Latest read

I've just finished reading Someone You Know by Erin Kinsley, picked up at my most recent library visit. I gave it 3.5 ⭐s. It was a murder mystery, quite a slow burn rather than a fast paced thriller but I enjoyed it. Some of the characters weren't the nicest, but all in all it kept me interested. 

G is upstairs in bed with Covid, feeling sorry for himself poor thing, and we sadly had to cancel our Valentine's Day meal last night 😥 but it gave me lots of time to read and watch another one of the original Pink Panther film series (the ones with Peter Sellers). We've rebooked to eat out next Saturday, so that's good (as long as I don't get sick 🤞).

My next read is Anxious People by Fredrik Backman:

This is for the book club I'm part of. Our next meeting is next weekend, so I need to get going with this book!

Have a lovely weekend

Sarah x

Catch up

Well it's been a while! I had all good intentions for posting regularly, but we've had a bunch of family illness and then issues at work, so my mind has been elsewhere for a while.

I left my job in December (they were making redundancies and had cut my hours down to 12 a week - it was a complicated situation) and since then have been helping care for mum and supporting dad.

So other than those jolly happenings, looking back on what I've been up to: 

G and I took a visit to Cardiff in Wales last week, he needed to go for work so I went along for the ride. We had a lovely time, the weather was gorgeous. We met up with a couple of friends while we were there, which was good for me as, at the moment, it can be a little isolating during the day.

Look at those skies! It was bloomin freezing though!

Marina in Cardiff

Coco is settling more and more 💖 the 29th February will mark 1 year since we adopted her from the Blue Cross. She is such a fluffy cute girl.

I've been trying to walk more and generally exercise more, oh and eat healthier. We're lucky to live near beautiful countryside.

Love this tree - it's an oak tree. I must admit I say hello, and occasionally a hug, as I walk past.

We had some lovely snow in January and me, B & L threw a few snowballs, made snow angels and generally had fun.

Christmas was fun and relaxing. Just us and close family.

We had a holiday in the Lake District in September. The cottage we stayed in had beautiful views with just a tiny glimpse of Windermere.

We had some lovely walks around the area and a trip on one of the the Windermere cruises.

Anyway, I could ramble on forever!

Have a lovely day!

Sarah x

Catch up

 Wow, where did the week go?? I had all good intentions of posting at least twice this week.

It's been busy though.

I'm reading a couple of books at the moment.

This is a sweet story.

Wanted to read this for a while... it's a bit bleak haha

Sunday

We picked L up from her university - again (she was re-visiting) and picked up the last of her stuff from her uni house. She's living in a different house from September so we checked everything was clean and tidy before posting the key through the letterbox.

Monday

We had a late night on Monday, after work I travelled over to G's work where a friend of ours has been running Dungeons and Dragons games as a fundraiser. The game this week was a pirate themed game. It's hilarious and lots of fun. The idea was that we visited this fortified village near the coast and then we needed to find a ship's captain and steal a ship. We totally missed all our cues, ended up in prison, escaped and then commandeered a barge and ended up on an island. However, despite our ineptitude we did find a bit of treasure. It was a late night though, we finished the game at around 10.00 pm.

Tuesday

Tuesday was spent recovering from my late night. I yawned my way through the workday! We started to watch a film in the evening (Red with Bruce Willis) but didn't finish.

Wednesday

My birthday! One of my colleagues at work got me a cake, which was very kind (and very delicious). I left work earlier than normal and G picked me up. When I got home I had some lovely presents awaiting me. I realise that these presents wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but they were just what I wanted.

Vintage Sega Mega Drive

I have mentioned a few times I'd like a Sega Mega Drive (I think it was called Sega Genesis in the US). I remember this console from the 90s and playing Sonic and Street Fighter at university on a friend's console.

A notebook and pretty earrings

The girls got me a lovely pair of earrings and a notebook as well (I love notebooks). B ordered the notebook online and we laughed so much. You see, it is very pretty but on the front is a sleeve with the following text:

SAMPLE TEXT

WIND FLOWERS

SAMPLE TEXT

Born as the bright summer flowers

I believe I am

Born as the bright summer flowers

Do not withered undefeated fiery demon rule

-----------.-----------

I believe I am

Died as the quiet beauty of autumn leaves

Sheng is not chaos, smoke gesture

MGGAO

It is all very strange - something somewhere has been lost in translation I think! Then on the back is the first few verses of Genesis, which is nice.

 

Silent Hill a vintage Playstation game (I have an old Playstation 2)

I also got a copy of Silent Hill, a spooky vintage Playstation game that is quite rare and not cheap. 

A cake the girls made - it was DELICIOUS

The girls made me some cake, they said apologised was a bit messy but I think it's just a bit beautifully rustic and DELICIOUS.

Mum and dad came round to wish me a happy birthday, which was lovely. Then we went out for a meal.

Up on the moors

We went up to my favourite pub/restaurant up on the moors. There are amazing views up there. I had goats cheese and beetroot salad starter and then rag pudding, chips, veg and gravy for my main.

We came home, finished off the rest of the film Red and then fell into bed. A lovely day.

Thursday

Not much happened other than back to work and watched the film Lift in the evening.

Friday

My day off work. I cleaned the bathroom and did some washing - I was going to hang it outside and then the clouds came in threatening rain.

B and I have been cataloguing our DVDs, this sounds very boring I know but I love to organise things, and B loves a good spreadsheet!

For lunch we went out with my mum and dad, which was lovely, especially as L is home at the moment. We went to a local garden centre cafe, it was really busy, a 45 minute wait for food, but it was good to spend time with mum and dad. I was exhausted when I got home and went for a lie down, when I got up B had completely cleaned the house and hung the washing out! What a treasure she is.

So that's been my week. How are you?

Sarah x

Sofas and walks

 The new sofa arrived ::fireworks of joy:::

Coco on the other sofa inspecting the box - what is it with cats and cardboard boxes?

The weather is grey, grey, grey. I'm hoping to get out for a walk today, if the rain holds off. We are blessed to live near some beautiful countryside and often pop out for a bit of a ramble. Here are some photos from walks over the last few months:

Hello cows! One of these young cows licked my jumper, how rude.

Ah, the beauty of a rainy cold July day!

Just love taking pictures of cows haha

I am endlessly fascinated by lichen

A sunny day! Hurrah and huzzah! And curious cows.

Buttercups and blue skies

My favourite local tree visited in the early spring - I must go visit now that he will be in full leaf!

Well, we are now off to the tip with the old sofa and then to the library.

Sarah x

Sunny day

This week was my first week of reduced hours at work, I've cut my hours down to 4 days a week. As the old adage says, no-one ever says on their deathbed that they wish they'd spent more days at the office!

I really want to be around for my mum and dad who are now late 70s nearly 80, and to be able to do some of the homey things I love to do and take care of my garden, and above all be able to take care of my family. These are the things that are truly important.

It's so good to just take a pause, and have breathing space. And it was lovely to have some time with my mum and dad today, just catching up.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Interlude: The sofa saga

Today I vacuumed the living room, under the sofas to make it all clean because tomorrow our second sofa arrives!! Woo hoo. This is exciting because we ordered two sofas in April, a two seater and three seater. Our current sofas were basically falling apart. So we ordered them and paid for them. 

The two seater arrived within a week and the three seater was supposed to arrive within 5 weeks. But instead we were informed about two weeks later that because we didn't pay quickly enough the three seater was out of stock and they didn't know when it would arrive (this is ridiculous as we paid in the time frame the salesperson at the store gave us, i.e. we paid as soon as we got home online and we were given 24 hours). Anyway, G spent a lot of time on the phone and emailing and we ended up with a 'case worker'! Sounds like a social worker, not a customer service person. 

We were told finally that our three seater would be back in stock on the 10th July. Yay. Yet, no! Just before we were about to go on holiday at midnight on the 7th July G got an email to say our order had been cancelled as it had been on order for too long! So G make a lot of phonecalls and apparently it is arriving tomorrow morning.

I have a worry that the wrong sofa will arrive! But fingers and toes crossed!!

🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️

I have done three loads of washing today. Nothing brings me greater joy that being able to hang my washing out. Washing dried outdoors has a beautiful scent.

Ah sunny skies and washing outside.

These wooden pegs were my nan's, they make me smile.

It's very warm for a kitty with a heavy coat of fur, so this can be resolved by actually sitting in the window.

I think the sunny weather is short lived and we are in for rain tomorrow afternoon again. The skies looked slightly ominous looking across the fields earlier.

Here's to a lovely weekend.

Sarah x

Tuesday catch-up

It’s a bit of a shock to the system going back to work yesterday. When I got into work I also discovered that my desk had been moved away from the lovely big windows! I have a nice view of the corridor now. 

I went for a short walk to take a break on Monday (I hate sitting too long in an office) and found a little green space. I've been using the Merlin bird app and recorded songs from Great Tit, Wren, Goldfinch and Blue Tit - it's very cool learning all the different bird sounds and being in nature is so restorative and calming.

Today I felt like I could spend the day in bed though! It's always hard the second day of suddenly having to get up early again. 

At home, since coming back from holiday, I’ve been catching up with washing oodles of clothes and a bit of cleaning, watering my thirsty plants and tackling some gardening - which wasn’t helped when the wheel of my lawnmower fell off haha.

On Sunday, I trimmed the leylandii in the front garden (you really have to keep an eye on leylandii otherwise they grow to a huge height). We inherited it when we bought the house. Our hydrangeas had become swamped by the leylandii, Japanese Quince, wild rose and brambles from next door - so I did a lot of tidying up.

I didn't take pictures of afterwards, I'll perhaps do that later on this week

This weekend G was busy putting together his AT-AT Lego from his birthday.

He concentrated so long he got a bad headache haha.

I was a tad disturbed when I discovered where he had put it. Right in the middle of the shelves in the living room with all my plants and pretty knick-knacks haha. Not the aesthetic I was looking for.

L is currently away in the Lake District and her photos are amazing, I must say I’m a bit jealous.

Sunday was my book club. We meet in Waterstones in the city centre. We all gave varied reviews to The Other Mothers - between 3-4 stars. I gave it 4, because I did enjoy it but the ending was a bit convoluted (so it was more like 3.5 rounded up). Our next book is Seven Summers - I’ve not heard of it before but looking online it gets good reviews. Apparently it’s a tear-jerker too.

It was good catching up with everyone at book club and my friend too.

I’m currently re-reading Pride and Prejudice, which I know will be a 5 star of course! ❤️

B has gone back this week to her volunteer job at the RSPCA, she particularly likes looking after the cats and kittens. She'll also be back at her temp job doing admin this week. So we're all getting back into the rhythms of a regular week.

Speaking of cats, Coco has been with us 6 months now! She’s a nervous cat but definitely beginning to settle and is a little fluffy treasure.

Mum and Dad visited an old friend this weekend so I have yet another book to read! Ah the trauma - haha. I really do need to do a cull of my books, the bookshelves are groaning. This one looks a nice easy devotional read.

Tonight we had a delicious chippy tea (dinner from a Fish and Chips shop for my non-English readers). Just what you need when you're tired, but definitely not a healthy meal - our cholesterol probably went up a zillion points.

I took a look at the local river which runs near the chippy, I thought it would be much fuller because of all the rain, but it was pootling along fairly peacefully today.

Anyway, that’s it for today. Hope you're having a lovely day.

Sarah x