The Lockdown Gang - carry on chatting ⭐️

Hello Gang-stars!

I had to look up Sapphire wedding Mamissimo.
We missed a trick there.
I am glad you enjoyed yourselves on the Emerald Isle.
DS1 starts a job soon in Dublin.
I was going to apply for Irish citizenship through my DGF but too many other things have got in the way. It was partly a protest about leaving the EU and it wouldn't help my DC.

A couple are coming to look at the granny flat today so I had better spruce it up. The electrician still hasn't done all the things he said he would. I must chase him.

As displacement activity, when I should be clearing things out, I am going to buy look at a cheap 2nd hand magimix on facebook marketplace this morning, I used to have one and I miss it. I used it to make breadcrumbs and grind nuts to make veggieburgers. I may still have no cooker but I'll be ready when I do!

I hope the fridge-freezer arrives and fits Doodle

How exciting to be building a house muse and it is probably an eco house and cosy. I am suddenly jealous!

"Ancestry" have told subscribers that they are going to update our DNA results tomorrow. I wonder if I will be told anything new. The last time they did that, MiL discovered she is 1% African and I was told I am 2% Welsh.

Is it coffee time yet?

Forgot to say Nortsat. I usually have fish but had pork belly this time. MrMuse has had it before and enjoyed it. Superb crackling . Prawns in a spicy sauce for starters for me. MrMuse went totally veggie. Carrot and sweet potato soup followed by red onion and Brie tart. Dauphinois potatoes and lots of veggies between us.

Doodle. We live in a teeny tiny damp cottage with hardly any mod cons. It’s more of a workplace for both of us. The new build is by the cottage and is to keep us warm and comfortable in our old age. Plus there’s an extra bedroom so family can stay with us?. The local parish councillor spoke for us at the planning committee. He said our home was like something out of Poldark ?.

Congratulations ? on your wedding anniversary mammisimo

Mamissimo fantastic. Many congratulations to you and MrM. Sounds like you have a lovely trip with your family. We look forward to hearing all about it. Welcome back.
I expect you need a rest after all the excitement.
Muse glad you had a nice birthday meal. Your house build seems to be coming on. Where are you living at the moment, are you on site?
I was very close to my brother too. I was very sad when he developed dementia. He always had such a sharp mind and was a wonderful raconteur.

Hello Lobstars and good morning from under a very blue Cornish sky. We have very little light pollution where we live so I'm quite often out looking at the night sky Missedout. Thank you for the link Grammaretto.

What lovely words the Dutch have Doodle.

I treasure my friendship with my brother too. When I left my first husband, my brother used to spend every Sunday morning with me. We lived close to each other. It was an emotionally difficult time for me so his visits meant so much. Together we would put the world to rights. A few years later I met MrM and then moved 300 miles away to Cornwall. My DB and I talk on the phone occasionally but it doesn't quite match those long Sunday morning chats.

Lovely birthday meal with MrM thank you.

We push on with our house build. Today, is another day at cleaning the newly laid limestone slabs around the house. Yesterday's jet wash was not successful.

Good Morning ?
We're back from ten days in glorious Ireland and hope to be firing on all cylinders tomorrow. We only got home at 3.30 this morning because the M4 was shut by roadworks in Cardiff and Newport, Bristol, Swindon and other places too dark to see. There was only us and a few Amazon lorries on the road but it went on forever!

Mr M and I celebrated our Sapphire wedding anniversary on Monday in great style and my brain has not quite recovered yet...so I'll read up and catch up.

Good to be home ?

Ooh Kaimoana what a threat ?. No DH and I are past doing things like that now. The nice people at John Lewis will bring the new fridge unpack it, install it and take the old one and all the packaging away and I will have a lovely nice clean new fridge. The new one will be a bit smaller in height than the old one but a bigger freezer which will be useful.
Grammaretto it would be nice to have to eat up all the tasty leftovers but unfortunately, due to DHs somewhat delicate stomach the only thing we have in our freezer is chicken, some peas and a few mixed veg.
We did have a cake and coffee at JL yesterday. DH had a lovely chocolate fudge cake and I had what I hoped was going to be a delicious Chelsea bun. Although that is what it was called it was a very poor imitation. Somewhat doughy only two currants and no crunchy sugar on top. Very disappointing ?
Will watch your links in a minute.
Are your yarn group still meeting?
Morning Nortsat I was going to ask if I could come and curl up will the Molls as I could do with a little nap. However, not sure I like the sound of the road works so I will stay here.
Sorry to hear you’ve been feeling unwell again. Hope you are feeling better today.
I like Pink Lady apples but at the moment I am enjoying some Envy ones. They don’t last long but have a good flavour when they’re fresh. I will check my lunchtime one and see if I can find a little owl.
I have definitely slowed down since lockdown. DH has become decidedly round shouldered since his fall before Christmas. He was a bit that way before but the fall made it so much worse I spend all my time telling him to stand up straight.
Hope you all have a good day.

Good morning Gang-Stars from me and the Molls (who are all asleep).
I am determined to post today. I wasn’t well a couple of days ago and was trying to post, but I managed to loose my half completed missive four times. I realised I was muzzy-headed from my meds and so gave up. However I was with you in spirit.

The road is being dug up, just opposite our house and the horrible grinding noise of the digging machinery has just woken up all three cats, who are exceedingly disgruntled.
Muse I hope things are well with you both and that the birthday meal was lovely ... do let us know what you ate.
Kaimoana, I love the secret of the star or the owl inside the apple. I can imagine it’s possible to conjure all sorts of stories around that. I wish I had a little one here now, to tell such a story to.
I have got some nice Pink Lady apples and will look for the owl, when I have one this afternoon.
Thank you for the (horrific) information about the birds and the olives. I will look carefully at the origins of the olives I buy, henceforth.
Grammaretto poignant conversation for you with the stone carver. Perhaps there is comfort to be drawn from the fact that it’s a family stone and (presumably) a family plot.
Have a gentle day today. ? Actually on catching up with all the news, you seem to be super busy ...so do try to look after yourself and don’t over do things.
Nfkdumpling, how lovely that you were fortunate with the weather during your trip. Eating outside makes everything taste nicer. ?
Panache lovely to see you, when you are facing such challenges.
Well done for seeking support from a Counsellor.
I wish there was something we could do or say to offer you some comfort.
I can only offer my sincere good wishes and repeat it’s good to see you amongst us. ?
Lovely story about the giraffe at Regents Park Zoo, Boat.
Missedout, your holiday sounds like great fun and another Gang-star who was lucky with the weather.
I sympathise over your nighttime trips to the loo, but can quite imagine the compensation of beautiful clear night skies.
Living in London, where the air is very polluted we seldom see a clear starry sky. Whenever we go away, the first thing I look for at night is a clear starry sky.
Doodle I agree about anything out of the ordinary being very tiring now. If we pop out for lunch and even when no alcohol is consumed, we still dose off on the sofas in the afternoon. My partner wonders if it’s because we’re getting older and I insist it’s the impact of the lockdown and shielding.

Have a pleasant day, Gang-stars and hello to Cherry incase she’s reading, best from me and the Molls. ???

Hello fellow Lob-stars,

Wet prawns on bare legs, Nooo. Poor Doodle the very thought.
I hope the contents of your freezer are tasty. I still have marmalade oranges in mine and quantities of frozen peas in case of backache. Neither look very attractive when hungry.

I love the stories of the sky at night. There are websites for Aurora Borealis followers
aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/

I once watched them for ages. I was at a ceilidh in Perthshire and had to go outside to get cool and there it was flickering green lights in the night sky. then I realised how cold I was and went back indoors

The wedding: Am I worried? yes and no.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcFd5j1cios

Lets talk about something else.
Sorry about your infection Missedout but glad you had a super camping trip. There's a woman at my yarn group who goes about the country with vintage cars who would agree it's a great community.

boat thanks for the info about the giraffe's diet

boat
Nfk not all olive growers use the dreadful vacuum system but it's as well to know who does - and if supermarkets will support or suspend such sales.

missedout I'm so glad your camping holiday went well; sounds just what you needed.

Grammaretto how much organsing do you have to do for this wedding? I thought you were just hiring your garden. Look after yourself.

Doodle Your new fridge-freezer sounds good. Now you definitely won't try to move and position it yourself will you - otherwise Kaimoana may have to slap your legs with a wet prawn.

Kaimoana that is awful about the olives, I love olives too but didn’t realise that about the birds.
Boat that was so funny. Sorry you lost you bun ?
NFK I haven’t been to a zoo for years. I remember one trip to a wildlife park when my boys were both quite young. At the end of a long day seeing tigers and lions and elephants and giraffes we asked them what they enjoyed seeing the most. Their joint answer was Land Rovers. ?
Ooh I hadn’t thought of Olive oil. I use that too. I’d better read the link.
Grammaretto I was saying to DH the other day that I find it difficult to cope with anything out of the ordinary. Even a shopping trip seems to leave me exhausted. I think lockdown has affected us in many ways. We are used to a more peaceful and slower pace of life. Mixing with others and socialising seems to require a lot of energy these days……..let alone hosting a wedding. Hope all the plans are going well. Do you have to do anything or just sit back and let it happen around you?
Hello Missedout ,lovely to hear from you.
Sounds like you were lucky with the weather. Sorry you have another infection. Hope the antibiotics knock it out soon.
The best night sky I have ever seen was in Norway when we went looking for the northern lights. On the night we finally saw them the sky was clear and I have never experienced anything like it. I have never lived in a rural area or anywhere without street lamps. To see the sky filled with thousands and thousands of stars was amazing, to me it was more wonderful than the actual northern lights.
Mind you I did wake up with a crick in my neck the following morning from looking up so much ?
Jeeves will be deeply touched that you missed him. I expect as the nights draw in we will make more use of his hot chocolate dispensing.
DH and I have been out and about today. Doing a lot of window shopping and not much else although I did buy a Phase Eight top in the sale which I am quite pleased with.
Most of the other clothes seemed to be really drab colours and a lot of dark florals.
We were mainly looking for a new fridge freezer. Bit difficult to find one that was the right size to fit in the hole. seems that they have got taller since we last bought one. Managed to get one that we hope will fit. Just got to eat through the contents of the freezer before the new one is delivered.
Take care all.

Hello Lobstars, I'm back from the campsite in Norfolk! We were so lucky with the weather. We had several days of hot sunshine (cool nights) and just one, short cloudburst which tested our cooking arrangements outside the tent (we set up a tarpaulin - it passed the test). We spent a lot of time sitting outside, just chatting in groups catching up after 2 years. We went on car runs - some cars broke down but the owners of old cars enjoy trying to fix them as much as they enjoy driving them.

The campsite owners were obliging and went out of their way to accommodate us. We've already booked again for next summer.

It wasn't all good for me though. I have another infection. I'm glad I always take my prescribed emergency antibiotics away with me. Getting up frequently in the night to toddle off to the loos is not much fun. However, the night skies were amazing, the stars were so clear and there were spectacular sunrises, I probably wouldn't have seen them had I not had to get up so often. The sunsets were also glorious.

DH and I have a lot of clearing up to do still. We need to make sure everything is in good condition before being stored away, ready for next time.

I haven't had a chance to catch up properly. Charging phones was a problem while away and I only checked mine infrequently. However, I did see that Panache had posted and that Cherry is still keeping in touch with some of the gangsters.

I have missed Jeeves although he wasn't needed to turn down the corner of my sleeping bag.

Good evening gang,

I hope you are all present and correct.
I am far too busy. I wish things would settle down a bit. It feels out of control with things piling up.
Then if I start to think by October it will be quiet again I feel I'm wishing my life away!

Surely the olive oil I consume - organically grown - is not damaging birds? That would be awful. It is Organico made with Spanish Olives. It is OK on the list.

We visited an olive farm in Cordoba belonging to one of our community gardeners (A Spanish woman) she was very concerned about the use of pesticides by her fellow growers. She didn't mention the birds.

How are all of you today?

Hello boat! I love the idea of feeding giraffes buns. I think they must get awfully bored with just greenery branches when they can see people with buns walking by! Zoos are so much better nowadays and do good work in conservation, but I don't much like to see the apes incarcerated. However hard their keepers try their horizons are so much confined. The other animals look quite content but the apes look sad.

And hi Panache. Its great to see you back again and good to hear that you've got the support of a councillor. Much needed I suspect. Friends are great and also needed but they're often too close.

I hope the Muses had a lovely meal and a wonderful time last evening. Its so good to be able to eat out again. So much we took for granted and have learned now to value more.

You're being so very busy Grammaretto, I can't keep up. The wedding is Saturday? This Saturday? A marquee on the lawn eh? It's going to be wonderful!

I shall now read Kaimoanas link while I have breakfast. I use a lot of olive oil as it seemed more environmentally friendly (and good for you). Now it looks like I will need to be more careful.

I don't know what you are meant to feed giraffes but I do know what they like.

When I was four I was taken to Regents Park Zoo in London. As we arrived at the giraffe enclosure my mother handed me a bun. I got one small bite then a giraffe leaned down and snaffled it.

Happy Birthday MrMuse

Because I love birds and olives I was appalled to learn that two and a half million birds are killed in Portugal alone during the olive harvesting season.
This article meantions the retailers who say they will refuse to carry olives harvested this way. I'm going to look into it withour our retailers as well.
I may never eat an olive again.

www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/olive-harvesting-bird-deaths

Evening all. How are the gang tonight?
Kaimoana all these years of cutting apples and I never knew that. I have been to see my DGS today and had a lovely big hug. He is so big now that I am swamped by him….lovely. ?
Grammaretto nice to have a visit from your brother. I miss mine. There was a big age gap between us but we were very close. Do you get to meet up often?
Oh your SIL is Danish too. I have just mentioned a big age gap between myself and my brother so there was also the same sort of gap between me and my SIL however, we were very close. After my brother died we spoke every day on the phone and we went on holiday together a few times. I only know a few Danish phrases and can count up to 12 in Danish. One thing I did like about the Danish language was the way they distinguish between grandparents, as in mother’s mother, mother father etc. Not sure of the spelling but it went something like momo, mofa, famo, fafa. What a sensible idea for grandchildren to know who belonged to whom.
Wow a prefect in the family. You’d better all be on your best behaviour. How lovely for her.
NFK glad you and the camper-bubble have had another outing. Interesting to know that about Colchester Caste. Didn’t know they had one. Also the zoo. DH and I intend to do more UK travelling so I am storing information.
It’s hard to catch up with all the doings of the gang isn’t it.
Wow Panache how lovely to see you posting on the thread. We have missed you. I’m glad you are getting some help and hope the counselling is helping. So glad you have heard from our lovely Cherry who is lurking in the background. I await the day when we have her back with us too.
Muse hope MrM has a good birthday and his leg improves soon too.
Take care all

It's so lovely to see your post Panache. I'm sure the counselling sessions will be worthwhile. It's a huge step towards helping you cope. Well done. ?

Grammaretto I'll dust off the racket and find those trainers.

Thank you all for the messages about MrM's leg. We are off out to celebrate his birthday tonight. First meal out together for 18 months.

I love the star and the owl Kaimoana and will try to remember when next with the tiny tots.

My DGD came home from school today sporting a prefect's badge and tie! No-one in my family has ever been a prefect before.

Great to see you Panache but sorry to hear that you have been struggling so much. I hope the counsellor has helped.

Your little holiday sounds a perfect break NfkD
What would you feed a giraffe?

I haven't been able to slump yet though my visitors have left. It's all go on the wedding front now. this is the one in my garden on saturday and there is still tons to do.

Good afternoon to all our old gang and of course to our new posters.
I have most certainly not forgotten you all.

I had thought I would be back amongst you all a good while back, but I am afraid the many lesser issues I faced a while ago,simply have not been resolved.
In fact for the past several weeks I have been at my wits end,not quite honestly knowing what best to do.
However I have made several inroads into trying to help myself ,whilst turning in desperation to a Bereavment Counsellor.
So hopefully at some point, life may look a whole lot better.

Sending my very best wishes to you one and all,including our Cez of course, whom has written I am pleased to add,along with Doodle and Norstat.

Good afternoon All

I've been away again. Just for a few days. This time we travelled just down the road to Colchester and parked Camperbubble at Colchester Country Park - which I foolishly thought meant it would be like other country park sites where you walk out of the site and onto a - country park. But it seems that it was just a camp site and the tiny park area was on the other side of a dual carriageway. We never got to it. But we did catch the bus into Colchester and spent virtually the whole day in the castle. Its really good! And another day at the zoo and still didn't see all of it, and I want to go back when the weather is to cool for little ones so there'll be fewer people and I can get to feed a giraffe! The sun shone and we ate every meal outside for the first time this summer! I don't think we'll go back to that site as there was so much road noise. But it was perfectly placed for a quick bus ride into town.

I've just read back through all your exploits and now have to read back again as I've forgotten who said what!

Unwinding after too much to eat Doodle. I like the sound of that.
I waved DB onto the bus just now and asked the driver to look after him and make sure he gets off at the right stop and the driver said " but who will look after me?"

I now have masses of catching up to do after the visitors.

Yesterday we met the stone carver at the graveyard who is going to carve DH 's name onto a family stone. He took lots of measurements and now needs the wording correct spelling
It is not something I ever thought I would be doing.

Fancy your SiL being Danish Doodle. Mine is too. Do you speak any of their impossible language?

No badminton this week Muse but next week you're on!

I was telling my dgs that there is either an Owl or a Star inside an apple, depending on how you cut it.

He was vastly amused so just in case you didn't know and would like to make your own dgc smile, here's a picture I took today.

Nice to see you posting muse. I hope your DH's leg heals quickly.
Is it treated with honey as it is here (and I believe the Queen Mum used NZ Manuka honey for the same thing).

Evening all. Been out today visiting family and had too much to eat. Sitting and unwinding tonight.
Kaimoana I used to love those little rice crispy cakes. I used to make them for the children but ended up eating a lot myself.
Lockdown is boring isn’t it. The first one didn’t seem so bad as it was unusual. After that the novelty wears off.
Grammaretto I have never been to Edinburgh. It’s somewhere I would like to visit. It’s a long way for us. I have always thought we would go by train one day and stay over.
I didn’t know your brother lived in Denmark. My dear SIL was Danish. Does he visit you often?
Ooh the wedding. More work for you I think.. Don’t overdo it.
Hello Muse nice to see you. Don’t worry about catching up just pop in and tell us what you are up to these days. I know from soop’s kitchen your DH has a leg ulcer. Hope he has prompt treatment and improves soon.
Take care all

26th August and I went AWOL. Sorry

Need to make a large pot of tea and read all the Lobstars’ news.

Did I say yes to that game of badminton grammaretto?

Saw Robin Hood a few posts ago. I used to live 10 mins from the Major Oak I the forest.