A Simple Decision Required!

 Are men  capable of answering  a simple yes/no question or of making a simple decision?

I ask myself this question on a fairly regular basis.  Conversation in our house often follows this pattern:

Me:  What time would you like to eat lunch today?

G:  What time do want it?

Or,

Me:  Would you like fish, curry, or cottage pie for tea?

G: I don't mind. Whatever you want...

Or,

Me: Do you fancy a walk?

G: If you want to.....

Do you catch my drift? It drives me mad 😠 When I'm doing the online shop I'll ask if there's anything in particular he would like me to order. The answer is usually " I can't think of anything" so the decision, once again is all down to me yet there is always something he thinks of once its too late to add it on.  I don't know why I bother asking!

Does anyone else have a similar problem?

On a different subject, the snow has melted at last apart from the various snowmen dotted around in front gardens, and the sun is shining.  I've banished G to the shed to clean and sharpen his tools while I oven bake jacket potatoes and prepare salad.  I asked him if he wanted some grated cheese as well as prawns on his potato and the answer?

" If you like...although it doesn't matter....just a light sprinkling..." Aarrgh 🙄

Stay safe, my friends, wherever in the world you happen to be x

Winter Wonderland

 This was the view from my bedroom window when I awoke at 9am this morning... lazy, I know, but we have nowhere to go and it is Sunday, after all  😊  The security camera shows that it began to snow around 8.30am and so it came very thick and fast if this is how it was by 9am.  It's now 3pm and still snowing on and off in flurries.  I reckon we've had around 3" of snow if the thickness of snow on the patio table is anything to go by.  I'll enjoy it today and hope it disappears overnight.  I'm glad we managed a bit of a walk yesterday because it will be treacherous underfoot at the moment.

I had a text from our son in Oz this morning where it's been 40C.  How do they cope?

We've had a quiet morning just catching up with a few chores and then I cooked us a lunch of roast potatoes and lots of veg with veg sausage for me and a portion of beef stew from the freezer for G.  I found 2 out of date mince pies at the back of the cupboard 😏 so they've been heated up in the switched off  (but still hot) oven and served with some tinned custard.  We are now FULL!

I'm off for a good read now with a cup of tea to hand...OOh...I can hear G putting the kettle on!

What are you doing today?

Stay safe my friends, wherever in the world you happen to be x

Raining Cats & Dogs...Again... And Shopping

Photo from Google

 The weather today is appalling.  It's pouring with rain and quite windy, although the temperature has moved up a little to 10 degrees.  For once we are happy that we can't actually go anywhere and can stay in a warm, dry house focusing on simple tasks like writing up the account book and pottering.  Sometimes just pottering can be quite therapeutic, can't it.  What are you doing today?

The weekly shopping is due to arrive this afternoon.  I book a 4 hour slot which costs £1 and Sainsburys texts me with a 1 hour slot on the actual day of delivery.  I have been allocated the weird time of 16.52 to 17.52pm today 😏 but it's not guaranteed.  The delivery chappie was almost half an hour late last week but, in the scheme of things right now, it matters not a jot.   It just means that I will cook our main meal at lunchtime instead of evening so that we will be free to accept, wipe down and pack away the delivery when it arrives.  The cost this week is £49.38   There is a bar of chocolate and 2 bottles of beer on order for G which he has decided he will pay for himself instead of taking it out of the grocery budget, so the total above doesn't include them. This means that we are back on track regarding the allocated food spend, thank goodness.

Mind you, I've just checked the fridge and I think it will be baked beans and oven chips for lunch 👀 

Never mind, we both like carbs on a day like today 😀  I'll do a proper food plan once I know we have all that we ordered.  Unusually, there seems to be just one substitution this week:  I ordered a multipack of 6 own brand plain crisps to go with our sandwiches.  As they are out of stock they are sending me.....a multipack of 12 own brand plain crisps for the same price.  I think I can live with that 👍

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

2021 Food Spend to date:

January  £46.35    £93.27   £142.65

Trying to Get Motivated

 

The allotment In January 2021

I took delivery of my weekly shopping yesterday afternoon.  A couple of items were substituted.  They had no 4 pint cartons of milk and no sweetheart cabbage (again) although they did send 2 x 2 pints of milk and a small savoy cabbage so all is not lost.  G usually gets a treat of 2 bottles of beer, but they were out of stock too so he will have to go without.  The shopping came to £46.92 and I've ordered more meat for G this time; a pack of lean diced beef for the slow cooker, which will make him 3 meals; a pack of 8 sausages for hot dogs and to serve with veg and gravy; and a pack of bacon for weekend breakfasts.  The thing I forgot to order is CAKE 😒 so I will have to have a baking day at some point or G will get withdrawal symptoms!

I'm trying to factor some form of moving into my day right now.  With the weather being so cold and, frankly, dark and dismal every day, it's so hard to get motivated.  We are told to stay at home but it's driving us mad.  On Tuesday we took a long walk to the local Crematorium where lots of family members are buried, ashes interred or scattered and, probably, where we will ultimately end up 😅 I'm ashamed to say that it has been so long since I last visited that it took me a while to locate the plot where my mum and dad are. The whole site has been opened up and extended so much that it all looked completely different but I found their stone in the end.  When we can, we intend to go back and take a plant or something so that it doesn't look neglected. Even if I could get hold of some flowers they wouldn't last 5 minutes in the bitter cold.  

As you can see from the photo above, our allotment is totally bare.  This shot gives a better idea of how much ground we have to cultivate.  The area covered by polythene sheeting nearest the camera will be the potato bed, the next prepared bed will contain fruit bushes (G has put in 6 raspberry canes and a blackberry)  The apple trees need pruning but we hope to do it in slightly warmer weather.

I have also taken up my knitting needles again.  I used to knit quite a lot of baby stuff for charity but, with the shops all being closed, it seems a bit pointless so I'm knitting myself some fingerless mittens.  I quite fancy knitting a long cardigan but can't get the yarn I like as it's out of stock.  I think the whole country must be knitting! Nay....perhaps the world!  

Are you a knitter?  What do you have on the go?

Before I go, a warm welcome to another new follower.  I'm sorry I can't tell who you are.  Blogger has removed the facility of hovering over the avatar to find the name.  Welcome anyway 😀

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

2021 Food Spend to date:

January  £46.35    £93.27

Post on a SUNDAY??

 We woke up to a street and garden covered in a heavy frost once again and, boy, it's cold outside.  Around 9am we heard our security camera activate and it turned out to be the postman....wearing SHORTS!  He was particularly welcome because it was G's birthday yesterday and we have had no post for several days and so some of his cards were stuck in the system.  Amongst the pile of mail were 2 birthday cards containing lottery tickets and a scratch card.  No luck with them but it gave him a bit of a lift to check them anyway.  We know there is still one card out there somewhere but it proves we need to post things extra early for them to arrive on time.  Sunday post is unheard of here so the PO must be really busy and trying to play catch up.  Well done brave Postie!

I'm going to cook a hot lunch with veggie roast, roast potatoes, swede, carrots, peas and gravy.  I might even make some Yorkshire puddings if I have time. Tea will be pitta pizzas, I think.

My bed has been stripped and is in the washing machine, the bedroom windows are open a tiny bit to let in some fresh air and now I'm off to prepare the veg.  It seems strange to have G here on furlough again so I'm trying to ignore him and do my chores without interruption 😁  It's not easy...why does he not hear when I ask him something yet knows when I creep downstairs to avoid him! 😂

Oh, and a warm welcome to more new followers 😊

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

On Expensive Sticks and Food Budget!

 

I'm glad I made some of you smile with my comment about the expensive sticks 😀  Thank you all for your encouraging comments.  The photo above was taken in September 2020 and shows how our trees looked when we planted them.  That particular corner of the garden is very wet and boggy even after creating drainage by digging a hole and filling it with gravel so I really hope that they will survive until Spring buds them up again.

In an earlier post I explained that I really want to bring our spending on food back down to a reasonable level this year.  Another lockdown has kind of thrown a spanner in the works already.  Having to stay at home again means no YS bargains for the next few weeks at least although I made a good start with my Tuesday food delivery which came to £46.35  It would have been a little more but one of the items had fully open packaging so I refused it and had a refund.  In addition they had NO CABBAGE 👀

The next shop has been delayed until Thursday 14th so I'm ekeing out the food we already have by making soup.  Lunch today was HM vegetable soup with a couple of 'bake at home' crusty rolls.  I have bread in the freezer (as well as flour and yeast for the breadmaker) and longlife milk for when the fresh stuff runs out, so we can manage perfectly well until next Thursday.

We have :

Fish fingers

Eggs x 6

Quorn pieces for curry

Pasta bows

Filled tortelloni

Baked beans

2 x ready meals (one each)

Cheese

Packet cooked ham for G

Potatoes

Carrots

Swede

3 sweet Peppers

Onions

Rice

Frozen oven chips

Frozen chips

Frozen broad beans

Ice cream 😁

12 x mince pies

Tinned fruit

Greek yogurt

Porridge

Cornflakes

Muesli

If I plan carefully, we will be fine.  I really don't want to visit the supermarket.  In our area there are 672 Covid cases per 100,000.  Far too many for comfort.  We should be the 4th group in line for the vaccine and might get it by the middle of Feb.  I'll let you know how we get on.

Welcome to my new follower!  I'm so sorry but I can't tell who you are.  I do hope I haven't bored you rigid already with this diary post!

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

2021 Food Spend to date:

January  £46.35 

There IS Hope.....

 When I woke up this morning it had begun to snow again and the temperature was barely above freezing. 

We are once again under national lockdown. It won't change much about our day to day life because, having been in tier 4 anyway, our lives have been severely restricted for some time.  G took a call from his manager at 'You Can Do It' this morning, asking if he wants to be furloughed again due to his age.  He reluctantly agreed (he will miss the activity of working in the garden dept as well as talking to colleagues) but requested that he be able to return to work once he has received the vaccine.  He will be 71 this Saturday so might get the jab before the end of February if things go to plan.  I like the freedom of weekends to myself but really don't want to risk him picking up the new strain of Covid.  He has been very lucky up to now.  Two of his colleagues have had the virus.  The first person was in March/April during the first lockdown.  He spent 3 weeks on a ventilator and has since suffered extreme fatigue and depression.  The second, a young student aged 21, picked it up in the week before Christmas.  He has had milder symptoms in that he didn't go to hospital but felt very ill and is still off work.  He too is suffering fatigue and very, very down.  

3 family members (who I never see in the flesh) have also had it, one aged just 23.  This virus is very real.  It makes me so angry when I see and hear people dismissing it as a hoax.  

A big thank you to the people who commented on my last post.  I find it so very sad that people worldwide are having to battle with not seeing their families as well as having to cope with health issues and day to day pressure of daily life. But we can all plan for the future.  It seems that, after hugging family members, travel is the second thing most longed for.  I echo that.....

Stick with it my friends, we are on the last lap and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

To end on a lighter note:  did you notice the two trees in the photo of our garden?  No?

I'm not surprised because they just look like (expensive) sticks at the moment, especially my lovely Rowan tree 😅

Roll on Spring....

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

Happy Times Remembered

 At the end of the year it's so tempting to look back with nostalgia at what has been left behind.  Like many bloggers do to welcome in the new year I tidy up, clear out and refresh, including the computer.  This morning whilst deleting unwanted photographs I found this photo of our park home which we had to leave in December 2019.  We got the keys in December 2009 and moved our belongings in during one of the worst Winters we had experienced in years.  After the initial snagging (including leaking water pipes and a leaky sewage pipe!) had been completed, we found it warm and cosy and fully expected to spend our retirement in the country........

It wasn't to be....After G developed health problems, the stress of trying to juggle healthcare appointments with February shutdown of the park proved too much and we had to leave and buy our little semi on the edge of town.  If only we could go back to 2009 and experience those years again before all the health issues surfaced I would be very happy. 

I doubt if any of us will miss 2020 so lets look forward to whatever good things 2021 will bring.  We are en route to Spring so get planning folks!  We can't wait to get back to the allotment and we hope to be able to plan something good for our Golden  Wedding Anniversary in October, even if it's only a meal in a restaurant.

What would you like to do in 2021?