Tag: Everyday life

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dear diary ~ down the bunny hole….

The weather is a little dismal here, but my spirits are high. Just managing to clear two of the three tasks I had set myself last week felt good. The sewing task is a bit of a fail as it is still waiting.

I decided not to keep adding a task to the list as one was crossed off as I know the most difficult one would just remain on the list of 3 for a good while. Instead, I will only make a fresh list of 3 tasks when all 3 are completed.

I did spend the weekend doing other jobs though – in fact I got caught down a rabbit hole – you probably know how it goes….I began before breakfast (though I breakfast late often as late as 11am as I attempt to train myself to time restricted eating) by mounting a few of the grandchildren’s lovely pictures they do at my house and then arranging some other pictures on the landing picture shelves DH has put up for me.

All good so far.

But then after breakfast I began clearing up in the kitchen and….. noticed the bin needed emptying and on the way to the back door through the laundry room….. I noticed I had a few bits and pieces to put away and that the washing had finished. So I emptied the bin and then hung out the washing and put in another load and then…. noticed the soap powder container needed refilling. Whilst doing that I also refilled the conditioner. Whilst refilling the conditioner….. I noticed that I still hadn’t got round to labelling the new container and one or two others in the cupboard (more for the benefit of DH rather than me). So I got out my labelling machine and duly labelled all the containers that needed doing including some new ones I bought when rearranging the cupboards in the garage a while ago.

Whilst in the garage labelling these new storage containers…. I noticed the pumpkins I bought over a week ago from Morrisons (a bargain at £1 each) and thought it time to put them outside by the front door…but I wanted to brush down the outside open porch area and wipe down the front door. DH gave me a hand and whilst outside….. I noticed some of the cosmos in the front garden which are still going strong and flowering away needed dead heading……

….And so my day went on!

But I enjoyed it – a kind of unscheduled pottering.

I am now out of the bunny hole and happy that many of these little tasks got done – unfortunately, once again the sewing one didn’t.

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Talking of bunnies, I loved this little surprise that the postman brought on Saturday morning. It is my vitamin order from Viridian. I have never ordered from them before as I prefer to shop in my local healthfood shop, but they were out of stock and Viridian and Solgar are my favourite brands. How lovely that they carefully package each one in this delightful printed tissue paper with flowers and frolicking rabbits and little sticky labels with messages.

I am also loving my new book Pots for all Seasons that I bought awhile ago on offer. I bought a few more bulbs on Saturday – hopefully I can get the bulbs either into a pot or one of the borders when it is dry again.

Yesterday it was back to my elder daughter’s house doing a little ‘more cleaning and clearing, I came away with 4 bags of washing that she has not had time to get to – odd things like a spare mattress cover and some throws…though the rain has set in here so some of it will have to wait until I can get it on the line outside for a good blow.

Today is shopping day and my dear friend K will be coming with us. I need to stock up with chicken, ham and fish fingers for the school holidays as the four grandchildren with be staying or coming to play for the day in a range of combinations. I don’t impose our vegetarian diet on them although Sweetie loves my nutroast.

I have also to check out a little denim style dress in Sainsbury’s for Sweetie’s upcoming birthday, and find a suitable little present that is small and flat enough to post to my 4 year old great neice with her card and then look to see if one or two grocery items are on offer this week – the ones that I never pay full price for if I can help it!

For the rest of the week DH has a visit to the dentist on Wednesday for his extraction…ouch! On Thursday we go to Leeds hopefully for a few bloodtests and then to pick up the girls at teatime at the motorway services as they have one of those school training days on the Friday (renamed inset days) and mum has to work.

So if there is a gap in my blogging you know I won’t be down a bunny hole this time but knee deep in tissue paper, glue and glitter with the children making lanterns for the lantern walk on Saturday night or baking Halloween buns and painting plaster models.

Thanks for all your lovely comments and welcome to my new subscribers.

Enjoy your week, back soon X

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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

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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

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dear diary ~ a little light relief

We stumbled through last week again with the usual shopping, and a few household jobs, which included a little light dusting and hoovering just to keep on top of them. We even managed to make some tomato soup and a couple of reasonably healthy meals along the way as well as a bit of gardening…but not much. The zinnias along with the cosmos are providing some cheery autumn colour as many of the other plants are dying away and will need cutting back. Though, I rather think they will have rotted down by themselves before I get to do anything.

On Wednesday we went round to my daughter’s house to lend a hand with the ongoing preparation of getting it ready to put on the market. This week I had a go at cleaning the oven as I have one of those really useful large blue trays from Lakeland specifically for the task and it is one item I would hate to be without. I presoaked the removable racks overnight in hot detergent water and then brushed the Lakeland oven cleaner on the stubborn bits and the inside of the oven. It worked a treat and now I just have to ask one of the men to slide the glass panel out of the door so I can clean the inside of it.

Whilst waiting for the oven cleaner to take effect I sprayed more of the mould cleaner on the left over stubborn bits in the bathroom. This time I used HG Mould Spray and found it to be far more effective than either the Cilit Bang or the Dettol Mould sprays. Inbetween I had a go at cleaning up her mid century Gordon Russell sideboard which had belonged to my mum when she first married and set up home. I followed some instructions I found on the internet for restoring old real wood furniture and it has made a substantial difference.

We had an appointment on Thursday morning that we had to cancel and instead make one with the dentist as DH had the beginnings of a tooth abscess and was in pain. He was given anti-biotics to help with the infection which was a relief as on Friday we were travelling up to my younger daughter’s house to meet the girls from school and look after them overnight whilst she went to her head office party miles away near Wigan.

It takes minimum effort on our part to look after the girls now – Little L who has just started secondary school and Sweetie who will be 7 next month mostly entertain themselves. I cooked an evening meal for us all and as it was the first time cooking in my daughter’s new house it was a bit fraught finding everything and working the appliances.

On Saturday we decided to take the girls on a trip up the road to Mount Grace Priory as I had taken advantage of the free English Heritage entry coupon in the newspaper a while ago. The priory was founded in 1938 as a Carthusian monastery and only parts of it remain now in the grounds whilst other parts had already been remodelled in the 17th Century as a mansion.

The weather was glorious and we had a picnic in the grounds sitting in the warm sunshine – it was a little light relief after many days of working hard. The girls couldn’t wait to explore the ruins of the Priory and go inside the restored monks cell, which is a tiny house with an upstairs where they had a loom and spinning wheel to produce woven cloth to sell.

The staircase was so steep it advised you to walk down backwards.

Each of the 25 monks had a separate cell each living a near hermit life. Each cell had a main room, a bedroom and the weaving room upstairs. Outside was a high walled garden where they grew herbs and vegetables and a covered walkway where they might sit and contemplate or pray. There was a water closet down the garden so each cell was quite self contained and the meals were brought to them and placed in a hole which could be accessed from both inside and outside the house.

At this moment in time I would quite like to book into this place for such peace and quiet, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the world and all your food made and delivered to your door. Apart from the fact that the monks did not pay on delivery it resembles the popular Deliveroo system we have today!

The whole place has a long and fascinating history and the house which was converted from the ruins of the medieval priory’s guest house in the style of Arts and Crafts is also open to freely walk around.

The grounds have a newly laid Arts and Crafts style garden too.

It is well worth a visit.

We drove home on Saturday night and spent Sunday recovering and hardly doing anything worthwhile other than a little urgent pruning in the garden to fill our brown garden waste bin ready for emptying tomorrow.

Today the week will begin again with more shopping, cleaning and helping out with the house move. I heard from my elder daughter that the two boys have not been well over the last few days with high temperatures and coughs and now their mum is feeling poorly tonight. I am not sure if we might be on extra childcare this week! I just hope this dreaded lurgy does not come knocking on our door – we haven’t time to be ill.

Thanks for dropping by and welcome to all my new readers – I hope you will make yourselves known sometime as I love to get to know everyone who reads my ramblings!