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5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2
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1) Just had a garden walkabout and found that ALL the climbers we planted on the Zebra childs living 'den' wigwam are shooting away including the jasmine which really looked defunct!
2) We have a single but beautifully bright marigold in bloom in the front border and the hawthorn hedge has open flowers on it.
3) Have just got many reduced items from the village shop 2 x 6 hovis rolls at 50p a pack, 6 hot cross buns for 59p, a butternut squash for 69p, a cauliflower ( clonker it is too) for 69p, 4 jacketing potatoes for 50p, 6 braeburn apples for 75p and a packet of Maynards Jelly Bunnies for Zebra for 50p. The rolls will go in the freezer!
4) The asparagus bed yielded a mega cutting yesterday so I shared it with my lovely neighbour Steph.
5) Tried on some clothes donated by DD1 and now have 3 lovely cotton knit tunic dresses, a knitted tunic, a wide strapped summer top and 2 pairs of linen trousers to add to my wardrobe.0 -
There you see, being so BoP
50 BoPsie had laods of pressies yesterday. And she had wine and her favourite cheese. She likes the items from teh fragrance lady. What can I say. Fortunately we had no candles!
4 There, and I did the chicken of roast yesterday, with perfect roast tatties. Jam was had with the chicken breast. Stuffing, snorkers wrapped in bacon. Proper gravy, with onion was served. Tum was rubbed. Strawberries with ice cream was served.
3 Nieces were up yesterday and are well chuffed of their uncle. Not only that, but as you are aware of proper foods, youngest remarked that she eats the same proper foods as her uncle for breakfast. That be the monsters puffed up wheat! Rubs tum!
2 Nite BoP will be doing seconds of chicken breast, roast tatties and crushed carrot and swede. Peas and proper pan gravy will be served. Tum will be rubbed.
Its in the air ...0 -
Easter Holidays! All about to wear off with a thud tomorrow, but fun while it lasts. One son industriously clocking up hours of revision but then the Great Palaver starts in another month.
DundeeDoll - listening to YouTube has become my go to "station" when cooking in the kitchen. Admiring "reductionist" status - you get both the moral high ground & the really good bacon! Baklava & theses & seriously exotic travel - you make academe sound alluring! You can get a lie-in through the call to prayer? Welsh/Iraqui sounds like a riveting tale! You'll come home from Riyadh with a few suk bargains & a red dragon? <imagining Customs' expression>
Purple kitten - a judicious wrap turns leftovers into something remarkably new & fun. (You can fool teens some of the time!) So glad you are reunited with Kindle & hoping DH restored by quality caravan time.
topsyturphy - 9000 steps! <Awe> You have a marathon runner in the house? <Awe cubed!> I made ragdoll hair by picking the wool, knitting it, washing it rather carefully then frogging the square - but cousin wasn't keen on plaiting daughter And doll, so wild curls were preferred. Does a glass of wine make a job application easier? Roast lamb. <covets in a quiet corner>
Skint yet Again - isn't line drying a treat?! Oooh - bluebells! What a week - parents visit & so iron & boiler & dishwasher all tap out. I struggle with this 'jug of cocktails' idea as all I can summon to mind are at least a quart & thus hold an armful of daffs without fuss. Replace them with alcohol & you'ld need stretchers, not wheelbarrows!
mhagster - eep, labrynthitis. Dead right to bid the young to put a jumper on, but rousing cheers for getting paid! Surely if DD1 has friend over, DD1 sets to with bleach & Hoover? (Certainly how I get hall stairs & landing plus bedroom cleared & deepcleaned.) Was going to speak up for The Economist, but then remembered to each her gout. Hurrah cheque is sorted (bar holiday weekend) Labyrinths settled? Hoping the boilwash has sorted the little biting things? (And I thought the Defenders of the Highlands stayed north of Hadrians Wall - what are they doing on the wrong side of the globe, pestering you?!) I suppose eggrolling must seem very odd to the uninitiated - they dye eggs red for a childs one month naming day & for other auspicious new starts, but then hurtling them down a hill? Not so much. We were raised eggrolling by our Scottish dad, but on a Welsh hillside so all bits had to be policed up lest the cattle or sheep ate them!
Frith - air rifle is fun! I never put money on which scout is which 'handed' for air rifle but I've encouraged two or three to swap with happy results. Garlic mushrooms on toast sound like the ideal reward for virtue. I only check the router log when a son or sons is not with us in body - gives me an idea as to what time they might have fallen asleep at! National Museum of Scotland is home to some of the Lewis Chessmen but hurrah both Empire Biscuits (phew Wikipedia!) & the deep fried Mars Bar, and I've always suspected the Edinburgh proprietors of closing early so they can count all their takings in daylight. Peterborough is almost as bad - if you aren't at prayer or the bar, there's frighteningly little to do. Hurrah chick pea dahl & naan - well filled sons without wallet in shock always good! Someone stashed a geocache on Dowles Bridge? One step short of insanity IMHO, but what a challenge!
Lainey T - the hyssop I grew went to school & then church but my lot gauge medical use as "will this improve the Spag Bol?"... Himself has now unearthed a container for me to grow fennel in, so I now need to find the seeds & start hoping. Inflatable hot tub on the Tyne? Ulp. Releasing jackdaw - wonderful!
Capella - all joy with the strawberries & the old breeds have so much more flavour! Awed at talent testing cookbooks - genius way to declutter them effectively!
BoP - "Steels. Done." - as laconic a poem to their cooking as I've read! "frilly bathroom things" - well, that's red meat to my imagination! Bless you! Proper foods - oh yes. So sorry for your unexpected loss. Love to hear BoPsie being cosseted so intelligently - petals *and* chocolates? Lucky lady! Hoping it was a wonderful day! Proper roast chicken with other delights. Lucky, lucky lady.
villagelife - bulbs, brews, beverages & babies - excellent mix! First coffee of the day a very special pleasure! Bother work relocating you - extra miles & a sore back might suggest a chat to your union? Agreed no Easter eggs - brilliant! Relaxed family atmosphere? Awe! Coffee to the sound of birdsong & church bells sounds utterly glorious.
juliettet - love the idea of birds queueing for feeding, but I have teenagers... "boss away, can now catch up on my work" - love it! "Prospect of cake" - the anticipation is a real pleasure & completely waistline friendly. So happy for you brother in law has the all clear - it is Such a Relief!
VJsmum - love the idea of Tower of London poppy reinstated in ICT garden! Hope weather cooperates, fully. Happy travels! Prague & rabbit in mustard sauce with dumplings. Lucky DS to have you curating a holiday around his tastes. "Another day, another steam train" - fun, but Green beer?!
ampersand - idle curiosity - how do you thinly slice for hours? Skilled hands & very sharp knife, or advanced culinary tech? Research makes finds yet more fun.
mcculloch - drat the bike chain oil got you but hurrah that funeral was splendid - it really does help. Enjoy the Prestige pans & especially the pirukad!
MrsLW - welcome home &, wow, well done on your duck down coat! Blimey yes, this thread has a definite sense of humour. Dark as treacle in places, but we keep posting pleasures. Awed and delighted that living wigwam greening vigorously and jasmine will add its colour & scent too!
This last week's OS Pleasures:
Think we've goldfinches & sparrows nesting in the eaves. Very hard to tell in the shade of the gutter just what colour they are as they 'fade' against the stone.
Fun to watch the hedge wiggling in 4 locations as small birds cheep & flutter.
Sent a box of Denby & bubblewrap north to a friend. It is nice to see beautiful things go to those who'll enjoy them daily!
The amaryllises are still flowering! Bulbs are astonishing. That said carnations in the bud can keep right on going too but they're on mum's windowsill whereas the amaryllis is on mine.
Son wants to watch Twin Peaks. I slightly wonder what he's getting into but anyone who can read Lovecraft with no apparent ill effects will probably just enjoy David Lynch.
Another son has left a heap of warhammer figures out - I think it's a visual hint he wants me to help him eBay them. Well, that's what annual leave is about, sharing family experiences... [Ergle. They're all afloat on the bay of E, now to roll on the floor unknotting my spine.]
Traditional gruesome school photo with "bonus" class shot now put to use - head from class shot small enough to fit into charm locket! Ah, those ears - he has grown into them , but this photo does them justice.
"You don't have a great history of stopping things, do you mother?!!" - my experiences reinforce my view the heavy bit of the Hoover stays at the bottom of the stairs. That my beloved son is one cheeky so-&-so means I delegate the Hoovering in toto to him...
Another son has taken to trying his hair back in a ponytail - I can only approve - *much* neater! Just the fringe puts me in mind of Thelwell & a dubious Shetland's forelock! Even husband threatening to buy him a hairbrush & tie it to his door... [B&M had several choices but I went for plain black as the lad requested despite temptations!]
Lovely friend sent blackcurrant cuttings - as I scattered plant food into the holes, I explained myself to youngest. "'Roids!" He grinned. "That's how Triffids start, mum." There are days I *wonder* about my lads...
There is a definite pleasure in the right knife for the job & the scarlet handled Mora is a joy to chop through weed suppressant fabric with. Just wish the sheath was as bright against earth & leaves etc.
Lads watching "Sanctuary" (SF tv show) & there was a reference to "telekinetic shrimp". OK, that definitely tickles the imagination <& sent me off to the kitchen to excavate part of the freezer>.
Lovely chat about caustic soda & the best way to was beekeeper's clothing. Apparently in caustic, diluted, as everything else too feeble or too scented for bees!
Reading up on making cheese - remarkable how easy it seems, off hand. Godfather just tipped vinegar into milk then drained the curds. More quality holiday time spent puttering in godfathers garden - cherry blossom & other lures to camera phone. Then presented with sacks of sheep's wool & beeswax! That'll keep hands & heads busy for a while. I learn so much there!
We made pasta! [So much for the 'just cheering on' idea...] Definitely a game for as many players as you can fit around an (ideally narrow) table, all fun, & winners get to eat the fresh pasta for supper! Still need to beat the durum flour out of my fleece, ahem. Oh yes & I was absolutely right - it dries loads better hanging off the drying rack, for all it looks pretty daft! Mind, I never suggested hanging it on a tree. (That was his mother, wishful to mislead her granddaughters.)
Lounging in guest bed, listening to the dawn chorus, watching goldfinch & other small birds use the creeper outside as an observation point. Birdwatching from under a duvet is most comfortable!
Got to an Easter Service! Had a brief moment of "where's the Welsh?" (most of my Easter attendance has been in a tiny church on a hill in the Black Mountains where the printed Eucharist is bilingual. The creed & the ten commandments painted on the wall (?medieval) are in Church English & proper work for young minds to decipher.) Still, good to be in a church & better to be taking godfather's mum out. She was a bit startled that I fast before the Eucharist, but I don't get to church very often.
Given a pair of Hotter shoes - I'm beginning to understand why the enthusiasm - they feel like slippers & wear like shoes!
Blimey, a cup of tea when you need one is a very special brew. Carlsberg can brag, but tea does the job.
Someone has been tidying up and it seems the sack of fleece I was given has company I'd forgotten about - Ryeland & Jacob & Black Welsh Mountain as well as sample packs from Yarndale er years ago! I really must try harder at this spinning lark.
Scottish friend has been thoroughly rained on & reports ruefully a garden full of newts. Raffles, there's an All You Can Eat garden awaiting you, & any spare yellow stuff would be marvelled at, just you may need one of those handsome trains North!
Right. Our Last Day of holidays so I need to interrogate the young as to what needs doing before school, plant up assorted seeds, (find my dyers herb seeds, dashit), sort the car, train tickets, relatives, and excavate the laptop. [No idea Why that came home with me!] May all those still on holiday enjoy every minute thereof, and may those of us getting back onto the hamster wheel do so with as much grace as we can muster. All love, health, strength, courage and where needful bail to all!0 -
Sunday pleasures
1. breakfast with DP's before they headed home & they arrived home safely
2. weather was dry bright and sunny no trace of the rain forecast so I managed to get bedding dry and gave living room cushion covers a quick wash & freshen up
3. Ferrero eggs from DS's gf... nom nom
4. leftover roast lamb, roast potatoes, veg & gravy
5. DS has gone on last night shift at current location and from tonight will be closer to home with only 10 minute commute each way instead of an hour each way.0% credit card £1360 & 0% Car Loan £7500 ~ paid in full JAN 2020 = NOW DEBT FREE 🤗
House sale OCT 2022 = NOW MORTGAGE FREE 🤗
House purchase completed FEB 2023 🥳🍾 Left work. 🤗
Retired at 55 & now living off the equity £10k a year (until pensions start at 60 & 67).
Previous Savings diary https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5597938/get-a-grip/p1
Living off savings diary
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6429003/escape-to-the-country-living-off-savings/p10 -
Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen vjsmum
Where's the Welsh dfv? Still in my bag - yet to unpack!
1) lovely last evening in Riyadh - alumni event in British Ambassy garden. Simon the ambassador came to mingle which was super. I met a couple of alumni from the medical school, and 4 current students. They have set up a what's app group.
2) extra security at airport so late leaving Riyadh and put onto 7:45 out of Heathrow. I think we might have just squeaked the 7am doubt out luggage would have. Colleague said 'wouldn't have mattered on way home ' until I reminded her our laptops had to go in hold!
3) watched last 15 mins of Bridget jones' baby (missed end pulling into Riyadh).
4) home, bath, short sleep then beach with sister and her youngest who are up for Easter. Dd1 and dd2 joined us and we had chip on the sea front
5) back to mum's for cups of tea and doctor who. Home to watch broadchurch but fell asleep!MrsSD declutter medals 2023 🏅🏅🏅⭐⭐ 2025
25 for 25: 127 / 625
declutter: 173 / 2025
frogs eaten: 60 -
Small collection:
The lovely pans sent to me for review arrived Easter Sunday afternoon, bless that delivery guy.
They are beautiful and properly cared for will see me out.
Given that they are replacing pans in use for 35 years and accompanying one still in use after approx 38 years that DD has said she wants to inherit, they will no doubt be passed on in (hopefully) a few decades time.
Pleasure of a phone chat with DD. DGS and DD constructed a complicated Lego set he got as a belated Christmas present and the pics on FB were quite impressive.
Steadily decluttering unwanted shampoo and shower gel by using them up as laundry gel/liquid. With the addition of in wash stain remover it has worked really well and freed up some storage space in the bathroom. Plus saved me buying laundry gel.
I had a quick look at a children's novel I'd got for DGS and it was rather good - I read the lot at one sitting in an hour or two. I've been reading some rather heavy stuff lately as part of my tutoring CPD and this was just such a treat.
Your pleasures, thank you. Lovely to read about Germany again, VJsmum.
My schoolfriend's parents visited Dresden in the Seventies when it was very much still behind the Iron Curtain. My friend's Dad was a local gov't official and it was an official visit, tourism then was pretty much out of the question. The Frauenkirche was still in ruins then and I remember her Mum - who went too - mentioning it.Erma Bombeck, American writer: "If I had my life to live over again... I would have burned the pink candle, sculptured like a rose, that melted in storage." Don't keep things 'for best' - that day never comes. Use them and enjoy them now.0 -
Bedtime.
Work ... The pleasure was being paid! It was not pleasant being left to man the bloody phone which did not stop ringing due to very late delivery of one paper, which meant no one had it delivered. One old lady was so rude and horrid and I realised that ( apart from rude lady in bank a few weeks ago) I've actually just been surrounded by kindness past few months. I have obviously forgotten how rude some people can be. Whilst not upset I was slightly traumatised!
Went for breakfast with DD2. Last day of the holidays for her,back to routine of school tomorrow .
Friends picked me up at 1.30pm & we went for lunch ( breakfast had just been toast for me) , their treat . It was a lovely afternoon.
No tea required.
Having the snuggliest, cuddliest dog on my knee. Still quite dizzy at times which is a nuisance more than anything else and he just comes up and snuggles up beside me.
Have a good day0 -
5 Back at the mill. Not a pleasure!
4 Bill for bathroom has come. Not a pleasure!
3 See number 5. No escape!
2 Nite I am doing chicken curry and it is going to be hot. I wander why!
And you can all go and …
Note to new viewers of BoP musings. I deliberately spill words correctly and miss them up. You’re not meant to understand them! Some around this parish have not understood them for eons! Also, if I am write, I can never be wrong. Got it? Oh yeah DfV. I Steeled myself as well!
The ditty for this musing was written before you realised tha a General Election had been called. Please do not answer your door in the evening to the greasy politicos. Avoid!0 -
I picked the first crop of rhubarb this year, its the only thing I have grown that hasn't died or been mauled by slugs/snails!!
I have planted my peas and beans. Also planted clematis, lavenders and honeysuckle. Hoping to make the garden a little brighter and prettier.
Tomatoes and cucumbers are planted.
I am really hoping for some decent harvests this year!!!
Last day of annual leave, watched a Muppets Christmas Carol, drinking tea and the cat is curled up by my feet.
Had a letter telling me a large debt I was paying off has come to an end. I feel really good about this.
Bought a vintage style Yumi dress. Not very mse, although it was in the sale. I have gained confidence and am really enjoying wearing skirts and dresses.
Sat in garden on swingbed and listened to the birds. The blossoms are flowering and the air smells so fresh. Makes me feel good!!
Garden has had a real good tidy up and I am hoping come summer, for lots and lots of foliage and colour and scents. Lots of the plants I have planted are to attract the bees and wildlife.0 -
1 Just back from a lovely weekend just 40mins away from home.
2 The caravan is back and unpacked, with a list of bits that may need replacing specifically the kitchen tap that went in style.
3 We explored and walked and rested.
4 A couple of washing loads hung out on the line.
5 Online banking sorted.0
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