Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Good morning all.

No church for me this morning, got an upset tum, and church has no loo... will probably have a snooze while OH is out singing in the cathedral in Limerick.

Yes, @lizzie27 , almost all the cottages we've looked at supply bedlinen & towels, and we won't be staying at that one, for that reason - no room in the luggage. (I think, looking at the reviews, the majority of visitors are from other parts of Finland and so can bring bedlinen with them.) The owners also "kindly ask guests to clean out themselves", and say they are "happy to see here neat guests, no pernicious habits". I find the holiday planning to be almost as much fun as the holiday itself!

 

That made me laugh @Liriodendron, but I wonder how my translation of English to Finnish would end up! Probably cause the same hilarity. Reminds me of the advert we saw for a caravan site, which said 'well bread dogs welcome'.
On a more serious note, hope your tum settles down.
Another dull, grey day, but at least the threat of the white stuff has gone, for now. Bodes well for our short break away.
I had the laziest of lazy days yesterday, so pooches will love their run in the hills later.

 

Morning folks.

Having a lazy morning before a few jobs and MIL visit later.

I was just looking at when my next leave is and realised that Easter is late this year. 20th April. The chocolate eggs are all in the SMs though!

When Is Easter? Why It Falls So Late in 2025.

 

yes, planning the stay at places to stay is interesting. @Liriodendron . Most places have beds already made, linens, towels etc. One place we stayed few years ago, had the bundle dropped of for you to make your own bed. that was horrid, certainly not a thing I want to do at the end of a hard day of traveling. In my airbnb, all beds made up beautifully, and stacks of clean white towels abundant in the two closets for guests. Along with soaps, shampoos, body washes. One review from a French chef said, the kitchen was awesome to cook in with all the supplies available.
Recently my top search for places to stay has to involve the question of does a window open for fresh air for sleeping? In a few cases I found it not available, blocked by furniture etc. or locked down tight. When we travel with the car, unfortunately we have to use hotels with big parking lots, and windows in American hotels do not open, hate it.

 

Hello all.

Cold and grey here.

Your B&B sounds wonderful @redstar. Some of the holiday rentals in France don't supply bedding or towels or you can pay extra for them.

I enjoy planning holidays too @Liriodendron. I've been looking at gardens to visit for when we go to Cornwall in May. I hope your tum is better soon.

Apart from church this morning nothing else is planned for today.

Tomorrow OH will travel to Wandsworth by train, bit complicated from here, to apply for his French Visa. I hope it's better than last year. Last year the drive was awful and he had to wait 3 hours on an uncomfortable seat with no back for 3 hours. He doesn't want to drive there again. Blast Brexit, I still haven't noticed any benefits.

 

Hello everyone. We had a good time dancing last night but left before the end as it was 70 mins away and I had a full garden club day today. However, half way home I realised I had a very sore throat starting and today it's full blown bunged sinuses, popping ears, hot eyes and lots of sneezing plus the throat. Not pleased.

I shall have to miss patch club tomorrow too as I can't risk sharing bugs with some of the more fragile ladies. Double grump. It's the first of the two week half term holiday so ther ewon't be many there but, as one of the key holders, I like to be there.

It is cold, grey and still here. Supposed to be raining but isn't. Lots of birds at the feeders and in the shrubs and hedged and buds opening on plants nearer the house walls. Haven't ventured further in my slippers.

I hope you all enjoy whatever you're doing today and that rubgy etc goes well for those who follow it. Used to with OH to watch big matches at Twickenham in my early 30s. Not interested now tho.

Glad you had a good time with your daughter @lizzie27. Good luck cottage hunting @Liriodendron. Enjoy your run out with the dogs @Penny_Forthem.

Happy gardening to those who can today.

 

@Penny_Forthem , I only know a few words of Finnish. It's a difficult language to learn, but that's not a good excuse... however, except deep in the countryside, almost everyone speaks English, which makes me lazy about learning more. We did once come across a cafe where nobody spoke English, and the phrase book came in handy...

Your airbnb does indeed sound wonderful, @redstar . Our holiday cottage in Scotland is run rather differently, on a "not for profit" basis, so our visitors bring their own towels and bedlinen and clean up before they leave. It fulfils a need, just as yours does - but for a different clientele.

We have a few spare days between the choral festival and our cottage week. We're very tempted by a cottage on a farm, miles from anywhere. But they only speak Finnish and German, and my German is distinctly limited, having learnt it for 2 years at school, 60 years ago.

Hope your lurgy eases up soon, @Obelix-Vendée .

 

Good afternoon all,

A very cold, grey, dull day here, although the rain has mostly held off, just a spot of drizzle.
Went to church this morning and came home frozen. Even though the heating had been put on, it’s such a large space to heat up that my hands and feet felt like blocks of ice. The first thing we did when we got home was make a hot drink. After that, I put the stew in the slow cooker (I’d prepared everything before we went out), so that is now happily cooking and smells rather good. I’ll make some dumplings later to pop in for the last hour.

Your translation notes made me smile, @Liriodendron. I hope you find somewhere suitable soon.

 

Just been into the hills with the dogs. My, it was perishing and they'd had more snow. We put the heating on as soon as we got home and I'm still not warm.
We rented 'The day of the Jackal' from Amazon last night. Still an excellent film and has stood the test of time. Got about 30 mins left to watch.

 

A sunny day here, so out for breakfast, then a couple of hours walk. Pretty cold, but well wrapped up and the sunshine helped a lot. Home in time for the rugby, so I left OH to enjoy that, while I spent a while in the garden. More clearing, great fun, and I managed to reach the roots of a couple more rhododendrons. I’ve cut them back, but ran out of energy to tackle the roots with the mattock. OH is suitably impressed with my efforts, as am I! The overall job is starting to look within my capabilities, without risking my back or pelvic floor! Restricting myself to a maximum of two hours including clearing away is my plan. Not always easy to stick to, it’s a bit like weeding, just one more leads to just one more, to an hour later and a sore back!
Hope you feel better soon, @Liriodendron and @Obelix-Vendée.

 

Good evening everybody. Sorry to read about your upset tum @Liriodendron - hope it is settled now, and poor you @Obelix-Vendée! You sound to be coming down with my bug and it is a persistent nuisance. I'm afraid that my hopes to get into the garden this afternoon were rather premature as. like many here have mentioned, it was grey and cold. I do have to say 'snap' with you @Blue arbour as I was perished in Church and my extremities were experiencing similar conditions to yours. It was definitely hug a mug time in the coffee/tea morning after the service in Church. At the last coffee morning I had taken my radiator key along with me and I bled the radiators in the Church hall which were refusing to warm up. It seemed to take forever for all the air to hiss out but it worked so today we had lovely heat from the start. Shaold have had the service in there! Rather you than I walking in the hills today @Penny_Forthem but I'll bet those doggy tails were non stop wagging.
I am signng out for today and wish you all a happy and peaceful evening. Sorry @Ante1 but I know tomorrow is you most unfavourite day of the week. It will soon pass!

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Good evening. Just read back over the past week of everyone's activities, you all seem to have been so very busy especially with your efforts to get outside and progress with some early gardening work. Hope those of you feeling unwell for some reason will feel better very soon.

Last week we had some really beautiful sunny days, still cold of course but oh how it lifted one's spirits. Then Friday produced some really strong winds with gale warnings and from then on, over the weekend, we have had cold misty fog again, very depressing.

The furthest area of our land is a wooded space (about 5 acres), it slopes down gently to a central 'dell' that is clear of trees before meeting up with the forestry fence. This area of woodland and part of the dell are covered with bluebells by May and is quite a sight to behold. The trees are mixed, from the large old guys through the younger tall straight ones, the smaller bushy ones and the new 'starter' ones. It is a natural uncultivated area, although we do occasionally cut up the odd fallen branch for logs, the difficulty being finding the means to get any logs up and out of the sloping sides of the wooded area. There are many little paths throughout the wooded area where we and the ponies have walked with the dogs and cats over the years. We usually use this area for the ponies throughout the winter months as it gives so much shelter from the weather. They pick at stuff growing in the wooded area and graze the grass down in the dell. The ponies go there just before Christmas and are removed by end of March to protect the coming Bluebells. Ponies then return again for late August until mid October to tidy everything up before winter. Bracken grows over the whole area as the bluebells finish and the ponies trample it all down again with their late summer visit. The bracken dies down to provide cover against the winter weather to protect the bluebell bulbs. It really is the most perfect eco system and suits us as well as the ponies.

The trouble is that after the storms here mid December a lot of the forestry trees fell down across the long fence between us and the forestry, and in spite of several phone calls, the forestry folk seem to be too busy elsewhere to come and do the repair work - we do not have the means or man power to be cutting or clearing huge trees to clear the fence. They have now said that they are happy for us to go and cut the fence from round the fallen trees and to try to repair where we can until they can get to us for a 'proper' repair. This is all very well, but will take several days of hard work by daughter who will also need the assistance of our helpful friend (who has to be paid). Meanwhile the ponies are having to have extra hay as they are still grazing the fields that they have been on all summer, field that would now be resting ready for grazing next spring. The costs are mounting! Daughter is off tomorrow to walk the fence line to assess the possibility of some repair work - and we haven't even started on the end of winter tidy up in our house garden yet.

 

Good morning @Anna42 and all dropping in later topday. Good grief but that sounds like a complete nightmare for you @Anna42. I cannot even begin to grasp the enormity of the task ahead of you. It is almost like the electricity board saying, for example, that they can't get to repairing your power lines but you are welcome to have a go yourself. Fingers crossed that the forestry people get to you soon.

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Good morning all.

@Anna42 that is so pretty, I love bluebells. However, I can appreciate the hard work as I've had land and horses. My land was surrounded by forest and every spring I had to repair fences. I sawed up the smaller trees and the branches that fell but I had to have a handyman to deal with the heavier work. My garden was big too. That was at my old French farmhouse. It was a big relief when I sold it.

OH is off to London for his French Visa. I'll take him to the station then pop into Tesco for a few things.