July challenges....

Have I met my personal challenges this month.  Lets see...

1.  Photo a Day Challenge - started fine, stopped abruptly and then could not get started again.  Not good.  Must try it again.  I do enjoy thinking outside the box - keeps the brain active.

2.  Cooking - well did not even reach first base.  Oh yes we always have our meat and veg every night but we haven't had a home cooked pudding or cake, not one.  Hubby seems to be having withdrawals, as I see there is loads of Mr Kipling cakes in the cupboard.

3.  Read Quicker - well almost got there - 4.5 books read (I didn't finish the last one - found it a trifle boring).  This gave an average of 45 pages a day.  Better luck next month.

4.  Getting on with something I really like doing.  mmm not got far on this one - does thinking count?  Our front door kept sticking for a whole week, and with a little bit of attention it is working again, but whilst I was fixing it, I looked at the front, and could not believe that the wood was so dry, I hadn't oiled it for over four years!  Now I am thinking should I rub oil in it again  or give it a good coat of paint. 

I love this door, it has this knocker which has the shape of a bat at the top.  Many people - postman, policemen, salesmen, etc.  always want to rat a tat (loudly), even when I have the door open!!! Small things please little minds....however the saying goes.

Whoops getting carried away here.  So have I started anything constructive in the home.  Well I did have a go at the wilderness in the back garden, but not sufficient enough to take a photo - yet!

6.  A trip out at least every two weeks - two trips not bad - more next month I hope. 

The solution is to keep on track of my personal challenges, is to make time.  I am still struggling to find a little leisure time in my very active life.  I really thought I cracked it, but not yet, I still to learn the word "NO".  

A day out..

One of my personal challenges is have days out by bus using the Bus Pass.  Today I decided to take a trip to Wallingford, Oxon. 

I have been through this village, but never stopped, so was looking foward to this trip.

Here we go on the bus....the driver travels very fast through the countryside.

I have no idea what to expect when I get there - here is the Market Square

Its very hot, so I pop across to Waitrose and buy 4 croissants (all very fattening) and with my drink I bought with me I sit down on one of the benches in the square to eat my lunch.

As I always do, I got chatting to someone, who kindly told me a little about the Village, where to find the river, the Museum, the castle gardens etc.  There are many antique and craft shops and charity shops.

I decide to walk to the river first

Arn't these flowers lovely on the lamp posts...

Back to the Market Square....

Waiting for the bus to make my journey home

Now I wondered how they tend to the flowers on the lamp posts....here is a closer shot.

Very busy isn't he?

Oh - I couldn't resist a peek at the books in the Charity shops - so many to choose from and only a £1.00 each. 

I need to make another trip here, because I did not see it all......it was just too hot to take everything in, but never mind it will keep for another day.



Been for a little trip........

Just for three days.    I decided to see if I could get from A to B on my old age bus pass.  Since I was meeting some friends from Australia in Cambridge, I decided to go cross country.  So 3 buses and 5.5 hours later I arrive in Cambridge. 

Hand in hand with a bunch of printed pages of bus timetables, maps, I attempt to find where to catch the fourth bus to the Guest House. 

I can't believe that bus drivers do not know the roads - as I was told by this one - "bus drivers are not meant to know the roads, they go by bus stop numbers.  If you want to know the road he said you will have to catch a taxi"!  Thankfully some passengers told me where to get off. 

Anyway, I freshen up and then take the bus back into the town centre, and at the agreed meeting point, which I eventually find, I wait.  I get impatient, so I wander away, when along comes the wife, I recognise her at once.  Then comes the husband and my mouth drops open - he has changed, changed a lot - except it wasn't him, he is standing behind me!!  And he hasn't changed much at all!!  Seven years since I saw them both, so we had a lot of catching up to do. 

They both have been to Cambridge before, so I took advantage of the Guided Tour of all the historical buildings.   

Our first visit was the Round Church - absolutely facinating even though History of England is not my best subject. 

And then follows other buildings......unfortunately I do not take notes of which buildings is which.  I could probably guess, but would probably be wrong. 

So many to see. 

This street intrigued me - as I proceeded to take the photo nobody was in the street, then suddenly a cyclist appeared.

A little further on - we were confronted by this amusing sight.  A man singing from inside the litter bin!  Sung very well and all, but he must of been very uncomfortable.  I watched for over 15 mins.

The next day was spent wandering the streets, visiting the Library and a little retail therapy with vouchers I had left over. 

The final day, I left early, so had to pay the bus fare.  I wanted to get home earlier. 
It was raining - a steady drizzle as I proceeded through the park to catch the cross country coach.

Four buses and 6.5 hours later I was drinking tea in my kitchen.  The connections were excellent, just 10 mins in between, which gave me enough time to walk briskly to the relevant bus stops. 

The bus from Cambridge was the longest journey - 3 hours 20 mins, thankfully there was a toilet on board.  But have you ever tried using a toilet on a moving bus.  Now I know what the handle is for on the wall.  Very tricky just with two hands though in a confined space.  The trouble is if you waited til the bus stopped, so does everything else  - no light - no flusher - no water - no hand drier.  Not good....

I enjoyed that bus trip so much, if I had departed after 9.30 a.m., the trip would of been free, but since I wanted to reach destinations earlier, my whole bus trip cost me just £5.70.  Not bad for a three day break.

Now where shall I go next time......

Property - Valerie Martin

How about that then!  Overdid my personal challenge of 50 pages a day!  Started this book last night   - 214 pages, finished late this afternoon.  Mmmm I wonder if I can now have a rest from reading for a few days.  Perhaps not..... I might need catch up time later on in the week!

Manon Gaudet is unhappily married to the owner of a Louisiana sugar plantation. She misses her family and longs for the vibrant lifestyle of her native New Orleans, but most of all, she longs to be free of the suffocating domestic situation. The tension revolves around Sarah, a slave girl who may have been given to Manon as a wedding present from her aunt, whose young son Walter is living proof of where Manon's husband's inclinations lie. This private drama is being played out against a brooding atmosphere of slave unrest and bloody uprisings. And if the attacks reach Manon's house, no one can be sure which way Sarah will turn.

I wasn't sure if this would be my type of book - since I like crime thrillers and psychological thrillers the best.  But there are times you need to read something else to give the brain a rest.  So from my never ending 'to be read' pile I chose this one.

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised - I enjoyed the storyline - a good light read.  The ending was a little strange, but one has to end it somehow and this could just be my opinion of the conclusion.

The Front - Mandasue Heller

When old school friends Lee, Mal, Ged and Sam decided to make some easy money, nothing could have prepared them for the catalogue of disasters that was soon to follow. Robbing a supermarket should have been an easy job; nothing could possibly go wrong. But it did. With one of them wounded and a dead body on their hands, could matters get any worse? They should have known that a small supermarket on a Manchester estate wouldn't make that much money; they should have known that the aisles of tinned tomatoes and loss leaders was just a cover up for something a lot more dangerous. But they didn't know. They had no idea that as small fish they had unwittingly plunged into a very big pond and were now swimming with the great whites of the criminal underworld. The shop they robbed, their ticket to an easy life, was merely The Front for something very bid indeed.

I really enjoyed this book - based on the same tradition as Martina Cole but not so harsh I didn't think. 

As far as my personal challenge to read 50 pages in a day - I started this book before the challenge and so it took 10 days to read which is below average of the number of pages read in a day (35).  So got to make some adjustments to my day so that I can read more books if I am to get through the whole 887 on my bookcase before in my lifetime.

I am back - photo a day challenge - Chair

I am back!  I missed the Photo a Day Challenge - it seemed to make me think of life, rather than what I have to do in a day.  So here I am for todays challenge - Chair.  Thanks fatmumslim for the July challenge.  Hope I can stick to it this time.

Since reading other peoples blogs before I started writing this post, I feel I kinda copied someone's idea of a "chair" for todays challenge. Purely coincidental I have to add.  It took me a long time last night unloading all the stored junk in the spare room off  and around this chair before I could take the photo.

Mine is different.......because

under the seat pad is a pot!   My Nan sat on that, still has the imprint.....just kidding.  When she died some 20 years ago, I acquired it.  My intention was to re cover the seat, but like all things, I still have not got round to it.

I even thought I would take the pot out - because what I really want to do with the chair is to place it in our hall.  Beats sitting on the bottom of the stairs to put on or take off your shoes. It would look quite odd if someone saw a pot hanging under the seat as they come in the front door!

But like all things - this is on my list of jobs to do......

This month has gone quick....

but we achieved lots.  The house is still upside down with having the radiators put in for the central heating, but we have come to a standstill as we can't find an electrician who will connect the boilers to the electricity supply.  "Oh come on guys this looks like a straightforward task!  And I am not even an electrician". 

The living room carpet is back in place - we thought about changing it as it has been down for almost 30 years, but still in good condition.  "Star Wars" this pattern is - not sure how they come to that - very 1970s, but maybe it will do for a few more years yet.

The walls were very 1980s -

Rather than removing the paper and putting up lining paper, we gave it several coats of magnolia emulsion and I put up another pair of curtains, and it is amazing how much lighter the room has become.

We never got around to too much decorating over the years as our jobs and children took up a lot of time, but now we are heading for retirement, its time the house got its own make over.  I never imagined we would be in so much mess. 

The vege garden is taking its time.  In the meantime Mr Fox has dug out another den right beside the potatoes.  I am almost certain our vegetable patch is over a number of tunnels and holes, as everytime they dig they create another mound of earth, and it is very much like growing your veg on top of a hill!

Look at all those weeds - nettles too, knee deep all around the apple tree - days and days of work there.  Mr Fox does not take too kindly to us moving about, but he is determined to stay put!  Often sits on next door's shed roof during the day to watch us busy working in the garden.

Look at this too - more shrubbery to clear.  Wouldn't believe how much we have cleared this month and still all this to do. 

You might ask me what I am going to do with these!  These are two drums from old washing machines, and the casing of one of them.  The idea is to fill with earth and grow some flowers.  Since I got hundreds of flower seeds, I want to find out if I can grow them, having never had flowers in my garden, just shrubs, vegetables and weeds!


I was given two large pots by a neighbour and he said I should grow carrots in them.  So I am going to have a go. 

OK some of you and probably all of you have a garden and you grow lots of nice things.  Well I have the garden, but never had the time to do anything with it.  Mainly because I don't like gardening, but I don't like to see it like it is now.  So rules have been laid that within six months, we are going to clear this garden as it was 30 years ago!  That is certainly a challenge, because I have only given you part pictures - too embarrassed to show all!  Yes we have grass, and we have trees, but we have lots of other things that shouldn't even be here.  Its called "junk".  And I mean J-U-N-K....and I am not the hoarder. Although I do like to recycle, if I can find another use for it.

I am also trying to do some things I personally want to do.  And this month has been so busy that I haven't made one cake, nor pudding, and barely have had time to cook a meal each evening.  But I have sold lots of stuff from the loft on ebay, and feel pretty good about it.  I have space and I am saving for a trip to Australia.  Another story, another day.

Not yet given up work - if there is work - I will work - if there isn't then I will stick to home things.  Working from home can be an advantage - but sometimes you may not leave the house for days.

So - thats it for this month - now I can look forward to other things to do next month.  I have so much to do, I know I won't ever be bored on my road to retirement.....

Crochet dishcloth

As I mentioned the very start of my Blog that I intend to do  and even to try new hobbies on my road to retirement. 

I had bought dish cloth cotton some time ago and had knitted a couple of dishcloths.  But this week I decided to crochet one - from my head rather than a pattern - so the finished product is not that professional - but then it is only a dish cloth.

If I added any more rows it would prove too "heavy" for the job, so I stopped at that.

My next item was one of the dishcloths I knitted.  With all the hot water it suddenly lost its shape and ended up being long and skinny, so I unpicked that and crocheted it up and added some new cotton to finish the item.  OK it looks two tone (old and new), but lets face again, its only a dish cloth, but I have a few more months of wear from it.

Given time I will get better - but first I have to find some patience.  Yes I am very impatient with anything like this - I got to learn that it doesn't matter how long it takes.

Now.......with no more wool or cotton to play with.....it will give me time to think what to do next and purchase some more materials.