And now we go again...

LadyWithAPlan

Loving the tree - looks so welcoming

Well done on the Sains bargains - those boots sound fabulous

jwil

Sorry about the beer festival.  Keyboard warriors are just the worst!

PennysIntoPounds

I saw a few comments about the cancellation on twitter, amazing how many people think something should be done as long as it's someone else doing it! Nothing stopping them joining Camra and helping arrange a mini-fest in their area is there. Happy to DM you a list of decent boozers for a wee crawl in my neck of the woods if you start getting beer-itchy-feet although you probably know of them all already!

savingholmes

Hi EH - sorry you are disappointed both by the festival and people's poor reactions. Sounds like you know how to make the best of it. Are there any friends you will meet up with anyway that you'd ordinarily meet there. 

Your home and garden projects sound good. You should take photos as you go along - you probably already are - but just so you can appreciate the scale of change from when you bought it to what it looks like even this time next year. 

Blackcats

Sorry about the cancellation, but it sounds like the right decision and, to coin a phrase, onwards and upwards for 2025.
why people feel the need to be negative from behind their keyboards is beyond me.  

Good idea to have your short/medium/long term plan.  We are going to completely re-do our lounge in the spring so I'm having fun starting planning.  I'm browsing for sofas - when did they get so expensive?  I've got a few months to boost savings and to somehow "train" the cat that blissfully scratching the arms of the sofas needs to cease. 

redofromstart

We have had real joy and success with feeding the birds since we have both been at home. The peanuts always rotted and the fat based stuff, but we started with mixed no grow feed and meal worms (on a table or the ground) and halved apples till we built up the visitors - lots of blackbirds and thrushes. We then added sunflower kernels and a big feeding table which has seen a real increase in the small birds (lots of pretty things that turn up 20 at a time including a pair of greenfinches!). In the last month or so we have added peanuts in a metal feeder which the blue tiny things happily chip away at. Fat based stuff goes slowly now as well. Fresh water is popular too.

the only issue is the dawn chorus which is lovely but loud!

PennysIntoPounds

@Blackcats have a look at sofa cat scratch protectors, you can get some quite nice ones- the cats have the satisfaction of feeling they're ruining your furniture and you have the satisfaction of knowing the material is still intact

EssexHebridean

PennysIntoPounds said:

I saw a few comments about the cancellation on twitter, amazing how many people think something should be done as long as it's someone else doing it! Nothing stopping them joining Camra and helping arrange a mini-fest in their area is there. Happy to DM you a list of decent boozers for a wee crawl in my neck of the woods if you start getting beer-itchy-feet although you probably know of them all already!

Heck, I'm not even going NEAR Twitter - I did debate whether I ought to retweet the announcement on both our bar feed and the beer order feed on there, then bottled out!  Always interested in having details of recommended pubs though so please, feel free, and thank you. As a former east London & City Camra member (now in one of the Essex branches) there is a reasonable possibility that we may know some of them! 

SH - we will definitely be planning some meet-ups with pals through the year - we usually do try to get the bar team together at some stage, and there is a plan to have a meet up for the wetstock team we manage too. jwil - thank you, I try to remind myself that keyboard warriors are missing something in their own lives that leads them to want to be unfair to others online, but that's not much consolation when you're already feeling a bit fragile about things! 

Laplan, I'm still obsessed with the boots - even if I've not worn them yet! (It's been WET! I'm not getting them wet!)
BC sofas being so expensive are one very good reason why we were so grateful pour sellers sold us their front room suite at a bargain price. it wasn't what we wanted at all for the front rom (one chair excepted) but the two sofas are precisely the sort of thing I'd have bought for the living room, and the removal men made short work of shifting them! The steam cleaner has massively spruced up our old 2 seaters as well, so we're well fixed for the foreseeable! 

redo it's good to hear that your birds have now decided to eat the peanuts - as long as they show some interest in them, we will replace the existing cheap plastic feeder with a better quality one which will be easier to keep clean. We've fed them regularly for years - we always get seed and fat balls from the RSPB as we're pleased with their quality. And yes to water too - we try to ensure that is out year-round. 

milann

Here’s to 2025 and let the keyboard warriors go whistle (or whatever phrase you wish to insert) 
You seem to have had a bargainous shopping spree including your boots. Enjoy them

foxgloves

Hi @EssexHebridean - How DID I get so behind with your diary?! Note to self....it's pretty pointless bookmarking people's diaries for following if you then forget to use the bookmark tool! Your Christmas tree & hearth decorations look lovely. I have started putting decs & festive bits & pieces out, but the tree isn't going up until Friday. Until then, I have a tradition of getting a Christmassy item out each day as a sort of free Advent activity. Today will be the turn of some votive tealight holders to replace the nice, but non-festive ones on our mantlepiece. 
Shame about the beer festival, although nothing is generally forever. It may be something that resurrects in some or other form at another venue in time. In the meantime, enjoy the time it frees up for you.
Re 'keyboard warriors', whom I always think of as grumpy individuals sitting in their pants in their Mum's back bedroom, it doesn't matter WHAT the decision is, someone will kick off because it isn't exactly how they want something done. I should add, as have other previous posters, that they are rarely the sort of people who volunteer for anything themselves because their only contribution to the wider world is moaning. I now avoid the 'comments' section on our local newspaper for exactly that reason. A past colleague of mine used to say of such people that "even when they get to heaven, their harps won't play & their wings will scratch".
F