Home from home.

Book 41 read this year and what a great book, I do love this author, The police has caught their man, now they have to piece the case together, and what they find makes huge changes, brilliant to the end. 

We are away for a couple of days, just a lovely midweek break, 1st one since 2019, I'm feeling OK staying in a large old house made into a hotel, we are close to Coventry in the middle of the countryside. 

We drove through the rain, it's cloudy but dry here, looking on our house security cameras, we had some rain at home, not enough, oh so often it's never enough. 

 

Lost days

I love this author, always a good read, I had seen this book a few times, it is huge 666 pages, and proof of a second coming, did I want to read it, I have passed it by a few times. As always a brilliant plot, very clever, lots of different people, wanting different things, the story line was clever just enough to keep it real. Book 40 read this year. 

I am finding it difficult to remember what books I have read, in the last 3 to 4 years I am reading more thrillers and crime books, so now I carry this thin address book with me, I add each book I have finished. If there is a star next to a name it's an author I really like. In the case like Peter James who has written loads of books it's handy to remember which titles I have read. How do you remember what books you have read?

I have done some more squares, I decided to finish the orange section, this thread has knotted and twisted the whole way through, I was very careful, but it was a bit of a chore. The final box in the corner is the only colour I have changed, I did not have the shade suggested, but I thought this was close enough.

My bedding plants are ready to go out, but I will wait until next weekend, the pots are in a tray without holes, so I can keep them watered through the day, I now leave the door open at night so it does keep the daytime temperature down. 

Hubby has changed our tables on the decking, we don't know what our neighbour has done, but it is attracting magpies and large crows to the back of her house, they have been sitting on our canopy frame  and pooping on the table and decking. hubby has put some spikes on the frame, and so far it's working. Every time she does something next door it always ends up costing us money, hopefully if the decking stays clean we can swap the tables back. The fence panel is still broken, we can live with it, there is a fine net across the gap on our side to keep her cats out. 

I've not done anything in the pass few days, I have had the tummy bug from the grandchildren, I spent most of one day in bed, the next day reading all day, Saturday I was able to pop out for a walk in the garden, Sunday, which was beautiful was another day at home, hubby went out on his motorbike and loved it. We did walk to the shops for fresh bread, it was the most beautiful hot sunny day, spent mostly outside, sadly I was not ready to have a BBQ. Hubby has been wonderful, he does care for me so much and not once did he utter 'I should not see grandchildren when they have bugs' he knows I will always be there for our daughter. 

Today it's my haircut, I have messaged my hairdresser so she had the choice if she still wanted to come, she said yes. Nothing planned for today, maybe an hour in garden, I'm feeling much better and want to do a bit more on our project in the next couple of days. 

Normal life

There are 50 squares in this design,

 I've done 18, almost half way. 

I finally finished this book, the second half was easier than the first, which I found confusing, I can't say too much as the plot is very mixed with memories and fact, it twisted until the unexpected ending. I'm not sure if I could read another of hers. Book 39 read. 

I got more reduced spring bulbs for our new bed, just over £10 for 7 packets, some will come up out of season, probably without flowers, that's OK, they will come back next spring, these were from Wilkinson's, I should have a colourful spring in 2023. 

It has been cool wet days, but I'm OK with that, my water butt's are filling again, and the herbs which I have moved have settled into their new pots. The bedding plants in the greenhouse have enjoyed the cooler days, I will need to get them into the ground as they are starting to flower.

We have had Garden Rescue working on a house near us, 2 dry days for them, saw Charlie Dimmock rushing around, don't watch the programme, but will watch if our local Portchester Facebook puts a note up when it's on. Sadly did not see the Rich brothers, I do love their style of gardening. 

Daughter has had an horrendous few days all three grandchildren have had a sickness bug, she has spent days mopping up and doing laundry, I have everything crossed they are over it, I have spent time helping her, so far I managed not to get the bugs as bad as the children. Poor George has had the worse time, he does suffer so much. 

I've had my bank card hacked, I noticed 2 strange pending amounts when checking online, I called the bank, they had already stopped one attempt at Vodaphone, and was not going to pay the Sky request, they think the person was attempting to purchase mobile phones. My card has been cancelled and a new one should be here within the week. Luckily it's my account and not the household one, so we can still access our money.

Tuesday we took the bus into town, had lunch out with friends, we did a bit of shopping, nothing much, our local town of Fareham is not such a great place to shop, most of the shops we love are now situated out of town. Today I have my medication arriving via Royal Mail, our local pharmacy has got very bad for service and not having our medicines when we need them, sometimes it can take a week to get our prescription filled, so we are now using an online service which takes just a few days.

Triffids

 I have been digging out plants from around the garden, some like the aquilegia's have spread and got huge, I am going to need plants for a new bed. I am taking some daffodils from the side bed, and other spring bulbs. 

We popped to B&Q, whilst there we looked at roses, hubby has chosen a new bush one, it's dark red with big blooms, I also saw they had their spring flower packs at half price, so I got 4 different ones (2 of each), I will pop them into the ground, I'm sure they will grow. The plants had 20% off so this rose cost us £8.

I am using gloves more often, normally I would use the knitted ones, but I now wear waterproof ones, I have leather ones which I don't often wear as they are too thick. My neighbours partner gave me the Traffi brand, they are work gloves and brilliant, we could not get them on line, my size was sold out, so the other set Site are from B&Q, they feel the same, only time will tell if they are strong enough and at £3 a pair not to pricy.  I can't wear latex, so I have to be careful what gloves I choose, I'm not getting paid for these comments, I'm just pleased to have found so great gloves. 

Elsewhere in the garden we still have loads of spring colour, we have both enjoyed the start of this growing season, all the years of hard work has paid off, we sit with our coffee through out the day, just listening to the bird song and enjoying the view. 

The greenhouse is full, still to early to put out bedding and tender plants, the chance of frost here is very slim, it is cooler but we are sheltered here, but still I wait. The tomato and cucumber plants are both in their huge pot, the tomatoes both have flowers, I am harvesting salad leaves. I always pop a plastic bottle into the ground next to my cucumber plant and water through the bottle, I have cut the bottom off, saves the stem going rotten. 

The bank holiday did not make any difference to us, I spent some time in our garden moving slate, we do have alot of it, I have spread the task over a few days rather than do everything at once. 

I had a very lazy start on Saturday, I managed to sleep in, and then played with my new model Fitbit, sorting updates, it's easy to change device on the apt, hopefully I won't get any issues, the previous model had bad comments on internet, same issue as I was having, not pairing and recording my stats. We spent most of the time outside, plenty to do in the garden, later we had pizza and wine for tea. 

Sunday our plans changed, it rained, not heavy just steady, so day inside reading and stitching, the garden can be done another day, we are in no rush, we have plenty of time. I spent time with daughter in afternoon, George is poorly again, he does go downhill quickly, he and Will both have had a sickness bug, George bug again is lingering, he spent all evening in A&E, where they are so good to both child and mummy. 

Today Monday we plant to drive to daughters, she wants help with planting, but we will wait to see how her night went and if they all slept, we will visit but maybe the garden can wait.