Friday

 Today's garden happy - the great Spot The Peppers game.  How many can you see?

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Friday.  First of all, I salvaged some comments from the spam bin last night and I think I have answered them all.  Sorry I didn't spot them sooner. 
Sue H, Blogger seems to focus on spamming your lovely messages in particular.  Grrrr.

Yesterday was a rather dull day all through until late-ish afternoon when out popped the sun and it was all absolutely lovely!  It's a much more promising start to the day today so fingers crossed.  
I gather we are due for a heatwave next week - in our moderate UK terms, anyway.  I've ordered a couple of fans from Amazon as the ones I have are now very old and rattly and they should come on Monday so I'll be all set.

Yesterday passed pretty much according to plan although I decided not to go swimming.  I did an extra online thingy instead.  It was a great old catch up chat with Chris in the morning and the evening Zoom thing was so interesting.  It lasted an hour and could have gone on twice that time.

Today starts with Slimming World although it will be shorter than usual one, just a register and weigh, because poor Jen has Covid - again!  M and I will do the necessary behind 'the desk' and then people will go.  Her daughter is coming to set up the technology and log us in, etc, so fingers crossed for no blips.

I will definitely have a swim today seeing as I missed yesterday.  The bag's all ready and I just have to pick it up and set off.

Between those two, I must get the house tidy for the cleaners - they wouldn't mind a bit of a mess but I would mind them having to tidy rather than clean.  I don't have then to tidy up after me!  :-)

That's today.  I'm looking forward to it.  What are you planning for today?  xx

Thursday

 Today's garden happy.  Poor light but they look so pretty.

Good morning, everyone.  It's a dull start to the day again with quite a breeze blowing but Beeb says it will cheer up.  I hope so - my fingers are cold at the moment.

Yesterday was, as hoped, a quiet and restful day, apart from a good hour with Lindsey for personal training, which really went very well indeed.  Next week is the last of the current block so we were thinking about where to go next.  I very much take her advice on this so it will be interesting to see what she comes up with.

Apart from that, I did very little of any note so today's blog will be shorter!

Today starts at ten when Chris comes over for coffee and chat.  We haven't been able to meet for a while so there's lots to catch up on and I'm looking forward to a good old natter.
I'm hoping to go for a swim later on.  If I am careful, I should find a time where it's reasonably empty so I can do my up, down, up, down without looking out for others in the same 'lane'.  I might do a little bit of window shopping first - I'll see how I feel.

And then this evening there's an online event that I'm booked to attend.  I 'know' the Scottish author, Marion Todd from OU days, and her most recent book, Old Bones Lie, was out yesterday.  This evening she is chatting with another Scottish crime author about their books, etc, and taking questions.  I'm very much looking forward to it as I enjoy her books tremendously.
(Which reminds me - it should have downloaded onto my Kindle by now but I won't look until the weekend)

So there we are.  A nicely punctuated day and in between times I will do the usual stuff one has to do - tidying, cleaning, meal prep and so on.  It should be really nice.

Have a lovely day yourself.  Is it dull or sunny your way?  xx

Wednesday

Today's garden happy . . .

Going . . .

This was after ten minutes of tugging and pulling and tearing bits out.

Going . . .

All out, phew.  Now to pull off some living roots - there are a few.

Small wonder the mint was so unhappy, just look at that solid mass of dead roots.

Gone!

The brown bin smells wonderfully delicious and underneath that new soil (from the compost bin) are the roots I pulled off.  

Fingers crossed.

I chose an easier pot - that original ceramic pot is lovely and is one of the first pots I bought after having the garden remodelled but not a sensible shape for mint really.  Now I have it for something else - perhaps to hold a better shaped plastic one.
Remember those cuttings I took of Dad's fuchsias - well, they seem to be sending out some rootlets so maybe, if I can find an inner pot to fit, that's where one of them can go.  That would work nicely.

Good morning, one and all.  Guess what!  It's warm and dry and the sun is coming out.  A bit of rain would be great for the garden but I'm not complaining.

After a really good Groove session yesterday, I rushed home, freshened up, changed, had breakfast and set off for Hyde Hall.  The car park was pretty full but it didn't feel all that crowded and I got a table in the top restaurant without any trouble.
I took quite a lot of photos and some video clips and I will see if I can turn them into something to put on YouTube today.
Here's just a few photos.

 

As you saw at the top, I managed to sort out the mint after a fair old tussle so now I wait to see if the roots send up new, fresh mint.  If not, it's easy to get hold of, but my guess is that it will be OK.  I hope so; that mint originally came from Mum and Dad's garden.

Things re Dad's house front hotted up late afternoon.  There was an email from the solicitor asking why we hadn't signed something, sent over by email last week.  Well, it wasn't - neither John nor I could find anything anywhere in our mail boxes so someone goofed their end.
Anyway, this was quite important as we're so close to exchanging and then completing.
So John and I exchanged several emails to check we had the same understanding about what we have to do, John phoned them, and then we both signed our bit - fortunately it didn't have to be on the same sheet of paper - and I posted mine off yesterday evening first class.  John's going to send his bit by recorded delivery or whatever it's called nowadays as he lives more rurally.  Fingers crossed as they have to be there by Friday.

This morning, I'm feeling quite weary after several active days on the trot (by the end of the day, my step counter was at nearly 18,000), so I will probably stay close to home and do some housework, some gardening, some menu planning and quite a lot of chilling.  It's personal training in the afternoon so that will be my bit of activity for the day.

Have a great day yourself and be good!  :-)  xx

Tuesday

 Today's garden happy - beginning of next week, do you think?

Good morning, everyone.  It's getting monotonous, isn't it, all this 'It looks like being a lovely day again today' start to the blog but it really does after a gloriously warm and sunny day yesterday.  When I go out to water the back garden shortly, I will give the beds a bit more, I think.  The pots are fine but the beds are looking a bit dry.

Yesterday started so well.  I drove over to Lathcoats getting there pretty much first, although by the time I left the car park, it was almost full.  It took me no time at all to pick a punnet of beautiful raspberries and a bigger box of strawberries before going to the shop and treating myself to some of their fresh produce - cherries, etc.  OK, so I went a bit overboard, but I do like to support a local business if I can.  
It was just a gentle, calm and happy time.

Then I came home, had breakfast, etc, before leaving for circuits where I really pushed through and managed something I've not been able to do before - something like a lateral arm something or other, I can't exactly remember.  
When that was over, I went to the gym and did a half hour swim.  I'm getting on nicely with the 5K - I've now done 3.5K so only 1.5K to go. I'm loving this and I think I might set a sort of personal target each month - it might keep me going there after the sponsored bit is done.
Thanks again to all of you lovely people who have made donations to GOSH and I'll post the link to my Just Giving page at the end, in case.

After all that, I came home and more or less chilled for the rest of the day.

Today starts with Groove aerobics.  After that, I will come home to change and have the rest of my breakfast (I've started having a bit before Groove and the rest afterward so I'm not working out on a totally empty tum) and then, seeing as this is my 'free' day, I rather fancy taking a drive out to dear old Hyde Hall and having a lovely wander around the gardens.  I haven't been for months so there should be lots of changes.

Once home again, I have a few things to do in the garden.  I need to deal with the mint for a start.  It's been in a pot for decades and is all packed in with roots, etc and not thriving - and given how hard it is to kill mint, that's saying something.  I'm going to try and dig out everything which might be impossible as it's so, so pot bound, but I'll have a go.  If I can do that, I will fill the pot with new, fresh soil, select a few roots, chuck the rest in the brown bit and see what happens.  It should come up nice and fresh again, in time.  If not, I can buy some more.
And if I really can't get it out of the pot, I might have to chuck the lot but I'm most reluctant to do that because it's a jolly nice pot!  I also want to do a bit of potting on

Once that's done, I will chill and plan a few days' meals, read, generally potter and, most likely, have an afternoon snooze!  
I think I'm really going to enjoy today.  How did I every find the time and energy to work, eh?

Have a great day, everyone.  Stay safe and be happy.

Here's my Just Giving page if you would like to support GOSH through my sponsored 5K swim.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Joy-Clark3

Monday

 Today's garden happy - the dahlia, the only dahlia I have.  All the flowers on this plant are like this with some white petals and some pink petals.  Unusual?  I don't know but I like it.  There are loads of buds so it should be a picture soon.

Good morning, one and all.  I hope you had a lovely day yesterday...Here it was, as expected, gentle and restful.  I got the washing and ironing finished and it's now all away.  I had my early morning swim which was lovely.  I walked to Morrisons for some ice.  I watched tennis, caught up on some YouTube and generally just chilled out - I even fell asleep early afternoon which was lovely.

Today is a bit busier.  To start with, I'm off back to Lathcoats to pick strawberries and raspberries, both of which are in plentiful; supply, says the email, and then I will pop into the farm shop for a bit of fresh stuff.
Later on, it's circuits and after that I will go for another swim - it's very 'stretching' and relaxing to have a swim after the more intensive activity and seems to stop me feeling too achey and stiff.  And, of course, I can get some more of my sponsored swim ticked off.

And that's about it so I will shut up, make another coffee and get everything ready for the day.  Have a good one, everyone, and stay safe and well.  xx

Sunday

 Today's garden happy.  I only have one ornamental grass in the garden and this is its best time, just as the flower heads open.  The tomatoes behind don't look too bad either, do they?

Good morning and a happy Sunday to you.  The sun is shining and it all looks very cheering outside.

Yesterday was one of those easy, gentle days.  I had my walk but on my own rather than with the group (as it had been cancelled) and stopped off at the coffee shop as usual.  
It's hard to believe quite how close this is to the hustle and bustle of  the town centre.

There was a lot of washing in the basket - where does it all come from?  I did three loads, dried it all and ironed it.  The fourth load did overnight and shortly I am going to peg it all out to catch the morning freshness.

And really, that was about it yesterday.

Today is much the same.  I'm going for a swim when the pool opens at eight and then I will potter and plan for the rest of the day.  I might go somewhere for a gentle walk at some point during the day - I've often said I would go back to Galleywood Common some time and that's only across town.
We will see.
And I forgot to feed the veg yesterday so I must do that today.

Have a lovely Sunday, one and all.  If you have sunshine, enjoy it, and, if it's raining, I'm sure the garden will be happy!
Take care and be safe.
xx

Have a great day, everyone.  

Saturday

 Today's garden happy - you're probably fed up with courgette pictures but . . . sorry, here's another.  It struck me how attractive and sculptured the leaves are.  The markings are lovely.

Good morning.  Yesterday ended up lovely and sunny and today looks promising - the skies look reasonably clear and the sun is starting to shine round the front of the house.  

First of all, thank you to whoever donated to my Just Giving page yesterday.  There's no name so I don't know who it was but, if it is you, please accept my thanks; I'm so grateful.  xx

Yesterday was another of those lovely summer days.  I walked round to Slimming World and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I so enjoy doing the weighing as I get to talk to everyone and when their results are good, they are so smiley and grateful.  It's lovely.

I popped into Morrisons on the way home because I needed peppers and carrots.

Personal training in the afternoon was brilliant.  Some sessions go better than others although they are always enjoyable and fun, but today everything went right, Lindsey had to put more bands on the resistance thingy and the cross trainer level was higher.  I felt thoroughly warmed, exercised and stretched (in a good way) by the end and we also had a jolly good chat.

In the garden, I cut the first cucumber - and it was delicious.  So much more flavour than shop bought ones.

Today is, thankfully, a day with nothing in the diary.  It was going to be another walk through the parks but that's been cancelled.  I might go anyway, I'll just see how I feel when the time comes, although it won't be until later on.

Before then, I have a full washing basket as I changed the bed yesterday so the drying line will be full before long.  I'm just about to put the first load in.  And that is that for today.
Are you doing anything special this weekend?  Take care and have a lovely one, whatever your plans.  xx