Saturday 26 November 2022

Lull Before The Storm......

 
There hasn't been much worth telling you about this week. The weather has been cold, wet and windy with very occasional sunny spells so we've mostly stayed inside. We did venture out for coffee morning and needed coats, hats, scarves and lap blankets and still not staying out for long. Our days have been filled with normal stuff punctuated with Daughter and O popping round for an afternoon and I've been out meeting a friend that I haven't seen for ages. 

I've nearly finished writing Christmas cards, only stopped because I need to buy more cards. 
Nowhere near finished the prezzie shopping. 
This weekend the decorations go up because the grandchildren still want to do it like they've done every year since the girls were three. Just R and O this year. They've never been up in November before but R will be so busy from next weekend right through December performing at the theatre that this is her only free time.

So from one of my shortest blog posts ever, I'll wish you a happy weekend. 
TTFN.

Saturday 19 November 2022

Rollneck Sweater Weather......

 
Opened the curtains to lots of sparkly webs, photos never quite capture their magic.


One of the properties that backs onto our garden was bought at the beginning of the year and has had lots of work done building an extension and obviously lots inside too. Meanwhile the broken fence has been getting worse and Hubby has been wedging bits inside to ensure it's dog proof. 
Without warning a panel slid out and a man appeared, checked with Hubby it was OK for them to replace it and within an hour the old became new. Hubby now needs to make them as dark as the rest of ours. 

Hubby spent two days helping Daughter decorate her hall stairs and landing. I spent one of those days meeting friendM for lunch. Always lovely spending time just the two of us, however just as we'd started dessert her sister phoned to say they were in the area so they called into the hotel and ordered some bar food and when we left the restaurant area we joined them in the bar. 

I'd read on Facebook someone always soaks a banana skin overnight and uses that water for her house plants which are so much healthier for it. Comments underneath showed so many others doing the same. Why had I never heard of that before? So here we go!

I needed to shorten a door curtain and was really pleased that I already had thread that was a good colour match. So good infact that I moved chairs twice to get into the best light or I kept losing sight or where I'd been and where I needed to go hahaha. 

I've had to admit defeat. I try so hard to be sustainable and planet friendly with purchases, upcycling and reusing etc, however I've had to give up with crisp packets. We can't recycle them locally. About three years ago I discovered The Iron Man project where they iron them together to create waterproof blankets for the homeless and for the refugee camps. What a great idea. After a lot of searching I managed to find an address to post mine to after I'd washed them and opened each one to lay flat. At the end of last year they said to stop sending for a while as their storage was overflowing and they were moving it all to somewhere else. They've never published a new address. There is lots of talk of various drop off collection points but never a list of where they are. Plus postage has gone up so much. So for now I've given up and all the ones I'd saved, washed and were ready to go have hit the bin!!!

Hubby needed to pop into town so I went too hoping to get some Christmas prezzies. It was quite depressing to see how many shops have gone and the units are empty. I need to browse for inspiration but that's not so easy now. 

On a happier note we met with friendsL&K for a pub meal in Hatfield Peverel which is about half way between our homes. So lovely having a very long awaited catchup. 

Hope you have a good week. Wrap up warm.
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Saturday 12 November 2022

Supporting Roles.......

 
Hubby likes to get the best deal on all contract renewals. BT broadband just wouldn't budge low enough this time so he swapped to Virgin Media for the broadband and phone line. As we have used Virgin many years ago the cables are all still there, so the swap took their engineer less than half an hour. It will now take us a bit longer than that to change password connections for all our tech that uses the WiFi. 

Out of five ladies, two had had October birthdays but it's not easy finding a night that fits in everyone's diaries, so November and we finally got together for a celebration meal out. Barely a break in conversation to eat hahaha. 

Hubby has had a fun few hours with this IKEA flapjack...
Which eventually became this...
Christmas is starting to creep into my thoughts now. I've booked a Christmas meal for the team I used to work with and I've also taken in to the pub all our menu choices. FriendM has also done the same for our usual gang of six, this year it's a dinner and dance. Daughter and I have even briefly discussed the menu for 11 people which include carnivores, vegetarians, vegans and one that's gluten free! I really must start thinking about shopping for gifts before there's a last minute panic. 

O and the dog were here last night for dinner and when M came to collect them he stayed long enough to tell us all his latest involvement with the Tollywood film industry. Talking of films, O had recently been on a film making course and he directed his groups short film. If you want to see it click Red Glare

I'd better post this now as O and the dog are here again today and they will be here early. So have a good weekend.
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Saturday 5 November 2022

Time Ticks On.......

 
The clocks changed here going back one hour of course. Getting dark by 4pm means it's definitely "get cozy in front of the TV" time of year.

I thought our red alstroemeria had died in the summer drought, but it's obviously a great survivor. 

I mentioned last week that M spent some time on a film set, well this week they featured M in the local paper.

Our Wednesday night pub now has a variety of entertainment. One week it was open mike night, that was a few OK acts and some girls that were definitely not OK doing karaoke so badly it was a struggle for us to work out what they were singing. Another week there has been a quiz, well underway by the time we arrived so we sat in the other bar. This week was a chap singing a good mix of 60s country/ soul/ Irish and he had a great voice. 

I'm sure I take this photo every year but I do love our tulip tree when it's wearing autumn gold. 

Have a good weekend.
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