Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

@Coccinella if you’ve not seen it, and if you’re able to watch on Iplayer or whatever I recommend Gareth Malone’s three BBC2 programmes taking a group of amateur singers through preparing to sing Bach’s St John’s Passion with professional soloists … culminating in the performance last night. Very well worth watching if you can.

 

Good news @Punkdoc … I’d keep some blocks ready and put them out in the autumn in case their friends and relations start looking for cosy quarters.

 

Discovered a first tiny green shoot on the lemon verbena bush in the conservatory. I thought it had died, but no. The climber has also grown new stems and leaves, I have topped their pots off with fresh compost and have been watering them. I will give them a feed when they have more growth on them.
The lemon tulips are just coming into flower, I have hit on a pretty colour combination with them as I underplanted with blue forget me nots.

 

Good morning all.
We had a lovely day at daughters yesterday. The fog lifted after 30 minutes of travelling south. So the last part of the journey was enjoyable.
Today I have my two sisters coming for lunch and as I’m no cook, it will be cottage pie.
Enjoy your bank holiday.

 

A home-made cottage pie can be the food of the gods.

 

My son goes home today but I too feel exhausted. He eats me out of house and home but family means everything to me. There is always something going on but I prefer that so sitting on my own and being miserable.

 

Morning all! Late onto the computer today. OH was up early (for him on a non-work day) to go to the footy - early kick-off as usual on a bank holiday - and it's dull and damp out so I've been getting on with indoor stuff. I've got gammon in the slow cooker for tea so the rest of the day's my own

 

Morning all,
First of all - best wishes to both you and your Brother at this terrible time @lizzie27
Very sorry to hear the news about your Sister @PatE
I hope both @Ergates & @KayJ had wonderful Wedding Anniversaries.
Hope you are now fully recovered @Dordogne Damsel
(Sorry for the delay in expressing these sentiments, but I've been spending the last week or so in an extended sojourn in migraineland, and wasn't on the forum at all.)

Snow on the mountains (and at lower altitudes inland) on Thursday and Friday. Saturday and Sunday were sunny - there is beginning to be real heat in sunlight now, but with a very keen wind. Today so far has involved incessant rain. Think I might have broken one of the little toes on my foot last night, due to a chair leg collision (did it before a few years ago).

On a lighter note, an excerpt from the (never to be) forthcoming Encyclopaedia of Incompetent Household Management
"April: fourth month of the year. This is when the incompetent householder should store away thermal clothing until it is required again in the Autumn. Much thought should be given to the storage location - it should be as inaccessible and forgettable as possible. Mastery of thermal clothing storage will have have been achieved when in the Autumn the storage location has been completely forgotten, necessitating the purchase of new thermal clothing"

Vastly more eloquently - a few lines from Elizabethan wordsmith Edmund Spenser:
"Bring hither the pink and purple columbine,
With gillyflowers;
Bring coronations, and sops in wine,
Worn of paramours,
Strew me the ground with daffodownlillies,
And cowslips, and kingcups, and loved lilies:
The pretty paunce,
And the chevisaunce,
Shall match with the fair flower delice."

Best wishes to all.

 

Sorry you've had such a bad migraine, @Badly_Maintained.

 

Good afternoon,

It’s very cold here today, grey and drizzly. However, despite that, we had a better than expected turnout for the fundraising event in church today and seem to have raised quite a bit for water aid. I thought that perhaps with it being a bank holiday and poor weather, we might not do very well.

We had a lovely afternoon yesterday at my nieces house. She made a delicious lunch for all of us, and it was so nice to catch up with family.

Time for feet up now, whilst I peruse GC.

Enjoy the remainder of the day.

 

Well the day has brightened up … blue sky and white fluffies … and a drying breeze so washing is on the line.

A proper Shepherd’s Pie has been made out of the remains of yesterday’s roasted lamb shoulder. The house has been cleaned and tidied and the drain unclogged (I think ) so is a few minutes sit down now before it’s time to fetch OH from work at 3.

 

A dismal day here. Woke up to sunshine, but within a short while, the rain started. It’s been raining on and off all day, and the puddle on the patio is back.
Lunch was sandwiches of leftovers from yesterday’s turkey. Often nicer than the main event!
Don’t know whether to treat the rest of today like a holiday, or give up and get on with some jobs. OH was panicking about getting the green bins filled, but was very relieved that we have an extra day because of the bank holiday. I shall finish my coffee and maybe grab some more chocolate to go with it. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better for getting out in the garden, but I also have to collect a prescription, and we’ll need to restock the bird food. A pair of jackdaws have done a raid on the bird feeder and we are getting low.

 

@Ante1 have your visitors gone home now? Weather permitting will you have some time at the cottage before school starts again? It is still raining here so no outdoor work done but I have been combing through t'internet for more plants.

 

Good afternoon everyone. I'm late in too but I can't say I've been particularly productive.

We have an old tradition in our family on Eater Monday whereby we 'splash' water on any unsuspecting individual in the morning before they were splashed. I always try to get OH with this trick whilst he's still in bed- but by the time I'd got back from my morning walk, he'd already got up. We circled each other warily for a while but neither of us were caught out! Ah well, maybe next year.

Baked potatoes, bean stew and carrots for dinner tonight.

It's still raining, so I'm staying inside. I do need to get to the compost bin, but it can wait.

Have a good day.

 

@Ergates jackdaws are cheeky - and intelligent rascals. Luckily I don't get them in my garden as they can't get at my feeders but they amuse my neighbours as their feeders are most convenient for them.