Hard work!

Sue had asked me to help her out with some gardening this morning and had arranged to call for me at 8.15am as the garden she wanted me to do was just up the road. Unfortunately, she was held up so it wasn't until after 9am that I got started.

It has been a glorious day today with plenty of sunshine and blue skies and really pleasant for spending time gardening, although it was hard work! Sue had to dash off to another job so she left me on my own to clear out some borders, rake up loads of dead leaves and do some weeding.

As the house was at the entrance to our estate it was great to see the comings and goings of friends and neighbours and I was astonished at how busy our little community is! It gave me a chance to say hello to people, some of whom were curious as to what I was doing! "You don't live here!" was a common exclamation!

Keith took Sophie to uni and then went for a walk. On his return I asked him to make me a big mug of tea and bring me something to eat, which he did, bless him! I worked on my own until 1pm and then Sue joined me for another hour. I had had to ask Keith another favour - to bring me our own wheelie bin as I had filled up the one at the house with dead leaves, fallen branches and weeds.

By 2pm I had had enough! I'm not used to physical work for five hours and I was longing to get home and have a shower. We finished the garden and just as I arrived home Keith came out to say that Sophie wanted picking up early from uni. We went to get her and then it was a long hot shower for me!

Like a fool, I'd decided to change our bed in the morning so that needed sorting out (Keith had done a load of ironing) and then I popped over to see Sue as she had some dates she wanted to go through with me for other gardening jobs. We went to see another garden on the estate and Sue asked if I could do it, on my own again, on Friday.

Back at Sue's house she bustled around and poured me a glass of Vouvray (always a treat) and brought out some feta cheese and crackers to nibble on. The dogs took a lot of interest in this spread! We looked at our diaries and organised some dates for next week.

Tonight's dinner was sausage casserole a la Hairy Bikers, and it needed quite a bit of preparing! Keith browned the sausages for me while I prepared the onions and garlic and it was heaven to finally sit down with dinner and relax. I was shattered!

Celebrating 29 years!

Keith was booked in for a CT scan at the hospital this morning so we left home at 7.30am to get there in good time. He had to drink a jug of orange squash with something else mixed in with it over the course of an hour and then he was taken in for the scan.

We were all finished by 10am and heading home for breakfast. Sophie was hard at work in the conservatory but had been annoyed by Monty constantly yowling at the door. I had a coffee and some toast and we decided to pop to Jones's later in the morning to get some essential stuff that we needed.

Keith opted to stay at home so Sophie and I went and did some shopping - I spent more than I wanted to but I did need all the things I bought, such as batteries, coat hangers, a new set of scales and a sieve. All exciting objects!

On the way home we called into Waitrose as I needed more coffee and we bought a little picnic lunch to eat when we got home. It was delicious!

In the evening Keith and I went to The Hare at Loddington as today is the 29th anniversary of our first date when we went to Brighton. I looked at my blog before we went and I was astonished to see that on this date last year it was Mother's Day and Keith had been for a CT scan at the hospital! How weird is that?

We had a very pleasant drink at the pub and sat in the lounge area which was lovely and quiet. We were there for an hour before driving home and finishing off our dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese. Maybe not the most adventurous of dinners to celebrate 29 years together, but it was delicious nonetheless!

Shocking news.

The residents of our estate were shocked to discover that there had been an attempted break-in at one of the houses early this morning. The burglars had tried to remove a double glazing panel but the family dog had heard them and started barking, waking everyone up. The burglars then fled.

I was shocked and dismayed to hear of this because I had thought, perhaps naively, that things like that didn't happen to our little community in the country. How wrong was I? The Facebook pages was agog with the news and people said they would be much more aware of security from now on.

The weather this morning was horrible and rainy so Keith and I pushed on to finish the emulsioning and while he did the ceiling in the hallway I put another coat on one of the walls and then cleaned down the banisters which were a bit paint speckled.

The afternoon weather was slightly better but Sophie and I spent our whole time in the conservatory where she did some work on her assignments and I watched an Icelandic drama called Case on my computer as it was being shown on All4.

Before I went to bed later in the evening I made sure that everything that could be locked was secure...I'm not sure many residents tonight will have a good sleep!

More painting!

After dropping Sophie off at work, it was back home for a quick breakfast and then Keith and I set to with the paint and rollers. I felt a bit disheartened at first as my roller wasn't applying the paint properly and it was obvious from the first coat that we need to do another full emulsion as it just wasn't covering the horrible peachy colour underneath. Why I ever chose that colour I'll never know!

However, we both persevered  and by the early afternoon we had completed the landing, down the stairs and into the hall. It was beginning to look much better already, and so much cleaner! Mum and Dad popped around for a cup of tea and admired our handiwork, but at the moment it still looks very patchy.

The forecast rain never really arrived and we had mostly sunshine all day long. I wished I could be out in it, but the paint called me! I just had to admire the blue skies from out of the window!

Keith and Mike went off in the afternoon and soon after they'd gone I finished and hoovered the carpets downstairs. I think we have no choice but to buy a new carpet for the hall, stairs and landing which will make a huge difference.

We picked up both Sophie and Mike in the evening and then it was home for a very succulent Chicken Kiev a la Keith!

Date with a brush (and roller)!

Keith went for a walk this morning after we'd dropped Mike and Sophie off at college and uni, despite it pouring with rain. I had a date with a paintbrush and some more ironing as Sue had given me another pile to do!

I did that and just after I finished Keith arrived home looking really wet and bedraggled! I made him breakfast and then together we painted all the edges of the walls and the landing ceiling. The paint we are using - Ivory Lace - is a lot lighter than the paint we have on the walls so I think we will definitely need to apply another coat tomorrow when it has dried.

I finished mid-afternoon and I was pleased with what we'd done so far. Both Sophie and Mike didn't need picking up until 5pm so that was a bonus!

As we'd been working all day Keith and I bought dinner from the fish and chip takeaway in Broughton and he decided not to go to the pub tonight as he wasn't drinking anyway. The rain hasn't stopped all day today and it's supposed to be horrible as well tomorrow. Perfect for staying in and decorating!

A new career?

Not a great deal has happened today - it's been a usual Thursday with taking the kids to college and uni and then doing our weekly shop.

As we were unloading the car, though, Sue came rushing over with a large bag and asked if I wanted to do some ironing for her as she was extremely short of time. I never get to iron at home as Keith likes to press our clothes while watching sport on the television, so I jumped at the chance of earning some money! I did all of ours and the pile that Sue had given me and really enjoyed it!

We also had some good news today as we received a telephone call from the hospital asking for Keith to go and have a CT scan on Monday morning. This should really have been done in early January and is a routine scan after his operation last year. We had been a bit worried that he hadn't been called so at least now we can cross that off our list of things to worry about!

First day of Spring!

Well, winter is over and I think the general consensus was that it was mild and dryish. Not really what I wanted, I'll be honest! However, there is snow forecast for parts of Britain this week so it's not over yet!

I had a fairly uneventful day at the CAB - no changes have been put into practice yet so we all just got on with the seeing clients and doing our best to help them with their problems. We had a varied lot of issues to deal with and we were all finished by 3pm and walking back to the car in the sunshine. A bit better than last week!

Back home I sat in the conservatory with Keith and Sophie and we had a cup of tea and a chocolate and banana muffin. These seem to be much more popular than the normal choccy ones I make and were very moist.

It poured with rain in the evening and the wind got up again. Keith disappeared upstairs to watch yet more football so I took the opportunity to catch up with a great new series called The Replacement - it promises to be very good indeed!