General Chat

Morning folks,bit cloudy and grey here today,not the weather to sit out with your cuppa Fred.
Hope it stays dry as I am out with my sister later ,she wants an outfit for a family wedding next month,and i am helping her look.
The unit/bookshelves we bought the other week has been delivered really early 9.10am so i do not have to wait in like I was expecting!!
Hope you all have a good day ,be back soon,Take care ,Brenda

Good afternoon from a chilly day here in Manchester,started out ok but the sun thought it was a wee bit cold yet and went in again,It was trying to rain at about one oclock but was only drizzle really.Had to take the vacuum apart this morning well John did as it had got blocked,you should have seen the small piece of plastic that had been sucked up and caused so much trouble???
Had a good day with my sister yesterday ,she got a great outfit for the wedding,so is a happy bunny....
Going out tonight with some old work friends ,we try to meet up a few times each year but do not always manage it due to varying reasons,normally to do with their children...Hope we manage ity tonight ,really looking forward to it.
Have a busy day tomorrow as my friend will hopefully get down this time from Stockport so we can meet on the tram to Bury.,She will come back here for tea as in the evening we are meeting our other friends at one of their houses,and seeing as its only 5 mins from here its silly for her to go all the way home and come back again,!!!!!!
Hope you are all keeping well,take care ,Brenda

goodmorning it seems ages since I was last on but I had isobelle staying with me since wednesday we had a good visit and overdosed on the tennis the final is to-day her son picked her up early this morning so I am back on my own again, she is having touble with the arthritis in both legs ie. her knee's so I managed to get her to rest while she was here. I see brenda that you were planning a busy day on friday so hope you had a good time with your friend and had a good visit in bury, is fred away or just busy. bryan goes on wednesday to get the results of the m.i.r. andrew is flying east this afternoon and I think that is all my news at the moment . I have been catching up on the bbc news the world seems to be in a right mess at the moment take care bye for now dorothy

Fred is still around,Dorothy,just rather busy in the garden ,and had company is all.
My garden veggie patch is now ready,and the greenhouse is cleaned out ready to go ,all i need now is the tattie barrels seen to and thats the lot for the new season.
With any sort of luck i can get the first grass cut done tomorrow ,and then i can start getting ready for our first break of the year ,which we need badly ,it's been a long ,hard winter.
Even the missus has given me a hand today ,cleaning the dead plants out of the tops of the four troughs we have out front,and trimmed off the dead wood off the big Mum in the urn which has just started throwing new shoots,a nice dressing of plant food on it and ,and tha'ts another job finished.
I am watching the unfolding story in Japan with trepidation ,the workers getting on top of the reactor fires okay ,but the poor people with little food ,and what they have being radio active ,seems the poor perishers can't win with this one ,and yuet still the possibility of yet another big quake lurking on the horizon,we in this country are indeed blessed.
Hope everyone has had a good weekend,mine was made even better by my son arriving last evening and fixing that front gate for me ,smashing now that there is no chance of getting loose dogs in my front ,and making a mess on my lawns,don't get me long peeps ,i love animals ,but only wish people would consider others ,and take their pets out on leads ,and clear up after them.
Be back tomorrow all ,Fred

evening folks,My friend and I had a lovelly day on friday ,the weather was really good,and we had a good few hours wondering round the market,I got a handbag from one of the little stalls they have up and down outside the shops and some chicken from the fish market. We had a lovelly lunch and cup of tea at Katsouris and then had another walk round while my friend looked for a few things ,which unfortunatly she did not find.,and had another cup of tea before we went home.We had a smashing night at my other friends,so we had a good day.Glad that you had a good visit Dorothyand hope your grandson is ok with the results from the MIR.
Fred you certainly do deserve a break fred and hopr the weather stays good for you.
Going for a bath now as I have been aching all over all day so will see what a soak does.
Brenda

Morning all,have a few errands to do today and some sorting out when I get home,I have to decide what is going in the new cabinet,and get them put away as they are in boxes in the dining room.
Weather is ok and is supposed to get better.
Hope you are all well ,See you tomorrow ,Take care ,brenda

Morning all well ,spring HAS arrived in the north east,Fred Has been working out back this morning trimming the fushia and a few roses at the back of the garden next to the hedge ,ready to get the first two screens up this morning.
I noticed that the apple tree is showing blossom [yippee] this means apples again this year yum,so all i need now is the plum tree to do ditto and i will be well happy.
I am off outside again now ,to sit with Hissy while i have my cuppa,before i restart.
The missus has beaten me to the lawn cutting ,by hanging the washing out ,grrrrrr ,lol, so that will have to wait until this afternoon ,so i may go into the greenhouse later ,and get it all tidied up ,and the growing benches organized ready for the off.
Catch you later this afternoon all,Fred.

hi everyone well you all sound very busy especially fred in the garden dare I say that the three herbs in the areogarden are doing well and growing fast and the bambo plant is still alive way too cold to think about getting the pots ready on the balcony not sure what I will attempt to grown this year but will have a wiander around the nursery soon. brenda it sounds like you and your friend had a good day at the market . bryans appointment is at 9am to-morrow so I hope to hear by lunchtime the results lindy has taken the day off as andrew is out of the province till thursday. I shall pop out to the library this morning and have a wander around the shops no rain or snow in the forcast and a high of 3 above freezing still need boots and parka though. take care bye dorothy

Afternoon,to all,been a lovely day today,i got that back lawn done this morning for the first time ,i was going to do it yesterday ,but by the time i had done the other bits out there ,and done some work indoors ,i had had enough ,so ,left it
got it done early anyway ,so had my cup of coffee and decided to trim the edges,before going out the front to trim the big lawn as well.
I have also put feeder on the hedging ,the hydrainger ,and Rhodidendron ,,and trimmed all the dead wood off all the fushia and other plants on the patio.
My Orange tree is now back in the greenhouse where it will stay until June before sitting out in the garden until early October,so things are on track again.
Having just put the two dongles back into both small laptops i am now ready for the trip on Monday next ,having found a new laptop carrier that will hold both of them ,both stands and all the other gubbins i will be needing,such as cables,usb multiport,external hard drive ,both mices lol.and the other bits and bobs ,he he.
The missus made a lovely cheese pudding for the dinner ,and we had the new pot's left from yesterday ,and some asparugus spears ,rubbed with butter which was spot on.
Hope the aches are just a spot of overdoing it Brenda,and not the start of the dreaded Lurgy,you can do without that.
I only hope this weather will linger into next week ,i could do with at least one day with my portable B B Q on the caravan patio ,cumberlandS

Afternoon,to all,been a lovely day today,i got that back lawn done this morning for the first time ,i was going to do it yesterday ,but by the time i had done the other bits out there ,and done some work indoors ,i had had enough ,so ,left it
got it done early anyway ,so had my cup of coffee and decided to trim the edges,before going out the front to trim the big lawn as well.
I have also put feeder on the hedging ,the hydrainger ,and Rhodidendron ,,and trimmed all the dead wood off all the fushia and other plants on the patio.
My Orange tree is now back in the greenhouse where it will stay until June before sitting out in the garden until early October,so things are on track again.
Having just put the two dongles back into both small laptops i am now ready for the trip on Monday next ,having found a new laptop carrier that will hold both of them ,both stands and all the other gubbins i will be needing,such as cables,usb multiport,external hard drive ,both mices lol.and the other bits and bobs ,he he.
The missus made a lovely cheese pudding for the dinner ,and we had the new pot's left from yesterday ,and some asparugus spears ,rubbed with butter which was spot on.
Hope the aches are just a spot of overdoing it Brenda,and not the start of the dreaded Lurgy,you can do without that.
I only hope this weather will linger into next week ,i could do with at least one day with my portable B B Q on the caravan patio ,Cumberland Sausage,that yummy black pudding ,some nice pork burgers stuffed with blue cheese,and some nice bread rolls ,oooooo ,that does sound good ,lol.
I have to take the bro' in law to the R V i tomorrow morning ,he has to have both eyes lasered and so ,won't be able to drive himself.
Time to go all ,this perishing cat has decided it's tea time and is all over the keyboard,making a pest of herself.
Catch you all tomorrow,Fred.

goodmorning well mother nature is not finished with winter yet it is blowing snow all over the place I can hardly see outside it is supposed to stop this afternoon so we will see lots of accidents allready on the roads into toronto glad I don't have to go out to-day. expect to hear from Bryan and Lindy after the appointment hope they got there ok but lindy is a great winter weather driver. fred you certainly worked hard in the garden yesterday I am sure it looks great be in touch later bye for now dorothy

HI every one,had a busy couple of days again,but mainly enjoyable.
Tuesday was busy while I moved the oranaments over to the new cabinet,and re arranged them,.Then cleaned the kitchen cabinet doors down as the sunshine was making them look really tatty.
Today I had a couple of errands and then met some friends in town ,did not have time to stay with them for lunch,just had a cup of tea,Then went looking for a present for a friend,got her a charm for a braclet she has.Got some really nice looking fruit from the market in town,hope it stays good ,I have been getting some fruit that has gone off really quickly from the supermarket.
Hope it was good news Dorothy about your grandson,and hope the weather improves soon. We are having some great spring weather like Fred says.Just hope it lasts.John is doing well in sorting out the garden.We need a new plastic cover for the "greenhouse" since the other blew off in the high winds in winter.
We will need some new plastic tubs as some ofthe old ones have perished. John made some wooden ones a few years ago which were great,but really heavy,so we gave them away!!
Fred you sound really industrious and you will soon be telling us of the loveely meals you have made including your home grown veggies.
Please let me know what your plans are about going to Bury Market next week,my mobile number is still the same.,is yours?
Take care Brenda

Good afternoon all,we had to go out this morning ,and have only been back an hour,and we got in just as the sun got out from behind the clouds,so the cat is making noises for me to go out on the patio yet again ,he he ,she will haveto wait an hour.
Yep Brenda,the mobile number is unchanged ,and i will give you 'tother when we meet up at the market next week ,this one has all the numbers in too ,and i will activate it when i load it to call Dorothy next week while on holiday.
This new phone will be very handy ,giving me internet coverage even when out in Blackpool,to make sure i don't miss owt.lol.
We had out sausage egg ,bacon ,and plum tomatoes for dinner today,but Liz wasn't too amused ,be buying her Lincolnshire sausages ,morrisons own ,only to find they had garlic in them ,but no matter ,she liked the cumberland ones ,so i did her a swop because i like both.
this is beside the point however ,Lincoln sausages are not supposed to have garlic in as it's a change to the recipie, so i will be complaining when i go back next time,tis a little like putting peas in Lancashire black pudding ,it just isn't done.
Perhaps you can tell me what the time difference is between Dorothy's home county and ours Brenda ,he he ,i won't be popular if i phone her to find they are in the middle of breakfast ,or worse still,still in the land of nod,oooooops.
The wait for my bro'in law wasn't too bad yesterday considering they were cauterising the blood vessels in both eyes to stop them bleeding internally, caused by advanced Diabeties,so take note all ,and keep those sugar levels way down to prevent a lot of extra grief,later in life.
I am going to have my coffee outside with her highness now ,before packing my computers into the case ready for monday ,and going back onto the big h p laptop,catch you later all ,Fred.

Afternoon all.I have had another good day today but seeing as its my birthday ,it should be good.Had some great cards and lovelly presenta and went out for lunch with John.which was really good.Don't think we need any tea!!
Dorothy is six hours behind us at the moment .but as we change the clocks at weekend I think she will be 7 behind as we go one forward!!!.
Know what you mean about putting extras in things and saying they are the same.!!!
But glad you enjoyed it.
Hope Dorothy had good news about her grandson.
Better get going as David still wants his tea and we are expecting a couple of visitors shortly,friends with cards etc.
Take Care Brenda

hi its thursday evening and we will be 5hrs behind you guys when you change the time so fred it would be lovely to speak to you if you call anytime say about 1pm your time it will be 8 am my time hope you have a great holiday best to liz, well the news re bryans knee was not good he has a complete tear of the A.C.L and will have ot have it surgical repaired at the end of the summer it seems he will still be able to go for the summer as a counsellar in training (not sure I spelled that right) but will find out this week-end lindys is taking him to kitchener for a meeting . he has to get this new brace so andrew who arrived home this late afternoon is calling to see how much his medical plan will cover it may be all of it or half of it but he has too have it, I was over there to-day helping out with 2 of the kids and ironed 21 shirts a record for me I told the 2 boys I am going to teach them how to do it themselves luckily my family call me an ironing freak plus all my friends say the same I just like it. I am going to have an early night hope you all have a great next few days and brenda I am not sure did you have a birthday to-day or is it to-morrow either way HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY MORE. take care bye dorothy

Morning all ,just in from the garden for a drink and a natter before i go back out to pick a hoe up to finish out back.
I used a trowel along the back border to prevent damage to the emerging bulbs ,but from the end ,to the patio ,it's all bushes ,so i can use the hoe without damage to anything but the weeds.
Both computers are up to date ,and in the carry bag along with all the stuff to run them,and i have put the new phone in too ,ready to load up once we get to Fleetwood,where i will also see if i can get onto the internet while out and about.
Well , i hope the weather next week will be something like this one has been,sunny out there again this morning,so we are doing well up here in the frozen north ,he he.
Looks like the Japanese are in queer street proper this time ,as it looks as though one of the reactors has breached,and is leaking badly.dosn't look good for them.
Well time to go out back again ,catch you all later.Fred.

Evening all,and thank you for the birthday greetings and emails,it is much appreciated.
I had a good day yesterday and it was not too bad today,weather has been brilliant hope it stays like this for a few weeks we have a family wedding in two weeks.
Sorry the news about your grandson isn't that good Dorothy and hope it is covered by the insurance.
Well Fred you are all set and ready to go,hope you have a safe journeyand look forward to seeing you next week,,
Have a couple of errands tomorrow and a trip to the library planned might go to the local market and see what the plant stall has on offer.
Take care ,Brenda

Morning all you peoples who have actually gotten up this morning ,lol,to all others i say ,it's time to get your butts out of the bedroom ,the sun is burning your eyes out [not].
The missus is sat here filling out the cencus form which is 50% a nose job by the government,who are using the form for snooping on the general public,up to and including how many times you fart in a day.
Me i opted out, telling her ,you fill in the ruddy form while i see to the dinner ,he he.
We have visitors today and tomorrow ,one grandson ,and one grand daughter,and so am doing mixed veggies ,roast tatties,and parsnips ,some Asparagus spears,and a nice roast chicken which i have prepared my usual way ,apart from the fact that i forgot to take some streaky bacon out of the freezer [bu***r] so i have oiled the skin lightly ,salted and peppered it,and crumbled a chicken stock cube over the top.
I always salt and pepper the cavity and then stuff a largish onion up it's rear end ,he he,to ,A [keep the breast from sagging ] and B [to give a tad of extra flavour.
Just had a thought [this is where i get my ear clipped ,good style.lol]
Just wonder if i used this method on the missus it would Stop HER sagging? ,he he ,ouch ,told you.
I have put a few cans of water around the edgings of the lawn this morning because it hasn't rained ,to start pushing the weed/feed in,but i will have to wait until what i have done dries before i can walk on that to do the rest.
The weed killer for the paths and patio's we brought from Wilkinsons i can recommend,having put it on ,Monday ,and notice the grass weed is now going yellow,and once it dries when put on ,it won't harm pets,or wild life.
The car is cleaned ,and ready to go ,and the packing is started,it being done a little at a time,to save any hassle.
I think i had better go and switch the oven on ,and kied.ck the dinner off ,be back later hopefully,Fred

goodmorning from a sunny but cold barrie they have the nerve to call for snow to-day but I think they may be wrong as the sky is high and as I said it is sunny, our federal government fell yesterday so we are in for the fourth federal election in 7yrs at the expected cost of 300 million dollars totally daft so it will be held on may 2nd which means the prime minister will not be able to attend the royal wedding, I do not like the man or his idea's so will have this election in may and the provincal election in oct. a total waste of money I have no idea why these things cost so much. thats my beef for the day. hope the weather will be good for you fred and liz. brenda hope you had a good birthday did you do something special? tennis is on the tele starting at 11am and on all week from miami so I guess you know what I will be doing this week what fun so bye for now have a good weekend oh yes I harvested the herbs yesterday and took them over to andrew's one to prove that I did use the gift and second to prove that I did not kill them he was going use some of them in the dinner he was preparing for the family he worked from home yesterday so when that happens he usually cooks the evening meal oh I had a bit of a pause as anne just phoned from england it is her birthday on tuesday and brenda her 2 daughters are taking her out to lunch shortly to nutters not sure I was there on the last trip home anne says I was but I have forgotten anyway I shall call her on tuesday and sing happy birthday too her she said the weather was nice so they should have a nice time bye for now dorothy

Afternoon all.was a bit busy yesterday doing a few errands so was in and out of the house a few times.By evening I was a little tired so just did nothing .We watched a film on the cable as there was nothing on tve till Casualty which can sometimes be very predicable!!
Had to come on hee to sort something out for my friend then got two phones calls which took up about 40 mins so thought I would say Hi now rather than later.Have washing to put out as its a great day again.
Hope the line does not snap like it did the other day.
Hope you enjoy the tennis Dorothy and Anne has a good birthday.If I am right Nutter is on Deansgate Manchester near where the old rEgister office was on Jacksons Row???Think its a bit posh as he is a tv chef!!
Well done Fred as busy as ever.Looking forward to Wednesday.Will text you .
Bye for now Brenda