Category: fEAsible

intentions & goals

Posted on

feasible :: July intentions

Can it really be July already? As usual on this journey of mine I have been busier than busy this past month, whilst the weather has been wetter than wet.

Moving on to this month and better weather, I hope, I am still not sure myself how I am going to fit everything together – at the moment it looks like a jigsaw with a few pieces missing, and we all know how irritating that can be.

During the next 31 days I have to fit in our summer holiday, celebrate my birthday and wedding anniversary, entertain and look after an Aussie cousin of DH for a few days, attend Jimmy’s in Leeds (the lovely Bexley Wing) for my yearly blood tests, attend again a couple of weeks later for my results and check up with the consultant and then have Little L to stay for a few days near the end of the month.

In and amongst I shall have house cleaning, tending the garden (both of them), lots of cooking with my new oven (yeah!) and plenty of exercises for my poorly knee….oh and at some point see my dear old mum (to which I hear her say…less of the old please!).

As ever I am searching for that slower lifestyle and as ever it seems just a little beyond reach; especially when I look at what I have to do for the month, my obligations, and what I would like to do in the month, my desires….when I can fit them in. There must be a solution and believe me I am working on it.

So as usual I am setting out my intentions for the month as doing so helps me stay focused….well sometimes…. and also helps me to log what I have to do and then squeeze in what I would like to do.

We will be going up to our cottage (caravan) in Scotland soon for what will be our summer holiday. We cannot have the full two weeks we would have liked due to so many other commitments so somewhere between a week and a fortnight will have to do. Can’t wait.

But there is the packing to do and that can’t wait either!

There will be plenty of house cleaning to do (didn’t I say that last month….. and the one before, but this time I mean it). My house needs a thorough clean……. everywhere – it is in a worse state than when I was working. Somehow I have not managed to get myself into any routine as we always seem to be focused on one project or another and some of those never get finished.

DH and I had a big planning meeting a month ago and listed all those tasks we needed to do but for some reason it is taking ages to get anything crossed off the list. I feel like giving myself a C- and I hear that old teachers comment you would find on any school report “must try harder”.

I have fewer apppointments and no yoga classes for a while, so I do need to make sure I exercise during the next month, especially the ones to help my knee. Does house cleaning count as exercise I wonder?

This month with the aid of my new oven I want to focus on what we are eating and plan for better, even healthier meals, though I may sneak a cake in for my birthday

I got my sketchbook out the other day when it was too hot to do anything else and spent a pleasant afternoon sitting in the garden drawing a few flowers. I feel quite rusty not having done very much drawing for a long time.

There is always some distraction, something more pressing to do – so maybe whilst we are away in Scotland I can fit in a little painting like we used to. I will certainly be packing my watercolours and sketchbook.

I have a couple of patchwork and quilting books from the library at the moment – well you never know I might just find some time to make a start. I have a lot of very pretty flowered fabric in summery peaches and pinks left over from the bunting I made for my elder daughter’s wedding. I had thought it would make a nice quilt for her new baby, but the baby turned out to be little Freddie who I am not sure would want such a girly quilt.

Summer is always such a good month for plenty of meandering…getting out and about, exploring; and we will be doing plenty of that…as much as we can fit into the time.

.

I expect that while DH’s cousin is here we will be taking him places too – I think his interests lie in cricket and gardens. The latter sounds hopeful to me as I am sure there will be plenty of open gardens to visit – but the cricket might be more tricky. Entertaining Little L will be much easier than the cousin I think and she is happy to do anything and go anywhere with a park nearby…..so the park it is then.

Well that is my month all lined up….now where did I put my mop and bucket. x

PS. Back soon with my monthly tally (yet another sticking point in my life!).

Posted on

June review

June turned out to be one of those months full of appointments and commitments; dentists, doctors and a few others. Between us we had so many that I had to rearrange my yearly appointment at the hospital in Leeds to July just so that we had a bit of a breather and could squeeze in a trip to Scotland.

And of course I have been attending the extra Yoga classes throughout June on a Friday afternoon. These have now finished as my teacher has to go into hospital this week so combined the last two classes into one. I enjoyed the smaller Friday classes (six of us) and individual attention and have learned how to breathe well and open up all those areas that we often don’t breathe into enough. Deep breathing using all the lung is extremely beneficial as I found out after only one session.

The weather here has not been very spectacular, mostly wet and dull and often quite cold (yes we had the heating on too) – some of our best days happened to be in Scotland. But the garden has started to bloom in the last week or two as the sun made a welcome appearance and the warmer weather has been so lovely. Nothing can beat cutting a few fresh flowers and herbs from the garden and bringing them indoors.

It has felt quite a disorganised month as months go – not very productive but plans have been made, plans that will help us as we move forward out of this ‘transition’ period and further into our new life of being at home and not in the workplace, of being reliant on pensions and savings and no regular salary.

So on with this month’s review – a summary of the intentions I did succeed in doing and those that got left behind.

The pantry……. mmmm…this did not happen – not even close – we have not ordered the units yet so it remains the dumping ground downstairs – though on the good side my elder daughter has taken a huge box of DVD’s and CD’S away that we were storing for her in here.

But if there has been one thing we have done a lot of this month …..well two actually, it is gardening and meandering. But why not while we have the time – both are very satisfying.

As well as planting up the pots of annuals I bought two wooden planters to grow vegetables in on the patio and managed to sow the salad seeds and amazingly they are growing well despite the wet weather.

I have been collecting and drying the seed heads of some of the flowers in my garden.

I hand printed these tiny seed packets for my daughter’s wedding when we gave away some wild flower seeds as favours and they will be perfect to put the seeds in when collected.

Lean – one of my intentions this month was to look at my wardrobe and pull out and wear some of my least favourite clothes that often just linger in there. I think we all have a few, if not many, that are unworn for a variety of reasons. I particularly want to avoid buying anything new this year as this will give me a chance to wear what I have as well as simplify my wardrobe.

The aim is to only have enough clothes for my needs, have them mostly hanging (save underwear and socks etc) as they are easier to see and select this way, and to have all the seasons in one space. So that is quite a reduced collection but every item will be one I love to wear.

I have already made a start on this – it is a work in progress though and I must say that some of the items are feeling rather tight which is a good indication that I need to eat less or watch what I am eating and lose a few extra pounds. My only two purchases this month have been a pack of trainer socks from Primark for £1.50 and some Skechers trainers bought in the sale to wear in the house as slippers but give my feet the additional support they need.

As it happens I have had little time to go shopping and having a bad knee has also limited the amount I can walk up and down shopping malls so this has been a bonus really for saving money.

Clean – not a lot of cleaning got done in the house this month – I blame my bad knee but as you might expect it didn’t stop me from doing the gardening, so a lack of motivation was probably the real reason. And I must hold my hands up and admit that my house at the moment is not a very pleasant sight and I feel like Mr Messy has sneaked in and been….well messy….and left me a few piles of stuff everywhere.

We spent a whole weekend gathering information ready for our appointment with the financial advisor – a free appointment for which they normally allow up to 2 hours but ours lasted for almost three in total and he thoroughly reviewed our current financial situation and advised on a plan of action.

I was extremely impressed as our advisor delivered good honest advice tailored to our circumstances and we agreed that the action we need to take could be done without his help thus saving any fees for his time. At no time during the meeting did he try to sell us products or suggest moving pensions. Our finances are not particularly complicated but until I can draw my state pension next year money is tight unless we delve into our savings. He did say that stocks and shares are more worthwhile when you have a longer investment period than we have and therefore would only advise using our savings to buy shares if we had spare capital to play with and didn’t need to rely on having any of the income from dividends.

When we have a better idea of our day to day living expenses and any immediate capital expenses (like our new kitchen and pantry) then we can start to look at longer term investments for our future bearing in mind that one day we may need to pay for a care home or carers.

We also discussed ideas we have been thinking about for our little cottage and have spent a great deal of time this month focusing on this to get our plans moving again. I cannot go into details yet but at least there has been movement.

Mealtimes had become a real chore with my old unpredictable oven so bringing the one down home from the cottage was a good idea. I can now cook confidently once again and look forward to making new things too. I have a collection of recipes I want to try as time allows to build up my ‘repertoire’. I will be able to practice on the Aussie cousin coming soon!

Of course the highlight of any month for me is always our meandering…we have done lots, much more than I have had time to tell you about but I will do a post soon on some of the places we visited; exploring interesting alley ways and passages, up and down enticing flights of steps, through secret doorways, round open gardens and discovering tiny places along the Ayrshire coast.

Looking back June has been a great month, maybe not such great weather but it does not appear to have stopped us doing very much and maybe it has been more productive than I first thought – that is the best thing about a review it gives you a better perspective.

Here’s to a wonderful July and warm summer days. x

Posted on

feasible :: June intentions

Halfway through the year already and not a lot done. Actually that is not true – I have done quite a lot but not very much of what I originally intended to do.

The little room ear marked as my new pantry is still a dumping ground and the kitchen no more than a bit of a rough plan in my head.

May went far too quickly probably because I was so focused on the Christening that I hardly noticed it passing by. June will be different; must be different because I have a lot to catch up with and half-started projects to finish.

So here are my intentions for this month:-

On the homefront there is still the pantry to sort – it is so long since we drew up the plans I have almost forgotten what we had decided upon.

In the garden it is very much a matter of feeding, weeding and some light pruning – then sit back and enjoy.

I have been trying to scale down my wardrobe so that it is much leaner and both my summer and winter outfits fit into the one space. This is very much a work in progress… without the progress at the moment…and I have decided not to replace garments when they are worn out or no longer fit but just move on to wear something else less worn in it’s place. It is true I think that we wear our favourite few items 80% of the time but I am going to try and have a wardrobe that only has a few favourite garments that I will wear all the time.

The house is ready for a good clean, it has been ready and waiting for days now – I find I just cannot get down to doing it, either I have to go out or when I am in there have been other more important things demanding my attention. My intention is to set aside a day each week and give each room ‘a good going over’ as they say.

If there is time I will make a few more simple cards – I really enjoyed making the last batch and it helps keep the costs down.

I must also finish Sweetie’s jumper and fingers crossed that it will still fit her.

This is now the time for salad, freshly picked leaves, new potatoes covered in mint and melted butter of course and a host of summer veg cooked or raw. I intend to make a few new dishes to have with salad – try out a new quiche filling and make nut roast to slice cold.

The best part of summer is making the most of the outdoors while the weather is fine. I intend to go off meandering….a lot….there are more Open Garden events, Well Dressings, Galas and just generally having a mooch around towns and villages…..down alley ways, over bridges – there is so much to discover and June is a good time to do it.

Scotland will also be on the list this month and another trip to North Yorkshire.

Finally I have booked the appointment with the financial adviser – I am interested to know what he makes of our situation and I am hoping that he will point us in the right direction for a few good investments.

There is plenty to do before his visit – collecting all the information together of our income, outgoings and assets – not a bad exercise anyway as it will help to keep this handy should anyone ever need it.

June is interspersed with appointments for this and that but in between I am hoping for some days when I can really get down to making a big difference in the house, cleaning and sorting. I know already on sunny days the garden will be beckoning me outside though – the temptation will be too much!

Posted on

feasible :: May intentions

As last month was about preparing for Easter and the party, May is all about the Christening and catching up with myself – as much as I can.

But isn’t May just a wonderful month, even with all this rain – if April is full of promise of what is to come then May is just starting to deliver.  I have sprays of white lilacs in tight bud just waiting to bloom as soon as the rain leaves us and the sun returns.  I don’t mind the rain but I haven’t enjoyed being plunged back into the cold spell….again – at least the rain has refreshed the garden, while our recent holiday at the cottage in Scotland has refreshed me and now I am raring to go. 

So these are the intended  targets for this month on my to do list.

First on the list is the Christening dress. I have already cut the pattern for this and made a sample dress and on Sunday I will see Sweetie for a fitting. Fingers crossed there will not be many alterations needed.

I have yet to switch over my winter and summer clothes, and while I am doing this clean the wardrobe and perhaps send anything I know I will not wear again to the charity shop. The general housekeeping will be taking a back seat this month and DH is on catering management whilst I am busy sewing.

The garden in Scotland will now be taking care of itself for a while and I must turn my attentions to the garden here at home.  I bought a mini growing house for the tomato plants to give them some extra protection and warmth.   It needs putting together plus I have the lawn to feed and weed if the rain ever stops and some spring flowering shrubs to prune back.

Vodaphone contract – I have decided I need to get a cheap basic contract that allows me some data and access to the internet on my phone. PAYG is far too expensive to use the internet.

Book the financial appointment – this is still to do – bearing in mind we went to the pension seminars in March! The information we gained then is slowly fading in my mind.

One of my favourite places to go for a day out is the Open Gardens… and this weekend it will be the group village open gardens at Little Ouseburn in North Yorkshire.

My second favourite is the Well Dressings in Derbyshire and this will be on my list to visit one during May.

So I am keeping my list quite short this month as the Christening weekend and making the dress will take up most of my time. The house will need a good clean again afterwards but because I gave it a ‘good do’ for the party it will no doubt last a week or two.

I intend to go to my Yoga class on Tuesdays – I missed two classes whilst we were in Scotland and I feel ready for a good stretch again. My health plans never really got off the ground last month and I might not be able to do much this month but I am making plans for when I do have time.

And the knitting – well that is still in my basket – Sweetie will just have to stop growing for a while until I can get it finished. I didn’t do any knitting whilst I was at the cottage (caravan), I was usually too tired at night and the weather was too good not to go in the garden.

Well those are my plans – it is always interesting when I review my to do list at the end of the month to see what I did get done and what is still on the list.

Of course as regular readers can see I am having great fun with the new WordPress Block Editor – anyone from Blogger won’t know about the changes that have been introduced – I am not sure what I think about it yet but the normal classic version will be phased out soon so I thought I had better give it a go – I still cannot find out the reason for the missing spellchecker symbol on the dashboard….but it is a pain. Apologies for any errors and typo’s.