What are you all up to

That should put extra milk in the tank. In a good year ours would go out middle of February.

Helen, we just have a basic airfrier, so no special settings, and OH just sets it initially at 12 mins at 190. She test the cake and then adjusts time depending on consistency. One thing that we have found is that the cakes rise even better than in the oven!!

Good to read that you have been able to let you cows out, Goldie, and I bet that they are pleased to out in the fields too.

Should anyone be in contact with Brue, please will they too pass on my best wishes.

Enjoy your stay at Putts Corner, David, it has been a while since we were last there.

Another day of mixed weather here at home, although the wind has dropped. Unfortunately it rained in the middle of the afternoon which curtailed my usual pre-dinner walk.

What a horrendous day weather wise. Heavy rain again. Fed up with it.

Busy at home today as another physio visit to MiL followed quickly by a visit to instal an emergency call system so we'll feel better knowing MiL can press her call button in an emergency if we're both out and responders will contact us or one of 2 neighbours who have agreed to help out in an emergency if we can't get home quick enough. Hopefully it will just be wasted insurance and not used but one never knows.

We used to be a responder for a neighbour and know its reliable as we were called out a couple of times.

Cooking for tonight on at present as well.

"What a horrendous day weather wise. Heavy rain again. Fed up with it."

You have my sympathy WN - we are, as well!  Got home yesterday afternoon after cutting our holiday short by a couple of days - just got fed up with the constant rain and mud everywhere. Today started off wet again but has dried up for the time being.  Just finished giving the inside of the van it's usual deep clean and Ros  has been driving the washing machine since about 6 am!

Thursday and Friday are forecast to be dry (I hope that materialises) so those two days are earmarked for tackling the somewhat muddy awning.  Fortunately, Thule make all the mud skirts and lower part of the awning out of heavy duty PVC, so it shouldn't take too much cleaning.

Good to hear about the cows being let out Goldie - I bet they're a lot happier know.  We had to smile - the other day we passed a couple of pig farms alongside the A64 - the pigs were snuffling about, absolutely blathered in mud, looking as happy as anything!! This weather obviously suits them, if not us

We cracked on lovely yesterday, it was warm and sunny right up to around 4pm, so we got lots done outside. I finished up with a run to local tip, then half hour in greenhouse, so a very nice day. Even managed lunch sat on our garden swing. Bucketing it down now though, so can’t replant hellebores, etc… into Mum’s garden. Another day off tomorrow, but forecast is dire, so a trip out to Castleton planned.

Pooch has been for his annual booster, plus monthly injection, plus other drugs. That would have funded a week away in a cottage😱 Vet fees are scandalous at the moment. I saw a newspaper headline where some folks are taking their pets overseas for treatment. I think there’s something happening in Parliament about it as well. We’ve always had fantastic vets for all our animals, but these big hedge funds are buying them up and it’s hard now outside of really rural areas to find an independent vet, most are part of a small number of groups. I bet a lot of animals are suffering because owners cannot afford bills any more. Don’t blame the vets, it’s typical of how Britain is run nowadays😡

Good to hear that the emergency call system has been installed, WN. It should provided all of you with some peace of mind enabling you to get out a bit more.

Pleased to hear that you got home ok, Richard. Now the hard work comes with the cleaning of the car, caravan and awning.

Yet another day of mixed weather, being very wet this morning and then when the rain stopped we had some of the highest winds of the winter. It was refuse day and for some reason the cart didn't arrive to empty the recycling bins, so because of the wind blowing over many of the bins the streets are littered with plastic bottles, cardboard packaging and cans!!

Despite my nightly slug hunt with a torch and dispatching very, very  many each time, today I have had to dig up the four young plants that I planted out last week, two of them were clematis. The slugs have stripped them all bare, even though I surrounded the plants with grit and eggshells. I’ve put them back into the pots they came in and put them just outside the back door where I can keep a better eye on them until hopefully they green up again. I read there are 20,000 slugs in the average garden, with this wet weather I think there must actually be millions in ours, I’ve just been out and they seem to be hanging on every plant.

We had a nice day on Monday so I spent it in the garden, thankfully the hard work had been done in March so it was just grass to be cut (first time this year for the back garden) second time for the front, edges strimmed then a hoe over of all the beds. My Hellebores have decided to flower after complaining weeks ago that they don't.  Yesterday was mixed and today it has just been raining all day. Forecast for the next few days looks to be dry, I won't say good because I don't think it will be warm but dry will suffice for now.

Bins, we have been given yet another bin by our local council, huge big thing with a grey lid. This is for plastics and cans. It will take all plastics soft and hard so that is good, no longer having to collect them up and take to Tesco. The council have also informed residents that they can obtain an elastic strap which clips to the bin and fastens down the lid with a clip over the rim. Excellent piece of kit and its free to collect from various local places. We have 2 of them one for the 'plastics' bin and one for the 'paper/cardboard' bin. hopefully we won't have a repeat of the lids being blown open and plastic everywhere like before, same as  NTH has experienced.

Rivers are all full and fields yet again flooded due to the very heavy rain of yesterday and Monday overnight. We didn't thankfully experience any roads being flooded. Still quite chilly here so heating is still on all day. Just had our 'Fits' reading for Jan - end of March was surprised at £250 not bad considering the weather we've had.

Slowly getting things don't on the van ready for our spring trip, if it stops raining we could give it a good wash and polish before the off. 

"Just had our 'Fits' reading for Jan - end of March was surprised at £250 not bad considering the weather we've had"

Wow! that is not bad for Scotland, i submitted our reading and our previous supplier SSE used to pay within a few days, but they no longer do domestic stuff so we had to move to OVO, it takes them almost 3 months to pay out, they claim they cannot pay until they receive the money from the Government  I could work it out from the meter reading but who cares it is what it is and i will eventually get some money 

well right now we have rain, however, not complaining we have had a glorious few days all be it very blustery, i have cut our grass 4 times so far this year and it looks as though i will have to do some shrub trimming before we depart in May, however, the blossom is looking really good even after the storms and i notice our apple tree has lots of blossom  just waiting to bloom, lets hope we dont get any late frosts.

Got some professionals coming to clean the van on the 16th, feel very guilty about it, i am going to cut out my 1 can of beer per day to pay for it,  well that is what i told my wife might have to spend some time sat in the caravan 1600 - 1700 hrs daily.

our treat for this month is a visit to the Tichfiled theatre to see Clamity Jane, organised by the Stroke club so quite looking forward to it, we only live a 10 minute drive from the theatre so all good, we sometimes go to the Mayflower in Southampton but it is expensive and car parking is a nightmare.

sorry so many folk have had horrendous weather over the Easter period and now have some very dirty caravans/MH's to clean, ours is not too bad except for the roof which is very green, so glad i made a hard standing some years back, our solar panels are also very green, too much rain, our window cleaner will clean these when he does the outside cladding some time in June.

remember

"yesterday is history

tomorrow is a mystery

today is the present, that is why we call it a gift"

enjoy