Just a Proud Great Nana Moment ...

 

We went to see and have a cuddle of our new great grandson Finley-James on Sunday morning.

Here with his Mum, his big brother and Great Grandad Alan reading a story, with Mason supplying all the sound effects. 

Time for a cuddle, and in Finley's case time to watch a bit of television while the grown ups all chatted.  And then ...

... time to hand Finley over to Great Grandad Alan who was on feeding duty.  

Finley and Mason's Dad, my grandson Liam, was there but he just had to keep going into the kitchen for business calls, so somehow he managed to miss all the photos!!

A lovely couple of hours of family time, so I thought I would pop the photos on here for posterity.  💖

Sue xx

Weekend Watching

 

My mantra for the weekend.  😊

And here for your delight and entertainment are a few of the YouTube videos that I have really enjoyed this week.

https://youtu.be/28seX-TDUh4?si=VES3SgOyInNKM6_G

Firstly a lovely vegan couple that I've watched for quite a while now,  doing another of their budget vegan food shops.  They are so close to the magic 1000 subscribers at last, so if you enjoy the video please think about subscribing to the channel, it costs you nothing but does really help them

https://youtu.be/58wyfJQCMVg?si=hh3V6asRZc_K1-ix

I watched Farmhouse on Boone this morning, such a relaxing way to start the day this video and a cup of coffee ... and such a beautiful house with it's lovely muted colours.

A little video from Carolyn, who is great for giving me ideas to help with rationing.

https://youtu.be/UmDDhwFZQjo?si=ucxEDzR8uWlb64PT

I think I'll give these ago the next time I run out of bread.

And finally from Grackle ...

https://youtu.be/mRtMR8FAfuE?si=Pxasn1HRJfdEiWts

A bit of a nosey into two hotels in London, the newest and the oldest ... and wow, what a difference in price.  I do love a look around a hotel room and what better way to do it without having to spend on an overnight stay away from home.  

I hope you enjoy these, just something to sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee over.

Sue xx

It's All About the Beans

I have beans on my menu twice this week over on my Getting Ready for Rations on Retirement blog, usually when I am splitting a can of baked beans I upend it for an hour or so before I open it, just so that the sauce distributes evenly throughout the can ... this time I forgot.  So to get an even distribution of beans and sauce I decided to tip it into the pan and then spoon out half.  I thought I might as well get a perfect split so I weighed the pan.

I was pretty shocked really that a good brand such as Heinz is still short-changing it's customers.  I have complained to them once before when I was doing a challenge and had cause to weigh my beans, they sent me a £2 voucher.  I have also complained many years ago to Asda about their Smartprice beans, they were seriously underweight, they too sent me a £2 gift card.

Now I didn't do this for any reward but more because I was really annoyed.  

Branded beans are now quite an expensive thing to buy, these Heinz beans were bought on offer at £3.50 for a four pack, usually they are £1.40 per can each ... obviously I was feeling flush that week whenever it was ... as I'm someone who usually buys the supermarkets basic lines at under 30p a tin this price is astonishing.

Anyway I ate my lunch, half a can of beans on two slices of toast, and then jumped on the computer to send a politely worded message to Heinz via their website.  Just pointing out that as beans are cooked in the cans there should be no room for any discrepancy of weights and if they knew that somehow beans magically lost weight on cooking they should start the process with more weight in the cans and then left it at that.

On the way to Mum's yesterday, with the car boot loaded up with Alan's carpet cleaner ready to clean Mum's carpets we were chatting away about all sorts of things and I mentioned the low weight of my beans and of the previous cans from this batch and Alan started doing the maths, as only an engineer would.  He worked out that if they are making millions of cans of beans per year and a good percentage of them are actually underweight the company is making huge profits from selling 'missing beans'.

Yes, we often have these sort of conversations!!  😄

And this was where this blog post was going to end, but ...

... I have just received this letter.

I only contacted them on Tuesday, so this is very quick work on their part.  I am now the proud owner of two £3 vouchers, I didn't do any of this for that but nevertheless I am happy to have them.

The big questions is now do I buy more beans with my vouchers?

Checking the prices of the Heinz beans and Sainsbury's own brand beans as I was a few minutes ago to get things right for this post, has thrown up that the packs of six Heinz beans are currently on offer in Sainsbury's at just £4.75 if you have a Nectar card, I'm tempted, but maybe that's their plan ... get me hooked on Heinz baked beans as I used to be many years ago.  😀

Sue xx

Apologies to Anyone Who Loves the Heat

 For sure.  💚

I love Autumn, and no sooner than I thought it had arrived it left!!

 Only the other week as the days, and especially the nights, started to cool I was dreaming about putting on my winter-weight duvet and snuggling up at night, pulling my warmer jumpers and cardigans out of storage and packing away the lighter Summer coloured t-shirts for another year.  It's a good job I didn't react to my first thought isn't it.  

Last week was a sweaty mess in every sense of the word.  Watering plants to keep them alive was suddenly top priority, well along with trying to keep my little place cool for the dogs and Ginger to escape from the sun.  How Alan managed down South wearing a shirt and suit each day at work I have no idea!

Yes, the nights are drawing in at a fast pace and the darker evenings are a balm to my soul but I need cool, lots of cool at this time of year.  Thank goodness it seems to be cooling down to more Autumnal temperatures this week ... and fingers crossed it stays that way. 

Now all I need to do is go to the car wash and get that Saharan dust that came down in the thundery showers the other day, washed off my car.

Sue xx

Mavis and Suky - Two Days of Adventure

 

I took the dogs to the groomers yesterday.

 I don't know whether it was the uncertainty of her Dad being away for work, it being so early in the morning or her just wanting to be back on the riverbank but Mavis did not rush in the door to greet the groomers the way she usually does, indeed I had to step back out of the salon, pick her up and lift her purposefully inside.

I drove away feeling very guilty ... was she trying to tell me something?

She was much better when I went back to pick her up an hour and a half later and waited patiently while I settled the bill ... gulp!!

As soon as they got home, both dogs had their usual long drink and settled down to sleep away the stress of being bathed, partially dried and having their nails clipped. 

 They stayed there pretty much all day.

To make up for yesterdays 'torture' I took them to their favourite park this morning.  Just two minutes away by car and with lots to sniff at.

We all walked around and bench hopped, even at 9.30am it was getting too hot for me and Suky.

The grass was long, gloriously damp in some places and soaking wet in others, and my shoes got pretty saturated but both dogs loved to flop on it and cool off.  

Unfortunately, there were no people to watch so Mavis had to make do with watching a cloud of Hedge Sparrows settling on the ground, then flying around for a moment and then retreating into the bushes before doing it all over again.  

She was fascinated.

I think this look just about sums up this morning so beautifully.

'This is a better day Mum, thank you.'

She's  always had eyes that speak to me.  💖

Sue xx

Sunny Sunday in Llanrwst

 

It seems only fair after showing your our Sunny Saturday in Conwy that I show you what we got up to on our sunny Sunday in Llanrwst, the town that we used to live so close to.

For once ... much to Alan's dismay ... we couldn't drive past our old home as the road was shut at the Tal y Cafn junction, but being former occupants of the area we knew the back roads and set off to enjoy the even more picturesque route to Llanrwst.

On a gloriously sunny day with the windows wound down, it was magical.  I've done it many times before in dreadful weather and the windy country lanes are not quite so magical then!

We wandered around the park seeing if the Horse Chestnut trees were starting to release their conkers yet, the main purpose of us going there ... but nope not ready yet!!  At least the dogs got a good wander around and sniff, staying mostly in the shade wherever we could.

Then we sat on a bench watching out over the river and the traffic on the Pont Fawr Bridge. 

As usual there was a lot of activity on the bridge, partly due to the road closure in one direction but also as there must have been an accident in the other direction.  Emergency vehicle after emergency vehicle sped along the road towards it and then over it and across the river.  With police at both sides directing the traffic, for once there wasn't the usual free-for-all of being the one to get to the top and therefore have right of way.

Then we crossed the road and sat in the sunshine outside the tearooms to have a much needed cup of coffee and a sandwich.  The dogs alternating between watching us eat and sitting in the shade under the picnic bench.

Then the heat of the day got too much, and we went back through the park to the car and headed back to the flat, taking the same scenic route in reverse until we were home in the cool of the flat.

There might have been a short afternoon nap before we gathered together our bags and set off late afternoon back home to England.  😃

Sue xx

Sunny Saturday in Conwy

 

We set off early on Saturday morning before the heat of the day got too much, hoping, expecting it to be quiet in Conwy, but already the tourists were flocking to the castle walkways, no doubt enjoying the shade offered by the old stone walls. 

 Already the sun was out and the heat was building up.  

We got a coffee each and sat on the quayside watching the tour boat go out with it's load after load of holidaymakers wanting to be on the water on this hot day and see the beauty of the River Conwy from the centre of the river rather than it's edges.  It must have been nice out there, we will do it one day, but this day we chose not too.

Instead we drank in the blueness of the sky, the calm of the water and the beautiful boats and watched children making sandcastles with coffee cups and ice-cream tubs.  Buckets and spade were available in the gift shop, but don't you just love a bit of ingenuity.  😀

The queue for the Smallest House had been much longer when we sat down, but when I turned to go I realised I could get a photo as there were fewer people now.  

At £1.50 to go in and look at it's two tiny rooms I couldn't justify yet another peep.  It used to be 50p, and then £1 and I visited at both those price points, but I've seen it now and I have the ability to 'save' very detailed images in my head of how interiors of buildings look, so I stood and pulled up the image ... and saved my money.

We shade hopped back to the car park with both dogs glad of the shortish distance, and then took them back to the cool of the flat.  Then we went into Llandudno for a couple of hours, still on our hunt for the final two pieces we wanted to furnish the flat with.  A side table for a lamp and a unit of some description for the television to sit on.

First stop the British Heart Foundation furniture shop, where we really struck it lucky.  Second stop fish and chips at one of our favourite chippy's followed by a little mooch around a charity shop and a book purchase.  Then it was back in the car to the BHF shop to pick up our purchase and head for home.

And this is what we got, a lovely little 'Hi Fi' cupboard.  

Brand new and donated by a furniture shop to the BHF when it recently closed down.  It had previously been priced at £360, reduced to £320, and then donated.  We got it for just £45, a bargain, I guess because of it's name not many people want a Hi Fi cupboard these days, but hey you have to think out side of the box if you want a bargain.  It's not specifically the 'lamp table' we were looking for, but it's even better it's a surface for a lamp but with storage, and it's solid oak wood matches the theme of the flat perfectly.

A quick wipe out and then it was put into place and into service.  

What a successful day.

Sue xx