Quiet But Not Boring..........

 
It has proved quite difficult to find containers that are as narrow as the toilet shelves and there are quite a few things we don't actually need on full display, so I made this one and it looks OK, so I need to make another then I'll run out of that white fabric. 

There's another fundraiser this Saturday so Hubby collected all the soft toys in black bags from the lockup and we've sorted and on soft toy washing again. 

I've been sorting out books and starting to bag the ones that need to go (orange bags) and of course those lovely clean teddies are getting bagged and stacked, all out of the way in the office. Now heard that R and the dog are moving in again Friday to Tuesday, so this and more........

all had to clear as that's their bed space! 

Actually there isn't anything else to report on this week as I'm quietly content at home while outside there's panic buying at the fuel pumps, lots of blaming Brexit and the pandemic causing employment disruption of lorry drivers therefore supplies of everything not getting to the right places and serious lack of CO2 which means all the food that makes it to the supermarket shelves is going to go off anyway! Meanwhile I've a few more toys that need repairing. 

Hope you can keep smiling through the crazy and have a good week.

. 

Volunteers Are Awsome..........

 
SERVSC = Service by Emergency Response Volunteers Suffolk and Cambridgeshire - often called Bloodrunners. 

Hubby has been an active member for nearly 10 years and seven of those he was on the trustees committee and events manager. I'm very proud of what he does and what the whole charity does to save the NHS thousands of pounds every year. Last year was their tenth anniversary and they delayed any celebrating until they could do it face to face. Saturday was a bbq, with partners invited and it stayed dry and sunny. 

NeighbourS happened to mention that her daughter had brought home a big bag of onions from her allotment and nobody was using them so she might as well throw them away NOOOOOOO! NeighbourC and I made her get them and we shared the bag between us. I've just filled six little jars with caramelised onion chutney.  Yummy. 

I took a little jar to neighbourS as a thank you for the onions. 

Granddaughter E lives most of the time with her boyfriend in a house shared with others. A few of them tested positive for covid so they are all isolating and being very careful. Unfortunately E has also now tested positive even though she was quite unwell with covid last Christmas and suffered a bit after both first and second jabs and you would hope she'd built up a good amount of immunity she still managed to catch it again! 

Another lunch catchup, this time with friendLE and friendSG. Last get together was before Christmas 2019 so plenty to talk about. We went to our usual local pub but the food was not good, two of us had chicken escalope which were both burnt round the edges and the other chicken salad was pathetic and definitely overpriced. When S ordered the creme brulee they had run out of main ones and she agreed to have two mini ones instead, they were so mini she could hardly get a teaspoon in the dish. We will find somewhere else! 

Starting to have a major book sort out, mainly because a whole bookcase was ejected from the downstairs toilet and I've nowhere to relocate it, and should be easier now to donate to a charity shop. But first I think I will sort and take some photos to see if any of my friends or neighbours want them. 

This could take quite some time! 

Here the forecast is sunny Saturday but wet Sunday, hope that fits with your weekend plans. Stay safe of course.

. 

Plus a Little Toilet Talk..........

 
Woops, made a carrot and nut cake to use up the carrots before they went soft and floppy, however we were busy doing other stuff at the same time so plonked it into sandwich tins that were a bit small and then I forgot about it so it was in the oven far too long, then ran out of icing sugar so only about half the amount of butter cream filling than I'd prefer. Very tall and a bit dry but we ate it all over a few days. 

I've a passion for jugs, I've probably mentioned it before. Today (Monday) I went to have my nails done. This lovely nail technician and I go back many years now and for most of them she came to my house, although post-pandemic I go to her's as she has a more covid safe setup. Today sitting on her side table was a gift she had specially bought for me. A beautiful jug and a beautiful thoughtful gift. 

Tuesday and we are back to the 7am alarm! MS is the guy doing all the tricky bits for the toilet makeover and he arrived at 8am! MS is quite well known locally as a professional footballer he played for Ipswich for about 18 years and then went onto being a football manager elsewhere. For the last 14 years or so he's run his own business as a kitchen and bathroom fitter. 

He arrived at 8:30am and the water went off, went back on around noon. He left about 2:30pm having redone all the pipework, putting a sealant on the floor and letting that dry, finally covering the floor with a liquid leveler which now needs to dry overnight. 

Pleased to have the house to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon as we needed to get ready for a (third time pandemic rearranged) wedding reception. 

Lovely wedding in lovely venue. Evening entertainment was ceilidh dancing and food was a good flow of fresh cooked pizzas coming out of the patio pizza oven. Some parts of the evening felt like too many people too close so I stepped right back, didn't bother Hubby though. Pleased they got their wedding.

By the end of MS's day two it looked like this

Wednesday night we managed eight of us in our usual pub because friendHM wanted to come and she hadn't been out with us for over two years. In fact she brought my Christmas present from last year as we kept missing each other. I've still got her's here. 

Thursday Daughter had asked us to dog sit as they were all going to be out and since all the lockdowns the dog wasn't used to being left anymore. Of course we are still having the loo done and MS needs the front door open as he's cutting all the wood on the drive and working out of his van. So dog and I were mostly shut in the lounge with access to the garden. Grass was quite wet in the morning and stopping her on the towels to dry her paws was hit and miss. 

Turned out the dog was the easiest bit of the day. About 11:30am there was a power cut and as loads of the neighbours came out we discovered it affected most of the street. Hubby reported it online and by noon the engineers had been dispatched. UKNP were really good at regular text updates and the "expected to be fixed by 2pm" gradually got updated until power was finally restored at midnight!!! It took four UKPN vans, a digger and yet another van to come and fix the digger and lots of noisy drilling on the drive of the house half way down, so their cars came up into our drive. 

Of course MS mostly uses power tools so he did as much as he could but couldn't finish the job as expected and left. 

We are all electric, so we had to steal hot water for a cuppa from next door as he had a gas hob. Next door wasn't actually home but we have a key and he came home and caught Hubby in the act, which was funny, so once the water was boiled he joined us for tea in our garden. 

Considering MS was in and out, the power men were up on our drive lots, the postman had been, neighbours had all been there chatting and we'd had a sainsbury food delivery the dog had been brilliant and stopped barking immediately when told to. 

Daughter arrived about 5:30ish to collect the dog and she set up her camping stove and we all had tea. Dinner was from the chip shop. 

Cordless phones were a bother with constant 'battery low' beeping and flashing. In the end Hubby hid the downstairs one in the office with the door shut. Then just as we were falling asleep about 11pm the bedroom one started with the beeping and flashing so Hubby ran down to join it with its sibling. 

As evening drew in the candles got lit. We also found that putting small torches into our lounge uplighters gave off a reasonable glow. And we still managed to do our Thursday online quiz on my tablet. 

Using my mifi gadget and a couple of small battery packs we managed to keep going till about 10:30pm and then when the update came through that there would not be power till 1am we turned off our connections to the outside world and went to bed. 

11:54pm the bedside radio alarm came on, so the power was back! 

About 4am Hubby noticed lots of downstairs lights were on so he came down to turn them off and back to bed. I'd been up at 1:45 for the bathroom and I think that's when all the vans left. Life is rarely boring here, day or night.

Friday morning and all seemed back to normal apart from the huge hole in the pavement down our close. Fridge and freezer stuff all survived, lounge table under the spilled candle wax puddle looked undamaged, MS was back to carry on where he left off. 

I went out to lunch with friendM. We went to The Butt and Oyster at Pin Mill

One of my favourite places that's quite local. We sat outside as the view is stunning. There was some heavy rain which made us move but only to the next vacant table that had an umbrella. 

Remember this

Well it now looks like this

Enjoy your weekend.

.

Summer Gone and Autumn Here.......

 
.... with the pyracantha and rowan tree full of berries ready for our hungry winter birds.

We took a well earned break from all the cleaning and sorting to visit Son and fiancé on Sunday and while we were there Hubby and son finished building and glazing their new greenhouse. 

Monday started quite drizzly so nobody came out for coffee morning, although a few neighbours kept popping out to check. An hour later than normal when it looked dry we knocked on doors to rally the gang and gave it another go. Even though it did start to faintly drizzle again we put up with it for about 45 minutes. 

Hubby has now done a couple more coats of emulsion and the toilet is now blue (the yellow on the back wall will be boxed in and saved him having to be a contortionist).

We've also chosen our preferred worktop and now waiting for Ipswich Plastics to let us know if it's available as they don't have any in stock. 

As you can see the tomatoes that I planted never came to much. The one plant fruiting is so scrawny hahaha

However, there are about four plants we never planted, so must have been a gift from the birds perhaps, and although they are right behind the box that houses the pond pump and gets little direct sunshine, they are thick and healthy with green tomatoes in the dark at the bottom and more flowers near the top! 

The fig tree is the biggest it's ever been and so full of figs, however they are all small, not growing at all (you'll have to zoom right in to see them). Very odd! Maybe I'm still a bit early, I'll keep checking. 

Ipswich Plastics let us know that they couldn't supply that worktop for another two to three weeks. Hubby went online and spent a very long time searching and did manage to find the same worktop which was delivered today (Friday).

Daughter and Co are all quizzed out now so Hubby and I do it alone and definitely get lower scores, but still fun, still keeps the brain active, still a break from TV and still gives the week a bit of a structure, so we'll keep going for as long as it's fun. 

That's all my news for another week and nothing planned for today so guess I can't put off cleaning the kitchen and dining room floor any longer, then at least all the downstairs is done. 

Have a good week and stay safe.

.