Our New Life in Devon

 My son and sister arrived for the weekend at the end of January as arranged. On arrival she didn't seem too bad but deteriorated over the weekend. She's suffered with poor health unfortunately for many years, and a few days after she returned home went in hospital. I'm hoping to visit her tomorrow afternoon for an hour or so. I managed to spend a lovely afternoon visiting my friend in Exeter after sister left. She was baking scones which were lovely with butter and jam. OH took the dogs for a nice long walk in the park so we had a good catch up on our own. Must ask her for the recipe when I next visit.  We're staying at our daughter's home for a few days atm. We have tickets to see the school play as granddaughter is in their drama group. Saturday we're hoping to meet up for lunch with our son, daughter-in-law and oldest granddaughter in a local pub for a carvery. Then, Saturday night, it's babysitting duty, as daughter is going for a leaving do meal with h...

 I had a phone call from my sister this evening as she wants to visit for this weekend. She has a small dog but has arranged for her friend to look after it which is good news as we already have 2 dogs here. OH went upstairs for a nap as he's not feeling too well. He hasn't been right for weeks but won't bother the doctor. I'm going to make him an appointment next week if he still won't go. Same when he had pleurisy I just rang and told him to go or cancel it. He went and the Dr told him off for leaving it too long ie 2+ weeks!! Husband came downstairs and said son is coming tomorrow for a few days as the weather has affected the shipping at his works. We are never alone for long here 😆  Both our dogs are in season at the moment but it's nearly finished now. We did breed our oldest dog, and our other dog is one of the puppies that we kept. I don't intend to breed her again, but don't agree with neutering unless there's a very good reason. I've o...

 Well, the family all went home, and I was left with piles of washing - think 5 lots of bedding as eldest son came to stay too last weekend. No problem if you have a working washing machine but mine was definitely on the way out. The spinner sounded like a jet taking off at Heathrow as it was so loud. Thankfully, we have insurance on it so it's now been fixed. I'm actually down to half a basket of washing today, which is much more normal. The machine is so quiet now I'm forgetting it's even on. Had to pay for a new rubber door seal, but the new drum and bearings were covered by the insurance policy tg. Last year wasn't very good for me health wise so hopefully this year will be better. I had 5 chest infections and a bladder infection that sent me to hospital. I've had so many medical tests this year it seems unreal. 6 ECGs, bladder and kidney scans, urine and pooh tests, chest x-ray, lung cancer scan, so many blood tests, heart scan, and breast cancer screening....

 Just a quick post to wish everyone reading my blog a very Happy New Year to you all, wherever in the world you live.  It's still a full house here and to make it worse both dogs have come in season together. Plus granddaughter went skiing to a dry ski  school, fell and has broken her thumb on the matting. It's so cold here minus 2C last night and minus 1C now at 6pm. Hope sunny South Devon comes back soon lol. Bye for now All the best  Sally x

 I'm pleased to say that our dogs have made a complete recovery and are now both back to normal. I did go to South Gloucestershire with the dogs and OH to look after granddaughter for our daughter's Xmas work night out. Granddaughter was very well behaved, as she always is with us. We dropped of Xmas presents for our eldest son, daughter-in-law and the 2 eldest grandchildren on the way home. Our nephew and son (Mark) both arrived on Friday evening. Our daughter and youngest grandchild arrived Saturday, so we were pretty full over the weekend. Nephew left yesterday, Monday, as he has work on Tuesday. We all had our huge Xmas dinner before he left which was cooked by our daughter this year. Xmas table cloth, crackers, and wine were on the table so it looked really festive. We always have a Xmas meal before Xmas, never on Xmas Day. We never have a roast meal on Sundays either, like many people in the UK. OH made it a rule, when we first got married, that he didn't want Sundays...

 Well, where do I start with this? OH took our 2 dogs to the beach with Mark, our son, last Friday. They called in a pub on the way back home, and an elderly man took a bag out of his pocket and gave them CHICKEN!! OH thought it was going to be a biscuit but the dogs had already eaten it before he could stop them! Both dogs have been very ill since then with upset stomachs. To make matters worse we were needed to stay at DDs home to take delivery of a parcel Monday morning, and I had a relative's birthday Tuesday and a dental appointment. Daughter still needed us to come as DPD had refused to arrange a delivery time except Monday all day. They even told her if nobody was home it would be returned and she could buy it in a shop at full price! It was a very difficult few days, with OH sleeping on an airbed on the kitchen floor so he could let the dogs out in the night, and undertake cleaning the floor. One dog has now improved but the other we took to our old South Gloucestershire ve...