Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2024

Ooh @Ante1 you sneaked in there. Loving your pictures! I might have guessed you would get some more lights. I hope it is not so windy for them this year.

 

@Ante1 , thank you so much for posting your first candle, my friend. It’s so lovely for me to see it. Am intrigued with the new shoe decoration…..more lights I agree with Love the twinkling lights. Hope the wind subsides soon for you. We have had a very dark day today and already it’s pitch black outside.

 

Love hearing about your traditions @Ante1
Bryn was, indeed, muddy when I picked him up. They normally shower him, but they were short staffed. He's a very tired boy!

 

Thank you @Songbird, @Penny_Forthem and @Ladybird4. I'm so glad to see you more often around here @Songbird.

 

I've been out at Xmas patchwork etc workshop all day tho I left early to go and see a doc about extending my physio prescription for my knee - prod, poke, measure, good explanations about connections and the fact that my right thigh muscles are weaker and thinner than the left.

Another excuse for the physio to invent new tortures I said and she laughed.

I've been doing embroidery with ribbon today - a first for me - for a padded star to hang in my kitchen but no decs going up yet. OH's birthday is on the 7th and in Belgium the kids get their main presents on December 6th (St Nicholas/Sinta Klaes) and he would use that as an excuse to have the Xmas tree up and lights outside. Here, I've resisted so far and like the tree and everything else to go up in the week before Xmas or I'm climbing the walls by 12th night.

Haven't seen any decent trees with roots here so we buy a good, cut one as soon as they're dleivered to the GC and stick it in a bucket of water to keep it fresh. Works well and we get a 15€ voucher to spend in January. Last year we bught seed potatoes and new raspberriy plants.

OH has been home alone today and has sorted out the Xmas lights to see what's working. I might need to sit on him.

As for pussycats @Ladybird4 I hand unbreakables on the lower part of the tree and that includes home-made felt decs but this pair haven't tried to climb an Xmas tree since they were kittens and we no longer have waggy doggy tails wreaking havoc. However, Minstrel does like playing with the danglies. Most decs are made in China these days so I don't buy new ones anymore and make my own - fabric, felt, beads.

I like your advent candles @Ante1.

Did Bryn enjoy a good bath or go straight to sleep @Penny_Forthem.

I got home form the doc's just in time to take Cosmos to the vet. Every year around October/November he has a barny with one of the local feral cats and ends up with an abcess on his bum or tail. i thought we'd got away with it this year but, sure enough, on Friday evening he came in with a couple of drops of blood above his left eye. I cleaned it but couldn't find a wound in his thick fur. Last night, it had become infected and scabby so he's been prodded, poked, shaved and cleaned and had drops in his eyes to make sure he hasn't got a scratched cornea and now he has lovely fluo yellow drips down his white fur, eye drops every day and antibiotic pills from Thursday am when his jab wears off.

Good job we love him!

 

Your Advent wreath is so pretty @Ante1!

Glad to see you @Songbird, I hope you can drop in more often, missed you.

It rained this morning but the sun came out for a bit in the afternoon. Too wet to mow though. The lawn is mostly clover and daisies in summer but now there is loads of fresh green grass.

This morning I bought a 2nd hand bike from a friend in the gardening club, only 50€. She had advertised it on the local ex-pats Google Group, which now has over 8000 subscribers in West Dordogne. I may need it to ride home on when the car goes to be serviced etc. 3km. I will have to practice first though, ages since I rode a bike.

I have a new handy man! Such a relief. He's quite young with a wife and 2 children. They moved to France 3 1/2 years ago and he recently started his own business. He can do everything I wanted and is trying to build up a list of regular clients who to and fro between here and the UK. He has several already. Got him from the ex-pats Google Group. There are about 8000 members in West Dordogne. He lives about 15 mins away and I think I met his mother in the knit and natter group. I stopped going, don't knit and too busy, but she goes.

I may start decorations next weekend, or maybe, the weekend after. My children have all decorated their trees, sent photos on the family WhatsApp.

 

Like @Songbird and @Penny_Forthem, I am Looking forward to finding out about the shoe @Ante1.

I hope Cosmos is good about the eye drops etc. I can’t imagine a cat particularly enjoying those, and not much fun for the giver either @Obelix-Vendée !

I’ve taken Dad a chicken dinner and it’s chicken sarnies here, maybe with soup. Hungry already so I’ll crack on.

 

Evening all, we're back from a very enjoyable weekend at my sister's and her OH In Leics. Very long tedious journey up - took 5 hours inc lunch stop but only 4 coming back. Thought the large GC half way down at Moreton-in-March would be less crowded today than Saturday when it was heaving - wrong! So only a quick loo stop and no lunch.
Rained yesterday so didn't do much except for helping sister to choose her Xmas tree at her local GC. I wanted some more Showa thermal gardening gloves but haven't found any yet, might have to go online although sis suggested I try cutting off a finger from left hand old gloves and gluing it onto the holey right hand glove. Might work.

I've done a quick skim back but there's too many posts since Friday to comment on, my apologies.

Have a good evening.

 

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A very good morning to you all. Don't ask how we did in the quiz - it was embarrassing! Oh I'll tell you anyway - we were thrashed and we didn't even win the beer round like last week. Do we care, not really as its such a good night out and there is always food.
Lots of lovely posts to read this morning. @Ante1, you are a good teacher as I remember the story of the shoe but am saying nothing! @Penny_Forthem my family once had a corgi as a pet and he delighted in rolling in anything disgusting he came across in the fields whilst out on a walk. He would be plastered in cow pats on many occasions and Dad would have to hose him down in the back garden before Mum would let him into the house.
@Obelix-Vendée I have a lot of handcrafted tree decorations which I have knitted over the years. I've volunteered my tree for the Christmas Fayre on Sunday + decorations. Cricket is only just 2 years old so is a bit of a kitten still - with all the fun that brings. Pleased to read you have found a new and younger handyman @Busy-Lizzie to assist with the gardening tasks. @lizzie27 that was a very long drive - you could have flown to Cyprus in that time! I'm not too sure about the gloves . You'll have to let us know how you get on. Time for breakfast I think.

 

Good morning everyone!!

Sunny and bright this morning as was yesterday but the sky darkened around 3pm and the rest of the day was showery. Today is meant to be sunny all day - according to the weather bureau. So I sort of had a rest day yesterday. I'll do an hour this afternoon in the garden (it runs into an hour and a half usually - setting up, preparing, getting tools etc....)

Nice to see your post @Ante1 Looking forward to your Christmas shoe story and I am sure you have lots more to share. We've had sunny weather here too and NO wind which is rare here. So it has been pleasant getting back into the garden.

I noticed you have been posting @Songbird keep them coming in!!

Good you have found a younger handyman @Busy-Lizzie That'll be less worry for you when you are in Norfolk and hopefully less work on your return.

Good luck with the eyedrops @Obelix-Vendée !!

 

This for @Obelix-Vendée

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Morning folks. Chilly but no real frost here.

Trying to make the most of a few days off here. Might do a Diddly-Dee festive goodies shop today or maybe brave town for a couple of gifts…

I hope everyone has a good day - productive, relaxing, or something in between.

 

I took Rob for his daily constitution before taking some flowers to my daughters place.She had visited her father on Mon. and they had a bit of a spat, they did apologize to each other and were friends by the time she left but I could tell she had been upset so I bought some flowers and a card to thank her for being her.She phoned last night to say thank you and that they had made her cry, not what I intended but it never hurts to say Thank You does it?
Her father, my ex., is very unwell with rheumatoid arthritis and multiple other health problems. He is housebound, cannot walk unaided and is hating losing his independence. He has an aversion to change of any kind, unfortunately he is approaching needing to move into a care home which he is fiercely opposed to. Very difficult as I think the carers he has 4 times a day will soon not be able to support him.
There are so many people in similar situations, it is heart breaking to see them so isolated and vulnerable. As I have been out of his life for the last 30 years I can only support my daughter and son who try to do what is best and safest for him.

 

Busy day so far pottering about here and there. I've made a pea and ham soup with the mushy peas left over from Friday's fish and chips. Possum, it turns out, doesn't do mushy peas so she won't be having soup for lunches either. All the more for us. I've also cooked the doings for a big frittata to have on alternate days.

Kitchen cleaned and now fabric chosen for another winter frock - blue wool crêpe with princess seams and dolman/batwing sleeves so easy to take in as I lose the last few kilos and forgiving if I podge over Xmas. Actually, it's not Xmas and NY tha do the damage. It's the endless galette des rois plus booze and other stuff that go on into mid Feb instead of limiting themselves to 12th night.

Cosmos pussy has had a good long sleep and plenty to eat too. He's managed to wash his scab all by himself but his eye was very weepy and fun to clean. He's a docile boy tho his claws are sharp when he's had enough.

It's finally starting to brighten up here but is very cold after yesterday's double figures. Hibernating sort of day.

I hope all are well and tucked up warm and dry.

 

Good afternoon,

A chilly day here, but pleasant as the sun has shone and the sky is blue.

Popped out earlier to buy the family and friends Christmas cards, so will settle down and write them later so that they can go in the post (well, some of them - others can be hand delivered). I’d intended cutting back, but to be honest, my family isn’t huge, some are getting on and it would be mean not to bother, plus some live abroad, so a card to keep in touch is the least I can do.

Thank you for posting your Advent wreath picture @Ante1. I look forward to the story about the shoe, though somewhere in the back of my mind I think I’ve heard similar is done in Holland and Germany? (And other European countries, I think).