General Chat

OH dear, I am sorry, I was not on here much yesterday as, with being out for most of the day plus two sessions of two garden's needing watering (well baskets and containers) I didn't have time.

I am so sorry to hear about your sister Linda but was pleased to see that she was back on the ward and talking. Here's hoping all is well for her and that the op has been a success.

Joan, news on your hubby sounds positive so I hope he will be home with you today.

Florence, pleased to hear that your Mum is improving.

The sun is shining here again so more basket watering later. It was a very hot night my sleep was fragmented, hopefully I had enough. I have a friend coming for coffee later which is nice.

Good morning peeps.
Not a bad day but the wind is fairly picking up again....whats new lol

Ann you have a full time job by the sounds of it but it keeps you busy. Hope you enjoy your coffee with a friend.
I hope to be going swimming again at 7pm with my friend and neighbour. Going to try and do 3 lengths tonight if I can.

Joan, I hope hubby is coming home today and he will be much improved and also that you will be relieved too. Im sure he will be glad to get back home and enjoy some of your home cooking once more.

Linda, hope you sister had a good night and continues to improve.

Mums birthday is on the 24 Jun, she said shes not fit to go to the races but wants out to a garden centre to buy some plants! When I suggested they could also have tea and cakes in the cafe there, she replied, no thanks, my SIL can do an afternoon tea at their house lol...Almost back to normal!

Im working on a friends family tree again today as making good progress and whilst Im in this frame of mind, I can get a lot done.

Hope everyone else has a good day. :-D

Florence in the hebrides

Hello Joan, good to hear from you today. 2 hours from the hospital, oh my thats a long way! usually its after lunch when they discharge i think as he will have had lunch, then have to wait for all his meds. The drs also have to do a discharge letter for GP. Thats how it works over here.

But i know from experience, its the waiting. You try to keep busy but your mind is always working isnt it? Really hope you hear something soon.

What will you make for tea tonight? Something simple and light?

keep us updated and take care of yourself.

Florence in the hebrides

Hello all, Joan has been very quiet I am hoping that means her hubby is now home with her.
66 years ago today I had my first date with my future husband. Happy memories.
Very hot and humis here we have been forecast thunder storms. I hope they will miss us but I would like some rain.

Afternoon all.

Yes Ann, heard nothing from Joan so hoping shes busy with looking after hubby and will pop on later to give us an update hopefully.

Turning out to be a nice day and although breezy its sunny now. Got washing out on the line for a change.

Went swimming again last night and managed....10 lengths, so pleased with myself. But 30 minutes was more than enough for me as was beginning to get cold and fingers a bit numb.

Turns out I took a wrong turn on the tree im working on but thanks to a very kind person finding me info, I have managed to sort it and also got some very useful info too so am very grateful for the assistance.

Just tidying and giving the house a spring clean today.

Will pop back later to see if Joan has been on.

Hope the thunderstorms miss you Ann. I get very scared by them even at my age!!

Florence in the hebrides

I was looking to see if there is any news as well.

My sister is not as good as she hoped she would be at this stage, but I think she is going to be OK. She managed a short FaceTime call with her daughter and granddaughters yesterday. She only managed to speak one sentence, but she did smile as well. She is understanding what is said to her. It is going to be a long haul and she still has the chemo to face. There wasn’t really a choice though. She had am MRI and that showed no problems after the op.They said that they managed to get most of the tumour out, they knew they couldn’t take all of it

Afternoon Linda
Was just going off when I saw your post. I guess after a major operation, it will take time to recover. The MRI showed no other problems, so that in itself is good.

One sentence, a smile and an understanding, in my books thats a great start. It will be a long haul but you all have to remain positive for her and just do whatever you can to help.

Sending some healing hugs and thoughts to you and your family. <3

Florence in the hebrides

Edit: Ann forgot to say earlier wow, remembering your first date with future OH, what a memory <3

Good that things seem to be progressing well with your sister. As Florence said a dentence a smile and understanding, a good start. hope she now continues to recover to the point where she can have the chemo. Thinking of you Linda. <3

Pleased that you have him home Joan and that he is looking better. I hope that he will continue to improve and feel well.

So glad to hear hubby is home Joan and he is much better.

Long may he continue to improve and so glad you slept better Joan, im sure you were exhausted.

I dont eat butter but £5 for a tub sounds a lot!

Still dry here but clouded over and breezy.

Take care

Florence in the hebrides

I am glad that you have your hubby safely home Joan, I hope that things will soon be back to normal.

It has been very hot today. We had the paddling pool out again for Esme after school. We were going to have dinner outside, but it suddenly got dark and large splashes of rain came down We had a mad dash to take all of her toys which couldn’t get wet inside.
The rain didn’t last long, but we are due for more tomorrow. The paddling pool is a large one which takes a lot of water. I use a bucket to throw as much as possible onto the borders before I can tip it over and let the rest go on the lawn. It is hard work, so thank goodness we don’t have. That many hot days

Good morning all, up early but had a good nights sleep so no point laying there.

Is the £5 for 500gm tub of butter Joan Last one I bought was £3.75 in Tesco but haven' had any for a couple of weeks.

The 500g tubs of Lurpak are £4.49 on Tesco's website.

£4.99 on Morrisons website.

Morrisons own brand spreadable butter is virtually the same thing, and only £2.59.
Aldi's Nordpak and Lidl's Danpak are also very similar, and cost even less than that, I think.

Anchor spreadable butter 500G is £3.46 in store today.

Afternoon all
Well its a sunny day here, quite warm with a southerly breeze thats keeping the midges away.

Daughter bought 2 mini greenhouses from the factory shop at half price so £15 each.

Easy enough to put together but i had to buy some strong cable ties to tie to the fence and tent pegs for the frame on the ground to stop it blowing away.
It has a plastic cover with a zip at the front so you can open and let air in.

We put all the strawberry plants in and a few others last night and its still standing.

Not sure if it would survive the stronger gales in winter but will think about than come sept/october.

I managed to go out the back door and down the step and then walk down the bottom of garden to fill bird feeders. It was good to be able to get down the step pain free, but I wont do that on my own incase i take a dizzy turn.

My mum was still very breathless yesterday and it appears we have a huge problem!! I discovered through the conversation, she hadnt been taking the steroids as noone told her to take them same time as antibiotics!!! So she only started them yesterday.

Other family went to see her as it was her birthday yesterday, but they said she was very muddled.

Im not sleeping for worrying about her and she wont let anyone "interfere" with her business as she says. So we dont know what to do. Wrote to her GP and got told basically no authority to discuss with us.
Shes a disaster waiting to happen and she still smokes indoors too.

Oh well its so difficult to deal with

Joan your hubby is just not wanting to waste the expensive butter i guess..lol

Hope you all enjoy the sunshine

Florence in the hebrides

I am glad that your husband is home and coping Joan. I remember that my mother slept in a mound of pillows because she couldn’t be flat as well. It was easier because it was only her in the bed.

My sister isn’t very well, but she is making small improvements every day. She can understand what you say and can structure a sentence, but it is painfully slow and very tiring for her. She is very frustrated and cries when she can’t make herself understood. It is awful to see her like that. Despite being seventy, she is still working, she is an expert in peat management and regularly travels abroad giving lectures, so to see her like she is is very hard for the family. It is obviously going to be a very long recovery.

We had a lovely morning, it was my older granddaughters school speech day. She was given a prize for the highest academic achievement in year seven, so we are very proud of her.

We knew a couple of weeks ago that she was being given a prize, but she didn’t find out until Thursday. Her head of year called her out of a lesson and told her. For some reason he gave her a post it note with the award written on it. Afterwards, she was totally confused as to what the prize was for. She sent a text to her mum saying that the note said “ Best academic scones” . When we looked at it, we saw it actually said “ Best academic scores” :-D

Good morning all, sunny here and 15 degrees so pleasant if still breezy.
Florence it is such a worry for you with your Mum, she does sound as if she is going to be very stubborn about letting anyone else make decisions for her.. And the doctors etc are bound by the fact that she has not given permission so I am afraid there is probably nothing else anyone can do. What a pity she is still smoking indoors as well, so hard for you and the family.

I hope the mini greenhouses survive the breezy weather. you can always take them down for the winter I suppose.

Linda Life is hard for you and your family too with your sister, it sounds as if a reserve of patience on all sides is going to be needed. It must be so frustrating for her as she is so independent and used to working, travelling etc. to have to struggle to make herself understood must be very hard. I hope that each day she sees some improvement and hopefully that independence will be her best weapon.

Joan, hopefully as time moves on your hubby will find a way of returning to bed, but at least he is getting some sleep, and is in the same room as you.

Afternoon folks.
Well its all come to a head with mum!!
During the week from Wed, she really began to go downhill. Long story but...on Sunday I spoke with her and decided she needed the GP to home visit her on Monday. Lets say she has some "personal" problems.

So I tel GP at 8.30 today got through at 9am. I tel mum to let her know but no answer. I rang every 10 minutes and no reply. Asked little bro to call round and my sil was on her way up. When he arrived he found her slumped in her chair. Called ambulance and they said she's had a huge stroke. All lopsided on left side.

Was taken to Maidstone hospital and now in stroke unit. My brother phoned awhile ago to say, they are working through lots of tests and will know later but it was a massive stroke. She cant swallow or talk.

Brother got a terrible shock finding her but I knew something was wrong. So glad he was only 10 minutes away.

So its all come to a head now very sadly. I cant travel down either!

A very sad, sad day indeed :-(

Florence in the hebrides

Oh dear Florence.
I am so sorry to read this.

I hope Mum is being helped to be as comfortable as possible.

Sending you a (( hug )) as it must be so difficult for you being so far away.

Florence, I am so sorry to hear about your mom, it is an awful thing to have happened to her and also for your brother to have found her.. Stressful for you as well not being able to travel to see her.

Linda, it will be a long recovery for your sister and as you say she was out and about it must be frustrating for her.

Best wishes to all of you with family that are ill or recovering from illness.

Joan do you often get cows wandering around ? I know you live near a farm so it isn't so strange for you I suppose. The only creatures we get are squirrels and once a fox came in . Hope your hubby is sleeping ok in the chair and hopefully be able to use the bed again soon.

Take care all.