Once we returned from chapel this morning, I spent the day at home, and it was bliss to know that that was that and I had nowhere to be and no need to go out again......
The FH started to walk home from chapel for some exercise, and he got more than he bargained for as I had to talk with someone, so I took a little longer to catch up with him in the car. He was nearly home! The walk did him some good though, and it was good to see him able to walk that far.
UJ came over for lunch, bringing asparagus and a cauliflower, both from his garden, which we ate with roast pork and the most crisp of crackling, roast potatoes, green beans and carrots, with apple sauce. We were rather full after all that, and sat in the garden under the parasol, chatting for some time. I pootled around the garden, watering seedlings, collecting eggs, hanging washing out in the sun, and then my Dad arrived for an afternoon visit, so we sat chatting some more!
This evening, we have watched some tv, I have knitted a little more of another hat, and I've downloaded a book onto the EFG's Kindle. I'm not a great fan of the Kindle, but when the book is 77p if I read on the Kindle compared with £11.25 to buy an actual book, I'll get used to it! I'm off to read the first couple of chapters now...
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Saturday, 4 May 2013
An evening out
The whole family has been out this evening to the chapel quiz night. It was the first one we have run and it went very well. There were five teams competing, and we had the four of us and the EFG's friend. We came second! It was great to get the FH to something like that, and he enjoyed the evening. I was a little concerned this morning that he wouldn't make it, as he was very tired and I think he overdid himself yesterday. All in all, we had fun and we contributed in various ways to raising £95 for the chapel funds.
I am looking forward to a couple of days of rest now: church in the morning and then UJ here to share lunch. At some point over the weekend I want to sit down with the girls to watch my new DVD, about Jack Reacher. I'm not convinced that Tom Cruise was the right actor for the part, so I'll have to watch and see!
I am looking forward to a couple of days of rest now: church in the morning and then UJ here to share lunch. At some point over the weekend I want to sit down with the girls to watch my new DVD, about Jack Reacher. I'm not convinced that Tom Cruise was the right actor for the part, so I'll have to watch and see!
Friday, 3 May 2013
FH's health update
The FH is going great guns at the moment, and people here are saying he is looking well. I am beginning to ask him to do a little more around the house now, such as asking him to hang out some washing for me this morning and then to look for the brooding lamp for the chicks which might hatch this week.
He has been pottering about in the shed a little as well this week, and so he is doing well. Yesterday he took his friend, who is 80+ and uses a frame/seat gadget when he walks any distance, and they mooched out of the end of our road and up to the station, where they sat and watched a few trains go through before they pottered home again.
There is no sign of gout, which I am pleased about, and as long as he is on steroids for his heart and kidneys, I am pretty sure that that will keep the gout at bay too.
This weekend we are attending a quiz at the chapel tomorrow evening and then UJ is coming over on Sunday. The FH and the YFG are intending to go to a car boot sale on Monday but I won't hold my breath. I have plenty to be going on with in the garden, the house and the books, so I'm sure we will keep busy. I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
My top ways to save
I have added a new page to the blog this afternoon - it is rather self-explanatory so I will leave you to hop over and have a look!
Thursday, 2 May 2013
A spot of shopping
Having to go to one town to pick up the girls and then go to the other to take the YFG to the piano lesson, I have had the opportunity to visit two supermarkets today without incurring any extra fuel costs. I popped into the first one, the Co-op, as I had twenty minutes to kill - I got ahead of myself this afternoon! The YFG is particular about bananas being tinged with green and they usually have some in the Co-op, so I thought I'd have a look. No luck there!
(image from co-operativefood.co.uk)
After dropping the YFG at the piano teacher's house, I had only half an hour, so I went to the library and picked up a couple of Jeffrey Archer novels, and asked about Jackson Brodie audiobooks - they didn't have any but they can order them in if I decide which one I want to listen to - so I'll have to look on Amazon and see what the options are and then I can order them from the library next week. I hadn't realised that Jason Isaacs had recorded the audiobooks prior to starring in the TV series - which is coming back very soon! Can't wait...
(image from kateatkinson.co.uk)
Just to keep me going till it is on again!
(image from j-sainsbury.co.uk)
Once we had retrieved the YFG, we were able to pop into Sainsbury's. I had an order from the steward at the chapel for bread, cheese and a fruit pie for tomorrow's Worship Lunch, and I was still looking for those elusive bananas. Alas, the ones in the shop were more suited to making banana bread, so I left them.
I spent the morning in school, cataloguing more books, and since the weather was so glorious again today, I cycled to the school and back. I had left washing on the line, so I was able to get it in when I came home at lunch time, and then I popped off to the chapel for the afternoon club. We sat outside in the sunshine in the courtyard garden and soaked up the vitamin D. I knitted and the other ladies were doing a jigsaw.
I do hope you are getting your share of this lovely weather - my peas are growing furiously in the garden, and the pepper seedlings have emerged at last. Pricking out tomato seedlings will be on the agenda for the weekend, and the radio presenter today seemed to be of the opinion that the good weather might last over the Bank Holiday - what a delight that would be. We have a quiz at the chapel on Saturday evening and UJ is coming over on Sunday, so I am hoping for a relaxing weekend all round.
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
A day at home
Days at home are relatively infrequent at the moment, but I managed to spend most of the day busy doing things here, and enjoying the lovely weather into the bargain!
UJ came over to the lunch club and brought his tree loppers with him, so I was able to use them to cut back my lavender hedge this afternoon, in the sun, which was beautiful. I thought that the smell of the lavender might make me drowsy but I managed to stay awake and get it some of it done. I filled the brown wheely bin, and both of my compost bins with the clippings, so I left the front hedge to do in a couple of weeks when the brown bin has been emptied! My lavender is rather overgrown, like this in the RHS picture above, so it needed quite a drastic haircut. I have cut the sides, and now I have to trim the thinner top section with the secateurs. I hope it works, as the other option will only be to remove the whole lot and start again; I really don't want to go that far!
All day I felt like I was rebooting the washing machine, and I took advantage of the weather to change my bedsheets a few days ahead of schedule but the fragrance of outdoor line dried linen is well worth it.
I did spend a little time at the desk, filling in forms and sending emails to enter 20 gymnasts into a competition, and then catching up with a couple of friends who had emailed.
This afternoon, the FH and UJ sat outside and had a chinwag and I joined them for a cup of tea, then UJ came and helped me to find and repair a breach in the chook runs where a couple of breeding GPOs had escaped in to the general melee. We sorted that out, and I collected the eggs - 19 from today's laying. Making a cake for UJ to take home and one for tea used up 8, but we still have three trays to sell, so I am going to have to put a sign out on the gate tomorrow.
Tonight we had a Governors' meeting and I had a lovely surprise in that the Head and the office manager gave me a lovely plant arrangement - they are kind - they said it was in recognition of the way I have continued to support the school throughout the upheavals and problems we have had at home this year. It was such a surprise I was almost speechless, but it makes a very pretty addition to my kitchen windowsill, and I shall endeavour to keep it alive with love and water.....
Final job of the day was to pick up the EFG from Guides and drop off some old magazines to a friend as she wants them for a craft project. All that done, I am enjoying a glass of home made sloe gin and celebrating staying out of the shops today!
(image from apps.rhs.org.uk)
UJ came over to the lunch club and brought his tree loppers with him, so I was able to use them to cut back my lavender hedge this afternoon, in the sun, which was beautiful. I thought that the smell of the lavender might make me drowsy but I managed to stay awake and get it some of it done. I filled the brown wheely bin, and both of my compost bins with the clippings, so I left the front hedge to do in a couple of weeks when the brown bin has been emptied! My lavender is rather overgrown, like this in the RHS picture above, so it needed quite a drastic haircut. I have cut the sides, and now I have to trim the thinner top section with the secateurs. I hope it works, as the other option will only be to remove the whole lot and start again; I really don't want to go that far!
All day I felt like I was rebooting the washing machine, and I took advantage of the weather to change my bedsheets a few days ahead of schedule but the fragrance of outdoor line dried linen is well worth it.
I did spend a little time at the desk, filling in forms and sending emails to enter 20 gymnasts into a competition, and then catching up with a couple of friends who had emailed.
This afternoon, the FH and UJ sat outside and had a chinwag and I joined them for a cup of tea, then UJ came and helped me to find and repair a breach in the chook runs where a couple of breeding GPOs had escaped in to the general melee. We sorted that out, and I collected the eggs - 19 from today's laying. Making a cake for UJ to take home and one for tea used up 8, but we still have three trays to sell, so I am going to have to put a sign out on the gate tomorrow.
Tonight we had a Governors' meeting and I had a lovely surprise in that the Head and the office manager gave me a lovely plant arrangement - they are kind - they said it was in recognition of the way I have continued to support the school throughout the upheavals and problems we have had at home this year. It was such a surprise I was almost speechless, but it makes a very pretty addition to my kitchen windowsill, and I shall endeavour to keep it alive with love and water.....
Final job of the day was to pick up the EFG from Guides and drop off some old magazines to a friend as she wants them for a craft project. All that done, I am enjoying a glass of home made sloe gin and celebrating staying out of the shops today!
May Challenge - Adios, Mr T
Forcing myself into a less reliant relationship with a local supermarket chain which dominates our area is my target for the month. A quick look at their store locator reveals 10 stores of varying sizes within 20 miles of my postcode! Remembering that I have other options is the key, and getting out and about to make use of them is going to be my aim.
Research into other shops this last fortnight has shown me that there are bargains to be had in B&M, that Lidl's [as I already know] has most of what I need, and that Aldi is worth a visit occasionally. Sainsbury's is an option, as is the Co-op, and I have three of those within 8 miles. There are three butcher's shops in one town and one in the other, and there was an excellent butcher's van at the local car boot sale of a Sunday morning. The fruit and veg at the car boot sale was a bit hit and miss last summer, so I got out of the habit of buying it, but it would be worth a look occasionally to see what the quality is like this year. Both local towns have markets that I could use, and the quality of fruit and veg in Lidl has always been quite good.
I have also given some thought to the other items we buy in the supermarket, like toiletries, stationery, cat food, household items, gardening bits and pieces, etc and tried to identify alternative sources for those. It is all do-able. It can be done.
My feeling is that time is going to be the worst obstacle to this challenge and the one which I shall have to work hardest to overcome. The bigger supermarkets stay open longer, and so I have been able to pop in at almost any time, quite frequently after a session of gymnastics, which end at 8pm [Tuesdays] and 7.30pm [Fridays]. Regular shops and market stalls are not open at that time of night and the butcher has long since cleaned his counters up and gone home. The only day that I am in town and able to shop at these stores would be a Thursday when the YFG has her piano lesson, so that may have to become "shopping" day. I miss the market completely in one town, but I could catch it late in the day in the other town, by which time the best of the produce will have been sold....I think that I may end up using smaller supermarkets for a lot of our shopping, with some use of smaller local shops where I can. There is also the online retailer, Approved Foods, but having had a delivery from them relatively recently, I am unlikely to order this month, however tempting the emails they keep sending me.
Let's see how it goes!
(image from telegraph.co.uk)
Research into other shops this last fortnight has shown me that there are bargains to be had in B&M, that Lidl's [as I already know] has most of what I need, and that Aldi is worth a visit occasionally. Sainsbury's is an option, as is the Co-op, and I have three of those within 8 miles. There are three butcher's shops in one town and one in the other, and there was an excellent butcher's van at the local car boot sale of a Sunday morning. The fruit and veg at the car boot sale was a bit hit and miss last summer, so I got out of the habit of buying it, but it would be worth a look occasionally to see what the quality is like this year. Both local towns have markets that I could use, and the quality of fruit and veg in Lidl has always been quite good.
(image from independent.co.uk)
I have also given some thought to the other items we buy in the supermarket, like toiletries, stationery, cat food, household items, gardening bits and pieces, etc and tried to identify alternative sources for those. It is all do-able. It can be done.
My feeling is that time is going to be the worst obstacle to this challenge and the one which I shall have to work hardest to overcome. The bigger supermarkets stay open longer, and so I have been able to pop in at almost any time, quite frequently after a session of gymnastics, which end at 8pm [Tuesdays] and 7.30pm [Fridays]. Regular shops and market stalls are not open at that time of night and the butcher has long since cleaned his counters up and gone home. The only day that I am in town and able to shop at these stores would be a Thursday when the YFG has her piano lesson, so that may have to become "shopping" day. I miss the market completely in one town, but I could catch it late in the day in the other town, by which time the best of the produce will have been sold....I think that I may end up using smaller supermarkets for a lot of our shopping, with some use of smaller local shops where I can. There is also the online retailer, Approved Foods, but having had a delivery from them relatively recently, I am unlikely to order this month, however tempting the emails they keep sending me.
Let's see how it goes!
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