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plEAsurable ~ a wonderful day

Happy Birthday

What a lovely day today – the sun was streaming through the window when I woke and DH greeted me with a card and after breakfast he produced a tiny chocolate cake (from Morrisons) with 2 pink plastic ballerinas and a candle on top (from the cake decorating container in the cupboard) and then sang happy birthday!

After the last few intense days I felt much more relaxed today and who wouldn’t with all the attention I have been given.

During the morning I opened all the gifts given to me by friends and colleagues at work and then my eldest daughter arrived with more flowers, a book token (much appreciated) a very posh box of biscuits (chocolate and hazelnut) and a card.

My house now looks and smells like a florists – these sunflowers are a real treat – a bit difficult to arrange in the vase – but you can’t help but smile at them.

The postman arrived later with more cards – isn’t it exciting these days to have a handwritten envelope drop through the letterbox with a real stamp on it rather than the typed cellophane windows style that are stamped with Mailsort!

Whilst it was still partly shaded I tidied up in the back garden removing dead leaves from the lawn, deadheading the flowers in the pots and sweeping the patio. Some of the flowers are starting to fill out again now after they were severely caught by the sun whilst we were in Scotland and dried out.

After a sandwich lunch with my daughter I had visits from my Russian sister-in-law and one of my best friends.

This is just one of the lovely gifts I received – it is a hard bound colouring book called The Flower Year, which has beautiful illustrations month by month.  I can’t wait to get started.

I just had chance to make a quick tea for us –  a mixed warm salad with new potatoes, green beans, button mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes and those tiny party Quorn cocktail sausages before more visitors arrived.

My brother called round and another best friend and together we had a catch up and devoured the chocolate cake.

I have such wonderful friends and family – I am certainly a happy bunny tonight. x

 

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dEAr diary ~ collEAgues…who’d have ’em

A bit of a mad day today.  I arrived in work quite early this morning and was met by a desk covered in flowers and presents from colleagues for my birthday tomorrow ( I won’t be at work tomorrow as I don’t work on Thursdays).

I was quite touched and know that I will miss them all when I go.  The flowers are all at home now and in water and I will open the cards and presents tomorrow.

But then…we had a slight upset at work – I cannot go into detail here – but I did wonder if I was at work or playschool!   I suppose it can be hard to accept changes and some of my colleagues in the team I supervise had already decided they are not going to like the new person and have already found something to complain about.

It is all a bit childish really and a little premature I think.  After only three days I found the team’s attitudes a bit difficult to understand but I expect sometimes it just takes time to accept a new personality with new ways and new thoughts.  I actually like my replacement quite a lot and I can see past that initial compulsion new people always seem to have to need to make an impression.  I know I would have enjoyed working with her had I been staying.  She is disappointed I am going and worried how she will get along with a team who are finding fault with her already!  I didn’t leave work until after 7pm tonight as she was so upset by the incident.  I feel bad for her.

I finally got home, had tea and the minute I had finished we had a visit from my friend (who is also a vicar) with another card and gift for tomorrow.  We had a little chat and caught up with the news.  We have many mutual friends who are presently retiring or downsizing or just moving within the area and spent some time catching up with the progress of each of them.  We also established that we are not moving for the foreseeable future and neither is he!

At nine o’clock we had time to relax but it has been a full on day with mixed emotions.  The same colleagues who had showered me with gifts and best wishes had been so different with the new lady.  Puzzling!

I am glad I will be off work now until Tuesday (I am allowed to have Monday off in lieu of my birthday day).  I am hoping everything will have settled down a bit by then and that I will still have a replacement.

Thank you to all the comments from my blogging friends who are offering me such good advice and keeping me sane at the moment – I am so grateful and taking it all on board.

Welcome to new follower Dar (from An Exacting Life) one of my favourite blogs – if you want to read about a book review – this is the site!

Take care  x

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dEAr diary ~ just pondering on life

Sometimes you have days where you feel ‘off’ for no particular reason that you can put your finger on – today was one of them.

Perhaps it is the hot weather – this sticky and uncomfortable state making me feel constantly headachy and lethargic or maybe it is being in this place of temporary suspension waiting for the ending of one chapter but not able to begin the next.

My replacement started at work yesterday and there is a lot to show her so it is quite exhausting – but she is very nice and had I been staying on I am sure we would have got along just fine.

I am also aware that coming up soon on the calendar are a few ‘memorable’ dates – each one of them evidence that life speeds ahead whether or not you are enjoying it, doing what you want to do or otherwise.

  • July 19th – my 64th birthday – yikes really?

  • July 30th – my eldest daughters 2nd wedding anniversary – already?
  • July 31st – our 42nd wedding anniversary and the day I leave my job

  • August 1st – Little L (my granddaughter’s) 4th birthday – growing up fast now.

  • August 16th – this would have been my mum and dad’s 70th wedding anniversary if dad had still been alive but we will still mark the occasion with my mum in some way.

A lot of celebrations, maybe commiseration, a lot of memories, a lot of years and it does leave you wondering where did all that time go – have we become what we wanted or hoped to be?

As I am about to venture into this unknown territory soon of being job less (through choice) am I going to cope but more worrying am I going to fulfil all those things I once dreamed of doing.  If I have things still left to do then I need to get on with them quickly as I have more life behind me now than in front.

I have been so busy recently that I have not given much thought to what I will do,  less so to the financial implications of living on one state pension and our savings until I can claim my own in 2 years’ time.

Already our time is being booked out to helping:- decorating for our elder daughter, child minding our granddaughter for our younger daughter during the summer holidays and also granny minding for my mum whilst my sister is away.  We have also booked the man to come to sort out the rendering of the upper part of our house.

Looks like it will be September then before we can draw breath!  This doesn’t sound like a ‘retirement’ to me.

 

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homestEAd ~ the grass is always greener

Yesterday was quite a long day over at daughter’s house.  I was too tired even to write a post.  I didn’t even feel that satisfaction of a job well done either as progress was slow to non-existent.  DH was similar, he is doing the hallway – preparation stage, so not a lot to see other than filled in cracks and holes.

Isn’t it always the way that one day you seem to make a lot of progress and then the next hardly any.  This was definitely a hardly any.

I am challenged at the moment by both the hot weather and a bit of dithering on my part over the patch of garden I am ‘transforming’ at present.

Before I cleared this part it had been home to the many raspberry plants but had also acquired rosebay willow-herb and the large-leaved Persicania (Knotweed).  The raspberry plants have since been relocated to the back of the garden and we will make a proper frame to support them soon.

I thought I had a plan – my idea was to put gravel down on this bit of garden on the other side of the path to create a little seating area with a few plants mainly in pots and an obelisk towards the back corner and incorporating the plants already in situ.

My problem here was twofold – next doors fence which is stepped due to the gradient has a little gap at each bottom right hand corner and the gravel on the other side of the fence keeps spilling through.  So an edging board is required to prevent this – and that will need help in the shape of a bit of muscle to hammer the supporting pegs and boards in place.

The second problem is the two existing plants to the left of the photo beyond the pole – a large patch of Johnson’s blue geranium (flowering over) and the yellow flower I pictured in my last post (still blooming).  I was going to work around these and put some stone edging around them to make a border but after playing around in a variety of ways nothing seemed to work well and in the end I decided to keep the design clean and simple – remove the plants and gravel the whole area otherwise the whole thing was in danger of becoming bitty.

To be able to make a start today I will have to wait until the afternoon when there will be some shade over the plot.  There is quite a bit of earth to remove to get to a level low enough for the path edging to contain the gravel once it is laid.  There lies another problem – what to do with all the spare soil – probably a raised bed in the vegetable patch by the shed.

The aim of this garden transformation is to make the garden look more appealing and low maintenance.  Most of their neighbourhood are young,  first time buyers, both working so they seem to prefer all lawn or all gravel or a mixture of both but nothing that needs very much maintenance.

We are spending a minimum amount for maximum reward and keeping most of the mature shrubs that give the garden some shape and interest. The turf from B&Q for the extension to the existing lawn (well grass) cost about £50 but well worth it.  It covers the patch that had two really old straggly shrubs well past their best and removing them has opened up this space considerably and added some visual length to the garden.

The new grass has grown remarkably well despite this hot weather and was the greenest kid on the block by far (apart from the astro turf next door!).

There was great excitement yesterday for the first cutting and we all stood round afterwards admiring.  The join and difference in colour is not as noticeable now it is cut (I should have taken an after photo so you will have to take my word for it!) and with some extra care and attention and a bit more grass feed and weed the older part should start to thicken out and green up to match.

The large silver Senecio (or Brachyglottis as it has been renamed – I hate that name so I always revert to its former) in the middle of the picture has almost finished flowering and will be due a bit of a trim to contain it in the space.

So before I go round to sort my daughter’s garden I have a little bit to do in my own then back to work again tomorrow  – only 7 days to go now to the big day.

Thank you to everyone for your great suggestions for when I leave work – I am storing up the information and when I get some time for myself to think about my next moves I will be sharing them with you.

Oh and welcome to my new followers – I can never quite believe anyone would want to sign up for my daily ramblings!

But for now while the sun shines I need to make …a seating area!

Back soon x