Good Morning Monday 20th October 2025

Good morning! It’s raining here in south Glos, I can’t get back to sleep so I’m having a coffee in bed and hopefully I’ll snooze in a bit (coffee doesn’t keep me awake!)
Yesterday we had a lovely early walk on the nearby common with the dogs and watched the rain coming across the tops of the hills towards us. We were slightly damp by the time we got back to the car.
Tiddler had a great time rolling on molehills so she went straight in the bath when we got back.
I did the ironing, made cauliflower cheese, baked a gammon, made apple and raspberry crumble and tidied up before sitting down with a coffee late morning.
I started a piece of art work too, rather pleased with it so far….
Today I should be gardening at the school but there’s little point in getting very wet and muddy so I will hope there’s a dry morning sometime this week.
Best wishes to you all 🌹

Good morning, Michael and all GNs. Still dark in South Yorkshire but it will be dry u til around midday. I have started the day with my usual horrendous sneezing session and runny eyes. I think I’m allergic to mornings. Gym early for me and then some batch cooking for the freezer when I get back.
Have the best day you can, folks.

Good morning all from Polmont where it's currently 10° and damp. It rained all day yesterday. Rosesandlilac yesterday must have been the day for cauliflower cheese!
Yesterday I went early to Aldi for food. Like Ashcombe, I prefer to get it over with while it's fairly quiet. I managed to get the ironing done too and pottered about. I had roast chicken with cauliflower and broccoli cheese. No crumble for me though. I might make a plum crumble later in the week.
Today is early childcare day and I'll have the boys all day. We'll have a slow start at their house and head back to mine about nine. I need to visit the post office for the second last installment of cash for the hedge removal man. No doubt the boys will be asking for something while there. I'll take dgs1 to football training and then dd will pick up dgs2 from my house on her way home. It's a long day and I'm not as fit as I used to be, although I love having the boys. Chicken again for dinner later. Enjoy your day all.

Good morning from a damp Bristol. It’s drizzling with a chance of more, heavier rain later.
I did go to church despite the weather, taking the clean tea towels and a load of piccalilli. On the return journey, I took back cake tins I had left for the FAB cafe, and a lot of empty jars. (I have the parishioners well trained).
For lunch, I made squash soup, which looked a bit odd as the only onion that I had was red… I made “garbanchos y chorizo”, with added squash for dinner. (Chickpeas and chorizo)
Sewing in the afternoon. I’m getting on well with the quilt.
Today, Tesco (I hope) as my fridge is empty - my neighbour hasn’t told me she is going yet.
WI this afternoon. I hope it doesn’t rain too much to get there.
Prayers and hugs for FGT and her dear man, for MD and all the mountaineers.
Carpe diem 🦩🦩🦩🦩

Good morning from s somerset, rain all day and gloomy skies but not quite as bad as yesterday

By hook or by crook I was going to get myself out for a walk yesterday, it is never a long walk like it used to be in the old days but it does exercise me. I did get damp but not soaked and it was nice to get back and make myself a good cup of coffee

Just 2 candles lit yesterday, after all it was a balmy 14 degrees out and this morning the living room temperature is till at 20. I have reached the stage of missing the central heating, it might be done this week, only if the ariston part arrives. I feel the cold on my face when it pops out from the duvet and realise how efficiently the ch worked without me noticing

First sleeve is finished after some shenanigans, when I frogged the ribbed wristband. I felt sure it would be too tight on ds so I increased needle size to 2.25mm. Knitting that circular rib was hard on my thumb as I needed to use 2" tips on a short cable.

Today I have craft group and had to hunt for my other crafting stuff, I doubt I will do much as we all like to have a jolly good chat and the meet is energising and uplifting, I do love the older people especially, they go through so much and never complain

I am going to set the stove soon and clean the kitchen and then start the second sleeve, good job we havent got more than two arms

Have a good day

Good morning. Warmish with some blue sky here in Silema, Malta. Not sure for the rest of the day, my weather man is in the shower .
Off to Valletta today by coach and probably return by ferry.
Aches and pains not so bad today after a quiet day yesterday.
Wishing all a good day with a smile along the way.

Good Morning fr MS, sunny & a cooler 26c. Today I plan to have an afternoon of baking - our "treats" cupboard is empty! 🥮🍪
Hoping the ones w/ hard struggles find this an easier day, & that all y'all stay well.

Good morning from a very very dark start here on the east coast of Fife, all is very quiet in the house, even outside, I can’t here a thing. All will start to rise soon.
I had the most wonderful evening in Edinburgh last night with my beautiful dd. The 3 Elvis’s were brilliant especially the last one, his singing “ How great though art” brought tears to my eyes it’s one of my favourites p, I’m having that hymn at my funeral it’s so moving

Enjoy the day my friends make the most of it ❤️

Good morning from Malta where it’s forecast to reach 24°C with a chance of showers. It’s sunny at the moment.

I have DGS2 here as he has a cough but thankfully doesn’t seem to be too unwell. I think he fancied another day off.

Not sure what we will do today. We had planned to go to the Museum of Illusions but might have to put it off.

Had a lovely long FaceTime with DGD in the US yesterday. She and DD3 were in Alabama where DGD was playing in a softball tournament. I do miss them so much.

Went to Mass yesterday which was packed. I always say a prayer for you all.

Hoping today will be a good one.☀️

Good morning everyone from a still dark and damp Northampton; it rained most of yesterday, and the same forecast today.

Did very little yesterday, just sat and read the weekend newspapers. I also made the SOAP dish for my dinner and have a portion left over which I will have today or tomorrow.
Had plenty of time after my shower to redo my toenails - remove old nail polish, tidy them up, fresh base coat and then a sparkly new polish.

Yoga first thing this morning then a coffee in the little cafe round the corner.

When I get back a bit of tidying up upstairs is called for before the plumber comes tomorrow to fit a new shower in my en-suite - it will be lovely to use that shower again. Will probably spend the afternoon reading through a pile of magazines before I start a new book.

Wishing all a pleasant day.

Good morning from a mildish start here in Nogent le Bernard.

Late again - I sleep so much better here than in Torquay! As I was making our first cuppa tea, the older cat, Lola, who is 20, was back and forth under my feet as usual. I opened the front door and shutter twice but no, madam didn’t want to go out. Just as I closed up for the third time, I found the door wouldn’t close. Unbeknown to me, Lola had got herself between the shutter and the door!! No harm done.

If you find an accumulation of tea towels to wash again, grandMattie, I’d consider taking a few then leaving a note:-

POLITE NOTICE
I’ve taken three tea towels to wash. If everyone reading this does likewise, the job will be done without too much being put on one person.
Signed: A Wellwisher.

You all sound so productive with your baking, sewing, knitting and art work. During this visit, I have been drafting an online autobiography so my children and grandchildren can read about the days when I was a busy person!

Interestingly, in France, lunchtime is the quietest for food shopping, Grandmabatty whilst the locals are at home consuming the all important midday meal!!

Hope this is a good week especially for the mountaineers.
🦩🥰🦩💐🦩

Good morning Mick and all GN's on a very dark and quiet morning in North Yorkshire. I can hear no rain or wind, but that is all I can tell of the weather so far. As soon as it is light enough I need to go down to the washing line on the yellow peril and hope to find my washing still on the line, bring it back , spin it and put it back out again! When I got home yesterday, having put it out on the line, it just started to rain too heavily to go down and rescue it, as it would have taken me time to get the cover off the buggy and get down there and couldnt walk that far and bring back heavy washing, so it was abandoned, and could only hope that the firm pegging would hold, so with a bit of luck I shall find everything still there if somewhat sodden.

Another rotten night and I am just reaching the end of my tether. Can only hope that I will be so exhausted that I do fall asleep tonight. When I get so tired, not only all the usual aches and pains either are worse, or just seem to be, but I find any little bruise or cut that I could normally ignore becomes noticeable too. Well that is a shame and just have to hope for something to knock me out.

Yesterday I was invited to a late lunch in thirsk. What a good job Sue said about 1.15pm, as I was so slow and took ages to try and restore things back to where they should be, and even had to turn back as I realised that my disabled badges were not in the car! Anyway I did a bit of tidying up, put the washing out on the line, and felt I had made a start on the clearing up and throwing away plan, and found my way there easily.

It is a mews flat in Thirsk close to the river, so very pleasant surroundings and peaceful. Got parked ok and was on time. I had met Sue originally in cafe Nero, but had not yet met her husband John. So there were 3 other people invited, and it was very pleasant. They have a three legged cat, called Barton, who of course is the boss of the place, (we own dogs, but cats own us!) He was very territorial and walked round the room and met every visitor and checked them out before going to sit in his chosen place and oversee the proceedings. It was lovely to stroke him, I wish I could have a cat here, but no pets allowed. Of course less tying, but my cat used to come and sit with me sometimes, and was always pleased to see me at any time of the day or night, and she used to make me feel less stressed and at least another creature was awake at silly o clock. Anyway, it was all very lovely and we had delicious lamb roast dinner, and a pear and peach flan for dessert. Such a treat, and all the work done by someone else. Everything cooked so well and good gravy! I think that you can get good meals out, and carvery places , by cooking larger amounts of meat often can make it better than you can your tiny bit, but it is the gravy that often lets it down, and well cooked home made food is the best in my opinion. So it was a very pleasant afternoon and lovely to meet some more new people. One lady , who is a pharmacist in a local hospital, is getting ready to move to Sheffield, to another large hospital and is at the stage of delivering various things to the charity shops and trying to decide what to take etc. She has a house here, so has made a wise decision (in my opinion) to let her house out for 6 months, and she is going to house share down there, whilst she settles into the job and looks about for a new place and checks out the area etc. That way , at the worst, if she doesnt like it for any reason, she has a house to come back to, and she is in demand, so would not have any problem finding another job here. Her main worry was her own cat, and she has a friend who is also a cat person, who really likes her cat so she is going to leave the cat with her until she has sorted things out, as she cant take a cat to a house share etc. Her problem will be getting the cat back I think!! So it was lovely to find people who are interested in art and music, and much talk of what is going on round here and John is singing in a choir in Middlesborough at the cathedral I think. There is going to be a Faure Requiem day, where you go to the rehearsal and then sing in the concert in the evening, which I shall try to go to , if my flipping back will allow it. I am missing singing in a choir right now, but dont think I can manage to sit for 2 hours in rehearsal every week, and would not like to let them down, so these sort of day sing together is going to be great for me. Something I would really love to do is find somewhere that is having a go at singing Spem in Alium - dont know if that is the right spelling, but it is a wonderful 40 part piece of music, that I would love to have the opportunity of singing in, but so far have not seen anyone planning to do . Perhaps if things improve a bit it can be my musical endeavour for next year and I will go on facebook or something and see if I can get 39 other people to join me to have a go!! Years ago one of the most amazing get togethers I was involved in was when we got 400 people to sing the Verdi Requiem in a courtyard. Wow, you should have heard the Dies Irae . Oh the amazing feeling, being part of this wonderful sound, which seemed to reverberate round the courtyard. Once you started singing this, you were not individual voices but an entity , where somehow , breathing together and singing at the same time made you feel like one huge animal, able to sing in harmony. Have sung all my life and loved all sorts of occasions, but remember that actual feeling of being a small part of a complete being known as a choir! Ah well that is for the future.

My aim for this morning is to rescue the washing, get through some paperwork, and especially need to check out the details of what is on offer for my car tax, which I must do this week without fail. Then have to collect my prescription, check out what if anything I need from the shops, and then get back and set up my ironing board for a long session ironing. There is so much waiting to be dealt with, but some of it wont be getting ironed. I need to keep sorting out summer clothes to go away, as I finally accept that there will be no occasion to put my shorts on etc. I choose to put stuff away washed but not ironed. I used to iron it , but when I got it out again always found myself reironing it, so now just happy to put it away clean but unironed. So at least there should be a little reduction in the basket where I fish out t shirts and shorts and thin cotton trousers. So nothing exciting on the horizon. The best I hope to manage is to find out where my bulb pots are hiding and finally get my hyacinths planted up. But will have radio 3 to keep me company, and plan to get back to some practise singing. Will no doubt be singing in various groups in and out of church and need to get my voice and breathing back in working order, so there will be specific practising scales etc, but also of course much singing along with the radio whether it is Nine to Five with Dolly Parton, or Maria Callas singing Vici D'arte, so it should knock off a bit of rust from the voice box!! So that is the plan for the day. Whether it is what happens remains to be seen!!

Hope the weather is better for your trip to Bicester Mick and that you found some cycling to watch. RoseandLilac you had a busy day by the sound of it. Grandmabatty, yes that is how we realize we are actually getting older, when even enjoying looking after the grandchildren is quite tiring, and we dont have that resilience to spring back to life the following day!! I think another problem is that as we dont recognise that we are 10 years older and cant quite do what we used to, our families just see us as mum or granny or whatever as we have always been, and no change visible, so dont notice that what we used to do easily and repeat the following day, is now quite a bit of an effort, and needs a bit longer to recover from. Sometimes there needs to be a bit of a wake up call. A good friend of mine was with her family and the discussion got round to a mutual friend. The daughter mentioned how much slower and older the friend was looking and her mother said "well of course she is nearly 80 like me!" A little while later her daughter said, Mum, I just hadnt thought that you might be finding things harder to do. You are always just mum and have done things your way for years, so please tell me if anything is too much for you now. I think we all have to accept that things may take a bit more time , and not get frustrated by the fact. Well I definitely need to tell myself that!!

Well at last I can now see the outline of the tree against the sky, but still very dark. Looks still and no sign of rain, so maybe the washing has dried after all. Huh! Fat chance! So hope for a decent weather for everyone and a chance to get on with whatever you plan to do. Take care and enjoy your day

Good morning everyone from mid Essex. It’s still quite dark out and damp from yesterday’s rain. Showers forecast for today. I may go for a short walk in between showers, but can’t imagine that many of the dog walkers will be sitting chatting!
Both my lovely DDs called in yesterday at different times, which was good. I’m trying not to rely on them too much but do like to see them and catch up with their news.
I batch cooked some mince & onions and there’s enough for several cottage pies, they’re ready to go into the freezer this morning. I had my usual long phone call with my friend in Kent, we both have various aches and pains, so it’s good to encourage each other to keep going with the exercises!

Thinking of the fgts and marydoll and all others with mountains to climb.
Have the best day possible everyone.

Morning all from a still dark West Oxfordshire.

OH and I enjoyed our pottery morning on Sunday. We did some coil work and glazed the pieces with coloured slip. We should be able to collect the items next week when they’ve been fired. We had a lovely Sunday lunch out too.

Today should be our usual Monday - cleaner and shopping. I also have to pop into the local computer shop to get an adapter to I can more easily attach headphones to my lap top.

Have a good day. Won’t it be good if the FGT2S were home together. 🪻

God morning from what is forecast to be a rather rainy S E Essex.

I am off to the gym first thing, then the usual catch up afterwards, yes tea will be drank.

The Imp has requested a sleepover this evening, so he is here. On his own without a brother to wind up he is such a good little boy.

(((Hugs))) to all 🙋‍♀️

Good morning from a dark East Midlands.
Went up to ICU yesterday to find that as DH is doing so well they had moved him to a ward. He is in his own en-suite room.

I need to go to Sainsbury early as my sister-in-law is coming for a couple of days and then DS coming on Friday.
After that dog walk then hospital visit.

The strain is beginning to tell!
Wishing everyone the best day possible.

Good morning all from a chilly and damp North Leicestershire.

DH is off to the gym then we may go to our nearest out of town shopping centre as DH needs new trainers.

Have the best day possible everyone.

Good morning from a wet W Kent. Cleaner coming this morning but otherwise a short walk weather permitting. We are definitely going into winter mode. DGS3 starts a new job today so fingers crossed for him.
Glad everything going well dragonfly
Best wishes

Good morning from the Essex coast.
We've had some rain overnight but the sun is trying to break through.
S was again admitted to hospital yesterday with a suspected chest infection. That's the third time in a week. She's been given antibiotics.
My poor daughter is very stressed as she feels she is neglecting the two younger ones. I've tried to reassure her that they will be fine but I know it's hard on the whole family.
I wish I lived closer to be able to help out more.
Thinking of all our grans with much bigger mountains to climb.
Best wishes to all xx

Good morning all. After heavy rain yesterday, a supposedly dry, mild day for Glasgow.

I had a productive day indoors yesterday, admittedly at a slower pace with this slipped disc nonsense, I cut out the pieces to upholster a gilt framed bedroom chair from a bargain haul of bronze velvet I bought years ago knowing it would be used one day. I freshened up the wood with an antique gold rub before re upholstering. A satisfying result.
Everything is done at a limited lace but at least they are getting done. Today I will pot up the bay standard in stages.

Have the best day possible all. Thoughts as always to those with troubled times.

So pleased to read how well your DH is doing Dragonfly.

Good morning everyone from Inverness where it’s been raining since yesterday morning, but due to dry up later
Good to hear your DH is doing so well dragonfly
I need to do some food shopping today, we’ve family arriving tomorrow to stay for a few days. I hope the weather improves a bit as they enjoy being outdoors and walking.
Enjoy your visit to Valetta today ginny
Hope the boys are good for you today grandmabatty
Thinking of everyone with worries and struggles, hope today is gentle and take care all whatever the day brings 💐

brook dgs1 has been up for an hour, playing football with a sponge ball in the living room. He's now eating breakfast. Dgs2 hasn't surfaced yet!

Good morning from another dull Suffolk where we had rain last evening. Ithink more is forecast for later.

I have a pile of ironing staring at me that I shall do this morning after our dog walk and then read more of my book ‘ The Magician’ by Colm Toibin which I am really enjoying. It’s about Thomas Mann and his fascinating family but a novel not an autobiography.

Hoping today is a good one for all.