Watch this! And another book read.....

 The weather has not been conducive to sitting (or walking) in the sunshine at all this last week, as it's been cold and it's now very wet too.  We even had hail on Sunday, but I've been trying to move more to increase my step count since I bought my bargain smartwatch.    I've discovered that I actually do around 5,000 steps in a day when I'm just doing housework 😀

 Don't worry about the step count shown in the photo though as I had taken the watch off to have a shower and forgot to put it back on until 9.30am!......

We're trying to eat a greater variety of food, especially low fat, non UPF foods but it can be a bit tricky at times as I still need to watch the food budget very carefully.  My tongue is still causing me problems but I'm carrying on with the D3 tablets in the hope that they will help replenish my lack of the vitamin. .....

My B12 levels are now fine but, on Doctor's orders, I'm still taking a multivitamin as well. In the 7 weeks I've been taking the D3, I've noticed that my energy levels have picked up.  I'm nowhere near as tired during the day,  I can walk steadily (rather than a bit wobbly) and my sleep patterns have improved tremendously.  I used to be lucky to get 5 hours a night and sometimes much less than that so the readings on my smartwatch were a pleasant surprise....

At least something is going right at last!

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I've been doing lots of reading to relax and I've discovered a new (to me) author via Vivi's U-Tube book reviews (What Vivi Did Next).

Rachel McLean's female detective is a Birmingham lass who has been sent to Dorset and thrown in the deep end with a murder.  It's written in a style I enjoy and is the first in a whole series of books.  I've just reserved the second book from the library 👍

Has anyone else tried this one?

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Right-o.... I'm off to make a quiche for tea using a tortilla wrap instead of pastry for the crust.  We have a home grown leek, some cheese and eggs😁 some home grown lettuce and supermarket cherry tomatoes to go with it.  Oh...and a leftover cooked jacket potato which I can cut into wedges and reheat in the airfryer.  No waste!

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

Angie 💗

Blooming Marvellous....

 Ten days into May and the garden is blooming.  The sun is out today (Sunday) and, despite a chilly wind, it's very pleasant to be outside.  Our succulents have burst forth with blooms; yellow on the left and pink on the right......

... and the Aeonium cutting which I purchased for £1 from a plant sale 2 years ago is loving it too....

Two years on it has babies of it's own...triplets in fact  😀...

My fig tree boasts 2 large figs already and I'm hoping for more later on this summer...

We have tiny strawberries in the trough to the left of the fig and the greenhouse is positively bursting with fledgling plants.  We have managed to find a Passandra cucumber plant as well as a Lumos yellow pepper.  Both performed really well last year and I hope to repeat the success of those.  There is lettuce in a tub so that I can pick leaves as and when I need them and we will be growing tomatoes in the greenhouse too;  Sunbaby (grown from seed very kindly sent to me by a blog buddy) and Crimson Crush which is a larger tomato for slicing on pizza or sandwiches.

To say I am getting excited is an understatement !

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How is your garden doing?

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

Angie 💗

Talking Plants......

 The growing season is well and truly underway now.  Last Saturday, there was a plant fair at the local nurseries and the weather was gorgeous for it.  Growers from all over the country attended and the plant variety was amazing. Entry cost £8 each but proceeds were going to a local charity and we were able to go around the owner's very beautiful and extensive garden too, so we didn't mind paying.

It was so hot that, of course, we were obliged to eat a Mr Whippy ice cream complete with flake!

I ate mine whilst admiring the man in a kilt right in front of me 🤣😂......

On the home front, things are beginning to grow here too.  At Howard Drury's last meeting, the talk was on Pelargoniums and I bought a 'lucky dip' packet of seeds.  There were just 6 seeds in a pack for £5 and the excitement comes from seeing which variety/varieties were in the pack.  The 3 below struck first on the heat pad on the window ledge and 3 more have just begun to peep out from their cells in the greenhouse 😁 I can't wait to see what colour they are and what the foliage will be like.....

We have struggled to get the sweetcorn going at all.  They too were on the heat pad (with 2 seeds per cell) and only 6 came up.  Gray pushed a few more seeds into the empty cells and you can just see 2 more coming up in the front right hand corner.....

This is the sight which greeted me yesterday morning when I opened my bedroom curtains; full sunshine and a Mallard!  He was in the middle of the road outside my window enjoying the warmth of the sun 😂......

At the allotment we (Gray 😂) has planted broad beans, sprouts, potatoes, carrots, onions, spring onions & beetroot, French climbing beans, sugar snap peas.  Coming on nicely is the rhubarb ( we've already picked loads of it) raspberries and gooseberries.  If we have a summer like last year, we are hoping for a bumper crop to share with family and neighbours. 

At home in the greenhouse we have tomato plants, lettuce and mint, and I'm hoping to grow the same varieties of cucumber and yellow peppers as last year if I can find young seedlings in time......

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Thanks to those of you who commented on my last post.  I do appreciate it. 

This week's activities were/are

Monday: allotment, dentist (for me) and 15 cards to the shop (now 187)

 Tuesday: library day free

Wednesday : Family History group free

Thursday:  Black Country Living Museum free

Friday: Howard Drury's Gardening group (Roses) £5.50 each plus a donation for homemade cake 😉

Such a busy, busy week that we will be unable to meet up with our daughter and son-in-law this week for a cob at the pub.  Last Friday was lovely.  A leisurely drink and a chat.  

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

Angie 💗

Family History.....and Growing Your Groceries

 I've mentioned before that our village library has been refurbished and is much more welcoming as a result.  At the moment they are running a free family history course and we decided to attend and give it a try.  It takes place one day a week and begins at 10am ( so an early start for me these days!) and lasts for up to 3 hours.  It is absolutely fascinating.  I didn't realise that there are so many free resources on the internet, although physical copies of birth, death and marriage certificates will still cost £12.50 each 😏

We wanted to research Graham's family, his father's side in particular and it is rivetting!

Even better is that accessing Ancestry on the library computers is FREE.  So far I have accessed census records as far back as 1871, found several new family members, and printed out the transcripts to read at home.  They can be printed at the library for 15p per sheet, so it's much cheaper than paying for a home subscription to access the information.  Each week we are given a sheet of information followed by an email at home with further details.  We feel so very lucky to get all this free of charge, and we have two more sessions to go.  

Next week the subject will be Military Records.....

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When we walked into the library this week the lady on the desk called me over.  She was just signing back in a book she thought I would like 😀

Yes...definitely! It looks right up my street .....

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This week I have managed to get out into the sunshine for just 3 days for my vitamin D fix. It's just been far too cold and windy.  Yesterday Gray went to the allotment for the day so I got stuck into lots of tasks that I had been  putting off,  cleaning the grease filter in the cooker hood, for example 😟which came up sparkling like new 😊I wiped down the kitchen cupboard doors on the top level (I will have to do the lower ones another day as my back was a bit delicate), cleaned the floor in the bathroom, then put on my shorts, took my lunch outside for half an hour, and sat in the sun. 

In the afternoon I spent just over two hours making cards for the shop, which was so relaxing....

I have donated 172 so far this year, not counting the batch made this week which I have yet to take in.  On Monday when I took in a new batch of 20, the basket in the shop contained just 3 cards.  I was in the nick of time 😊I really don't want interest in them to wane by having a near empty basket, do I !  I'll take another batch in next week as soon as I can get there.  Now I no longer have a car I'll have to ask Gray to drop me off as the shop is not within walking distance.

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Today, at lunchtime, we are meeting our daughter and son-in-law at the pub in the village after she finishes work.  Son-in-law is still awaiting results for job interviews and we can have a catch-up on all their news.  The men will have hot beef cobs and a pint, I'll share a cheese bloomer with our daughter and have a glass of lemonade to go with it.  Even tea is making my tongue sting at the moment.  It must be the tannin.  I'm totally off alcohol 😭I hope the D3 kick in soon.....

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

Angie💗

Health Update & Resolution??

 I'm sorry to have been AWOL again for the last couple of weeks but have been struggling with health/life issues.  I thought I would just pop on here with a quick update ....

Health:

The lovely lady Doctor I saw a few weeks ago had commissioned another round of blood tests.  This time quite extensive tests, and they threw another spanner in the works.  I have insufficient vitamin D levels in my blood.  With our UK weather I'm not entirely surprised, but quite shocked at the very low levels I actually have.  I was informed by text message 😕to begin taking 1000 ug of D3 a day ( which I could buy from a pharmacy) as well as my B12 supplement......

As I am prone to do lately, I asked Dr Google if low vitamin D can cause a sore tongue and guess what?  Yessss!

On Monday of this week I spoke to the GP as she is concerned about my high cholesterol levels too.  Blimey 6.9 is really far too high 😨......

Now this is really baffling.  I don't eat meat (only fish) I drink skimmed milk, have drastically cut down on cheese and other dairy, I have a cholesterol lowering drink every day and use Benecol spread on sandwiches.  Butter is a rare treat and I don't eat lots of fried food. Ready meals or a meal out are few and far between.

Once again, I asked Dr Google whether low levels of vitamin D can cause high cholesterol.  No prizes for guessing that yes, it can!

So....I am on a mission to sort myself out.  As well as taking my supplements I have bought myself a cheap smartwatch to record my daily steps and track my sleep patterns, and I am aiming to get a little natural sunlight on my skin every day.  Today, Saturday, I have donned shorts and T shirt and got into the garden for half an hour, deadheading the daffs and tidying up.  I've washed the bistro table and chairs and have sat drinking my tea and eating my banana in the sunshine! 😇

Enjoying the peace and quiet in the garden......

I refuse to give in and get old and frail by default.

I am ON A MISSION!

I will need repeat blood tests in July and hope to have improved things for myself by then or I will need statins and I'm not sure about those at all.

Have you ever had your vitamin D levels checked?

Are you on statins?

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Life Issues: 

Briefly... son in law has still not been offered a job, my lovely daughter has health issues and so does my beautiful granddaughter.  Gray is still waiting for a hospital appointment for injections in his neck too.  We have had a family bereavement recently too.

It never rains but it pours...

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Take care everyone.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Happy Easter to you all...

 

Wishing you all a very happy Easter time. 

I'll be back very soon.

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Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be, 

Love, Angie 💗

Home Made Goodies & Blast from the Past...

 Does anyone remember Howard Drury from Central Television's gardening programmes?

Howard runs a gardening club in one of the villages close to us which we began attending last year, having found it by accident.  It's held 6 times a year; 3 in Spring and 3 in Autumn, and it's really good.  The speakers each time are varied and interesting, including Howard himself, and his wife Andrea makes and sells jams and marmalades for the McMillan cancer charity.  It costs £5.50 each to attend but in the interval there is free tea/coffee and a biscuit and you can purchase a slice of delicious home made cake for a donation 😋I can never resist.  It's for charity after all so it would be rude not to partake!......

Breakfast...is this healthy or just a necessary ingulgence? 😁

Oh boy....it tastes good 👍 

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Wednesday's grocery delivery was uneventful , thankfully.  I popped my head out the door to ensure the driver had not blocked Minnie's drive ( he hadn't).  All was well.  They had everything I ordered too.  My cupboards are full and I will only need to buy fresh milk and a TV guide next week. Not only surviving  but building up my Nectar points balace too 😀.  I think I'll save them up and try to get a week's free food at some point.  I'm writing down every penny spent on groceries as I  need to stay under budget this coming year

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We have a funeral to attend today, so I must dash......

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

Angie 💗