Wet out, busy in.

My new Chinese money plant is looking good, firstly there are two new leaves in the middle of the plant, so I am hopeful it's coming back to a beautiful plant, then in front is a baby, which has grown huge with 7 leaves, loads of new growth, I have checked and there are not many roots. In the very front is another tiny baby, these are growing much like strawberries, on runners from the main plant. 

My string of pearls in Bette's head is looking good, I have over the past year been layering the strings back on top of her head, I wanted her to have thick lovely 'hair' even if I had to wait for ages, with all the new growth it should start to fill out, and now I can let it grow downwards. In the smaller pot is a plant from my greenhouse, my hairdresser loves these plants, but has never grown one big, so this one in the small photo is for her, when she next visits. 

This cactus flowered last November, and yet again there are buds, these plants love this spot in my bathroom, it's the sunniest spot after my office. 

In the sitting room, my Orchid is looking good, I am hopeful these blooms will last for months, this is my last Amaryllis, it's leaves are almost a tall as me, but again no flower, I re-potted this bulb in the autumn, I will let it die back and try again next year, I would like for just one bulb to have a second year of blooms.  

After many sunny dry days we have rain, nothing heavy and the winds are low, its turned cold again, it's keeping me inside. We have removed the photos on the walls in the stair well, I have cleaned each frame and glass, ready to be put back, we have also removed the old mattress from our bed, we had to place a huge bag over it before it can be removed by the company. We dragged out our king-size bed, much lighter without the mattress on, I have cleaned the whole space and the bed is back in its place, ready for the new mattress arriving later today. Once the new mattress is on the bed and the old one is taken, I can sort everywhere and make it tidy, our stairs are not huge so we had to clear everything, in hope the guys don't struggle much. 

Almost every night I am too hot, so we have purchased a 7.5 tog duvet, replacing our 10.5tog, I hope tonight I get a full night's sleep. I passed on the 4 cushions which I dressed the bed with, a local lady was delighted to have them, the purple throw I am using on our sitting room floor when Molly visits. I have 3 cushions covers to make, using 3 cross stitch deigns I have made in recent years, I have the rest of the fabric, so sewing machine out this weekend. We have not seen any curtains, I am thinking I might have to make them, which is a pain, it's years since I have made curtains, in fact my last homemade pair are the bedroom curtains I am trying to replace. We decided not to paint the bedroom, it still looks good, the white gloss is still looking tidy, the carpet still has a few years life left in it. Once the cushions are made I will post some photos, the room will look very different. We have laundered both duvet covers and pillowcases a coup[le of times,  in hope I can sleep in them, whilst being 100% cotton, they are Percale which I think is the issue, if not its an expensive mistake. 

As always one simple task makes loads of new work, but now most of its done I'm happy, no sign group this week, I was on nanna duty, sadly one lady has tested positive, so everyone is taking care, I'm pleased to have missed the morning as I've had babysitting a few times this week and I don't want to let daughter down.  

Where is my mojo?

Book 18, I have read this author before, and love the local-ish setting in and around Southampton, The plot was interesting, loads of things all coming together, and a very interesting ending, I enjoyed reading it. I read Down to the Woods, a previous book and was so disappointed with the way DCI Helen Grace seemed to have super strength at the end of the story, this was more realistic. 

Book 19 read this year, I have mixed feelings about this author, some of her books are brilliant and some can almost boarder on pornographic, which I do not like. This book however had a clever plot and it was well written,  I think it's the best book from her. She also decided to set the book within the Covid pandemic, as always a huge book, 435 pages. 

The Magnolia tree is starting to bloom, a bit early, but that's normal now, I love to see the brilliant pink blooms, very dark and then much lighter once opened, the sky looks like summer, but there is a cool breeze blowing, this photo was taken on Sunday morning. 

I've had the laziest of weekends, Thursday was busy with 3 grandchildren, on Friday I babysat them for the afternoon and put them to bed, just the youngest 2, Grandma had Will on a sleepover to help out, mummy was away with friends and daddy had a problem at work, which meant he had to work late, they were both in bed by 6.30pm, so I read all evening. Hubby put the new duvet cover on our bed, and I had an allergic reaction across my neck and did not sleep well, I didn't hardly sleep at all, we had already laundered them to hopefully stop any reactions.  Saturday was a very lazy day, far to tired to do much, so I read, there was nothing on TV that evening. I changed the pillow case and slept much better, hubby has washed the covers again, often this will stop my reactions, we will change the cover again on Friday when our new mattress arrives. Sunday did not much, read again, another early night. 

Monday we walked to village for veg, sadly our little veg shop has shut, there was less choice since Christmas, the sold sign has already been posted, so another new business maybe coming. It was a day of housework, I do like to see everywhere clean and tidy. 

I have done no crafting, I have household sewing to do as well as making animals, I have everything I require, except my mojo, I'm not interested in crafting, gardening, or much else, I've stopped watching TV, there are only 3 or 4 things I like to watch, I'm not planning much, I do have an idea for the garden, no cost involved, just a swap around, hubby does not want me to keep the blackcurrant bush, as I don't eat them and the mature bush is too much for him. So soon a nice huge pot to fill.

It's 1st of March, St David's day, we have daffodils in bloom in the garden, which pleases my Welsh husband, it's also pancake day which pleases me. 

February roundup

 

Another low spending month, I had most of the crafting things I required, just got a few things. A couple things for garden and a reduced houseplant and an Orchid.  I still have the parcel from Hobbycraft, they were so quick to resend the lost parcel, but I have emailed them twice and still they have not arranged collection. 

I purchased more bra's this month a pack of 3 from Asda, they fit well and are very comfortable, I also got 2 novels, I  saw a book I could not resist, I am now back using our local library. 

We did spend more at Asda living store, but everything was on our list and the extra 10% discount helped. Reusing Valentine day cards saved money, we had a few to choose from, which I had saved in my memory box, I did think hubby would say no, but he's liking the wasteful saving. We also did another grocery shop, a couple of weeks early, but with rising prices the extra 10% discount was a big incentive. 

With all the prices going up and the war in Ukraine, our local petrol station saw panic buying again, loads on Facebook which made things worse and our village garage is now again sold out.

Waste is still on the agenda, here we only cook what we can eat, we are careful about the fresh fruit and veg we get, with prices rising, no one wants to pay for anything they can't eat, we are aware of everything coming into our house. The chart above shows most European countries and how much more each uses than our dear earth can produce, at some point we have to wake up to the fact our earth can't keep supplying the amounts we are using. 

I had to send my fitbit back for a replacement, it was not syncing with my phone, the new one is working fine, I do like the extra information from this design, my steps are not where I hoped they would be each day, February has been a difficult month, but I'm not giving up, it's better to be late with my targets. One positive note, I normally pop on a couple of pounds in Jan and Feb, this year I still weigh the same as I did on Jan 1st.

Changes

 Is that Molly or me, I have a baby photo and when we compare it to Molly, we look so alike, it was the same with George, but he has changed so much as he has got older. She is now sitting up all by herself.

We had a full house on Thursday, toys everywhere, loads of fun, lunch was enjoyed, both boys ate well, Molly had her own food, just a few spoons, we did have loads leftover. Mummy took them home 4ish, after a tidy around, we both sat in the quiet, followed by an early night. It was a fantastic day, everyone was happy, lots of laughter together, sadly too wet to play outside. 

Book 17 read this year, I was passed this book, I've had it for a while, I've never read any of her books before, I did enjoy this book, but would not choose another of hers. No one passed books on this week, so I popped to our library and picked up 3, 2 are by authors who I love and have to be returned within 2 weeks, on their fastback scheme, no problems for me, I read fast. 

My lovely old cat Grace is now showing her age, she is 18 in May, she spends all morning in her bed, and if I sit and read in afternoon, she is on my lap as well as all evening. She does go outside, never for long and she never leaves our garden, she has become very vocal and follows me around the house and garden. She is thinner but still eats well, I don't think she has any discomfort, at her last check-up the vet said she was in good health, it's just old age. Purdy is 12, she rarely leaves our garden, never goes out the front anymore, I have heard her go into a garden behind us, but again she is home a lot, in the day she loves to sleep on the edge of the rug, just where we walk. 

This week all Covid restrictions have been removed, I'm not sure if I'm totally happy about it, I would love freedom from restrictions, I am aware numbers of infections, hospital patients and deaths are much lower and our vaccinations are very high. I would have preferred self isolation and free testing to have stayed much longer, giving us that backup against any new variants. So freedom is ours, we will have to hope every one is decent and the virus stays under control. 

Thursday we popped back to Asda, we moved our big shop forward a couple of weeks to use the 10% discount on hubbies blue light card, the discount finished on Feb 28th, as another supermarket says, every little helps. We are both shocked on how much the prices are rising, not by pennies, hubby gets 3 pack small tins of beans, last year they went from 99p to £1.29 today £2, almost everything cost more. Some things we passed on, rice was expensive, so on the way home we stopped at Lidl and got the rest of our list, we never shop at more than one shop in the same week, we always have paid £1.69 for German meatballs at Lidl, today they were £1.99. Petrol at Asda was £1.48 per litre. It has been an expensive month for food, but we should not need a big shop in March. 

As for Russia, well Putin, after all the hell of Covid, I had hoped the world could love itself more, but as usual it's the mad leaders who drag their people into these situations, I can't imagine  the struggle of those living in the area.