Home Grown Figs & September Expenses

 We have had some lovely sunny days over the last week.  Yes, it's been cold at night as well as first thing in the morning but, once the mist has dissipated, the sun has shone beautifully.  I knew that we had some small figs on the tree but didn't really expect them to ripen .....

..... so I was pleasantly surprised to find these last Saturday..... 

😊

I cut them in half lengthways, drizzled them lightly with golden syrup ( I had no runny honey) and baked them in the oven for a few minutes as the oven was on to cook lunch anyway.  Served with a scoop of ice cream they were absolutely delicious.  I didn't realise that you can eat the skin but it was so tender after baking that eating it wasn't an issue!

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A week after my blood test my arm is still bruised.....

Doesn't it take an age to heal as you get older? 😕

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As we have had such an expensive month with special birthdays and such, we didn't have a September treat so I'm hoping we can have an October one before the bad weather really sets in.  I'm not sure what we can do.  Maybe Dudley Zoo or Severn Valley Railway?

We have the Swindon Gardening Club meeting this Friday (£5.50 each) plus the Gardeners' Guild meeting next Tuesday (£3.00 each) so need to watch our spending this month too.

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Right now I'm waiting for the heating engineer to come and service the boiler.  I think we need inhibitor in the system too so I'm not sure how much it will all cost.  The service alone is around £80 👀 I'll let you know how much it finally comes to.

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

Angie 💗

What a Blunder, What a Week.....

 I just haven't been able to settle for worrying about things and am not sleeping well at all.  The icing on the cake came last week when I was searching the NHS App for my test results and I came across a hospital appointment for the end of this month which I knew nothing about.  It was with the eye clinic. What ??? Oh...I thought maybe for my dizziness ?

Just to be on the safe side, I rang the surgery to ask who referred me and was told SpecSavers of Wolverhampton had done it.  Well, I have never in my life been to them for eye tests! The receptionist at the surgery was as flumaxed as I was and asked me to leave it with her to investigate.  The next day I rang again because I don't want it on my NHS record that I just couldn't be bothered to turn up for a hospital appointment 😠 To cut a long story short....there is another patient with the name Angela Green at our surgery and we got mixed up. Now that is scary. The surgery manager rang me back to apologise and admitted that the mistake was theirs.  Again, I requested that they cancel the appointment on my behalf and she promised it would be done.  The appointment is still showing on my App.......

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After a reasonable night's sleep on Friday ( 5 hours for once),  I decided to try to relax by crafting some more cards for the Hospice on Saturday morning.  It actually worked well and I managed another 14 cards 😊 

A sample here:

I dropped them off at the shop on Tuesday.  Again, there were just 4 left in the basket so a timely delivery!  The manageress is keeping my Christmas cards in the office until Halloween has passed before displaying them for sale, so I have plenty of time to make more.....

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

Angie 💗

What an Excellent Idea!

It has been a horrible week of family worries and not feeling 100% well, so when we went for a walk at the local park, we popped into the coffee shop to treat ourselves to a hot drink.  They have recently created this lovely reading area with a free book exchange set up. When we visited there were very few people around, as the kids are now back at school, and it was so quiet and peaceful.....

I took 2 books to donate and found this one for me....

 

I saw the film based on the first book ages ago and enjoyed it, and am looking forward to reading this one.

Then, when we did a bit of shopping in Sainsburys, I saw this in the sale....

It was half price at just £2.50 and I fell under it's spell 😉 There is even a bit of paper string to save and use for my crafting !

I LOVE a good notebook, don't you? 

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

Angie 💗

Preparations for the 'C' Word ....

 On Monday we had a few errands to run in the next village so I took the opportunity to drop another batch of cards into the Hospice shop.  The first batch of 15 Christmas cards was donated, as well as another 10 birthday ones. This brings the total up to 272 since March this year. A peek at the Christmas contribution below:

There were just 2 cards left in the basket again (both of them anniversary cards so a bit niche)  so I need to get a wriggle on ! I've made another 3 small sales on eBay recently netting £20.33 so I'm spending the money on more supplies to keep me crafting.  The adhesives are quite pricey, especially the glue tape runners which I find really useful to stick the blank inserts inside the cards neatly, and the cello bags to protect the finished card have almost doubled in price this year.  I'm spending just under £10 on 250 bags this time as it makes them a little cheaper.  Luckily, I still have a good supply of gold, silver, red and green mirri card and can die cut my own Christmas shapes.  It takes time to do but costs pennies and keeps the base costs down.

Have you started Christmas preparations yet?  Gift buying? Planning?

Our Daughter started a new job three months ago and she's been told to expect the bonus of a turkey !  It will be a tremendous help to her and we are usually invited to lunch on the big day and don't mind sampling it 😉

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

Angie  💗

What a Lovely Day! Successful? or Not?

 We had a lovely day on Saturday at the village fair.  Apart from one heavy downpour in the early afternoon,  the weather was kind to us, even the sun came out to take a peep.

There were loads of entries in the apples section.  Everyone had done really well with their crops so Gray didn't get placed.

I was amazed and delighted to get second place for my photograph of 'Trees' as there were a couple of dozen entries.....

I got third place for my card in  'Greetings Card....nor Christmas'......

....as well as Highly Commended and compliments on my Christmas cards....

I didn't win any money as only the first prize wins £2, but it really made my day 😊

I treated Gray to a coffee and cupcake to commiserate his lack of a win.  The coffee was only 50p and homemade cupcakes £1.50 so it only cost £4 in total.  A bargain in my view 👍

The fair was very well attended and the entries of an extremely high standard...

At the end of the fair, a lot of the produce and cakes were auctioned off.  I got a jar of citrus marmalade for £2 and Gray bought a bag of potatoes, 3 huge leeks and some celery for £2. We haven't grown either leeks or celery this year so they will be sliced up and frozen for soups and stews.  It was decidedly colder yesterday (Sunday) and yummy soup weather isn't far away.  All in all a wonderful, cheap day out which lifted the spirits before the onslaught of Winter 😊

Do you have Autumn fairs in your area?

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Thanks so much for all your comments on my last post.  I have been so busy that I haven't had time to respond. Please bear with me.

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

Angie 💗

I've Heard It All Now....Decision Made

 At the weekend I parked my car outside our front door as I needed to go off somewhere on an errand quite early in the day and I didn't want to have to move Graham's car off the tandem driveway to get out.  As I've said before, his car is automatic and totally outside my comfort zone 😕  Anyway, I LOVE my own little Fox and don't use it enough.  Anyway, I parked it there for convenience and drove it several times on the Saturday.  On the Sunday, the next door neighbour; a single guy in this mid/late 40's collared Gray outside and said that he was not happy with me parking on the road.  My car makes the street look untidy apparently 😂

He also said that he had spoken to 'all the other neighbours in our row' who had agreed not to park their own cars on the road.  I quickly texted my friend two doors down to ask if that was true and she laughed and said it was a load of rubbish.  He'd spoken to his other next door neighbour on the other side who had reminded him that it was none of his business and to 'go away'. 

I know I'm not in anyone's way when I do this and neighbours on the opposite side of the street (at right angles to us) are totally ok with it.  I checked first.  They told me to ignore 'Moaning Myrtle'.   In the past I've had other people's visitors park right outside my door and then wake me up in the early hours when they retrieve their car.  Indeed some of them have been visiting Myrtle himself.  As you know, I was thinking of giving up my car at the end of this year.  Well...A Decision Has Been Made !

I AM KEEPING FOXY LADY FOR ANOTHER YEAR !

Reasons why :

• I spoke to our friendly local mechanic who can see no reason for any looming expenditure on it,
• The Road Fund Licence has increased by just £5 this year,
• Insurance isn't due until March 2026 and is less than £300 per year
• £20 per month spent on petrol lasts me 2 months
• The buses are a 10 minute walk away down a steep hill (uphill on the way back of course)
• My hips and knees give me gyp sometimes meaning walking can be uncomfortable and standing waiting for a bus in the cold is not a good prospect for the winter
• I keep the car clean and tidy
• And...
• ....I refuse to be swayed by a singleton who owns 2 cars; one of which is the same age as mine but which happens to have a private number plate to disguise it's age!

A couple of days later I opened my front door, looked to the left and saw....

.... yes, you guessed it....Myrtle had parked his black vehicle on the road and tootled off for the day in car number 2 🤣

Give me strength 💪....

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Am I being insensitive?  Or is Myrtle being petty? Answers on a postcard please ! (I'm joking, of course !)

Tomorrow is the village annual show and we've decided to enter some apples (Gray), a couple of photographs and some handmade cards for me. I really don't expect to win anything but I love these shows with their tombola, raffles, coffee and cakes and an auction of produce at the end.  Please wish me luck! 😁

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

Angie 💓 

Books and Belly Ache.....

I absolutely whizzed through the Rob Rinder book I borrowed from the library.  I literally couldn't put it down !  It was just as well really because I've been feeling a little delicate due to a flare up of my IBS and have had to try to relax a bit this last week.  I'm due to have a blood test to rule out other problems but the earliest appointment I can get for this is 3rd October 😟 Not ideal when you are in pain and it needs investigating.....

Anyway, I have another library book to read.  I've read all of Trisha Ashley's books but this one is a bit different......

Meanwhile, I'm having to be very careful what I eat.  There's no spicy food, cooked tomatoes, raw onions, lentils, and I've cut down on bread, cheese and sugar.  There's no cheeky glass of wine with a meal either.  I'm feeling very sorry for myself 😢

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

Angie 💗

 

A Storm, August Food Spend , & Reading Matters

 At last we have had the rain we craved.  The weekend was wet and windy, and gave the garden a thorough soaking, although the wind had taken it's toll on a beautiful Copper Beech tree in the park.  One rather large branch had completely snapped.  Such a shame.....

We did get a rather lovely rainbow yesterday afternoon, after yet another sharp shower.  As you can see, our grass has yet to recover from the drought....

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Our August food spend came in at just under budget.  We allow £235 per month (£55 per week) for all food, toiletries, cleaning products etc

The actual spend came in at £229.52

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This month, August, we haven't had a treat day out because yesterday, September 1st, was our Granddaughter's 21st birthday and we had been invited to join them for a meal out last night.  It was lovely to get together; 4 adults and 5 young people, and we enjoyed it.  We paid for our own main courses because we knew it would be a big expense for our Daughter and Son-in-Law.  The meal was served around 8pm which is a bit late for us and, although I had no alcohol, unfortunately I've paid the price with my IBS today 😕 and I feel a bit delicate 😕

Our September treat is yet to be decided.....

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I was lucky enough to pick the latest Rob Rinder book off the Best Seller shelf in the library yesterday morning.  It's already a good read for me.....

This was the book I actually went to pick up.  I ordered it after seeing it on Sue Hall's blog.  Hopefully, no more soggy pastry bottoms!!

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Conversation of the week:

Me: Gray, what are you looking for in that cupboard?

Gray: (head and shoulders jammed in the bottom cupboard) I was just wondering whether we had any more squash, or do I have to wait until the delivery on Thursday?

Erm, what????

Talk about hidden in plain sight 😏😂

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Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post.  I'm sorry I haven't got around to replying but I've been so busy, what with the allotment, picking, preparing and freezing apples by the tonne.  It's great to know that you are all reaping at least some benefits of home grown fruit and veg.  Keep up the good work! 👍

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

Angie 💗