Friday's Fave Five - 21/8/26

It's late here on Friday but I'm determined to take part this week.  Susanne reminds us each Friday to look back on the week and share our blessings.  The link up is here.

1)  Company at the weekend.  My eldest son and his family were here and we also had one of my husband's sisters (and her husband) here for lunch on the Saturday.  We were trying to plan ahead for our extended family get together next week.

2)  Planning ahead.  I volunteered to take a pasta sauce for the second night of our get together so today I have made the first batch.  

These are now safely in the freezer.  I will make the second batch either tomorrow afternoon or Sunday morning.

I also found time to make some banana bread. 

It looks like we've eaten a lot of it but I gave slightly more than half the loaf to my daughter to take home with her - the grandkids love it.

3)  Cooler weather and some rain this week.  It's made things so much easier around the house.

4)  Easy meals.  Because I needed space in the freezer for the pasta sauce we've been using things in the freezer for our dinners this week which means Hubby hasn't had to do as much cooking.  

5)  Internet shopping.  There were a few things I needed this week which I managed to get on Amazon, including these:

The blades rotate when switched on and they keep flies away from your food.  I'm sure they're going to come in handy next week and at home.  I also got a home delivery this morning of the ingredients I needed for the pasta sauce plus some other items we needed here.  It saved me a trip to the supermarket.

We have my daughter's children here tomorrow morning so I'm also thankful that I haven't got a Foodbank delivery to take in.  Then on Sunday my son and his boys are coming down from Nottingham by train and we will take them to the holiday house on Tuesday with us in the car.  My DIL will join us on Friday after work.

I'm thankful to be able to help the kids out when we can.  We had a laundry thing going on earlier in the week as my daughter's washing machine wasn't working properly.  Thankfully that's all fixed now.

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 19/8/26

Thanks to Joyce for the questions.  The link up is here.

1. August 19th is National Aviation Day...do you like to fly? Last time you were on an airplane? The date is chosen in honor of the history and development of aviation, and celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright. Have you ever been to the Kitty Hawk area of North Carolina? The city of Dayton in Ohio (their birthplace)

I don't enjoy flying.  I'm not frightened of it but, not being in a position to fly anything but Economy usually, it's not the most comfortable way to travel.  But it's a necessity for us to be able to visit our son and his family who are currently living in the US and the last time we flew was in June when we had a lovely visit with them.  Unfortunately the best timings for us to get to Boston airport and then home from Heathrow means taking an overnight flight and neither of us got much sleep. 

Never been to North Carolina or Ohio.

2. In what area of your life do you tend to 'wing it'? Is this an area you should be winging? 

I don't usually wing it.  I'm a planner and I like to be organised.

3. A favourite book, song, or movie that relates to flight in some way?   

Well the only thing that sprang to mind was the movie "Top Gun".  One of these days I might get around to watching the sequel lol.

4. Soft serve, gelato, sherbet, frozen yogurt, or good old fashioned ice cream...what's your pleasure? Your favourite flavour? How often do you indulge? 

Well we usually just have old fashioned ice cream in our freezer and mostly vanilla because it goes well with a lot of things but my favourite flavour would be chocolate or salted caramel.  We did have some lovely soft serve when we visited our son in Vermont, and of course we visited the Ben and Jerry's factory.  They have way too many flavours to choose from lol.

5. I never get tired of spending time with the Grandkids.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I didn't get around to many blog visits last week so thank you if you left me a comment.  I'm hoping to do better this week - I even had this post done last night and scheduled to post today!

A Weighty Waffle - 18/8/26

Well I am way behind in my posts, again!  Let's see, the last time I posted was the Wednesday Hodgepodge.  It's been a busy week.

Thursday was taken up with the Foodbank as usual, then on Friday evening my son and his family arrived from Nottingham for the weekend.  They were out during the day on Saturday, catching up with friends but we had Nick's sister Helen and her husband Bill here for lunch so Helen and I could discuss shopping needed for our upcoming family holiday.

On Sunday we had my daughter and her family here for lunch with the others so it's been hectic.

Yesterday I was at the Foodbank in the evening so as well as not posting on my own blog, I've not had time to read other blogs either.  But I have been doing some reading.

I finished this one just in time for the meet up at the library last week.

It got a mixed response.  I quite enjoyed it.  It certainly showcases Atwood's talent and her imagination.  

This is our next read:

This is the same author as "Americanah" which we read recently and I struggled to get through so I wasn't looking forward to this one much.  However I've found it easier to get into so hopefully I'll get it finished before the next meeting.  It's another long one!

I didn't even get to post my 5 things to be grateful for on Friday even though I had plenty to be grateful for.  The main one being running water.  I included that as a blessing a few weeks ago as some areas had been without water while burst water mains were fixed.  It was even more relevant this week as we had no water overnight on Saturday - it went off sometime after midnight but, thankfully, by the morning our supply had been restored.  Over 7000 people weren't so lucky as they had more than a few days without water while a major supply main was being repaired.  The response from the water authority was far from satisfactory too with the distribution of bottled water being chaotic.

We seem to be having burst main, after burst main with water gushing out all over the place and yet we have a hosepipe ban!

And of course there have been cases of fires around the country - the hot weather continues, but tonight and tomorrow we may get some rain.  The fires have caused such concern that on Friday evening the Government sent an emergency alert to mobile phones urging everyone to be careful not to set off fires.  The sale of disposable BBQs have also been suspended.  The alert was really loud and not like most of the tones we usually hear on our phones!

Anyway....that's me caught up. Now I'm off to check out the questions for tomorrow's Hodgepodge!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 12/826

It's Wednesday so it's the Hodgepodge.  Questions are provided by Joyce at From this side of the pond.  Thank you Joyce.  We prepare our answers and then the link up is here.  Why not join in the fun?

1. I saw a meme on Instagram that went like this-'The movie Dirty Dancing came out in 1987 and was set in 1963, so if remade in 2026 it would be set in 2002. Now I need a little lie down in a dark room for a while." 

Time is crazy isn't it? So...what were you up to in the year 2002? 

Ha initially I was going to say I was chasing around after a 6 year old, a 4 year old and a 2 year old then I redid the maths and realised the kids would have been 16, 14 and 12 so I was still probably chasing around after then with my Mum cab.  I was also back working full time so life was busy.

2. "Me? I'm scared of everything..." What's something that scares you that you'd like to try anyway? 

If something is scary I'm probably walking away lol.

3. Watermelon-yay or nay? Which melon is your favourite-watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew. Of the watermelon food/beverages listed which would you say yes to...

watermelon salsa~watermelon feta salad~watermelon sorbet~

a watermelon Jolly Rancher~a watermelon margarita 

My favourite would be cantaloupe.  I'm not a great fan of watermelon but it is refreshing, especially in this hot summer we're having.  We tend not to do anything fancy with it other than work out the best way to cut and serve it.

4. August 12th is National Middle Child Day. Are you a middle child? If not, where do you fall in the birth order in your family of origin? Do you think this has influenced your personality? Elaborate. 

I am the youngest of 3 (2 older brothers) but there are big age gaps between us so I grew up feeling more like an only child.  I think this left me quiet and introverted.

5. Would you rather talk to everyone at a crowded party for a short time, or have a significant conversation with two people? Explain. 

Do I have to do either lol.  (See above.)  Crowded parties are often not the best place for conversations so probably I'd just chat to people for a short time and then move on.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The heat wave continues.  I feel like I'm melting most of the time.