🌞 Happy Days in our Golden Years 🌞

Watty1

What a fabulous use of the legacy - all those birthday and christmas gifts to enjoy. How wonderful

Fortune_Smiles

🚩Keep the Bunting Flying 🚩

I'm glad you all like my legacy idea - although there's a danger that all my Christmas and birthday presents might come at once 😂

We've had a very busy couple of days getting reading for our visitors.

I went to Zumba yesterday morning.  I go twice a week regularly now and am able to do all the moves for an hour without fainting 😂  And it means I get some value from my gym membership.

We had a quick sandwich for lunch and Thai Green Salmon with added green beans and jasmine rice for supper.  The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house and taking delivery of the grocery shop.  But I did get to sew a little more of my sweatshirt in the evening.

Today has been really manic but I have had some help.  We employed a guy to help us out with the garden last summer.  He came once a week and the idea was he'd just help out for a few weeks over a busy period for us.  However, he was brilliant and it took such a load off that we kept him on.  We calculated that an hour of Mr F working for our company would pay for 4 hours of gardening so it made sense to free up Mr F's time.  The Fortunate Gardener is happy to turn his hand to anything, particularly in the winter when the gardening work dries up.  So today he has been cleaning windows and washing floors for me (that was to be on Mr F's job list today but he got called into some meetings).  He also picked the last of the peas and beans.  Removed the plants and canes and dug over the beds ready for planting... something... although I'm not sure what yet 😂  Some trespassing potatoes in the bean bed were dug up and produced enough spuds for about 10 meals.  I sent the Fortunate Gardner home with some along with beans and plums as the Victoria Plums in the veg patch are starting to ripen.

Mr F came to help once his meetings were done.  He put the gazebo up and the bunting is flying 😁  Mine turned out to be far too short to have any impact on the gazebo so my existing, bought bunting has been promoted to the gazebo and my new, home-made bunting is currently decorating a parasol ⛱

We had leftover Thai Green Salmon for lunch and a quick cheese and cucumber sandwich for supper.

I'm going to try and finish sewing my sweatshirt tonight.  Although this will require learning how to use the cover stitch option on my overlocker so will depend on how alert I'm feeling 🤔  Plus I have a few more chores to get done in the morning so maybe I'd be better off having an early night.

Hope everyone's keeping cool.

Fortune x

Willow1983

So glad to see you back Fortune 😀 have missed reading your posts they are always inspiring. Willow

AnotherNewDay

@Fortune_Smiles I have started following you here, but also reading your back catalogue of diaries....weird to be back in 2012!

rtandon27

Happy Sunday Fortune - as always, I'm enjoying your stories and the recipes you weave into them!

Fortune_Smiles

Willow1983 said:

So glad to see you back Fortune 😀 have missed reading your posts they are always inspiring. Willow

Aww - thanks @Willow1983.  Nice to 'see' you too.

AnotherNewDay said:

@Fortune_Smiles I have started following you here, but also reading your back catalogue of diaries....weird to be back in 2012!

Oh my @AnotherNewDay - you might be reading for some time 😂  Yes, it does feel weird reading back through diaries - my first one feels like another life... and I suppose it was 🤔

rtandon27 said:

Happy Sunday Fortune - as always, I'm enjoying your stories and the recipes you weave into them!

Hi @rtandon27.  I realised that the veg patch is running short of produce now so I shall either have to plant more or get a bit more inventive with the recipes.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

What's Occurring?

It's been a busy couple of weeks so I thought I'd have a bit of a catch up here:

Health 🧘‍♀️

• I've added a Pilates class to my exercise plan.  I've been doing two Zumba classes a week for ages now but feel I need, and am ready, to do more
• I need to lose a little weight for health reasons (how long have I been saying that 🙄) so more exercise and less cake should help.

Wealth 💰

• l feel a little more in control of our finances since starting this current diary.  We're not spending any less but, what we are spending, is more considered and mindful
• we are approaching the end of our second business year so I've been busy getting our books in order for the accountant.  I think we're likely to do a little better than last year
• It seems as though we'll be losing work from one of our clients though.  They have taken on more internal people so need less external resource going foward.  This isn't something they've told us, we've just worked it out for ourselves 🙄
• however, another client has given us three additional projects so swings and roundabouts 🎠
• we might think about looking for some other work though as we don't want all our eggs in one basket 🥚🥚🥚

Happiness 😁

• The Littlest Fortunate and parents came to visit for the weekend
• after they left, a cousin came to visit for a couple of days
• I finished the sweatshirt I was making.  It's the first garment I've made using my overlocker/coverstitch machine so I wasn't expecting it to be perfect (good job).  But despite the errors, it is wearable and I've learned so much during the process 👕
• knickers!  I went to a workshop to learn how to make them 🩲
• I've agreed to chair a Show Team again after a couple of years off.  They were let down badly by this year's Chair so have asked me to come back
• something else has to give though so I've stepped back from my Writing Group.  The organiser was losing interest and I found myself doing more for the group as a result.  This meant I spent a lot of time helping others with their writing and my progress has suffered as a result.  I'm going to continue on my own but get input from some trusted friends.  Ultimately, I'd like to publish a book of short stories but I've a lot of work to do before I have enough material 📚

Plans afoot for this week include a visit from DS2 who's coming down to go on a day out with Mr F, eating some frogs (I have to sort out Boot Room-gate) and deciding on my next sewing project 😁

All caught up.

Have a great week everyone.

Fortune x

Mrs_Money_Penny

So lovely that you’ve returned I often wondered how you were x

Fortune_Smiles

Mrs_Money_Penny said:

So lovely that you’ve returned I often wondered how you were x

Hello @Mrs_Money_Penny - how lovely to 'see' you.  I'm happy to be back.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Eating Frogs 🐸

Mr F went out for a little solo adventure today so I made the most of a quiet house.

I spent the morning number crunching and making sure my budget figures were up to date.  Then spent a lovely hour browsing patterns and fabrics to decide my next sewing project.  I've settled on a black, floaty, viscose top with long sleeves as it will go with lots of things I already have in my wardrobe and be useful for layering as the weather gets colder.  I'm going to try and neaten the seams on my overlocker this time so will need some black thread for the machine.

I picked the last of our orchard plums which are destined for a cake at the weekend.  And a large bag of our veg patch plums to take to FDawg's groomer tomorrow.  Our veg patch tree is absolutely dripping with fruit and I've been giving away bags to all and sundry.

Lunch was a portobello mushroom burger with tomato and red onion to use up a sriracha cheese melt left over from a BBQ.

This afternoon I gritted my teeth and pulled together all of the Wh@t$App, Me$$enger and email communications I'd had with Bootroom Guy.  There are a lot.  Mainly me saying the same thing which he then ignores 🙄  I need to write up my notes now and work out what are and aren't deal breakers 🥱

Supper was Courgette Carbonara made with courgettes from the veg patch.

Because I'm not going to Writing Group tonight I'll be able to watch S£wing B££ - yay!  Hope I pick up some tips.

Fortune x