Sunny and Sociable.......

 
Just two doors down from us neighbourR mentioned one coffee morning that he'd been quoted over £300 to take down his flowering cherry tree that hadn't flowered for quite a few years. Hubby has a chain saw, all the safety gear and knows how to use it, so offered his services for free. 

Son came to help and he will keep all the wood to feed his log burner. 
The two of them had it done and all the logs moved and stacked up at ours in less than two hours. NeighbourR insisted they took the cost of chainsaw fuel and a new chain plus some pocket money as a thank you. 
For me it was a pleasure to watch father and son working so easily together. 

Son and fiancé are doing lots of sorting at their house in preparation for some building work. They came across her late mother's knitting bag which made them smile. She used to go to a "knit-n-natter" group every week and as they never saw any finished knitting assumed she mostly did the nattering, however in this bag as well as various coloured wools there was a heap of knitted squares! 

Son asked if I could turn them into a memory blanket. 

They are not all the same size so it took me quite a while to play with a layout that worked. I decided to make one large blanket and a small one that can sit in their little dog's bed who also missed her so much when she died. 

I don't crochet easily and crochet is definitely the best way to join them and create a border, so the small blanket is my practice piece. Hopefully we won't need our dining room table for a long while. 

We've had a trio of social eating out and it was three days running. First was friendsM&P who entertained us at their house. FriendM cooking a lovely three course meal followed by coffee for me and lots more booze for every one else. FriendsT&F were sleeping over and I just about managed to get a very drunk Hubby home at 1am.

Then lunch from noon with friendsR&S at the Maybush pub on the river. Beautiful sunny warm day. Of course I drove both ways as I was sure Hubby would still be over the limit. 

Our third night was the usual six of us eating at Prezzo first then onto the Grosvenor afterwards so there's a game of pool for the men. 

Daughter now has a new-to-her authentic Tudor tent, so taking full advantage of the great weather, she came round to test how it goes up and ultimately store it here. Together with Hubby they laid it all out. 

And it wasn't long before the pieces became this beautiful huge space. Definitely not a job for one person and not worth her taking away for any brief stays. 

This might seem a daft question, but can you sprain your ankle in your sleep? I drove home fine in the early hours of Monday and was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. When I got up in the night for the bathroom I couldn't put any weight on my left foot! And now four days later it seems to finally be easing up. 

Glad it had eased enough by Friday as I had a hospital appointment and the department I needed was a very long trek through a maze of corridors. I have sight issues in my right eye and Specsavers referred me to the hospital. First the stinging drops that dilate the pupils and make everything a blurr, then lots of machines like they have at Specsavers and then lots more, a consult with the doctor then sent to another department for a deeper scan with their machine. Thankfully one of the volunteers walked us through or we would definitely have got lost. I got very clear explanations and confirmation that it's dry macular degeneration plus macular edema (so wet and dry in the same eye, trust me to be greedy). This is age related and non-repairable but they can slow it down. Mine doesn't need any treatment yet but they want to monitor closely and I've a chart to draw on daily and go back in two months. 

Hubby just called through he's made a cuppa and taking them over for us to sit by the pond in this lovely sunshine, so I'm off. 

Have fun and stay safe (covid is still spreading).

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Getting organised.......

 
Organised by a cousin is a get together that is long overdue. Unfortunately there are only a few of us left now and the date decided on means two of those won't be able to make it. That's on 4th April and looking forward to that

 The first thing I'm organising is the family gathering, my immediate family of course, plus my siblings and their families. Could be up to 35 people! Every year we've gathered during the Christmas season, however because of covid we cancelled the last two years and I suggested a spring time garden event. But the year is ticking away fast and calenders are filling with commitments so I'm now starting to see if everyone can make 23rd or 24th April. 

Prodded by a neighbour who didn't want to do it herself I've written out the invitations for all the neighbours in our Close to join in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations with a street party. Hubby and I did the letterbox drop while the others were finishing off the coffee morning chat. 

A quick bake for afternoon tea. 

Always looks yummier under this glass dome. 

For my birthday last August Son and fiancé gave me a garden centre voucher and we thought we'd leave it till spring to spend it. We came home with a new Acer to replace the one Hubby's dad had given us many years ago and that had recently died. We have renewed all our strawberry plants as the ones we had seemed to have gone wild and only produced fruit the size of peas. I now have two new mint and rosemary plants as previous ones have just disappeared. And a new house plant for the hall as the old one wasn't so much a plant as an embarrassing conversation piece. 

While in the garden looking at what we needed on our shopping list I noticed this little stem that has different coloured blooms on. Must be a gift from the birds as neither of us can remember seeing it before. So pretty. 

Last night Daughter, R and I went to the theatre (we sat down early all the other seats did fill).

Daughter had bought the tickets as soon as they went on sale. The wonderful Johannes from the Strictly Come Dancing professionals is touring his first show. 

It was brilliant. He is brilliant. The two main singers had fantastic voices and the male singer danced too. All the other dancers were really good, none of them stood out as weaker or stronger than the rest. And of course Johannes just lit up the stage as soon as he stepped onto it. Daughter called it charisma! Between dances he spoke to us and told his story. Love his cheeky smile. We came home smiling.

Hope you find lots to make you smile.  Have a good week.

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Looks Warmer Than It Is.........

 
Hubby has decided he needs to add more insulation to the loft and board it further so he started clearing some stuff. Lots of boxes from no longer owned appliances, lots of big polystyrene packaging, lots of curtains, blankets, bedspread and other fabrics and a very large box of soft toys that are now too manky to even give to charity as I doubt they'd survive the washing machine. I took a photo of a few that I knew Daughter and Son would remember

That very large Weetabix man Son won in a local supermarket raffle that I didn't even know he'd entered. He was probably about six or seven years old and must have filled in the entry while I was shopping. I think we took an arm each and walked it home. 

Talking of walking, even though it was bitterly cold it was so sunny on Tuesday that when Daughter said she needed to get O to leave the house I suggested we meet at the park then they could come back here for lunch. 

This was supposed to be a photo of the Orwell Bridge in the distance, however, my phone takes good photos but I can't see the screen in sunlight, so I point/ click/ and hope for the best then have to explain afterwards what it was meant to be. 

Thursday was a pokey proddy day with Specsavers in the morning and a blood test in the afternoon. My first visit back to Specsavers since 2018 just because the pandemic got in the way and nothing was urgent, however I knew there was an issue that had got worse since I mentioned it to them at the 2018 appointments. They were very thorough including their new OCT scan. Although the optician said it's totally age related and can't be corrected he has done a hospital referral for another opinion. 

As we were on a rare trip into town, we popped into Primark and I treated myself to a heap of new pants (definitely about time).

Then it was washing day, just two full loads this time. First load done I went outside half intending to use the washing line for the first time since autumn and although very sunny it was blowy and cold, of course I changed my mind and it's all on the clothes horse upstairs. 

So it's more daffs in the lounge (my lovely Daughter bought them) but the heating is still on constant. 

Hope life is sunny for you.

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Happy Stuff.......

 
WOW Saturday night and with Daughter and O we went to see "Outcast" written and performed by Red Rose Chain youth theatre, their Chainers.

I couldn't put a review any better than Daughter did on Facebook, this is what she said.....

     I went to see this show last night, and I’m not just saying this because my daughter works for this theatre and co-created this show but it is fantastic! 

     Outcast is a play based on the Anglo Saxon tale of Beowulf.  It touches on lots of themes such as the changing role of women in our society, how we treat those different to ourselves, as well as being an epic tale of battles and love. It was adapted from the epic poem by the cast themselves, and spun into an hour and a half of wonderful storytelling. 

     They have three more shows next weekend with some tickets still left.  

Red Rose Chain ❤️

This was my first live theatre outing since 2019 and it was perfect. Powerful performances from the whole cast, expecially R, and we know the huge amount of input R had in the creating, writing and production of this. R was also interviewed  for the local newspaper. So so proud of her. It was so good and knowing friendKK would enjoy it I bought two more tickets for Friday evening. Apart from the slight glitch of friendKK not seeing my message about "tickets bought get to mine at 10 to 7" so at 10 past I rang to say are you on your way? As she wasn't I went in my car and she frantically drove across town to meet me there arriving only just before curtain up (although they don't have curtains 🤣). Was worth it, she loved it. 

Pancake Day and I remembered just in time to take a pic before the last yummy mouthfuls were consumed. 

Happy to report I survived a dental checkup, nothing needs doing and thankfully in and out of the chair in minutes. I went with Daughter and O as usual, before that together with Hubby and R we had lunch here first and left Hubby, R and the dog behind while we popped to the dentist. Afterwards R and the dog stayed for dinner as Daughter and O went on a date to Pizza Express as O had a gift voucher. When they came back they had bought me daffodils. 

NeighbourJM came up for a coffee and chat. She'd only been up before when we had regular coffee mornings in the house so part of a room full of conversations. It was so lovely to have a proper long chat just the two of us. 

A happy week for me but still praying for the people in Ukrain 🇺🇦 and all the other refugees from war torn countries 🙏 💔

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