Good morning Debs and all to follow. Debs, I hope that work goes smoothly. I am going to pick over the little violas I planted in troughs at my front door as they just need dead heading to - hopefuly - get another flush of flowers.
I will be taking my meter readings once daylight gets here after the shock news last night about the power company I was unwillingly with, ceasing to trade.
Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
Debs, have a nice day at work. I'm glad that you managed to spend time in the garden.
LB, sorry to hear about your power company. Good luck with meter reading, and I hope that you will be able to work in the garden today. I gave Rose her injection without any trouble. This second time I was more confident and it passed quick.
Bright, sunny and very cold morning. I fed my pets and birds in the garden and now is time for my tea and toast. Delivery will come today, pets and bird food. I got one small and such a lovely present yesterday at school. I'll show you later, it seems that those pupils know me quite well.
@Ladybird4 I am with octopus energy and so far so good. I am expecting a rise in prices soon but otherwise they seem fine. ( I am not in any way connected with them) No flowers on my pansies and not many leaves. I think I will replace with primulas I love the scent of the yellow ones.
Good morning everyone . Debs my primulas are flowering and look good ..Last year I lost a lot of winter pansies .I won’t be buying anymore.LB I hope you will soon be told who your new gas and electric supplier will be .Ante enjoy your day .
Morning everyone, Must have had a power cut during the night, clock on oven and microwave were flashing when I came down this morning. Hope you can sort a new energy company @Ladybird4 @debs64 such a shame about your pansies, such pretty happy plants. Mine died too, probably all the heavy frosts we've had. Have a good day at work. Aww @Ante30 how lovely to receive a gift, looking forward to seeing it. Glad Rosie's injection went well. Need another cup of tea, see you in a bit.
Ante I am glad to hear that Rose's injection went well. I am very excited to see your present too.
Debs, I used to be with Octopus and thought that they were excellent. I only switched to People's Energy last year as they were actually cheaper. 4 months later - last September - they ceased trading and the mess I had with the erroneous transfer to Together Energy started. It was being dealt with by the EHU (Extra Help Unit) and ironically (and partly amusingly) I received an email from them yesterday to say that Together Energy were prepared to pay me a goodwill gesture of £30 for the mistake and as I was reading the email the news came on to say that they had ceased trading too!
Its a good job I have a sense of humour as whilst this is unsettling I know I won't be cut off from my electricity and gas - I just have to wait for Ofgem to pass me on to another supplier. Joy!
By the way to add to my happy day it is raining!
Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
Hope everyone is well rested, and that poorly ones are mending and testing ones are ok .... I'm glad we stuck with E.ON ... we got a good tariff ... however it ends in a few months' time ... but I don't suppose we'll be in a worse situation than anyone else. If only we had a government that could focus on our problems rather than those of their own making 🙄
Re winter pansies ... I've found that the Viola x Pansy called Panolas are much hardier than the ordinary pansies ... they flower and flower and flower ... and have the most gorgeous scent and a wide range of colours and markings. Keep an eye out for them next autumn when you're buying winter bedding plants.
Hope those of you who had fog yesterday have sunshine today 🌞
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
general frustration and concern having listened to news about cost of living rises and other folks' earlier discussion about power companies, rather than 'political thinking' ... but my apologies.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My Covid test was negative Son 2 rang, he is at home looking after 5 small children. Child minder can't come because of the positive tests. At least small grandson isn't ill, although positive. Son has a headache, mild cold symptoms and is tired. I will have to do a home test in a couple of days.
No frost here because it's raining, not heavily though.
I plant violas as they seem to do better than pansies. They can look very unhappy in bad weather but as soon as spring starts they perk up and flower their socks off.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Morning everyone. I am still here but having days of feeling low and frustrated so not always feeling like posting without sounding like a moaning Minnie.
@Busy-Lizzie - thank goodness you've managed to find a company who sound as though they will be able to help if your plumbing plays up again. The blocked drain must have been most unpleasant and these things are always worse when you're on your own.
@Ladybird4 - I was going to ask if your power supply issues had been sorted. I guess the answer was "Getting there - but now thrown into turmoil again". As you said - at least the power keeps flowing. When I was 'sorting out' our British Gas / Scottish Power saga I took photos of the meter nearly everyday as proof of our usage in case of dispute.
We seem to have been here, there and everywhere recently. I told you we were going to do a test run with the motorhome last week. Long story short - it broke down again. All a bit more dramatic this time as we were on the (very busy) M3 when the engine suddenly started to lose power very quickly. Fortunately we made it to a wider part of the hard shoulder.
A very unpleasant 45 mins at the side of the M3 with lorries thundering past just a few inches away while we waited for the breakdown service. We came home in a loan car and the m/home is now in Basingstoke awaiting a fairly major repair. All down to debris from the mouse-chewed air filter going through the engine. This mouse will now have cost us at least £1500 - not to mention the lost days dealing with it all. 🤬
On Saturday we decided to have our day out in London anyway and went by train. A broken down train and a tube strike (FFS!!!) all added to the fun but we still had a grand day out. I went to the Tower of London which was incredibly quiet (no coachloads of Japanese & American tourists) and it was lovely being able to really explore at my own pace with no queues at all.
A nice bus ride through town to Cornelissen's (artist supply shop) which was every bit as good as anticipated. It's a very old shop and really old fashioned with lots of high shelving and wooden drawers full of goodies - very similar to the old hardware store which stocked anything and everything and where you could buy a single washer. This shop even stocks beautiful long goose quills for serious scribes. I think @Dovefromabove knows it. Bought a few calligraphy bits and pieces.
Round the corner to a Sam Smith's pub for a pint and then over the road for a Korean BBQ which was a new and delicious experience. Bus ride back through town to Liverpool St, a quick explore of a large and excellent Italian deli & restaurant complex next to the station and train back home. Good day!
Monday was a visit to a specialist pen supplier where I treated myself to a new fountain pen and some coloured inks. Have recently got back into writing using a 'proper' pen and my old one was from school days over 50 years ago and a replacement was in order.
Yesterday we took OH's little camper out to a nearby nature reserve to test our small BBQ in the car park. Cooked up nice sausages for hot dogs with onions for lunch - much to the amusement of passing dog walkers (some of the dogs were very interested!). A cold but lovely sunny day - very enjoyable.
Today I have some unmentionables to attend to and then I shall be playing with pens and inks. May hear about the m/home today. Not sure if I'm looking forward to or dreading it! May be going collect it tomorrow or Friday - see what they say when they've done further examinations.
Apologies for that long and boring post. I feel a tad better for venting some of my frustrations to the screen!
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Posts
Debs, have a nice day at work. I'm glad that you managed to spend time in the garden.
LB, sorry to hear about your power company. Good luck with meter reading, and I hope that you will be able to work in the garden today.
I gave Rose her injection without any trouble. This second time I was more confident and it passed quick.
Bright, sunny and very cold morning. I fed my pets and birds in the garden and now is time for my tea and toast. Delivery will come today, pets and bird food. I got one small and such a lovely present yesterday at school. I'll show you later, it seems that those pupils know me quite well.
No flowers on my pansies and not many leaves. I think I will replace with primulas I love the scent of the yellow ones.
Must have had a power cut during the night, clock on oven and microwave were flashing when I came down this morning.
Hope you can sort a new energy company @Ladybird4
@debs64 such a shame about your pansies, such pretty happy plants. Mine died too, probably all the heavy frosts we've had. Have a good day at work.
Aww @Ante30 how lovely to receive a gift, looking forward to seeing it. Glad Rosie's injection went well.
Need another cup of tea, see you in a bit.
Hope everyone is well rested, and that poorly ones are mending and testing ones are ok .... I'm glad we stuck with E.ON ... we got a good tariff ... however it ends in a few months' time ... but I don't suppose we'll be in a worse situation than anyone else. If only we had a government that could focus on our problems rather than those of their own making 🙄
Re winter pansies ... I've found that the Viola x Pansy called Panolas are much hardier than the ordinary pansies ... they flower and flower and flower ... and have the most gorgeous scent and a wide range of colours and markings. Keep an eye out for them next autumn when you're buying winter bedding plants.
Hope those of you who had fog yesterday have sunshine today 🌞
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My Covid test was negative
No frost here because it's raining, not heavily though.
I plant violas as they seem to do better than pansies. They can look very unhappy in bad weather but as soon as spring starts they perk up and flower their socks off.
@Busy-Lizzie - thank goodness you've managed to find a company who sound as though they will be able to help if your plumbing plays up again. The blocked drain must have been most unpleasant and these things are always worse when you're on your own.
@Ladybird4 - I was going to ask if your power supply issues had been sorted. I guess the answer was "Getting there - but now thrown into turmoil again". As you said - at least the power keeps flowing. When I was 'sorting out' our British Gas / Scottish Power saga I took photos of the meter nearly everyday as proof of our usage in case of dispute.
We seem to have been here, there and everywhere recently. I told you we were going to do a test run with the motorhome last week. Long story short - it broke down again. All a bit more dramatic this time as we were on the (very busy) M3 when the engine suddenly started to lose power very quickly. Fortunately we made it to a wider part of the hard shoulder.
A very unpleasant 45 mins at the side of the M3 with lorries thundering past just a few inches away while we waited for the breakdown service. We came home in a loan car and the m/home is now in Basingstoke awaiting a fairly major repair. All down to debris from the mouse-chewed air filter going through the engine. This mouse will now have cost us at least £1500 - not to mention the lost days dealing with it all. 🤬
On Saturday we decided to have our day out in London anyway and went by train. A broken down train and a tube strike (FFS!!!) all added to the fun but we still had a grand day out. I went to the Tower of London which was incredibly quiet (no coachloads of Japanese & American tourists) and it was lovely being able to really explore at my own pace with no queues at all.
A nice bus ride through town to Cornelissen's (artist supply shop) which was every bit as good as anticipated. It's a very old shop and really old fashioned with lots of high shelving and wooden drawers full of goodies - very similar to the old hardware store which stocked anything and everything and where you could buy a single washer. This shop even stocks beautiful long goose quills for serious scribes. I think @Dovefromabove knows it. Bought a few calligraphy bits and pieces.
Round the corner to a Sam Smith's pub for a pint and then over the road for a Korean BBQ which was a new and delicious experience. Bus ride back through town to Liverpool St, a quick explore of a large and excellent Italian deli & restaurant complex next to the station and train back home. Good day!
Monday was a visit to a specialist pen supplier where I treated myself to a new fountain pen and some coloured inks. Have recently got back into writing using a 'proper' pen and my old one was from school days over 50 years ago and a replacement was in order.
Yesterday we took OH's little camper out to a nearby nature reserve to test our small BBQ in the car park. Cooked up nice sausages for hot dogs with onions for lunch - much to the amusement of passing dog walkers (some of the dogs were very interested!). A cold but lovely sunny day - very enjoyable.
Today I have some unmentionables to attend to and then I shall be playing with pens and inks. May hear about the m/home today. Not sure if I'm looking forward to or dreading it! May be going collect it tomorrow or Friday - see what they say when they've done further examinations.
Apologies for that long and boring post. I feel a tad better for venting some of my frustrations to the screen!