Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

And here are today's efforts. Hello m'ducks. Hope everyone is still managing to stay well. Had a more leisurely start to the day today, then Mr F helped me prepare the ingredients for more chutney making tomorrow. Everything soaking in a big bowl of cider vinegar overnight. Can smell the star anise as I walk by. Then I tackled a few more annoying jobs. I made Mr F some of his favourite garlic pickle.... this made it onto the annoying jobs list because I got out several tiny jars ready for this weeks ago & they have been sitting there ever since, getting in the way. Not a no-spend day, as 2 annoying jobs involved a modest purchase - 1 at £3.99 & the other at £11, but it did feel good to have sourced the items to deal with two silly long ignored tasks.
Then the bloke in charge of this week's building project arrived much earlier than usual to say he couldn't do the finishing off job today after all as he was pushed for time & it needs 2 to 3 hrs so he's coming on Monday instead. He did, however, say it's now ok to walk on the new courtyard, which meant (seeing as I don't have wings) I could get down to my greenhouse for a much needed watering session. Decided to fetch a big trug of home made compost to dig into the greenhouse border, set up some bottomless pots & transplant 6 of my tomato plants into their final spot for the season. I was going to pot up the courgettes & squash into bigger pots too, but decided instead to set up the job ready to do tomorrow, as my hands were starting to feel stiff. I did wear my thumb brace support, but I think trowelling compost out of the doors of the dalek-style compost bins is quite hard work for small arthritic hands, even though I can go for days with hardly any symptoms of it. I am feeling it today though, so it feels like a tv watching, magazine reading night tonight & my hands are not too sore to lift a gin glass, so that's all sounding ok.
Take care, all. 
F x

Awww sorry to hear your hands are hurting, however bonus that you can still lift your gin glass 🎉🎉🎉

foxgloves

You & me both, OBL. 

monkey62

Hey foxgloves just read through your diary and, wow! I will be following 

ladyholly

To be fair to Boris exercise Cygnus happened under the Cameron government and was buried by the May government. (Boris was foreign secretary so would probably not have had much input) The common factor to both previous governments was the health secretary Jeremy Hunt. Unfortunately for all of us these exercises rarely result in any good coming from them. My DH was involved in one or two simialr though smaller "events" many years ago and in general they were a farce.

PurpleFairy26

To be honest I’m feeling rather lost by it all today. The media have significantly got people’s hopes up it seems and people just seemed to be ignoring the simple
message to stay at home. Just read a post on another thread I subscribe to on here where someone put ‘sorry I didn’t post yesterday I was at my parents - back now’ I just don’t believe it?!?! 🤬😡 

my friend said both houses opposite them have had visitors go in and stay for a while this week. And being out on our daily exercise today we definitely saw people that didn’t look like they were family groups. 

It’s all very depressing to be honest, even more so when so many are following the rules. 

foxgloves

Purplefairy - When Mr F was queuing at the local market on Friday, there were two older chaps on mobility scooters who obviously knew each other, so they didn't bother with social distancing at the prescribed markers & stood together & had a loud chat instead. Apparently, this was all about how the virus had all been dealt with after the first two weeks  so 'I don't know what's going on with all this telling people to stay home'.
Perhaps they'd watched Johnson when he said we'd have 'seen it off' within 12 weeks, or Trump when he said the virus would 'go away on its own' . 
Our lives are going to be disrupted for a long time, until there is a vaccine or a viable drug. We have to accept it & try to find solutions, I'm afraid. 
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

It's going to be interesting to see what Boris says tomorrow. The media have certainly built up expectations. It seems too soon to make big changes, but being allowed more than one exercise session wouldn't hurt and I would be happy for garden centres to open if they have social distancing measures. I think it's too soon to open schools though as social distancing would be impossible there. I agree that mistakes have been made but will never been admitted to.

Glad your patio is done and looking good Foxgloves .

PurpleFairy26

foxgloves said:

Purplefairy - When Mr F was queuing at the local market on Friday, there were two older chaps on mobility scooters who obviously knew each other, so they didn't bother with social distancing at the prescribed markers & stood together & had a loud chat instead. Apparently, this was all about how the virus had all been dealt with after the first two weeks  so 'I don't know what's going on with all this telling people to stay home'.
Perhaps they'd watched Johnson when he said we'd have 'seen it off' within 12 weeks, or Trump when he said the virus would 'go away on its own' . 
Our lives are going to be disrupted for a long time, until there is a vaccine or a viable drug. We have to accept it & try to find solutions, I'm afraid. 
F x

Trump 🙃😳😲 

agree lives are to be disrupted for a very long time to come 

DawnW

Foxgloves, I struggle to shovel compost out of the little doors at the bottom of the daleks too - so I don't. I get OH to help me lift the whole thing off. I put a tarp down first to minimise the mess, shovel the usable compost into the wheelbarrow and put the unrotted stuff, if any, into the other composter (I have 2). Then put the emptied composter back on its site to fill up again. I find it much easier, even if a bit of sweeping up is needed afterwards.

foxgloves

Thanks Dawn. I prefer to do it exactly as you mention, & have done in the past - it's much easier - but we are stuck for space up there at the moment. The ground is still stacked with heaps of branches & stuff from Mr F having cleared that exra 5 feet of space (which belonged to nobody) to extend our garden. He's gradually getting the branches shredded or moved to make woodpile habitats for insects, but there were so many (plus we had a whole diseased fruit tree to dispose of) that it is impacting on other garden tasks. I'll be glad when our council is able to restore our fortnightly garden waste wheelie bin collection, as it's amazing how much fits in there. 
Don't know if I'll get into the garden today. It's raining hard, although the plants badly need a soaking. 
F x