Category: sEAsons

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

Posted on

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).

——————————————————**——————————————————

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.

——————————————————**——————————————————

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

Posted on

dear diary ~ what a long week…

We certainly came down to earth with a bump after our few days away in Cheltenham.

I had great hopes on the Monday for a good week after being thoroughly refreshed by our trip, but it soon changed; beginning with an official letter landing on the mat – one of those in a brown envelope that creates an instant jump in blood pressure. As it turns out HMRC have got their details wrong and a short letter back should put paid to their request. It appears that Rachel from accounts is looking to boost the coffers by any means possible!!

We did however get out for a lovely walk through the village allotments – one of my favourite places….

….. and then up the track towards the moors above us and the spectacular views – in all we did around 8,000 steps and took a few pictures…..we are so lucky to have this on our doorstep and autumn is such a special time of year as everything settles down to sleep through the coming months ahead. It is quite noticeable in the photos just how green the trees are still and laden with their fruits of acorns and spiky conker shells.

On our way back home we collected a few apples going free in a basket on someone’s wall. They look like Bramley’s too and will go well with the cheap punnet of plums from Sainsbury’s perfect for an autumn pudding – apple and plum crumble.

After a late lunch we popped over the hill here to Last of the Summer Wine Country to wish my brother a happy birthday. He is attempting to dig out a pond – he likes a challenge (even at 77) and the bigger the better it seems.

Tuesday has become our shopping day. We pick up our friend Margaret who is 90 next year to take her with us to the supermarket, since she lost her partner last year she has no means of getting to the shops other than the local Access bus. Ours was quite a large shop after being away for almost a week our pantry and fridge needed replenishing. We managed a couple of hours in the garden too while it was dry and DH packed the garden furniture away under their covers to hibernate as well as giving the front lawn an autumn feed.

On Wednesday we went to my daughter’s old house, which she will be putting on the market to sell very soon. I had the ‘short straw’ task of cleaning up the bathroom grouting and sealant. I was quite pleased at how well it looked afterwards – it is a task I need to do at home when time allows. Meanwhile DH was on garden duty outside, pruning back the overgrown shrubs and trimming borders to give that much needed kerb appeal to the place. This was repeated by both of us on Thursday afternoon after my morning appointment with the practice nurse for my annual ‘Mickey Mouse’ review.

I call it a Mickey Mouse review because to me it seems it is just a tick box exercise that allows the surgery to claim a payment and nothing of any significance comes out of it. The nurse takes my blood for the ‘cheap’ thyroid test that only measures the TSH (I have no thyroid gland at all after having thyroid cancer a few years ago and I am fully reliant on thyroxine medication for life). They never order a full thyroid panel from the lab which is far more helpful to get the correct dosage so that I am well balanced between being hyperthyroid and hypothyroid. She then measures my blood pressure, looks shocked and tells me it is 195 over 90 which is usual when I visit the surgery and hands me the dreaded form to take my blood pressure at home for the week to prove her reading is just a glitch and that usually it is within an acceptable range. Then apart from a few questions in relation to alcohol consumption (only needed after a visit to the surgery) and smoking…. that is it – all good for another year.

Only it isn’t…….these reviews never address the hundred and one niggles that creep up on you as you age.

Friday, we had agreed to have baby Chocolate for the day. Adorable as he is the age difference now, him being just over 2 years old and us in our early seventies, is really beginning to show in many ways….mainly the energy levels. Baby Chocolate is a little whirlwind and fearless climber; you cannot take your eyes off him for a moment otherwise you are likely to find him about to abseil from a great height off some piece of furniture or a windowsill. It was raining too heavily to venture out so we had to play games with him inside, at this age they don’t focus on anything for very long.

We had no recovery time on Saturday either as next on our agenda was the 180 mile round trip up to mum’s. Unfortunately, the M62 that joins the M1 going north was closed completely at 2 junctions and the roundabout (after a police car chase that ended with a fatality) with an endless queue and a lot of diversions. The journey was slow so by the time we reached mum there was not time to take her to the park and back in the wheelchair between her carer’s visits so had to make do with a quick trip to the cafe across the road from her apartment. She had her coffee and brownie and we had a chat but she kept saying how disappointed she was that we hadn’t taken her to the park and that we had chosen to go on Saturday rather than her preferred day of Sunday. I kept repeating that we were late because of the road diversions and that my sister was already going on Sunday to see her and take her out. Her memory is so in decline now she cannot really get a grasp on any situation.

There are little signs everywhere that our village is preparing for Halloween (I noticed this on top of the post box) and Morrisons had pumpkins for only £1. When they stayed over the weekend we got back home the grandchildren made these little Halloween treat bags. The bags are brown paper sandwich bags from Sainsbury’s and I printed off some freebies from the internet for them to colour and paste on to the bags. We had a walk to the village to buy some sweets to put in them. They took them home with them for their Halloween night but I will probably make some more for the children who come knocking at my door.

Whilst shopping I popped in to The Works and picked up a few Halloween crafts for me the children to make in the school holidays (is it only 2 weeks away next week?)

This lovely brown printed Christmas tape caught my eye – I am sure it will be useful for something…and the irresistable little snowflake cutter.

Sunday finally came and we had the day to ourselves…by this time I was almost too tired to do very much other than catch up on a few jobs around the house.

I hope everyone is having a lovely week, at least the weather seems to have settled down now. We have done our shopping again today and tomorrow it will be back to my daughter’s house to lend a hand. On Friday we will be going back up north to look after Little L and Sweetie overnight while their mum goes to her employer’s yearly get together. Our little holiday seems a long time ago now.

Back soon x

Posted on

dear diary ~ changing seasons, changing menu

By the time you read this we might be well on our journey (hope so) – stocked up with a couple of home made meals for the first two days (we are self-catering). After months of salads and plates of cold food I am really looking forward to eating some old favourites more suited to this cooler and very wet weather. I don’t know about you but I feel like I went to bed one day in summer and have woken up in autumn; the change overnight was so sudden here. I wasn’t quite ready.

With a change of menu in mind – nothing beats a good nutroast and it is so easy to transport…as long as we don’t forget to get it out of the freezer and yes we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt. The worst ever time I recall was forgetting to get Sweetie’s first birthday sponge cake out of the freezer to take with us to decorate at my daughters 70 miles away – good old Co-op came to the rescue.

This nut roast recipe above that I often use is a firm favourite, easy to make and uses up any celery, carrots or mushrooms at the end of a week or like now when we are going away. I will put the recipe page up on the drop down recipes above for anyone interested. If you like nutroast do try it you won’t be disappointed.

Once cooked and sliced it is a good standby for the freezer providing a homemade ready meal that can be microwaved in minutes. I generally serve it with mashed or roast potatoes, Brussel sprouts or cabbage and roast parsnips, I also add in a couple of small Yorkshires too. The meal would not be complete without lashings of gravy (vegetarian of course) with a splash of Henderson’s relish added (coming from Sheffield what else would I use)? Another unusual quirk of mine is to serve it with a spoonful of apple sauce as you would for pork, I think it goes so well with the nutroast.

Saturday night was Shepherds Pie with brown lentils, topped with swede and potatoes mashed together, a sprinkling of parmesan and a scattering of cherry tomatoes cut in half to provide some colour.

I feel quite smug and organised when I prepare the veg ahead of time ‘Mise en Place’ style though more often than not this is not always possible but it certainly makes life easier if we are late home and making Shepherds Pie from scratch takes far too long when you are a little ravenous.

DH prepped the veg for a curry yesterday morning and made enough for our evening meal and for us to take with us to Cheltenham. I will pack a packet of Tilda wholegrain basmati rice that will cook in 2 minutes in the microwave (I did check there is a microwave!)

My autumn menu plans will feature a lot of the old favourites – roasted veg lasagne, stuffed courgettes, baked potatoes and a medley of vegetables in a creamy cheese sauce. And I have a new soup recipe to try – Cream of vegetable and herb soup with celeriac and parsnip.

DH has taken to stewing the plentiful punnets of plums and apricots I have been buying in Sainsbury’s – often at a reduced price. Accompanied with some creamy Greek yoghurt or creme fraiche it makes a lovely simple dessert or breakfast.

And a neighbour gave me a carrier bag full of eating apples. I think they must be Pink Lady or a similar variety because inside they are a most wonderful rose pink colour. DH cooked them and then froze them in individual little pots and the left overs went to make an Eve’s pudding.

We shared one last night….. just to try it out of course …and yes it did taste good even better as we don’t normally have a pudding – the other one is travelling with us.

As soon as we return from our few days away I have promised myself an irresistable chocolate and pear pudding while there is an abundance of pears in the shops.

When I received the final details for the little flat we are renting we found out the number is 58 – the same number as our first student house in Cheltenham though not the same road.

But how co-incidental is that?

Can’t wait now to see this exhibition, all our old haunts and all the changes.

Back soon x