January round-up

 No spending on craft, nothing needed, I have been reading, I did get one pack of seeds for my garden, £10 spent on clothes and got a new pair of slippers. 

I have read 11 books this month, average 2 per week, I'm missing my garden. 

I finished off a great set of bargains this month, back in November I saw my favourite perfume at a good price at Superdrug, plus a offer of 4 points for every pound spent, I got the perfume and £20 in points on my card (hubby gave me the perfume as my Christmas gift), then my second favourite perfume was half price £30, so I got a bottle, used my points and paid only £10. Both bottles will last me all year. 

We have used £12.50 of Tesco vouchers, most of hubby's £50 Co-op gift card, and his blue light card 10% off the cost of our slippers, the customer in front of us used his card, so we did the same.

We got two radiator fans for the house, we are now much warmer even turned the temperature down one degree, we have changed our broadband and now have a saving each month with better download speeds. I have also changed my mobile phone provider, again making a saving. Our new phones were expensive, not the latest models, but over the next 24 months we will be making savings, plus we had a good price for our old phones, we are both loving the improved cameras. 

We have been nibbling through our Christmas foods, no waste, we did finish our Christmas cake, we both love rich fruit cake. We are eating out of our freezers, both were full, now we can see some space.

My weight recorded at the start of the month was higher than I wanted, but not as high as it has been in previous years, I was 7 pounds heavier in 2020 and 2018. I have since 2014 made a note of my weight on Jan 1st each year, 2016 and 2021 were my lightest starts to the year. My aim is to get rid of the extra pounds before the spring arrives, in truth I will be happy not to put on any more weight.  

Spring blooms

 I love to see tiny spring bulbs in pots, I have a few pots I bring on to this metal table each year, to be able to see new blooms at this time of year is pure bliss. There are crocus in another pot and my winter cyclamen most of which are still blooming. 

The first snowdrops have arrived, these by my huge herb pot in the side bed, I have small clumps around the garden and some more in a pot. There are signs of other bulbs starting to grow everywhere in the garden, I have some around my wildlife pond as well.

Loads of things doing well in the greenhouse, I have put the top layer of my strawberry tower in here, in hope I can get some early berries. My lime tree has put on loads of new growth, I renewed the compost last summer.

I adore this plant, I had one for years until the frost got to it, I forgot to cover it, so this one will stay in a pot, it has tiny orange flowers, its a fast growing plant. 

Monday was a cold, windy and wet day, with thunder and lightning followed by huge hail stones. We did pop Lilly to the vets, she is doing well, her weight is good, she was the smallest of the litter, her second jab is booked for 3 weeks, we will then book her to be spayed and chipped at about 20 weeks, she stays inside until all done. I had picked up a tummy bug, a couple day feeling yuck, I'm better now.  

Nothing else to tell you, got more supplies for Lilly, we are happy to find a brand of wet food she likes. Met daughter and Molly in our local town on Wednesday, then later walked to the library in our village.

With the horrendous weather we are doing nothing, I won't say too much about our weather, compared to most places in the UK, we get off very lightly, with only Norfolk and Suffolk areas being drier than us. I'm a soft southerner, I don't like cold and wet, together they bring your mood down and keep us inside.

  

Family time

 This is a photo gives me so much joy, daughter and Molly had time together last Friday, when asked 'where do you want to go', Molly's reply was the library, they stayed for ages reading books. Later George was sent home from school again, daughter sent the school a video of him once he was home, hopefully the school will understand he is tricking them.

I love this author, her books normally have a medical theme, this one is promised to be the first in a new series. It started good and kept going, where do spies retire to and can they ever walk away. The story line was good, it did not go too far into the unbelievable, again a clever twist with a nice ending. I consider this the best book read this year, book 10 read this year.

Another brilliant book, I have read most of the David Raker books written by this author all set in UK, this is a completely different tale set in USA, it's an huge book, a woman and her brother go missing, why, how, a police officer is looking into another missing woman's case, are they linked, what is being missed. I loved the whole plot, it's a survival story in more ways than one. Book 11 read this year.

I often stay in bed later on a Sunday morning, hubby left the door open so I had company, something that our other cats were not allowed, she is spoilt. Daughter told me to use the portrait setting on my phone camera, you can't zoom and the background goes a bit blurry, but much better photo's.

I got all my sweet-peas planted, I used all my deep root planters, these I hope to plant in the ground when they are ready, I had loads left over so they went into two pots, probably a bit too crowded, I will wait to see what comes up. I have nothing else to do outside, I still have not swept my paths around my veg beds. We had no problems after the storm, it's path was much further north, and the strong winds were of a level we often have here along the south coast. 

Saturday arrived with blue skies and much warmer, I did walk around my tiny garden, which is enough to keep me happy, loads of bulbs starting to grow, veg beds looking good, a quiet start to a busy day. Daughter came with her three little ones, they all took turns to play with Lilly, who enjoyed every moment and crashed out once they had gone. A lot of our conversation with daughter was about Traitors final, I am fascinated on how they swapped and changed their loyalties, I disliked Charlotte in the final.

Sunday was wet as expected, another named storm, less ferocious than the last, we were directly in it's path, so much rain again, we stayed inside reading we are both bookworms, listening to music, this month has rushed by when normally January is a long slow month, we have just finished the darkest 10 weeks of the year, a fact to cheer us all up.

Sheltering from Óewyn

 My sweet peas have shoots, not all of them, I will leave these for a couple more days before planting in long root pots. The clear plastic takeaway container with damp kitchen roll has worked as a good propagator. 

I do love this author, another great plot, once he starts looking for the missing members of the family, another case is offered to him, with help he works both cases. As with most of his plots, information is gained through the story, until a really good ending. Book 7 read this year.

Another new author for me, this is a brilliant book on so many levels, it twist as more of the story is told, very clever, hard to put down, told in a simple but effective way. Book 8 read this year.

This is the last catch up book in the series, it fills in any gaps for me, it still was a great book to read, each book is a stand alone story, another twisting book, it is such a good plot, and I can forgive when he has 'lucky' finds which the police miss, another missing person who leads him to more crimes. Book 9 read this month.

We are warm and snug inside, ready to sit out whatever Óewyn dishes out, we are under a yellow wind warning, the eye of the storm is in the north, once again we should miss out on the worse of the weather. It's very windy here, our little space is OK, no damage, just hope everyone else is as lucky. We popped to our local Lidl yesterday and got what few things we needed to last until Monday, we have no plans for the weekend, I did get another amaryllis bulb, reduced, it's already potted up.

We are both enjoying Traitors, we don't normally watch reality TV, no details or spoilers, just in case anyone is behind, we are both looking forward to the final tonight. We missed series 1, so I think I will watch it on catch-up. 

When we last visited hubbies younger sister, she had fans on her radiators, which helped warm her cold house, we have had issues in our spare bedroom, black mould has started to form, it's a cold room on the corner of the house where the weather hits, we have been using a radiator fan and it's making the room much warmer and has kept the mould away. We got a second fan for the radiator in the dining end of our room, the room now is much warmer where we need the heat, we have high ceilings which has never helped, the fans do make a noise, but it not too loud, they run on electricity so there is a small cost. We won't get anymore, we both like a cold bedroom, our office is very warm, why are so many radiators under windows, where the heat rises and hits the cooler glass.