soapdragon

Just got back from the ortho consultant and am in shock! Hip replacement scheduled for January at the (relatively ) young age of 55. The surgeon is brilliant and very highly regarded for hips and I have every confidence in him but I'm really most concerned about recovery time although, I am fit and right weight for height. Just want it over and done and back to normal Any Forum peeps had one? PM me if you prefer! Thanks.

Meant to add and left it too late......I did wonder about the wisdom of relocating Hoggy but he/she was on the busy road through the village. We have always had a few hedgehogs in our garden and make sure that we keep hoggy friendly places for them (a pile of logs, stack of flowerpots behind the shed, etc) and usually have at least two overwintering with us. Our garden is secure and there is always plenty of hoggy specific food....it's lovely hearing them rustling and bimbling around in the early evening.

Made a new friend over the weekend ... rescued this baby from the middle of the road and took him/her to the safety of the garden and laid on a feast of hedgehog food that was instantly devoured. I think home is now under our garden shelves as have put out several lots of hoggy food over the last few days and most of it is being eaten. And I can hear rustlings coming from under the shelves too!

🎼What a difference a day makes 🎵 .......... lovely today with wall to wall sunshine and not cold. Stood for ages around the War Memorial in the village at the Remembrance Day Service and felt really warm in the sun.

Address of my swapee received and now thinking about packaging!

My Christmas cake is the lovely forum boiled fruit cake with added brandy and glace cherries and will be iced and marzipanned (if I don't gannet the marzipan first 🤣). I make it regularly as a standard fruit cake along with Parkin - which keeps for ages, if I can exert sufficient self control. Recently YS and I have been making 'energy balls' with dates, ground almonds and oats plus various others things (grated carrot, cinnamon, nuts etc) whizzed up in the food processor and then rolled into walnut sized balls and covered in dessicated coconut or chopped hazelnuts. They are great for the boys to take to school for snacks.

I'll PM you!

If I microwave anything I just put a sheet of kitchen towel over the top. Obviously not air tight but really to stop splatters. Haven't used clingo in the microwave for ages ever since seeing a really scary article about carcinogens in the plastic being activated by the heat

OOps Sorry Val, are you Somerset? I thought you were Devon so must have missed that somewhere along the line. I blame aluminium saucepans for my general befuddlement though it's probably old age 😆.

If I'm buying via the internet then I try and see if there is a contact number and then use that so that I get the best of both worlds and a bit of human contact. Turning the whole thing on it's head, I feel for people who work in places where that are just taking orders online, sending them out and not having contact with their customers. Still, we all need to place online orders from time to time, especially when businesses are closed. Being in a rural location makes it harder too.......for example we are only about 12 miles from the centre of Oxford but getting in there takes sooooo much time and hassle.

I can well imaging that life in rural Devon really takes it out of a vehicle! OH has family just outside Dartmouth and we love Bigbury on Sea so we have spent many a holiday traversing the tiny, bumpy and potted lanes.

Life was so much easier when you just picked up the 'phone and SPOKE to someone to place an order. However, I appreciate that you can't do that at all hours! If I do have the option of calling to place an order then I make sure that I do .... and enjoy the novelty!

Just about to take the Christmas cake out of the oven and feeling festive already - although that's probably something to do with the brandy fumes 🤪! Can't start on my swaps just yet though as they will be better fresh so a bit frustrated on that score esp as others are obviously beavering away!

Same here......bright and crisp until lunchtime and now it's gloomy and overcast (makes me feel the same!)

Gulp! Reminds me of their advertising slogan, sung to a catchy little tune, going back a few years.........Don't You Wish You Had A Mitsubishi'? That'll be a 'No' then