The Lockdown Gang - Just chatting ⭐️

I am missing my daily Kaimoana fix of interesting news and photos. I hope you are ok. x
Mamissimo you are right it is quiet. I hope our gang are ok.
I think a big Cherry sandwich is definitely required.
I gather the Friends reunion has been a big hit. I never watched it so it means nothing to me. I always find it funny when you see people on the TV some years later and we all compare how they’ve aged compared to us.
Still so pleased at your good news. Will you be knitting or making something?
We are having a big clear out too. I have been wondering what to do with some of the things and you have given me a good idea to check local sites.
Bored beans are wiggly aren’t they. French beans...do they grow with little berets on. Well the running beans won’t win the marathon at this rate will they?
Grammaretto it’s such a shame about your community garden. I hope you find a new site soon. Hope you can manage to transport it ok.
It is indeed an English bank holiday. The roads are busy here too. Glad you had a lovely trip and enjoyed yourselves.
I am having a crown fitted in two parts. The first (cheap) bit is done and the painful bit (in the pocket) is due in a week or so.
I have been to the optician and ordered two new pairs of glasses. My prescription has changed so I have ordered one pair clear and one pair sunglasses. What with that and the dentist it will be an expensive month.
We are going to my son’s for lunch tomorrow. The first meal at their place since lockdown started over a year ago. So looking forward to it. DIL is a fantastic cook and makes the most lovely roast potatoes and puddings. Be lovely to spend time with them again.
Cherry we are dishing out your sandwiches here be lovely to share them with you.
Panache hope all is ok with you and hope you are getting some rest,
Dragonfly are you off visiting now, I think it’s this week or next?
Missedout are you back on dry land now?
Hope all have a good weekend.

Hello. I’m back from sunny Yorkshire and have brought the sun back home with me. Had a great week in the Dales. Lovely little cottage just a very short stroll to the local community run pub! 3 miles down the road was yet another great pub and a bit further on a very nice restaurant. So as you can guess no cooking was done for the entire week! Not that I ever do any on holiday. But we really enjoyed your week and DH discovered yet another of his favourite passions - driving down a one track road with the highest hills! Believe me he must have driven down - and up! - every one of them in Yorkshire with me hanging onto the edge of my seat having already taken my Kwell - travel sickness pill!
Hope Cherry is happily putting all her pots and pans back into her new kitchen and hoping she can actually find what she wants afterwards! Grammaretto we too found there was too much traffic and yes this is a Bank holiday weekend when the world goes mad. However everyone is so pleased to be out and as a bonus it’s great weather. Pleased you enjoyed your trip out though.
Mamissimo bet you had a great time withDD2. Such wonderful news for you all. Sad about the runner beans - I love them especially young ones. Hate the old stringy ones the shops sell at times.
Doodle so where is the photo of your sun hat? Think we would all like to see it - with you wearing it of course. Hope you got a good BP reading.

Hooray Mamissimo and more . I bet none of you will be able to stop smiling .

The need for a clear out has never been greater here and I am making small moves. However I seem to be the recipient of a shed. A large shed which still resides at the community garden and is in danger of being burned down or otherwise vandalised since we were evicted over a year ago.
I couldn't bear it if that happened so I have enlisted my df to see the shed and work out how it could be transported to my garden - until such time as we find another community garden.

I am going away soon so the timing is not great. Is it ever?

My jaunt was lovely yesterday. We enjoyed gorgeous weather in the Highlands but far too much traffic. Caravans galore . It must be an English bank holiday. Grannie was a trooper and a stoic. Youngest DGD entertained us and showed us her chooks.

I hope Doodle's appointment went well and I hope that the Cheeries are now in the new kitchen.

Other Lobstars. Please come out for sandwitches and share your stories..

Good morning ?
It's awfully quiet in here......shall I get Cherry to knock up a few rounds of sandwiches?

Did you watch the Friends Reunion? We enjoyed it except for James Corden.....he seemed de trop. Mr M became quite thoughtful when it finished and then asked me if he had aged like they all had.......I offered him a sandwich.....?

Well most of our vegetables are now caged in structures engineered from cane and netting by Mr M. It looks a bit like a vegetable zoo......but the pigeons are trumped.

DD2 is coming to see us tonight to celebrate their wonderful news. I feel the need to cocoon her but I'll probably just offer even more sandwiches and a few tears.

As we decorate and shift stuff around we're having a splendid clear out....so we can have another lovely trip to the dump this week. I offer most things free for collection on local sites first and I reckon about half the stuff gets recycled that way.

And finally....the bean report....bored beans are finally getting a wriggle on, French beans growing away with determination....running beans........zilch!

Enjoy the better weather....☀️

Wonderful new Mamissimo!

Mamissimo that’s fantastic news. ??
So pleased for you all. That’s been a long two weeks I bet.
Kaimoana I think we have a similar childlike humour ?
Been for a walk in the rain. Well showery really.
Trying to sit quietly now as GP surgery have said they want a BP reading. Have a good day all. Back later.

Mamissimo !!!!!
wonderful news
Congratulations all round. I was thinking of her as I woke this morning. xxxx

Good morning...........???????
DD2 is no longer PUPO......she's P!
Xxxx

Doodle you are totally hilarious! xxxxx

Kaimoanan ah I realise now why you thought Rose might not turn up. Not thoughtlessness after all.
That’s a really happy photo. Your friend Jenny looks like a really jolly soul. I bet there’s lots of laughter when you two get together.
?. Does she live far ways? Lovely pearls by the way.

Shame about your injection. Despite what you say it doesn’t sound like much fun. Dentist the day before too.
Been quite warm here today. I had to take my scarf off ?

Grammaretto I missed the bit about your haircut. A mullet indeed. You will be buying bovver boots soon. ?
Yes I try not to get too excited about things, unfortunately that means I am a bit of a pessimist which is not really the best way to go through life,
Sounds as though your hip pain has moved up to your head. Perhaps you need another session to move it on again.
I’ve just been for a wee, going to have my zzz later ?

What a joyful photo Kaimoana. I think the trick is to keep expectations low and then we aren't so disappointed when plans fall through. Or is it the opposite?

Ah Doodle that's more like I imagined. Why are those photos even on the internet. Mudeford looks like a city on there.

I saw the chiropractor for my sore joints yesterday and he must have done something because the hip is better but I had a headache last night and couldn't sleep! He is from NZ but has settled here with a local girl. They are doing up an old house......

MrP sounds amazing Panache. I hope you are enjoying some precious, painfree time together.

I think I will have a wee ZZZ now. See you all later.

Your lunch and trip to Mudeford Doodle sound splendid and makes me envious. I love the sea too and although it’s only 12km from me, it might as well be a 100, as I can’t get to it.

Grammaretto Woo Hoo! A Mullet, I bet you look very smart.
Do you think your MiL is up to a Highland fling? I hope it all goes well.

You came to mind yesterday when I was listening to Eric Dempsey’s book about bird watching. Your garden sounds the ideal venue for birders to sit with their flasks and sammies, binoculars to their faces, ticking off the migrating birds. Apparently it can be quite lucrative for the land-owner.

Yes, Doodle I had a feeling Rose wouldn’t turn up, despite my reminding her on Monday evening – she’s very vague and, I suspect, in the early stages of dementia.

At 7am the driver of the St.John shuttle rang to tell me he was poorly. All his passengers had to reschedule their appointments, so my injection will now be on 2nd June.
The injection itself doesn’t hurt as such Doodle but one feels the push of the needle and sees a glutinous liquid flood the eye. Later, when the anaesthetic wears off, it’s fairly sore for a few days, possibly more so for me because after 11 years of regular jabs, there’s a lot of scar tissue. I shall be hors de combat anyway as I have the dental appointment the day before. What joy.

It was lovely seeing Jenny. Before Lockdown, she was fighting the inevitable wheelchair (she has cerebral palsy) but now seems to have accepted it. She’s a very happy lady and loved dancing.
The picture here was taken on my 72nd birthday. Mamissimo note the pearls , someone had just given them as a birthday gift.

Jenny and I have kept in touch by phone and mail – I sent her pictures when Gubbins was born but it was good to meet up.

A beautiful, sunny day here but very cold; it went down to 4degrees last night but I was cosy in my bed with the fresh breeze blowijng round me.

Wishing you all, near and far, a peaceful and calm day.

Hope Cherry and Dragonfly are both ok.

See, we did have sunshine. ?

Grammaretto that made me laugh. If there’s one thing Mudeford isn’t it’s a proper huge seaside resort. Pictures on the internet are deceptive. There is a small harbour, a short promenade you can walk the length of in about 2 minutes, a lovely Sandy beach and a sand spit that houses some beach hits that cost a fortune. It’s a lovely place and we try and get there every year.
I think Fudge is lovely. Hope you two are getting on.

*a proper

Hello Gang,

I had to look up Mudeford Doodle ignoramus that I am. It looks like a proper huge seaside resort. Wow! Coastal walks sound lovely.

Kaimoana good luck getting injections in your eyes. You are a brave girl. Sorry your friend didn't show up but your other one did so you enjoyed communicare.

I am pleased with my hair. I was amused that the hairdresser enjoyed cutting it, copying the photo! Not a cut he has ever been asked for.It's a proper mullet now. Short on top but with the length at the back as a nod to the year of covid when we had no choice but to let our hair grow.

I sat with MiL today while BiL had his 2nd jag. She slept some of the time but is still up for a trip to the Highlands.

I spread the gorgeous horse poo on the roses and 3 women came to dig out the horseradish. Fudge is a she. Here she is

Hi Mamissimo she with a nest of adders. That must be rare.
Be careful though, they can be deadly.......

Sorry all I may have ruined summer. I have bought a sun hat. ?.
A nest of adders ? No. what are you going to do. They bite don't they? The field sounds lovely but adders not for me.
Fingers still crossed here too.
Enjoy your salad.

Good evening ?

Great excitement here with the discovery of a nest of adders in a stack of logs......Mr M has now secured his place in the Olympic hurdling team? The back field is protected as a Site of Scientific Interest and today it proved to be more interesting than ever. It's ancient pasture and has never ever seen a chemical so the flora and fauna are rich and varied.

Kaimosna my family endlessly rib me for my love of the IKEA.....I struggle to drive past one. It's better than pick n mix! they also take the mick about my Pearl wearing habits ?

DD2 is still PUPO and we will know early on Friday morning. I am keeping very very busy....the garden has never looked better apart from all the anti pigeon netting that is now spread over the lettuce and cabbages. I've been putting in almost black Dahlias today and moving my pots around. It's rumoured that the sun is coming.

And now to make a salad....

Hello all. I’m back.
Had a lovely lunch with BIL and SIL then down to Mudeford in the rain. Tuesday was a good day dry until 4.30pm so lots of beach and cliff walks. So wonderful to see the sea again. Our last walk we did get caught in the rain but didn’t get too wet and it rained most of the way home but a good trip none the less,
So what have my friends been up to.
Grammaretto hope you are pleased with the haircut. Seems like you and the Shetland pony have a good arrangement. You feed him/her and he/she ...provides you with manure for the garden ? For moment when you said you were giving away horseradish I did wonder if that was something you got from the pony
Kaimoana what beautiful pictures. I didn’t see mountains like that in Mudeford. Oh what a shame about the willow. Why do people do such things.
Mamissimo hope the chemo went well. How lovely to make some new friends and be able to invite them round.
Funny you should mention the Red Kytes. We do have a lot in the Chilterns and I can see them most days in the sky but today on my way to the opticians one flew down right in front of me and picked up something on the pavement and flew off again. I hadn’t realised quite how big they are or what a huge wingspan. Gave me quite a shock.
Still got fingers crossed here too.
Oh Jan your Sophie is lovely.
Panache we’re thinking of you all the time. Your man certainly outs up a good fight to be with you. The constant stress must be wearing you out, please take care. Much love to you both x
Kaimoana what a joy to meet up with your friend after such a long time. I expect you had a lot of catching up to do.
Sorry your other friend didn’t come. Is she prone to not letting you know? That’s disappointing. Good the time was well spent with a carpet clean.
I wouldn’t be looking forward to an injection in my eye either. Does it hurt a lot. Hope it goes ok.
Take care.

Mamissimo bridle? Why did you think I meant you?
Perhaps because I'm wearing pearl earrings and it's still morning
If we had an IKEA here, just one item would clutter up my small cottage.

Good to hear from Panache that her beloved is amazing everyone - even if it's the same awful struggle, at least there's some ongoing care. Many cwtches xxx

We have Black Kites here.

I had not intended to go to Communicare but a phone call told me one of my dear friends was coming, after a 2 year absence. Lots of hugs and catching up. Lovely.

Rose never turned up for morning tea yesterday but that doesn't really surprise me.

The time was taken usefully by someone with a steam cleaner who improved the look of my pale grey carpet.

Masala Dosa for lunch with a nice, crunchy salad.

Eye injection tomorrow - you can guess how much I'm looking forward to that.

Hoping all our Gang are doing well.

Sleep well Gang.
Panaches

I too send you love and hugs Panache.

Sending love and virtual (((hugs))) to you both dear Panache

Good morning to you all.

Have chosen to keep a low profile as life has become just one difficulty and hardship too many.

My dear man amazes all the medics with his remarkable recoveries following a string of great issues,but of course, the lasting effects of this emotional climb up and down non stop is truly very detrimental to both my own physical and mental health.
Am truly finding each new day almost too difficult to contemplate.

I have not forgotten you all though, and wish you well,always.