Category: sEAsons

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

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seasons ~ twixmas

I love this time of year so much I invented my ‘twixmas season’ – the interval between Christmas and New Year. Although not a true season of course, I can treat it as one as it is a very defined period that we don’t have at any other time of year; the Christmas festivities are over, the hard work done and the new year is a few days away – it is a good time to stop and catch my breath, a time to reflect and review and formulate plans for the year ahead.

My Advent calendar is fully opened now and very colourful, I might make another next year. Below I just thought I would show you the delightful Christmas card that Master Freddie made and the school printed them.

During these few slow days of twixmas my new notebook is being prepared – next year’s calendar pasted in, along with a note of birthdays and a list of intentions for the year – those endless tasks of home maintenance, self maintenance and any ideas that spring to mind for revamping the house.

There will be roll-overs to put down too from last year’s list….all those tasks that didn’t even get a look in – the ones where I wonder how on earth a year can pass and so many jobs still remain outstanding. After all, I really don’t remember lying in my bed all day….I am sure I was up and about ‘doing’ all day, most days – so why has so little got done?

I have known for some time what my focus word will be for next year, well actually it is two words, something that is much needed here; twelve whole months to Restore and Reset my life, in fact both our lives as DH feels exactly the same way. After the sale of the cottage last year and both daughters moving this year, we have both felt to be wandering a bit in the wilderness with no real objectives in mind.

Of course, I had to Google the differences between restore and reset and as I read through the definitions it has more than confirmed this is the right road for me.

Restore: is to put back something to how it was before or return to an earlier good condition. This is exactly what I need for my health, sleep, exercise, routines and systems that once worked well.

Reset: is to start again after a period of rest or change ( in my case definitely change) so you are better able to deal with life or a situation. If I were a computer it would be putting myself back to the factory setting!

I see reset as an opportunity to shake off all those bad habits that I have acquired recently and begin new ones that are more aligned to a better, healthier, less stressed me. I need to take stock of my life and identify the changes that have happened over time that are really not helping me, and restore anything that has worked before.

It is about recapturing the essence of any period of my life that was balanced and worked well. Since we sold the cottage last year we have not got into any routine here at home, other than shopping on a Tuesday….and now we don’t even have my friend K to pick up anymore, but Tuesday is as good a day as any for us to continue doing our shopping on.

In 2010 I came across the book ‘Everything That I’ve Ever Done That Worked’ by Lesley Garner. It is a series of short essays where she documents everything in her life that she has found to work for her, especially in times of stress and trouble. It started me thinking back then of just such habits, routines, systems, attitudes and behaviours that have worked for me in the past and those that really didn’t.

Presently, I can name a few unhelpful habits I have developed that will be detrimental to my health and well being (perhaps not immediately, but certainly in the future), and I need to get myself on a new and better path.

As I have pondered over these two words I have come to the conclusion that many of the RE words are going to be utilised within the bounds of Restore and Reset.

Rest, reconnect, recharge, reflect, review, recycle, rearrange, return, revamp, recover, reduce, reflect, relax, renew, replenish, research, resist, return and revisit.

I need to do all these, and no doubt more, to improve my life and now is a good time to start.

So I am taking the opportunity this week to recover from all the pressures that Christmas brings with it – often nice pressure, but even the accumulation of nice pressure is stressful.

Recovery for me isn’t lying down on the sofa watching endless TV, but rather having a good potter around the house putting everything slowly back into place and making plans.

Along with recovery, I went shopping today to replenish the pantry, mainly of bread, milk and fresh fruit and veg that we needed, but not before making a menu plan – that is certainly on the ‘it works for me’ list.

I used my personal Nectar discount offers that are given for using scan shop – I had 10 reduced price items, nine of them are items we normally buy and wanted, which is good…but when did I ever buy an Aero chocolate mousse? Sometimes, these computer generated offers are far off the mark.

My personal Nectar points were good too, 110 bonus points (worth 55p) on organic leeks, and 90 bonus points (worth 45p) on large organic tomatoes, organic broccoli and varying points on twenty other items. If I had used them all I would have added £4.15 to my Nectar points spend total. There was also 3 x bonus points if I spent over £120 but I certainly wasn’t spending that much. DH has his own offers of Nectar savings and points. We tend to just buy anything that is on offer each week where we can, and if it is a very good offer we will stock up with 3- 6 items depending on how often we would buy the item and how often Sainsbury’s put them on offer. I find their offers are very cyclical and come around every 3 to 4 weeks on main items like butter, tea and coffee.

Once I have done a bit more sorting at home I will be in a position to attend to any returns and the recycling.

I know of one or two bloggers who will choose a new focus word for the year and I am always eager to see what that word will be, equally I like to hear of those plans or (dare I say it) resolutions for the new year that you might have.

Do excuse me now I am off to the local pantomime, Beauty and the Beast with the family…my Christmas treat. X

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creating Christmas * preparing…

Like many bloggers my Christmas preparations are in full swing and I find myself in mild panic.

Having started the initial preparations and made a note of all things Christmas in my notebook I am wondering if this will be the simple and stress free Christmas I am planning, hoping for after all.

But I am raring to go now….the Christmas spirit is quite infectious – all around decorations and lights to mark the season are appearing daily in our village.

I love the time spent preparing, decorating and gift-giving but I must admit it seems to get harder to fulfill everything on the list that I want to do. The reward at the end of spending time with my friends and family and keeping up those traditions…new ones that we have made and old ones that we love to continue, is well worth the ‘busyness’ beforehand.

As part of the big pre-Christmas clean up I was determined to finish cleaning the oven this week, it had taken a while with a number of interruptions – but now it is sparkling clean – a good refresh before I begin baking the cake and making the nutroast. Cleaning out the freezer will be next…it is frost free but needs a bit of a wipe down and sort out.

Usually, throughout November as part of my plans I start stocking up on all those basic items like toilet rolls, washing up liquid, matches, foil and other household bits and pieces so I don’t have to worry about them just before Christmas when I have other things on my mind; and really I just want to focus on the absorbing the lovely array of Christmas goodies in the shops rather than the necessities. 

My initial preparations for Christmas always begin with an inspiration notebook – clippings from magazines, ideas from pinterest and I keep a note of any local events we might go to.

I have booked the hairdresser, a visit to Santa (with grandchildren of course) and the pantomime, scheduled every known appointment, event, birthdays and inset days on my calendar and moved unecessary appointments into January and have made a note of the last posting dates.

I check in last year’s notebook for the page that tells me what didn’t work last year to avoid the same mistakes this year. I always try and persuade DH that leaving the outdoor lights until ‘later’ is not a good idea as often the weather can be quite bad, making it an unecessary battle with the elements whilst balancing on a pair of steps and putting up strings of lights in wet windy weather and then connecting it to the outdoor electric socket. I also make it a rule never to decorate or paint beyond October and not to make appointments, like the dentist, if it can wait until January. These kind of things eat up time during the last few weeks running up to Christmas.

Each year I like to plan to do something a little different. Something that is festive and allows us to take time out for a day or two. This year I booked the linocutting workshop (the results you will see in another post), and I am hoping to visit Mrs Gaskell’s house in Manchester where they are doing readings from Christmas poems and stories.

Once my cards are made or bought I keep a decorated Christmas box to put them in together with the list of people who I send them to and an updated address list and stamps. I can then write my cards in any free moments or whilst watching the TV. Updating the addresses is something I must do before I can print the labels. Finish making the cards is even more critical!

I like to assign a space for presents. If they end up scattered around the house I am likely to a) forget them or b) the grandchildren might happen upon them. I usually clear a shelf high up in my wardrobe where little eyes cannot see.

So that is me more or less prepared for getting through the next 24 days. I hope you will join me for my daily creating Christmas posts starting tomorrow. I will try to document my Christmas task of the day each day as I create our joyful Christmas – although I fully expect this might not go quite to plan!

Back very soon. X

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dear diary ~ November…really….so soon?

I was just enjoying October too.

In October I felt like I had ample time to prepare for the upcoming event, which I think is OK to mention by name now and unlikely to offend.

I have one month to get a grip…. get organised, get baking, making, crafting…..go shopping and go shopping again for the items I dithered over, forgot or just couldn’t find.

I plan (in my mind at least) to get everything done in November so we have a calm, ordered December. I already know it won’t be – I don’t even know what we are doing or where we will be going this Christmas. Most of our family plans have to revolve around mum. In the years since her mobility is almost zero she has Christmas at my sister’s house (as she lives the closest to her) and most years the wider family of about eleven join her, but this makes it a big catering problem for her if we all descend.

With many of the family moving house or still to move or still to sort boxes from moving I am not sure what the Christmas arrangements might be. So until we know more I will turn my attentions to the things I want to make.

I have made a start. I bought a few crafting bits and pieces from Boyes at the weekend that I will might (possibly) turn into something for the Crisis charity craft stall in 3 weeks time. I picked up this printed card for free out of their cardboard packaging recycle bin. It seemed too good to throw out, though the shelf stacker did think me odd asking if I could take it! I am sure it will be useful for something.

Now Halloween is out of the way I can really concentrate on all the ideas I have had for making cards and gifts for Christmas, though the extent of my ideas will be more than I have time to make them.

Trick or Treat night went down well – I made some little treat bags to hand out to the early birds and thankfully we had just handed out the last of them before we had to rush off to see the murder mystery play I had booked for at a local village hall – A Prescription for Murder. The play was excellent and we were kept guessing all the way through to the end. Of course we knew there would be a twist but you never quite know what.

The pumpkins and lanterns are all put away now for next year and everywhere the poppies are appearing. We were in Yarm on Saturday seeing my mum and the local knitters have excelled with lamposts and bollards covered in wonderful red poppies.

It was a beautiful dry autumn day and the sun shone (an added bonus) and always helpful when we have to push mum in the wheelchair to the park. She had her usual sandwich, chocolate muffin and cappuccino…her appetite is good for her age, she can eat more than I do. On each visit we try and solve a problem for her, the bedside lamp needed replacing recently, then the control for the electric blanket and this time it was the ‘glow’ bulbs in the electric fire that had gone. She was adamant that the fire was not on because there was no glow and I could not persuade her otherwise. Thankfully, we were able to get replacement bulbs in Yarm and fitted them for her before we left. I wonder what will need sorting next time!

This all may be a bit of a waffle tonight, it has been a full on few days with a few late nights, (tonight being one of them) when I almost turn into a pumpkin myself.

Back soon, have a good week and thank you for all your comments on the previous posts- I love to have a little chat with you. x

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dear diary ~ mellow autumn, slow and easy…

I am gradually easing myself into this new season – a time to slow down and reflect.

For me it is a new season in my life too, no escaping anymore up to our little cottage in Scotland and spending hours working in the garden, but rejuvinating at the same time. It is just a year since we said goodbye and I am just starting to get a hold on my new normal, implementing a few changes here and there.

You might think as I did that we would have more time on our hands to do other things, but sadly…. no, this hasn’t turned out to be the case. With both daughters moving house one after the other we have been providing help with unpacking, sorting, decorating, gardening and childcare and my dear old mum has certainly entered a new chapter in her life.

Her short term memory is increasingly short term and living with the constant phone calls she makes to me through the day asking me the same question over and over ‘Do I know when the carers are coming in’ is frustrating but I need to keep patient and remember how frightening this condition is for her and how important routine and stability are to manage this condition. I know it will only get worse so I have to get better at handling the situation for my own sanity.

The carers are finding it hard to cope with her too so I know it is not just me feeling frustrated. Being almost 100 and still able to reside in your own home is such an achievement but also such a challenge. My family all agree that going inton a care home might not be that far away but at present she has almost 4 hours of undivided attention from the carers during the day – there is no way she will get that in a care home. During her brief spell in one 2 years ago she was lucky to have 5 minutes attendance from the overworked carers looking after her and she went downhill through lack of contact. I know from comments I receive that I am not alone in this situation and it helps to know that, it really does.

As any change can be difficult I am going slowly with the season and trying a bit of self care, carving out some time to do something just for me each week and alongside this I have a new determination to resolve some of the ongoing projects that are in limbo and constantly on my mind as no matter which way I turn I see unfinished jobs all around me.

I decided to sort my rather long project list into something more manageable, breaking down the more lengthy and involved projects into attainable tasks. I have now grouped these into short lists of three and I aim to complete the three over a week – Kanban style.

This week my 3 projects are:

  • Book a fully refundable hotel room for Christmas at the Premier Inn close to mum’s apartment.
  • Return a roller blind to John Lewis and buy a wider one, also buy a second pillowslip and a tester pot of the Little Greene paint.
  • Finally sew a casing on the edge of the greenhouse shading net so I can get it off the mending pile and pack it away ready for next year. (This task should have been done at the start of summer, but like most of my tasks got deferred).

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At the same time I am gearing up a notch to prepare myself for the next big event looming on the horizon ocassionally flicking through pages of magazines finding inspiration for making a few Christmas crafts and hoping at the same time that I will find the time to do them. I have found from experience that starting early is key to avoiding the almost unavoidable pressure that can be generated these days – gone are the days when Christmas could be organised the week or two before; I have learnt that even the simplest of Christmasses require a lot of planning to make them seem…..well simple.

You can’t help but notice that the Christmas magazines are plentiful and already on display in every supermarket and one or two have leapt into my shopping trolley lately, but they are a treat (call it part of my self care) as I decided at the beginning of the year not to renew the Country Living magazine I subscribed to. The décor featured currently is not really to my taste or the style of house we live in and the recipes, although the photography is really lovely and makes the food very tempting, they are often quite complicated or require some unusual ingredients or are decidedly not very vegetarian so I was getting very few ideas from them.

Instead, I switched to buying the seasonal issues of Country Living – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Christmas as quite often the features in these are pulled from past issues. I do tend to keep these seasonal issues to refer to each year and actually find them more inspiring than their monthly magazines – although I did sign up for the offer of 5 issues for £5 in August as £1 an issue is too good to miss and it will include the December issue.

A lovely little magazine for easy recipes and ideas for using up leftovers is the free Tesco magazine which my daughter passes on to me. Ironically, all these magazines are piling up now waiting to be read.

To add to my growing little stash two welcome packages arrived this week – I ordered the final issue of 91 magazine a while ago; I do admire these people who manage to self publish their own individual magazines and sadly, although I didn’t buy many copies, I will miss this one.

The other package was the 6 monthly little pamphlet produced by Persephone books that keeps you updated with details of any new titles and excerpts from some of their books in print, it came with the little red Victory postcard too, presumably a wartime slogan.

I have a passion for the Persephone books – I am working my way through many of them and there is something very appealing about their plain smooth grey covers opening up to those glorious prints hidden away inside.

I am patiently waiting for Christmas now when I know DH will ‘surprise’ me with a couple of new Persephone books to read…… meanwhile, I content myself with rereading one or two old favourites from my bookshelves. 

The one by my bedside that I currently fall asleep with after a chapter or two is The Fortnight in September by R C Sherriff,  a day by day account of a family’s two week holiday repeated every year in Bognor – a very typical British seaside holiday and very reminiscent of our own family holiday in Scarborough.  It has a nice leisurely pace very conducive for sleep and a glimpse into the ordinariness of their everyday lives.

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I had a bit of an unintentional spending session last Saturday – I say session, rather than spree, as I spent more than I thought but not more than was affordable.  After going to Mount Grace Priory we called in nearby Northallerton and I took Little L and Sweetie to The Works to treat them to one or two craft items to keep them busy in half term.

I chose the pack of spooky balloons to decorate along with the make your own pumpkin paper lantern and then let the girls have a free choice of something they would like to do – and what a mistake that was…I should have known better – whilst the display had some lovely laser cut wooden lanterns to paint or strings of bunting to colour….what did they choose….the most gruesome and hideous plaster figurines to paint that came at a gruesome price!

Let that be a lesson to myself not to take them with me to buy Halloween crafts.

I consoled myself with a few cute little Christmas bits that I have no doubt I or the children will create something Christmassy with.

Taking a short cut through the Yorkshire Trading Company I noticed this twiggy wreath at a very reasonable price. All I need now is the time to develop all the ideas I have floating around in my head.

But it won’t be today as DH and I will be out and about taking garden rubbish from my daughter’s garden to the tip and then another go at that bathroom.

Take care everyone, back soon xx