Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

I must admit DH and I are noticing lots of puppies left, right and centre nowadays! I even greeted a couple while out on a walk, including a young bull dog (I always feel so sorry for their squashed faces but this one had the loveliest temperament). For someone who's never had a dog, this is progress.

The visit to my parents' old house was, I think, generally a success. The buyers came for a viewing and stayed over an hour as we swapped stories and answered questions. It was nice that we got on so well with them, I think that makes selling a house 100% easier. Then today their surveyor came - he took ages, saying it was a lot more complicated than he expected! It's just as well I was there as I was able to answer his questions, and he assured me that what I thought was white asbestos is in fact plasterboard - phew!

Three boxes have gone to charity from the old house, (47 items) and another 10 are boxed up to go on our next visit. A few items were binned as not realistically ever going to be used again, and there's another cupboard completely cleared as well as one nearly done. I also had a clean around, so it's looking about as good as it's going to for now.

DH and I have pulled out all the very old magazines dating back decades and he's photographed the trade journals to see if a museum or the local specialist college is interested in them. They may not be bothered but it would be a shame not to try. I've claimed the rest of the ancient Readers' Digests and just stacked everything else where we can work through them another time. The best find was a box of Mum's old knitting patterns, including 1940s and 1950s ones. As I love those styles, I'm delighted (but they were all so slim in those days!) There are also some very elegant 1960s patterns - they had such style. Not the sort of thing I'd be likely to wear, but worth looking through. DH's favourite find is a set of lady's magazines from 1916. The dresses are amazing! Fashion changed hugely over the following years but these would have been the norm when my grandmothers were in their early twenties: lots of patterned fabrics, ribbons, big skirts...

I spent the car journeys knitting, then, when I got home, the rest of the wool order had come. It's a bit lighter and brighter than I thought, but once I'd got over the unexpectedness, I think I like it.

Now I've gone and locked myself out of my online banking (nothing spent but diesel) so I need to sort that out and email the buyer to confirm our contact details and let them know the asbestos isn't asbestos.

Things I'm thankful for: safe journeys, four days off, finding the knitting patterns, liking the buyers, a close up view of goldfinches drinking from the bay window gutter below me this morning, the happy noisy family of birds in the roof above us (!) and the mallard duck that visited the drive at the old house, looking alarmed to find herself there. My Mum would have been delighted and made a real feature of having a duck as a guest!

ETA: not sure how I managed to forget this but when we arrived home our new shed had magically appeared! It looks just right and feels capacious, though he's not been able to squash it into the corner as far as I hoped. All the stuff is in bins and barrels in the garden apart from our bikes which are at A and H's for safekeeping, so we the refilling still to come.

Seasidegal58

Pleased to hear that the worry over asbestos came to naught!  That must have been a worry off your minds. 😃
The vintage ladies magazines sound lovely. Would it be worth binding a few and keeping them?

Cherryfudge

I'm going to keep as many as possible, @Seasidegal58 I find them fascinating. In fact I deliberately don't buy magazines as I find them so hard to get rid of. I can read new ones on the library app for free - free in terms of money and free in terms of space taken up!  

Rather a lot got done today: we now have to do a Flow test as well as a PCR on the same day once a week as well as one other Flow test (both to check for Covid but different sensitivities) and I got permission to send the PCR off myself rather than doing it through work, which would have meant being at work on a day off. I've found my lost keys and my lost sewing scissors, made an overdue doctor's appointment (there were exactly two left in the next ten days so it's after that), done various bits of laundry and put in the meter readings for Mum's old house at long last. The app didn't work when I tried it a few weeks ago but it's okay now. I've even emailed the buyers, which I've been putting off. So all in all far fewer jobs left for tomorrow.

Lastly, I've pulled out a lot of the knitting I did last week and redesigned the jumper a bit. It's gone from cable to plain and from monochrome to three colours. I'd had ideas about using Fibonacchi stripes but they looked too bitty when I mapped some out with strands of yarn so I've gone for something simpler.

DH and I had a walk to the next village - he to deliver a book to a friend and I to post the PCR test. It's been warmer and sunnier so I didn't need a coat or cardigan, though my 'duvet' coat is still hanging ready in the hall from the other day when it was still chilly at times! On the way back I went to the supermarket for today's dinner (I got enough for another day as well) and lunch stuff for me over the next few days. £18.23 of which £4.50 toiletries, £4.50 medical and £9.23 housekeeping. I also remembered to claim back a few missed loyalty cards pennies, about 21p I think.

Today I'm thankful for being able to get some important jobs out of the way, for the warmer weather and for progress on That Jumper!

Honeysucklelou2

Love those days when you can tick off lots of niggling tasks!

Cherryfudge

A quiet shift this morning, though I was shift lead. I can see myself doing a few of these for the next few weeks as a colleague is off sick. The good news is a temporary member of staff now has a contract which reduces the staffing deficit by over a third and we aren't increasing client numbers for the foreseeable future.

It feels exactly like a quiet Saturday, though that's not till tomorrow. Since I got home I've knitted three more rows of a jumper, fed DS2's newts, put up a hanging basket that I rescued from Mum's old house (and am now wondering if it's too heavy for where I've put it ) and paid £1,600 for the shed. I suppose the old one was already old when we arrived over a quarter of a century ago so hopefully this one won't need anything done for a very long time, and it's a big improvement.

Cherryfudge

DH and I had a local walk after tea then I've spent the evening knitting and finally got back to my course. I thought I'd at least have a listen/read even if I don't make notes. The main thing is to get back in there.

We've also started to move things back into the shed though I didn't do much as the midges were out and I always get bitten. The lawn is a mess where the boxes and pots have been standing so I made a start on tidying the edges and tomorrow the weather is supposed to be hot so I hope to make further inroads and have it looking less like a dumping ground.

Tonight I'm thankful for the sort of visible progress that knitting affords, for an easy shift to start the day and for interesting stuff to do.

Cherryfudge

I haven't got much done so far today and nothing desperately urgently needs to be done, but as always there's a list of 'oughts' so bear with me if I yammer away getting my thoughts straight for a minute.

I ventured half-heartedly into DS2's old room last night to try to work out where to start on all the stuff I've piled up in there. I found an easy win in a box of put-aside kitchen stuff I'd made years ago. There were two lots of disposable cups, the sort I try never to buy nowadays. Three of them had children's names written on: I thought 'Goodness me, that friendship group was probably at least 20 years ago!' That's given me 52 items for the decluttering and some reminiscing time. One of the children lives locally, has a dog and works in a café. Another is a fire fighter: I think he still lives at home. The third is married and has a PhD. It's nice that I still know roughly where they all are.

I need to find a box and start another lot of charity donations.

It's beautiful outside today - clear blue sky and warm so I'll put some towels in to wash and do a bit more tidying in the garden, and possibly a few more rows of knitting or some of my course for time off. Then I could do witha  quick trip to the supermarket as I want some groceries and am keeping an eye open or the reappearance of my cappuccinos, which have been unobtainable for two or three weeks. I've made do with others but they are too sweet really.

I also have a small box of parts from various oil lamps, rescued from my parents' house. When we were little we had an oil lamp burning all night as a night light. It sat on the flat roof of my dolls' house. You would think it was a hazard but we knew not to move it and we survived! I have no idea what to do with the parts, should I succeed in reassembling them, but Google tells me parts are available, so I might tinker with these.

The other thing I'm putting off is getting back into Ebay. I used to sell bits and pieces but my shift pattern made it hard to list and be available. However there are lots of ornaments that Mum bought thinking they would be a source of income for my sister and me should we need the money, and I know if I send them to auction they are unlikely to realise much. As fashions change in ornaments they many not be much anyway but I have absolutely nowhere to put them so they may as well be available if there are collectors out there.

PS. A quick look online and there are buyers though not everything has bids.

Cherryfudge

DH did yesterday's shopping, I spent a lot of time putting things back in the shed so time before work was productive. Then while at work I took someone out for a walk - it was such a beautiful day - so I got plenty of exercise one way or the other. I was unexpectedly tired at night, though, hence no update here. I didn't even do any knitting.

This morning was online church then DH and I had a walk over the hill nearby: lark song and views for miles. The May weather has arrived at last! I had another walk out from work but only a short one. DS2 texted to say he's paid back the money we lent him but there's nothing much else to report, apart from it's gone 10pm and there's still light in the sky: my favourite time of year!

Things I'm thankful for: lovely weather and the chance to be out on it, hearing from DS2, having a nearly-clear lawn again!

Seasidegal58

I hope you have some success on EBay with the ornaments Cherry. 

Cherryfudge

Yesterday - Monday - was slightly frustrating as I decided to pop into the shops on our way home from a walk and discovered a shop's loyalty card had inexplicably locked me out. As it was mostly items that I'd only buy with the loyalty discount, I ended up telling the assistant I wouldn't take any of it. Most were for the store cupboard (bought at best price or treats) but one was the sauce I'd planned to use for a main meal. However I found a work-around for the sauce, located the correct password for the card and got back into the app so I hope that's all done and dusted. I also picked up a circular knitting needle in a size I want for a mere £1 in a charity shop, which I'm pleased about.

When I got to work, I found that not only was I shift lead (which I knew about) but was also doing the sleep in and had forgotten to put that information on the kitchen calendar at home. I had to text DH to bring my things in. The shift was quiet, but just as I was packing up for the night I heard an alarm bleep and my night shift colleague and I had to investigate the depths of the boiler room. How long the thing had been going I don't know, as it's away from the main part of the building and probably wouldn't have been heard in daytime. It turned out not to be anything we could do much about (pressure drop on the water heating), but it's made me think: we don't have even weekly checks for that despite being trained up the eyebrows for certain emergencies and having chunky files of things to be tested regularly. A specialist comes to give it the once-over. Not sure it this is six-monthly or annually, but it was done earlier this year so wouldn't have been checked for some time.

Also during the evening I found I had two lots of offers/loyalty points about to expire so I've spent £3.99 getting some photos printed and I texted DH to ask if he could use up £6 of vouchers that would have been unusable by today. He kindly found them and put them towards refuelling the car and at the same time discovered nearby filming for a series we like, so stayed to watch. I had to text him as dusk fell to remind him I needed my overnight bag, but he turned up looking happy about watching the filming so all in all free entertainment!

I've done my PCR and Flow tests this morning - will be so glad when these are no longer required - but in general am struggling with low mood. I think it's because of the stuff I haven't done at the old house. It will be so hard leaving stuff that I would have liked to keep in the family. I'm afraid it will end up in landfill. However I decided to make inroads, however small, into all I've brought here. First was a sponge bag of Mum's with a rather intriguing melee of contents. Tissues and cotton wool have gone in the bin, as has a face cloth, and I think the remaining toiletries will go the same way as they will all be out of date. I did find a spare house key and a marvellous pair of tiny folding scissors, a brand new fabric hanky and some hairgrips which will come back into use. I don't 'do' hairgrips but they are repurposed to mark stitches in knitting projects.

Plan for the rest of the day: DH is out cycling (lost his helmet so I lent him mine which I've never used yet: learning to cycle is all very well but I'm afraid of the horrible bruising I got when I tried it a few months ago)... DH is cycling but has said he'll take me to buy compost later. In the meantime I'll do my makeup (always feels better) and pop into town for those things I couldn't buy yesterday. Later I need to get things ready for my video call tonight. I've done the laundry and put a couple of books out of a box on shelves, so life is a little straighter. Oh, and some caller got an ear-full ( ) because I was convinced she was trying to get data from me. She put up an interesting defence about not doing anything wrong and ended by saying I'd receive the paperwork in three to five working days BUT... she was talking about insurance policies we don't have and have never had. I wondered if the call was meant for our new neighbours but she had attached our address to our phone number so that doesn't seem likely.

So I need to get out in the sunshine and start finding some positives in the day.