NST May 2020: May the force be with you. (Star Wars 1977)

mothernerd

Mum's phone appointment was fine and her medication will be posted (only available from the hospital pharmacy). Consultant is hoping it may be safe for her to get blood tests mid to late August and possibly see him in September, so I'm going to be here for a while (not entirely unexpected). She asked had he prescribed the iron tablets and told him I was making her excellent meals ans always gave her at least 3 vegetables.
Spent some time yesterday filling in the benefit calculator (on here). It looks like I am entitled to the dreaded UC (still arguing against the decision that I am not entitled to WTC  - and paying back the past two years - but have since closed my business and claim for WTC). However the UC depends on how they treat my house. Probably should pursue it.
This afternoon I have potted up lots more strawberries and some lettuce plants and stapled some to the fence, brought the calabrese plants outside ready for planting in the ground (more stone moving to get at the soil) and am going to do square foot gardening on the little side garden (in a decorative diamond pattern). Going to mark out the feet in onion plants (may not be precisely square foot gardening as I have some large plastic shelves to use for marking out the lines) and fill in with different root veg (alternating the direction of the lines) with some borage (little blue star shape flowers) and calendula (scotch marigolds - the first flowers I ever grew) and possibly livingstone daisies (mesanbrytheum) which are very bright, low to the ground and close up at night and spread their petals in the sunshine).
Put the bins out, watered the outside plants, watered any strawberry plants that needed it (did some yesterday), cleared the shed floor by bringing in some fruit and cereals and a pack of toilet rolls (only 3 rolls left in the indoor cupboard) and moving the remaining fruit and veg onto the shelves (enough fresh fruit for me to have some) before the food order arrived (mainly store cupboard with a few freezer and fridge items - cheeses we've polished off in the last few days). Meals were mainly from the things I cooked yesterday, sausage have all gone, only 2 baked potatoes left, most of the grated cheese used. Tomorrow I an doing a tomatoey pasta sauce stuffed with veg and will have a few meatballs with it. If mum doesn't fancy that she can have pasta, leftover cauli from Sunday and cheese sauce (may make extra cheese sauce for another day). Eating lots of fruit. 
Today I am grateful for the things I managed to do , for yummy food and fresh fruit, for mum having a good chat with the consultant (he charmed her by referring to people 'a little over 70' - she's 84), for mum understanding what I was saying about church donations (she went into a huff yesterday, inventing non-existent problems) and getting more things into bins (recycling and some 'dirty' cardboard - cardboard bin is full and only for 'clean' cardboard). 

mothernerd

apple - what paint did you use for rock painting, was it from one of the kits? Some of mum's garden ornaments had lost all their original colour. Last year I did a few with sharpies - thought they would last as they are permanent but they have now faded. Mum was asking about 'tester pots' (haven't told her they are like hen's teeth atm) but as they are mainly emulsion they wouldn't last long outside. Don't want to spend a fortune on special paint as we need quite a few colours. We have a rock painting set with I think blue, green, gold and silver metallic paint.

PurpleFairy26

Mothernerd a lady on in$tagram has posted a link today to acrylic paints on amaz0n that she has used to paint loads of rocks that look fab. She then said she painted them with clear varnish. The brand is monte marte and they are lots of tubes. HTH. 

misstara

Yesterday I was grateful for a better day at work, managing a wee run after work, getting washing dried outside, risotto for tea and a chat with my gran.

apple_muncher

“Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.”
― Spike Milligan

“All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.”
― Spike Milligan

"I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with." Rubeus Hagrid

f0xh0les

Are you allowed to report a case of demonic possession before 11am?  Got up late at 8 I deliberately made myself stay in bed  just listening to the soundscape.  Had coffee, cleaned the bathroom, bleached the loos, mopped the floor, hoovered all 3 floorsdr and straightened the bedrooms, found a solution to a craft based school homework project, put more laundry on, made a list and a plan for the day, finished a book, TillyTidied all the kids bank accounts up to the nearest £10 because the odd numbers were annoying me, humoured dh (his latest craft idea involves expanding foam and a bowler hat) and mocked him for his tiny child sized head-girth.  Watered the plants and put the patio door plants outside for a bit of 'daycare'.

A lady at the f/b has offered me a few of her d/h's baby chilli plants - I nearly bit her hand off! Am v excited.

Might pot on the tomatoes and cukes and courgettes today.  I am too hot (whinge! whinge! whinge!) already and I quite fancy losing a lb today please, if the 'god of the scales' is secretly a Turtle, I will just leave that one here for him. 

Not cleaned the kitchen floor yet, as dh has a big work meeting at 12.00 (stupid time for a meeting for anyone who has kids and are working from home) so I will lock myself in there just before it starts and wash the floors while the sausage rolls are cooking and I can make a big salad - is anyone else having problems with root veg?  My parsnips and carrots are just liquifying after 3 or 4 days.  They just implode and go slimy.  So coleslaw is off the menu, but I have masses of salad stuff, so that will do.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for dd finishing her exams, for some peace and quiet, for the sunshine, for dh having some extra work, for my early morning walk, for Poirot, for spotting the fox in the garden this morning before it could do any damage or leave any deposits...

mothernerd

Where's everyone gone? Very achey this morning - have put new knees, ankles and a hip on my wishlist. Done several orders - 2nd hand books (going to be a while until the library reopens and not sure how they would make it safe - keep returned books in quarantine for a couple of days before putting them back on the shelves? cs are going to be short of volunteers and mostly short of space for social distancing), soil order (have been trying to put this together for about 10 days but their website is an absolute pig - was going round in circles) and more large tubs for trees and a few other bits from Wilco. Acrylic paints ordered this morning and a basic set of brushes - we have a few usable ones. Internet got lost last night but recovered this morning to my great relief - didn't want to get down on my hands and knees and scrabble about under the table.
Started to move a little better this afternoon. Cleared and swept the area by the door/ gate, marked out the 'squares' in the small flowerbed using a shelf, some metal tubes (old curtain rail that had been binned and I reclaimed it for tool rails - with s- hooks - in my future kitchen) and 2 foam kneelers. Only did the kneeling down once - had to push myself up from a crouch using only the edging stones. Have dug three holes for the calabrese plants (only 3 because I had mostly packed in by then, just did a few extra bits in the advert breaks). Wore my hat, factor 50 suncream and opened the garden parasol and balanced it across the fence panels to give some shade whilst working. Mum sorted some stones (big stones and tiny pebbles) and did some watering (I brought the bucket of water and a tin can and made her sit on the walker). Watched an old film and two episodes of Luther. Had a shower and had to scrub my feet (was wearing end of life ankle boots and there is soil inside them but thought the wellies would make kneeling even more impossible).
Today I am grateful for getting things done (it's never enough but I just need to keep going, doing the best I can), for Wilko's having a few things back in stock (gravel trays and propagator lids, need to push on with the next wave of planting - I had already sized up cat litter trays and cutlery trays), for finding new additions to some of my favourite book series, yummy food that was mostly grab and go thanks to cooking done over the past two days, for foot exercises easing some of the kinks.

greent

Thankful for glorious weather, pretty solar lights, finding wholemeal bread flour, blueberry yogurt

PurpleFairy26

mothernerd I’ve found yogurt pots good for planting seeds in (in the absence of seed trays) some big ones come with their own plastic lid which make a little propagator of their own. Or you can cut them up for labels.