Category: trEAsure

things I love to keep

Posted on

dear diary ~ temptations and remembrance….

It was a lovely day on Tuesday, it is our regular shopping day at Sainsbury’s and normally we would pick up my dear friend K to take her with us.  K will be 90 next year and unfortunately has a terminal illness, doesn’t walk easily now without a walker or supermarket trolley to hang onto, and has limited vision. 

Sadly, K lost her partner suddenly on this day last year after having a major bowel operation and this left her with no means of getting to the shops or anywhere else on her own other than the local Access bus which she books for a Thursday, mainly to get her out of the house. 

On every second Tuesday in the month K has lunch with friends and it gives us time to shop further afield so we went over to John Lewis in Cheadle to return a roller blind and swap it for a wider one for the kitchen window. Sainsbury’s is right next door so we could kill two birds with one stone.

I didn’t really want any window covering at my kitchen window but in the summer the afternoon sun is blinding (no pun intended) and I spend my time cooking with a squint.  John Lewis do a plain blind that is sheer in their cheaper Anyday range and unlike the blackout blinds we have at the bedroom windows this allows the light to filter through but blocks out the strong sun……perfect….or will be when DH gets it fitted!  I am sure it is on his list.

I am not sure why, but I fell in love with some decorative gold wine glasses on display which would decorate my Christmas table rather well.  I am not usually a sparkly person (I leave that to my sister) but they just ooze Christmas and I think I will be sneaking them onto my Christmas list.  Even though DH was finding it difficult to separate me from them he would not think to buy them for me without a little prompt (is it a man thing?)

They are not cheap though at £24 for two (well not for me) so I would be limited to 4 of them without breaking the bank but they do have matching tumblers which are a little cheaper.  Ironically I do not drink wine but I would certainly pour my elderflower sparkling grape juice into one.

It is lethal for me going to John Lewis it might be the only time I would ever wish to be a millionaire and like Nigella Lawson it is always for the homewares not particularly the clothes. And if any JL staff are reading I do love their customer service.

I saw a pillowcase as we walked through John Lewis in Cheltenham recently and it was just the colour that I was looking for to paint a bamboo wood Ikea dressing table and matching bedside table that we bought ages ago in the bargain basement section.  I thought I could take the pillowcase and have it colour matched but once we got home we never got to do that and my 28 days return limit were almost up so I was going to take it back for a refund; before I did we wandered round to the paint and wallpaper section of JL and found that Little Greene paint do the exact same colour called Bone China Blue in a tester pot too so I can test out the colour on the wood. I just love the name of the colour it definitely swayed me it was the right one to choose.

The tester pot alone was £5.75 (where do they get their prices from?) but needs must and I do need to get this furniture painted.

Before Christmas.

If I can.

I decided that I loved the pillowcase so much that rather than returning it I bought another to match and they will go perfectly well with a printed duvet cover I have for the summer as well as the painted furniture.

That wasn’t the end of the temptations though…. I passed reluctantly on all the Christmas decorations, lights, tableware and suchlike but then found myself in Waterstones….a new addition inside John Lewis.  Looking at the double bookcase of best sellers in non-fiction it would appear that the vast majority of us have a problem with life at the moment and in particular are searching for something comforting (Hygge) or a reason for living ( Ikigai) or beauty and simplicity (Wabi Sabi) and that Zen way of life.

Well yes, I believe I might be searching for all those.  When I think back to my grandparents I could honestly say they had little money but oh how content they were with life and what they had – even during hard times and how homely and simple everything seemed.

I gave way and was tempted to a book in this section, ‘The Get Things Done Book’ – most apt at the present time – I am always looking for better ways to manage my life – when or if I find this elusive balance to my life I will let you know.  Meanwhile, I will press on with my own trial and error exploration and at the moment it is my idea of a three item project list to get through these never ending half finished jobs that surround and irritate me.

So yesterday I managed two tasks from my list of three – I booked the hotel for Christmas Eve and Christmas day near to mum’s apartment.  It is also close to my younger daughter in Thirsk.  As a family we have no idea what we might be doing yet for Christmas – only two people (daughter and sister) have houses big enough to accommodate us all and they have to have a downstairs toilet for mum and not be far away to get her there.  Mostly, our Christmas destination will depend on just how fit my mum is by Christmas day – it may only be weeks away but mum’s condition could worsen in that short time.  There is only 3 months now until she is 100.

As I mentioned above I managed two of the items on my list but the sewing of the greenhouse shading had to roll over to today and now it has to roll over again to tomorrow as I will spend my afternoon with my friend K having a cup of tea and a chat remembering her lovely partner.

People are much more important than my tasks.

As always thank you for your lovely comments, ideas, well wishes and advice….all gratefully received. x

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 :: another celebration

We arrived home late from Scotland, but safe and sound, on Saturday night. Saturday is the best night to travel back down – the motorways have few heavy goods vehicles and not many cars either, having said that you can still see some horrendous accidents so it was no surprise to witness four ambulances shooting past one after the other along the northbound carriageway of the M61. I always send up a little prayer for those involved and those who are there to treat the victims and then thank God that we remain safe as often it is just the fact of being in the wrong place at the wrong time – a few seconds more or less and that crash could have been us.

On Sunday we surfaced very late and then had to rush off down to town before the early Sunday closing to get bits and pieces for the next project, my grandson’s birthday cake. I am not sure why I volunteered to do the cake, I had less than 24 hours to produce something and I had no idea how I was going to decorate it – other than it would have to be buttercream and some sprinkles. I had to invent something from the few decorating items I could find in Sainsbury’s and being in such a rush of course everything went wrong.

I wanted a tall cake with 3 layers but didn’t have enough sandwich tins of the right size so decided to make one large cake and slice it into three – the mixture takes longer to cook in one tin so I felt it came out a bit drier than when you divide the mixture between sandwich tins. I am still not sure what happened with the buttercream – one minute it was fine then all of a sudden it seemed to be all whippy and too much air – it might have been because I used semi skimmed milk rather than whole milk when I added the liquid. You can see the odd texture in the photo. It was far too late to do anything about it so I just had to slap it on and hope for the best. The stars cut out of the blue fondant icing were a bit of an afterthought to cover up the texture of the buttercream – the problems didn’t seem to affect the taste though. Everyone said it tasted really nice. Thank goodness. It isn’t my best creation but it did the job and little Freddie loved the candle and sparkler.

Making a cake is probably no cheaper than just buying a ready made one from the supermarket. I used to make all the birthday cakes for our two daughters – I have done fairy castles and toadstools, horseriding and ballerina, jungle scenes and pretty flowers, but I am really beginning to think my cake making days are at an end.

As it was so close to the recent christening we just made little Freddie a small tea party to mark the occasion of his very first birthday with both sets of grandparents and mum and dad. He enjoyed himself and thoroughly entertained us – although he didn’t really know what a birthday is.

My daughter had made these delightful little decorations for the tea party out of some wrapping paper and tissue.

Whilst in Castle Douglas on the way back home from Scotland I had a bit of a shopping spree as you can see in the photo – altogether my little haul was less than £15 – so I don’t feel that is too extravagant. In the craft centre I bought these little wooden rabbits ready for Easter.

……and for £2.59 I also bought this instruction card to make the patchwork quilt in the picture using my own fabrics. You buy the card and on the back are all the instructions and measurements for cutting out the strips and squares of fabric to make this design. I have a lot of pretty cotton fabric left over from making the bunting for my daughter’s wedding and it is on my list to make a quilt – I love the design of this one and the colours and fabrics are very close to the ones I have.

I couldn’t leave Castle Douglas without popping in to Tessara – a tiny shop full of beautiful gifts and homewares. There was a sale on and I bought the silver photo frame for my mantel piece – having 3 grandchildren now I need plenty of photo frames.

Today we had a bit of a clear up of outstanding tasks – booking my car service, rearranging an appointment and chatting with a Citroen specialist about our car problems. I also made a few pressed flower cards – so quite a productive day.

I now have to start thinking about our next two projects – our new kitchen and the Burns night supper on Saturday.

These are certainly busy times.