Cherry takes the reins

Seasidegal58

Good to read you spent some time with the baby. 👍
Another here who doesn't understand why hosepipe bans never seem to take effect till days after they're announced.....🤷‍♀️

Cherryfudge

Well I do not understand what's going on but my energy levels are better this evening than they were this morning!

I was on the rota to help with church cleaning this morning and was rather dragging myself around though I wasn't actually struggling. I picked up a sandwich and some snacky bits for lunch and arrived home just in time to put together an evening meal before going to work. Work was nice: a good bunch of staff and a really nice mood.

I went back to the optician and they've fixed and adjusted my glasses (which went wrong after being mended the other day) and they came to pieces again within the hour. Would you believe my old ones, which I've been using as backup, have also come to bits this evening?!

Someone had asked if I might be deficient in vitamin B12 so I bought some to try but looked at the label and there's a warning to talk to your doctor as they can interact with some drugs. A bit of Googling suggests this includes something I take but it feels disproportionate to make a doctor's appointment when I could ask the pharmacist. They are usually better for the intricacies of drugs.

I also bumped into an old friend who is currently recovering from a particularly nasty bout of Covid. She tested positive for three weeks! Other health issues have made it a harder battle for her than for many. She also told me that someone we both knew passed away yesterday: I'd been told the other day that this lady was seriously ill so it wasn't a complete surprise and she was someone who had 

DH is away overnight to collect Aunty and I have been putting off tidying so goodness knows whether I'll put much to rights before she arrives! The lounge will straighten up easily so I'll do that tonight. There is fresh bedding and towels all sorted out for her but there are still things dumped in the room she'll be using. The bathroom just needs a quick clean but the kitchen is a mess. The dining room, likewise. I never got round to replanting the wall baskets as I've had no energy since the hot weather ended.

Spending:
Housekeeping £5.04
Medical £4.34

Things to be thankful for: A positive shift, clean laundry, rain last night.

Cherryfudge

I survived the tidying, haha. I was watching myself procrastinating last night and again before I got up this morning. I was literally praying for the next step, and had to stop myself getting dressed until I'd had a shower (as I knew I'd not get as far as a shower once I got dressed), then it was a mixture of 'standing outside' myself and telling myself what was the next move, and just pushing on with whatever I could see that needed to be done.

In the end only the dining room wasn't tidied, and even that had been started. I nipped to town and had a wait while my glasses were fixed so I tracked down some hairclips (I've lost the pairs of some) and bought myself a next-year's diary so I can plan annual leave. I know it's ridiculously early but I like to know I have leave to look forward to after Christmas.

Auntie arrived and we all had fish and chips then she went to her favourite shops and I went to work.

This evening it's raining proper rain. Lovely! We needed it. Tomorrow DH is taking auntie out for the day and I'll do online church then go to work.

Spending:
Housekeeping approx £18 (fish and chips) plus whatever DH spent on bread and milk.
Clothing (hairclips) £3
Stationery (diary) £1.50 (wanted a pretty one with bees on but needed a week to a view which came in black and so saved 50p). (I will decorate it in gold marker pen). (The diary not the 50p).

Things to be thankful for: heavier rain, getting rid of four small boxes - a bit more space in DS2's room -, being able to work despite staying up stupidly late last night, mended glasses.

Cherryfudge

I miss a day and the forum seems to have been busy!

I've seen DH and auntie briefly around work but yesterday, when she and DH were out and about, I fell asleep before work as the only way to get through the shift. Work was quiet and we had plenty of staff so I asked for computer time and did some online training. This happened to be about food. It's not our main course but one we complete between times to help us keep up to speed. As I waded through learning about nutritional needs of the elderly, it occurred to me that I might well be dehydrated. After all, my flask of water had sat in the work fridge untouched for two days while I got by on the occasional coffee! I fetched it and started supping while I did the rest of the course and felt immensely better very quickly! So today I'm trying to learn the lesson and have so far got up late (!) and had two coffees and half a flask of water. I know that's not really enough for this point in the day but my excuse is getting up late.

DH and aunty have a day out today: I pleaded tiredness yesterday and at that point it was true. However, the place they are going is £25 per person and not somewhere I'm particularly motivated to go, so I'll save the money and get ahead with a few things at home. Only kidding - I'll try to catch up with a few things. I'm nowhere near getting ahead!

Nothing spent yesterday, and no food shopping needed as aunty is taking us to eat out tonight as an early birthday present for DH. We had the sad news that a friend's mum passed away yesterday, so I've sent flowers. Other than that I've been sorting out the freezer (pumpkin and crowdie, anyone? It made a very tasty impromptu lunch!) and trying to plan a few meals to use things up. It's nice to have the house all to myself. I'm not good at being on my own too long though.

Cherryfudge

Yesterday was mostly reasonably productive and aunty treated us to a meal out in the evening. The second half of the day was random-symptoms-strike-again (tiredness, swollen glands, back ache and stomach ache) so I ended up going to bed early. This morning I thought to check my fitbit and it showed a spike in my heart rate over the past few days, which I believe can happen when fighting off infection. When I thought about it, I was working with a client who was under the weather on Saturday, so it's possible the swollen glands were fighting off whatever she had: successfully, I think, as I've got better as the day went on.

Aunty got the train home this morning, I think she's enjoyed her stay, for which I can't take credit at all - DH is a bit worn out though! We had a hairy moment when DH helped her put her luggage in the luggage rack and the train decided to shut its doors and prepare to go! I was frantically banging the door button from the outside and the guard was miles down the deserted platform with no way to contact him! I then saw DH trying to get out of a different door which wouldn't open from the inside, so I banged on that door release too and amazingly it opened and he was able to get out. I wonder if the guard had worked out what was going on and done something? I really didn't fancy having to rescue DH from the next stop which is miles away!

Dh had t go into town to collect a book to replace a library one that he's lost... don't know how much it was.

After a quiet morning and getting loads of washing done (a lovely warm day and very good for drying) we set off to take some old paintings to an art cleaner/restorer. The whole thing was very interesting: a purpose-built studio with art works of many genres leaning around the walls, several deep, old frames also several deep, an easel under the roof light, a table with palettes of paint and bottles of cleaning potions... the man was really informative, the sort of person who can explain without talking down to you. He's going to let us know about prices when he works out whether the can do anything with these particular works, so we didn't have to make a decision yet about whether to have them done.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering round the town, having reached a mutual agreement that we only want to go to a coffee shop if we need a rest. We've had too many recently and it stops being a treat and becomes more like an obligation. The trip turned out to be bargainaceous: we saw a church having a book sale with everything for £1 and bought two each. (On the way home I discovered that mine was signed by the author). Various charity shops and a fizzy drink later, DH had bought another book (£1) which is on sale online for upwards of £40. That's the sort of thing he buys on spec to sell on. He also got two work shirts, one of which is a famous brand (£11.48 total) and I bought socks as a gift for a friend, and a couple of £1 craft items to go in my sister's next Christmas box.

Back at home, I had a text asking if I'd cover at work tonight but I turned it down because I need the rest.

Dinner tonight has been some of the leek and potato soup made yesterday, and some of the apples gleaned today, cooked with some of the freezer hoard of blackberries. A couple of my friends came round this evening (biscuits courtesy of L!dl coupons and a little bit of forethought) but both are suffering with their health so we cut the evening a bit short.

Spending:
Housekeeping (DH's fizzy drink) £?
Hobbies (books) £5
Clothing (DH) £11.48
Gifts £3.50

Things I'm thankful for: having the house back to ourselves (selfish but true), Aunty having enjoyed herself, Dh not asking me to entertain her, me feeling better, free apples, lots of laundry completed.

Honeysucklelou2

 Love this time of year when apples start being harvested and blackberries can be picked.

Cherryfudge

I am thinking of going for a walk to glean dropped fruits! I know where there's a crab apple tree by a field and the fruit is always left to fall: now I'm thinking of taking up @Laura_Elsewhere's suggestion of using apple peel and cores to make a herb jelly and I think a few crab apples could be usefully added to a jug of peel and cores from yesterday's cooking, with some sage or mint.

The quest to use up continues: I've thrown out some mackerel that I found in the freezer because it smelled and tasted really strange. I've no idea why as I've frozen mackerel before and apart from some change in texture, it's been fine. There is chicken defrosting in the fridge for tonight.

I was also considering buying plain soap as a multi-purpose cleaner just in case there are shortages of other cleaning products. Perhaps I'm going back to wartime mentality? Why would there be a soap shortage? I haven't bought any for ages as I work my way through the stash. There are still 8 hotel soaps to use up (the one left over from DD's wedding in early July is nearly finished now, about six weeks later), and a few 'fancy' soaps too. Leave it, Cherry. It can wait.

I might get a pack of unscented tealights though because people are talking about 'What if the power goes out?'. 

I've also managed to loose a large jar of peanut butter. How can you lose peanut butter? It's nowhere to be seen so I think I need to add it to the shopping list. Can't be doing without peanut butter...

I also need to confess to spending out on books (again). I was browsing Oxfam online and came across a couple of food-related books that I fell for: one is a treat to myself: a River Cottage one of cooking with autumn and winter veg boxes (though it might help with the L!dl boxes) and the other is a wartime cookery book which I'm going to tell DH is part of my Christmas present from him. He's very good like that.   

Cherryfudge

Been a productive day really: a quiet morning doing things for me like hair and skin care, then cleaning the bathroom. I didn't get as far as the apple/herb jelly but I've done some ironing then gone to the shops.

I managed to get not only a big bag of tealights but also half a dozen nearly-dead plants which are now soaking overnight in the hope of reviving at least some. They were all of 10p each, 60p in total, original price £2.50.

I had to trawl through a  few shops before I could find dishwasher cleaner, I wonder why that's in short supply? I got a 'posh' one that does deep cleaning because there's a seal that won't come out and is a real dirt trap. I've also found some to use in future which save on packaging and can be used during a normal run of the dishwasher, so saving time and fuel. Yes, I'm stocking up again. It's hard to resist!

I've been asked if I'll stay on to cover for another hour and a half at work tomorrow. That will make it a long day! Hopefully the course I'm covering for will finish a bit early.

Various bits of grocery shopping happened, then we had chicken pasta for tea and both of us went to our evening groups. DH's group went on a walk and saw a red rainbow! Apparently this is due to the conditions being right for a rainbow during sunset. The photos were amazing.

Spending:
Household (tealights) £3.00
Garden 60p
Housekeeping £13.79
Medical 35p
Pets £3.99 (gloves for cleaning the fish tank)

Things to be thankful for tonight: my lovely group from church, feeling better, getting another shelf in the kitchen sorted out.

Cherryfudge

Early start and a longer than usual shift today. It went okay for me but a friend at work was very upset about something so I stayed on to talk to her. I arrived home just before DH, who is now regularly at the office rather than at home.

Dinner was the rest of the defrosted chicken with some defrosted roast gammon and veg, aka chicken pie. It's used up some veg too.

Since then I've been trying to stay awake and researching logs for the wood burner. We had a large delivery of them when we had it installed a few years ago and since then have been using our own logs or buying from the garage but I want to make sure we have supplies in for winter. It's also occurred to me to put wood into the shed as it could get lifted from where it's stored now.

I've not spent anything today... really there's almost nothing to report. Any good advice on buying logs is welcome!

Good things that happened: beautiful gold light at sunset, work allowing me for the second day running to nip home for something I'd forgotten (only a few minutes thankfully), early night pending.

Cherryfudge

Lucky me, L!dl had loads of their £1.50 veg boxes today so in addition to my ordinary shopping, I have:
a punnet of piccolo tomatoes,
a cucumber,
a green pepper,
three beetroot,
three red onions,
a bag of potatoes,
two lemons
a punnet of strawberries and
a savoy cabbage.

I'm amazed at getting all those for £1.50, and apart from the cucumber being a bit yellow, they are all good.