Tales from The Shire

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou wrote: »

I am exhausted just reading that!

FDawg's antics are getting a bit wearing now Beanie

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

So here's the heatwave :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: What a scorcher!

I do like the heat (and not the cold... am I part lizard?) but not the humidity. Makes it difficult to get things done and I have a lot of things to do at the moment.

The patio was finished on Monday so I went to the bank to get the money to pay the builder. Also picked up some bread and ham for sandwiches. In this heat we're mainly eating sandwiches and salads :rotfl: Dropped Mr F's suit in for dry cleaning whilst I was in town.

Then in the afternoon I met up with the other WI show ladies to deliver the painting and agree our 'staging'.

Yesterday was spent turning the annex over for our next guests. I'm very pleased I picked up that fan from the charity shop earlier this year. It's quite cool in the annex downstairs but very warm upstairs.

It was a relief to hear the thunder and rain last night cooling everything down. FDawg is a bit worried about thunder but he slept through. He's still waking us early though We are now trying him on 3 smaller meals a day, the last just before bedtime. I'm hoping he'll sleep later on a full tummy. I bought him two more activity treat toys so he now has three indoor games and three outdoor (the outdoor ones are the ones that make a lot of noise). He loves them and we can use kibble in them. I think we'll recoup the cost in a couple of months from what we save on treats so a good investment.

Today I took the morning off to go walking with some girlfriends followed by tea and scones in a little cafe. Then I ran the vacuum over the annex and did the finishing touches. Sometime I must get round to cleaning my own house! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Tomorrow I'm taking the car in for repair. A friend is meeting me for a catch up so I won't be kicking my heels hanging around while they work on it. There's a big charity shop nearby so I expect we'll go for a browse.

Some annoying things have happened today:

I decided to put an order in for heating oil just in case the Iran situation makes prices rocket. The tanker arrived today and the driver went straight over a manhole and ripped the cover off. I'd mentioned to our builder that the cover was standing a bit proud of the drive but he'd said it either had to be a little too high or a little too low as that's how the pipe segments worked. I've sent him a text asking him to come back out to repair it. It has to be robust enough to be driven on - it is on the drive after all.

Then I received an email from Gate man (I know, it's been so long I expect you've forgotten him) attaching a photograph of a teeny tiny bit more work completed on the gate. It's been over a month since they took it away and he'd estimated it would be ready within a week. I've replied (not very politely) requesting an installation date.

And whilst I was checking over everything in the annex today I found that our last guests had turned the fridge down to minimum temperature. I only realised because I heard it humming and buzzing and working it's little heart out in this heat. I've no idea why it's plenty cold enough at a higher setting.

But what really made me cross is that they took away one of the magazines I leave for guests to read. It was a Country Living magazine, the current issue and they are £4.75 each! I bought a subscription with my T£$co vouchers as I enjoy reading it, could then leave issues for guests to read and they have a resale value on the Bay. I've written 'Please do not remove' on the August issue but feel very grumpy about having to resort to that as I then can't sell it on. Is leaving magazines tempting fate? Does it imply that they are complimentary? What do you think?

I've got over myself now. It's so glorious here in the Shire at the moment. It makes me very grateful for our life here.

I'm off to make another salad for supper :rotfl: This time it's a prawn cocktail and avocado one. I'm going to run out of salad ideas soon.

Enjoy the sunshine all but stay cool... I find eating ice cream is the best thing for that

Fortune x

beanielou

Maybe people do think that the magazines can just be taken so good idea to say do not remove.
Eek to the gate saga continuing.
No idea what you can do next
Nor with Fdawg getting up so early

PurpleFairy26

Think some people are just cheeky fortune I wouldn't dream of doing and would assume it was just there to read whilst in situ that but I think some people just have a different mindset. Some people are just odd;)

themadvix

I agree with Purple Fairy that I'd never take one away. It might have been accidental? Could you mention the magazines in your welcome folder / blurb (assuming you have such a thing), so that you don't have to write on the individual copies?

teapot2

You sound busy as ever, hope Fdawg's new regime works to curb early morning woofing.

Re the magazine issue, could you just paper clip a bit of card saying 'do not remove'? The note might fall off but at least they'll have seen it initially. I don't sell magazines but would a small, neat or typed sticker on the front make it unsellable? I've sold books on the big river with writing or highlighting etc and as long as its mentioned in the condition notes there has never been a problem. Maybe its different with mags?

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou wrote: »

Maybe people do think that the magazines can just be taken so good idea to say do not remove.
Eek to the gate saga continuing.
No idea what you can do next
Nor with Fdawg getting up so early

PurpleFairy26 wrote: »

Think some people are just cheeky fortune I wouldn't dream of doing and would assume it was just there to read whilst in situ that but I think some people just have a different mindset. Some people are just odd;)

themadvix wrote: »

I agree with Purple Fairy that I'd never take one away. It might have been accidental? Could you mention the magazines in your welcome folder / blurb (assuming you have such a thing), so that you don't have to write on the individual copies?

[/QUOTE]You sound busy as ever, hope Fdawg's new regime works to curb early morning woofing.

Re the magazine issue, could you just paper clip a bit of card saying 'do not remove'? The note might fall off but at least they'll have seen it initially. I don't sell magazines but would a small, neat or typed sticker on the front make it unsellable? I've sold books on the big river with writing or highlighting etc and as long as its mentioned in the condition notes there has never been a problem. Maybe its different with mags?[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the advice guys. I asked some other hosts what they do and one suggested 'coffee table' books instead. So I'm going to look for some showcasing the Shire.

Fortune

Fortune_Smiles

... I mean the weather yesterday - not me :rotfl:

Wasn't it a scorcher.

I took the car in for repair and met up with a friend for brunch at a diner nearby.

We hadn't heard anything from the garage a couple of hours later so she drove us into the market town as we both had a few chores to do there. I paid for parking and an ice cream each for us as a thank you to her for driving. The heavens opened as we were eating our ice creams :rotfl: Very unexpected but quite refreshing. It was only a five minute cloud burst and we dried out quickly as soon as the sun came out.

We still hadn't heard from the garage so I tried to call but couldn't get through. So we dropped into a local antiques emporium to have a mooch. Not much spent there but we both found a little decorative item we fancied. Mine was a quirky feature to decorate the area in front of the Annex.

Five hours after dropping off the car I finally managed to get hold of the garage and they had done.... nothing :eek: They had found that the tyre needed sealing (again) but didn't want to take it to the tyre company they'd sent me to before. They hadn't been able to make contact with their preferred company so the car had just sat in the compound all day :mad: I got a little grumpy with them and they took the car off to the original company with stricter detailed instructions about the repair. It turns out the original repair was done in the wrong place :eek: Anyhoo, the tyre did get fixed in the end and my friend and I had a lovely day out.

I picked up Mr F's dry cleaning on the way home then hurried back for the grocery delivery.

I am looking after my neighbours cats at the moment as they are away on holiday. They asked if I could water the pots for them if it got very hot - they have hundreds of them :eek: It took me about an hour :eek: They did say I could help myself to produce in the garden so I picked some sweet peas. They have loads so I could take enough for a vase in the house and in the Annex.

Our guest arrived at 9.00 pm after a long drive. She is a lovely, bubbly, young lady and seemed very happy with the Annex. She has never traveled on her own before and browsed hundreds of properties before deciding on us. Because we looked safe and homely

I'd eaten out for lunch but supper was Halloumi Traybake which we ate outside on the repaired patio with a G&T

Keep cool folks!

Fortune x

beanielou

What a car saga.
Glad that you had a lovely time with your friend.

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou wrote: »

What a car saga.
Glad that you had a lovely time with your friend.

There was a silver lining Beanie

Fortune x