So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

themadvix

I reckon they could be autumn fruiting ones Cheery - my summer ones were at their peak in June and tailed off in July. But I also know that without appropriate pruning they will revert to doing what they like! How frustrating to be able to see them and not eat them though!

themadvix

Morning all,

Another busy day today. Am off shortly to collect a cat key that will signal the start of the best part of a month's constant cat sitting (for four different clients). Also need to pop to the pharmacy for a prescription and post a card. Am off to have lunch/walk with Cambridge boss/friend later - and I'm taking the Tesla as she's excited to see it (having been a very early Leaf adopter). Around this, I've got work to finish and start for main client and I'd like to get some Cambridge work done (although main client's client is closing for a couple of weeks from Monday, so I should have time then to crack on with Cambridge stuff). Unlikely to have time, but if I do, a trip to the library is on the cards. Either way, I'll be racking up some miles on my bike over the next month as all the cat sitting will be on two wheels.

Mr MV booked a TL for a concert we're going to in October last night. The concert is at the O2 and while we could get home, a 10-min Tube ride in the opposite direction and an easy bed for the night definitely sounds like a winner. Especially for £65. He's booked the following day off, but I'm going to have to see how work is, given that September and October are likely to be full on. I can always take my laptop and get up earlier than him!

Sun is out today and I must get some washing on.

MS things:
* Clicks and HW
* £1.20 TCB claimed
* Mr MV's lunch made and taken (and I'm taking a packed lunch too)
* 2nd cucumber picked (and there's a cucumber-shaped cucumber growing too - currently we're eating lemon-shaped ones!), also blueberries and tiny (but apparently very nice) cherry toms.
* Pruned the sweet peas - removed the seed pods on the heads I've missed cutting, so hoping for a new flush of growth
* Fed the plants 

Gratitudes:
* Sunshine
* Affectionate kitties 
* A non-work catch-up with friend!

Have a good day all!

Cheery_Daff

themadvix said:

I reckon they could be autumn fruiting ones Cheery - my summer ones were at their peak in June and tailed off in July. But I also know that without appropriate pruning they will revert to doing what they like! How frustrating to be able to see them and not eat them though!

You may be right. And if be able to get at them if I spent an hour with the secateurs - I might do that when we get back!

Have a good day 😊

EssexHebridean

Ooh - I might be able to squeeze some in if they take that little space...hmmm, time to do some thinking! 

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Have been busy in RL, hence lack of posting. Work has continued to be fairly constant, which is great, but not allowing me the time to get ahead in advance of September's mayhem! Did have a slightly gentler week last week as Mr MV took Mon-Weds and Friday off (had an unavoidable work meeting in Blackburn on the Thursday, which made for a very long day). When I wasn't working, we went to Cambridge on the Wednesday - wanted a JL and a Lakeland. Bought a couple of bits and enjoyed some yummy food out. May have then gone for a burrito in nearby market town in the evening. Saturday we had people round so Friday involved some preparations for that, as well as visiting our town museum (an item from our 40/40 list). 

Borrowed a giant jenga set from our nearby Library of Things for our youthful visitors on Saturday - the princely sum of £1 was paid and we've definitely had our money's worth! I'm now a paid up member for the year, so will be making good use of all the lovely things we can borrow. It was absolutely lovely to have our friends round at the weekend - haven't seen one family properly since before the pandemic. Lots of lovely food (a bit of a bring and share job) and some great laughs and all the children played beautifully together.

Allotment is now producing courgettes (at speed), raspberries (some) and French beans (extremely slowly). We had a lot of leftovers on Saturday, so BIL and SIL came and helped with them on Sunday and we're now nearly caught up with all the extra food. I intend to do a full stock take soon though as I'm sure there's stuff in the cupboards that we could be eating instead of buying more of regular bits. (Soup de poisson from our April trip to France, I'm looking at you!)

Finally got all my Cambridge pay this month, which meant I have been able to top up various savings pots (the irregular ones, not the ongoing ones - that'll come from SE pay) and yesterday I bought myself a Garmin. My old Fitbit battery was lasting 36 hours at best and dying without any warning. I don't feel it lasted particularly well in that regard, so I wasn't going to replace with the same (especially now Fitbit is owned by Google). Mr MV has had two Garmins and is pleased with them, so we'll see how I get on. Not MSE in principle, but I'm very pleased to say it was a very MSE purchase - the model I wanted was reduced by £50 (had been returned) in JL and I had £25 of gift cards (surveys) and a 5% off JL rewards coupon - so I ended up paying £85 under the RRP. Very pleased with that!

MS things:

* Some surveys (so close to payout from Ylive now)

* Lots of work

* Finally some garden/allotment produce - will soon be inundated with cucumbers

* Bag of blackberries (massive, delicious ones) from Mum's garden into freezer (and just beginning to add to this from bushes near allotment)

* No need to buy (or store) jenga!

* Lots of cat sitting

Gratitudes:

* Absolutely lovely weekend with old friends and their children, followed by BIL and SIL  (with more jenga hilarity)

* A few days of no cat sitting now, before the next lot

* Date night with Mr MV tonight at a pub with lovely woodfired pizzas.

Have a good afternoon all!

Cheery_Daff

Oh, what a brilliant idea to lend jenga from the library of things!! Never occurred to me to think of it for that sort of things. I've only lent a steam cleaner and... something else - can't remember what now but some kind of tool (or perhaps it was just the steam cleaner twice?!) Ours is quite new so doesn't have loads of stuff yet, but giant jenga is a fantastic thing to borrow!

Cheery_Daff

Just checked and ours is definitely more tool-oriented (although they do have a gazebo). It also reminded me we have a dog crate sitting in the garage from taking the chickens to the vets - we have no use for it, and I was going to stick it on freegle, but actually I might see if the library of things wants it

EssexHebridean

If you're as pleased with your Garmin as I have been with mine then it will prove to be a very good purchase - FAR better than my last FitBit was, and to be honest, far more user friendly than even my Charge 2 - which DID at least do what it was meant to! 

themadvix

That's interesting Cheery, about your LoTs. Ours is very new and has temporarily stopped accepting donations because they were a bit overwhelmed. But you can get everything it seems - camping equipment, a pizza oven, birthday bunting (and number cake tins, which is brilliant) as well as a good selection of tools. We will definitely be making good use of it!

That's good to know EH. I think my biggest issue will be remembering to start activities. Always the issue with the FB, but I think it was probably better at recognising them as activities. Wish I could include gardening as a fitness activity - it definitely is!

EssexHebridean

You can possibly set the Garmin to auto-recognise when you are doing some things - I have mine set to trigger if I walk for more than 5 minutes without telling it I'm "going for a walk" and if it DOES trigger then it will start the tracking from the point where it first essentially started "thinking about" whether I might be walking, too...clever stuff!

Agreed about the gardening thing too - even more so in your case with the allotment - it should definitely count as exercise in the fitness tracker world!