Pumpkins, Cleaners and Being Ruthless

 

I thought I better do another post to get all those photos of me off your sidebars, and I couldn't resist sharing my cute little pumpkins with you.  A silly little 59p purchase but they make me smile every time I see them ... which is worth every penny. 

Autumn, it came in windy and wet, it quickly turned too warm for jumpers and then just sunny enough to make us want to make plans and then reverted this morning to cold, windy and wet.  My first job this morning was to follow Alan to the garage as his car is being serviced, just so that I could give him a lift home.  On a fair day he doesn't mind the walk back, but today is definitely not a fine day.

I've missed this blog while I've been over on my other one, so it's a happy relief to be back ... although not a lot apart from rationing has been going on.  Well, I suppose really quite a lot has gone on but it's like when you ask your children on that walk home from school 'What did you do today?' and they just say 'nothing' ... at first my mind just goes blank.

Last week we helped Mum with lots of little jobs that needed doing after the deep clean of her bungalow, then we had Alan's sister and her partner who live in Scotland, to stay for the weekend and had a lovely catch up with them.  Yesterday we started the process for Mum of her ongoing Care Package.  Her NHS funded four visits a day which have been needed less and less are instead to be replaced with one paid for visit a day.  She chose teatime as the best time for someone to call on her, they will check her tablets etc and perhaps do the washing up for the day and any other little medical or non-medical things that Mum needs help with.  It works for her and sounds sensible, oh and she has now got a cleaner who will call every Monday for a couple of hours.

On top of this I have been busy sorting out my things.

 I keep thinking it will be for the last time but does sorting out and decluttering ever end?  I keep realising that there are still things that I don't need so I'm sticking a price sticker on them and putting them into the large plastic boxes we bought many years ago and used to move house with.  

We are booked into a table-top sale for this Sunday.  We did one at the same village venue earlier this year and the girl who runs it asked if we would be interested in doing another one in October as they are raising money for charity.  At the time we said that we would think about it as we didn't have much stuff left really, and what we did have we sold as a job lot on Facebook Marketplace the day after the sale.  When she rang out of the blue while Mum was in hospital and said they had planned one for this coming weekend I couldn't picture what I had left to sell, but something made me accept the table.  I just knew it would push me to be super ruthless.

So that's what I am being at the moment, super ruthless.  Even with things bought quite recently, I have had another of my must live more minimally mindsets going on ... and you would be super surprised if you saw how many books I have decided to jettison.

So now I'm off to be brave, lift the storage bed up and see what is hiding under there that simply will not be there next week.

Sue xx

Three Photos of Me!!

 

I sometimes wonder what photo Alan will choose to put on my little funeral menu card (order of service card ... if there is a service).  Will it be my most recognisable one to my friends on the internet.  Me and my beautiful pet cabbage.

He could always use the close-up version!! 

He could use this one and scare everyone.  😄

Or he could just go quite boring and serious, and share this one taken in August this year.

One of the few downsides to being a blogger is that the camera is usually in my hands and therefore I am rarely in the shot.  The poor man just doesn't have much choice does he.  😂

I dare ... indeed I double dare ... any of my readers with a blog of their own to share three photographs of themselves on their next post.

And I apologise if I have given you a shock with this very unusual post, calm down have a coffee and I promise normal service will soon be resumed!!

*If I had the choice, it would be the first photo. Just me in my normal attire of jeans and a t-shirt clutching a vegetable, what could be more Sue!

Sue xx

You Know Where I Am!!

 

All the up-to-date news etc is still over on my other blog at the moment.

My Modern Wartime Rationing

Sue xx

Lesson from Autumn ... and Apologies

 

Oh, I love Autumn it's my favourite season of the year.  

I mean what's not to love, you can eat all of the comforting food, wear all the snuggliest of jumpers.  Tuck your jeans into your boots and kick your way through the fallen leaves.

I don't mind that I occasionally feel cold, I would much rather be cold and be able to add another layer of clothes than be hot and be able to do little about it. I think I do need to get some warmer slippers as cold feet aren't quite so enjoyable, but it's nice to have my boots and winter shoes back in the wardrobe along with my warmer winter coat.

Oh, and my hot water bottles have already seen daily action ... I do love a hot water bottle. 😃

The dogs don't like getting their feet wet when it rains and they hate being towelled dry after a rainy walk, so I guess now it's time to dig out their little jackets for the wettest of days.  It's okay for Ginger, he just stays indoors on the colder, wetter days and only follows for a dog walk on days when the weather is more to his taste.

I won't be posting as much on here for this month as I've been posting every day on my other blog as my Modern Wartime Ration Challenge started last week and it will be too much for me to be able to keep both blogs going while I am also trying to visit Mum as much as possible in the hospital and keep things going here while Alan is intermittently working away.

So, apologies in advance if you get here and nothing has changed.

Sue xx

Scrumping Bags

 

What's the one thing that dogs walkers always have on them everywhere they go whether the dogs are with them or not?  Poo bags, or as they are also known at this time of year ... Scrumping Bags.

I was walking the dogs around the park yesterday morning and I spotted quite a few apples of various types on the trees, so I helped myself to just a few.

I added them to the apples in the bowl that Alan had scrumped for me on Sunday morning when we walked the dogs around the garden centres paddock, but he was more clandestine than me and simply filled his pockets.  Well, we were going into the cafe, and you can't really pop a poo bag on or under your table without raising more than a few eyebrows.

Scrumping is very apt for My Modern Wartime Rationing, which is has now been live for a couple of days over on my other blog ... and luckily every time I go out I have a pocket full of 'scrumping bags' just in case.  😁

(You can also click onto my other blog by clicking on the photograph of me washing the pots right at the top of the sidebar.  😉)

Sue xx

 

Victory Garden, Sorting Out the Cupboards and Thank You

 

My little 'Victory Garden' is still producing things to eat.  

I keep thinking I should start to cut everything back but then I spot one more courgette or one more little cucumber and the sun comes out again and I think ' I'll just give them a chance to grow'.  And they are rewarding me wonderfully.  I feel a bit guilty that the leeks are not getting the space that they should, but they are strong and sturdy and holding their own again the rampant cucumber plant.

The Christmas potatoes are lovely healthy plants, whether there are any potatoes in there is a whole other matter, but the foliage is beautiful.  The spiders love joining the two beds together with webs during the night and getting to the shed means destroying some wonderful creations ... so I try not to venture in there too often.

The tomatoes in the new narrow bed are coming in at a few red ones each day.  Once they stop ripening outside, I am hoping for enough left to be able to make a jar of green tomato chutney for my rationing store-cupboard.

We are still picking lettuce leaves virtually every day and they are doing really well.  The only job I do need to do this week is to pick the apples off the tree and band the tree against the coddling moths that I have spotted this year, I'm not too hopeful for edible apples really, but Alan scrumped a few the other day so we do have some local ones ready for storing to supplement my rations.

Talking of rations, last week I had a good sort out of the store-cupboard.  It was mostly to see what I had in stock and to make space to completely clear one shelf for my rations to live on.

I have a good selection of things in, and I will be able to 'shop my cupboard' for most of the 'on points' rations for quite a long time.

Thank you for all the good wishes for my Mum in yesterday's comments.  She's safer now in hospital than I have felt she's been for a long time.  Hopefully they will be able to sort out her many medical issues, get her medication under control and send her home once she is able to manage in her little bungalow again.

Sue xx

Retro Pots, Winter Woollies and a Sad Accident

I've been washing all my more retro crockery and getting ready for My Modern Wartime Rationing Challenge.  I love the small size of the dishes; I always forget how much smaller they are when compared to even my normal pots.  I eat my meals off a tea plate rather than the more usual dinner plates, but the bowls of my beloved Wood's Ware especially are teeny compared to my cereal bowls and they make my pasta bowls look humungous!

No wonder everyone had puddings after their evening meals back in the day, a mouthful or two of crumble would have been neither here nor there when served in such small portions.  I'm really looking forward to using all this again.

 

I also finally got around to getting out my Winter woollies out from beneath my bed over the weekend, I panicked a little bit when I saw that all my Winter clothes fitted into this smallest of my shrink-wrapped bags.

But once I let the air back in, they expanded quite nicely.

It seems that I have four cardigans and four jumpers, which along with a fleece and a hoodie that's already in my wardrobe will be plenty for Winter wear alongside my jeans and t-shirts.

I also have four scarves, two pairs of gloves and one hat ... that's more than enough for me.

Everything has now had a quick wash to refresh it and is packed neatly away in my drawer, alongside the t-shirts and a couple of long-sleeved cotton tops that I can wear under them.

I've been missing from blogland for a couple of days as my Mum had a fall in her bungalow last Thursday and is in hospital in Manchester.  She has had a number of health issues that her doctor has not been very good at resolving, and it took the ambulance crew to finally put into place the care package that she should have been given by the doctor over two years ago.  Fingers crossed that once she is well enough to come home, she will be able to continue coping in the magnificent way she has up to now, it should just be a lot easier for her.

Sue xx