Enough of That Birthday Malarky

This morning I woke up to this lovely view from the bedroom window.  

It promises to be another gloriously sunny day here in North Wales, and what a wonderful way to make sure there's no birthday let down feeling.  The chickens were already up and pecking at bugs in the grass, the blossom on the ancient apple tree next to the woodstore and the blossom on the little cherry tree in Chicken World next to their house are simply beautiful.  With the sun shining on the opposite side of the valley and starting to melt the light overnight ground frost it was just magical to whip open the curtains and see all this.

I've gone into my sixties renewed, reinvigorated and feeling as only a true introvert can be after all this wonderful isolation.  When you prefer your own company this isolation lockdown thingy is going down very well.

And I've found another job for Alan to do when he's finished his day job at the end of the week.

We have a single slab of oak left.  

Taken from the huge oak tree we sadly had to cut down shortly after moving in here to make way for the satellite reception we need ... and the bloody big garage/workshop we built.

The rest of the slabs of oak were seasoned for five years and then sold over the last few months of last year.  Now we have this single piece left ... and I think with a bit of trimming down ... it weighs a lot ... and lots of planing and conditioning it will make a beautiful live edge coffee table to take to our next home.  

A wonderful lasting souvenir of our time in Wales.

We finished off my birthday yesterday taking water over for the sheep, now in the end field,  and with a sit on the hillside in the beautifully warm sunshine playing with the dogs.

"Please don't put me in the bucket again Dad."

And then it was a relaxing tea in front of the television with one of my favourite films on DVD.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ... and one or two glasses of wine.

A lovely day and helped along wonderfully by all your birthday wishes.  

Thank you so very much.

Sue xx

My Swinging Sixties

It's here the BIG day in all senses of the word ... I'm 60.

Born in 1960 and reaching 60  has a nice ring about it and I'm not bothered by the changing of the decades.  Joining Alan in our 60's hold no worries for me ... although for a while I thought it might.

Are you all wondering about my homemade present from Alan as mentioned in yesterday's post. 

 Well what do you need when you're heralding in your swinging sixties ...

... of course you need a swing!!

The view from the back is not very appealing but the view from the front is amazing, and the good thing is because of the garage overhang I can even swing on a rainy day.  

Here's to my Swinging Sixties  💚

Now I'm off to watch afternoon television, drink afternoon wine, eat afternoon chocolate and generally just have the laziest birthday ever!!

I hope your day is as good.

Sue xx

This is My Weekend

This week there has been a little trickle of cards arriving for me, one a day every day.  It's been exciting in these strange times to see the postman bringing me cards for my birthday.  It may sound strange and slightly childish I know, but I really do think you have to take the little snippets of happiness from wherever you can get them.

Also starting tomorrow, and just in time for my birthday is the new series of Killing Eve.  We love this, for the silliness of it, the shock of the strange killings and the good storyline that it has.

Alan wondered what he could get me for my birthday that wouldn't entail a trip out to the shops ... I gave him a brilliant idea for something that I have always wanted.  It's something else that many might see as very childish, but I briefly had one when we lived at Jointers farm, sort of had one at our next address and have been without one ever since ... but never one of my own. 

He finished making it yesterday and I have just been outside to check the final positioning of it.

That's when I noticed the state of my car.

Look at that layer of dust and grime, not to mention sawdust and little dead critters on the front grill.

I think my car deserves a treat for my birthday too.

I'll be back tomorrow to give you the big reveal on my 60th birthday present from Alan.  Now I have to go and find the hosepipe and a big bucket of soapy water and get this poor little car back to some semblance of shine.

Sue xx

Chats and Farmyard Noises

Ethel and Joey

I was talking on the phone to my Mum in Manchester yesterday with the background sound effects of the sheep baa-ing for all they were worth.  They had spotted me going into the polytunnel to take the propagator lids off the seedlings while I was chatting away to Mum, and decided to try and persuade me to come over to feed them some Ewe Nuts. 

At first Mum thought it was me burping ... no comment!!

Then this morning my son phoned for a chat from his home in Workington.  At home all alone he phones regularly for a chat, but luckily he has been called back into work starting from Monday so he will be able to stop washing his car, cutting his grass, painting his walls and generally making his little bachelor pad the cleanest, freshest, neatest place on the planet ... Army training and a Stay Home instruction does that to a guy!!

Anyway while we were chatting both cockerels decided that now was the time to make themselves heard and we had almost ten minutes of cock-a-doodle-doing, with the answering call from our neighbours cockerels drifting across the road.

At least Simon knew from the start that it wasn't me  🤣🤣

Sue xx

Thank you for all the lovely comments yesterday  ❤

Corners of Home, Waffle and Inane Chatter

I was recently asked if after over twelve years of blogging I ever run out of inspiration for a post, run out of things to say or simply want to stop.

Well I have stopped blogging a couple of times, but always come back.  I have run specific blogs for year long Challenges and usually pretty much seen them through, there has been an odd exception ... I mean I got to December once on a year long challenge and then gave up!!

I have seen blogging buddies come and go and still somehow I am still here with over 600 views a day on this particular blog, my old blog had a much higher following and higher viewing figures but I never let that make me carry something on.  The secret to continuous blogging is that although you are letting the world in on your ramblings you are rambling mostly for your own benefit.

It's like I'm talking to myself, my fingers run over the keyboard as fast as the words whizz through my head.  Some days I can be lost for what to say on that days post, then a walk round the paddock with the dogs or a photo loaded onto the computer from my camera will trigger a whole myriad of words tumbling from my fingers to the keyboard.

A simple photo of a corner of home can trigger a post.

Someone asking for a recipe can mean I set to and photograph myself making something.  The recipe for these muffins is over on my other blog, where today the theme is potatoes ... see I can waffle on about anything!!

You can see for yourself here ... Challenging Myself

I have readers who have read my inane ramblings for years, some have vanished completely, some pop up when I least expect them too with a comment or an email and it's nice that we have a roving band of blogging fraternity.

I have met a few fellow bloggers, and quite a large number of readers when they have ventured into my area.  One lovely reader swerving up and onto our drive with such speed her poor husband who was behind the wheel of the car and was suddenly instructed to turn right ... immediately ... had no idea why his wife wanted to visit a random house on a Welsh hillside, but he took it in good fun once his heart rate had returned to normal over a mug of coffee while he drank in the liquid and the calming view.

But always we have gotten on well,  drank coffee, ate biscuits and waffled on together in real life.  And that's why I think I find it so easy to have ideas for blog posts, I am literally just chatting to my friends over a cup of coffee and a keyboard.

Nice to have you out there .... you are out there right?

Hellooooo!!

Sue xx

I Will Survive

Anybody else finding them singing I Will Survive 

Over and over again

Nope!!

Then it's just me then   🤣🤣

Sue xx

Home, Shopping, Books and Animals

Home is a good place at the moment.

After braving Tesco, our second nearest supermarket yesterday it was good to get home.  We went to our second nearest as we felt a bit guilty last time we ventured out going to the Co-op in Llanrwst. We had called there as we were close by picking up animal and chicken feed from the farm supplies shop, but we realised as soon as we got there that we should really leave that for the locals of Llanrwst the majority of whom walk to it and have it as their only supermarket, save for the Spar.  So we made the decision that next time we needed shopping we would visit Tesco instead.

It's surprising how many folk from the hills around the valleys here never venture further than this town for all their needs.  A small town I first heard of many years ago when I read the book Hovel in the Hills written by Elizabeth West, never for a moment thinking I would end up living so close to where she used to live. 

Is it weird that I suddenly feel a need to read this again ... and her others?

Anyway what I was going to say before I went off on a tangent is that we have the luxury of our cars and the ability to drive in either direction out of our property, so an extra five miles in the other direction is really neither here nor there. 

Tesco was strange, slightly different to the last time we went right at the start of the lockdown. 

 Lanes of marked out areas for queues of shoppers in the car park, tape across the floor all the way around the store so you could see exactly how far two metres was for good social distancing.  Only three of the manned checkouts were open, with Perspex screens protecting the till operators and also just three of the self service ones with one masked employee to oversee them.  And in some areas empty shelves.  There were lots of toilet rolls and lots of pasta, not that we needed either, but no flour or baking goods save for the flavourings, hundreds and thousands and other decorating sundries and rather weirdly boxes and boxes of Betty Crocker cake mixes.  Luckily there was some vanilla extract ... which was all I needed.  

Flour would have been nice but I will make do with my half bag of out-of-date plain flour for now.  I treated myself to a pack of ready rolled puff pastry, at just £1 a treat well worth having when it would seem plain flour or any flour is worth it's weight in gold.

Heading home was once again a happy experience, it really does seem the best place to be right now.

Someone asked me about how I managed to get such good photos of the animals when I share them on here.  I'll let you into a secret ... I wait for something like this to be happening, I quietly grab my camera or phone and then say ...

'Suky do you want one....?' in a loud voice.

Suky looks round ... et voila, two interested looking dogs looking straight into camera.

If I miss the shot that's it, she doesn't fall for it a second time!!

Ginger is a bit easier.

chh, chh ... 

... and you have his attention.

Just the once though.

Sue xx