Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 22 November 2015

Hello All -   Sunny day here today.  Cactus Club A.G.M. went very well with tea, coffee, and lots of chocolate biscuits!   Good journeys as no snow at all, we never had any , as was forecast.   On the way home I called into the Hotel where we hold our Christmas lunch to book a table and look at the menu and they told me that the chef would like us to pre-order which is something we have never had to do before.   It is a bit of a nuisance really as I now have to send out menus to everyone and wait for their replies before sending back the information to the Hotel.  I cannot do it online as some people are not connected to the internet.   Anyway, I rather like to choose what I am eating on the actual day.

This morning I got out of bed and put on my sheepskin slippers which I bought a few weeks ago but have not worn them much as they seem too small and pinch on the toe.   Anyway, one foot was very uncomfortable this morning so I investigated and found cardboard inserts at the toe end !!!  ( above the toe and down the sides).  How silly can I be?   Now I have removed them  the slippers are perfectly comfortable!  

The weather is supposed to warm up again and I have still got a lot of tidying up to do  in the garden before the winter.  On Friday I planted up four big tubs of tulips.   My gardener came and cleaned out all my gutters which were choked with leaves and gunge, but now the outsides look  really messy and need scrubbing but I cannot reach them,   the conservatory looks particularly bad as the gutters are white.

Lindybird -   I loved the photos of Bonny, she certainly lives up to her name!   I know Blackrock Sands very well, a lovely long stretch of beach,  we used to have caravan holidays there when the children were small, in fact, I really love North Wales and would like to visit it again some time.  I have many photos to remind me of those holidays.

Heather -  Enjoy the last day of your holiday, you seem to have had a lovely relaxing time, you will find the weather very different here!

Brenda -   Your garden sounds all ship-shape for the winter, I wish I could say the same about mine.   I am going to plant up some winter pots but very often they are disappointing as we have such harsh weather on and off.      I am glad that your son and D. in Law are able to continue their marathons   out  in Singapore, the weather conditions must be very different though.

OG -  Glad you are continuing to recover well, sorry about the irritating stitches.  

Diane -   Sorry to hear that you are into bad winter weather, take care . I hope you are feeling better now after your nasty bug. I love the tales of all the wildlife around you, is your woodpecker still about in the bad weather?

Annette -  I do hope that Lightening's limp is better now and that he will be better altogether soon.   Peanut sounds really delightful, he must be quite used to staying with you now, and getting all sorts of nice things to eat.   That is their favourite pastime, eating!

Rite, The garden looks tidy for the winter, but we had three beds emptied before we had a retaining wall built. We can't make up our minds if we want to change the layout now and what we want to plant, so plenty of work due in the early Spring. Our son has sent us many photographs of orchids in the Botanical Orchid Gardens in Singapore. Some really are spectacular. I will have to work out how to transfer the pics out of " Whats App" onto here.

I know what you mean about having to choose lunch in advance. The Bowls club lunch was like that and I didn't really feel like my choice on the day.

Sorry, I did laugh at your slipper problem. Pleased they do fit, after all.

Hello, all. Really enjoyed a pleasant walk – quite short and very slow. Then synchronised our three diaries for the next few weeks, and prepped veg for dinner. We haven’t yet decided on trying a different regular church, although we have agreed where we shall go on Christmas Day; I have to say, life has been so much more pleasant without us all feeling so uncomfortable where we were, all for different reasons, but I guess that in itself indicates it was not a happy ship!

Rita – pleased the AGM went well, and with no snow. Which Hotel do you go to for the lunch? I agree about having to make menu choices beforehand, and also extra work for you having to organise all the members, who will probably have forgotten their choices on the day! When we were in Wales in the summer, we ate in a lovely restaurant where a coach party of elderly Welsh-speakers had booked a meal; one who was more bilingual than the rest was trying to work out (loudly) which meals belonged to whom, and it was so funny listening to the names “translated” into the language of a country which would never have had to name some of the menu items when the language evolved! Pleased that you like the cosy slippers now you have found your way in! We also have some gardening to be completed when it warms up a bit: Dahlias to move right against the house under fleece, where they have survived the past two winters; general tidying of the herbaceous corners which seem to be just about finished blooming now; and a few bulbs still to plant which should have been in troughs which aren’t ready for them, so they can take their chance in other pots for this coming spring.

Brenda – Daughter#2 grew a lot of orchids on the window-seats in the cottage, but has had to reduce them now; I have one which is just fading after blooming right through from June. I may not have mentioned on here that she gave up on the cottage and it is to be sold after all – still with the insurers not having cured the damp problems since the August 2014 hurricane! She and her partner are renting a very nice place in the woods, near Inverness and their offices.

Rita R said:

Diane -   I love the tales of all the wildlife around you, is your woodpecker still about in the bad weather?

Rita: Poor little woodpecker!!! I looked out at dusk last night, and he was clinging to a locust tree limb in the harsh wind with globs of snow blowing on him. His head was hanging down so pitifully. I brought him a few large cherries from my refrigerator and left them on the top of a fence post near where he was sitting. He could only manage one miserable little chi-chi call. Poor little fella!

RITA  Bet you felt a nit. Glad you have comfy slippers after all.

BRENDA   Gosh your son and wife must be superfit.

Unknown said:

Diane -   I love the tales of all the wildlife around you, is your woodpecker still about in the bad weather?