WEEKLY CHAT (non-osprey topics) SUNDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

HeatherB - glad to hear Amy is responding well and that she will soon be on top of things.

Brenda - see that you all managed to do the pots at the Bowls Club - do hope hands stood up to it, lol.

Lindybird - nice to hear you are back and hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Annette, We do have a kitchen at the bowls club, but we do not have a dish washer. There is no space for one, so we had to do all the dishes by hand. We would have preferred to take them home and put them in our dishwashers but to get them to our cars, means many trips across a large field, and that is back breaking. Over a 100 cups, saucers, tea/ dinner plates/ various types of glassware plus cutlery becomes very heavy.

Lynette, How is the painting going. My hands are fine, thank you. I did wear washing up gloves, LOL

Good Morning, All.  Its bright and sunny here:  good for my laundry being put out!

Heather:  Your OH sounds much like mine, never happy unless doing something.  We go to Wales and I hope he will settle down and read a book, but then I spy him outside, polishing something!! He also climbs ladders, and lifts things I think are too heavy for him.

Lynette:  Good luck with all those doors to paint:  the doors and their frames always take far longer to do than you think they're going to. How nice it will be when its all done.

I have been watching Dyfi. Glesni is back.

Good Morning Everyone. A foggy start here but it is burning back now. hanging washing out for the first time since last Autumn.

Lynette, I now see that you have been very busy with your decorating. Woodwork is very time consuming.

I will have to pull myself away from the cameras and get some work done. Also making arrangements to visit daughter on Saturday.

Morning all:  

OG: Good that J is doing better - have a good few days away.

Heather: I need someone to spread mulch and redwood bark chips over our garden; please send your OH when he's done with yours.  My OH is NOT a gardener by any stretch....

Brenda: Geez; hope you don't have to do all that too often! Back-breaking sounds like an understatement.

Diane: I see nasty storms forecast for your area; hope they aren't too bad.

Quiet on here with everyone watching the cams, but normal for the time of year.... Take care all

Hope you have all enjoyed the lovely sunny day. OH raked and cut the grass today. 

I presume J was able to travel today, so OG must be on her way 'up North'.

AQ, I hope you have recovered from your aches and pains and you have been able to cope with your Nanny days.

Annette, I am sure your OH appreciates your success with the garden and likes what he sees. We have a friend who loves to take visitors around his garden but it is his wife, who does all the work. She does love gardening and it shows, but she has now shocked her OH by saying she wants to employ a gardener for the heavy work.

Having just seen Annette's warning for your "nasty storms", DIANE, I do hope you stay clear of them and if not, that you stay safe and suffer no damage. I also hope you are busy with projects.  

We had a quiet Easter, no visitors or visiting, so I felt quite refreshed. I went to city to shop as I realized my “best” fine knit jumper is looking tired – it is only 3 years old. I take layers on my trips – t-shirt, thin jumper & jacket. So I headed to the dept store where I used get my favourite long-wearing brand. Oh dear! They were in the midst of a “Mid Season Sale”. Mid season WHAT? Acres, or so it seemed of swimwear. I eventually tracked down a new jumper, after a confrontation with a Young Thing who didn’t know what I wanted. Do they train assistants these days? In another shop, the 2nd last on my list, I have found a potato masher that isn’t the size of one cooking for a banquet. Needless to say it is heavy as lead, but there are more holes than metal. I shall donate to charity the previous purchase that squashes rather than mashes.

Only one nanny day for me this week. But what a day. Miss3 had a friend (plus mother & 13 m old brother) for a “play date”. What noise, what mess, they only squabbled a little, LittleMister toddled into babies room and woke MissJ, Dau was on the verge of a migraine. After the play date was over, it took quite a while to restore toys, dress-ups, etc and find the floor LOL. I managed to settle MissJ as Dau dozed, then MissL woke up. Dau emerged as I was changing L. They rarely sleep at same time.

Food shopping this morn. I have plans after to take my camera on an outing.

I'm fine here, thanks, Annette and Brenda. Very bad in some places, though.

Brenda: My regular freelance contract was terminated unexpectedly at the end of December. She called me on Christmas Eve to tell me. :-( The cancellation was no fault of mine; the organization restructured the project due to funding and other factors. I haven't been able to get any work since. Jobs in my field -- on site, freelance, or telecommute --  are increasingly hard to find, and my age (nearly 58) works against me. Thanks for your concern. 

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the return of the ospreys!

Evening all:

Diane: Just looking at the Wundermap showing the storms and associated tornado watches in your area - thankfully all roaring by just southeast of you. Am so sorry about the continued dearth of freelance projects.  As I told you, my Kansas City friend's very nice freelance gig went belly up about the same time as yours.  She has a large project she's finishing up through the summer, but then, who knows what she'll do.   It seems to be a profession-wide calamity. Any chance you can get some kind of temp work locally to keep the wolf from the door?

Brenda: I'm with your friend's wife - I'm literally one day away from calling a guy to come dig some holes for a few large shrubs and a small tree I'm putting in where all the roses used to be.

AQ: Yes, what is it that stores bring in summer clothes when we're all bundled up and pale and shivering and winter stuff when it's way too hot to spend time huffing and puffing our way in and out of clothes in a tiny dressing room.  Then, when I decide I really do need to replace something, they've usually sold out of whatever it is for the season. But good heavens! You actually found an assistant in a store? They're like gold dust here, especially in the larger stores. I've often been tempted to walk out with the item after failing to track down anyone to take my money. And no, they don't train anyone in customer service these days....  We have "play dates" here too - nobody allows children the kind of freedom we used to enjoy growing up.  Glad you have a nice respite over Easter.

Off to bed, take care everyone