Blowing in the Winds of Change

Hello everyone, :hello:

Welcome, stepuptothepl8, When the going gets tough and milasavesmoney- thank you for joining my second meandering MSE journey; hope you all find these jottings entertaining, and perhaps useful in some way on your own roads through life..

This morning, next door's children started bouncing on their new trampoline just after six ayem! :eek:
Am all for kids keeping fit, but..:cool:
They got DS out of bed too - he went for a run while I searched for the WD40. Didn't find it, or I'd have gone and sprayed that trampoline's squeaky springs! :mad:

The mentally ill chap was out in his garden screeching at his poor Mum before eight o'clock as well; her murmured replies didn't seem to be placating him, alas - do I really want to swap DH's flat for a house on this road? :think:
..Maybe I've been spoiled by the lovely neighbours at homehome and the Nest - this lot seem very inconsiderate in comparison.
Ok, the bloke with MH issues probably can't help it, but when someone collected his Mum a couple of hours later he started shouting: "F**k Jesus! F**k Jesus - I wish you were all dead!" ..Guess Mum was off to church - where I sincerely hope she found comfort and consolation. Another big bloke dragged MH-Chap away in a headlock - not heard a peep out of him since..

Dansmam wrote: »

Girls are back safe sound thanks - fit and well and tanned and unlikely to stay for long. They were away the whole year and ended up in somewhere pretty much the 21st century version of the garden of Eden for the last 6 months. No snakes as far as I'm aware but it's left DD with ambitions for a bit of farming land in Portugal and a yurt. Or a shed. Or anything really ��. They'll be back just long enough to earn enough to set off again I think! Did you see that Portugal operated entirely on renewable energy for a while this year? That's their kind of place...

Aha, Portugal eh? In many ways it's more attractive than Spain these days; we're "allowed" to have solar-water-heaters without penalty, but woe betide anyone who decides to install solar panels for power if they are within reach of mains electricity - the fines are utterly punitive (which is why I haven't done it yet)! ..Ridiculous in that climate, but the government are protecting their utility companies. <sigh>

Here's an interesting plot in Portugal which may interest your Girls, Dansmam:
https://www.facebook.com/spencer.cooper.98837/posts/1588385694792325
Don't know the vendor but we must have mutual mates as the post has popped up on my FB a couple of times. It's a good price, and with that secure building would suit someone who may need to leave the place unattended at times (unlike the Nest - am employing Plumber to keep an eye on the irrigation system and Nasty Neighbour's antics this time around).

DS4 and I were going to visit DS3 & GF last night, as they're working only about twenty miles away from here this weekend. But the festival organisers appear to have contracted a bad case of "Little Hitler": No camping in the car-park, no vehicle tickets even one night for friends, no dogs.. There was paid work and a crew-ticket available for Divo Four, but I could only join them in exchange for £185, plus having to find somewhere else to leave camper-van and CD, and not expecting anywhere to sleep! :mad:

Instead, I decided to spend the unused cash which had been allocated to our journey - exactly £185 as it happens - on booking my 'birthday excursion'; a weekend bee-keeping course.
DS4 is coming along as a reward for being such a hero by getting CD and self this far. :T
Happily the total bill for this educational entertainment is only a fiver more than the aforementioned 'spare' funds, so seems a much better use for it than being frittered away at Tosco on 'treats' we can well do without.

CD seems a little livelier today, but still won't eat last night's dinner (refrigerated overnight ). Rather than waste it, we've donated it to a mummy-hedgehog I found in the garden yesterday after DS trimmed back the burgeoning vegetation. .

Oh how wonderful - two more old MSE friends have 'found' this new diary and joined in; welcome, Chev and lubava! :hello:

Chev - you have often been in my thoughts over the months; am so pleased to read that you've escaped from your previous taxing night-shift job and found another one more commensurate with your skills and qualifications - very well done on completing those courses! :T
..Your boys are all big enough to do their share of looking after the home - it'll be doing them a favour by teaching them how to look after themselves now, ready for independent life!

Dansmam and stepuptothepl8 - it's great that you're also both keen on bees; you'll certainly hear how DS4 and I get on during my 'birthday treat' weekend.
Dansmam, thank you for sharing your childhood memories of your grandparents' bees - hopefully DD might carry on the family tradition once she's found her own perfect new home?
Years ago I lodged with a man who used the same equipment as your Grandad, but this time I'm hoping a "Flow-hive" will be a lot simpler and less stressful for the bees. It's one of several different types of hive DS4 and I will be learning about (according to the course literature).

DS would love to install a hive in the garden at this house too; no reason why bees can't live in suburbia - there's already a huge buddleia and lots of other flowering bushes for bees to feed on. In fact, the garden is one of the things I like most about this place. Yes, it helps that there's room to park camper-van on the drive alongside another two cars, and a studio at the back for DS, but the garden is simply magnificent given it's modest size.
The only drawback is a gigantic fir tree which overshadows the section furthest from the house. I muttered something to DS about asking the owner to trim it back - it's on the other side of what would be 'our' boundary - but in fact it appears to have been disowned by all the adjoining householders; peering over, we can see that actually it's been completely fenced in on all sides.. Time to have a look at the Land Registry deeds, methinks. As there's no rear access it will be a difficult job sorting out this tree, so perhaps the true owner decided it would be easier just to make his/her garden ten feet shorter rather than having to deal with it? Hmm.. :think:

CD and I are both still needing an awful lot of sleep, but yesterday DS managed to chivvy me awake in time to pick up a few groceries on the way to a local NT property where we took CD for a gentle stroll.
My favourite cheap supermarket is disappointingly closed for rebuilding and there's no parking for camper-van outside the neighbourhood Co-op, so with some trepidation I found m'self walking through Tosco's doorway. Of course, I'd forgotten they close early on Sundays, which meant m' visit was perfectly timed to spot a plethora of yellow-ticket items. The cool-box had to be turned on to supplement camper-van's fridge, but the bill was satisfyingly modest for the amount of stuff which fell into the trolley.

Spends:
Groceries - £23
NT parking - £3

Hello NOA - thanks for joining in! :hello:

Very quiet day here yesterday; trampolining kids have gone on holiday, and perhaps MH-Chap too. Divo Four had another performance to take part in - at a dog-free venue so he went alone - but CD and I enjoyed a walk along the river when I finally woke up for long enough to get vertical and dressed. Then DS' newly-returned house-mates cooked us dinner; an authentic Chinese meal, which was very sweet of them.

Somebody decided to treat everyone in the road to a selection of 60's - 80's classic music this morning, but they were all songs I love so just enjoyed it while having a lie-in. Still sleeping about eighteen hours in the day; making the most of having no obligations and the bliss of time to recover from last week's exertions.

Going to visit neighbours and tenants at homehome later, and see what maintenance tasks are up-coming (they've obliquely asked for a new bathroom). Need to check that the bloke who does the gas-safety certificate has done his stuff too (he hasn't sent an invoice yet, but is supposed to keep a calendar of repeat clients so should have arranged an appointment with T2 a couple of weeks ago, I think).

Divo Four has one more performance of the play he's in this evening, then tomorrow we'll probably start making our way cross-country to the South West, where the bee-keeping course will take place. Getting quite excited about that!

Ah - spoke too soon - MH-Chap is in his garden screaming death-threats at someone.. Care-in-the-community leaves a lot to be desired.