It's thundering.......

....so Joe is a nervous wreck, shivering and shaking and looking as if he is beaten every day of his life. It has rained on and off all day today-mainly "on" as we were at the far side of the park when the heavens opened. Joe gave me the filthy-est of looks, it was obviously all my fault we were getting wet, he didn't want to go for a stupid walk in the first place. We arrived back home.... dripping.

Yesterday was beautiful and I spent the day in the garden, I was hoping for the same today, but no such luck. I have got so many little pots growing by the greenhouse, waiting to go to Selina's garden, cuttings I have taken from my own plants as I tidy up for the season.

Charlotte finishes her work experience tomorrow, she has done nearly 3 weeks, and was hoping that she may be offered a job, but she doesn't feel she has enjoyed the experience as much as she thought she would, so she will be back at the computer, hogging it once again, as from Monday.

Paul and Ben are coming over for the weekend. Darsh is off to London to build this furniture for Rupert, so I'm not sure what we will do, but I quite fancy Twycross zoo, it is many years since I went there, but the weather forecast isn't brilliant so we shall see.

Weekend with Charlotte.....

Not doing a great deal really, spent the weekend with Charlotte and went into Birm. on Saturday. Spent a couple of hours looking round a flea market in the Custard factory. Ch was getting all excited about fashions I threw out when I was her age, and some of the items she loved I remember seeing mum and grandma wearing the same thing. Must ask Paul to look out some of the old photos of the fashions they wore. We were aiming to get to the science festival but it started raining far too heavily to walk across the city to the art gallery area.

Sunday we went into Sutton for work trousers and shoes for Ch. She found shoes OK but trousers were hopeless, got fed up with looking, they were all far too short for her.

Selina and Pete coming home today, hope they had a good holiday, bet Selina forgot to take her camera as usual! Darsh is home, looking very tired and stressed, he has rushed off to take his car for a test, then he is talking about having to go back to London to put up furniture in Rupert's new house. If he doesn't lighten up a bit and stop frowning I think he'll be going on his own.

Joe's shattered, we have just come back from the park and he has crawled into his basket. It's a case of follow the smell, as he has managed to roll in cow poo again.

Charlotte is so looking forward to going to France in a couple of weeks, she has been trying to read this book about the area she is going to, and not getting on too well.

Peace reigns....

Darsh has gone to a wedding...... so I've had the house to myself. Had a good old sort out, I want to move and we don't need all this rubbish. I now need a jumble sale to get rid of all these boxes. The bin men should be here in the morning so Darsh wont miss everything in there [He goes through the bin and fishes out anything he thinks might just be useful, even if we haven't used it in the last 20 years- you never know!] I'd just sorted a box out from the loft when Sandra turned up with a pile of books I lent her last year " Oh well" she said "you've got room now to put these up there" Bang goes my newly sorted space-it barely lasted an hour.

Rather cold and windy today, too cold for in the garden so I put off emptying the dormobile. I need to get rid of all those papers in there, I seem to have used up all the good ones and the left overs are taking up too much space. Darsh has got the dormobile jacked up so high that I can barely climb into it, he jacked it up with out thinking about the roof above it and so the vehicle roof is virtually touching the lean-to. Another couple of inches would have been a disaster for my rubbish hoarding husband, and a darned good giggle for me!

An overly enthusiastic spaniel ran straight into me in the park this morning, he obviously thought he knew me and he forgot to stop runningas he bowled into me. It was like been hit by a furry cannon ball, he nearly knocked me over and my knee is quite sore tonight.

Still struggling....

Having another go at getting a video to download, can't work out why it will only go sometimes and not others. The "helpline" isn't much help at all, maybe it needs a new title-one that doesn't include the word "help" in it.
John and Sara are a better helpline, but they seem to be ignoring me at present..... Oh well, let's just put up another picci from Ludlow at the weekend.
Saw this shop and couldn't resist having a picture of it, what a strange name for a shop! Darsh had to stand in the middle of the road to take-he does'nt understand what a zoom lens is for.
DONE IT... but it's in the wrong darn place. Why is that photo up there and how do I move it without loosing everything?
You never have this trouble with a paper and pencil diary.

Eating till you feel sick again.....

Spent Sunday at Ludlow at the Food Fair. It was a beautiful sunny day and we took Joe with us, he wasn't happy about it, but it was too a long day to be left at home. Took us an hour and a half to get there and park up, and then up we walked to the show in the grounds of the castle and the streets surrounding it. Darsh and Charlotte ate their body weight in free tasters and Joe had a ball eating all the rubbish he could possibley find [if he's sick later....] There's was loads to buy so I started my christmas shopping and Darsh bought my birthday present-half a lamb, a jar of honey and a lovely loaf of bread. Charlotte bought me a birthday cake covered in sugar hearts.
It got too busy around lunch time and dogs weren't allowed in food tents, so I put him into the RSPCA doggy creche. He spent the next 2 hours snoring in a cage on a fluffy blanket while we carried on tasting. He seemed fine and was more than ready to walk around for another three hours before we went back to the car-then he was too tired to really bother about riding home again.
It stayed nice all day and we took our time just wandering round and round at our leisure. The countryside was so pretty as we came home over the hils with the marshes below and the Welsh mountains in the distance.

What video....

....now where's it gone? Is this a good day or a bad one... a bad one-obviously.
Now Charlottes come home-that's the end of my time on the computer.

Helping out

Why is my blog playing up today? I have been trying to download a video, but it just wont play the game.

Sorted out the shed!

Helping to fold up the screens that keep the greenhouse cool in the summer. Joe has his own unique way of doing this and the first step is to wee on them first.
[Remember... always wear gloves to handle greenhouse screens, and try not to think about the strange smell!!!!]
Autumn is coming you can feel a change in the air so I thought I'd give the shed a sorting ready to get everything in for winter. I could smell mice, and as I picked up a pile of trays a very large and rather sleepy mouse climbed out to look at me. It was rather slow, but very sleek and shiny with a very long tail. It disappeared down into the flower pots and away. I carried on piling all the rubbish into my bucket and then you know who arrived. He wanted that bucket tipping over

Joe dug and rooted and SNEEZED for almost an hour, and when he came to me for a cuddle tonight he really does smell of mice.

Happy Birthday Dave.

Sal and Dave are here for the weekend, and we have been out and about together. Visited New Life - 3 pairs of shorts for £5.99, and some trousers for Ch for 49p. We went for a carvery, a walk in the park, and lots of time catching up with the gossip. They are busy getting sorted out as they could get a date to be out of the house anytime in the next few weeks.

Tomato time at last!

At last I have got a handful of tomatoes to bring into the house, up until now I have only had 2 or 3 at a time and I've been eating them for breakfast as I open up the greenhouse in the mornings

Joey gets bitten

Took him in the park a couple of days ago and, for the first time this year, dad came with us. The park was packed......
...and we walked off the track into an even quieter area when a black Labrador appeared and went for Joe. If Darsh hadn't been there I don't think I would have been able to rescue him as we couldn't get hold of either dog. Joe got his ear bitten and was very upset. The woman with the other dog was also upset as the same thing had happened before! Fortunately the bite stopped bleeding but Joe wouldn't let us look at the spot properly. Now he seems to be fine, but he is even more reluctant to leave the house again.

Wish you were here?

But I bet you're so pleased you're not Sara...... Dad and Charlotte,[mainly Charlotte] have been stripping off the garage door. Ch burnt her knee with the stripper, just like I remember you doing several summers ago. The door looks a lot better without any paint on it at ALL. I made a video but I just cannot get it to download at all.

     Looks like I just might be able to download this video using the new system, fingers crossed.....