Brain Dead!

My mind has been completely blank this week - hence no posts on here. Strange isn`t it how some weeks lots of ideas come flooding into the the mind, or I see or hear something that gives me an idea, or else my camera comes out and captures and interesting or pretty scene. But, this week absolutely nothing.

I`ll try to do better next week!

Autumn flowers

I had to do a floral arrangement at our church this weekend, so chose to use my favourite flowers for this time of year - bloom Chrysanthemums in autumn red and gold colours, and couldn`t resist taking pictures of these beautiful blooms.

It`s Chocolate Time

Do you know what this week is?

I didn`t until I was listening to the radio this morning

Iit`s National Chocolate Week.

Gosh, how could I have missed that fact?! Yet, the shops around here don`t seem to be promoting it, I wonder why not.

I like chocolate - yet, I`m not one of those people who once they open a box of chocolates or start a bar of it, have to eat the whole lot in one go. I`ll have a couple out of the box, or a couple or three squares off a bar and then put it away until the next evening. I suppose it was how I was brought up.

I remember as a child having a "Sweet Tin" in the drawer of the sideboard and just being allowed one or two out of it at a time. How different to the way children now-a-days are given the whole tube of Smarties, bag of chocolate buttons, or pack or bar of whatever it is. Mine went straight in the tin and even with Smarties or chocolate buttons, I was only given 3 or 4 at a time, or a square or two broken off a bar of chocolate and given me and the rest kept for another day. And I wasn`t allowed to help myself, I had to wait to be given them.

Wonder if other readers were brought up the same way?

Spring in Autumn

I`ve got some nice pink flowers in my garden at the moment, so thought I`d share them with you. They`re one of those types of flowers where if you look at a single flower, it doesn`t look much on its own, but the stem has 3 or 4 on, which looks better, but when you see them all together they`re really beautiful.


I always think they`re an unusual colour for this time of year when most flowers are reds and golds, these look more like spring in autumn, and are really cheery on a grey damp day.

False Econony?

So, the government are thinking of raising the retiring age, again, to 66.

Firstly, I wonder if this will apply fairly to ALL people and jobs - what about those civil servants, teachers etc, who seem to be able to retire at 55 or so now? Will they be made to work until they`re 66?

But, my main thinking is - if all those in work have to stay on for longer, there will be even less jobs for the young people as they leave school, college or university - so what about them?

They`ll be needing to claim all sorts of allowances for being Jobseeking, needing housing etc....etc.... So, why not let those who have done their years of work retire and have their retirement to enjoy, and make room in jobs for younger people to have their opportunity to be employed and work.

There`s only so many jobs around and so many people to be employed or not in employment. Either way the government has to pay out money to either old or young. It surely makes more sense to employ the young and let them gain skills, and give them a purpose in life?

Pentecost

The other day, we went for an hours drive to see a Flower Festival at the Methodist Church at Acle - and it was well worth the visit, as you can see by this marvellous floral arrangement depicting Pentecost, just one of the beautiful arrangements they had in a modern light church.

A field of golden.....

It was a beautiful autumn day, the sun was shining, the leaves on the trees turning golden and bronze and even red on some species. So off we went for a ride into the country lanes to enjoy the beauty of it all, stopping once or twice on the way to collect some conkers, to try out the theory that conkers placed in the corners of ones home would keep spiders at bay. (I`ll report later if that worked!)

On our trip we saw this lovely sight of sunflowers and I just had to stop, get out with my camera to capture them.

Mystery in the Garden

Looking out of my living room window as I opened the curtains this morning, I spotted a round green object on the lawn.

I at first took it to be an apple, but yet, where had it come from, I`ve no apple trees in the garden and neither has my neighbour, and even if there had been wind it would have surely been too heavy to have come from far.

My next thought was that it was probably a small tennis ball, but yet again, where could it have come from.

On going out to investigate, it turned out to be a green tomato ! - but the mystery still remains - where has it come from? I`ve no tomato plants in the garden, and haven`t bought any. Has it dropped in from a passing plane, or helicopter?

Or, has Dave thrown one of his tomatoes which haven`t ripened, over to here?!!

Lucy Locket

Lucy Locket lost her pocket....... or so the nursery rhyme goes.

And, it struck me today, that we too have lost our pockets.

Why is it that ladieswear, especially skirts no longer have pockets in them. Where are we expected to put our hankies (or tissues)?

Men`s trousers all have pockets in them, and so it seems do many of their shirts - so why, oh why don`t the designers of ladies wear realise that we too need pockets to put our items in?

And, no, don`t tell me to wear trousers to solve the problem!

Biting my tongue!

On leaving work this morning I had a few minutes to spare before I had to be somewhere else, so looking in our local Building Society and seeing only one person at the counter, I thought, yes I`ve time to just go in there.

All I needed to do was pay one cheque in.

So, in I went and stood at the head of the queue section by the barrier. and I stood...... and stood..... and stood.....and........ The person at the counter had obviously completed her business as she was putting items into her handbag. But the cashier keep asking her questions - "have you got home insurance?`, "do you need information about insurance with us?" "do you want another savings account?......." and so it went on. The woman didn`t seem a bit interested but kept saying that her husband dealt with that. This then encouraged the cashier to go to find some leaflets to give her. By then I`d stood there about 10 minutes. Looking at my watch, gritting my teeth in frustration, at the time it was taking for me to do a simple job. There was no other partition open.

Eventually, the woman went, and I got to the counter to pay in my one cheque. That done - in just a minute - the cashier straight away asked me "have you got personal insurance cover?!" To which I replied a hasty "Yes, thanks. Bye" (I don`t think I have, but I wasn`t going to stop for her to try and sell me some, nor anything else) and turned and left the counter.

How I`d love to have said to her - "I wish you wouldn`t waste peoples time, by asking them all this, but just get on and do the job they came in for." - but, being me, I didn`t. I just seethed inside.

I wondered afterward what her reaction would be, if the next time she stood with one item in a Supermarket queue, the girls on checkout stopped to ask every customer "do you need any bread? and milk? any meat? did you know we`ve got a special offer on cheese its buy one of a certain brand, get another free. etc.....etc......." !!!!

Time to Bake

It was great being able to finish work at lunch time yesterday and have the afternoon to myself.

I did something I`ve not done for years!

On my way home from work, I went into the butchers (no - nothing unusual in that), and bought some sausagemeat.

After I`d had my dinner, I got out my mixing bowl, flour, lard, some water, a knife and made some pastry. I can`t remember the last time I made pastry. Then out came the rolling pin and board and a baking tin. I lined the tin with the pastry, put in the sausagemeat, rolled out another piece of pastry and put that on top. Popped it in the oven and a bit later out came a golden brown sausagemeat patty - duly consumed (or part of it) for my tea. And it was absolutely delicious.

What to do with the little bit of pastry left over from the patty, I wondered.
Then a memory from childhood struck me. I rolled out the pasty quite thin, got out the jar of Marmite, and spread some thinly over the pastry. Folded the pastry over twice, rolled it slightly flatter, then cut it into fingers. Into the oven with them, and 10 minutes later out came tasty Marmite fingers.
What had brought that inspirational memory back to me, I`ve no idea - but I`m glad it did.

It was so good to have time to do things like this.
I know I`m going to enjoy my shorter hours.

Free Hours

It was back to work for me yesterday, after a weeks holiday, and the start of my shorter working week. So now its a case of working out how to best work my hours to make the most of my extra eight "free" hours.

Should I start a bit later each day? -
That could be quite nice now that these mornings are getting darker. But, No, I don`t think I`d gain much by that, because I`d probably get up a bit later. so wouldn`t actually gain any free time at home to do thing in.

Should I do a day less a week? -
It would be nice to have another whole day to myself. But, that would mean I`d get less days holiday entitlement of Bank holidays than I currently do - so maybe that`s not the solution, and it also could be difficult because of one of the new extra jobs I`ve now got at work needs to be done daily.

Should I finish earlier each day?
It would be good to finish work lunch time on three days and have the afternoons "free" - Yes, I think that`s the answer.

I`m lucky that I can be flexible in the hours I work each day, according to the work that needs to be done, and my hours don`t affect anyone else. I think - No, not I think, I Know - I`m going to enjoy having more free time to do some cooking, baking, and hobbies as well as housework and visiting my mother.

Sitting Pretty

Sitting with my mother looking at the sea in the sunshine yesterday afternoon, my attention was drawn to the shrubs in front of us, where a group of sparrows were twittering and jumping about about pecking away at what must have been seed heads on the plants, and really enjoying the feast they had found, so I couldn`t resist getting my camera out to try and capture them. This one obligingly posed for me!

Little Cuties!

Aren`t they cute!

We went for a ride into the countryside to feed some ducks on a village pond last Sunday and found these sweet little ducklings. I just had to get my camera out!

Money or Happiness?

I see, that somehow it`s over 14 days since I wrote a post.

Where has that time gone to? I didn`t realise it was so long.

I`ve been struggling over a bit of uncertainty in my working life during the last weeks, so maybe I`ve been so preoccupied with that, that I`d omitted to write on here.

The uncertainty is being caused by a combination of factors - the two partners I work for are halving the work of the business between them, so instead of work from 4 places coming into me at the Head office, only work from two outlets will now come to me; then, a new Sainsbury`s store is shortly to open a few doors away from where I work which will no doubt take some of our trade away, and that combined with the recession will mean that our Directors have to cut back on staff wages and hours.

The options given to me were to go back into the store cash office, the delicatessen counter (no way!!), or on to shop floor work for part of my contracted working hours, or to cut my hours, although, to be fair to P, he didn`t actually say that just hinted at it, but knew that I really needed to keep my 33 hours a week. But, as I hadn`t anyhere near enough work to fill all my hours in HO I had to decide what to do. I suggested that some of the store paperwork/computer work be transferred to me upstairs which would then relive the staff in the store, which P thought possible - but there still wouldn`t be enough to fill all my hours.

No way did I want to go back into the store. Now, don`t get me wrong, it wasn`t the Position that made me feel like that, it was simply that having done 37.5 years in the store, I just didn`t want to go back to it. I didn`t want the responsibility of the cash work again, and I certainly didn`t want to work in the shop because the taped music - or so called music, I call it a horrible din - absolutely puts me on edge and makes me very snappy, so I knew I couldn`t stick that every day for hours on end.

It was a real dilemna.

Which was more important - money or happiness?

On my request he worked out for me what my take-home wage would be if I cut my hours to 25 or 20 hours a week. I then worked out my average weekly household/living expenses, and came to the conclusion that I could manage on a bit less each week. It would mean saving less - but it would be worth it to be happy in my work.

I eventually made the decision, which P was happy with, and I start working 25 hours a week (still in HO, with the store paperwork coming up to me) in a fortnight`s time after I`ve had a weeks holiday.

Maybe then, my Blog will be written more regularly, as I`ll have more time!!

Levitation ?

On my work each day I`ve been passing a little workman`s van. Nothing unusual in that you may think, but its the wording on the side which intrigues me and sents my imagination off.

It says....

Ladderless cleaning solutions.

Now that conjures up all kinds of pictures in my mind....

does the chap ...."walk" up walls like a fly would?

or.............. use a hot air balloon?

or............. absail on a rope?

or............. use varying heights to stilts to make himself tall enough?

or............. does he float in mid air through levitation??


I`m really puzzled.

Harvest time!

These last few days, I`ve been busy each day harvesting my crop of runner beans - my favourite vegetable, so I thought I`d share some with you here. Out of habit of what my Dad used to do, I weigh each picking. This was the first one, and as you can see there`s about 9 ounces, since then the quantity has increased each time, and yesterday I got over 2 pounds of them...... so..... it`s beans, beans, beans!



I did also plant carrot and beetroot seeds earlier in the year, but the weeds grew quicker than the seeds, so I couldn`t pull the weeds up when they were small, as they would have uprooted the baby vegetable seedlings at the same time -but now, I can`t find the rows of carrots and beetroot for all the weeds! I`ll just have to pull some handfuls of whatever is there and hope for the best!!

In the meantime I`ll continue to enjoy my piles of beans with melted butter on. (and a nearby neighbour has been enjoying some too, as I`ve passed some on to them). They really are delicious!

A One Off

Today something will happen that will never happen again.

It`s a unique occurrence.

Take a look at the time at five minutes and six seconds after four o`clock today, the seventh of August and this year the time and date will be -

04:05:06 07/08/09

This will never happen again in our lifetime

More bishy barnabees!

We`re still inundated with bishy barnabees here. As fast as I hoover one up indoors, another appears.

This one seems to have decided to go to sleep for the night on one of my lemon tree plants. He (or she!) kept nice and still while I moved the plant from the widow sill to a better place to photograph it. I think it was asleep.


After a while of seeing (or feeling) the heat of a lamp I`d got on to try and illuminate it to get a better picture, it woke up, stretched and decided to walk over to the underside of the leaf where it was darker. So, I then had to turn the plant round and try again.

Bishy Barnabees

A few updates before I start on today`s proper post.



My door is fixed! The chap came yesterday as promised, and within a couple of minutes had solved the problem. Did I feel a bit stupid though when he showed me what the problem had been..... on the outside of the door towards the bottom was a decorative baton of wood and this had just moved along and was thus stopping the door shutting! (I`ve arrowed it on this picture)



And here, especially for Lorna, is a picture of my new computer and monitor etc. and my (at the moment) tidy desktop!! I am hoping or maybe I should say aiming to keep my study/office room a lot tidier. I`ve started by going through the drawers in the desk and sorting out what is relevant to keep and binning the items which I no longer need.


And now - on to what`s been bugging me today - bishy barnabees.
Sitting having my breakfast this morning, I saw one of them climbing up the inside of my window, so I got a largish piece of paper, got it to walk onto that and put it out of the back door. Sitting down again, I spotted another one, so got the paper again, made it walk onto it, and took it out into the garden. A few minutes later I saw another on the wall, so repeated the procedure. A few minutes later, my eyes were drawn to a card on the mantlepiece as something was moving - yes, you`ve guess it - there was another one, so picking up the card I took it out into the garden to join the others.

A short time later - having repeated this action at least 20 times, I began to get alarmed - where were they coming from? Had I got a nest of them in the room somewhere? I searched round but couldn`t see any obvious solution. I`d not got any open windows or doors, so where were they coming from?

Going outside to get in my car a short while later, I noticed that there were several flying round outside. And when I got to the town about 4 miles away, I discovered on getting out of the car that they were absolutely everywhere. Everywhere was red with them - houses, streets, .pavements, cars. ughhh. I quickly got what I needed from the shop, trying to dodge them landing on me as I walked along, and realised that there must be a huge swarm or even plague of them in our area.

Getting home, I discovered more in my living room. But now, instead of putting them outside, I decided I needed to be more drastic, so out came the hoover and each one I then found in the room found itself sucked up into my hoover. I was still puzzled though as to how they were getting in. That is, until I heard a "ping" on the hearth, and then I deduced that they must be falling down the chimney.

So, I just hope we get some heavy rain or wind to wash or blow them away!





*Bishy barnabee - the Norfolk word for a ladybird