Five OS Pleasures in your day today

Pooky

My 5 for this week....

1. Spending the most amazing time in London with DH, free tickets to a tv show filming, free hotel (thanks to DH's travels and a loyalty scheme), taking a lovely HM picnic to enjoy in the evening and taking full advantage of the hotels lovely breakfast the next morning.

2. Lying in bed, snuggled under my duvet listening to the rain bashing against the windows.

3. Sitting in the garden yesterday for breakfast and lunch and pottering with my plants.

4. Recieving a huge parcel of stuff I ordered last week, all reduced that is being tucked away for xmas/birthday pressies.

5. Having 4 people comment on how pretty my house looks...inside and out.

:j

jollymummy

Here's mine for today.
1. Had a lovely cheap afternoon at the park, all for the cost of an icecream and a ride on the mini steam train.
2.Enjoyed a hm chilli and enough to freeze some.
3. Made even more stuff for my online shop!!
4. Spent a lovely time in the garden.
5.Enjoyed my weekend with dh and ds and my Mum is on her way for a couple of days too - wahey!!
JM x

bellaquidsin

Retirement what retirement?

1. Dh's colleagues were so sorry not to be seeing my cards again that an arrangement was made for him to take them in.

2. Now that I'm back in business I have at last made a crafting area in the spare bedroom which will be much cooler in the summer months than the sunny dining room.

3. Elderflower cordial - sooooo lovely.

4. Still in celebrating mode here, so lots of wine and chocolates.

5. The still cool calm of the evening hour after a hot day spent cooking roast beef and yorkies for visitors.

Bella.

Dustykitten

Evening all, another lovely warm and sunny day here but not too hot. Today's pleasures

1. Dug up the first lot of salad potatoes - delicious

2. Made a scrumptious birthday cake with fresh raspberries for Mum's birthday

3. Had two hours this evening in the garden

4. Kind neighbour was asking how to freecycle as they had a man's bike they did not want - DH now has it for riding to the train station

5. Used up all the left over chicken, cheese, grapes and pasta sauce today so no wasted food

Patchwork_Quilt

1) A few minutes at the allotment on Saturday (some worryingly empty spaces in there) and I brought back some strawberry runners, rhubarb seeds and lemon balm. All in pots to go in the garden when I get the ghastly gravel off the top of it.
2) Watching Slumdog for the second time yesterday evening
3) Walk with DH this afternoon. We saw a bush absolutely humming with bees, moorhen chicks, mallard ducklings snuggled up with their mum for an afternoon nap and yellow irises standing in the water
4) Making a gluten free banana and ginger loaf and seeing empty plates
5) OU exam tomorrow - no more revision. I can start seeing friends again

ampersand

:mad:Losing the lengthy post I'd just finished on 5 OS pleasures........:eek:, so I'd better:D and start again.

So many lovely posts to read from everyone else, all of us lifted by weather finally behaving itself....AND at a weekend, when more people/families have a chance to enjoy it. Your raspberries are really early, dustykittken - lucky, lucky and good timing, too.

1.Haven't been in long after a 2nd heavy day of big o/s WORKS, to whit, planting, digging, transplanting, building, fencing, tree surgery, painting, chopping and making it all sound a lot more by listing it here:rolleyes:.

2.Came in both nights after 22h30, when it became too late to work effectively, peacably looking at what's been done, with further ideas to effect during coming week. No spending involved, just ingenuity and my singular take on shabby chic:D.

3.Big Skype with A this morning...v. early, and feeling the sort of happy companionable ease, when we discussed pics of work done yesterday, that I miss in person. Yes, we are both solitaries. . .even so;).

4.Flukey whim which works wonderfully! - microwaved my 3 sticks of rhubarb with the h/m elderflower cordial[yes, bella, isn't it the most divine stuff?]. The heady intensity of the cordial and the oxalic acidity of the rhubarb Make Love Not War and the gastronomic world is an enriched planet for their amicable accord. Please try it!

5. Discovering a little leaf spear on amaryllis, found discarded amid flytipping alongside a river near Ardres[mse tip day trip at end of March]. Yes, it is growing!:j - and reminds me of the superb[and costly]Guiole knife now used daily, found with amaryllis at same place.

6. Enjoying Denis Healy hugely on DID - will catch repeat on Friday. Some compensation for loss of Garrison Keillor.

7. Finally watched i-player When Ian Rankin Met Jack Vettriano - superb![and just as well, because it expired and disappeared earlier this evening.]

7. More plants:rolleyes::o, more books:rolleyes::o, more INTERESTING BITS a.k.a. THINGS:rolleyes::o {mmm...well, will take most/many to Brocantes in France]at village Church Fair yesterday.....so all right really:D.

8. Digging out and using my first compost -it's been quietly making itself for 4-5 years now. Looked lovely and blackly tilthy and good.

8. Eating outside both nights and enjoying the sounds that accompany these rural-ish hours.

9. Feeling deep satisfaction that this fine weekend has shaped itself thus. Such felicitous rounding of days and activites - and getting brown[-er] - deeply answers something in me.

10. Just before eating tonight, late impulse had me dotting the new solar lights about and fixing ancient candle holders[ignored for years]to new fence corner, then lighting new candles in them....yes, Kittikins, I've made a fairyland, too - and pics are loading to A on Skype to wake up to.

11. Just as well I didn't gloat re:cricket after yesterday's lamentable comeuppance, but this arvo's work and the R5 excellent commentaries of things sporty[tennis-y and cricket-y, especially the last match] made the same sort of happy marriage earlier known via e/f cordial and rhubarb:D.
And Wimbles is only a week away:j.

12. Runner beans line of wigwams now stunningly birdproofed in many metres of wispy chiffon suitably printed in old French agricultural scenes.

13. Reading the exceptional joyous outflowing of Caterina's marvellous post and congratulations to you both, as parents and friends, on those two young people that you so lovingly evoke and appreciate.

14. Being interrupted half a dozen times during the earthworks by discovery of various self-seedings of holly[ridiculously long taproot, over 2'! for a 4"baby], hibiscus, cotoneaster, lilies and more raspberries which then exacted careful lift and tfr. Hope they survive.

15. Suddenly seeing in the afternoon that a stunning dark mahogoany ruby lily had burst into flower since mid-day - bought Poundland[2 pks of 2 for £1] The buds gave no hint of this colour or readiness and more are coming on multi-stems.

16. Thinking I will pop out and have last look at, a last listen to, my lights, the sounds of this good night - an equally Good night to everyone[altho' I suspect sparrer is just gearing up about now]:D

17. Net curtain purdah succeeds; will have first ever strawbs with brekkie yogurt....rather soon, I see.:o

Let us hold onto these happy things; no fees for overdrafts from the memory bank.:j
###########
Edit: because of PQ's mention of lemon balm - yes, another lucky survivor I'd not included, constrained though it soon will have to be. It was in any case brutally severed with spade today, just to show it the way of the world.
Good luck in your exam.

bellaquidsin

ampersand - thanks for the tip on elderflower cordial with rhubarb, hadn't thought of that one but I do plan to use some with the gooseberries we hope to glean from the PYO tomorrow.

I'm off to find today's pleasures, looking good already.

1. I've made a strawberry jelly to use up some tired strawberries left over from the weekend.

2. I've made up a jug of custard to use up the glut of milk in my fridge. I always like to have plenty on the go when I have visitors but one dear old soul only likes sterilsed milk in tea (ughh) so I had to open a bottle of that as well. Good job I always have one in - just in case......,

Don't know what the DGK's are going to think of cold custard on their jelly but we luuuuuurve it. Something to do with growing up in the war, I think, it was such a treat in those days.

Right, I'm now working on the rest of my pleasures and hope everyone has a day full of OS pleasures and fulfillment.

Bella.

sparrer

oh ampersand I wish I had been, but had such a full day I fell asleep on my sofa abt 10pm and woke to fall into bed at 2am! I do love the night hours, the peace and time to reflect on my day, and the occasional exchange of mail with NZ of course, when he is well enough...

So far my Monday blessings are...

1. Enjoying a long, hot shower, it took a while to save for but now it's in I don't want to get out of it!

2. Another fine day which I mustn't 'waste' as I did yesterday (shopping, the park then tea with DNeighbour and her DD). The garden is a miniature jungle, how does it happen overnight?! I shall enjoy mowing, weeding, then sitting with a cup of tea and admiring what I've managed to do so far...

Monday blessings to you all
S x

Primrose

1. Making up a fruit compote from soft fruit in the freezer. Desperate to clear space for this year's blackcurrant, redcurrant & gooseberry crop which will soon be ready for picking.
2. A third huge picking from strawberry plants which at 4 years old, are supposed to be over the hill, with many more still ripening.
3. Pied woodpecker visiting the garden to feed its baby from a nut cage again.
4. A sunny day - always a blessing on its own.
5. Laundry drying quickly outdoors.

Kittikins

Ampersand - what a great idea, I think I'll make a fairyland for me and DD too....we have millions of tealights and lanterns (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating slightly) and if I actually put the washing line away when I'm not using it, rather than it standing as a slightly lopsided piece of modern sculpture, then the garden can look shabby chic-ily more rustic and fairylike in the evening sunshine...