Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

HairyHandofDartmoor

I've just remembered that DH had a mini stroke about three years ago and they had to increase all his meds 😔. He takes three different types of blood pressure tablets, plus statins, as well as his diabetes meds and he suffers from sleep apnoea 😩. So I'm very relieved he's going to get his vaccine on Tuesday  😀.
Whereas I'm in very good health apart from my asthma and I don't take any medication apart from my inhalers, so I'm at far less risk of serious illness from Covid than DH. I'll get the vaccine based on my age so I'll be in category 8 on that basis.

I felt a bit meh yesterday despite it being an unexpectedly sunny day 😒. I think I was missing my mum and sister and the whole virus situation was getting me down (this was before the good news about DH's vaccine because he only got the text last night). So DH drove me to the local garden centre and I bought some tulip and daffodil bulbs. I have some dwarf narcissus already, but I wanted some big fat cheerful daffodils and I've always fancied having tulips and have never had any. They weren't that expensive and I'm looking forward to them flowering. I put the daffodils in the lovely blue pot that used to belong to my mum and the tulips in another empty pot. I'll post pictures when they flower 🌷⚘. 

I'll also post pictues of my lovely bug hotel when it's painted and ready to hang on the fence  🐝🐞 . On my birthday I'll buy a nesting box to go with it and they'll look lovely on the fence  🙂. We can't go out to National Trust gardens but I can create a mini paradise in my back garden. I'd like to get a water feature at some point, just a large bird bath probably but it willl help to attract wildlife and look very calming . That's the trouble with the winter, gardeners can't indulge their hobby. Stepdad loves gardening but he hasn't been able to do any due to it being either waterlogged or frozen! 

Today I feel quite tired after planting the bulbs and shopping yesterday, so I'm going to stay in. Rain is forcast and it looks very grey and gloomy out there 🌧🌫☔. My half term is nearly over so I need to embrace some relaxation while I can. Having said that I'll put a wash on and I really ought to do some hoovering  🤔.

Have a splendid Friday forum friends  😀.

jwil

That’s great news about DH’s vaccine, what a relief. 

The new flowers will be lovely and cheery. Enjoy your relaxing day today 😊

Parkyp

I love a wee bunch of daffodils in my kitchen just cheers me up when I see them. Will look forward to seeing your wee garden sanctuary😃. 

HairyHandofDartmoor

jwil said:

That’s great news about DH’s vaccine, what a relief. 

The new flowers will be lovely and cheery. Enjoy your relaxing day today 😊

Thanks Jwil  

Parkyp said:

I love a wee bunch of daffodils in my kitchen just cheers me up when I see them. Will look forward to seeing your wee garden sanctuary😃. 

Thanks Parky . Daffodils are my favourite flowers.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I've been fiddling around with my signature and I've updated my Christmas savings total (I had £2 interest and have added £7 as a tilly tidy) and I've also listed how long we've got until the mortgage is paid as I thought I'd find this motivational.

Fidelia

I hope your bulbs don't suffer the same fate as a big drift of our daffodils, HH.  Ever the optimist I keep going right down the garden to see if there's any sign of any daffodils appearing yet.  Not expecting flowers or even buds yet but some recognisable green shoots would be a bonus.  A couple of times I noticed huge holes in the ground (once it had thawed enough to dig) where some of the daffs are.  If we didn't live in such an isolated spot I'd think some thief  had come along and pinched some of the bulbs.   Last night I couldn't sleep and came down for a cup of tea.  Before I switched on the kitchen light I saw that one of the  back exterior security lights had come on and there in full sight were 2 badgers in one of the borders digging away at something.    I did a quick internet search this morning about badgers' eating habits.  Turns out they like bulbs, amongst many other things.  Mystery solved.  Last night they'd eaten a clump of assorted spring bulbs and I bet they were responsible for the massive holes among the daffs right down the garden too. All our windfall apples disappeared off the grass a couple of months ago. There'd been gales and there were loads of them.  DH left a lot where they'd fallen.  Not an eyesore to us as they're far from the house and not in sight anyway.  The blackbirds love them though.  DH was a bit dubious that so many blackbirds must have turned up recently or, heaven forbid, there were rats!  I suspect it was those darned badgers as apples are another favourite of theirs.

Not sure what to do now as regards protecting the daffs and other bulbs we have all over the garden.  They've been there donkeys years and have multiplied into big drifts  Nice, trouble-free gardening as a rule.  Minimum effort but maximum visual appeal.  Lovely to live in such close proximity to wildlife though.  Absolute fluke that I saw the badgers, I sleep like a log normally.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I don't think we'll have any badgers in our garden as it's a walled garden and in a very built up area, apart from the park at the bottom of our road. I don't know how you would stop naughty badgers eating your bulbs, encase them in wire mesh maybe? I'm sure someone will have the solution to your problem. Very interesting to do a bit of badger watching though, I don't think I've ever laid eyes on a wild badger.

Fidelia

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

I don't think we'll have any badgers in our garden as it's a walled garden and in a very built up area, apart from the park at the bottom of our road. I don't know how you would stop naughty badgers eating your bulbs, encase them in wire mesh maybe? I'm sure someone will have the solution to your problem. Very interesting to do a bit of badger watching though, I don't think I've ever laid eyes on a wild badger.

I've lived in very rural areas for most of my married life and apart from watching a family of them playing by the banks of a stream very occasionally when we've been out walking these were the first badgers I've been so close to.  We get plenty of pheasants and  I know there are foxes somewhere round here which DH has seen but I haven't.  Didn't expect to see badgers this close to the house though.  When they were digging I thought at first that they were greyish dogs, but as we have no near neighbours I couldn't think whose they'd be, and they were way too big  for even massive cats.  Then one turned round and I saw its striped head.  It was a very impressive sight. No doubt then what they were.  I wish I'd had something handy to take a photo but my phone was upstairs and DH goes ballistic if he gets woken up.  I'd taken ages to get out of bed and creep as silently as I could to get downstairs as it was.  Got away with it, daren't risk WW3 starting by rummaging in the bedroom in the dark for my phone!

badmemory

Possibly the badgers have come so close because of the icy weather.  It could have made their normal food more scarce.  That is the usual reason for wildlife "encroaching".  I suspect I am not the only one who wishes you had your phone with you.  I am surprised your security lights didn't quickly scare them off though.  They must have been very hungry or very used to them - windfall apples etc.  Sounds like they have decided they are safe there!

Sun_Addict

I follow a FB page called Mr Lumpy and Friends and the lady whose page it is feeds badgers that come into her garden at night. She leaves them all kinds of food, apparently they love eggs. They come right up to her patio doors and have even taken food from her hand. I live in the suburbs but we have badgers here, I haven’t seen them personally but others have.