Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

Good morning all. It promises to be a lovely day here in Kent. So, do I go out for the day, or spend time doing chores - mow lawn, and stuff indoors?

Going out!! Wife away until tomorrow, been around the house and garden for three days, so I'm opting to delay the chores.
Life's too short.

I bought a new hallway runner yesterday. Hope the wife likes it!!

 

Good morning everyone, we had a good day yesterday, daytime in the garden, cut grass etc. Then went to the 2nd last Prom concert.
It was Motzart, Darren then Beethoven. We did know the middle piece but it was very good. All the brass instruments seemed to be early valveless types. Something I have never seen before, the French horn players had a little rack of other loops of the instrument which they swapped frequently, presumably this changed the pitch (tone) . Just shows there's always something new, if you just listened to the piece as a recording you'd have no idea how the sound was achieved.
It's Open house London this weekend, (they open buildings not usually open to the public) not sure if we will do much as it can get very crowded.

 

Morning, all. Wondering where you were, @RowlandsCastle. Your wife is either going to love or hate that rug, it’s not exactly neutral! I think it’s great, may I ask where you got it?
Sorry you had another bad night, @Tui34, hang in there!
Re the V5C car registration document, there is actually no need to send it in now, it can be done on line. As long as the new buyer / breakers yard, signs the slip on the form ( you will keep that) the details can be entered on the gov.uk website, and an acknowledgement slip will eventually be sent in the post. I was surprised to see that our old car, scrapped during Covid, still appears on the website, registered as SORN and no longer in possession of a valid MOT. Very relieved that I have the ‘no longer in your possession’ note, just in case it gets up to any mischief. I thought it would have been in bits by now, and taken off the register.
A lovely sunny morning here, and doesn’t feel as cold as the thermometer says it is. Out for breakfast with a sea view. OH is quite excited as we can see a vessel on the horizon, and the ship finder website is showing an unnamed ship going round in circles, having come out of Portsmouth. It’s almost certainly the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, which has been carrying out manoeuvres off the coast, and I’ve remembered to put the binoculars back in the car ( after emptying it for its MOT and service)
I must plant the bulbs I bought last week. 25 tete a tete daffodils, to go at the edge of the bed outside the kitchen window. There is every likelihood they will be dug up by our resident squirrels, so I’m tempted to cover each patch with a few ‘pobbles’ to protect them. I’ll just have to remember to uncover them in the spring, or will they just push the stones to the side? I must also look up how to take fuschia and salvia cuttings, havent a clue.

 

Morning everybody, to our surprise it's a brilliantly sunny and fairly warm day so far. My daughter's been out for a walk and to fetch the daily paper for me as I'm kinda marooned in the house as the window cleaner is still here. He's done the solar panels already which are beautifully sparkly and clean which means better electricity generation. We get paid for any surplus electricity which we're not using so it's all good.

Hoping to do some gardening, also got Tete n Tete daffs to plant @Ergates. I find the squirrels tend to leave those well alone as the bulbs are poisonous to them. Crocuses are however nectar!

Shame about the bad night @Tui34 but every day is one day more on the step to recovery. Hope your friend is looking after you well and doing all the cooking!

Glad you liked the photos @Busy-Lizzie. I enjoyed yours of Bressingham and the others of Hardwick Hall etc, sorry, can't remember who posted those.

My OH is a Londoner @Allotment Boy and used to love going to the Proms. One of the things he misses living down here.

 

I have fuschia cuttings on the kitchen window sill. Thanks for reminding me, @Ergates!
It's a 'getting better' sort of day and at least there is some sun. Off to the van for an hour or two, to have a 'picnic' lunch and give the dogs a good run. The exercise field is the only place we feel safe to let the old girl off her lead, as it's enclosed and she can't run away if she forgets where she is. She can bimble about with a ball like a pup!
Tonight, hub wants to recreate a dish he had at the small plates restaurant, Pollo all'aglio. We must remember that we are both on a diet!
I think your rug is very cheerful @RowlandsCastle

 

Greetings everyone. I will not be doing creamy doughnut day @Ladybird4. I don't like donuts of any kind.

Chocolate day was good tho - the chilli turned out fine and the kidney bean cake was very good too. https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/kidney-bean-chocolate-cake-recipe/hzmw1hp3 The recipe says to blitz in two stages but I did it all in one to save on washing up and faffing and it turned out very well. You need to add a ganache to the top tho IMHO.

A keeper as it's gluten free and I can replace the sugar with stevia or similar sweetener for my diabetic friends.

No gardening again today. I was up and out early to set up a stand for the gardening club at La Roche which is holding a forum to pubicise all its associations for sports, culture and leisure - Home now to finish processing the tomatoes I dried in the new dehydrator and the ones I've boiled down to make passata. Back out this pm to man the stand all afternoon.

Fortunately it's sunny tho only 6C early on. Brrr! 20C later so OK.

I hope breakfast was good @Ergates. Sorry you've had another bad night @Tui34 and hope things improve soon. I didn't sleep well either so have had a double coffee ration this morning as I won't get a snoozle this pm.

@RowlandsCastle my OH referred to me as "the wife" just once. He can refer to me by name, nickname or "my wife" but not as an object.

 

Hi @Ergates
I got the rug in a local homeware shop. The owner put several outside, for passers-by to notice - and notice we did!
These ones were 220cm x 60cm.
The person in the shop before me, bought one, as did the person behind me. The owner said he wished he'd ordered more, and hadn't anticipated they would be in such demand.

Yes, my wife is either going to love it or hate it. I just felt the brown parquet flooring, which I dislike, needed a touch of colour.

 

It's 26°C here and I have open the conservatory doors that lead to the lounge, so everything is warming up. The wind has dropped to 60kmph so the afternoon walk will be nice. I have done my exercises this morning - and I mentioned to the nurse who is a partner in the practice about the hand washing. She said that I had done the right thing by telling her.

I hope your knees are a bit better today @Obelix-Vendée and @Busy-Lizzie Take the skin off the pollo @Penny_Forthem that should cut out a few calories. Speaking of which, I must be putting on a bit of weight here as the restaurant is excellent!! I do help with the dishes or making a salad. I would love to get out into my vegetable patch and check the tomato situation. It has almost come to a standstill with these cold nights.

An interesting runner @RowlandsCastle will be waiting to hear what your wife thinks of it.

I have nearly finished my book so am nose deep in the last few chapters.

Have a pleasant afternoon everyone.

 

Good afternoon ladies & gentlemen,

Very pleased to hear of your Husband's good recovery following his hip surgery @lizzie27 , and equally happy to hear of your successful surgery @Tui34 . My best wishes for a continued speedy recovery to all concerned.

Hopefully someone will be able to help with your sleep apnoea @RowlandsCastle . My best wishes anyway.

Thank-you for all the wonderful photos of your four-legged friends @Penny_Forthem .

My tale of moderate woe:

i) hilariously frequent and prolonged migraines since I last posted on here

ii) the 27C - September record-breaking for the county - we had last weekend set off my head (where I had the brain bleed, it doesn't like it above 24 or 25C)

iii) driving around 100km on Tuesday - to take my Mother to hospital appointment and then onwards to the Nursing Home to visit my Father, set off my back again

iv) the two residents in the Nursing Home I had "adopted" (i.e. brought gifts to and visited) have passed away. This happened with the previous two residents I "adopted" as well and it has been very sad on both occasions. I don't know how the staff in the Home can work there without being emotionally crushed.

v) noticed a "halo" around lights after dark, went to the optician and have pigment on the inside of my cornea (relieved it wasn't glaucoma). Back to see her (the optician) again in December

vi) my neighbour's Grandson (who was living with her) got a promotion and will now be working overseas. She (my neighbour) rang me last night at 1am asking me if I wanted lunch, as she thought it was 1pm. I threw on clothes and went next door to encourage her to go to bed. I'm not angry about it, just very concerned and saddened that she can no longer tell night from day

vii) my tiresome habit of waking up at 5am seems this week to have become an even more unhelpful habit of waking at 4am (and being unable to get back to sleep again)

On a happier note:

i) I awoke migraine-free this morning and so decided to take full advantage of this and go on a "toy run" (which involves me distributing things to the parents of children in the village who live in straitened circumstances, see attached photos; no toys this morning, just DVDs)

ii) the annuals I planted on the last day of July have grown well (although no flowers so far). Meanwhile previously planted cosmos and French marigolds are flowering freely.

iii) still no frost here on the coast (unlike inland parts on Thursday night)

iv) a very pleasant week of weather is forecast

v) two more "mystery" (i.e. unidentified) plants have appeared and are in flower (although almost all plants are "mystery" plants to me )

Best wishes to all, as always.

 

Wow that's quite a string of "events" @Badly_Maintained .
@lizzie27 just heard on the radio all Proms still available on BBC sounds till mid October if your OH is interested. Not the same as seeing them live of course but.... I must confess I owe it to my OH as she is the one who books these things. I'm never organised enough

 

Thanks for your update @Badly_Maintained . I was only wondering how you were yesterday.
We are eating Italian style tonight. Verdure Al forno with some home grown veg; waiting to go into said forno. Hub is doing chicken in white wine.

Better not have too much garlic. Got emergency dentist on Monday!
We have made an appointment with our vet on Wednesday to see about pain management for our old girl. It may involve librela injections. She was in pain after her little bimble today.

 

Evening everybody,
good to hear from you @Badly_Maintained but sorry about your and your neighbours health concerns.
Do hope your dog will be ok @Penny_Forthem and that your dentist appointment will be painless although I suspect not. Dinner looks interesting.
Thanks @Allotment Boy , I'll pass on that info to OH although I doubt if he knows what BBC Sound is, come to think of it, neither do I!

The poor window/solar panel cleaner finally left here after six and a half hours of hard graft, absolutely exhausted. He'd washed everything in sight and did a marvellous job. Whether he'll come back is another matter!
I thought he'd vastly underestimated the amount of time it would take and felt so sorry for him I gave him a large tip.

It's been a lovely sunny and warm day and we were stuck indoors with the curtains drawn for most of it. Daughter walked to the shops and back for me, she's now left for home and OH is on his way back too. I whipped outside as soon as the window cleaner left and did an hour's tidying up, cutting down and deadheading. Forecast is good for the forthcoming week so hopefully more gardening is on the cards.

Have a good evening folks.

 

That looks fab @Penny_Forthem ! We're having Japanese something or other chicken courtesy of Possum who has suddenly found her cooking mojo again and is working her way thru recipes she wants to try in her own cookbooks. Just once a week tho.

I am back from my stint on the garden club stand at the Forum des Associations at La Roche. Started very slow but picked up towards the end and we had quite a few people interested. Need to be better organised if we do it again next year - better photo displays, info leaflets etc. Our president is in Corsica, didn't think the Forum was worth doing and left it all to go hang. We'll do better next year.

That sounds like more evetfulness than a person should have to manage @Badly_Maintained. I wish you well with it and admire your fortitude and generosity.

Since I'm not cooking I have time to goa nd see your photos @Busy-Lizzie and @lizzie27

 

BBC sounds is the radio equivalent of iplayer, so you need tinternet to access it.

 

@RowlandsCastle. I like your new runner. I have knit blankets like that but feel inspired to do one similar, with the contrasting borders to the squares.
It has been a glorious day and I have spent several hours in the garden - I began the border clearance and got about 1 square meter competely emptied. I took bits of the plants I removed - a geranium, a geum, a hellebore and an astrantia - and planted them at the bottom of the garden. I filled the space with the bulbs, some asters, campanulas, a viola and a doronicum. Cricket thought I was just building a big toilet especially for him and he did have a pee whilst I was working.
@Obelix-Vendée, I'm with you in disliking any sort of doughnut. Horrid greasy things. You will enjoy @Busy-Lizzie's and @lizzie27's pictures. They are beautiful.
@Badly_Maintained you have certainly been having a tough time recently. I was so sorry to read of the losses of your adopted residents. I would be bereft and like you wonder at, and admire the fortitude of people who can work in these homes. The people who cared for my Mum when she had to go into a home were just the nicest people ever. Well done on your 'toy run'. Next week my Bestie and I are on duty at the Food Bank and we have donations of toys and clothing as well. People are so very kind and generous.
@Penny_Forthem your food looks very tempting. I too hope that your little old dog gets some relief.