🦞 The Lockdown Gang still chatting 🦞

Absolutely Grammaretto! One for holidays and one for "spares"!

Thought a couple of (rather small) bags might be a reasonable cost-cutting measure - after all can't buy a lot of shopping if they only hold a credit card and a notebook!

Incidentally, we had a beautiful hand-machined analogue paper strength tester from a lab until a couple of years ago when I couldn't justify keeping it any longer!
Maybe I should have sent it to you???

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Are those the two you've bought NS?
😉

Can someone remind me why we are Lobstars?
Or is it lost in the mists of time?

Doodle One of the reasons I liked the house is that there was a laboratory with a drain in the concrete floor so that it could be hosed down. I thought it would make an excellent workshop and so it has. It dates from a time when the house served as a testing laboratory for different kinds of paper. It belonged to the nearby paper mill, long since demolished.

I used to teach classes here up until just before DH died and now share the space with other potters. There are 4 of us.

I would like to have a much smaller workshop in my next place. I haven't seen anything else yet apart from the fixer upper which has a double garage.

I've just been to yoga so will need to rest for a few hours 😂

I was at a lovely concert last night. It was my friend's DD singing. It was in Musselburgh so we walked around the harbour with our fish and chips before the show, dodging showers.

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Would help if I put the photos up!

Hello!
Just found this small handbag online and thought I'd share it here
I must have missed it last autumn when it came out

Pharrel Williams has collaborated with Louis Vuitton on their Fall/Winter 2025 season, creating a lobster-shaped statement piece

There may be one or two left if you act now - a "snip" at $18,000

Been out all day today and amazingly managed to avoid getting wet in the terrible storms we’ve had. Chat from the police at church about fraud scams which was good. Lunch in town then a bit of shopping. Got home in time for dinner. 🤣
Sleep well all

Kaimoana how lovely to hear from you. It troubles me to think of you being somewhere noisy and busy. I’m hoping it’s not as bad as you fear. I too think you should make sure it’s two bedrooms the your granddaughter or son could come and stay for a visit
How ridiculous to only give you half an hour to click and collect. Never heard of such a thing. Yes I too am wondering if you’ll have any help when you move. Will you still be able to see your Māori friends?
Im sorry you’re being manipulated this way. We’re all concerned for you
love and hugs
*Grammaretto did your house always have the pottery studio or did you build it on after?
I wish you’d write a story about your house and what’s happened whilst you’ve been living there,. I love the idea of a boat bein built indoors and the model railway enthusiasts 🤣*
Oh how ridiculous to turn up so late to collect something.
Are you due to have any helpers soon that can help with the tidying up or sorting things?
Sit fit was good Ixion. I just about manage to keep going through all the different exercises but I come out feeling like I’ve done a marathon. It’s actually a very well run class by a retired physiotherapist and she’s very good.
Jan hope you have a lovely relaxing time in Norfolk. Nice to get away for a bit
NN not having a garden I am quite safe in a garden centre. Certainly among the plants if not the cake stalls.
Im so sorry about the situation with your daughters. Must be heartbreaking for you not to see them or be involved in their lives. I do hope that somehow over time things resolve themselves.
Ive been at the garden centre again today to meet some friends. We got marooned there in a thunderstorm that went on for ages. Nothing to do but eat cake, drink coffee and chat till it stopped raining 🤣

Insist you get it in writing Kaimoana that you were promised 2 bedrooms.

Nice to see you. Jan and to think of you spending time on the Broads. I loved going there. What a shame noone told you that the long journey was unnecessary.
How were you supposed to know!

I was expecting someone tonight to buy the settee I'm selling on n Gumtree.
He didn't turn up when he said so I retired upstairs. He now asks if it's too late! Of course it is.

People can be 😡 very annoying - unlike Lobstars.

My bedroom is all upside down with everything everywhere. This is part of my attempt to sift through my own stuff and throw out what I don't need.

My vacuum cleaner broke halfway through so I managed to borrow one but I suppose I will have to give it back.

Night night everyone,

Kaimoana *Sorry you are having to face such an upheaval and having to leave the countryside for a busy city but as you say there could be better facilities regarding Drs shops and maybe groups you could join to make new friends. The trouble is you really dont want to move and why would you? Really hope you can get a 2 bedroom house.
I have just done my exercises with my personal trainer! Now worn out! Its really just to try and improve my mobility after my stroke but its really hard going!
DH just phoned the hospital to find out what time his next immunotherapy appt is to be told he has been transferred to our local hospital and no one had told him! Im just cross about it as Ive been telling him all along that he could have it done locally but he refused to ring and ask. So all the 50 mile trips were unnecessary. Grrrrrrrr!
Anyway we are off to the Norfolk Broads on Saturday. Only 60 miles away but we love it there and have friends living there so will have a catch up with them! Just hope it stays dry! If I see Nfk Dumpling about will say hello.
Basil our friendly blackbird is singing beautifully today bless him. My favourite bird song.
Looking a bit black now and heard a rumble of thunder. Oh well we need the rain here in East Anglia!

Hello Lobstars... Just been having a catch up on all you news. Fingers crossed Grammaretto that someone comes along and loves your home as much as you do.
When the divorce made selling the family home inevitable I thought I would be distraught but on the day I just went around every from and absorbed the memories and the stood in the hall and thanked it for being my safe haven during the horrible times and for being part of my life for more than half my life. Then closed the front door and went off to start my new life 200 miles away and I've never looked back.
Definitely plant up some memory tubs too...I managed to transplant lots from the garden too by putting them into planters. Aquilegia, natural geraniums,hostas, cistus etc. Then when you are in your new home you can plant them in the ground.
Ixion...what do the ankle supports do...I am trying to get physio for my right ankle, it had been caving in since the first hip op ( as the leg was set wrong) and it's still pulling onwards and making my knee turn too ( and the hip until I can build the muscles up enough again). I wish I could say I was pain free but something isn't quite right and I can't pinpoint what it is exactly yet.

Kaimoana...I am cross on your behalf. 30 minutes is no time at all. It must be obvious that your shopping is picked up by a helper ergo you are not able to collect it yourself. Will you have access to help at the new place? Maybe one of the positives will be more places to get shopping. Can you contact the SA to get clarification on how many bedrooms they will be. Is this new place closer to your son? I do hope so.
Notspag...is there no way you could still move to Dmil's home if probate is going to take a while
Doodle, I am trying to avoid going anywhere near anything that sells plants. For the last few weeks every shop has included another something, Asda on Sunday for milk and 2 beautiful deep purple petunia ( the ones that smell in the evening) hanging baskets came home too. Albeit they are in plastic pots that I snobbily will transfer into wicker ones at the first opportunity. Don't hate me. it's I just like natural coloured containers that show of the beautiful contents,oh ok then I am just snobby about plastic pots. 🤣
It's got to the point that DH automatically gets a trolley even though we have only gone shopping for one item. He was indulging me on Sunday though as I wept buckets on Saturday night...We were watching a programme about greatest hits of 1993 and Love is all around you came on and I was transported back to DD4 aged 2 singing along waving her fingers and wiggling her toes and the what finally finished me off was Meatloaf singing I would do anything for Love (but I won't do that) and remembering DD1,2 and 3 standing arms locked and belting it out.
Needless to say I looked like a hag on Sunday. Obviously losing Luna set the hormones off and I'd managed to hold it in mostly but I realised afterwards how much I miss the girls. I saw more of DD3 as she lived closest and near on daily tea and gossips happened...I wish they could again. One day maybe it will.

Plant special stuff, including sentimental, in your tubs, Grammaretto- then they are ready to come with you when you move!

So lovely to see you here again Kaimoana.

How annoying about the shopping. If you called them would they hold it for you in future?

*Magnesium Grammaretto.

A very nice chap from the SA popped in to say my enforcedd move has been brought forward to January.
He assured me I would get a 2 bedroom so the grand children could stay but I note online the complex I must move to is only 1 bedrooms.

Its also in a busy/noisy inner city suburb whereas my present home is on a rural border and very quiet with lots of greenery/bush next to my home.

As there is absolutely nothing I can do about any of this I am trying (and largely succeeding) to be grateful I have a warm, comfy modern home

Safety is another issue
I had a seurity door fitted here as two attempts were made to gain access.

Am I safer in a city suburb wheere there are more eyes to see nefarious issues?

I am feeling a little better in myself: the glorious gift helped a lot (thank you everyon) as did a visit from a dear friend Anne Cleary whom I mentored years ago when I taught Creative Writing.

Shes now a published author and very kinfly acknowledged me in her books.
One is being turned into audio soon so I shll be able to read it*

She called it Apple Man but the publishers have renamed in The boy from Nowhere. Hmmm
Released in Australia and NZ.

Didnt feel up to going to kaumatua group today, just wanted a quiet time at home.
I shall miss it next Tuesday too as I finally gave in and made a doctors appt.

My local supermarket, each branch of which is privately owned by a freanchise, cancelled my Click & Collect order as it wasn't picked up within 30 mins or ordering. I had not realised new rules applied and as my home support lady does not get to me until 2 hours after the order was pu in - they threw it all back on the shelves so that when Mepa went to collect it, there was nothing there. If I had an alternative store to patronise, I would.

Oh sorry, Ive written far too much

You've given me an idea ixion! I shall fill some big flower pots with earth and transplant my surviving seedlings.
I overdid the seed sowing.

We moved here when our 3 boys were little and their sister was born here. My mum moved in with us.

A lot has happened over the years including a boat being built which had to be taken out through the window.
A model railway club met in our cellar for a few years and ofcourse the pottery has always been busy.

3 more viewings are lined up for later this week.
I wish I could sleep 😴 💤 😴 💤 😴.

Has your home always been the family home tor your DC, Grammaretto?
I don't think any of ours hold any degree of sentiment in our case. In fact, rather like us with DM, all we wanted was for her to downsize to somewhere sensible and manageable and I think our lot would feel the same sense of relief.

Fat chance.

How was Sit Fit, Doodle? I have got through 2 sessions of Stand Strong classes, without opting for the dreaded ankle weights. ''I think I'll leave it for a bit, if that's OK with you?". Works thus far🤭.

(Some) plants ordered for the tubs today. Larkspur, lupins, nicotiana and white agapanthus. I have pale blue and dark, dark purple, so I see these as a welcome addition.

Grammaretto is St Andrews near where you live, if so, will you see more of him do you think?
Yes I thought it was a big house. I hope someone buys it who is interested in its history. Is there no way you could convert it into flats and have one for yourself?
Notspaghetti good luck with the probate. I have heard it can be ,quite difficult and take a long time
Ive been to the garden centre today. Much cooler. Sit fit for me in the morning. Night night all

I think it will sell quickly Grammaretto,thank you, as it's in a great spot with a pretty big (but not huge) garden. If we had thought we could have got ours on the market it would have been great to retire to. It's half the bedrooms and so easy to manage compared to here.
Just waiting for probate
🙄

That must have been Summer !
I rescued a few of my shrivelling plants but I hope we get a little rain. Emphasis on the. little

I had fun and good laughs with my 'book' friends yesterday who have gone through shelves and boxes until exhausted.
At one point, the writer chap asked if he'd seen all the places in the house with books or wasn't there yet another room? 😯

It is a very large house Doodle which is why I need to downsize.
What someone else will do with it I don't know but it seems to spark their imaginations.

My DS1 was quite emotional on the phone yesterday realising that the family home really is going to be sold.

He'd taken DGS to St Andrews to look around where he'll start at the university in the autumn. He himself was there so it will have been going down memory lane.

I hope your DMiLs house sale is completed soon NotSpaghetti. It's such a limbo time.

Grammaretto much better temperature today. Good morning in church and coffee and chat after. Removing from long day yesterday and the heat.
*I have the impression from what you’ve said before that your house is rather large. Would it be something that might be bought by a family or is it more likely to be turned into flats?
What is co housing. I agree with Notspaghetti that you should let the agent handle all queries. It’s what you’re paying for*
Hope you get a buyer soon

Just to let all the missing Lobstars know you may be out of sight but you’re not out of mind. I think of you all often and hope things are ok for everyone 💕

Apologies Kaimoana
I forgot to use "bold"

No. If you are paying an agent use them as a middle-man.
My husband keeps getting messages from a couple who want to buy my mother-in-law's house.

He wants to be friendly but he needs to try to not say too much!

No. If you are paying an agent use them as a middle-man.
My husband keeps getting messages from a couple who want to buy my mother-in-law's house.

He wants to be friendly but he needs to try to not say too much!

Thanks for your thoughtfulness Doodle.
My own house has the perfect location so whenever I go will be a compromise but I have a list of must haves
Someone has just written who wants to develop it into co-housing.
This is the 3rd person who wants to do that but the other 2 backed out.

I don't think I should get too involved.

A funny kind of day here. Not too hot but muggy. What's it been like for you?

Sorry Notspaghetti and NN this heat has addled my brain.
It was lovely Notspaghetti who sent a very thoughtful gift to Kaimoana from the Lobstars.
Grammaretto i think you need to make sure you don’t rush into buying the wrong thing. It might end up being somewhere you’ll live for a long time so make sure you’ve got transport links. Able to walk to the shops and be part of a community. Don’t find yourself isolated somewhere. Good views are great but they don’t keep you company.

That's lovely 😍

It was poor Naughtyneine who had to release little Luna, Doodle

I hope you are wrapped in love Naughtyneine and feel comfortable with this sad decision soon

Kaimoana has been sent a little cheery soapy gift from the Lobstars
🦞
We may be miles away but we do care
🦂