100th entry since AOL

Good afternoon, after three and a half days of banging, sawing and a big mess the bathroom is in . I thought that we would never be free of workmen again. A few things went wrong (think that's a bit of a understatement) and that did not help. First of all the plumber arrived bright and early Monday morning. After much hammering and banging the bath came out, then he came down and asked us where the new bathroom suite was, we told him it was ordered by his firm so after a phone call to his boss he was told it would be delivered that day. Great, all's well we thought, and yes everything was delivered on Monday morning and left in the front garden, as the plumber was away somewhere for something. Stuart nipped up to Perth to collect Ellen that went OK. When they arrived back the plumber knocked his afternoon cup of tea over, from the top banister where it had been sitting and it poured downstairs, now to make this clear to you dear readers, my staircase is open and off the back of my lounge so it poured all over the dining room table onto Stuart's laptop and over everything else that was sitting there at that time, and all down stairs as they are not carpeted just varnished. Later I noticed it was all over the wall too, plumber said the bath panel had fallen over all by itself and knocked the cup down. So that was Monday.,Tuesday the joiner arrived about nine o'clock just after the plumber, to put up the wet wall board, the plumber departed and said he would return at about 4 o'clock to connect the loo up for overnight use. The bath was in place, someone used a saw and lent on the bath as a support and sawed a grove in the new bath, so a new one had to be ordered, so glad I noticed it in time. By night I had a bath not plumbed in, that had to come out again, no wash hand basin, but an overnight a loo that worked (thank goodness) and that was Tuesday.
Wednesday dawned bright and sunny, and we thought yes he will be finished today. Said plumber worked away for a while removing the damaged bath, the new one was delivered, and he swapped them over took the apricot bath to the tip, stood chatting for about 15 minutes to a work man that was in the street to do some work for someone, came back,worked for a little while longer then off he went to take the damaged bath somewhere and hour and a half later he returned. By this time I was getting really upset, we had not had a working bathroom since Monday morning and I still did not have anything working at all, only an overnight loo which did not cut out by itself when up to the mark we had to use a screwdriver to stop the flow of water. Still at least we could use it. When he arrived back after his break to wherever, Stuart had a few stern words with him and that seemed to make a big difference. He seemed to get on with things yesterday afternoon, but then as I walked past the new radiator that was going in to replace the tired old one I saw the size and said to Stuart I think this is wrong the size, it's the wrong way round, it was longer than it was tall and it should have been taller than long, if fitted the door into the bathroom would not have opened. Stuart told the plumber and he said he would have to get another radiator ordered the right size. About four fifteen he appeared downstairs and said he would be back today to fit the new radiator and the front bath panel. So here we are day four and at last I have a new bathroom fitted, don't know what has happened to the water pressure but will find out later when the boss calls. So you can imagine what a week we have had. With the lay out of the house all the workmen have to traipse in and out through the lounge, they always leave all the doors open, wear big boots, with commado soles which bring in the red chips into the lounge where we were trying to be normal ha ha. The whole thing has been a complete nightmare. The one good thing was my neighbour (the one who got married in September) is away just now and we had the use of her loo or it would have been unbearable.
I think this entry is worthy of being my 100th since being evicted from AOL journals, can't quite believe I have written 100 entries already, what do I get to say, my life is not as eventful as it has been this week. So off to lay down in a darkened room to recuperate, till next time, Love, Joan.

More Sunday Snippits and Snowdrops.

Sunday again where does the time go. This week has been really Spring like sunny and fairly mild I even managed to get my washing dry outside today.
Earlier this week Stuart and I had a day out to Cambo House in Fife to see a national collection of Snowdrops. The sun shone all day and in a sheltered spot you could even sit out in the sunshine.
This is a quilt that is on display at an art collection they are showing in the big house it was magnificent. Someone must have spent ages on this masterpiece.

This is a collection of grasses in the walled garden. Not a lot to see at this time of year but sure it will be worth visiting later in the year.
Some of the snowdrops in the woodland there are lots of different varieties but very difficult to take a picture of as they hold their heads down as you know.

Cambo House built in 1870 and very nice too.
Loved this little clump of Iris Reticulata so delicate to be out in the winter.


There are some lovely sculptures around the estate these girls are on the wall of the walled garden.
This last picture is a great way to use your old bath the tiny daffodils were so beautiful. We both had a lovely day the snowdrops we fantastic there were also many Hellebore and Aconites the latter mixed in with the snowdrops. To think of the week before it was all under snow.
I think that's about it for today another busy week in prospect new bathroom starting tomorrow. Bye bye apricot suite won't be sorry to see it go as they say in the property programs 'very seventies'. So till next time, take care, Love,

Joan.

Sunday Snippets.

Good Evening first I must apologise for not commenting this last week but we have been very busy getting more things done to the kitchen.  We have now had the floating floor laid so we are slowly getting there.

At last the weather has broken and the temperature managed a very nice 10 c that's 50 f or so it was pleasant.  We had another walk on the lochside earlier this week and you can see from the ice it was still very cold then, but the scenery was looking awesome.

Do you remember a few weeks ago I mentioned to you  the television station Zone Romantica and that they were showing North and  South. I have now discovered that this weekend they started showing "The Thorn Birds the Richard Chamberlain Australian saga by Coleen McCullough. We watched the first part this evening and it was lovely to see it again and to hear the lovely theme music.

Busy week ahead with dentist and hospital appointments so it has been nice to have some time to ourselves today.

That's about it for today hope to have more to say next time but am a bit down just now.

                              Love,

                              

 

 

A Winters Day Walk and a Frozen Loch.

At last the first day we have been able to get out for a walk. We have been out twice today although the temperature has been below freezing all day, it was bright. This morning we walked to the bank for some pennies and a paper from the newsagents then this afternoon I wanted to go to the loch side to see what it looked like today, when it was so cold, and to see if it had frozen over.

As you can see it has, it's not all that thick, not bearing but about 2 inches. It is quite a few years since we have seen this. There are still some parts of the loch that have some open water which is great for the ducks and swan population.

It looks as cold as it felt today even being all wrapped up.

Another one of the seats along the trail this one says..

Buchan warned of windy weather

When isobars are close together.

A freshwater mussel I wonder if there was a pearl in it?

I think this must be a path the fisherman use in the better weather. This is another one of the lovely carved stones on the trail what a wonderful job he has made must try to find out who did all the work on them. Will ask the warden first time I see her.

Kitchen wise all is well and all the units are in ,so next it is the floor just been choosing what to have. Beginning to look very nice.

So that's about it for today really enjoyed being out and about, as my back has been very sore, I think it is with sitting about so much, this last week or so ,but the weather one way or another has not been conducive to let us out very much. Till next time. Love

The Snowdrop.

I wanted to share this with you today.......

When Adam and Eve were turned out of the garden of Eden the climate took a turn for the worse, becoming shockingly cold. Seeing Eve weeping in her misery as the snow fell and angel took pity on her, breathing on the falling flakes so each turned to a snowdrop on reaching the ground there to be a symbol of returning warmth and hope for the world.

I thought these were very fitting words during this very cold and awful spell of weather we are having this week. Till next time. Love Joan.

All's Well.

Hi just popped in to say thank you for all the good wishes for our trip today. When we looked out this morning at 7am we had about 2 inches of snow it was lying thick in the street but thanks to my laptop I logged on to a wonderful website Traffic Scotland which has cameras on main trunk roads. After looking at the route we had to take we could see the roads were clear, our thanks to the road gritters for making such a wonderful job today. We left here at 8-50am in plenty of time for Stuart's 10-30 am appointment we had a good journey through just a few flurries of snow on route. We even manage to get parked which is a miracle in itself. We had time for a coffee before it was time to find the department we had to go to. Stu was taken five minutes before his time and we were back out by 10-50am. We just headed straight back home as the snow showers were getting more frequent and very heavy. It snowed most of the way home but the roads were still good. We were back home all safe and sound at 12 o'clock and happy it was all over. We did not want to have to cancel this appointment as it would have had to be rescheduled and it would have been about a six week wait and then another wait to see the results of the scan to Stuart legs. So at least now we are on the way to getting somewhere. We have been told that Stuart will either need a bypass on his legs or stints we will have to wait and see, hopefully it will by the latter as more surgery would not be good. Since we got home it has been snowing heavy from time to time with more forecast for tonight don't think we have it as bad as the south of the country but at least we are still moving at the moment. That's it for today so keep warm and don't play out in the snow too long.

Love

February at Last.

Good Afternoon, hope you are having a peaceful Sunday. Well that's January done and dusted for another year. I always thought when we were younger that January was an exceptionally long month we were paid monthly at the time and were paid early in December so it made it even longer as funds were running short by the end of the month. Now we have our state pension weekly and our private pensions monthly and it works out great but January is still a long long month.

We have a weather warning out for snow tonight and for the start of the week hope we can get to Dundee tomorrow for Stuart's appointment at Ninewells Hospital it is an 80 mile round trip we will just have to wait and see and decide tomorrow. We usually just have to go to Perth but Stuart need special equipment for his tests tomorrow that is not available there.

We have been busy all weekend getting the kitchen ready for the refit tomorrow it is the first time we have done anything big in the kitchen since we moved in her in 1990 so it is really needing done as these are the original units that are there. We have saved hard to have this done and I am really looking forward to the change even though we are not changing the design. Roll on Tuesday.

If we get away tomorrow I am hoping to get some photographs taken so I hope it is nice and bright . It is very cold here today an east wind and just 37f but it feels much colder with the windchill factor.

That's about it for today till next time Love