WI and the Rest of The Week

 I hadn't been to WI for months, since April in fact, not sure why really, but July was the Garden Party - and I'm not a fan and August when I'd lost my voice after talking too much at the Bacton Fayre a couple of days earlier!

But as I was down on the rota for cakes and kitchen I thought I'd better turn up for the September meeting and anyway the speaker was talking about Scouting. Then the President rang and asked me to give the vote of thanks as she knew I'd been very involved in Scouting in the past so I really had  to be there.

The speaker was Stuart - a local man - he is one of the few people paid to work in Scouting. He is based at Scout HQ - Gilwell Park, North of London in Epping Forest, where he is in charge of risk assessment. He told us all about his involvement in the 25th World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) which was held in South Korea in 2023.

Postcards that the Scouts were given for sending home and to people who had sponsored them. It costs £4,000 each for people to attend - Leaders fund themselves, Scouts have to raise money from sponsors and holding fund raising events and are often aided by their group or District.

About 43,000 young people and their leaders attended from 158 countries. He told us how his group of 36 Scouts - aged 14 - 17 and 4 leaders were chosen from Essex Scout Groups and the preparations they made in the 16 months up to August 2023. 

The WSJ got some very bad publicity, as after just a few days flooding on site then a heatwave, poor preparation, lack of sanitation facilities, lack of drinking water and the approaching Typhoon forced the participants to be moved off site to Hotels in Seoul. The UK contingent were the first to evacuate followed by the US and then many other countries. But thanks to the Korean officials who worked to organise different events and visits, Korean people who had heard about the problems,  Leaders and the Be Prepared motto everyone had a brilliant time.

Stuart was also involved in organising Scouts to help with the Laying in State for the late Queen and again for the Coronation for Charles.

It was a very interesting talk and slides.

And later in the week it was so good to hear who is the new Chief Scout. There's never a shortage of boys but always a shortage of leaders, perhaps he will inspire more adults from different backgrounds to get involved.

I've really enjoyed watching the Paralympics all week - it's been amazing to see all the medal winners. Sarah Storey getting an 19th Gold - incredible! The 19th won by an inch! So pleased to see Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid get the Gold in the wheelchair tennis, they've won many, many grand slams but this was their third try at winning at the Paralympics. The wheelchair basketball was really good to watch too, the men's team in the finals today after beating Germany 71/43 on Thursday and so many medals won in the pool and on the track.

 Encouraged me to look and see if there were any suitable times for swimming and I found a session that will later be used for schools but wasn't this week due to them only just being back. Hadn't forgotten how to swim despite it being months since I went and it might be a while before I go again as the other pool in the area at Diss is still closed for refurbishment until at least December so making Stradbroke extra busy and schools use the pool a lot this term and next. The few lane swimming sessions are really busy and public swimming sessions are very early or very late - neither are any good for my tired old body!

 

Tomorrow would have been our 46th wedding anniversary, we only made it to 38. 

Goodness me, how I miss that man.

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing - I'm planning a church visit and a Macmillan Coffee morning and perhaps a car boot sale.

Back Monday

Sue

Lots of Short Notes from the Week

The Olympic part Summer of Sport 2024 has nearly finished - what will I do now?  Have to wait for the Paralympics coming along on the 28th.

 Something I didn't know......................

Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA.

 Something odd............when I went out early to the boot sale last Sunday morning, for several 100 yards down the A140 the road was strewn with Parsley. Somewhere nearby it must have been grown as a crop for cutting. Had to investigate online when I got home and found this Company not far away. Another thing I didn't know.

 Book 8 for the Summer part of Reading The Seasons was a re-reading from about 50 + years ago of The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden. I expect many book lovers have read this at sometime - it's a bit of a classic - a coming of age story. I'd forgotten almost all of it so it was lovely to read again.

Why does a book of short stories take less time to read than the same number of pages in a single whole story? I read the stories in this below in no time at all. Elly Griffiths - The Man in Black and Other Stories. These feature some of the characters from her Ruth and Nelson; Max Mestopho and Harbinder books.

 How and why is a 51 year old man doing Olympic skateboarding? Is he mad?

 On Thursday I watched some of the kite surfing/sailing at the Olympics, it looks like the nearest thing to flying .....and a Gold Medal too. Exciting stuff. More really good races in the Velodrome and on the athletics track.

 I was cutting back some of the Black Elder which keeps getting tangled up with the washing on my whirly when I heard my neighbour getting started on cutting his side of the horrible Yew Hedge out the front, which is really my hedge and I usually do both sides. I'd been putting off the job but I didn't want him to do it all as he's had a few health problems so I quickly got the extension lead and hedge cutter out and got my side done. Goodness me, it's a knackering job now I'm nearly 70! I couldn't reach one bit last year so left it sticking up but my neighbour managed to get that too so it's all level and neat enough for another year.

The BBC have really plugged some of the sportsmen and women at the Olympics, with short films on their background being shown several times, but on Thursday Katarina Johnson-Thompson was in the Heptathlon and I'd not even realised she was there in France - I'm sure she'd had no mention at all beforehand.  She did so well and got a Silver medal.

A Gold medal in the sport climbing before lunchtime Friday. The GB&NI hopes were for more than 50 medals total and by the end of Friday they'd won an amazing 57.

Runner beans and the climbing French beans this week, providing me with a couple of 'baits'.

Got some busy times with family now for a couple of weeks, I think I can post every other day as there are some church visits and a few other posts in drafts- I'll see how it goes - I might end up with more time than I think as the Surrey family aren't staying with me this time but near the coast for some seaside time for the boys.

I will be back..................

Sue

The Sink Pond

After one year  I think there's a frog in my sink-pond. Not the stone one sitting on the side but twice something has hopped in when I've leaned over to peer in. It must be tiny as I've not actually seen it - only the 'plop'.

 Maybe it was just a water snail falling in from the upside down flower pot. There's lots of water snails in there, starting from the two I got with the oxygenating plants. They keep the water nice and clean. Here are a couple munching their way through a courgette flower that's fallen in.

Because yes, that is a courgette plant you can see on the other side of the pond. I dragged the pots out of the greenhouse when the outside plants started producing but hadn't the heart to abandon them to compost heap straight away - just in case

Hooray! There is a frog.

The pond doesn't look very pretty because of being done by an old woman with dodgy knees and a bad back! and not having enough stones to surround it. I left so many lovely big stones collected from around the country at the smallholding. Stones are not something you think of taking with you when moving - but I miss them! But a frog finding the pond, less than a year after installation is very pleasing.

And then there were two!

Monday's Summer of Sport was a Good Day for GB & NI with Keely's Gold in the 800m on the track and then the 3 girls in the velodrome, cycling their way to a very fast Gold medal in the team sprint. Plus the Silver and Bronze in the Kayak cross when they are tipped into the rushing water from a great height and have to fight their way through. 

Tuesday, in between exercise group and looking after YGD and MGS for a couple of hours, I saw a bit of skateboarding done mostly by under 18's and speed climbing by spider-men and women. Then the much hyped 1500m final which was set up to be a tussle between GB's Josh Kerr and Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen which didn't go as anyone thought, being won by Cole Hocker from the US. Josh got a good Silver. Finally another medal in the velodrome

Thank you to everyone for comments about the prizes at the show. I am glad I made the effort - gave people a bit more to look at!

Back Soon

Sue 

Saturday 3rd

There have been some sticky hot nights this last week, the gel pillow things are totally useless, they only stay cold for a short while so I was glad of a cooler night on Thursday. The gypsies/travellers who've bought land down the road and moved in two caravans haven't got electric on yet and have a generator running and at night I can hear it in the background which is well annoying on a night when the windows  are open for a bit of air.

 In and out today taking my entries to the Fayre and Produce Show and going back later to see if I've won anything. As one of the Handicraft classes was for 'An item of Cross Stitch' I was able to put in an entry as I've got several of my X Stitch pictures around the house. Plus the tomatoes and peppers and one cake.

Just one entry in the Cookery classes this year. A Coffee and Walnut Marble Cake - chilling in the fridge - I don't think it's marbled enough to be a prize winner. 

Prize winnings are still in pence so I'm hopeful for winning something somewhere which might be enough for a cup of tea!

Still watching as much as possible of the Olympics. An emotional end to Andy Murrays long tennis career, but with 4 children under 8 at home he'll be kept busy! Trampolining Gold yesterday by a GB woman - Bryony Page who has had Silver and Bronze in the past- 33 years old. When I was 33 I'd got 3 children and the pelvic floor would have been no good  on a trampoline! Then another Gold for the team show jumping- that made 9 Gold by 3pm Friday and 25 in total and up to 3rd in the Medal Table - Incredible stuff.

One sport I never watch is boxing but I heard about the transgender woman and saw the news about her - so much bigger and stronger - seems so very unfair and odd of the Olympic Committee. Perhaps one day there will be a whole different category or a wholly different games - Olympics, Paralympics and Trans Olympics? 

The 8th Book for the Summer bit of  Reading The Seasons was another collection of short crime stories edited by Cecily Gayford. - Murder Takes a Holiday; Classic Crime Stories for Summer.  From Conan Doyle to more recent authors like Ruth Rendell. All good stories.

zoom

Apologies to people whose comments went into spam again . I look and there is nothing there but then another day there are comments from many days earlier. It's been like this for a couple of years now and about time blogger.com solved this issue.

Back Next Week

Sue

The July Round-up

 A quiet month, nothing much happening  and it turned out to be a weird month due to getting into a slump - but you've heard enough about that already! And I'm sorry for going on and on about it. I'm annoyed with myself for even mentioning it but  feeling 99% back to normal now so it was just a blip.

In the first week of the school summer holidays I had the 7½ year old EGD here for a couple of days - totally exhausting (for me - not for her!) she then went into hospital to have her tonsils out, should improve her breathing, especially  at night.

 I didn't bother to go and look at the Rural and Domestic Bygones sale at Campsea Ash auction yard last Saturday  (the one that's  held three times a year ), after looking at the on line catalogue there didn't seem anything worth photographing for the blog and certainly nothing to leave a bid on.

Last Sunday DiL was away on a Hen weekend so son brought the YGD and MG over, with a chicken to roast and cooked dinner here for us all - what a treat. DiL will be working as a TA in the same school as the children attend after the summer holidays. It will make things so much easier for her, no more rushing to drop them off in one place and hurry over to this village for the school here and afternoons will be easier too. She had to leave this school early to get to their school so had to have a shortened lunch break to make up the time. Now she'll have a less stressful day ( although working in a school with 5 - 11 year olds is pretty stressful anyway!) The 6 year old YGD said " I've got to call Mummy Mrs C....... when she's in my class but I can call her Mummy sometimes!"

Loving the Olympics - Adam Peaty was amazing in the pool - it really annoyed me that some reporters called a silver medal a 'failure to win gold'. 2/100th of a second is hardly a failure. Other things I've enjoyed were the 3 Day eventing gold medal, another gold in shooting and the cross country mountain bike gold too. Poor Jack Draper melted in the heat playing tennis yesterday - he was playing at just about the hottest time of the day poor fella. Rafa and Alcaraz were brilliant - a dream team and being Spanish the heat didn't bother them. Thankfully it was cooler for Andy Murray and Dan Evans to play. I switched the lap top off before the end, so can't tell you the result!

Good to see the French are winning lots of  medals, it costs a fortune to host the Olympics so they need their competitors to do well to get value for money for their tax paying public.

My mojo returned just in time to take my entry form in for the Flower and Produce show,  so many things have failed this year, so only tomatoes and peppers to enter and perhaps courgettes if I have 3 the same size on the day. I wasn't going to bother at all but thought  "might as well make up the numbers ". I'll let you know how I get on next week. I'm only entering one bit of baking this year but once again I'm stewarding for the judge in the baking classes - hope it's not too hot in the marquee.

So onto the regular end of month financial roundup - Income was the usual two pensions and interest on savings bond and ISA. 

image from google freepik

 Spending wasn't too bad until this last week when I heard we were in for another mini heat wave and decided to buy an electric fan (Should have read the measurements - it's HUGE about twice the size I thought!) and some cool gel pillow things. One of the annoying things about living in a bungalow and sleeping in a bedroom at the front of the house is not being able to have windows wide open at night.

Other outgoings were mostly normal with charity donation,  Council Tax, phones and broadband, diesel for the car, electric bill, household bits. I also needed annual virus protection for my lap-top.

 I'm not buying more or different (except for some granary flour for bread) but food spending was up again this month, even taking off the few different bits I got in for EGD staying. 

The frugal stuff .........................

• Raspberries from the garden every day right through the month up until the 27th.
• Plenty of courgettes, tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers
• Someone asked about running cold water into a jug before the hot appears - Yes, I still do that but find I don't often run hot water in the kitchen, where it takes an age, it's cheaper to heat a kettle for boiling water for anything needed rather than  getting the oil-fired boiler to fire up. 
• Using the dishwasher only every other day saves electric and water too, compared to filling a washing up bowl two or three times a day.
• No books, flowers etc bought 
• Home made bread 50/50 white and wholemeal and 50/50 white and Granary
• Plenty of library books for free reading 

Personal spending was exercise group, a new Puzzler magazine and my hair getting longer was driving me nuts so I went back to normal very short again (how does Claudia Winkleman cope with that fringe?) . I bought a Radio Times for the Olympic TV coverage pages and a cheapy version other weeks. A few other expenses for visits out to windmill etc. I joined English Heritage when taking the EGD to Framlingham Castle, just for a year. Will be able to re-visit a few places I've not been to for ages.

Final thought .......... 

I hope no one in British Politics would ever call anyone "a bum" - not just once but twice.

(edited in to say Andy and Dan won and them jumping about laughing was the most joyous thing to see)

Back in a couple of days. 

Sue

Pretty and Useful

 Went to Diss for the computer shop for my virus protection renewal and had a tour of the charity shops. In the animal sanctuary fundraiser shop their glass case of nice things was full of pieces of Portmeirion pottery, mainly mugs and vases. Among them was this which will be used rather than stood around collecting dust.

Several weeks ago I found two enamel pie/lasagne dishes to replace two pottery ones that had very crackled glaze after being used for many years. But I discovered the two enamel were a really annoying size - too small for two portions but too big for one.

This new one is definitely a two portion pie/lasagne/serving dish - perfect size - cost me £3. It's from their Pomona range featuring redcurrants.

This was the Portmeirion vase I found a couple of months ago, it is a dust collector but one of only a few.

 Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts. Still in a low, flat spot here........ no reason.

I'm not ill, don't need a health check as having one a  month ago has forced me onto tablets to reduce the high blood pressure - been putting off  taking them for years. Perhaps the new tablets aren't helping. I can't even blame the weather as we've had the best of it over here in the East - completely different to Paris and other parts of the UK.

Comments about "knowing how lucky I am" and "valuing each day" might work for anon but I wish it were that easy!

Hey Ho!

Still watching lots of Olympic sport but the BBC is very annoying - too much talk in the studio sometimes, when I just want to know what's happening in the sports I've not seen! Then they suddenly switch to another sport and make everyone scramble to the Red Button viewing to continue what was on the main channel. 

Could spend money on a month of Discovery+ streaming but they might be just as bad. I'll just have to shut up and put up! 

Back in a while

Sue

Still Waiting

 I'm waiting for my mojo to return to get out of this flat feeling. 

My get up and go has got up and gone, don't know where and why.

I'm sure I'll be back to normal soon.

Bit wet for the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris - I was reminded of the Queen and Prince Phillip for a Jubilee thing on the Thames when it poured with rain and the Duke was very ill afterwards. Hope all the sports men and women don't catch a chill.

Sue

Yesterday.

Thought it was time for a new header photo and couldn't decide so plumped for the amazing East window of Redgrave church. It deserves a longer look.

 I often fall asleep with the radio on Radio 4, it's usually fairly boring and sends me off to sleep quite quickly, then of course I wake up hours later when Radio 4 has become The World Service and it's still talking to me, which is why I woke up sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning to hear the words  'Civil War starting in the US' Good Grief!- then the rest of talking got through to me and I heard that Trump had been shot and injured and the Civil War was what some commentators were expecting to happen next.

So I'm praying that by the time this post is live things have calmed down.

As it was fine I went to the nearest car-boot sale early and came home with a bunch of beetroot and half a dozen eggs - no treasure - same old same old - children's toys and junk!

Beetroot cooked and another bowl of raspberries picked - I've had some every day for weeks and put several small bags of them in the freezer - I'm thinking pavlova in winter sounds good. I then brought the only two small aubergines in from the greenhouse. They'd not got any bigger for weeks and were starting to lose their shine so best used quickly. No other aubergine flowers have set - yet another growing fail for this dismal 2024 season. I cooked them up with a tin of tomatoes and lots of seasonings including basil from the greenhouse which made 3 portions of pasta sauce.

Men's wheelchair singles final was the first thing on at Wimbledon. Alfie Hewett there again and having a wonderful win. As he is Norfolk born he's been featured on local TV coverage and seems to have been around for ever although he is only 26, he's won many grand slams and other tournaments since 2016. I'm amazed at the strength those guys have for manoeuvring a wheelchair on grass and playing tennis at the same time.

The men's final was a bit of an anti-climax with Alcaraz beating Djokovic very easily. It was a strange match. 

Then I quickly turned onto red button TV to see Alfie Hewett again in the wheelchair doubles with Gordon Reid, they've been playing doubles together for several years, seems a bit mean to have both finals on the same day. They successfully defended their title. Well done them!

That left just the football but I'll be in bed rather than on the laptop when that finished!

 

Back Soon

Sue 

Last Week in Mid Suffolk

The only way I could get past the sadness of Friday's post was to delete it without looking at, or having to read it again -in 11 years of blogging I've never felt the need to do that before.

The weather last week was mainly cloudy, heavy and humid (although yesterday was just plain chilly) and very headache inducing - at least I Hope that's the reason for the headaches I've been having. Just recently a neighbour and friend of BiL  went to bed early with a headache and was fast asleep when her husband went to bed but when he woke in the morning he found her laying dead beside him - what an awful shock -  since hearing that it feels worrying to go to sleep with a headache.

 I had a very surreal experience last week when I spent an hour having a coffee in the church café with my ex husband who I had not really seen since we split in 1978. We'd been together for 7 years from aged 16 and got engaged and married young as many people who didn't go to Uni did back then. I think he married 3 more times after me but I'm not sure he really knew how many!  he's in the process of the current divorce! I don't regret our meeting and marrying all those years ago as otherwise I wouldn't have got involved in Scouting so wouldn't have met Colin, so wouldn't have had 38 wonderful years, three children and five grandchildren and all the smallholding life - plus getting on the housing ladder in 1975 turned out to be a very good thing from a purely material point of view. House prices started shooting up after that and Col and I might never have afforded anything!

It reminded me of the Grammar School Reunion in 1988 or was it 89?, 17 years after we had all left school, that was a very surreal evening too. 

What else  happened last week?  Well, it was a very bad Wordle week - I had two fails in a week - never been known before. Just too many choices to go round the letters I had  - and I chose wrong too many times - good thing it's not a competition.

Had to get to grips with a new phone too, my old one started playing up too often. When I say 'get to grips' I really mean 'attempt to work out the differences while getting very confused!' I do wish they came with an instruction book, at least we have 'real people' to sort things in the Tesco phone shop in Stowmarket and thank goodness they weren't busy so he set the phone up for me and answered my probably daft questions but I  can't see how it's turned right off to reboot it when it needs doing sometime in the future so will have to go back and ask.

And  I've also been eating courgettes......................almost everyday.

Yesterday was nearly the end of Wimbledon, I didn't watch the Women's final but the men's doubles was a really good match.  It ends properly today with the Men's finals and then later the probable pain of watching England play football in the Euro finals. I'm not a fan of women's football so won't be watching their Euros qualifying and can't get cricket or golf for free so I reckon it's just the last week of  the Tour de France to follow next week. Then a blank week before the Olympics.

Back Soon

Sue

5th Summer Book + Summer of Sport

 First of all have to say thank you for all the comments yesterday about Redgrave Church - it's quite a special church. I keep being surprised at all I'm finding out about bits of history of Suffolk with my church adventures - I'm glad I started.

The 5th book with Summer in the title for Reading The Seasons was this.

Sweet Remnants of Summer by Alexander McCall Smith. In the Isobel Dalhousie Philosopher series set in Edinburgh.

I did say I wouldn't read anymore of these are they are all a bit 'same-y' and Isobel and Jamie are so perfect it's quite annoying!

But as it was a Summer titled book and I knew it would be quick and readable I gave it a go and it was similar to all the others with Isobel getting involved in other people's problems, editing her Philosophy newsletter and dealing with her Housekeeper and her children while the beautiful and perfect Jamie cooks up wonderful meals!

Monday's best sport was a really good match at Wimbledon between Taylor Fritz from the USA and Alexander Zverev of Germany which went to 5 sets with Fritz having to win the last three to get through to the quarter finals - and he did. Djokovic got in a tizzy about the spectators shouting Ruuuuune for his opponent - he seemed to think they were being disrespectful and booing him. I didn't think so and nor did the commentators  but who knows - he does divide opinions. Djokovic went on to win in 3 straight sets anyway.

Tuesday was the first of the quarter finals. There was no play at all on the outside courts - it rained there all  day (Suffolk was a bit drier - just long enough to get raspberries picked and cat proof fences organised for the kale plants which are due today). I half watched the two quarter finals in the men's singles. I'd have preferred Sinner to win.

They are so far behind with doubles matches now and running out of days to catch up. Hope the next few days are dry.

Back Soon 

Sue 

Summer of Sport 2024 + This Cheese Was Suggested............

.........................by someone for a taste test. I'd not even thought about Aldi having any Artisan cheeses so it was a good bit of information...thank you to whoever. 

Beacon Blue is on their Specially Selected bit of the cheese shelves, along with a couple of others.

It's described as a creamy, mild and sweet blue goats cheese and this is what it says about the cheese and the company making it from Butlers Cheese website.(They also make another very easily available favourite - Blacksticks Blue)

Beacon Blue, our award-winning blue goat's cheese is silvery like the moon, silky smooth, creamy and fresh on the tongue, yet a good helping of peppery tang quickly develops leaving you craving more and more!

One of the reasons that our blue goat's cheese tastes so delicious is the freshness of our milk. The freshest goat's milk makes the best goat's cheese and ours comes every day from Nicola Butler’s herd on our family farm, just down the lane from our dairy.

There is no escaping it, we are a family business est. 1932. That’s what makes things exciting, and these family values are the bedrock of our culture. Richard and Annie started it, Jean and Tom nurtured it. Gill and Colin opened it, and the history page is just turning for Matthew and Daniel 

It was a strong cheese - not mild and creamy as described - and OK but  I thought a bit sort of harsh tasting - people who've had 'goaty flavoured' goats cheese needn't worry. There's no billy goat taint in this thank goodness.

It won't become a regular purchase as there are other blue cheeses I like better.

**************************

The weather on Saturday was dreadfully wet and I didn't go far, lots of water across the road in places and the low tyre pressure light came on in the car so I went home again and after the rain stopped pumped up the tyres and got the warning bleeps turned  off. At Wimbledon the outside courts were covered and uncovered several times . I watched Cam Norrie get knocked out and then Harriet Dart. Heard that Emma Raducano had decided against playing mixed doubles with Andy M after all - something to do with match timings I think. Then I saw a bit of the football and after Switzerland scored, gave up and found a new Midsummer Murders to watch instead. I didn't know until Sunday morning that England had equalized and then won on penalties - glad I didn't see that bit - penalty shoot outs are bad for the heart!

The middle Sunday of Wimbledon used to be a rest day but they've had to use it for playing several times due to rain so changed it to a usual day of play a couple of years ago. Carlos Alcaraz had a battle but won through but the one remaining British singles player - out of the 19 (I think) that started, was Emma Raducanu who got knocked out by a qualifier from New Zealand. Only Brits left were in the men's doubles

I caught the Tour highlights at 8 - a bit rough and dusty there as they were racing partly on gravel which, I discovered, isn't what builders call gravel - and seemed totally pointless- and that was the end of sport for the day.

 Then there was a new crime drama on BBC - The Turkish Detective - interesting - presumably we are running out of locations for crime dramas set  in this country!

Apologies to several people whose comments went to spam, I check regularly but then found 15 there on Saturday, some from a week earlier - weird.

And talking about weird - there have been some annoying weird words on Wordle recently - it's took me all 6 goes to get them. - Spoiler Alert -  yesterdays was a maker of cameras! (of course it had another meaning that wasn't a brand name - but a rarely used word)

Back Soon

Sue

Election Day + Summer of Sport 2024

 I shall stroll up the road today to cast my vote in the General Election for a political party that have promised much but probably won't be able to achieve anything! 

And as all of them have done that it's no help to you guessing who I'll vote for!

I finally got information through the letter box from all the other Parties standing, but the Green Party have certainly outdone the rest for pieces of paper - how very ironic.

So, will our new  Waveney Valley constituency really put a Green Party MP into the Houses of Parliament or will tradition win out and the area remain blue Conservative? Or will we be one of the 'Huge swings to Labour' seats?

The two bits of 'propaganda' through the letter box yesterday completely contradict each other so we will have to wait and see.........

I hope everyone will go and vote, everyone should vote - it's your right and we don't have many rights left, and if you don't, you can't moan about the result.

Summer of Sport yesterday was cold and chilly and wet but Emma won through - well done that girl.  Lots more Brits playing at Wimbledon today including several pairs in the Men's Doubles - much more interesting than election results!  (can't believe that once, when I was very much  younger, I stayed awake half the night listening to results coming in - mad)

Back Tomorrow........... when we'll know who we are to be governed by for the next 5 years.

Sue

The Beans That Nearly Got Away + S.O.S. 2024

 The climbing French Beans didn't do much climbing for weeks. I'd surrounded the tripod with fences to keep out next door neighbours cat and didn't notice that right at the bottom, only just a little way up the canes some beans had formed. 

Luckily I moved the fences away to do some weeding and discovered all these...........

Very good they were too.

I'm watering regularly now after no rain for a week and the plants are climbing well at last. Hopeful for more to come soon.

S.O.S. 2024 isn't a cry for help! But Summer of Sport. The last one was 2021, when all the things cancelled the year before because of Covid, were held. That year, like this year I loved all the tennis and Olympics and wrote about them on the blog starting with the French Open. I looked back at those old posts and saw that Jack Draper - a young unknown Brit had a wild card entry into Queens Club and had a win against Jannik Sinner. 3 Years on and Jack did really well at Queens Club is now seeded 28 at Wimbledon and Jannik is seeded number 1 this year, above moany Djocovic and last years winner Alcaraz. 

This year so far  the French Open was followed by the first grass court tournament of the season from Nottingham then Queens Club tournament , Wimbledon Qualifiers and now Wimbledon. And at the weekend the British Athletic Championships were on TV to watch, with many up and coming athletes trying to qualify for the Olympics.

 I've just labelled some of my posts mentioning tennis with 'Summer of Sport 2024',  so that in 2028 - the next Olympic Year  - if I'm still about! - I'll be able to look back and see what was going on.

A memory.............

At 2pm on a Monday afternoon in late June or early July 1980 I settled the 2 month old baby down and settled myself down, excited for my first ever time at home to watch the start of Wimbledon live.......it Rained! - there was no play - nothing to watch!

Now it no longer matters, with two courts having roofs there is always something to see and a huge choice of what to watch via BBC Red Button.

Just proves that not everything has got worse in the intervening 44 years! 

Back Soon

Sue

PS for Euros Football and Tour De France commentary see Rachel in Norfolk's Blog! 

And another PS Thanks to Aril for reminding me about the Paul Heaton set from Glastonbury - so good.

Halfway Through A Frugal Year? but Could Be Subtitled............

............................where I spent money in June!

Income was the usual two pensions, and interest from savings and outgoings were the normal too Council Tax, Electric, Phones and Broadband, 2 lots of diesel for the car, household needs and food.

image from google freepik

It would have  been a  frugal month if I didn't keep deciding to have work done! I've found it impossible to get out of the habit of always planning what improvements are needed to house and home.......it's what we did for 40 years. This time it's the living room/dining room flooring that's planned and half paid for. I really didn't like the carpet the previous owners had down, a horrible colour and and very impractical for a room that's used for dining and with the 'back door' to the garden - used many times a day in Summer. The hard wood veneer flooring I wanted was out of stock (typical!), and the floor layer man very busy so the work won't be done for a while.

Personal spending was a bit extravagant despite no second hand books or flowers....................... 

A proper haircut started my spending and a new Puzzler magazine as I was fed up with only doing Sudoku's  and then the price of my Cappuccino  coffee and cheese scone treat is creeping up - had the most expensive so far in the Moments Coffee Shop in Stowmarket one day when the Osier in the church was closed.  Moments is also a charity run coffee shop raising money for St Elizabeth Hospice in Ipswich so at least it's for a good cause but £5.90 for the two things is getting a bit silly. I shall be disappointed if I have to stop these treats - one of the saddest things about being widowed is there's no one to say " do you want a cuppa?" 

I called in at the nearest picture framing place and he cut me a mount for that little print on a card that I bought from the Art Exhibition. It was just £2.50 and then  a few days later I found the frame mentioned the other day from the car boot sale. I still had some sticky velcro fixer things in the drawer so the new little picture is up on the wall and I'm pleased to say there is still room for one or two more.

When friends were here they asked me where all the pictures have come from. There are seven from boot sales, 2 stitched by me, two prints from an art exhibition plus the new card also from art sale. The owl and hare prints are annoying me - they need to be level or more uneven.

Exercise group numbers have dropped alarmingly and we may have to pay £2 each rather than £1.50 just to cover hall hire. Luckily I managed to find one quiet-ish session for a swim - hadn't been for months, every time I've gone online to book it's looked to be much too busy to be enjoyable. I struggled with swimming after the long lay-off so really need to get back to it again. Hopefully it will be quieter when the pool in Diss re-opens after it's makeover. 

Then when I thought I'd spent enough on myself I had to send for some new insoles for my summer shoes as the ones that were in them kept getting creased and not laying flat.

Garden spending was supposed to be zero except for the District Council garden waste bin annual payment but I got carried away by an ad that popped up for some Kale plants from T & M. As the sweetcorn plants are doing so badly due to the weather I decided I'd put in a few Kale for winter beside the sweetcorn. They are due to arrive in July. The sad looking sweetcorn is surrounded by fences to keep Crumble cat out and covered by netting at the moment and is just not growing. Usually it romps away - doubt I'll get cobs this year. I got another bag of compost too as I was right out.

House expenses apart from half the flooring were new printer inks and window cleaner.

There were a few penny saving things to make up for the spending

• Lots of strawberries from BiL 
• and even more Raspberries from here...and there really are lots!
• Cucumbers ready to eat and also made into Sweet and Sour Pickles for winter
• First tomato - just one so far!
• Reading good library books for free
• No second-hand books or flowers bought
• Home made bread from the bread machine- I'm now doing 50/50 wholemeal and white flour - it's turning out very well. 
• Having cancelled the Radio Times subscription as the price had shot up, I'm now just picking up one of the cheap TV scheduling magazines - not as good as the RT - no Radio schedule - and too much soap stuff but a big saving.
• Running out of Ecover Clothes Washing liquid  so I sent for the £1 offer from Smol of samples to try. They seem to be fine so I'll be subscribing to a regular delivery as I have for their dishwasher tabs. Still using some washing soda crystals in the wash as it's good for killing any smells and keeping the machine clean.
• Only using dishwasher every other day
• Couple of things found at boot sales to use for Christmas gifts.

This week I have been grateful for - 

• Sunshine and warmth for a week.
• Tennis on TV - I've loved watching all the up and coming at the Wimbledon Qualifiers last week
• Having savings for when I get home improvement ideas!
• The bread machine, which I'm now using for all sorts of bread. 

I'm really looking forward to Wimbledon for the next fortnight. Then it's just another two weeks after that and the Olympics starts. Tour De France on TV as well........... Summer of Sport 2024 .........bring it on!

Have a good Weekend 

Back soon

Sue

Another Week Rushed By

This week................

June is rushing by so quickly that I didn't even mark the Summer Solstice on Thursday/Friday. It seems impossible that daylight hours will be decreasing when we've only had a week of decent weather this year so far. 

I used the search feature to look up when I last wrote about the folklore and traditions of the Solstice - and found it was three years ago and as it's that long ago I could start doing more of the 'First of the Month' and Folklore posts as everyone will have long forgotten!

I've been enjoying tennis from Queens Club on TV all week - except for seeing poor 'old' Andy M. pulling out through injury and Dan Evans having a bad fall and injuring his knee - maybe putting him out of Wimbledon and the Olympics. Andy still hopes to play at both but his body might not let him.

Then there was excitement on Thursday with two Brits ...... Jack Draper and Billy Harris, the first has been around for a few years while the second has popped up suddenly even though he is 29, both won through to the quarter finals but then they were both knocked out on Friday- It was good while it lasted!. 

The curser vanished on my lap top as I was adding to this post on Thursday. I tried googling via my phone but the ideas I found didn't get the curser back so I had to zoom up to Diss to the computer shop and she pressed one button and there it was again..........Duh! (F6 for future reference) Weird thing is that I tried that and it didn't work when I did it!

 The raspberries are coming along well, took some to BiL on Wednesday as a change from his strawberries. Big bowl full Friday - enough for two days. Just so good. I seem to have kept Crumble cat out of the vegetable beds since Tuesday when I found she'd got under a netting hoop and dug the leeks - AGAIN- B***** cat. I found some tiles and bricks from round the back of the shed to hold down the edges of the netting - it was pegged but still she got in. Maybe now the leeks will grow.

Strange thing heard this week...........Oxford university did a study and found more people are turning off the news and avoiding watching or listening due to so many awful things happening around the world - Well, I could have saved them money and  told them that -  just from the people who say this on blogs and in comments!

Information leaflets through the letter box - one leaflet from Conservatives saying "Look out Labour are only 9% points behind - they could win". From Green Party " Labour can't win in this new Waveney Valley Constituency - confidential insider information shows it's a seat they have already written off". All jolly good fun!

Also through the letter box - an Autumn seed catalogue - I thought NO not yet - please not yet, lets have more summer first.

Have a lovely weekend if you can and I shall return on Monday.

Sue . 

Well Done That Man!

 Very well done to Jack Draper, new British Number 1, has just beaten last years champion and Wimbledon champion  Carlos Alcaraz! at the Queens Club in the build up to Wimbledon.

Very exciting - the year Andy M is probably going to stop playing and we have a new top player!

750 × 450

The First Week in June

 Summer is on the book-shelf. These are the things that have come out of the box for every summer recently. The 'Summer Haze' Lilliput lane cottage and two old flowery jugs. Plus the June plate of course. 

Thank goodness for a bit more warmth this week and much less rain.

I've enjoyed watching the French Open Tennis on TV all week, some good matches and Djokovic, who I'm not a fan off, dropped out due to injury. Wonder if he will be fit for Wimbledon? That will open the tournament right up. Interesting to see the difference in the crowds watching - at Wimbledon usually all seats are pretty full up for all matches - not so much at Roland Garros.

Where did I get the details of the Globe-Watch Airplanes Live website? Thank you whoever mentioned it. I now know that one of the huge planes that goes round and round above the village every Monday and some other days is a U.S Military Boeing Strato-tanker flying out of USAF Mildenhall in West Suffolk and going across to Hungary and back. Although why it goes round and round so much before landing is a mystery! Most of the other larger heavier and lower/slower aircraft are USAF military too.  I'm very glad I don't live anywhere near a busy airport, so many holiday companies in and out all day they are quite high when they come over here so not a noise problem, most are coming or going to Birmingham or Luton.  Where we lived on the Suffolk coast we saw many more because there were also planes from London airports and Stansted.

This website is great fun until you zoom out and see just how many planes are in the air at any one time  - more than 11,000- scary stuff! 

On Wednesday morning I met up with Rachel-in-Norfolk at the restaurant in the garden centre not far from Diss, although most of the huge building is full of 'stuff' - nothing to do with gardening. Walking through all the 'stuff' made me feel quite sick at what a incredible consumer society we live in (and who buys all those patio seating sets for £2,000 each). It would be a good place for people watching as it was very busy in the restaurant with old people going in for huge cooked breakfasts and later queueing for carvery lunches. It's not a place to go if you are in a hurry, I think they need more staff. I had my usual cheese scone and cappuccino.

I finished the week having a haircut - a proper trim and much thinning with the thinning scissors this time, not a six all over with clippers. I want to keep it a bit longer to cover my ears as they seem to be getting bigger - thought that was just an 'old man' thing!!

Hopefully the weather will be dry this weekend for boot sales and I'm visiting some open gardens in son's village (although they are busy with other things so they won't be coming round with me). Maps of which gardens are open are available in the church which oddly, I've not done a post about for the blog, so I'll  remedy that while I'm there.

Have a good weekend

Back Soon

Sue

 

Looking Back At The Week Just Gone

 Bank Holiday Weekend last weekend was more or less a wash-out. I ventured out on the Saturday for two church visits but Sunday it poured almost all day so I stayed at home and moved furniture!

The aim being to get rid of the very, very old pine and now very tatty TV stand/chest of drawers without buying anything new to replace it.  I emptied drawers, chucked things out, moved other stuff  into different places and wiggled large pieces of furniture around - hoovering all the dust from behind each bit as I went along. Then I took two ibuprofen for the aching back, ate lunch and collapsed on the settee to watch world rowing championships from Lucerne. 

The weather was slightly better on bank Holiday Monday but I couldn't be bothered to go out, I finished the furniture moving and tidying, read, watched tennis, cleared a few weeds from out the front and spoke to no one all day - actually I spoke to almost no one all weekend!

Only 10 of us at exercise group, I do hope people are not dropping out but it might just have been because it was half term and holiday week.

Flowers in the house this week were just a couple of rose buds and some colourful Spirea.

This week I've been grateful for

• Finding out, thanks to google, how to remove the cover to change the back-up battery in the bleeping mains powered smoke alarm out in the garage (needed due to the boiler being in there) and still being able to climb 3 steps up the stepladder to reach the darn thing!
• Having the home made batch made meals from the freezer, making for easy meals
• Eventually working out how to get the French Open Tennis on TV
• Sorting out how to put a new cassette of cord into the strimmer.
• Getting the sweetcorn and runner beans planted out ............
• ..........and I suppose all the rain saves watering the outside veg.
• Sorting through and chucking out lots of old paperwork
• Library van bringing me my 17 reserved books 

Back Monday with the photos of the library books I collected.

Sue

Almost the End of May Frugal Notes

 How did May go for frugal and thrifty? 

The income was the usual 2 pensions (both have gone up a bit so I await notification from HMRC to tell me my tax code will have changed and not for the better!)) and interest on savings bond and ISA.

Outgoings were the usual too - Council Tax, electric, charity, phones and broadband, 2 x diesel for the car, food, household needs. The biggest extra outgoing this month was the car breakdown insurance but there were lots of smaller things.

 I thought there would be no more garden expenses but then the strimmer cord ran out - it's lasted years so has done well, the silly thing is that the cheapest way to buy was in packs of  12. I found somewhere to buy just  4 but I reckon  I'll be long gone before they've been used! From a car-boot sale I bought a pot of Chrysanths to fill a space out the front and when I saw someone else had small Fig trees (first I've seen for ages) I bought one - just in case I decide to move!

The window cleaner came early in the month and I bought postage stamps and birthday presents were sent to Eldest Grandson who is now 8 years old and of course more wild bird feed again - although I've now had to stop feeding for summer as the starlings have about a dozen babies and when they swoop in the feeders are empty in 10 minutes.

On the personal part of the accounts, no flowers or  books were bought - a very good thing! I had a foot care lady round for the first time and went to the opticians where I paid the extra for eye pressure test (the basic eye test is free but they do an extra pressure test which is £20 ) but other expenses were smaller,  the exercise group, a cheap pair of sunglasses from a car-boot sale and I bought a new insulated cup to replace one that wasn't much good and a few other bits and finally on Monday decided to have a months subscription to Discovery+ TV (£6.99)so I could watch the French Open Tennis  - I just have to work out how to cancel the subscription to it before the month is over - it took me an age to find out how to get it in the first place - it's so frustrating to be so technically dense! 

Small things were needed in the kitchen, the regular delivery of Smol dishwasher tablets arrived and I looked several times for the cheap bags of dishwasher salt in Aldi and Asda - but the shelves were always empty and the local hardware place only had huge boxes of the expensive Finish and I was told there was a shortage -  like a year or so ago, so I sent for some and of course next time I was in Asda - there were the cheap bags, sitting there - full shelf! The filter needed changing in the water filter jug that I got for filtering water for the coffee machine so I  sent for a new stock up while I remembered.

 So, we are told that inflation is increasing more slowly and some foodstuffs are coming down in price .....really?? can't say I've noticed. My shopping just seems to be expensive each week . It doesn't help that I like to eat lots of fruit - 3 portions a day if I can - and fresh preferably . But at this time of year it's between seasons and I'm eating  an apple, slice of melon and canned pineapple. Nectarines are just appearing in the supermarkets and hopefully will be costing less than they are at the moment once the season gets going. And then BiL's strawberries and my raspberries will be ready- can't wait!  I always pick the biggest fruit or veg if they are priced up individually and the melon I found one week was so ginormous that it made the scales on the self service checkout bleep - the scales thought I had more than one! I had a big slice every day for 8 days.

Frugal things I can think of 

• Mending my ironing board cover with new elastic
• Mending leggings again - now all put away until autumn. I'm in shorts for the duration now
• Home made white bread, malt loaves and granary bread - another recipe from the bread machine recipe book that I'd not tried before.

• Reading library books and my own books
• Made big batch of vegetable korma curry = 8 portions - about 60p each
• Greetings cards from boot-sale for 50p each
• Pick the biggest of individually priced fruit veg (cauliflower, melon, cucumber etc)
• Made a batch of Thai Red Fish Curry = 7 portions, worked out at just under £1 each as I added green beans for a change. Curry in the freezer for several months now..
• Only use 2nd class stamps

Found in the new Mind charity shop,  a good t-shirt for home wearing. It's a man's one - they are always so much better quality than women's and have a looser fit for hot weather.

Out of the house went a bag of old towels to the RSPCA charity shop and some new (won in the raffle) items to the church in Stowmarket (where the café is)where they have a sale table and a help-yourself-if-you-need-it shelf of toiletries. 

I briefly considered hanging onto things to do a car boot sale myself but I've been to so many, and they've been packed out with folk selling with the same old stuff week after week so I don't think people are spending much and anyway I vowed, after last time, not do one again EVER!

Looking forward to next month..................and June is often a low spend month with the only extra expense (hopefully and touching wood)being the bill from the District Council for the garden waste bin. I have plenty of meals in the freezer now and there will be strawberries from BiL so food spending could be low.

Back Soon

Sue