5 OS pleasures in your day today - part 3

Highdays

Morning all.

Cooler and greyer here, actually feeling quite autumnal. September is just around the corner, lovely!

Recent pleasures:

1) Great couple of days spent with my brother and SIL. All went very smoothly and we agreed yet another perfect weekend away. Lucky with the weather, sunny and warm but not baking hot so we could picnic and stroll around comfortably. Only a month til our next 'proper' holiday when my other brother and SIL will also join us.

2) Went to an old favourite NT property where the guides were amazing and we found things out that brought the house to life that we'd never known over 30 years of visiting. Amazing!

3) Then to a new-to-us HH property. Had a guided tour of the wonderful house and then wandered in the award-winning gardens. All agreed we will return, this is our new favourite.

4) Arranged to take little fella to the cinema this afternoon and then the older boys decided they want to come too so a family trip out which doesn't happen very often these days. Worked out that lunch, Pick'n'Mix (dastardly stuff!), drinks and cinema tickets will probably cost more than our weekend away! But a big pleasure to have all the boys together, eventhough they laughed at me calling it 'going to the pictures' as they had no idea what I meant!

5) Day out arranged tomorrow to a HH house that's only open in a few days a year but we have luckily timed it just right. Been wanting to go for ages and the dates have never fitted in but this has all fallen into place. A very gadding about week, firmly closing the door on the washing and cleaning, that can wait - it's BH weekend and we won't be going far so can catch up at leisure.

Have a good day, whatever you are up to. 

ampersand

Chill grey start to day.
1. Brian Cox receiving a Francis Crick Institute scholarship - and his Black Moon reminder for next week.

2. Another 5p found on ground. Late edit 😁 Plus emporium 10p.

3. Again, local garage kindness, with immediate left headlight bulb fix this morning.  It's a fiddly sod of a job too.

4. Last night's rugby training's leftover rice and bread all went in for the ducks, very slow off the mark this morning.  No geese or swans about today.

5. Lovely new season Hello's from rugby seniors last night and handed over the thick knitted slippers, with M embroidered in gold, finished late afternoon. 
Old colonial thing, doubtless known here too:
Thick needles - used no 6.
At least 5 strands of yarn - DK, anything goes😀- and cast on 23 stitches.
Now:
Knit 7, purl 1, knit 7, purl 1, knit 7.   The purl stitches make folds for the slipper sides. Continue thus for 15 or 16 rows, the halfway point along the sole.
Adjust length accordingly.
Now work 15 or 16 rows of knit 1, purl 1 rib, to end at the toes. 
Cut yarn leaving 30cm/12". Thread this through all 23 stitches,then remove the needle.
Pull thread tight and securely, then stitch the top front and an inverted T for the heel.
Easy-peasy to do, less so to describe.😁

Purple_kitten

I haven't been on for a while, I must get back into the habit

Yesterday we were out for the day visiting DB's family in Ipswich, and while I was worried as we haven't seen each other in a while, we were tourists for the day at Orford ness? and Framlingham to wander around the castle grounds, had good wanders a lovely lunch and back home for a homemade dinner. Lots of natters and a good time. Home bound of course the Dartford tunnel decided to open just the one lane. Making plans for the next meet up, sooner this time.

Relaxing today, general tidying in the garden and a bit in the house. 

Cleaned up the French windows 

I'm ordering in as a surprise for DH.

Suffolksue

Framlingham Castle is great ,I don’t know Orford so well but have enjoyed a visit there with my History Society 
glad you enjoyed them

DigForVictory

What ho, midears! Gosh, nearly an Entire Month. I have read every word & been delighted, appalled, amazed, upheld - I just haven't posted here. (The heat...) Oops. [Cubed. Part 1 of 2]

LaineyT - raptly following the settling of C dog! Stunning Moon, wasn't it?! A wildlife corner, of lugged logs? Hurrah Uni C triumph! Oh yes, that first cuppa. Glorious photo! Aww, wren! Love the C dog snores! Baking as "more sensible temperatures". "tiny spider webs picked out in dew"... Beautiful fidgety for farrier? DB smitten, excellent.

Amoersand - encore BROH? Stunning jars! Still keeping the teams in order & upholding those in need with Emporiums rtc! Brian Cox is a joy. Knitted slippers-  bewildered respects!

mhagster - good to get bas boiler behaving before required. A quiet day? Then Hoovered car. Sunrise walk with squirrels & seer - that refills the soul, surely. Oooft the heat. Ooh, decking! A family that doesn't have internet? Gosh. Spare glasses are a special pleasure. Very glad caravan can be cooled and comfortable. Fungi spotting?! "intended on cutting the grass but"!

Highdays - Premium Bond winner?! Glad brain scan went smoothly. Texted to reassure? Lovely Medic! And mouth mending too, phew. I still call them the Beacons & love them - get CADW membership & hop from castle to castle? (But also all the charity shops, wild glee...) "Going to the pictures" with a fleet of chaps!

Purple kitten - Aww, Swizzel playing in water! I think it's cheaper to close things than have them burn time & effort checking they are all tranquilly dormant, but yes, argh. Love a day out in Ipswich then ordering in to surprise DH!

Frith - a slightly nearer fat cat? Awed at Owl Print. Very right not to wear official shoes that Cause Trouble. Love using football coaches to get you to & from places! Is making people jump a family hobby?! Crossword puzzles with ampersand?! Hurrah! Done out of a day's leave? Hisss! 9 hours solo - time for a change.

Happycas - allotment with establish fruit trees, what a  treat to cherish in friends absence!  DGD awake, sat up & eating breakfast,  Wonderful!

Suffolksue - rousing cheers on DGD2 off to learn much & ear as he does his Degree Apprenticeship in Automotive Engineering! Ah Framlingham Castle & Margaret Brotherton - there's a role model with a twist!

BoP - good to see you! Ah yes Swarfega... marked up like Zorro?! 

DundeeDoll - Jocelyn Bell Burnell is just brilliant!

OS

Reading up on ADHD, I recognise some of the behaviours & begin to see why scouting helps some of our handfuls steady out - we’re reliable dopamine sources!

Sisters giving me a pair of chub rub shorts ready for goddaughter’s wedding. We can’t agree if we’d like to know when we’re going to die (I would - Cresta Run in a ball dress, cocktails on the Eiffel Tower, inspect my undertaker’s offerings & taste test wherever the wake is planned [& leave a wad behind the bar] & generally get the estate documentation right up to date). Eyeball the garden flowers & mutter to a few “grow!” etc.

Youngest appears to not want to get a degree after a year in. I’ve explained that he’s doomed to 40 years tithing graduate tax anyway so it makes a lot of sense to be well paid & right now his cv looks dreadful. We’ll see how this goes, but I am trying not to gibber untrustingly at Fate and son.

The embroidery progresses.  My back aches but I hope for a happy mum. (Not progressed far enough to take south.)

It would appear Middleson has been decluttering by communications failure & not telling me there is another brick & plank bookcase. I must measure the depth of a Skoda boot with a view to decluttering around his elective mutism. Hm. Possibly 7’ but not what sister reports now as nearer 8’. My emotional support planks will not be easily shifted…

Dropbox set up with a midnight deadline & a colleague has reworded it as 11.59pm as that’s easier to get right & sounds more professional. 

He’s a Reacher fan (as am I), but I read them as ripping morality fables where the hero giant fights evildoers & is picky about coffee.

Reading up on mountain climbing injuries & using Google translate for the more innocuous ones. Squinting at suspected C spine packaging & praying the lad is right, they won’t fall… Reading that AVPU now is ACVPU as Confusion is now a diagnostic & should be recorded. Delighted that concussion now has so much more simple but detailed assessment. (Not quite sure if this is massively untrusting or loving but strangely reassuring to me. Like reading that “a catastrophic bleed declares itself as you can hear it”.)

Colleague has received a case from me (managers orders) along with an apologetic phone call that the written brief is all of 3 sentences, the rest had to be by phone as it’s libellous.

Photo company email reminding me to buy something in the next 2 months - I would snarl but they have holiday photos of my family back to 2006. Middleson wearing the fringe cut into his baby hair, Youngest invisible as asleep in a drawer then…. All young, healthy, laughing.

Out of office set,  piling south, paused at Norton Canes & there were two deer grazing quietly by the roundabout. Which we took at about 5 mph to boggle & correct steering & boggle more!

Good Housekeeping has a special magic for mum. (That she’s lured by what nutritionists admit to feeding their children just figures.) Me, I look at a vintage photo of Prince Michael of Kent & recall contrapting a jabot somewhat like that for a school play.

Mum ‘introduced’ to pear drops, & rhubarb & custard sweeties. She’s intrigued & happily led astray…. (I’m sure they were available in her youth but end of war Cornwall & then boarding school may have missed out.) {She nibbles remarkably slowly, clearly sweeties were not wolfed down but savoured!}

Then peering curiously at my photos of Bruce Springsteen live - she’s heard of him (!) & gets how much he’s seen, how much he’s loved, how much he’s lost? Next show may be a three generation event (if Middleson’s nerve can stand it!)

Picked a pint of blackberries & laid them out to freeze. [success, second lot freezing) {third lot chilling!} <running out of parentheses>  By Sunday, six bags full tidily frozen & the tray & non-stick paper tidied away. Still plenty more to ripen, but all ripe in my reach picked & frozen.

Argh, house insurance claim as leaking pipe has stalled as sis-doing-communications stepped back for mastectomy surgery & now the insurance company is being stubborn. As the tech who helped set it up, my name is on the policy, so I am being wheeled forward to untangle the mess. (Startlingly effectively.)

Discussing imminent A level results “hard work will beat talent if talent doesn’t work hard”.

Sister laughing I have a “radio four voice”, apparently authoritative. Me thinking I heard something similar from a complete stranger when she asked was I with the police?! How to convey ‘dear gods no’ whilst encouraging her to follow my suggestions? (My retired colleague managed not to giggle rather a lot.)

South Africa has never met the rhubarb & custard sweet. Or at least mum’s carer is startled by it several times over, being hard “not like a jelly baby” & sharp tasting, as well as sweet!

Watching the messing-about-in-boats community get ready for a Saturday race, lead various children off to various classes & generally be impressively body shape tolerant. Also swans, mallards, coots & generic baby ducklings all bobbing on the water with rather more assurance than some of the people. (One young dinghy went over & the instructor was seen spending some time alongside, presumed trying to reassure & cajole the occupant.)

Mum is decades older & wiser than I but she’s still scrunching pear drops happily. I must remember to bring sweets as well as Good Housekeeping…

“We don’t want forks at breakfast!” - why am I trying to help lay the table? And getting it wrong?! (Clearly hallucinating about bacon.)

I made a batch of vegan “pies” for sis who is very pleased “best one you’ve made!”. I skipped the quinoa entirely & added rather more onion than is recommended & none of the stray veg from the corners of the freezer this time. I think it’s me chopping everything small enough for her to not need to chew it…

Youngest proposes to repair a metal bin lid with wooden tea stirrers. My grasp on material engineering is hazy, but what I know is as nothing compared to what he’ll learn. I sit & listen.

He’s now looking at how we fill bookcases and the retaining metal plates & (despite various noises & thuds), has successfully set up a small table on the larger one to create an extra shelf and hold the retraining board that stood books escaping onto his desk. He has learned & applied & I’m proud of him!

An old QI has “Our Saviour’s Flannel” & this seems be to a cooperative leaf, wiping for the use of. (Rose-campion apparently has  soft, velvety leaves.)

“I was watching ‘there will be blood’.”  “Oh. Whose?” “They didn’t specify.” “Seems a little lax?” “I know, right?.” Youngest enjoying being laconic! (Ye gods, he’s welcome to the film. Wikipedia has made it clear there is no humour.)

As a research historian’s wife, I ran into tablet weaving but never really got the knack (several decks of cards made for me to no avail) then I bumped into this on Facebook (of all places) “I heard about fishing swivels, I started playing around with the idling packs technique, & I ran across the idea of using taut-line hitch knots so you can readjust the tension on each card” and the weaver is using just forward turns. These are leaps that make tablet weaving seems more approachable than fair isle socks!

Dropped off barely a pint of fresh picked gooseberries still with tops & rails & colleague nearly dancing at sight, sound, smell, memories! Recalling school dinners fondly & thinking of crumble… (He’s a fan of cabbage as well, but having been married to a Russian lass, that figured.)

Some customer service calls make you feel like ‘nothing is too much trouble’ & then the hang up suggests ‘Another Idiot…’ Ah well.

I am not much of a motivational speaker but two colleagues have been urged to apply for promotion as otherwise they’ll be joined by new folk who know nothing but are paid far too much…

Youngest is reshaping his book shelving. There are thuds off as he develops his strategy… I have to say it now looks wildly under-engineered to me but at least the bed is clear for sleeping on (so far) 

Earworm of Marillion, from uninvited guest, “the fifteen stone first footer” - and in the intervening years that weight doesn’t seem as terrifying but add the alcohol & presumptions of hospitality & the sheer imbalance of authority & it’s as close as I get to horror. Great video though!

Overheard in the lift “don’t want to sneeze into my bananas”….

Smashing colleague has put me into a local auction house who may be cooperative & possibly even lucrative with parting with Denby. See how we go, I’m not in any rush!

Somehow I’m on the Gentleman’s Journal mailing list & they’re on about “the best gear” this week - since I do not support non-prescription medication, I shall unsubscribe. The lads will wear what they chose (As Always…)

At the family zoom mum could remember some of the “good ship lollipop” - Shirley Temple’s lyricist must have overdone something, as the words make no sense, & one sister insisted it was “my boy lollipop” which was indeed a 1950s hit (with Almost as daft lyrics).

As a souvenir of said zoom, two of my family will be the proud owners of fire blankets, kitchen emergencies for the use of. (Sis showed her fire safety training certificate & it all got a bit out of hand.)

Watching an old QI & Holly Walsh’s dinner party query “if you had to get a gun by midnight tonight, who would you ask?” & Sandi’s baffled “it’s never occurred to me that I might want a gun at all.” If I’m going to kill someone, it’s not a gun I want, it’s a really good alibi.

I know, it’s August, but I’ve ordered the (now traditional) Bonne Maman advent calendar for mum. One of these days I’ll actually make my own blinking jams but the packaging, the variety, the anticipation? All part of the fun.

I’ve not got brothers, but love Raksha Bandan as I first met it from a colleague: “happy suspicious siblings day!” & didn’t immediately think quirk in translation. Read on & realised & still chuckle year in, year out.

Today I am continuing to be the family Amazon fairy. (Knew that prime membership would come to bite me.) Sis replacing her DVD player, despite me suggesting she consider SAD FART.

Eyeing Google, I am intrigued to see “grow a garden cooking recipes porridge” & (oops) clicked & apparently there is ‘transcendent porridge’ & as a part-Scot I am giggling helplessly. Then shrugging, my Scouts will tell me All about Roblox in September. I may take in a tin of pinhead oats to bewilder them…

QI again (listening as I embroider) & inflating someone with hydrogen to test for injury in the digestive tract. Thing is, Vikings had a test for this - patients were given a bowl of onion soup & the medics sniffed for it. Frankly I prefer chugging oral contrast & being scanned to both, but kudos to the medics for trying. (May palliative care have kept up.)

Wow, the Moon in all her glory.

Much amused & impressed by Anna Lapwood at the organ & slowly working my way through the Prom from dark til dawn. Felled again by 'the parting glass' (Hozier still my favourite) but just utterly tickled by a Prom that fills the hours of darkness.

Bristol colleague has sent me an email of amazing balloon photos! 

“Have you been drowning kittens? The sink’s full of hairs!?” Sideburns have been trimmed apparently. Sink now cleaned out!

Youngest’s ongoing wrestling with books is causing sneezing “book dust!”

Finished the embroidery! Now to ponder how to anchor it to cushion cover. Even Youngest reckons it looks well.

Me prepped for Monday in the office, bag packed, washed & brushed & snuggled under clean bed linen. I do love my bed.

Anguished sister asking me to check mum's house insurance to check if sanitary plumbing pipework included. (Mine is under my boiler cover but seemingly mum’s not got that.) Happy Monday to do list!

Colleagues concerned I’m quiet. Aye, whacked by the embroidery & fretting how to mount it on the cushion cover. Also flinching as it gets warmer.

Back home to find “searching for north west passage” on the tag board. Makes a change from badger pelts.

Lovely lady cheered my cherry plum picking efforts with the best news - just get boiling them & the stones bob to the surface! Middleson with ice cream maker (he makes high protein ice cream which tastes ok but surely the point is the illicit thrill?!) on standby to test this.

DigForVictory

<blushes> Part 2/2

The unutterable joy of a tepid shower after a long hot sticky day (& more forecast). Bring on the mists & mellow fruitfulness, sez I, evaporating gently.

Novel question of teacosy “what do you feed it?” “Part-breed Tribble.” “Loved that episode!” As we swelter at the teapoint, humour remains vital!

Our site first aid is handled by tannoy - “will a first aider please come to location G” & we save our work & set off (never run - one casualty is Quite Enough) & as we arrive like benevolent lemmings, someone takes over & the rest of us check they have someone else in line of sight (for keywords like ambulance defib etc) & we scatter back. Means we get to meet our fellow first aiders, even if briefly.

Middleson has taken the strimmer to the back garden with more ruthlessness than was expected & the white foxglove has been felled. (Dashit.) I suspect the raspberry canes will be brought to a ruthless halt likewise.

He is being as merciless with the cherry plum trees as next door’s tree surgeon, not appreciating fresh fruit from the tree, as “they’re not like supermarket plums”! Somehow plum ice cream has fallen right off his to try list.

Sisters demanding to know how I will celebrate our father’s death have agreed my plan for dark chocolate. They’re of the “get together, look at photos, remind mum of all she’s lost” school of memorialising & I am not. Dark chocolate & giggles over a few jokes much more my style.

Springsteen covering “hard times come around no more” & me just awed. (Still can’t find the track he introduces by inviting the audience to recall when they’ve “blown a good thing”, drops to his knees & gets Everyone on side… ah yes, Back in your arms, esp Brisbane 2/14/2017)

Booked flexi leave to have elbow room to fuss over wedding guest attire, possibly also to be handy should goddaughter or her mother want an extra pair of hands. 

Colleague recommended a music video, some artist “Yungblud” & song “Zombie” which Really didn’t sound my kind of thing until she said “it’s a love letter to nurses”. And oh my, the video is.

Lovely colleague who leads yoga class off as has family wedding coming this weekend & is forecasting it to be potentially dynamite with several egos potentially trying to draw attention away from the happy couple. (All lovely. Phew.)

Goddaughter's wedding! My word, the whole site awash with love. Parent, adult, child, Eros, agape, sibling, no limits on age or gender or education or place on the spectrum or even vital signs. Much tickled by the hand fans scattered, unfolding to white paper hearts & charmingly useful decorations in the afternoon warmth.

Very satisfying to get laundry onto line in the breeze. Rearranged things so only stuff that needed pegging had a peg as we appear to have less than a load's worth of pegs! Good to see wedding guest frock & slip both dancing in the breeze.

Oh gods, decluttering is harder than dieting. The Peter Rabbit weaning set - I can’t justify holding onto. The Daisy Goodwin poetry anthologies I am lured into, looking for the section on “instant moral fibre”… (Son, policing, unimpressed. He’ll provide the moral fibre which I so evidently lack.)

Once again enjoying the feeling of evaporation. “On a hot summer night would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?” (Meatloaf lyric) Probably not. I find linen, especially a fresh-made bed of line-dried linen, devastatingly attractive.

Oh drat. Youngest definitely has quit University. Middleson is now “preparing him for the real world”, going through his wardrobe (oh That’s why he emptied & washed Everything?!) & setting him tasks. Hm. I suspect paid employment will come as a blessed relief after brother’s admonitions.

Just attended a cruse webinar on dementia & bereavement. Reassuring & educational.

Right. Health, Strength, Love, & Courage to all as have need, you really struggle to go wrong in the Welsh Beacons (unless the cloud comes down as fog) &  Oh Thank Heavens the season of mellow fruitfulness & requiring a fleece is returning.

Suffolksue

Dig ,I am in awe of you x