Whatever next?

Whenever I struggle to find a title and decide to leave it until the end, I forget, hence the lengthy eulogy on the weather.
That seems long ago, my planned day in the garden, putting things right, is a washout - rain since first thing.
Bother.
If the warm and wet continues I shall be mowing the yard as well as the lawns - I have a bit of an obsession about weeds between the blue bricks - there's about 2000 bricks, so a bout a mile of gaps!
I did weed kill some weeks ago - Roundup, huh!

I'm watching  a recording of yesterdays "Antiques Road Trip" - I now watch more recordings than live TV - I love the power of fast forwarding /stopping whilst I fetch a G&T!
Driving open top in the rain - why?
Apparently, I can stop live programmes - can't remember how/ feel a bit like Peter Kay's Granny about it.

I have some sewing to do, some furniture removal upstairs or I could go out - Waitrose at Kenilworth (food , free paper and coffee) or The Good Food Show - I think that the latter isn't actually on until June.

I've had a busy week - can't recall what I was doing, but J and Th were on good form yesterday after school - a week off for good behaviour!
I do recall getting very cold and wet yesterday evening, collecting a few Christian Aid envelopes whilst giving folk the opportunity to decline to give/offer me the plastic clothes bag from some other charity/complain that aforementioned bags, now filled, had not been collected.
I suppose that I could have gone in the car and multitasked!
Still raining.
PtheP coming to finish off.
 

Another beautiful day - blue skies and warm sunshine.
Not one contract killer contacted me - that says something about the calibre of people who read my blog!
Aj came to the rescue - a good couple of hours raking yesterday before she left for home.
That was ten barrow loads of wet, compressed grass.
I raked a further couple of cubic metres of dry grass later in the day and brushed the grass of the conservatory windows and sills, so things are looking better.
Now needs the edges and missed patches to be mown, the two inches of grass on the borders to be removed and the yard sweeping.

That will have to wait - windows, sills and floors are cleaned and big furniture back in place, so full steam ahead to put the downstairs rooms back together after the decorating - far too much stuff!
Anybody want any glass dishes.........?
They are not all going back!

Why didn't he paint the radiators?

Contract needed.

Aj and I have just returned from holiday - 5 days in Combe Martin, a delightful little town in North Devon, staying at John Fowlers caravan site on the hill opposite Newberry Beach.
The climb up the hill to the caravan kept us fit, the view across the bay from the bar was wonderful (better than the entertainment , but there were only 11 of us there)
We went on to Richmond to babysit for P&N's baby Annie over the weekend.
The brilliant wather brought most of the inhabitants out to walk, sit or eat in the restaurants along the river - amazing!
We walked from Richmond to a friends in Chiswick on Sat - 5 miles along the river and through Chiswick, then another couple of miles to check out the shops and find a bus back.
Aj survived, just!
We had a great night with B, E, etc last night before coming home, having pottered around Bicester and Solihull en route.

The decorator has finished the back half of the house whilst we were away, which looks great - Wm Morris in the kitchen, green scullery and cream porch and laundry.
JA has mown the lawns - they are absolutely appalling - inches of grass lying everywhere -  on the lawns, borders and yard!!!!!!
I have the floors to steam clean, shelves to wash and furniture to polish before washing and putting things back.
I'll worry about the garden later - I do have an avid gardener coming on Thursday and friends for dinner - could be better timed.
Putting a contract out on JA wouldn't really help in the long run..

An early night would have been a good idea as I have a lot to get done and the Christian Aid envelopes to collect (ssshhhhh - late) 

Blog views.

I feel that it is no coincidence that recently Russia is at the top of the list of "Blog views" with Ukraine not far behind - I know that it's not individuals but something to do with scanning?
I hope that they find it inspiring - may lose something in the translation!

Sunday, so church, church and another - Evening Prayer to come at 6.oo or 6.30pm
As the magazine says 6.00pm and the service is always at 6.30pm, I shall have to arrive by 6.00pm and entertain myself - put out dead flowers.......... until folk arrive.

I was up early emptying the laundry and porch  - just the scullery to do now - before the decorator comes in the morning.
When I returned from church, JA and friend were her, having mown the lawns and field - grass not collected.
He did say that he'd made a mess of the lawns and had hoped to get away before I saw them!
It's a big improvement, but a lot of grass lying - JA reckons it will go when the sun shines.
Why/how?
A new battery and my mower is working again.
Hallelujah!

AJ has arrived for a few days of fun and frolics, we've drunk a lot of coffee and caught up on the gossip. I have some plants to put in whilst it's not raining, then back up the hill!

Norway, nil point!

I'm one of the 170 million watching the Eurovision Song Contest from Copenhagen - a Montenegrin man presently singing whilst a woman skates around the perimeter of the stage.
Why?
"Because it's Eurovision" as Graham Norton keeps saying, to explain the man in the hamster wheel, the round piano........
It really is bad.
Norway's entrant isn't even a singer but the brother of the composer - I suppose that the population is very small anyway and it was easy to get together to practise during the bad weather.

I've prepared tomorrow's services and delivered the Christian Aid envelopes - don't know when I'll have time to collect them!
I haven't mown the lawns as the mower hasn't been touched  - they are so long now that it will be a nightmare to cut them - a shame as they were looking really good.
I really don't know what to do as I've only used it once since it had an expensive service, apart from buy a new mower and start again.
I'm not sure that JA is an engine man.

The woman on the BBC Breakfast programme was wearing the same "Warehouse" dress - big rectangles of different colours - that I wore for the 1970's night on the P&O cruise in Feb.
Beat that!

 

What price care!

Home again after a sleepover in Bicester followed by a sleepover in Cambridgeshire - both excellent.
I collected T and PK from school on Wed, we went to Pret for tea, for a change, then did a little light shopping in Tesco with B, then back for a scrummy Chinese dinner and bed.
Yesterday I did the school run, then dried my hair and put on make-up (beat that for poor planning) and went to have coffee with a friend.
I had intended to buy geraniums at Bicester Garden Centre - the best garden centre in the world - but ran out of time so had to go straight to Cambridge.
The journey took longer than anticipated as the SATNAV couldn't find the road after Buckingham and just loitered in fields, then I hit the Cambridge rush.

I was visiting cousin JR, aged 90 and with dementia, to check up on the care he is receiving from his very expensive care providers.
This morning we had an Annual Review  meeting with the agency boss - she could score full marks for excuses, little for providing and being accountable for her staff.
The carer I found there a couple of weeks ago I would not have left in charge of my dog, the house filthy, food inadequate and little care being given - more later.
Things have been improved but still lacking on too many fronts.

The lawns have not been mown for nearly 3 weeks as the mower isn't working - a medium-sized member of the large cat family could well be stalking unnoticed on any of the lawns.
The next mow is going to be very hard work - if not tomorrow, I shall run out of time.

I shall eat a big salad for dinner to make up for the rubbish I have eaten yesterday and today.




 

One man went to mow....

the lucky one, whose mower was functioning.
Those with malfunctioning mowers found other harmless past-times - I did a little ironing then baked - chocolate cake and oat cookies, delicious sticky ones made with condensed milk, morello cherries, cranberries and raisins.
Then on to the agenda items - to Coleshill to tax the car then on to Solihull to collect J from school - Th at football practice.
As I was unable to get into the house, J and I went out to tea in Solihull - Pret, of course - some shopping then back to cook tea for Th.
A quick stop at JS and a car wash (how lazy is that?), then on to a friends - didn't make bell-ringing after a Tia Maria!

Water meter fitted a few weeks ago has put water costs down from £60 to £22 per month - don't want to blow it with car washing extravaganza!

I saw the first swallow in the garden today - stable door has been open to give access to their nest site - summer's come.