Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Hmmm Bluey, I resisted saying 'things are looking up' because of the car.

Well guess there's always something and it's been a carp day all round today and still tonights quiz to go.

Did have a lovely lunch sitting under the gold and amber trees in the park with a squirel watchig my every bite. Doing his best to look 'please, pretty please' like a dog. Who knew they would do that.

Nowt much to report as everything was sideways today so not back in time to do anything in the garden.

Bluey if you liked the bee with the sunshining out of it's bum you might like the Sparklemuffin spider that makes rainbows with his. Who wouldn't want to be able to do that

LessImpecunious

Bluey it might be worth checking what you'd get for your car on We Buy Any Car or similar - you should be able to get an online estimate. Our 2006 reg Ford Ranger truck had a blown head gasket, offered £400 by garage (which was partially responsible for the fault - or at least they conveniently didn't diagnose it from a long-running problem until after they'd done a lot of expensive welding on it - we don't use that garage any more!). WBAC paid us almost £1750 for it, no questions asked - as honest people we would naturally have told them if they had asked if there were any mechanical issues, but they didn't, and seem to base their valuation principally on exterior damage, though they did ask us to turn the engine over while they inspected (though the inspector appeared to be more of a salesperson type than a car mechanic...) The price was less than the online valuation, as the exterior damage/rust was not inconsiderable, but might be worth you having a look... Their vehicles go to auction apparently, so I can only assume buyer beware if you're tempted to buy at one!

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks for that Less. I've just done WBAC and they reckon they'd give £370 Maybe it's worth taking the £300 to get out from under it before it dies on me. That's a bu99er about your Ranger, did you complain about that garage? Jeez I'd have been mad. I'll be wary of auction cars then, good tip  

How did you get on at the quiz 2p? Did the lucky-to-have-you team mates listen to you this week? My squirrels don't do "pretty please", they sit on their haunches with their wee arms folding looking imperious. I've asked for an air rifle for my birthday but himself is a non-listening one so I'm not hopeful. Sparklemuffin spider sounds good, I'll have to D'Duck that

More importantly - good news - I've cracked it. Farway and Arb are having a lock-in at morries gc bit to get the labels sorted out and they'll not resurface 'til they're all done!  

Dark, damp, mild out there. The murk never fully lifted yesterday (obviously, stoopid sobers). Queer weather here though, it was warmer at midnight than it will be the whole rest of the day - how about that!

Edit - that spider's a real one, I thought it was gonna be another cartoony meme thing Jeez that's brilliant :clapping:

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

More importantly - good news - I've cracked it. Farway and Arb are having a lock-in at morries gc bit to get the labels sorted out and they'll not resurface 'til they're all done!

I hope it's good news when we find out.

Any car is worth £200+ scrap value, but any car with 12 months MoT, even a scraped-through one, is worth around £500 in a private sale, especially if it's a desirable model like yours, Bluey. The last two cars I sold on the Bay, some years ago now, even when being up-front with the problems, had me inundated with potential buyers. In each case, the first buyer seen  'beat me down' to £400 or £450. Neither car made it through the next MoT!

It's a jungle out there!

 It blew a lot here yesterday, and the rain missed us, so I got the lawns cut. Today, I'm being banished to consumer emporiums, so our guests can eat us out of house and home. That's a pity because there's more sunshine and a bonfire wind, but needs must.

twopenny said:

Did have a lovely lunch sitting under the gold and amber trees in the park with a squirel watchig my every bite. Doing his best to look 'please, pretty please' like a dog. Who knew they would do that.

Don't be fooled. They can turn on you and bite if they've been given too many treats in parks etc. Daughter found out the hard way!

Bluey, that fungi you posted looks a lot like Honey Fungus. OK if it's in someone else's place! Your sunflowers reminded me to seize the moment. There was a whole field of 'em, looking marvellous some weeks ago, bang on my route to civilisation. I was 'in a hurry.' By the time I returned that way, they were all 'over.'

Pp, we watched a female blackbird stripping our holly yesterday. There's no way one can blame them, though. Your holly looks like it might be 'Van Tol.' It's the kind I like...no thorns!

Up and at the allotment today, taff?  Hope everyones sneezes sniffles, bruises and aches are history now.

The virtues of Geranium 'Rozanne' were still being extolled a week ago by Farway, so yesterday I took a photo of the new entrance we made earlier this year, where it's been flowering all summer.....and still going strong! The hedge bank is settling-down and looks pretty good too for late October:

LessImpecunious

Hope not all lost for Farway who is at least liking posts now! Welcome back!

Didn't really think to complain about the garage Bluey, not being entirely certain of our suspicions that they could have diagnosed earlier - but we go elsewhere now...

Wouldn't have wanted to sell a known dying vehicle to a real person on Ebay or elsewhere (especially as we were uncertain whether it would get out of our front yard before grinding to a halt - it was a nail-biting trip over the Bannau Brycheiniog to our "local" WBAC depot!), but didn't seem the same morally selling to a business whose model seems to be to happily buy duds...

Farway

Ta Ra, I'm back!:)

As many guessed, it was my knee, by Wednesday evening I couldn't bend it, and it hurt like heck.  Had a job getting upstairs despite a stair lift, just couldn't get my foot up on the foot rest, but needs must & made it to bed. I had to leave my socks on because I couldn't bend to remove them.

A very uncomfortable & sleepless Wednesday night, took me about twenty minutes to get out of bed, stiff & hurty leg

When I got downstairs it was into the recliner chair, foot rest up, back rest down, with a blanket over. Probably looked like some Age Concern advert for Winter Heating allowance.

Anyway, Thursday spent racked with aches & reclining, but luckily no coughs like some. Would have welcomed a squirt of Mrs D injection though, any spare?

I'm snookered regarding aches & pains, normally something like Ibo thingy fixes but not allowed that cos it will not mix with my other jollop valued medicines

Still painful, so won't be here on desktop for long, I don't want to get my knee twisted and undone again.

Sorry can't stay and respond to dead cars, autumn leaves, auroras etc, but I only have desktop PC so I'm sat with bent legs, which is NOT Good. Will Santa bring me a laptop?, perhaps it's something I need to look into, especially as my PC has been condemned by W Gates as unsuitable for Window 11.

Obvs no gardening done here, but I'll be watching GW later, and thinking about Morries label swapping expedition. By coincidence, one of my YT views over the last few days was someone growing dahlias, and they had wrong label ones pop up, not the super-duper ones they paid for.

Oh, Dusty, your car dealer on YT, Chops Garage? I watch him and if he were nearer I think I'd use him, seems honest enough, but even he gets caught out at times

Talking of which, My YT views revealed just how expensive used electric cars could get once battery ages, and Wet Belts in Eco engines. A nightmare, hope it gets resolved Blue

Right, back to horizontal viewing position for me, hopefully catch you all tomorrow

Dustyevsky

LessImpecunious said:

Wouldn't have wanted to sell a known dying vehicle to a real person on Ebay or elsewhere

I'd say it depends on what's wrong. With my diesel Zafira, the garage thought the intermittent fault was the fuel pump nearing the end of its days. At £1250 for a decent s/h unit, and exhuming it from the tank needing some skill, I cut and ran. I put what I knew in the advert, but there's always someone who can't resist a low mileage, luxury model with a FSH, no matter what's in the ad! Naturally, he had a 'mate' who could soon fix it.

With the Nissan, it was also a low mileage car, with FSH, and no apparent faults in a mechanical sense. The electrical matrix controlling all its toys began playing-up, and my garage didn't want to get involved with removing the dash, especially with it being such an old cheapie. I had 9 people contact me about that one. The first went for a half-hour test drive and bought it on the spot. It was a lovely car to drive, and apart from the heater blower, everything worked for the buyer, but that alone, once winter arrived, would have been a big problem. 

Farway said:

Ta Ra, I'm back!:)

As many guessed, it was my knee, by Wednesday evening I couldn't bend it, and it hurt like heck.....Would have welcomed a squirt of Mrs D injection though, any spare?

Oh, Dusty, your car dealer on YT, Chops Garage? I watch him and if he were nearer I think I'd use him, seems honest enough, but even he gets caught out at times

Talking of which, My YT views revealed just how expensive used electric cars could get once battery ages, and Wet Belts in Eco engines. A nightmare, hope it gets resolved Blue

Glad you're still with us! Sounds like something set off inflammation in your knee. It doesn't always need a bash to get that. I've been there with "estranged sock syndrome," and it's infuriating! Sorry, no spare injectables here; the best we can do at present is spot-on flea treatment and a wormer. 

Chops is honest   He uses a lot of clickbait headlines, though! He was caught out with Mrs Dusty's car, buying it before he found out it was a Category N. It didn't bother us that it had had a prang, and no service history; we could see it had been looked-after. I couldn't find anything mechanically suspect either. He wanted £2750. We offered £2350 + MoT +oil change and new cam belt. He agreed to that. 'Cos we were no drama, he also threw in 6 months guarantee, instead of 3 months.

I warned 2p about the wet belts in the Ford and Peugeot eco engines a while ago. Shocking! Battery cars would be the next mis-selling scandal, if governments weren't all chasing net zero. Good on Toyota for saying they won't build an all-electric any time soon.

In gardening news, I've not done any. It's been a lovely day here, too; bright sunshine, little wind and about 13c.

Hope the knee eases soon. 

twopenny

Welcome back Farway! One of my quiz/TT mates gave me some South African herbal cream to try. Knowing my herbs somewhat I can't see what would affect muscles etc but anything is worth a try.  I'll let you know.

Socks (chuckle) I've learned to lift my foot behind me and put them on  

BTW have you thought about a tablet ahem, the sort you get the internet on? I got a second hand Kindle for £25 and love it for podcasts, YT, radio and net. I can use it in the garden and garage as well. Thinking of getting a cheap new upgrade for the resting days so I can watch catchup/films properly from bed.

Bluey we came last in the quiz   after 2 times coming first but this was a different crowd. Didn't help that we weren't given one of the table top add ons worth 20pts........though one did his best to fill it in in 3mins flat..... and I had the guy with the microphone bellowing top volume right behind my head. I've spent the day quietly at home without even the radio, to recover.

At last got to the badger run and put up expanding trellis on the top of the big fence entwined with the winter clematis so hopefully I'll see the flowers this year. Did some weeding and ivy removal badly because of aches but at least half is done.

Seems the badgers are back, not only the hole under the fence but they've cleared out the tunnel so have to keep an eye out.

Lovely sunshine all day though darn cold when the sun goes down early. Promise of another dry day tomorrow so I'll have a shot at improving the back garden. Plum is looking sickly with droopy leaves, not sure why.

But - despite not looking smart the garden has developed into one with autumn colour as well as spring and summer so what I had in mind is at last happening.

Just the hard work of digging up and moving stuff so it isn't so crowded.

Dusty that entrance is just beautiful! Wish you'd been around when I started. May be asking for some 'improvement' advice to fill the winter days

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Dusty that entrance is just beautiful! Wish you'd been around when I started. May be asking for some 'improvement' advice to fill the winter days

It's Mrs Dusty who does all the planting. I just grow 'em! We knew we'd need loads of plants, so I multiplied what we had. Being held-up by all the legal shenanigans meant the plants had longer to grow. Those feverfews, for example, are huge! The Rozannes were one plant we had to dig up prior to the digger work. It was pretty big, so we got about 8 or 9 from it. The only plants we paid for were the hedging and some lavenders.

Another lovely, crisp autumn morning today. Hopefully those who've descended on this area for 1/2 term will have a good 'last' week. When we had the plant business, this was the time our kids got their "summer holiday!"

We have visitors, so walks and visits to Rosemoor will have to go on hold. The BBC say it'll be cooler next week, and unlike a lot of things they say, I can believe it. There's nothing terrible in their forecast yet, though.

Today's photo is an innocent-looking little Persicaria I picked up in a local plant sale. Mrs Dusty has planted it as a rock garden 'filler,' but I'm not happy with its location by gravel chippings. You should see the place where the original plant stood! (this is a cutting) There are about 100 self-seeded there!

The moral is, be careful with plants people tell you are 'good doers.'

Hope you all are 'doing good' too, this morning, or at least, doing better. Yeah, I forgot the lie-in....again!

YoungBlueEyes

I know what you mean about getting squiggly selling a '...tired...' car to a real person Less. I know all these things are caveat emptor but my conscience wouldn't let me do it, it'd be no good for your karma. 

Glad to see you back Farway Sorry your knee's playing up but hopefully rest will sort it. If you can't take the tablets would the Ibo gel be any good? (Other african tribes are available.)

Thanks for the mushroom ID Dusty. It was in a local park while I was out with Handsome. My picture didn't so it justice, it was a lovely soft creamy colour in real life. Handsome gave it a wide berth though! That's a very pretty entrance, I like the colour combos. 

Last in the quiz 2p... you need some new team mates. Or maybe your ones need to catch lockjaw so they can't interrupt while you're being right Fingers crossed your plum is just being pi$$y and isn't actually sick... 

Went for a test drive in a little micra yesterday, bag of spanners with no poke about it   I asked the fellah would he take my jalopy as a part ex for something and he said he could go no higher than £100 and he didn't know where I'd got it from about the mot being worth £300 but that's not true. He said. So I'll get me back box done and see where I am. I'd have thought my car was desirable too Dusty cos you don't see many 1.3 GL's but that ain't translating into £££. 

Lovely sunny morning here this morning, and a grand drying day too so himself's work clothes are in the washer. Rain to come later when it's finished lashing down on everyone north south and west of me. It was so calm and quiet when I got up and the stars were all out here, I got a couple of not bad pics. And my blackies are back