Daydream fund challenge part 4

alfie_1

dave... considering we had a PINK wheel barrow full of growing wild flowers [for the big wedding here] stolen from the gateway INCLUDING a large painted arrow saying "wedding" ....whilst wedding was in full flow ! I don't think gate sales would work here !!


in the new forest we have been plagued by thefts ... bikes,garden machinery and handbag snatches etc.. sadly the ones "caught " so far have been eastern European which doesn't help with public relations. we have to up the security here. getting more cameras and alarm locks ....


no joy with a return call from JL so far but have to get a dryer asap... sons girlfriend arrives from Canada tomorrow and they have guests coming for 2-3 days too.. so fast turnaround of washing needed !! grrrrr...


had a dash of rain last night but been dry during the day for a while now.. still watering tubs etc ! not dry/hot enough for cutting the hay yet tho.. hopefully wthin the next week according to the forecast !


ok, im off to work now, visit dad, shop and then clean house... so an easy day !


have good weekend peeps..


p.s butttt has settled down.. hehehe

ukmaggie45

Oh poor Alfie, what a chapter of woes! Hope your Dad improves quickly, and JL get your dryer sorted out FAST. :grouphug:

We're in the process of ordering a new caravan - it's horrendous expensive - we've always had second hand ones before. But it comes with Residential Specifications so autumn/winter/spring visits will hopefully be rather more comfortable! Only 2 bedrooms, but one has en-suite plus there's a family shower room too. We could have had a dishwasher, but decided to just go for the washer/dryer.

Main problem is it's 40 foot long, so 8 foot longer than current van. And our plot is one of the smallest in the field. So we'll have to lose our fairly new metal shed that we were forced to buy around 5 years ago to replace the wooden one we had (EU regs). Also we lose a fair amount of "hedge" as there has to be an escape route at back of caravan as well as front in case of fire.

Loss of hedge means [STRIKE]I[/STRIKE] OH will have to dig up a couple of hydrangeas to replant, possibly initially in huge pots. We have a humungous bay bush that we intend to root out and there'll be space there for at least one of them. Suspect we'll also lose a lovely honeysuckle that finally this year has flowered prolifically for the first time. After about 10 years in place!

We also have a lot of wild primroses that we'll have to try and transplant in the autumn. Initially we only had about 5 plants, but they've self seeded so spread nicely. (bought initially from local garden centre, grown from ethically sourced seed)

OH is really cheesed off about the shed, as he has a lot of sailing stuff and general carp stored in it. I've been looking at big plastic storage chests that you can sit on too. Think a couple of the bigger ones will probably store most of what we need to keep. This kind of thing.

As well as the caravan we will also have to have a new deck built. Our landlord made a rather good suggestion about a ramp (we have one so on really rotten days I can be wheeled out to car, though this year has been the first year I've had to use it regularly). He suggests I get it made wider than the current ramp so that if things get worse it'll be wide enough to get a mobility buggy or whatever up it. Must start looking at their dimensions!

Our current deck has a lot of custom made toughened glass in it, so that adds a further complication in that I really hope it can be re-used :money: - it cost an arm and a leg! :eek:

Oh, in case you want to take a look at the van we've chosen, it's a Willerby Linear. We'd hoped to get something rather cheaper, but this was the only one we could find with plenty of windows on the hedge side so I can watch the birds while OH is off sailing! Plus several companies we couldn't choose as they only install electric fires, not gas. Having spent 3 days here on my own with a power outage I would hate to rely on electricity for heating! And of course the gas central heating goes off too if you lose power.

At least we can keep it on the site for 20 years :beer: so it will see us out I expect! :eek: Our DDs will have their names on the plot too, so when we snuff it they can do what they want with it - keep it on or sell, whichever suits them better.

We've had some real success with our deck garden this year! Bought some plants from Sarah Raven for some of the pots, and they've done really well. Will take some photos when I'm recovered from 2 weeks of GrandKids (twin boys 6, GD 2, GS 4) calling round several times a week!

lucielle

Glad to hear your butt is not so sore, Alfie. DD2 has passed her driving test. Gawd help us. At least that's the last of them.


L

alfie_1

well done DD2 ... it seems pretty tough to pass the test these days [not sure if I could !]


well JL came through :beer:
I took dryer back, they have exchanged it for a much better [£'s] one and they "complimentary" made up the difference. be here for Tuesday so back to being a happy bunny now


dad was .... poorly. very sleepy and wheezy.
he ALWAYS manages to ask me how my son is and the dogs tho.. [soddd anyone else ]
he was the father figure to my son from a baby and treats him like a son...


called into local car valet place, had inside / out done [not a job I relish so passed the torch ] as son using my car to fetch GF from Gatwick tomorrow early..
the boot is now stuffed full of dog beds/horse gear etc that normally covers the back [I hardly ever have back seats up]
and in return....
son has mowed the lawns in my absence


got to try and cook something to eat now ...got bu**ar all in as haven't managed to do a "shop" yet !! ah well tommy soup and a chunky bread

lostinrates

Boo.

How is everyone?

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

Boo.

How is everyone?

LIR! :hello: :j


Not sure about everyone, but I'm OK and DW is a lot better than she was, thanks.

How are you and FIR? You went all 'wise old owl' with MSE generally, I believe, but I can understand that. I departed from 'Nice People' because I just couldn't keep up being nice in more than one place! :rotfl:

In the past year DW developed quite severe tendonitis. She could hardly reach the chickens by last winter/spring, but drugs, acupuncture and exercises have helped. No striding across the moors, but it looks as if we may yet be able to enjoy a few walks....one of these fine days. We have quite worrying Outlaw illnesses ATM, so she's away for the week.......Have the feeling this may be the start of a new phase.....

In other news, 2.5 years ago, I became a Grandad to a high-functioning young lad, who is a delight and disaster in the same package.:eek::A His parents are worn out.

Also worn-out is our DD2, who has seen her future husband through 7 years of uni and now desperately wants to give up running a retail store at t'other end of Wiltshire, and with it the daily M4 commuter grind. There's a whisper that H-to-be may at last have a position, but somehow I don't see DD returning to do her masters now....which was the original plan. :silenced:

Whatever happened to original plans? We are 90% sorted here, but that last 10% is surprisingly tortuous! I think we have slipped into the Deb'n ways if doing stuff, with its elastic concept of time....;)

Have you made progress?....Is there such a thing as progress? Maybe the whole of life is like an Escher staircase and travelling with a different view is the best we can achieve....

We certainly have a different view; the rubble is piling up again nicely at the front! Must go, I have a hole to dig! :wave:

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

[staggers in through front door, unceremoniously dumps tent, two packs, a holdall, guitar, carrier bag and boots on the floor, then collapses on sofa. And wonders exactly how long is it going to take to educate Himself in the Fine Arts of Travelling Light. But at least this year, there are no IKEA bags to go with it]



We're back.



We've experienced all of the Dartmoor weather over the last ten days. All of it - rain (oh, so much rain. Well, more buckets hurled horizontally), wind, frost (5am in a tent), fog (I suspect an errant cloud made its way down and just decided to stay for a few hours) and a strange bright ball of heat in the sky for the rest of the time.

The festival was great, ended up performing on the Saturday just before Folk Royalty came on, managed to chat to somebody from the Sex Pistols and only squealed with excitement after he'd gone, made tea and coffee for half the site, retrieved somebody who'd been enjoying himself a little more than necessary from about eight inches of thick red Devon mud, been told the lifestories of several people, including the relationship worries of the security guard and the insecurities of an 18 year old musician and his parent (individually) and discovered my main talent is being able to fall asleep whilst sitting upright and surrounded by other artists packing and unpacking their gear.

After that, it was off to the Arzeend of the Moors, where we did more walking in any single day than a year in London, met an 85 year old Rammstein fan, got the life story of a Swedish fisherman who stopped off in Plymouth because they'd unexpectedly had a massive haul on their way to Spain, met a girl on the Barbican that night and now speaks with an accent which is 30% Swedish and 70% Tavistock, watched bats hunting around the bridge, spotted eels in the river, saw tons of Kingfishers, shrews, tried every variety of ale available and caused a minor traffic jam in the village one morning because a hedgehog decided to stay up past his bedtime to go crossing the road. You could see the faces of the drivers thinking 'what are these idiots doing standing in the road? [lots of rude words muttered under their breath] Why won't they just get out of the - oh, hedgehog.'

After five days there, being accosted by random cats and dogs wherever we went, off to a B&B for a while, got the lifestory of the landlady and how much she loves live music - whilst Himself was happily hiding in the room, secretly convinced this was going to happen if I set foot outside, then went into almost every old pub around the Barbican several times. Perched on the top of the Hoe path and watched the outdoor screening of Singin' in the Rain at the lido whilst being greeted by every dog and most of their owners throughout, Himself ended up being dragged into a selfie opportunity because he looks a bit different, and I managed to bring back a Fox Moth caterpillar into the hotel room from somewhere about my person.


We didn't want to come back, but after defusing the usual London hatred for people with backpacks (and actually having a conversation on the Tube! :eek:), we negotiated the station closures, missed one train because I got stopped by a member of staff wanting to know where she could get camping equipment like mine and finally got back to base via an incredibly chatty cabbie who is off to Margate for the day today and completely forgot about adding extras on for the luggage, just drove us straight home without dawdling and has arguments about not earning enough because he'd rather spend his evenings at home with his wife and grandchildren.


Himself reckons I've got some kind of radar for this sort of thing. I always thought it was MUG in invisible writing on my forehead, visible only to animals and small children, but it seems to have increased its beacon like properties over the last few years.



I have actually got a suntan and my freckles have blended together in lots of places. Himself is quite entertained by how the roots of my hair are now white and the rest of it (except the already white stripe that emerges from the top of my head) is a mixture of ginger and conker. Himself actually has brown arms and freckles are appearing, which completely contradicts the scrawny pale musician image, especially when combined with wider cut jeans and his boots.

The Idiot Cat shouted at me repeatedly from the moment we got in til the moment we went to bed, then decided to join us and then woke me up repeatedly by trying to find the best place to lie against me and affectionately shred whatever bit of skin was available. I even tried to disappear down the bottom of the bed, leaving him by my pillow, only for the git to get up and follow me down there and happily rake his claws across my back. The only time he has left me alone since was when I was in the bath, as he made a point of laying down halfway along the landing so he could monitor Himself's snoozing at the same time.



Really didn't want to come back, but the bed is so much better than the fancy squishy ones we've had - it's got a few lumps, it's much harder and is liberally coated with cat fluff, but there's the fan, shade, and we still have food in the garden - although the friend chucking food at the Idiot Cat whilst we were away has taken advantage of some Chard, Blackberries and courgettes.

Himself will be cooking roast pork today - I'm miffed that I forgot to pick up a couple of bramleys before we left, as you don't get them here - and could cheerfully strangle the persons who found the apples, plums, cobnuts and sloes (ripened early or not, they didn't seem to care) down the lanes and systematically stripped every tree to a height of seven foot - leaving one fruit on each to let you know what was there.

I've just got to work out what to do with the latest batch of blackberries. There are hundreds.

alfie_1

jojo the tightwad....


I seriously think you should write some sort of BLOG [if that's the right "modern" thingy ] , the way you write is both comic and descriptive enough to "picture the scene"..

ukmaggie45

Here's a photo of my most successful deck pot this year.

Big pot of flowers by Maggie, on Flickr

Have another 2 pots of the same mix, though narrower. Deadheading the other day, and found a big fat SLUG in one of them! :eek: I'd been looking at them out the caravan window and wondering why one of the pots didn't seem to be doing as well as the other!

alfie_1

hi all....
well weve had a few sprinkles of rain that were more annoying rather than damaging..


we have managed to get half our hay cut and bailed, postie sensibly did it in relays to avoid the "sprinkles".. so far half in small bales and half in gurt big rounds.
I do love the smell during hay making, lovely sweet aroma.


local lady had all her tack stolen from a stable yard she is at.. so she has just borrowed a saddle/bridle etc to kick start her. she has an elderly horse and to pay out for new tack is a bit of a waste.. I told her she can keep hold of it [if it all fits] till she gets sorted.


im off to N.cyprus early hours sunday and I am not in the least bit ready! remembered to pick up my tickets yesterday !
got emergency dentist tomorrow.. chipped 2 teeth and they are sensitive to say the least ..


saw LIR at the weekend and ended up plumbing in her downstairs loo sink etc , got it all done having fixed an old beam to the wall for taps that were standpipe mounted. grand turn on next... nothing , zilch !! puzzled, tracked the pipework into the loft only to find 2 pipes stuck up... unconnected to the mains water !!!!! to say I swore is an understatement... so no grand "turn on ".... :rotfl: