before we head down to the Moray coast. We went our viewing some of the Pictish sites on Easter Ross and then down to Nigg and view some of the modern monuments to industry, the oil platforms and support vessels. Spotted pod of Dolphins as we were having lunch at Balintore.
We seen lots of spring flowers on our trip so far, banks of Bluebells above Loch Tay, Violets at every turn it seem, Wild Pansies in the Lock Fleet Reserve, and lots of Primroses too.
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Meantime we are trying to work through as much of the "to do" house list as possible before we go away. Still plenty of little things to finish.
There has been a lot of discussion about some landscaping in the garden, mainly laying a load of slabs, we may go and look at slabs this week.
However, DD is not certain what she really wants to do, so we have suggested she concentrates on the house first and leaves the garden till next year......we shall see.
I prefer doing stuff inside, landscaping is hard work, they may need to hire in some help unless SIL is willing to do all the digging. OH keeps telling them that they need to remember I will soon be 77, and have had a heart op!
Oh oh, just writing that has made me realise how time is passing.......we have our 50th anniversary this year and it really does not feel like 50 years!
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Quite understand the "Age" problem KjellNN, I have the same 'numbers'. To drop a gentle hint could you not hire one of those mini - JCB digger thingies for the landscaping, and tell the family you are preparing yourself for one of the mobility scooters in a year or six ??
{ I do the on-line stuff for one of my neighbours who, with his wife, does quite a bit of running and he just won't use the door bell, but taps so quietly on the window in case he wakes me up
. }
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So pleased to hear from you Bakers2 and that all seems to be progressing well. Pottering is very good and as Husky says - don't try and do too much. Pleased to hear that your new cleaner is working out well. It is nice to get a good working relationship. I hope you can both begin to get back to some sort of normality and enjoy life again. Best wishes.
Good to hear from you Helen. It sounds as though you are having a lovely holiday. Will you be seeing your son and his girlfriend as you are near their area?
We love Meathop Fell WN. It is such a lovely quiet area of the Lakes.
Brue and WN I thought it was just me that felt tired on the first day of a holiday and also the day after we get back. I put it down to all the packing and organising but as you say WN it might well be the stress levels dropping away.
We had pouring rain all day Friday and Saturday and grey skies yesterday. OH decided that despite all the rain the garden pots were still dry and needed watering. We have nearly caught up with the garden. I just need to clear some of the spring bulbs that have been in pots and plant them up with some plants that I bought on St. Ives market. We had two of the grandchildren overnight on Saturday (aged 9 and 11) so they 'helped' me with my coffee duty yesterday morning at the Cathedral.
I hope everyone has a good day. The sun is shining (for now) here.
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Once again thanks for all your good wishes. We are trying our best not to overdo things 😉.
Brighter day here but still very cloudy. Jealous of those that have had lots of rain or sun! Our waterbutts are only about 1/2 full despite a wet Friday afternoon. Our garden is very dry and I had to water the large tubs in the front garden yesterday. We seem to get all the grey and cloud but miss out on the moisture and sun 😢.
However you spend your day enjoy it 😃.
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Good to hear from you Bakers2, so pleased that the "pottering" is going well.
Re- water collection. We are about to buy a new large water butt, we've got two already but one needs replacing so we're going for a bigger one that will fit flat against a wall. We try and collect all our roof water etc but ours are very dry just now. Millie's post sounds a bit better (or wetter?
) water wise. I bought a plant on holiday too so must get that in along with several others that have been waiting for long enough.
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I prefer doing stuff inside, landscaping is hard work, they may need to hire in some help unless SIL is willing to do all the digging. OH keeps telling them that they need to remember I will soon be 77, and have had a heart op!
Kj
I know you are a willing horse but I do think you have to draw the line somewhere? I would hope that your children wouldn't even consider letting you do that! I am a few years younger than you, but not much. I now accept that lots of the things I used to with ease and enthusiasm are really physically behind me now. Unless I can rope my sons into helping me which they are willing to do but they have busy lives and demanding jobs so I now have to seriously think about paying others to do such jobs. Twenty years ago there is no way I would have paid someone to put up a new fence but now I phone MK Fencing!!!
David
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Much Like David I stopped working on cars or caravans at 56 as my hand joints weren't good. Last flagging work using 50mm thick 3x2 flags was at age 56. Last major graft that I did refitting toilet and bathroom and putting in new oil tank base/plinth and fire wall was at 58 when after suffering al winter with spine and shoulder I had a remission. Resorted to having somebody in for mowing about age 61 as hips were suffering as well as back and gave up going to the gym.
When away this year I noticed 2 loose screws in the support bar for dinette table. I bout a small bottle of wood glue and a box of matches. Took all 5 screws out, glued lengths of matchsticks and pushed into holes. Then the frustrating bit! I had not got enough strength in my thumbs to screw the screws into the tighter holes! I had to drive out and buy a T-Bar screwdriver set instead!
Jealous of KjNell for his ability to do some of the work I no longer can. Sometimes we need to know 'when to hold and when to fold'
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It's all go here as we've started mowing for our first cut silage. My involvement centres on food. I've stocked up with ingredients for numerous lunch (and supper boxes).
Today is particularly hectic as three judges are due about lunch time. We've been nominated for a trophy that "recognises the contribution of farmers in the North of England to conservation and environmental improvement" (to quote the letter). I'm hoping that a good lunch of local food will help sway them!
Then I'm on dog sitting duty - easy job as I sit out in the garden and read while my son's dog (young Cocker Spaniel) goes a bit daft.
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No, I will not be doing any digging, only supervising! OH would make sure of that!
The original plan was for SIL to do the digging, he is fit and strong, but his heart is not really in gardening so DD is dubious that he would stay the course. I would be doing a little bricklaying and supervising the preparation of the base, SIL and DD would do the heavy stuff and lift the slabs into place, with me just doing the final positioning.
We do have a very able gardener we can call on, who may be willing to do just the digging, he has said previously that he does not really like laying slabs so I would not ask him to tackle the whole job.
A day, at the speed he works, would be more than enough to complete all the digging once we get organised, so affordable, but they cannot afford at the moment to pay someone to do the whole job, having already had to max out the finances to afford the house and then finding quite a few unexpected problems, as well as the changes they had budgeted for.
ABM.......unfortunately the garden is fully enclosed with the only access a small gate in the large wall, about the size of a regular door, in fact it is a UPVC type door complete with full frame.
I doubt a mini digger would fit through it, but OH says it is a great idea and she will be checking sizes!
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There is one that will go through a standard door for both width and height.
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KJ, OH did all this and more earlier in the year but it was very hard work and getting the hard core in and lifting slabs required extra help from our daughter's partner. The partner had been doing some part time landscaping work with a builder...I had to act as referee when they both disagreed on how things should be done!! (no comments about their efforts, it all looks fine in reality and was worth it, I think...
)
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Thanks ET, will pass that onto OH so she can check out the sizes.
The "gate", which as I said is actually an ordinary UPVC door, has a complete frame all round, so we would need to protect the threshold in some way from the weight of the machine, which should not be impossible, would probably need something there anyway even if just using a wheelbarrow.
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Kj, all the digging was done by hand on our photo, but OH baulked at the concrete mixing and bought a mini concrete mixer on ebay, it proved to be a godsend and can now be sold on when no longer required. Good luck with the plans, don't over do it.
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That looks very nice brue, and not dissimilar to what DD has in mind, can I ask what type of paving that is?
DD would ideally like a large flat area up by the gate, about 4.8m wide and about 4m long, where she plans to have a small greenhouse, then a step down to a lower level of about 4.8m x 1.5m, then a second step to an area level with the lawn of about 4.8m x 2,5m, so 4.8m x 8m in total, roughly.
Off to the house side of this there is already a large enclosed raised terrace behind the house with 5 steps down at one side, which would come down onto the new paving, so the level of these steps and the positions of air bricks in the house walls are dictating where the finished levels of the project need to be.
At the moment the gate just opens onto bare moss, and the steps from the terrace come onto mossy grass, so not ideal if there has been any rain.
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Just having a quick look on here, ssh don't tell OH
Good to hear from you Bakers2 really pleased that things are progressing well.
It's a beautiful sunny day have just stopped off for a quick drink in Settle.
Millie we spent the weekend in Manchester before we came away so I don't think a meet up with our son will happen this trip.
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Back from early morning trip to Diabetes Clinic -- got half a Result and half a Fail there
!!
Bloods up a shade == FAIL
Weight unchanged == ( Half ) Result
Overall not too bad 'cos Nurse booked me back in October so I'm expected to last at least six months
which covers all my planned site bookings so far. That should keep Caravan & Motorhome Club from bankruptcy for a while
.
I did get a Full Lecture on 'Looking after your Feet and Legs' tho' so I'll be hoping for a dry summer so I can get a few good strolls round steam engines (
) to keep the blood circulating and my food intake down at the same time. { sooty / gritty pies ?? Thanks very much but I'd rather not !! }
It's good to see my semi-humorous comments about mini-J.C.B.s went down reasonably well with the target parties - can't have too many posts without a giggle or two now can I
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Six months "grace," that sounds good ABM.
A quick reply to Kj about the slabs. OH, in his inimitable style purchased an end of stock line to match ones we bought in a previous year when a builder did some slabbing for us too. So I've now thrown the details away. However they were called "plain" and were square and being that shape were slightly less heavier than some sizes, but it was hard work so don't be tempted to join in with all that lifting!
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Well what a splendiferous day that was. Sunshine, Lakeland Hills, Grasmere, Coffee and Cake, Wonderful trees and birds. What"s not to like? Then to cap it all we called in at Booths in Windermere for a salad and saw some "Picked today" new potatoes for sale, so we bought some, plus some asparagus and thick cut smoked back bacon and lo and behold the day did indeed get better.
Yum.
Forecast looks ok for tomorrow so we may go for another hill walk somewhere. Isn't life fun sometimes.
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Finishing a great day off with some "Mainline Bitter " well it would be a bit rude not to try some of the locally brewed beer. 😉
Snap Wherenext we also had some dug today new potatoes from Booths 😄 but we had ours with some steak cooked on the cadac.
Didn't do as much walking today, the dog isn't getting any younger, bit like me! 😂and after yesterday's long walk we spent the morning in Skipton, and a mooch along the river and Settle this afternoon .The plan is to go to Malham Tarn tomorrow.
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We stopped off there a few years back before we had restarted "vanning" whilst in transit between York and Windemere. What a bleak place. Grey scudding clouds and a wind that would chop you in half.
Bit different to today's relocation from Metz to Strasbourg. Balmy day and a leisurely drive down the country roads avoiding the autoroute. Stopped off at a LeClerc's en route to reprovision and picked up a cheap merlot for €1.55. Just as well the plonk is cheap here as disaster struck after our arrival. I managed to knock over a glass of red that I'd poured to have with my paella ( Yeah, i know that's Spainish). To add insult to injury, I'd poured the full 250ml, as well.
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Been a mixed sort of day weather wise. Rain early but managed to take Flyte for his morning walks and get packed up in the dry, We then had some rain as we drove south but that cleared away as we came over the Kessock Bridge. Site nice and dry and we had a good walkout in sunshine after lunch. However it's rained on and off since about 6:00 this evening so it looks like a damp final walk for us shortly.
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Yes, OH has been looking at small mixers, can you recommend a model?
When we were landscaping our own garden here, some 30 odd years back, we invested in a mixer from B&Q, but it has long since rusted away and was taken to the tip.
It got a lot of use as we have a fairly steeply sloping plot, 69 steps from the street to the very top, laid out in terraces with retaining walls, 6 various levels at the back, and 20000 bricks in the walls, all laid by me over a period of about 3 years, makes me feel tired just thinking about it now!
Only access is a 2m wide path up the side of the house, then lots of steps, so everything......timber for fencing on 3 sides, bricks, sand, gravel, cement, slabs, topsoil, bark, sleepers, even 2 greenhouses, and plants of course, had to be carried up by hand. The whole family helped with the carrying, and our son did a fair bit of slab laying round the house.
We used slabs 60 x 60 cm, a reasonable size/weight for carrying all that way 30 years back.
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Just looking in before going out KJ. The mixer is a "switzer" (I hope I've got the spelling right?) OH had to assemble it, he's been pleased with it. In fact he's yet to remove it from round the corner and it's "decorating" the front of our home, we have a few steps to tackle before we get to some lower ground. But nothing like as steep as you're home project I think?!
Hope you all have a good day, the weather looks nice and warm for a lot of the country.
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I love those “dug today” potatoes from Booths. They go very well with the Formby Asparagus (Sunday’s supper with salmon) and home baked ham (yesterday’s dinner).
Today’s dinner is more prosaic - boxes made up for silaging. Ham sandwiches and fruitcake. Traditional silage fare.
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Yes, OH has been looking at small mixers, can you recommend a model?
Not sure its a recommendation but I got one of those small ones from B&Q and I have to say it proved very much up to the job. If you hire a mixer it doesn't take long to recoup the hire costs by buying your own. Mine is just sitting in the garage, shame you are 500 miles away!!!
David
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