Easing into Autumn

Hi there everyone 😀

I have one more final post to come from our week in Bude but thought I’d get this post in first, whilst it still feels current. 

There has been a serious shift into Autumn over here … in more ways than one. There has still been plenty of sunshine but the temperatures have definitely taken a big dip …

The shorts and cut offs have been packed away and the cosy fleeces and long trousers have been brought back into play. So far we have managed to avoid putting the heating on but I don’t think it will be long … though I must confess we have had a bit of a test run … just to check it’s all working as it should 😜

We came back from Bude with a big bag of cooking apples from Mark and Sarah’s tree … and it’s safe to say there are plenty more where these came from …

So far we’ve had crumbles and apple cake and there is a strudel on the cards next …

In the garden things aren’t looking too bad and the ‘tree man’ is booked in for some serious tree and conifer pruning ready for Winter.

The quince is heavy with fruit … the most laden it’s been for years. We shall make some quince jelly but, as our friends that always used to have a huge bagful have moved away, I think a lot will go to waste. I will try a Facebook post for local friends to see if I can shift any … but they aren’t an easy fruit to deal with …

The rowan is laden with berries too, which look beautiful but are pretty annoying. The birds only eat them as a very last resort and generally not until January. By then the majority have dropped and been trodden into the grass …

Whilst there has been plenty of cutting back it is good to see there is still a fair bit of colour in the garden …

We are trying to get a few more garden jobs done before the weather gets more wintry and Martin is in the process of painting a new front gate. The old one is dropping to bits and now held together with tie wraps … and is looking very tatty.

We are trying to ensure we give the new one as long as possible life as we can and it’s had three coats of wood preserver and two coats of paint on both sides so far. Just one more top coat and then we can start on the posts and hopefully get it hung before too long.

We have managed to repaint the front canopy and brackets and that is looking very smart …

In much more relaxing news we managed a day out with Jackie and Phil, which involved a garden centre visit, a bit of a garden and an Autumn afternoon tea …

And, as you can see, the boots have come out of hibernation.

Autumn is always busy for us … this year especially … as mum is due to have a replacement hip operation very soon. Hopefully all will go well and she will be up and about and back to normal soon. 

We are then hoping for a sneaky week or two back at the lodge as it feels like ages since we last visited. 

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A Week of Sunshine ☀️

Hi there everyone 😀

We are still in our stretch of being at home … on new grass sitting duty … and whilst we’ve not really been anywhere or done anything exciting over the last week, we do seem to have been really busy. 

We have been blessed with good weather and lots of sunshine and we have tried to make the most of it while we can …

☀️ Saturday … there was sunshine, plenty of gardening and the repotting of an agapanthus …

☀️ Sunday … more sunshine, more gardening and the grass is starting to come on well …

☀️ Monday … supermarket shopping, batch cooking and just loving the new filing system …

☀️ Tuesday … more sunshine, more gardening and a half price Easter leg of lamb in the slow cooker …

☀️ Wednesday … a busy foodbank shift and these bringing a smile to welcome me home …

☀️ Thursday … yet even more sunshine, but a break from gardening, and chance to just sit outside and chill out, looking at what we’ve planted, messing with Chat GPT, replacing the workings in the solar lights and Easter fudge …

☀️ Friday … should be a housework day but making the most of the sunshine with a bit more gardening and giving the grass its first cut since seeding …

So although we would say we’ve not done much we have actually been pretty productive. We are now on countdown to our next trip over to North Wales. We just can’t wait, though I think we will have missed the best of the weather. 

Fingers crossed the lawn doesn’t miss being pampered too much and manages to keep living its best life whilst we are away 🤞🤞🤞

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Hitting 60 🥳

Well …I’m not quite sure how that happened 🤔

I’m not sure how I feel about being 60. In some respects I feel pretty much the same as I did when I was 30 … in my head anyway.

It’s my body that keeps on reminding me otherwise 😜

It really is a strange one. There is the definite thought in the back of my mind that I could only have another 20 years, if I’m lucky,  … but then that is still a fair old whack … though the older I get the quicker time definitely seems to pass.

I guess it’s a good time for some kind of reflection but this month has just been too busy to draw breath so far … I’ve definitely been drawing out the celebrations … and here’s a bit of a 60th birthday photo dump to prove it.

I started early with a very lovely surprise afternoon tea organised by my good friend Tina. I thought it was just going to be Tina and I enjoying one of our favourite activities of an afternoon of tea and cake, with plenty of chat thrown in. 

Tina did a brilliant job of keeping her plans secret and when I arrived to meet her I was overwhelmed to see a lovely group of old friends all gathered just waiting for me to arrive. We really did have a lovely afternoon of catching up over afternoon tea and it was all the more special for being such a surprise …

I came home loaded down with good wishes, cards and gifts. It was a lovely way to start off the birthday celebrations …

A week later and I met up with my old school friend Lesley for a lazy lunch and a bit of shopping …

For my birthday weekend we had a family night in with a takeaway from a local Italian restaurant, which I topped and tailed with anti pasti and a limencello kind of tiramisu. The food was great and we had a lovely evening just eating, chatting and being generally entertained by Bobby …

It was an early start on the Sunday for a birthday treat spa day with very good friends …

And then it was actually my birthday and Martin and I just had a ride out to Hanbury Hall … a National Trust property we’d not visited before, where we just had a bit of a wander and a very nice lunch …

There was a Christmas afternoon tea with mum and my sister, Sarah …

… and a lunchtime visit to The Creperie, which is always a real treat … especially with these guys …

And that is very nearly it. We are now looking forward to a weekend up in The Peak District with Jackie and Phil, where we will be taking in the Chatsworth Christmas Markets and lights … but I will save that for another time.

I think I can say that I’ve made the most of celebrating and … for the moment I am enjoying sitting in the comfy chair, heating on, Storm Bert doing its thing outside, surrounded by cards and flowers …

I guess I will have plenty of time to reflect on how being 60 actually feels and I am building up to a final review of the 60 Things I wanted to do before I hit 60. 

Of course … I do know that, as well as free prescriptions, I can now get free soup and a roll in Asda cafes up and down the country 😂😂😂. Hopefully they are not the only benefits of getting older 😜

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