Get a grip woman!

Humdinger1

Sorry to hear about your mum @Suffolk_lass.  I think she's fully jabbed? It's making a huge difference even to people of very advanced age.  Hope all goes well for her and your sister. I know it's difficult when you have less than ideal relationships with people who live a long way away but as ever, I think your kindness and firm grip on reality make the perfect setup for handling it.  Adoring the bee talk too.  Love Humdinger xx 

themadvix

Sorry to hear your mum has Covid SL - I hope she makes a fast and full recovery.

Suffolk_lass

Mum is triple jabbed but should have had her second booster. I urged her to ring the Doctor's surgery two weeks ago to make sure they had updated her vaccination status from "housebound" which is "last" where she is. She was having a bit of a moan about the younger people (still over 75) she knows, being called before her.

Karmacat

Oh gosh, and they just started being called this week, didn't they?  I hope your mum and your sister get really light doses (if your sister has it - my sister had our newly-covid-positive brother in her house overnight, and she didn't catch it).

All the best, though, let us know how it goes.

debtfreeoneday

Hope your Mum is ok. 

beanielou

Sorry to read about your mum.
Hope it is mild for her.

EssexHebridean

Suffolk_lass said:

Yes @SandyShores another drone emerging. Don't worry about drones, they move between colonies (tart-like) looking for mating opportunities with virgin queens and expecting the workers (all female) to feed them and contribute no work to the colonies. Their sole role is to ensure Queens are well mated, and as soon as they do, they die. The workers in spring and summer, literally work themselves to death in 6 weeks or so, doing the house cleaning, undertaking, feeding larvae, collecting pollen and nectar, and guarding the hive. When I went back to the shaken out colony yesterday to collect the unused syrup in a sensible container, there were guarding trying to fly into my face. They were not happy. The original colony must have felt they were being invaded. There were quite a lot of dead bees too, where the evicted crew should have brought gifts and begged their way in, but might have tried to march in en-masse

There is a definite parallel to be drawn here, isn't there!  

Sorry to hear about your Mum - I honestly cannot understand why anyone who is in a vulnerable group themselves wouldn't be testing before getting together with others in the same boat - I appreciate there are difficulties for someone with poor or no eyesight, living alone, but even then. My parents have been good as gold about testing since the LFT's have first become available - they even test before seeing us, and we're at no particular significant risk from it.  Hopefully your Mum will be OK, such a worry though. 

Suffolk_lass

A bit of an end of month review taking place here. With the CC bill that is due this month including the truck welding and yet more beekeeping equipment it is over £3k to find. Needless to say the EF has taken an anticipatory hit. We will live from fridge, freezer and cupboards now until we go away just after Easter for the rest of the month. I already know May's CC will be more than normal because I bought DS's flights and insurance for his USA trip in July (this was his 2020 Christmas present contribution plus an intervening birthday).

Speaking of birthdays, DS will be 30 in May and I think we are going to gift him my share of the house he lives in - so he and DH will own 50% each. I have not discussed this with DH yet but I will.

My neighbour/friend's funeral is on 14th April. They had lived here for 30 odd years but it seems hardly anyone knew them well. One of the people I let know, asked about attending the funeral last night so there may be a few of us there (fingers crossed). I have just been looking at funeral flowers (wounded bulls charging or what!?) - anyway, although the Funeral Director they are using starts with posies at £44.99 (!!!), I have found similar from a florist near the venue for £25. 

In social things we ran the quiz last night and it was a challenge for most of the teams. I obviously have my own range of interests that don't accord with others. I think 9 out of 15 was the top mark all evening and the bottom team scored under 50 (just) out of about 170 points - I started giving points for any correct element of the answer and some of my questions were either/or answers (I guess everyone chose the wrong option). Not sure if they will ask me again. I do hope I didn't come across as some sort of know-it-all.

In other money matters we each won £25 on our PBs this month (three months running!) and this has been reinvested and added to the "Save £12k in 2022" total in my spreadsheet. Re PB - I've posted this elsewhere but there is an article in Saturday's money troubleshooter in the Times about NS&I insisting that anyone who dies with over £5k invested must go through probate for their estate to be released. Even when it is a provable spouse. Even the Probate Office think that is silly according to one response on here. I suppose it is one more thing to think about. It takes weeks, sometimes months to resolve this and prevents what should be straightforward transfers from being made.

trix-a-belle

Maybe your quiz topic areas might encourage people to expand their minds into other areas.

I'm sure you probably have but consider future CGT with gifting DS your part of the house, might it work out better hedging and gifting half of your stake & half of DHs?

I thought of you after having a small dog/road minor emergency last weekend, a neighbour from up the road came past one way with the dog, 10 or so minutes later the dog came hairing back past my driveway, he briefly paused but is very nervous so I couldn't get close enough to grab him. Instant next reaction was where was the neighbour, who luckily came round the corner not long after so I set off up the road after the dog who luckily was on the path most of the way and turned off into the right driveway rather than overshooting into the main road at the top. He had been off the lead in our community wood & got spooked by another dog. Shopping list now contains dog treats to work on bribery

Suffolk_lass

Oh my, that is like DH and his cracked head injury, only our pup was not off the lead, he burst the (cat) collar clop by pulling. The sort of emotions that evokes always makes me feel quite sick. Winalot shapes are good as they are always on offer and most dogs recognise them. Good that your local resident knew where they lived and headed for their safe place.

We are really diligent about walking our boy on a harness with an extending lead so he can dash but not run away now. I have also bought him a buckle collar that is always on but only used for the quick toilet circuit - although the weather is not helping my cause - our breed is notorious for not wanting to go outside when it is cold or wet. While our usage of washable toilet mats makes this tolerable at home, it does make it a bit risky if we ever have to take him to someone else's. At least he is on a dry diet.

My pension has appeared this morning so a bit of shuffling has taken place. No spending is planned now. I did go to the local garden centre yesterday, to buy two more covered propagators, big enough to accommodate all the tiny potted on tomatoes and chillies. I am sure I have lost three though. Even though they were on a potting bench in my greenhouse. It was a very hard frost yesterday morning and they had the telltale transparent stem and leaves, even by lunchtime in the sun. I've given them the benefit of the doubt but not expecting anything.