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.