Saturday 5th and More Painting Planned

This is the living room end of my newly painted room with the new flooring and the new rug. The rug changes colour all the time with the light and which way it's looked at but has the gold/greens of the sofa and chair and curtains merging into blue at one end like the chest the TV sits on and the bookshelves.

Last weekend I was doing a bit of tidying in the small bedroom/toy room/playroom and realised that I had enough paint left from the living room to do that room, which is also grey at the moment. So I can get rid of the 15 little hooks the previous owners had - all were holding a photograph - and fill in all the holes that will be left. They have to be prised off with a screwdriver and pliers and leave a big hole behind. I've made a start but will get going properly next week. 

We had a lot of rain here on Monday and then again on Tuesday, and yet again on Wednesday. I took DiLs birthday present over early Monday and the water was already across the road in one place that flooded to a serious depth last year. Was it always like this? every day of rain producing flooding on country roads? I don't remember it from the past and we certainly never had problems getting to school in the 60's. 

For the first time since our Keep Moving group started 2 years ago, this week we didn't have enough people turn up to run it, numbers have gone down since the summer. One or two ill, others away, two with ill husbands - it's not looking good for the future - sadly. Other groups for over 60's exercise are further away and more expensive. We'll try again next week.

I took a boot-load of bags of 'stuff' to town on Thursday to pop into a charity shop, but had to go to 4 different charity shops before I could find anyone to take it. One shop was only accepting one bag per person, another two taking nothing but thankfully the new Mind shop welcomed my bags of unwanted crockery, toys and odds and ends. Those taking nothing said they were chock-a-block full in the back rooms. Are fewer people buying from charity shops? Maybe - I've only bought a couple of things from a CS this year..

There's been no phone signal in the village and some surrounding areas for O2 for the last few days. I thought it was me and my phone and something I'd done wrong but thanks to the local Facebook and Next Door website I read lots of other people are having problems too. Something to do with the mast that can't be sorted quickly apparently. Hope it doesn't take too long.

This week I am grateful for

• Lots of delicious eating apples from my little trees
• Help in the garden from someone looking to fill some time
• Getting to the pool for a swim

Have a good weekend.

Back Soon

Sue

Hollyhocks out of Nowhere + First week July

 Seven foot tall and appearing where no Hollyhocks have appeared before. These are out in the front border.

 I've frequently tried to invite them into various gardens without much luck, although maybe one might have appeared in the back garden in my first year here? - never to be seen again.

BiL has lots growing every year right by his path to the back door. I never remember to collect seed pods to bring home - I'll try to remember this year.

It's been a mostly chilly week because Summer went away around midday on Tuesday. It came back briefly for a few hours on Thursday so people didn't get wet while going out to vote but Wednesday and Friday were horribly cold and grey and the wind on several days has had a real bite to it.

I raced around Monday morning getting loads of jobs done so I could watch the tennis and have been watching as much as possible all week. Thursday was the best day with so many Brits playing - all at once sometimes. Did you know there are 46 courts at Wimbledon if you include the practice courts and the 8 clay courts, I didn't, until it was a question on the Radio 2 Zoe Ball show mini quiz. Play on 18 main courts are often all on TV - difficult to choose.

I'd planned a swim again Friday but woke up feeling rough so cancelled that until next week, my own fault for getting cold when shopping.

It's odd sometimes to find the things people don't know. - On the local Next Door website page- which is usually lost cats - several people moaned about Green Party representatives sitting outside Polling Stations on Thursday - some folk were very irate that it should be 'allowed'. But it's something that used to happen a lot and there is no need to speak to them after all and the street is still a free country - thank God! 

Good to know that there was no fuss or cries of 'cheating' or 'fix' after the election results. Hand over is always polite and quick............unlike some countries! and they are able to get removal vans for Number 10 at very short notice - very different when the rest of us are moving house!

This week I've been grateful for

• Gift of Broad Beans from BiL who had been gifted more than he needed from a neighbour
• Huge bowlful of raspberries from the garden everyday
• Tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes all ready now
• Another handful of green beans
• Plenty of good reading. (The final Maisie Dobbs from Jacqueline Winspear was excellent)
• Rain - just in time to fill the water butts

Not sure what I'm doing this weekend. 

Back Soon

Sue

Halfway Through A Frugal Year? but Could Be Subtitled............

............................where I spent money in June!

Income was the usual two pensions, and interest from savings and outgoings were the normal too Council Tax, Electric, Phones and Broadband, 2 lots of diesel for the car, household needs and food.

image from google freepik

It would have  been a  frugal month if I didn't keep deciding to have work done! I've found it impossible to get out of the habit of always planning what improvements are needed to house and home.......it's what we did for 40 years. This time it's the living room/dining room flooring that's planned and half paid for. I really didn't like the carpet the previous owners had down, a horrible colour and and very impractical for a room that's used for dining and with the 'back door' to the garden - used many times a day in Summer. The hard wood veneer flooring I wanted was out of stock (typical!), and the floor layer man very busy so the work won't be done for a while.

Personal spending was a bit extravagant despite no second hand books or flowers....................... 

A proper haircut started my spending and a new Puzzler magazine as I was fed up with only doing Sudoku's  and then the price of my Cappuccino  coffee and cheese scone treat is creeping up - had the most expensive so far in the Moments Coffee Shop in Stowmarket one day when the Osier in the church was closed.  Moments is also a charity run coffee shop raising money for St Elizabeth Hospice in Ipswich so at least it's for a good cause but £5.90 for the two things is getting a bit silly. I shall be disappointed if I have to stop these treats - one of the saddest things about being widowed is there's no one to say " do you want a cuppa?" 

I called in at the nearest picture framing place and he cut me a mount for that little print on a card that I bought from the Art Exhibition. It was just £2.50 and then  a few days later I found the frame mentioned the other day from the car boot sale. I still had some sticky velcro fixer things in the drawer so the new little picture is up on the wall and I'm pleased to say there is still room for one or two more.

When friends were here they asked me where all the pictures have come from. There are seven from boot sales, 2 stitched by me, two prints from an art exhibition plus the new card also from art sale. The owl and hare prints are annoying me - they need to be level or more uneven.

Exercise group numbers have dropped alarmingly and we may have to pay £2 each rather than £1.50 just to cover hall hire. Luckily I managed to find one quiet-ish session for a swim - hadn't been for months, every time I've gone online to book it's looked to be much too busy to be enjoyable. I struggled with swimming after the long lay-off so really need to get back to it again. Hopefully it will be quieter when the pool in Diss re-opens after it's makeover. 

Then when I thought I'd spent enough on myself I had to send for some new insoles for my summer shoes as the ones that were in them kept getting creased and not laying flat.

Garden spending was supposed to be zero except for the District Council garden waste bin annual payment but I got carried away by an ad that popped up for some Kale plants from T & M. As the sweetcorn plants are doing so badly due to the weather I decided I'd put in a few Kale for winter beside the sweetcorn. They are due to arrive in July. The sad looking sweetcorn is surrounded by fences to keep Crumble cat out and covered by netting at the moment and is just not growing. Usually it romps away - doubt I'll get cobs this year. I got another bag of compost too as I was right out.

House expenses apart from half the flooring were new printer inks and window cleaner.

There were a few penny saving things to make up for the spending

• Lots of strawberries from BiL 
• and even more Raspberries from here...and there really are lots!
• Cucumbers ready to eat and also made into Sweet and Sour Pickles for winter
• First tomato - just one so far!
• Reading good library books for free
• No second-hand books or flowers bought
• Home made bread from the bread machine- I'm now doing 50/50 wholemeal and white flour - it's turning out very well. 
• Having cancelled the Radio Times subscription as the price had shot up, I'm now just picking up one of the cheap TV scheduling magazines - not as good as the RT - no Radio schedule - and too much soap stuff but a big saving.
• Running out of Ecover Clothes Washing liquid  so I sent for the £1 offer from Smol of samples to try. They seem to be fine so I'll be subscribing to a regular delivery as I have for their dishwasher tabs. Still using some washing soda crystals in the wash as it's good for killing any smells and keeping the machine clean.
• Only using dishwasher every other day
• Couple of things found at boot sales to use for Christmas gifts.

This week I have been grateful for - 

• Sunshine and warmth for a week.
• Tennis on TV - I've loved watching all the up and coming at the Wimbledon Qualifiers last week
• Having savings for when I get home improvement ideas!
• The bread machine, which I'm now using for all sorts of bread. 

I'm really looking forward to Wimbledon for the next fortnight. Then it's just another two weeks after that and the Olympics starts. Tour De France on TV as well........... Summer of Sport 2024 .........bring it on!

Have a good Weekend 

Back soon

Sue

Looking Back At The Week Just Gone

 Bank Holiday Weekend last weekend was more or less a wash-out. I ventured out on the Saturday for two church visits but Sunday it poured almost all day so I stayed at home and moved furniture!

The aim being to get rid of the very, very old pine and now very tatty TV stand/chest of drawers without buying anything new to replace it.  I emptied drawers, chucked things out, moved other stuff  into different places and wiggled large pieces of furniture around - hoovering all the dust from behind each bit as I went along. Then I took two ibuprofen for the aching back, ate lunch and collapsed on the settee to watch world rowing championships from Lucerne. 

The weather was slightly better on bank Holiday Monday but I couldn't be bothered to go out, I finished the furniture moving and tidying, read, watched tennis, cleared a few weeds from out the front and spoke to no one all day - actually I spoke to almost no one all weekend!

Only 10 of us at exercise group, I do hope people are not dropping out but it might just have been because it was half term and holiday week.

Flowers in the house this week were just a couple of rose buds and some colourful Spirea.

This week I've been grateful for

• Finding out, thanks to google, how to remove the cover to change the back-up battery in the bleeping mains powered smoke alarm out in the garage (needed due to the boiler being in there) and still being able to climb 3 steps up the stepladder to reach the darn thing!
• Having the home made batch made meals from the freezer, making for easy meals
• Eventually working out how to get the French Open Tennis on TV
• Sorting out how to put a new cassette of cord into the strimmer.
• Getting the sweetcorn and runner beans planted out ............
• ..........and I suppose all the rain saves watering the outside veg.
• Sorting through and chucking out lots of old paperwork
• Library van bringing me my 17 reserved books 

Back Monday with the photos of the library books I collected.

Sue

Another Saturday and A Bank Holiday Weekend.

 This week...............Yet another huge downpouring of rain for many hours on Tuesday and overnight into Wednesday. Water across the road in many places again and with it being fairly warm the grass has gone crazy. I've been trying to keep it short so as not to need BiL with his petrol mower to come and rescue it again.  Other happenings this week were getting my eyes tested and looking after the nearest grandchildren for an hour and not much else. I'm struggling through a crime fiction library book by Amy Myers - it's not quite cosy but heading that way and is a bit boring but I want to finish it to see if all becomes clear at the end.

So............Today is the start of the end of May Bank Holiday weekend and it's the beginning of half term week. Usually I would be talking about going to the big Suffolk Agricultural Show on Wednesday but I decided to have a year off going this year and do some other stuff instead.

There's a church I've not visited that has a Flower festival going on so it's guaranteed to be open, then the 1940's days at the Middy railway museum that is just across the fields from my previous home, and car boot sales of course.

Speaking of boot sales these cards were all I came home with the other Sunday ............5 cards for 50p each. Although when I put my glasses on and read the words of the 'Sister' card I had to put it straight in the charity shop bag. Much too sugary and soppy!

This week I've been grateful for

• Went to the opticians for an eye test and nothing had changed since 3 years ago - Good news
• There was a bit of warmth among the rainy days
• Trying out a different sort of bread in the bread machine
• Discovering why the lights were flashing on my coffee machine (it needed routine de-scaling)

I wonder how long before they start building here? The harris/heras fencing has gone up. It's only a little way from home. When I moved here 3 years ago there was no mention of new houses on this bit of land, now there is permission for 28 and plans for 40 more later. I may have to move again!!

Back Monday

Sue

The Early May Bank Holiday Weekend

For Star Wars fans........................ May the 4th be with you! - and if you aren't a fan then you'll wonder what the idiot woman is talking about!

I can't remember what Easter Bank Holiday was like weather wise without looking back on the blog, but it was probably cold and wet.

Hopefully  this Early May Bank Holiday weekend is good as there are several things happening in villages around that need dry weather to be successful. A bluebell wood open, a flower festival, a Tudor reconstruction day, car-boot sales (of course) and village yard sale. Not sure I shall get to all of them and after it poured with rain all day yesterday some might be a bit soggy underfoot.

Other than yesterdays wash out, this week has been a good week, much better than the week before when I felt a bit under the weather on a couple of days and missed the Over 60's meeting and wasn't able to look after the Grandchildren after school one day - very annoying.

The World Snooker Championship on TV has been interesting as so many of the top seeded players were knocked out, and only one - the 12th seed-  got to the semis. More importantly in the World of Sport is the chance this weekend for Ipswich Town Football Club to get automatic promotion to the Premier League - that means a lot for the Town in many ways. If they end up in the play-offs for the the chance to go up then I fear a match against our Norfolk rivals - Norwich City FC - in which Norwich will win, get promoted and be able to gloat for another year!

Thursday evening was eventful as a fire engine raced by the bungalow and then 30 minutes later two more with blue lights went through the village, then an ambulance went by one way and another a few minutes later going the other way. I wondered what on earth was happening. Heard later that the fire engines were for a fire in a commercial building  a few miles away but no idea what the ambulances were doing - don't think they were connected to the fire.

I've been grateful this week for.............

• Some good fine, sunny and warm days at last
• Being able to get the pots for the greenhouse plants filled and ready
• Planting out the two squash plants and getting them cat and bird proofed
• More leek plants found in the pet/garden shop in Diss, planted out and protected as above
• Getting the sweetcorn seeds sown in their peat pots in the greenhouse. 
• Lots of good reading
• Finding a church open to visit after finding one locked
• Getting a 'foot lady' to sort out a problem - no more info on that one - Ugh!
• Sorting more photos from their old albums into the new storage boxes.

Here's a favourite - me on my big trike aged about 4. I didn't have a two wheeled bike (and no such thing as stabilisers)  until quite late as there was nowhere to learn to ride it. Our house was right beside a busy A road and the back yard was a rough builders yard - as you can see in the photo.

I'm  shall return on Monday with some more old photos - you have been warned!

Have a good Bank Holiday Weekend for everyone here and a good ordinary weekend for those elsewhere.

Sue 

First Saturday in April

 The vegetable seedlings are out in the greenhouse now with fleece to cover them every night. The only benefit of cloudy days is the overnight temperatures are well above freezing. I looked at the weather forecast last Sunday and every single day this week had rain spots under the cloud symbol at some time during the day or night. And they were correct, including a torrential downpour for several minutes on Thursday morning. Luckily Friday was very windy and by late afternoon the grass was just about dry enough to do a quick run around with the mower.

I spent a while  searching the shed and behind it for a couple of clay flower pots that I thought I had but no luck, then I remembered one is upside down in the sink-pond to make a step in and out for frogs (no sign of any yet) and the others must have got broken when the plant stand fell over 2 years ago. There are always plenty at boot sales. I just need two for the two new plants picked up from boot sales this year. I'll take a photo after I've found suitable pots.

"Nanna will do it!"

Badges to sew on for Rainbows for the YGD and for Brownies for EGD. No hurry - it's the Easter break and Nanna has plenty of time!

Didn't realise I'd be doing this job 35 years on from my own children!

This week I am grateful for..............

• Having plenty of different coloured cottons in my sewing box to match the badges.
• The knowledge gained over 68 years that there WILL be sunshine and warmth at sometime this spring and summer however hopeless it looks.
• Vegetable seedlings looking healthy. Fingers crossed.
• Finding things to write about for the blog everyday .
• Some good crime fiction to read this month.
• Phone call from my cousin to tell me his Mum- my one remaining Aunt - is now in a care home - she'll be 100 this year-  pretty amazing - all her five siblings - including my Mum died well before old age.

When it was raining I watched the three programmes in the first series of Signora Volpe. It's on the free UKTV Play now after first being on Acorn - a pay to view channel. Starring Emilia Fox as an exMI6 agent it is set in the beautiful countryside of  Italy. It's well written and very understated. According to news online a season two was commissioned but doesn't seem to have appeared yet.

So it's the weekend again and the Saturday boot-sale if I can get up early enough. The Sunday one was all set to start this week but heavy rain will have turned it back into a quagmire again so I doubt it will.

Hope rain doesn't spoil your weekend plans, I shall be back Monday.

Sue

February 17th - Looking Back at My Week.

 It's been one day sun and then rain here this week, with occasional glimpses of sun late afternoon but mainly grey skies. There should be a rule about the number of dull days allowed in a month. I get quite fed up with them and they don't inspire me to do anything outside - although it's much too wet and boggy underfoot anyway.

Three TV crime series finished this week, two with 'happy endings' and one with a ? . Silent Witness and Madame Blanc with the happy endings  with After The Flood left wondering what happens next. Will there be another series - 'After, After the Flood' perhaps?

I found a thing called Bones to watch when there is nothing else on. I think it's new onto the 4 catch up channel, a crime series from the US that started in the early 2000's  and went on for years with more than a dozen programmes in each series based on a real forensic anthropologist turned author called Kathy Reichs whose books I've heard of but never read but now perhaps I ought to try them.

I've not been swimming for a couple of weeks for various reasons and next week is half term when they have a different schedule so thought I'd better get some exercise and took my bike out for a short ride. I went off cycling over a year ago when the bike went from under me as I was getting on it. Not sure how it happened but it was very off-putting. Just cycled a couple of miles this time and it was hard work. It's 3 years since I was doing the 6 mile ride around my old village, but not sure I could do that now.

Yesterday I had a professional oven clean, would never, ever have had that years ago but it seemed like a good idea at the time. A better idea would have been to keep the oven clean myself! but I needed a new bulb in the big oven and couldn't get the cover off. The previous owners left me a note saying the bulb had "only just gone" and I've been here nearly 3 years, so it was time it was done. I have to say it was worth the money as the oven looks like new and as the guy said, having a clean oven is more energy efficient and I have light in the main oven at last and opening the oven won't set off the smoke alarm any more as it had been doing occasionally. 

This week I've been grateful for

• A good day spent with the MG here. I need to gen up on Marvel Heroes!
• Meeting my friend from school days again for a coffee
• Finding a couple of games in a charity shop for the older grandchildren

No rugby on TV this weekend so not sure what I'll be doing, depends on the weather as usual.

Have a good weekend. I'll be back Monday

Sue

My Week and Things That Go Wrong

 First of all thank you for comments during the week and apologies for not always replying. Seems like several people have given away vases and regretted it. Perhaps I'll have daffodils next, still no sign of flowers here. I plant things and they shrink rather than spread. 

Thank you to a lady who has found my blog again, her husband died very recently after many years together. I'm so sorry for your loss, it's the hardest thing to cope with and grief is the strangest thing. Even after almost six years I still get angry, sad and unsettled - waiting for something that doesn't happen and have to resign myself for what is here and now.

Two of the people from Spot Wellbeing CIC who started our Keep Moving Group  18 months ago came to visit us this week. They were both originally Physios with the NHS, both got disillusioned with the things they weren't allowed to do for people who had come out of hospital after falls or operations and left to start their own Community Interest Company working at starting exercise groups all around East and Mid Suffolk and doing one-to-one physio. Now, weirdly, they are part funded by the NHS to do the very things they weren't allowed to do before. They also get some funding from District and County Councils but work one year at a time, never knowing when funding will stop. They were pleased to see how well our small group was going and they've now got similar groups running in many towns and villages. 

Does your heart sink when mechanical things go wrong?

First is was the car tyre pressure - which has been a recurring thing. Of course the car tyre thing always happens when I jump in to head off somewhere - obviously- and it's always raining. I've got my small hand held compressor but when I checked them to pump up one was extra, extra low. So I put air in and drove carefully round to my friends at the repair garage so  they could have a look for possible problems . They are brilliant and found time to check all the tyres and the problem was two of the valves. I have a feeling there was a problem with one valve when I had 4 new tyres a couple of years ago. The car is due for its MOT in March, hopefully it will be OK until then.

Second was when the TV built in Free-sat completely disappeared, I can't view via the built-in Freeview as I don't have the right connection wire. The catch up channel way of watching was still working, think that's wi-fi. 

The next day Free-sat was back but without lots of channels which I later found out had been withdrawn without any notice. I think I need to get a cable to connect TV to the aerial, just in case. While trying to discover what had happened I read about Freely which is going to amalgamate viewing with aerial and satellite sometime quite soon and be part streamed and part scheduled . It will be through wifi I suppose.

With not being able to go shopping due to the car tyres I intended to go the following day via BiL's to drop off the convector heater. The foot broke off it a while back and I did a temporary mend with gorilla glue which didn't last long, so I'm hoping he can find a way to fix it. Anyway, due to the many hours of rain I went through 3 floods in the three miles 'tween my house and his, so put off shopping again as it was still pouring and flooding was just going to get worse. I was out of fresh fruit, so very glad of the few bags of apple slices and the two boxes of stewed gooseberries in the freezer.

What other things can I mention from my  week?

• Common sense at last as the bills for water use and sewer, which we pay to two different companies are going to come as one bill twice a year -instead of separate bills. 
• And more common sense as the planning application for some stables over the road has been turned down even after the appeal. They wanted the entrance driveway to be on a bad corner and to build a huge stable block beside the two new homes that are being built.
• I was excited to see three young deer running through the burial ground over the road - never seen 'proper' deer in the village before- only muntjacs. Muntjacs are small and much more often seen close to built up areas. I think what I saw were young Roe Deer - they all had white rumps.  .

This week I'm grateful for

Lots of library books collected ( I'll write about them on Monday)

At least the heating has been OK all week, so I've not needed the convector heater.

Continuous rain is slightly better than snow I suppose.

Rugby on TV again over the weekend and new books to start.

Enjoy your weekend, I'll be back Monday 

Sue

Rounding Up

No exercise group this week as the village hall is having work done but as there were two lovely days on Monday and Tuesday, I got lots more clearing done in the garden and once again the garden waste bin is almost full just two days after being emptied.

I cleared the Passion flower right back to ground level as it was spreading everywhere and took the insect protection off the Purple Sprouting Broccoli, which promptly all fell over - they are too tall and leaning away from the fence. Might get something edible off them eventually.

It's been a week of endings in the garden

The last of............

..............the beetroot, as there weren't many I've only been eating now and again to spread the enjoyment.

..............the courgettes, one plant has lasted far longer than normal and I took 5 more courgettes off before pulling it up and adding to my compost bin.

.........the autumn raspberries, such a surprise at how many I've had considering there are only a few canes.

.........the tiny plum tomatoes, the very dead plants are now in the council garden waste bin and a bowl of tomatoes in the fridge.

.........the parsley plants, divided from a pot bought in the spring from Aldi, the section I put outside was eaten by slugs(?) and the two in the greenhouse had come to an end. Need to buy another pot to divide and over winter.

My church visits 'happened' to take me close to  Bridge Farm Barns, a cafe/gift shop/vintage shop place to look at what lovely things they have in for Christmas - very pricey though and I bought nothing except a coffee and cheese scone ( it would have been rude not to and I went without breakfast specially!)

When I got home I got my Christmas list book out of the drawer ready to start noting down presents including what I already have for the Christmas Hampers for my sister and sister in law. Checked what cards I have -  seem to have bought rather a lot half price in the January sales - plenty for this year for sure. The problem with having several family birthdays all within a few weeks in October and November is that it's difficult to think about Christmas presents when I've only just asked what they would like for birthdays.

Thursday was wet and as I drove to Diss for shopping I couldn't remember the last time I'd driven in rain as it's been another dry summer and early Autumn for us in Suffolk but the weather has become much more autumnal in the last couple of days.

This week I've been grateful for

• Fine warm weather for garden clearing and to save on heating oil
• Living in a quiet part of the world
• The food from my garden

I'll be back Monday - Hope you have a good weekend

Sue

1st of July

 I would like to know how we have rushed through half a year already?  But we have so I'd better look forward to July.

For a start the Tour De France sets off today - from Spain (ITV4) and then Wimbledon tennis on TV for two weeks starting Monday (everywhere on the Beeb)..........  that's me sorted then!

Usually the first of the month is a post with weather sayings but there are July pages in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 so getting a bit repetitive. I've written about Dog Days and St Swithin and July is short of weather sayings anyway . But here's one not mentioned before which, thankfully, has no truth.

If the first of July be rainy weather,

it will rain more or less for four weeks together

As well as a Folklore shortage for this first of the month there was a missing financial round up for yesterday, the last day of June - which actually turned out to be a good low spend month.

 

Apart from food, council tax and the direct debits for the phones and broadband the only other sections of the account book which came to more than £35 were the annual payment for the garden waste bin and the monthly electric bill. I even got away with only filling up the car once at under £35 - but only because I put diesel in twice in May!

At the end of the month I splashed out on - great excitement - a new frying pan and the window cleaner came.

My personal spending was a pair of shorts, the exercise group, swimming and a grand total of £1.80 on second hand books. I had to buy suntan lotion after discovering what I thought was one before-sun lotion and one after-sun lotion in the cupboard turned out to be two of the latter.  I really think Factor 50 ought to be much cheaper than it is - it must get very expensive to protect children at £6+ a bottle.

It was a low spend month on fresh fruit because of raiding BiL's strawberry patch  and having a few raspberries from home (post about raspberries planned). It would have been no spend on meat until I went to a Farmers Market somewhere I'd not been before (post about this planned) and there wouldn't have been much cheese bought until I got another artisan cheese to try ( guess what - there's a post about this planned too!)

I was having a sort out and tidy of a drawer full of odd and old photos and this one below fell out of an old album.

What a clash of colours and patterns! 

Me- aged 13 - at home  with curtains clashing with wallpaper and the chairs clashing with everything and as for that dress! My mum rarely bought us clothes from a shop, she didn't drive and Dad worked 6 days a week so not a lot of clothes shopping was possible and we didn't have a lot of say in what we wore. The dress I'm wearing would have been a piece of material probably made up by my eldest cousin who was a whizz on a sewing machine. Or sometimes she would order one of those kits from a magazine where the pieces all came ready to be stitched together - I seem to remember a really BAD bright yellow trouser suit!  Memories best forgotten I think!

This week I have been grateful for

• Strawberries from Brother in Law
• Raspberries from home
• Two meals  made from courgettes
• Some rain to help the garden at last

Have a good weekend

I'll be back Monday

Sue

Another Bank Holiday Weekend

 With the Coronation Bank Holiday as well,  this is the third Monday BH of the month. Why did he have to get crowned in May - any other month would have spread out the BH weekends a bit better!

We get less days off than many other countries anyway- very unfair I used to think when Colin was working for the County Council - of course once retired, every day is a holiday?!  

Some Stocks bought off the market have been my Flowers on the Table for part of this week ,although they didn't last long, with some lovely Spirea from the garden to fill up the jug.

I keep hoping that something will grow for me to have my own Flowers on the Table but don't really have enough of anything and the roses are covered in greenfly again.

Had an annoying letter this week telling me that Barclays Bank in Diss is closing in August. They've already closed the one in Stowmarket (and Eye and Debenham and almost every other several years ago) so where on earth do I go now if I want a bag full of £1 coins for car boot sales! I opened my bank account with them when I started work at 16 and hadn't changed simply because they had branches everywhere we lived and it cost me nothing to have an account there. Now the only Building Society/Bank in both Stowmarket and Diss is Nationwide and they've annoyed me too by changing rules on their Savings Bond so that monthly interest money can't be paid into any other account - which I was using to top up my monthly pension. Seems to me nowadays they just think - "B*g**r the customer!

75p was spent on a pot of Basil from Aldi this week to do my usual thing of persuading the cuttings to root in water and turning them into plants which is so much easier than growing from seed. (I'm grateful every year for finding this tip on a blog)

I also bought a pot of Parsley for the same price and have divided the seedlings so some are in the ground and some in pots. They should grow and last all summer.

This week I've been grateful for

• Seeds sown
• Plants growing
• Spending a day with Middle Grandson - the 3 year old dinosaur expert!
• Good books

Hope you all have a good Long/Short weekend - depending on where you live.

I'll be back on Monday

Sue

So Many Things Happening

 It's always a dilemma when so many things are happening in different villages and towns around all on the same day.

What to choose?

A Village Garage Sale Event a few villages away from me?

A Once a Month Farmers Market in the other direction where I could find some more cheeses to try?

The first of the years once-a-month car-boot sale further away

National Mills Weekend (windmill and watermills open day)

The regular Saturday car-boot sale?

Weird and Wonderful Wood at Haughley Park?

(Maybe not that last one - I tried to go on the Saturday  last year and the queues of cars to get in stretched for nearly 2 miles down the road! I went on the Sunday early instead but even though it's been voted one of the best events in Suffolk I'll not go again this year - perhaps next year)

I'll let you know in a post next week which one or two I decide to go to - unless it rains all weekend and I don't go anywhere!

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But looking back at this week...........................I called in quickly to the midweek boot sale on my way to shopping and bought a tree I didn't need! But when I saw  a man had loads of pots of good sized Rowans for £5 each I just couldn't resist. It's been squashed  into the side border - just hope it survives and grows as it will help hide the house that's behind me. Then I came home a different way so I could visit a small nursery that specialises in perennial plants and is only open in late spring and summer. I was looking for a Bergenia or Elephants Ears and hadn't seen one anywhere else. Luckily he had just a couple left out the back - he said no one wants them anymore so he's no longer propagating and selling them. I want it to spread and fill a gap in the front border - at least the last two days of rain showers have watered both things in........yesterday was really nasty down here in Suffolk.

Our Keep Moving Group is still going well - all 12 or 13 of us are feeling the benefit. We put up posters to try and find a few more people but it hasn't worked so far. Two weeks ago we had a visitation from the man organising a more recently started group in Debenham, plus a physio from the NHS and a lady from the District Council - all came to see how we are getting on running it ourselves (after being organised by Community Interest Groups previously). The MSDC lady and the Physio thought we were doing fine but the man from Debenham mildly criticised all we did and made several "suggestions!". He invited us to go to Debenham to see how they did things (better than us of course!). I suggested that one morning in June we all descend on their group en-masse just to find out. That could be fun.

Who else does the New York Times Daily Wordle? I was late to the party so had only played 69 games when it was on # 691 on Thursday. There are even websites where you can cheat or get hints - disgusting! I'm on 99%  - only 1 fail - without cheating- but there are some strange words appearing. I love the way that if it takes all 6 guesses to get the word it flashes up with PHEW! as that's exactly how I feel.

My tomato and aubergine plants are mostly now potted up into their big pots in the greenhouse and I'm still puzzling over where to put the other two courgette plants, the three squash and the six gherkin plants............seem to have forgotten I don't have a smallholding or a six vegetable beds anymore!

And finally tonight is the Eurovision Song Contest and if you didn't know then you must have been asleep all week! It's being held here rather than Ukraine for obvious sad reasons. We won't be coming second like we did last year and the music and costumes are weird but so many people love it and anything that gets people from different countries together enjoying themselves must be a good thing. 

This week I've been grateful for......

• Watching my garden grow
• So many good books
• The Keep Moving Group working well
• The lovely comments on my Thursday post and knowing my blog is the first one some people read every day - thank you. 

Have a good weekend. 

I'll be back Monday

Sue

Saturday 15th

I've planted two little Pear Trees in my small garden, they were supposed to flower at the same time to aid pollination but the Conference is covered with flowers already this year and the other one is still weeks away from flowering.

I know there's no chance of the tree having as many pears as flowers - sadly - they never do.

This week I am Grateful for

• My Children and Grandchildren
• Vegetable seedlings growing
• Lots of good books to read

Back Monday

Sue 

Last Saturday in February

First of all  thank you for all the comments yesterday and apologies to all the people who took  me far too seriously - Suffolk sense of humour is odd I admit, but I'm not becoming a total recluse - only dropping one WI meeting! Also apologies for not replying and thank you to everyone for reading - I'll keep writing while everyone keeps reading!

Swimming this week was lovely and quiet - despite it being an ordinary public session as opposed to a dedicated lane swimming session there were just 3 other people going up and down - all faster than me! But I did my half hour and felt better for it.

I thought having a water meter would cut my water and sewer charges and it certainly has but it now means that I have to read the meter after the estimated bills arrive (Monday - both at once), get through on the phone - twice. Give both companies the reading - because it was much lower than the estimate - and wait for new bill to arrive for water usage although I was able to pay for the sewer over the phone. 

The electric was off for a planned outage on Wednesday. I decided it would be a good time to do next months shopping - which sounds very odd but I have a cunning plan to see how easy/cheaper/doable it would be to live for a few weeks on just the Essential/ Basic/Value ranges which have appeared in all the supermarkets (I used Aldi, Asda and Morrisons and bought store-cupboard stuff and frozen for now). Youngest Daughter said she shops online using all the value range from one shop and if they don't have it in stock sometimes it gets upgraded without paying more. Although she said " DON'T try the sausages!"

I had lunch out for a treat and got home, sorted all the shopping, made notes for the future and as the house was beginning to feel chilly I lit the wood-burner and just as it was getting going the electric came back and the boiler clicked on - if I'd have known it was going to do that I needn't have lit the fire!

(BTW Aldi and Morrisons both had tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and cucumbers - no shortages here despite the dire life or death warnings! I didn't notice what Asda had). 

This week I've been grateful for

• A nice quiet swim
• An interesting morning of slow shopping
• My peaceful Suffolk life
• Plenty of reading

 

Recently read.......The Very Good Classic, the Long Lost Old Crime and the Bordering onto Rubbish!

It's a pity the Whitstable Pearl books have got sillier as I thought the first few were OK - now they've started to be televised perhaps she is writing with a view to what will become good TV. If they ever get on free TV I doubt I'll be watching.

Whatever you are doing this weekend - hope it's a good one. Last Saturday there were several things happening around here - too many to get to. This weekend there is nothing in the diary. Although Six Nations Rugby is back on TV to enjoy.

 

I shall be back Monday.

Sue

Good Grief, Another Week...........

................has flown by.

I haven't bought flowers for months but decided on a small bunch this week. Just a few tulips from Aldi.

Back to frosty nights again this week but some lovely sunny days. I did a little clearing outside but it was too cold to spend too long. But at least I could stay in the warm unlike the people who have survived the huge earthquakes in Syria and Turkey, running from their homes in the middle of the night.  I think I heard that this was the biggest earthquake there for 200 years - very difficult to prepare for something that happens so rarely. All we can do from here is to donate to something like the Disasters Emergency Committee if we are able.    

We had our WI meeting (the other village) in the morning this week and next month the same, then we go back to evenings again. The subject of the lady who came to speak was "Flight From Iran" and she told us all about her life as a young woman working as a secretary abroad in the 1970s until they were forced to escape from Iran under cover of darkness when the revolution took place in  1979.

I think we all thought our lives in our early 20's had been very tame by comparison.

Jordan, the plumber from the building company came back for the third time to sort out an annoying little leak from the shower taps. Twice he's tightened the nuts, twice it seemed OK and then a while later I notice it slowly seeping again. This time he took it to pieces and shortened the copper pipes and put in new washers - although the originals looked fine. Hopefully this time...........

I have some thoughts this week...............

 Where do people who make junk journals get all their junk from?

When the same ingredients are used every time in the bread-maker why does it rise sometimes more than other days?

If you expect nothing from anybody, you are never disappointed.

Central Heating is a wonderful thing if you've had 23 years without.

Why the heck did I choose Navy Blue towels for my new shower room and when will they stop shedding fluff.

This week I've been grateful for

• A safe warm home
• Sunshine
• Getting some bags of compost so I'm ready for sowing and growing 2023
• Big pile of library books

Jaycee on the Isle of Man has taken down her blog which is worrying because her last post said she was feeling very tired so I hope she is OK. 

Hope you all have a good weekend

Back Monday

Sue

Heading Towards the End of January

 The tyre pressure warning light came on as I arrived in Southwold for the church photos, but the tyres all looked OK so I drove home carefully and the next day hauled the compressor out from the back of the garage and managed to get air in all the tyres although the gauge on the compressor is broken and checking them with the little hand-held gauge thing was a bit random. So I ran the car round to my friends at the car repair place and got them checked with their proper gauge.....seems I'd got too much air in 3 and not enough in 1 .....or had the one gone down again........we shall see. Son and DiL etc were going to come over and I asked him to bring his small battery air tyre thing but they had car problems too so didn't get here......I wish there was a way of living without needing a car!

According to the lady doing the TV weather forecast the coldest temperature recorded in the country so far this year was on the night of Sunday 22nd January  at Santon Downham in Suffolk  -10℃. I think they said it was the coldest this winter for East Anglia ? (Not sure about that). Santon Downham is over in the North West corner of Suffolk in an area known as The Brecks, where the soil is light and sandy. It gets extra cold there in winter and hot in summer. I've not got a outside thermometer any more so no idea what is was here, but the car was well iced up on Monday morning and I'm glad I have the windscreen cover thing.

I saw a really nice, large outdoor thermometer recently, it was in a charity shop glass case - where they put the more expensive stuff. The thermometer was advertising Michelin Tyres - so obviously meant for a garage . Unfortunately the price on it was £44.99! I didn't buy it.

The frosty days disappeared and from Wednesday on it was mainly grey and gloomy and  temperatures, above freezing which might be a good thing - if this weather saying is right 

If in January, the sun much appear

March and April pay full dear.

But as I've no idea how many days were sunny and how many dull - who knows what will happen.

When the sun shone briefly on Friday   I took a few photos of the rooflines and very small windows of the old houses in the village street.

This week I've been grateful for

• A lovely quiet swimming pool
• Plenty of time for reading
• Brief glimpse of sunshine

Have a good weekend

Back Monday

Sue

Not Out of The House and Out of the House

I've not been out much this week as, like so many other people,  I had a return of the lurgy that struck before Christmas. Just hope I  haven't passed it back to the two nearest Grandchildren when I went to look after them for a couple of hours. It's just sore throat and cough and I don't feel too bad and have been sleeping OK, so haven't been moaning out loud! 

My second trip was out for shopping and I took 2 big bags of bits to the charity shop, mainly  towels, books and 4 cups and saucers that haven't been used for years. The RSPCA  charity shop were pleased with my old towels - she said they sell out so quickly for dog towels, especially at this time of the year. My first random purchase of the year was from Aldi's middle aisle - it's their fitness week and they had a pack of two 1kg dumb bell weights for under a fiver. The first people who ran the exercise group brought weights with them but the people running it now don't. I tried a bottle of water but it's not really heavy enough or the right shape. 

There was yet another funeral over the road in the graveyard this week, that's the fourth since the Autumn. There was only one in the first year I was here and then I heard of another person with cancer in the close  family (not my children and hopefully caught early enough)..... makes you think doesn't it. I find it so difficult to hear about people having cancer now - I feel selfish but part of me had enough of cancer and illness with Colin. That sounds terrible but it's hard to cope. I've said before that I feel I've put a hard shell around myself to stop me being hurt anymore.

I mentioned during the week that one bit of trellis came down when the post rotted - well, with one bit down the remaining two, (which were already propped up) standing at right angles to the first had nothing to hold them up and I had to pull them over and take their rotting posts out of the ground before they fell on the little Minarette Apple Trees. Sadly this meant cutting  down lots of Winter Jasmine. The garden looks a bit open and bare without the trellising, not sure what to do now as both the Fig and the 3 Minarettes were tied to the trellis.

Before rotting posts and collapsed trellising

After trellis collapse. My wire netting frames and a bit of the trellis are now covering my veg beds to put off next door neighbours cat. She's a lovely cat but cat poo in the garden is revolting.

This week I'm grateful for.......

• My new outside tap out the front of the house to use when finally getting around to washing the car - about time - it was filthy.
• Getting the 2022 paperwork sorted and either thrown out or filed away.
• Fast doctor and hospital response for a relative

The weather forecast for the weekend is horrible - wet and windy but at least there's still no sign of snow- thank goodness.

Back Monday

Sue 

Another Good Week In Suffolk

I have a  new TV addiction - it's been going on for a few weeks - It's a series called NCIS and has been on TV in the  US forever (well, since 2003) - there are at least 440 episodes over 20 series but I only came across it one evening when I looking for more crime things to watch. I discovered that Mark Harmon (who plays the lead character from series 1 to 19)  was once voted the sexiest man on US TV and I can quite see why!

 

 

They've been showing all series in order on the 5USA channel and have got to Series 11 dating from 2013 so I've plenty still to watch.

Over here when a new crime series is made they only do about 6 programmes at the most. NCIS often has 24 programmes in a series.

Also on the show is David McCallum once the mysterious Illya Kuryakin in The Man from Uncle in the 60's. Amazingly still acting aged over 80. 

And still on the subject of TV .............I've started watching Countdown again since they got rid of   Ann Robinson as the host. One day this week I surprised myself by getting two of the numbers games and the contestants didn't.............. not so good at the words.

There's a Countdown numbers game in the Radio Times each week - sometimes easy -like last week.

Although the answer on the previously page was done differently - 9+4 =13, 13 x 2=26, 26 x 9 =234 so I had to treble check my way was also right!

And next weeks is easy too and I found the answer had been made the same way as I did it. I've not written the answer on here so you can have a go! Sometimes they are harder and I have to cheat.

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The bedroom/en-suite  rebuilding is finished with the carpet done yesterday (all bar a wobbly loo flush handle- which is on order for replacing.)

 Brother in Law should be over today  to give me a hand shifting mattresses. I've started putting other things back but moving mattresses alone is a bit beyond me. 

I would have been heading down to Colchester for the BIG  second-hand book sale but when Andrew volunteered Saturday morning as the time he could come and help I didn't dare say it was the only day I couldn't do! He's always so busy that I'm lucky and grateful to get him here to help at all.

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Something happened this week that's never happened before.................I forgot to go to WI! 

One minute it was 6pm and I was fiddling about with books, searching for something and then it was 7.20 and too late. I wasn't too bothered about missing it as the speaker had cancelled and it was going to be an evening chatting to other members about ourselves - this was done once before this year and is not what I joined for. Plus there's the lady going on and on about planting daffodil bulbs again - just like last year. No one seems able to stop her taking over the any other business and rattling on for far too long. So perhaps there was a subliminal reason for me forgetting!

As always I have lots of things to be grateful for.

• Good weather for getting the grass cut - last time this year I hope
• Building work all going to plan
• Help with shifting stuff
• Good heap of library books

Have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday.

Sue

Half Way Through October

 Isn't it nice to be given money from the "government". (Government in inverted commas as they don't seem to be doing much governing, just getting themselves and the country into one hell of a mess)

Anyway, Scottish power sent me a text message to tell me that they would be giving me £66 worth of free electric for October - part 1 of £400 that everyone is getting to help with the frightening cost of living crisis. I read my meter and pay the bill toward the end of each month so will find out what it's crept up to then. 

'They' keep talking about the few people who are not supplied by the national gas grid but of course it's the majority in many rural villages and this week a local oil tank change company have been sorting out a new heating oil tank for me, in a place that conforms with new regulations and so I can have a door from the back garden into the old en-suite, to turn it into an easily accessed freezer room and store.

Old small 1,000 litre oil tank - too close to the house and on a base that isn't level with a built in lock that didn't lock.

(And actually it wasn't even very old but hadn't been installed to regulations and the slabs it was sitting on were just on a sand base)

New 1,400 litre oil tank, now level, more than 1.8 metres from walls, eaves and the soon-to-be door and on a level base. Just need to find the padlock that I know is here somewhere.

They changed over the remaining oil and there was more left than I thought so I'll wait a few weeks and then order 1,000 litres of heating oil - that will shock the bank balance as oil prices haven't been capped like unit prices of electric and gas. Although it should last me ages now that I have the wood-burner to back it up. I understand that us oil or LPG users are to be handed another £100 from the government to help with rising prices - but no one has worked out how to give it out yet.

In between making coffees and teas for whichever guys were working here I made a start on cutting the horrible Yew hedge out the front. I'm doing it a bit at a time as the portaloo is parked in the way and  need to do next-doors side when T is at home as he'll help clear up.

I managed a swim this week, haven't been for 3 weeks for various reasons including  the schools being back using the pool so there are fewer lane swimming sessions. It was surprisingly quiet with only 2 people in the slow half. I was able to do lots of lengths although I lost count after about 22- as I always do. It's only 20 metres long so nowhere near the 32 x 25m I used to do in the 90's when I was much younger and fitter. And talking about fitter I came across details of a 6 week basic exercise class for over 50's being held for free in the next village, so I've signed up.....there's free refreshments at the end of each session!

Thank you for the suggestions of making my own envelopes to fit cards - I do actually have envelopes for the big cards - although they are business sort and if I remembered I could save the wrapper from the RT and turn it inside out to use. I'm slowly using up my card making stash, trying not to buy more.

This week I'm grateful for 

• A good swimming session
• Building work progressing well
• Fine weather for garden clearing

Hope you have a good weekend.

 I'm looking forward to seeing the two nearest Grandchildren this weekend, as I've not seen them for a few weeks.

Back Monday

Sue