The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

topsyturphy

Fiddle - just a suggestion my parents use national express and find them very good. They usually change at Birmingham to carry onto London. But they have travelled further south with them.

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE you'll find there are many very reasonably priced B&Bs in your neck of the woods, if they want to come down to see you they'll find one close to where you are very easily. The other option at this time of year is that some of the coastal static caravan parks near the sea let the vans very much cheaper than in the holiday season and they're really well equipped and warm so you wouldn't have to squeeze extra people into your small home.....don't be pushed into anything you don't feel happy with girlie, they can't make you!!!! Lyn xxx.

greenbee

Ooh... cobnuts Mrs LW... if your friends need to get rid of any more let me know I've spent some time today hacking back various things in the garden (cutting off the main stems of a clematis that's going up into the eaves, cutting back roses growing up against windows and into guttering, and trying to free a pear tree from the shrubs and climbers trying to kill it. There's a lot of stuff to come out of the garden here, but I'm looking forward to filling it up again with productive and attractive plants.

There are snowdrops out by the gate to the footpath, the watermeadows are still doing their job properly, and it's been lovely to get out in the sunshine - even if the footpaths are still very soggy and muddy underfoot..

[Deleted User]

If you want the two little ones in the greenhouse GREENBEE you're very welcome to have them, we're close enough to meet somewhere in the middle and hand them over, Lyn xxx.

Mrs_Chip

Afternoon All

Fuddle - one of the down sides of moving to a place that is either a holiday destination, or close by (you have so many!) is that family thinks it means they have carte blanche to descend for a free holiday as and when they fancy. You have done the right thing to say no, your house is not big enough, and even if it was, I would suggest that it might be better for your sister and her family to find somewhere close by to stay, bring your Mum down to stay either with you or there, then everyone has a break with no stress around the accomodation! If I remember correctly, sis has no problem spending money?

We have similar situation here with Mr OGs family - they come and cram themselves, avec dogs, into his tiny cottage, giving Mrs OG all the stress of clearing, cleaning, cooking and then doing all the sheets when they go. We have any number of holiday lets nearby (literally 30 metres away) that take dogs, they are not short of money, but they never offer to stay elsewhere. It ticks me off, as they are very fond of telling us all about their shopping trips to Dubai etc, but won't fork out for a weekend here. Family sometimes just can't see the bigger picture!

Rabbit - if it is wild, unless young, it does need long slow cooking, otherwise it can be tough. It does not have a lot of fat either, so is often cooked with bacon to add some. Once cooked and deboned, it is great under a nice herby suet pie crust (cook some carrots and onion with it in the SC and add them to the pie, make gravy from the cooing liquor).

Hope DD has come home happy Pooky, - I remember those days of sobbing in my room, oh how dreadful everything seemed!

Have a lovely evening everyone, quite chilly here, but cosy with the logburner!

greenbee

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

If you want the two little ones in the greenhouse GREENBEE you're very welcome to have them, we're close enough to meet somewhere in the middle and hand them over, Lyn xxx.

If you don't need them that would be fabulous, thank you I'll message you to work out date/time/place.

[Deleted User]

Would be super Greenbee, pm me and we'll sort out where and when, Lyn xxx.

shegar

KIDCAT ......Your right about the price of carpets..:eek:...I havent got any carpets in the home cos most of my floors are tiles or wooden , but I thought id like a carpet in my bedroom so went to the sales just after xmas with son and DIL , and the shops were full of every carpet imaginable , but the prices made me sit up quick, a 13 x 15 carpet heavy domestic use with grippers and underlay came to £523:eek::eek:, in the sale ................

Im still awaiting SS to sort something out, god knows how much more time it will take, if they dont get something sorted soon im going to phone them and ask for a weeks respite as im wore out with all the worry and my work load isnt easing , but I know there are people worse off than us and I cant put pressure on them........................

POOKY...Me too cant bear the smell of rabbit cooking makes me gag...:eek:
KIDCAT...Im so glad you have some relief at last from your painful tooth.....

My energy revels are brilliant since ive been taking sea kelp, I just wish it would help my poor feet etc , im waiting to hear from the hospital ENT dept to see what they found in the face scan I had Dec 23, just have to wait I suppose........Sorry that ive missed some people out on my post , but hope your all reasonably well etc...........Sheila

kidcat

shegar - we didnt shop sale carpets but for 13x18 was £550 upwards so clearly sale prices are not really sale in your area You will need to keep contacting SS and pushing them along, they have such huge case files they will move slowly if they can get away with it .

I have attacked the house with gusto today, finally getting rid of Christmas trees (which turned into a huge nightmare- asked OH to chop trees to go into recycling bin, he decided it was easier to borrow a work van to go to tip, nothing I said convinced him it was a bad idea, 45mins to pick up van, 20 minutes to load and travel to tip, to discover they wont let him in as he is in van!!! Then he comes home drops trees on front garden and goes to take van back 45 mins again, comes home cuts the trees in half and says there you go its done. Which led to words! Gave up and cut it up myself to fit in bin, took me 30minutes!! Such a huge waste of time)
Got rid of six bin bags of clothes to go to weigh in tomorrow and had a sort through some boxes as well.

OH starts long ours again tomorrow so its back to basics tomorrow just to get us through the week

[Deleted User]

SHEILA when we wanted to find a big rug (didn't want fitted carpet) for the lounge we were horrified at prices. In one of the carpet warehouses we met a salesman who suggested having a piece of carpeting bound round the edges to fit the space we had, not fitted to the room but big enough to cover the area of floor we wanted. It was so much cheaper than having carpet fitted, we didn't need underlay or a fitter either, could that be something you might be able to live with? saved us lots of cash and the edges aren't turning up and it isn't moving as it goes under the sofa and it's wearing really well, we've had it down for nearly 3 years now and it's as good as new, Lyn xxx.