Holding On and Letting Go 🎈

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Sounds like great progress as always. You sound like you are reclaiming your life nicely. Is your art nook re-established now?

Thanks SH.  Life certainly feels a lot calmer now.  Yes - art nook well and truly established now.  I used it to do all the Show stuff and it's working well.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

What a Scorcher 🌞

We are concentrating on keeping cool in the Fortunate household so not much else is getting done 😆  I'm pottering around doing a little here and a little there.

We had a baguette with houmous, halloumi and salad for lunch yesterday and Roasted Aubergine & Tomato Curry leftover from the day before for supper.

When things had cooled down in the evening I watered the veg patch and made redcurrant and white chocolate ice cream to help us cope with the heat over the next few days 🍦

I don't mind the heat as long as I can hide inside.  Fortunately Mr F doesn't have any business trips to attend so we have closed the curtains, shut the house up and won't be venturing out until things start to cool down this evening.

I do need to vaccuum today though so will perhaps do that bit by bit.

Hope you're all keeping your cool guys 😎

Take care

Fortune x

savingholmes

Yesterday was at the beach - but today was home and it was 33 degrees so pretty hot hot hot.

Looking forward to some rain!

Hope you are doing well overall.

LadyWithAPlan

Your redcurrant and white chocolate  ice cream sounds amazing!! Your recipe links are great as well - sadly it seems pulses dont agree with me as I love them for their cheapness, versatility and nutrition

I also did Latin at O level, I got a grade A and it has been very useful for making up words when trying to communicate in languages I dont speak especially  in Italian. 

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Yesterday was at the beach - but today was home and it was 33 degrees so pretty hot hot hot.

Looking forward to some rain!

Hope you are doing well overall.

I don't do well in very hot weather.  My body doesn't seem able to regulate my temperature since menopause.  Fortunately, I do have the luxury of being able to hide in the house when a heat wave strikes.

It's due to break today with rain and thunder later.  It certainly feels cooler this morning.  The garden needs a good watering but FDawg is very frightened of thunder so I'll have to set aside this afternoon to sit with him 🙄  I don't make a big fuss of him during the storms but we've tried ignoring him and he becomes very distressed so we now hide him under a blanket in his bed and sit with him and that seems to calm him down.

Beach sounds lovely and you seem to be able to find the best secret ones with no people on them.

Keep cool

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

LadyWithAPlan said:

Your redcurrant and white chocolate  ice cream sounds amazing!! Your recipe links are great as well - sadly it seems pulses dont agree with me as I love them for their cheapness, versatility and nutrition

I also did Latin at O level, I got a grade A and it has been very useful for making up words when trying to communicate in languages I dont speak especially  in Italian. 

It's a little too good LP - it never lasts long!  Shame you don't get along with pulses as I agree, they are a good dietry addition.

Latin sounds really interesting and I understand it's a great platform for leaning other languages.  I learnt to speak Spanish in my mid-twenties but haven't had the opportunity to use it much since then.  Du0ling0 seemed a great (and free) way to refresh those skills.  I'm remembering more than I thought I would.  Spanish seems to click with me in a way French and German (which I learnt at school) didn't.

Hasta luego 😁

Fortune x

savingholmes

Definitely worth looking for beaches with few people. I don't go/stay at the busy ones they are far too overwhelming.

Fortune_Smiles

Cool 😎

The heatwave has broken and it's pleasantly cool in the Shire.  We've had some gentle rain but have escaped any deluges or flooding so far.

The drop in temperature has made a huge difference to my energy levels and I'm back to being productive:

Health:

• I've exercised every day this week 🥳  Two dance fitness sessions and one yoga practice.  Plus a dog walk 😇
• Chores are going to plan and I've been catching up on washing and ironing.

Wealth:

•  Meals are being planned around what we have in the veg patch although I can see growth is slowing so produce will start to diminish soon
• the grocery shop was over budget this week.  However, that's because the DS's are visiting this weekend so some of those costs can be met from the Entertainment budget
• DS2 will be bringing down the car we bought for the Sunflowers to use.  They don't need it now of course but Mr F's company car is up for renewal at the end of this year and we're thinking he could use the Sunflowers' car and take a car allowance instead.  That could save us several hundred a month so it's worth thinking about
• I'm afraid Fencing Man has not replied to the email I sent him 9 days ago so I've sent a final reminder
• we have a Solar man coming on Thursday to talk to us about solar panels.

Happiness:

• I went out with our WI's walking group on Monday.  We had a gentle stroll around our local park which is beautiful and then visited our town's deli for lunch.  Some of us went to the book shop afterwards and I got carried away and bought 5 books 😲  4 titles that have been on my reading list for a while and 1 as a present for Mr F.  Should keep me going until Christmas 😆 All costs to be met from personal spends
• I've signed up for another WI event in October - an acrylic painting workshop.

Anyone with advice about solar panels - I'd love to hear from you.  It seems like a sensible way to go in the current climate but it's such a big investment I'm a bit nervous about it.

Happy Hump Day all

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Surrealism 🐘👄🥚⏲🐜

It's been a strange day....

It didn't start off strangely.  I walked FDawg with Mr F and then did 40 minutes of Salsa fitness 😇  We had Halloumi, Tomato & Courgette Gratin for lunch.  Fence man called me and I had a slightly unpleasant conversation with him but it does look as though he will come back and do some of the corrective work.  And then I got FDawg ready to go to the groomers for a bath.

We arrived at the groomers early so I took FDawg for a little walk around a nearby Castle.  As we crossed the moat into the castle I noticed a tired racing pigeon sitting on the wall of the bridge.  It didn't moved as we passed but looked hopeful that I might have some crumbs in my pocket that I'd be willing to share.  Below on the banks of the moat two rats were scavenging about for crumbs too.  We had a little walk around and on the way out, FDawg noticed the pigeon and made a little lunge at him.  Tired pigeon was too tired to move and FDawg looked at me as if to say "I wasn't expecting that.  What do I do now?"  FDawg decided he should give tired pigeon a sniff.  Tired pigeon thought this rude and pecked FDawg on the nose.

After dropping FDawg at the groomers I returned to the Castle.  I'd planned to wait in the cafe there and do some writing whilst enjoying coffee and cake.  I'm writing a horror story at the moment.  I didn't realise it was a horror when I started it but much of my writing has a dark or sinister undercurrent and this one seems to have tipped over into terrifying 😲  The Castle seemed a perfect venue to work on it given the crumbling ruins and resident rats.  I sat in a far corner by the window and occasionally raised my head to watch people walking past outside.  I noticed two middle-aged women on the path wearing identical crimson tracksuits.  They were walking in perfect unison and turned their heads simultaneously to look at me.  I could see they were identifical twins and they kept looking at me until they were out of sight 😲

I wrote about 500 words and finished my coffee and cake before I got a text to say that FDawg was ready for collection.  I didn't see the pigeon or rats as I left but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched by someone... or something.



Fortune x

savingholmes

Spooky!!!!