No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

candlelight_2013

Good morning all,

The cat got me up early this morning scratching the carpet so I thought I would have a look here whilst it is quiet.

SM have a wonderful time on holiday and come home refreshed you have had such a difficult time recently. My sister and BIL went to Florida this week and are expected back mid November I think.

We bought some new paint for the kitchen yesterday. We only painted it last year when we had a new, and rather expensive roller blind . To be perfectly honest I didn't like the colour once it was done, but left it and then Himself spilt a whole mug of coffee against one all (don't ask me how he did it) and the stain wouldn't come out of course. We have chosen a pale sage and will probably start it next week. I am also re-organising my cupboards and bought some lovely clear plastic boxes from Wilkos and I am going into town today to see if they have any more. It is mainly for baking ingredients, breakfast cereals and pasta. I have open packets of flour, sugars and pastas, and then they spill out into the cupboard, so I am trying to be very organised.

DD will be 47 on wednesday, and we will all go out for a meal the following Sunday to celebrate. The Physio is really pleased with her progress now and has given her some really difficult exercises she says, but she has improved so much recently. We are so proud of her, as I have said before, she will never be pain free, but many people have earned to live with the pain they have.

DGD1 returned from a 2 day course last evening, tired but very talkative and on the whole seems to have enjoyed it. It is good to have her home, I know she is 22, but I still worry.

Hoglet, we will be thinking of putting the garden to bed at the end of the month and I suppose your's will be waking up. I want to hang on to the bedding plants in the tubs for a bit longer if I can and then I will clear them out and plant the tulips. We had a beautiful day yesterday, sun shining all day and Himself was gathering up all the conifer cuttings because we had a garden refuse collection. The weatherman isn't promising good weather for the weekend though.

AOT are you well? Have you been up to anything exciting recently?

We don't seem to do anything exciting at the moment although we did enjoy our few days in Norfolk despite it being cold, but to be honest I enjoy being in my litte home.

Have a good weekend all and stay safe

Much love

Candlelightx

[Deleted User]

Morning all, life has taken a rather lovely but out of the blue turn in so far as our local pub landlords who knew how we were missing Docky asked us if we'd like to walk their little dog Cookie, they are so busy at the moment and are having a 3 week refit in October where they'll need to be around the premesis and then it's the build up to Christmas so she's not getting the walks she's used to. What a difference a day makes, I took her at lunchtime yesterday and life just clicked back to normal, He Who Knows took her for a long riverside walk this morning and has come back smiling, I've got the housework out of the way and he's just headed to the allotment. The gap that Docky left has not gone but has been reduced in size by having our routine back again. Life feels like a weight has gone and I'm feeling contented again, perhaps in the fullness of time we will get another hound but until we do, we've a black and white bundle of curls and big black eyes to walk whenever we want to, doesn't get much better than that!!!

candlelight_2013

Lyn, you and He Who Knows, so deserve to be happy again and I am so pleased you both feel you have something to smile about again. There is absolutely no doubt that Docky would be happy for you, and as you say, perhaps in the fullness of time you may consider having another dog of your own.

In the meantime I am sure Cookie is more than enjoying herself and her owners know she is being exercised by 2 people who are happy to do so.

Enjoy yourselves

Candlelightx

[Deleted User]

Cookie is exhausted poor lamb but didn't want to go upstairs to the flat when I popped her in this afternoon, she stood looking back at me and wagging, bless!!! She was a bit phased by Charlie when she met him but within 200 yards you'd have thought they'd known each other for all their lives, she's OK is that Cookie. Another lovely walk today, this time out across the common and Sue had her little grandson for the day so Cookie had to get used to the buggy beside her too, which she did easily. Only glitch was when a black and white puddy cat ran across the road we were trying to cross and 'wait' went out of the window, so I just crossed her and made it stick at the next road, which it did, so just a temporary haze I think! Loving it!!!

scottishminnie

Greetings friends. I've been a bit lax in posting. Truth be told I've collapsed into bed exhausted by 9pm most evenings although in my defence I've been up before 6am and out for a run each morning to get me moving.

We are having a great time across the pond, we visited Devils Tower monument today which was amazing and has a wonderful Indian legend which I was quite captivated by.

It's clear autumn/fall is on the way though as the leaves are turning and many little shops are decorated in harvest colours. It's my favourite time of year so I find it difficult not to stock up on yet more harvest decor:(

We managed to plant another 150 spring bulbs before we left then sowed some grass seed over them. Hopefully next spring we will have a nice display.
My parents are well, although mum is missing me. Mobile phones are wonderful and I text home most days which helps reduce the feeling of me being miles away. The world is a smal place nowadays anyway, you can be home from anywhere in pretty much 24 hours.

MrsLW- that's great news about Cookie. I hope you are both enjoying the chance to spend some time together.

Candlelight - I chuckled when I saw your comment about not liking the paint colour. I have been there several times but won't spend even more money to fix it so have lived with the colour. It's why my home is now neutral city- or bland city as my mother calls it:)

candlelight_2013

SM you sound as though you are having a great time. I read a few American blogs and see how they decorate their homes and porches during the "fall" and it looks so nice. We tend not to make a big deal of it here, do we?. I have lots of tulip bulbs which I am going to plant in tubs when I have cleared out the bedding plants. I have been trying to hang on to them but Himself said there was "almost" a frost the other morning, so I think this coming week I will need to sort them out. He has done masses of pruning in the back garden (we have a very long garden) so it looks more open now.

We are pleased with the kitchen, the colour is more my taste, and we still have half a tin left in case Himself feels the need to throw another mug of coffee :)

We are off out to lunch today to celebrate DDs birthday. It was going to be tomorrow, but DGS is meeting his mates before they all go off to university. It was DDs on Wednesday and my sister's today. so we went to see her yesterday. She has lost some weight and is looking good (this is on medical advice). I am proud of her because I know it isn't easy.

Lyn it is good to see you back and hope you had a wonderful time with the Zebra boy, happy but tired.

DGD1 is happy and has settled in really well, it is 3 months since she moved in and is no trouble at all. Her mother knows she is living with us evidently, but there has been no contact, she is happy and that is all that concerns me.

Himself will be watching the grand prix tomorrow afternoon, it really is the ony sport he enjoys and looks forward to it.

Hoglet, as you know great excitement at the moment because of the rugby and evidently the town of Rugby has had a real spruce up to show everyone how proud they are.

Have a good weekend all

Much love

Candlelightx

[Deleted User]

Good news I meant to post yesterday DD2 thinks her buyer is still prepared to wait and they heard on Friday that the people whose house she and OH are buying have found a property and had an offer accepted and it's empty with NO CHAIN! It couldn't be better and hopefully the legalities will not take too long or be too complicated.

[Deleted User]

Hi all, I'm hoping for a bit more sleep tonight, we had heavy noisy showers right through last night and I swear I woke up for every single one of them! It's actually stopped raining now, Hoorah and I so hope that's it for a couple of days. We've had a garden full of hungry birds today, despite the rain, poor things were looking so dishevelled and dripping with water that I took pity on them and hung some extra fat balls in the tree and lots of bread on the lawn. All gone now and so are the birds!

If we have a nicer day tomorrow I'm hoping that I might be able to get out for a Cookie walk, if we have any more rain it will be a paddle!

Hope you're all still on terra firma and haven't floated away, Lyn xxx.

hoglet121

Hi everyone,

Sorry for my long absence - have had a bit of a cold and have either been working or asleep. Startig to feel more normal now.

The cats are more or less behaving themsleves, although I'm looking forward to our clocks going forward on Sunday so they give us a bit more of a lie in.

We had some good news last week whereby the mortgage company revalued our house so we now qualify for a much lower mortgage rate owing to percentage equity. We've got a rate almost 2% lower than our previous one, which is very good news. (Mortgage interest rates are higher in NZ than the UK.)

Not long now till my trip back to the UK - very excited!

Hope you're all well,

Love Hoglet xxx

scottishminnie

Hoglet, that's great news about the mortgage rate. Every little bit makes a difference:)

Just a short post as I'm still across the pond. Due home soon though so starting to think about my "to do" list. According to my mother I will need to pick some of my apples soon or they will be falling from the tree. I'm going to have a look online to see if I can find any recipes for some apple alcohol (other than cider) as I'd like to make more hand made gifts for Christmas this year. I had a bit (hubby had the other 95%) of a caramel apple cupcake today which was delicious so that's also on the list of things to make/do. I'll have a last minute trip to the craft shop before we leave and see what inspiration I can get.

Take care all, catch up soon.