Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

@Ergates, you sound to have had a super day. You and @lizzie27 are tempting me to get a Daphne now. I do have a Sarcococca outside my back door and that smells divine in the Winter.

 

Signing out for today. Have lovely evenings - I know that @Busy-Lizzie will - and I'll catch up with you all tomorrow.

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Thanks for the encouragement re my teeth folks, consultation fixed for next Tuesday so I need my hand held! Might have to resort to diazepam, I think it's the sheer noise of the drill etc. that freaks me out.

I don't think you'll regret your purchase @Ergates. Which garden centre was it, it can't be far from Exeter? Just might have to take a detour when I next visit my daughter.

I sometimes think the same @Liriodendron when my OH is trying to pack, although he usually does make a list. My strategy now is to stand back and think well, he's a grown man, if he's got no socks, that's his problem not mine and anyway I won't be with him!!!

 

My OH has a list, but doesn't always read what's on it, @lizzie27 ... I just find it irritating that he can't organise himself better. He's also hopelessly untidy. But I love him...

 

Otter Garden Centre - used to be called Otter Nurseries - family run, just outside Ottery St Mary. It has got bigger over the years, and the non plant bit has really expanded, loads of tempting garden furniture and other goodies. We actually bought a dining room table and chairs from there not long after we moved here. Well worth a visit,@lizzie27, and the cafe is very popular, (although we are coffee snobs, and not keen on having it dispensed by a machine)
Next door is a weird little whole foods shop called Joshua’s. Lots of ready meals, veggie stuff and baked goods, all made on site. Worth a look round as well.
www.ottergardencentres.com

 

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Good morning everybody. Once it has got light outside I'll decide what to continue with today. I am expecting a delivery of bird food and must make sure I have the garage door open so the courier can carry it there for me. I am interested in this week's discussion on the Beeb about the dazzling LED car headlights nowadays. I must admit to avoiding driving at night now if its possible as I do find the headlights of oncoming cars absolutely blinding. My friend gave me a pair of special glasses with yellow, anti-dazzle lenses that go over mine and these certainly do work.

 

Good morning all.

We had a good evening at the theatre in Norwich, thanks all. The ballet, Romeo and Juliet, was lovely. The choreography was more modern than we'd seen before, a bit jerky with strange positions. I prefer it more graceful, like it used to be, but it was still lovely. The pas de deux with Romeo and Juliet was beautiful. There were 4 weird dancers in black and white, 2 female in tutus and 2 male. They seemed to be there instead of Romeo's friends which was a bit strange. The other costumes were gorgeous and Juliet wore the right sort of floaty dress.

We ate at Côte first. OH wanted something simple as his tum had been a bit funny in the morning.

The sun is shining outside but it's cold. I hope the weather will start to get warmer now. I need to do some gardening before we go back to France in early March.

 

How lovely to have an evening at the ballet, @Busy-Lizzie. The last one I saw was also Romeo and Juliet, but by Matthew Bourne, and set in an unspecified draconian mental institution. Very powerful stuff. I must see when they are next in Plymouth. They get booked up so far in advance, and as we also don’t like driving at night, I’m stuck with the matinee performances. I always forget to check, I’m on their mailing list but the last notification they sent me arrived on the last day of the run.
A bit like the NHS, I read yesterday that one survey found that 1 in 5 patients had received their appointment letter after the date of the appointment. That is truly shocking. Given how many people use e mail and their phones, why can’t they use these to make and confirm appointments?
Sneaked out for some sunshine this morning, but there is a biting wind. Got to the Donkeys just after 9am, still quiet and they hadn’t yet run out of pastries! Lots of families rolling in now, I’ve managed to pet five dogs already, and we are still in the cafe!

 

Started grey with a faint orange glow to the east and now it's hazy. Had planned out to mark out the new project at the back of the house but OH has disappeared to play golf. Still very soggy outside so I shall sew until it's time for the chook's afternoon treat and I'll check my treasures in the polytunnel. It feels like it's warm enough to bring out the citrus plants but I'll wait a week or two just to be sure this isn't a blip.

Glad you enjoyed the ballet @Busy-Lizzie and the donkeys @Ergates. Headlights here can be dazzling too @Ladybird4, especially newer models. I'd have thought it was an obvious problem and easy to fix but then car manufacturers are not rocket scientists.

 

Morning everybody, we've got sunshine! However it's still very cold so I'm staying here in the warm whilst OH is fetching the paper. I'm so hoping that it will be warm enough by lunchtime to go out and have a potter. Our first daffodil is out, a TnT which is so cheering. Must have seen a quick shaft of sunshine yesterday and thought it had better get a move on. We're generating leccy so I've hastily put the washing on.

Glad you enjoyed the ballet @Busy-Lizzie.

Thanks for the link @Ergates, it looks nice so I must remember that venue on our next trip to Sidmouth. Last time we stopped for lunch on the A30 at a farm which had a teashop, a bit old fashioned but the food was good.

Thank goodness your weather too is beginning to clear up @Obelix-Vendée, about time. Enjoy your sewing.

My OH has bought two pairs of those glasses @Ladybird4 for night driving as he does most of it now. Fortunately we got back Sunday by 5pm before it got dark so didn't need them then.

Have a good day folks.

 

A late good morning,

It’s a lovely bright day here, but still so cold, with a pesky breeze that cuts through. However, the sun is shining which always makes things look better.

Glad you enjoyed the ballet despite its different approach, @Busy-Lizzie. I tend to like the traditional styles, but I suppose it does us good sometimes to see things done from a slightly different perspective and challenge us a bit.

OH is full of cold and has a barking cough, so I’m dosing him up and crossing my fingers that I don’t get it. I suspect he got it from the car salesman, who was still coughing when we went to collect the car (he’d got it when we went to look the week before). I think we could all do with some warmer weather.

Yes, car headlights can be very dazzling can’t they. Sometimes it seems worse if the oncoming vehicle is one of those higher vehicles - their lights seem to aim right at you, don’t they? Not sure what the solution is, really.

 

Had a lovely 'togetherly' evening with the g'kids. I started a new jigsaw of springers (bought in lockdown, but never opened) and she helped me with it. Unfortunately, upon completing the outer edge, we found it too big for my jigsaw board, which was very annoying. OH said buy a new board, but that seems like a hammer to crack a nut.
The 'men' started a new 3D construction puzzle bought for g'son for Christmas. It said 14+, but it'll stretch both of them (and OH was an engineer!)
I made meatballs in a tomatoey olive sauce with pappardelle and it all disappeared.
Swatches for our new bedroom curtains have arrived today and Dunelm has delivered the new bedding. Final tidy up today ready for the new mattress tomorrow.
The ballet sounds intriguing @Busy-Lizzie. Must keep a look out for when they are next in Liverpool.
Hope all with lurgies feel better soon.

 

Easy @Blue arbour - change the spec on the LED lights to make them less blue and dazzley and maybe modify the dip angle. Road builders doing dual carriageways could also raise the height of central barriers or use broader/deeper barriers to suit a wider range of vehicle heights.

I've finished cutting out the new frock and started the doings for lentil and mushroom slice for dinner. Possum thinks she doesn't like mushrooms but she does like this as long as she never sees how I make it and we don't mention mushrooms. I'll serve it with garlicky Swiss chard but I'll also check our PSB which has been showing buds for a week or so now.

Quick visit to the chooks and to inspect snowdrops then sewing time.

Forgot to say earlier - go for it @lizzie27. You'll feel better and that's important.

 

We have “ anti-glare “ incorporated in our glasses. It really does work as it gets rid of the blinding haze that surrounds the actual lights in the dark thus eliminating the glare. Wouldn’t be without them now.

 

Afternoon and, I drafted a message earlier but the site kicked me out again before it would send.
We have been looking at lounge furniture, trying to decide whether to get new or get ours reupholstered. Now getting quotes for decoration, I used to DIY, but it takes me for ever. Had two quotes, huge difference in prices. We will see.
On the car light issue, coincidentally I need a new dipped beam bulb, looking on Halfords website, bulbs advertised as anything from 100- 200% brighter than standard. It's like an arms race -mad.