Waking up to the sun streaming through our bedroom window (albeit dirty windows upstairs) is always a treat, maybe it will last a bit longer today…there again maybe not. The weather at the moment is as temperamental as my dear old mum. It is heartening to know that on 17th April 1745 Arthur Jessop, doctor of this little township I live in, recorded in his diary ‘Sharp frost. Cloudy. Some hail, sleet and snow.’ In the last few days I have recorded similar in my journal, so nothing much has changed over the years.
Yesterday, I had to contact social services in Stockton on behalf of my mum to find out if there is any progress with our application for help from her local authority. They will keep phoning and writing to her and she is not able to understand all that is happening. She cannot pass on any information from a phone call as she can no longer retain that information long enough or understand what they are saying. We found an unopened letter recently to say they were visiting mum on 31st March, but SS did not tell us so I am presuming they did not gain access to her flat.
And now I have to sort it all out.
Of course her named social worker was not at work yesterday and so rather than wait by the phone all day I will ring in again today.
I also had to ring the Hearst magazine group. I had taken out a subscription for Country Living at the end of last year, taking advantage of their 5 issues for £5 offer. It was on auto renewal at full price over £35 but in the T&C’s it said you could cancel, and I did using the form on their internet site. I stated the reason as asked and sent the email.
I got a reply email 4 days later saying could I state the reason. In the intervening days I also noticed they had taken the full subscription money. I emailed another 5 or 6 times telling them I had contacted them to cancel and because they had delayed asking for the reason again the auto-renewal had kicked in. I was rather annoyed about this especially as I had no reply to my subsequent emails, or apology. So I had to ring them and eventually after the customer services person had tried to persuade me to have any of their other magazines instead, and after having a word with his supervisor, he reluctantly agreed to refund my money…….so it was worth pursuing.
Country Living has changed quite a lot now and for me has lost its appeal and affordability. I will instead buy their Spring, Summer. Autumn and Christmas special issues which are a compilation of their magazine features covering that period.
After lunch DH and I had a walk to the village, collected my library books, had a chat with some neighbours and then settled down to doing a few jobs outside, between being pelted with icy drops of water occasionally, as yet another dark cloud moved over. I washed the downstairs windows at the front of our house and cleaned around the front door, sweeping any cobwebs away as I went. DH cut the grass. He has spent many a day recently raking both lawns, front and back, to remove the worst of the moss that builds up here in the wet weather.
Meanwhile, I weeded over the front border, redefining the edges as I went along. The whole of the border between the end of our lawn and the pavement is due a transformation soon once the tulips are over. We had a mixed shrub border here at one time but some of them have been badly frosted over the years or just outgrown themselves and become woody and shapeless. Most were over 30 years old and most of them have been removed, so we need to redesign this area.
Built during the eighties, our small group of houses have open plan front gardens, which can be a nuisance at times. We are allowed hedges, but not fences or walls. We are planning a low box hedge, or something similar, to create a bit of a barrier, and a bit more privacy and prevent those dog owners who think it is OK to let their dogs poo in our border or on the lawn and then leave it there. It will have to be something that does not mind being constantly sprayed upon either by all the passing dogs.
Our neighbour above, with their adjoining garden, planted a box hedge and we might continue this along our stretch. I do worry about box blight though and have been looking at alternatives. I have a few singular box plants in pots that I want to plant into the front borders and keep them clipped as rounded mounds amongst the perennials.
I have a shed to tidy today, more seeds to sow and hopefully make a bit of time to clean the downstairs windows and make a pear and chocolate pudding.
So I had better get a move on.
Have a lovely day and thank you for dropping by.
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I would consider something spiky for your front hedge, keeps the dogs away, I have a couple snowberry plants, which I keep at about 24″ just clip them once a year, very hardy. Daughter is renewing her blue badge for George, it’s a nightmare dealing with them, instead of stating, nothing has changed, she has to redo all the paperwork, ensure she makes no errors. Life would be much easier if they could just inform you of how they can help, instead of making you jump through hoops.
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Thank you for your advice on the spiky hedge, I will bear it in mind. At the moment one of the remaining shrubs is a spiky berberris, but they still manage to wee on that and it is dying now on that side. When it was only one or two dogs it was never quite so bad, but as more people have more dogs we seem to be on a dog walkers paradise route now particularly as we are a cul-de-sac with a snicket at the end out on to the lane. Apart from the delivery vans during the day it is quiet on our road and presumably safe to have their dogs off lead. Strangely, few people who actually live on our little development have a dog themselves…we just attract everyone elses!
I feel for your daughter, I am still waiting by the phone for my ‘callback’ from SS, they will have soon reached their 48 hours to reply limit. Although I have a mobile phone, because of my hearing impairment I have to have the phone on speaker phone to hear them so cannot as they say go out and answer the phone anywhere. I did mention they might not want to be speaking to me over my speaker phone if I am out in public! You always imagine that social services would be disability friendly, but they are most certainly not, in fact they are the most unaware people – hence the fact that they keep sending my mum letters and phoning her when she doesn’t know who they are or what they are telling her. My mum is 100 now and is more likely to understand concepts like the ‘workhouse’ more than a care home and there were no social services and workers back in her day.
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As you belong to the Library it would be worth asking if you can access magazines online. Both Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire libraries give access to Pressreader. Logging in the first time is a bit of a faff because you have to find your library in a very very long list. But once in there are lots of newspapers and magazines to read and all free.
I would agree that a thorny hedge is good when you want to deter dogs. Good luck with the redesign – I hope you have fun choosing new plants and a new layout.
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We have box edging all round our front garden, put in by the developers. Its doing ok apart from one thats been planted by a drain cover. Underneath we have bark chippings, but passing dogs still left their calling card. But I looked online for a deterrent spray which is white vinegar, water and peppermint oil and it works until the rain washes it away. I’ve bought some plants today from a stall outside a house, so cheap and they’re really good.
Hope you manage to sort your Mum’s problems out. Gill Xx
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