Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums, hope you're all well 😊

Bit of a grumpity one here today. Nothing I can blame it on other than the blusteriness of the weather - I always get a bit agitated in the wind I think, I'm like a chicken with her feathers ruffled 😂 (the chicken ladies haven't been too impressed with the weather either, spending most of the day in the porch complaining 😂 )

We had a brief foray into town this afternoon as we were completely out of fruit and a few other bits. One supermarket had a massive queue, and the one at the other one wasn't better, so we ended up on a not-very-MSE trip to w@itr0se 🙄😮 we went in together, against my better judgement (although several other people before us went in together and nobody said anything) - won't be doing it again though as I just felt like I shouldn't be there. Both had masks on too so felt like a right fugitive 🙄 Very glad to get home...

Nothing else MSE to report I don't think. Got four days off work now, hooray! Obviously the weather is going to be a bit rubbish for the next two of them... half tempted to just work Saturday Sunday and have Monday to Thursday off, but I can never quite bring myself to work over the weekend unless there is absolute dire need! So I think indoor activities over the weekend and then back out in the garden on Monday (and in reality, it'll probably be fine tomorrow, just not baking).

Still no sign of the train refund but I'll check tomorrow. Up to £51 MB dosh for the month so that nicely covers the subscriptions which is good. Withdrew £5.66 from Prolific the other day too. 

Oh, and I know what I must do over the weekend - defrost the freezer!! Everything is out now (other than a few slices of bread which can't come out as they're frozen in). The top shelf has developed stalagmites which have now met up with the stalagtites (?) so the situation is somewhat desperate... 😮😂

South_coast

Ooh, I thought my freezer was bad, but I'm just at the "struggling to ram as much in as I'd like" stage - I feel much better now 😂!

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff said:

Evening MSE chums, hope you're all well 😊

Bit of a grumpity one here today. Nothing I can blame it on other than the blusteriness of the weather - I always get a bit agitated in the wind I think, I'm like a chicken with her feathers ruffled 😂 (the chicken ladies haven't been too impressed with the weather either, spending most of the day in the porch complaining 😂 )

We had a brief foray into town this afternoon as we were completely out of fruit and a few other bits. One supermarket had a massive queue, and the one at the other one wasn't better, so we ended up on a not-very-MSE trip to w@itr0se 🙄😮 we went in together, against my better judgement (although several other people before us went in together and nobody said anything) - won't be doing it again though as I just felt like I shouldn't be there. Both had masks on too so felt like a right fugitive 🙄 Very glad to get home...

Nothing else MSE to report I don't think. Got four days off work now, hooray! Obviously the weather is going to be a bit rubbish for the next two of them... half tempted to just work Saturday Sunday and have Monday to Thursday off, but I can never quite bring myself to work over the weekend unless there is absolute dire need! So I think indoor activities over the weekend and then back out in the garden on Monday (and in reality, it'll probably be fine tomorrow, just not baking).

Still no sign of the train refund but I'll check tomorrow. Up to £51 MB dosh for the month so that nicely covers the subscriptions which is good. Withdrew £5.66 from Prolific the other day too. 

Oh, and I know what I must do over the weekend - defrost the freezer!! Everything is out now (other than a few slices of bread which can't come out as they're frozen in). The top shelf has developed stalagmites which have now met up with the stalagtites (?) so the situation is somewhat desperate... 😮😂

That got me racking my brains back to schooldays trying to remember what they are called when they meet up to become a pillar.......whether there is a technical term for it, but it is just called a pillar or column.

However, I did discover that, while stalagmite has a g, stalactite has a c! If I ever did know that once, I had forgotten, and would have written it as ‘stalagtite’!

I remember my dad teaching me the difference.....that stalactites hang down, like tights, and stalagmites grow up, from being mites to tall things.

However, on googling the pillar query, I found there is another mnemonic,  which also helps with the spelling difference:
StalaCtites grow down from the Ceiling, C and C
StalaGmites grow up from the Ground, G and G
which is useful!

I bet you wanted to know all that, didn’t you? 😂😂
Serves you right for pressing my etymology button! 😂😂😂

South_coast said:

Ooh, I thought my freezer was bad, but I'm just at the "struggling to ram as much in as I'd like" stage - I feel much better now 😂!

I am just now starting to get a tiny bit of space in my freezer, as it has been crammed, and I can see that there is quite a frost build-up.
It’s only a smallish one...three drawers and a top tray. I think I will run it down over the next month and defrost it, as it’s getting quite old now, and I’m terrified of it packing up. It’s a built-in one, and there aren’t a massive number of those about any more, it seems, and a replacement would have to be the self-same size.
 Plus I’d have to have someone install it and remove the old one, and I don’t know how I’d cope with someone having to come into the house. ☹️

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, thanks for the spelling Pyxis, I confess I thought they both had a c, but when my phone insisted on stalagtites I caved and gave them both a g instead 😂 Good way to remember though!

Blustery and rainy this morning, but I think I'm going to tog up and head out for a run to blow away the cobwebs. Gives me a nice excuse to have breakfast in my dressing gown - I usually get dressed first! 

Ooh, and I reckon we've definitely got jackdaws nesting in the chimney... I can hear the adults all day, but these last few days while I've been sleeping on the sofa bed in the study, I've heard teensy little cheering noises in the morning just after an adult arrives 💜 What fun! Tis a veritable menagerie round here, with swallows in the stable block and dunnocks in the bush outside the front door (and mice in the loft 😂😂 )

rtandon27

...on the subject of menageries...
Mrs. Duck has returned to nest again!  It appears she was rather careless with the first batch of babies & lost them all😭  But she is bravely nesting in the same spot again despite the daffodils no longer providing cover!
There also appears to be a rat (possibly 2) in our neighbour's garden😱 - they have crossed the road from the barn & set up shop under a bush.  The neighbours run a pristine outside space (as compared to our haphazard slightly overgrown garden) so are utterly horrified!

Pyxis

rtandon27 said:

...on the subject of menageries...
Mrs. Duck has returned to nest again!  It appears she was rather careless with the first batch of babies & lost them all😭  But she is bravely nesting in the same spot again despite the daffodils no longer providing cover!
There also appears to be a rat (possibly 2) in our neighbour's garden😱 - they have crossed the road from the barn & set up shop under a bush.  The neighbours run a pristine outside space (as compared to our haphazard slightly overgrown garden) so are utterly horrified!

Perhaps they are a higher class of rat and prefer a tidy garden? 😂😂😂

themadvix

Perhaps the rats got the ducklings 😔

Cheery I reckon any run would definitely have blown the cobwebs away this morning if it’s anything like as blustery as it was here!

Cheery_Daff

Certainly is blustery!! 

Glad Mrs Duck is back, sorry she lost the first lot though 😕 We've not seen much evidence of rats here (plenty of mice though) - but literally a few minutes ago I found two dead ones in a watering can full of water... 🙄🤢 Not the nicest smell! 

Don't quite know what to do with myself today. Too windy for nice garden pottering, although I'm currently hiding out in the greenhouse. Plenty of tidying to do of course, but who wants to do that?? Might have to at some point! Got a bit of recording to do for a musical project, but I might just be too grumpy for that. Hate the wind!

themadvix

Definitely too windy for much gardening - hiding/pottering in the greenhouse sounds lovely though. 

The rats in the watering can - 🤢 indeed!

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff said:

Certainly is blustery!! 

Glad Mrs Duck is back, sorry she lost the first lot though 😕 We've not seen much evidence of rats here (plenty of mice though) - but literally a few minutes ago I found two dead ones in a watering can full of water... 🙄🤢 Not the nicest smell! 

Don't quite know what to do with myself today. Too windy for nice garden pottering, although I'm currently hiding out in the greenhouse. Plenty of tidying to do of course, but who wants to do that?? Might have to at some point! Got a bit of recording to do for a musical project, but I might just be too grumpy for that. Hate the wind!

The wind can drive you mad, you know! 😁
The Mistral in France is famous for it.

A few years ago, we had a really, really long spell of windy weather, continuously, for weeks and weeks. It was driving me bonkers, being blown about all the time. It does something to your brain, but I don’t know what.