Saturday

Good morning, everyone.  Welcome to Saturday at home again.  The weather looks OK for the coming week and I should be able to get my second load of washing line dried this morning, which is nice.

When I got home yesterday, it felt so cold I caved in and the heating is now on - by that I mean the heating part of the boiler control is now on.  When the radiators actually come on is determined by the swish thermostat in the living room and I turned it up to warm up the house.

It's back to normal now so should only come on if the room gets below 18C.  I'll review that one after the combi boiler is in - the work starts on Wednesday and it should all be finished by the weekend.  And that reminds me - I need to empty the airing cupboard - a good opportunity to sort out my towels as I really do have far too many.

Back to yesterday.  After doing most of the packing on Thursday, Friday morning was stress free.  I got the car from the main car park and left it in the parking spaces outside the apartments while I loaded it up.  I left just before ten as once I'm packed I like to get going and get home.

As I said yesterday, it was an easy journey home apart from Sudbury which has a one way system through the centre and which always seems to be gridlocked.  I ended up going down the road to the station rather than turning right - not the end of the world as there's another way through, just annoying!  :-)

After that, it was easy peasy and I made good time, arriving home before midday.

Almost the first thing I noticed after the lovely, week free drive and path (blessings be upon Tracy and Terence) was that my confused dahlia has reached a new level of confusion!

For those who don't know. I have this dahlia out the front that has random patterned pink and/or white flowers.  It's very pretty and seems very happy in that spot, coming up bigger and better every year.  It's also a good talking plant when people come to the door!

This year, however - or I should say this fortnight - it has produced . . . 

. . . this!

How is that even possible?

There's only one plant there although I am sure the roots (corms?) need splitting by now but I need to look under the mass of leaves when I do a serious dead heading this morning at some point, just to see.  I don't think there can be though and it's the first time I've seen a puffball flower rather than the usual daisy style.

(I don't know the proper terms)

I'm not objecting.  Despite being covered with dirt and sand from the cleaning this week, it's very pretty (and colour confused).

But . . . . ?????

I did my shopping as planned and got that all sorted and put away except for the stuff that needs to go out into the garden room storage - I'll do that this morning.

Chris came over with a parcel that was on my doorstep and brought her dear little grandson, Bertie, with her.  He is such a lovely little chap and we had a great talk about monsters and tomatoes (don't ask).  He obviously wanted to come in and look round but Chris needed to go so I promised him he could come in another time and have a good look around my garden which he was happy about.

Tracy came round with another parcel and I gave her the thank you gifts from Center Parcs - some nice biscuits and some fudge.  I know the children will help her and Terence to eat them, should help be needed.

The tree has gone and it is startling how much more light I now have, both in my garden and in the living room.  It should help keep the room warmer on those sunny winter afternoons and, maybe, the tomatoes will do better on that side next year.  Tracy said the same thing - so much more light in her kitchen and dining room.  I miss the green but appreciate the extra light.  And, thinking about it, I won't miss having to sweep up all those fallen leaves in the next couple of months!

I was shattered by the evening so went to bed and slept pretty well.  It was so nice to have my lovely pillows again.  CP pillows are not the best - flat, hard and just not that comfortable.  Note to self - take my own next time!

Today I want to get a few things sorted and away and then look through the month's finances.  I've done my shop and all the regular payments are now out so I can close September and open October.
It's been spendy because I've bought things for Christmas, paid a deposit on the new boiler and had a holiday, but it was all planned in and expected so no worries.

I have washing and ironing to do, programmes to catch up on and this afternoon I am off into town to a Thermomix demo about the Tastes of Romania.  I'll bet the bus in and back out as it won't be dark when it finishes.

A nice day, I think.  I hope yours is too.  Stay safe and well.  xx