Lack of motivation

 I'm having trouble trying to motivate husband to do anything at all lately.  Despite his physical health problems, he is not incapable of doing things, so long as he does things at a slower pace rather than the 'bull in a china shop' approach he's always had throughout his life, and takes breaks every half hour or so.  He's very defeatist though, if he can't do something quickly and easily, he either gives up or, worse, refuses to even start it.  I don't think he's depressed - he suffered a period of depression many years ago and he doesn't have the signs he did then.  I think he's just got into a rut of not doing anything much during the awful weather we've had on and off for the past few weeks....he's got too settled into dozing off in front of the damn TV all day, with occasional half hours of playing games or watching car videos on his computer.  I do understand his lack of energy and enthusiasm during relentless bad weather, I feel the same.  But I know that in order to get out of that, it's necessary to get up and actually do something.  In any case, the housework, washing, prepping meals etc doesn't do itself!

Yesterday morning, as an example, I folded and put away the washing that had dried on the airer overnight, put more washing on and got it out on the line, prepped dinner (I like to get that done in the morning), did another freezer inventory (I'm trying to keep on top of it).  Got a pack of minced chicken out of the freezer to defrost and make meals for Betty and chopped some veggies to go in it.  Wiped all the kitchen worktops with antibacterial spray, then gave the bathroom a quick clean also.  Husband.....played on his computer.  Oh, he did 'hoover' - the large rug in the centre of the lounge - nothing else, not even the rest of the carpet, he only does the rug because it's red and shows up Betty's hairs, they can't be seen on the mushroom-coloured carpet!  Then he got straight back on his computer to watch some car thing.

I asked him if he'd given any thought to what veggies to grow this year - "Nope".  And rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath when I suggested that perhaps he should - after all, he lives here and eats them as much as I do!  I gave him the job of looking for another raised bed online, we want another one to grow more veggies, it'll be placed on one of the gravelled beds.  It'll be easier than scraping all the gravel off, removing the decayed weed suppressant matting underneath and digging the compacted soil - we did that last year on 2 of the smaller beds and it nearly killed us, so another raised bed simply placed on top of the gravel is the way to go.  He did eventually find one and order it, so that's something, although I did have to help him with it as he got confused over the sizing.  The first one he picked out was only £6.95, which pleased him no end (cheap is all that matters to husband)....when I checked before he ordered it as it was clearly far too cheap, it was made of flimsy green plastic which wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes, and was only the size of a square plant pot!  The one he's ordered now is of similar metal construction and size (and price) to the one we got last year, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

I didn't get out in the garden in the end....although the sun shone all day, in the back garden it was still far too cold for me to work, as it was in shade virtually all day.  It'll be a few weeks yet before the sun is high enough in the sky to cover the back garden.  By contrast, it was pleasantly warm at the front of the house, but no work needed doing there.

Sunshine at last, and my night heater

 Well, it stayed cloudy all day yesterday and my washing didn't dry on the outside line, so yet again it had to go on the airer in the hallway overnight.  During the winter any sunshine doesn't really reach much of the back garden, the sun is too low in the sky to get over the roof.  Sunshine forecast all day today, hopefully I'll get another wash load dried outside.  It's turned very cold again overnight, below freezing last night - fortunately I don't get cold in bed, having my own furry heater in the form of Betty.  She doesn't sleep inside the bed with me, she's on top of the duvet but presses herself right up against me so keeps me very warm - I expect she benefits too!

I might try and get the roses pruned today, provided it's not too cold, can't do much with frozen fingers.  A few more weeds need pulling up as well, before they get too established.  At least with sunshine all day, it should feel fairly pleasant, even if it doesn't quite cover the back garden.  

Betty certainly does have character, she's very much her mother's daughter (her mother being the Shar Pei, father the English Bulldog) - she looks like her mother, although is chunkier, and definitely has the notorious Shar Pei characteristic of stubbornness.  Her chunkiness comes from her Bulldog father, he was a very broad chested and thick set dog, with a lovely nature.  We've had quite a few dogs over the years, both husband and I had dogs when we were children too.  We've had cats in the past also, but we're both dog lovers at heart.  Betty is definitely the dog who has stolen my heart, out of all our pets to date - husband's too, although he would never admit it.

A tantrum, and better things coming

 This is the result of Betty having a tantrum because I took her 2 cuddly toys away from her after her allotted 10 minutes this morning:-

Flung her bed cushions around, little monkey.  I just ignore her whilst she's doing it, trying hard to resist the temptation to laugh.  Although she's over 8 years old now, she still acts like a foot-stamping toddler or grumpy teenager sometimes....I do love her to bits though.  We've been watching the Pete Wicks (of Strictly fame last year) dog programme, it was the last one last night, it's on one of the more obscure channels, U & W I think it's called.  Well, they had a Shar Pei on last night that had terrible eye problems, Entropion, it's where the eyelids on very wrinkled dogs roll inwards because of all the excess skin and the eyelashes are therefore constantly rubbing against the eyeball, resulting in pain and infection.  Fortunately, Betty has never suffered with that, her face isn't quite as wrinkled as some pure bred Shar Peis and she's had no eye problems at all.  It was a beautiful dog though, the same colour as Betty, their vet (it's a Dogs Trust charity) did an operation to cut off the excess skin and resolve the problem.  That's the trouble with some unscrupulous breeders, they'll deliberately breed dogs to have overly pronounced features (like lots of wrinkles) because they look attractive and can then be sold for lots more money.  No thought given to the health consequences.

It's a bit cloudy today but dry, slightly warmer and no wind!!  The forecast is looking much better for the next week, hooray.  So I shall be able to catch up with and clear the washing, which has built up a bit as it's so miserable having to have the washing on airers, dragging it in and out of the car port and clogging up the hallway in the evenings.  Husband has just got back from the gym, much to Betty's delight - he's only been gone an hour but whenever we (or either of us individually) go out, she acts like she hasn't seen us for days on our return.  Nice to be loved!

I've had an inspection of the garden, front and back, this morning.....another week or so, especially as we're forecast some sun for the next few days, and some more of the bulbs will be flowering.  Some crocuses out in flower already, but the narcissi will be out soon.  Leaf buds are beginning to appear on the roses, so I really must get out there and prune them this coming week, I've been waiting for better weather.

So things are looking up - it's amazing what the promise of some better weather and some decent sleeps (I had another fairly good sleep last night) will do.

Good sleep, and ploughing on

 I slept really well last night, only woke up twice and quickly went back to sleep both times.  I also didn't wake up finally until 07.30 this morning, which is more than an hour later than I normally get up, so I've well and truly caught up on lost sleep.  Consequently, I feel so much better today, pretty much raring to go, in fact (steady on woman!! 😂).  I've done a few little housework jobs I've not had the energy or inclination to do the last few days, and have made 4 individual pies, 2 for tonight and the others for the freezer.  They're pork sausagemeat (4 skinned sausages), sage & onion stuffing, finely chopped shallot and grated carrot, with a tablespoon of apple puree.  I used a sheet of puff pastry cut into 4 and cut the sides into strips to make lattice plaited pies, I sprinkled them with grated cheese before baking them later on.  I've prepped the veggies to go with them later.  

We'll be popping out after lunch to Matalan, there's one near Taunton, on the outskirts thankfully so we don't have to go into the town.  We need some new hand towels and bed sheets, I might look to see what they've got in the way of winter boots too, mine have started leaking.  It's raining, but only lightly, and the wind is dropping, it's supposedly 8 deg but feels colder at the moment because of the wind, I suppose.  The rest of the week looks like better weather, thank goodness.

Thank you for the supportive comments, it really helps when I'm feeling down.  There's nothing I can realistically do about the way things are, except grin and bear it and just get on with things - it would be nice to have a fairy godmother to wave her wand and it all magically gets done so I don't have to.  But of course that's never going to happen, so I just have to accept it and plough on.  

So tired, brain shuts off

 I think there are several reasons why I'm struggling at the moment, time of year and almost continual bad weather being two of them.  It's sunny at the moment, we're having brief sunny spells in between dark clouds and showers today, heavier rain and strong gusty winds forecast again later on, continuing through the night and into tomorrow, in fact it won't be until Wednesday lunchtime before the bad weather calms down.  And just to annoy me and Betty even more, we had a loud thunderstorm around 4.00 am, fortunately it didn't last very long but sleep disrupted once again.  At our last house disturbed nights were the norm for me, I hardly ever had a good night's sleep - since moving here my sleep has been so much better, I get a bad night maybe once a week but have generally been sleeping pretty well.  However, I've had 4 very bad nights in the past week, I would estimate I got only perhaps 2 or 3 hours sleep each of those nights.  Consequently, I feel like a limp, wrung out dishcloth.  I know why I'm sleeping so badly - I've got a couple of things on my mind, one of which is something I need to do but which I keep putting off, for various reasons.  Yes, the answer is - get it done!!  But it's easier said than done.

Over the weekend, it was a case of whatever could go wrong, did, and there were loads of other minor irritations and frustrations.  Some things can't be helped, or are inevitable....others could be avoided if only....well, no point in dwelling on that, what's done is done.  And it was just bad luck I guess that PR chose to be a giant pain in the ar*e at a time when I was least able to deal with it.  It started off with a very minor problem he had, which to anybody else wouldn't be a problem at all, not even an inconvenience, but he chose to make the usual mountain out of a molehill, he was clearly in his full-on attention-seeking mode, oblivious to any real problems we might have.  That's one of the symptoms, if you like, of his mental illness - he is totally self-absorbed, incapable of seeing just how trivial his 'problems' are (they're only real problems in his head), and completely unable to grasp that others have more pressing (and real) problems.  It got resolved in the end, but not without hours of frustrations for me and others.

I've got so much on my plate at the moment, and it's really only me that can do it all.  The responsibility does weigh heavily on me at times, which does feel overwhelming when I'm so tired that it feels like my brain is shutting down.....I've also found myself making silly little mistakes recently.  E.g., forgetting to get my milk out of the freezer, putting clean clothes I'd got out to get dressed in yesterday morning after my shower into the dirty laundry basket.  Absentmindedly putting a teabag in my coffee cup along with my coffee, and only realising after I'd poured the water in (I hardly ever even drink tea).  Giving Betty breakfast twice (she didn't mind, she still ate the 2nd one!!).

I'm going to be kind to myself today - we're having a very easy supper, husband will have cold roast pork from yesterday (there's enough for him to have it in some form or another all week) with a microwaved jacket spud, beans and chutney, I'll have the spud with beans and cheese.  So no cooking involved.  I'll do a few menu plans this afternoon - well, just a list of main meals I can make from what we've got in the freezer and veg box.  Then I'll just sit and read, or doze, in the recliner chair in my bedroom.  

I'm fed up!!

 The weather is bleedin awful again, yet another named storm battering us, galeforce winds and rain being hurled at the windows.  Stuff being blown around the car port and garden again last night, keeping us awake - well, me and Betty, she jumps up woofing at every noise outside, the wind seems to be worse in the back garden (my bedroom is at the back, husband's at the front) so it doesn't have as much of an impact on husband.  The green plastic cover on the raised bed that husband built last year has already ripped in the winds a couple of weeks ago, I have asked husband to remove it (he pinned it to the wooden base all around) several times already, but of course he forgets as he doesn't do things immediately when I ask him to.  So the damn thing is rattling noisily in the wind all the time and ripping even more.  I'll probably have to do it this afternoon when the rain stops, I'll just cut it off, it's so damaged already that there's no point in keeping it.

I can feel my mood is on a downward spiral at the moment, I'm so fed up with the weather (can't do anything about the weather, I know) and feel like we've been cooped up inside 4 walls for what seems like weeks and weeks.  I know the saying "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes" or something like that, blah blah.  But I really hate being out in cold, wet and windy conditions, regardless of what I'm wearing!  I can't cover my FACE up so my nose and cheeks get really cold, I hate getting wet, and the wind is so strong that it feels like it's going to blow me off my feet, I'm already unstable enough with my bad back, hips and left knee.  And if I fall (get blown) over, I'm worried I'll break a bone and who's going to pick me up anyway?  Husband couldn't, he's unstable enough himself.  I couldn't pick him up either if he fell over.  What a pair of old crocks we are.

I've got to get myself up out of this black pit.  Betty is sleeping peacefully, gently snoring, on my bed again.....oh to be a dog, fall asleep within seconds of lying down, and nothing to do when awake other than playing with toys (I've had to throw 2 of the new ones away already as she's ripped holes in them), eating and curling up on a blanket on the sofa, not a care in the world.  And to top it all off, the problem relative has reared their ugly head again this morning and is being a complete pain in the backside for no good reason.

Oh for a desert island!

Cuddly toys and yet another one

 Forgot to mention.....I got a bagful of cuddly toys for £10 in the charity shop.  One I had to throw in the bin straight away as it turned out to have a hole in it and the stuffing was already protruding - Betty would have pulled all that out straight away.  Still, there's around a dozen more for her to play with (shake to death and then chew), that'll keep her going for a few weeks.  She gets 1 or 2 to play with a couple of times a day, for about 10 mins at a time - I have to restrict the time as she'd just chew them to bits in no time otherwise.  I give her a small treat when I'm taking them away from her, she gives them up with no trouble.  The lady at the till in the shop chuckled and said "You must have a lot of grandchildren!" - she looked a bit startled when I said no, they were for my dog 😂.

Icy outside this morning, still at least the wind has died down and it's forecast to be sunny all day, albeit still cold, so I'll take the chance of putting washing on the line.  It's the calm before (yet another) storm though, it's going to be raining and extremely windy again Sunday and Monday.  So frustrating!

Good news though.....I've got crocuses in flower in a pot out the front, and we've seen a few daffodils in bloom round and about, not yet in my garden but it won't be long.  The 3 cyclamen I planted in a pot in the front garden last year have been blooming their little heads off all winter, one each of white, pink and red, they're gorgeous.  I must get some more this year to put in the back garden, it's lovely to have colourful blooms in the winter to see from the windows, even if it's too nasty to go outside.

We've escaped the worst weather, garden plans and *Updated

 It was a bit blowy in the night and a few things got blown around in the garden and car port, which Betty heard and woofed at.  But nothing worse than that and no damage, I hope all of you have escaped the worst of the weather, although it's obviously worse further north.  Right now it's sunny, although still blowy.

Husband has got the dentist today, he's thinking he'll probably have a tooth out so soft food only tonight.  I've got a homemade veg casserole out of the freezer, that'll be soft enough to just slip down with minimal chewing.  I could even whizz it up with the stick blender if he feels he can't chew anything at all - he would have to be in a lot of pain or feeling very unwell to not feel like eating.  He'll drop me off to do a bit of shopping, it's in Bridgwater so I'll be going to the big charity shop there for books and cheap cuddly toys for Betty, I'll also pop into Aldi there and see if they have my frothy coffees in.  We hate going to Bridgwater now, the traffic on the way is diabolical, especially since a huge new housing development is being built.  Husband's dentist is there though, so we have to go.  

We got Betty weighed by the vet nurse yesterday, she's 1 kg more than the last time she was weighed there - winter weight!  (I know the feeling).  She's booked in for her annual jab next month, and claw clipping.

We've been thinking about the garden, what we're going to be doing with it, plants and veggies to grow, that sort of thing.  We'll be getting another raised bed for veg, a little bit of prep will be needed where the bed will be situated.  I'll need to prune the roses shortly (when the weather improves enough for me to work out there!) - I did a partial prune at the end of autumn, now they need proper pruning before they start growing.  Husband always offers to do it, but his idea of pruning anything is always to hack it to bits and cut things back to the ground, he's just too drastic in his approach.  If he had his way, we'd have no trees for a start - he's got an aversion to trees!  I want more dahlias this year, they come in such a wide variety of colours and flower shapes and provide lots of colour later in the growing season.  I do like colour in the garden.

*Updated

Yay!  Aldi had my lovely frothy coffees AND my lactose free milk, so I got a month's worth of each.  Doesn't take much to please me 😁.  Oh, and husband didn't need a tooth out after all, the dentist said it should be fine for another 9 months or so, it's not hurting so he's fine with that. 

Is this our new normal? (weather)

 We've just been out to the vets with Betty, the library, a quick stop off at the supermarket and then to pick up our own prescriptions from the GP on the way home.  Glad to be home, it was blimmin horrible out there - freezing cold (supposedly 7 deg but feeling much, much colder because of the wind chill) and wind gusts of 50 mph.  The sun's come out now and the wind is starting to die down - apparently it's going to pick up again with gusts of up to 55 mph throughout the night.  HH and Jackie, I agree with you, I don't recall having so many storms years ago, whereas it seems to be almost our new normal now.  And 'they' say global warming/climate change doesn't exist!  Doesn't it (the repetitive bad weather) get you down?!  It does me.

The homemade baked beans done in the slow cooker were nice, husband enjoyed them, as did I.  However, I did have a very gurgly and upset stomach last night which kept me awake - combined unfortunate effects of the gas-inducing pulses and too many carbs - I had a slice of sourdough bread with it too.  Oh, and a slice of fruitcake with our visitor yesterday morning, so a real overdose of carbs.  I'm starting to crave fresh green veggies and citrus fruit, that's a sure sign (for me) that I've overindulged on carbs.  That's what I went to the supermarket for.

The bread is in the oven, it's a 50/50 white/wholemeal loaf with mixed seeds, it smells heavenly.  However, I think I'll be slicing and freezing most of it, my guts really can't take any more carbs at the moment.

We're having salmon fillets tonight, I was planning on doing potatoes in some form, or noodles or rice to accompany but not now, it'll be courgettes, mushrooms and red pepper strips done in the air fryer, and no starchy carbs.

Re the weighing thing.....yes I know the meds dosage goes on Betty's weight, I said as much.  My point was that this is the first time we've ever had to take her specifically to be weighed when requesting a repeat prescription, we've never been asked to do that before.  Her weight is fairly stable, just a kg or so difference either way (always has been), and the dosage of flea/tick tabs she's on covers dog weights between 25-50 kg, a more than ample leeway either way.  Well, if them's the new rules now.....

Oh, and because I had several things on my mind (and husband never remembers anything anyway), we forgot to go pick up our own meds from the GP on our way home.  Drat!!  Fortunately, we're not in desperate need of them, next Monday or Tuesday will do.  

To clear up the weighing.....and lovely catch up with friend

 Firstly, thank you for all the comments, especially to those of you who said that the chives and thyme should regrow - I thought they might, but it's good to have it confirmed.

Re us having to take Betty to be weighed at the vets.....whenever we've taken her to the vets before, for whatever reason, she's always been weighed then, her weight is pretty stable, only altering by a kilo or so up or down (she weighs more in the winter, as she has less exercise...and probably a few more treats).  But when I'm putting in a repeat request for her flea & tick and worming tabs, I just ring up and order them, collecting them the next day - which is what I did this time, only the receptionist then told me that they can no longer give out meds without having the dog in to be weighed, apparently it's a rule now, we have to take her to be weighed before the meds are issued, even if we don't need to see the vet for anything else.  There's no charge for weighing her.

Our friend (ex neighbour from the old house) came this morning and stayed for around 3 hours, it was lovely to see her and we had a good catch up.  Not much has happened in our old hamlet, one or two people have moved in or out, some people having some works done on their houses, one of the neighbours has cancer, sadly.  Other than that, nothing seems to have changed there and life goes on much as it has always done.  Our friend is pondering over whether she should move - she's in her 70s, a widow, lives alone and has a large house and garden and worries that it might become too much for her in time.  However, she's lived there for nearly 30 years, knows everybody and feels safe and comfortable there.  She's going to think about it some more and discuss with her children, 2 of whom live in the town so not too far away.  She's adamant that, having lived in the countryside for most of her life, she does not want to live in a town, although can see the benefits of having all the services she requires nearby.  She thinks where we live now is delightful, she likes it very much.  

I put the beans in the slow cooker this morning, along with chopped onions that I softened in oil first, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, soft dark brown sugar, a little honey, splash of balsamic vinegar, some chopped sun dried tomatoes and some herbs and spices, and a jugful of water.  Just had a taste and it's wonderful, I'll add salt in a bit.  Now I'm just about to mix some no-knead bread dough, I shall put it in the fridge overnight, take it out first thing in the morning to come back to room temperature, then shape and bake it midday.

It's been the usual dull and cloudy all morning, but the sun is out now.  I gather we're forecast strong up to gale force winds tomorrow, continuing into Friday with rain as well, another named storm.  I don't think we'll be getting the full force of it down here though, unlike those of you further north.  I hope you all stay safe and warm.

Baking, beans and vets

 Busy morning, I made a fruit cake and apple crumble bars - was going to make individual little tarts but it was easier to make a traybake and then just cut it into bars....anything for an easy life!  I also made pork, sage and apple burgers for husband - I might even try one myself, they look so nice.  

I don't mind the look, smell or even taste of pork or chicken mince on the odd occasion, but can't stand beef or lamb mince, they taste far too 'meaty' and strong for me now, and I hate the smell of them.  I'm eating less and less meat - haven't eaten beef, lamb, pork as chops or joints, or any kind of offal for a couple of years now.  I have occasionally eaten a bacon sandwich about once a month but not anymore, the last 2 or 3 times I've not finished them, deciding I really don't like the bacon after a few mouthfuls.  I will eat a pork sausage very occasionally, and don't mind a savoury mince type thing or lasagne made with chicken or pork mince, but I don't eat any of them on a regular basis.  Most of my meals are veg based, usually with eggs or cheese, I eat some kind of fish about 3 times a week.  Sundays if we're having a roast, I normally have my own homemade nut roast, or just the veggies, Yorkshire and stuffing.  I do class myself as vegetarian - well, pescatarian strictly speaking - but I'm not fanatical about it and don't make an issue out of it - if we have a meal at someone's house and they serve something meaty, having forgotten I don't eat meat, I just quietly push it to one side of my plate - or give it to husband!

I'm soaking dried beans overnight and making baked beans in the slow cooker tomorrow - we're having our friend over tomorrow and I don't know how long she'll be staying, so getting the slow cooker ready in the morning means I won't need to do anything much later on (she's coming late morning, she won't be staying for supper).  Husband will have some chicken drumsticks with his beans, I'll just have sourdough bread and a sprinkle of cheese on the beans.

I'm on the last one of my library books that I got well before Christmas (I've renewed them once) so will go to the library on Thursday for more.  We also need to collect our prescriptions and take Betty to the vet to be weighed and collect her flea & tick med....apparently there's a new rule now stating that dogs have to be weighed at the vets every time before getting the meds.  I know the dosage is weight-related, but as Betty's weight has been fairly consistent for years now, she never had to be weighed every time before (thank goodness we humans don't have to be weighed before receiving meds!!).  She's got her annual vaccination jab next month, so it's an expensive few weeks for her (well, for us, she doesn't pay the bills 😉😂).

Busy in a pottering sort of way - but not today

 The intention on Saturday wasn't to go shopping, merely for a drive (preferably in the countryside).  I would never intentionally go to Taunton of all places on a Saturday, it would be (and was) madness.  As I said, it wasn't my choice, I didn't realise husband's plans (he didn't specifically say) and, to be fair, he wasn't actually intending to drive through the town centre anyway, he got a bit lost.  Husband often has half cocked ideas, which he doesn't always tell me about (probably knowing I wouldn't necessarily think it's a good idea) and doesn't think things through.  Oh well.

I've got a busy week, I've made a list of everything....although whether it'll all get done remains to be seen, if some things get missed, that's ok, it's not all set in stone.  It's supposed to be a bit warmer this week - it's misty, very cloudy and drizzly today and still blimmin cold.  Having done everything needed this morning, I'm now sat in my recliner chair with a fleece blanket on my lap.  I didn't bother putting the washing on the line outside, just on the airer in the car port....I've just been out to feel it and it's as wet as it was first thing this morning, so it'll have to be brought indoors overnight.  I hate having wet washing cluttering up the place (it goes in the hallway until almost dry, then loosely folded in the airing cupboard to finish off).

There's a bit of pastry left over from Sunday's pie to use up, I think tomorrow I'll make some little deep filled apple tarts with a crumble topping, and a fruit cake.  Our visitor who's coming Wednesday is very partial to cakes with her coffee.  I'll also make the no-knead bread this week, and some potato farls for a weekend brunch.  I'm in a baking mood.  I'll also do a big slow cooker pot of homemade baked beans to portion up and freeze - I used to make them regularly but haven't done for ages, years in fact.  I'm in the mood for comfort food at the moment, a consequence of feeling cold and dreary grey skies.

One of the things on my list for this week is to delete a load of unnecessary, expired or old emails, texts and messages, and photos - they're all cluttering up my laptop and phone and probably slowing them down.  It's one of those boring jobs that keeps getting put off!  I also want to start filling in the End of Life planner, I'll need a few hours to do that I expect....not all in one go, I might try and do a bit every day.

Well that's one day I don't want to repeat

 Did we go for a drive in lovely unspoilt countryside yesterday?  Well, we certainly went for a long drive....but ended up driving through the centre of Taunton, it being Saturday it was practically gridlocked traffic.  We then finished up in a big retail park near the motorway....again, being Saturday, it was heaving.  Don't ask, not my choice!!!  Betty was not impressed, she doesn't like long drives, heavy traffic and very busy crowded places anymore than I do.  We then went home (which was my choice).  And the less said about that little outing, the better.  Sometimes I just feel like screaming.

Today I'm going to get rid of my frustrations by giving my bedroom a thorough vacuuming.  Husband normally does the hoovering - on a less than regular basis - which means only the middle of the rooms ever gets done 🙄

I'll do a bit of decluttering as well.

Financials, fish pie and bread

 Yesterday morning, whilst husband was out at the gym, I did some financial stuff.  I've been tracking all our supermarket spending - not on a spreadsheet, I do it the old fashioned way in a notebook (one of the several I brought home after clearing out Mum's room last November).  So far, we've spent less than usual, but I'm very sure I could do even better.....perhaps by reverse menu planning!  😂.  I'm kidding, I do that anyway - well, most of the time....it'll be ALL the time now.  I've also been rejigging the budget every time we get notification of one of our regular household direct debits going up.  So far, they've all gone up - not unexpected of course, but a bit depressing all the same.  Nothing ever goes down, does it?  Fortunately, our pensions and allowances will also be going up in April, so nothing to worry about with the budget, I'll just have to be a bit more careful until we get the increased incomes.

I made a fish pie for yesterday's dinner, using everything we already had in - smoked haddock and a stray lonely salmon fillet from the freezer, diced shallots from the Christmas veggies, frozen peas and one of the packets of readymade frozen cheese sauce we got in the Morrisons frozen cafe ingredients TGTG bag a few weeks ago.  The topping was frozen mash also from the TGTG bag.  I added lots of chopped fresh parsley - from the garden, in the old tin baby bath that my sister bought us as an anniversary present last year, which I've used as my herb garden.  The curly parsley and rosemary have survived the winter but I'll have to buy some new herb plants to fill the gaps where the other herbs died - the chives, flat leaf parsley, lemon thyme and basil.  I think the chives may well regrow and possibly the thyme, I know the basil won't.

The weather's turned a bit chillier again, so I'm not keen on going out much, well not walking anyway.  I'm yearning for some warmer weather - properly, going out without a coat and gloves, warm.  Daft really, it is only January after all.  I'm just fed up with feeling cold and cooped up indoors, I really don't like walking anywhere in cold weather though.  Seems like a long winter and I'm feeling a bit miserable, probably not helped by the funeral.

I've seen several recipes for no-knead bread recently (must be the in thing at the moment) and it's making me want to start baking my own bread again.....I might do that next week.  I stopped doing it because I was eating too much of it - there's nothing nicer than a slice of lovely chewy freshly baked bread with a crisp crunchy crust, slathered with butter and Marmite!  I need to make a cake as well, as our friend who postponed her visit is hoping to come next week, I'll probably make a fruit cake.

We've got no plans for this weekend....I suppose we could load Betty into the car, along with some water for her and a flask of coffee for us and go for a drive, haven't done that for a while.  There's no rain forecast, just a bit overcast, although only 6 or 7 degrees.

Beautiful send off

 The funeral service (a full funeral service and the chapel was packed) for my uncle was truly lovely, the live streaming was perfectly clear.  The service was conducted by a celebrant who had made several visits to my cousin and her 2 adult sons, he chatted to them and friends for hours apparently and built up a very comprehensive and personal picture of my uncle.  It was so nice to hear stories and anecdotes that were very familiar and true, rather than a completely impersonal service conducted by some random priest who obviously knew nothing about the deceased (I've been to a few of those and they're awful).  It was lovely to see my brother and sister in law there, along with some cousins I haven't seen for a few years.  I was surprised and pleased to see the flower arrangement I'd chosen had been placed on top of the coffin, along with the family one - I hadn't requested that, it was a happy chance.  I found the whole service surprisingly emotional - I think it struck home quite sharply that my family is shrinking rapidly, along with everyone else's of course.  It also reminded me that, although we're a close family, we're not geographically close - we're all scattered around the country.  And for that reason, I don't often see them nowadays.  Such a pity - when we were children and teenagers, we all lived close to each other, we had regular trips out together (my Granddad loved to take his grandchildren out), meals and parties in each other's homes, and us cousins regularly played together and had sleepovers.  And then we all grew up and moved far and wide.  But that's the way it goes I guess.

We went to town yesterday morning, I wanted to go in a few charity shops to get some toys for Betty - there's no point in buying her brand new expensive things, although she loves playing with them (cuddly toys especially), she doesn't play nicely or cuddle them - she's only interested in 'killing' them (shaking them around vigorously) and then chewing them to bits.  I only allow her one at a time, for 10 mins max, and then have to take them off her before she rips their arms or legs off and pulls all the stuffing out.  She does give them up quite readily if I offer her a treat.  However, I only managed to get two toys - I've come to the conclusion that the charity shops in Minehead are all quite expensive - I'm not paying a fiver for a secondhand teddy that Betty will destroy very quickly.  There's a big charity shop (Cancer Research I think) in Bridgwater that has a large metal cage bin full of cuddly toys, at very cheap prices - incidentally, they also do books at 2 for £1, I've bought loads when we lived there - so the next time we go to Bridgwater we'll go in there and stock up on both cuddly toys and books!  We have in the past bought Betty a couple of those tough supposedly indestructible Kong toys, but that's also a waste of money as she's just not that interested in them....unless they're the ones you can hide treats in, and then she gets fed up and abandons them if she can't get the treats out.

The large chicken I bought for husband's last Sunday roast is still going strong - he and Betty have had some in some form or another for 4 days and there's still quite a lot left - one complete breast and all the bits underneath and off the bones.  I've frozen it now, along with the carcass for stock, as I expected husband and Betty would like a change from chicken!  I did a sort of midweek roast yesterday - sausages for husband along with veggies, a Yorkshire pud and onion sauce, just the veggies, Yorkie and sauce for me.

We had a really hard frost Wednesday night, the car was totally iced up in the morning, took ages to clear it off.  No frost last night though, weak sunshine in the afternoon following a bit of mist in the morning.  Sunny spells again today and tomorrow and 8 degrees.....have you noticed how the days are drawing out a bit now?  Especially in the afternoons, it's now nearing 5 pm before the sun goes down.  Soon be Spring!

Thank you everyone for all your comments, as always.  

And finally...

 Still on the subject of cremations - wow, this blog's not been full of light and joy the past few days, has it?!  I promise I'll get off the subject and move onto something happier very soon.  This is a link to a local to us funeral directors, who offer cremation only in a local crematorium Cremation Only | South West Cremation Services.  The page shows exactly what's included for the price of £880, and they collect the body.  I think it's a really well thought out and respectful package, and an amazing price.  I expect every crematorium has their own arrangements and pricing structure, you'd have to contact your local one for their particular details.  Regarding the End of Life Planner book, I got it on Amazon, there's loads on there and they're not all so rudely funny, some are quite serious!  Since my siblings (and some of husband's relatives) share my sense of humour, I know they'll find it funny too.

The bee - I had the back door open for the hour I was out in the garden, so I guess it could have come in that way, or indeed through any of the windows I also had open.  I suppose the (relatively) warmish temperature and sunshine could have woken it up from hibernation early, and it then must have flown inside the house and hidden itself away somewhere for another little snooze.  Poor Betty, it took her ages to calm down enough to go to sleep, she was really quite agitated and still kept scouting all around the house sniffing everywhere.....I did wonder whether perhaps the bee had stung her, but looked inside her mouth and couldn't see anything, so I don't think it did.  I think it was the loud buzzing sound that scared her so much, she is quite reactive to noises.

Well, I nearly stuck quite rigidly to my shopping list.....I got just a few extra things - 2 packs of half price pork mince, a box of cup soups that husband wanted, and 2 packs of puff pastry that were yellow stickered to a third of the original price, the mince and pastry went straight in the freezer.  I did notice that there were quite a few price rises again, 10 or 20p on some things, 40p on a couple of others - all these were on things we regularly buy, so I know what the price is.  As this is a year of saving up for Needs and Wants, I'm determined to keep a rein on our supermarket spending and only buy what we need.

I had to laugh at something Joy said on her Slimming World blog on Monday - apparently there's a trend right now for Reverse Meal Planning.  In a nutshell, this is doing an inventory of what you have in and then planning a menu around that.  Erm, isn't that what all us like-minded bloggers and readers have been doing for years and years?!  But each new generation thinks they've discovered a new way of doing things, don't they.

Cremations, gardening(!) and an early morning surprise

 With regard to direct cremation, I've found from looking into it previously that if you approach one of the companies who advertise in the media, they charge from around £1300 upwards for a basic cremation only, from what I've seen.  However, you don't have to do that, you can approach the crematorium direct, bypassing the intermediaries, and they will often do a basic cremation only for considerably less (depending on each individual crematorium I guess) - I've seen on a couple of local crem websites fees of around £800-900.  So it pays to shop around I suppose.  We have funeral insurances in place that will cover these fees, and with a fair bit leftover, so our relatives won't have to worry about the costs and will have a sum left for themselves.  It gives us peace of mind to know that our relatives will have nothing to organise (beyond ringing the crematorium to notify them in the first instance) and won't incur any costs.  I've just ordered an End of Life Planner book, which is hilariously titled "Oh Shit I'm Dead, Now What?!" - sorry if you're offended but it really appeals to my sense of humour!  It's got 72 pages with sections for all relevant information to be filled in, so your relatives can check out everything they need to know in one place without having to search for it.

I had a lovely hour in the garden yesterday, it was intermittently sunny and warm enough to be out there with no coat on, just my thick fleece hoody and a pair of gardening gloves.  Well, leggings and boots also of course 😂.  The washing was blowing gently on the line, Betty was with me sniffing all around the garden (husband saw a mouse out there a couple of days ago, she could obviously smell it).  I moved some of the bulb pots around, putting them in their flowering positions where they can be easily seen from the windows - they've all been up against the house wall up till now.  I also did some weeding - some of the weeds are growing quite rapidly already.  It was really pleasant, although I was glad to come inside for a cuppa after the hour, my nose and ears were quite cold.

We're going shopping today, I've finished my shopping list - which is a bit longer than I first anticipated but is not a full weekly shop.  And I've told husband I'm determined to stick to the list and he is not to keep adding random things to the trolley! (he has a habit of doing that).

We've just been told my Uncle's funeral tomorrow will be video linked, so at least I can watch the proceedings and be there in spirit, which I'm pleased about.

Oh, and in other news, we had a queen bumblebee walking, flying and buzzing round the house in the early hours of this morning.  Betty heard it first and it terrified her, she woke me up in a highly agitated state.  We managed to catch it and put it outside safely, but poor Betty took ages to settle, consequently so did I.  Where it came from I don't know.

Not a real job! Bulbs, Colcannon and funerals

 I dare say some people do indeed give to charity anonymously - or without crowing about it, anyway.  I still fail to understand how the likes of footballers enormous wages can be justified - once they've bought a couple of huge mansions, plus maybe a holiday home abroad, and a fleet of cars (why? you can only drive one at a time), and loads of designer clothes etc, what else is there to do with the money if they don't donate some of it?  And how can kicking a ball around be worth so much anyway?  It's not like it's a real job, is it?  Before people jump on me, I know I'm taking a very simplistic view of things, it just annoys me that's all.  There are so many people in jobs which are difficult and really count (and I'm not talking about politicians!!  More like the caring professions) who are paid nowhere near the celebrity types, and yet do so much good and make such a difference to people's lives - like saving lives for a start.  It's all so skew-whiff. 

Anyway, enough of that, things will never change.  

It's definitely felt warmer the last day or two, and the wind that was bitingly cold has dropped.  We've moved some of the Spring bulb pots round to the front garden - that gets more sunshine (when the sun's out!) than the back garden at this time of year, the sun isn't high enough in the sky to cover much of the back garden as yet.  The ones I moved are narcissus and hyacinths and all are showing lots of leaf growth, hopefully being in a sunnier and warmer spot will encourage them to flower earlier than in the back garden.

I made Colcannon for dinner yesterday, using some of the frozen mashed potato with fried shallots, shredded cabbage and 2 small bacon medallions that were loitering in the freezer, I finely diced and fried them with the cabbage and shallots in a mixture of oil and butter.  I tipped the lot, including the buttery juices, into the mash and stirred it all in with some black pepper and sage, the little bit of bacon was enough to give it a lovely savoury flavour.  We had tenderstem broccoli on the side and husband had some of Sunday's chicken with his, no chicken for me but a sprinkle of grated cheese on the mash.  There's some leftover roasted root veggies from Sunday in the fridge, I'll chop and mix them with peas and pasta and a cheese sauce for a pasta bake tonight, husband can have more chicken with his.  Egg fried rice for tomorrow's dinner.....probably the last of the chicken (Betty will have whatever's left) with it for husband, and some tinned tuna for me.

Regarding funerals, husband and I discussed our wishes a few years ago and we both decided to have direct cremations, with no service.  I know funerals are for the living - the family and friends left behind - but my view has always been what's the point of spending thousands?  My family know our wishes and are in full agreement, we've told some of husband's family but not all.  His family are very fractured, not close at all (it's a large family) and there are always fallings out going on with different members at any one time.  I know there will most likely be ructions about it from parts of husband's family, but they'll just have to get used to the idea.  If husband dies first, I'm not going to be bullied into having a 'funeral' just because they say so.  Our wishes are on paper in black and white and that's that.  Since we hardly have any contact with most of husband's family, I don't think they are entitled to a say.  Those we do maintain contact with (his youngest daughter, one brother and 2 sisters) know and accept our decision.

They have too much money

 Morning all, thank you for all the comments on the last post.  Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks all these so-called celebrities are famous for no good reason!  Since I don't watch any reality shows (which appear to be aimed at young people anyway), I'm largely oblivious as to who all these people are.  I saw in the paper that some apparently famous footballer (I don't follow football either so couldn't even tell you who he plays for) is applying for a transfer to some foreign club, where he will likely earn in the region of - wait for it - £300,000 A WEEK!  (I think it was a week, it may have been a month, don't shoot me!).  Are they having a laugh?!  It seems to me that all of these vastly overpaid celebrities could do so much good by donating just one week's income to some good cause - a charity or a disaster appeal.  Perhaps they ought to have a clause in their contract to that effect - with that vast amount of 'earnings' they wouldn't even miss it.  Now there's a thought!!

I've just been ordering funeral flowers for my Uncle, and was shocked to see just how expensive they are nowadays.....if that's not taking advantage of people's grief, I don't know what is.  The last couple of funerals we went to had requested charity donations instead of flowers, so it's been quite a while since we had to order flowers.  Sadly, the funeral isn't being video linked, which is a pity.  Still, I'm sure my brother (who is attending to represent our family) will fill us in afterwards and take photos of the flowers and tributes.  My Uncle was very sociable, popular and had a wide circle of friends, he and his wife were very active in the community (and used to run the post office) so I know the funeral will be very well attended.

Just had our new Housing Officer call round, she's about the 4th or 5th one we've had since we've been here.....this one is apparently the permanent one, she's been on maternity leave for the past year but is now back to work full time, all the others were just filling in.  She confirmed that our tenancy has been made permanent now, which is fantastic.  The problem with most private rental tenancies is that you are always at the mercy of the landlord, so it's so reassuring to know we now have a home for life.

The meal plan I did yesterday is incorporating a lot of the Christmas veggies and leftovers I've frozen, so only a small top up shop required this week.  

Sunshine! A book list, and what's the point of the Kardashians?

 It's much warmer today, I noticed it as soon as I got up, although there's still quite a chilly breeze blowing in the garden when we let Betty out for her first wee.  I've done a wash load and for the first time in ages am actually putting it out on the line - and there should be a good chance of it drying, with the warmer temperature, breeze blowing and sunshine forecast - the sun is currently struggling to come out.  The church bells are ringing and there's some blue sky showing, a lovely morning.

A relatively quiet and easy day today - the veggies to prep for our roast dinner (a tray of roasted root veggies, Savoy cabbage and cauli cheese), a bit of housework, doing a menu plan for the week and a small top-up shopping list for midweek.  I want to have a good look around the garden (now it's warmer!) and see what's coming up - I can see a few small green buds beginning to show on some of the shrubs.  Most of the planted up bulb pots have lots of leaf growth, I want to move some of them around to the front garden.  Ooh, the sun is fully out now, how lovely.

As some of you already do, I'm going to start keeping a list of all the books I read during the year - I don't read as much as I used to, but still get through quite a lot of (mostly) library books.  It'll be good to have a list of books read - I often get books from the library and then find when I start on them that I've already read them.

I'm having problems with my laptop, it won't hold a charge anymore, it'll only work if I have the cable plugged in all the time.  If the cable falls out the laptop shuts down immediately, blimmin nuisance.  I expect I can buy a new battery (will have to check), so that's another thing to be added to the Needs/Wants list.  Still, first world problem, there are worse things! (such as a completely destroyed home in a wild fire).  I read in the paper this morning that a few 'celebrities' such as Kim Kardashian and Sylvester Stallone, were fined in the last couple of years for ignoring water saving measures - apparently they're only supposed to water their gardens twice a week for just 8 minutes.  Well, they've been ignoring the rules because they can afford the fines!!  Totally ignoring the irresponsibility of using up precious water just to keep their lawn looking green.  So, if it's true (obviously not everything in the papers is), they can hardly complain about firefighters running out of water to save their homes.

For our American readers......what is the point of the Kardashians anyway?  Why are they famous? (other than having a couple of famous fathers).  What do they actually DO?  Besides prancing around in ridiculous flesh-baring exceptionally tight outfits designed to get their pictures in the papers.  They don't act or sing - as far as I know - so I struggle to see exactly why they're 'celebrities'.

Getting warmer! And a surprise present

 The temperature starts rising as from tomorrow - hoo-blimmin-ray!  It's forecast to be 9 deg, positively balmy in comparison to the hovering around freezing it's been for the past week or so.  I'm fed up with being cold - although we have our heating on pretty much all the time, and are fortunate that we can actually afford it, regardless of no winter fuel allowance, my fingers always feel cold.  My feet are warm, as I wear thick slipper boots - bought from M&S 2 or 3 years ago and one of the best things ever.

Husband got a belated birthday present today - a parcel left on the front doorstep (the delivery person didn't knock!), husband just happened to notice it when he came back from walking Betty.  It was from our American friend who postponed her visit yesterday due to the weather, she must have gone out immediately to the post office and paid for next day delivery.  It's a lovely Head Gardener mug, a delicious looking decorated chocolate cake and some money in a card!!  How lucky is he!  He suggested we go out for a meal with the money, nice of him but I'm not so keen, I find I'm not usually too impressed with the vegetarian offerings - they're either very bland and boring, or I think I could make them better myself at home.  I said perhaps he could put it towards another raised bed for veggies - that's another thing on our Needs/Wants list.  He agreed and was pleased with the idea.

We bought a large chicken which I'll cook for him tomorrow, and then see how many more meals I can make with it for him after that.  I'll have my homemade nut roast, and all the usual Sunday veggies.  I've been googling for more veggie meal ideas, we've got such a lot of veg at the mo, left over from the cheap supermarket Christmas veg (mostly frozen now), and of course the huge catering size bag of mashed potato we got from that TGTG offer.  I've got several tins of salmon and tuna, so fishcakes come to mind straight away.  I might also have a go at making some potato farl/pancakes, perhaps with mashed cooked carrot and grated cheese added.  Root veg mash of course, to top fish pies or a cottage pie made with some of the roast chicken.  Oh and colcannon, to use up some of the cabbage and shallots too - I'd love that by itself with a sprinkle of grated cheese, husband could have it with bacon or sausages - or more of the chicken.  Loads of ideas coming to mind now, veggies are so versatile.

Nothing very interesting on TV tonight, now that Strictly's finished - loads of game shows, which neither of us particularly like, or films we've seen dozens of times.....the TV programmers obviously think everyone goes out on a Saturday night!  Husband has recently discovered loads of films and box sets on iPlayer and ITVX, having got me to do the necessary registering online, so we'll probably have a look through those and find something to watch.  We don't have Netflix, Disney+ or Prime or any of those other things that require a monthly subscription, that's something I've never considered a necessity.  We might do in the future, however.

Not so icy, healthy eating and husband did an oops

 I messaged our friend yesterday and asked if she still wanted to come visit us today, in view of the forecast -4 deg and ice....she replied that she'd rather postpone it.  Very sensible of her, particularly as it's a half hour journey along a road that is notorious for traffic accidents in bad weather.  Whilst J is a good driver (she's American and used to lots of driving), she confessed that as she gets older (she's 74) she is starting to lose a bit of confidence.  We'll rearrange it for a couple of weeks' time.

Having said that, despite the yellow warning predictions, it's not actually as icy here as was forecast - very cold still, but only mildly frosty.  Whereas yesterday the car was totally iced up, couldn't even open the doors.  Husband's gone off to the gym, he didn't have any trouble opening the car doors and the windscreen wasn't overly iced over.

It's bed linen changing day, although I won't be washing the linens for another couple of days as the forecast isn't very good for getting washing dry for the next 2 days, it starts to get a bit warmer from Sunday, apparently.  These coverless duvets aren't very good for washing and drying in the winter, it's almost impossible to get them dry without a tumble dryer, so I've been putting duvet covers on them, which rather defeats the object!  But at least I can get the covers dry easier and quicker than a whole duvet.

I gave my hair a light trim after my shower this morning, it was getting a bit shaggy.  I can't do the back though, nor can husband really, his hands are very shaky.  I must get round to asking on the local social media pages if there's a mobile hairdresser in the area - I really don't want to pay salon prices, I don't consider that an essential.

I'm enjoying getting back to normal healthy eating, with fewer carbs and lots of veggies, I've had no bread for a couple of days and am feeling the benefits of that already, less bloating and joint aches easing off.  We had prawn and veg fried rice yesterday, using brown basmati rice.....less rice than usual but more veggies, it was lovely.  Today we're having fish - salt & pepper dusted cod - with a small jacket spud and green veg and some herby butter.

Husband's balance is not very good at the moment - he has some days where it seems worse than usual.  He was sitting in his armchair yesterday and dropped the remote control (I think he dozed off, surprise surprise), he leant forward to pick it up and tumbled out of the armchair onto the floor.  I was on the phone at the time and had to rush in to see what he was doing - luckily it was just his pride that was hurt.  Also fortunately, he was able to lift himself up by holding onto the armchair - he's a hefty bloke and I'd find it difficult to pick him up.  On the subject of his heftiness, he's doing quite well on the diet front.....he's cut down drastically on his snacking between meals, has swapped to half fat (from full fat) milk in his teas and now only has 1 slice of toast for breakfast instead of the 3 he was having before.  Well done him, I hope he can keep it up.

Weather!

 When I started blogging, husband didn't object to me including him but didn't want to be identified by name....fair enough.  Hence why I refer to him as 'Husband'.  He enjoyed his birthday steak, which he cooked himself, I did the accompaniments - he'd requested battered onion rings, mushrooms cooked in butter and olive oil, peas and coleslaw, he didn't want any chips.  I had 2 individual Yorkshire puddings stuffed with tuna & cheese melt, with mushrooms and coleslaw on the side.  He decided he did want a pud after all - apple crumble and custard.

We had a tiny little flurry of snow again yesterday afternoon, just for a few minutes, didn't settle as the ground is so wet, we've had a fair bit of rain.  It's still really chilly, thank goodness for a lovely warm home.  I'm sick of the cold, dreary and rainy weather, but there's plenty of winter still to come!  And I'm so thankful we don't have the terrible wildfires and winds the US California states are getting - so many houses destroyed and thousands evacuated, the sheer scale of it just doesn't seem possible.  So I really have no reason to moan and I must remember that.  I can't imagine how they must be feeling.

Got to nip to town this morning, not that I'm looking forward to going out in the cold.  At least it's sunny, albeit weak sunshine, and dry.  Husband took Betty on a short walk just round the block and said it's quite icy and slippery.

Plans progressing and armchair exploring

 We got the 2nd thing off our Needs/Wants list yesterday, a small relatively cheap thing... nevertheless it's another item ticked off the list.  Hopefully we'll be getting the 3rd item next month, then it'll be a big ticket item in March when it's the first of our bonus money months.  

Husband's birthday today, he's going to the gym this morning (good for him!  I thought he'd have cried off it today).  He's having his steak dinner treat tonight, I'll probably have a jacket spud with tuna cheese melt.  He said he didn't want a pudding, which suits me as I'm not really a pud lover.  We have plenty of fruit if he does decide he wants something sweet.

Our friend rang yesterday to say she'd like to come round Friday morning, she was our first visitor not long after we moved in a year ago, we've seen her a handful of times since, she's one of our neighbours from our old house.  We'll have lots to chat about, she says she's got plenty of gossip!  A small part of me cringed when she (laughingly) said that - it made me realise that I don't miss living in the old place at all and am not particularly interested in what our old neighbours are getting up to.  And yet when we lived there I thought I liked it....I was just kidding myself really.  Now I don't have to, I genuinely love it here.

We've already had 3 people saying they want to come down and visit in the spring - husband's daughter and son in law, my sister and our lovely friends from Kent.  When the weather improves a bit, we want to start getting out and exploring the area a bit more, so we have new places to go with our visitors.  I'm sure there are hidden gems not too far away, although we live on the edge of Exmoor we've hardly seen much of it.  I might do some armchair exploring on the internet today, to give me some ideas.  More snow is forecast today in the south, but it looks like we'll escape it, thank goodness.  Apparently it's supposed to be a bit warmer next week.... again I say roll on Spring!

Rejigging the budget and a definite plan

 I've been having another look at our budget and our Needs/Wants list for this year, and rejigging things a bit.  As my Carers Allowance, husband's Attendance Allowance and his state pension are paid every 4 weeks, rather than calendar monthly (so 13 payments a year instead of 12), every year we actually get a month where we get 2 of each, rather than one, which is really helpful.  Even more helpful is the fact that it's not all three in the same month, they're spread out over the year, so we get three months where we have a bonus amount, if you like.  Whereas husband's 3 small private pensions and my private pension are calendar monthly.

I've written all the dates down on the calendar and worked out when our 'bonus' months are, so we can then plan to get the more expensive things on our Needs/Wants list during those months.  So now we have a plan and timescale of things, it'll be easier - well, more encouraging - for us to stick to our budget and know what we're doing and when.

Thank you for all your recent comments.  Janet, yes we do have a Lidl in town - I don't tend to do much shopping in there, they seem to be a bit more chaotic and haphazard in their shelf stocking and they don't always have the things I want, which means I then have to go to another store.  However, I'll give it another go.  Unfortunately, though, I don't like their version of the latte instant coffees at all.  Never mind, there are others around that are acceptable.  We're going to have more days out this coming year, and if we happen to be near an Aldi then we'll pop in and see if they've got my favourite coffees (and our other favourite things) in - if they have, then we'll stock up!  Incidentally, I had a reply from Aldi, which was pretty much useless - they didn't answer my queries, glossed over my complaints, contradicted themselves in 2 consecutive sentences and finished up by breezily saying 'See you soon!'. 😒

It's sunny again this morning but still bitterly cold, more snow is forecast for the South but looking at the weather map, it appears we won't be getting any.  We obviously had a little flurry during the night, some of my bulb pots in the back garden have a light dusting of snow, although there's none on the ground.  Loads of my bulbs are coming through now, I'm really looking forward to seeing them in flower.

Peace!

 For the first time in what seems like weeks, there is complete and utter peace here, it's bliss.  No blasted TV on, I haven't even got the radio on, I'm just enjoying the silence!  Husband has gone to the gym, his first visit in about 2 1/2 weeks.  I've got a few housework jobs to do this morning, then I want to get stuck into some budgeting and looking up some things on the internet this afternoon.

Yesterday we went to Aldi, for our usual monthly shop there - it was going to be today, but husband wanted to go yesterday 'as it would be quieter'.  Was it heck as like -  the roads were reasonably quiet (people were staying in because of the bad weather I guess, it was raining heavily in parts and some of the roads were partially flooded) but when we got to the shop, I was irritated to find that it was heaving - and lots and lots of children.  I loathe supermarket shopping when it's busy - at least there aren't many kids around during term weeks.  Once again, to my annoyance, there was none of my favourite latte sachets - we asked a staff member to check out the back, he came back and said there weren't any in the stock room.  So we asked to speak to a manager - I wanted to get to the bottom of why they haven't had any for our last 3 visits.  The manager checked and said it wasn't discontinued and there was no reason why it shouldn't have come in on the delivery....."but yet you have none" I said.  He just shrugged, apologised and could offer no explanation as to why.  Back home I checked on the Aldi website - he was right, it isn't discontinued, nor is their lactose-free milk which they also haven't had in stock for months.  The Ancient Grains bread, however, is discontinued.  So I've sent a message to Aldi, asking why these products aren't being stocked, and also why their staff are clueless as to the reasons.  I also pointed out that since 3 of our favourite products, which we buy a month's worth of each time, haven't been available for months now, there seems little point in us making the long journey to shop there.  I'm not hopeful of an encouraging reply, but we shall see what the response is, if any.  It's a pity they don't do home delivery - not that we would be any more successful in getting the products, but at least we wouldn't have the 30-35 min journey each way.

It's bright sunshine and a lovely blue sky this morning, but there's a bitterly cold strong wind again and more rain is forecast.  I've got a wash on but won't bother putting it on the line, it'll have to go on the airer in the car port.  

My new glasses should be ready for collection in the next day or 2, and we have a friend coming to see us one day this week - unfortunately, she has a habit of just sending a text or email to say she's on her way, without checking that we'll even be in, so let's hope we will be on whatever day she decides to come!  In her defence, she does have a very busy life, so clearly just slots us in when she finds she's got a spare hour or 2.

Well, that sunshine was brief - it's now gone and it's chucking it down.  Roll on Spring!!

Funerals and birthdays

 I am feeling much better now thank you, both virus and aching limbs gone, although I still have the rotator cuff pain but that'll go eventually.  

This morning we went to Minehead harbour for a look at the sea:-

Yes it was grey and dull and the sea is practically indistinguishable from the dreary sky, but it's our sea and we like it!  It's so lovely to live just a few minutes drive from the sea....even though it's not the beautiful sandy beaches and lovely clear blue seas of Cornwall, we still love it.  There are some sandy beaches, interspersed with rocky ones, in fact there's quite a lot of them.  We're not too keen on walking on the beaches nowadays, whether it be sand or rocks - with husband's balance issues and my bad back, hips and left knee, we're liable to fall over....and neither of us is really capable of picking the other up!  Fortunately, there are lovely wide (and flat!) promenades alongside most of the beaches, which makes walking much easier, and plenty of seats or even walls to sit on.  We're never going to take it for granted living where we do.

I've decided we're not going to my uncle's funeral, much as I'd like to - it's certainly too far for husband to drive, and too much out of their way for my brother and SiL to come and collect me, they'll have a 3.5 hour drive as it is without a diversion to pick me up.  The nearest point for them to pick me up from would be Exeter, which is too far for husband - I wouldn't be happy about him driving back home by himself, and certainly not about him coming back down to collect me later on in the dark.  I've been in touch with my cousin and said brother will be representing us at the funeral, and hopefully we can watch it on Zoom.  That's the problem with our family and extended family now (and no doubt loads of people have the same problem) - we're all scattered around the country, miles and miles apart, our lives having taken us all in different directions.  Still, it is what it is, thank goodness for phones and internet allowing us all to maintain contact.  I can't imagine what it must have been like for families before today's technology - although I guess more families would have remained pretty close geographically.

There's been a lot of media hype about the coming bad weather later today - I think down here we're forecast to possibly have a couple of flakes of snow around 5 pm, which will immediately be followed by rain so the 2 flakes won't stick around!  I hope you all stay safe and warm, and don't go out unless you really have to if you're in an area likely to have significant snow.

It's husband's 74th birthday on Wednesday (wow, when did I get to be married to an old man?! 😂).  We've agreed that I'll give him some money towards the new TV he wants later in the year, which is one of the things on our Needs & Wants list.  It's a Want, not a Need (there's nothing wrong with our present TV), he wants a slightly bigger screen and there's something else about this new TV that he keeps going into raptures over....I don't know what, it's all tech stuff that is way over my head and I'm not interested enough to find out about.  I just hope when he gets it, that he can work it.....😏.  I've just made him a sticky gingerbread cake, it's one of his favourites and is the sort of cake that gets better with time, so it should be just right by his birthday - although he probably won't wait that long to try it.  I've also bought him a nice thick sirloin steak, also his favourite - but he'll have to cook it himself, I can't abide the smell or sight of meat cooking now.  Anyway, if he cooks it (which he is perfectly capable of), then I can't be blamed for it not being the right stage of done-ness!  I will cook all the sides for him though.

A 24-hr virus, and shot ourselves in the foot

 I had some sort of 24-hour virus thing yesterday, started feeling rough with a splitting headache, nausea and feverishness in the afternoon, by 7 pm I just had to go to bed.  I felt really feverish, one minute I was freezing cold with the quilt pulled up around my ears, within half an hour I was so hot and sweaty I had to throw the quilt off....it went on like that most of the night.  I finally fell into an exhausted sleep around 4 ish, and slept until about 08.30 am.  Fortunately, I feel much better now.

Still aching from moving furniture and dragging around a very heavy and unwieldy carpet, in fact it's worse today.  I have a rotator cuff injury to my left shoulder, it was getting a lot better but now it's got much worse again, I'm in agony and have very limited movement in my left upper arm....it'll get better again in due course, it's a case of grin and bear it.  Laying the carpet the other day highlighted not only our lack of strength and stamina, but also husband's worsening cognitive abilities.  He had difficulty working out which way the carpet should be laid - I could see fairly easily and told him, he disagreed with me (of course!) and insisted it was the other way....the easiest thing was to go along with it (he gets very cross if I disagree with him!) and turn it around, until he could then see for himself that it was the wrong way round.  When it came to cutting around the corner of the fitted wardrobe, he got into a bit of a pickle, his mind just couldn't grasp how to do it (he'd have done it easily years ago) without my help.

I've been doing a budget for this year, which is showing a big increase in lots of areas.  So far we've had notification of Betty's pet insurance, our house contents insurance, my mobile phone contract, the water rates and electricity all going up - the insurances in particular have quite significant increases.  And of course our rent and service charges will be going up in April, not yet had notification of how much.  

We did shoot ourselves in the foot by not buying another house when we sold our last one in the early Noughties.  At that time the housing market was very buoyant and quick, we sold the house literally 2 days after putting it on the market, for the full asking price, which took us by surprise.  As the market was so fast-moving, we just couldn't get another house quickly, several houses we'd made viewing arrangements for got sold to other buyers before we even got to view them.  So we had to rent privately - it was meant to be a temporary arrangement, however, we ended up staying there 10 years!  We really liked the house and area and would have been happy to buy it, the letting agent kept tempting us to stay by stating the landlord would be willing to sell up soon....but he never did.  Although we'd made a significant profit on the sale of our last house and initially put that money into savings for a deposit on our next house, we ended up using it on other things once we realised we'd be staying put.  So we became trapped in the renting cycle.  If we had bought another house, with a smaller mortgage, we'd have been mortgage-free by now.....instead of which, we are now paying rent for the rest of our lives.  And the monthly rent, plus service charge, is a large chunk out of our income and always will be.  Still, it is what it is, we're not destitute by any means but the fact is we'd be so much better off if we weren't renting.  We don't of course have all the maintenance costs of owning a house, nor the buildings insurance (only the contents), so that's something good.

Although, as I've said recently, we no longer have the costs associated with the caravan (site fees, annual boiler service and maintenance costs, insurance, fuel to get there and back), everything else is going up so much that it's taking a lot out of those monthly savings, so I'm still having to make economies where I can.

Done but boy do we ache!

 The new carpet is laid in husband's room and the furniture all back in, it took all morning, we started at 9 am and finished around 1.45 pm.  Taking everything out took a while - at least we both have fitted wardrobes so that was one huge heavy bit of furniture we didn't have to empty and move.  His chest of drawers is antique pine and weighs a ton....thankfully, he's got a wooden trolley thing on wheels (he made it himself) so it was just a case of him lifting one side of the drawers whilst I slid the trolley thing underneath - it was still heavy and awkward to move though, the castors on the trolley wanted to go in different directions.  Anyway, we did it.  Although the room is quite small - 7'4" by 11'6" or thereabouts, the carpet was a foot bigger - the carpet was still surprisingly heavy and very unwieldy to move around, we did struggle with it whilst trying to lay it and cut off the excess.  We got it done in the end, and the furniture put back, without too many injuries or swear words, and with Betty getting in the way trying to 'help' - she wanted to inspect and sniff everything.  We both just collapsed for the afternoon - well, after I'd got lunch and made a fish pie for dinner.  We're aching all over today, understandably, so won't be doing anything much, we need time to recover.  We won't be getting the carpet for my room until later in the year, but as my room is bigger, we'll be having it laid by the carpet firm, it's too big a job for us.  Husband has always laid new carpets in all our houses, but he admits it's too much like hard work now and beyond his capabilities, with his health problems, he's agreed his bedroom carpet is the last one he'll ever lay.  We are now having to come to terms with our limitations - I'm willing to give most things a go, as is husband, but we simply don't have the strength or stamina anymore and every manual job now takes twice as long and really takes it out of us.

We will be going to the tip today, that's something we do need to do, there's a fair bit of stuff now cluttering up the carport, including the big cardboard inner tube from the carpet and all the offcuts, plus the old rug and some excess junk from husband's room, such as a bagful of tangled fairy lights that I didn't even know were in his room.  Betty was desperate to play with the cardboard tube but I wasn't going to let her - she'd only tear it to bits and I didn't want to have to pick up loads of lumps of soggy chewed cardboard.

Most of the excess Christmas food - the large pork pie, chocolates, the rich fruit cake I made, e.g. - has been eaten now, so we're now ready to get back to normal healthy eating, which I'm actually really looking forward to.  Whilst eating rich carby or snacky stuff is nice to a certain extent, it's definitely not to be done for any length of time, my body has had enough and is crying out for healthy light stuff, fruit and veggies, Greek yogurt, eggs, fish and brown rice.  I'll be staying off even sourdough bread for a while too, my guts and joints need to get back to normal.

HNY!! And first thing ticked off

 Happy New Year everyone!  Thank you all for your support, care and friendship last year, and the many laughs you gave me, and I hope for good health and happiness (and some good fortune!) for everyone this coming year.

Well, we've already crossed one item off the 'Needs and Wants' list for 2025 - went to the carpet shop yesterday and bought a room size remnant, just the right size and colour for husband's bedroom, and cost less than we were expecting (had budgeted) to pay.  We're going to lay it today - husband's room is quite small so we should be able to manage between us, with some cursing and a few bruises no doubt 😂  The hardest thing will probably be clearing the room out first, and then dragging everything back in.  Husband's got one of those knee carpet stretcher things, he's had it for years.....however, typically for him, he can't find it in his overcluttered shed!  I've already identified a few things in his (very cluttered) bedroom that can go to charity shops or the tip.  Husband has enough shoes to open his own shoe shop, I reckon, he's got probably twice as many as me, several pairs of which he never wears, so some of those can go for a start.

I'm really pleased about ticking the first box, that's a great start to the year.  Just 9 more things to go....well, I say 9, husband has come up with another thing he wants added to the list which, to be fair, is a legitimate addition.

I made a cheese & shallot tart, using bought puff pastry, for yesterday's dinner, I put chopped bacon on half of it for husband.  We had some airfried chips with it, first time we've had chips for a while, it was lovely.  I went to bed around 10.30, reading for a while....husband stayed up till just gone midnight.  The neighbours' (behind us) big family party was practically silent, I didn't hear a thing until around 1 am when people started leaving, loudly laughing, saying prolonged goodbyes and starting up their cars, which all took about half an hour, it bothered Betty more than me.  After that we went back to sleep for the rest of the night.