Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

Its weird outside, foggy, damp, drizzle and blue skies. Perhaps the fog is cloud and it is lifting

[Marilyn]

Just had a 40 min session on my TENS machine. Feeling good now.

[Stanley]

That's what I thought Sue. It was OK in bed! I'm happy to say it's stopped raining now so I shall be having my trot round the Green in a short while....

[Sue]

It cleared, then came down again just as we were ready for our walk. We didn’t bother! I finished Erins hankies, 11 of them, shame I didn’t have enough fabric for 12. 7 have her initial on. Pleased with them .

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[Wendyf]

You will have to make a hanky bag for her now Sue!

[Stanley]

Margaret's bearings are keeping the shed occupied. Back to reading Nose Dive this afternoon, I have absorbed all the bad news in Private Eye...
Later... I have lost almost an hour in the shed because of cooking, I realised that for my chicken wings to be slow cooked they must be started today! No worries, Margaret won't be complaining.

[Sue]

You will have to make a hanky bag for her now Sue!

I had thought about it Wendy

Morning

As I expected we were both busy yesterday, we didn't manage a walk, because it was too late and going chilly by the time I had finished the hankies. It was beginning to fog over again as well, not really walking for pleasure weather. I didn’t get any archaeology done as we had a late lunch and then a late evening meal of roast lamb. I also tidied my sewing room a little as today it will be my art room. I have a portrait to do before zoom art on Friday.

Today I have pilates at 10.00 a.m . Then sometime during the morning a U3A craft friend is picking up some yarn from me . We were going to meet somewhere in a carpark, but she is passing the end of the road on her way to Dunelm . This afternoon I am meeting another of the group at Lidl carpark. She is in the process of moving and I am buying some fabric from her that she found whilst clearing out. In between times I shall be getting on with my art project.

Have a good day all.

[Marilyn]

Reduced to the level of a drug dealer...exchanging things in car parks Sue!

[Stanley]

At least the weather will be better for you Sue. Clear and bright here now, I had a nice walk round the Green after shed.
Only an hour in the shed because I had some cooking to do but positive progress has been made. I am ready for tapping another eight holes tomorrow.

[Sue]

Reduced to the level of a drug dealer...exchanging things in car parks Sue!

I think I value getting about £120 worth of wool fabric for £20 a deal worth creeping around in a carpark for

[Stanley]

That is a good deal Sue.
I shall be quietly pursuing Margaret's bearings. We are making good progress.
As for the rest of the day, it's clear at the moment but then we are promised cold rain for the rest of the day. I am not a fan of walking in the rain! I think an early walk might be on the cards.

[Sue]

Morning

It was a very nice day yesterday, if cold. After pilates and the yarn collection by my friend, we decided we had time for a brisk walk through the Dell, up to the pond and picnic area and back , before lunch. It was a brisk three miles more or less on the flat and took just over the hour. Then it was lunch and straight out to drive to Lidl at Litteborough for my car park meeting and fabric collection. The traffic was horrific. It took 25 minutes just to do the mile and a half to the bottom of Whitworth Road. I was late, but so was my friend who was driving from the Burnley side of Todmorden. It was after 3.00 pm when I got back and the rest of the day was taken up with doing my portrait for the art project

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. The nose is wrong and he looks too young. Its the second time I have tried this man, my ggg grandfather , and still not getting it right


Today is not so busy. In fact I have no definite plans. I have finished my Christmas sewing and my art project. On Saturday evening the U3A wine appreciation group is having a virtual Christmas meal. Bob and i are making cocktails and canapés. Its a gin cocktail and blini canapés . Bob has the clementine gin well under control but I need to practices making blinis, a new one for me, so that could feature in todays plans . Otherwise I think I will see if I have enough white fabric of some sort to make a 12 th hankie to complete the set and make a little pouch to put them in. Its the double pilates and yoga this evening, and that will be my day.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

I didn't get away with a dry walk by going early, when I looked out at 04:30 it had already started so I had to put up with a cold wet walk.



I have had a good hour and three quarters in the shed and we now have all the bearings fastened together and ready for the next stage, milling to square up all the faces.
Normally I would go for a walk now but I am not going to do it. I've been on me feet for two hours doing light exercise. I don't need another cold wet walk!

[Stanley]

Margaret's engine will get me in the shed for a couple of hours. No bar to exercise today as it looks to be dry all day.
So, a normal day. Nowt wrong with that.

[Sue]

Morning

Another quiet day I think. Yesterday was full of odd little jobs. I tidied some stuff in the study as part of the pre decoration preparation. I will probably do some more today. I need to go through my genealogy folders and throw stuff I no longer want and perhaps sort out the remaining items into historical archives and useful information. I did make my blinis yesterday. They too longer than I expected but were successful if rather mis-shapen. I will know next time to cook them in a metal ring or something. I made the hanky bag and extra hanky for Erin, and I did an hour on my archaeology.

So today I have a birthday card to make, do the genealogy tidying, do some archaeology and wrap parcels. Thats it.

Have a good day everyone.

[Stanley]

Morning Sue. This quiet weather seems to encourage quiet days. I've been in the shed for almost two hours doing mainly hand work. I shall post on Shed Matters and put a pic here.
Now. I shall go for a short pipe opener round the Green. It's a lot better out there this morning.

Later.... Here's where we ended up after a lot of hand work, ready for boring and holes drilling for the holding down bolts.

[plaques]

Mrs P negotiated some Christmas outdoor decorations from our next doors neighbour's charity work. Unfortunately they need to be hung from hanging basket brackets. The trouble is that we took all the brackets down early this years when they started looking a little bit more than rusty. It will now fall on muggins to put the new ones up. You can bet your life the holes don't line up with the new ones.

[Marilyn]

Well...ONE of the holes is bound to line up...

My son decided it was time to replace his back door and his back screen door. His old ones have Labrador sized doggy doors in them, so even though he has locked the doggy doors off, he still felt they were a security risk (especially now that he doesn't have the Labrador to lick an intruder to death).
Standard sized external doors, but apparently needed to be a "special order" at our biggest hardware store as they don't keep the bog standard size in stock. He could however, buy a door larger than standard, and they can cut it down, for a cost! Unbelievable.
He also added that the girl at the "special orders" desk was all flustered, because she had worked there for 5 years and had never done an order for a door before! (As I said to son, "they walk amongst us!"). He ended up filling the order in himself to ease the burden for her...

[Stanley]

Margaret's engine will get me into the shed but it just so happens that my essential weekly Co-op shop has landed on this day as has Melvyn Bragg and 'In Our Time' so it will be a busy morning from now until 10AM.

[Cathy]

This week I returned a handbag I had bought just a few days before. I was happy because I found another one , so it became an exchange. The sales assistant had me fill in a form which asked for my name and address, email, phone number etc. I almost got into an argument with her because she said it was ‘company policy’ that if I didn’t fill everything in, she couldn’t exchange or refund. My address for a handbag! I told her the company was way behind in procedure s, and it might even be against the law.

[Stanley]

It's a problem isn't it Cathy. You get the same syndrome with call centres where they have a script and can't deviate from it. Battery hens.....

[Sue]

Morning
Life here has slowed right down. I spent the morning yesterday throwing away loads of redundant genealogy research, many false branches and a few meaningless twiglets. I managed to compact the notes I now have to something feasible to wade through. After lunch we went for a cold brisk walk down to the Hermes shop then the post office 1.5 miles away, and did a loop back along a new to us path beside the river Spod and up into dell and home. It was very muddy indeed. It was just over 3.5 miles the round trip. The birthday card didn’t get made as I did a BLUE PETER ie here is one I made earlier. We wrapped Christmas presents and finished the last of the Christmas cards.

Today will be much the same. Pilates at 10.00 am followed by a walk to the post office in Whitworth, about the same distance just a different direction. Bob has been selling bits on eBay, that were in the study, so hence all the posting . I think I will tackle a drawer in the study today. We are nearly at the stage when wallpaper can be stripped in places. I have decided to make another coaster for the friend whose birthday it is and one for his wife, another Wendy. Barry is in his mid 80s . I haven’t seen either of them since last Christmas, at the same time. I worked with Wendy at Rochdale college and she has been a good friend over the years. They only live the other side of Rochdale , but we have been unable to see each other. Neither are in good health so even when we could visit way back in June/ early July it was wise not to . Such a long time being unable to see anyone but we two.

Claire has invited us for Christmas Day. We may go. They both work from home so mix with hardly anyone, Erin will have finished school for over a week . We will make our decision next week .

Have a good day everyone.

[Stanley]

That would be good Sue if you could go to Claire's. Worth the risk I reckon if only for Erin. I think in your place I'd be going for it.



Short shed this morning, I had to do the shopping. All four bearings are bored, checked and the edges broken. Ready for boring for the holding down bolts.

[Sue]

We hadn't wanted to discuss the topic. We didn’t want to travel to Julias, busy roads , too many people at service areas. Anyway in her Christmas card to us she said to gave a good Christmas. So the door was open for discussion. Her feeling was the same as ours, too far, too much traffic, too many people. Claire asked us two weeks ago but we said we would let her know by next week, knowing we had to have the conversation with Julia. I think we will probably say yes. We never meet anyone so no risk to them from us, and as I said they work from home and if they do go on site they have to do a detailed risk assessment and have pretty full PPE and always have as they could come in contact with hazardous material of any sort, working for the Environment agency .

[Stanley]

Boring for some I know but Margaret's engine gives me a reason for going in the shed each day. Today will be no exception. I often wonder what sort of life I would lead if I hadn't got the shed as a playroom. I never realised, in all those years when I was building it, that it would be so useful in the future.
So today I'll be in there as usual and my usual reading slot in the afternoon.