General Chat

Marie I have sent you my e mail address. When I get yours I will send a photo. Your weather sounds horrendous for this time of year. Soo much rain is really depressing. At least our frosty weather is broken up with sunny periods.

Hi Girls, Joyce & Caz so sorry to hear you are both in so much Pain my thoughts are with you both would a strong Scotch before bed be of any help?You probably wouldn't be allowed to have it with your medication I hope the pain eases off for you both.
Our Weather has turned bad once more, the farmers have lost most of their crops and many people have had to be evacuated. and still it rains.The only way you can get around in our place is in Gum Boots.

Mo I got your card to-day thank you I am still working on my Xmas Letter which I will E-mail to you all.
Hello Jean it is nice to see a post from you I was going through my photos the other night and came accross you and J 's picture it is so nice to put faces to the Posts Thank you.
,Hi Ann , I dont have a photo of you could you send me one when you get time I will send you my email address and an updated Photo of myself.
Please may I have your email address .
Hi Sallie I hope you are well, do I have a photo of you? I am going to get a cork board and put you all above my computer.
Joyce I have your email but I dont have yours Caz ,,when you are both up to it I would love a photo of you both .

I must close as I have to get this Xmas letter finished to-day

****Love and Hugs ******* The Xmas Snow Fairy******

Hello, all, still having to watch how we go very thick ice in some places, we went M----------ons and it was treacherous, not on the roads but getting out of the car was a problem,
Mo thanks for you card, came this morning...getting quite a few now...
I have done all mine and got them off early as I have been busy changing the small conservatory into MY CRAFT ROOM.....it will be great when I get a new chair and sort all my stuff in to some sort of order.... but its all mine .... still room for a small chair should J want to sit in sometime ...lol...

Hope you are all coping with the bad weather, although some dont seem to have had much according to the weather forecast,, hm, Rainham springs to mind...well I am hoping it soon goes, and we get back to civilised living , I miss my trips to The Range to view the crafts ....
pie and mash for tea, thats if J is up to making it... so take care out there love to everyone...Jean xxx

Hello girls,still cold and icy here glad I am in the warm. I haven't heard from Joyce today but she was in a bad way last night, she is going to the doctors tomorrow about the pain in her side. If she rings me tonight I will let you know how she is tomorrow, poor Joyce at least I can lie down as long as my bed head is risen, can't lie flat with my back and doc says I have to put the foot up as well higher than I normally have it, I will be sleeping in a u shape hope I don't set up like that.
Going for a cuppa so will say bye for now and take care if you are going out.

Liz it's best to phone about six if you can then I'm not eating my tea when the phone rings.

Love Caz xx

Your welcome Ann. I must say I am surprised that they are taking so long to arrive,I sent them out last Saturday,and here we are it's Wednesday, tut tut.

Tess, I don't know that I could manage to "Skype", I only just about cope with my lappy.
I hope your son has managed to get home now.

Sallie, now don't you go buying the supermarket out, you will give poor Alun heart failure if you spend to much. lol

Still holding Joyce and Caz close in my prayers and thoughts.

Jean I do hope you are all well at your end of the country,and that the snow is now thawing.

Love to you all. Mo xxx

Mo many thanks for your card received today.

Hello Ladies,

Just a quick look in before I get ready to go shopping----I wish they would ban it, as the older I get, the more I hate going.lol!

I hope that everyone is okay today and that Caz and Joyce are both having a better day.

Still busy making cards, I've made a good few today, so I'm getting there.


I'll speak to you all later on.

Take care and keep warm everyone.

Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx

My Mum worked in an ammunition factory. She said that it was impossible to keep it a secret, as all the workers were yellow.
A spy would have had no problem finding the ammunition place.

One of the (many) places I lived, was Keswick in the Lake District (late 40's early 50's) I knew that the Pencils came from there, and the biscuits from Carlisle, as well as the Mint Cake from Kendal, but I didn't realise that dolly blue came from there too.


Jean, well done on your war work, I bet that you soon got to be a dab hand and could work quickly.


Caz and Dutch,
I hope that you both have a good night and that tomorrow is a painfree one for you both. Sending soothing vibes to both of you.


It's (past) my bedtime.So I shall do a drink and my hot water bottles


By the way, son not back yet.
He and his sons, tried to "Skype" me this evening, but their picture was upsidedown. It was still good to see and talk to them all though. Have to admit that I don't really know what I am doing yet re Skype

Tess

Just as long as the snow doesn't prevent you from going to see the family on the 14th Sylvia.
Glad to hear you are both well. Have you done your packing yet?
I hope you are wearing your galoshes,in all that rain, or you will end up with ducks disease (webbed feet )

Sallie I feel loads better today thank you. Compared to Joyce and Caz, my cold was nothing.
We really enjoyed our bangers +mash. I got us the Cumberland sausages,and they were delicious.
Roly is not keen on Pasta either, but I love it. When our son comes over, he makes it for me and him, yummy.
Well I will say goodnight to you all. Love Mo xxx

Hi all
xxx

we're all well ..... but getting lots of rain here in Vancouver

Meanwhile, London, Ontario had 80 cms of snow on Monday, that followed snow on the previous 2 days, and more snow to come! heaven knows what the end result will be!


take care everyone


sylvia
xxx

Hi Friends,

Joyce and Caz I'm thinking about you both, and hope that you can both get some relief for the pain you are both suffering from. Sending lots of positive thoughts to you both and also loads of hugs. Take care and keep warm.


Mo, hope you are feeling better than you did on Sunday. Is the weather a bit better in your area now?Although we haven't had anymore snow since Friday, we've still got a fair bit of snow down, the main roads and the roads that are on a bus route are all clear and being gritted, but the side roads are compacted snow which has now frozen, so they are just like skating rinks.

Hope you enjoyed your bangers and mash---that's what we are going to have on Thursday, and probably fish and chips on Friday. I like pasta, but Alun won't eat it, he's very fussy on his food, so have to stick to what he likes, as I don't want to cook two different meals.lol!




Marie, thanks for letting us know what a Carbide lantern was. I don't think we had them here, or at least I don't remember them. Thank you for your pm. Did you enjoy the Christmas party at the gym?


Huia, also thank you for your pm, glad to know that all is well with you.
Hope Phil was alright when you last visited him.

Well, I'm a true Brit and love living in Britain, but when the weather is like it is at the moment, I sometimes wish we had emigrated to a warmer climate.lol!



Ann, good to see that you and T are safely home and that you enjoyed your break. Nice to know that it wasn't as cold in Torquay as it was in Gloucestershire over the weekend.

Interesting to read about the dolly blue bag factory, it's amazing that bits of the blue is still ingrained into some of the walls at the hotel.


Jean, Sylvia, Tess, Liz and Linda hoping that you are all alright.


I'll speak to you all soon. Take care everyone.


Love and best wishes . Sallie.xxx

My mother was a cotton mill worker and I remember during the war they had to make camouflage nets for the army, I used to go in after school and help make them,I was thrilled to bits when the gaffer gave me a wage packet....in later years it was a thrill to see the same sort of nets covering the guns and tanks...

must go cant miss the soaps, back soon......

love Jean xx

Thanks for that info Ann. I don't think I could have coped with working at the factory, but then where needs must the devil drives.
Going from one extreme to another. I have great admiration for the women, who during WW2 worked in the ammunition factories.
Such a dangerous job, and what it did to their bodies was awful.
My word, people use atificial tanning lotion now,to colour their skin, but those poor women had no choice, they ended up yellow from the sulphur in the ammunition.
Don't ask me how or why I have suddenly thought along these lines, it must be what Ann was saying about the dolly blue workers.

Found this on the net.

Many of us can remember becks running black with coal dust, white with froth from chemicals, or, if you lived in Backbarrow, blue from the Dolly Blue works.

In the 1800s Backbarrow was thriving on the back of iron ore, in the 1900s hundreds of people were bussed in every day to work at the Dolly Blue works, but now, in the 2000s, it’s the scenery that provides jobs for local folks.

The old Dolly Blue factory has been converted into the Whitewater Hotel and timeshare. And the patio where tourists sit with a pleasant lunchtime pint over looking the River Leven is the same one that workers would pour out onto at the end of a shift with blue hands and faces.

It was a hotel in 1986 but how long before that it opened I don't know.

Good afternoon ladies.

Before I go any further, I would like to send my thoughts and prayers, out to Joyce and Caz, that they both get some relief from the pain they are suffering. ((((((((((((HUGS FOR YOU BOTH)))))))))))) Love Mo xxx

I must say how nice it is to see , that so many of us, have had the time to pop in and say hello.

Ann, I am glad you had a nice weekend,and that you arrived home safe and sound.
How interesting to hear about the Whitewater Hotel,being a dolly blue factory. It's surprising to know that the blue powder is still ingrained in the walls. How long ago did the factory close.

I must go for now gilrs, got to do the dinner. Bangers+Mash and beans tonight.
Love and best wishes Mo xxx

Good morning all, we had a good weekend in Torquay where it was much milder than here, they did have a light frost Monday but not bad at all.

Huia, many thanks for your card and the photo, good to see what you look like.

Re the dolly blue bags. Where we have our timeshare in the Lake District, the hotel on the same site, The Whitewater Hotel, used to be a dolly blue factory (previous to that it was a paper mill). You can still see traces of the blue powder ingrained in the walls. My Mum used to use them too.

I was thinking the other day how when I had my babies I used towelling nappies and I would always hang them out on the line. They didn't dry they froze and the line would be full of all those weird shapes. No airing cupboard, central heating or drier so they were dried in front of the fire.

Sending love and prayers Joyce, keeping you close in our thoughts.

Love Jean xxxx

Hello all, I was talking to Joyce last night and she is in awful pain with her side, I think she needs our support so could we all send her positive thoughts and prayers please.
Thank you Sallie and Marie and any others who have sent their support for me, I haven't read back to check names. My back is bad this morning with having to lie flat yesterday for the scan so I will keep this short as it's difficult to sit.
I'm thinking of poor Joyce, she can neither sit nor lay down comfortably, if you get chance to read this Joyce I am thinking of you and sending as many good vibes as I can.

Love Caz xx

*** Xmas Snow Fairy*****, Hi all , Carbide light ,
Carbide was a white Powder that when wet gave off a gas the gas came up a thin spout, you lit the gas and it made a very bright light, however it wasn't very stable and it could explode, so our light often ended up being thrown over the back veranda into the back yard until it stopped fizzing it was a shame as it gave a much better light than the kerosene lanterns.
Mum also had an Iron that had a methylated tank attached to the iron it made ironing a lot easier.
The sun is shining Yippee , we have our Xmas party for our gym buddies
after class to-day, I wont be exercising as my knee is still the same, I have an appointment on Thursday morning with the doc I hope she orders an
x ray so we can see what is going on because if I need knee surgery I will need to know as the waiting list for knee surgery is long.if I go public.

The baptism went off well the girls were good .
Nancy's Father was very emotional he has been a very sick man for the last few years Evan and his wife Joy have both been battling Cancer for several years Joy is remarkable she has had a lot of operations but always comes up smiling.

Mo, I hope you are feeling better to-day
Caz I hope your exray was the results you wished for.
Love to you all from *******the Xmas Snow Fairy*********

Hello Ladies,

For those of you that are living in colder climes, I hope that you are all keeping warm...... Marie, also hope that the rain has kept away....Huia, hope that the weather you're having is what it should be for the time of year.
I had to go up to town today, it was so cold, I couldn't wait to get back home.


Caz, read your reply on Joyce's thread letting us know how things went today. Hoping and praying that the results will alright when you get them after Christmas.
I had to smile at your account of Phil trying to get you over the ice into the car. Bless him!
I can imagine Alun and I being just the same.lol! I'm not very good trying to walk on ice, I used to be okay when I was younger, but as I've got older, I'm hopeless.



Mo, how are you today? Hope that you are feeling a bit better than yesterday. I don't know whether you're able to go to darts tonight, but if you are, good luck and hope you team will win. Take care!



Marie sorry, but could you tell me what Carbide lanterns are, please.
Hope all is okay with you and your family.



Tess thanks for your address. Is it tonight that your son will get back?

I can remember the blue bag that they used for the whites. Alun's grandma always used them. Not sure if you can buy them in this day and age. I can't see anyone using them now, and the younger generation wouldn't know what to do with them.lolol!!



Well there's not much to say, I think it was all said yesterday.....18 posts.
Oh dear, there's no stopping us talking, once we get started.lol!!


Thinking of all our friends, Ann, Huia, Jean, Joyce, Linda and Liz.


Keep warm and take care everyone.


Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx