The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

monnagran

Polly, I used to be the biggest pedant of all time. I am now older, mellower, (see what I mean, that's not even a word) and lazier so it doesn't bother me as much. Added to which, on the rare occasions that I read back what I have wrtten, I realise that my own deathless prose could do with a bit of proof reading.
I am supposed to be editing a book for someone at this very moment, but I'm having problems with my laptop. Tonight I thought I might make a start on the tablet, painful though it is. To my horror the first three chapters of this book seem to have disappeared.
Now, if that is something to do with the laptop problems the situation may be salvageable, but if I have done something stupid, which is not beyond the realms of possibility, I am going to have to confess to the poor author that I have lost his masterpiece. Fortunately he will have the master copy and just have to send it again.

x

burtha

Sorry Monna not much sleep last night ... 4 30 till 7 30
But still got loads done ... 4 mile walk before 9 30 , coffee, then ran 3 miles waiting for ds football match to start .... They lost ... then spent the rest of the day moving children to wherever they wanted to be .... then collection .
Eldest ds and dil to be called in on there way to pick berries ... she has a nice little bump now ..
eldest dd is at the hospital tomorrow for results ... few month since we lost him ... would have been due about now ... very odd . Let's just hope for good news

Back at work tomorrow , kids back Tues ... looking forward to it ,but not at the same time ....

Ex , texted dd this evening ...apparently he is going to grace them with his company tomorrow night ....After work .....yes for 5 mins ... I am out at a meeting so will leave them to it .. If he wants to speak to me he can via text ....

pretending to be having a cocktail tonight ...nice glass , ice , lemon , lime ,orange .... and water .... looks good though ....now going back to my book .
take care all
x

pollyanna_26

burtha Sending positive vibes that all will be well for your eldest daughter tomorrow . Things sound ok with your DIL so best wishes to her too . I hope you manage more sleep tonight than last . You're like the Duracell bunny but even those batteries run down in the end .
As for Mr 5 Minutes you couldn't make him up .
Fingers will be firmly crossed for back to school on Tuesday x

Monna Mellower although it looks strange is a word . Some sort of adjective , possibly comparative . It actually reminded me of To Autumn by Keats . Pretty appropriate with the weather here , we are heading fast in that direction , mists , mellow fruitfulness and all .
Anyway have a giggle . I too am a life long pedant although you'd never guess Whether it's my local newspapers very bad online news site , a book or a random sign on the high street it jumps out at me and I get very irate and tut tut . Sadly it doesn't happen with my own witterings until later :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
I'm about to head for bed but will leave you with something I suddenly remembered after the book memories from childhood . The 10 Set Arthur Mee Children's Encyclopedia ( mine were the 1955 series } Too tired to discuss tonight but do any have memories of that series or other years? Mum also had the Good Housekeeping 1950s Cookery Book and both were expensive and unusual additions to our normal library or birthday / Christmas gifts . I had to delve back in time to remember how they were afforded but will tell that tomorrow .
Sleep well all and hugs to Karcher and all who could do with them .
polly x

monnagran

Fingers crossed that all will go well for your DD tomorrow burtha. She has had a rough year too, hasn't she? As for you, young lady, for goodness sake slow down, you'll be meeting yourself coming back if you're not careful.
If I were you, .I'd put a large egg timer in the hall before Pface makes his royal visit. We wouldn't want him to overstay his time, would we?

Polly, you are speaking to the woman who once mused out loud, as they drove past a fish and chip shop, why anyone would call their shop "hunky hips." Surely that would put people off buying their produce?
The driver nearly crashed the car and you could probably have heard the screams from where you live.
I had completely failed to notice the simply enormous "C" that enveloped both words.
I don't think I will ever live that down.

Yes, I also used to foam at the mouth over 'Local Tomato's' and "Get you''re petrol here,' but these days I just sob quietly and let them get on with it.

I don't think I had the Arthur Mees set of encyclopedias, unless they were the ones with the nature stories by someone called 'Brock' and the occasional Brer Rabbit story. In any case, mine would have been the 1930's vintage and I wouldn't have had the full set.
I often wish that I had some of my children's books still, but no such luck with my mother. She would have given Ms Kondo a run for her money. The moment you had finished with something, or sometimes before you had finished with it - "POUFF" - It was gone! It drove my father mad as he was quite the opposite and never parted with a thing in case it could be used at some unspecified date in the future or could be turned into something else.
OUt of this gene pool I emerged as one who has spasmodic bouts of clearing up and extreme tidiness and the rest of the time happily survives in dusty chaos.
My brother is my father's son, much to my SIL's despair.

All of which has nothing to do with anything. Can you tell that I'm bored. Are you asleep nursemaggie? I know that you are often around at this time. And Softstuff if she has managed to filch her OH's computer.

Ah well, it's the cryptic crossword then.

x

Hard_Up_Hester

I'm up and getting ready for work now but no doubt you are in the land of nod, Monna.

Books, but not the aforementioned encyclopedias, I was half way through a novel set in 1945-50, one of those rambling, poor but happy family sagas, it was ok but not earth shattering. Suddenly one of the characters started phoning a friend in Wales for a chat!
What? These two poverty stricken families had phones in 1950? Sorry, that did it for me. I stopped reading immediately. Nowadays lots of people have a mobile even though they struggle to put food on the table.
In the 40's to 50's very few people had phones, especially farm workers in rural Wales.
Ok, rant over, I'll go back to reading Terry Pratchett!

FairyPrincessk

Morning all,

I'm usually too relieved to have spotted grammar errors to get angry or point them out. When I was in school we were given a sentence every day with spelling and grammar mistakes and had to find them and write it correctly. I used to reconstruct the sentence because I could never quite understand commas and the other less popular punctuation and spelling was never my strong point. The teacher called my parents in exasperation and my mother (who is also a teacher) pointed out that my problem solving skills were obviously developing well because my responses were always correct and that as much as I read and the way technology was going with spell check etc. she wasn't worried about my literacy. At the time I was sorely lacking in confidence so more berating probably wouldn't have helped. I've managed to muddle along this far.

Like Hester, though, I'm a stickler for research in fiction.

OH is on his way into work now and I should get started. Maggie the Cat took me on a tour around the garden in my slippers. She begged to be taken out and then when I did was unsatisfied with the time allowed. My slippers are now covered in damp grass clippings and she is casually tucking into her breakfast.

Cranky, MaryC, Karcher, Burtha and anyone else who needs them, have a hug a cup of tea or a mocktail and look after yourselves.x

fuddle

maryc the stress you are under has to stop. There is no point worrying about if because it just makes things worse, and like you're finding out, has a detrimental efect on your health and gives you more to worry about. Speaking as an ex-bankrupt who lost her family home I can tell you that dealing with the problems gives you back control. By educating yourself about options (and there are many) you can eradicate some of the stress. By educating yourself on the debt collection laws you can often times remove some of the stress. By seeking support (I used national debtline) you can gain strength because you know someone understands. You sound panicky about the debt collectors finding you but you can put all that to bed by taking control. Please let me tell you that it's in the not dealing with issues that that the problems come. By putting your hand up and communicating all this will stop for you. Losing it all is far better than what you're going through right now. You may not even have to go as low as I did maryc. Take some advice from the free charities mentioned - today. The not knowing and the what ifs are the very, very worst.

Fancy you all talking about my neck 'o the woods and Im not here! We've been in the caravan to Western Scotland. We've had a great time dotting amongst the coastline, catching mackerel and foraging the shores. I saw ruinous crofts galore. Does any one know of any blogs etc that document croft living?

We got back at 10pm last night curtosy of the AA. We broke down north of Glasgow and needed the the car winched onto the wagon and the caravan hitched onto the back of the wagon. Thankfully the recovery and car repair costs are covered by DH's work.

I'm shicked (shocked - tablet sorry) at how bleak and cold it is back at home. Weve had smashing weather on the West Coast these last few days. My heating clicked on this morning and it's set to 17 degrees! I come into my own at this time of year.

Oh, I finished my sock! well I have to suss out the kitchener stitch to get it off the needles but I'm proud of my mistake ridden achievement. Please Miss, can I call myself a knitter now?

silvasava

Morning All - grey and damp here. My robin in the garden is in full flow, it's starting to feel very autumnal now, noticed some of the leaves were turning on my drive home yesterday. Certainly mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Monna - was very impressed with the carnival! Started around 8pm and all the participants were lit up in one form or another ( with lights I mean!!) a really good show but very noisy! We had B&B in a pub on the high street - which had a licence until 2am and our room was directly over the bar!!!! They did supply ear plugs but I have the facility of being able to sleep through a siege The rooms were lovely and a FHB! Was cheaper than a travel lodge.
MaryC - do hope you've been able to take on board some of the advice on here and are feeling calmer and more able to get assistance to help you with your problems.
HuH - sloppy research irritates me too and anything formulaic.
Burtha - sending you and your family caring vibes.

Encyclopedias - had a children's one but was always fascinated by our copy of Pears Cyclopaedia - in fact I bought one in a charity shop from the late 60's - makes really interesting reading especially the politics at the time. Mr Wilson's wage and price freeze - high interest rates and the Common Market! I've inherited a children's book of my Mum's from the 30's - it's a Bookano book with beautiful pop up's in it, one of them is a country cottage with a piece of cellophane inside that has a fairy printed on it - when you hold it to the light it looks as if she's flying - quite magical to a child.
Enough of my ramblings this morning - need to get my Arris in gear and start tackling the job list.
Have a good day all x

CRANKY40

Good morning all. We have an easy day scheduled here today as it's the house troll's last day of the summer break. I have planned a bit of crochet, lunch out and some online gaming with the aforementioned troll and the friends who helped me yesterday. The housework will wait until tomorrow when I'm home alone.

I'm another one who despairs at the spelling, punctuation and grammar in both the local and some national newspapers. I often find myself wondering if they have proof readers or spell checkers at all.

Monna my dad was like your mum. We could put our shoes ready for going out (we weren't allowed to wear them in the house), go to find our coats then return to the previous location of our shoes to find dad had put them away again. I'm fairly tidy and organised but can cope with a little of "this house is a tip". My sister lives in permanent chaos where the piles of clean washing and dirty washing that inhabit her bedroom floor are constantly threatening to become great friends and live as one big family.......

I'm looking forward to the house troll being back at school. Not because I want rid of him but because the sensory overload at the thought of returning to school is currently causing him to be awake for several hours during the night. It's happened the last two nights so I'm hoping if I take him out and make him exercise today, then a good walk coupled with being tired from two nights of broken sleep will mean he sleeps well tonight. I can only hope. He's not dreading school by the way, he's looking forward to it, this is just what happens when he gets over excited/stimulated/whatever.

Polly the camera for HH was definitely for work purposes only.....I've been reading about the love and lives of HH and CHS since the time of "the Lodger".

One of my favourite reads when I was growing up wasn't an encyclopedia but it came close for me. It was the annual "Dairy Diary" that my gran bought from the milk man. It had a bit of everything in it. Recipes, first aid - all sorts of useful things. I loved it. My go to recipe book was the Stork cookbook which we had to use in domestic science lessons in school but sadly that vanished during a lot of house moves in my late teens and early twenties. I must consult the bay of E to see if it's available and if it is whether I can afford it without mortgaging the house.

Hugs to Burtha and take care all of you.

ivyleaf

I have the Arthur Mee encyclopedias Probably the edition before yours polly as they were my brother's and he's 13 years older than me/I. I loved them as a child and my DDs enjoyed them too. I think they're in the loft atm though.
I also had a book of my Dad's, called "The Wonder Book of Why and What". It got lost somewhere along the way with so many house moves though.

Sending (((HUGS)) to all the people in need of some.