5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

ampersand

1. Pause for strange lunch munch of choice -  WARNING! 😁.  3 of last night's batch of courgette fritters, healthy style, 2 large raw carrots and big water.  Just right, 😋.




2. Long early chats with Spain. 40⁰ there before 8h/UK 7h, today.  Becomes worrying, love heat though & does, they too.  Too hot for upholstery working, also means v.early+v.late doggie walks.

3. 7am start for garden work day, another courgette ready, more slug+snail corpses👍. 1st full rugby training tonight, across road from Scotsdales. Have potted another sessile oak but need their i d. of a couple of strangers. Think 10cm one is a random shoot of currant. Pert green leaves, tiny hairy root nub.  Fruity bonus maybe?  No idea how, unless pulled up elsewhere for nest rebuild and dropped mid-flight?


4.  TMS on radio outside now, but heard yesterday on R5liveX, County cricket commentary -  'Their required run rate is slowing down and really speeding up now.'
It amused &.

5.  1st sweet pea flower!  Just one, looks so feeble, barely pink, but scent extraordinaire! 

Risky extras, but look!  It's a prospective 7 walnut sprig😃 Several more now spotted, high up 🙂.

and those first 2 peas,😁

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(Now &, sort pics into this.....)

mhagster

Hello. Workety work day 3/7 done and from tomorrow I have a constant  kitchen companion for the remaining 4 days so huge hurrah to that! 

Went in a bit early ( half an hour) as I’d so much to prep as we had 2 busy days previously. 

Girls gave me their tips which were about a third of what we got yesterday but it was kind of them. 

Hello doggy, let’s go a very very quick walk ( until he’d done what was needed) as I really need my red boots off! 

Suns been a-shining here VJsmum ‘twas quite hot even by my standards! An intense heat! 

Just put a forlorn chicken Kiev in the oven. Been lurking in the freezer! Will have some new baby potatoes and veg. 

Medium heat shower and cleaned it whilst in and then did loo and sink…this working business sure gets in the way of things! 

DigForVictory

Staggers back in. RL - sheesh.

SuffolkSue - darlin girl, please, email your MP & almost regardless of what they do, then email R4 Moneybox? Love the sound of that rose, and oh lovely, those blasted Firsts.

LaineyT - am darn near dancing on my work desk at good news of GN - welcome & full throttle growth, little one! Home with mum - yes, this is the where you are most right. Extra blanket time indeed. Which survey team are such a chore, that I may avoid? Rock cakes baking leading Capt S astray! "good food and lots of it" absolutely a pleasure. Egg & soldiers, yes! If Pimm's is a regular treat I really recommend borage - which grows like a weed has lovely flowers & the bees come to worship. Only connect is back? Hurrah!

Purple Kitten - hoping Himself is mending thoroughly, asleep on sofa beside you sounds splendid. Phili & chives on sourdough sounds a treat not a diet! (Though I cut & spread Thick)

procrastinator - you're a wonderful example to try harder! Mary Beard a major family favourite - fearsome knowledgeable but approachable. A long bath is a good thing! A live show? Will.Not.Covet but just replay a few memories. Finding things is wonderful.

DundeeDoll - I love the idea of "spare" plants - just my tomatoes (whilst numerous) do not look likely to fruit before winter! All for maybe in a chap - "better an old man's darling than a young man's slave"? Sorry, please remind me the 'woozle walk'? Milne? Memorials still restricted - it's not good, but at least its better. A right giggle of a meal sounds glorious. There's a 2021 courtesy - hanging nice masks found so they can be reunited with their owners.

ampersand - nil books? Are you well? Splendid reverbes & my heartfelt congrats on Batkey & Spen result. Admirable gift for vicar! Oo-er grape & oak - supposed to linger In Barrels, darlings. Hurrah Montpellier bag in loving hands & bringing joy - this is what every bag should aspire to! Taizé beloved by my late uncle, a devout soul, even if he'd enjoy the rhubarb almost as much! Rotten blighter slugs nicking your fresh veg. Church jumble fundraising for rugby - excellent. Oh the Pasifika singing - awe inspiring to just read of! The beautiful game has a very ugly side, sad to say. That leafy stick looks currant-y to me & Oooh, walnuts!

mhagster - I read your posts & have to recover. You do so much! Waved thanks can be disconcerting (husband got tooted digging rocks out of flooding road) and hurrah herbs if veggies not cooperating. Yes, I've left a few shops at pace when they've not been counting heads firmly. Rescuing plants from B&Q - properly rehomed, repotted & then well-rained-in as a welcome. While son taking calls paddling on a loch. (Awed & share your hopes re: weekend.) Wading through thigh high grass? Views must be Glorious indeed. DD2 has picked a good place if you covet laundry room then lemon tree! It's so hot you're having Cold Showers? How do you make a chicken kiev sound so bereft?! Right with you on work getting in the way.

nargelblast - all this painting in son's absence? (My first supply of labour!) "Shallow" yes, that will be a stadium rocker! "Pizza, lager and cake" sounds blissful! Oh my the roses!

Happycas - mullein has a range of historical uses but can give contact dermatitis - see how you, family, pets go? Hairdresser is one of those jobs You Can Live Without which is hazardous. 

PaulieHerts - stunning photos! <Ponders trying to rent the castle for covid secure family holiday...> "had to drink wine" - the horror! Hurrah DGD recognises you! Is the loo working? Covered buckets can only do so much. As holiday souvenirs go, Adnams & home made jam are good stuff. "bubble blowing, hopscotch hopping and [hedgehog] painting" - stomping good day out!

Frith - heating much better installed when not desperately wanted. Clippers are wonderful - Middleson can do his own hair, and does, sometimes bent over at the middle to get the right angle... Manchester central is a bit lax on masks. Yeay Fred-ah. You remind me I am spoiled rotten - the little free shuttle buses I accept much as I accept the rain. Yeay really good mouse! Ooops lucky hat. Hurrah bigger son jabbed. A bat survey near Trumpet - sounds a promising start to a limerick.

VJsmum - ancestors can do strange things to the mind. Old Man of C Definitely rates cake after! I say you do meet the more Interesting tourists. Lake swimmer?.. Builder Fnished? Hallelujah! Hanging curtains is a pleasure? <Presume adequate ladders.> A downstairs loo, With Fripperies. Cor. 

Bala - just all strength.

OS Pleasures recently

The family zoom has almost no restrictions. Recently sis & I chatted the pros & cons of credit cards, the role of “puppy mats” & barrier cream in dealing with diarrhoea & vomiting, did balance exercises (10 seconds on each foot - who’d have thought zoom kept you honest?!), roared with laughter at our father’s refusal to extend a phone call “as the news is on” (at 5.17!) & generally sorted the right bulb for her new ceiling mounted fan (which her dogs are loving!) 

After which I did a bit of pottering around the family tree & winced slightly at the sheer fecund stamina of various relatives.

My son’s pitch as he realised I’ve been driving the new-to-me car for months without knowing where the headlight switch was…. Truly the back seat driver, commentator & critic hit a frequency any coloratura would be proud of.

The thunder forecast has arrived a mere 3 hours late, but the heaving rain came this morning so nothing needs watering. No TV (we unplug the aerial) but from the birdsong (as lack of traffic) I presume there’s a major match on.

Saw mother-in-law, endured her choice of TV viewing, & left still friends. I was amused at her view of tanned husband “you’ve been on your holidays!” but he was more distressed by her slipping cogs.

Our not-Listed neighbours have moved to a job in Scotland. A pity as we liked them, they liked the area etc but with 5 children they need to work. The purple estate agents appear to have been stinking useless so another agent has the property on their books. (Who sold 3 places in this postcode in the last fortnight.) We can use our garden as a rifle range while the house is empty, but I doubt it will be for long.

Middleson has scattered the quick germinating grass seed on the back garden, now to find out if the claims have any kind basis in reality! The herbs are powering along & the cuttings are looking chipper, so my wild dreams of growing dates don’t seem shockingly wild. Any successes will be given to my eco-conscious uncle so that no matter how severe global warming gets, I have assured him of one tree.

A friend has asked “ When will the patter of little feet become reality? ” - well, the pup plans are ambling along (middle size mongrel with minimal breed ailments hoped for!) but only the deities know what our sons might bring home. Also, if I got offered a Great Dane, I’d almost certainly accept. So what they’re bigger than me, more beautiful than me & quite possibly smarter than me?! 

Husband has asked for pineapple on his pepperoni pizza. Youngest, responsible for cooking, was shocked into a long stare before retreating to the kitchen! It may well be delicious. [It was. Where on earth is our BoP?]

A very long time ago my midwife told me to take my wedding ring off before the doctors cut it off. A stranger’s appalled glance at my bump & bare hand sent me in hormonal tears to my husband & the Maternity Ring idea was hatched. Today, tidying, the receipt for the chain on which my wedding ring hung & then three engraved Maternity rings surfaced. I inscribed each sons initials & date of birth in them, so if they needed a wedding ring, there was one waiting. Pleasure in the finding, as to have lost all three was unspeakable. Just, aye well.

Front room has clear paths down both sides! Mutterings of plans to paint it heard!

Spirited debate with youngest, can you “loudly make tea” - I think easily & he thinks it’s ridiculous. Sweet innocent has never struggled with a hangover. (Nasty shock that’ll be!)

Hurrah! There was a copy of the museum book of the Great Japan Exhibition on the charity shelf at the supermarket - promptly snaffled, as there were so many amazing things there, a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Almost 40 years ago & yet the awe is still vivid! [Oh my, the colour prints!]

Not quite a pleasure but the hedge clipper gave out while 85% done. Still, it’s clear we tried & that we need to borrow clippers to finish the job! [Himself has the height & stubbornness to manage with hand clippers. Our neighbour uses a device that sounds like a neglected tractor as I try to work, but I think both sides agreed it needed doing.]

The little African Violets I had shipped to a sister arrived the day she was told to self isolate. So they’ve been repotted, cosseted & placed on a bright windowsill where she can enjoy them but her cats & dogs will not interfere.

A very long time ago (before covid!) I spotted a silk scarf with a seashell design & thought “worth 50 pence”, washed it, wrapped it in tissue & then clean forgot about it. In the tidyings (argh) I found it again, shoved it in an envelope & a son took it to the post. Today mum wore it on zoom, delighted!

I have been given cherries! Is there any way to get the seeds to germinate faster than the months plus in the freezer? Says she reducing the box of cherries to a mug of pips at an alarming speed. (As vices go, it’s pretty innocuous.)

The Teva sandals I bought & wore every summer for years were lost. In the tidyings, they have been found, washed, combed (how else to get the fluff out of the Velcro) & are back on my feet! My husband is a meticulous restorer of the neglected - these are almost like new!

90% of what makes a training course is the preparation. The new material is brilliant - one of my colleagues, whom I revere as a minor deity in the field, has used the quiet of lockdown to empty much of his experience in class onto paper & then into measured, assured, logical training. Training is now much more can the trainee create a folder as instructed & follow the instructions? Recognise what might be creating that error message? Get help early rather than swear over it for hours? (We discovered it was So Clear the really sharp trainees needed more, and so exhumed lumps of other courses without the fine tooth comb checking. Clearing up after that was more complex than the course!) [2 days in, all going smoothly but my co-trainer & I miss seeing the faces!]

Ergh the heat. Plus the cloud, falsely promising rain. Still Husband has fun new tool to restore, pipeweed sufficient unto the day & Lea & Perrins. I have near-heatstroke and need another shower but the two Denby pieces are spectacularly weird (red!) on a familiar shape. ‘Damask’ seemingly.

Managed to walk away from a stack of Denby Maplewood china (even dinner plates!)  as Middleson would have killed me had I brought more colourroll Denby home.  Or so my husband warned me…

Observing a small market town, the shops appear to be intending to cling to masks. The eateries were just packing them onto outside tables and I wasn’t too happy - I’ve gone right off ‘large’ groups of people (over 10)… 

I’m listening to my chaps watching John Wick. There’s a lot of “ooh” & “of course they have chandeliers” amongst the breaking glass & thuds. Then hooves! Can Keanu really do Cossack style riding or was that stunt spliced?

Smiling as a riding class briefly trots & the child on the Shetland is a blur - I’m not sure if their technique is correct or they’re being thrown around! The Shetland looks focused but knows the stable is near…

It’s a Sunday, there’s a match awaited & the road is just clattering with hooves. Might be the warm-but-overcast weather, the awareness that the rest of the family has other priorities, but the horse riding sorority is out in force. Which I love, since while I’m trying to focus on preparing for the course I teach over the next fortnight, I meerkat for every clop! Happiest way to remember to adjust my focal length yet.

Yikes, Middleson has night shifts so trip to see grandparents down south postponed for him, &, as he’s a post office employee, likely not going to see him much over Christmas. Ah well. Try harder early November, but take Youngest down anyway (lateral flows contingent).

Lovely male colleague asked when might we go back into the office - why? “Oh, so I can get my hair & nails done” - collective roars of laughter as we already imagine this chap smartly turned out. (His daughter tried to give him highlights - his hair is his womenfolk’s playground.) 

Health, strength, love, & courage to all as have need, umbrellas parasols & extra blankets likewise & as the new freedom dawns, may we all be surrounded be folk sensible enough to treat this freedom carefully...

DundeeDoll

Sadly dfv the pesky pigeons got most of my spare plants. Tomatoes ripening nicely and courgettes growing - inspired by ampers for next year
1) woke just before alarm, sunny, walked the dogs
2) cornetto out the freezer for elevenses in the garden
3) took a break at 5 and walked the boys up to mum’s for a catchup
4) made very nice chicken casserole for supper which we had with new potatoes (shop bought, maybe next year?)
5) eschewed pub with dr m and mr g, instead returning to emails for an hour then DiP with dd2 and now to be done for another chapter of attention all shipping.sleep well everyone xxx

Frith

Pleasures for today (Tuesday)

1) Not a bad sleep.

2) My friend postponed our cup of tea meeting until tomorrow so I lay in bed for an extra hour. Smaller son's college is closed as everyone is in isolation so no need to get up early. 

3) Silly paperwork morning. Why is it all so awkward? Tried to: make an appointment with Halifax so smaller son can turn his child account into an adult one (18 in a few weeks). Oh, he can "just pop in". No way to explain that smaller son is unable to "pop" anywhere or speak to anyone. A long time to set up council tax direct debit. (I don't know know where it vanished to, have paid it by dd for 22 years!) 3 attempts to leave a message with the Land Registry. Did car insurance quote then found a couple more days need to pass before I can set it up. You get a discount for doing it 3 weeks early but I was too quick. 

4) Hens OK but someone has been messing about on the allotment again. It is not the first time. Hen food container tipped on its side (it's a kitchen bin, so not something the hens could knock over). Bucket of water by the fence kicked across the allotment and, weirdly, every single gooseberry picked off the bush! 

5) Had a vague tidy up and changed my bed.

6) Tasty tea of PSB, bacon and pasta cheese then I made a blackcurrant fool with fruit off the allotment. 

7) Spoke to my school friend on the phone. 

8) Listed some Ebay bits and one has just sold. Made a miniscule mortgage overpayment. 

9) Watched Holby City.

10) Bigger son isn't too bad after his vaccination. Felt a bit sick this morning and has a sore arm. He had the Pfizer.

LaineyT

Fab photos Ampersand.
Epic post as always DFV, something in my eye over found rings, will PM over non-recommended survey co.

For yesterday,

Thankful for savvy footballer calling out hypocrisy of minsters, yes indeed.

Morning sunshine and lots of it, washing on line.

Pole work for the beautiful grey one, one minor difference in opinion but otherwise worked well.

On phone to volunteer coordinator mid afternoon and we both cut it short by dash out to garden for washing as black clouds looming.

Pulled some carrots up and we had them roasted with Dijon salmon for tea, yum.

Suffolksue

Thank thank you all for your advice ,think it must have been our combined thoughts 
completely out of the blue the forms and figures have arrived today ,!!
as they were saying  another 6 weeks I’m amazed but not complaining!

Think that’s pleasures 1-5 !

ampersand

Oh wonderful to see this, Sue! ❤ Thankyou for sharing🙂
(on an otherwise bleak, grey, chill, windy Bastille Day - again not being spent in France.....😢😖☹😖🤬)
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&'s Madame Merle agrees. She's fabulous, spotted several weeks ago at Stetchworth village carboot, simply and perfectly carved.

VJsmum

Echo the leaky eye over the rings, DforV..

Pleasures for yesterday - I'm having to work hard at them as am somewhat kicking my heels

1. Painted the kitchen bookshelves and put back in place
2. A 4 mile walk over the fields
3. The sun eventually came out
4. Cooked salmon with pak choi (the latter cooked in garlic and chilli)
5. During restacking of bookshelves found a photo book we did of our first South African holiday - lots of awws all round at the cuteness of our kiddies and memories relived.  Also, these photos were taken 15 years ago and i still wear two of the pairs of trousers that i wore then (although one is for painting only) - and they still fit!

there - made it.  

balabooberlies

so.......

My Jackdaws have absconded just like my Crows at home (am in Kent).  This family of birds appear to be the 'Love 'em and Leave 'em' type.......

But here's a new one for me.  Bean salad spilt and swept up.  Mum put dustpan outside back door as she was sorting bins.  I was out there having a cup of tea and noticed a seagull nervously pacing up and down on extension roof.  Then it's beak started dripping.  I thought it was ill.  It was only when it gathered its' courage hopping to the ground next to the dustpan that I realised it had been salivating.  All that effort and then the salad was not to its' liking.........


keep well all

bala

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