Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Plans have gone rather awry. Another load has been through the washer and come out fine but the smell is still there. I gave up on the painting as stormy-looking clouds came over but they're now gone.

The grass is mown and a pot with an untidy couple of plants in turned out to be one pot inside another, and vastly root-bound so I spent a while cutting it all apart and repotting the plants separately.

Nothing work-wise showed up in my emails but I've sent the main text of the Profiler to my manager - she can read it when she gets back from holiday but it's off my hands now. I've pointed out that it was filled in before the interview so it doesn't take that into account. I was going to send her the recommendations but there are hoards of them and each is in a separate section in a drop-down box I'll have to spend a while putting them into Word.

There was an NHS job that I could probably get an interview for, but I'm hesitating as it's too much like my current work. It's fewer contracted hours but when did a care job ever restrict itself to contracted hours? Probably not a good one for me, so I need to think of other areas where I could work.

Cherryfudge

I did about an hour in the garden today. Those long grasses from no-mow May are laughing at me. Other things are using them as cover to spread seeds. It was worth it though, for the beauty of all the wild growth in the spring. We've also picked more raspberries today, they are at last coming into their own.

The forecast said there was zero chance of rain so I went to buy paint. Of course a few drops fell, but it wasn't really trying. I didn't think I'd need rust remover but I do, so I'll be going back tomorrow.

Dinner was the rest of yesterday's Moroccan stew, then we went for a walk across the fields: a lovely quiet evening and I'm over 17,000 steps.

On the way back DH went to the supermarket but I headed home and got talking to someone who was painting his fence. When I said it looked good and I was about to paint my gate but needed to get some rust off, he gave me a tip about using a wire brush tip on a drill to get into the scrolly bits. Turns out my casual conversation was with a professional decorator! I'd bought wire wool but I think the drill would be much easier: there's not much rust but it's just starting where the paint has broken down, and it's one of those gates that has curly metal details.

Got no excuse now, have I?  

The tension of the interview a couple of weeks ago seems to have triggered the arthritis, which has been behaving itself till now. My feet aren't too happy but I don't need to walk any more today and I'll put ibuprofen gel on in the morning.

Right, time I started to put together that Word document with whatever the recommendations from the Profiler are.

Spending:
Household £6.75
Housekeeping £5.20

Sun_Addict

When will you hear back from the interview? 

Floss

Cherryfudge said:

I did about an hour in the garden today. Those long grasses from no-mow May are laughing at me. Other things are using them as cover to spread seeds. It was worth it though, for the beauty of all the wild growth in the spring.

My grass patches are the same - there is more plantain & clover than grass, and the plantain bends under the mower & pops back up again 🙄😂

Cherryfudge

Floss said:

Cherryfudge said:

I did about an hour in the garden today. Those long grasses from no-mow May are laughing at me. Other things are using them as cover to spread seeds. It was worth it though, for the beauty of all the wild growth in the spring.

My grass patches are the same - there is more plantain & clover than grass, and the plantain bends under the mower & pops back up again 🙄😂

That made me grin - mine does the same. I hunted it down with shears in the end.

Sun_Addict said:

When will you hear back from the interview? 

I really don't know. The longer I don't hear, the more I think they may have someone better qualified, but it was ages till I heard back about the recent interview so I know they can be rather relaxed about these things. Thanks for asking.  

Cherryfudge

A warm day that got hotter.

I had an appointment with the mental health nurse this morning and we spent ages discussing the Profiler. They have been using it on a trial basis so she wanted to feed back as much as possible. I feel it's been useful in validating some aspects of myself that have got in the way of life flowing easily, such as noise sensitivity and being adverse on a subconscious level to change. I had a lot to say, though, about the way the profiler is presented as some of it is definitely challenging to get through. I have already sent my official feedback but I'm going to email them about problems I found last night with the PDFs.

I went to the church for my stint hoovering and plant watering, then popped into a couple of shops on the way home, including unplanned spending on chicken fillets and salmon as well as the planned rust remover and wire brush for the drill.

It was too hot to work outside and in fact I ended up dozing till DH got back. This evening I went on a trawl of the internet to try to work out if I might be suitable for early retirement on health grounds, as that's one of the options that DH thinks might be possible. I don't see myself getting back into the work I was doing so the question is whether there's other 'gainful employment' I could potentially do for the next seven years. Apparently to be 'gainful' I should be able to work for 30 hours a week, which I've not done since reducing my hours when I had an accident (which I attribute to being tired from work). I need to look into my employer's pension scheme but I found some useful stuff via this forum which helps me start thinking if I need to talk to the union about it. I think all told, I might be better looking to take any job I feel I can do, but in some ways I might lose out financially: I'd been relying on working till 67 to get as much in my pension as I can, and I'm unlikely to build up my level of skills in another job in the years till then.

Spending:
Housekeeping £10.07
Household £9.30

Cherryfudge

It's been amazingly humid today. There was a forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon so I did the laundry in the morning, then we went to the car boot sale. When we arrived, it had already been raining and there were black clouds looming. Neither of us bought anything, there was some thunder, and it started to rain by about eleven.

I'd like to say we raced home and snatched the washing off the line just before the rain reached us, but in fact we got stuck behind a horse box that was in turn stuck behind a tractor and trailer, so the rain got there first and the laundry is now on the airer and hanging up in doorways.

We got chips for lunch as per usual Saturday routine, and had salmon with them but it was a bit disappointing. I was a bit under par (headache, but at least the dry eyes have improved today and the headache could have been due to the weather). DH did a good job of replacing the panel on the bath, so the bathroom looks better. I got very bored and eventually went and attacked the ivy at the back of the garden when the weather was dry enough. I'm please with the results: there's still plenty under the trees but I've tidied up an area near the back gate and the green wheelie bin is full.

The thunder storm has come back, this time with lightening, so I suppose I'd better shut the computer down and get to bed.

Cherryfudge

The rain last night was torrential, but the garden is benefitting and today's been nice, just the perfect temperature for a tee shirt in the garden, more sun than not and I spent three or four hours making progress. More ivy has gone from the back lane and adjoining bit of garden, though DH had to stamp down the contents of the green wheelie bin for me to get anymore in! At one point I was working in the lane and saw a wood pigeon alight in the garden. It didn't seem to see me so I watched it for a minute, sorting through what remained of a pile of twigs I'd just picked up for the bin. It wasn't keen on the ivy and tossed a couple of bits aside before selecting five inches of dead twig with side branches and flying off. I think it's making a nest now its young have fledged. There was something about it that reminded me of myself when the children were tiny, carefully choosing second hand things for them.

I know it's a pesky woodpigeon, but I wish it well.

Other than that, I put in a couple of hours at the other side of the house, with some help from Dh to cut back the snowberry which was shading the lounge window. I've also cut back the marguerites now they've finished flowering, and saved loads of aquilegia and poppy seeds while carefully getting rid of as many geums as possible. Then I weeded some flower pots, which is a lot easier once the soil has been soaked. I discovered a mock orange which I didn't know I had, so I'm very pleased with that. I bought it a couple of years ago and forgot...

Church was online this morning, so it's been a quiet day. DH went in person and said that was anything but quiet! There was  theme during the service that reminded me of a song but I couldn't remember the words so I googled and the first recommendation to come up was... the church we went to thirty years ago! I've bookmarked it to explore later.

Some more people have come forward for the cleaning team which in theory means I only need turn up once every three weeks but while I'm not working I think I'll ask if I can keep to the same rota and attack a few areas we don't normally have time for: it will help the church a bit and also be good for me to keep up the routine while I'm not in work.

I've saved myself £50... I wanted to do a willow-weaving course but decided that was too much so I'm going to YouTube it.  

Meals today were fishcakes for lunch followed by homegrown raspberries, and home made yogurt for tea. I'm not just showing off - those thing needed to be eaten up.  

Nothing spent.

We now have thunder and lightening again, the trees are tossing and the sky looks as though the sun has set. Only half an hour ago it was sunny! I'm off to copy out another recipe recommended by @Sun_Addict. 

Sun_Addict

Sounds like you’ve had a productive day. Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂

Floss

Sticking to your own church cleaning pattern sounds a good plan, it gives a bit of structure to your week. I'm currently signed off work and find that I need to carefully consider what day it actually is, as every day feels like a weekend!