Cherry takes the reins

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Some days it's much easier to be focused than others, but on those fuzzy days it's good to get your thoughts written down to organise them.

I hope DFIL likes the nursing home.

It's a good idea to take leave to make more inroads into your mum's old house, then you'll feel more like you're making significant progress. It must be a very hard job to do.

Thank you, Hairy. I really am rubbish at sorting things but quite a bit of what's there is since my time so I don't feel too bad about letting go of it. It's a huge job, though - 50 years' worth of stuff and a house that was empty for years and got very cold and damp!

By the way, I'm trying to catch up on your diary - I have approximately 2,400 posts to go! :rotfl::rotfl: I'm finding all the PPI stuff useful.

Another lovely sunny day, though not as warm as the other week. I spent a good part of it putting the garden to rights, though that would take more than an afternoon.
I've taken the hanging baskets to pieces, rescued the plants that had made it so far, and planted them up again with a mixture of old and new plants and a good sprinkling of seeds. Then I had to put gravel over the tops as there's a fearless female blackbird who thinks I'm doing all this just so she can dis-assemble it for her nest. (I did leave her some stray bits of the straw-like lining but she seems to have taken my word for it when I told her she wasn't allowed on the baskets).
Some bits of shopping done and errands run, though I forgot DH's prescription and only remembered it when I got a text to say mine was ready. As we use different pharmacies, that didn't really help as his was closed and I was worried he'd need his inhaler. However, the one he's been using, and which had mysteriously packed up, started working again.
I remembered to take the clean jars to the eco shop but succumbed to filling a few of them because the dispensers full of dry goods look so nice. I'm going to follow a suggestion of another customer and keep a tote bag to put containers in. If I run out of flour, the flour tub will go in so I can refill it when I go. If I finish a jar of jam, I'll run the jar through the dishwasher then it can go to the 'help yourself to a container' basket on the counter. If I have a sturdy paper bag I might save that too so I can use that on occasions when I haven't got a jar. Shampoo bottles, washing up liquid bottles and similar can also be reused.
This evening I meet up with a couple of friends which was good: we usually meet weekly but that's gone by the by for a while due to everyone being social bunnies. I also walked there and back so lots of steps and fresh air: this time of year is too gorgeous to stay in if I can find an excuse to be out.
Spending:
Collected something for work for which I can reclaim: £8.00
Household (3 in 1 oil) £2.65
Housekeeping £10.59
Hobbies (bags to keep old photos in) £1.70.
Pets (wild bird food) £1.79
MS:
Wombled 1p
£2 coin to jar.
3/4 of a spice jar of garam masala is only 15p in the eco shop!!
Decluttered lots of plants into hanging baskets, six jars to shop.

It's been a good day - no decorating achieved indoors but I had the chance to spend time outside and I love putting stuff together for the garden. I also bought my very own 3 in 1 oil so I feel quite grown up.

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Fifty years of stuff is an awful lot!

Sorry my diary is so long Cherry, it's all my blathering . I''m madly de-cluttering at the moment .

You are quite right about fifty years being a lot! :rotfl:
Don't apologise about your lovely diary, though - if it weren't so readable you wouldn't get so many replies.
I will try to follow your decluttering as well as parsniphead's - it helps me get down to my own.

I didn't sleep well last night and the only thing I seem to have achieved off my list today was giving the goldfish a thorough clean. I've done almost nothing towards our friends coming tomorrow. L has put in another stint with the paintbrush so the lounge is further along, and I've put some filler in preparatory to replacing a damaged piece of wallpaper, but haven't got as far as actually papering.

I suppose I made progress in a couple of areas, even if they weren't on the agenda: I cleaned the bathroom and I've put filler in some gaps on my old dolls' house and stripped down one room ready to decorate! It was very satisfying.

I did dis-assemble three more bulky photo albums and binned them. The photos are treasure so they are packaged up and labelled and I've enjoyed seeing them again. I've no idea where they will be stored but they take up less space now.

There are 17,000 steps on my F!tbit today: I wandered into town, took more jars to the eco shop and did some shopping including DH's prescription. Later I went back for pondweed as the fish have eaten nearly all that I bought them the other week! I remembered to go to W!lkos for a new light fitting (which DH has now fitted) and saw they had an entire display of bulbs marked down to 20 and 50p! I am £1.60 poorer but richer in terms of white tuberous begonias, dahlias, mixed gladioli (50 of them!!! Will share some with work), onion sets and a mixed bulb collection (19 more gladioli among them ). I resisted some lovely pale yellow lupins and blue geraniums as they were clearly dead. Other than that, they were perfect. ROFL.

This list has cheered me up a bit as I've clearly done something, but the house is still a big mess. Tomorrow I may try to do that patch of wallpaper that in my mind will make the whole room look so much better. I've already done the other two bits in the same room where elecrical cable was channeled in, and it definitely helps.

Spending:
Garden £1.60
Medical £9.00 (on CC - must get that paid off)
Household £9.00
Toiletries £0.51
Housekeeping £11.07
MS:
Bargain plants! (Original price £15.00)
10th coin saved: 50p
Another £2 coin for the jar
Dinner from the freezer.
Decluttering:
3 empty albums and 12 glass jars. A pair of gardening gloves to DD.

I'm very grateful today for my lovely bulbs, a clean fish tank and a tolerant husband!