New supplier

Yesterday I was busy all afternoon with the prospective new supplier for my LPG.
 I went online a couple of months ago to a web site I have used before. Later that day I had a phone call from the Company. I told them what I required and this included a fixed price for at least 1 year. All the other suppliers give a low initial price for a litre of LPG but after the first delivery the price is never as low as that again.
 This guy told me that he had found a Company who was prepared to give a fixed price for 1 year. I told him that perhaps I was not out of contract for about a month. He told me not to worry, he would give my details to the Company and they would contact me.
 true to form, within a few days I had lots of forms to fill in, these I did and returned them to the Company.
 I thought I had better contact my current supplier to see when my contract expired. I was told it was on August 5th. just a week away.
 A couple of days later I received a phone call from the prospective supplier informing me that I was still under contract. I immediately let them know that I would be out of contract within less than a week. With this I was told that things would start to move.
 A week later I had an engineer to check the bulk tank. He then told me that with the regulations changing since I had the tank installed the site did not comply with current regulations. He then added that in all probability it would be alright.
 As time passed by and hearing nothing I just thought that the Company had decided that they would not proceed any further.
 I was surprised on Tuesday as I had another phone call informing me that the tank was not sited correctly but they were prepared to move the tank at their expense and a representative would visit me on Wednesday.
 It was not that day but the representative contacted me and said he would be here on Thursday afternoon.
 He duly arrived and together with a female colleague proceeded to measure up. He then told me that I would have to arrange for another base to be made so the the tank could sit on that. I immediately told him that according to the phone call, the work would be carried out and would cost me nothing.
 After several phone calls all was agreed. I would have to pay for some large tubs to put in front of the bulk tank. This would be so that if any vehicle backed it would hit the tubs and not the tank or it's piping's. To help me though he would arrange to give me a further 50 litres of gas and reduce the cost by almost 1p a litre of a year.
 I agreed to this but he told me that the tank must be no more than 25% full, as it is around 50% full this will not happen for well over a month.
 Still it looks as if I have a fixed price for 1 year, fingers crossed. More soon.

Eggs again

The next doors neighbour, the one with the chickens called today. She informed me that there had just been an increase of chickens. 10 to be precise. She told me that once again there would be eggs for me. As I am not greedy at all I just asked for 3 eggs. I told her I would go and look at the new batch. they certainly looked at home but the coop where they were kept was overgrown. She then said that it was going to be cleared a little. We then went to see if there were any eggs. I think there were 9 altogether the chickens had obviously used just one place to lay the eggs. Anyway they were certainly fresh.
 I asked her if she wanted any runner beans and she told me that although they had set some they were not producing many so I gave her what I had picked this morning, just over 1.5 lbs around 750 grammes. I also asked her if she wanted a few James Grieve apples. They are a dual apple, either eating or cooking, mind you the eating part is still tarty but the wasps love them so I tend to pick them early.
 I then told her I would look and see what the extension looked like. I must admit I was a little surprised. She told me the first part was to be a laundry room, there was also a small alcove where her washing machine was to be situated. there was a sort of lobby to the right, you walked a few paces and on the left was a shower room. further left was a single bedroom, well the modern houses would definitely call it a double bedroom. I suggested that this was where her Son was to sleep and that he would be there in 3 or so weeks.
 The reply surprised me for she told me that he would only be sleeping there sometimes as he liked it better in the local town.
 Earlier I had made an effort to visit the couple who took over my old business.Almost 16 years since I was there. They are always pleased to see me and his wife insists on giving me a good-bye kiss.
 I took them some runner beans. I had expected my best Pal to be here but last night he rung me to say his wife had a recurrence of sciatica and she was having an MRI scan today so they would not be down for a while. Anyway I was pleased to give the couple the runner beans. As of now I have no runner beans at all. I will though tomorrow morning when I next go and pick the latest beans that are ready. I guess at least another 1lb. Mustn't complain though. More soon.

Radio 4extra

I listen regular to digital radio. mainly Radio 4 extra. It used to be called Radio 7.
 Lat Saturday was a programme lasting several hours about the seaside between the wars. It was Brighton and interesting too.
 From the shows to the folks travelling from London for the day  it showed just how much life has changed. In general it was from the late 30s.
 What I did find out was the name of Lobby Lud. I was called that in an endearing name when it was time for me to go to bed. I would only be about 4 at the time. Anyway this man was talking about challenging a man called Lobby Lud from the News Chronicle daily newspaper. If you correctly challenged him carrying the News Chronicle you were given £5. A huge amount in those days. Only one winner a day was allowed. Anyway this man told about the time he followed this man for over an hour before plucking up the courage to challenge him only to be disappointed. The man was not Lobby Lud.
 I had asked my Mother many years later why I was occasionally called by that name. All she told me was that it came from a newspaper.
 Incidentally I can remember the newspaper News Chronicle. It was a broadsheet similar to the Daily Express and Daily Herald. the last two have disappeared and the Daily Express like the Daily Mail has gone to Tabloid size.
 I did, for a short time have a paper round and was left with the Daily Telegraph extra to my requirements. I told the man in charge but he told me that I was wrong. What I did was keep the newspaper  and read it. I liked it so much that when I got older I had delivered to me the daily Telegraph. I had it delivered until I moved here. As I live in the country there is no delivery. As I have lived here for over 20 years I have no got used to having no newspaper at all. More soon.

L.P.G

These last couple of days have been so very hot and humid, certainly not the sort of weather to think of heating.
 however my contract ran out with my current supplier about a fortnight ago. A while earlier I went online and wonder of wonders I had a telephone call from the Company and they told me that they had found a Supplier who would give me a fixed price for 1 year. If this was suitable they would forward my name and the  Supplier would contact me.
 This they did and I had to fill in several forms authorising a transfer of tank and business.
 I had a telephone call from them informing me that I was still under contract. I immediately informed them that my current contract runs out within a week.
 Anyway things proceeded and I had a visit from the Suppliers men to inspect my tank and fittings. They were a couple of nice guys and the senior one told me that the site of the tank did not conform with regulations. I told him that this was where I was told to site it from the original Supplier. He suggested that it should be O.K.
 Yesterday I had a telephone call from the new Supplier informing me that the Bulk Tank  site did not conform with current regulations but they were prepared to move the tank at their expense co conform.
 Later in the day I had another call stating that the Representative would call and discuss the options available to me.
 I wait with much interest to see what he will suggest. He will call next Thursday afternoon.
  Getting plenty of runner beans at the moment, which is good as I am eating them 3 times a day. More soon.

Wonder of wonders

 

 

This morning I had to go to my local Surgery and killed two birds with one stone. I took my repeat prescription in and put it in the box also I went to the receptionist and asked for a sample bottle. I have to take a sample of urine when I go to have my annual check for diabetes.. This was at about 9.10am.

I was sitting watching T.V this afternoon around 3.00pm. when the doorbell rang. I couldn't believe it, my prescription was here for me. I certainly have never had it delivered to me the same day ever since I have been receiving medication.

The photos are first of a bunch of grapes, they are a little larger this year and also ready a little earlier. very sweet too. I did remove lots of bunches though. 

 The other photos are of some of my eating apples The first are of James Grieve they are a dual purpose apple, either you can eat them or use them for cooking as they will tend to go gradually to mash. The other ones are of Laxton Superb. They look good and I have taken a photo of the base as I have them covered up because of the blackbirds. They love pecking apples and of course ruining them. As Laxton is the first year I have had fruit I am trying to look after them with a lot of care and attention. Let's us hope it is worthwhile.    More soon.                    

 

 

Surprised.

Today the workmen were once again working on next doors extension after the last 2 days of poor weather.
 I managed to catch the Postman the first time in a while, mind you he has been on holiday all last week.
 I wanted to give him a few grapes. They are a little larger this year but the skins are still tough.
 I took him some grapes out and saw a guy waiting to talk to me. I recognised him as a man who has done work for me over several years. He was working next door, replacing the block paving which had to be removed for the extension.
Talking away he told me that he now had a swimming pool in his garden. I immediately suggested that his water bill would be enormous. What he told me next made me wonder just how much some people get each week.
 He told me that it was not as much as you would think it would cost. I then asked him how much? His reply was "Only about £60 a week". I then told him that was over 50% of my weekly State Pension. All he told me was that it was different when one got old and retired.
 I just wonder if he will be able to rein in on his spending habits when he eventually retires. I guess he is in his early 50s.
Thank goodness I have always managed on a small budget money wise so I o not find it too hard to make ends meet. I pity some of the younger element when it is their turn to retire and live on a State pension. More soon.

Heavy showers

 

 

Over the last couple of days the morning was sunny but from lunch time it grew increasingly cloudy and we have had heavy rain. Yesterday it was so heavy that I had no signal to my satellite. Today was almost a copybook, the only difference was that the rain lasted much longer in fact it is raining again. What it has done though is make sure that my runner beans are still forming and producing plenty of beans. I decided to take a photo of some of the larger beans, I also put a couple of rulers one metric and the other in inches. That is what I always work on.  I guess that is because I was bought up with the old system not metric.

the other pictures are of cabbage white butterflies on some of my lavender, this was taken this morning when it was sunny. It is a long time since I have seen so many cabbage white butterflies. they are a real pest laying their eggs on my

winter greens and broccoli for the next spring. I keep checking them for eggs.

The other photo is of plum tomatoes and Shirley F1. Someone told me that they were the best tomato for the domestic grower, they are though expensive to buy as seeds and there are only about 6 or so seeds in each packet but worth it.  I used to grow Gardeners Delight a golf ball sizes tomato, in fact this year I grew some but to be honest, it is the seeds that get under my plate that cause me trouble so almost certainly will no longer grow them again. The plum tomatoes have far less seeds in them and are very nice. It was my Italian friend that suggested them to me. He grows them so that he can make his Pasta Sauce. He has a machine that throws out the skins and seeds just leaving the pulp. He then saves them in bottles and uses them during the winter. I use them as a cooked tomato. I cook them in a microwave and have them with generally cooked ham. The seeds cause me no trouble at all. Also Shirley have less seeds than Gardeners Delight so I have no trouble eating them. They also they have very little core in them.

More soon.

 

So sudden

 

 

Everything seems to be ready and finished so quickly this year.
The cherries were picked less than a fortnight ago, I had in excess of 14lbs. They are not easy to pick as you have to get each one individually. With this in mind I have pruned back my cherry trees so that next year I will not have so many.
The first picture of my runner beans was taken less than a fortnight ago, the second was taken today. I am picking well over a lb. of beans twice a day, I am having 3 meals of runner beans as they have plenty of feritin in them(iron). As I am low in that particular vitamin due to my medication I am happy to have them.
Today I have also covered some of my apple trees. This is because the blackbirds just peck holes in the apples. To be honest yesterday I did cover my Bramley cooker and was surprised to see a wood pigeon caught up in the netting. Needless to say, the wood pigeon is no more. I gave it an almighty swipe with my lopper and dispatched it swiftly.
It is still like a builders yard with the bungalow next door having the extension. The main noise is from the joiner, he is putting the flat roof on but told me that he will not be putting the tar or whatever they put on as he no longer does it. The reason was that insurance was too high. He told me that the Insurance Companies do not like a naked flame where wood is concerned so another guy will come to do that. They are progressing quite well though. The main rear garage has been completed and the front porch is now waiting for the door and windows. I will be pleased when it is done as the noise makes me have my side door closed and it has been warm. The joiner commented on the heat today saying it was too hot for him to work. By the way, he is self employed so gets on with the job.
 There was a wagon outside the front when I went to get my weelie bin in. I asked what was wrong. The guy told me that next doors water meter couldn't be read and they had come to dig it up but found that there was some electric cables running close to the water meter so they have left it for now. More soon.

To continue

I had my old fridge/freezer from 2000 so it didn't owe me anything really although apart from it losing it's gas it looked good. It did though need defrosting regular.
 After having notification of my slot for delivery and pick up of my old appliance. I then worked it out that I would probably have to defrost my old
fridge/freezer about 7.00am.
 As I get up early it was no problem so just before 7.00am on Friday morning I started to take everything out of my freezer compartment putting them in bin bags and then covering them up with a sort of tarpaulin. Typical though it was terribly hot but one can't do anything about the weather.
 I then emptied my fridge and left the fresh milk in the fridge. I then started to defrost the freezer compartment. I saved most of the ice the washing up bowl. This I had collected from the freezer. I then stood the milk in the bowl and this kept the milk nice and cool.
 I finished defrosting by around 8.30am. Cleaning and drying all as I had been instructed to do. It looked nice and clean, if it hadn't been for a couple of freezer door lids with slight cracks it looked almost new.
 So now I was ready and had my breakfast.
 Just after 9.00am. I looked out of my front door and noticed a large van pull up. I opened the door and the man waved to me and shouted that he had a delivery for me also he was to pick up my old appliance.
 I was astounded as it was just about time that the slot should begin. (.05am. to 10.05am. I asked him where he had come from and he told me Barnsley and that this was a good job as he had plenty of work and he was working on a sort of circle with the last drop being at Scunthorpe.
 He asked me where the appliance was to be situated. I told him and asked if he could take away the packaging. He told me that there was no problem. He had a young assistant and they soon bought the new fridge/freezer in. I had moved the old one and I asked them if they could put it in the place where the old one had been. He did this readily also taking the package that protected the fridge during transit. He then made sure all was O.K. then plugged the appliance in but told me not to switch it on for an hour. It would then be fine.
 He remarked on my old appliance but also said the cookers were the worst appliances to remove. He then took my old one away, came back and asked me to sign and then was gone. In all, it took less than 20 minutes. I was very pleased with the service.
 I did remark to him that the service was fantastic. He told me that the Co-op was the best organised Company that he knew. I certainly couldn't fault the service received.
 It took about an hour for the freezer compartment to get cold enough to put my contents in. I just managed to fit all in, it did take the fridge compartment longer to cool down, nearly 2 hours but it is working fine, the temperature is lower than my old fridge compartment.
 I did try to freeze some vegetables and was delighted first how quickly they froze and secondly there was very little ice on them at all. More soon.

Expense

I have not been here for a few days because I have had some kitchen appliance problems.
 First I had a little trouble with my microwave so I went online and my mate was good enough to order it online and then pick it up at his local supermarket.
 He called to see me on Wednesday and I had told him about my fridge/freezer working overtime and he told me that it was probably getting low on gas. I immediately concurred and to be honest hadn't given it a thought. With the motor running most of the time I thought it was high time I looked for another one.
 As I wished to have a frost free fridge and freezer combined  the size was limited for me. I had, yeas had a fridge/freezer with a freezer capacity of 145 litres but there were none in the domestic department that reached this. The only ones were the double door sort which would not fit i9nto my kitchen even if I wished to have one.
 Well, after searching the web for well over an hour. I eventually found one that was 111 litres and it also had the frost free fridge/freezer. It was A+ rated so I decided to go ahead with it. This, by the way was early evening on Wednesday.
It was the cheapest by Co-op so I went to their web site and ordered it.
 To be honest all seemed to be straight forward. I was given a delivery day of Friday August 2nd. Yes, today so I paid by credit card, I also paid £9.99 to have my old fridge/freezer removed. It also stated that if I wished they would take away the packaging that the new one would have.
 I received an e-mail on Thursday instructing me to make sure the appliance was completely frost free, clean and had no water in it at all. It also stated that I would receive later in the day another e-mail giving me a time slot for when it would be delivered.
 Around 5.15pm. I went online and sure enough there was an e-mail. I was shocked to read that the delivery slot would be Friday morning between 9.05am. and 10.05am. Can this be true? I thought. Most Companies give an all day time, if one is lucky then perhaps an AM. or PM delivery slot is given. More soon.