Cherry takes the reins

Honeysucklelou2

Hope your DH is through Covid soon. It’s weird how it affects people so differently isn’t it? My DD1 tested positive for only 3 days or so whereas I took a full 14 days to be clear.

Sorry to read about your DS ‘s friend.

Cherryfudge

Thank you HSL2. DH is still positive but feels fine.

We did online church for the third or fourth week in a row, then J and L came to lunch so we sat out in the garden for ages and had a leisurely feast. DS2 set off back home with our old sofa strapped in the back of his car! I hope he managed to get it into his house. His houseshare is moving out at the end of summer and she owns the sofa they are now using. We handed the remains of the pizza and some salad to J and L before they went, so the fridge closes without extra rearranging, but we still have strawberries and other nice stuff to last a few days.

One payment today: £365 for a cottage for a few days' holiday in the autumn. We had been havering about destinations abroad until we received an invitation for a diamond wedding at exactly the time we had booked leave from work. We would like to catch up with this couple and used to live in that area, which is also lovely for holidays, so we let that make the decision for us.

Some of the surplus stamps are now with J and L, the only people I know who have a lot of things to post in the near future. They are still doing wedding 'thank yous'.

Well, it's warm but hasn't been too hot yet. Tuesday looks set to break all the UK records. I'm glad we have the trees round our house and garden to provide some shelter.

Things to be thankful for today: time spent with loved ones, a new home for our old sofa, Eton Mess.

Cherryfudge

Day one of the extreme heat, and it's been nice here though the grass has turned yellow over the last few days. I had the day off so the heat has been a lot easier for me than for people having to commute. We just have the doors open at either side of the house and shut the curtains, though by late afternoon the air blowing in was a bit too warm and the doors were partly closed.

I watered all the plants this morning and spent most of the rest of the day getting the doorsteps painted. It was okay as long as I stayed out of the sun. I'd not done them for far too long and the old paint was in a bad way. I also used some filler which may not have been the right one, so I think I may have bits of the job to redo quite soon. However, the paint dried in record time! Oh, and it was old paint too. It was kept indoors so the frost wouldn't damage it but it took a while to get it all stirred together so I'm wondering if it's past its best.

I painted an old baking tray in the same colour for use in keeping small plant pots together: I'm quite inclined to turn it into a barge work effect but that would mean investing in new paints when I really should be getting on with household jobs. There's also a garden ornament which I've tried to repair: the frost has got under the glaze and it's lost quite a lot so I've used filler which I hope to sand down tomorrow and I have ideas for decorating this too.

I've also done a thorough clean of the fish tank as the water gets low in oxygen when it's hot and it was due a clean anyway. The fish has some wedges of cucumber to nibble on. He's had pear and peas as well in the last few days - pear is his favourite.

Two lots of laundry dried in short order so tomorrow I have ironing.

I texted DS2 and H about our proposed trip to DS2's house and I've pulled out. I really don't want to go to the city in the heat and beauty spots in the countryside are going to be crowded. Then I texted my friends to ask if our get-together tomorrow evening is still on, and we've called it off as one person would need to get a train and there aren't any n that route tomorrow, presumably because it's through one of the hottest areas and they are afraid of the tracks being damaged. Then I had a message from work to say tomorrow's meeting is cancelled - so as it stands I will have another day at home!

DH was doing his volunteering this afternoon and came home with a book of modernised vintage knitting patterns for me (£1.50). Then this evening I've bought a watering spout to go on an empty pop bottle - it's a nice long narrow one so I can get in under the leaves of pot plants (£5.69).

DH got some shopping while he was out, just the bread and milk type of thing so not a big spend.

Spending:
Housekeeping ?
Book £1.50
Garden £5.69

And this evening I'm thankful for having got through day one of the heatwave without feeling stressed, for the feeling of achievement having got some jobs done and for a quiet day tomorrow (I'm sad I can't get together with the people I'd planned to meet but it's also nice to have a day where I can just potter).

Cherryfudge

Well, it was hot. I think the highest temperature here was 37 degrees. H and the baby came round and we sat in the lounge with as many doors open as possible and the curtains closed.  Lots of water and a couple of ice lollies helped see us through. The baby was adorable: she's getting better with her hands and tries to manipulate books to open them. Not always the right way up, but a good start. She's also sitting unsupported for a little while and trying to get her knees under her to rock as a precursor to crawling, so my recent removal of ornaments from ground level is probably timely.

Earlier in the day I'd washed a pillow, which was dry a few hours later. A second load of laundry is on the line this evening despite there being an imminent water shortage. I'm trying not to waste water, whereas just a few days ago I was noting that we've not had a hosepipe ban. The situation seems to have changed quickly but it must have been coming for months, even here in Yorkshire. Someone on social media was saying we've only had a fraction of our normal rainfall.

DH arrived home at about held past four, nearly melting as he'd cycled across town. I hadn't managed to think of a cookery-free tea so we had pasta which doesn't heat the kitchen for too long.

We've decided that, 12 days after DH started with Covid and after several days of being completely symptom-free, he's recovered. Current guidance says you can go out after only a few days, I forget how many but he's long since exceeded it. This evening we had a wander down to L!dl once the temperature dropped a bit, and restocked on some basics that we'd used up as well as the evening discount on pastries and bread, and a veg box. I was going to buy bananas anyway but we now have bananas, baking potatoes, three peppers, an aubergine, half a large courgette, a swede, a packet of green beans and a bag of carrots, all for £1.50. We got salmon on discount - who cares if we had it the other day?! - so tomorrow's main meal will probably be salmon with roasted veg.

Spending:
Housekeeping £10.05

Things I'm thankful for tonight: getting through the heat without too much trouble (though I know I've had it easy and some people are really suffering), time with H and seeing the baby's progress, bargain foods this evening and managing to get various jobs done despite the heat.

Cherryfudge

Today feels pleasant, though as I've got the door open and am in cropped leggings and floaty top and am quite comfortable, I think after any day other than yesterday I would have said the weather is warm.

Having boasted on a couple of threads that the solution to duvets being too hot is a real wool blanket (and I stick by this, wool is meant to maintain a breathable over-skin layer and it does it very well), last night when I went up to bed, the first floor had the feeling of heating turned right up. I changed plans and slept on the sofa, where it was merely warm. I woke about four and wasn't getting back to sleep so I went to the spare bed (DS2's old room) and slept on top of the covers but with my trusty Witney blanket. I slept right through till nine and entirely missed DH going out for this training course.

I didn't manage anything creative and productive either today or yesterday, but I've now gone through my calendar/diaries as well as my actual diaries looking for travel records for trips to Mum's old house. The trouble is that both records are incomplete so cross checking with other sources will have to happen. These other sources include this diary, my (incomplete) spreadsheet of monies claimed, my paper diary of visits (where pages may have come out!), photos (thankful for Google photos being searchable and that I can't have taken a series of photos if I wasn't there) and the dreaded bank statements - please oh please don't make me download all those!

Sun_Addict

We used to have a real wool duvet and it was definitely warm in winter and cool in summer so no need for separate summer/winter ones. I can’t sleep unless I have a cover over me however hot it is.

Good luck with the travel records, sounds quite a task!

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

Good luck with the travel records, sounds quite a task!

I'm probably making more of it than is necessary, a bad case of not seeing the wood for the trees! However I put in the village name as a search term in my photos and have now made a list of dates when I was definitely there: it should reduce the possibilities a lot (in both diaries and calendar I've often written in pencil that I intended to go but not marked off whether I went through with the plans).

I've stayed away from the shops today though I spent 99p on an e-book. I managed a temporary saving by gluing the head on our battered old yard brush which I'd initially thought I ought to replace. The garden is a mess, with dried lawns and untended borders. I took a few photos to encourage me to do more once the rain comes and the ground is easier to clear or plant. This evening it's very overcast and we thought we heard thunder once, but it came to nothing.

I've broken the glass insert for my single-cup cafetiere and it's really hard to find a replacement for this size. I might keep a look out for another in charity shops as the small ones are often there for very little, or I might dust off the larger one I inherited from DH's Dad. It seems a shame to let my pretty coppery one go to waste but there may be no choice.

Dinner tonight was the salmon and roast veg as planned yesterday and there are plenty of those vegetables left for another meal. As the oven was on we also made a start on the baked potatoes, which were very good. If I had freezer space I'd have part-baked the whole bag in one go to save fuel but as it is, most of them will just have to stay in the dark and try not to sprout. I still have two peppers, all the bananas, the swede, most of the carrots and the green beans so I need to be strict with myself about what we eat when I'm home to do the cooking. DH just adds peas to things to get a share of vegetables, though he eats lots of fruit! Oh, and we've also finished Sunday's strawberries with most of a pineapple and a drizzle of ginger syrup. The remainder of the pineapple went in the freezer. I think it's cheaper to buy fresh than tinned.

What's nice to make with swede apart from carrot and swede mash with nutmeg and butter? There must be something but my mind's gone blank.

Tomorrow I'm back at work and doing the sleep in. I've been texted twice today by different people to ask if I'll do the Friday night sleep as well, but I've turned that one down for various reasons. I've not been looking forward to being back at work, a combination of, well, it's work - and a rather stressful time a couple of weeks ago when I was on the same shift pattern. Tomorrow should be okay. I'm thinking of looking through the rota - which is in Beta, as it were, to see if I can swap my Mondays. That gives me no long stretches of either days off or days working, which might be easier.

Spending:
99p e-book

Things to be thankful for this evening: cooler weather, progress towards finally sorting the estate and a bunch of heavenly-scented sweet peas from a friend.

Cherryfudge

I nearly forgot - DH tested again and is officially Covid-free!

Sun_Addict

Good news about DH 👍

I like roast swede and also make swede chips too. 

badmemory

Is your cafetiere a bodum one, although I think I may only have 2 cup.