Friday, 17-07-26

Morning, everyone!  It is definitely cooler this morning - no windows thrown open right now.  I tried and closed them again because it felt cold!  Lovely!

I finally got round to sorting out the car.  To be fair, it wasn't that bad apart from the boot and that was only the shopping bags which, I swear, breed while I'm not looking.  Anyway, all sorted now, some bags have been chucked, the Christmas bags are now separate in in a cupboard, the plastic bags are also tucked away for when needed and the ones I always use are in a bag back in the boot with a couple of chill bags and a bottle bag.  MUCH better.
Inside the car was fine.

I did a bit of garden pottering after filling a rectangular container with good stuff from the bottom of the compost bin.  I dug up all the self seeded foxglove babies and replanted some of the bigger ones in the container.  They immediately flopped over, of course but this morning most of them seem to have revived so fingers crossed.  It will make a nice, moveable display next summer, I hope.

And . . . 

Hidden among the foxglove babes was - another dahlia!  It wasn't there last year so I guess one of then from last year did a triffid on me.  I'm pretty sure it is a dahlia anyway but time will tell.

A not very good snap of the confused dahlia - see those buds!!

I also managed a load of washing but left the ironing for today.

I spent a short time working out ways and means of paying the large bills that are incoming - glasses, car service (which will involve new tyres) and the rest of the Christmas holiday in London although that is not due until October.  It's fine, the money is there but I like to have it all worked out - when to move money across and from where.
Also, making a bit of a plan to build the savings up again.
I do like to be organised with finances!

Today is Slimming World and then just stuff again.  Things have really calmed down since last week which is a great relief.

I have another Slimming World Kitchen box arriving at some point today.  That's the last for a while but it has served its purpose and it's nice to do now and again. 

Have a lovely Friday, everyone.  Stay safe and enjoy everything.  xx

Thursday, 16-07-26

Morning, everyone.  Everything going well?  I do hope so.

A few photos . . .

Any spaces in the middle bed are covered with these - baby foxgloves.  They have to go, of course, but I will be planting the healthiest looking ones in a rectangular container.  Hopefully they will flower next year and I can move the container wherever a bit of colour is needed.

I meant to do this several days ago but didn't so maybe today's the day!

The lone survivor dahlia has a bud.  It's hard to see but it's there.  I can't remember what colour it is so that will be a nice surprise.

And, no photo but the confused dahlia at the front has a mass of big buds that should open very soon.  Nice.

Finally, the autumn raspberries have started doing their thing.  I don't have loads of canes but I'm hoping for a small picking every now and again.

Moving on . . .

Yesterday morning was both good and very ouch.
My eyes are still nice and healthy (I have a 'wart' at the back of one eye which they monitor carefully - it's fine) but, as suspected, one of my eyes has deteriorated a fair bit so it's new glasses and new sunglasses.   I do like the new frames and have gone for bigger frames for my sunglasses this time and for a finer compression (which contributed to the ouch but that's life).
Apart from the baby cataracts, my eyes are very nice and healthy so that's great.

Then it was the audiology appointment and, to my pleasure and surprise, my hearing has changed very little since the last check.  However, as I suspected, technology has moved on in the past four years so I have gone for new aids.  Not at all cheap but I'm calling it an investment in my future and well being.

Because it really is?

So - wart fine, eyes very healthy, cataracts still babies, hearing loss stable, no ear wax (sorry) and a large bill.  It is what it is and I am very much hoping that the new aids are as good as he said they were in terms of speech clarity.  I have a hundred day money back guarantee if I am not happy and, once the aids arrive, two fully functioning pairs of back ups, one battery and one rechargeable.

And I pick them up, glasses and aids, in a fortnight.

Today is a rest day.  In other words, there's nothing in the diary.  Chris and Steve are going away for a long weekend so no coffee and chat this morning.  I need to do some sorting out and the boot of the car is a disaster area so I will be dealing with that.  And there's always something that needs doing, isn't there.

The weather seems to be moderating a little bit (if you can call between 27C and 30C moderate) and all we need now is some rain - consistent rain (overnight, please) for several days.  

And pigs might fly!

All the best, everyone.  Take care and have a great day.  xx

Wednesday, 15-07-26

 Morning, all.  So, here we are, pretty much half way through July already.  Crazy, isn't it.

In yesterday's comments, Rachel said:
We would not have been allowed to do anything like that in my school in the 1960s. Have times changed or were primary schools always allowed to do send ups of teachers etc as I note you recall it as "old style? I am genuinely interested having attended a Catholic convent school for 12 years.

I agree, in the sixties it really wasn't the done thing to poke fun at your teachers.  You had to wait until Uni before being free to do that sort of thing - and didn't they take advantage of it!!!

When I said 'old style' I was thinking of how our school used to do a Y6 leavers assembly that was really a review of their seven years.  They split into groups and developed various scenes or quick fire jokes, all school centred.  There was always an 'Infant Assembly' where big Y6s trying to act like five year olds was incredibly funny.  There was always a scene from the staff room and they were clever at picking on staff characteristics and mannerisms.  It was never rude; the teachers would clamp down on anything that went over the top in that way, but just enough to be clever - and funny.  I was often the butt of something in my role as 'music lady', either taking hymn practice or choir.  And there were skits based on popular TV shows of the time and on regular visitors to the school.
These scenes would be linked with jokes that were designed to be funny  . . . I will say no more about their success or otherwise.
And they finished with a tear jerker song.

I remember leading my class back to our bay afterwards for the last day of the school year, my sides aching with laughter.

All that took an incredible amount of time and effort on everyone's part and, as time passed, the end of the summer term school work stopped grinding to almost a halt as the curriculum became more and more demanding so these shows had to stop and the leavers assembly became simpler, more adult organised and easier, especially when the Christmas show became infant based, leaving the juniors to produce a summer show.

And while on the subject of leavers assemblies, yesterday I was invited to this year's one which is this morning but I have sight and hearing checks so can't go - very sad.

So today is personal training at 7:15, then home to freshen up and then I am catching the bus into town to go to Specsavers.
Once that's all done, I will be popping into school to hand over a card and some flowers to someone who I have worked with as a governor and who is leaving today.  That's sad.

So I had better go and get dressed and ready - at the moment I have just a towel wrapped round me and I feel lovely and cool.
See you tomorrow, everyone.  xx

Tuesday, 14-07-26

Morning, everyone.  So here we are, starting the third week of July and, already, the evenings feel a bit shorter and the early mornings a bit darker.  Sorry, but they really do.

This morning feels particularly gloomy as we have cloud overhead and, as every morning recently, it is delightfully cool.  I've felt the soil and there's no need to water this morning.  It was so nice using the hose again yesterday - I'm fully prepared to use my watering cans but I do feel I use less water with the hose, because the tap is on for less time and also because there's less splashing and, therefore, wasted water.  Still, rules is rules!

I can't believe how well the tomatoes are doing this year.  I guess they prefer the bed to pots, maybe it's the good feeding I gave the soil and I am sure the good weather has helped but just look . . .

(apologies for the poor light - as I said, it's a gloomy old start.)

Let's start with the Sweet Millions which are really living up to their name.  This mass of fruit is just two trusses, would you believe?

Two great big clusters of Alicante - they always seem to do well and are a standard purchase for me.

Romas have never done that well for me but this year - wow.  I'll use them for cooking (they're great for soup) and hope to freeze some for winter meals.

And finally, this is misleading.  The tomato on the left and the one behind it are both larger than the palm of my hand.

It's called Red Plum and it was an accidental purchase.  It had been put in the wrong place and I put it in my trolley thinking it was something else.  When I checked out, I nearly put it back but couldn't be bothered and I'm so glad I didn't.
I can't find anything specific about it on Google but time will reveal its flavour, etc.

Did I ever say how much I love tomatoes?

And while I am on the subject - the first meal where they are all from the garden!  

OK, so not loads but they were lovely!

The Y6 show yesterday, Gigglebox' , was absolutely fantastic; I think it was the best I have ever seen from them.  It was a show in the old style with lots of in-jokes about teachers, school routines, etc, with scenes' such as 'Playground Casualty' where they made great use of ice packs, kitchen towel and water, 'Our School's Got Talent where pupils were auditioning for places in the school choir and which finished off with a very funny version of 'When a Knight Won His Spurs' such sooooo sweetly that I was envious - I rarely got my choir to sing so beautifully in the Good Old Days - and an absolutely hilarious one about one of the Y6 teachers having a breakdown because her Pritt-Stick had dried up and she had to use sellotape (so unprofessional!!!) - I forget what show that was a take on, it might have been 'Educating Chelmsford'.

It finished off with a song that brought tears to the eyes - all about moving on but never forgetting the memories and friends they had made over the years.  Half the children had tears rolling down their cheeks as they sang.

It was just brilliant.

Today, the only thing in the diary is Groove (and the walk there and back with Chris) so I will be doing home-based stuff.  All the usual things like changing my bedding, washing, ironing, bit of gardening, etc.  And I must send off an email to Jen (the head teacher) about how much I enjoyed the show.

Better go and do my social media stuff now.  Have a lovely day, everyone, whatever your plans are.  See you tomorrow.  xx

Monday, 13-07-26

 Morning, everyone!  A new week begins and they reckon it will stay sunny and pretty warm.  Just as long as it stays as it was yesterday - hot, yes, but not humid and with a nice breeze.

Yesterday went pretty well.  I did, however, have a bit of a mini disaster with the bread.

When I bake my bread, I do a cold bake and I cover the tin I put the dough in with a other tin, bake for about 25 mins, remove the covering tin and finish the loaf off.
However, yesterday the yeast was super active (the warmth, probably) and rose up to the top of the covering tin (which I hadn't oiled because that's never happened before) - and it stuck.   Oh, the fun I had getting it out and you can see that I wasn't entirely successful!
I left the other one to cool down before tackling it and, once cooler, the bread came away well.  So I know what to do if that happens again.
So Beth got one loaf, albeit a very high one that looked as if I had stuck two normal loaves together!
Ands the one in the photo is now sliced and in my freezer.  Ugly loaves taste just as good as pretty ones, after all!

And Lindsey's sourdough was fine.

I did something I have meant to do for a while and that is to opt out of the winter fuel payments.   This coming year I won't have to save it and pay it pack through tax.

And, finally, my hearing aid is fine so that's good.

Interestingly, after two days of watering cans, I discover that while Anglia Water has a hosepipe ban, Essex and Suffolk Water doesn't - yet - and we're under the latter round here.  Yay, back to the easy option (for a while, anyway).

Today, I am off to circuits first thing and then Kay is over to sort my downstairs out, bless her, while I deal with all the baby foxgloves in the middle bed, some of which are going into a spare pot for now.

Then, this afternoon, I am off into school to watch the Year 6 show - it think it is called 'Gigglebox' so it should be funny.
This is what the online bumph says:

Tonight, school is taking over the TV!

Join the Parker family for an evening glued to the screen by a riveting schedule of TV shows, all of which have one thing in common…school! There’s edge-of-your-seats drama, devilishly-difficult quizzes, calamitous cooking challenges, tortuous talent searches, make-over madness…and much more! With giggles galore, these televisual treats go to prove just what a fun-filled place school really is, and why the memories we make there last forever!

AND . . . I will have SIX little tomatoes from the garden in my lunch salad!!!

Did you all have a good weekend too?  

See you tomorrow.  xx

Sunday, 12-07-26

 Morning, everyone.  Welcome to my blog on a sunny but refreshing morning.

No photos of the garden today - it's not a big garden and you've already seen it all a million times (give or take) - but just to say the tomatoes are continuing to ripen, there are more blueberries to pick and there will be one big and three small cucumbers in a few days so I need to load my salads with the current cucumbers!

It was a lovely meal out yesterday lunchtime although one of my hearing aids conked out half way through which was a bit socially limiting.  It had run out of charge, goodness knows why, but it seems to be charging up OK now so . . . who knows, eh?
I had a delicious spiced chicken skewer with salad and some chips and P had brought a home made sponge birthday cake along so that was dessert.  It was delicious!

Such a pleasant time with lovely people.

Today I have watered the tomatoes (must keep them hydrated) and things in pots because they do dry out quickly, I've done a kitchen tidy up and I have two doughs doing their thing in the kitchen.  Lindsey's sourdough will take some time but Beth's yeasted bread will be oven ready soon.  It's funny how it's pretty much the same recipe, same ingredients anyway, but the outcome is so different.

I have a Little List of Little Things that need to be done, the sort of things that are easily forgotten, and I need to take Beth's bread over to her at some point but, apart from that, it's a very gently and quiet day with no meals out at all this coming week (thanks goodness).
There's Wimbledon, of course, and various YouTube things to catch up on and I have bought (for my Kindle) Philippa Gregory's book "Normal Women - 900 Years of Making History" which sounds very interesting indeed.  Have any of you read this?  What did you think of it?

Just remembered - it's nearly the end of Wimbledon and, true to form, I have stopped taking my hay fever meds and everything is fine.  Yay!

Right - better go and check Beth's bread and then get the day started.  All the best to you all - have a lovely day

xx

Saturday, 11-07-26

Morning, all.  Another bright and sunny start to the day and we are now under a hosepipe ban which I have already broken because I didn't know.  Now I do, so it is watering cans ahoy!

Ho hum!

(Mind you, I have just read that an exception is made for food crops that you are going to eat.  Must check that against my own water company rules . . . 

. . .  checked and nope!  Oh, well)

Yesterday was a fair bit cooler - not cool, just cooler and it was really very pleasant.  Mind you, it was hot in the hall during SW - there's no air con and no windows that open and you are not allowed to open the fire doors.  A number of people didn't stay for the second half because it was so stuffy.

One of our lovely ladies is on the Hall Committee and she said she will raise this issue at the next meeting.

In the evening, I picked Diane up and we went over to The Castle Inn to meet with everyone going on the Shimmy in Spain week in September.  It's the same place as we went last Sunday and, while the food is fine, nothing special but fine, the service is little short of terrible.
We waited to be seated for over five minutes on Sunday - we had booked and the place was pretty empty - and in the end one of us had to go and find someone.  It seems that the same thing happened when Lindsey and Tracy arrived first last night and there were inexcusably long gaps in service.  Again, the place was not that busy and maybe that's why.

It's a shame because it is a nice place.

Today sees the last of the big Eat-Outs for a week or so.  It's been nice but the budget has taken a battering.  Still, today is going to be great - a group of us from Slimming World are celebrating someone's 80th birthday and we're going to Roxwell community pub, The Chequers.   There's no menu online, sadly.

Apart from that, it will be a day of watering plants and dodging the heat.  The longer range forecast is for more of the same for a couple of weeks so better get used to it.  At least it shouldn't start raining as soon as schools are out.
Have a lovely day, all, and see you tomorrow.  xx