Chillies Still Not Planted

I swear that I'll get to them soon. 

It's been a nothing sort of day, with mainly writing stuff, then I took bear to his quiz night before sitting down to some knitting in a car park. I couldn't settle to knitting though, and the most memorable part of the evening was when a small black cat trotted across the car park in front of me.

I shot a quick pic through the slightly steamed up window and got a picture so blurry that it could be Bigfoot.

The story that I submitted at the start of last month was rejected with a lovely email. I'm not really surprised as they wanted mouth watering and I'm not sure that I knew where to start with that. The trouble was, I'd seen a call for submissions in another magazine, but it was strongly vegan and pagan, and I'm Christian and I eat meat. The story was niggling at me like crazy, even though I didn't feel I could contribute to that particular magazine. So when I saw the prompt for mouthwatering, I couldn't help but write it. I felt it was okay for the prompt, but I wasn't shocked when it came back, if you see what I mean. The worst thing about it was the battle to get the thing formatted. 

I kind of like the story and I kind of think that it's done. I want it out of my head in order to think of other things, so I've posted it on my blog here. And as the above picture is so poor, here's the pic that goes with the story on my blog.

Tomorrow has to include chillies.

Hugs and good health to all. 

I May Need More Vitamins

I didn't post anything yesterday as I was roughly at the stage of 'toddler-about-to-throw-epic-trantrum' tired. 

I'd been knitting that scarf/wrap out of the book my wonderful DH bought me and I'd gone wrong.

I couldn't work out where I'd made the mistake. It was just one stitch, but it was fiddly to see and it's hard to tell from the knitting. I was ready to cry. 

To be honest, I'm reconsidering it a little as the pattern is nice, but it's a little wide for me for a scarf. I have 700g of yarn from the same pack and I can feel a basic blanket calling me. Last night, I decided that I wasn't in a fit state to make a decision and I was looking for the hat I'd started for the Mission to Seafarers when I found the fanciest yarn I own.

It's 70% Falklands Wool and 30% British Alpaca. A scarf that is definitely for me has been started, just a 3x3 broken rib, and to my surprise, the yarn feels stiffer than the acrylic of the colourful blanket. I suspect it will be better for a wash, but I'm not blocking it. The scarf is likely to be over five feet long and I don't have anywhere that I could pin it. 

We went to feed the crows this morning. There were plenty of crows and magpies but no jackdaws today. It surprised me how busy it was in the car park, but I saw at least three dog walkers with a crowd of dogs and plenty of parents with small kids. I should really take pics of the birds. They are fascinating to watch, with such a presence.

I still feel utterly drained, and I still haven't planted those dratted chillies. I think once they're done, I'll stagger a lap of honour around the living room. 

Writing stuff - I published the next chapter from the White Hart yesterday and you can find it here.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Could be Better

I bought a box of 'grow your own chillis'.

There were two pots inside - one to put the soil in and one to put over the top as a propagator. 

But they were stuck inside each other for ages and I couldn't pry them apart. 

In the end it was DH who managed to work the rim of the bigger pot back. Though only after I'd contacted them on Facebook. They were so patient with me, and on a Sunday as well! I would have waited until Monday if I'd realised they would be monitoring today. I'll have to get them planted tomorrow.

And I finished that blanket. The proportions are all wrong.

I will probably donate, after logging the info in the Knitting Journal that DH got me. Hopefully I'll get better next time. 

Otherwise it's been a quiet day. I hope that I'll have something more exciting tomorrow. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

That was January

I did a thing on Canva because I couldn't think of a picture to take and I need the practice. I'm useless when it comes to anything pictures.

For the first time, I'm looking back on a month with a somewhat critical eye. I've missed writing down a few spends, and I've let the lists slip a little. However I'm going to keep going with both. I'm not going to let a stumble stop me. 

I've submitted a couple of things to anthologies and I'm happy that I've done that. I'm starting to look at my writing in a more critical way. I've listed blankets on eBay which I've been putting off for months, and I've been just a little more proactive. I still haven't planted the chilli seeds, but I'm confident that will happen in the next day or two. 

My mental health has improved and I don't know why. I don't like putting too much doom and gloom on here, but I'm usually pretty close to needing professional intervention and I have been all my adult life. Suddenly things are just a little better and I'm hopeful that I can start slowly improving physical and mental health. It all feels very odd. It's nice, but it's still odd and unfamiliar, though long may it continue!

All in all, there have been lots of very tiny steps in the right direction. It's not been a miracle, but it's like the first shoots of the bulbs and the first buds on the trees. I just need to keep going. I'll be honest, February is usually the lowest time of year for me, so if I can manage the smallest efforts, I'll be thrilled. 

So I would take January as a win. I think I'll try and set some more goals for February and see how I go. 

And as I hadn't taken a pic of anything useful today, here's the blanket I've continued to work on until I decide what to do about the scarf with the new yarn. It's very nearly finished so perhaps I can list it this week as well.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Willpower Continues Not Found

It's been a funny sort of day. DH has been poorly. It's a sore throat at the moment, but I'm keeping an eye on him. Time to keep him warm and fussed. He works from home, so at least he didn't have to do a journey, but I'm a little worried about him. I may nip out and pick up some fresh ginger for him to have with lemon and honey. 

One of my favourite romance authors released a book today - Alina Jacobs The Art of Marrying Your Enemy. It was a lot spicier than I expected, and even though I'm heading rapidly towards sixty, I'm not sure I'm old enough to read books like that, but it was pleasantly bonkers with a self indulgently hysterical heroine and a self destructive dark hero. It's on Kindle Unlimited, which I'm sure that I'm abusing with the amount I read, so dove straight in. 

I also listed four hand knitted blankets on eBay. I don't know if they'll sell, but I thought that I'd try it. I'd been putting it off for a bit, so I was pleased to have done it as I found taking the pics tricky. That's when my willpower broke and I decided to give in to the yarn.

I was good last night. I diligently worked on the blanket and it's making good progress, but I couldn't resist the call of new yarn anymore so I started knitting.

It's a 'cast on 100 stitches, increase into every stitch, repeat' scarf with inserted rows of twisted drop stitch. I could have perhaps finished it tonight, but my eyes are tired. Besides, I've found a pattern for a similar effect that doesn't end up with 800 stitches on the needle so I may rip this out and try again. 

I still haven't planted the chilli seeds. I'll have to get to that tomorrow. 

Dinner worked really well tonight. It was just a jar of curry sauce, with chicken and a load of frozen veggies added and served with rice, but the men really enjoyed it and that's a win for me. I'm not keen on the jar sauces, but it helps and I comfort myself that I always make sure that there's plenty more than just the jar sauce in the casserole. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Has Anyone Seen my Willpower?

I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was meaning to post, and I had stuff planned for the day that I could post about and take pictures of, but then... Further details in writing stuff.

The Temu order with the extra plant pots arrived and with it came some yarn that I failed to resist.

It just called to me. I'm now looking at the blanket that I am so near to finishing, and the fancy stitch scarf that I've started and is so calming, and I must not start something new with this yarn. I am also considering taking bets on how long I can hold out.

With all the writing stuff, plus meeting a friend for conversation when I'm not used to talking, I feel like I've been thrown into a cement mixer and it doesn't help me keep my resolve. 

I now plan to sit down and watch High Potential on Disney Channel because I've been looking forward to it all day and while I'm watching I'm going to knit the damned blanket!

Writing stuff - I subscribe to Duotrope which is a site that has listings of publishers, agents and calls for submissions from places like magazines and anthologies. I'm trying to get more purposeful with writing, so I'm hoping to manage something small as a submission once every couple of weeks. Normally I ignore any listings that are near closing date, and I'm usually looking for clear guidelines or themes so I can write a small piece to order. I sort of ambushed myself Tuesday night and I found myself reading the submissions guide and something called to me. It wasn't for anything particularly defined, but the description of preferences was just so much fun. The closing deadline was today. Earlier this evening, I emailed in 3900 words of fantasy writing which I am hoping will be acceptable. Between spotting the listing and emailing it in, there was a lot of writing, thinking, rewriting, research (can't help it), more writing, not much sleep, and the dreaded formatting. 

A lot of places like Shunn Formatting, which is considered the industry standard. I fail at it. There are templates, but I can never get the first paragraph indent to behave. And if I can get paragraph indent to behave then I inevitably lose a slash somewhere on the header. I hope my effort will be acceptable.

If it doesn't get it, I'm confident that I'll be able to use it elsewhere, so I'm not going to stress about it too much. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

The Last of the Goodies

Every year I buy too much for Christmas. Every year I buy less but it's still too much. This year it looks like the goodies will be used up by the end of January. This is all that's left - some Turkish Delight, some chocolate buttons and a couple of boxes of Matchmakes. 

There are also some satsumas in the picture, but they were delivered yesterday and don't count.

We threw away some cheese because it had gone way past its best - it was the stuff that DH and bear had requested but hadn't really bothered with and it was that 'cheese with cranberries' stuff that would never keep. I think that there are a few sprouts in the freezer and that's about it. I'm feeling quite good about that. 

I'm trying to run down my stores at the moment and being quite particular about what I'm keeping in. We're low on baked beans, but we don't eat so many anyway these days, and I could probably add a tin of sweetcorn to the next order, but I am still concerned about using up what's in. 

Talking about using stuff up, remember the potato soup that I made that I said was awful? Well I cooked up the rest of the bacon for a sandwich and it was absolutely foul! So I think I may try something similar again, but with better bacon! 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Cold

I'm really feeling the cold today for some reason. I don't think that it's necessarily colder, just that I'm feeling it.

It's been a funny sort of bitty day. We had a delivery this morning. Morrisons were running a '8 for £10' deal that finished today and I took advantage as much as I could. There weren't many things on it that I fancied, but there were some good savings and there was a particular brand of frozen chips/fries/potato thingies that DH and bear love, so I got a few bits in. I took the opportunity to dump some stuff that had been lurking for a while. There were some flavoured bits of chicken that had been two for the price of one. We'd had the first and it had been vile and I had been putting off the second for easily over a year. I decided that it may as well go, along with some 'veg and grain' mixes that nobody liked and I couldn't eat because they had gluten in them. 

DH removed the 'n' key and dug out a handful of fluff. Things have settled down now, though I'll keep an eye out and I may need to attack other keys. He threw the fluff out before I could take a picture, but it was a substantial amount. 

He also kindly brought down a huge bag of blankets.

Some are just elderly but some are ones that I've knitted. I've been thinking of putting them on Etsy but I may stick to eBay. Etsy seems quite complicated to set up and I would rather spend my time on other things at the moment. 

Writing stuff - one of the other things I want to spend time on is writing. I'd be grateful for any opinions on this. I'm finding myself thinking how to plot out Lady Freydis' Book of Coffee and the fun that I could have with it. If I did actually manage to pull something like that together, should I republish Tales of the White Hart. It's been blogged, unblogged, published, unpublished and is currently live on Royal Road. I'm of a mind to leave it where it is, but I'd welcome opinions as Lady Freyd's Book of Coffee might look a little strange on it's own. Though I could add Mrs Tuesday's Book of Housekeeping, and I daresay I could think of a few other things.

And speaking of the White Hart - today's episode is here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Quiet

It's been a quiet day, with a certain quantity of knitting going on. I remembered to take pics. The fence is as good as new and I am very impressed with DH and bear's skills.

Gladys is still looking threadbare, but that's normal at this time of year.

The weather has been damp and cold. I'm bracing for next week.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Failed to Resist.

DH treated me to a knitting book. 

I cannot stress enough that I shouldn't start another project. I already have a gazillion in heaps. I resisted and resisted and resisted - then gave in. I proved that I can't be trusted with lace, even an easy one row lace pattern as my train of thought often leaves the station without me and I kept losing track. There was a nice scarf with a slip stitch pattern which I adapted to the yarn at hand and a slightly bigger needle than the band said as I think it gives a better drape. 

Appropriately, the yarn is something that I should have also resisted but it was a basic dk acrylic that's good to practice with and it was on eBay at around a penny per gram including postage, and it's hard to find that these days. 

I'll have to take more pictures tomorrow as DH and bear put the fence back up. The fence was originally put up in March 2022, as far as I can tell from looking at my blog. 

This morning we went to feed the corvids. The crows were waiting for us and the magpies gathered pretty quickly but today we were also blessed by a pair of jackdaws. Their approach to the food was so different from the crows and magpies - very hit and run. Unfortunately I forgot to get a pic of This Year's Tree. I'll try again in the week. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Bit Draughty

I'm sorry I didn't get anything posted yesterday. My new phone and its case arrived and I've been armpit deep setting it up. I still can't seem to log in to all my emails, but it's not a big deal at the moment. 

I kind of like the new case. The old one had definitely had some wear.

We've had some weather. We're just outside the amber warning zone, and our fence has blown down.

DH and bear have inspected the damage and say that it looks like the wood split, leaving the bolts still embedded in the concrete. I'm confident that they'll find a way to fix it. By the way, please ignore the yellow bin. It was sort of abandoned on us and I'm not sure what to do with the dratted thing, apart from encouraging our neighbours to make use of the salt and grit in there.

I had to go out today as I had an appointment with a physio to try and do something about my hip and back, and while it was only a ten minute drive, I was quite unnerved as I saw pieces of paper being blown over the top of a double decker bus. 

My keyboard is slightly better after the sticky stuff and the air cannister thingy, but while the 'n' key is slightly better behaved, the rest of the keys are now a little clunky. I'm unimpressed. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Potato Soup

I chopped and fried some bacon, added some chopped onion, celery and carrot from the freezer,

Then I added a load of potatoes and water with a couple of stock cubes. I seasoned with garlic powder and a bouquet garni teabag. 

It tasted bloody awful. It tasted fatty, even though I'd trimmed the bacon ruthlessly and it was back bacon that was supposed to be lean to start with. It was also desperately underseasoned. I threw out the rest. I used four rashers from a ten rasher pack that had cost £2.29 for ten rashers, a stick of celery, a carrot, two onions and plenty of potato. I should have added more veg or less water/stock. I'd made enough for tomorrow, but I couldn't face it again. I'll have another go tomorrow. 

I ended up dashing out in the middle of the afternoon as my check tyre light had come on again. The garage were lovely to me as usual and just topped up the pressure. It's more likely to be the recent changes in temperature than a slow leak, but I'll keep an eye out. They are lovely to me, very tolerant and I got some knitting done while I waited.

I also got one of those gel cleaners that are supposed to be great for laptop keyboards. The 'n' is slightly better but I still find myself hammering the 'n' key dozens of times and then in the next sentence getting 'nnnnnnnnnnn'. I've ordered the can of air that was recommended here, so wish me luck!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Good and Bad

I've been writing down what I spend. I'm not trying to stick to the budget at the moment, just track where I'm frittering the money. Today I spent £3.60 on a hot chocolate in the new cafe in Tesco and took a picture like a blogger.

I've been continuing with that for three weeks now and I'm happy that I'm doing that. After a few months, I'll look over the records and see if there is a pattern and whether I can change some of my spending habits. And sometimes I don't buy things because I'd have to write them down - and that has to be a win. There are still stupid impulse purchases, which I'm not currently admitting to outside my journal, but they're fewer and I'm hoping that it will make me think about things in a different way. 

On the other hand, I've got over twenty pound of potatoes that need using up, and they aren't part of Sunday's meal (cleared with DH) and bear and DH will be eating non-potato things all this week at least. I'm going to eat a lot of mash, I can tell. I'll share any inspired meals. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Facebook

Another impulse buy arrived today

It's one of those pots that you fill a resevoir with water and leave it alone. It's narrow enough to fit on my skinny windowsill and should be able to take a chilli plant. I hope to be planting by the end of the week. 

My Facebook (here, if you're interested) is the one for my author persona and as such I have accepted a lot of friend requests from some very strange people. Many of them are trying to sell me stuff, some are fellow authors and there are the usual selection of weirdos who target anyone with a female name. Last time I found a number for my friend list, the amount allowed was 5k and I had about 4.5k. I thought that I had better cut it down so every day I got to the 'it's their birthday' list and really look at the people there. 

There's a risk that I'm losing people that I like, and if you find me disappearing, please tell me off and put in a friend request. I don't want to lose real friends. But I've already pruned dozens from the list since the 1st of January. Some of them are inactive. One had a birthday greeting from me as their most recent entry - from 2019! Other accounts have been taken over by spam and I've cut those as well. I've come across two people who have died. I didn't know them, not as people I had a lot of contact with, so I thought it was respectful to leave their account. It's been interesting. I wonder how many are leaving Facebook now because of the algorithms. I'll be honest, I'm wondering where else I can go that allows me to chat to other authors and friends from other countries in the same way. Something else that this process has allowed - I've been reminded of amazing people and found some wonderful posts along the way. 

Writing stuff - the latest instalment from the White Hart is here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Knitting Day

I took my knitting when we went to feed the crows and magpies. It's wonderfully peaceful to sit there and knit with DH as excellent company.

I've seen a few blogs mentioning taking a picture of a tree from the same spot in every month of the year. As I don't really go anywhere, I was stumped, but then I thought of the tree where we feed the crows. 

It's not a very good pic, though, so I'll perhaps go back in the week. I'll be taking a pic probably most weeks as there is a wild rose that climbs up it which is gorgeous but has a short season, and, as it's a hawthorn, there's plenty of blossoms and berries over the year. 

In fact, today has been mostly knitting. 

I did all of the blue stripe today as well as a chunk of the orange. It's been incredibly relaxing. 

Reading Hard Up Hester's mention that her husband wouldn't eat onions reminded me that my late grandmother had to put up with a lot. My grandfather insisted that he liked the flavour of onions but he wouldn't actually eat any. Any time that there was a stew or casserole, my grandmother had to put the onion in whole so that my grandfather could have the flavour without it actually passing his lips. When my grandmother died, my uncle took over the cooking and ignored my grandfather's preference and just cut the onion very fine. My grandfather didn't say a word and we suspect that he never noticed, or potentially had forgotten that he didn't like onion. It was entirely possible. 

Every now and then, I'll share a story like the onion, or the great uncle wearing sweaters backwards, or any of a dozen other anecdotes and bear and DH will look at me with concern and try and work out why. There is never a why. It's all just as random as it sounds. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Continuing Quiet

The perfume that spawned a dozen bullet proof vest adverts has arrived.

It's described as 'Wild Bluebell' but it's very light and I'd describe it as less 'wild' and more 'slightly miffed'. I like that sort of fragrance as I can keep refreshing it without it saturating the room which is incredibly refreshing in hot weather. And at least the adverts are tapering off. 

I made dinner tonight. Monday to Thursday, DH has pasta bake and bear does his own thing. I make dinner on Friday, Saturday is mainly sandwiches with fancy fillings for the men and something easy for me. DH and bear make dinner on Sunday and it's a way of bear getting into the habit of cooking before he goes away. Sunday is a day for following recipes. I am a little less rigid. For example, tonight was a sausage traybake. It asked for the root veg medly that they sold all last winter, but there's nothing like that in Tesco at the moment. I remembered the contents, though, and loaded up with a swede (rutabaga), carrots, parsnip and onion. The recipe asked for beetroot, but none of us really like them so I left them out and instead added extra carrots and parsnip. The sausages were the gluten free cumberland sausages instead of the low fat ones, and it should probably have been spread thinner, but it was still delicious. The men practically inhaled it. 

It's becoming one of my favourite things - I love looking at the recipes on Tesco and checking with DH and bear about their preferences. We've been trying all sorts.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Odds and Ends

According to Tesco, I saved a bundle last year by using their clubcard - £2221 in savings! Mind you, according to them, £534.91 was the Delivery Saver or the savings of paying up front for one yearly fee and getting deliveries up to once per day. I sometimes worry that I abuse that - I have had loads over the year! £142.25 was on coupons, and sometimes I'm less than sure that I'm getting the best deal. I try and stay strong and only use coupons on stuff that I actually need but impulse sometimes sneaks in as well. I also got a boatload of points which turned into £134 of vouchers which covered some all the Christmas groceries and some presents.

Speaking of impulse, yesterday I bought a small bottle of perfume from eBay. I like my fragrance, and there was a joke going on with DH and I. However, as I finished paying, the ads next to the 'you have paid' bit were for bullet proof vests. Ads are supposed to reflect your browsing history. I'm fairly confident that I haven't been researching bullet proof vests, though with my random brain, who knows? But I have concerns about the perfume now. 

And my phone isn't getting texts, so I have to look at getting a new one. The phone is well used - I use it for my kindle and I'm always dipping into books as I have to sit between and during tasks a lot. I checked by searching on this blog and I think it's about three and a half years old and I bought it where it was coming to the end of being sold new as there were two newer models of the brand out. Thinking about it, I use it for taking pictures, reading and texting DH when dinner is ready. I can see another cheap android phone in my future. 

Just realised that I didn't press 'post' yesterday, so here is yesterday's instalment and I'll catch up again tonight.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Quiet Day

I need to apologise. My 'n' key is sticking so I have to wallop it a few times to get it to work and then sometimes I get random 'n's turning up in the middle of spaces or I get 'nnnnnnnn'. Please excuse any weird typos.

I've spent a lot of the day thinking. This is less impressive than it may sound as it's been a lot of dithering about whether I should or shouldn't do something. The highlight of today was knitting in the carpark after dropping bear at the pub quiz. If you pick the parking bay then nthe lights shine through the windows just right and it's bright enough to knit by. This is the knitting on my lap, when it was dark outside but the car park lights hitting the spot.

I had a blanket on my knee and plenty of layers but I forgot to wear a hat. I was tempted to nap, to be honest.

Bear is doing fine. The rules are that he had to apply to five universities and he has offers from the other four. All of the offers are lower than his predicted grades, and all are universites with good maths and computer sciennce departments. I'm so proud of his positive attitude.

And that's about it for today. I hope to have more to share tomorrow.

Hugs andn good health to all. 

Disappointment

Bear didn't get into Oxford. He doesn't want to talk about it and I'm respecting that, especially as he isn't slacking but working on some weird geometrical homework. He has offers from other universities, so as long as he keeps up his grades, he'll be fine. 

I feel quite subdued. My sleep continues erratic, but it could be worse. I felt awake enough to drive (I'm very cautious) and dropped off some donations at a hospice charity shop and then called into Tesco. My picture of the day was of the card stands.

I took it because it fit in with the story for the White Hart that I wrote first thing this morning. 

Writing stuff - and speaking of the White Hart, the latest instalment is here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Weird Sleep

It's 4.30am at time of typing and I've just woken up after a nightmare involving my sewing machine. 

Mind you, I had an early night. I went to bed before 9pm when I realised that I'd knitted the last two rows of the blanket with my eyes shut.

I'll check it for errors later, although I'm knitting plain knitting on larger needles so I'm not expecting too many knots. Speaking of knitting, I've finished the scarf that's going to the Mission for Seafarers.

I followed their pattern (cast on 40 stitches, knit 200g of yarn, cast off) and it came to around 80 inches by 9 inches, which is impressive. 

Yesterday wasn't a high achieving day (apart from finishing the scarf) but we got rid of the Morrisons carrier bags. When you get a delivery from Morrisons, you get a credit of 10p for every carrier bag that you hand back. I usually grab the bags and let the driver disappear as I know that they're on a schedule. I usually get three, four or perhaps even five bags per delivery as I get small Morrisons orders. Yesterday I handed back 29 bags with an abject apology. I'm transferring the £2.90 plus the £3.76 offer savings to an account where I'm saving for bear for univesity. It's only pennies, but it will help. 

I also got a chaotic Temu order which I ordered before I started writing things down. Some of it has a use but some... dearie dearie me! I may show some results when I've shed some of my embarassment. I actually placed a Temu order at the weekend but because I was writing things down I let it sit in the basket overnight and had to justify each item. It includes 2 very large hanging yarn bags which I hope will start to tame the mounds in my home. I did the same with an Amazon order.

DH feels the need to organise things at the moment so the Amazon order was for an over the microwave standing shelf to better hold various spices and teas. The order also included some kitchen roll which wasn't a bad price and was under their 'You Buy, We Donate' campaign. The qualifying items had a lot of things like Garnier and L'Oreal, but there were some basics and the donations go to Multibanks which is like a food bank but for non-food items. I bought a total of six rolls but as I use mainly rags, I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't last a year or more.

And I didn't get the White Hart instalment finished. Meh!

I'm off to try and nap for a while until the household wakes up. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Half Asleep

I can feel my eyes shutting and my head is nodding, but I'm determined to make a post.

Last night's sleep was epically disturbed, so I'm not too surprised I'm tired. We went to feed the crows and magpies this morning. This pic doesn't do it justice.

There were so many of them around. We put out plenty of extra food. Then we sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet. There were a few good dogs being walked, but on the whole, it was a lot quieter than normal.

The roads to get there were fine but the car park itself was an icy nightmare.

Apart from that, it's been a very quiet day. I've added several inches to the scarf and we've been hunkered down in the study with all three of us keeping warm together. There was a wonderful cosiness about today.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Still Cold

The car hasn't moved for ages, perhaps since last weekend, and as the car is elderly, I was worrying about the battery. The charge goes down especially quickly in cold weather and the last thing we need is a car that won't start. In this sort of weather, the AA and garages would be stretched and I don't want to find myself suddenly needing the car and unable to go out. So I went and ran the engine for twenty minutes, revving it occasionally and knitting.

It was actually quite relaxing, sitting there in the quiet. It was a little cold and the windscreen looked like this when I got in.

And I only had the heater on minimal. The idea was to build the battery up and not drain it. I had the trusty car blanket on my knees and I knitting a few more rows of the scarf.

I love this blanket. It's surprisingly warm and cosy and just the right size for my lap in the car. 

Otherwise it's been a quiet sort of day. I found a call for submissions for an anthology that ended at midnight, which called to me. I had an extended nap in the middle of writing it, fought with the formatting and ended up submitting it five minutes after the deadline. I fully expect it to bounce right back to me, but I enjoyed writing it a great deal and I may look for other places to submit when it comes back. To be honest, the hardest part was the formatting. A lot of magazines and publishing houses require the Shunn Format, which lays out the size of margins, fonts, spacing etc. I fail at this formatting but found a ready made template to use. I did okay with this, I suppose, but it kept correcting my spelling from British English to American English and it kept throwing me off my stride. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Shopping

I was having a rummage around as I couldn't find my bag with the knitting needles, and I found this.

It was on clearance for pennies and looked so pretty and summery that I couldn't resist. That was over a year ago. I'm never going to use the paper napkins. I want to have the sort of life that needs pretty napkins, but I don't and it's so far down my list of priorities that I can't see me ever using pretty paper napkins. I've added them to the donate pile. 

If the year had 360 days, we would be 2.5% through the year. So when I say that things are working so far, it's not very far. It's more like just around the corner. However, so far writing things down has curbed some of the impulse shopping that leads to pretty paper napkins that are never used despite an amazing discount on them. This sadly means that I won't be getting a set of pretty coasters that I absolutely wouldn't use. Writing down what I'm spending is really helping. I hope that I can keep this up for the 97.5% left of the year. 

Today has been filled with a headache so not much has been done. I'm continuing with the scarf as I really want that to be finished soon. The weather is still cold here. Bear is the only one who has left the house and he said that the journey to and from college had its challenges. The main roads are fine but the pavements are like glass. He said that he had four near-death experiences in the few hundred yards from the far bus stop to home, but I'm sure he was exaggerating. It was probably no more than two. I was considering going for a drive to top up the battery, but DH wasn't keen. I may have to sit in the car (with knitting) and have it run for a while. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Relieved

Bear usually goes to a pub quiz on Wednesday nights and I am usually happy to give him a lift. It's around a twenty mile round trip but what tends to happen is that I drive ten miles to drop him off, call in at Tesco, knit in a car park for a while and then pick him up to drive ten miles home. But when bear told me that he wasn't going tonight, all I could feel was relief. There are some seriously steep roads on the route and the weather forecast was full of warnings about travel and black ice. The weatherman said that temperatures of -9C (which is around 15F and pretty much unheard of here).

I'd already put extra salt and sand around the path as we had a delivery and I worry for the drivers. I was so glad that they came. Bear said the paths from the bus stop were like glass. He had two tests today and I think the few yards between the door and the bus stop were more nerve wracking.

Sleep issues continue and now my bladder has decided that it only works during the hours of darkness. I am deeply unimpressed by the whole business and I'm effectively sleep typing as it's nearly 9pm at time of typing and I've been up since 1am after a curtailed sleep so I'm barely bumbling along. I'm trying to hold out another hour before bed in an effort to reset my sleep patterns but it's hard. Mind you, not having the brain space to do much at all means I've done quite well with the scarf for the Mission for Seafarers.

I'm just before the halfway mark. The pattern calls for 200g and I'm almost at the end of the first 100g. 

I'll be glad when this cold snap ends. It must be hard on the local wildlife and it's certainly not easy on our heating bills. Bear got a heated blanket for his birthday which, to me, is an amazing gift and he is suitably grateful, especially in this weather. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Tea

I didn't post yesterday because I fell asleep. I'm currently just working with the erratic sleep. 

I finally got around to trying out the Campfires and Vampires tea. 

I didn't really like it much as it tasted very flowery, but that may be because I'd had it in the cupboard for a while. I'll try to remember to take a pic of the cat tea mug. I got it from Temu and it's a mug with a china tea strainer insert and the little cat head is a saucer to put the tea strainer while you drink. I think it's meant for making tea on the go, as it's got a sweet case and I could absolutely do that with my car kettle and a little pouch of loose tea. It would be incredibly civilised while I fed the crows!

I've been nibbling away that is the utter chaos that is the kitchen, dining room and walk in cupboard. DH reorganised a cupboard and I can tell that he's wanting to keep going, so I'm trying to clear the decks for him. With my back being bad, I can only do so much at a time. Today, instead of reading my kindle books on my phone, I took my knitting down and I would do a little, knit a row or two, do a little more, then a few more rows of knitting and I've done okayish. 

It's still cold here. Most of the snow has gone, apart from on our street, but the ice is really tricky. I'm staying emphatically indoors. I've been considering growing some chilli plants on the windowsill. DH and bear love their pickled chillis and I'm sure that if I was half way competent then I could grow enough to save money, even allowing for the cost of seeds and compost. However I am not halfway competent. I'm weighing up my options. 

Bear had a snow day yesterday and a short day today but he has two tests tomorrow and I think that he's had a brutal return to school after the holiday. He's just working with it, and he has exams immediately after the half term holiday and then after Easter. Then, of course, the A levels. 

Writing stuff - I'm back on my writing blog as well and the latest from the White Hart is here. The time I took away has given me a chance to think a few things through, so watch this space for some new goings on there!

Hugs and good health to all. 

All About the Weather

Nothing much has happened today. I've been checking the weather, knitting and napping erratically. 

Early this morning, the snow looked like this. 

But it pretty quickly progressed to this.

Bear is fervently hoping for a snow day tomorrow but it's unlikely. 

I put off the Morrisons grocery delivery that I had planned for tomorrow as I feel uncomfortable asking for deliveries in the snow that aren't necessary. It should in theory be better weather, but I'm keeping an eye on things. The two main things that I want are salad and easy peeler citrus, both for DH. If the worst comes to the worst, I can nip out late tomorrow to pick them up. Or poor DH can muddle through without them, just for a day or two. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Sleep Continues Complicated

It's long, complicated and dull but the highlights are that I managed to sleep from around 9.30pm roughly to 3.00am, accidentally texted DH as I was drifting off again at 4.00am and the guilt kept me awake until 1.30pm when I flaked out and slept until 6.00pm. By this time, bear had gone out.

Bear had been invited to go ice skating, and he went and had a marvellous time. However, snow was forecast and we're not set up for snow. I had some concerns. The parts of the UK that get snow regularly are fine when the white stuff falls, but here in Leeds, we don't see much at all. I think we didn't see any last winter, and the roads and cars are just not set up to accomodate it. Even the animals aren't accustomed. We fed the crows and magpies this morning and it was hilarious to see magpies skidding as they landed because they didn't see the thin film of ice and weren't used to it. The magpies are usually so skilful and deft with their flying and landing that it was funny to see them come in for their usual pinpoint landing and then slide another few inches. 

Bear did text asking for a lift, but the texts didn't come through, so he ended up getting a bus. The first few flakes started falling pretty much as he got home. The papers and the BBC have been muttering about Snowmaggedon, but it currently looks like this.

Mind you, the worst of it is supposed to fall overnight and the local council have cancelled their bin collections because of the expected conditions. I shall wait and see.

Now I'm all topsy turvey with the sleep so I think I'll head up to bed and see what wonders happen this time. 

Hugs and good health to all.

One Percent

We are already one hundredth of the way through the year, that's one percent of 2025. I'm trying to be mindful and not let time slip by, and I think that's not a bad way of looking at it. One percent of a year is around three and a half days, I guess, and I'll keep using it to keep me moving.

I haven't achieved so much today. My sleep continues to be erratic so I managed 11.30pm until 3.30am and then I couldn't stay awake and I was so tired that it hurt so I ended up sleeping 11.30am to 4.00pm and just about found the willpower to drag myself out of bed to make dinner. It wasn't a brilliant dinner but just nice sausage with curly fries from the freezer, peas (with a stock cube thrown into the cooking water) and gravy. The men enjoyed it a great deal, though, so I'm happy. 

One thing that I managed was taking in the Tesco grocery delivery. I also decided to keep a track of prices using the delivery notes. Because the invoice doesn't print nicely I ended up typing up a list of goods and their prices.

I'm keeping the invoices in a file so I can compare prices. A lot of my shopping is done online so if I see a sale for, perhaps, pasta, then I can stop and compare the prices I've paid previously and see if it's really a good deal. The 'previous orders' saved on my account don't go back indefinitely and typing it all out helps me remember the usual price and good prices for when I'm in the store. I'm hoping that it will also help me keep track of what's in the cupboards as I'm thinking about things as I type them up. 

I'm also tracking my spending. I'm not attempting to make a budget, but just seeing where I'm spending and where I can cut back. Bear will need us to help him with money if, as is likely, he gets to university. It's only the first week, but it stopped an impulse buy of a hat knitting kit as I didn't want to have to write the info down. It was enough of a pause to remind me that I had a gazillion bags of yarn already together with needles and a great patten for a hat so I did not need to add to it. 

Another paperwork type thing is that I finally remembered to add some strands of yarn to the knitting notebook. It's perhaps the best gift this Christmas, and I'm using it to slow down my impulse knitting. There's a space to tape in fragments of yarn in a project.

I like the idea of keeping a record so that I can duplicate good ideas and remember the dreadful experiences of bad ideas. 

All this paperwork is really busy work and could be ignored, but I'm hoping that it will keep me more mindful of what I'm doing, and anything that will help is worth trying. 

I'm so tired right now that I'm practically sleep typing and I'm really hoping for a decent night's sleep tonight - wish me luck.