The Lockdown Gang - Indomitable Lobstars ?⭐️

Doodle the parcel was - wait for it! - squirrel food!! We seem to have acquired at least 2 squirrels - difficult to tell one squirrel from another! - who are eating the bird food! So I have the brilliant idea to buy a squirrel feeder and food. Within 2 hours of fixing it to the fence Sammy was there! Nudging the lid up with his nose and stuffing himself! Meanwhile squirrel 2 was devouring the bird food. Theo - big black bold cat - sits watching the whole pantomime. So I’ve now sent for a large bag of squirrel food and am thinking this is going to get very expensive!

Ha Ha Doodle well spotted. ?
One of our quiz lists was nicknames of Football clubs. I didn't last long.
Another one was types of hat! Who knew there are over 40?

I hope you have arnica for bruises Kaimoana
I always forget the names for medicinal herbs which are associated with remedies is a pity because presumably many were used successfully before the days of paracetamol and ibuprofen.
Eyebright, Lungwort, Feverfew etc.

Thankyou Doodle I hope the painter returns with the correct paint and I hope it is nice, although he has already done such a good job of preparing the walls and ceiling, I think the actual painting will be quite straightforward. He has even washed down the floor.

As far as I know, I have eaten no flies today.
Like you Jan, I'm not keen on shellfish although DH and I once won a meal to a lovely restaurant and had lobster.

How are the Panaches?

Hello Nfk you mention new garden. Have you moved house in the last year or so? If I lived 10 miles from the coast I’d be there like a shot. I would love to see the sea again. Still at least you have your river. We used to have a boat that got taken out of the water for winter. Being in the Thames ours was in a marina. I used to love sitting watching them out the boats back in the water with the big cranes. Maybe yours goes in via slipway.
All our married life we either had a garden that sloped up from the house or down (mainly both) we never lived on the flat till we moved here. Now both our sons relish the fact they have flat gardens, so much easier to maintain. We had one of those lawns I used to cut with a flymo attached to a rope. Far too dangerous to walk down with the mower.
Sounds like you had a lovely day with family. I have never heard of chocolate hot cross buns. Hope your DIL feels better soon.
Good news about your second jabs. Ours are due 22nd April.
Mamissimo aw come on, Fergal is just a little pussy cat. How much harm can he do (my DS has one just the same)
I can well understand your dislike of goats after your holiday experience,
Hope MrM survived his tussle with Fergal. Who won? ?
Grammaretto I hope your painter comes back with the right paint.
It sounds as though your garden, apart from being big, is also a tiered one. We had small tiers in two of our gardens (make that big tiers in small gardens). So difficult to cope with when any maintenance is required. Ours was also a nightmare with young children, we kept worrying about them falling off.
Mountain peak sounds a nice choice Hope you are pleased with it.
Jan ooh a parcel how exciting. In the days of lockdown it is something to look forward to.
Kaimoana I hope you are not too stiff and sore today but somehow I feel you were making light of your injuries and perhaps you are not feeling too good.
Hope you are ok. and feel better soon.
Panache we are all wondering how you have coped over the Easter holiday period. Hope you did manage to get some help.
Take care x
Cherry I think I heard cheering last night so I hope ‘our’ team won. I think I might know who we are now due to the ?. ?

Oh dear Kaimoana Your poor knees. Hope they’re not too bad today. Do love your posts they’re so entertaining but think witnessing a punch up in a supermarket and getting unintentionally involved is not one of your better ideas!
Yes think you can buy shellfish from the jetty but it’s mostly cockles and small brown shrimps. Love fish but never too keen on cockles and have not enough patience to sit and top and tail tiny shrimps!
Sorry Nfk meant to say yes I know Chapelfield gardens where you met your friend. Wonder how many shops are left in the shopping centre now?
Back later have Amazon parcels just arrived!

You amaze me Kaimoana. How, after all that drama and bodily damage you can produce the most delicious sounding meal complete with chocolate cake!
I think the episode when you shared a damp room with cats, ivy and ferrets must have been part of your training.

Living vicariously as I do, I am happy to read about your adventures rather than live them. A quiet life for me.
As for the painter. Hmm. I sent him away with a piece of the wall complete with the old paint and asked him to match it. Not a hard task?
He was recommended by the other DGP whose house decor and cleanliness, although old and stone, is 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, where mine is 2 on a good day. It would be worse if I had cats but I do notice ivy growing inside a window....

Well done Cheery all that cheering did the trick and helped your team!

Lovely to see NfkD too. Sorry that you didn't get everyone together but great to have seen some of the family.
I also have 2 compost bins but I keep them for vegetable waste I had already used all that beautiful compost so this was me trying to find soil. My garden is on 3 levels - hard to explain and even harder to manage.

The first bluebells are out and I have made a decision about paint colour! I liked the name. The original colour was early dawn but this is mountain peak.
Very silly I know.

Good luck with avoiding vaccination day Mamissimo

Good morning ?
It's annual vaccination day for H Beagle and Fergal, who doesn't rave about going in the car....or the carry case....and who, if you recall, has twenty nine toes.....and claws! I'm wearing full body armour and hiding in the shower room so that Mr M has to stuff him in the cage. ?

I do non dig and it's a great way to improve the soil. I find that I have minimal weeds and few pests.....and lots of beans ? it does lead to a preoccupation with the making of compost though.

I may borrow a couple of sheep to graze the paddock full of trees orchard. I am not a fan of goats having rented a property in France where the owner had omitted to include in the blurb that his herd of fifteen goats freely roamed the small hamlet of three buildings - inside and out! We were having a nice morning by the pool and I popped inside for more more beers to find the place full of pooping goats. My bare feet found them first ?

It sounds like a cat and man fight downstairs so I'd better go......

What an interesting place you live in Kaimona! I hope you're ok and not too stiff and sore. Lucky you didn't get a miss placed blow! I wonder what the altercation was about.

I keep trying to imagine having a garden so big I could plant an orchard Mamissimo. So much energy! Will you get a goat or two to keep the grass under control? My best friend at school kept goats in her orchard. Apparently it was the normal thing to do she said. But they were little devils. Enchanting, but always up to some sort of destructive mischief.

We've (DH) has built a second compost bin Grammaretto so we don't have the usual annual problem of decanting all the compost to get to the good stuff at the bottom. Its been on the Really Must job list for the last 15 years so we've got a year off compost carting. It's a much easier task in this 'new' garden now we've downsized a bit to a smaller, flat square plot. Our last garden was on a decidedly difficult slope and long and narrow so you have my sympathies. I do miss my veggie plot though.

We still haven't made it to the coast (all of ten miles away), but we did drive to see if our little boat is in the water yet (she's not) and then visit each of our local offspring in turn to deliver Easter eggs. We went for a lovely walk in the woods with DS and returned for chocolate (chocolate!) hot cross buns. The original plan had been for DD2 and family to meet us there but we would have been eight with the children. I'd thought we were covered under the two family rule as we are bubbled for child care. But child care bubbles didn't count! DiL isn't too well at the moment so it was probably for the best. I've bought a load of small eggs and we'll have our annual Easter egg hunt later - probably July!

We get our boosters next week. Can't wait. Then, in May, I need to find out how to get antibody test for DH. He takes immunosuppressants and we rather feel it may be a good idea to see how much resistance he really has.

I hope Panache that you survived the weekend and all your help is back in place. (((Hugs)))

Ooh blowing bubbles. That sounds good news for our team .......as long as you’ve not been at the washing up liquid again ?

Kaimoana ? oh my goodness. Poor you.
Eating a fly is bad enough but getting involved in a brawl when you are trying to do your shopping. I am tempted to say your pole dancing didn’t go as planned then ?
Seriously that was a nasty fall. Your friend Karen must have had such a shock too. I do hope you are ok and that those bruises don’t lead to anything more,
I thought our ivy was bad but what you describe is horrendous. All those cats and caged animals. Makes me shudder to think of what was going on there.
I love onion bhajis. Please throw a couple over here ?
Hope you have a good day and hope your knees and hands aren’t too sore.
Grammaretto that sounds quite a trip with the compost. Is the new no dig plot in your garden or an allotment? I only ask because you mention wheeling the barrow along the street.
Not surprised you’re worn out.
I hope your decorator does your bidding tomorrow. You’re paying he shouldn’t quibble over what paint you want used.
Cherry I hope our team aren’t getting hammered ? ??

I'm blowing bubbles ixion ? ??

It is amazing how much fun you can have with bubbles!
I am wondering about the Panaches. I hope that neither of you is in pain.

Well done Mamissimo on the tree planting. Planting 20 trees all at once is a huge job.

I made a little progress on my no-dig plot. It isn't really no dig because for compost I am wheeling a barrow to the other end of my garden, digging from an old compost heap to fill the barrow and then pushing it uphill, through the street to spread it on the new plot. So far I have managed 3 barrow loads before collapsing.

I shall be very firm with the painter tomorrow. I think I made him understand I have strong feelings about the type of paint. I don't want the washable plastic stuff, He shouldn't be using it. Nobody should.

It's rather like gardeners who continue to use weedkillers and pesticides when they know it's damaging to wildlife and ultimately to all life, but they tell themselves "I'm not using much and it's the only way to stop the weeds/pests"

I'll climb off my soapbox now.
How was the footie Cherry?
I think my throat is a bit better. Thankyou.
I am glad you have a day with Anna to look forward to Kaimoana

Back to hot chocolate tonight. Thanks Jeeves. I prefer it to warm gin.

Yay cherry.
We're 4th!?
??

Jan16 Nice photo of the Tessa out of King's Lynn. Can you buy fish straight off the dock?

Gramaretto I hope you don't have a Hanna clone or you'll end up with a white ceiling and a painter saying, 'There now, isn't that so much better than the colour you chose?"
And a great desire to strangle the painter.

You and I may be what my son calls 'sociable loners'

Mamissimo you sound to have had an enchanting day. Bubbles are perennially popular and a great celebration, whatever version one chooses.

Oooh Cherry I do hope your team wins. You can celebrate with bubbles beneath your Ivy Arch
ixion is also a fan? Fingers crossed for a good result and no fiery wheels....they seem to be reserved for me just at the moment.

The Exciting Adventures of Gubbins’ Gran
1. Having decanted a packet of sultanas into a plastic box for the pantry. I saw I'd left one on the workbench so picked it up and popped it in my mouth. It was a fly - and not quite dead.

2. When Karen and I parked at the supermarket, we were suddenly surrounded by a violent altercation spilling, with ripe oaths and blows, from the doors.
A screaming female with a vocabulary a sailor would envy was advancing on a couple and hitting them in the face.

Her two children, about 2 and 8 months were sitting, abandoned and bewildered in the trolley as she punched.
Several other men came to placate her - vain hope. Karen and I tried to get round her and....

3. I fell.

As the screeching and swearing went on unabated a few feet away, two kind men rushed to ask if I was all right. I refused help and hauled myself up on the pole I'd struck my face on as I went down and poor Karen, in a state of utter shock, was in need of more assistance than I.

I now have 2 blue-purple painful knees, cut shins and hand. Fortunately, as I carry sanitiser, was able to whip out the magic bottle and cleanse myself of glass and gore.

Doodle In 1997, I stayed in a small cottage in Althorp where ivy had grown through the bedroom window. It had also grown all round the room and across the bed, which was noticeably damp, partly from cat widdle.

The couple had 17 cats, dotted and prowling on every surface and they yowled to come into my room that night.

The living room wall was a solid bank of small cages, each one containing a hamster, ferret, rat or gerbil. The atmosphere was so acrid as to make the eyes water.

I often wondered if the caged were cat food.

As I managed to get supplies after all, I am now off to prepare Butter Chicken, cucumber raita and aloo saag for tomorrow's lunch. Onion bhajis and roti will be made at the last minute.
We'll have to make do with a sugar-free Chocolate Mud mug cake, for dessert, whipped up in the microwave if we decide we have any tummy room left.

Love and good wishes to all

Panache I hope you managed to get through the Easter break and help returns tomorrow. Still thinking and praying for you and MrP . and hugs xx

What a busy lot you’re been. I will have to catch up.
Ah grammaretto now I understand, the sea is close to where your son lives. How nice to go there when you visit.
Good to hear your MIL is doing better. How is your sore throat today?
How has the decorating been going today? Will it take them long? I hope he just gets on with what you want him to do.
I might drive up to you to have my hair cut. None open here yet. Having watched the video you posted I am interested to see how you get on with your no dig potatoes.
Warm gin oh dear me no, I shall have a word with Jeeves. ?
Cherry I will have my fingers and toes crossed for our team tonight. I haven’t heard any cheering yet. Hope all is going well. How did I guess you were a sociable person ?. Our cheery, cheeky Cherry couldn’t be anything but.
Hope you are making progress with the ivy. When we moved into our last house (a bungalow actually) one wall was covered with ivy. We then discover it had grown through one bedroom window and the window wouldn’t shut properly. It took us weeks to hack it all down. Some of the branches were thicker than my arm.
Hoping for a blow by blow (actually I suppose I mean kick by kick account of the match) ?
Kaimoana I was thinking it must be Anna. What a lovely looking lady. You seem to have developed a lovely relationship with her. How nice that you meet and have a birthday celebration.
Glad you’re still enjoying the Dean and his garden. I agree that magnolia is wonderful.
The video of the piglets made me laugh. Pigs are normally slow plodding types not fast movers but those little piglets run so fast I love watching them.
Hope you are feeling a bit better.
Jan I love watching the boats. We occasionally visit Mudeford on the south coast. They have a few small fishing boats.
Snow ?. Surely not. Your weather is certainly variable.
I think lockdown affects us all in different ways. DH and I are used to spending a lot of time together. We don’t socialise much outside of family so probably affected us less than many. I hope you get to meet up with your friends soon.
I ate a lot of chocolate yesterday too. I did enjoy it.
Mamissimo cold here today too. Twenty trees. Wow you have been working hard. DH and I planted two copper beech trees in the garden of our last but one home. The area is chalk and the ground so hard DH had to did the holes with a pick axe. Despite all the odds, the trees flourished. We had them properly cut by a tree surgeon and they were magnificent. Beautiful shape and colour. We drove past some moths ago and were horrified to see the latest owners had cut all the bottom branches off to a height of about 5g’ and then cut the whole of the top off about 3 ft higher up. The lovely trees looked like two plates on top of poles. Such a shame.
Ooh I love bubble wands too. We used to have such fun with them and the DGC.

Yep ixion we do! COYI ?? ?

We need that win CherryCezzy?!
? ?

Evening Gang ?

Bubbles are essential in life Mamissimo ?. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon with your DGC.
I hope there'll be many bubbles blowing later tonight ? because I really want my footie team to win.
Wow, well done, twenty trees! No wonder your body is broken, mine ached after one day scything pruning the ivy. ? I wonder if you are going to be as good as you say and will actually enact your plan to rest, doesn't sound like. How is finishing the porch resting . I can't imagine you resting for very long.

I hope your throat is better now Grammaretto and your DGD and your DS are enjoying their birthdays ?
I hope it's not long before Scotland opens up like Wales has and it won't be long before you can take your MiL to see DD in the highlands. It will be lovely for you both, and DD too ?
I sincerely hope that your painter is not like Hanna. Not being cruel about the lady but you wouldn't want him to go ahead and paint any colour he wants which is what I think Hanna might be capable of ?. In all seriousness I hope he's doing a very good job for you.

Aha Kaimoana so I was correct that the beautiful lady in the photo is Anna. No wonder you are her kiwi grandma she has known you since she was so young, you have nurtured her and she loves and appreciates you for it ?
I haven't had the opportunity to look at the YouTube video yet but I will. Thank you.

Jan I think that many people are "only now" being really hitby lockdown. It gets harder to recognise what life was in the past and what it can be in the future. I'm lucky too in that I have my WP but I'm a very sociable person like you and I'm sure you can guess that I like to chat ?. My WP is a much quieter all round person than me so ... at the moment I talk ?. As I said earlier, Wales has opened up and I can go places and I can see people but I'm waiting for the children to be back in school after Easter before I meet up with anyone. The Gower should be embraced with caution at the moment and come with a serious health, it's a little busy by all accounts ?

Good morning ?
Well it's brrrrrr here as well! Yesterday we were blowing bubbles in the sunshine and today I'm well wrapped up.

The trees are in! One small orchard planted.....twenty trees.....broken body! I've done so much bending and stretching that I seem to have gone ping.....but the stiffness will wear off soon.

We celebrated the planting by having the DGC over for afternoon tea and a bubble party. we drank the bubbles The girls love a bubble wand and they last for ages.

This week I plan to rest.....? and finish the porch!

Hello lovely Lobstars,
I also wrote a long letter which disappeared . I tried to add a photo and it all vanished.
Hey Ho.
I can read your letters and enjoy your photos instead.
Your weather looks a darned sight better than ours, Jan

I used to think I was sociable but I think there is much of the hermit in me.

The painter has begun so I went in with a coffee for him and am letting him get on with it. He's still at the prep stage. Luckily I have another loo.
He has asked me twice if I'm sure I don't want the ceiling white as most people do. ...
No. I prefer the colour I chose thanks. He could be the Hanna equivalent in painters. I hope not. [fear symbol}

We aren't being let free just yet but garden centres and hairdressers are opening today. Social media is full of thousands of teenagers crushed together in city parks and beaches.

See you later. I'm off to not -dig my no-dig potato patch

PS meant it snowed this morning and can’t resist chocolate not can!! Going senile!!

Morning all. So yet another long post I sent last night goes missing. Grrrrr! Will try again!
Yesterday was a glorious day. Wall to wall sunshine and had a lovely morning down by the river watching the fishing boats come in at high tide. Then today sat in bed drinking our tea and it b....y snowed!! Very little but it was snow! Stopped now but it’s soooooo cold. Just can’t believe the weather can change so quickly!
Very strange week last week. No idea why but lockdown just hit me hard even though fingers crossed it should improve very soon. All culminated with a visit to my lovely GP. Change of pills and told to be careful but to start meeting up with friends again gradually. I hate saying this as I know so many of you are so much worse off than I am but I’m a very sociable person and need people to chat too. I’m very lucky in that I have my DH here and having been widowed once I know how hard it is to be on your own but that’s just not enough for me. Anyway that’s enough so shut up Jan!
Had Easter Egg overload yesterday! I’m not at all religious so Easter to me means hot cross buns and chocolate! I hardly ever eat sweet things but can resist chocolate. Result was pounding headache last night! Serves me right!!
Grammaretto good luck with your painting work. Hate having workmen in and the house upside down. Always seem to need a wee just as a man pops up!! Hope it all goes well. How kind to take flowers and chocolate to DMiL and it’s great to have something to look forward too. Haven’t seen my eldest daughter or son in law since Christmas as they live 80 miles away but hoping they well come over after April 12.
Cherry hope you are feeling better. It’s lovely to be able to get outside but nothing today in Norfolk!
Kaimoanawhat is so difficult about making a bed?! Very strange. Had as for the tissues - so hate that. Means washing all over again.
Hope you all have a good Easter Monday and that the Panaches have had some help over this long break and that Mr P has managed to have some pain free time. So sad.
Right - will try and post this long rambling message! Here goes!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-234712-heatwave.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-199109-dean-mag.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202104/medium-312838-the-banks2.jpg

Hmm, all sorts of conflicting information at the moment!

Jan16 Of course we missed you - how could we not? You're part of the family.

No Grammaretto no heatwave for us, it was all confined to the South Island.
Hope your sore throat goes soon - have you been singing too much?

The vaccine we're getting, which is probably what my doctor was talking about doesn't work by producing antibodies as most vaccines do but strengthens the T-lymphocyte cells which attack Covid (and, incidentally, fight cancer. They are sometimes known as "killer cells" in the media).

It was found that even patients who contracted Covid, produced only small numbers of antibodies, so could easily be re-infected - which, as we know, happened.

Here's an excerpt from an official flyer which seeks to answer common questions:
There is still a lot we don’t know about SARS-CoV-2 and the mark that it leaves on our immune system. Before we place too much stock in the results of an antibody test, we need to remember that the presence or absence of antibodies is far from the full story

That's Anna (real name Bo Yoon) not Hanna in the photo. Hanna is well over middle-age.

I began teaching Anna when she was about 10; I'd been teaching her older sister for the previous 4 years.

When Anna went on to High School and then university to study Japanese and Chinese language and History, she sent all her projects to me.
Information and briefs were couched in complicated language, so I simplified it and once she understood what was needed, was able to excel.

Anna and I have birthdays 16 days apart (she was 28 in January) so she decided we'd have joint celebrations and have done so now for over a decade.
Anna often introduces me as, "my Kiwi grandma" and we regularly meet for a day of gossip and hilarity - of which Wednesday will be one.

Doodle I love the Dean's chickens in your picture. I must catch up with what's happening in the garden.
Good to hear you had a garden party of your own; plenty of blankets round the shoulders and a little hot toddy?
I'll share the magnolia - what a splendid tribute to Wendy.

Cherry You've got your Tigger tail back - good to see. Your grand-nephew may like this from the Cathedral garden.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrfJ1PPKhRo&t=512s
Oh, yes, every point you make about Hanna occurred to me too, it defies all logic, hence my idea of dementia.
I felt very mean about the Easter Egg, a nice gesture, if futile.

Missedout's photo of a lovely woodland path put me in mind of one I used to take .some 65+ years ago.
It's still there (see Google photo) but overgrown (a bit like me). It led to a beck where I loved playing and gathering bilberries which Mum made into pies and jam.

Ah, happy days.

Wish you all, present and missing, the love and sunshine you deserve.

Aww, Doodle the Dean's Easter photo is so cute, I can imagine the look on my youngest great nephew's face if that was in front of him ?.
It sounds like you've had a couple of wonderful days, seeing one son, hugging ? (?) your DGS and seeing your other son too ?. I'll skip over the sitting out in cold, brr only I haven't because as long as you haven't caught a chill ... .
Ah, yes I hope our team haven't overindulged today as we have a match tomorrow. We'll be in a good position if we win. That'll make it a nervy watch ?

Grammaretto I hope your DGD has been enjoying her birthday ?

All the LobStars want to know who that beautiful young woman is Kaimoana, I'm no exception. You say Anna is coming to see you on Wednesday, is that a picture of her?
Hanna is quite a law into herself, I think we all realised that but if we didn't there's no denying it now is there! She makes a bed with _two- top sheets, who but who does that?. Nice of her to buy you something for Easter but she can't not know by now that an egg with truffles is unsuitable. The most curious and annoying thing though is how could she not see the tissues and separate them from the linen ?.

It's been a beautiful day here, in fact the weather's been lovely for the last three. I've had a chillaxed day, chatted to my nieces, cooked a roast and ate too much ?. Yesterday to try and shake off the post-ictal (after seizure) fatigue I decided to help my WP actually do some gardening. Trust me to pick a big job ?. I decided that I wanted to tackle the ivy, much to the joy of my WP. He decided that he would like it, if I could manage, shaped into an arch ?. I made some progress and there is shape but it's not quite an arch, yet! There's an awful lot of ivy ?. It's going to take me a week to do the job properly ?.

Good evening gang,

I agree Doodle all Lobstars are missed when we don't see you and I picture you all and hope you are not suffering.
I am sorry if I gave the impression I could walk to the sea. I did once when I was much younger but DS1 lives on the North side of Edinburgh which is about an hour's drive from me and near the Firth of Forth. My car is now fixed so I drove to visit as we are in a bubble (aren't we?)

I delivered flowers and chocolates to DMiL who was her wonderful stoical self. She says we can go to visit DD in the Highlands as soon as we are allowed and when the proper weather returns. It is perishing cold today. It is very important to have something to look forward to.

Tomorrow the painter is due to start. Scotland doesn't mark Easter or Christmas as much as in England (John Knox again) and I think the banks are permanently on holiday.

Thankyou Jeeves for my constant hot drinks but I am not sure that gin should be served warm....