The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

pollyanna_26

Good morning Fencers .
TW So pleased you've had some useful dialogue with the organisers . Hopefully it will benefit your family , other host families and students in the future . It's always worth hitting either the keyboard or phone in such situations . I always go on gut feeling . If it doesn't feel right and alarm bells are ringing it usually needs sorting . I hope the middle boy at least gets to come back to England in the future he sounds a lovely lad caught up in a challenging situation .
monna dear please let me know of any hopeful news after the viewings . It's blowing a hoolie here today with heavy rain , eyes and everything still crossed but fearing a sudden change in wind direction .
Don't hold the fact I left you on the norty step the first time for a few days against me - genuine error - I did let you get off the recent one the same day - I count crossing my eyes at will among my strange and diverse talents but prefer not to have it as my permanent state should the wind change suddenly .
"Steps up to the dustbin " added to my memory . More housework tip duly noted . The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak at the moment .
Shame on you Mar frightening the babies . Get thee to the library and read improving books avoiding the huntin', shootin' fishin' section .
Post mk2 to follow I need a brew .
polly

pollyanna_26

NM I've believed in the power of Karma both good and bad since the 60s . I've seen it happen too many times . Like monnas ex mine too is living his karma now . Some years ago I spoke the K word to the head of a hospital trust and not so long ago he was fired and was lucky to escape a prison sentence but was publicly shamed .
When I send good vibes on here or elsewhere it's the good version .
Is it pouring down now over in GM and the surrounding area ? All together now "If Rain Makes Britain Great Manchester ( and the NW) is Greater"
I've had your son in mind this morning and hope all goes well xx

Cheapskate Sorry to read your news .Hoping proper treatment will make things a bit better . Another of my mums sayings " Never trouble trouble 'til trouble troubles you . Family history doesn't always keep repeating just take things as they come, one day at a time .
Yes I did homeschool but only the youngest of my four . She coped quite well in our small community primary school but there were signs by 7 years old she was struggling to pick up the unwritten interaction between her classmates unless in her small group . She loved her school days then but was finding things hard . No academic problems , she was given permission at six to read the junior school books and powered her way through the lot .
Moving on to the senior school her older siblings had attended was a whole different thing . Our former GP had to put her on ADs . The bullying began , school would not acknowledge any concerns and I got a phone call one day to tell me she was in A&E with a teacher . She never went back to school . I'm talking nearly 20 years ago . I spoke to those in the know , scanned the relevant section of the Education act and sent off two identical recorded delivery letters to both the Ed dept and school informing them I was formally withdrawing her from that day .
Wasn't so easy back then but it went like a dream . The fact I worked in Schools held some weight and eventually the brilliant home ed officer and EU funding and my own input did the job .
Sadly the damage she sustained both then and for years after left a mark but with therapy and support things are much brighter .
She did go to college and did the exams and training for her planned career path but the fickle , finger of fate intervened and her physical health took her off her feet literally and living with pain .
I hope all goes well for you and yours . There weren't so many groups back then and she was wary among strangers anyway . I think you always know when it's the right thing to do . That gut feeling again . I know a lot of early teens now who struggled in that school and others who are now in Home Ed and all the better for it .
pollyx

GreyQueen

((((((((((Fuddle))))))))) the barstewards, I'll hire me a van, pack it with things like my mattock and reap-hook and come up there and stamp on them with my allotment-specific steel-toed DMs.

When I was first associated with my site, for about 2-3 years before I first shared a lottie for 18 months and then got my own, it was pretty much an old boys' club. Some of the guys had been up there for 40-50 years and their old dads before them, and they didn't much respect or even seem to like the women who were starting on plots.

I earned my stripes by dealing with a hellish neglected plot and the distance gradually resolved into first a reluctant respect at my grit and determination and then, when a series of casual conversations revealed that I had several decades' worth of gardening know-how already (started as a toddler, there is photographic evidence ), they realised that I knew my onions (and my potatoes, and all the rest).

It wasn't all plain-sailing, there was one meeting where the Git to end all Gits (even the rest of the old boys described him as an awkward bu88er) stood up and ranted at these people (like me, working age females) who didn't keep their plots immaculate.

I retorted, waspishly, that some of us had to go to work during the day and couldn't devote all hours to gardening, as much as we'd like to! He didn't like that (he's died since, I shed no tears, hard beyatch that I am).

Another memorable encounter happened a few weeks after I'd got my own plot. The shed was up, the cultivation was beginning but the fencing was improvised out of some rope and stakes, until I could womble/ afford something else.

I couldn't work out how the heck the endermost stake on one side kept coming out of the ground and being thrown up the plot. Until I rocked up in the middle of one Sunday morning and found a small car parked on the end of my plot.

And I do mean parked - the whole car was on my plot, and the passenger would have disembarked right into my beautifully dug earth. They'd been pulling up the stake and rope to allow them to drive onto it from the access track.

Oh great! thought I. The first time I meet the neighbour on that side and we're going to have an Isshew. Time for the trusty GQ charm offensive.

So, with a bright smile fixed in place, up I walk to the two old boys on the next door plot. Hi! I'm GQ, your new neighbour, how're you doing? Is that your car, by any chance? All bright and sunny and friendly as you like.

It's his car, my plotholder neighbour grunted, jerking a thumb at his mate.

*Smiling fixedly* He's got it parked on my allotment. Could you move it, please?

Sullenly. We always park there, been parking there for years.

*Smiling even more fixedly, eyes probably getting rather steely by this point* But that was when the plot wasn't being used. It is now. Can you move your car, please?

Cue scowls and sullenness and a pointed 20 minute wait before the car was moved. Twenty minutes in which I, who had legitimate reason to be using a mattock in the area said car was parked on, was seriously-contemplating having an 'accident' with several pounds of sharpened steel onto their car. Fortunately for all concerned, they moved the car before my temper got the better of me.:rotfl:

Keep on keeping on, my lovelie, if nothing else, you're younger than them and will still be there when they're pushing up the daisies.

It never happened again and the sod eventually gave up his plot.

FairyPrincessk

Back now all went fine although the urine samples are being mailed off so will try not to worry int he mean time. About to settle on the sofa with a strawberry tart, some knitting and an herbal tea.

pollyanna_26

Are we stalking each other?:D
I am glad things went ok at the Doctors . Do your knitting and drink the herbal tea and don't worry .
I see Her Maj Grey Queen has made a royal visit in our absence . I'm off to eat as I haven't since lunchtime . Wondering if i should don something floral and my ornate best wellies in case she returns .
polly

GreyQueen

pollyanna_26 wrote: »

Are we stalking each other?:D
I am glad things went ok at the Doctors . Do your knitting and drink the herbal tea and don't worry .
I see Her Maj Grey Queen has made a royal visit in our absence . I'm off to eat as I haven't since lunchtime . Wondering if i should don something floral and my ornate best wellies in case she returns .
polly

I'm actually modelling myself on the rulers of ancient Persia and nothing less than the full prostration will be adequate, I'm afraid..... :rotfl:

Stand at ease, that wumman, I'm about to go and soak my feet in Epsom Salts (long story......) which makes a change from boiling me heid, I suppose.:p

mardatha

Polly GQ has one of my mum's sayings right there..
Away an bile yer heid! Also Get that face aff yer face!
Some folk wid cause a rammy in an empty hoose!
That wean (aka moi) wid make a saint swear
Got on the bus this morning and there were 2 ladies knitting on it, not together. I need to get back to it, Christmas is coming!!!

pollyanna_26

Now suitably fed and watered . First of all NM I owe you an apology. Yesterday i seemed to miss important points in different posts a number of times . I failed to spot the part in your meter post talking of the lack of a functioning gas meter which as the landlord is about to have gas central heating finally installed is a major problem . Most of your conversations with suppliers seem to have been online . Do you have anything at all in writing from them as the problem was tossed back and forth? . I know you mentioned talk of the Ombudsman . You can do that yourself if you have some written evidence of how this situation came about and the lack of proper resolution . I seem to recall all the flats are under one owner or company are they approachable ? Not holding out a lot of hope in mind of the laundry drying arrangements but as they now plan to update the heating system this could be a spanner in the works for them .
I hope the day has been ok for your son . If you haven't both gorged on the Hobnobs chuck one this way , I forgot to take up your kind offer yesterday so if there's one left it's got my name on it .
GQ I was under the impression one was only supposed to to fully prostrate oneself before cats . You may be thread royalty but I have no recollection of feline ancestry in your bloodline
I never was one to prostrate and fear I would damage myself should I attempt it now . Even the most beloved mog never got the honour .He just got the choice bits off the lamb joint and ate everyones melon and strawberries .
Tomorrow I shall happily talk lotties . At the moment it's the third cold night in a row and Autumn is a coming in . Lights were on just after 8.15 but we had a glorious rosy sunset .
I hope you're staying well . As one of those women in the last batch of retire at 60 I'm still angry for all those who had the goalposts moved twice .
I hope burtha is ok today and last night wasn't another hard one .
monna is very quiet . Maybe she's become like Kim and Aggie on steroids or just gone back to bed to recover from her heroic cleaning marathon .
Just a thought could my wonderful " Morningtown Ride " the other night be a cure for sleeplessness? Maybe it's lodged in her brain and lulls her into dreamland .
Tomorrow I may try "Winkyn , Blykyn and Nod . My tried and tested solution to sleepless children . Needs to be slowly uttered in a boring monotone whilst stroking the bridge of the childs nose . it never failed and I often woke up kneeling by the bed having nodded off myself .
polly x

mardatha

Was it this thread where kittie gave fuddle a link to dehydrated veg? I can't find it.

pollyanna_26

Oh I missed your post Mar . I nearly sent myself to sleep posting about things to make you sleep .
I love all those old sayings . Things are a lot less interesting nowadays aren't they? Caronc in Scotland has been telling me some of the old dialect words . My daughter has few very funny words to sum up her present state of health when she sees the Doctor every two weeks . The best one which escapes me at the moment was used by Caroncs consultant to describe her current condition and translated meant totally kaput . Much easier than long drawn out descriptions . If God forbid the Heifer should ever cross your path again you could blind her with words .
Meanwhile how are you at the moment? The weather here is the sort i don't like . Cold , wet and miserable . Snow and cold don't bother me the way the dreary damp does .
polly x