Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Soot & Ash were ok, thanks, but I was worried about them. Soot isn't a long-hair, but he has very thick plush fur & doesn't enjoy very hot weather. He kept moving around trying to find a cooler spot, enjoyed a wipe-down with an ice pack but didn't much like lying near the fan (though he did walk past it now & again for a cool-down). Ash, who is used to living rough, took himself off after breakfast & didn't appear again until 4pm. He doubtless found a shady hidey-hole (probably in the overgrown jungle next door but one to us). He felt a bit too hot when he came home but gobbled his meat & went to lie on our shady courtyard. There are two outside water bowls & indoor bowl re-filled regularly. Soot very suspicious of the ice cube I tried adding. It made a cracking noise when it went in & so of course he said he wasn't having any of it & would only return when it had done the decent thing & melted.
It still feels v hot here but I need to move & get all the tasks done I've ignored for the last two days.
Chat later,
F x

DawnW

Excuse huge photo (couldn't see how to make it smaller) but someone here has really got into this fan lark

foxgloves

Aww, cute pic, @DawnW. He'll be expecting you to fan him while out on his summer walks now, I expect!
F

Humdinger1

Is 'nuddypants' code for whole-hog naturism? I think you should do it @foxgloves! Will watch the news reports for updates...

foxgloves

Lol, yes @Humdinger1. I didn't need to go full nuddypants for a rain dance as later last night, we did actually get a shower! But earlier in the evening while inspecting the veggie plot, I did remove my leggings in full view of moany neighbours' bedroom windows so let's hope he didn't need the village defibrillator!
F x

Humdinger1

@foxgloves if he's that much of a nosey-parker combined with big girl's blouse, maybe he should have one of his own?! Xx

foxgloves

@Humdinger1 - I don't know how much active nosey-parkering he does, but he's been a serial complainer. Tbf, he hasn't complained since just before the pandemic, but I suspect this is only because his last complaint was so ridiculous, as well as factually impossible, that we think he ended up feeling like a bit of a wally. We always joke though about what the next thing is likely to be that causes his head to pop up over the fence.....my money's on our squeaky greenhouse door because yes, we are talking about this kind of level, but no worries because he's no match for us verbally.
F x

Humdinger1

3-in-1 oil at the ready I hope @foxgloves?!  Complaining really is a hobby for some, I find...

foxgloves

Evening Campers,
Cooler today, thank goodness, with a bit of a breeze, although none of the showers we were expecting this afternoon. Btw, @Whatlifeis, I know what you mean about that 'singed' look & even an odd sort of smell. There was an odd chemically smell in our house & I eventually realised it was coming from the vinyl we had laid in the lobby & conservatory last year. It hadn't melted or anything like that, but the heat was obviously warming it up & causing some rather peculiar plasticky whiffs.
Good night's sleep thanks to fan so it was a bit of a shock when I walked out onto the landing first thing & was met by solid heat. Thermostat downstairs showed that overnight, our house had cooled by a measly half a degree. Pathetic! I've had doors & windows open all day & it has only just dropped to a still-too-hot 26.5. 
I've probably exacerbated that temperature as I did today's garden pickings (tomatoes, aubergines, coriander & spring onions) & as I had the deferred veggie moussaka to make, decided to have an afternoon of kitchen witchery while finishing my audio book. Apart from the heat, it was both useful & enjoyable. I started by feeding my sourdough jar (now 5 years old) ready to bake a loaf tomorrow, then got on with a round-up of any fresh stuff in need of urgent using up -  froze a box of odds & ends for the stock-pot next time I have a chicken carcass, & sliced & froze a spare large green pepper. That seemed a good time to do next week's meal plan, so armed with that, I was then able to use some of our garden produce to do a bit of batch-cooking.
As I picked quite a lot of nice ripe tomatoes today, I decided to prep & freeze the amount required for making Greek-style butterbeans next week. Then I made the veggie moussaka as planned & split it between 2 dishes so as to freeze one for another week. That just left several courgettes which I made into a simple courgette curry, which I make most years. This will mostly be eaten by Mr F for work lunches when he is on a long shift, but it makes a useful side dish for other curry-based meals too, which is how I prefer to eat it. So I felt I'd had a much more productive day today than yesterday which I did rather spend in troglodyte fashion. but I was really hot again by the time I'd finished.
As for spending....I paid our wheelie-bin cleaning invoice, & that was it. My Big Budget Day is hoving into view (27th) so my intention for the rest of the month is generally to keep July's budget straight & particularly to come in under budget on this month's groceries.....first because this would make me happy & second, because I could usefully put any underspend towards our July fish box.
I think having a little re-tune into thrift has done me good - I definitely feel more motivated.
Hope everyone's feeling a little bit cooler tonight,
F x

kayannie

foxgloves said:

@Humdinger1 - I don't know how much active nosey-parkering he does, but he's been a serial complainer. Tbf, he hasn't complained since just before the pandemic, but I suspect this is only because his last complaint was so ridiculous, as well as factually impossible, that we think he ended up feeling like a bit of a wally. We always joke though about what the next thing is likely to be that causes his head to pop up over the fence.....my money's on our squeaky greenhouse door because yes, we are talking about this kind of level, but no worries because he's no match for us verbally.
F x

On the subject of complaining neighbours - many years ago we were moving into a first floor flat. An elderly lady lived in the ground floor & access to our flat was via an outside staircase. On the day we were moving in, we had only been up & down a few times when she emerged from her flat to tell us not to go up & down so often! Needless to say this was just the start!
KA