Long day out

It wasn't meant to be a long day out. We had made an appointment to have another look "our" bungalow in the morning then we were going to pop into the town centre and come home but on Monday Col got a phone call to go in and see the consultant with an appointment at 1.30. So that fitted in nicely except  for some reason there was no consultant and eventually we got seen by someone else and didn't get out again until quarter to five. There was news about treatment for the cancer, which is not the type we first were told but an uncommon sort of lymphoma, treat-able but not curable and thank goodness he will start  treatment next week- as long as there is a bed as he will need to be an in-patient for some of the chemo. It's a long course of two sorts of chemo spread over several months with dire warnings of nasty side effects. But as we said there is no alternative so we just want them to get on with it.

 Our bungalow

 seems smaller than I remember. Plenty of insulation in the loft - good - and the living room carpet was as awful as we thought but there are aconites and snowdrops out in the garden  already so it must be warmer than here.

  The "patio" made of broken paving slabs and bits of concrete

will have to go as will the 'rockery' which is also mainly lumps of concrete - a skip needed I think

 Room for veg beds if we get rid of the lawn

 And there is a lovely big Rosemary.

 We'll be moving right in the middle of Cols treatment - Ho Hum!

While in town I bought shoes. Buying shoes is quite a nerve wracking and unusual event for me. I Hate buying shoes, wear one pair for as long as possible and am about as far from Imelda Marcos as it's possible to get! But I went to Hotter and found some in the sale - nice and comfy - just what I was looking for. Bought a frying pan too ( not from Hotter-obviously).....heavyweight because the last one I got cheap went up in the middle after being used twice and I prefer to have a flat bottomed pan!


So a long day out, the cats were wondering where on earth we were - Starving they said.

I know there are new followers and comments yesterday, but no time to look today. Will say hello tomorrow.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Choosing a book to read - not as easy as you think

The library van didn't come in December as it was due on Christmas day so next visit is not until the 22nd and I've read all my library books except for the two non-fiction on WWII farming and food. The trouble is I'm not in non-fiction mood so I need to read something off my shelves and here is where the problem starts..... too many books to choose from!
How to choose............ first bypass all the non-fiction, still leaves 'quite a few' fiction. Something I've read before - No, so shall I read the second of the Maureen Jennings after reading the first one before Christmas to make sure the set was OK for a friend's gift.
Or, since I've been given the final book to complete a series by Edward Marston, I could now start reading them
Elizabethan Theater
1. The Queen's Head (1988)                                         2. The Merry Devils (1989)  
3. The Trip to Jerusalem (1990)                                      4. The Nine Giants (1991)
5. The Mad Courtesan (1992)                                        6. The Silent Woman (1994)    
 7. The Roaring Boy (1995)                                            8. The Laughing Hangman (1996) 
9. The Fair Maid of Bohemia (1997)                               10. The Wanton Angel (1999)
11. The Devil's Apprentice (2001)                                    12. The Bawdy Basket (2002)
13. The Vagabond Clown (2003)                                     14. The Counterfeit Crank (2004)
15. The Malevolent Comedy (2005)                                16. The Princess of Denmark (2006)


Or I could read another of the ABC crime series by  Sue Grafton,   I'm up to K.
Or maybe try one of the random ex-library crime books I possess by an untried author. 

In the end I plumped for a series by Maureen Ash. These are historical crime by another author who once lived in this country but now lives in Canada. I borrowed the first from a friend and read it, tried to order the next from the library only to find they didn't have any of her books and they are not published in this country. So I put them on my wish list and over the years have collected the next five. Next, look in my Book-of-Books-Read to see which of the series I've read so far, then check Fantastic Fiction to see which one comes next.  Great excitement - there are 2 more that I didn't know about. Look on Amazon to add them to the wish list - Oh Damn - only published for Kindle - bother. Revert to finding the one to read  - A Plague of Poison. 
Settle down on settee only to find it's past 10 O'clock and bedtime.
I'll try again tonight.

Welcome to Sarah, Tina and Sheela who have clicked the google button recently and thanks for all the comments on Free or Not Free - That is the question!

Back tomorrow - I hope
Sue

 

Free?............maybe not

For the first time for more years than I can remember I won't be scanning through these, which arrived today, working out what we need and the best value, filling in the order forms and sending off a cheque.

Although we will have enough room to grow a few things in Ipswich as long as we don't want a lawn and I'm sure when we move in March one of the first things we will do will be to make some veg beds but I've probably got enough seeds saved for what we will need.

Do you see what it says on the front of the Marshalls Catalogue

Free Seeds

5 Free strawberry plants

Free Trial Probiotic Booster 

BUT does that mean what it says? Oh no.

To get the free seeds you have to buy 10 packets of seeds and pay for 9, getting the cheapest free

To get the free strawberry plants you have to spend over £20 on soft fruit plants, bushes or canes

The free pack of Foundation Trial Probiotic soil treatment is sent with any seed order, it's worth............ 65p. Marshalls are not really giving much away.

I try not to be tempted with offers like these although in the past  I have been known to buy a cross stitch magazine because of the free gift on the front. Not any more - I've enough cross stitch designs to last me a lifetime. There are also so called free offers on most of the garden magazines, perhaps seeds attached to the front cover or an offer of vegetable or strawberry plants for the price of postage. Sometimes these are worth spending out the £5 for the magazine but I don't really think this allows you to say you've got them free.

 No such thing as free when you have to spend first! 

Just seen a trailer for a new series of Shetland starting next week on TV. I'll look forward to that. The first 2 series were based on 4  books by Ann Cleeves. She has done 2 more books so I guess this series will be based on those. I spend the whole time muttering when I'm watching because the books are different to the TV series so I remember bits but not the whole story.

Welcome to Fiona and Val, new followers in the google pictures. Numbers creeping back after that weird blip a few weeks ago when Google had a spring clean and everyone lost people.

Thank you everyone for all the lovely comments. It helps to know people are out there.

Back tomorrow

Sue

How 2015 ended and 2016 begun

Belated HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone.
Missed writing so it was only a very short break..........hardly a break at all ........apologies for that last post, feeling sorry for myself isn't something I usually do so thank you  to everyone who said they enjoyed reading about our quiet life, you gave me the kick up the backside I needed to keep writing, which I do enjoy.
 BIG thank you to everyone for the kind comments about Colin after my last post, especially all the people who know someone going through the same thing. I think we both felt a bit down because first we were waiting almost 2 months to find out what was wrong with him, now waiting to find out what needs to be done and I'm not good at waiting....... prefer to be getting on with it.........preferably starting now.......... not hanging around for another fortnight, but we are where we are.

 Anyway, my pen and paper diary has still been written so I can tell you what we've been doing since my last diary post.

On Monday 28th December we went across Suffolk to have a day at our Son and Future D-in-L's home. It's such a treat to be cooked for. Col's brother and Dad were invited as well, it was good to see them as Col's Dad isn't well enough to travel right over to us at Knodishall.

 Tuesday 29th December we were at home catching up on jobs and putting Christmas back in it's box, sealed and labelled to move to Ipswich. Col got the front loader on the tractor to take the last 3 builders bags of split logs into the shed.

 Wednesday 30th December we travelled down to Finchingfield in Essex to visit friends. We had a present swap and delicious food - I could quite get used to eating out at friends and relatives! We walked down into the village for a breath of fresh air. Although our friends will not be affected  -they will actually have a much quieter time - there is a   Huge debate going on in the village  because the bridge over the river is due to be closed for at least 4 months for replacement, with a 13 mile detour to get from one side to the other for small vehicles and 28 miles detour for big lorries -  4 months seems a long time. There is a petition in the village for a temporary bridge as several of the businesses depend on tourist trade which could be seriously affected.

Thursday 31st New Years Eve. A lovely bright day. I stripped the spare double bed - no one else coming to stay before we move- and our youngest came to collect it. They have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for 7 months since their bed frame fell to bits.

New Years Day. Sorry but there are NO resolutions or NO challenges of any sort to read about on this blog. Just an ordinary quiet life adjusting to living on savings, coping with illness and moving house.
  The wind was in the right direction at last for Col to burn up a whole load of rubbish including an old armchair, sawdust from wood cutting and the top part of the tree - all ivy- that came down in the wind a few weeks ago. He did all the shifting with the mower trailer and tractor but was still shattered when he'd finished. I did boring ironing, boring sorting of last years paperwork in our filing system (bottom drawer of dresser) and boring filing-in-the-right-place of the papers that needed keeping! Actually it was good to get these jobs done so not really boring AND while sorting I re-read the pension gumph that Col got about his County-Council pension and I think he can get the whole amount at age 60 - in 2017 - rather than just 75% (which is how we had interpreted it on first reading) and as its currently standing at about £11,000, that will make a HUGE difference to how far the savings will stretch.
Watched the 5th episode of Dickensian and the Sherlock special -which left me totally confused but no nightmares afterwards - thank goodness.

Saturday 2nd January. Because we are leaving the bookshelves that are all fixed to the walls in the hall, we rounded up the three old stained-wood shelves that Col made years ago (one was in the craft room, one in the front porch and one out in the campsite recreation room) and trundled them up to the work shop where Col will sand them down - a bit at a time - and - hopefully- cover the dark wood-stain with light paint. At least that's the plan - is there a paint that will cover wood-stain? Anyone know?

Sunday 3rd January. After turning the mattress on our bed last week and finding the cover had split even more than a month earlier we decided to catch the tail end of the Dreams sale and go and get a new one. Do you know that you can pay over £1,000 for a mattress? Luckily we found one for a lot less than that - phew! Hope this mattress lasts as long as the old one as we think we've had that 13 years. Delivery due 12th so not too long to wait

So here we are up to date.
Apologies again for that self-pitying, down-in-the-dumps post. I'm feeling more up beat now. Ready to get on with what ever is thrown at us and anyway I've got books to read, dishcloths to knit, cards to craft and pennies to be stretched.

Back Tomorrow - almost definitely!
Sue

PS I've started a new page - Books read 2016. Will I top the 102 read in 2015?

The pictures that made 2015

Like many other people on Blog-world at the end of each year  I go back and look for some photos that tell the story of our year.


 Here are just a few from 2015 

Crocuses in the kitchen early in the year

March and our first holiday for nearly 3 years, we climbed to the highest point on Exmoor

My 60th Birthday

Fresh from the poly-tunnel and garden in April

The arrival of the skip to clear the rubbish ready for putting the smallholding up for sale

Our eldest getting married in May

We bought a bargain caravan - off ebay for cheap holidays

Real frog meets stone frog in the garden sink-pond

The pest who pinched the walnuts

Townend my favourite NT house in the Lake District

End of an era, after 23 years, the very  last things that we put out for sale

The article in the East Anglian Daily Times that found us our buyer

The early Christmas family get together and our son-in-law and eldest daughter who are the parents to be next June

That was our year.

This year I found looking back very difficult, life seems upside down, so much has changed, there is much unknown ahead. We didn't know at the start of 2015 just how many health problems were going to appear or how serious they seem to be.
Financially it was a good year, my unexpected pension payout, the campsite income, selling our surplus at 3 car boot sales and the yard sale all boosted our income in a year when Col wasn't able to do the odd jobbing.
The garden was good in most parts and I have made a store of jams and chutneys to see us through the next couple of years.
We will have a new member of the family in June 2016 when our first Grandchild is due, which is exciting but I'm sad that we will have moved away from the smallholding and future grandchildren will never know what was here  and  that we kept goats and sheep and had all the fruit trees etc.
Then  our son and fiancee will be getting married in December  so that's another thing to look forward to
but we thought we would  have an opportunity to travel once we moved, but with illness - who knows. In March we climbed Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor but at the moment Col hasn't got enough energy for more than a short walk on level ground.
We don't know how we'll like living in town or if it's too big a change. Strangely our living costs will be more for a 2 bed bungalow in Ipswich than for our 4 bed home in the country - will we manage? Will our savings last until pension time.
As I said- upside down, topsy turvey and unsettling.

I'm struggling with blogging at the moment, there isn't much to write about here, whatever I mentioned over Christmas seemed to need justifying to someone in comments which gets a bit tedious or perhaps I'm feeling particularly sensitive.
So maybe I'll take a short break from blogging, perhaps for just a few days or maybe until  we know what Col's treatment will be. He has a bone marrow test mid month to confirm the diagnosis of  C.L.L ( Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia ) and then we will know what happens next.

Expect me when you see me!
Sue

The days after Christmas

Christmas day was mainly wet so  on  Boxing day, which was bright we took the opportunity to pop down to Aldeburgh for a quick burst of sea air. The wind was very strong and the waves were crashing on the beach and rolling along the coast,

a new bank of shingle had appeared and the sea had gouged out  shingle several metres further inland than normal  in one area. We didn't walk far but then went back to the car through the town which was heaving with people as all the posh chain shops - Crew, Joules and Fatface were open with sales happening. Of course we joined in the madness, dashing from shop to shop and coming out with carrier bags full of clothes.................................. No we didn't. We just came home.

I decided  to watch the series Dickensian, despite Col saying that the trailer  looked like a Victorian episode of Eastenders. The first two half-hour parts were on Boxing day and I enjoyed watching, though I could do with a Dickens Who's Who to tell me which characters were from which books as I only knew the people from Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist.
A new series of Still Open All Hours started, still as gently funny as the old series with Ronnie Barker.

It was back to wet,wet, wet on Sunday - grey and drizzley all day but extremely mild. I stripped the chicken bits off the carcass, made stock,cooked some veg and made a couple of chicken pies and popped them in the freezer. We ate more of the ham and Christmas cake and with Col still having no energy we had another lazy day. Back to back war films and then in the evening it was the next two episodes of Dickensian.

Thanks for all the comments yesterday.
 I haven't got much to post about at the moment so I'll be back in a few days.
Sue

On Christmas spending and other stuff

Supposedly, average household spending for Christmas this year is over  £800. That means for all those like that family on The Eat Well For Less programme last week who were spending £1400 on food alone there are many, many, more spending much less and going by another programme(that I didn't see) where the extremely rich spend over £1,500 just on Christmas Crackers there are some people spending way, way more. There are also many people who dread the arrival of their credit card bill in January because they know they spent so much on the card for Christmas that they will be paying for it for half the year.

Happily our spending was well below average and all paid for up-front. Even with buying presents for three children and their 3 partners (who I like to treat all the same), 1 Dad, 1 brother, 2 sisters, 2 brothers-in-law, 1 niece, 2 nephews and a few friends I cut spending by £150 on 2014's spend.

If your normal food shop is full of treats, extras and expensive foods then buying even more special things for Christmas must cost a fortune. The joy of  our simple life is that treats for Christmas can be pence rather than £s. So the extras that are not usually seen in my shopping trolley were a bag of watercress, satsumas, bananas and condensed milk for the banoffee, some different cheeses, a 45p bottle of tonic water is my Christmas tipple, unusual fruit juices ( have you ever tried Welch's white grape, apple and pear juice - it's delicious), some fresh double cream and liquerice allsorts for Col. I had a £6 off £40 spend till-voucher from Tesco that needed using before Christmas so as my Christmas extras wouldn't have come to that amount I got some of January's shop a few days early, cat food, caster sugar, butter, a few other bits and the total was enough so that I could use the voucher. My 5p savings from throughout the year paid for a nice big ham and 2 small chickens - cheaper from our butchers than one larger one of the same weight - only four people meat eating on Christmas day so it would have been stupid to have had anything bigger.

It was annoying this year to have to buy parsnips and Brussels sprouts, our parsnips are about the size of a small golf ball and are rotting in the ground, while the B sprouts had a bad attack of white fly and never recovered. I have been picking a few but such poor quality I decided to get a stalk of sprouts for £1.50 from the local nursery, while there I also bought a few large Naval oranges - my favourites and much nicer than smaller ones in Tesco.

 I always cook the ham early Christmas eve so that we can have some for dinner and then for Christmas day tea and for several days afterwards. We will eat it with pasta and leeks in a sauce, with chutney or mustard in sandwiches,with potatoes and veg and maybe with egg and chips until it's gone.

Most of our Christmas present spending is for our children and their partners. They have things from their wish lists, vouchers or  money. For sisters and brothers-in-law this year I did hampers with home made chutneys, relishes, jam, marmalade, Dundee cake, raspberry vinegar, spiced nuts and included a bottle of red wine and ingredients for making mulled wine. Col's dad also had a box with some home made and some bought bits of food. Brother had some drill-bits he wanted. Nephews and niece had money as I've no idea what they like.My main aim in all present buying is to give something useful. I hate the thought that I've given something that will be unwrapped and then donated to a charity shop at the first opportunity - and I HATE tat! I'm also equally glad when we get useful gifts - Col's brother asked us what we would like and we said pairs of pants for Col and postage stamps for me - boring to some I'm sure, but useful for us on our living-on-savings regime.

Another thought - When did it become THE thing to have smoked salmon etc for Christmas day breakfast or to stock a cupboard with every conceivable type of alcoholic drink imaginable? Neither of which we've ever done. Does drinking all that booze make you happier or just poorer?

AND finally, by special request from Jennie, here is the picture of the 26 books that made up my Christmas presents from Col, sister-in-law, son and daughter.

The crime collections on the right are new books from Book People that I bought as my present from Colin, as are the 3 by Maureen Jennings. Most of the others were purchases off my Amazon wish list ( often for 1p which is probably how I ended up with so many!), made up of books to add to collections that I've not read yet, WWII books and ideas from other blog writers. How lucky am I?. All these will come in very useful if ever we get the chance to move to our hovel in a part of the country where ordering library books isn't free.

Thanks to Mrs G, Cornelia, Sooze, Marlene Sheila, Sadie, Mrs L.H. Jennie, Jan, Deborah, My shabbychic, Tracy, Simon jamcake and KCs court for comments yesterday.

Back Tomorrow
Sue
P.S. If ever I should mention in future posts how dry it is in Suffolk and how difficult to get things to grow, please remind me about the poor folk of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria where Christmas and New year and several months of 2016 have been and will be completely ruined by the days of continuous rain and flooding. I'm not sure anyone can prepare for that extreme rainfall.