Thank You All

Hello Everyone,

I want you all to know that Jim sends his thanks to each and everyone of you for your kindness and prayers on the passing of his beloved Mum. He is deeply touched that my journals readers care so much and he is very, very grateful to you all.

Jim is coping really well though it`s early days yet. Yesterday he felt really bad but today he is much brighter and I know it will be that way for some time to come. Danny has been a tower of strength both in a an emotional way and physically. Today the two of them spent all day putting up fence panels to replace the ones that were destroyed by the gales of the other week. I`m really proud of my son for all he`s done despite having to cope with his own grief. This evening I noticed a tile missing from the roof which wouldn`t have been a problem as we have a couple of spares. It`s in a difficult position though so we`ll have to call someone in to do it...sigh.

Jim found this poignant cartoon a couple of years ago. It`s very appropriate now don`t you think?

Anyway, you`ll understand that I don`t have much else to say at the moment. I`ll try to pop in from time to time during the week. Please give us a thought on Wednesday afternnoon at 1.30pm when we`ll be attending the funeral.  Thank you and Bless you all.

 

Sad News

Hello my friends,

Just to let you all know that Jim`s Mum sadly died in the early hours of Thursday morning.  It was a very peaceful end to her eighty five years on this earth. She is now in God`s hands and without doubt reunited with her beloved husband Jim.

My Jim is terribly upset as you`d expect, as are all the family but he`s coping well. The funeral arrangements have been made and will be held next Wednesday afternoon .

Love Sandra xxxx

Last Night ~ Photo entry only

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Clearing Away

Hello Everyone,

It`s a nice, bright day here though it`s much colder than the last few days. The wind has changed direction and is blowing from the North bringing the colder temperatures with it. I must admit I`m glad it`s colder as I think very mild weather in Winter doesn`t seem right to me and I know the plants in the garden will benefit by a spell of colder weather so they don`t flower too early.

I`ve had a reasonably lazy day today, I did the housework as usual but finished up at lunchtime and settled down in front of the computer for a few hours. This evening we`re going out to a family dinner so I have to be ready to leave by 6.30. I`ve washed and straightened my hair and I have nothing left to do until the last hour when I will apply my make-up, taking care to fill in the wrinkles as I go...lol! Jim is going to take the camera so I expect I`m be posting some photos tomorrow.  Hopefully I`ll be able to put them into a slide show courtesy of RockYou.com.

Jim has finished clearing the garden of debris following the gales of Thursday. It looks nice and tidy now but I`ll be glad when the new fence is up and we`re not overlooked anymore, we were used to our privacy but now the people whose garden backs onto ours can see right through out kitchen window. Not only can they but they do, a lot...the man who lives there leans on his windowsill staring at us, it`s very unnerving as well as being extremely rude. Also I`m worried that we might get visited by more rats now we don`t have any fencing.....I do hope not.

Anyway, I`m sorry this is very brief but I want to read journals before I have to sign off. Take care my friends and have a great weekend. :o)

 

 

Blown Away!

 

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to a windy edition of My Scribbles. I hadn`t intended to do a mid week entry but after today`s mini hurricane I thought I`d write a few words about it. As most of my British friends know today has been awful weather-wise, with torrential rain and gale force  winds battering our small islands.

The poor garden centre has really taken a beating, apart from the fact that we had hardly any customers ( who can blame people for not venturing out). Shrubs and trees have been blown over, fences have been blown down as well as there being some damage to the roof of the shop. It was quite scary I can tell you. After work I made a detour to avoid some of the country roads but it led me into a police roadblock and I was diverted back the way I originally tried to avoid. I had to drive around fallen trees and branches and a least once something dropped onto my car, nothing big but it was worrying at the time. The reason for the diversion isn`t yet clear but I think that a tree had fallen on a car because the road was completely shut and an ambulance and a fire engine went hurtling in that direction. I do hope nobody was injured or worse.

When I arrived home all our dustbins were strewn about in the road so put ours back before I parked in the drive. I chatted with our neighbour about the damage caused and he noticed he`d lost several roof tiles so I thought I`d better check ours were still intact. Once in the back garden I was greeted to the sight of a junk yard at the bottom of the garden..........the gales had ripped through our fence panels pulling quite a few of them down and damaging beyond repair many more. I knew I couldn`t leave them like that so I got into work mode and set about clearing up. I stacked all the broken wood behind the garden shed and moved the less broken panels to a safer position. I cleared the flower beds of our once smart BBQ, now a bent and dirty lump of metal and cleared up what debris had found its way into our garden. It still looks awful out there but at least I`ve done my good deed for the day. Now poor Jim has to finish the job tomorrow morning AND buy new fence panels, though not for a while yet!  At least I can get him discount on them at work. Oh yes, we DID`NT lose any roof tiles so I suppose that`s something.

It`s still very windy out but it has died down and I`m hoping it will have completely quietened down by morning and we can have a more settled day to recover. Anyway, I must dash after this brief entry, Good night to you all. :o)

 

 

I`ve Cracked It!

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to a much better day than yesterday...and Friday for that matter. I`m still not feeling my best but I`ll manage.  I`ve been playing around RockYou.com, a smashing site where you can do all sorts with your photos and create texts. I haven`t finished exploring the site but I like what I saw. I thought I`d show you some of my little experiments.

 

- Get Your Own

As I type I can`t yet see the photos and I`m really hoping they`ll show up when I save this entry. If not I`ll be rather embarrassed...lol!

 

Oh dear, I still can`t see anything. Oh well I`ll sign off now and hope I`ve done it right!

Cheerio

 

 

 

- Get Your Own

- Get Your Own

Another Slideshow

| View Show | Create Your Own

I did it!  These are the same pics I used the other day but I`m going to have to take some new ones. I won`t bother with WooHoo anymore. This one is much better!

Orchids and Dishwashers....AAAGGGHHH!

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my Saturday journal entry. I`ve been wracking my brain to think of something interesting and entertaining for you but I`m afraid I`ve failed miserably in both cases. I have a cold, at least I have the start of one. It doesn`t seem to be able to make up it`s mind whether to give me the full blown version or just a little sniffle. After seeing Jim with his man-flu and Kerry with the full works I`m inclined to think this is the real thing and am taking appropriate measures ie. taking zinc for the immune system, drinking plenty of fluids, using the saline nasal spray so often I`m afraid I might accidently drown myself with the stuff!

                                           

Yesterday was one of those days when if something could go wrong it DID go wrong...with a vengence. It started very early in the morning when I was attending to my precious orchids. My new miniature one with the pink flowers looked a bit sorry for itself so I picked it up for a closer look and one of the leaves dropped off, then one of the flower buds followed suit. And then, another leaf fell off leaving just the one new leaf clinging to the stem. I put the plant down and that leaf dropped off too. I think this one is going to be beyond saving...sigh. Funnily enough, I had no problems at work. We`re having a spring clean in the shop and I`m rather enjoying the cleaning and tidying because the time flies by and it`s time to go home before I know it. Oh no, work wasn`t the problem yesterday, perhaps I should have stayed there all day...lol!

                                           

After work Jim and I went into town where I bought a nice blouse in the sale, no problem there either. In fact we managed to change our buildings insurance to a far better one for just a couple of £`s more. Also we changed our pet insurance to a better one that is actually cheaper than the last, not bad eh! It all changed when we got home. I`ll cut a long story short and so as not to be disloyal or embarrass him and I will just say that Jim has broken the dishwasher.  I will say no more on the matter....grrrr!

                                 

Yesterday evening I thought I`d try out the new WooHoo site. I`s set up a screenname with AIM and it should have been all systems go. At least that`s what should have happened. What actually happened was AIM refused to let me sign in several times so I checked everying and then changed my password. They sent me a confirmation of the new password and then I tried again... and again.....and again and each time I was refused. Woohoo kept telling me I didn`t have any photos so I had to upload them, which of course I did, four times without success. By this time I was so stressed I started to call the computer some very unladylike names so I decided to turn it off before I did it some irrepairable damage. After doing so I looked at the clock and it said 11pm...I couldn`t believe I`d stayed online for so long without doing anything at all...I think I read about five journals! Today I will make up for it by reading and commenting on them all and I`ll stay away from WooHoo and AIM until I feel stressed where they are concerned.

                 

The collage I made in the last entry was a bit of a surprise to me as I`m not at all sure how I created it, in fact no one was more surprised than me that it actually worked at all. Now all I have to do is work my way back and find out what I did so I can have another go at it. Not just yet though....lol! I hope you`ve all had a good week, we`ve had some horrible weather with heavy rain and gale force winds. Apparently it wasn`t too bad in this part of the country so I can`t imagine just how bad it was elsewhere.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend my friends. Take care and I hope to post again tomorrow....that is if I haven`t thrown the computer out of the window...lol! Cheerio. :o)

 

 

Attempting Slideshow - Will it Work???

An Exotic Passion

Hello Everyone,

I`m here at last despite AOL`s best efforts to prevent me. Yesterday the whole computer went haywire with the keyboard refusing to work, then AOL  went crashing offline taking it`s drivers with it. Despite many repeated attempts to re-load them it was having none of it and in the end I gave up. This morning however Jim managed to to it after dismantling everything and putting it back together again and THEN reloading the drivers successfully the first time. I don`t know how he managed seeing as he is recovering from flu and is supposed to be resting. I don`t know, I can`t leave him alone for a couple of hours without him getting up to no good...lol! Well actually it was something good this time but he should have left it to me, bless him.

I wanted to tell you all about my new found passion for orchids. I had absolutely no interest in them at all until I started working at the garden centre. Then I saw them and I was hooked.  The one in the centre pot is a Phalaenopsis and is the one I rescued when I first started work. The smaller one is the same type but a miniature variety which I bought at half price. The one on the yellow pot is a Oncidium Ampliatium and is out of flower for the time being and is resting until the Spring at least, because of this it was reduced to £1.99, a bargain don`t you think? 

One of you, Jeannette (Jottings) I think, commented that I`d probably spend all my wages buying plants. Well I certainly have spent a lot of money there, even with reductions and staff discount. On Friday I bought a three tier outdoor planter for only £10, a bargain of course but I can`t afford anything else until I get paid, unless of course another orchid comes along and then I`m afraid I`ll have to buy it, I`m very weak where they`re concerned, like I said, they`re my passion!

Erm...talking about more orchids, see the little orchid on the right of the photo, well I bought it today, reduced of course.......I told you I`m weak...lol!

Of course I know orchids aren`t everyone`s cup of tea. One customer told me she thought they look like little aliens and that she couldn`t stand them. I know there are some really weird looking ones and they aren`t for me either but I`ve looked at some web sites and found some real beauties and eventually I`ll have one or two of those in my collection. When I came home from work this afternoon Jim said,  "Another orchid, we`ll soon be taken over by them"  He`s not wrong! First thing in the morning I spray them with a fine mist of rain water, not tap water as though don`t like it. Then I check the compost to see if it`s not too dry, then they are placed on the window sill for the day to get the light. Unless of course it`s full sun then they have to be moved to a shadier spot, nothing`s too good for my beautiful exotic friends....lol!

Anyway, must go and eat my dinner then I`ll be back to read as many journals as I can before 9pm. I hope you`ve all had a nice day with dryer weather than we`ve had here. Take care my friends, Cheerio!

 

Thank you Angela for this great tag

A Wet Working Week

Hello Everyone,

Here I am after a week of not writing an entry of reading very many either. I`ve been just too busy or too tired OR both. I know that`s a very poor excuse and I`ll try harder next week to read more journals, I don`t want to find myself missing out on too much.

               

This last week at work I`ve been seriously busy. I`ve had to take everything down from the shelves, clean them thoroughly and replace all the stock. It doesn`t sound very hard but it is back-breaking work. There is still lots to do and it`ll probably take a couple of weeks but I really don`t mind as I like to keep busy and it really passes the time.  On Friday I went into work an hour early as we had a staff meeting. There`s going to be some changes made and one of those entails me working outside for one day a week. I was shown around the plant area by our outside manager and then I cleared some beds for the last hour before I went home. This really did make a change for me and I really liked being outside despite the dismal weather, it`s not as though we aren`t given enough coats to wear. I have my fleece, bodywarmer and a waterproof coat that I borrowed until I get my own and I was as warm as toast. If it get`s much colder as is forecast, I shall wear a woolly hat too...lol!                                                      

                      

On Thursday I bashed my leg on a display frame and it really hurt, the pain quickly wore off and I forgot all about it. Later on in the afternoon I had this really uncomfortable throbbing pain in my leg which didn`t go until later that night. I`d forgotten all about the earlier collision with the frame and didn`t connect the two events. Yesterday morning after my morning shower I saw that I had a large bruise on my leg and the surrounding area was quite swollen, I must have hit my poor little leg harder than I thought...note: must be more careful in future and look where I`m going!

                          

 

At last I have a new jacket. It is the one from Marks&Spencer that I tried on the just after Christmas but was too big. Well I was shopping with Jim Thursday afternoon and I found it in my size and it looked great. It`s black, short and fitted and is made of 98% wool and is fully lined. It`s exactly the kind of thing I`ve had in mind for a while so I knew when I first tried that it was perfect, that was why I was so disappointed when it didn`t fit. Now it`s mine all mine...lol!  Roman is back to his healthy happy self after almost ridding himself of that nasty cold. However, though he`s better health wise, behaviour wise is another story. I think the so-called `terrible twos` have started early in his case.  I`m sure it`s going to be a rocky ride ahead, not that I`m worried..I`m just his Nanna and I`ve done it all before, It`s Kerry and Slava I feel sorry for, but then like every other set of parents I`m sure they`ll cope...lol!

Today I did a bit of early spring cleaning, goodness knows why as Jim is starting decorating in the next few weeks, but as least I know the front room and kitchen are spotless, well almost. I`ve done all the washing and dried it all despite the torrential rain that`s been falling since first thing this morning. There`s nothing like a spot of housework to keep you fit...lol!

 

                                                  

Well I`ll say goodbye my friends, I must go and read those journals AND comment today. I hope you all have a really nice weekend and that the weather is much better than it is here.  Cheerio. :o)