Wednesday 2nd November - Rebellion against the Chia Seeds

 I finally said it out loud - "I've come to the conclusion I don't want to eat chia seeds on my breakfast".

"Neither do I," he said.

They might be good for me and have a hundred and one beneficial effects on all sorts of parts of my body, but they are, to my mind, gritty, tasteless and spoil a perfectly good bowl of muesli and get stuck between my teeth.

We've been trying them for a few weeks. We gave them a good trial. We're done with chia seeds.

I need to order more tea lights.

I have sorted out eight sets of 24 tealights for Advent so far; I have given two away to friends, and put a set ready for myself, and here are five more already earmarked for people.

8 sets x 24 tealights = jolly nearly 200, I reckon, which would explain why there are only a few left in the candle drawer.

I'm hoping the candles remain purely symbolic through December, although with the threat of power cuts they might even turn out to be useful as well.

November is, according to my son, National Blog Promotion Month. The challenge is to write a post every day in November. I'm doing pretty well so far...

If you missed the last blog post, I have put up the November 'print and post' Newsletter. It is one of the pages on the sidebar if you view this blog in the web version. Follow the link for more details. 

The November Newsletter is here

 I've put the November Newsletter up in the pages to the right of this post; you will be able to see it if you are looking at the blog using the web version.

It is in case you have friends who would like to be part of the blog community, but don't have internet access; please feel free to print it out and post it/deliver it/take it round to someone.

I love getting things through the post which are not

• Bills
• Catalogues (although I am a bit of a catalogue junkie at this time of year!)
• Charity Appeals

 and I am sure I m not the only one! So if you want an excuse to pop a small something in the post - here you are.

If you have suggestions for improvement (or spot any typos or errors!) please let me know.

Tuesday 1st November - The flying greenhouse

 Yesterday my parcel of goodies from hobbycraft arrived. 

 I had managed to restrain myself to some wooden trays to help with organising my new work area which has a shallow but deep shelf under the work surface. Anything you put into this hidey hole tend to slide right to the back, out of sight, until it drops through the open back and lands on your toes. The trays are there to prevent this irritating even, or at the vary least, reduce the frequency at which it occurs.

And I like the way some households, mainly in the USA, hang a decorative wreath outside which changes with the seasons. At last I have decided to act upon this thought, and included with the trays a wreath, a pale coloured garland and a packet of gold 'rose leaves'.

I was going to take a picture yesterday, but my mobile is getting on in years and the battery will quite abruptly run out of power. 

I was kept awake last night by the wind and the rain, which was really rather over the top ("keep the noise down, can't you? Some people are trying to get to sleep here!"). I wondered if the wreath would survive with the wind hurling in from that direction. All seems to be OK.

  

There should have been about 12 golden petals; I noticed that they were not brilliantly attached to their wires (you get what you pay for, and I didn't pay very much) when I made up the wreath, and this morning there seem to be only half a dozen left. I might add something or other to the bottom when the weather has calmed down. A gold bow, perhaps.

One of the two plastic greenhouse did not manage so well; the old one, where the plastic has all perished and only the netting is left was fine, with its sunflower seedlings, and the broad bean seeds (several are through), cauliflowers (likewise) and peas (nothing happening there yet). The newer one lifted off and flew down the side of the house and halfway down the back garden, leaving an upturned table, the bottom shelf and all the bricks that were weighting it down scattered about the drive way. Luckily I hadn't put anything in it yet!

Here's The Flying Dutchman... Wagner...

Sunday 30th October - The last stitch is in - maybe...

 Ang's postcard project arrived yesterday morning; what a box of delights! There is a cross stitch card with a tiny weeny little postcard for me to hang on my Christmas tree, and a cross stitch kit for me to have a go at - I have never managed to do a cross stitch project before, so that will be something new.

Oh, and, of course, the real postcard;

There were two pieces of stitching for us; one to mark the the death of Queen Elizabeth in September (how low ago that seems now)   

 

and the regular picture for the month. Ang has knitted a little flag - in lovely Autumnal colours too. It has cocktail stick 'needles' to hold the the stitches. Brilliant.

  I have just heard that the Royal Mail Union has called off the strikes planned for the beginning of November, for which I am very grateful as I have spent today finishing my own picture and will be able to post to tomorrow, so at least it will be in the post box before the end of the month. Just.

My sewing box looks like this at the moment, as I have been choosing threads, sewing with them, tossing the unused length back in the bx, scrabbling for the next colour and so on all day.

 Mine is the sort of picture that has no end, so I called it a day at about 9pm. I need to iron it to lift the fixion pen markings, write up the note book, collect up the 'flat present' and wrap everything for the post. Oh, and this time, remember to take a picture first! 

I won't post pictures of what I did until it has had a chance to reach Ang.

This was my previous effort, which I forgot to photograph before I sent it off; I tried to use 'blackwork' patterns to fill in the green leafy bits of the tree; harder than I thought. I am definitely going to think up something easier for this month. (hollow laugh)

This project is nearing the end; just November and December. It has been a lot of fun; I had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for. Whatever will I do with myself next year? 

Tuesday 25th October - Sort of sorted

 Yesterday was a BEAST of a day - at least the morning was.

Arranging flu vaccinations - check the surgery website. It looked as though they were sharing vaccination clinics with one of the other practices nearby, so I rang them (20 minutes on hold) only to be advised that no, if it is just a flu vaccination, not flu and covid, then my own surgery was holding the clinic. Rang my own surgery (20 minutes on hold) and managed to book for both of us.

I would ask those in charge of choosing the 'hold musak' to sit and listen to it for 20-30 mins, and then reconsider their choice - both surgeries had the same music,determinedly upbeat, repetitive, with a vicious backbeat (emphasis on beats 2 and 4). Do they choose it to discourage one from staying on the line?

Never mind. On to order some flowers-by-post for a neighbour. At the point where you are just waiting for confirmation that the payment has gone through, the screen froze... had it worked? or had it failed? I'll know when my Barclaycard statement appears - due any moment - but I think it failed and I'll order them again.

No problem. Next task - renew a subscription which has lapsed. Ah. My login was no longer valid - fair enough - but I couldn't create an account in order to put the order through as there was already an account associated with the email address. I fired off an email to the help desk...

One last task - sort out a query to do with a pension that will become due; it is a bit complicated so I did need to speak to a real person. Hey ho. Three minutes of going through menus, and then - deep sigh - back on hold. The music this time was not as offensive, but after half an hour it was time for lunch.

Lunch was the bright spot of the morning!

I got through to the pensions company after half an hour, and managed to stay civil and polite with the hapless man on the end of the phone, and everything is sorted now. After thanking him for his help, I did suggest to him that he pass on my request that whoever chose the 'hold musak' should sit and listen to it for half an hour.... he was non-committal....

The afternoon continue to improve - weather wise and pottering in the garden wise, so at least I went to bed in a happier mood.

Today I had a reply from the help desk, and following the instructions managed to renew my subscription - hooray!

Just the flowers left - I'll leave that for a while longer as it is not time-critical.

And Breathe - All done....

(10minutes2relax - Simple Beach)

Friday 21st October - What a slug-a-bed!

I didn't wake up properly until gone 8 am this morning, and stayed in bed reading and (should I admit to this?) browsing blogs, the  daily Persephone post, the BBC news website and even twitter. I might be there till, except my phone's battery symbol went red, and then the screen went black.

So here I am, watching the rain scudding across the garden. I had just nipped out to sow some pea seeds when the first drops fell. Still one day will be as good as another.

I have read that you can sow green peas (the sort you eat) and sweet peas now, in a cold frame, so that's my plan. Then you can have seedlings to plant out in the Spring - unless mice, who appear to be partial to any kind of peas, find them first. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Johnny_Town-Mouse

I plan to keep them in the plastic mini-greenhouse (the one which doesn't have any plastic left in the cover), which sits on an old table at the side of the house. I thought I might put cut-up plastic milk bottles over the pots as extra protection;

https://planterspost.com/how-to-stop-mice-eating-pea-seedlings/

I imagine clear plastic bottles would be better, but hopefully the white plastic of the milk containers will let in enough light.