Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

My original To Do list remains totally undone but I spent half an hour or so catching up on some garden work while the sun shone this afternoon, which is much better than doing jobs indoors. The strawberries are now in a smaller trough than I'd intended but they're at least planted and some of the voluminous shrubs have been shrunk a bit. I varied where I went once I'd seen that some industrious bird has built a very solid-looking nest in the front hedge and I don't want to disturb her.

The back lane is suddenly overcome with Jack in the Hedge and Queen Anne's Lace, which is extraordinarily beautiful. I won't cut that lot back till it's finished flowering.

The knitting is progressing slowly: I've taken a  break from swatches and am trying to get my head/needles/yarn round a lacey panel. Taken slowly, I think it might go okay.

I also dug out a book to lend to a friend and find I'm reading it myself, and I've put some receipts into the spreadsheets. This evening was  short walk to L!dl where I dropped a large yogurt as I was putting it in my basket, and it's amazing how far it spreads! The chap on the till was very nice and insisted I get  fresh one and wasn't charged for it. Tomorrow afternoon I'm back at work: I wonder what's happened in nearly a week away?

Spending:
Housekeeping £5.73

Things to be thankful for this evening: light at a quarter to ten, Queen Anne's Lace in abundance, strawberry plants surviving till I got them into a pot, some financial stuff checked and still ticking over okay, a doughnut for supper.

Cherryfudge

A couple of work days with a bit of grocery shopping yesterday and a car boot visit this morning. Not much to report really: work is going okay and the car boot yielded just over 300g of yarns for £1 which is a happy event as they are cheap and colourful and some of the colours look fantastic together. I will have to keep my eyes open for a multi-coloured smallish project. I've also been practicing the stitches needed for the little dress I want to make for DGD.

I had a text from DH while at work: long story short, A and H's car keys have been lost on holiday so they needed access to their spare set when they arrived back in the UK. We couldn't locate our key for their house - we've not used it in years - so they had to get the train from the airport, DH collected A from the station while H took the baby home in the pram (the baby seat being locked in the car at the airport). DH then took A to the airport to collect his car. Not the ending they needed to their holiday.

Better news: I remembered I hadn't sent in two timesheets and hastily submitted March's before it times out. I won't make a fortune out of it but neither do I want to have worked for nothing. (I get my basic pay regardless of whether I submit a timesheet but I tend to pick up lots of extras so I always have at least one on the go). April's hasn't gone either but I can see I need to check a few shifts on it. It's only a month old but I was puzzled looking back through the documents. There were so many blank pages in the workplace's daily records! After a while I realised it was because we'd only been open midweek, then had shut entirely for a week when so many people had Covid. We've so thoroughly settled back to what we used to do that I'd somehow not appreciated how very different things were a short time ago.

Spending:
Hobbies £1
Housekeeping £3.71 + unknown by DH

Things I'm thankful for: how exciting teal and two shades of pink look together! Some extras in future pay packets. A chocolate muffin for supper (yes I'm still trying to lose weight but I'd cut back elsewhere).

Cherryfudge

And a note to myself and anyone else with Tesco vouchers about to expire on May 31st: act soon to use or extend them: £17 million of unspent Tesco Clubcard vouchers will expire this month, but there’s a trick to extend them – here’s how (moneysavingexpert.com)

Cherryfudge

I stayed up late last night, reading. Never sensible. Church was online this morning then I chickened out of going to a group lunch because when I thought about it, I wasn't happy about it. The people are nice but it's a group I used to belong to but chose to leave, and I didn't feel I could pick up again as if no time had passed. I would also have had to leave early to get to work. I texted the hostess to tell her and had a nice message back.

DH went but he knows the people better than I do and could stay as long as he wanted.

The afternoon shift was nice: I've been working with new staff the last couple of days and they are shaping up very well so us oldies won't be so stretched. It was also great to be walking home at ten in the twilight with blackbirds singing far and near.

I've cancelled tomorrow's doctor's appointment as I'm so much better these last few days. The snoring has improved, and no more long episodes of tiredness! So it looks as though my Covid recovery took about a month.

No spending to declare, but I've picked up a sleep in in a week's time which is a little more cash.

Tonight I'm thankful for the colour of the sky after the sun has set and the song of the blackbirds.

Cherryfudge

£159 spent today on new glasses, which I'm going to classify as 'medical' even though its a bit of 'clothes' as well. I did go for rather more expensive frames than I'd looked at earlier but these are the 'just right' pair out of lots I tried on. I'm also paying for thinning and anti-glare coating on the lenses because I wear glasses all the time and have struggled with the current pair being a bit too heavy.

The good news - apart from pretty glasses to look forward to - is that they were half price due to my contact lens scheme, which probably more than balances out the lenses I forgot to cancel and are now possibly going to be out of date by the time they're worn.

Cherryfudge

Tuesday was nice: DH and I both had the day off and went out despite a (partially accurate) forecast of rain. We had lunch in a favourite cafe and, discovering that the gardens we'd intended to visit were closed, went for a walk instead. It was only about three miles each way through beautiful countryside but it's the furthest I've walked post-Covid so both tiring and gratifying. We stopped at the far end for refreshments - I had ginger beer and a cheese scone and felt like a character from and Enid Blyton book!  - before walking back to the car. I bought a couple of birthday cards for friends and DH bought a pie from his favourite shop in the town we were visiting and more groceries when we arrived back home.

We'd called off my meeting for this evening as one of my friends was having family round, so I'm rested and even got the ironing out of the way.

We returned work's plant on the way out as we had the car out. One of those jobs that had to wait for the right moment.

DH has booked our Proms tickets (no idea how much) and today booked our hotel which came to around £190. We've also been watching tonight's Martin Lewis programme which sent DH to his email box to check why out utilities payments are the same as they used to be. It turns out we've been living off the capital that had built up and there's something like £54 of that left so I think the new costs will very soon be going out of our bank. The projected cap on energy as of October is a shocker.

Spending:
Gifts (cards) £3.48
Entertainment £35 approx.
Holiday £190 approx + tickets.
Housekeeping - unknown (DH's spending)
Parking - unknown (DH again)

Things I'm thankful for this evening: nice day and being able to do a lot more exercise than a few weeks ago, gorgeous countryside to walk through, cheese scone and ginger beer, a bit of space in the garden now the plant has gone!

Cherryfudge

It's been a day off today apart from a little mini training session by video call which was eight minutes short of the allocated half hour. I'd had a rubbish night's sleep: one of those where I feel warm enough but actually need to be warmer to get to sleep, and had a trace of aches which may be from heavy work at work the other day or just because I'd walked a lot yesterday. Anyway at some time between three and four I gave up and went downstairs for a snack, paracetamol and fluffy socks. The birds were starting to sing! After that I slept well and went back to bed for a couple of hours while DH started work so I didn't get much done this morning but felt all right through the day.

In the afternoon I went shopping for cake ingredients to try out a gluten-free recipe: it's a stem ginger and lemon cake and is very nice but maybe a bit too powerful! I also got a bit further with the knitting but had to undo it as I ended up with a stitch too few.

This evening was another business meeting at church but hopefully the last for a while! We had a couple of nice chats afterwards so it wasn't too heavy.

Spending:
Household £5.50 (I treated myself to a new cake tin)
Housekeeping £19.12
Garden 9p! (I succumbed to a sad strawberry plant on the sale shelf for 10p, and got a 10% discount at the till!)

Things to be thankful for tonight: a productive meeting, being able to get back to sleep when I needed to, recipe turning out easier than expected, birds singing before daylight.

Cherryfudge

£3 donation today as a friend has been knitting sunflowers in aid of Ukraine, so I got a couple and they are really lovely. One is to hang in the car but I don't know yet where the other is going. 

H and the baby came round for a while this morning and stayed to lunch while we admired baby practising rolling onto her tummy and swivelling herself round. I gave her some fabric activity 'bricks' I bought for her the other week and they seem to have hit the spot as she can just about hold them and seemed to like looking at the pictures on them.

Work happened this afternoon and I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with the various bits of training that are coming our way and rota changes around providing enough cover and getting to training sessions. Shift was okay though.

Things to be thankful for: more money from the Chancellor that might help somewhat for those worst affected by the fuel bills (not sure how far it will go but it's something). Time with H and the baby today. 

Cherryfudge

Just about made it to help with church cleaning this morning: the others were there half an hour before me! I did manage to make some contribution.

Popped into 1celand on the way home as I wanted watermelon and our !celand has good discounts on fruit. I got large eggs, half price, raspberries and grapes half price and a ready meal, but no watermelon. I felt very tired when I got home despite not having done much, but was okay for work, which was a jumble of activities. Our new (temporary) manager has now experienced the curse of the Friday night meds - so many Friday evenings see a member of staff battling their way through problems with incoming medication and this one threw up a series of issues. I could write a book... but it wouldn't be very interesting.  

I was meant to finish at nine but it was nearer ten by the time I'd written up the day's notes then night staff had something to deal with so I stayed on a few more minutes so they could focus, which I guess means a bit more pay next month. The new manager has also allowed me to do the training course on Monday before my shift which leaves me with a day off later which I'd otherwise have lost. I've now realised that I'm working most of the 24 hours from Sunday evening, so I need to be organised with meals and getting up early enough to pop home between shifts. DH will be away and I'd like to feed the fish and check on the house.

Spending:
Housekeeping £3.65

Things to be thankful for today: DH did some work on the vacuum cleaner and thinks he's now got it running without the smoky smell! I know it won't last forever but it's quite nice not to have to think about replacing it yet. J and L are coming to lunch tomorrow: I've not seen them for weeks. The fish remains robust despite his poorly eye. The raspberries outside the dining room window are covered in the beginning of fruit.

Cherryfudge

It's been a good day but quite busy so I'm tired now. I bestirred myself earlier than I usually do on a Saturday in order to fit everything in and we went to the car boot where I bought yet more children's books for DGD when she's a bit older, and a storage box to keep her supplies for when she visits. The storage box was just what I'd been looking for but hadn't seen in the shops, and only cost £1.50. It could do with a light clean and won't last forever but it's good for now. The books were a series of 12 for 50p each (I didn't realise I'd doubled up on a couple but was able to pass them on to J and L t0 read to their niece) and four at 25p each.

Back at home, DH made a curry and I tidied up before J and L arrived with their dog. We couldn't work out what was fascinating the dog in a corner of the room until I remembered the goldfish food had lost its lid and she could clearly smell it! She was also fascinated by a bag of yarn - but I didn't let her have either.

Dh's curry was very good, and we tried out the gluten free ginger cake on them (it tastes good but has lost its lightness after a few days), then we found some old photos and L made friendship bracelets for us all... nice way to spend coffee time. It was warm and sunny so we had a local walk of about three or four miles which tired me again but at least I can do it without needing to stop. L also had the tiredness after Covid and his has worn off in a similar time to mine.

They left about tea time and I've been trying out a bit of crocheting. I love doing it but I find it much more complicated than knitting. Then this evening I went down to L!dl in the hope of bargain baked goods. There was nothing I really wanted in the bakery but I found several meals' worth of fresh fish marked down (now in the fridge/freezer) and checked for coupons which got me a discount on smoothies and chocolate. They are a bit of a luxury but it helps me towards my five a day and these have quite a long life.

After the shop my app presented me with another coupon towards exactly the same smoothies!

So I've spent a bit but also done well for bargains.

Spending:
Housekeeping £17.37
Gifts £8.50

This evening I'm thankful for a good afternoon with J and L (who I've not seen for weeks!), an idea from J about how to have my hair for the wedding, walking the dog and seeing fields of gorgeous blue flax (I wonder if it's to provide an oil crop now the Ukrainian sunflower crop is unlikely to get to us?)