Diary > Tuesday 30th June

[Roobarb]

Woke up reasonably early but once more I fell asleep again and had some weird dreams. The house felt a bit cool this morning. Late morning walk, weather was cloudy and breezy but was quite pleasant out. A lot of the rubbish that had been left on the field seems to have disappeared, I don't know if it was the council who removed it or some public spirited person.

The petrol I'd had in my car since March was diminishing and the light had come on so I knew I'd have to pluck up my courage at some point to go to the petrol station. I needed to return the Kindle cover that wasn't suitable and I could do that at the garage too. I was going to go after lunch but it was on my mind so when I got home from my walk I got my credit card, plastic gloves, hand sanitiser and the parcel and went there. I hoped it wouldn't be too busy at that time of day, pleased to see that it wasn't. Put gloves on before using the petrol pump and removed them after use without touching the outer surface, put them in the bin and went in the shop. There were markings on the floor, one person in front of me who was nearly finished. The assistant behind a plastic screen took my payment and the parcel, receipts for both and that was it, phew! I've made some progress!

Home for lunch, couldn't decide what to do with the afternoon. Had a look in the garden, no sign of NN, looked like she had gone out so I got out my tools so that I could rearrange at least part of the trellises. I used some screws instead of nails because I knew that if she was at home she'd be out investigating at the first sound of a hammer blow. Unwrapped a new trellis I'd had in the garage to put in the gap that I hadn't previously had the opportunity to do anything about. Was pleased to see that it was a pack of two trellises. Managed to fix that and was about to rearrange the surviving ivy across it then heard NN return and into the garden with company. Came indoors briefly, they seemed to have gone back inside so I quietly continued. Managed to fix a couple more of the trellises in a better position than they had been and started trying to unravel the clump of vegetation that had been pushed off the top of the fence. It was like unpicking knitting although not so easy. I could now see the stumps of the thick stems of ivy that had been cut near the base, on my side of the fence. After I'd rearranged the living pieces it started to rain a bit, only very lightly but I'd finished so came indoors.

Roast chicken, veg and Yorkshire puddings for tea (bought Yorkshires, Viktoria!). Usual evening.

Hope all is well folks, It's July tomorrow. Over to you.

[Caw1]

Wow... you certainly had a busy day Roobarb! Great you've managed to get some more of your trellis up without being disturbed!
Well done for going to the garage too... not had to do that yet, I last filled my car up in the week before social distancing came in .... it's gone below half full now but be able to eek it out for a bit longer 🙂

I had quite a restless night and everytime I woke up I was thinking about good words to put down in scrabble game 😭😭what a thing to be thinking about... clearly loosing yesterday got to me!
Up fairly early to get the washing out.... quite cloudy but not too cold and wind blowing too...
OH went off to golf... I had a read online of Nathan Dylan Goodwins lockdown book about his genealogists Morton Farriers exploits... quite cleverly written as you choose different routes he might take to continue the story... it's only 6 chapters but I quite enjoyed it... don't know if anyone else has read his books?
I got carried away and wasn't watching the time when realised I was in my dressing gown and due at neighbours for coffee at 10.30 so had quick shower..
We sat out in her garden, just three of us and had a lovely chat by the time we left it was lunch time!
Had a call from the girl at Sky to say problem still not resolved and it was being looked at tomorrow and she'd phone me on Thursday... told her I knew that as it had been dropping in and out most of the morning.... and now phone also dead as a dodo ...😤😤
Went off to get on finishing face coverings ... O.H cooked dinner, chilli with jkt pot and vegs..
Started knitting baby blanket and we watched series of programmes about Hilary Clinton... very interesting
That's about it for today....
Eldest grandsons 7th birthday tomorrow so will be speaking to him in the morning.... hope he likes his skateboard card.... if it's still in one piece as daughter rescued it as postman was shoving it through their letter box!

Hopefully no more dreams tonight! Looking forward to reading others diaries

Caroline

[Annette7]

Read late last night and consequently slept late too - however, no dreams and woke feeling refreshed.   So refreshed that instead of looking at the pile of ironing I finally got round to doing it!  Always a satisfying feeling when it's done.

Rest of the day spent either on Rootschat, Soduku, or a myriad of small mundane household tasks.  Dry but dreary outside today.  Just checked the UK Met office forecast for Ipswich tomorrow  - described as 'Cloudy changing to sunny intervals by late morning' - however, looking as a detailed account of their forecast the sunny intervals are at 9-10 and cloudy again until mid-day then 3 hours of light rain!!!!   Since the rain forecast to last longer than the sunny intervals you'd think the word rain would occur in their brief synopsis for the day!   
 
Wondering whether my sister will have any luck finding a bird bath in Colchester - would cross my fingers but it makes it so difficult to type!!!

Hope to venture out again later in the week but has to be a dry (and hopefully not windy) day as will be in a garden again.

Hope you've all had a good day.

Annette

[Mowsehowse]

 QUOTE "I could now see the stumps of the thick stems of ivy that had been cut near the base, on my side of the fence."  Roobarb  I am shocked!!  How could this have happened? Is there a gap under the fence or must it have been done from inside your garden? I know that ivy is considered invasive and not prized by everyone, but I used to have one that had wrens nesting in it so it is not ALL bad.  Well done for negotiating the garage.

Glad you go to see some chums Caroline, and do let us know about the bird bath Annette.

Diary:
We were supposed to be out early for bread this morning, but it was raining, pouring when we got up, so we were rather damp, and town was rather busy, by the time we arrived. However, not all was lost as there was still bread.  I think the baker only carries 3 large multi-grain each day, and when they're gone, they are gone!  Also picked up some milk and started back through drizzle for home.
A small frisson of excitement to hear the Dart Valley steam engine's whistle tooting loudly as it chugged along the line.  I hadn't realised how much I have been missing it.  I guess they are doing test runs, preparatory to re-opening.  A while later, on the return run, the engine wasn't visible due to the clouds of steam coming from it.
The problem with going out so early is it makes for a very long afternoon, which was spent pottering around and catching up with blogs on the laptop.
After tea we walked along to the end of the beach and back.  House Martins wheeling around feeding at the top of the cliff walk, but none actually at the nests when we were passing.
Afterwards I caught up with the Sewing Bee on TV, which was worth watching despite knowing who the winner would be, ( ) and watched Gareth Malone's British Chorus.  He is such a superstar.  I am in awe of the way he can tease an entire song from people out of just a couple of sentences. He is definitely a National Treasure.

[Roobarb]

Caroline, you should be well set up now to win the next scrabble game! I love Nathan Dylan Goodwin, I've read all of his books. I'd started reading the lockdown one then promptly forgot about it, thanks for the reminder, will catch up on it now. Sounds like it's time for you to get stroppy with those incompetents at Sky! Or at least tell them you want some money back.

Annette, great to hear that you had a good day and got the ironing out of the way. As far as the weather forecast is concerned, I'm convinced that one of the meteorologists tells another to have a look out of the window and see what it's doing then keys it into the system! I think the problem today is that there are scattered showers across a large area and they don't know exactly when they'll be scattered near you! Hope it stays dry for you, keep us posted about the birdbath.

Mowsehowse, there's no way my neighbour could get inside my garden, the boards have a gap between them where she will have been able to put the pruning shears through, particularly the long handled ones. The cuts are a few inches from the ground and are next to where the gaps are. By her own admission she used pruning shears and actually came out with the ridiculous comment that she was only removing it from her side of the fence! Err, no! She can't even see the part of the fence in question from her house or even her garden, it's only when she goes down the side of the house to the bin that she sees it. When she used to be friendly with me I told her she could trim it if it was getting unruly and I used to trim the top but she's done this out of pure spite when I covered up the part of the fence where she could see onto my patio. There was actually a birds' nest in the dead stuff when I removed it all, long been empty thank goodness although she wouldn't have cared less either way.

How lovely to hear the steam railway up and running. I'm glad you enjoyed the Sewing Bee final, I bet Caroline is too!

[Caw1]

Roobarb- glad you like Nathan Dylan's books too, they are well written and his story lines are good too... have you read Wendy Percival's books... Esme Quentin is her genealogist... she's just had a new one out on the kindle I've just downloaded it title is The Fear of Ravens... I get regular emails from her so cost was only £1.99.. if your interested pm your email address and I can forward it to you so you get it at that price..

Mowsehowse- How lovely to hear the sound of the Dart Rail... it starts to bring back some sort of normality when you hear or see usual things... I'm sure we've been on it at some point as we've visited all round the area over the years.
Glad you still enjoyed the Sewing Bee despite me putting my foot in it!

Annette - nice to see your post and to know you'd had a good sleep and felt refreshed. Ironing is always a chore I try and watch something when I do mine!

Caroline

[Roobarb]

Caroline, no I haven't read any of Wendy Percival's books thank you for the offer. I've had a look at the author on Amazon, I see this is one of a series, presumably in the same way of Nathan Dylan Goodwin's books. Would it be best if I read them in order? If so, would I be able to get the first one at that price? I've put the author's name into my following list on Bookbub so they'll notify me of any price drops so hopefully I'll be able to get a good deal on any future ones.

[Caw1]

Roobarb - her books are £2.99 for three of them, .99p for another and this one using the link is £1.99 from Amazon all on kindle.
It probably helps to read from the beginning.

Caroline

[Roobarb]

Thanks Caroline, they're the prices that are coming up on Amazon. I'll download the first one and read it after my current book.