Friday's Fave Five - 13/11/26

It's Friday so time to look back on the blessings of the week and join up on our host Susanne's site here.

1)  Well I'm sticking with the fall picture because we have so many leaves on our streets at the moment.  Although we did have our first frost of the season a couple of nights ago so I'm glad of a hot water bottle when going to bed.  I don't like an electric blanket as it feels too hot for me but a hot water bottle just takes the chill off when I first get to bed.   I don't like to be too hot so it doesn't usually stay in the bed very long.  I often start off in socks when it's really cold but they get kicked off during the night too.

2)  Our Keep Fit class was back on this week and the new floor in the venue looks great.  There was some confusion though as previously our trainer would often tell us to stand for example with our feet 4 blocks apart for a particular exercise meaning the blocks of the flooring which ran from front to back of the room.  The new floor runs across the room.  We had to think in inches instead!  

3)  A Knit and Natter session on Wednesday.  I'm now working on making a dog. I've finished the arms, legs, head and ears.  Moving on to the body next and then his tail.  

4)  Another great quiz night on Thursday at the Foodbank provided by our local wine bar.  They have been so supportive to us and it was a fun evening.

5)  Grateful that I had my gloves with me this evening.  I had to pick Grandson Nathan up from his after school football club and the poor boy's hands were so cold he was in tears.  He'd lost his gloves and his new ones didn't arrive until after he'd left for school today.  Anyway I soon had my gloves on him and got him in the car so he could warm up.  He'd still enjoyed his football though.

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 11/11/26

Joyce provides the questions each week. We prepare our answers and then we link up here. Thank you Joyce.

1. Marilyn texted me something that inspired this question, so thank you Marilyn! Of the following sayings, typically associated with the (American) southern way of speaking, which do you most relate to right now? Explain.

Bless your heart~too big for yer britches~ madder than a wet hen~ you're preachin' to the choir ~knee high to a grasshopper~oh my stars

Well not being American I don't really relate to any of these. I do occasionally use "you're preachin' to the choir" although usually that will become preaching to the converted.

2. The Hodgepodge lands on (US) Veterans Day this year. Are you a veteran? Have a family member who's a veteran? If you answered yes, tell us something about them. Will you do anything to mark the day in some special way?

My Dad was a veteran of WW2. He joined the army in around 1933 to escape working in the coal mines of Yorkshire. I'm sure he didn't envisage there would be another world war while he was serving.

3. Is breakfast for dinner a stroke of genius or a sign of total household collapse? Is breakfast for dinner a regular thing at your house? Are all family members on board?

Well there are only 2 of us at home now and although we don't often have breakfast for dinner we do have brunch quite a bit. I don't think it's a sign of total household collapse unless it is a regular thing and it rather depends on your definition of breakfast.  We usually have a cooked breakfast of some variety but if we were just cereal people I wouldn't want that for dinner.

4. How do you see the world?

I try not to think globally too much - it's not a pretty sight.

5. And this week's gratitude question-what's something about your surroundings (home, neighbourhood, city) you're grateful for?

I love being part of the city but having a lake and forest within walking distance of my home.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It's wet and gloomy here, perfect reasons for staying cosy inside.

Waffling on - 10/11/26

Well I intended posting yesterday but it just didn't happen so here I am catching up again.

We had a quiet weekend which was just what I needed after last weekend with family here and a busy week.  I did my usual session at the Foodbank on Saturday morning but there was nothing on the agenda for the rest of the weekend.  

I definitely relaxed.  I read the Saturday paper which comes with so many sections!  Including a big puzzle spread which I love.  I did a bit of reading, a bit of knitting, and not a lot of anything else. 

Oh and I worked on the puzzle:

I finished this puzzle last month but then it came with extra challenges.  The first being to spot the extra things that appear on the puzzle itself compared to the picture supplied.  Hopefully you can see where I started to mark them up on the photo I took.  I did a bit at a time and had got up to 94.  There are 100!  I'd had enough so I checked out the answers.  It turns out there were more than 100 because some of the ones I spotted weren't on the answer sheet.

Anyway.....think I was done?  Oh no.  The next challenge was to answer 20 riddles about fairy tale characters that were pictured on the puzzle.  Well I think I got 11/20 - annoyingly the answer to this quiz only showed where the characters were on the puzzle.  They didn't actually name them so that was a bit disappointing.  But now I am DONE with this puzzle.  I will be taking it off my puzzle mat and boxing everything up.  

And moving on .... to the next one that my daughter and family bought me back when it was my birthday.  That might be even more challenging because it doesn't come with a picture.  Well it does but you have to assume you're the character in the picture and the puzzle is of what they are looking at.  Confused?  Yes me too.  Hopefully it will become clearer once I get underway.

Yesterday was spent catching up on chores and some laundry then I was at the Foodbank as usual in the evening.  I also did a pick up as we were a driver short so another busy day.

Today our Keep Fit class was back on - we missed 3 weeks as the floor in the venue was being renewed.  And we went for our usual tea/coffee afterwards.  It was good to be back in the routine.

This afternoon I tidied my "toot" drawer.  I didn't take a before photo but here is the after:

The organiser arrived yesterday so I was determined to get it done.  Some things were rehomed to the garage.  Quite a few bits went into the bin and now you can see things quite easily in there.  I wonder how long it will stay like that?

And now it's time for bed.  Hope your week has got off to a good start.

Shots on Sunday - 8/11/26

Why do I have all these bright ideas for blog posts then not get around to creating a post?  A purely rhetorical question - there are simply not enough hours in the day sometimes.

Anyway, these are the photos I snapped over the past week 2 weeks.

We had 4 of the 6 grandkids here for Sunday lunch last week.  Hectic but fun.

On Friday we met great niece Freya for the first time.  She slept most of the time we were there so we got lots of cuddle time.

These were the screws holding on the bracket to one of our kitchen drawers.  Yes they are tiny.  And they failed

A bit of a DIY repair was required.

All done

Everything back neat and tidy.  That drawer does get a bit chaotic at times but now there are the right number of lids for all the takeaway containers and all the odd lids/containers are in the recycling box.  It probably won't stay like that for long but I can hope.

Now I just have to tackle the drawer above that one.  I call it my "toot" drawer because that's what it's full of.  I never had one at our old house - we only had 2 drawers in the kitchen, one for the cutlery and one for things like tablecloths and placemats.  All the "toot" ended up in the cellar, out of sight and mind.

In this house we have quite lots of drawers in the kitchen which I mainly keep organised but the "toot" drawer came with things the previous owners left behind.  Well my task for this week is to throw out anything that we haven't touched in the past 6 years.  Yes we've been here 6 years now so I really need to sort out that drawer.  It contains useful things like spare keys, a measuring tape, the odd battery but also a lot of other "stuff".  I've ordered an organiser for the drawer to split it into compartments which hopefully will help.  

I might not take a before photo (bit too embarrassing) but I'll try and have an after photo by next week.