Simple living in the country - back to basics

Karmacat

What an amazing day, from the mouse layby to the shoe sorting - I have sorting envy now

Fortune_Smiles

Well done on all the organising Cheery - sounds like a very productive day.  I seem to be getting more done at the moment too - I wonder if it's because the days are getting longer.  My energy always seems to return with the Spring.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Elisheba said:

Oh, Cheery. I have this image of you now wandering barefoot on the moors at night, in a long white nightie, dressing gown flying behind you like a cloak, hair long and soaked. Like a character from a gothic romance novel. 

Ha, I'd love to think that's what I looked like, but it was definitely more of a comedy sketch 😂 Mr Cheery was fully dressed, but I was in a black lacy nightie, not even knee length (!), and furry dressing gown (trying desperately to stop it flapping around and exposing me even more), and a pair of rigger boots 😂😂 Bent down with my head in the undergrowth in the driving rain, trying to encourage a mouse to come out of the cage 😂😂 Very much hoping nobody spotted me 😂

KK, the boxes were from a local bargain shop in the nearby town, they're 75cm x 40cm and 17cm high, so they slide nicely under the single daybed in the spare room. They don't have clips, so they're not airtight, but they're a good use of space for what we were after 😊 

Right, I must go to sleep. Tomorrow is March 19th, mothers day of course, but also the date last year when we finally took the Christmas tree down 🙄😂😂 Will it come down on March 19th this year?? All signs so far say no.... 😂😂 

The daffodils have finally started appearing properly - no flowers yet but definitely yellow buds 😊😊 That was what got me to take it down last year (clearly no sense of superstition or propriety had worked). But we've invited some friends over for Christmas 2 at some point so maybe it'll stay up til after that... 😂

Ramouth

Love that you have a mouse lay-by.  We take ours to the quay (4 so far this spring) but do sometimes worry that we will be establishing a new colony there!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, that's a distinct possibility! But I reckon up on the moors there are plenty of buzzards etc so while I don't want them to be immediately eaten, I don't worry about the place becoming overrun 😂

starnac

Did you take the Christmas Tree down?? We took ours down on New Year's Eve but it is still in a pile at the bottom of the stairs to the basement where it needs to be put away. Technically that's my fault. I used the box to take some shelving to work for them to use and it hasn't been put up yet so I can't get the box back. lol!

Cheery_Daff

starnac said:

Did you take the Christmas Tree down?? We took ours down on New Year's Eve but it is still in a pile at the bottom of the stairs to the basement where it needs to be put away. Technically that's my fault. I used the box to take some shelving to work for them to use and it hasn't been put up yet so I can't get the box back. lol!

Er, no 😂 Waiting to hear back from our friends about Christmas 2 😂 Seems silly to leave it up til mid March then take it down a week before Christmas 2! 😂

Foggy here today, and I suppose I need a bit of a plan... We have a couple of places we need to be just to pick up or drop things off - one at 12, one at 2.30. They're not in the same place, but we might stay out between anyway and do some pottering. Other than that...

* start sawing the chicken run posts. We'll need to saw the four at the front first, then measure the rest from them once they're properly settled in the ground, so the first four might be as far as we get today.

* soup for lunch and risotto for tea - both already made.

* batch cooking something else to go in the freezer - possibly Jack Monroe's peanut and black bean stew, that was nice last time. Might make another soup too, maybe red lentil this time. The last one only made it as far as the fridge, but I'd like to get a few portions into the freezer this time

* make flatbreads for the freezer 

* get the table screwed together in the craft room 

* give the craft room floor a good clean, it's really dusty behind where all the boxes were

* get sewing machines upstairs and start thinking about shelves/cupboards for fabric etc - do we have anything in the garage I can adapt??

Cheery_Daff

That'll probably do for today I think. Some optional extras...

* check banks

* blog post

* make a decision about next weekend - I'm going to an event Sat/Sun and staying with a friend - she's asked if I want to go Friday night and I'm genuinely not sure. If she was round the corner from the event, yes, but she's an hour's drive away - closer than me, so it saves me a bit of driving on Saturday, and means I get to spend more time with her, but it'd be 2.5 hours of driving after work on Friday and I can't really finish early as I'll only have worked 2 days this week because of the strikes... 🙄 Either way I'll feel better once the decision is made! 

Right - breakfast!

EssexHebridean

The Nightie-on-the-Moors incident is making me giggle! 

Did you reach a decision about next weekend? I feel you about not fancying the amount of travelling after work - but I guess a lot depends on whether it will be easier done that way than travelling the following day. I hate decisions like that though as al to often as sensible as one option might be, that doesn't mean it's what I want to do! 

Cheery_Daff

Indeed! A big part of me would like to go up on Friday... but that will also involve making sure everything is ready for the weekend by Wednesday at the latest 🙄 Not unfeasible though. Also means driving further overall, as friend's house is actually further north than the event, so I'd have to drive past it to get to hers... 🙄 But it would be lovely to spend more time with her, and I think on balance I'd regret not doing that more than I'd regret the alternative.

Will need to check she's ok with me arriving about 8.30-9 though. 

Anyway, a cheerful day on the whole today, albeit not a hugely productive one. We've been filming a video diary for our pals in Germany 😂 He's a documentary film maker, and sent us a video he'd done for a project last year, about himself. We're responding with 'a day in the life of Cheery or Mr Cheery' 😂 Completely unsolicited by him, and entirely my idea, but it's kept us occupied today, filming on location for all our various errands, and I've learned how to use some free video editing software, and have what I think is a decent output, considering... 😂 Got a couple of extra bits to tag onto the end but I'll do those in the morning. 

Hopefully it will at least make them laugh if nothing else... 😂

Also made some lentil soup in the haybox, dropped my flute back off to be fixed, but didn't get anything else done.

Another Internet degree day tomorrow I think. Gosh, it's frightening the amount of time I can waste just staring at the phone mindlessly 😱 So, a list for tomorrow, mostly centred on the craft room:

* clean floor
* put table together
* take sewing machines etc upstairs
* decide if I'm going to paint before I put anything else in there... now is the time, but can I be bothered? And what colour?! There may be a trip to buy paint... 
* batch cook something else
* decision about Friday and let friend know
* finish video diary and send!

That'll probably do. See you on the other side!