MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS ..........

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas ..... thanks so much for all of your friendship and support throughout 2021 ..... have a wonderful time ..... eat, drink and be merry.

XXXX

BRIAN & ROGER ..... MY PODCAST GUILTY PLEASURE ..... read the text before watching the video ..........

This might not be of much interest to many of you but, I wanted to tell you about my new podcast guilty pleasure. It's called Brian and Roger and is written by Harry Peacock and Dan Skinner.

Here's a quick synopsis .....

Brian & Roger met at a support meeting for divorced men.

Roger was attending because he was genuinely grieving the loss of his marriage.

Brian was instructed to attend by his solicitor if he wanted to dodge paying alimony.

Roger is in need of guidance and support which Brian willingly supplies.

Both are starting again.

Both are finding it hard.

One of them is nice !

Described as ' Best British comedy happening right now ' { Daily Telegraph }

They are now performing it at The Menier Chocolate Factory in London ..... a great off West End theatre which we have been to many times, in a former 1870's Menier Chocolate Factory ..... one of the most dynamic fringe venues in London.

There are about 50 podcasts and I have binge listened to all of them !!!

There aren't many available to upload to my blog and this isn't the best one but I have chosen one of the milder ones { don't want to offend any sensitive souls out there !!! } for you to get a taster. Also, just to say that Anne is a 93 year old lady that Roger lives with !!!

XXXX 

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME WHY DON"T YOU ? ..........

Talk about take over the garden ..... this fox really made himself at home in our garden today .....

..... the photographs aren't very good because I was indoors and he was a long way off and I had to zoom right in .....

..... we have always had foxes in our garden ..... sometimes they make long burrows and lots of holes ..... and they seem to love to play on our lawn. We don't mind, apart from brown patches of lawn that appear after they have marked their territory !!!

This one stayed a while and played with a magpie, then got bored and ambled off ! Can you tell that my day is very quiet and not filled with much excitement  ???!!!!!

Oh, and, I'm having trouble commenting sometimes ...... I wrote an epic comment on Cro's  blog ..... a wonderful rendition of visits to our family doctor in the 1950's/1960's. I must have written it 8 times, only for it to get lost in the ether and yet, it would publish a short, two sentence comment ? Don't think I've had that before .... and yet, I have had no trouble on other blogs ? 

Has anyone else had any problems ? 

XXXX

all photographs taken by moi !

FRONTAGE & FLORA ..........

Having had that bit of pointing done to the house, we have tarted up the porch with new terracotta pots, yew balls { would have used box but, with box blight and moth rampant, yew is a better bet !!! } and have spruced up the front door with white spirit and Briwax .....

..... and, I have repainted the side gate, stencilled our house number and added a brass wreath ...... I have secured it with wire and just hope that nobody steals it !!! If they do, I shall stencil one on !

..... and finally, a bit of Autumnal colour in our garden  .....

 

..... Claire Austin rose .....

..... Hydrangea paniculata Vanille Fraise .....

..... Lace-cap Hydrangea .....

..... and, finally, Nicotiana and Salvia ' Black and Blue ' .....

A short and questionably sweet post but far quicker on the back of the last one than normal for me !!!!! There's blogging hope for me yet, even after 12 years  !!!

XXXX

KITCHENS & CASTLES ..........

The other weekend, we went to stay with our daughter and family who live in the beautiful 17th century town of Stamford.

 I'm not showing you any of Stamford in this post as we went to other places this time but will show you another time !

First of all we visited .....

..... DeVol kitchens showroom !!!!!  Now, you might think this quite boring but, firstly, DeVol kitchens are my favourite kitchens, secondly, they are housed in Cotes Mill in beautiful countryside with a lake, peacocks and wildlife and last but not least, they sell my kind of shabby antiques, so well worth a trip considering it is close to where our daughter lives !

AS you can see, its not just a kitchen showroom !

They have beautiful kitchens which start at around £40,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, its a good place to get ideas.We are thinking of knocking our kitchen into the conservatory BUT, where on earth do you find a good builder? We have been let down by so many trades so, if any of you out there who live in Hertfordshire and know of a good builder, PLEASE let me know !!!! 

Amongst a couple of other things 😁 I bought this portrait there ...... I rather like him.

The next day, we visited Belvoir Castle. Its history dates back to the 11th century and is the ancestral home of the Duke of Rutland where the family have lived in an unbroken line for almost a thousand years.

Crowning a hill, the castles turrets and towers rise over the Vale of Belvoir like an illustration in a romantic fairytale. Four castles have stood on this spot since 1067 ..... Belvoir means ' beautiful view ' in French and is today pronounced ' beaver '. 

This is Le Salon ...... I'm afraid I forgot to read about it as we were running after our granddaughter looking for teddy bears as they had a bear hunt !....and I can't find any info about it but, it was so opulent and worthy of Versailles .....

This is me with broken elbow in the castles smaller version of The Hall of Mirrors .....

Beautiful views and .....

..... beautiful gardens.  

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What I ate on my weekend away .....

 

On Saturday, I had sea bass risotto in a lovely pub, which was delicious .....

..... &, on Sunday, we ate in The Engine Yard at Belvoir Castle. Now, my choices in restaurants usually gravitate to grilled or oven cooked fish or any seafood really as it is my favourite but, on this particular day, I had a real fancy for good old fish and chips and it was amazing !!! When you haven't had something for a long while it tastes all the better. Crispy batter is bloody lovely !!! 

Apologies for such a long post  ..... I could have split it in two I guess. Do you think people like long posts ? I always think that people prefer shorter ones. What do you reckon !.

XXXX

MAINTENANCE ..........

One of the downfalls of an old house is that they need lots of money spending on them, maintaining all of the boring things ..... we are having the pointing redone under the bay windows and the concrete plinths were crumbling so they are being done as well. We had the house painted about 7 years ago when we had a new roof but the windowsills need doing again.....

Some of the original air bricks were broken so I researched where I could get some new ones. I wanted to keep the original pattern and found some reproduction ones from the Cast Iron Air Brick Company .....

Here they are ..... same pattern as the originals ..... they had many patterns to choose from but I wanted the original and, guess what ? All of the other patterns were £25.00 each but, my pattern are £50.oo each !!! I bought them though ..... I want to put back what Walter Waller { who I told you about who built our house } had put in. 

Right next to one of the bay windows was a St Swithuns rose. We put it in about thirty years ago and it has been lovely but, over the past few years hasn't been so good ..... it gets black spot, other diseases, the blooms seize up when it rains and its high maintenance  so we decided to take it out. As it has been in the ground for such a long time, I thought that the roots were probably on their way to Australia and needed a young, strong man /woman to dig it out for me. BUT, always wanting things done yesterday, I toddled out at 8.00 a.m on Sunday morning, just to have a little dig and see what was what !!! I managed to dig a fair way down to assess the root situation { even with a broken right elbow } . Mr Home , brandishing heavy duty loppers, cut through the massive roots and, we managed to get it out !!!! Some roots are left in the ground but I think that was inevitable. I have potted it up to see if it will survive and, if it does, I shall plant it somewhere else. See the information label ? ..... that was buried underground and has been there for over thirty years !

BUT ..... I managed to inflict a big, weeping blister on the palm of my left hand and cut my left little finger ! The bandage was just to protect it as I painted some of the original air bricks this morning .....

It's amazing what you can do with a broken right elbow, numb fingers, a thumb and index finger joint that won't work, a blister and a cut little finger ..... I don't think it's my year on the domestic accidents front !

XXXX

A WET WEEKEND ............

It was a very wet weekend here in Hertfordshire .....

I've also had a face like a wet weekend ..... this broken elbow lark is getting pretty frustrating. Half of the things that I want to do I can't and the other half take a zillion times longer ! The most excitement that I get is going to either the fracture clinic or to see the physiotherapist !  I am quite a patient person and also a glass half full , flowing over kind of a gal but the healing of a broken elbow is a long process !!! I still have numbness in my hand but , it is all improving so I can't complain and as I always say, there are always so many others far worse off than me. It could have been far worse. 

Not being able to drive is a bit annoying as well !!! The doctor said the elbow doesn't usually straighten completely but, I can live with that. I told him how grateful I was to him for his skill in putting me back together considering I did a silly thing .... he told me he was pleased he could help me and that it was just his job. He was quite impressed with my knowledge of anatomy !!!  .... do you know that the nerve heals 1mm per day so that's why it takes so long for the numbness to go, and, considering I injured the median nerve at the elbow, it's got a long way to go !  I'm just so annoyed with myself for ruining a perfectly good arm but, that's why we have the word accident isn't it ? !!! 

OK ..... thats enough self pity for one day ..... has anyone out there broken their elbow ? I'm sorry to only talk about broken bones but that's about all thats going on in my life at the moment ! ..... oh, and the conservatory is leaking but, that's another story. 

UPDATE : Just read a story about a man, age 57,  who was celebrating his  wedding anniversary, who went to the toilet, fell down the stairs and is now paralysed from the waist down .... puts a broken elbow into perspective ..... I've given myself a good talking to and a slap round the face !!! 

XXXX