Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

Good morning everyone and happy birthday @Busy-Lizzie. I hope your eye clears up soon and the swelling goes down.

I've been busy making a cake for this afternoon's patchwork club AGM and making sure I have everything else I need, including writing the president's report. Flipping cheapo Epson printer decided it doesn't want to photocopy more than 3 docs without having a fit of the vapours and needing turned off and on again. It was cheaper than a new set of print cartridges for the HP printer which we have to keep anyway so we can scan docs. Doh!

We have warm, dry weather forecast for this week so no bulb planting yet but I have plenty of other jobs to get on with till the rain arrives at the weekend - unless the forecast changes again.

Love the idea of a guacamole day @Ladybird4. OH and I love it but not Possum tho she loved mashed avocado when she was weaning. Same with bananas. Won't go near them now.

Progress sounds good @Tui34 tho I can understand your feeling frustrated. I hope you're sleeping OK now.

Your wife sounds wonderful @RowlandsCastle tho I do agree with you about brown parquet.

 

@Tui34 and @Ergates and @Obelix-Vendée
It is normally my wife who buys things, then asks for my opinion. I accept them - after all, she's not going to return the items.

It'll grow on her, and visitors will certainly comment!! I think she will, in time, either grow to like it, or remove it when I'm out for the day.
She's not made any further comments. However, if I trip over it, she'll laugh.
Don't apologise for laughing, @Tui34 . She got similar response from me when I came home early in our marriage, to find 2 brand new green sofas in the lounge, paid for from my bank account. They lasted a long time - but we got new covers made.

 

Good afternoon ladies & gentlemen,

Thank-you for your kind concern and very kind words @Penny_Forthem , @lizzie27 , @Obelix-Vendée , @Ladybird4 , @Liriodendron , @AuntyRach and @LG_

@LG_ Ibuprofen & asprin don't agree with my stomach, codeine doesn't agree with me in other ways. Paracetamol is fine, but usually ineffective. I'm presently trying Sumatriptan, but no joy so far.

I love that beautiful photo of all the veg @Penny_Forthem . I hope the meal was very enjoyable for you both.

It would be wonderful to see a photo of the chest of drawers you are working on @Obelix-Vendée . I admire your skill.

I think the runner which you bought is colourful and cheering @RowlandsCastle .

Hope you recovery is continuing @Tui34

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to @Busy-Lizzie ! I hope your eye will be OK.

Hopefully your cold will soon be better @Ergates .

The nice weather which was forecast has duly arrived. Prolonged sunny spells and a pleasingly benign 20C. Awoke migraine-free, so I went for a walk on the coastal path to celebrate.

Best wishes to all as always.

 

Happy birthday @Busy-Lizzie. Enjoy your meal tomorrow.
Very happy to report I have had a new filling, with no drilling! And all for the princely sum of £30.
I have a yen to make crab apple jelly, but all the known trees around the village have disappeared in the name of progress (saying that tongue in cheek).
I could make apple jelly with our Bramleys and Katy, but it won't be that glorious pink blush colour.
When I had my chutney business, I used to make Chilli crab apple jelly and it would all disappear on the first farmer's market!
Glad you enjoyed a coastal walk @Badly_Maintained

 

It sounds like you are making very good progress @Tui34. Well done and keep going!

@Busy-Lizzie, that is a very odd birthday present! Only kidding! I hope that it does the job so that nothing blights tomorrow's celebrations. Looking forward to hearing about your menu.
@Ergates, my big green bin is full now but I also have an empty half size one that my Council kindly supplied me with. That will get filled too before the next emptying day. I managed to get more bulbs planted today but I still have over 100 to go as well as fritillarias and crocuses.

 

Great news @Badly_Maintained about your migraine free morning and a hope that the walk has blown away the cobwebs. I do envy people who are close to the sea and can enjoy seeing it in all seasons. @Penny_Forthem it must have been a pleasant surprise when you found out how much the replacement filling cost -that sounds like a real bargain. I love the sound of those jellies and chutneys. I've a stack of apples that still need to be dealt with. (on the 'to do' list!)

 

@Obelix-Vendée I am a fan of guacamole too. I really like avocados and as for bananas - I have eaten one a day for the last gazillion years. Every break time at work and I continued daily when I had to retire. I like buying them when they are really green and allow them to ripen in the kitchen.
I am signing out early today as I have a quiz match tonight and I need to get myself organised. I'll catch up with all your news tomorrow morning. I hope you all have lovely evenings - especially @Busy-Lizzie.

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OH has a banana with a Weetabix every morning @Ladybird4 and i now get him to put the skins in a pot of water. When it's full I drain it and dilute the liquid to feed my houseplants. They love it. The skins then end up on the compost heap.

Good AGM to start the patchwork club season and they loved the chocolate cake but I didn't tell them it was red kidney beans till after they'd tasted it. We have 5 new recruits so far and lots of excitement to catch up with friends, old and new and try new projects. The four of us with new knees had a wee chat about those too.

As for the garden, I've given up and put the sprinkler on the main front bed so I can get in there to weed and then plant some bulbs.

I hope your new filling stays put @Penny_Forthem. Bargain!

@Badly_Maintained I'm not doing any fancy treatments with this chest of drawers, just sanding and feeding so far. It'll get a second feed of oil tomorrow and then, when that's soaked in and dried I'll sand it with a finer grade and maybe give it a coat of varnish to seal it. The wood has dried and cracked a bit on the sides and I don't want them to get worse. Nor do I want to fill them as then I'd have to paint it and I like the rich mahogany colour of the natural wood.

 

So envious of the quiz night, @Ladybird4. Used to go to the annual charity one at the village hall, and also every one organised at our son’s school when he was young. Won that a couple of times! Now we make do with University challenge, a very mixed bag - some weeks I can rattle off answers, other weeks, I struggle to work out if the questions are actually in English!
Out for breakfast and a walk, then two hours in the garden. The green bins are well over half full, and there is always an area that needs its brambles or rhododendron ponticum removed. The bulbs are still sitting on the kitchen worktop, I managed to prepare lunch round them, and I also picked up a Royal Bumble salvia at the plant stall this morning. It is going in the spot where I planted the Japanese anemone, it is looking pretty dead, no idea why, so I’ll move it to a space in the garden where it might recover, and it doesn’t matter if it goes made there in the future.
Still sniffling. Doesn’t look like I’ll be going to choir this week, but hoping I’ll be well enough for sisters birthday at the weekend.
Hope that migraine goes away, @Badly_Maintained. Also hope you got your other medical problems checked out, don’t mean to nag!
Just watching two squirrels larking about on the lawn! I’m sure they must be playing, a great deal of posing and then jumping around involved. Lunch is finished, I had a glass of wine with mine, should have put the recycling out beforehand, certainly don’t feel like it now! Hopefully won’t fall into the laurel hedge on the way down the drive!

 

I've never seen quiz nights publicised here or where we lived in Belgium but OH and I both enjoy BBC2 quiz night on Mondays.

Here's a phot of my stained glass window patchwork - bit crumpled because it's been folded to take to the AGM but you get the idea - as you can see I had lots of rose print fabrics.


and here's the chest of drawers after sanding and first feed:



Behind it is an old, carved pine wardrobe I rescued and cleaned a few years ago.

 

Beautiful patchwork @Obelix-Vendée.

My outing today was to Sainsbugs. I like looking around in English SMs. Makes a change from French ones and I think there is more variety, but there is far more in the way of cakes, biscuits, sweets and bread than in French SMs. As we went there last week I had a money off voucher and I received another in the post yesterday, also there were money off items with the Nectar card. It added up to roughly 25% off the bill so OH was happy. He pays in England and I pay in France.

My eye is feeling a bit better.

I like watching the squirrels on our lawn too @Ergates. They often make me laugh. Apart from nicking my heucheras and planting horse chestnuts they haven't done any damage, unlike the muntjac.

 

Happy Birthday @Busy-Lizzie !

It's Sumatriptan that works for me, @Badly_Maintained , I can get quite evangelical about what a difference it has made to my life! But I know it definitely doesn't work for everyone. Painkillers never even took the edge off so I sympathise there. The key for me is taking it the moment I realise a migraine is on its way, not waiting for the pain. Sometimes I think " Oh it might not develop into anything" and don't take it early enough - it always does develop, of course, and is much harder to get rid of then. I wish you luck in your search for a solution.

I'm on my way to the garden club autumn show. I forgot and so haven't prepared any entries (dashed into the garden to cut three stems just before leaving, to show willing) but it'll be fun. I'll watch
University Challenge later on.

Glad to hear your 'new term' was so positive and that you've got some new members, @Obelix-Vendée . Beautiful patchwork.

 

Happy birthday, @Busy-Lizzie ! Hope your birthday meal is lovely tomorrow. Good news that your eye is improving, in time to see what you're eating...

Lovely balance of patterns in your patchwork, @Obelix-Vendée .

Our usual Monday evening choir practice was cancelled, so we've been able to watch "Only Connect". It's another quiz programme which usually makes me feel very stupid, though I can often do the "missing vowels" section. Both teams were on top form tonight. For some reason, OH doesn't like University Challenge so I don't get to watch it, unless I decamp to the study where we have a second TV.

I hope the hedgehog is finding enough natural food, wherever she's wandered off to. No sign of the rat either, but if I forget to install the "moat" (cat dish of water) outside the feeder door, the feral moggy squeezes in and eats the kitten nibbles. I'd like to carry on trying feeding the hog(s) for a bit, because they'll not be hibernating for some time, I think.

 

Thank you to all for wishing me a happy birthday.

 

HOME NOW. Monday evening about 715PM here.
We left our last 2 nights this morning at 9Am, a 7 hour drive. Pain in the neck getting through traffic by the George Washington M, bridge by New York, traffic is nuts, you can have New York

We left our home on August 25. Roamed around Boston, Salam. Got to Bar Harbor and saw Acadia national park. Crossed the border to Canada. Stayed in Royal Annapolis. Whale watched, visited Oak island. Went to Chicicamp on cabots trail, did cabots trail, stayed in Baddock. Went to Charlottstown, prince Edward Island, back down to USA, stayed on Lubec, Maine, drove to Ogunquit, maine.

In general, even though we did do a whirlwind tour, we did find out what we would want to go back to again and when, and what to expect. We both loved Royal Annapolis, Nova Scotia the views and town are adorable, the place we stayed awesome. We don't want to do Prince Edward Island, it was lovely, but very much a "farm land" except for the capital of Charlottstown which had awesome restaurants and shop.

I loved Lubec, Maine a beautiful small fishing village, quaint. and awesome views of yet again the Bay of Fundy how big that bay is from way up Nova Scotia down to Lubec, Maine. We both liked Ogunquit, Maine, however, not ever to go there during high season. even when we went it was crowded, so probably way last week in September or first parts of October is best to go. (too cold later for husband).

I'll work on some pics through the week. upload etc. time for bed soon. later.