Still Warm For Autumn.........

 
Pleased to report that I've finally cleared away my little apple processing work station. 

And I've plenty in the freezer now, sitting with the frozen plums and rhubarb to see us through lots of yummy deserts and cakes. 

Hubby and I helped a friend celebrate her 80th birthday. She had been a neighbour that had recently moved (not far away) and we all still keep in touch, so we shared the afternoon with the other neighbours that went. 

Son messaged Hubby to ask if he had room to store a garden swing seat for the winter, of course he made room. 

Along with a huge proportion of the UK and world, Hubby and I watched the full BBC coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral. It was amazing and must have been exhausting for the family grieving and carrying out all that was asked of them so publicly. Exhausting for all the military that were taking part that had no doubt been rehearsed and rehearsed, and the responsibility of getting everything perfect. Exhausting for all those that had to be there in person, members of the public travelling and queuing. 

We had to watch it in two halves as Granddaughter E and her boyfriend were here staying with Daughter for the weekend and going back to Dorset after they'd seen us, so we arranged for them all to come for lunch, they came immediately after the main funeral service ended.

So lovely to see them. 

Unfortunately I felt like they were rushed off a bit because our usual coffee morning had been arranged as afternoon tea instead, so with everyone gathering out on their drives my guests left while they could still drive through without having to move everyone. 

NeighbourA made scones with jam and cream for us all. 

After a lot of emails and negotiation I managed to arrange with the old work team a lunch date and a December Christmas meal date! It has been over a year since we last met for lunch and December 2019 our last Christmas meal. Lunch was this week and it was so lovely to catch up with them. The waitress didn't get us all clearly in the frame though. 

Hubby has been sorting out R's car, it is in R's name but I don't think she had actually driven it. Both granddaughters were having driving lessons until the pandemic stopped them and Son had passed on a suitable "first time" car for them which ended up in R's name as E was preparing to go to uni...... however uni didn't happen and neither of the girls have any interest in starting up their lessons again any time soon. Meanwhile, Daughter is paying for insurance, road tax, fuel and MOTs etc. So now it's charged up and running well, a few minor things sorted, MOT booked and then daughter will hopefully sell it.  

I needed a blood test and as you can see the phlebotomist found my veins a little reluctant.  

Usual night with the Wednesday gang. 

Also Thursday a girls night out as a belated birthday for me from August and now including friendJ's September birthday. We went to  Trongs Chinese Restaurant. It was really busy and very noisy in there, but we managed to talk above it and service was excellent. We all ate far too much it was so yummy.

I've just had another Cystoscopy. So pleased they are still keeping checks on me. Relieved to say all still clear. 

R, O and the dog moved in, Friday till next Tuesday.

So it's been a busy week and for the times we sit still the heating is back on. 

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More Than a Lunchbox......

 
Son came Saturday morning with one of those huge builders bags full of sand and gravel that he had left over to add a layer into our new raised bed. Daughter, O and the dog decided to have a walk from their's to here and arrived just as Hubby and Son started to empty our two large compost bins into the raised bed, so she grabbed a spade and worked with them (didn't have my phone on me so no pic). 

The bed is only about half full, so will still need a lot of top soil which is now on order. 

Remember the neighbour's flag pole? For a couple of days it had the Union Flag at half mast, definitely looks to me like it's more in our garden than theirs! Hubby quite likes it, so I'll learn to ignore it. 

As often happens we got a message from Daughter, to Hubby this time,  saying "Bit of an odd request but do you have a briefcase you no longer need?" In fact he did and I found my two as well. 

Daughter, O and the dog came over and O looked at all three briefcases and chose my old one immediately. He had to play with the combination locks to get them to reliably open and close and he was very happy. Daughter told us that he is now off to a social club for Home Ed young teens in Colchester and the briefcase is to carry his lunch in, and of course to complete his cool image. 

The dog stayed with me, Daughter and O drove off, Hubby went to play snooker with his friends and I carried on chopping apples! Thankfully I'm getting nearly to the end.

Felt a lot chillier the last few days and so many people queuing for hours and hours and overnight to pay their respects to the Queen.

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Making History......

 
Saturday we were asked to dog sit, this time for Son and fiancé. Their little dog is quite old and very anxious by nature and never left for long, so it was a big thing for them to leave her here. It was another big thing for them to be going to Wembly for a concert as that was always their life before covid but haven't done it since. This was a tribute concert by the Foo Fighters and guests to Taylor Hawkins their drummer who died. Son had persevered and managed to get tickets at the last minute. 

She didn't seem too stressed, although obviously kept looking for them and fidgety but did relax sometimes too and even sat watching cricket with Hubby some of the time. It was a very long day for all of us as they had left her here at noon and headed off after a quick cuppa, but they had trouble getting out of Wembly after the concert, then train to Stratford where they had parked and finally arrived here at 2am!

Hubby has had sleepers delivered, ready to make the raised rose bed. These lorries and their drivers are amazing, how he managed getting up our small close that is uphill with two bends and cars parked in the road. Then accurately using the crane to put our delivery where Hubby asked him to. I'm always fascinated. 

There was the moving them round to the back garden one at a time and then four of them needed cutting to the lengths for the ends. 

And this is the raised bed made. Hubby has since lined the inside with black plastic to help the wood last longer. And now it needs filling with our homemade compost (three large bins worth) and Hubby will buy topsoil. 

At coffee morning three neighbours mentioned they didn't own an Aloe Vera plant when I was talking about it so I potted up bits of mine and delivered them. Hope they take.

Thursday 8th September 2022

A sad and historic day, Queen Elizabeth II died at 96 years old, after more than 70 years in service to the nation and commonwealth. She started her job a year before I was born and was still on duty two days ago at the change of Prime Minister when she had an audience with Boris Johnson to say goodbye and then with Liz Truss to invite her to form a new cabinet. 

The only monarch I've known. 

From her passing Prince Charles, her first born, became King Charles III.

Friday Hubby and I carried on doing stuff around the house and garden as needed but also spent a lot of time watching TV showing all the tributes to our late Queen and movements of the other Royals and King Charles III arriving in London. We watched the first part of the memorial service which started with King Charles III's address to the nation from Buckingham Palace. 

We were supposed to be on grandchildren and dog duty for five days, however as a nation in mourning Daughter's weekend bookings were cancelled, so we are not now needed till Tuesday. 

RIP Queen Elizabeth II

Long live King Charles III

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A Lot Of Fs.......

 
Saturday had a lovely visit from Son and fiancé as they could finally come with my birthday flowers and card and treated us all to Chinese takeaway as it's my favourite.

My mum (first on the left) was the youngest of eight, these are six of the siblings. Sadly none of them are with us now. 

On Sunday some of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren managed to meet. This happened now because one of my first cousins came over from Australia with her husband to see a daughter and grandchildren for the first time since all covid travel restrictions were lifted and she put out a request on our family Facebook page to meet up with as many family that could make it. 

25 of us did make it and it was wonderful, meeting up with those we hadn't seen for so long and telling all the old stories and also meeting the family we had never met in person before and getting to know them. Apart from the Australians, Hubby and I travelled the furthest with a drive of just under two hours each way and was one of the first to arrive there and almost the last to leave. Our group managed to take over almost all of the cafe outside seating area, (well we were all spending in the cafe so they didn't mind at all). It was a wonderful afternoon. 

Lovely making it to this week's coffee morning on Monday having missed the last two. One extra neighbour makes it when it's a bank holiday as he normally works on a Monday. Everyone was very chatty but when talk got round to politics and how Sunak is so wealthy how could he know what will help the poor. Then the same highly opinionated couple kept insisting the media is making everyone hysterical about national poverty which they don't think is real because one person interviewed on tv had her nails done.....I just said that us sitting there were lucky to be so affluent that we shouldn't assume anything and criticise. Hubby and I agreed it was time to leave them to it. 

On Tuesday I was treated to a meal out at The Ocean Fish Platter as my birthday gift from friendHM. Neither of us had been there before and at first glance it looked like an eat-in fish and chip shop, but turned out to be a lovely restaurant with extensive menu and really friendly staff. So good to have a just the two of us catch up. 

Wednesday Daughter came for lunch with R, O and the dog. O is teaching himself guitar with the help of various Web pages and treated us to a few songs he's learned. Managed to get this lovely pic of him totally chilled out strumming.

FriendM is back from her long month in Spain so this week we were back to our normal six for Wednesday night, eating in Prezzo first then onto the pub for the guys to play pool. Another good catchup. 

It's that time of year when the apples are ready, but as they are mostly bug attacked around the core there's a lot of prep ahead. For now we've taken them all off the tree and placed them not touching each other. Hopefully I'll get round to peeling, chopping and freezing quite soon. 

I brushed my second toe of my right foot against a piece of furniture briefly in passing and thought nothing of it, then a very short while later it throbbed and made it really painful for me to walk (yes I swore a little bit). I'm guessing it didn't take much of an impact as it was one of the toes I broke a while ago. 

NeighbourC knocked asking Hubby if he could help install a new TV as her daughter had tried and failed. Of course he did and she insisted on paying him something, no matter how much he protested. He's always so happy to help everyone but he had to take it. 

So that's a Fiancé, Flowers, Favourite Food, Family, Facebook, Friends, Fish, Fruit, one little F word and a Fix on Friday. 

Hope your week was Fun Filled.

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