A Big Finish

For anyone interested in jigsaw puzzles, here is the one son and daughter in law gifted me at Christmas…it took a while!

Been a bit of an unsettling day, Mother in law was ambulanced to hospital this morning, but after checks has returned home. It has brought it home to me the age of my in-laws, and I lost both parents many years ago. Time marches on and waits for no one as they say. Anyway, home she is for now.

Decided (wisely) not to attempt any paperwork of a financial nature whilst waiting for news. Instead we have a fresh loaf of bread and some brownies for packed lunches. Pork chops, proper butchers ones are sizzling away in the Aga at present and I think I’ll just do some more of my current jigsaw (of our very own tractor) this evening.

Blessings, J. x.

I Guss It’s Been Awhile!

Well there really are no excuses you haven’t heard before. One little thing called LIFE has been rather getting in the way. Another excuse is post viral fatigue, you know the thing, just about manage the working day then flop. So what have I been up to so much…and well might you ask…so the list…

Octavia arrived…meet Octavia everyone!

Yes I’ve upgraded from keyboard to piano…and grandson No.2 is super happy because Mummy and Daddy gave him my keyboard for his birthday, though he hasn’t twigged that it was my keyboard as I told him I had swapped my keyboard for the piano!

Also our furniture arrived, the same week as the piano actually…

We have settled to it nicely, and as ours has migrated to next door if we get a little forlorn missing the old set we just need to pop round!

Anyway, Octavia’s ivories have been well and truly tinkled. And she is being re-tuned in a couple of weeks, apparently she has had to settle into our atmospheric environment. 

I’ve been continuing my baking of all things sourdough, and I have given one of Little Dorrit’s daughters to a colleague of mine…she has called it Baby Dorrit.

The sap is rising and I have the first stirrings of not wanting to be indoors if the weather is fine, though the evenings are still chilly, and it seems we will return to frosty mornings in a day or two after having had a few milder ones. Such is a fools Spring.

After a day with lively winds yesterday, today has been calmer, the result being the wood burner has been a real pain to light. 

We were intending to be out for our Sunday tea, at youngest daughters however hubby  finished the job that was needed early and we have returned home as she forgot to buy the chicken to roast…don’t ask, anyway, having gone  to a charity big breakfast this morning we won’t need too much to eat anyway…theoretically!

So a little live Crufts before deciding what we do fancy.

Blessings, J. x.

Another Week

Hello Everyone…is it still February…I do hope so. As I begin to rise from my germ infested pit I can definitely see the stirrings of Spring, however I believe this to be a fools Spring. Winter hasn’t finished with us quite yet I fear.

Finally this morning, after various symptoms over the last three weeks I managed to speak to a Dr. Well as my Dr. who was too busy to see me yesterday kindly signed me a sick note but thought I needed to speak to the urgent care Dr. just in case. Apparently there is a nasty ‘thing’ going around which encompasses all the symptoms I’ve had, however some concern as I may have succumbed to Costchondritis like I did a couple of years ago. I have two different inhalers but only use them if I really need to. Turns out right now I do need to, so puff puff puff!

Such fun…then it got a whole lot better…last evening hubby was sick, and again during the night. I elected to sleep on the sofa…less coughing as well as hopefully avoiding the dreaded up chuck lurgy. He has risen this morning and so far has kept down four dry cream crackers and some water. I’ve been wiping over everything he could possibly have touched last evening. 

Must keep reminding myself  of the ‘in sickness and in health’ vow as he’s now snuggled on the sofa I’d already decided to sleep on again tonight, and is resting his head on the cushions. Nuff said!  

Little Dorrit has managed to grow a few more loaves of bread, in fact I’ve just knocked back the latest which will bake this evening. I’ve also started some tea-cakes, rather hoping these will be ready to toast on the fire later on.

So the day is grey, very grey, and very cold with one of those winds that cuts right through you, earlier I spotted a wren in the flower bed outside the kitchen window. I do hope she has somewhere warm to rest at night.

The tea cake recipe said to soak the fruit in boiled water for half an hour.

Made for a very sticky dough

Far too much fruit…there are clumps of it..

It was so messy I decided to only make 8 instead of 12 tea cakes.

 They are now having their second proving.

Life is only so exciting when you’ve been shut in for whatever seems like an eternity. Thinking hubby has now dozed off. 

Anyway, stay warm and well everyone.

Blessings J. x

A New Someone In Our Cottage

 No we haven’t acquired a new pet, or adopted a child…Meet Little Dorrit…my sourdough starter.

Here she was a mere infant…since then she has grown many loaves of delicious bread, some Chelsea buns, chocolate brownies, pizza bases and today I’m trying some dumplings from her excess.

The first offspring from Little Dorrit

Went something like this…

Nearly gone then the next thing we knew…

Nothing but crumbs left…we did have the family from next door in I hasten to add!!

Very chocolatey, very squidgy brownies…delicious.

And finally the pizza we ate last evening.

In other news, and apart from being three sizes bigger than I was we have succumbed to the nasty lurgy here. It started last week with a real whopper of a headache, then progressed to a sore throat which felt like I’d swallowed a pinch of tin-tacks, next to arrive were the aches and shivers, along with the old faithful fatigue…but oh the best was yet to come. Let’s just say I was up and down the stairs A LOT for three days. Finally what seems much like a head cold has emerged. Blooming knackered just looking at the housework that needs doing. Thankfully work have been very understanding and pretty quickly suggested I didn’t attempt to get back this week. It was the right call. I’m off on annual leave next week so hopefully will have a good amount of time to recover. Even better hubby started with a headache the night before last…oh so the joy continues!

Put it this way I took out some beef skirt earlier intending to make stew..I didn’t have the strength to cut it up like normal, so in it went…two great lumps…beef casserole anyone?!

Eldest popped in a short while ago and commented on the lovely smell so maybe things will turn out alright in the end.

Hoping to stay awake long enough this afternoon to do some blog catch up reading.

Until next time, blessings, J. x

A Bit of a Week

Well we’ll just have to roll with things…

The good the bad and the ugly…

The news I was previously teasing you with was partly the imminent arrival of a new to hubby van…

I know, not overly exciting…however with the same trip we called in at Thomas Lloyd’s showroom. 15 years ago we purchased a suite of leather furniture from them unseen online and have been very pleased with it. Of course it is now showing its age, and with our ageing backs we decided to try out some replacements. 

We have duly chosen..this time Rosewood in colour…a two seater Lincoln sofa, two grand chesterfield high backed chairs, and a couple of other pieces…quite the haul!

Pictures to follow because right now my brain won’t work quite as it should due to what else has happened this past week.

On Boxing Day hubby must have inadvertently clicked on a cloned version of Tool Station and proceeded to make an order, entering his business card details, which were declined at checkout. This is not unusual, my card from the same account will work fine but online his doesn’t always, anyway I ended up paying with my credit card. As soon as a confirmation email came through something looked a little dubious. I phoned my bank but they needed to wait and see if any goods arrive, however within 48 hours fraudulent transactions were being taken from the account. So that card stopped.

A week or so later an odd text about hubby’s bank card. A scam, not acted upon apart from referring to the number you can forward such attempts to.

Then last Thursday whilst I was in clinic, and unusually my phone not on silent as I was expecting a call from the van man my phone rang…no caller ID so I refused the call, however they immediately rang again so my colleague said must be important and to take the call outside the room. Apparently they were our bank. They knew something about hubby’s card and very insistently wouldn’t let me go even when I kept saying I had a patient to attend to. They said my husband’s details had been wiped off the system. They had allowed a transaction for several thousand pounds go through half an hour before and had just realised this was fraudulent, they then sent me through a one time passcode which they wanted me to read out in order for them to be able to credit the transaction back into the account. I wouldn’t so they sent another and another. I said they were not from half an hour ago and I shouldn’t tell anyone even from the bank the OTP. She kept saying that as she had generated the code I could tell her. Obviously they only had a few seconds to complete the scam on each attempt. For some stupid reason… actually just making it all want to stop I stupidly did tell her the final code, however did not complete the final request which thankfully they also needed. Many anxious moments passed back in clinic helping finish up with the patient before I was free to call the banks fraud line. Thankfully no transactions were cleared and the card was stopped.

I want to kick scream and cry.    

Fast forward a couple of days and eldest daughter thought she had passed some spinal fluid through her nose. Only she didn’t tell me until Sunday. This morning she called the Dr. and eventually spoke to someone in the hopefully know. On Thursday she had spilt some super glue and this may have caused the fluid that escaped to do so.

Silly thing is I see her almost every day, she is after all only next door, but what with one thing and another I didn’t see her Friday or Saturday, and her husband was away all Saturday taking children out on a Ten Tors practice. We happened to go away for the day and that was that. It was quite the shock when I saw her yesterday, white as a sheet, dizzy, and with chronic fatigue.

She’s spent this morning with me and seems to be on the mend.

Boy is life a bit stressful at times.

I need to do a few chores before sunset, not that we’ve had much in the way of sun today.

Hoping for a calmer week ahead.

Blessings, J. x

An Early Rise

My toes are cold.

I have been up since shortly after 5 o’clock.

Yesterday was an exciting day…more to follow.

Coffee has been drunk, now planning on a cup of tea.

I have a training day today…do I wear my uniform or not bother…hum decisions decisions!

Wilbur is outside in the freezing cold…the reason I was up so early.

Kitty wished to spend the night draped across my neck.

Through the night we have had ferocious hailstorms, thunder and wind.

Hoping leftover stew made on Sunday will be alright to eat for our evening meal later.

Wishing we’d kept the fire in last evening.

Planning the future aesthetic of our living room in my head, and with a tape measure.

Yesterday we travelled to Wales for two reasons…both rather exciting!

This was taken on our way to our second destination.

Anyway, off to put the kettle on again. More details to follow!

Blessings. J. x

A Saturday Tea

Happy New Year to one and all…

We enjoyed this for our tea yesterday…it was just right for a cold Wintery Saturday.

I had thought we’d eat half for tea and have the rest today for lunch…our appetites however thought otherwise!

Made with a packet of puff pastry and some fridge lurkers, with dried herbs atop, eaten in front of the blazing fire it was just what we needed.

I’m aware I haven’t been around these blogger pages much of late. Even now as I try to cobble together a post there are frustrations mounting in my addled brain. My means of computing is seemingly falling out of love with the Blogger platform and makes everything harder than it should be.

Heaven forbid my mind is toying with the idea of Instagram.

I am as yet undecided.

Anyway, stay safe out there.

Blessings, J. x