Meet The Neighbours....

Last night we went to the 'meet the neighbours' meeting at the new development where we are buying our new home.  As expected, everyone was so much younger than us.  Think grandchildren rather than children and you will get the picture :/   We both felt a bit awkward as though we are moving in with the  GC but the people we spoke to were nice and friendly.  I guess in reality we will rarely see them once we have all moved in because, as luck would have it, our immediate neighbours (it's a  semi) have pulled out of the sale and it's up for reservation again. Typical...The couple we really wanted to see..... The site office had put on a lovely spread of nibbles, mini wraps, sandwiches, crisps and cakes but I was too shy to eat any of it although I did manage a glass of Prosecco!

The weather here today is so much cooler, thank goodness.  It took ages to cool the house down and I slept badly again last night as well as the night before when I sat on the edge of the bed watching the dawn rise.  It was raining throughout the night after about 3am so feels much, much fresher. Long may it continue!

Have a lovely day everyone and thanks so much for popping in x

It's Certainly Hot, Hot, Hot

Oh my goodness it's darned hot today, just after 3pm and we are ROASTING.  We are not having it as hot as other parts of the country and certainly not as hot (yet) as the rest of Europe but it's too hot for me :/  I cease to function when I am so hot and sticky. I don't feel like eating, or cooking, or cleaning, or shopping.  I just want to lie quietly in the shade until it passes.  DD and family went to Kos on Saturday and I worry about them too.  I love AUTUMN!

What's the weather like in your part of the world?  How do you cope with the heat? And which is your favourite season?

Edit:  Woohoo! Just noticed that Marlene and Sue have topped up my followers to 100, thank you!
And welcome to you both :)

Stay safe everyone x

National Give Something Away Day

Thanks to all of you who left lovely comments on my last post.  Your good luck messages and encouraging comments cheered us on immensely.  There is no doubt at all that we will be sad to leave here but we must look upon the move as a new adventure.  We have been invited to a 'meet the neighbours' meeting at the sales office on Friday next, with bubbly and nibbles provided :)  It will be our first chance to see what kind of age group we are moving next to.  What's the betting we will be the oldest couple there!

How come I didn't realise that the 15th July was National Give Something Away Day? Huh?

It was the day that G had managed to get a cancellation at the hospital and he was admitted as a day case for 7 more injections in his neck to treat the Dystonia.  This round of injections hasn't made any difference to the head movement either but we are hoping they will help with the pain......

Anyway, without realising it, I was doing the 'Give Something Away' thing anyway.  To take G's mind off the neck stiffness caused by the injections, I drove him to the allotment after collecting him from the hospital.  We drank in the peace and quiet and I pulled up some more beetroot and lettuce which I shared with some of our neighbours later.  One neighbour is just out of hospital himself after falling from a stepladder and breaking his arm and collar bone, but that's another long story....

I am in the process of selling or donating lots of my beloved books as we will have no room for a bookcase in the new house .  Over the last couple of weeks I have sent 3 boxes of them to Music Magpie and 2 boxes to Ziffit, (what one company doesn't take the other one does) The amounts paid for each book are tiny but I now have £50 to add to the kitty for the move. 

The bookcase was full to overflowing.  Here it is now.

The books to the left on the bottom shelf belong to G: his gardening books, which he wants to keep. The ones to the right of the middle shelf are my beloved Jenny Colgan ones which are worth next to nothing in resale value (not even the new hardback ones) but they will have to go.  I rarely read a book twice anyway.  To the left of that same shelf is my school Hymn book and my small black Bible which my Sister bought me for my birthday when I was 9 or 10 years old.  I can't bear to part with either of those two.  The CD's are the ones I play regularly and intend to keep, all others have been sold or donated to charity......

I am still trying to turn stash into cash too because I will need to reduce my craft items to one, yes ONE (a look of horror on my face) under bed storage box.  It will be a struggle but I will do it.  I still have a stall booked for 4 more Craft Fairs, the last being in November and I am selling ready made toppers on eBay too. 

This tower was stuffed to bursting a couple of months ago but is slowly emptying......

Stay tuned for an update folks!

Thanks so much for popping in and stay safe wherever you are in the world x

A New Home & A New Life

I promised to tell you our decision regarding our soon to be new home.  We would have loved a bungalow in a quiet area with a small garden but, sadly, it was not to be.  We simply couldn't afford it and knew that we had to compromise in a big way.  We couldn't face major work whilst living in the place and needed somewhere which needs very little maintenance.  I think we have found it in a small 2 bed semi which is currently being built on a new development about 9 miles away.  It will not be anywhere near as quiet as we have it here but it will be closer to our daughter.  There will be a small garden for G to work on at the rear and we will be in a familiar area which we know and like.  My brother lives just down the road and our best friends will be within a short drive (or bus ride).

I love the idea of seeing the house built from scratch and having an input into how certain things are done.  We can have an alarm installed at the building stage as well as choose the bathroom tiles and floorcoverings which will be laid before we move in.  Completion will be about 2 weeks before Christmas :/  so I will have to shelve my usual precision planning and gift buying (that was written with tongue firmly in cheek!) and people will get either a gift voucher or cash this year.  No room to store gifts...

The house will have a 10 year NHBC guarantee so we will have no need to worry about a new boiler or repairs for some time.

I know we will be on a squeaky tight budget from now on and our savings will bite the dust, but we will have peace of mind in that we will not have to leave our home next February.  We have had 10 wonderful years here but it's time to go.  If you don't mind listening I'll tell you all about it as the build progresses :)  There will be some exciting times ahead (as well as frustrating and scary ones, I'm sure) but we are excited about it now that we know it's happening.

Now....I need to make LISTS, lots of lists.  Lists of people to notify of a change of address once we leave here, lists of things to be done in preparation of moving, lists of stuff we need to sell rather than take with us etc etc  Already I have spent weeks, nay MONTHS, decluttering, shredding documents, selling or taking bags of stuff to the charity shops.  In my eyes we still have a load of stuff to take to a slightly smaller property than we have now but I must be getting somewhere with it because we had a man in to quote for removals and he actually said " I don't want to be cheeky Ange, but you haven't got a lot of stuff" LOL!  The company will provide all the boxes, bubble wrap and tape that we need included in the price so we are happy to let them do it.

1. Find removals company...tick :)

Take care everyone,  thanks everso for popping in x

Nature's Bounty and the Cherry Fair / 1940's Weekend

I was going to tell you all about our decision on the new house but, following on from yesterday's post,  yesterday afternoon turned into a lovely warm one so we took a trip to the allotment to give it all another good watering and to photograph the plants in more detail.

I picked some chard for our tea tonight...

The onions are motoring along...

Lush, tender lettuce (the one I brought home had the added protein of slug...yuk...I washed it 3 times to be sure.....lol)

The sprout bed complete with string and shiny CDs...

 Whilst there we dug up another potato plant and will eat these little tasties tonight with butter, the steamed chard and cod mornay......

The soil is VERY dry and powdery and will need some work to get more water retentive properties into it, but it's working well for now.  The grassy area is full of purple clover which I haven't seen for years and years.....

Changing the subject entirely, I spotted this poster at the Bewdley Museum last week. It's the Cherry Fair and 1940's weekend this month.  I know there are lots of you out there who love this kind of thing.  I do too.  I would like to go to it but won't know until nearer the time whether or not I can.  If the weather behaves it should be a fantastic event...

Stay safe everyone, and thanks for popping in x

Home Grown Loveliness

Where have the last 3 months gone?  For us, they have disappeared in a blur of house hunting, sleepless nights, deep dreamless sleeps of the totally exhausted, more house hunting, working on the allotment and generally coping with life.  Gone are the spur of the moment caravan breaks which we loved so much, gone, in fact, are thoughts of any holidays at all because G simply can't travel far.  His neck dystonia is getting worse making it hard for him to sit still for any length of time.  Driving is limited to around 30 minutes otherwise his neck pain is too bad.  He is waiting for more Botox injections to try again for some relief from the constant head movement.  The appointment came through last week (at last) for 15th July. It can't come soon enough.

On a happier note, the allotment is doing splendidly :)

 We had to net the sprouts because the crows and pigeons were loving them a bit too much. The photo was taken a couple of weeks ago and now they have grown so tall we have had to un-net them and put string across to deter the pesky birds ;)

The broad beans have been a failure.  Over half the plants died after black fly got to them (it's an organic site so we don't spray anything) so we have about 4 surviving plants which we are trying out.  The marigolds were an attempt to deter pests. They didn't work, obviously...lol...

Potatoes are doing well. We have no idea what variety they are as they were gifted to us, so have no idea when they will be ready.  I had an experimental dig around an end plant yesterday as we had no spuds for our evening meal and found a couple of giant ones.  The skins (hardly any) just rubbed off. I boiled them gently with some fresh mint and they were delicious served with sausages and home grown peas.  Isn't it lovely how fresh home grown tastes so much nicer, so full of flavour.

To sum up, we have been eating:

lettuce
radishes (not very successful)
beetroot
peas
potatoes (yay!)
strawberries (grown in a tub at home)

In addition, we are growing:

carrots
chard
broad beans

We have placed the fruit bushes; blackberry, gooseberry and a gifted raspberry cane,  out of the way at the top of the allotment.
When G was at work yesterday, I went to the plot for potatoes, as I said, and there wasn't a soul there.  It was 10.45am, warm and quiet except for the birds and totally relaxing and lovely.  I can understand perfectly how getting back to the land heals the soul.

The next post will contain news from house hunting!

Stay safe everyone and thanks everso for popping in after all this time x