Whatever Happened to Sense of Community? & Vegging Out

 One day last week we had to pop out on a few errands and Graham took a phone call from a friend of his that he used to work with.  N had decided to drop in to see our new bungalow as he's looking to move himself.  On finding no-one at home he thought that maybe he had the wrong house and nipped up the road to another bungalow to enquire which home was ours.  Well...the husband answered the door and said he had never heard of Graham & Angela 😕and N drove home disappointed.  Well.....when the couple moved in 4 years ago I popped a 'Welcome to your new home' card through the door, followed by Christmas cards 2 years running all with our names and house number on.  They didn't reciprocate with Christmas cards so I stopped sending them in case they were not celebrating Christmas for some reason.  I've taken in parcels for the man too in the past.  When you look out of my bedroom window, their home is the second bungalow on the left with a white car outside, so they are not a million miles away !

When we got home, I must confess that I went straight up to the bungalow to remind him of who we are (politely and with a smile, of course) but I'm sure N thought we had lied about where we lived!  The neighbour was totally unapologetic 😏 If N had asked anyone else in our street they would have confirmed where we live too.  Good grief....

Is your part of the country neighbour friendly?

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In 2025 we decided to try to get more veg into our meals.  The Sainsbury's summary of our shopping shows 1,216 portions were purchased last year.  Considering we grow and eat stuff from the allotment during 2/3 of the year as well, there is a definite improvement 😁

.... and we do eat a lot of baked beans !....

How do you get more veg into your meals?  I can't eat lentils because they just don't agree with me but other suggestions are most welcome !

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Thanks for popping in folks.  Do stay safe wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

A Lovely Surprise, Treats and Daffs....

 Rain, rain & more rain has been the order of the days for ages now.  Today is Friday and it's still wet and wild here.  Along with most of the population, and many fellow bloggers, I have been feeling the effects of winter blues😔 A few days ago the postie rang the doorbell and handed me a small package.  Inside were some beautiful hand knitted socks !  They have been sent to me by Marlene of Poppy's Patchwork and they are gorgeous.  A perfect fit and so warm, and they are the very first pair I have ever owned 😀

Inside the package there were also two sachets of my favourite hot chocolate.....

...and some packets of seed....

We have never grown this variety of tomato so it will be lovely to see how they turn out this summer.  All the seeds will be used.  It cheered me up immensely to get these lovely things in the post (instead of bills !) and I can't thank you enough, Marlene.  You are a star and I'll be writing to you soon.  Thank you !

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When we went to Lidl on Wednesday for some sweets for Graham, I treated myself to some UK grown Daffodils @ 95p  They are such a happy, cheerful colour aren't they...

In a week of damp dreariness and terrible world news, what has cheered you up this week?

Have a lovely weekend everyone,

Stay safe,

Angie 💗

What Food Do We Have Left? A Quick Peek.....

 

Well...today is Monday January 19th and I have managed without doing any more grocery shopping.  I'll have to give in now though, and do an online order for delivery on Wednesday because we are beginning to run low on several things like milk, yogurt and eggs, and I don't think we are yet out of the woods with the weather 😏 

We still have some veg left in the fridge drawer perhaps to make a stir fry:

ie half a bag of carrots, 2 onions,2 peppers

In the freezer: Green beans, sweetcorn and cooked prawns 

There is still some cheddar cheese and potatoes left to make a cheese pie ( served with baked beans) so that's two days sorted.

The garage freezer contains some fish, frozen garden produce and enough cooked apple for a last crumble so I need to restock it a little in case we get any more snow.

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The good news is that I will have managed 3 weeks of the month on loyalty points alone, apart from a top up of £6.73 so I'm fairly happy with that.  It's given our holiday savings a little boost for our March treat and we will spend no more than our usual grocery budget of £55 max per week from now on 😊

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Thanks for popping in. Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

I've Lost My Mojo !!

 Oh dear, I have definitely lost my mojo this last week.  The weather has been dull, damp and dismal as well as dark.  I have to work at the kitchen table these days and the kitchen faces north, making it very dark.  It's lovely and warm when the heating is on but the ceiling light is nowhere near as good as natural sunlight, which makes it hard to match colours for my CS cardmaking.  I might need to investigate daylight craft lamps.  Does anyone have one of these? Can you recommend a good, reasonably priced lamp?

I did manage to make another 15 simple cards this week, making a total of 30 since Jan 1st.   I took them to the shop yesterday and there were just 4 left in the basket from last week.  I need to make more of an effort this week although it's difficult to get time to myself in order to concentrate.  I like to put on a CD, relax and be alone for a couple of hours. Not easy when I'm constantly on call for "where is X ?" "where did you put Y ?" " do you want a cuppa?" 

😦

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The weather has kept us mostly indoors again and my joints don't like it.  My back is delicate, my shoulder aches, my hands hurt and my knee is numb 😢 

On the bright side, our Daughter and Granddaughter visited on Monday to bring Graham's birthday gifts and it was lovely to see them.  They stayed for lunch and we investigated GD's new car.  It's beautiful; a black MG and very stylish.

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I'll be back soon if I can get my thoughts together  to write an interesting post !

Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 

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Spending The Last Points & Mail Problems

 We managed to get the car out at last on Friday, so decided to visit Sainsbury's and spend the last of the Nectar points on stocking up the protein while we could.  This is what we bought....

I can't find the receipt 😕 but it came to a total of £18.32

Gray spent his £12.50 Nectar points plus £5.82 cash

Updated totals below.....

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 Nectar card balance Nil

Graham's Nectar card Nil

Boots card loyalty points £4.45

Cash Nil

 Extra cash spent : £6.73

I don't feel that I've done very well this January with the food shopping.  The snow has impeded progress!  I know we have eaten well so far and we still have enough food to eat well for at least another week but I know I could have done much better.  Lack of exercise has made us sluggish and we have been snacking out of boredom. 

 Oh well... it is what it is....

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Thank you all for your birthday wishes for Graham on Friday 😊 We have still not had post so the poor man had just ONE birthday card which had been pushed through the door, and a gift card from me for a spend at the local nurseries.  He wasn't upset.  He knows that several cards have been stuck in the mail system for a week now and our daughter and granddaughter will be visiting today if the roads have cleared a bit.  We are looking forward to some company!

That's all for now.  Thanks so much for popping in.  Stay warm and safe wherever you happen to be,

Angie💗

Warming up after the Hospital & More Snow!

 Graham had a long awaited hospital appointment just before Christmas with a neurology doctor at a local hospital. He has been waiting for a follow up for some time as he was promised to be referred to The Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham for treatment.  It didn't happen.... and our GP chased it up after a 7 months wait.  Now Gray is back to square one as this appointment was simply another review 😖  We were in the waiting room for more than 2 hours for a 4.40pm appointment.  At one point, I thought we would be locked in as there was no-one else in the waiting room and the cleaning staff were prepping the empty rooms for the next day!  After paying the parking charge of £4.80 we finally left the hospital around 6.45pm into streams of work traffic.  We both felt so fraught that we stopped at the village pub on the way home to warm up and de-stress.  Any excuse 😂 A pot of tea for two by a roaring fire....a bargain @ £2.50 !

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It was Gray's birthday yesterday (9th).  He's caught me up at 76!  It snowed heavily again the night before so we are, once more, snowed in.  The post hasn't arrived for two days so no birthday cards other than one pushed through the door by my Sister-in-Law, no bin collection yesterday either and the local schools are closed.  Roll on Spring!

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Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

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 Nectar card balance Nil

Graham's Nectar card £12.50

Boots card loyalty points £4.45

Cash Nil

 Extra cash spent : £0.91

National Year of Reading 2026 & Impressive Library Refurb

2026 will be the National Year of Reading.  It's something I applaud because so many kids don't want to read or, in fact, struggle to read and just give up.  Reading is the key to knowledge, isn't it.  If you don't know something you can easily look it up if you can read so it's essential in my view.  Our village library has had a massive amount of money spent on a refurbishment and it recently re-opened.  We wanted to go and take a look so after a button-busting lunch, walked down into the village to check it out....

I really like it.  They've opened it all up, rearranged the bookshelves, created a much bigger kids section which you can just see at the far end of my photo.....

.... and installed recycling bins for batteries, ink cartridges and bras!

They have created a quiet area for computer use, a couple of pods for quiet study and a lovely seating area by the adult large print books.  I wasn't really looking for a new book because I have several to read already but I spotted this one and couldn't resist it.....

There was free tea & coffee on offer at a small help-yourself table, so we made ourselves an instant coffee whilst Gray read the leaflets (no newspapers sadly) and I began my book.....

I like it so it came home with me.  I have until 17th January to finish it 😀 The library is a lovely warm space so we will definitely use it again  once the weather warms up a bit and the ice has melted👍

Do you know if your area will be participating ?

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Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

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 Nectar card balance £17.50  Nil

Graham's Nectar card £12.50

Boots card loyalty points £4.45

Cash  £19.37  Nil

Extra cash spent : £0.91