🦞 Locked down no longer but still firm friends 🦞

Aww, thank you Kaimoana, that's lovely 😊.

In fact, thank you all for your birthday wishes, you are all well and truly lob 🌟⭐️🌟⭐️🌟

Happy Birthday Cherry, whenever it is

Nfk I love the Ruth Galloway series and also D C Smith.

Doodle have you read Cobwebs And Cream Teas - a year in the life of a National Trust House ?

Two of the sweetest most polite young men came to upgrade the alarms system here today - and made me feel very guilty.
When they arrived last week with no ID and didn't know the name of the Sallies contact person (who hadn't warned me either), I wouldn't let them in

We've had a few con-artists trying to gain acces so my security door is permanently locked. However, as he turned to go he said he'd ask the electrician to call and vouch for them. When he knew that chap's name, I realised he was genuine.

He has a brother with 5 children, 2 of them toddlers, so I gave him a Trevor book

*Many happy returns Cherry*
Thinking of you

Cherry, if it is your birthday today, Happy Birthday and many Happy Returns. I hope you had a good day. Do you remember the bolsters which used to be under the pillows on a double bed? If it was possible to get a couple of those placed under the bottom sheet down the outside edges of the bed would that stop you launching yourself onto the floor?

Oh, NotSpag, I so feel for you. Lovely though it was to have managed to spend at least a little while with your DS, not to have been able to part with a hug must have been so awfully painful. I thought of you today as I parted from my DD1 and family as they left for home. Incredibly, I shall see them again in a couple of weeks as I'm looking after their dog whilst they go on holiday. And again when they get back. They only live three hours away but we often go many months without seeing each other. We have decided to make more of an effort. They'd come over for the scattering of DH's ashes on Saturday evening. It all went off beautifully. The rain cleared as we arrived at the Museum of the Broads and we had nearly three hours out on the water in the sunshine on their now electric powered Edwardian launch. The spot we'd envisaged was flat calm so perfect and we did a tour of the rivers around Barton Broad afterwards and saw marsh harrier and so many kingfishers and had the water completely to ourselves. And this morning we even managed a walk on the beach and a paddle before the rain returned, culminating in a massive thunder storm this afternoon.

I can't believe your ceiling is still leaking Grammaretto. Water is terrible stuff and very sneaky. Is there anyway your roofer can get to see above the ceiling to trace back how it's getting in? It may be travelling some distance, but I'm sure you've both thought of that. How you manage make pots and fire kilns and cope with all your visitors on top of house problems I don't know. I'm exhausted after just a couple of days!

I've been wadding through Elly Griffiths, Ruth Galloway mysteries, Doodle. They're quite easy reading. Murder mysteries (not too gory) with a bit of romance. And with just enough left hanging at the end of a chapter to make you read the next and not stop.

It just took rather longer than it should to work out what a Sub Altern was Kaimoana. Perhaps it's time for bed!

When I lived in Waitakere, my dear friend Jane had one of those beds for her husband who'd had a bad stroke. It was in 3 sections so each one went up, down, sideways, rippled and more. It had a remote control but he couldn't use it.
Their grandchildren loved it and used to give it a workout while Koro (Grandpa) was doing his own therapy.

Add me to the Mattress on the Floor Team. When we moved to Cornwall, it took quite a while to gather any furniture or bedding at all. My children thought camping in a house was great fun.

NotS I wonder if your MiL's friend has an ambition to be arrested like the wonderfully named Mrs Brokenbrow?

www.smh.com.au/world/europe/anne-brokenbrow-104-arrested-to-fulfil-her-greatest-wish-20190322-p516ji.html

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Happy birthday 🎂 Cherry dear.
It's an auspicious day 7/7 and very important according to our local mystic who was at the Quaker meeting today

I hope Jeeves arrived with cake and 🍷

My pots have emerged and I am reasonably pleased with some of them.

The garden party was very small and lovely. It's one of my favourite gardens, packed with plants.

The roofer came and there was a sudden downpour so he couldn't go on the roof but he found a pool of water in the attic which he'd not seen before so hopefully he at least knows where it's coming in.

I have never been good at jigsaws though I can imagine that they would be very absorbing.
My DB adored them from an early age and when he was bored with the picture, he would do them upside down with no picture.

I would not be happy on a mattress on the floor now that's for sure! 😂!

ixion I don’t think my brain understands jigsaws. I am trying to do one to distract myself. The sense of achievement when a piece fits is good 😊
I love you found a copy of your favorite jigsaw. A round one, that’s clever.
My models are above your post ixion
a little gonk and the disc thing thing was made with a pastry cutter and isn’t a flat scone but a Christmas tree decoration. **Needs a ribbon through the hole though. Not one of our crafting successes 🤣
Ooh Cherry is it your birthday today?many happy returns if it is. Have you brought cake for Jeeves to bring round with the drinks tonight? Hope you’ve had a lovely day.
Kaimoana perhaps I should get you to paint me a completed jigsaw instead. Love the mis pronunciations 🤣
Notspaghetti I can imagine the mattress being comfortable enough but getting up from the floor would be impossible for me.
What an amazing lady your MIL is living on her own too. Fancy her having a friend who’s 104. Wow
Grammaretto good idea for a bed bit like the busses that drop down to the kerb to let people on and off.
Oh not more leaks. You must be so fed up with your roofing problems. Hope you had a nice time at the garden party.
Love the table for seven 🤣

I had conveniently forgotten that when we slept on the floor we were young! There should be a bed which can be raised and lowered for entering and exiting.
We can invent one which we shall name the cherry 🍒 bed.

The ceiling is leaking again.
I am so fed up.
The roofer says he'll come back today but how is the water getting in.

I still haven't opened the kiln.
I have a soup to make for the Quaker lunch and then my cousin and I are going to a garden party. I believe she has plans to travel around next week.
I hope so as I am quite exhausted after all my visitors and house trauma. I am a grumpy host.

We went out to a restaurant last night with my df who was in Denmark with me.
I told the reception that I had booked a table for 7.
I meant 7pm but we were shown a table hastily laid for 7 people. 🤣😂

Grammaretto - we also slept on a mattress on the floor for years. We had a lovely bed as a wedding present but when we decided it was worn out we bought just a mattress (with the intention of buying a base/frame later). We never got round to doing that and eventually (many more years later) bought a whole new bed.

We were quite happy on the mattress to be honest

ixion my mother-in-law has nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

I was pleased my son spent the whole day with her as she still lives alone and would have really benefited from his visit.

Also, a she's now 100 so I am very conscious that each visit may be the last time. Sad but true.
She is totally amazing though I have to admit.

Fortunately she still has one lovely friend from her teenage years who is 104 and they chat on the phone each week.

Not imagining Doodle I do indeed have rainbow socks and recently found a beautiful (and real silk !) scarf in the op shop for 5 cents The rainbows in that are more subtle.

I've never understood why, in winter, when we need bright colours, everyone dressed so drably.

I love your little Scandinavian gnome Doodle. What's that round red thing? It remind me of a Solitaie set I had as a girl (and still have in fact).

My parents were crazy jigsawyers (dissectologists - foolish name, you don't dissect, you assemble) and swapped with like-minded friends. Occasionally there would be a piece missing, so I would make one and paint it for them.

I don't anticipate visitors today (Sunday) so if I work diligently I should get the last pair of ordered slippers finished, sewn up, decorated and the anti-slip sole sewn on.
Then I can carry on with the scarves

Someone told the hurses I knit these garments for free, so I hadn't the heart to say it wasn't true. All my work is by 'koha' which means if you can afford it, you give a donation, if you honestly can't, you don't. No one so far has given nothing but I don't suppose they get paid much.

I'm re-listening to The Etymologicon by English writer Mark Forsyth about English words - it's read by an American

However, Dan Hagen has a soft and pleasant voice so not too bad until he says the words incorrectly.
Then I laugh.
Sub Altern, two separate words and York-shyre.

I'm sorry, but not surprised, Doodle, that you can't get on with jigsaws at the moment. They are, for the most part, solitary pastimes and, unlike knit and natter where there is always a background of distractions, you're very much left with your own thoughts at home and silence does feed a troubled mind.

We have always had a jigsaw 'on the go' since I was a child - not the same one, I stress😉 My very most favourite was one I had in the late 1950s, a Waddington's circular one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World my father bought me. This mesmerised me, the rich colours, the monuments long gone of distant lands, worlds of mystery and different cultures. I loved that.
In adulthood, I pestered my mother to have a search in her many nostalgia cupboards for it, but to no avail. Then, with advent of the internet and Ebay, I searched for one again.

And there was one - Vintage and battered, but hey, I could recreate my past. And do so, every Christmas, lovingly placing the pieces to refashion those Ancient Wonders with the same wonderment.

I'm pleased you were able to sit and chat with your son, NotS. I'm sure, too, that the quality time spent with his Grandma is irreplaceable - and very special for her too. How many granchildren does she have?

I hope your firing was successful, Grammaretto. May we see the finished articles in the morning , please? And yours, Doodle?

Mamissimo, did you see the experiences of others introducing 30 different plants a week?
www.gransnet.com/forums/dieting_and_exercise/1337895-I-m-going-to-try-to-keep-a-list-this-week?msgid=30671223
How's it going? Has Spud settled at Nursery? Is your DD coping with the return to work? A difficult time.

Cherry: is it the 7th for your birthday?🎁 🎂 Do tell. So sorry you're going through a sticky patch 🤕.

Hearing about Grammaretto's low-lying mattress and watching the enjoyment of fans on Henman Hill 🎾 made me smile ruefully. I could get up from neither these days. In fact, when finishing my floor-orientated exercises from Grace Kelly, I have to recall Doodle's description of arising Giraffe-fashion once suitable furniture has been locate as leverage 🙄.

Kaimoana my models. Basic as you can see

Notspaghetti glad you at least had some time with your son yesterday. I can’t imagine how hard it is for you with him being so far away. How are you feeling now?
*Cherry I do feel I ought to make you a garment similar to the one I made for my son when he was young. A pair of leggings with straps attached and braces so that when he was in bed I could tie the straps under the mattress to stop him rolling out. He used to rock himself to sleep and I was afraid he’d slip off the edge, I hope you’re ok and not badly hurt.
I have done most of the edge but still got a couple of bits missing. I have been through the pieces twice but still can’t find the other straight edge bits.
Kaimoana thank you for the list of books. That will keep me going for a while. Is it my imagination or do you also have a pair of rainbow socks like your fingerless gloves. ?
Glad you’ve got a heated wrap too.
Grammaretto it does take a while to get up to temperature in your kiln. I’d be tempted to chuck in some jacket potatoes when it’s cooling down.
Have you got your American cousin with you yet? Is he/she staying long?
DH and I once slept on a mattress close to the floor when I accidentally booked a disabled room for us in a hotel. When we woke in the morning I couldn’t get up off the floor and DH had to come and pull me up.
Have a good weekend all

Thanks for asking about the firing. I had a quick peep in the kiln just now and it looks cooked but it won't be cool enough to open till tomorrow.

I have wondered if Cherry could sleep on a mattress on the floor for safety sake I can't remember if you said why not Cherry ?

We spent the first year of our married life on a mattress on the floor but then bought an extremely low pine base for it which I still use but I now have a sprung mattress which makes it higher.

Such complicated lives your DS and his DW have NotSpag. I see now how sad you must have been to have so little time with them.

Grammaretto I hope you got all your firing done OK. and that soon you can open the kiln to see.
What excitement!

CherryCezzy - is there no way you can prevent these falls out of bed? I know you must have been working on this forever... maybe falling out onto something soft is easier than the alternatives?? - like others, I hope you are OK.

Thanks everyone for the kind words about my son's "visit". Unfortunately he won't be back for ages I'm afraid. He is on his way to the Philippines to his wife - so if I want to see him in person I'll have to go there Kaimoana2

His little business is in America (their home) and his wife's helping with her family business in the Philippines- they are having to go every six months or so from one to the other.

It took his wife 30 hours to get from their home in the Philippines to here in April for my mother-in-law's 100th birthday - so not a cheap or easy journey... And now he's been here three times in less than a year - including last Autumn to get married.

I expect one day we will visit them in the Philippines but not when it's hot! I like to be warm but am useless in the heat... but all that travel (let alone the cost) isn't exactly "calling to me"

Hello Lobstars,
I'm trying hard to keep awake while waiting for the kiln to reach temperature. It's about 1220°C and has to get to 1260°C for the glazes to mature.
I know why I don’t use the gas kiln very often. The electric one, which needs repair, is so much easier with a built in controller.

I've been watching TV and knitting and that's after cooking a fish pie for our supper and baking a cake for the community open house tomorrow.

DS1 and DGS are staying with DSis in England. He says it's much warmer there.
I am sorry Cherry that you've been suffering seizures.

Will you be able to receive your pension in the UK, Kaimoana? I'm sure I have come across people who do this. Or you could do what our friends do and spend half the year here and half there, making sure you enjoy continuous Summer.

I'm sorry to ramble but it means I don't fall asleep.

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So sorry to hear you've had more seizures and falls Cherry; I hope you're not too badly damaged this time. Rest and recover. for the 8th

I'm glad you got to spend time with your son NotS and he certainly did pack in a lot of family time didn't he? When is he due back for another visit?

Grammaretto there's no official problem at all about my returning to the UK, I'm a British citizen, but if I've nothing to live on, I can't, so some sort of pension will have to be assured, even if its a reduced one.
Will the airline let me fly with my health issues?

Plenty of time to work that out though, I won't go until the whole family are settled and know they want to stay. yes, I'm dragging my feet

I do have fingerles gloves Doodle like rainbows and was wearing them to knit. Then I remembered the heated throw, so dug that out and wore it round my shoulders. With me woolly 'at, I was fine.

BorrowBox may be international as I use it too. Currently a long-awaited Georgettte Heyer has come up - ideal for falling asleep.

Doodle if you haven't discovered Cherringham, that's very popular and there are so many of them too.
The Dales Detective series by Julia Chapman is another.

The Martha Miller Mysterins by Catherine Coles are okay too.

And currently I have some non fiction about nature and science on the go. I usually 'read' a book a day. When I could actually read it was far more.

There are heaps of WW2 sagas and womens' friendship stories (A Wedding for the Bomber Girls from the series by by Vicky Beeby ) but though they are popular and interesting, I've had my fill and would rather read how women of the Air Transport Auxilliary actually delivered Lancasters and Spitfire
Love stories about Bletchley Park as well.

A little more gritty are Charles Todd's Bess Crawford WW1 stories and I particularly like Peter Grainger's D C Smith books and his new ones, the very funny Willow & Lane, two very different women who solve crimes. Unfortunately he's written only two but says there are more to come.

Crikey, I could go on forever but won't.

Doodle will send email anon. Meanwhile, may we have a picture of the painted models are they walking down a catwalk ?

Hello lobStars

Not feeling very chatty at the moment, I've had some pretty bad seizures and fallen out of bed twice in the last couple of nights.

I'm glad you have been able to see your DS albeit distanced NotSpaghetti. I do like the sound of your ordinary conversation, ordinary is underrated I think 😁.

Have you done all the edge of the jigsaw first Doodle? I always find that helps - but if it doesn't a window and a good overarm action might 😉.

The unreliable arrangements of your home care is ridiculous Kaimoana 😤. I hope they sort it out soon🤞

Grammaretto, ixion ... I am thinking of you all

Doodle I don't know what sort of books you like but I've (mainly) been using BorrowBox here for audiobooks. That's one of the library services our area link with. If you had some pointers i can look back over what ive listened to as well 📖📚

I can't believe all the "care" struggles you've had Kaimoana. What a mess - and so frustrating. I hope there is rapid movement on this and you will soon be ensconced in lovely clean sheets. 🛌

Re our lovely son. We spent an hour and a half together mid morning outside before he drove away. At least we got to properly look at him and the sun came out and kept us warm. We had coffee/tea and talked about his business, his plans, his wife and dog. We chatted about travel and family and all sorts of insignificant things and it felt strangely ordinary.
I'm glad it was ordinary because it was easier to say goodbye that way.

Sorry Kaimoana forgot bold again!

Been painting out clay models with friend this afternoon. Not sure they look any better than before. 🤣
I’m having another go at a jigsaw. Last time it nearly went out the window, I’m considering the same this time too.
Been pouring for hours here. Hopefully drier tomorrow. Had someone come and fix my patio doors today as they’ve got very stiff recently and I was struggling to open them.
*Gramaretto how did you get in at the shop. Is your kiln up to temperature now. What are you…….cooking, baking….firing?

Kaimoana thank you for researching books for me. So kind of you. I’m sorry your hands are so cold. Have you got any fingerless gloves? Would they help? What a pain about the knitting too. You must be knitting slippers in your sleep.
Like Grammaretto I change my sheets when it’s right for me.
Notspaghetti what a wonderful treat for your MIL. I’m sorry you missed spending more time with your son but it’s lovely he’s met up with other family. Hope you enjoy your time with him today
Grammaretto when you light your kiln do you then leave it running for a while or do you save up all your pots and do them in one go? (Sorry don’t know the terminology for anything)
Hope you enjoyed your meal last night. I don’t like being rushed. Have a good shift at the shop
i am going to my neighbours this afternoon to pain the awful clay models we made a couple of weeks ago
It was raining here early morning but the sun has come out now. I may go into town to drop off some things to the charity shop and get some groceries.
I am trying my hand at another jigsaw. What made me think I could do it I don’t know. I’m hopeless.
Have a good day all