NST September 2022 Picture yourself on a boat on a canal

Toni'sfriend

I awoke this morning to the most glorious sunrise and birdsong.  What a delight not to hear the noise of traffic. Now I'm sitting in the kitchen in peace and quiet having a coffee and watching the birds in the garden.

Tesco delivery coming this morning and then the plan is for Himself and I to go for a walk around the village and along the beach and then meet the Boy in the village pub for lunch/dinner depending what time he gets up at.

It is so lovely to be here again. I'm hoping the rest will do Himself some good. He's been very tired lately and the old joints are giving him a bit of pain.

I hope you all have a lovely, tranquil day.

BadBookkeeper

Update for yesterday:

Simplify - 2 tops into charity bag.  Corner of conservatory cleared and cleaned.  

Essentials - nothing spent today so that’s 6/15 NSDs.  

Planning & Preparation - Weekly family planner updated.

Think about spends - Decided to swap our weekly takeaway for a t£sco meal deal.  Cheaper but still feels like a treat. 

Eat to nourish - Not great yesterday! 

Mindfulness - We lit the fire pit and sat outside last night.  Lovely evening chatting and making loose plans for the next few months.  We have a large oak tree at the bottom of our garden.  Love sitting outside & seeing the birds fly about in it.  

Be kind - Invited ds friend around for the afternoon.  Also, a lost puppy appeared on our drive yesterday walked it around the area until we found the owner.  To be kind to myself I just pottered the house all day. 

Exercise - None again!

Report daily- Didn’t yesterday so will post again later to catch up. 

Have a nice day.  Weather is lovely here in North Wales today. 

grandmanerd

Sunday 11 September 2022

Garden Rules
Plant the seeds
Wish for rain
Listen to the birds
Relax
Talk to angels
Feel the breeze
Enjoy the beauty

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden (The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett)

Gardening - cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes

Today
We'll carry on slowly along the stretch from the Swing Bridge to the Town Centre. St Peter's Church, which hosted a heritage open day is where my parents and mum's parents were married, I was baptised and mum's funeral was held. One of the photos we used on the Order of Service is of mum holding one of the leading strings for the church banner just after the procession has left the church on Walking Day. The background is of the 3 small shops and the gates to the park entrance. The park widens out to spread behind the shops and the church. The park celebrated it's centenary last year, the 15 acres were reclaimed wasteland gifted by a local mill owner.

Mum remembers the canal flooding it's banks and the water getting as far as this road and the junction with Wigan Road, along the Pingot (probably a contraction of Pin Gate). In the 1980's extensive drainage works were undertaken and the canal banks were built higher. 1984 to be precise. I know because we came back from my ex's parents one weekend. Our buses were on strike so the bus from the train station stopped when we reached Four Lane ends (Merseyside/ Greater Manchester border). We walked the first mile or so before my ex decided we should stop at the pub for a drink and then take the short cut across the Country park to take us near to home (3 miles by road but I could still do it in > half an hour in 2003 when one of my morning jobs was on the nearby industrial estate).

The plan went well (dark and autumnal, no lighting and carrying bags but doable) until we reached the canal bank. Suddenly we were in a building site. Wet clay mud, huge 6' diameter drainage pipes and smaller pipes and materials dotted about. Only a dim glow of light from the street on the far side of the canal (below the height of the banks). The canal bank wasn't far away but that last stretch was extremely challenging, especially as I was pregnant (DS1).

On the far side of the town centre bridge we go past housing and the backs of more SM built on land that was formerly BICC (electrical cables) and David Brown's (tractors) although both had multiple names (takeovers/ buyouts/ reorganisation). Both had several thousand employees in their heyday, BICC had less than 300 when it closed.

Next we come to the basin owned by the parents of one of DS2's school friends (although I think the parents have now retired/ gone travelling and it's run by DS2's friend and his sister), home for about a dozen semi-permanent residents (and their barges) plus visitors with a small boatyard/ reclamation works and several structures holding extra equipment/ seasonal stuff). This is where the Womble lived (double wide renovated barge) when she wasn't trawling the canal dredging out waste or making tv appearances. That takes us to Mather lane Bridge and mill (now posh flats but another site where I've worked an exhausting and dispiriting job (via an agency).

Celebrating in Style (and very little money)
FOOD
Newton's birthday. Starting when they were quite young, I made my child write a list of 10 foods they want to see on the festive table (I had to write it for the youngest when I started). It doesn't matter if they put down 10 different types of biscuits and chocolate (you'll probably be getting some anyway, you might as well know what their favourites are) BUT if it's not on their list, no-one gets to complain that you did not buy/ make x, y or z. 

Don't buy anything your family don't like, no matter how 'traditional' it is. For many years our favourite New Year dish was takeaway Chinese food - we included everyone's favourites (sometimes DS3 only ate egg fried rice), we all feasted and not a scrap left. Bonus I didn't have to cook it (plan it, buy ingredients, work out timings to get it all on the table at the same time). On my birthday we had Indian takeaway and for many years those were the only 2 meals in the year that I knew I didn't have to cook. We went to mum's on Boxing Day, if she wasn't in a relationship with someone who didn't like children, and for New Year's Eve in the early years (when the children were fairly portable) and sometimes we were fed at the ex's parents (paid for by repetition of tedious phrases and m-i-l's complaints). Our 'go to' Sunday Dinner was cauliflower and pasta with cheese sauce - one dish, everyone will eat it (DS3 would eat pieces taken from other people's plates). You could allow an exception if you have a guest how loves a traditional item, providing they can be guaranteed to eat it all/ take leftovers home and of course exceptions for any dietary restrictions or requirements.

Swap, substitute or buy
Lots of things can be home made or made in advance. With planning a great deal can be made easier. However I'm prepared to give you all a free pass. Some people enjoy baking and can incorporate festive fare into their other domestic tasks but don't feel that you have failed if you buy some items (mass produced is often cheaper especially if you factor in shopping time etc) or buy a ready to ice cake - most magazines/ newspapers do taste tests and often it's not the most expensive brands that score highest. I once made a mini party for DS1 and the 3 children I looked after. I picked up 10p items from Oxfam and other cs to use as gifts/ prizes for games but didn't get the chance to go to the SM and several items were missing from the cupboard. I used pickled gherkins instead of pickled onions and they loved them. I've also divided up the boxes of cake decorations (jelly diamonds, choc chips etc) when the kids wanted sweets and I had none/ no money to buy some. 

Never feel guilty about 'not doing it all' and if anyone is ill and you're doing extra running about or having to be at someone's bedside (or stuck in the house if it's a sick child) just do what you can, whatever it takes to keep things going and yourself sane. 

The running buffet
A school holiday favourite at our house is the running buffet. I cook the big dinners and then after that it's a running buffet. After the big event day buffet the drop leaf table goes down to one leaf. After each meal things which need to, go back in the fridge (anything non-perishable stays on the table) - at the next meal you decide what needs adding hot - could be a pizza (whole or cut into shapes), chicken nuggets (CCL's 'golden food'), more protein, a different salad (I used to prepare a heap of them on the day before the festivities commenced along with bags of carrot/ celery sticks etc). All the fun items get spread out over a week or two bulked out with stuff they'd normally eat stuff you'd like them to eat (not put on the table for one massive blow-out and then half thrown away). If the boys had friends round the amount of food on the table would be adjusted. Some relatively cheap foods (make or buy) can boost a table to make it an occasion rather than leftovers - garlic bread is one (I've made it with slices of toast loaf when making a feast out of nothing)

It's all in the name
This works particularly well for Halloween (I know some people are anti-H, we always made a big home made thing of it because I didn't want to have fireworks at home - especially following DS3's accident when they became linked in his head). I made s-lime jelly (the boys had a toy frog which sat in the bottom of the bowl), juices were labelled - bat blood, frog juice etc, halved hard boiled eggs were eyeballs, fairy cakes had an added sprinkle of plastic flies or ants, jelly worms and those foot shaped munches needed no adjusting.

Quick Tip 
I would haunt the ys (reduced) shelves for extra items (stuff I wouldn't contemplate buying normally) which could be frozen. We might as well take advantage of the shops stocking with seasonal goodies months in advance if we can. So squirrel away lattice topped pies (you only need one or two not a six pack) and other fancy goods to sprinkle amongst the other stuff. I've only ever bought selection boxes when I was working at a SM and they first of all reduced them to half price, half again and then 10p.

I might do food and other disasters tomorrow. 

lcc86

I forgot to post yesterday again! I spent the day pottering at home, doing various jobs around the house and dealing with many, many frogs. Have a few left to deal with today as well. No decluttering done but the house is in good shape so not too fussed.

Ended up having a takeaway last night, so much for not spending and getting back on track! Feel very guilty this morning, even though I have the money and even though I can't take it back! I rarely buy takeaway so I don't know why I feel so guilty.... I also ate far too much chocolate yesterday so that might have something to do with it haha.

Today's plans are horse riding shortly, deal with the remainder of today's frogs, and then drive to my parents' later this evening for a couple of days. I would say for a couple of days' rest but my mum is hard work and managed to alienate my sister last time she visited so you never know what you're going to get!

Shrewbie

Hi turtles, 

Still on NSD 4, meditation, breathwork and morning pages done today. I am very sore from my class yesterday so no exercise today, will be going to the pool this afternoon though so maybe I’ll try to do some laps if its not too busy.

Meal plan is done and did a shop yesterday for the extra bits we needed. Yesterday afternoon we took a picnic to the park and lay in the shade. I think I slept a bit, was absolutely shattered, then went out for tacos for dinner (within budget as it is a super cheap place) and I was in bed by 11pm. Minimal alcohol drunk (1 michelada and one tiny glass of beer)

 I honestly feel like I’m so tired I can’t think.  I must be sleeping badly so I might wear BF’s f1tb1t tonight to see what’s going on. Will try to wind down properly before bed and eat less for dinner and see if that helps me sleep better. 

I am grateful for bf's cooking, for my new plants, for feeling slightly less tired than yesterday.

Have a lovely sunday turtles xx 

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for dc coming out with me, for finding what dc needed in cheap shops, for dh taking dc out to bouldering, for 85% chocolate, for Poirot (now called Poy-rot, after the episode with the parrot!).

greent

Simplify - another small flebay sale of an item DH had as a present last Xmas. Also sold 12 1st class stamps for £10 (RM survey ones)

Went fir a walk to canal basin in the sunshine - saw lots of ducks and swans - the cygnets are almost full size now and some of their feathers are white

Thankful for the sunshine (line dried washing - all dried bar 3 pairs of joggers on the waistbands - they are orange airer for overnight), getting curry for dinner with all ingredients from stores (and v tasty it was!), another item going and the money going to holiday fund  


@Thrifty_Taylor - glad that your cousin now has a diagnosis -sorry to hear what it is -  hopefully they can start some treatment very soon.. x

ditty1234

Hi All today started in a bit of a misty mood around here, that September mist where the air is colder than the ground and the water. I managed to go for a swim in the lake one more time and it was really lovely. 
I also managed to clean top half of hallway/stairs and have rolled all of the doors, so still progressing o that one. I also dug out some turf in the garden to plant my blue hibiscus, but it was too hard and too hot. So will continue an other day. 
A long but gently productive day. Will finish decorating by or on the bank holiday next Monday. 

beanielou

The Queen passed very near to me today on the journey to Edinburgh. 

beanielou

Thrifty~~Sorry to hear about your cousin