Good morning Thursday

[meriad]

Morning all

Sunny and dry here at the moment, we had a bit of rain last night but all that achieved was to make things more muggy than they were. We also had a bit of a thunder storm; I do love evenings like that as they remind me of SA.

Kaz and Suff, good luck with your respective appointments
Jen, agree with Saundra - take your washing with you; enjoy the break from your mess
Saundra, hope you don't have a thunderstorm if you're not keen on them
Ally enjoy your day - sounds like yet another perfect kind of day to me
Aggers, hope you and Mrs A have a lovely day today

Usual work day for me and then some grocery shopping before I head over to Karl and Nadine's to collect mom. She lands at 2.30 today so Nadine is collecting her from the airport. My house is a bit of a mess but it was just too hot to do much cleaning yesterday and no point doing it ages in advance as the cats just bring in so much rubbish in their fur - the joys of having long haired cats . But at least the lounge where mom will be sleeping is swept and dusted and the bed is made up and ready for her. Tomorrow she's looking after Thomas and Amelia anyway so will spend most of the day at Karl and Nadine's again... so I'll crack on with a proper clean on Saturday

have a lovely day everyone xxx

[tonicha]

Morning everyone

Rather warm here and I've been for a yomp around the field, looking for either a break in the fence or footprints

There are quite a few cloven hoof prints - some small, some large, in the ground and we wanted to check that the fence was intact, as there have been sightings of wild boar in the area Apart from some olive leaves missing on lower branches - and that could be the sheep - and a large area of grass which is flattened, everything looked okay. I had to wear wellies, as having sheep on the land means ticks - so I was the height of elegance, in my dress and wellies

Keeping everything crossed for H and hope he has a lovely holiday x

Good luck at the doc's Kaz and you too Suff.

Have a good day everyone, whatever you're doing xx

[Gal]

Ally I could never do that in the heat!! Is it about 12-15 miles? (I don't do kms, I'm old school ) Lovely in cooler temps, horrendous in heat - I'm sure you'll love it!

Kaz these MOTs are great aren't they? Good luck at the Gp - I think I've got myself a permanent seat in the waiting room at ours, been there so much recently Massive good luck to Harry - I hope he gets good grades and has a ball on holiday!

We have cloud today and it's been raining in the night....cooler than the past few days too although our highs were a comfortable 20+, not the 30s that some of you have had.

Jen had some very sad news yesterday - one of her Uni housemates has died. She's posted a photo of the two of them on FB on one of their many nights out as a mark of respect and remembrance, poor lad was only 26, it's so sad.

[JoM]

Good afternoon all, you wouldn't believe it's August to look out. It's muggy but ever so misty! I was quite disappointed on our walk. There's a disused quarry, it was still in use for a few months after we moved here and it's been lovely to see nature reclaim it and there was quite a woodland starting to grow on the one side. We walked around there though just and workmen were pulling up all of the baby fir trees that have seeded and started growing. I'm hoping that they leave the silver birch. We got a Christmas tree from there last year actually, it was about 3 feet tall and I had it in a pot by the front door with lights on. Looks like we'll have to buy one legally this year

Joe's at Stafford enrolling on his college course. So pleased with his GCSE results - a B, 3 Cs, some Ds and a couple of Es. He really did pull it around this last year. To think that in junior school he was in a focus group for maths and English because he was struggling so much. When he went into Year 10 I'd never have predicted those results. It's cost me £200 because as an incentive to put some work in I told him that we'd give him £50 for every C and above. Just glad that we can now say bye bye to that school. Unfortunately we're not in an area where there's an abundance of good schools to pick from, it's more a matter of finding one that isn't doing quite as badly as the others and isn't in special measures.

Kaz, I hope H was happy with his results! Wish him a lovely holiday!

Have a good day all!

[meriad]

! I was quite disappointed on our walk. There's a disused quarry, it was still in use for a few months after we moved here and it's been lovely to see nature reclaim it and there was quite a woodland starting to grow on the one side. We walked around there though just and workmen were pulling up all of the baby fir trees that have seeded and started growing. I'm hoping that they leave the silver birch.

why are they not letting nature reclaim the quarry? With so much building going on everyone this country can do with more woodlands etc

[JoM]

It makes no sense does it Ria! They obviously want growth on there as a couple of years ago a lot of heather was cut back on the common and the off cuts were distributed onto the quarry in the hope that the seeds would bed down and give a good covering, which it has. All I can think is that the plan is to get it back to heathland, like the common, rather than woodland.

[Kaz]

Gal, that is so sad, my condolences to Jen on the loss of her friend ((((((x))))))

Thanks for the good wishes for H - I've made a separate post about it

The news at the doc's was mostly brilliant, will update my thread on the Health board about it

[Osc]

Thursday, so children. Last one before Michael goes back to school next week - where did that summer go This year he doesn't finish until 2.30, so less time for fun and games He and Mr Osc played golf, I dropped them there and collected them. Poor Kellie is not in good form, possibly the last big teeth coming through, she ate very little and wanted a fair amount of cuddling interspersed with periods of better energy - Granny is very happy to cuddle her as much as she wants While Kellie was asleep, M wanted to have lunch as a picnic on the terrace, which was lovely in beautiful sunshine. Congratulations on all the great exam results!