Sue wrote: ↑22 Apr 2020, 17:30
One bedroom, that is actually the master bedroom with the ensuite, faces south and gets very hot in there in the summer, The other faces north and is positively chilly in the winter but a nice temperature in the Summer. We have fans and portable air conditioning units for each bedroom, and even in the north facing room in the Summer.
My friend who lived in New York State near Cornell University had the same problem. Hot summers, cold winters. His solution was to fit a small computer type fan, silent running, above the doorway. Easy to do in a studded wall build but more difficult with stone / brick buildings. A brilliant idea or possibly a cunning plan.
As different friends prefer different rooms when they stay we like the mobile fans and air conditioning then we can move it as we like. Even in the summer we have been known to need it in the summer bedroom.
Almost finished my vegetable conversion patch. A bit more raking over to get the levels right and remove some of the smaller stones then its down to Sainsburys for some grass seed to cover 10 yds X 5 yds. 1½ to 2 kg should do. Getting a bit fed up of this patch I'll be glad to move on.
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Your conversion of the veg patch to grass P reminds me of an interview I once heard with a farmer. He said the difference between a tidy farm and an untidy one was 1,000 tons of concrete.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
And that reminds me of something my hairdresser once said. The difference between a good hair cut and a bad hair cut is 3 weeks. I wonder what the difference is between a bad hair cut and a very bad one. I may find out very soon, having cut the sides of my hair a few days ago. The choice of scissors were nail scissors, kitchen scissors, gardening scissors or dressmaking shears. I am sure you appreciate the reason for using nail scissors. It took 3 days of keeping cutting wet hair to get the two sides to match. I THINK it looks ok.
Internet down so using 4 G, will write longer later. Its been down since 10.30 last night. Its our life line!
Hope all is well with everyone. As I said earlier we have major communication problems so I am just writing this on PAGES on my iPad then I can upload it using 4 G . We dread the Internet going down. It does this periodically , and often during the day and early evening when the kids are at home. We only have very limited connection to the hamlet and we are a long way from the exchange, so not enough capacity for the 4 houses in the hamlet. However this morning as there is no phone either it implies something greater and the question is WILL IT GET FIXED? We are lost without the internet as all our communication is through that. At least we have mobile phones and 4 g on our iPads but if we use those all the time we will soon reach our limit. Communication may be limited for a bit.
Towel washing today but its a dull misty start. That is also normal and often clears by 11.00 am , its due to be a cloudy warmish day after that. Once again I am struggling to find tasks to do now outdoors, but may have a garden fire or two in our little dustbin incinerator. Bob still has major hedge cutting so there may be barrowing jobs too. His strimmer has died a permanent death, which limits the grass tidying round trees and shrubs after yesterdays mowing. I think someone is trying to tell us its time to go home...I wish. As a last resort I could do a few i door things, like pulling out furniture and cleaning corners of the sejour and the study. I am up to date with my art and writing projects for the U3A. I could always sew,or write my genealogy book, but the latter needs Internet access as I am constantly checking my facts online. Could be an interesting day, lets hope its not longer than a day!
So still trying to
Think positive, be cheerful, keep busy, I shall stay safe and have as good a day as I can
Morning Sue. I would be lost without my connection! I'm not as smart as you and don't know if I could post from my smart [hone. Let's hope I never have to find out.
I've got used to the light now and it's fine. I'm seeing much better. I read a scale on the lathe yesterday using ambient light. I had to get a torch out before and still I got it wrong. I saw yesterday that it is slightly out. I shall put it right!
Having said that it's Friday and there are things that have to be done. I am cooking sausage and meat for Jack at the moment. That of course comes before cooking for myself! Mind you that's limited to egg bacon and beans this morning....
I've been to the Co-op for an essential shop while there were hardly any other people in there. Much better stocks this morning things are reappearing on the shelves.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Yes I too noticed today that things are reappearing on shelves, pasta, pasta sauces, I even managed to buy bleach and toilet paper from the same supermarket. That hasn’t happened in weeks. It’s all good.
I know I'm in my own little world, but it's OK... they know me here.
I know what you mean Cathy and you're right. Our own biosphere is the safest. There might be germs in there that are bad for others but we have learned to live with them. Think of what I've been exposed to in the past.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Several prospects beckon, there is always the shed but I need to cook and Kathy delivered 6 pots of beef dripping yesterday so I have the option of cleaning and refilling the deep fat fryer. Deep Joy!
Shed is favourite though...... Must rectify my mistake!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Morning all, hope you are still all ok. We still have no wifi, although the phone is back on. This will remain like this now till Monday, thus no more zoom pilates or yoga etc till it is fixed. So many of our activities use zoom it is very depressing, and makes me feel very cut off
It was a very damp warm humid misty/cloudy yesterday. The sun came out for an hour or two in the evening. My washing did not dry and was draped over airers and bannisters through out the house all day More of the same today, but not as bad. There is next to no wind so when it is like this the weather just sits. Its misty again now. I hope the washing is dry this morning
I spent the day burning wood in our little incinerator, literally the whole day stopping for a couple of drinks and lunch. I cleared about one third of the wood pile in the centre of the orchard. Underneath it is a compost heap. Today I shall dig out the compost and distribute it around the orchard and carry on trying to reduce the quantity of wood in the pile even more. Its something to do. I ached last night from standing all day
By the evening I was feeling quite depressed, no neighbours to wave to, no clothes in the post despite emails to say they would arrive, and a late notification from the English newspaper online for the Brits in France that put our return trip home from France in doubt. The official wording is very ambiguous and it depends how it is interpreted. Forever the optimist ( or try to be ) I thought it was OK but when Bob explained it another way it seriously looks in doubt. So, I emailed the embassy explaining our predicament and asked for official advice. I have had a standard reply but with a reference number saying they will get back to us. Please oh please say we can go home.
Its Eves birthday today, she is 11. Her present is sitting in France with us, by now it should have been with her in Coventry. There was no way to post it or send a card, from here so we have used a Jacqui Lawson card, Julia has written another from us and given her some money from us towards her present. We shall whats app at breakfast time. Its not ideal but the best we can do
Not thinking so positive today or as cheerful, but will keep busy, stay safe and have as good a day as I can
Sorry to hear that circumstances are getting to you Sue but I do understand. I hope the embassy can get back to you with a positive answer. You'd think they could organise enough passengers to make a ferry worthwhile.
I did a load of washing and then had a major blitz on the deep fat fryer, they are dirty little things! (But so handy and they do a good job.) 6 pots of dripping reloaded into it. I shall be able to make some lovely chips now.
I have the new version of the BET and will have a look to see what sort of a mess it is.....
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Normally saturday morning is down to the swimming pool and a good chat to the lads putting the world to right. Instead it will be grass cutting round the garden. Not one of my favourate pastimes walking behind noisy mowers but its an ½ mile walk in anybody's money.
Wimbledon standards?
I've looked at the Leader. They have half a page of nostalgia photographs. Perhaps mine was the wrong sort of nostalgia... 8 Pages of puzzles. I don't think they will be selling many in Barlick...
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Thanks ok then, it looks like after out internet crashed our password was changed. We had no notification as such. Bob did some techno thing on the box and found the password, and it wasn’t the old one. Hope we haven’t been hacked. More likely the box was upgraded and their message to us has got lost in transit. New password works
Aiming for the shed but I shall have to do some cooking. There's always something!
I hope Sue is back on line properly today....
07:30. Chicken wings and veggies are roasting. Carrots, parsnips and swedes are boiling and will be mashed with butter shortly. It blows the morning away but means no cooking for a few days!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Sort of back online Stanley. Because our password changed we are having to alter all phones, iPads, laptops and the wifi extender. Without the wifi extender more than half the house does nor receive the internet. This includes the bedrooms and the main lounge. I do my pilates in the lounge so I will have to use my iPad with 4G. I am also on that now as I am writing in bed, with my morning cup of tea. We have no idea why the password changed but it was a very old system so we presume it has been upgraded.
Thick mist again this morning. At least yesterday it cleared by the afternoon leaving a fine day. I had yet another garden fire in our incinerator all day, and have now cleared half the pile. The lovely compost underneath has fine rotten wood in it but otherwise its ideal for just spreading in the orchard which is what I am doing as I go along. Ideally it wants sifting but that is out of the question. Normally we would dig it out and rotivate into the veggie plot but as one now has veggie plants in and the other is not properly prepared, again its not going to happen, so its spread and reseed like the other patches. Bob has finished cutting the laurel hedge, but still has to tidy up then he can get on with his last piece of railway.
We are planning on firing up the pizza oven today, more wood disposal, but being Sunday just a little different for a meal. I shall try and bake some bread in it too, also just something different. We would normally eat our main meal in the evening but the chance of rain goes up this afternoon.
As we are now back on the internet I shall read my instructions for Jeremy Fords ZOOM watercolour workshop. Jeremy has come up with a few suggestions that may give me workable paints as my watercolours here have gone very strange and gloopy, and the paper has gone a bit like blotting paper. However I do have one or two art supplies I can try and adapt as we came here straight from Jeremy’s last all day workshop. This zoom class will about stretch what I have to the limit and I am obviously going to have to upgrade before our next extended visit. I do have an oil painting on the go, but it is in my little studio and it hasn’t been too warm in there. Watercolours can be done in the kitchen but not oils.
We received some advice from the embassy about medication but nothing that we hadn’t already thought of ourself ie to go to a local pharmacy with our medication and see what they can do. Anyway I sent another longer letter back explaining the real issue about not finding the right paperwork to fill in to give us permission to drive across france. The permit is divided into two parts, EU nationals and non EU nationals. In the latter you can tick travelling to country of origin, in the former that option does not exist and none of the options match our situation. We have been told by others to use the EU nationals form, the wording of which really only applies to coming in to France and not leaving it. We have asked the embassy for help in filling in the form. Thus I am still not feeling very confident about our intended departure.
On the plus side I explained all of this on my two family blogs. One of our daughters is looking into one option she has identified, to help us. The blog with my brothers has actually thrown up a surprise. One had a really long supportive chat with me last night about our predicament. I was rather surprised
Still no knickers or clothes!
So once again I shall start my day trying to
Think positive, stay cheerful, keep busy, stay safe and have as good a day as I can
Sue wrote: ↑26 Apr 2020, 06:25
Oh the sun has come out !
Why do I think of this? Hello Muddah, hello Faddah Here I am at Camp Grenada
Wait a minute, it's stopped hailing
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing
Playing baseball, gee that's bettah
Muddah, Faddah kindly disregard this letter
I think Sue wants more than the sun! That's a bummer about the form Sue. Surely you aren't the first to hit that problem? Can't they remember what they did last time? I'm afraid they sound a bit incompetent to me.
The sun's out here as well and it's a lovely quiet morning. I have done all me cooking, except for the roast wings which needs another few hours while I have a sleep. Jack has had his second walk and another bowel movement, always so welcome! I am having breakfast, mince pudding and veggies. Then second sleep...... Things could be a lot worse!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
