Category Archives: Our Home

House, Garden you name it, its in here!

Wednesday Really?!!!

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The Wednesday Wag.

It is blooming cold at the moment so my door is not open all day for me to run in and out as normal so I am spending my days in my basket next to Mom’s desk!!!!  It is not normally this cold at this time of year and guess what?  Mom has booked me in for a Spa day next Wednesday!!!! I mean really?!!!!!!!    I am really hoping that we are going to get some warm Spring weather soon.

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Tuesday disappered in a cloud of work and I did actually get an appointment with my hairdresser to get my hair coloured and cut!!!  So I don’t look like the above any more!!

It was announced yesterday that Molly and Jacob have both made the Olympic GB Team for swimming!!!  To make the team is a great achievement and we wish them the best of luck in Tokoyo.  Molly went to the last Olympics but this will Jacob’s first time and what a trip for a sixteen year old.

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I watched the funeral of HRH Prince Philip and here are some stills of the day.  Although cold it really was a stunning day with the sun shining.

The Bands playing on the Inner Courtyard. The Land Rover specially designed by Prince Philip to carry his coffin.

The Royal Marine Band marching through the George IV Gateway to the Inner Courtyard.

St George’s Chapel.

The Royal Family waiting to walk behind the coffin.

The Round Tower.

The Queen and her Lady in Waiting leave the Church to return to the private apartments.

The Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke of Sussex, The Duke of Cambridge, The Princess Royal and The Dean of Windsor, David Conner.

The Royal Family walk back up the hill to the main part of Windsor Castle.

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At the weekend, which is three days, DH and I will be painting our dining room and getting other jobs done.  The weather is not supposed to be very good but this is not a surprise as it is a Bank Holiday and it always rains on Bank Holidays in the UK.  At least we are doing inside jobs.  I hope your week is going well.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Tuesday Thoughts.

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There is a lot being talked about at the moment regarding the easing of lockdown and whether some of us don’t really want lockdown to end!!!  After a year of restrictions with a few gaps where we could go out, we humans seem to have gotten used to staying home!!  Of course my working from home for the past twenty odd years has sort of conditioned me to working like this, so it has not been such a change for me. 

Yesterday, the first day that non-essential shops, gyms, hairdressers and pubs could open there were queues at all of them! Rather sad to see lots of people in the pubs at 8.00am!!!  Today has also been the same with queues forming waiting for the doors to open and to help out the shops can stay open until 10.00pm if they want to.  I think I will give it a few weeks before I venture out to the shops though!!!!

Work is still busy which is good news after all the chaos of the last year and I am trying to fit in doing things as well.  It is great that it is getting light early now so I don’t feel as bad getting up early in the morning.  The weekend looks like it is going to be nice although still cold, so I have plans for Spring Cleaning jobs to be done and I have also bought a new raised bed for my few veg plants I grow, so that will be another job to put that together.  No doubt the Boys will be asking DH to help with their cars, so we can fit that in too.  Girlfriend has two competitions at the weekend too so it is all go!!!  

This is what the new raised bed will look like when it is built.  As you can see you can add on to it if you want to. 

I hope you are all having a great week. 

Hugs & Love, Susie

 

 

 

Friday Yeah!

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Well we have made it to Friday after another busy week working and not doing much else!!!  We have a busy weekend ahead as well and Sunday evening I have my first vaccine jab booked!  DH had his last week. 

DH and The Boys are busy tomorrow playing cars (!) Youngest has bought himself a project car now so they are going to be moving it to where he will be working on it, which gives me the excuse to do my quilting.  I have a few projects to finish and another quilt to quilt and I need to get on with the Memory Quilt I have been asked to do which will be more preparation than anything else.  The weather is supposed to be dull and grey again but at least dry for the car movers and I won’t feel guilty quilting if the weather is not good when I should be gardening!!!

Spring!

The Workers!

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Yesterday and today we have had the workers here and they have been re-tarmacing our driveway.  We got it done originally when we first moved in and over time bits have come out and then we took the rest of the garden away so we can get all the cars on the drive.  Anyway they started yesterday preparing it and then finished it today with new tarmac.

New Black tarmac!  We can’t drive on it until Thursday!

The corner where the garden used to be.

The cones to stop everyone driving on it!

As you can see Treacle has been busy all day!!!!  She wasn’t very happy when the men were using the wacker plate and even I could feel it in the den which is the furthest room from the front!!!! However she got in her basket for a snooze when they were doing the tarmac!  Although the whole house now smells of it!!

My view today from my desk!  The birds are busy at the feeders and we did see the sun for all of an hour which was great!  It is going to be frosty again tonight!

As you know we are in another lockdown, this one being that we can all go to work unlike last March when we couldn’t.  If things don’t get better soon then they will be saying we can’t work and already we have things being cancelled or moved again!  The first being a business exhibition.  There is some muttering about Carnival being held in the village which is at the beginning of July, the problem being that it takes a year to organise usually and we could all do a lot of work and then have to cancel it.  I don’t think, until we definitely know how things are going, that we should be arranging anything otherwise everyone will do a lot of work and then it will have to be cancelled again!!!

I saw this, below, on Instagram on the MSQC page and they got it from Little Red Hen.  So doing as it says using the first letter of my name and the month I was born, I am Patchwork Pixie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What is your quilting name?  Great fun!

I have a basket of ironing to get through tonight and then hopefully more quilting tomorrow and baking later in the week, well it’s a plan!!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Hugs & Love, Susie (Patchwork Pixie!) xx

Weekend Achievements!

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Boy Mondays do come around quick!!  We had a great weekend knocking some home jobs out of the park!!! I also got some quilting done too and organised my sewing space a little better.

My machine with the project I am working

My ironing table and iron.

The rest of my desk with my sewing things on.  It looks better now I have put a few things away and made rooom for my sewing things.

My Quilting Helper – Treacle.  The weather over the weekend was extremely cold and grey and it did not get above freezing so this is where she spent most of the weekend.  Clean bed too!

Anyway I managed to quilt and bind the little boy quilt and here it is :

The above picture the top finished.

Now quilted!

The binding above and the back below.

Just now need to wash it and it is all done. 

This is the next one up for sandwiching, quilting, binding and washing!!!

Youngest’s new furniture arrived and was all made and installed and looks great.  He has now got a bit more room for a couple of pieces which will give him more cupboard/draw space which was missing with the old furniture. 

We  got a new blind for our den where I work.  When we first moved in we found a Japanese paper blind and it was great as it let lots of light in but great for keeping the glare off, especially as the window gets a lot of sun in the Spring/Summer.  This had been up all the time we had been in our home and had gotten a little grey over the years but I finally found the same blind but with some leaves printed on, same size and everything.  Anyway that also arrived on Saturday and it looks so much better now.  I also had some gift vouchers for my favourite department store and ordered some new curtains for our dining room.  The curtains in there used to be in the dining room at our old home so are quite old and still look okay but are just starting to fade on the edges where the sun gets them.  So we ordered new ones.  I will get some pictures when they are up.

Am up to date with all my work and home jobs so am going to get my next quilt sandwiched and pinned this evening!

I hope you all had a great weekend whatever you were up to and were allowed to be up to Covid wise and have a great week to come.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Happy Thursday!

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We woke to -4 this morning and everywhere was white!  I took these pictures at lunch but it was still freezing!

The Buddleia with frosty leaves.

A very tiny purple flower in amongst the frosty plants!

One tiny snowdrop has come through!

You can see the frost on the lawn.  I spy Treacle!

My Reindeers which stay out all year!

Frosty Trees.

I have been at my desk all day and this is where madam has been!  She does not like the cold like her Mom.  Snuggled or what!

I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday, Friday tomorrow and Book Club Day!

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Yeah It’s Friday!

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It was a typical November morning when I got up at 6.00am with thick fog blanketing us.  DH had the day off with Eldest doing car things and sorting out our garage as he has bought another car as a “project” just as Youngest had got rid of his “project” car. However Youngest has kept the engine so that he and his brother can rebuild it, which will also help Youngest with his college work.  The garage will be tidy at least.

I have had one of those days where I started work after I had made lunch for everyone and they had left for work and I got wrapped up doing tasks and next time I looked up it was lunch time!!!  I did not get all the things done that I wanted to but I am getting there!  The weekend is supposed to be okay weather wise even if it is foggy so we can get those jobs done in the garden as well as some at home.  We are going to let our fireworks off tomorrow night and have hot dogs for dinner like we did when the Boys were small!

Photograph: BBC

Geoffrey Palmer 1927 – 2020

Sad news today of the passing of Geoffrey Palmer who stared with Dame Judy Dench in the BBC comedy show “As Time Goes By” about two people who knew each other in their early twenties who then meet again in their early sixties and begin a relationship.  It was a great show and Geoffrey Palmer was great with Judy Dench.  If you can get to watch it do, you will love it. 

Sunday I am planning on sorting out my quilting and get things organised to get it done and also sort out the final bits for Eldest’s Memory Books.  I can then get Youngest’s sorted and hopefully get them finished before Christmas.  One benefit of another Lockdown I have time to do all this so in that it is a good thing!!!!!

I will get some pictures of the garden over the weekend and Treacle will have to get used to local walks again instead of longer ones at the weekend.  We usually take her up to Chatsworth for a walk around the park or the gardens but obviously can’t at the moment.  Hopefully soon or over Christmas but who knows.

I also want to do some planning for Christmas too and get some more of my endless lists made!!  We also need to get all the Winter clothes out and put away the summer ones, especially as it is getting cooler now.

Whatever you are up to this weekend I hope you have a lovely time.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Plans!

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So from yesterday we are going into another month’s Lockdown and now they are saying we may not be!!!  Oh good grief Charlie Brown!  In fact I think Charlie Brown or Snoopy could do a better job at the moment rather than our currect Parliamentary incumbents!

I think DH and the Boys are dreading another lockdown as last night I was getting my recipe books out to look for new meals to try on them!!!  I also got my Christmas recipe books out as well to start the Christmas baking. 

Last year’s baking!

Getting fed up with all the news of Lockdowns and Covid and elections (and it is not even our election!) so I am just going to plan and think about Christmas, something happy, something nice!

Nottingham Council House and Tree last year. Snow in our garden from my kitchen window.

DH & I at Chatsworth two years ago.  Won’t be going this year!

A foggy day in our garden.

We are due for some fog this week, which would be a typical November, but I don’t mind as it is cool and as it is supposed to be at this time of year.  The weekend is looking okay at the moment for garden jobs!!!!

I hope you are having a terrific Tuesday.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Sunny Tuesday.

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Today is very sunny, not warm at all but a brillant Blue sky, as you can see! Just seeing the sun makes you feel better even if you can’t be outside for long even Treacle is out and in quickly at the moment except for last night when it was pouring with rain and she came in soaked!!

Here are some pictures of the garden after the work DH and I did over the weekend, in the sunshine. Treacle of course is in on the act!

We had a zoom meeting last night for swimming! If we are not at swimming we are having meetings about it! Anyway one of the attendees is a Sister for the NHS and she was all doom and gloom. She is like this anyway without the Covid situation and to hear her talk she is definitely Chicken Licken! The problem with this whole situation is do you believe what the experts and Government are telling you? To my mind we are following the rules and yet still seem to be told that if you set foot out of your home you will get it or pass it on! It is no wonder that cases of depression are rising and surely that is going to be more of a problme than Covid?

Enough about Covid!! Christmas plans are coming together and I have started to get the presents for DH, Eldest, Youngest, Girlfriend and Treacle. At the moment Christmas won’t be any different to normal for us as there is only five of us, so we won’t have a problem with more than six. We won’t, of course, be having our Christmas Party this year which I will miss, but if by this time next year things have settled down then that is something to look forward to.

I am having a real issue with this new writer from WordPress and still need to try and get in touch with them but I suspect the answer will be “tough, get used to it”!!!!

Happy Tuesday Everyone.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

Shortages.

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So Week 11 of Lockdown and slow easing of certain things, despite our Supermarkets saying that there is now no problem with their supply chains, there is no flour of any description available!!!  It is, they say, because everyone has been buying flour at the start of Lockdown for baking and the flour mills cannot keep up with the demand.  Surely after eleven weeks now things should have gotten a little easier?  Anyway I have managed to find, on line, a supplier who has plenty of flour and it should be arriving tomorrow.

Which brings me to the second supply issue, lack of eggs!  Are the chickens in Lockdown?  Are they social distancing so not laying?  Really!!!!  I managed to buy twenty four eggs last week which will be okay for a bit but I usually buy that amount every week for cooking/baking etc.   Good Grief Charlie Brown!!!!

Eldest has heard that he is back at work from Thursday of this week, yeah.  Although I am going to miss him terribly as he has been at home for 24 weeks since he dislocated his shoulder and was just due to go back as Lockdown happened!!!! I always used to feel like this when the Boys went back to school after the summer holidays.  Anyway he is so pleased.  However Youngest will not be happy as he has not heard anything yet!!!!  Swings & Roundabouts!!!

Our nice sunny weather is due to break tomorrow with rain and cooler temperatures which is just as I told it would be as Treacle goes to her spa on Thursday!!!  It is not due to rain on Thursday which is a good thing as we are eating outside with the Boys and their girls, we will be wrapped up though.  Hopefully the sunny weather will return soon.

Happy Tuesday All.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx