Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Ooh edwink, you snuck in there! :hello:

Er, I confess I am no further along as I got distracted by constructing a greenhouse which became rather more urgent as my little plants are outliving the other one... :eek:

I don't know if this is a traditional pig ark... It's all wood - large base (about 8 foot long so will need lopping), triangle wooden sides and the sides were chip board and have disintegrated when I tried to move it. So I'm not really sure where to go from here :rotfl: I also have a two storey rabbit hutch that I can adapt - but I'm stuck in a paroxysm of indecision :eek: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Evening cheerful MSE chums :hello:

I am SO cheerful tonight :j Just one of those evenings where I'm ending the day mentally and physically worn out and thankful :j

Sat outside and did some work this morning, then a nice drive to the city singing along to the radio and looking at the scenery :j

Got involved with somenew folks through work who were LOVELY (and they had cake...), so had a lovely afternoon, then a cuppa with a friend and collected some garden tubs she'd been looking after for me.

A nice drive home, remembered diesel for the car, had some pizza, and then me and Mr Cheery spent a bit of time putting some more glass in the greenhouse :j we've done all the awkward bits now and I'll be able to finish it off myself tomorrow :j

Also remembered to put the bin out :j which always makes me laugh as I have to take the bin bag to the end of the drive in a wheelbarrow as it's so far away :rotfl:

Council came to collect the un-needed wheelie bins today so that's created a bit of space in the garage :j

And Mr Cheery, scavenger of all things wild and wonderful, has managed to procure a kind of fake Victorian style metal garden swing from Freegle :eek: :j :j I am SO excited :j :j no idea where it should go yet but it's going to be absolute bliss hanging out on it :j :j

Working tomorrow at home, and I must remember to take my books back to the mobile library when it visits for 25 minutes tomorrow :rotfl: Then I'll finish the greenhouse and might even put a couple more stones on the abandoned dry stone wall (although there is stuff that needs repotting so perhaps not...)

Saturday I have to go to WORK for an event :eek: (but I might take Monday off instead), meeting a friend after and then maybe I'll finish the damn wall (and do YNAB)

Sunday we're off to visit Mr Cheery's dad to finish the plastering we started for him before we moved :eek:

And then it starts all over again :eek: :rotfl:

Anyway, tis a good and cheerful life today :j

starnac

Cheery, everything sounds lovely. You really seem suited to country life. I do seem to have lost your blog though? I used to get new posts emailed to me but they have stopped?

The swing sounds fab. Well done Mr Cheery! We have a glass greenhouse that we rescued from a friend who inherited it with their new house, so I know the pain (no pun intended) of trying to fit all the right glass pieces in the right place!

Well done on the dry stone walling too. That is an amazing skill to have!

Cheery_Daff

Morning all :hello:

Starnac, sorry you've lost my blog! I switched to a new site when I moved house I do that every few years but it does mean sometimes people get lost along the way if they miss the last post directing them to the new one, I do apologise! I'll drop you a PM with the link

I'm not sure I have much walling 'skill' as yet, but my wall has so far remained standing for several days so I'm counting that as a success :j :rotfl:

Yesterday we screwed the greenhouse to the base as it was getting a little breezy and I did NOT want a repeat of the incident with the plastic one... So far no casualties fortunately (but then it's not really THAT windy :rotfl: )

Other MSE news...

Had a £21.05 payout from Prolific - will sort YNAB later and transfer to mortgage pot :money:

Had an email from BT - sadly we won't be getting any wayleave payments from them as they paid a one off fee of £460 to the previous owner of our house which waived all rights to future fees and transfers with the title of the house. Hey ho.

Mr Cheery has acquired us a sofa bed from Freegle :j Most exciting - not only will visitors have somewhere other than the floor to sleep, but it will also replace the ENORMOUS sofa (not sofa bed) we got from freegle not long after we moved - it's extremely comfy but they had a dog, which we didn't think would be an issue but, well, it is We threw away the feather cushions from the back of the sofa as they just smelled vile and were a bit mouldy :eek: The rest isn't too bad, but it really is TOO enormous for that room, and means we struggle to get a double futon on the floor for visitors.

Er, what else? Probably nothing much else to report.

Had LPG tank filled the other day - good job as we were down to 10% gas. Cost £365 I think and should last us a few months over the summer. We pay by monthly DD which is £80 - they'll review it at the end of the year and I suspect it'll decrease quite a bit (but we'll see). That's what we pai for mains gas in the old house, but this boiler is FAR more efficient and has a thermostat (but then the house is bigger, so...)

Er, I think that might be it for now... Back later when I've sorted out the banks (and done some work...)

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums :hello:

I've just been reading pinkypig's diary and her little 'steps to success' so thought I'd pop in and list mine :j

I've been in the big city today for a work event - parked on the edge of town (for free) and walked in so (a) saved at least £5 on all day parking and (b) did 10,000 steps of much needed exercise...

Event included a buffet, and we"d arranged to have it from the local veggie cafe (surprisingly they were the cheapest and we know their food amd it promised to be nicer than the normal sandwich fare) - it was SO much the right decision - four different proper tasty salads, three cooked bake things, several pastied, home made quiche bits and six of the most delicious cakes :j :j

We catered for 50 and there was hardly any waste but we stayed right til the end and I managed to rescue the last few bits of homity pie, a bit of salad, and a couple of slices of cake... :j :j So that was our scavenged tea tonight :j

Mr Cheery has outdone my scavenged food by finding us a TRAILER on freegle :eek: :eek: off to pick it up in a bit. And on the way home I picked up a couple of cushions from the sofa bed we got the other day (they'd forgotten they had them).

Oh! And I had a bizarre incident at lunchtime, someone asked if they could sit with me and we had a long chat, including me being quite nosey about the ins and outs of their job - before it finally became apparent that they were actually a famous national politician :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I did apologise for not recognising them :rotfl: what a plonker :rotfl:

Still, we had a nice chat (mostly about our lunch, oh dear!) :rotfl:

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning Cheery!


How spiffing that a local veggie cafe can provide a scrumptious, inventive lunch at the best price - BRAVO :j


Hope the politicos ego wasn't crushed too much by the lack of immediate recognition...... :rotfl:


Have a great weekend.


Greying X

edwink

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

How spiffing that a local veggie cafe can provide a scrumptious, inventive lunch at the best price - BRAVO :j

I second that BRAVO and well done for choosing a veggie for a change. You would be surprised what some of the veggie Caf! and restaurants can do with veggie food. There is a fabulous veggie Indian restaurant in Bath and their food is out of this world. The way they display their food is so creative and it not only tastes fab it looks fab too. There are some little gems out there veggie wise you just need to find them first

Well done Cheery on walking and not paying for parking. That is exactly the way to save the pennies or in that case a fiver :A

WOW!! A trailer on Freegle how lucky is that? The owners must of had so many offers to take that off their hands. Well done Mr Cheery on that find

Keep up the good work Cheery. You are an inspiration you really are with all the hard work you put in at your new home and working at the same time :A oh and posting on here too :A

Have a good weekend

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Aw, you lot are lovely :kisses3:

That particular veggie cafe is my favourite - I was surprised it was cheapest because, as a cafe, it's actually quite expensive and I hardly ever eat there :rotfl: It was proper food though, not just deep friend pastry-covered things or basic sandwiches, which is also why it surprised me. Didn't even hear anyone comment on the veggie-ness of it all

I'm still thinking of those cakes :rotfl:

Well, we picked up the trailer, and it is indeed pretty cheery :j Tiny, but will be useful for carting stuff round, and also I can kind of pull it along too so it will be pressed into service as a kind of oversized wheelbarrow in the fields occasionally :rotfl: An excellent find :j

We've been to the cafe for breakfast again A nice little ritual at the end, and while I do fret slightly about how much I spend in cafes as you know, it cost less than £7 for the pair of us for 3 refills of coffee, two pots of tea, a scone and a couple of slices of toast with the most delicious jam. A veritable bargain I think and they're SO cheery in there :j

Home now, and we have visitors arriving in a couple of hours and Mr Cheery has been unpacking boxes and sorting out clothes and the house is a tip :eek: Doesn't really matter of course, but they've not been here before and I'd like for them to not have to clamber over things to get in :rotfl:

SUCH a shame it's raining I do like visitors to see the place in the sunshine We originally lured them over here with talk of how often we'd been eating our tea in the garden :rotfl: Fat chance of that today! Although it is meant to brighten up a little later so perhaps we'll get out there to do a bit of practical stuff at least.

Hey ho. I've put my bean plants outside so they can carry on getting used to the outdoor air (rather than the greenhouse) - they'll be planted out as soon as I acquire some long enough canes and it stops raining.

Right, best get on with moving some stuff I suppose, and it's nearly lunchtime! I've got pea shoots ready to harvest so this will be my first partially home grown dinner :j :j

starnac

Bit of a shame about the BT payment (or lack thereof)

Eek! to not recognising the politician but to be fair I don't know who half the "famous" people are these days! Think I may be getting old!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I wouldn't recognise most of them either - a lot of time I'm listening to the news on the radio :rotfl:

FINALLY got round to sorting banks and YNAB. What a big mess! :eek: :eek: Everything shuffled to where it should be now, but I've discovered I've been doing something stupid in my accounting and haven't accounted for a couple of hundred quid that is in one account but should be elsewhere (too complicated to explain properly but basically I've been an idiot).

Anyway, that's now got to come from somewhere else :mad:

Hey ho. As always, I'm grateful to be able to shuffle dosh around without worrying about where my next meal is coming from :$

Some small cheerful things...

Had friends round yesterday, and they brought home made jam and an apricot crumble :j What a treat! :j :j Still got half a pint of custard left so that'll be put to good use later

Mr Cheery made an excellent wholesome dinner, and again many leftovers so we'll eat well today :j

Friend helped me pot on some of the veg that was looking rather squashed so hopefully that'll be more tomatoes, cabbage, kale, salad etc to eat later in the year and maybe even a few cauliflower :j

Ooh, and we got some interest on the savings account! :j :j £37.30 :eek: :j I'd just left it in that account but I'm now thinking as it's unexpected extra I'm going to transfer it to the mortgage overpayments :j

What else? That might be it for now. We harvested our first pea shoots yesterday :j And would you believe I've actually managed to make a decent amount of compost already?! I was surprised it was so quick but there we are! :j :j

Mortgage overpayments pot is healthy (but also the source of my mis-accounting but I'm damned if I'm going to take it out now it's in there - I'll find it from somewhere! :eek: )

Payday tomorrow so I'll be able to do some more shuffling then - and then I NEED to keep on top of the pesky banks more regularly and STOP SPENDING THINGS...

Right, the sun is shining now, the washing is nearly finished in the machine, and I have about 5 hours before I need to go out. Time for some garden pottering I think :j Would love to get my beans planted out today :j