5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

Frith

I'm ok, thank you. I've been sitting by smaller son for 4 days, trying to get him to concentrate on his computing course! I think this is a side effect of going to a special school - you're not used to learning without someone prompting you! 

Anyway, 4 days done and the first assignment is tomorrow. He would quite like to get a distinction. I think the course is 3 City and Guilds. (Not sure how they work but 3 different numbers were mentioned). 

I've managed to leave my dining chair a few times to potter around the house so I've done lots of batch cooking, scrubbed the floors, cleaned the bathroom etc this week. Tomorrow I've said I'm going to the coffee morning for an hour so he can work by himself at that point. 

We did go to the football on Tuesday night and it was a slightly flukey goal that won it. There was also a fight between the staff of the 2 teams. 

Apart from that, I've phoned my school friend, the weather has been lovely and another friend has just told me he's got a great job working at another local (premier league) football club! 

LaineyT

Glad all ok Frith 👍

For yesterday,

Ostara, the Spring Equinox and it was a lovely day weather wise.

To horsey town for a quick food shop and a coffee with my pal.

Took all the hats & scarves down from the coat hooks and gave them a wash, not sure I’m quite ready to pack them away yet….

My girlie had been out naked again and had obviously had a good roll! The good news is that we are on much lighter clay at the new yard so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, she is shedding again so is forgiven.

Tea was a use it up savoury crumble with various bits pulled from the freezer, Capt S enthused and said you must do that again, errrm.

Highdays

Morning all.

That made me laugh, Lainey, as we have many tasty but never to be repeated concoctions in this house too! Glad you are both settling in well at your new stables.

Some pleasures:
 
1) It's officially Spring! Yay! 

2) Son's partner thrilled with all the baking for her coffee morning, it's a new initiative she is trying out so hoping I've contributed to a positive venture. I do love baking but normally if I make it we eat it, so this way I got the pleasure but not the pain of facing the scales!

3) New baby's blanket is coming on well, can only do a bit at a time as it's very complicated and I tend to lose concentration but suddenly it does finally seem to be growing.

4) Went to the play last night and was invited backstage to see the kestrel - such a beautiful bird close up, and expertly handled by the young actor playing Billy on the stage.

5) Busy week so looking forward to a pottering bit of this and bit of that sort of day, getting things straight and little bits of forward planning and list making to be done and then away for the weekend.

Enjoy your day.

Purple_kitten

A date is set, and the loveliest undertakers who knew my FIL, its like chalk and cheese compared my dad’s.

We’ve been craving things, so I’ve made a set of flapjacks which seem very sweet not least because they are.

The washing is out and needed, and the house is swept and mopped.

Freezer to oven fish and chips, with a bit of mixed veg as we haven’t eaten well this week.

DundeeDoll

thinking of you PK
took the day off - my first of the year - no wonder I'm tired!
1) whatsapp video call with dd2 - always lovely to catch up
2) then phone call with dad while I walked only dog - only dog is becoming more sociable with other dogs on our walks now he hasn't got his brother to chase
3) took 2 bags of books to the charity shop and bought a very sweet fox storage basket for £3.50
4) then sat in the library to finish reading the ellie griffiths - took it back and reserved the next one
5) and did a litter pick with only dog - picked up 100 items with my trusty litter pickers.
and now i'm in bed watching Engerland as I am tired and need an early night. 

Frith

Pleasures for today (Friday)

1) Not a bad sleep. 

2) Went to the coffee morning. 

3) Smaller son worked for 4 hours on his first assignment.

4) I tidied up and washed the living room curtains.

5) Popped to B and Q for paint for the new skirting board plus Morrisons with smaller son.

6) Worked from 4-8 in possibly the busiest shift ever. 

mhagster

Friday pleasures 

CP early . Nice walk though was cooler with wind chill. Chat to caravan NDN . Painting! I have felt like I’ve painted 204 doors but there’s not actually that many! 

Home. Then back out to work to meet a new family. 

Picked up some dinner on the way home. 

And then set to work at the table. Wrote a script and sent it off. My eyes start to get tired the more I’m writing/ looking at screen. Anyway table all cleared of work stuff. It was just plonked on the office desk so I’ll sort it out.

LaineyT

For yesterday,

Few chores then over to the yard to visit my girl, so much easier to do this without the long drive. Catch up with the lady who moved from our old yard as well and whose horse is next to my mare in the fields.

Heartbreaking message from eldest niece who asked for a story about her Dad. It was the 15th anniversary of his death and she’s starting to forget his voice 💔 told her one about when we were kids and a resolution made to do this more frequently. I have so many happy memories of growing up with my big brother.

Then after lunch my DSIL messaged to say can she pop in so a dash out to the farm shop for a cake and then a happy afternoon talking about him, had a glass of Prosecco to raise a glass to him too.

Late afternoon walk around the field.

Watched the first half of the footie but it was a bit dire so turned over for Gogglebox then promptly fell asleep, bit of an emotional day.

Purple_kitten

I did a lot of not a lot today.

I tried to get a photo of the ferrets smelling the crocuses, and this happened as I was on the grass with them instead, doesn’t make for the best photo’s.

I used up various foods and very happy that the flapjack looked as good as I could purchase.

I admit I lost the post by copying and pasting a photo in ahh well.

DigForVictory

DundeeDoll - wishing you all the best & intrigued by a fox storage basket.

Frith - awed respect.

LaineyT - absolutely tell the stories. They're vital. And while it hurts, the pain does ease a bit.

Purple kitten - lovely to see you, despite a tough week, & enchanting photo!

OS Pleasures recently

Bewildered & then enchanted by comments on the thrift thread.

School’s out! Time to go back into the city office as I teach from home. Pleasure is planning to meet a colleague to go over a new-to-her challenge.

So glad the beautiful one loaded & unloaded smoothly & had a welcome from a stablemate. Then pizza - comfort food par excellence!

“You don’t outsource your hobbies, you outsource your chores. Therefore gardening is a chore.” Darn but Youngest knows my weaknesses when it comes to the tall or heavy bits…. So I got to lift the bags off the heap & off the trolley into the car…. [weed suppressant bark chippings later spread!]

Just been appointed Treasurer for local museum, which actually means doing the arithmetic for the accounts, which (as their former auditor) should be straightforward! Previous incumbent “stepping back” to membership secretary & delighted.

I tenderly enquired “why a mallet in the kitchen?” & it turns out Youngest uses it to wallop broccoli into small bits to cook with rice & that it works better than the cricket ball he had been using. Proud mother of sons. (Auto correct suggesting dons or sins, both denied!)

“I’m having my hedge  removed as it’s interfering with my boiler.” Oh if only this was a euphemism but no, sis is redesigning her back garden.

Alison Moyet “love letters straight from my heart” - beautiful voice in 1987 singing a song released in 1945… Truly, old things have more character! (Dress design, furniture, patchwork quilts, [even Denby!] amongst others.)

Colleague & I doodling ideas about how to retrieve offspring from a stag do without massive loss of face of drinking becomes an issue. My view is the young aren’t the idiots we were, but various relatives think her lad is poor, deprived, Needs to get legless etc so clearly there are idiots around.

My sisters are planning to deep clean mum’s kitchen, just after we’ve been there for two days, cooking up meals for mum & her care team fresh & to freeze. They’d not realised I planned to come south!

Phone call from anxious sister, planning to itemise all she does for mum. I cheer her her on as if it takes her mind off her anxieties so much the better & it distracts us both, her from the worrying & me from remembering the worrying.

Ah daylight! Alongside cold, dashit. Still, take one HWB & apply to toes & wait. (Bliss!)

Aww drowsy youngest heaves from snooze to crew as he decides to come into Manchester for a morning’s study anyway! I had time to scrape the ice & get all glass & lights clear before he remembered why he was stood in the kitchen. (He scrupulously kept the bouncy pops for the B roads & the calmer stuff for the motorway! I hadn’t appreciated how curated the playlist is!)

Colleague who speaks Spanish Portuguese & English (tho raised in the Caribbean) turned a lovely pink when I observed his English is so fluent I forget it isn’t his mother tongue. He got pronunciation & enunciation muddled so I channelled my inner Dame Maggie Smith (and various senior female relatives) for an exquisitely enunciated sentence which had him gurgling! 

Senior boss sat a desk along from me, happily I had a new dataset & was thoroughly busy so her chat that leaves you with another 7 little tasks was postponed. I’d brought in a couple of boxes of sachet coffees & she waved a tenner at me as apparently the team stock took a caning at a recent managers’ meeting. I’ll convert it to more coffees as the sachets are much nicer than the machine vended stuff, so everyone too desperate to leave the building has a nicer brew.

Data pleated cooperatively, once I’d researched UN LOCODEs (5 digit numbers for places used in trade and transport etc). The report shows no tax considerations evident to date, which means either poor code or poor usage (or both) so I may be recommending a chat with the coders.

Scouts! If you’ve ever thrown a paper plane you’ll know the triumph & disaster - we had the hut thrumming with flights and fun! Lovely to see individuals’ style - some launched planes smoothly,others near bowled them…

It occurs to me I have never changed a wheel on the new to me little car & so I didn’t know the nuts had covers & so none of the tyre irons fitted & we had to get the AA’s help. Me in dunce’s hat, “damsel in distress”, Youngest confusing vocabulary, jack with socket wrench, in the bewildered shock. All fine now! (Middleson’s «I’d have done it for you» not recalling Who Taught Him!)

We snuck in, to hear the tinkle of crockery & so dropped off our bags & lo! Mum up & chomping muesli at 1 in the morning, having a between-sleeps snack! Hugs & off to beds all round.

Dear gods mum’s getting better at the online jigsaws. I stroll down & she’s whisking pieces into place as if laying the table!

She does do enjoy people watching, so she’s got a wide angle seat & a latte… The sweat shirt “Boys get sad too” was eye catching (even if it didn’t suggest what might be helpful). The young lady requiring her father’s cooperation was smiled at “the triumph of walking, and of course of communication” Poppa doting despite being laden, clearly putty in her hands!

Aldi had lilies so mum’s utterly smitten with her triffids. She was startled to be towed to a pharmacist, but now with prescription nasal spray & the care team updated - & loads better.

Gosh it seems there are Depths to “tant pis” - I’d thought it was “too bad” but Google opines darkly “so much the worse; the situation is regrettable  but now beyond retrieval”. Ah well, mum reading on, content.

What with various bickerings, I have made 4 vegan bakes varying veg & herbs, so my lactose intolerant sister can eat hearty every time she comes to mum. Mum can use it as a side dish. Mum’s carer is awed that I buy all the veg, peel & chop & fuss & “she knows her sister loves her”. Now in freezer, waiting.

“She got pinched in the Astor Bar” - ahem, I only found out the correct lyrics today! Swell party it always was.

You know you love your mother when you scrub out her wardrobe where the cat shat. Easier for us as we’re anosmic (her totally, me 98%.)

Ye gods, todays vocabulary stretch is “pullulating” which given how full Oxford is with students & tourists (let alone family) seems appropriate.

The upside of being the fat ball buyer is seeing mum leaving on the sink watching the birds twittering & pecking & gossiping. There’s so much satisfaction in her so entranced.

So much for sisters deep cleaning. One sis & I, both of us grumbling our knees are no longer wudgy enough for this floor to waist height cleaning.

Health Strength Love & Courage to all as have need. Assorted layers for the variable weather forecast likewise!