We had a lovely day yesterday with little Freddie – he is so cute and some of the things he says makes me smile. He is so amenable if you ask him to do anything he will reply ‘OK’ and just do it. He helped me to make the nut roast for Sunday and I think he might make a great chef one day, he isn’t afraid to taste new foods either. We had a pleasant walk to the village in the sun and I was surprised to find very few people around yet the roads were quite busy. No doubt everyone rushing to do last minute shopping.
Once his mum had been to pick him up at 6 o’clock we did have a long sit down before making our own tea. Goodness knows how we will cope once the baby arrives and we have them both for the day with different needs – there will be a 4 year gap, the same as between Little L and Sweetie. When the newest member of the family is born the gap between the oldest and youngest grandchild will be 12 years, so that is going to be fun when we all go on holiday together. I think many people like my own mum and dad had grandchildren whilst they were in their 50’s we are almost 70 and we are finding it quite tiring at times, but I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to look after them for the world.
Today we have the whole day to ourselves and most of the food for tomorrow is sorted. I am planning to make a chicken casserole on Sunday morning as an alternative to the nut roast – being vegetarian all my life it is not anything I have made before but the lady in Sainsbury’s did say that the mini breast fillets I got would be fine in a casserole so I hope she is right.
After a nice long shower, a leisurely breakfast and a few household chores I plan to go in the garden (weather permitting).
I am missing the large tubs of tulips I had by the greenhouse for the last two years – I didn’t manage to refresh the tubs last autumn and was very late planting some bulbs straight into the border, but at least these have sprung up quickly and should flower soon. We are still having overnight frosts here but once the sun is on the greenhouse mid morning the humidity can build up quickly if I don’t remember to go out and ventilate it. I have plants in there waiting to go into the garden but need hardening off now, then I will give the greenhouse a good clean down and sow my seeds. I will probably do many more Zinnias this year I just love the splash of rich jewel colours in the summer and they have such a long flowering time.
I always try to get my potatoes in on Good Friday but that was not going to happen yesterday whilst we looked after Freddie – I am sure he would have been most helpful but the thought of him wading into a tub full of manure made me think twice – so hopefully I will get them sorted today.
Hello again, you can always guarantee that when I find my way back to write here I am between a busy period that has just ended and one that is about to begin! It is my lull before the storm.
I was still in Scotland in my last post and we will be venturing up there again soon – but Easter will be spent at home with the family (not sure even now who will be coming or when but there will no doubt be a house full on at least two days). I hope the weather is good or good enough for an Easter egg hunt in the garden with the grandchildren – I have got my Easter tree on display now and the whole house has been cleaned in readiness for our visitors. Sadly, I never found the time to make my own Easter cards and had to resort to buying a pack from Sainsbury’s.
Yesterday we had to go shopping – mainly to get in extra food and as expected the supermarket was busy. I would have preferred to have gone on Tuesday of this week but we made a flying visit up to see mum 90 miles away in North Yorkshire. It was not a good move as we haven’t done a trip there and back in one day since my back problem began almost a year ago now and I have discovered that it is too much of a journey to do in one day as my back pain was quite severe by the time we arrived home. To make matters worse when we got to the outskirts of our village there was an incident involving many police cars and the road was blocked by them so we had to drive a few miles round to get home by another route.
DH had his tooth removed and all seemed well for a day or two but then an infection took hold and he had to have antibiotics which always upset him and leave him with gut problems. This time we took no chances and I got him some pro-biotics to take at the same time. My sister also had a tooth out recently and she is on her 4th lot of antibiotics – talking to friends it seems quite common these days that antibiotics are required after an extraction.
We have had little Freddie quite a bit recently to give his mum a break. His new baby brother or sister is expected in May and due to less than perfect maternity care so far the pregnancy has not gone that well and I am so worried for this baby – on each visit to the many consultants and midwives (and there have been many) she leaves feeling more confused and upset as they each have opposing opinions and cannot agree on a course of action, leaving my daughter not knowing what is going to happen. In all this they seem to be ignoring the fact that she is short of iron which is leaving her breathless and tired. They can’t even retest at the moment as due to brexit there is a shortage of the chemical they use to do the ferritin tests.
The weather here has been so unpredictable, one day sunny and the next rain so it has been difficult to plan anything. On the wet days I have continued with a bit of re-organisation and decluttering and on the dry days I have been in the garden. I can only do short spells before my back starts to ache and at that point I don’t push it any further, so it is a slow job. We are just on the edge of the Pennines here over 700 feet above sea level and due to the extreme spells of cold weather we have lost quite a few plants this winter. I will have to deal with these one by one and think hard about what to replace them with that might be more hardy.
Today we have little Freddie again to entertain us and I am hoping he will help me make the nut roast for our dinner on Easter Sunday and maybe some chocolate cornflake nests to put the mini eggs in. I will probably just make sandwiches for Sunday teatime or maybe homemade soup – I already have a plain victoria sponge cake in the freezer for afters – I splashed out and bought a small pot of double cream and a pot of mixed berry compote for the filling. Of course there will be jelly and ice-cream for the little ones with chocolate sprinkles – just in case they haven’t had enough chocolate by then!
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend and some much needed warm and sunny weather. x
Sorry for the long overdue post – life is, as ever here, busy and chaotic. I just thought I would pop by to give a brief update and apologise for my lack of commenting on my favourite blogs – be assured I am still here and reading along with your stories, my day wouldn’t be the same without.
Since my last post at the end of January we came home from Scotland complete with the haggis and scotch pies for our Burns night (which we had postponed to early February because we couldn’t get up to Scotland to buy the Haggis and pies in time for the 25th January). Only a day after arriving home my cough, that I thought had gone in January, reappeared with avengence together with flu like symptoms and we had to postpone our Burns night yet again as I just didn’t feel well enough to clean the house and cook a meal for 8 of us. Luckily, the haggis and pies could go into the freezer for another day.
After a busy February, which included the continuing car problems (younger daughter not us) and a trip to A&E with little Sweetie one night, we are now back in Scotland having attended DH’s uncle’s funeral a few days ago at a crematorium just south of Glasgow. Although a sad event it was good to catch up with our Scottish relatives and we decided to combine the trip with a visit to the cottage. We have been here for almost a week now and have spent most of the time relaxing after all the travelling.
Although uncle G died in early February there was a bit of a wait until the funeral date last Tuesday so in the meantime I have been on a mission at home to overhaul our savings, pension and the accumulation of papers in the files.
With the recent years low interest rates our ISA savings really were not doing much and even with penalties for moving a fixed ISA we decided we would gain substantially by moving some of them with very low rates to the new higher rate ISAs on offer. This was not an easy task and not like moving a matured ISA to another account. However, they are all done now and well worth the hassle for the furture financial gain.
Did you know that you can still invest into your private pension pot each year if retired or not working and still be eligible for tax relief on your pension contributions as long as you’re under 75, so if you’re a basic rate taxpayer you’ll get 20p in tax relief for every pound you make in pension contributions? You are only allowed to put in £2880 each tax year but the government make it up to £3600 by giving you £720. I found this out a few years ago and realised there was no savings account that would give me £720 in interest over the year on a £2880 investment so for the last 3 tax years I have been feeding in any spare savings into my People’s Pension scheme.
There was only a small amount of money invested in the scheme when I left work and retired as it had only just got off the ground but I didn’t withdraw it and now it has proved a useful savings pot. So far it is doing very well although a word of warning – because pensions are invested in bonds and securities the investment can go down. It is a gamble but so far so good.
The papers in the filing drawer have been hard work – particularly when deciding what to keep and what to shred. I can’t help but remember a period of miss-selling by certain financial bodies (endowment mortgages spring to mind) and having paperwork in support of a claim for compensation was necessary in some cases. So although I want to be ruthless I have used caution and spent quite a long time scanning papers onto my computer so that we still have a record.
I have been accepting paperless bills such as fuel, water and internet accounts for quite a while now but I do like to have the paper copy of a bank statement to check the outgoings each month as I find it easier to tick and cross and make notes on paper when I am balancing a statement. Once balanced I can then shred the paper copy and download the digital version to store on my computer. It is on my mind though to bite the bullet and go completely digital to save on wasting paper.
The clearout continues as the pile for burning (far too much to shred) grows bigger.
I have been clearing out digital files too on my computer and deleting old emails in the folders in my email account, of which there were far too many. Any email of any importance I have printed to a PDF to save on my computer including any online order receipts and guarantees. It has been on my mind to do this for a long time and leave a list for DH of where to find things just in case. I tend to deal with the banks and receipts while DH has taken over all the fuel and internet accounts and keeps an eye on the amount we are using and also new deals. It all seems to run quite smoothly but I have been making sure he can understand my system should he need to retreive anything.
Today is sunny, so far, so the garden is calling. The weather here has been very mixed from high winds, heavy rain and brilliant sunshine to even a dusting of snow on higher ground which didn’t affect us being by the sea. The daffodils are out but the rabbits have dug up most of my other bulbs I planted last year – poor things must have been short of food so I can’t feel too upset.
There is so much to do and top of my list is to weed the lane side border and heavily prune the lane side rosa rugosa hedge – and yes …the same one that ‘machete man’ ruined last year. I will see if I can prune it back to some reasonable shape.
Must go now to catch the good weather.
Do drop by tomorrow for the Scrap Happy Challenge for March. x
I thought things were going too well but after the last few days I am resigned to thinkng that my life is never going to be simple or straightforward.
Last Sunday night we made an unexpected trip up to North Yorkshire to stay with my younger daughter and our two granddaughters, Little L and Sweetie, as she was in a fix. Her car had broken down the week before and it was still waiting inspection at the garage it had been recovered to. It wasn’t evident if it was the battery or the alternator or something else and the garage were fully booked with work for a fortnight. Last week she managed to borrow a car from a friend but that was not possible for this week so it fell to us to help out as she had the children to get to school and nursery and herself to work.
We stayed until Wednesday night when she managed to hire a car to get her through Thursday and today until the car is fixed, hopefully by clse of play tonight. Before we came back down home we drove up to see mum with flowers for her birthday which was yesterday – it was a nice surprise for her as she wasn’t expecting us even though we could only stay an hour. I never make firm plans for visiting her now as she gets confused over dates and times so I tend to tell her the night before a visit but in this case I didn’t even mention we might call just in case we couldn’t. My sister took her out for a meal yesterday to celebrate her 97th birthday.
I was telling Sweetie who is only four that great granny has now had the pleasure of 97 birthdays and very soon in 3 years time, fingers crossed, she might be celebrating one hundred – she was impressed and keeps asking her mum now when she will be 100 (Sweetie that is not great granny).
So back home again and we found it had been snowing whilst we were away and it is mighty cold – not good for the heating bills. On totting up the receipts for the four days away we had spent the grand sum of £110, mostly on bits and pieces and buying snacks and drinks out to keep us going as well as bits of shopping for evening meals and lunches. DH also did a few jobs around the house for my daughter – one of them was replacing the sealant around the kitchen worktop and along the bath – the price of a tube of sealant now is £9.80. As he has only used half the tube I suggested he replaced some of the sealant in our shower with what is left before it goes dry in the tube.
I was amazed at how the money adds up so quickly. We didn’t have time to fill a flask on the way up and I need a stop to give my back a break from sitting in the car so our first spend was the motorway Costa – £9.20 for two drinks and a packet of oat biscuits which we shared. On Monday our daughter was working around Northallerton all day so after dropping her off we had a look around the town and then went to Strikes garden centre cafe just outside the town centre for lunch but what a rip off. DH had the cheese and chutney sandwich which was served with coleslaw and side salad but his double espresso was charged as 2 @ £2.25 making it £4.50 (most places charge about 70p to £1 for the extra shot of coffee in a double).
I am not a sandwich fan and prefer baked potato with cheese. Their menu only had baked potato with Chicken Tikka or a Butternut Squash Curry filling and they were both £8.95 and more of a main meal. I had wanted something a bit lighter so enquired if they did a plain baked potato with just a little cheese and coleslaw. Yes, the lady said that was fine but when it came to paying they charged me for a Chicken Tikka and I pointed out I was having cheese and coleslaw but she said it would be the same price as the Chicken Tikka as they had no other price point to press on the till. So our light lunch cost a staggering £22.55 – needless to say we will not be going again.
I bought mum a lovely bunch of mixed colour tulips and stopped to get her a take out cappuccino and a lemon tart (her favourite) from a local Costa. Unfortunately, although I asked for a lemon tart and they had plenty and it said lemon tart on the receipt, when I took it out of the bag to give to mum it was a cherry bakewell! Still she enjoyed them.
Today it is little Freddie’s 4th birthday – so we will be going to see him with his card and present. He is super excited to be having a Paw Patrol party with a few friends on Sunday and now my younger daughter is mobile again she will bring Little L and Sweetie down to join in the party.
So I had better get my skates on to prepare for their arrival tomorrow – I have beds to make up and food to prepare. We are on rations now until next week as part of the £110 we just spent on our travels was really this week’s housekeeping, so I will have to be very creative to conjour up some satisfying meals from very little.
I am a little disappointed that all my plans for January have already gone off course and the money I had saved from being very careful and not spending money unless necessary has had to go on eating out. Let’s hope February proves to be a bit better.
Welcome to new readers – you will notice a lack of photos until normal life resumes, and apologies for not being able to join in with the Scraphappy Challenge for January.
where the journey takes me 2 