5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

LaineyT

Oh Frith, they have no idea do they!

For yesterday,

Met a friend for a quick coffee and then picked up a few bits of fresh for the weekend.

Had a flurry of surveys to do during the morning which kept me busy.

Lunch and then a visit to my elderly friend, she was telling me all about her childhood on the south coast.

Salmon burgers for tea, with courgettes from the garden.

Tired so early night to finish reading my book.

PaulieHerts

Thinking of Highdays, Frith and Dd 😘

My recent pleasures are all about my niece’s wedding yesterday 😊:
Getting my first manicure and pedicure for about 4 years!
My sister (bride’s mum) was distraught on Tuesday when she tested positive for COVID on Tuesday, but she attended, sitting at the back in the church, sitting at the top table, as she had already mixed with them, and not mingling too much, much of the reception was outside anyway as it was a very warm day in a beautiful setting .
The church was in a pretty, little Cambridgeshire village, and the reception in an old mill in another pretty village.
It was a wonderful day with lots of special moments including a reconciliation 🤞between two close family members.
i bought the cakes as my wedding gift, individual cup cakes and a larger cake, you can see my reflection in the mirror of the cake photo!
A truly happy and memorable day 😊💕

mehefin

Just got to love those ducks Paulieherts. 

PaulieHerts

They’re duck mad. The wedding favours had little squeaky 🦆 them!  She must get it from me, I used to collect them. I’m going to give her my collection, including my Steiff soft toy duck 🦆😊

DigForVictory

PaulieHerts - attagirl on the healing & the happy funeral! The plain Wow at that wonderful wedding & aw the ducks!

Happycas - had to google taupe & fun! Rousing belated congratulations on all that wedded bliss!

LaineyT - yeay Marmite soldiers, delicious. The anticipation of the first tomato! Harvest in Already? But Harvest Festival isn't til school goes back... Home grown salad & salvias surviving! Surveys are fun, and the money just adds bubbles.

Admiral - that pie looks So Good I shall encourage the 'prentice chef to read up. (His brother does not partake of mushrooms so we may have to hunt a bit.) What is a "fizzy fruit water" please? Aren't these "warnings" a bit daft?! If you don't know a 1940s film "may contain period appropriate attitudes" you perhaps should stick to other media. Aw, pigeon teasing Kitty!

Highdays - sorry you already need the raincheck but end of life is very unpredictable. I'm so sorry for your loss but delighted you are pulling together as a family. "Formal and Fabulous" - no pressure then.  May I recommend the charity shops as a hunting ground for something (hopefully) noone else has seen & you can be megabucks fabulous at penny rates? Three generation holidays are a special treat!

mhagster - if it must be a crazy day, let the tips be generous! Of course there are tears, but that quilt will be on your bed. That house will soon be on the market & you happily off to another country!

DundeeDoll - dear gods, prayers being focused as too many of those words are familiar. Absolutely right to bounce on mattresses - how else are you to know the succulence?! May the next 10 days hurtle past so you all know what the path forwards is.

Purple kitten - a change of scene & a treacle tart are underestimated pleasures!

Frith - no idea what the tourist was thinking but I love "tiny petrol door". The perils of family are that you really do feel that you have to clean. Still, once a year seems Almost reasonable. Cordoned off seems a bit extreme to prevent a geocache. Love the presents at midnight & sneaky off to fetch Chinese. Just oh fandango the college simply hasn't listened/remembered/asked.

VJsmum - you remind me I need to get painting so I can hang curtains in the front room & hoard the heat. Surely some of the fun of frozen-for-later is the mystery of Unidentifed Frozen Objects?

ampersand - hurrah cherry tomatoes and Americans at rugby - yes, definitely have collecting bucket next time but someone has to protect the flooring from studded boots. Hurrah Spookeymen!

Nargleblast - pure wisdom.

topsyturphy - imminent vive la France! Dog OK with being lent out?!

OS Pleasures recently

Crikey the Cirque isn’t a casual watch! Awed, but breathless. Animals don’t leave you swearing at how they bend or holding your breath that they’ll misjudge it (well, trapeze & puissance may be a lot closer than I thought.)

Eavesdropping on Middleson planning world domination & the Kendal festival - food shopping is planned… Watching the wellie “repair” has me muffling laughter - and planning a meal quick to heat, dry bath towels ready & the washing machine empty & waiting his return. (Saw his memo “power bank, food, drink, wellis” - o my son, your spelling is an ongoing source of amusement and horror. I wonder what VJsmum would  make of festival priorities?!)

Youngest has made choc chip biscuits using a recipe with vanilla essence. Not certain he picked the right raising agent but while they look flat, they taste wonderful!

Found a splendid Pearsons of Chesterfield casserole on eBay. Now to hope it arrives whole that Himself can be tucked by his son in his local clay. Pleasure is in knowing it’s the right vessel. 

Son & I go to see Ma-in-Law this afternoon. She may well be fast asleep, but not to go seems more wrong. [She was. It was all very tranquil.]

The local brass band are playing tomorrow & I found out in time! I love their cheerful sound & they may play the Muppets theme…

Knackerbockers, just done my healthy hike du jour & left the step counting phone behind. Bah! Still it’s good to walk even without the evidence.

After 5 hour bedside vigil Ma-in-law still breathing so we left having a long drive back in the rain. Swing by McD to refuel youngest to discover drunken idiots were trying to argue dogs should be allowed - we got our food & decided that actually we preferred slightly cool McD at home in peace than to spend additional seconds near drunken idiots. 

Youngest revealed a Vetinari-like (sorry, read Terry Pratchett, ‘Guards, Guards’) approach to necessary violence & wanted police brutality to discourage alcohol induced public order issues. Then revealed his innocence that an idiot is an idiot, drunk taken or not. I reckon ethanol is a solvent & that nice person plus gin can equal idiot but share his doubt those particular idiots will be an ornament to the gene pool.

It’s always darkest before dawn. Ma-in-law did not survive the night. Pleasure is looking at the bag assembled on the hop: powerbank & cables, 3 Terry Pratchetts, one murder novel, 2 pepperoni & 2 Kendal mint cake bars. (We had water bottles in the car.) Four clean handkerchieves. I have to hand it to Youngest, he Learns from experience.

Repair shop & the drum, and me giggling helplessly at the linen rope that went with. When Himself needed linen rope, we went webrunning & the two sources were drum makers & bondage sites. [Who have a devastating line in double entendre humour, & great charm.]

 Washing up to Ella Fitzgerald is very good clean fun, once you’re in the swing you start to look for more to wash! (I did terribly well, & the floor got a light sluicing too...)

Laundry on the line but too late in the day, derigged in the distinctly cool dark. Pleasures in not leaving it to drown overnight.

Middleson not smitten by festival - concerts & camping “but the worst of both” no gas canisters allowed & so eyed £10 chips! His autonomy is offended - he’ll not be back. Camping yes, live music yes but festivals no. Pleasure is he’d tried it.

Driving back with groceries, the main road home was closed. Youngest promptly “I blame brother” which had me laughing as I plotted the alternate course.

Upside of Which membership - as kitchen kit stops working (cold infused tea is Not how I wanted to start the day) I can research the most energy efficient replacement & order it (or today, even buy it with the groceries)!

Got a call from Corgi asking why had I pulled the direct debit (the one they hadn’t used in 4 years as there’s another) & the call centre employee got it sorted & even moved to a better day in the month & I made him laugh. Wonderful what courtesy & humour does to get the best out of people.

Family tree climbing (after zoom call showcasing dementia) not quite the lift to spirits hoped as kin possibly running a private lunatic asylum. That isn’t quite the family business I was expecting. (In years to come, the national archives will show me as someone authorised to receive animal horn & bone: & thus legally on firm ground to run a pet cemetery. The descendants are in for fun!)

We got the scan results for dad - pancreatic cancer we already speak to stomach & bowel “galloping” - pleasure is  my lads packed an overnight bag & drove down without backchat. We took the parents carnations & fish & chips & both were well received.

Saw a brief flicker of the man I remember in this strange husk, as he neatly despatched a Magnum choc ice. (As Middleson has work we came back & are in our own beds again.)

Love the Google doodle of Qixi festival…

Middleson says youngest is cooking “on the condition I give him half an hour on the computer”. I’m laughing so hard I can hardly type. 

Not his day. He left the computer, I jumped on & when he tried to spook me with a mug of water I just pushed his arm & he got a bit damp. A giggling damp hug is still good, yes?

Now playing Mah Jongg with two of us each running a dummy. He’s a bit peeved there are four of everything - he thought it was just pattern matching but trying to get 3s & 4s! He won, & claimed putting the tiles away was more fun than the game! [Tush]

Ye gods and District Nurses! Dad is asleep on a hospital bed, delivered this evening after a phone call this morning (that's faster than Amazon - I am deeply impressed) just our team includes a carer who's husband passed a couple of months ago from cancer, she knows exactly what's useful & who to ask for it. Having her on the team is a vast pleasure. 

Dad asked for & has got Big Ted (the bear he played with as a boy, inherited from his father). Pleasure at the snap of this vintage bear sat beside a vintage sleeping figure.

Fed a carrot to “70s” pony - flares, big nose, hair over one eye & said to be a stallion of  dubious temperament! Comes over for a carrot willingly though.

Forecast low enough odds for rain I can load the washing line.

Health strength love & courage to all as have need, trebly so for all dicing with health & the lack of same, and may the hosepipe ban not land too harshly. (Says she, looking at rain sodden laundry in Lancashire.)

mhagster

Hello and hurrah for Friday. 

Another shift done…four more to go…the final week! 

Finished early and nipped in to town. I’m within walking distance from where I park. Anyway the other day I’d seen some pottery in a charity shop window and it had a Denby-esque look to it, though I checked and it wasn’t. Told myself I didn’t need it however I do like it and thought if it’s still there it’s meant to be…it’s now all washed and ready to be squeezed in to the dresser! 

Also bought two new tee shirts that were reduced. I think tee shirts have all of a sudden got so expensive? 

Tip run and managed to pick up a bird bath someone else had chucked out! I did ask 😆

Home and hello doggy, hung out washing and thought I’ll charge my phone whilst I wait for next load to finish. Woke up 2 hours later. Absolutely zonked! So was a bit late  getting washing out but breezy enough and it’s dry. 

Walked round to mums. Update on declutter thread. 

And home, washing in and bedtime! Alarm set for silly o’clock ! 

DFV hugs to you all x

Frith

Pleasures for today (Friday)

1) Had a lie in.

2) Had a post birthday tidy up.

3) Did quite a lot of cooking today. Used up the strawberries for Eton Mess after lunch. Made a shepherds pie for tea for smaller son and halloumi kebabs for me. 

4) Halfway through Gardeners World and will watch the Last Leg later.

5) Might go out to watch meteorites again. Some good ones last night left a trail behind them. 

LaineyT

Sorry to hear about your MIL and that your Dad is poorly DFV, much love x

For yesterday,

Stripped the bed and left it ready to change.

Off to Uni city for a much needed haircut, my hair tends to grow out as much as down as it’s so thick, now feels wonderfully light and cool.

Lunch and then over to see my girlie, her next door neighbour was having a bad day and even me just going into her field with a headcollar to take her in resultied in him charging around, completely stressed out 🙁 So change of plan needed. Bucket of brushes and a field groom, then I sat on the upturned bucket while she blew kisses on my face and smelt my hair. Eventually she wandered off to nibble at what bits of grass are available while I just daydreamed. What if this world etc.

It was a lovely day, much cooler than of late so a bit of weeding and dead heading late afternoon.

Easy tea, pizza and salad, then a few games of Yahtzee.

Highdays

Good morning, everyone.

DFV - so sorry to hear about your MIL and your Dad, you are certainly having a tough time of it, but it sounds as if your team are responding quickly to your dad's needs.

Pleasures for today:

1) Was apprehensive about going to my mum's house yesterday but, in the event, it  was fine and very comforting.

2) I brought back her old recipe book - one of those with blank pages that you write your own recipes in. She had had it since she married in the early 50's so it is full of all our childhood favourites and 'family specials', all in her handwriting, and the pages much splattered and stained as it was well-used. There are also recipes she cut out of newspapers in between the pages, some dating back to when she was a newlywed. Total nostalgia.

3) Spoke to my brother about plans for our family wedding next year and agreed we will all stay in the same hotel and make a long weekend of it, starting with a get-together dinner on the Friday night. There will be ten of us, he has now  booked the rooms so all sorted, should be fun!

4) It was a total pleasure to get back home last night, just to be quiet and still for a while. A couple of heavy showers had greened up and freshened the garden.

5) Tossed and turned last night, very restless, gave in and got up early this morning, the first mug of tea was bliss!

Hope you all have a good Saturday.

weenancyinAmerica

DFV and Highdays - Hugs