Moving on

in_need_of_direction

If you’ve no firm demands on your time, why not just sit and read or listen to music. Sometimes just reading what you claim as an unproductive day leaves me feeling tired

Cherryfudge

I stayed in instead of going to this morning's service: I was going to watch on YouTube but it wasn't broadcast. DH had to go as he was doing a reading. I looked up symptoms and feel it's likely to be labyrinthitis or something similar. The NHS description fits just how I feel, though oddly I'm better being lightly active so DH and I are going to attempt the cleaning I didn't get done yesterday.

I did read a few pages of my books as well as playing some computer games, then discovered it wasn't as cold out as I thought, so I did twenty minutes battle against the ground elder. Not enough, but I can see progress.

Sun_Addict

I think you’ve earned a day of relaxation as you’re always so busy. What does this pesky ground elder you seem to be constantly battling against look like? Starting to wonder if we’ve got any in our garden 🤔 Our garden is always overrun by buttercups and Herb Robert but they’re both so pretty I feel loathe to pull them up. 

Cherryfudge

Ground Elder, Goutweed, Bishops Weed, Aegopodium podagraria There you are, @Sun_Addict. The immature leaves seem to come as either heavily pleated lime green or a darker thing a bit like herb bennet. I put in another ten minutes on it today, making half an hour, and at those levels I can see progress.

I like Herb Robert and buttercups too!

DH and I finished the church cleaning during the afternoon. Much easier with two of us doing it and I stuck a note on the office board for people to guess how many bins there are. The people who will see it are the people who know the building well so they might be able to work it out. So far I've found 25. I'm coming round to thinking we need to employ a cleaner, though that's a big expense.

Dinner tonight has been leftovers (there's still at least one portion of the Moroccan swede casserole). I've felt better as the day's gone on, but heard that a friend has had a stroke and a relative may be having surgery, so the world seems a bit fragile at present.

We went into Sains after cleaning, so I could buy some 15p potatoes. Spent £12.47. 'Nuff said, though there were some very good discounts on some favourites so we stocked up a bit. I asked DH's opinion on lamb for Easter and he pointed out chicken might be better health-wise. Then he saw the prices and I think it's confirmed his opinion! Chicken is okay by me and more versatile when it comes to leftovers. No firm decisions made.

Cherryfudge

Another day with some very bitty spending, but nice sunny weather and warm enough not to need a coat.

In the morning we went to the car boot sale and didn't get caught by the charity collection at the gate, as a very small collector was being dressed in high vis and the traffic was just going past him till Mum got him sorted. We do give them something normally but not this time. It was all rather busy and all I spent was 50p on a scarf but it's a nice long floaty one in navy with musical notes on, so in my head it will make me look elegant and cultured. (Talking of which, I forgot to get yogurt, but never mind).

Dinner was fish from the freezer and cous cous with veg, then we had to hurry to get to the afternoon car boot in another town. The traffic on the approach road was dense: that car boot sale is hugely popular. Parking is free but it's £1 each to get in. We parked some distance away to skip the slow drive and I noted a garden centre we'd not been to and which has a very good reputation. The walk from there to the sale is along a wide verge where there are often traveller ponies tethered but there were none today. It's the sort of road that was made by horse traffic with big verges especially on the bends where, apparently, stage coaches used to swerve wide of the mire in the middle and in doing so, created a landscape we still use today.

I get a little edgy going to this car boot I've once seen the person who attacked me, but despite a few glances around I didn't see anything to spook me today and I'd already decided that if he was there, I would cope. It wasn't entirely his fault that he went for me - he didn't have the mechanisms to deal with what he was going through and I've no reason to expect a repeat, but of course one gets watchful. I don't think he was even there today, but it was really busy. DH and I started at the far end and went against the flow of the crowd. DH didn't see anything to buy but I spotted a stall selling overalls for £2 and knew he wanted some for DIY so he now has some, and a painting he spotted for 50p.

I found him a shirt (£2.50 and a reasonable make, looks new and suits him). I've also got a Pyrex bowl, a Wedgewood bowl, two books and a recycled glass bottle or vase. These were all 50p each apart from one book that was £1 and the bottle, which was free from someone clearing the stall at packing up time.

So that was mildly entertaining. We really needed to rehydrate afterwards so we tried out the garden centre café - the pastries are superb and I forgot I'd given them up for Lent and tried one DH bought. It looks a much more traditional garden centre than our local one so I hope we'll go again. Back in our own town, we took a while to find a birthday card for A and did more grocery shopping to take advantage of the cheap vegetables. 

I also discovered, very late last night, that the Wednesday group is on the church teas and coffees rota tomorrow but no one had noticed it. This morning therefore meant lots of messages and we've managed to pull together enough people to do it despite people being on holiday etc. I was a bit fed up about it at first but it's made me realise how different it is being in a team to being the only one. Once I'm with others, I enjoy what I'm doing, even if we do our tasks in isolation. Also, if I'm organised, I can take the coffee grounds for the compost! Eventually those will go in a compost bin on the premises but while that project's on hold, they are there for the taking.

Expenditure:
Entertainment £6.50
Gifts (card & chocolate) £6.29
Housekeeping £38.31 (this includes nappies for the new baby as they are running short and couldn't get the new born size in the shop L went to).
Household £1
Hobbies (painting) 50p
Books £1.50
Clothing £2.50

Cherryfudge

A very full Easter day! DH woke me about 8.15 as he had an early rehearsal for the scratch choir during the morning service. In my sleepy state I thought I was going to be late but actually got myself to the service in time, did my stint helping with the children and the coffees and, astonishingly for a such a traditional town, ended up speaking not only with Brits, but with Nigerians, Canadians and some Iranians. I was very glad of Google translate!

DH and I had a light lunch then took the hobby car to A and H's for A's birthday. It was loaded up with a box of toy bricks, 4 packs of nappies A's gift and some Easter eggs: there was barely space as it's a two-seater. And I admit it was fun driving with the top down! The weather's been lovely.

It was the first meeting of the family since baby A arrived. There are eleven of us now, which is really strange when originally it was just DH and me. A got a great photo of us all which we've been sending out to various relatives, and we all had a lovely time, either sitting out in the garden or in the house with the doors open. There was chocolate cake made with the help of N, who at three has decided Daddy needed a Spiderman cake and helped make it. A has never shown the slightest interest in Spiderman, but who are we to argue, so he got the cake with a Spiderman banner on top. Of course the new baby got lots of attention but slept through a lot of it.

We didn't get home till about 6 but DH had put the chicken in the slow cooker and we had that with lots of veg and baked potatoes before opening out Easter eggs.

All in all a super day, finished off by watching Gareth Malone then The Piano.

rtandon27

Sounds like a lovely day ☺️.   I'm well amused that you needed G00gl3 translate to speak with a Canadian!

Cherryfudge

Haha, @rtandon27, must admit I could have phrased that better! It was just for the Iranians. (English being an official language in both Canada and Nigeria - and we speak our own version of it up here in Yorkshire too). And the Iranians speak a lot more English than I speak Farsi. 

Sun_Addict

My first ever boyfriend was Canadian and I was very shocked when he told me I had a nice f@nn! didn’t realise at first he meant a$$ 🤣 I was only 12/13 at the time. 

On a more serious note I definitely don’t have any ground elder having looked at the photos. However the garlic mustard is back again 😬

Cherryfudge

LOL @Sun_Addict, there's nothing as divisive as not quite speaking the same language!

I welcome garlic mustard, it's truly delicious! And it's biennial so perhaps you won't get any next year. 16 Garlic Mustard Recipes & Uses for Garlic Mustard Plant