Gardens/ Sick dog!

 Daughter came with her friend's daughter who is the same age as our granddaughter. She's very tidy, well behaved and no trouble at all. I've said she can stay any time. 

Daughter noticed her ring doorbell had stopped working the second day she was here! Her brother has a spare key and went to check. All downstairs power was off and her freezer totally defrosted! Nothing was salvageable. She's very upset as had just done a huge shop for frozen food! They went home after a few more days and son tested what was tripping  the fuses. It's the central heating boiler, which was guaranteed so they came to fix it but no fault was found. There's another tank upstairs which heats water with the solar panels and is connected to the downstairs boiler. So she's now having to get an engineer in to fix it. They think it's probably a float broken. On the plus side with the boiler turned off her freezer and other appliances are all working fine.

We went to a charity 'open gardens' day in Teignmouth with the U3A. You pay £6 and get entry to 4 gardens. We visited 2 gardens, the first a huge mansion estate and the second was a bungalow's garden. The mansion had acres of land leading down to the sea with lots of trees and exotic looking plants. There was a cottage which they rent out to tourists, and a huge brick built garage that could easily accommodate 6 or 7 cars in the vast grounds. The bungalow had a medium sized garden with a huge, round,  concrete built, upright,  fish pond. It was filled with several large koi carp, and had a wooden roof to protect from seagulls and other fish eating birds. There were lots of statues, ornaments and bird nesting boxes in between all the plants and flowers. The lady owner told us she built everything herself, the pond, walls,  steps, paths, 2 large patios nesting boxes etc. Reminded me of OH's mother who was not adverse to concreting and repairing walls herself. The afternoon ended in cream tea or cakes at a large hotel with others on the trip.

Our son came on Monday for a few days and helped us switch to a different supplier for gas and electric. It's quite a lot cheaper than what we pay to British Gas. We need to make savings atm as our dog has a blocked, infected anal gland again. That cost £150 vet bill yesterday plus 2 boxes of cheese triangles to get the antibiotic tablets in her. I break each triangle in 3, concealing the tablet in the second piece. Give the first piece plain, give the tablet piece next and before she can bite or swallow it push the 3rd piece at her mouth. She grabs the last piece and swallows the tablet piece at the same time. Best trick ever lol. We have another appointment in 7 days, and maybe another in the week after. We do have insurance but the excess is over £100 plus 10% of the bill so not worth claiming. It's the 2nd time she's had this too.

Bye for now All the best 

Sally x 

Comments welcome in English please