Normal Service Will Be Resumed ASAP....

 Some of you will have noticed that I've been absent from my blog for about 3 weeks ( or maybe no-one has noticed ! 😂)  Anyway, I've not been feeling well.  Perhaps it's been the heat which has made me listless, but I've had no energy and have been unable to concentrate on anything much.  My 'Burning Mouth Syndrome' has still been bothering me (some days worse than others) making me irritable and downright miserable at times.  My vitamin levels are now back to normal but I took a phone call  from the pharmacy last week to say that my cholesterol levels are still elevated with a total of 7 and they are prescribing Statins.  The side effects could be indigestion and achy muscles (both of which I already suffer from) and I'm unsure whether or not to take them, especially the way I feel at the moment.  In addition, I've had a slight headache for the last 3 days and don't want to introduce any other symptoms into the mix.  I'll wait until I feel a bit better before deciding.  Meanwhile, I'm paying more attention to diet, drinking a Benecol drink and carrying on with using Benecol spread on sandwiches whilst I'm deciding.  

I've still been crafting my cards for the Hospice, but have no energy for anything else.....

I know in the scheme of things that our British weather isn't on the scale of other countries.  The wildfires around Europe are horrendous and very frightening.

Does the weather affect your mood too?  How do you cope?

Stay well and safe , wherever in the world you happen to be,

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

Angie 💗

Cooling off, bargains, saga and sport!

The past week seems to have been all about sport and trying to cool off.  Nights have been sticky, despite the fans in the bedrooms and sleep has sometimes been elusive.   The heat saps all our energy and we have done very little in having days out, or even time out of the house.  The aircon unit has been turned on again in the living room which at least keeps one room cool, but sometimes we just need a change of scene. 

Yesterday, I bought tickets online for the £2 Silver Screen film, thinking that they would at least have the air conditioning on.  They didn't 😕We spent 2 sticky hours on faux leather seats and to add insult to injury they had no free biscuits! 😨Yep, even Odeon are trying to save money......

As the cinema is close to M & S, I had ordered a new bra for collection and we popped into the food hall whilst we were there.  What bliss! It was lovely and cool 😎 They were just marking down prices on soft fruit (it was 3pm by then) and we nabbed a pack of British strawberries reduced from £2.10 to £1.24, plus British cherries down from £2.50 to £1.33.  With the money saved I spent 95p on a small tub of single cream to go with the strawberries.......

The strawberries are absolutely delicious and will make 2 desserts for each of us.......

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The British Gas energy saga still continues.  I can see what the problem is.  When I changed tariff in May, someone changed my account to show that we now have a dual read meter; day rate plus Sunday rate.  We don't.  Our meter is still the same one we have had since day one 5 years ago! We have still had no bill/statement since 19th April.  Yesterday, I called customer service...again...third time of calling.  I explained the problem and the adviser could see the problem but was unable to change it and couldn't even add a reading for the electricity meter.  Meanwhile, a cheaper tariff has been offered online and I have taken it.  Now that will really confuse them, I'm sure 😏 The lady in the call centre said that she will "escalate" the problem to "the team".  The monitor seems to show that everything is working normally, it's just their account system which is failing.  I'm not holding my breath for a rapid resolution.......  

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Neither Graham nor I are massive sports fans but the TV seems to have been entirely taken over by tennis, football, Formula One etc  The TV offerings have been repeat after repeat so it has remained firmly switched off.  We did, however, give in and watch the match in which Harry Kane scored two goals, and watched the highlights😁 of the England match against Mexico when they won 3-2.  Wow! Why can't they always play like that?  I might get to like football after all....

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I woke up this morning at 7am and it felt so fresh with the doors and windows wide open.  No sun at that point so I set to and tackled the ironing, put another load of washing in the machine, then pegged it out.  At 10.40am the doors and windows are now closed once more but I feel much happier having achieved something today before I feel like a limp lettuce once more.  It seems we have to bear the heat until after the weekend again.  I think it will mean a visit to the local pub at lunchtime today.  Now they do have the air con on.  We can buy cold drinks and share a cheese and onion bloomer (£4.00)  I think I will take my book to read too. A couple of hours in a cool pub will be very welcome 😉

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

Angie 💗

A U-Turn & A Bargain

 I think it was sometime last year when I wrote a post about our local Co-op suddenly closing and changing hands.  Since then it has never quite regained its popularity.  Stock has been poor, as in half empty shelves, pricy too.  Only the petrol station and Post Office seemed to keep customers flowing slowly through the store. 

Well....something similar has happened this last week, but in reverse.  It has reopened as a....Co-op. This time the one with a blue and white member card rather than the Mid Counties one.  Apparently,  people turned up out of the blue to do 'till checks', ushering customers out and closing the store. It has now reopened as a fully stocked Co-op store.  

I downloaded the App, reactivated my membership card, immediately getting a £1 off shopping voucher.  I needed the Post Office counter service so we decided to take a look at the new store.  Immediately,  I spotted a box of 160 teabags with a yellow sticker, priced at £3.38.  They have a decent date on them too.  I snapped them up and got my £1 off making them £2.38

As it was only the second day of opening, there was a lot of activity with staff filling the shelves and trying to get to grips with the tills, lottery and fuel sales etc but we felt valued as customers.  The manager served us whilst trying to effectively reduce the queue by directing non fuel purchases to his till or to the self serve ones.  Only one till was ready for purchases using anything other than cash too, but he kept apologising for getting distracted whilst serving us.  We will definitely go back again.  They have some super member offers on and we have other vouchers which offers £4 off a £15 spend and £5 off a £20 one.

Does anyone use their local Co-op?

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It's been much cooler this weekend, thank heavens, and it's been drizzling with rain since early afternoon.  I really wish we could have a downpour.  The allotment is suffering from drought.  My sugar snap peas were doing well but have suddenly gone yellow and stopped producing, the strawberries have stopped too.  Some of the beetroot has split and the brocolli is bolting.  We just can't visit often enough to keep everything going.  The only things we have picked over the last week have been the last of the radishes and spring onions.  Pathetic....

At home, the cucumbers are almost ready, and I'm waiting for the tomatoes to begin ripening.

That's all for now.

Take care of yourselves,

Angie 💗

Edit:  so sorry about the earlier font errors.  Blogger keeps changing the size without me realising!  That's one of the problems with trying to type a post on my phone 😒xx

Needs Must, Splashing the Air Con Cash

 With global warming showing it's teeth in the hot spell this week, we felt we had made a wise decision in agreeing a few weeks ago to splash the savings cash on a mobile air con unit.  After careful consideration, and not quite having the right place to install a fixed one, we had chosen this one from B & Q...

It looks a bit ungainly perched on a stool but it does the job of keeping one room cool and inviting.  It appears to be costing around 25p  per hour to run and it will need to be on for quite a long time in the extreme heat.  We'll just have to suck up the cost as it will probably only be used for a few weeks in the summer.  The unit is heavy to lift but is on wheels so, once on the ground, can be moved easily and put in the corner of the big bedroom until the next time it's needed.  There is also a fan function when air con isn't needed.  The water container inside will need to be emptied about every 3 days.  Hopefully, not too messily!  We have ordinary fans for both bedrooms, neither of which make much difference at the moment. Extreme heat makes both of us feel ill.  I think Sue from My Quiet Life In Suffolk has it nailed with her use of ice packs and cold flannels!

How are you keeping cool?

In the early hours of this morning there was a little rain and distant thunder, and the forecast is for cooling temperatures over the next week.  Thank goodness, because we've had enough sun already 

 thank you very much 😊 

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

Angie 💗

Challenge Shopping, Menus and HEAT!

 We had run out of a few things by Monday so we had to make the effort to go into town to run a few errands and do a top-up shop.  

Gray's shopping was simple; a loaf 75p and some salmon fillets at £4.50.   He used his £5.00 Nectar points plus 25p cash on the actual 'shopping' and paid for the coffee himself as a treat......

My shopping was a bit more of what was needed plus a treat of some ice cream as the weather is so unbearably hot at the moment.  I bought the usual staples of eggs, milk, cheese, two ready meals (for the microwave), some cooked chicken slices for sandwiches, and two pizza bases which I will add toppings to myself.  The apple pie is a lazy purchase but at £2.15 and no oven needed, it will make easy desserts with a drizzle of cream or scoop of ice cream.  Two bananas, two baking size potatoes, and a yellow pepper , plus a TV guide......

The total was £29.96 so I used my  £10.00 Nectar points plus £19.96 from the remainder of the food budget........

As you can see below, we still have a bit of cash left for a weekend top-up if needed.  With it being so hot we aren't that hungry so the salad stuff left in the fridge is being used up nicely.

Menu so far:

Monday: Beef stew from freezer (fish fingers for me)

Tuesday: Tinned salmon & mixed salad

Wednesday:  Ready meals (cod in parsley sauce, mash, peas)

Thursday: Home topped pizza with more salad from allotment & fridge

Friday: Salmon fillet with new potatoes and veg

 Saturday: Baked potatoes with cheese and (yet more!) salad

Gray: £5.00  nil

Ange: £12.33  £2.33

Cash: £2.65  £2.40

Left in Budget: £35.00 £15.04

Not an exciting post but it's all I can come up with at the moment 😋My brain is too hot to think straight !

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I hope you are all well and coping with the UK heat.

Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Testing Myself.... and a Bit of a Challenge...

 When we were at the library last week, Gray decided to go on the computer and try the online Theory Driving Test to see if he was still in touch with current signage etc   He was shocked to fail the test.  The available points are 50 and a score of 43 or more is a pass.  He scored 34 😟and so failed the test.  I decided to have a go too.  I scored 43 so actually passed the test but hardly with flying colours 😏 I passed my driving test when I was 18.

We need to gen-up I think.

Has anyone else tried the test recently?

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Because  I haven't felt 100% lately, I've taken my eye off the food budget again.  I was quite shocked to discover that we have spent £200 of the monthly £235 budget already this month and we have a week still to go 😨

I think we need to utilise the Nectar points as well as the 'change jar' and try to last the rest of the month on that.  I know that Gray has £5 in points and I have £10 in useable points ( £12.33 in total) and once I have spent my £10, I might actually accrue the 17 points required to make up another £2.50 if you see what I mean?

So for now:

Gray: £5.00

Ange: £12.33

Cash: £2.65

Left in Budget: £35.00

Let's see how well we can eat for what we have left for the month.

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

Angie 💗

The Weather...and Edible Things....

 What changeable weather we are having at the moment.  We have been alternating between rain, wind and sunshine and no two days have been the same.  Today (Saturday) was forecast to be a 'heatwave' but it's a lovely, dry, comfortable day after a few hours of light rain during the night.  It's warm rather than hot which suits me fine.  This morning was the coffee morning get-together at the allotment at noon.  We met a lot of new plot holders, mostly young people ie 40 or younger! as the older members are slowly having to give up when the work involved becomes too much.  It's a bit of a struggle for us sometimes; my back is still tender, my knee gives way on a regular basis and Gray seems to be getting stiffer in the joints by the day.  Hey-ho we'll carry on as long as possible 😁

We picked more broad beans (which are coming to an end now), the first few sugar snap peas, some spring onions, delicious Elsanta strawberries, and some Sweetpeas for the table outside (there are too many insects in them for the house 😱).....

Although they are Autumn fruiting plants, I spotted our very first raspberries.  They were delicious! Too good to leave for the birds! 

I also had a little furtle around in the tub of potatoes and pulled out enough for tea tonight.  The tub will be emptied of the little Rocket potatoes next week, but we also have a second tub which we will leave for a while longer to get a bit bigger before we harvest them.

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I've still been feeling a little 'off' ' over the last couple of weeks, hence no blog posts...my apologies....as my back is delicate and my tongue still stinging each day, despite all my efforts to eat 'safe' food and avoid spice, alcohol, coffee etc   I'm due more blood tests at the end of the month to see if my cholesterol is down and vitamin levels are up.  Let's see how many hoops I have to jump through to get the tests done.  Gray has had a troublesome cough for months and requested an X-ray when the Advanced Nurse Practitioner suggested:

a) Thyroid problems (test says no)

b) hayfever / asthma (no)

c) didn't know what else it could be!

Gray asked for a GP and was told that the ANP was 'very good' and could do anything a GP can do 😦  With respect.....then why is she not a GP?

The x-ray was performed over 2 weeks ago and still no results.....

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The good news is that I have been able to sit and craft for short periods of time and we dropped another batch of cards off at the shop last Thursday.  The total this year is now 266 which makes me bang on target for 500 by the end of the year.  When I took them in there was just ONE left in the basket which makes me very, very happy to continue 😊

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It's Father's Day tomorrow and our Daughter has invited us to a BBQ at lunchtime.  I'm really looking forward to it.  And the forecast is for warm, dry weather.  Yippee! No cooking!  If our Grandson and his girlfriend are there we will play cards too...Chase The Ace...always great fun!

If you are in the UK are you celebrating Father's Day? 

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

Angie 💗

Gobbledegook...what the....???

 

In the middle of May I moved our energy fix, which was coming to an end, to a new fixed tariff, still with the same company, British Gas.  Since then things have been... shall we say.... less than a smooth transition 😡 The App refuses to update on anything other than the increased Direct Debit and I've had no statement since 19th April.  Last Thursday I rang the customer care line, explained the situation and the lady checked it out.  She was unable to tell why I hadn't had a statement as one had been produced, as usual on 19th May.  A week later this is the reply I received today.......

Dear Angela,

Thank you for your patience.

I have been advised that the reason your bill is not currently available is due to a missing flow (the process of transferring physical energy between different technical or natural systems). This has occurred since you applied for your new tariff, PeakSave Super Sunday Jun27 v3.

Please don’t worry, as I have raised this with our internal team to investigate and resolve. As soon as I receive an update or once this has been fixed, I will let you know.

Thank you again for your understanding.

Kind regards,
Aimee
British Gas 

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Does anyone actually understand this?  Am I being thick? Or is this just British Gas blinding me with science? Does this simply mean my smart meter no longer works?

For goodness sake.......🙈

HELP!

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

Angie 💗

First Fruit Harvest !

 Well...in all honesty it's hardly a harvest, just 6 strawberries from the garden 😁

which were delicious shared with a scoop of vanilla ice cream 😋

At the allotment we have 2 gooseberry bushes which were groaning with fruit last week, so Gray went to pick them yesterday.  This is the sum total of the 'harvest'.....

Yep....8....the flipping birds beat us to it again.  And, to add insult to injury, the 8 that we do have are not even ripe.  It's a good job we are not overly keen on gooseberries!

In the greenhouse, the tomato plants, cucumber and pepper plants are doing well, we are still picking lettuce leaves too.

I'm hoping for some broad beans from the allotment very soon as they are beginning to fatten out now and we will soon need the bed for sweetcorn.  I'll keep you in the loop!

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Today, Tuesday, we are giving the library a miss.  My books are still not in, and we have £2 Silvers cinema tickets to see Elvis in concert.  Our £2 ticket includes a coffee and biscuit, and we'll take sandwiches with us. My back is a little easier today so I'm looking forward to it 😊

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That's all for today.  Take care of yourselves,

Angie 💗

It's Too Darn Hot! Purple is the Colour....

 It's been so blooming hot over the last few days that we haven't felt like going out at all. Any temperature over about 23 C melts us 🫠 and, at times, it's been 28 C in the house despite having closed the windows and blinds,  and putting the fan on 😱

Sleeping has been problematic too with the heat lingering well into the night.  As we have a bungalow we can't leave windows open at night so, as soon as it's light, I throw the bedroom window wide open to let in the cool morning air.  Bliss !

Last night I was still awake at midnight and saw the flash of lightning but heard no thunder.  It gradually came closer, noisier and then the few drops of rain turned into a torrent.  I opened the window and let the cool air in whilst I stood watching the storm.  It was so refreshing and it's certainly refreshed the garden as well as us!

The weather is set to cool down next week and give us a little respite, thank goodness.

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I love ❤️ poppies so last year at the allotment I sprinkled the seeds from a couple of self sown poppies along the side of the shed.  When we went to water on Tuesday we saw these.....

They are absolutely massive and are a beautiful colour, I think.  And there are lots of them!!

Bloom where you are sown, I say 😉

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Each Tuesday we are still visiting the library in the morning before the heat builds up and researching the family tree.....

There's nothing exciting found so far but I do enjoy the change of scene, a comfy chair and a

 drink whilst Gray carries on at the computer........

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That's all for now folks.  My back is playing up again and I can't sit comfortably (nor walk for that matter 😕) until the pain eases off.  It came on suddenly yesterday (no idea what I had done to deserve it) and the pain was another reason I couldn't sleep last night.

Hey, ho....such is life...time for more painkillers.

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

Angie 💗

Every Little Helps...More Economies Will Begin

 In my last post I mentioned that I had taken out a new fix for energy.  Prices are going up on June 1st by a predicted 13%.  Wow....that is going to adversely affect lots of people on a low income, isn't it.  We will need to make further economies in order to reduce the bills.  Our DD has increased from £97.53 to £108.03 from June 1st.  As we have an old TV (at least 12 years old) I'm guessing that it's not particularly energy efficient, so we have begun to turn it off after we have watched the 6pm news and putting it back on at 9pm for the dramas we like to watch.  It's never on during the day either.  We either go out, do the gardening or read instead.

Some time ago, I talked about the PeakSave scheme for British Gas.  We had half price electricity between 11am and 4pm on Sundays which I tried to make full use of.  Was it worth the effort? 

In around 18 months I have saved £55.98.  Not a fortune but better in my pocket than that of British Gas.  The new plan will allow me to make better use of the offer because of the longer time slot.  I can begin washing earlier in the day and do things like put on the breadmaker, slow cooker, fill the oven maybe.  I'll work it out.....

The washing machine insurance is also increasing in price from £7.99 to £8.99 per month from June.  We toyed with the idea of cancelling it but, after checking the cost of a replacement integrated machine, it will be safer to carry on paying.  I can't manage without a machine.

Although we have had a reasonable increase in our pensions this April, there's no getting away from the fact that we are on the old state pension which is less than the new rate, and so the increase is less too.  A huge chunk of it has gone on increased rent already.  We were also shocked by how little food we got in our recent delivery from Sainsburys,  just 2 tote boxes and they were nowhere near full.  It looked pathetic spread out on the worktop AND it cost £52.08 😒

I really need to evaluate what I'm spending on non-food items.....

Are you noticing a difference in outgoings too?

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

Angie 💗

TV Changes Are Afoot, Food Waste etc......

 I read in my news feed on my phone yesterday that the government is planning a Green Paper on bringing forward plans to turn off free TV services, like Freeview, in favour of online streaming services only.  It could happen as early as 2030 which is a mere 4 years away.  Now... we watch TV via Freeview.  We don't have any 'paid for' services and have no intention of getting any.  We are happy to pay the licence fee to watch BBC as they often show a jolly good drama or two, but the likes of Sky and Netflix don't really attract us.  What on earth will we do?  What on earth will other people do, especially those who don't have reliable broadband, or even any broadband at all??  We know of people who pay ridiculous amounts for streaming services and sports channels, sometimes upwards of £80 per month. We simply can't afford that and I'm sure we are not the only ones 😕

Do you pay for a streaming service?  Is it expensive? Reliable?  Is there much worth watching? 

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This morning we found our new food waste caddies on the path outside the front door.  There is a big caddy for outside and a smaller one for the kitchen.  This is something else I will have to get used to doing 😕  As it is, I constantly have to stop Gray from putting things in the wrong bin.  Why did he think polystyrene was recyclable??  I'm happy to recycle veg peelings, eggshells, teabags etc but the disadvantage is that the caddy takes up a lot of room on the worktop near the sink.  This morning I have re-jigged everything and given the worktops a good clean before putting everything back (albeit in different places) The collections will be on a weekly basis beginning in June and, at least, they will provide the small caddy liners free of charge.  I'm just glad that we don't eat much meat as I wouldn't fancy having meat scraps in the bin with summer on the way.  Imagine the smells and flies in the heat?

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 Yesterday, I took another dozen handmade cards to the shop, this time they were music themed.  I had ordered some little books of images from Hunkydory a couple of weeks back when they were on offer and they are lovely.  They will keep me going for some time and, in addition, I received the free club member's gift which will make several cards, I would guess at least a  dozen more.  I'll share some of those with you later on.....

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Right....now....Graham is at the allotment.  It's a beautiful sunny morning and more heat is forecast for the holiday weekend.  Our daughter has invited us to a barbie tomorrow 😀 We will be celebrating son-in-law's new job so I might just allow myself a small glass of Prosecco then to toast his success.  Meanwhile, I'll now tackle the ironing and pop a load into the washing machine so that I can peg it out today.  

Our energy fix ends next month so I fixed again yesterday on a new plan in case there is no new fix available later on.  This particular one gives half price electricity between 9am and 5pm on a Sunday.  It will give me 3 extra hours of cheap electricity compared to the old plan but the monthly DD has gone from £97.53 to £108.03 😭

Economies will have to be made.....

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

Angie 💗

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💗