Thank You!

I had no pics, but was determined to post, so I went out and spent a few minutes in the garden. It started like this.

It ended like this.

And I got nettled as I went, but while you can barely see the difference, I did more than nothing. If all I manage is five minutes at a time, it's better than no time at all. I wouldn't even have done that if it wasn't for this blog.

Besides, the lilac is gorgeous

The yellow rose is flourishing.

And Gladys is doing better than ever. This time last year, she was mainly bare sticks. Now there's plenty of leaves and even the hint of a few flowers despite it being colder than average.

There is still this problem. 

The tyre is from when I had the honeysuckle planted against the fence, years ago, back in 2015. They looked lovely when they were first done.

But time took it's toll, and most were evicted. Here's a pic from a few years later which is too cute not to share.

The tyre is the last left. Bear evicted it when he cleared out the honeysuckle. It will find it's way to the tip, but it's the pot that's the problem. 

Many, many, many years ago, I planted a rosemary in there. I neglected it, and it became too entrenched in the pot, straggly and woody. I've been trying to dig the dratted thing out for ages, now I'm reduced to turning it upside down and hoping that gravity will kick in. I want to get the plant out, refill with decent growing medium and plant something new there. If I can't get the soil out, I can see me resorting to a hammer to crack open the pot and get rid of it that way!

Here's hoping for more pics tomorrow. Thank you.

A Normal Thursday

Well, it was a normal Wednesday followed by a normal Thursday.

Yesterday I started to pot up the two eau de cologne mint plants that I bought.

I want them outside the kitchen window to keep away the flies. I dug out two large planters, because they're mint and I know how it can get, and then dragged over a bag of compost that must have been sitting there for years. Or tried to. The dratted thing had already split and there were miscellaneous roots going through it. I still heaved it out, cut it open, flinched at the creepy crawlies, and split it between the two planters. They were maybe a third full, which is completely insufficient. Then it started to rain heavily so I gave in. 

Today I found a coir brick in the walk in cupboard. It's one of those where you add water and the brick magically becomes soil. 

That was this morning, it isn't soil but solidly brick like despite the water, and I nearly broke my neck slipping on the water I spilled trying to rehydrate the dratted thing - see, normal Thursday.

I'm full of the sniffles and fed up. I've got some other coir bricks, and if they fail, there's soil in the garden I can use. I'll have another go tomorrow.

I've done a little more on the emotional support shawl, and I'm feeling better for it. I've done about two inches, which is a lot for that many stitches, and hopefully I'll post a pic tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - the reason why I've been a little distracted is I've been planning out some writing, and you can see my provisional plans here - Provisional Plans or What Might be Going On. But I'm guaranteeing nothing. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Is It Tuesday

I've not done enough on the emotional support shawl (superb name, Kirsten) to make it worth taking a pic, but I'm keeping on. Instead I took this picture.

It's at least ten years since I bought the greetings card, but I was sorting through things and it turned up. I dug out a frame and DH kindly put the pic in the frame and hung it up. It is so like evil cat. She could have posed for it, except normally she looked either angelic or evil. But the colouring is hers, and I can imagine stroking that incredible, silky soft fur. 

Otherwise, it's been a quiet day with loads of writing stuff. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Nearly an Incident

My emotional support shawl (thank you, Kirsten, for that perfect description) has only grown a couple of inches over the weekend, but I've finished one ball and started the next. I plan for it to be extremely large!

It's gone from this:

To this:

I'll probably get another row or two knitted tonight as I'm hoping to catch up on some of last season's Welcome to Wrexham, as the new series is about to start and I can knit to the documentary. It increases one stitch every row, and there's around 200 stitches on the needles at the moment, so it's not likely to grow as quickly, though it's still relaxing. 

As I may have mentioned, it's the yearly 'make gluten-free food almost affordable' time, and both Tesco and Morrisons have deals going. Today I booked Tesco, because I wanted to get an early order in and I booked it for between 9am-10am. Then Morrisons were supposed to come between 11.30am-12.30pm. Both were laden with stuff to stash away and I'm not sure that I can find room for all of it. It's piled all over in cupboards, and I don't want to miss anything.

Regardless, Tesco were late. They were significantly late. The driver said that there was a mix up in the depot and sounded incredibly fed up. I commiserated as these things happen. I managed to get the chilled and frozen stuff away, frantically aware that Morrisons were notoriously early on Mondays. And I was just in time because, yes, they were. The vans of the two supermarkets missed each other by fifteen minutes. I had a vision of a comic duel between the vans, though they would probably have just laughed and grumbled about their jobs. 

Normally Morrisons come on Mondays, because DH likes their salad, and Tesco come on Fridays, because he likes their cooked ham. I should have just booked Tesco in for Wednesday or something for the extra gluten free stuff. Mind you, I've got a Tesco delivery booked for Friday, with the ham and bargain gluten free stuff, and I'm not sure where I'm going to put it all. It's pennies on each item, but I'll be saving at least enough to cover the water bill for the month, and I'm happy with that. 

Speaking of supermarkets, I saw that Lidl had revamped their reward scheme, and I really need to call in to have a look. They seem to have some great deals. Besides, I love their latest advert. Does anyone remember Liberty X?

For once, it's an advert that genuinely made me chuckle. If you watch, put on subtitles. The original, back in the day, is here if you're interested. 

Supermarkets seem to branch out into all sorts of social media. Tesco have recipes on YouTube here, non of which I've tried. I considered the dal that they posted, but it called for a lot of ingredients that I don't normally use, so I wasn't sure if it was worth it. I don't want to have a load of stuff left over. 

Writing stuff - I've missed out this week's chapter of The Guest and I've apologised here. It should be back to normal service next week, but I swear that sorting out the White Hart stuff is driving me nuts!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Oil's Well that Ends Well

The lovely man at the garage explained things to me. Despite what various garages said, we have a wet belt, which apparently doesn't need changing, and instead I needed oil. Lots and lots of oil as there was practically none in the car. I suspect that Red has an unfortunate oil drinking habit, which set me back £85, which was a lot better than the £1,000 that I would have to pay for a new wet belt. 

I think that we're going to have to look for a new car. I don't want to, as Red has been a wonderful car, and she's very economical when it comes to petrol. But the wet belt on our car usually only lasts for 90k miles, and we're on 95k, and £1,000 is a decent percentage of a cost of a new-to-us car. She also needs to get out more, so I'll have to bite the bullet of expensive petrol and go on some runs. It won't kill me to go into shops. Having said that, I had a delivery today. It had the first chunk of the stock up. The promotion runs to 19 May, so I'll space out the purchases. 

I didn't do much to get pics, so here is the progress on the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And today it looks like this.

I've added another six inches in length, and there's around 150 stitches on the needles. I've almost finished that skein of yarn but I want to add at least another one. I would guess that the shawl is currently around 20 inches long, and I want it much longer than that. I suppose it depends on how many stitches I can fit on the needle. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Hanging on to Knitting

Knitting keeps me calm. Well, unless I drop stitches or something, and even then I can usually find some peace as I sort things out. Today, it's been useful. It's the only pic I took today, showing the progress of the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And right now it looks like this.

DH managed to get off work a little early so I spent a little longer than normal, hanging out with him and knitting. I was glad of the calm.

There was a little external excitement today. The police were banging on the door of next door but one. I stuck my head out of the door to see what was going on, as they officers were being emphatic, but apparently they didn't catch anyone home. The officers knocked on my door later, and I had to tell them that I hadn't seen anyone living there since the woman with the untrained dogs moved out. When I told DH about the minor excitement, he said that he had seen some signs of life, but it hadn't affected us, so we couldn't help the police much at all. I'm absolutely agog to know what's going on, but I doubt that I'll ever find out. I shall have to do better as a nosy neighbour.

Writing stuff - I've had to unpublish Further Tales from the White Hart as issues with the cover, Amazon's rules, the previous edition, and the amount of content have caused problems. I may need to write another 30,000 words for it. This is why I need knitting. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

The Triangular Shawl Strikes Again

Sometimes, the need to knit a triangular shawl calls to me like a siren. Who am I to resist? I dug out some yarn that I was supposed to be saving for scarves, but I was rethinking my choice, grabbed some needles with a long cable and started off.

It's been wonderfully soothing to knit, and I needed it. 

The first bit of excitement was the discovery that it's the time of year when gluten free groceries get discounted. Anyone who has to follow a gluten free diet knows that you practically never get a sale on gluten free stuff, especially not the supermarket own brand version. I keep an eye out for it every year, and when it comes round, I commit. I go in hard. For example, at Tesco, 500g of gluten free pasta is currently 60p instead of 75p, which is only a 15p saving. However, we can go through five or six bags per month when bear is home, and at least four bags, or 2kg per month when he isn't, and I have no shame in buying a year's supply when the sale is on. If I allow for four bags per month, which is around the minimum, that's £7.20 saved, and with today's food inflation, that's not to be sniffed at. 

I need to be picky. There's the jars of pesto that DH likes, that have around a two year shelf life, and he gets through maybe three per month. They're currently 25p cheaper, so that's around £9 saved for a year's supply. I'll probably get four or five tubs of the gluten free gravy granules as well. They have over a year shelf life, and we get through at least one tub per month, more if bear is home and they're 30p cheaper. 

Food isn't likely to get less expensive for the next year, so I'm happy to stock up, but only things that we absolutely will use and that have long shelf lives. Besides, it gives me an interest. Both Tesco and Morrisons are running deals, and at first glance, some regular items are a penny or two cheaper at Tesco and some are pennies cheaper at Morrisons. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty unimportant. But in terms of a challenge, well, challenge accepted! I'll probably save less than £30, but it will be better off in my pocket than that of the supermarket.

The other issue today has been the car. 

That's a pic from 2022 when Gladys was considerably larger and Red, the car, was a great deal newer. 

We're getting 'oil check' notifications, but only for a few moments. Then it goes back to normal. I thought that I'd check with our favourite garage, and when I spoke to them on the phone, they said that it sounded like a 'wet belt' problem and that it would likely be around £1,000 to fix it, and that they couldn't do the work as it was an engine strip down and they didn't have the gear. 

I've spent most of today ringing around trying to find someone local who would be able to deal with it and who was unlikely to overcharge. DH was also on the mission and he got told that our model of car doesn't actually have a 'wet belt'. I got back to our favourite mechanics, and they said, "Oh yes! I didn't realise it was that model. Come in on Friday. But don't drive before then because you may irreparably break the engine. No stress."

This is why I needed to knit the triangular shawl. And why saving £30 on groceries over a year has its attraction, because every penny really does count!

Writing stuff - Further Tales from the White Hart is now live here.

It's currently just the ebook, but the paperback should be available soon. 

If all goes well, and we all know that I'm risking things by stating what I'm planning, Back at the White Hart, which is the recent arc of stories from my blog, and Stories from the White Hart which is a collection of short stories that have cropped up from time to time, and which are separate from the ongoing stories, should, theoretically, probably, hopefully, be available by the end of the month, fingers crossed. 

Hugs and good health to all