Cherry takes the reins

Sun_Addict

It’s a lovely day here too, fantastic drying day with the sun and breeze 😁

Seasidegal58

It was just boiling hot in Seasideville today!  I went out lunchtime and thought I was going to melt when I got home!🥵

Cherryfudge

DH is currently driving Auntie back - she's had a lovely time. I feel very unsociable as I've been at work most of her stay, but it can't be helped. I did an extra sleep in last night and will probably be doing the same tonight as someone's called in sick. We have a significant amount of sickness at the moment, mostly stress I think though the latest one has an infection. It was skeleton staffing over this weekend even before this happened.

For me it's quite handy as it's extra money (thinking of Christmas!) and there's no sign of a job for DH yet, but we have enough coming in as our outgoings are quite low (unless I go food shopping...). DH has been using our EH membership while out and about so has only had to get tickets for Auntie. I've no idea what's been spent but can attempt to catch up on that later.

Anyhow, I was up early this morning attending to someone at work so I think I'll go back to bed for a while before work! The house is nice and quite.

This morning I'm thankful for Auntie's visit going well and for all the blackberries that are now filling up the freezer.

Seasidegal58

I'm glad to hear Auntie enjoyed her stay with you. It can't be helped that you have work commitments. I'm sure she understood that. 

As you say the extra money will be welcome - it'll be Christmas before we all know it!  I can't believe how fast this year has gone. 

Blackberries sound good!

Honeysucklelou2

Blackberries are starting to fill the freezer here. The older DDs actively choose to go blackberry picking whereas the younger DDs have to be reminded that if they  want crumbles in the winter, we pick now🙂.

Cherryfudge

Coo-ee, I'm home! I see it's only been a couple of days but it feels longer. Four sleep-ins in a row with afternoon shifts before them, but now in theory I have three days off. However I discovered yesterday evening that I need to do a course for work, and the best time is this afternoon. So much for a day off, especially as, having come off shift earlier,  I've just been on the virtual team briefing meeting. The briefing was useful, though: at last we have news that the service complementary to ours is to reopen at the end of September. We are likely to follow once they have ironed out whatever it is that needs ironing. Of course we have worked out various scenarios but no-one's going to ask us.

The other bit of work news is that we will be stopping the changing into uniform after arriving at work (partly because we will be losing our changing facilities!) but it will feel more like normal when that goes ahead. There is an informal recognition that things are less dangerous than they were, but our employer was ahead of national guidelines in introducing Covid-avoiding policies (literally months ahead in some aspects: I suppose that powers that be had other fish to fry so the employer had to do what they could to look after us) - so anyway we know ourselves that most of the time we're in a safe environment, but I'm glad there's no formal relaxation until the storm passes. And it hasn't: Covid numbers are doubled in our area this last week.

In financial news, DH took his courage in his hands and sacked the roofer this morning. He's the same chap who did the ridge tiles last year after many months of promises, and the bay window roof work was going exactly the same way. DH got the answer phone and left a message to say we'd made other arrangements as the roof was letting in so much water. I have a photo of the two buckets of water we collected on the worst occasion! Our 'other arrangements' are DH going out to buy the stuff and doing it himself! He thinks it's costing about £100, which is an improvement on the £300+ I was quoted in the spring by roof-chappie, and much better than the £400 he quoted DH when we got back to him after lockdown.

I think that's all for now. It's a beautiful late-summer day, cool but bright, so I hope to get in a run and/or bike ride later. The apples on next door's tree are reddening and the sky is blue... for everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven...  

Cherryfudge

It's been a lovely day, though the link for the training webinar never came through so I did get the afternoon off, after all.

DH spent much of the day working on the bay window roof and it looks nice. More importantly, the beautiful weather is supposed to be a one-day-wonder, to be followed by heavy rain all tomorrow, so the water-tightness or otherwise will be tested. He added it up and it came to £73.25 - a saving of £326.75 on what we had expected to pay.

My afternoon was mostly spent in the garden. I've pruned the damson (a wayward soul which is supposed to be on dwarfing stock but ignores the fact) so it's a miniature version of its hairy self. What's more, for probably the first time ever, I've managed to achieve the goblet shape that damsons are apparently supposed to be. I've also removed this year's spent raspberry canes and done some surgery on a hedge in the back garden. The first of the greengages are harvested - I probably should have gone back for blackberries and more greengages as the rain will be at them tomorrow, but I went for a run instead. It was the first for a week so it was a bit more effort but I managed a couple of miles.

I've also found a couple more courses I want to do. I know doing two at once has proved too much on the past but there was one that looks quite easy and another that looks hard but interesting... we'll see.

Work has asked me if I'll swap to a late on Thursday (I prefer lates to earlies) and do I want the sleep in to follow it? I said yes. Things are quiet at the moment (which is just as well as we have no staff) and it's also a bit more towards Christmas or whatever.

Tonight I'm thankful for DH's success with the bay window roof and saving the money, and also for such a beautiful day and the satisfying feeling of getting some things winter-ready.

Cherryfudge

I'm very glad DH got the bay window roof done yesterday, as it's poured incessantly today.

In the morning we went to the solicitor to discuss the boundaries of Mum's old house, which I wasn't looking forward to but turned out to be really interesting. The deeds are all on paper and she let me take photos which I've forwarded to my sister - amazing how village names that I remember from the 1970s were there on paperwork a hundred years before. There are also oddments that explain the very irregular boundaries: a coal mining company has what I think she called a 'caution' over much of the village and when the land is first transferred, they have to be notified under what was originally some sort of manorial right. There's not been a manor there since at least the 1920s when the mining company took over these rights, but the land hasn't been sold since the late 1950s, so the job has yet to be done. As I grew up at the house, I was able to explain a couple of oddities about the plan (a building that had been demolished and a side entrance that's disappeared off modern plans) to her satisfaction. 

It rained and rained, so I've had almost no exercise. H and A have been camping in Scotland but sent us some pictures and seem quite cheerful so I know they haven't been washed away.

I did some of my latest course this afternoon - I'm off on side tracks already but it's a new subject so I have to do extra reading-around to be able to say anything remotely informed. I'm hoping to do a bit more tomorrow but if the weather is nice enough we'll be out in the afternoon. DH has a meeting with a charity shop about doing some voluntary work for them, and has to be back for a meeting in the evening, but the afternoon is ours.

I had a video call with my friends this evening which was enjoyable. I did ask them if they can think of a way we could do something social but they're as stumped as I am. We had a good discussion, though, and a bit of a laugh.

Dh has decided to put his receipts into a spreadsheet! I'm not sure how well we will do with this but it's a lot more systematic than me noting what I can find on here - so maybe this is the end of my expenditure notes? 

Tonight I'm thankful for a leak-proof roof, a positive and interesting legal meeting and the novel I'm reading suddenly cheering up after what looked like a nasty turn late last night.

Honeysucklelou2

Old deeds can be so fascinating can’t they? The allotment’s deeds are interesting as it used to form part of an old railway line. Parts of history can be traced from the deeds.

Cherryfudge

I love historical paperwork! I wonder how the railway history affects your allotment? I'd imagine one of the benefits is level ground!