Tag: shopping

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dear diary ~ the sound of emptiness

I felt an overriding sense of sadness yesterday knowing that the grandchildren are now in school and my house is so very, very quiet. No little voices saying ‘granny can I……’

Over the summer months I have felt like I have been living in Legoland whilst every flat surface has been claimed to display one or other of the Lego sets that once belonged to my two daughters. I had the good sense to squirrel them away in the loft when they left home for such an occasion as having grandchildren. We have the airport, police station, fire station, restaurant, riding school, hospital and chalet and the grandchildren have just loved building each one with some expert help from grandad the architect.

Over the last 2 or 3 weeks we also introduced them to the fun of a nature walk, gathering blackberries to make crumbles and searching out bits and pieces for granny’s nature table – swapping out the beach pebbles and shells for pine cones and sycamore keys and discovering magical things like skeleton leaves. I especially love displaying our autumn finds with the earthy colours and lots of textures. I didn’t have time to glycerine the leaves though so they will soon shrivel and crumble away, but no matter part of the fun was in finding them. I am watching the laden Spanish conker tree that is overhanging the wall in someone’s front garden on the way to the village and waiting patiently for the first ones to fall onto the pavement.

I am already missing the energy that they bring to the house but Sweetie left me with this lovely picture she made to cheer me up.

Yesterday morning we deposited DH’s car at the garage and then went to Sainsbury’s for some food. We each have a trolley and do a scan shop so that we can take advantage of all the smart shop reductions, the general nectar reductions and the nectar points, but it is hard work co-ordinating everything. Often for the same item DH will be given more points than me or vice versa, so of course we use the nectar card that will provide the better reward. Being as frugal as possible takes a good deal of time.

When we arrived home on Saturday we had very little in the fridge and no fresh fruit and veg but luckily the pantry is well stocked with tinned and dry goods and we had bread and a pizza in the freezer. It is good to see the fruit dish full again and although I have a few tomatoes ripening in the garden (I bought Totem patio variety again this year and mine are the assortment of sizes below) we needed to buy extra so we can make soup. This week the large Jubilee variety were on offer – excellent for tomato soup and DH got points for the cherry vine ones.

I often make ice lollies to keep in the freezer from cartons of juice for the grandchildren and these packets of Cawston pressed fruit caught my eye – no added sugar or sweeteners and of course so much cheaper than buying lollies.

Sainsbury’s is currently having a sale on homewares and electricals. I am now on the lookout for little Christmas presents and these two items caught my eye. I think I might make up a little basket of a bottle of homemade drink and some nibbles to go with these little wooden coasters and I will make table mats with the tea towels. The coasters were reduced from £8. to £5.33 and the tea towels £6.50 reduced to £4.33.

Looking through the old photos for yesterday’s post I came across this one from 1966 which made me smile. I mentioned in recent posts that I am always left pushing the pram when we go out with the family (I love it of course) and this picture shows me in training when my younger sister was born. This is certainly a vintage pushchair haven’t they changed so much over the years? This one no doubt would have been second hand like the cot – people didn’t often buy new in those days.

I would have just finished my first year at grammar school when this was taken so would be about twelve and my dad had bought me my first sewing machine a year before because I was mad keen on sewing. Mum of course would have knitted the cardigans. I cannot believe how young she looks here. I remember making my sister’s little dress from this pattern – I think my gran made mine (she was a tailoress by trade and started me sewing at age 6) – the A line and shift styles were so easy to make I was soon making my own dresses and a few tunic tops for my mum and a neighbour.

Not only does the house seem empty but I too feel empty – I didn’t sleep well last night as my mum is constantly on my mind. The social worker had another meeting with her and the home care carers yesterday and of course being so far away I couldn’t attend. Although the social worker said she would ring and update me afterwards it was perhaps too much to hope she would contact me straight away. I am concerned that she has got everything in place for mum to go home next Monday and that she has rung to check that the lift is now working in the apartment block where she lives as it has been out of order many times recently.

Since all this started with mum’s fall back in May I have had to keep notes of every conversation that I have and jot down who with on what date at what time. It is exhausting. I feel like I am always chasing and complaining and that isn’t who I am and it is making me feel like I am a bad person. It appears unless you get a bit stroppy nothing gets done.

I think there are many people going through the same issues with the care system. It is not until you are involved that you realise how complex and useless it is. I am so worried now about DH and I becomming ill and what our daughter’s might be up against in the future as we age (which inevitably we will do). Something needs to be done but who is going to listen?

It was quite heavy rain yesterday and much cooler, quite refreshing really and the dry borders will be well soaked. To help cheer me up DH made a hearty leek and lentil stew for our evening meal which we had with a crusty roll – proper comfort food.

Oh well…… here’s to a better day today. x

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dear diary ~ normal life resumed

Most of the packing has been put away now until next time and just the washing remains. Being in the garden most of the time at the cottage means a heap of very dirty gardening clothes but as usual I always start with the bedding and towels so I can get them ironed and repacked ready for our next visit.

Yesterday we went to the supermarket to gather up the groceries for the week and a few extra to cover the bank holiday and hopefully beyond. The increasing prices have become the normality now so I try to stretch the food out as long as I can though I much prefer to do the shopping on the same day if possible but no amount of careful planning can stretch it out to a fortnight as we would run out of fresh fruit and veg. Whilst in town I aslo picked up a length of Coronation bunting to put in the garden. It was hard to find – I tried all the most likely shops (B&M, Wilkos, The Works) to no avail and was on the point of giving up when I discovered The Party Shop in the precinct, but why they are still making bunting in plastic I don’t know, it goes against the grain but I bought it anyway; why couldn’t the manufacturers print it on a cheap cotton that would at least be biodegradable.

Added onto the grocery bill I bought some new insoles for my gardening boots (£4) to make them last a little longer as the soles are wearing quite thin now and really need replacing but new boots would cost me about £35-£40 (I buy yard boots which are actually used for mucking out but are more flexible than wellies). I do find them both comfortable and quite tough – they are waterproof too and fleecy lined so are nice and warm in the winter and they cover my ankles and provide extra support.

My menu plan is still mostly made up of winter meals and I really need to introduce some more summery meals as the weather begins to warms up – but this isn’t the week for that task. I have planned some fairly easy meals for this week as I need to spend time in the garden here at home – we left it two weeks ago just waking up and now everything is shouting for attention – flowers to be staked, pots to be refreshed and a lot of feeding required.

The back garden is starting to look better than the front though there is little colour in the back garden this year as I didn’t get to plant the tubs of tulips. The front garden has all the colour as the tulips I planted for last Spring thankfully came back again this year but other than a bit of weeding and digging out a frosted and very dead Hebe I haven’t done much work on the front as I have changes in mind and this will take time and better weather – I hear from DH (my weather man) that rain is imminent.

I did manage to clean out the greenhouse on Tuesday and before the week is out I need to get those seeds going if I am to have any flowers at all this year. I bought three outdoor bush tomato plants in Scotland (they are always cheaper up there) and before we went away I did get the seed potatoes planted – the ones in the tub are already making an appearance. I never sow the courgettes too early anyway as they need plenty of warmth and the selection of salad vegetables I usually sow straight into the outdoor beds.

But today the worst of all days in my mind – a trip to the dentist this morning. I knew before the check up that there is dental work to be done as I have a broken tooth and I have 3 options to put it right so I have been given a little time to think about it and decide which course of action I want to take. I was uneasy about going as the previous dentist who I knew for a long time and I trusted implicitly retired during the pandemic and I didn’t seem to quite gel with the person I saw last year that had taken over who is slowly switching over to mainly private patients (I am still NHS) but today my appointment was with someone else in the practice as it has expanded and I felt far more at ease with this guy and in fact one of the options is to do nothing at the moment as the broken tooth is not painful or inflamed and he wasn’t suggesting I had to have expensive work done so that must be a good sign.

As it happens our electric Oral B toothbrush has just stopped working – we hadn’t dropped it or anything but it just will not charge or show any signs of life and we have had to resort to the old manual toothbrushes until we research a replacement. Luckily the dentist said I am doing a good job of cleaning my teeth and not having an electric one is not having a detrimental effect but they do not feel as clean to me.

Well better go and get these seeds started. x

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dear diary ~ Easter upon us already

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

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dear diary ~ always the unexpected

Well it is in my life!

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.