What are you all up to

We had lovely weather over the weekend and also on Monday but it has been a bit grey and dreary yesterday and today with a misty start yesterday and with the odd spell of rain. OH managed to get the grass cut yesterday before the rain so he is well pleased. I did my shift on the cathedral shop yesterday afternoon. I think I am beginning to get the hang of the till but I am glad I started during a quiet spell before it gets too busy. Our toaster gave up the ghost over the weekend and our kettle was on its last legs so new toaster and kettle purchased this morning. Hairdresser came this afternoon - such an exciting life! Glad you have a date for your MRI scan nellie. We wait to hear where you are going on your next trip.

Good luck KjellNN hope it goes well and you're home swiftly.

Not much of interest to report, just jogging along. OH back on antibiotics for nasty cough. that hadn't really gone away. Full MOT by practice paramedic and GP. Sputum test, another chest xray included. Let's hope this will sort it 🤞

Interesting to hear of grass cutting, too wet here, hopefully it will dry out before too much longer. Lovely show of snowdrops and daffodils to which I've added in bloom crocus. I've added a hellebore to those we brought with us so getting more diverse. We have 2 large clumps of wild cyclamen which is and has been fabulous. I small amount of elephants ear I retained looks much better for its cull. Plus signs of life on various shrubs. Exciting times 

Think we need to grow webbed feet, very wet again here today, although we have had a few bright sunny days and a couple of very frosty mornings, but on the plus side the grass has not grown very much as it is a tad too cold, but the narcissus along the sea front are magnificent, we used to have a display of croci but they seem to have disappeared.

Had a very interesting talk on "Social Perscribing" yesterday at OH's stroke club, never new this service existed but it would appear if you have social needs these people can point you in the right direction, there should be a link into you local doctors surgery outlining how these people can be contacted.

Couldn't agree more about webbed feet Rufus. It's raining here yet again. Lovely day for driving up the A1. Few days with  friend from Scotland, so about halfway for each.

Having flashbacks about moving 😱 packing, loading etc. Easy part about moving is that everything goes 🤣. Warmer clothes take more space.......

Interesting about the social prescriber, I had an appointment at our GP surgery but had to cancel as I was unwell. Rearranging it needs to go on the to do list!

Thank you to all who replied to my queries about cancelling my landline and changing my mobile phone, and broadband provider.  Very much food for thought, plus what occurred to me when reading the replies, is that it often depends on where you live, as to what service you receive, so I am still thinking about whom to change to.  I definitely agree about Sky Broadband though, as I too was with them  and their service was awful, even though they frequently advertised that it does not drop out or run slow, it did on most days and I have read numerous comments all saying the same. 

Glad garden coming along nicely. My hellebores self seed easily, so I seldom buy any, unless it’s a shade I don’t have. Simply dig up seedlings, cull out the weakest, pot up, then into ground in Autumn. My originals came from woodland garden at Brodsworth Hall, so they do look nice, variety of shades from almost white to darkest plum.

Birthday shopping for Mum yesterday, after a nice lunch at a local tea rooms. We had gone to meet a lady who had ordered some of my jewellery. Turns out I used to work with her friend, so small world. She has ordered some more, so I am very pleased, like making to order. Dropped off a birthday present for BIL, had a couple of hours with them yesterday evening.

Bill Bailey Concert was very good, very funny, great musical evening, he’s so clever. Another body search, that’s two in a week, we do live🤣 Sniffer dogs as well. Mind, they couldn’t detect chocolate😉 

It is teeming with rain here again today . I agree with the comments about webbed feet. Should we all be building boats?! The garden has lots of bulbs coming up I just wish we could get the weather to go out and enjoy it. I have narcissi, miniature irises, crocuses and hyacinths in pots and then more crocuses, snowdrops in the garden and lots of hellebores that I have had for years and they keep reseeding themselves. It seems to be a particularly good year for them this year.

So glad you enjoyed Bill Bailey tda. We think he is wonderful, such a clever and versatile man. I have recorded a programme of pub walks that he is doing. We watched the first one last week. It was with Alan Davies.

Great photos Rufs. 

We are off to meet some friends for lunch today. Hopefully it will take our minds off the dismal weather.

Hellebores, I love them but they don't seem to do well here. Unless I'm doing something wrong. The leaves grow but as to flowers, very rarely does that happen. I bought a new one 3 years ago, flowered lovely that year, the following year it did flower but not as many last year I think I got 2 flowers on it if I'm lucky. The plant doesn't get any bigger either. What's wrong. I've had them in other houses and they did fine. 

Dry day again today, very cold wind though so we are staying indoors. 

Plasterboard all finished and we brought the TV back into the room. It will have to go back out again on Saturday when the ceiling gets plastered though.

Garden full of crocus and snowdrops, no sign yet of daffodils tulips have leaves up no buds though. 

If we hadn't moved our timeshare weeks to January/February this year, we would be in Lanzarote now. Kind of glad we moved them as we missed all the horrible weather. Things should start to get better soon surely, 1st March tomorrow. Doubt we will be sitting outside for at least another 2 months though. Probably not until we get to France 😅

Hellebores TG. I think they can take a while to feel comfy in a new space, but I was taught to cut all the old leaves off mine, leaving the flowering stems to take centre stage at this time of year. After flowering, the new leaves will grow. I cut my old leaves off some last week.

Oh I didn’t know that hellebores self seeded, I’ll have to get some, I’m up for anything that self seeds. I’ve found lots of self seeded baby foxgloves that I need to bring on. We have a difficult garden as it’s so shady from the woods. I hate ferns but they grow better than anything here. I bought quite a few small plants recently but they are still in their little pots as the garden is still waterlogged and it’s raining again. I did buy some snowdrops a while ago, still not been able to plant them out and now the slugs have eaten them. The slugs have also started on the daffs we are inundated with slugs every year, maybe they come from the woods. I never put pellets out but Im sorry to admit that I do swiftly chop them in half with a trowel in the hope that they don’t suffer too much, I feel dreadful but if I didn’t I’d have no plants left. I throw snails over the wood but it’s true, they do come back, I marked some with a dab of paint to test this theory and yes I then found some with paint marks. It’s so bad that OH jokingly bought me some copper tape to go around the pots for my Christmas present, to stop me moaning about slug damage he said.

OH has been busy putting quite a bit of Ikea storage together in the spare bedroom, he is going to have it as a music room. It’s keeping him quiet, well apart from some swearing every now and then 😮