A Brave Trip To The Dentist

 It's absolutely freezing here right know, it's the kind of weather where you just want to snuggle up under a warm blanket and stay indoors.  There was no way that I was going to venture outside unless I had to and as for driving my car in these icy conditions that was a definite no. So I had a dilemma because I had an appointment with the dental hygienist at 9am, there was no way that I was going to cancel.

I ventured to the dentist last week, for the first time in three years thanks to my lovely generous sons birthday gift (see previous post) It's amazing how differently they treat you when you are paying for private dental treatment, money certainly talks, you get an appointment almost immediately, more time is taken and each step is explained in detail, I have never had a more thorough dental checkup.

I was lucky, to my surprise I don't need any fillings, however I have two crowns and a bridge that needs replacing, not urgently but in the near future and a hygienist visit was a must.

On the morning in question I wrapped up warm and donned my new winter boots purchased in a sale at the end of the season last year...

and I bravely walked to the Dental Surgery, those boots are amazing I didn't slip on the ice once and when I got going I quite enjoyed the walk.

I was dreading the hygienist visit and I was a little embarrassed that my teeth were in such a state, past trips to the hygienist have been painful and have left my teeth quiveringly sensitive for days afterwards, have you ever had the pressure washer thing blasted into your mouth? the last time I had that my whole mouth was left numb, sore and tingling, my poor old teeth can't stand such an aggressive approach.

I needn't have worried, the hygienist was lovely, she didn't jump back in shock when she saw the state of my teeth but calmly reassured me and got on with the job of ridding my teeth of all the plaque build up and then polishing all the stains away and not a pressure washer in sight (that costs more apparently, but they can keep it haha) I can't say it was particularly pleasant but it's didn't hurt and it was all over in a matter of twenty minutes, I was even presented with toothpaste dental floss samples.

I came out of the dentists into the freezing still early morning air with a sense of great relief and do you know after being cooped up indoors I really didn't want to go straight home so I took the long way....

along the promenade

and then a walk along the beach almost totally deserted...

Those steps were treacherous I clung to the rails as I slowly made my assent, firstly because of the ice and secondly because I'm so out of condition I was breathless before I got even half way up!

At this stage I needed a coffee and had planned to have a coffee in the lovely coffee shop at the top of those steps but unfortunately it was closed so I crossed over the road and made my way through the woods...

I didn't take many photo's because I had to take my gloves off to take a photo and it was far too cold. 

I then settled at home with a nice cuppa coffee but not before I looking in the mirror at my sparkly clean teeth, they look almost white again and there's not a stain in sight.😊

The Waiting Game

 It feels like I'm in a bit of a limbo at the moment just drifting from day to day but not doing that much.  Gone are the days of decisiveness of writing a list the day before so when I woke up I knew exactly what I was doing and what I needed to do. I think it's because I'm waiting for things to happen...

I'm waiting for the bathroom and kitchen fitter to phone and let me know when he will be starting work on my bathroom/kitchen.

I'm waiting to order the things I need for the bathroom/kitchen but I can't do that until I have a starting date and I know exactly what I need to order and I can't do that until kitchen/bathroom fitter tells me.

I'm waiting for a friend to call as she has asked me to go with her to help her choose tiles for her bathroom floor but she is waiting for the decorator to come to finish painting her walls and for a delivery of furniture.

I'm waiting since March for someone to come and fit my garage door, phone calls have gone back and forth for months and I'm still waiting, time to draw a line under this particular waiting game and find another company I think.

I'm waiting for someone to do something about my faded composite door, again phone calls have gone back and forth, photos have been taken and sent to manufacturer and then nothing, we await a response, perhaps until the guarantee runs out and that will put them in the clear, hmm.

I'm waiting to hear if family are coming this weekend so that I can plan and buy the food that would be needed or indeed plan something else if she they aren't coming.

I'm waiting for the u3a Garden Group Leader to approve an information leaflet I have written so that I can send it to those who are going to the next garden outing. 

I'm waiting for the rain to stop so that I can get out into the garden and do some work in there.

You know I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the gist, what are you waiting for? I would love to see your list, I'm sure that I'm not alone.

Have a great sunshiny weekend. 😘😘

The Story Of The Lamp

 It all started when one of the light bulbs went out in my living room again, they don't seem to last that long, I had replaced all six of them quite recently and they aren't cheap are they?  Then it got me thinking a small floor lamp would be much better for me, stood in the corner where I sit in the evening.  I would save on electricity too if I wasn't putting the big lamp on all  the time, all I need is something to illuminate whatever I'm working on.  I must quickly add here I have reached that conclusion before and I bought one of those day light type of lamps, it didn't take me long to realise that the light was far too strong it actually felt as if it were boiling my brains, said lamp is now confined to the summerhouse where I use it for photo shoots when I can be bothered.  It's not very stable either when I pick it up it tends to fall to bits and the stand bit at the bottom comes out and oozes cable. Even when I get it back together it's decidedly wobbly, anyway I digress.  

I don't know if you are like me but when I look for something new I have to research it for weeks, yes even for a lamp.  To cut a long story short even though it's already too long I decided in the end to buy this one from Amazon. Why? I'll tell you 

• I like it's simplicity
• I redeemed my credit card rewards and got a £35 Amazon gift card.
• I applied for a Amazon Mastercard because they were going on about how they wouldn't accept visa anymore (I know they have since gone back on their decision) Anyway you get £20 for applying for their card so it's all ok, (you have to factor in the cost of the lightbulbs) that was a total of £55 so actually it added up to a free lamp.

The process above took two weeks, I ordered the lamp and it arrived late one dark cold Sunday evening, I had been waiting in all day so you can imagine my anticipation.  I have to jump in here just to set the scene I had prepared the area where it was going to stand, it was a corner so you can imagine how long it took, I didn't realise how many cables I had, bits of yarn, dust, ok so I'm afraid the crafting comes before the housework.  Anyway back to that lamp I was slightly concerned that it had arrived in a very thin looking box, I expected the lamp box to be padded inside of another box but it wasn't. I opened it carefully and it consisted of a base and two poles with cable running through them, I had to turn the box over to reveal the top of the lamp with cable meeting the other two pieces. then in two seperate compartments protected by flimsy bubble wrap were the two lamp shades well I say two when really it was one, the other was smashed into a thousand pieces. I have given you the build up just so you know how I felt! what a let down😞

Anyway I got a returns label and ordered a replacement, I decided to hold on to it until I was sure that the second one came intact.  It came just two days later, again late at night but to my relief it was a box inside a padded box and it was  thankfully all in one piece. So great end of story I hear you say that is if you've even gotten this far, but I have to assemble it! and there is no instructions, well it's easy enough I can hear you say just screw the bits together, I did just that but was left with about two foot of cable hanging out so wasn't able to screw the top bit in, I tried to sort of bend the cable inside the pole but it wouldn't go, I was almost in tears at this stage and reading the reviews on Amazon I wasn't alone, someone else had found the same problem.

All I can say is thank goodness for YouTube! you can find everything on there, I watched this pleasant gentlemen assembling a similar Lamp and for those of you who don't know, you pull the excess cable through the opening at the bottom, so simple! go on say it, you all knew that right? I switched off YouTube thinking I had no more problems to solve until I tried to screw the lampshades into the lamp, there was no way I could get my hand in to do that the opening was just too narrow,  I sat and pondered whilst staring at this weird plastic thing that had come with the lamp when it suddenly dawned on me, it's a gadget to screw the lamp in. I should have kept the YouTube video running because I'm sure that it would have covered that bit too. It took me a while but I figured how to do it, am I exceptionally thick here😕 would you have known straight away ?

 

So here it is ta da...

and it doesn't even wobble😊

If you managed to get to the end well done! I just had to get all that off my chest, normal service will resumed next time I promise.

The bark/cough continues, today is day 12 I'm staying away from folk even though it isn't Covid no one would want this, it does improve a little everyday and I'm hoping next week I'll be able to resume my normal activities.

Take care until next time 😘😘

Socks and Flowers Still in Bloom.

 There seems to be an awful lot of sock making going on in blogland right now and I have been trying to resist the urge to join in as I really don't need any more socks, I have looked back and found that the last pair of socks I made for myself was in April 2017 it doesn't seem that long ago!

I really enjoy making socks and could quite happily have a pair on the needles all of the time but I'm trying to be sensible, how many pairs of socks does a gal need! I have noticed that handmade socks never seem to wear out I'm still quite happily wearing the first pair I ever made back in May 2015 and they still look brand new.

So why did I start...well apart from being influenced by everyone else's sock making, I was in a weakened state because I had just finished her Majesty the Queen (thank you so much for all the lovely comments in my last post about her by the way😊) and was between projects which is quite a dangerous place for me to be, I need to have something to work on all the time!

To be fair I've had the sock making urge for a while and when I found sock yarn in my stash that was it...

It's so nice to make something mindless for a change because those mosaic blankets do take a bit of concentration.

I will be casting the second sock on too so that I can knit them both together and avoid second sock syndrome which I am quite prone too. I'm following the basic 4ply sock pattern which can be found  here

I was able to get out into the garden yesterday and do some work because we've had dry weather for two whole days! I have been wanting to give the grass it's last cut of the season but it's been too wet 

Before

After! still lots of  baby apples on my little tree

Autumn leaf clear up, these went into an old compost bag and will make great mulch for the flower beds once they have broken down.

I love this Fatsia it has done so well this year and it's produced it's own Firework display.

And here is Ben (you can read about Bens makeover here) quite unperturbed about the leaves surrounding his feet, I was going to put him indoors for the winter but he insisted on staying outside he says the cordyline tree shelters him quite well and he refuses to give up his pipe  and smoking indoors is a big no no.  I will keep an eye on him though and if I see any signs of distress, inside he will go pipe or no pipe. 😉

I'm going to pick whats left of the dahlias and enjoy them indoors before the frost strikes.

 So this weekend I will be working on my socks and a couple of other things I've started to be revealed later, why is one project never enough? have a count and see how many you are working on right now, counting the sewing I have five plus one which I have put aside for now to be completed later.

I am also planning on making a lemon drizzle cake which was shown on Lorraine this morning .....

Recipe here if you fancy making it too.

Have a cosy weekend.😘😘

Parties I will be linking to.

Look What I Found!

It's fourteen years since my Mum passed away, when I was clearing her things after she died there were a few bits and pieces that I didn't know what to do with they were too precious to throw away or to pass onto a charity so I just stored them away. Well it's been a long time and I have even moved house since then but just recently I have been going through my linens and fabric stash looking for something that would be suitable for making face masks and I came across this...

I knew that my Mother had said she liked to embroider but I had never seen any evidence of her work until I found this after she died, at that time I hadn't a clue what to do with it because it was unfinished, so obviously I had just packed it away amongst my stuff until it was revealed to me once more just recently.

It's only now that I am developing more of an interest into embroidery myself that can I really appreciate her work.  I sat staring at the beautiful neat stitching it must have taken her ages to get this far and wondered why she hadn't finished it? She had a heart operation back in 1979 and the blood supply was accidentally cut off to her arm which caused  some damage and I know after that it would have been difficult for her to sew so finely so this must have been started way before then.  Or perhaps like most of us we get tired of a project and push it away and there it remains until we ourselves pass on and our daughters find it and are faced with the same dilemma that I was, what do I do with this? Perhaps a lesson to be learnt here.🤔

Funnily enough now it's not a dilemma at all, it was obvious really I had to finish it and display my Mothers beautiful work.

My stitching leaves a lot to be desired compared to hers but I think it looks ok I was careful to sew it differently as there was no way I could replicate her work.  I wonder what she's thinking as she looks down and see's the cushion displayed in the conservatory, on the chairs that were her conservatory chairs probably something like "it's about time you got that finished!" After all the cushion cover has been more than forty years in the making, but better later than never.😊 

Can you see Jeremy he's always in the background looking on.

Have a great weekend 😘


See all the great parties I will be linking to at the foot of my blog.

A Hat and a New Friend

An easy project finished in a couple of nights, I love this yarn it's so soft and the colours are lovely

  as you can see I have quite a bit of yarn left more than enough for another hat but not quite enough for a scarf, I'll have to have a think  and decide what to do with it any suggestions most welcome.

The Hat only took 70 grams of yarn and you can find the nice easy pattern here

We have been so lucky with the weather of late, I have never known such a beautiful Spring, I have spent long days in my garden pottering about and I haven't been alone....

I noticed Jeremy  in my my garden about three weeks ago, at first I wasn't sure what type of bird he was I thought he was a crow but he had white markings on his wings and usually crows don't, but after studying him from afar I realised that yes he was indeed a crow.  Judging by the way he walked... very slowly indeed and by the way he flew...not very high and not very far I came to the conclusion that he was a very old crow and the markings are more grey than white.

Well over the weeks we have struck up a rather strange relationship, he's very timid as soon as I step out of the conservatory he runs as fast as he can in the opposite direction and usually hides behind the birdbath with only his head showing, then comes out slowly and starts pecking at the lawn quite contentedly while I do whatever I'm doing in the garden.

We had a few windy days last weekend and I sat in the conservatory crocheting, Jeremy sat on the decking looking over and didn't budge until I got up to go to the kitchen to make a coffee, he got up too and walked over to the birdbath and stayed there until I came back with my coffee, he jumped down from the birdbath and took up his previous position at the end of the decking looking over watching quite content.  We were keeping each other company.

Taken through the window.

Yesterday I dug a small border in front of my fence and planted some bedding, now I know from previous experience that blackbirds love to come pecking whenever you plant things out and usually pull the whole lot out so I was on my guard as I sat eating my lunch in the conservatory....




sure enough down swooped a couple of blackbirds and started pecking at the soil and then suddenly out runs Jeremy as fast as his tired old legs could carry him and he chased the blackbirds away as if to say can't you see she's been working on that all morning I shouted 'thank you Jeremy!' and he waddled off plumping up his feathers and looking quite proud of himself

I thought he deserved a blueberry treat

Jeremy is always right in the middle of the lawn when I open the curtains in the morning and he stays in the garden for most of the day then in the evening he's nowhere to be seen probably all snuggled up somewhere for the night. 

He is keeping me company in these days of lock-down and I hope he resides in my garden for a long time to come.

Have great weekend xx

See all the great parties I will be linking up to in my right side bar.

Christmas Madness and a Blanket.

Hello all you lovely people I hope that you have all had a great Christmas and you enjoyed the company of family and friends, ate loads of yummy food and got lots of nice presents.  I know I'm probably in the minority but I'm always glad when it's all over, lets face it for us Mums it's a lot of hard work, I always collapse into the chair at the end of Christmas day absolutely exhausted, it was 10 30pm before I was able to do that this year. 

I had planned a buffet for 4pm, everything was set, the table looked lovely, son 3 had prepared some amazing roast potatoes

to go with the pulled beef I had cooked in the slow cooker along with mini quiches and pizza's, sausage rolls, I catered for the vegetarians too in fact I'd made enough for the whole street I think. Christmas day is my eldest sons birthday so of course I have to think of that too and prepare his favourites.  Anyway they all arrived over an hour late! the crisp roast potatoes had gone cold as had everything else. You know you could cry when you put so much effort into everything and want it to be perfect but my lovely son 3 said 'stop stressing, it's their loss Mother lets have ours and if theirs is cold it serves them right'  so that's just what we did all washed down with a satisfying glass of wine and everything tasted amazing for us at least.

On Boxing day I decided I was going to take it easy and treat the family out for a meal, I'd booked the table weeks ago and had phoned to confirm and give the menu choices.  I even managed to get all the family there on time for 2 30pm which is no mean feat I have to tell you (see above) They seated us at a table and then promptly forgot all about us, son 2 had to tell them twice that we were waiting but it was well over an hour before we were actually served with our first course.  The manager eventually appeared full of apologies and said that there was a party with a similar name and they had gotten us mixed up. We were moved to a beautifully set table which is where we should have been seated in the first place and everything went smoothly from then on, although my daughter and son in law had to leave early so didn't even have their meal!  They did knock something off the bill which was only right under the circumstances I think.  

When I want everything to go smoothly it never seems to but that's just normal for anything I try to plan haha, we still enjoyed the meal once it was all sorted but like I said before thank goodness it's all over for another year.

And just before the year is over I want to squeeze this in right at the end...

Finished just in the nick of time for 2016

Those 15 balls of random yarn turned into this single bed sized blanket

This has got to be one of the easiest most satisfying blankets you would ever make, it grows quickly and you get to see all those lovely coloured stripes appearing like magic before your eyes.

The edging is lovely too, it is of course the very aptly named cosy stripe blanket designed by the lovely Lucy from Attic 24 you can find the pattern here.

It has to be said that the blanket didn't take all 15 balls of yarn it actually took 828 grams which is a very satisfying stash bust I think, it measured in at 46 inches x 78. 

I will be totting up the Stashbusting totals to see everyone's total stash bust for 2016, I hope that all you stashaholics will join me to bust even more stash in 2017.

I bet you think I'm mad!

I know what you are thinking, blimey that header is a bit large and yes you would be right but I like it.  A few weeks back I asked you for advice about camera's and I thank you all for your imput, I looked up all of those that you suggested and then I did some research and read a whole lot of reviews before I made up my mind.

I made a decision and was actually on the way to buy it when I bumped into my brother, when I told him I was going to buy a camera he said that he had a bridge camera that I could have, a Nikon, he wasn't using it anymore because he has a more complicated one now.

I know that you are going to think me very ungrateful but I felt a little disappointed because I'd done all the research and had actually chosen a camera.  I thanked him and said that was very kind of him, I didn't like to say no because I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

I still went into town and sat in a coffee shop and looked up his camera online, it was lovely and it could do all sorts it was also a very expensive camera, much more expensive than the one that I had chosen.  I decided to go to the shop and have a look at the camera I had chosen anyway.....and I fell in love.....

I bought it! can you blame me it's red and it's tiny and it's cute, do you think I'm mad spending money on a camera when I was going to get one for free? This is the Nikon..

It's a mans camera whereas mine is a ladies, see here they are together...

they have become good friends and don't fight at all, I use them both but mine is so much easier for me to handle and use and it's as light as a feather.  I haven't told my brother about my purchase because he's so happy that he was able to give me a camera, I will look after it for him and if anything happens to his posher camera I can return it and thank him for the loan.

Both camera's take fantastic photo's and I'm having so much fun experimenting, I'm never going to be a great photographer and I still have them set on auto but the photo quality is mostly great. I'm finding it hard to get a clear picture with the Nikon when zooming in it obviously takes practice I think I'm going to have to get a tripod because my hands aren't very steady. Anyway once I have them all loaded up I will be showing you some of the pictures I've been taking, you will probably get sick of them but humour me please..

Felix the neighbours cat sits on the roof and looks down on the mad lady who keeps taking his photograph.... smile Felix :)

Have a great week.