5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

LaineyT

For yesterday,

Waking up early and knowing that there are extra loved ones sleeping under our roof.

A slow, leisurely breakfast with lots of discussion on various subjects, as Capt S said a two coffee pot job!

Cricket watching, garden wandering, promises that strawberry runners will eventually be rehomed with young people. Did a buffet style lunch so people could help themselves as and when hungry.

They finally had to go home ☹️ took small dog for a walk, dodging showers as we went but oh that lovely smell of summer rain freshening the air.

A new series of Van der Valk, good stuff but the theme song tends to stick.

DigForVictory

DundeeDoll - it has been too hot & with the thunder is now muggily too hot but no TV is its own pleasure. annual bbq in our communal garden sounds great fun!

mhagster - hurrah rtc garden parasol even if not where you want it to be (yet), supporting the Chap puppy & hoover... Finally Arrived! More emergency pupsitting & peacekeeping even if pup is cute.

Purple kitten - 65 bags of wood pellets - ye gods, then preparing to gallop to the rescue. A drip water system - cor!

Frith - awed at juggling - "once you reach 100" now that is the voice of experience! Argh solicitor. Hurrah invigilation with fan. Hula hoop at ParkRun! Fourteen orchids?! Glorious.

LaineyT - watching bats is a very special privilege! Sofa & cricket sounds wonderful. To have the essentials called across the yard affirms the rightness of your decison to move there! Aw, having enough folk & subjects that breakfast is a two coffeee pot event!

Happycas - delighted DH improving & offspring coming by to celebrate with you both.

ampersand - three cheers for les trois gentilhommes de Travis Perkins and may they be kept in fulltme gainful employment whilst competition Yoof herd customers away. I wonder how many hours yon biker has set that up & practised. Like Frith says, by the 100th time, you know you've cracked it but til then, you have to get self & bike back up, bend stuff back into position, test lights etc & staunch blood flows & keep on trying. (Ahem, memories.) An implacable bolt looses a lot of its swagger faced with an angle grinder and a benevolent smile.

lovefullshelves - hurrah fish finger sandwiches! Barefoot in the rain - special pleasure.

Highdays - a good break before the wedding & staying in holiday mode - excellent!

OS Pleasures recently

I love sons. A little bit of bribery can go Such a long way.

Reminded sister to leave an online jigsaw where mum can see it. Keeps her happily away from the email for some time & rewards mouse dexterity. (We play them together too, but she does enjoy finishing things!)

Saw a deer cross the road on my way into work! Muntjac I think as small, but big wow factor anyway.

A great aunt is coming to see mum but hasn’t confirmed eta etc so we drafted how to call a porters lodge & get a younger cousin to double check plans. Sis managed fine!

Ah the perils of email & not checking the inbox before sending the “no word from X” group message. X understandably rather annoyed.

Yeay! Scouts, flint & steel, minor injuries, fire! Nothing that won’t heal (on me, anyway) and will add to tomorrows work meeting “oh scouts”….  Plus lots of sticky gooey fun (as well as irate bafflement at how a rock & a bent nail produce a spark.)

Where else do you get to call “run around me & Both Nathans!” & feel the Earth shudder as feet thump gleefully & tagged bodies drop & roll, winded, to be told to “get onto the rope or get trampled” - I love my Scouts! Even though I have to wash the smoke out of my hair.

Meetings met, some value derived, excellent confidence building halfhour with colleague just gently strolling me through the dubious terrain of SQL - had I known, I’d have gone in far more willingly!

Amused at how nearly everyone in the meeting wore wedding rings (All the chaps) & there were several signets as well. Youngest may ‘grow into’ his, being only just 21, even though it was sized to fit him.

Golly it is hot! Pleasure is a shower helps & the hammam towel preserves modesty while allowing leisurely evaporation.

“Unleash the hoovos!” I try to pronounce Huevos rancheros with as much credible South American accuracy as an Englishwoman can manage, but Youngest is insisting on hoovos. And he’s cooking.

Oh the Addams family “to all that binds a family together: to mirth, to merriment, to manslaughter” chortling here.

Last week I hoovered my office floor. This week, doing yoga, it still needs work!

Booking up on auspicious days in the Chinese calendar to pot on the kumquat seedlings. Not til Sunday, seemingly. Well, I wouldn’t want to upset their chi flow (or whatever produces the auspicious atmosphere!)

Aw, Middleson asked for stamps for post relating to the house he wants to buy. Somehow handing them over seems important, part of the story. I remember feeling both triumphant & the greatest rogue unhung driving the lad’s bed to the flat - this is familiar ground but hopefully more solid!

An acorn split down the middle & now is carefully stowed in two little vases to carry on with roots & green shoots. 

Of my two mango plants, it now turns out the first one isn’t. Hm. Never mind, there’s still time to try to get a second (real) mango to germinate.

Some days being a good mother does over plans to enjoy the Trooping of the Colour. Ah well, were youngest to chose Liverpool for his university he’d be near colleagues, which gives me a relatively local vicar to call for help/backup… 

Pressganged into personal stylist & hairdresser (as he’s not quite as deft as Middleson with the clippers) & so now has somewhat triangular sideburns and a smooth back of neck curve.

A good open day - personally it gets my vote for having a campus, good pastoral care, & both Booths (Waitrose of the North!) & Costco in easy reach, to facilitate affectionate motherly visits. 

Watched Trooping on iplayer. Love all the with practice comes payoff.

Lots of thunder & some rain today. Ho hum, puts line drying plans on hold til these very intermittent but also very wet moments settle back to steady heat!

I have potted on my kumquat seedlings (naming then for some of the Chinese Traditional Virtues) & ordered more key lime seeds (not from Sri Lanka this time!) so I can try a wide range of citrus experimentation…. I love the raw hope of seeds.

Ah, Father’s Day. Hm. Pleasure is it’s largely washing past me unless someone makes a big point of it. I wholly laud & cheer on the living who are trying to be good fathers & grandfathers etc - it’s right to cheer them but I’m not forgetting this is an American idea from 1972, either.

“I’ve cooked a chicken for the cats”

(Off) “and I get none if it”

“You’re not a cat.”

I love it when my colleagues’s family chip in as they return from their work, unaware spouse/parent Still Hard at it. A privilege to be allowed into domestic chat!

Right. Health, strength love & courage to all as have need, parasols & solicitors & quietly competent mechanical types to be found diligent where wanted & may all you love manage not to get into an argument for a full 6 hours in any given period of daylight. 

Frith

DfV - you've reminded me I haven't practised juggling for a few days. 

1) Not a bad sleep.

2) Off to have my eye brows and beard threaded. I did tell the lady she deserved a cup of tea after that exertion! Sat in the cafe of the college that smaller son could have gone to afterwards. A very chatty man staffing the counter. I did about an hour of Arabic. Sometimes you suddenly learn lots of new words and some grammar almost makes sense. Often you forget it again!

3) Back to carpet town, narrowly missing a badger on the way. It crossed not far from our (potential) new house. 

4) English lesson in the afternoon. We did a cross between a quiz and a scavenger hunt. Everyone was very jolly today.

5) Smaller son and I had a wrap from KFC each then went to Sainsburys.

6) I went to feed next door's cats. Found one hiding. I think the other is outside (the window is open). 

7) Did a quick burst of weeding. I did the little strip between our house and the road and decided to pull up all the long grass in next door's strip as they are not here and it has been annoying me for weeks. They have gravel underneath it. 

mhagster

Hello. Bedtime.

up early…then dozed off again.
dropped a size in jeans…yay! 

Was meeting my friend for lunch so left a bit earlier to go to optician and get sunglasses tightened.
So lovely to see her. Much to catch up on. I had a very sensible baked potato.
Home and hello doggy. Hoovered. Hurrah for new hoovers! 

Hung out washing about 3.30pm and it stayed dry. ( big dark clouds above) 
Made an omelette for dinner.
walked round to mums NDN for an evening of chatter. Had two phone calls whist there so caught up with them when I got home. 

lovefullshelves

1. Big batch of spicy meatballs made.
2. Shopping under £50. Beloved said that doesn't look much for that! 
3. Mini blackcurrant cheesecakes.  From scratch. Our blackcurrants I canned last year. 
4. Finally fit in the jeans I bought 2 years ago. Now its too hot to wear them😃
5. Played in the craft room, lots of butterflies 🦋
I'd forgotten how nice it is to read other folks happy moments.  

DundeeDoll

it certainly did rain mhags I had left my bedroom and bathroom windows wide open so a couple of puddles on the laminate when i woke up - no harm done. the dogs complained i didn't cook chicken for them dfv but then again they're not cats
1) managed to get the bin men to empty the spare stinky bin (not mine though now sitting in my front garden waiting for me to clean out)
2) another bowl of lovely onion soup with grated cheese for lunch
3) super meeting with the team at the botanics before walking up to ninewells for my next meeting - during that one the skies opened but pleased to say all done by the time i set off home
4) chicken kebab (lo from BBQ) and ys salad for supper
5) cricket highlights followed by footie and now the wonders of the world i can't see (very funny) while doing today's workout. 
feeling virtuous and ready for my last cuppa of the day with the archers. night all

LaineyT

For yesterday,

Horsey town first thing, dropped off a bag at CS and did a small shop.

At the stables, it had obviously rained overnight and my girlie had rolled so took a fair bit of brushing, oh well, keeps the dreaded bingo wings at bay!

Small dog had her summer haircut, she must feel so much cooler.

Used up leftovers for tea followed by our own strawberries & cream.

All day pleasure of listening/ watching the cricket, think finely balanced is the right expression. 

Highdays

Hello.

Cooler than of late and mizzly here, a day for catching up methinks.

Recent pleasures:

1) Lovely day yesterday to meet up with sis, brother and sister-in-law for lunch with our now family friend who was my mum and dad's favourite carer. Trip back to our old 'home' an hour or so up the motorway and brother came an hour the other way but we all arrived at the restaurant within 30 seconds of each other. A lovely catch-up followed by a couple of hours at what used to be our local shopping centre with hubby then happy to head back to what is now 'home'.

2) Lots of plans made for other meet ups and trips away, today I will work out some suggested dates to see if they suit everyone. One of them is lunch here in August so today will also work on a 'to do' list with hubby to get us shipshape again. He thinks there is nothing needing doing, he is in for a bit of a shock!

3) Felt a bit bereft last night, I have now made my last entry in my five year diary, it is finished. I have filled it in every single night for the last five years, last thing before going to bed, and it sort of rounded off the day. It's been a total pleasure and I've enjoyed it but won't be starting another one, the next year will be spent re-reading previous entries for that day, the changes in our life have been monumental. So happy that after the highs and lows we are in a happy place in all sorts of ways.

4) Big chat with my sister-in-law who has recommended several art supplies for my new hobby and brought me 'samples' yesterday. Had planned a walk today but son has an all-day workshop so will head out later this afteroon to the art supplies shop instead, armed with my list, to see what's what. Very excited! Also found some inspiring workshops which would involve a night in a hotel, hubby is up for that so we could turn them into mini-holidays. 

5) Hubby had a committee meeting when we got back so sat outside for a while having girlie chats with son's partner and her daughter. Lovely after living for so long in a household of men who don't do girl talk. Little fella came to join us for a while and is very happy that we have booked his castle trip - two castles, jousting tournament, birds of prey displays, a night in a hotel and scrambled egg and a pain au chocolat for breakfast just as he requested.

Right, after the gallivanting of recent days I need to get my home in order - well, at least do the holiday washing and roast a chicken to go with the salad for tea. Will take it from there.....

Have a good day, stay dry if you can!

ampersand

Up on The Gallops, after more birds with broken wings wotnottery and much, much other.  Will stay up here, listening out the 1st Test......  This way, that way.  Will Cummins captain it home?  Have a feeling he'll do it.  17 to win.

1. Today's first 'This made me laugh.'
https://www.facebook.com/100064584285783/posts/pfbid02DLw72eNX94hR5gXZoERdY8WMht3fXub1QDLKtmz382FBU35mEpjdrZdnn4Yf4R2vl/

2. ....and the 2nd:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/771850346236330/permalink/6354490654638910/

3. A marvellous, well-deserved CBE for local LP friends' daughter, also the subject of Jim al-Khalili's 'Life Scientific' on R4 this morning.  She's just terrific - clear, interesting, articulate, wise and a brilliant scientist, like her parents.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001n1nw
& thinks so much of her Polish mama's wartime escape and survival.....

4.  Four coats plus of Woodland Green on replacement garden bench slats and wooden garden armchair yesterday.  Despite odds and sods of rain, just kept putting more on, letting it soak in.  Screw holes marked up and ready.

5. Back to lovely TP chaps again, where another young'un of same stripe spent nearly an hour removing last 16 nuts+bolts from widowed friend's bench, loaded into &'s vehicle the other day.  Absolute sods they've been.  &+friend had managed only 2.  Don't possess angle grinder.  Learnt he'd also been a Royal Parks gardener in Hammersmith, so this £1 mug in CS was quickly nabbed and handed over as an extra Thankyou, within the hour.
https://images.app.goo.gl/2oEtWebe54jPhpDDA
They'll be receiving one of friend's signature coffee and walnut cakes and some of &'s province's notable red wine, too.

5.  Actually an npd and nsd yesterday.  Have had about 70 litres of top-notch woodstain sitting around for some years, bought on special yonks ago.  End of day hairwash and shower felt wonderful.  & was exceeding vile by then.
#
Yup, the Wobblies have done it, despite Brendon McCullum jumping ship from Aotearoa to teach albion how to play.
Ah well, 4 Tests to go.

lovefullshelves

1. Muggy run. Short and sweet but I moved.
2. Cuddles with Gowron.  I love that silly little cat.
3. New nail polish. A little self care. 
4. Little bee buzzing next to me in the garden, loving the wild sweet peas.
5. Son isnt in the second round of redundancies. Even though theres not much work he still has his job.