Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

You're welcome, @teapot2.....& Snap!! We have a glut here too, & making a batch of pickled courgettes will be one of next week's jobs, I'm sure. I like them on salads & atop burgers & BBQ.
F 

foxgloves

Hello m'dears.....another scorching day even in our often murky-weathered neck of the woods. Not a no-spend day, but a budget-neutral one. Treated ourselves to breakfast at village farm shop, but paid from our Personal Spends. Bought a small item for the presents stash but that was funded from the Presents Pot. We both only ever intended to have a leisurely day today because of the heat, but I've done 2 loads of laundry & pegged it out, as I'm very much hoping to see at least some rain tomorrow & Tues. Mr F has gone around oiling door & window mechanisms as a couple have been sticking recently. ....trying to keep them going without recourse to locksmith anytime soon for new mechanisms.
We've synchronised our diaries so as to be able to plan better for the next fortnight & I've done garden pickings - another cucumber (think we've had 19 from 2 plants now) & some more blackberries. I've left  🍅 🍅 until tomorrow as I need to assess what preserving needs doing this week.
My leisure time is being split between knitting my cheapo black cardi.....back finished & cast off, first front rib done & pattern set.....& reading current library book. It's "The Widower" by Christobel Kent & so far, I'm finding it an intriguing story. It's unfolding gradually, so I don't yet know if it is going to be a murder mystery, a 'gaslit' wife, or something else entirely, but I'm really wanting to find out, & that's the mark of a good book, I always think.
It's certainly.mysterious!
Mr F's cooking night & he's making sufficient to feed us tomorrow as well, which is good for me, as I have a lot of budgetary & admin stuff to do tomorrow.
Off for another glass of water......
F x

Sun_Addict

Ooh that book rings a bell with me, I shall consult my books read spreadsheet to see if I’ve read it. It’s not on my bookshelves anyway. I love a slow burning thriller that keeps you guessing until near the end.

milann

I’m jealous of the folk with courgette gluts. This is the first year I haven’t had 1 fruit……lots of flowers that have dropped off and one dumpy little fruit that rotted when it got to about an inch long 😡😡
Well done with the steps competition 👍

weenancyinAmerica

foxgloves - re- your friend who wears his coat in June. I was like that too when I was younger. Always cold no matter what the temperature. Turned out to be a thyroid problem. Maybe he needs to have blood tests done. 

Baileys_Babe

weenancyinAmerica said:

foxgloves - re- your friend who wears his coat in June. I was like that too when I was younger. Always cold no matter what the temperature. Turned out to be a thyroid problem. Maybe he needs to have blood tests done. 

My OH has thyroid problems which mean he is often colder than is appropriate.

CRANKY40

If they're double glazed windows and doors then it's the heat. They'll be back to normal when it cools down. My french windows stick when it's this hot but they go back to normal when the temperature drops. 

cashlink

Just to say….I’m truly amazed at the amount of useful information on here.
I’m absolutely loving being on these boards, although have to say I’m spending way too much time reading them.
It’s been great while we’ve had the hot weather, good excuse to be lazy!

foxgloves

@weenancyinAmerica & @Baileys_Babe - Thanks, yes, I have heard that thyroid conditions can affect body temperature. I'll be surprised if my friend hasn't been tested though, as he is endlessly at the Dr's with one thing or another.

@cashlink - Hello & welcome! There are lots of useful ideas on these diary threads. I think it's because so many of us have either been in the position of debt-busting & learning to budget, etc, or are in that position now. 

@CRANKY40 - I know our wooden internal doors swell a bit during winter when the air is damper, but I hadn't realised that hot weather can cause the UPVC double-glazed ones to stick, so that's useful to know, thanks. I must say that the 2 worst ones, which were becoming difficult for me to close properly with my arthritic thumb joints, are working very well now that The Beloved has been round wafting the oil can. 

@milann - Sorry your courgettes are playing silly b*ggers. If only you lived around here, I'd be sneaking out at night & dumping a bag of the fiends on your doorstep! Seriously though, what you describe sounds to me like a pollination problem. The first flowers to appear are often the male ones so they are kind of waving it about (for want of a more botanical term!) ready for the female flowers which usually have a teeny swelling behind them & appear a little bit later. If pollinated, then bingo, a courgette will form but if pollination doesn't happen at all, the flowers just die & drop off. If they pollinate but not fully, then you get the infuriating situation you describe where a fruit starts to look promising then says 'Nah, I'm not playing' & withers away. Do you see many pollinators in your garden.....hoverflies, bees, anything really? If they seem sparse this year, you could sprinkle some poached egg plant seed around next year (Limanthes) as they are good at pulling in things like hoverflies.
F x

foxgloves

Well, I'm chatting to you this afternoon while I wait for my courgettes to brine. I was about to put today's post on, then I remembered I hadn't got around to telling you about that incident with the little boy I saw last week. Oh my life, you should have seen what he did!! I'll tell you.......
I was waiting outside the supermarket for a lift, near the bit with the cashpoint machines, & a woman went over to one of the cashpoints with her little boy, I'd say he looked about 4. Anyway, she was talking to him in that very loud, bright mummy-voice which mummies often use with small children.
 "Are you going to help Mummy get some money out of the machine?"
So he watched the transaction & at the end, his job was to collect the money from the slot.....which he did. She said 'Good boy, now give the money to Mummy", but he laughed & backed away, holding the sizeable wodge of £20 notes.
 "GIVE THE MONEY TO MUMMY". So he carefully & deliberately peeled off one single £20 note & handed it to her. She took a step towards him to take the rest of it off him & he cackled & threw the whole lot up in the air! Well, it was a hot day but there was a breeze on & that area near the cash machines can be a bit of a wind tunnel, so they blew around a bit & a couple of agile shoppers stopped notes with their feet & helped her gather them all up. She was so mad, he didn't half get into trouble, but it was a lot of money, I wasn't in a position to count the notes, which were spread all round, but it looked like around £200 - I expect she was withdrawing her weekly grocery money. I don't think he'll be invited to 'help mummy with the machine' for a good while!
F x