'supporting each other through really tough times'

SDG31000

Hello everyone

Just a quick hello before I head to bed. It's been a tiring day, I'm not used to changing two year olds around anymore. It's also been an emotional day. My sister went to visit my Auntie and got me a photo. A very special one as my wonderful Dad died 27 years ago and I had very few photos of him, only his wedding ones and ones from when he was a teenager. Now I have a photo of the two of us together. It looks like we are on holiday and while it's not a good pic of me it is of him. I can't put into words how it feels to have this. It's like having a piece of him back with me. I think my DS1 looks like him. I have cried a few tears at seeing it, but they were happy ones.

Time for bed as I have to get up and make a Victoria sponge by 9am tomorrow.

Love and hugs xxxx

silvasava

Mardatha - yup - we're in the same boat too

jackel

Hi Mardatha. Another two more non taxpayers here. Suggest you save the extra £2.30pw in a bank account so it will be available for the gov't to help themselves to 10% as they are doing in Cyprus. jacxx

Peanut2013

Morning all, apologies for the lack of contact had a busy weekend

I'll be a non tax payer too now, we're planning for me to return to work part time once LO is about 9 months and it won't be anywhere near the new £9k limit. I wish! Hehe

Had a lovely weekend, spend Saturday at my mums and did some baking with her (always nice as I then get given boxes of cake!). Yesterday we took LO to the beach for the first time with some friends. It's a local one I've never been to (can't believe this as it was stunning!). We had pasty's in the sun, a walk on the beach, then a long walk on the coastal path to another beach where we got the pram stuck (we bought the biggest, chunkiest pram we could find but it didn't like very wet, sinky sand lol) and then walked back for ice creams LO slept for the entire time and saw nothing! Lol

This week I've not got a huge amount on (although we do have our postnatal check up and LO has his jabs, eeek) so I'm hoping to do some organising around the house

Fuddle: Great news about your dog

Popperwell

Sounds a great weekend and yes, simple things are best.

Been looking at AD's again and the dose I have been given suggests they are not for depression as such unless they are stronger but for panic disorders. But if they help its fine by me.

I'm reasonably happy in that I have bothered to eat more today:)Nothing exciting but I've already had beans and sausages on toast, some biscuits, a sweet and sour noodle mugshot and a few mugs of tea.

Weight is down nearer what I used to be(9st)and perhaps my appetite has improved. May have some porridge and fruit later this morning, salad sandwich in the afternoon and possibly a fry up in the evening...that's more than usual...:p

If you can look at the Woman's Hour website there will be a recipe for The Baker Brothers Treacle Tart:D

nuttyp

Morning toughies, had quite a relaxing day off yesterday. Today I have sausages and veg in the slowcooker. OH and DD will also have ready made yorkies with it too. Me, I get a sandwich. Im just watching the bank job, only because it has Jason Stratham in it. What I wouldn't do to have 5 minutes in a room alone with him lol.

Just got the final confirmation for the sun holiday, we are off to sunny scarborough in may. Any one been before??

Fuddle, how today is going well and mr alfie is ok. Glad you managed to sort out everything re being given lunchtime walks.

Peanut2013

nuttyp: I've never done the sun holidays but wondering if it might be a good option for next year, have you been before? Are they really as cheap as they say?

I've just took chicken out of the freezer to defrost as we have a bottle of nando's marinade we got given in a gift set for christmas. I'm thinking nando's chicken with sweet potato mash and garlic bread. God I'm hungry now!!!

Have leftover mashed potato in the fridge from the weekend so am planning cheesy mash for lunch, mmmm

Nutty your bang on, the simple things are the best

silvasava

Had a big chunk of leftover Gammon lurking in the fridge. I've had a googly & come up with a type of Tartiflete - that got DH's juices flowing - I'll do that this afternoon.
Grey day here so stripping our bed & doing the upstairs cleaning today.
Got a lady coming tomorrow to look at a chair I put on Preloved.
Heard from SiL that neice is slowly improving & being moved to the local hospital so not so far for all the family to travel. Doesn't it sound horrible though - for niece's family its a 60 mile round trip plus parking & with money so tight its expensive to travel up every day for them. It will be a 70 mile round trip for us now instead of 120 & we can see other family members too.

Wonder what the budget is going to mean for all of us? Back to keeping the cash under the mattress?

Smoosh

Good afternoon

Why is it that when things finally seem to be looking up everything goes wrong. We were finally making enough per week to live off, and even save a little, and OH was on his way to training for a promotion and now we're faced with effectively having 0 income in 4 weeks time. I'm trying not to get down about it, but it's tough, I'm very worried he won't get another job in time.

On the plus side, I received a letter this morning from my old mobile phone company, I was expecting it to be bad news...usually is, but instead it was a cheque for £13, not much, but helpful!

OH is at work this evening. I need to do some coursework, tidy and decide what to make for a late dinner when he gets home.

Hope everyone is feeling more cheerful than me today!

jpscloud

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi, purple sprouting broccoli grows about 5 + feet tall and has very long roots, I honestly wonder if it would be suitable for pot growing?

Plus, as it's season is now over, you'd be starting it off as seed now to eat early next spring. It's lush, though, if a space hog. I grew it once but between building a superstruture strong enough to keep the woodpigeons off it and fine enough to keep out the 2 species of cabbage white butterflies, I felt that it had more in common with civil engineering than gardening.

I mean, I like it, but not that much.

My potatoes are chitting and the current plan is to sow them on Good Friday then spend a nervous several weeks hoping they don't get frost-nipped in mid-May. Or blighted in high summer. Or hollowed out underground by the dadblasted slugs.

People who think that gardening is a restful hobby obviously don't have an allotment. But I did turn up several cutworms today (big fat green soil-dwelling caterpillars which sever your plant stems at ground level). They wreck havoc in the beanpatch. Well, the four that met their maker today won't be contributing to the problem............mwah ha ha!

Keep warm and keep well, lovely people.

Blast... I have a good sized garden, slightly larger than an allotment, but thanks to the previous owner, who liked driving his two caravans around on it, it's about a foot deep in what you'd laughingly call "hardcore" (aka any old rubble and bits and pieces) with a thin layer of soil and grass on top.

I'm not strong enough to wield the pickaxe it would take to cultivate it, and even if I were, I might as well put up a sign saying "Cats, poo here!" due to the, ahem, nature-friendly nature of my garden attracting them in droves. I am a bit of a wildlife garden geek.

So apart from where I've found pockets that I could dig enough to put a shrub or plant in the ground, I need to use pots. I've grown runner beans in a large pot before, and that worked very well, to my surprise.

One or two of the things I read suggest large pots might work for PSB but I do suspect you're right... ah well, I know a store where I can get giant plastic pots for a few quid each, so I might just bung a few plants in and see what happens.

My potatoes (kept back from a pack bought to eat a couple of months ago, kept in the fridge) are now spritting beautifully on the window sill. I'm also going to split a pack of commercially produced first earlies with my mum, as neither of us wants to grow very many.

Roll on spring! :cool: