5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

LaineyT

For the last couple of days,

Some sunshine, some rain, perfect April weather in fact!

The blackbirds are busy after each shower with digging up worms in the lawn, suspect that there is a brood somewhere in the hedge.

Blossom.

Everything looks so green and new.

Due to the two above my hay fever has kicked off, tablets and drops in daily use.

Discussion with my beloved about a possible move, we do this every couple of years as we don’t really need a 4 bed house and I do have a hankering for a small space. That said I’ve lived here for 18 years which is the longest I’ve stayed in one place and it’s so home, more thinking needed 🙈

A beautiful horse waiting for her Mum at the gate, never gets taken for granted.

Trip to the garden centre and folk sitting outside in the sunshine enjoying tea and cake.

Was very restrained and only got two plants but have oh so many more on my wish list.

Sitting in the garden reading my book and watching all the birds, they are so used to me now that they just go about their business.

Highdays

Morning all, nice to be back!

Recent pleasures:

1) A lovely couple of days away at the start of the week but very tiring, still not 100%.

2) Happy to be home and having big sleeps in my own bed.

3) Some retail therapy, working on the principle it's best to get things when you see them!

4) Made up for 3) somewhat with the cheap Easter veg. 

5) A quiet Easter on the cards, famiy lunch on Sunday but no other plans. Looking forward to some poodling and pottering, some reading and some chocolate, not necessarily in that order!

Happy Easter, whatever you are up to.

topsyturphy

Pleasures for yesterday 

1. Donuts 
2. Wound check all good.
3. Went to event at local gift shop in village - free coffee and cake.
4. Came home from above with a new hat and top for me.
5. Relaxing and watching tv

mhagster

Hello. Good Friday and in particular this date hold lots of memories. 

Woke early this morning.
Dozed off again.
Went to CP. Two doggy walks with two doggies. First one was chilly and second wet and chilly.
Changed bedding as I have visitors this weekend. Cleaned bathrooms etc.
Home.
It’s blooming freezing so heating on for a while. 

Saw a real live Easter bunny when we were out! 

Purple_kitten

1 Sat in the garden soaking up the sun with an HP Lovecraft book, actually reading not just sitting there with it.

2 I cleaned a window and various wash loads collected from around the house and put away and 1 load hung out

3 I cooked up my first good meal in a long while, a marinaded chop, grilled toms, veggies and mini roasties with a peppercorn sauce.

4 Fizzers is still with us, we have been hand feeding her, while we can get a bit of food in it's not enough, still hoping that this infection is now passing but very worried.

PaulieHerts

For today:
chocolate 
clean windows
roast lamb
baileys and tiramisu 
more chocolate 

Well it is Easter 🐣 

topsyturphy

Pleasures for Friday 

1. Sunshine
2. washing line dried
3. Audiobooks
4. Messages from family
5. Having a lazy day.

DigForVictory

topsyturphy - good friends are a special blessing. Crustless quiche & potting on tomato, wonderful! A well trained son as cook is such a pleasure. New hat?! A lazy day sounds wholly reasonable.

LaineyT - AC's Mr Quinn is great fun. I only got into the Commedia thanks to him. Reading in the rain - a special pleasure. Blinked a bit at selling inherited jewellery but absolutely right to buy something you Will wear. The rain really does give the world a freshly painted gloss doesn't it?! If you must move, do it soon or make clear plans for not moving (ground floor bathroom etc, updated boiler, serious insulation etc).

mhagster - always good to chat with son even if a lot of repetition needed. Ah yes, the lovely colours of the garden seen from withindoors! Splendid meal, finds for freezer & looking up at the right moment to see the sunset. Better to check than to wonder. You had chips?! They are such a pleasure occasionally. Right with you the date has baggage.

Highdays-  have a wonderful time just pottering - it's not doddering if you're enjoying it. Good call on the cheap Easter veg!

ampersand - I'm all for Passion, but could wish you were spared legal matters. Can see you wielding a wicked niblick.

Dundeedoll - lots of singing & a well placed neighbour when burdened - splendid. (I'm the sister with the Amazon prime membership for some heavy lifting - mum's cat's food is delivered!)

Purple kitten - hurrah weather cooperating with laundry! It is a huge relief to know a good celebrant can bring so much into perspective and make what can be dark illuminated. Combat exercise? Yikes, and holding Fizzers in my heart & mind. It's been a day for laundry if not line drying.

Frith - week 5 for smaller son vicariously so proud & oooh, lilac.

Happycas - pre-op & the blood pressure - it's never fun,  but after that morning definitely time for a sit down!

PaulieHerts - certainly is Easter!

OS pleasures recently

Mum’s hairdresser comes to see her, manages to chat even with her hearing aids out & leaves her looking as cherished & glossy as the Princess of Wales. Always good to see him, & her, so pleased!

Eyeing the Good Housekeeping “showstopper bakes” & one cake takes at least five hours. Beautiful, yes, but edible - the lads see the cake, not the hours & we’re not an Instagram family. (Hallelujah.) Still, mum happily engrossed & asking tricky questions like can you buy pomegranate seeds (yes but why when the fruit isn’t that hard to prepare)…. (The “fantasy garden shed” isn’t my fantasy but I see it looks cute. Still no kettle...)

Mother & daughters field trip to home bargains for the birthday bark chippings and resupplies of coffee & toothpaste & tinfoil. There’s a Limerick in that lot, but I can’t quite see it yet.

“What is a muffin?” is the sort of philosophical question that can run on for Months. Much simpler to go hand to hand to mouth & learn by experimentation! (Rather a dry muffin crumb but splendidly chocolatey at the bite.)

Aw. Mum deeply happy the triffids (lilies) we bought in bud this morning are Already responding to warmth & whatever accelerant they put in plant food sachets. Me vicariously happy as a happy mum is the whole point of taking leave, dragging Youngest & coming south.

Mum’s care agency sent her a birthday card “do I have to thank them?” (No, just keep paying the invoices.) We need their help, but “do I have to?” is not what I expected from the woman who taught me!

My daily planning list (up, dress, breakfast - the complex stuff) is helping mum, when she sees what I have planned (or been told) to do. Especially when her heating aid batteries are flat!

Having to explain ANZAC day & that it’s the only day of the year where playing two-up is legal in Australia. 

Yeay! Sister’s former hedge now layered in bark chippings, (tiny) herb garden established, & local fellow-dog-walking civic gardener has offered spare plants from their nursery for the bare patch! 

The uncle who usually pens the eulogy doggerel for sis to inter the <insert name> faithful hound’s ashes to, is moving house. I may have been upgraded from sis with Amazon into Garden Support And Bard which (given I can just stretch to a Limerick) is challenging.

I made the right call keeping the cook from being dragged off to lift sacks of bark chippings. We tottered back to heaped plates of spag bol & I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad!

The tulips are bringing joy as they aren’t all stood up but are curved like an Art Nouveau  poster & mum keeps smiling at them.

Sis facing mastectomy (soon to be dromedary sis) with impressive planning. (Even if I found the cat worming treatment & she hadn’t.) I found a selection & she chose pasties as a belated birthday gift. (Things we do for love.)

Morning cries of “is this coming out?” suggest a variety of possible scenarios; the health & wellbeing of the dish washer was only one option…

“She offered to make me a boob” - this is becoming a very special friendship list. 

Costco has Lego (news to me, probably just as well) - I suggested a Lego set of the Trevor fountain might be a fun souvenir of the Rome jaunt but Youngest declined. (I think it cost more than the plane ticket. He’s also not as ‘into’ a Lego as I am.)

Clutching Costco hot dogs & 2 drinks in my (somehow too small) hands, I was trying not to drop, spill or collide when a cheerful pensioner grinned “is that Sunday Dinner?”. Bless him, he made me chuckle so hard, I nearly dropped the lot. Beaming at each other, I restrangled the hot dogs & continued.

Found a receipt wrapped round a gift card in the trolley & took it to customer services who reassured me it was valueless & disposed of it for me. I may have been naïve, but I prefer that and tranquillity of mind.

Middleson arrived with more bark chippings for the garden & his kayaking pal (whom I’ve not seen in months) & who had the grace to chuckle as I reminded my son that Northern hospitality offers a brew to Anyone who crosses the doorstep & while he might leave at any time he chose, in my house guests are offered a brew & if they need a lift back to his after, that’s all fine. [o my pronouns] Son beat a strategic retreat, I brewed up & we sat in the garden & caught up a bit (I’m to get photos!) & off they went. 

Apparently a bit of my car is loose, & (since I hadn’t paid attention) is now a potentially expensive repair. I am trying not to gulp anxiously as Middleson rummages tools & is planning to drill a hole to stick a bolt through. He seems perfectly assured about this, & I don’t actually need the car for a few days, so he’s being impressive & probably saving me a fortune & again I am feeling hugely lucky.

I have no quarrel with being told to take mum to the wood where there will be bluebells & take photos. Not that the clematis will be in full bloom on the gate arch & again, photos. The whole dromedary photo of ‘me & my pasty’ (not Cornish, I asked) I think I will dodge. Some family zoom calls can be a bit challenging.

Ah dickering over the BBC weather accuracy as I reckon a good wind speed overrides a 1 in 5 chance of rain. 

Ah, QI & the quasihemidemisemiquaver. Which is not a breve note to write. And Alan unleashed on the triangle.

Trying to clear the desk I set up in March 2020 to test the cabling. So glad recycling bin day is soon…. [Getting there. Dusted the wurst with my T shirt & details with the Youngest’s socks from the wash basket!]

I was planning to document the shed but the camera I borrowed to help is absolutely refusing to cooperate. It’s a very nice digital camera but its battery is specific, & flat. I will have to go back to tidying the office. (Also, that glorious sunshine has seen my leave plans & strolled off, leaving overcast but not actively raining conditions. How am I to get the mango seeds to germinate in this?!)

Recalling girl guides long ago & wondering how in the name if all that’s holy did we get away with singing “Oh Sir Jasper”?!

Have exhumed our older than Middleson digital camera, charged the AA rechargeables I bought over a year ago (but left somewhere logical) and began the photos. Need a head dummy to photo hats on!

Gods I feel old when I explain to Youngest that Bisto is in fact cornflour with fake tan & a much better reputation.

Ongoing bewilderment with the American language. “Dish soap” is the shorter spelled version of washing up liquid. More compassion needed!

Sis being a bit of a handful by zoom then text but responding to Dalai Lama quotes. 

Spent a few minutes with municipal cherry tree that just needs one more sunny day to inflate into full bloom. (Let us not ask what the forecast says.]

Aw, the excitement over the Colossal Squid! The largest extant invertebrate seemingly but MSE ‘please no politics’ & anyway purdah. Still, fun with remotely operated vehicles.. [Son muttering he’s “not going that far for calamari”.]

Family tree climbing & enjoying the name “Alexina” - and boggling slightly all children began with A. I suppose it simplified laundry markings & nametapes. And oooh, Blackburn lass marries a Scot. I may go look see if her street still exists.

In between rainfall, went and had a word with the municipal cherry tree. Reminding it is wedding anniversary soon.

Pondering, can you have a “partial and utter shambles”? Given that shambles is a structure, a slaughterhouse,  one mid-construction could be a partial shambles. (In case you were wondering, I think it may be possible to watch too much QI.)

Not sure I should try to eat soup whilst watching Quaffing, but since I’ve spent two hours weeding my email with a digital shovel (over 29K so far…) I shall take a chance. Down from 90% to 70% & while I can think of ways to sling more, I’m tired!

Dear gods, trying to map things with photo reconnaissance is not easy. Especially when you can’t open the drawers fully let alone cba to excavate the layers. Still 3 chests of drawers 

You know those moments when you can’t remember the word for something? Struggling for gable, I hit to Wikipedia on walls & very nearly learned the Africaans for Mah Jongg. Heck of a rabbit hole!

John Martin cover “couldn’t love you more” - it is glorious.

Could woulda shoulda been 27 years wedded or 'sculpture' anniversary. (Paris has mahogany ?!.) So went & pulled bindweed off miniature plum Opal (we planned it, it was in blossom & so not for transplanting at the time, he died, I bought the plum tree in a dwarfing rootstock Anyway that autumn) and communed with father-in-law’s oak & Eldest’s lime tree (all of which definitely think it’s spring, which is heartening.)

Weeding the email I come across Himself’s response to a sisters birthday do & observed (both then & now) that our lads come by their verbal dexterity from both sides of the family. Gosh…. 

Whopping grin, Middleson has both fastened the heat shield back into place on my car and donated platelets. I glow with pride.

Fantasy house post triggered me wanting an orchard to read in not a meadow, who wouldn’t live a hidden room, but above all several reading nooks with space for a brew & an Anglepoise. Yet the stone staircase curling round the open fireplace & chimney has me enchanted as that’s what I scampered up & down as a child solid & safe (even if always cold underfoot).

Health Strength Love & Courage to all as have need, along with layers to accommodate changeable Easter weather!

ampersand

Dear dfv -
Reading your special Himself and son memories, along with your special care of your mum and thoughts for your sister,🙏.
All🤲+🫶to you.
#
1. &'s children turned 50 and 47 yesterday.  The usual 'How on earth did that happen?.....'  Answers on a postcard not required.😁
2. Afternoon tea, gratis, at the Gonville Hotel in Town of Gown much enjoyed.
3. Lily of the Valley behaving beautifully, nearly blooming.
4. Lainey, you might need to check on many excellent horsey books, just arrived earlier today at Nexus......
Thought of you when I saw them.
5. Proofreading young friend and LP candidate's statement for local elections and spotting an autocorrect horror in time.  A phew! moment as young R is an Oxford Professor, not infrequently asked by US tv for comments and also to visit other countries.
#
I'm adding the true pleasure of seeing 'newspapers and zines' being used to avoid the Trumpanzee-ism.
😁👏👍🤲
And these yesterday-
"Citrons simplement+Polish mead"
Rather yummy.😁

Purple_kitten

Belated happy returns to &'s children.

I fixed something for MIL, it’s nice to feel useful from a distance.

Changed all the animal bedding, and the wash loads are on the line.

Went for a walk around to where a Range has opened in the old Homebase, and quite frankly it was very underwhelming and no opening offers.

Lunch was a salad, and dinner was some cooked chicken pieces.

I'm daring to hope a little, Fizzers seems to be trying to recover, she's so weak she's collapsing, hense rugs everywhere but she's trying, and getting more interested in food, and she's starting to take more from the syringe.