Diary > Wednesday 14th October

[Lisajb]

I spent an hour in the local minor injuries unit - clipping plants in garden, tumbled backwards, knocked a pot over, and sliced little finger open.

Blood pressure dropped, they weren’t happy to let me out again. Treatment table tilted backwards - I felt like I was a candidate for mummification!

Only one BP machine so it was being wheeled in and out of different rooms as needed. Eventually my BP rose enough for me to be allowed to sit in the waiting room with coffee.

Got home eventually with a hurty finger. Back to two fingered typing, and everything is awkward.

Full marks to the staff in the MIU - they were lovely with this hopeless patient.

[Roobarb]

Oh dear Lisa, poor you, these things happen so easily. Hope your poorly finger is soon back in action.

[Annette7]

Nothing of any note to report so have not posted for a day or so.   A case of 'same old' story that I can't really make interesting, well interesting enough to post about.

Was infuriated to read about the 3 female students of Norwich University who held a party for over a 100 people, each of them fined £10,000 which was fair and just.   However, I don't think the fines are really a deterrent for the young who have no money anyway - what's another debt to add what they already have?   Pubs in certain areas closing at 10pm or having to close altogether.   People up in arms about it as one sees on the news but all youngsters congregating in the streets!   What does it take to get through to them that they themselves are the cause?  I know it's only a certain percentage but big enough to cause all this.   My cousins granddaughter is a student at Oxford - shares a house with 4 others - but none of them are acting this way.  All very sensible and acting as they should.

Words fail me!

Annette

 

[Lisajb]

Oh dear Lisa, poor you, these things happen so easily. Hope your poorly finger is soon back in action.

Me too, just so gammy handed! Can use iPad, using a mouse on pc is awkward. Can read, can’t knit. I did manage vacuuming this morning.

[ankerdine]

So sorry to hear about your mishap, Lisa. Hope you recover very soon. Also Carol too. It can't be pleasant feeling ill during these already worrying times. I am looking forward to hearing about your new vacuum cleaner/stick, Caroline, I've always wanted one but OH isn't keen. We do have a Henry but it's really far too heavy for me. Please bring back my Hoover Junior -it sweeps, as it beats as it cleans?

Busy morning. I finally decided to take some bags to the charity shop. Inside were my walking boots - have decided that rugged cliff walking is finished for me now preferring a gentle field ramble wherever possible. Wellington boots have also gone as they were rather tight around the calf. Said goodbye to a load of posh plastic cookware which I never got on with - hope someone else can use them. Quick drop into chemists for staples like Ibuprofen, Savlon, etc. A short drive to local garden nursery where I bought violas, wallflowers and bulbs which I intend to plant on the next sunny day.

Can someone advise me how to stop squirrels digging in my pots and flower beds please? I've tried mothballs which didn't work but someone on here mentioned grated soap! Was this a joke or true?

Afternoon was a rather lazy time though I did try to start cleaning the shower. It's always a challenge and I try to put it off for as long as I can.

Sausages, baked beans and jacket spud for tea followed by the old film  "The 39 Steps" which was a complete change from the usual.

[Viktoria]

Well, many of you are real troopers, battling on!

Some very worrying symptoms ,do take care ,lowish BP can be a good thing but very low certainly not.
 Falls and unsteadiness are no joke.

Oh! To walk along the seashore , smell the salty air, and with a dog,heaven.
Lovely descriptions ,I can imagine you got full marks for your Compositions  or Essays .
I must find a poem I like ,something this morning in the posts nudged my memory.
Do you know,when I type son ,it comes up,first time as sin !
I take exception to that!
My sin- well I was married and had been well over the mandatory nine months!
My SON,says as we are a bubble ( thinks I am an air head!) it is allowed for him to take me to hospital .
Will look up the poem.
Thanks for the news .
Viktoria.

[ankerdine]

Victoria,
That sounds like a poem in itself:
"Oh, To walk along the seashore, smell the salty air and with a dog - heaven"
Lovely - I couldn't agree more.

We hade some unexpected visitors yesterday which I forgot to mention. Firstly, the heron flew down to investigate our pond which has finally got some water in it at long last. He didn't find anything 'cause his ancestors took all our fish some years back! There are frogs and newts in the early part of the year but haven't seen anything in there lately. Secondly, after lunch,  we were sitting looking out at the garden when a sparrowhawk flew swiftly at the fatballs which were hanging in the hedge. I don't think he/she caught a bluetit or Robin as he then flew to the birdtable and stayed there a while, finally giving up and with a very low swooping flight continued into the apple tree. Phew, talk about nature in the raw.

Judy

[oldfashionedgirl]

Ankerdine the best way I have found to stop squirrels digging in my pots is to save the briers when pruning my roses, cut them into lengths and criss cross them on the top of the pots. I suppose bramble, berberis  or any other prickly stem would work.

When the bulbs are poking through I spray them with a chilli spray deterrent which I bought at the garden centre. It works quite well. It’s such a nuisance when they eat the tops of the bulbs as that’s where all the ‘growing information’ is. I try and give them something else to eat like, monkey nuts, away from the bulb pots.

[Roobarb]

The grated soap wasn't a joke, it was a tip from David Domoney when he was doing an item on This Morning last week. He's one of the gardeners who does Love Your Garden with Alan Titchmarsh.

Hope the sparrowhawk doesn't manage to get the bluetits, I know that's what they do but I doubt you'd want to witness it.    I can never forget the results of when a cat (I assume) had killed the blackbird fledglings in my garden, the sound of the mother crying was dreadful.
Perhaps you could hang the fatballs further in the hedge so the little birds can get in but the predator can't.

Viktoria, thanks for your good wishes last night, am pleased to say I slept well. The coughing fit was just my asthma playing up for some unknown reason.