Sorry for the radio silence over the last month, it has been a bit of a roller-coaster!  June is always a busy month anyway but this year it seemed to go mad.  May is our business  year end so I have to do a lot of work to close the previous year off and get the new year up and running.   We have had swimming competitions for both myself and DH which has been busy and next week we have an SGM meeting which is to discuss and vote on the future of the Club and how we move forward and as you can imagine this has created a lot more paperwork, emails etc. 

 I continued with my Spring Cleaning, although we were in the first month of summer, with help from DH doing Eldest’s garage.  I had not done it for two years due to waiting for my Hip Op and it definitely needed doing.  We were quite grimy when we had finished but it did look better.

I have been keeping up with our work and Eldest’s work which is one good thing, although I have not had any opportunity to do any quilting.  Although I have been reading in between work, home jobs and everything else.

Last week was HOT, no way to describe how hot it actually was.  It hit 37°C in parts of the UK and 34°C here in Derbyshire and 29°C in our den where Coco and I spend our days!!!  I got up very early every day and worked in the morning and then gave up by lunch and sat outside until it got too warm and then our sitting room which is at the front of our home and a little cooler.  Our homes in the UK are not built/set up for this type of weather.  We are so used to keeping the heat in during the cold months so in this heat our homes get hot and then we cannot cool them and of course we do not have air conditioning!  It is a cool 23°C this week but getting warm again next.  Of course people in the UK are never happy unless we are discussing or moaning about the weather, it is a National pastime!!!  

We have also been dealing with some other things which I won’t go into here but it has been, along with everything else, a lot.  

One of the nice things I did in June, Jayne and I went out for Afternoon Tea for our Birthdays.  We went to The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow, https://cavendishhotelbaslow.co.uk/, Derbyshire where Jayne and I go for our Christmas celebrations too.   The above is The Gallery Restaurant at The Cavendish and Jayne and I sat at the table in the window.  The Afternoon Tea was lovely

It was a Big Birthday for Jayne (!)  The sandwiches and sausage rolls were lovely and the cakes, well as you can see wonderful.  We had a glass of champagne to celebrate Jayne and then moved to tea.  

We also had Partner’s Birthday three days after Jayne’s and five days before mine!  I told you it was busy. 

In fact I was thoroughly spoilt for my Birthday with dinner, again at The Cavendish, on the Friday with DH.  The dinner was lovely and as it is June it was sunny and warm when we got there and slowly moved to dusk and then full dark.  The last picture is Chatsworth in the distance all lit up for the evening.  

On my Birthday I went out for lunch with Eldest and crew to The Hug & Heave, https://www.thehugandheave.co.uk/  in Ashbourne.  This is owned by one of the Firefighters and family in Eldest’s Station and it is run entirely by them too.  The food is excellent and it is very cosy inside even though it was a very warm day.  Then in the evening we had to go to Matlock pool to set up an event that DH was commentating at on the Sunday.

Sunday I got to see Youngest & crew which was great and we got to sit outside for lunch as it was lovely and warm again.  DH was doing the event and getting very warm as you can imagine in spectator area of the swimming pool.  It was also Father’s Day and DH had some lovely gifts and I gave him this:

A large pork pie from Fortnum & Mason, a link to his family past and it was very good.  I will be ordering one for Christmas.

Coco was taken for a Spa day and I am so pleased I got her clipped before the hot weather last week.  However DH mowed the lawn one weekend and that evening Coco did nothing but sneeze and scratch at her back, neck and anywhere else she could reach!!!  Off to the Vets she went and apparently this is a common thing for dogs this year, it appears that there is a lot more pollen this year than normal and lots of dogs who have not been affected previously have got a canine hay-fever!  As we had taken her in straight away she was not too bad but has now got tablets, which did work straight away and stopped her scratching.  

On the way to the Vets in Daddy’s truck!  

When we were on our way to the swimming pool on my Birthday we called in at home to just put something into the garage and did not need to go into our home.  Someone was not happy and this is the face that appeared at the dining room window:

She pokes her head through the curtains, which are drawn to keep it cool in the house, and looks out!!!!  Little monkey! 

Sunday was the start of Carnival in the village, the above picture was from  2015, but it is as always a frantic week.  Monday was The Dog Show and Junior Football.  

Top picture is DH and The Carnival Queen for this year, Erin, at The Dog Show and The Best in Show winner was Gentleman Jack, an Airedale!  Monday evening was also Junior Football and last night it was the turn of The Senior Football teams.  Tuesday evening is also the walking Treasure Hunt around the village.  It started with rain but cleared up quickly for all those attending. 

Tonight it is the annual Duck Race in Bottle Brook which runs through our village.  DH is, as always, commentating and Eldest is helping, although this year Youngest cannot.

These are My Boys from last year. 

It is always a manic week.  This coming Sunday is supposed to be a day off but we have to go to Eldest’s work for me to do all the paperwork and we have some home jobs to get done too because next week is going to be even busier. 

Monday DH is going to a work colleague’s funeral.  We have known him for a long time and he had had some medical issues and sadly passed away two weeks ago.  In the evening we have the SGM meeting for Swimming which we are doing over Teams which will help as emotions are running high on this subject.  Tuesday will be another busy day and I will be thinking about a very good friend who has to visit the hospital for some assessments.  Wednesday I have to go and get a chocolate cake for the swimming Head Coach as it is  his 30th Birthday a week on Sunday so the Club want to present him with a cake and card etc but I have to take it up on Wednesday to swimming as DH and I may not make it to the presentation which is happening on Thursday evening as we are out all day on Thursday at a wedding!  We are hoping to get there as the wedding is during the day.  Friday DH and The Boys are going down to Goodwood as it is The Festival of Speed weekend and they are there on the Saturday!  I will be going over to see Partner and Little Man on the Saturday evening.  Of course at the present moment I am still car-less as Eldest still has mine as his is currently being fixed and we are both hoping it will be done by next week.

So that rounds off next week as well.  I think the following week I will need Monday off to recover!!!!

Wimbledon started on Monday and I have been enjoying watching the tennis although I do not know many of the players names this year!  This coming Sunday is also the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone in the UK so again very busy weekend.

I hope you have enjoyed this catch up of the last month and I will get around to doing a catchup on Susie’s Book Club Friday too at the end of the week.  Happy Wednesday you lovely lot.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Today has been a lot cooler than yesterday!  In our Den yesterday it hit 28°C and it was about 34°C outside.  Coco stayed in her crate much of the day as it is cool in there.

Although cooler it has been very sunny again so I have taken the opportunity to get a lot of washing done and out on my line to dry in the sunshine, particularly curtains, throws, cushion covers etc.  This is the last of the Spring Cleaning and I still have Miss Coco’s bedding and throws to do, the door mat from our back door and then tomorrow all the bedding and towels.  

The worst bit of the extreme heat is knowing what to eat for dinner!  Cooking hot food is just awful and I hate to say it but I get so tired of just salad!!!  I did sweet and sour chicken and rice last night which was quick.  Tonight  will probably be Spaghetti Bolognese.  Tomorrow is again going to be 30°C so I will be getting up early and doing all my jobs before it gets too hot and then have a chill.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday is warm but cooler again and then Sunday evening into Monday and Tuesday we will have some rain.  However this is what it is like in the UK swinging between really hot and then rain!!!

Friday I will be at Eldest’s doing his work and hopefully his car is going to be sorted soon and I will get mine back.  At this rate I will have forgotten how to drive!!!  The weekend will be sorting out the final jobs, one of which is to clean our patio and get the outside furniture out.  Of course doing that will ensure that the weather is not good when we are able to sit outside!

I am continuing to read this but so far it is quite slow!  I will probably finish it but not so sure about it!!!

Happy Wednesday half way through the week. 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

You think you are going to have a quiet week where you can get lots done and then the Universe decides you need some more challenges!  On Saturday the Plumber arrived to service our boiler and check the gauge but he could not get it to start again!  The makers of the boiler had to come out and try and fix it and they could not come until today, so we had no heating and no hot water!  DH decamped to a hotel on Sunday evening next door to where his customer visit was in the Lake District and Coco and I hunkered down at home.  

Sunday was a lovely warm day again so we got more jobs done in the garden.  Below we have planted four plants behind the deck at the top of  our garden and they are all evergreen so will look really good against the fence once they grow a little bit. 

So because we had no hot water and heating we were not able to have our friends round for dinner but we went out to the local pub instead for a meal.  It was a lovely evening, we had a good catch up as we had not seen them since Christmas.  

This week and weekend is going to be Spring Cleaning as we have a three day weekend so we can get a lot done.  We are babysitting Little Man on Friday as his Mummy and Daddy are going out on a Date Night to see the new movie “Michael”.  Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be busy though. 

Tomorrow I have to get all my washing and ironing done as the engineer is coming to fix the washing machine on Thursday!  I told you it was one of those weeks.  Thursday I will be getting my home jobs done as well because Friday day we are at Eldest’s doing his work.  

This Friday I will do our Friday Book Club, sorry it’s late, the flip side is that I have read more books!!! 

Happy Tuesday you lovely lot.  Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco  xx

This was Monday morning, Coco did not want to get up!!!!

Yesterday was Earth Day 2026

It is lovely and sunny here although this picuture does not do justic to it.

Happy Belated Earth Day!

Little Miss Coco has an appointment with her Doctor’s tomorrow for her annual check up and booster injections! She will love being out with Daddy but not so happy after her injections!!!

I am out at Eldest’s work tomorrow, I have been doing Home jobs here today, as well as our work and then at the weekend we are going to get some of our Spring cleaning done and Saturday evening we have friends coming for dinner. Sunday will be another day for Spring cleaning!  The weather over the next few days is going to be lovely and sunny and warm during the day but cold at night, so much so that we will be scraping the truck windows in the morning and no doubt have the heating on in the evening!  It is just that time of year!!!!!

The only bit of social media I take part in, besdies my Blog, is Instagram and I am very mindful of who I follow.  However one account is about health and they had a post the other day about people waking up between 2.0am and 4.00am every night.  For anyone who has followed me for a while knows that I go through periods of this and then it stops for no reason.  I do the same things most days so have never understood why I go through these periods and put it down to Menopause etc.  Anyway they said it was because the brain should be resting and repairing itself during the night but people who wake up, their brain is in threat-scanning mode, replaying what has happened during the day, what is going on tomorrow etc.

They came up with a technique.  If you wake up, lie there and think about random numbers not in order so :  34, 98 2, 54, 12 etc.  Doesn’t matter what numbers they are so long as they are random and you think them do not same them. You can also think of random things; Train, chair, suitcase etc.  What this does is interrupt the brain’s default mode, by focusing on random meaningless input, you give your brain nothing to analyse or worry about. It therefore calms down, feels safe and sleep occurs.  

Over the last few days I have tried this when I have woken up.  I have not looked at my clock or my phone and just lay there with my eyes closed and did the number count and do you know?  It worked!  So I am going to do this every time now.  The only thing I have noticed over the last two days is that I have worken up in the morning when our alarm has gone off feeling tired, but I have put this down to catching up on sleep!!!! I will let you know how it goes!

Happy Thursday you Lovely Lot.  Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Today would have been the 100th Birthday of the Late Queen, Elizabeth II.   I am sure if she was still here she would be appalled at some of the things which are happening around the World!

DH and I got some more jobs done in the garden on Sunday last when it was quite nice and warm.  I am very much a fair weather gardener!  The bed on the right is where we took out the large box bush and several other bushes that were not doing well.  It is something I have wanted to do for a while but not got around to it.  The bed on the left has also had an upgrade and we have put some new plants in there too.

As my hip was so bad last year I did not put any veg in to my bed or the bags but this year I have.  So far we have tomato plants in the veg bed, brocolli in the left two bags, strawbery plants in the right hand two bags and onions in the one on the step.  In the pots behind there are two miniture apple trees and a miniture pear tree and I still have some other things to put in.  

I have also put some seeds in my grow house in the hope that they do well, so far there are signs that they are growing although it is still a little cool at the moment.

The bit of warm weather we have had has greened up the garden nicely and the cherry tree is looking great after its trim in the Autumn. 

We did trim the conifers at the bottom a little bit much to Coco’s annoyance as that was her hidy hole!!!!

The Rhododendron at the top of the garden is beginning to come out and I am sure will look great when it does.

My Spring cleaning has been put on hold as we were doing the garden whilst it was nice, but this weekend I am going to get all of upstairs done, as well as our Den and the Kitchen & Laundry.   Next weekend we have a long weekend so should be able to get our Dining room done and the Sitting room which takes all day as we have all the bookshelves to do.  So by the end of that weekend it should be completed.  I will still have things to wash; curtains, cushions, pillows etc  but am going to do those when I can hang them outside.  Then we have the Garage and Attic to tidy and our cars to do, the front garden to tiday and then Spring cleaning will be done.

I had a check up yesterday at the Hospital for my eye and things are getting there and although I was hoping to be discharged yesterday I have to go back again in four weeks and I also have eye drops again!  He is now thinking of doing my right eye to help with the vision in that one (!) but it will not be the same operation fortunately!  

Today should have been Coco’s Corner but she has been having too much fun outside now the weather is picking up!  This look says you have taken my hidy hole away!!!!!  

I hope you are all having a great week.  Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

I am sure that life was more simple, like in the 1980’s when we did now have all the technology we have now!!!   The last few weeks at home have been chaos!  

Youngest, Fiancée, Little Lady and the animals have settled in to their new home and DH and I have been helping with unpacking, mowing their new lawn and sorting out curtain poles etc. They are now in and settled which is so nice for them.

Work has been very busy which is good and one of the companies we work with has been going through some changes as the MD is retiring soon.  We also have a big project on with one of our other companies we work with and that has been taking a lot of time too.  Eldest is busy with his work and consequently so am I with the paperwork for him and us.  

DH has also been busy with swimming events, one weeked it was both days and this weekend it was Sunday.  Saturday we got quite a bit done in our garden and I have set up my grow house, which did not get done last year because of my hip.  I will get some pictures to show you hopefully later in the week.

Little Miss Coco has had her Airecut two weeks ago (!) and I have only just gotten around to putting her “clean” picture up!!!  She looks and smells so much better and we did have one day last week where it was very warm so I was so pleased she had had her cut for then.  Speaking of the weather it is supposed to be nice and warm later this week.  It is amazing what that bit of warmth has done for the garden, everything has bloomed and become very green again, although that means that DH is having to mow the lawn regularly again!

I know that I am late for Book Club Friday!  I did start to do the post and then everything got in the way!  I am hoping to get it done for this Friday.

Tomorrow Jayne and I are going out for lunch and a lovely catch up, cannot wait!  It seems like ages since we have been out!

Have a great week you lovely lot.  Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Our Lodgers have moved out, so we are back to just DH, Coco and I.  Not the weekend just gone but the one before they were moving and of course DH was out both days at different swimming events in two different swimming pools and I was at our swimming club on Saturday evening at an event there!  So we ended up moving most things on the Monday and then I spent all day Tuesday there helping!  So Wednesday last week I spent the day catching up on our work, Thursday I was out at Eldest’s work and then Friday DH and I were at a very good friend’s funeral which took up the whole day! 

Anyway all three and the animals have settled in and it is a brand new home so lovely and I am sure they are going to be very happy. 

March is going out like a Lion this year but it did come in like a Lamb so I suppose it is right!  However over the last few days we have also had April showers although it is not April just quite yet!  

This weekend is Easter of course and we have a four day weekend, which will be so nice.  I am hoping that the weather is going to be good and we can get into our garden and do some jobs.  We did get some new plants for the bed on the right hand side of our patio and I am waiting for some others to arrive for the left hand bed and we are going to move some of those plants too. We got the plants in that had arrived, some on Friday evening when we got back and the rest on Saturday morning.  The rest of the garden just needs a tidying up and a little bit of sorting out, as well as the lawn which has some holes which need repairing.  Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.  Also they are all coming for dinner over the weekend so that will be a busy day!

With my books I have been doing well with my reading doing a mixture of audio books and reading too.  I will show you what I have been reading at the end of the week.

On Saturday evening our clocks went forward an hour which I never seem to recover from for weeks, or so it seems!!!  

I have my six week eye appointment next Tuesday and I am hoping that I will be signed off but good news I can drive again which is a relief.  This week is busy with work of course before the Easter break but it will be nice to have the four day break.  Coco and Honey are in with our groomer on Thursday, Honey for a bath and de-shedding treatment and Coco for her haircut and wash .  She is looking very, very floofy!!!!

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco.

The above picture is about how my eye feels at the moment, metal in it!  There isn’t of course it just feels like it!  I managed to develop a cold on the second day of my head down 45 minutes per hour which was, as you can imagine difficult.  I was also supposed to lie on my right side in bed which I have not done for years having had both hips now replaced.  I did have a go but woke up about 2.00am aching all over, so got up and went into the sewing room and did the head down business.  I think I managed to do all the hours required over the five days but have a check up next week and hopefully he will be able to tell if it is all okay!

The one benefit of not being able to do anything for five days was I managed to get through eight audio books!  Some were good, some were okay and one was dreadful!  I will tell you all about it on Book Club Friday on March 13th!  Perhaps I should be reading horror books as it is Friday the 13th!

The only other thing is I have not set foot outside for almost two weeks now and I am going a little stir crazy.  I did not get any work done last week of course so have spent the first three days of this week catching up and on Friday I will be at Eldest’s catching up on his work as well.  Tomorrow I have home jobs to do which did not get done last week either, so that is going to take longer than normal, especially with two dogs and a cat at home as well.  I also have a basket of ironing to do and then there will be another load at the weekend. 

The weather is getting a little better here and tomorrow it is supposed to be 17°C during the day which will be Spring like.  These daffodils were from last year and they are in bud at the moment but not yet out.  I am hoping that it continues to get better and over the Easter long weekend we will get chance to get into the garden and do some work.  

I hope you are all having a good week.  Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

So despite Phil saying we would have six more weeks of Winter (we are not in New York of course) it is rather Spring like here today with a top temperature of 15 and it is going to be hovering around the double digits for a few days, although they have said more rain as well! 

You know when they say it never rains but it pours?  Well Little Miss Coco is not well today and is off to the vets at 4.00pm!  It sort of started yesterday with her being very needy, which although she is a cuddle bug she is never needy and then today she will not settle and is constantly panting although it is not that warm, so poor DH is having to take her to the Vet as well as looking after me and this stupid head down business!  He will be glad he is back at work next week for a rest!

 I will be released from my pillow prison on Sunday and life can go back to normal although I will still not be able to see properly for about another three weeks which is the length of time it takes for the gas which I have in my eye to dissipate!  I am so looking forward to that.  

I am getting through rather a lot of audio books though which is a good thing about all this and thank goodness I have my BookBeat account, it is about the only thing keeping me sane at the moment.  I am trying to branch out a little bit from my usual love of Murder Mysteries to other types of books too, although I usually do come back to them in the end.

Last night was Drill Night for Eldest for his On-Call fire duties and they decided to do an exercise at his garage which he set up.  All very exciting. We did not get o see it of course but it sounded like a good session, although he had to put everything back this morning!

I hope you are all doing well on this Wednesday, half way through the week and I iwill see you here tomorrow. 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx