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

elizabethhull

Happy Easter - hope you can have some relaxing time and the weather is kind.

We're going to sit in DD2's garden tomorrow afternoon - I don't like to think how many months since we've seen her. Then she & DGS will come to our garden on Sunday - yay !!

Willowtree222

Happy Easter Hairy, 
A lovely two weeks break for you to rest and recuperate. x

doingitanyway

Very late to the party, but happy birthday anyway!
I love the bird boxes and the pot. 
I hope you can enjoy a restful Easter.

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves said:

Happy belated birthday, HHoD. The nesting boxes are lovely & that pot would look just right with all the ones on our back courtyard. I love a nice ceramic pot. I hope you still feel bright-eyed & bushy-tailed as I am pretty sure I am due to hit the same birthday as you next month, lol!  I'm looking forward to some gardening over Easter too. It's mostly still too chilly to sit out on our coffee bench, but I'm sure we will soon be using it, even with our coats on. Things do feel a bit more positive with the vaccine rollout & the warmer months hoving into view. We can only try to remain hopeful, can't we, that's what I'm trying to do, although it is difficult when we keep hearing on the local news that yet more student parties have been broken up by police for breaking about 193 Covid restrictions simultaneously. Honestly, these people!
School sounds very busy with the children needing to get used to routines again & all the catch-ups.
F x

Thanks Foxgloves . Part of me can't believe I'm 57! I certainly don't feel that old.

jwil said:

Belated happy birthday!  Hope you had a nice day.  The flowers and nesting boxes are lovely!

Thanks Jwil

Baileys_Babe said:

Belated happy birthday 🎈 

I think dd enjoyed hers. OH took the day off work and we suspended lessons. We played board games of her choice, she built her new lego set, had a special breakfast, take away for dinner. As well as presents from us and various family members.

Thanks BB . I'm glad DD enjoyed her birthday.

beanielou said:

Your nesting boxes are lovely.
As are your tulips.
I adore tulips. One of my favourite flowers
Enjoy your time off.

Thanks Beanie

HairyHandofDartmoor

Fidelia said:

Happy belated birthday, HH.  All your 'boys' at home and lovely presents as well, not forgetting the cake.  Sounds just what you needed to lift your spirits after a tiring few days.

I think your cherry tree should be OK in partial sun.  Is it going in a huge pot or directly into the ground?  It's so windy here most of the time that ours are stripped of their blossom pretty much as soon as it appears!  At least the grass looks lovely for a while with a sea of pink petals all over it.  It's the same with some peony plants that I've nurtured for about 30 years. I built up quite a collection over the years. Their flowering season is very short though and usually coincides with gales and lashing rain, in these parts anyway!  I replanted a few of them but they didn't flower for about 3 years afterwards.  I thought I'd killed them and I was really upset especially as DH had warned me that they were too big and well-established to move.  I looked it up and discovered that they tend to 'sulk' after moving and cease flowering for a while. It wasn't just me then. Happily they are OK again now and seem to like the shelter of their new homes although I can't see them from any of the  windows now .  I have to go right down the garden to seek them out. Some of the varieties are highly fragrant and I miss them being nearer to the house. I look forward to their gorgeous flowers in June though.

We had a dusting of snow on the higher fells during the week and there's a really strong wind blowing today.  Our electricity went off for about 7 hours  on  Friday .There's no gas here, just electricity which I cook with and oil for the central heating but that's no use when the electric boiler pump is out of action. We've a back-up generator but the diesel was really low so DH wouldn't put it on all that day/evening. I've been really cross with him this past few days because he seems to have 'lost the plot' over keeping fuel supplies topped up. Not like him at all.  I think he's getting depressed after all the lockdowns. We've open fireplaces but most of our wood has been used up and any that's outside ready for sawing/chopping is sodden anyway.  We very rarely buy logs, there's always plenty of storm-damaged stuff that we can find for free and DH loves sawing it up.  He says he enjoys the exercise.  The only part of it I don't like is helping him to drag fallen trees/branches home across hilly fields.  I'm dreading him suggesting a forage for more after all these strong winds (and my nagging!) but if it means we can have a fire and warm the place up if we have any more power cuts it will be worth the effort.

Thanks Fidelia . Our cherry tree is going into the ground. I moved a lot of established shrubs last summer and they've all survived happily but i'ts always a risk.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Nicnak said:

Happy belated birthday. How beautiful are those boxes and plant? Gorgeous. They will cheer you up no end. 
Only one more week to go for the holidays and it isn't a full week. Hopefully you can then get some rest and enjoy the garden. x

Thanks Nicnak  

abba1772 said:

Those little nesting boxes look soooooo cute.......happy belated birthday xx

Thanks Abba  

milann said:

Happy belated birthday from me too. 🎂🎂

I bet your cherry tree is lovely. We bought 2 very small miniature ones ( think twigs😲😂) years ago from a mail order firm and had them in tubs. We’d gone to Cornwall for a couple of weeks and they were as dead as dodos when we came home as we’d had a mini heatwave. So the 2 cherries that the kids were so excited about cost £15 each.....we often chuckle about them. Thankfully the children got a one each to eat 😂😂Hopefully yours will fare much better. Your flower pots look lovely 👍
The schools around here broke up last week yet my gks break up tomorrow. Enjoy the Easter break. I bumped into some teachers from school on my walk yesterday - it sounds as if school has changed beyond all recognition whilst I’ve been off. 

I bet it was lovely having all the family at home for your birthday. 

Thanks Milann . I think schools have changed a lot with all the virus safety measures. No whole school assemblies, no mixing of year groups in the playground, etc.

HairyHandofDartmoor

elizabethhull said:

Happy Easter - hope you can have some relaxing time and the weather is kind.

We're going to sit in DD2's garden tomorrow afternoon - I don't like to think how many months since we've seen her. Then she & DGS will come to our garden on Sunday - yay !!

Thanks Elizabeth

Nicnak said:

Happy Easter Hairy, 
A lovely two weeks break for you to rest and recuperate. x

Thanks Nicnak  

doingitanyway said:

Very late to the party, but happy birthday anyway!
I love the bird boxes and the pot. 
I hope you can enjoy a restful Easter.

Thanks DIA  

HairyHandofDartmoor

I had a good last week at school, especially as it only lasted four days 😁. I felt tired though due to the clocks changing which always messes up my body clock for a week. I love being at school but it's tiring so I'm delighted to have two weeks off 😁.

Unfortunately I developed a sore throat on Thursday evening and by Friday morning I knew I'd caught a head cold 😣. So I didn't do much on Good Friday and Saturday, apart from relax and eat lots of Easter eggs ☺. We did go to a big out of town garden centre yesterday though so I could spend a garden voucher and more of my birthday money. I bought a bird feeder, some bird seeds 🕊🦅, two half price terracotta pots to replace some cracked ones, a small green ceramic pot and a dwarf confer 🌲 (Snow White) to go in an existing pot. DH and I have had coffee ☕☕ in the garden for the past two days as we've been blessed with gloriously warm and sunny weather in Devon  ☀️🌝 and even DS1 came and sat out there with us for a while on Saturday. It must be due to the new stretch of fence giving us privacy as DS1 never normally ventures into the garden. The bird feeder is hanging in the tree outside the kitchen window where we can see it easily and we're hoping birds will come 🦅🕊, although I haven't seen any yet. I'd like to buy another one to put a different type of food in, either fat balls or nuts.


Last night I felt sick to death of chocolate 🍫 which really doesn't agree with me and I'm no good at rationing myself as I'm a bit of an all or nothing person. So I gave my last Easter egg to DS1 and today I'm going back to my healthy eating, which is a relief as I always have more energy and my tummy feels more settled when I eat healthily. Also I've put on a lot of weight since Christmas, over half a stone and my clothes are starting to feel tight and uncomfortable 😖. I have had mother's day, my birthday and now Easter three weekends in a row, so that hasn't helped!

It's another beautiful sunny day in Devon ☀️ and today I'd scheduled gardening, in particular planting the new cherry tree 🌸 (it's more of a bush really as our garden is too small for a tree). The cherry tree arrived on Good Friday morning in a lovely box (which was excellent timing) and it was already covered in pink cherry blossom 🌸🌸 which I wasn't expecting. We have a corner of the garden where two borders meet which has been occupied by a pot with a large palm in it, so this morning DH and I moved the palm, cleared the weeds, dug a hole and planted the cherry tree. It looks very nice there and will hopefully get enough sun. Then DH and I swopped over two large pots with Torbay palms in as we thought they'd look better. After that we both felt tired so had coffee on our garden bench ☕☕.

There's lots more that needs doing in the garden. I want to waterproof the bird boxes and put them up, paint the bug hotel  🐞🐝 and put it up, plant the conifer in a pot 🌲, move a shrub to a gap in the border and replace it with a dwarf conifer that I want to buy tomorrow. Then there's general weeding that needs doing, especially the garden walls. Tomorrow I want to go to the garden centre again (our local one this time) and buy the conifer 🌲 and possibly another pot.

The rest of the holiday I want to do lots of tidying up of the house and lots of weeding and tidying in the garden. I also want to rejoin the National Trust this weekend and then arrange to meet Stepdad and wife, aunt and uncle, and niece, for walks and takeaway coffee. I'm looking forward to seeing family again and seeing the spring flowers in the National Trust gardens 🌷🏵🌼🌻. This weekend though I wanted to get over my head cold and sort the garden out. 

I hope everyone is having a lovely Easter weekend with some of my sunshine and enjoying seeing family outdoors for the first time in three month 🙂 .

jwil

Happy Easter   Hope you are feeling better now, and the garden sounds lovely!

Sun_Addict

It’s been sunny and very warm here too. Enjoy your time off work.