Riding the wave

Keep_Buggering_On

A quiet weekend at home, but I did manage to finish my fishing boat model, despite some very fiddly work drilling holes in the barbeque skewers used for the masts and then threading cotton thread through to make the rigging- it looks very good and is on the shelf in my office now. I had to pop into the village yesterday and the supermarket had some big trees with pink flowers reduced from £13 to £2 so I picked one up and got it into the garden yesterday afternoon. There were a few dead leaves, but enough greenery left that I am confident it will recover and give a good show in spring. I bumped into one of my neighbours in the supermarket. I had helped her lift some stone flags a few weeks ago and she has now said that I can have them if I want. I am going to go round and collect them later this week as they will go nicely under the living room window which is currently just gravel and this will let me put some pots and maybe a bench there next year as part of my big "do up the garden with zero budget" project! Not looking forward to moving them round as they are very heavy but hopefully my little trolley is up to the job!

leftatthetrafficlights

I hope your kitten has sorted itself out food wise! 😳😂 I currently have 4 foster cats (long story but I'm not even a cat person!) and thankfully they seem to be okay food wise - however, I'm grateful that I don't have to buy it (their actual owner does) as it seems ridiculously expensive to me! 😳 It's over 10 years since I had pets (I had dogs for 25 years) and the price of food and insurance seems to have gone through the roof!

Well done on finishing your model and good luck with your garden project - it may be worth asking neighbours (if you have that sort of relationship) for cuttings etc of their plants that you like - your soils and climates will be similar so if it works for them they should work for you too! 😉 I'd also have a look to see if you have seed swaps locally - it's a great way to try stuff out cheaply. Not sure what you intend to grow but if you can manage a bit of food growing it's definitely worth it - we grow a lot of veg and herbs plus a little bit of fruit (apples, raspberries, damsons and blueberries) - the damson tree was full at the weekend so I've picked and processed them and will make damson jelly and chutney from them - other than the sugar and vinegar required, it's basically free as the damson tree was originally given to me by someone who had dug up a sucker from their tree. Other than planting it, I've done nothing to it at all yet we get a substantial amount of fruit every year 😁

Good luck shifting the slabs - don't try too many at once and damage yourself! 😉

Keep_Buggering_On

Thanks, little cat is still loving the Felix and clearing her bowl every time now which is good. We have found a bulk pack on Amazon that doesn't work out too much more than the one from the supermarket so we are going to keep her on that for now.

I am currently putting perennials in the garden so I don't have to replant every spring and a colleague at work is a keen gardener so she has helped out with some plants including a rhubarb that is growing like the clappers. I am tempted to add some soft fruit plants, but need to pick carefully to complement what my Dad grows- he always has a glut and gives us loads so I want to grow something different so I can give him some back. Damsons are a good idea, he is about the same elevation as us and does well with plums, so I suspect damsons would work well even as high up as we are. I confess to knowing nothing about gardening, but the bits I have put in this year have grown well and we had some nice colour in the garden. I am looking at the garden as a long term project that I will add to as time goes on and over the next decade it will hopefully mature into a lovely spot. I will be moving the flags one by one, they are far too big and heavy to shift any other way!

beanielou

Good news on the kitten

Keep_Buggering_On

DS and DD got home from school last night with DS declaring DD was an idiot and he was fed up with going to school with her (this only being day three of the two of them going to school together). Apparently DD had to be grabbed and pulled back to stop her walking into traffic twice yesterday. She is a very dreamy child and her mind always wanders so we knew this was going to be a problem- she would regularly walk into lamp posts on the way to primary school because she wasn't concentrating! I went out with her and did some practice on crossing the roads and her stop, look and listen, but whether she will retain this is anyone's guess! Our generation had learnt to cross the road safely by the age of eight, however that might just be because of the trauma of a giant squirrel! DS is going to have his work cut out for him this year…

Keep_Buggering_On

And this morning DD managed to forget her mobile phone and leave it on the coffee table. As she needs it for her bus ticket, she realised once she got to the bus stop and DS had to sprint back to fetch it (he is a lot faster than she is)… we are only on day four of high school!

ellenvan

Hopefully she will settle in and get used to the higher independence.A learning opportunity for your DS to.

Keep_Buggering_On

Annoyed with Capital One- they are removing their web login and going to app only. As I do not have, nor ever wish to have a smart phone again, I have had to ring them up to get paper statements sent through the post from now on. I will at least be able to ring them up to get an account statement over the phone, but its annoying. I can't be the only one of their customers who does not use a smart phone- surely the web login should be the minimum and an app an extra option for those who prefer? Its certainly going to be a good incentive to use the card as little as possible, pay off as quick as I can and look to transfer to another provider as soon as I can! I don't want to end up like my father who refuses to use any online financial service and does everything in person or via letter (he doesn't think they are secure, despite having almost fallen for an email scam the other year and almost losing £1500), but they are making it more difficult for those of us who won't have a smart phone.

beanielou

Sadly happening more & more.

Blackcats

my dad is 98 and his pension provider (who definitely know he has a 1927 year of birth) wrote to tell him they were stopping paper statements and told him to set up their app. After I tried to explain what an app is, then explained that his simple mobile phone couldn't have an app even if he wanted one he told me to tell them it was a "bleeding cheek 🙃". I did ring them and ask if they had undertaken any research with their pensioners (no they hadn't) but they did agree to continue to send paper statements.