Moving on

Cherryfudge

Lots more garden work done, I'm pleased to announce. DH has moved various pots and some wood away from the back of the house in the hope that the path might finally be replaced in a couple of weeks. The bit at the back is currently just a concrete slab but I'm set on replacing it with brick, and a proper drainage channel as we're on a slope and one day a heavy rain storm might just overtop the back doorstep. I did some sundry weeds and lots of ground elder, including a dense patch of roots. Good job they are shallow, but they are caught up in other stuff so it's slow going.

DH says he can tell he's not had his medication but he's okay. It will take about a week to leave his system completely but so far, so good.

Expenditure:
Hobbies £2? (DH's entry to record fair)
Housekeeping £11.65

Cherryfudge

So far today I've sorted out my work emails and made a big pot of chickpea tikka. DH took his phone to the repair shop and is helping out at his volunteering today. He was going to collect the phone on the way in but I've heard nothing more, so I assume they've not been able to restart it. Apparently water go onto the motherboard and this isn't good news. I've reminded him he's been offered J's old one. Sadly due to loosing a very-long-ago password, he's been unable to set up backup so if this one goes, so will a lot of photos and possibly other stuff.

Today's weather was supposed to be cloudless skies and 26 degrees, but it was overcast and a few drops of rain till about 10.30! Now it'[s warm, though not as high as 26C.

I don't seem to have done a lot so I will get changed for work and generally do some tidying in the house and garden. I've sent off an order for a new uniform tee shirt for Sunday mornings, but that won't go on my Fashion of the Ration quota as it's uniform.

Cherryfudge

I managed just over half an hour of gardening, and as long as I do half an hour, I feel I'm turning the tide. Less than that is just slowing down the growth!

Work was three hours, and on the way home it suddenly occurred to me that my old phone was sitting in a  drawer and could possibly be a stop gap for DH. The phone repair man thinks he can get DH's phone working again but it would be £160, so DH took it home to think about it. I don't like that he may be out of communication in the morning so I'm trying to charge my old phone with his sim in. I'm realising how very close to defunct it is, as over two hours into charging, it's only 19%. I seem to remember one use is enough to drain it again so I need to charge the power bank too.

I managed an NSD, though the window cleaner came while we were away so I need to transfer some money to him.

DH is still well on his new no-medication regime. He's trying to be as relaxed as possible as stress is a trigger.

Cherryfudge

Thirty one years today since we moved into this house. The lilacs were blooming then and those same lilacs are blooming now.

Two hours of work this morning (and a slightly higher rate than normal as the role is graded differently). However, the person I was supposed to be supporting didn't turn up due to sickness. I enjoyed the class and learned a bit, and I've asked for a link to a video that was used so I can be prepared next week to help the person catch up. We are being Ofsteded, but no one came to our class and they will be gone by next week.

DH coped really well with the grand children, not only getting them both in the buggy and out to their activity, but back to the house afterwards. His health is still holding out very well. I joined them at lunchtime and we had a great afternoon, though it was too hot to play out in the middle of the day so we played hide and seek indoors.

Dh has decided to have his phone repaired. It will be about a week as the shop has to send off for something. We've also had an email from the path guy to say he hopes to start soon - and I've pushed on with 10 minutes of weeding while DH was cooking tea: I will win this battle of the ground elder, I will!

Some shopping done - salmon for tea and a salad for my lunch, though I got one with a yellow sticker so it cost me half price. I forgot to pay the window cleaner: must do that tomorrow.

Expenditure:
Activity for the children £2
Housekeeping £10.68

Cherryfudge

Today's activity, according to my overview of the week is: nothing till the church group this evening! Yay!

DH has gone out for a walk... he has a bloods appointment later and I've said I'll cut his hair. The three are not connected.

I'm not sure where the sun has gone. It's been a  permanent feature since March but today we have grey skies. Nevertheless, I'm going to put washing on, as there's no forecast of rain.

Cherryfudge

The hair cut and the washing got done, and I've packed some winter clothes up ready to go into the loft. I only did about 15 minutes of ground elder combat, but another forty on various other gardening jobs. I've weeded the bulb pots and added a bit of top soil, then sowed marigolds and borage for summer colour. The camelia needed setting upright as it had fallen to one side in its pot, but as I was righting it, I discovered three tiny self-sown tomato plants which I've transplanted to pots of their own. Everything needed water, it's so dry now.

In the afternoon I got some shopping: a big garden bag to keep together the kindling from the log store which will have to be emptied before the path is done, a potato-growing bag (unplanned but there are some sprouted potatoes needing a home) and some groceries. I used L1dl discounts but resisted some items as there's enough in store. I noticed my favourite cereal is on offer so I might get a couple as I can be sure they will be eaten but they were too heavy for this trip. I also treated the wild birds to more food and I've filled their water again. I noticed when watering the pots that almost at once two honeybees appeared and sat in the damp to get a drink. For some reason we've had honeybees in the lounge window a couple of times recently, but we don't know where they are coming from. It will be around the outside of that window, but there's no sound of a nest. Anyway, I'm fine with them being there and glad I could give them a drink.

Dinner was a portion of the chickpeas for me and the rest of the sausages for DH. He's discovered he is getting hungrier and apparently the medication he's been on can suppress appetite.

This evening was my group from church and it was lovely to have time together. I've missed the last couple of meetings. Great to get home while there's still light in the sky, too!

Expenditure:
Garden £6.98
Pets (i.e. wild birds!) £1.99
Housekeeping 93p (cash) + £9.87
Household £6 (window cleaner)

Cherryfudge

It's been a tiring day (20,000 steps): the toddler group went well but we introduced a story time which I lead. I like reading to toddlers but only a few were on message so I ended up with four keen ones while the others ignored us! However, good came out of it as some of the Mums suggested we combine it with a musical activity and I think that would help them focus. 

In the afternoon I went for a mammogram, which in itself was fine but the instructions for getting to the place were a total failure. I was so furious that I sounded off to a couple of the staff at the centre, though I did say I knew it wasn't their fault. What I need to do is write to the hospital and point out in what ways their instructions let me down and how I'd nearly given up and gone home. There was literally no signage. Apparently I'm not the first to complain.

Anyway I got really frazzled by this, as you can probably tell, and took some photos to attach to an email once I calm down enough not to make it a mud slinging event.

I was quite tired from this, so I had a rest at home then had three hours' work. I can tell I was tired as I took a wrong turn in the building and had to ask someone for directions! I've been working there fifteen months so that was a bit embarrassing.

I called into Lidl for cereal while there's a whole 10p off a favourite, and Mr S while some items we use were giving bonus points, so £14.74 spent on groceries, and £6 on a baseball cap so I don't have to squint in the sun (which has been missing much of today: where did the lovely temperatures go? I think it was about 14 here).

I also had further conversations about the problems getting people on the cleaning team for church, though the good news is we have a new volunteer. DH and a friend were cleaning tonight and I was at work when I had a phone call from A to ask if Dad might be available for childcare. H was stuck at work and A was supposed to be going out. Of course DH doesn't have a working phone so I relayed the message via the person he was with, who then texted back to say she was also stuck at work and her husband had filled in for her. So bless them, between them they got the message to DH and he was able to help out! Aren't people nice!

in_need_of_direction

why wouldn't people be nice especially ones who see how much you do for others?

Cherryfudge

Aw, that's a nice thing to say, thanks @in_need_of_direction! I suppose I'm thinking of the inconvenience to themselves, though they could I guess just forward my message with a 'please pass on'. It did make me aware that the woman had possibly been in work 12 hours or thereabouts, not because she said but because I know she often has a 6 am start.

DH has just realised his old phone could still be used so that's charging while the other is waiting for new parts. It won't update properly anymore, but is at least usable. He's gone to finish last night's cleaning but he probably left early to help DS out so I think there are just the bins to do. (Bins take longer than I'd have thought before I became a cleaner!)

It's also occurred to me that once our path is being re-laid, I won't be able to put washing out, so I need to think ahead on that. I don't think I mentioned yesterday that DH emptied and moved the log store which is now on the lawn. Just the water barrel to go, but we'll leave that till the last moment and use up the water on the garden (hosepipe ban is now on the horizon).

Cherryfudge

Today (Friday) felt like a Saturday, which is nice as I don't really get a Saturday this week. Tomorrow is a full day on the course.

DH's blood tests are back and things have improved a lot since he stopped the medication, though not quite back to the normal range. He's seeing the consultant in a couple of weeks so hopefully by then there will be further progress.

We've put some winter clothes in the loft which is a small step towards being guest-ready. I spent half an hour battling the weeds (geum is nearly flowering but last year's work on eliminating as many seeds as possible seems to have reduced what's growing this year.

I remembered we'd not used our 'free' hot drinks at the garden centre so we went there this afternoon, and I remembered to take my garden centre vouchers with me. We chose a new garden fork and the one we liked best then turned out to have a £5 discount for garden centre members during May. I paid using vouchers (the first two I produced were empty! I don't know whether they had run out of date or simply been used but the cashier has binned them for me. The other two are valid till September and one and a bit paid for the fork, so it was free to us).

DH has collected our new printer. We ordered and paid for it the other day (£150, but it has ink tanks rather than cartridges, so should be cheaper in the long term). It's a lot quieter than the old one, and the wireless side of this one works, which it never properly did on the former one. So this is turning into another expensive month, but hopefully that's an expense we won't repeat for a while. DH has the dentist on Monday for the broken tooth and his phone should soon be repaired as well, and of course we had our trip to Northern Ireland, which is all adding up.

I had three hours at work this evening (and have at last found where the bra bank is at work, so I can drop off a few I set aside months ago!) then, back at home, I fancied making some rhubarb cakes. I found a recipe I'd not tried before, for rhubarb crumble muffins, but they were a complete failure. I've had rhubarb cake go wrong before but I don't remember it bubbling like a pan on the stove top while baking, or having the consistency of rubber and being inseparable from the paper cases! I think the mixture was far too wet despite my reducing the liquid slightly, and the crumble topping was more or less a stiff peanut butter texture (though it made a nice biscuit crumb topping)!