Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

You are so right, I was absolutely on autopilot! That's how I do mornings.   I was tired, too, from being at work a lot. Velvet, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Cherryfudge

I'm back from a couple of days working on Mum's old house. DH cleared around 300 old videos! I gutted a cupboard that turned out to have woodworm, and sorted/threw out 70 audio tapes. This is on top of around 600 videos I chucked out about three years ago when I first went back there and the house was so freezing cold. It was a job I could do in the area reached by the heat from the oven (I put new central heating in asap). I have been using the lounge as a gathering point for books but they are now stacked round the edges and some enormous boxes that were in the middle turned out to be either loosely packed books and papers or, in one case, totally empty. The room looks a lot bigger.

Money-wise, I've spent nothing, but DH spent about £20 on behalf of us both at the supermarket, more at the green grocer then treated us both at a lovely café we found in the next village.

For some reason I woke at 5.30 this morning though I'd been very tired the previous evening. I dozed in the car on the way home: a necessity as I'd swapped onto this evening's shift. For various convoluted reason I worked today (my day off), not tomorrow (another day off, but on which I was going to work) but am off on Friday and Sunday, when I'd usually be on shift. I also spotted another sleep in to pick up next month, and swapped a shift round in a way that should be less tiring for me. I did see a three-hour shift on one of my days off but I'm holding fire on that. If no one else picks it up, I'll reconsider. What's good is that I've booked most of my annual leave for the financial year ending in March, so I won't lose it.

My job isn't what you'd call predictable, though I could chose to do just what I'm rota'd to do, which would shorten my posts here quite a bit.

While I was at work, DD rang to say DFiL is worse and she hasn't seen him so bad. We are again waiting for the phone call, but we've been here before... 

I haven't done much MS stuff unless you count rescuing a box of candles and a sheaf of unused greetings cards. Some bits and pieces went to charity and as you can gather from above, a lot was simply decluttered. We kept the videos that might have family members on, I hasten to add. The ones that went were all recordings of TV programmes.

In other (financial) news, our car made a high pitched squeak most of the journey, which suddenly got a lot louder just on the outskirts of our town. Now it's at the garage waiting for attention to the brakes.

Tonight I'm thankful for the car lasting as well as it did, for time with Dh and progress made, for opportunities at work that I can take but don't have to, and for having days off coming up.

Cherryfudge

Day off today: it's supposed to be raining heavily but so far it's clear and I'm going to put two newly-washed jumpers out to test it.  
I noticed from my last post that the forum now accepts letters with accents on instead of scrambling them like the old forum did. A definite advantage, especially after visiting a café.
I'm catching up on diaries and HairyHandofDartmoor's reminded me of people planting flowers from the gardens of loved ones. My miniature daffodils are up and out and they always remind me of Mum. For about four years while she was in the nursing home, I used to buy pots of them for her, then plant them out here when they finished blooming. Two drifts of them died off for unknown reasons but some in pots have come back. I have some of her houseplants which are faring better as I'm relatively good with indoor plants. In the garden there's a tub of bleeding heart vine which was one of her (many!) favourites, a native primrose which she in turn had from a good friend who died in the early 1960s and I've tried unsuccessfully to take cuttings of the roses which were abundant. I really haven't done well with the roses though so I might ask for one or two of the varieties on my birthday list if ever I have enough space for them. HH's thread has made me think though, as the very back of my parents' garden is overrun with blue, pink and white bells which have grown up since I lived there (it was an orchard in my time) and they make a multi-coloured carpet in about May - so I might transplant a few here. I think I've mentioned before that I'm taking a clump of irises once I can find it.  
My garden here has crocosmia and pink geraniums and blue geraniums which came from my parents, and lots of shrubs which came from a friend in Dorset who has since passed away.
It's so nice to have these things living on where I can see them, though I could do with a bigger garden!

Anyway, I need a list for today:
do more laundry
put away the greetings cards brought from Mum's
list the vase I brought from the old house to sell
do some more of my course (I'm not going to get it finished, but I can take it again)
go through the fridge and work out how to use things up
make the spicy lentil soup that will help use the stock I made the other day

Onebrokelady

What is tinned marmalade,I haven't heard of that 😊

Cherryfudge

I think there is more than one variety: I've seen it at L@keland as either marmalade or strawberry jam but in the supermarket I buy M@made - you add water and sugar then boil according to the instructions and decant into sterilised (reused) jars. I did the sums long ago and it worked out more cheaply than all but the cheapest supermarket marmalades. I make it with a little less sugar than it says, and love the results.
You used to be able to get thin or thick cut variations but I can only find the thin ones locally now.
It's also useful for bulking out online shops - you know the ones! When you have £30 worth of goods in your trolley but need £40 to qualify for cheaper delivery!
PS. I've now found the lemon variety online too. Worth shopping around as some places charge a premium.

Onebrokelady

Ahh I see, sounds like a good idea if you use lots of marmalade 😊

Cherryfudge

Onebrokelady said:

Ahh I see, sounds like a good idea if you use lots of marmalade 😊

I think DH gets through a jar a week!

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge said:

Onebrokelady said:

Ahh I see, sounds like a good idea if you use lots of marmalade 😊

I think DH gets through a jar a week!

😂 it's only me that eats it here and that's only when I fancy it 

VelvetFreak

I love the idea of taking plants from loved ones' gardens and planting them in your own. I wish my paternal grandmother was still around, I don't remember much of her but I do remember her having a fabulous garden. When I was little I would help her in the garden, and when I got tired she would give me a chocolate and put me in the wheelbarrow and wheel me around and eventually I would fall asleep Really wish I could have something from her garden

Cherryfudge

VelvetFreak said:

I love the idea of taking plants from loved ones' gardens and planting them in your own. I wish my paternal grandmother was still around, I don't remember much of her but I do remember her having a fabulous garden. When I was little I would help her in the garden, and when I got tired she would give me a chocolate and put me in the wheelbarrow and wheel me around and eventually I would fall asleep Really wish I could have something from her garden

I love your wheelbarrow memory! I'm supposing the house isn't in the family any more but might there be people around who knew her and might have been given cuttings of her plants? Or even just tell you what they remember her growing, so you could buy your own. Or if you took a trip to the area she lived in, you might see similar plants in the gardens there, as people tend to chose things they've seen others grow successfully in an area. I know it's a long shot as it could have been twenty years ago but she has passed on her love of gardens to you which is a very good start! And how about planting up a wheelbarrow as a garden feature in memory of her?