In the News this Week - 31/3/26

is taking a break!

I hadn't taken the time to prepare a post and honestly, the news is just to awful to write about at the moment.  And.... tomorrow the A-Z Challenge starts.

Thankfully I have a few posts done and set to post so that's given me a bit of breathing space. But I do need to get a few more posts prepared so that I'm ahead of myself especially with Easter coming and a visit from our Nottingham family on Sunday for a few days.

We're also away overnight on Thursday for a funeral so time is slipping away.  

Hopefully normal service will be resumed in May when the A-Z challenge is over and maybe there might be better news to relay.  

I'm also trying very hard to beat my Wordle unbroken sequence.  It's getting a bit tense lol.

A bit of Waffle - 30/3/26

Well its nearly time for bed so this will be a short waffle.  I'm feeling quite tired tonight - our clocks went forward this weekend so I lost an hour but I've also had a couple of nights where Hubby's snoring has nearly had me decamping to the spare room.  His CPAP machine came up with an error message on Saturday so he wasn't able to use it on Saturday night or last night.  This morning I suggested he turned it off for a bit - as in completely unplug it and also check the water chamber was installed correctly.  Turns out it works the same as the computer - when in doubt turn it off and on to reboot it and it magically solves the problem.  Hopefully it will still be ok tonight and I might sleep better.

It's been 2 months now since I started taking a collagen supplement and I do think I'm usually sleeping better.  It might be more due to taking the collagen in a milky drink before bed than the actual collagen but it's still a win for me.  I also think my hair has improved and more recently the aches in my lower back and hips have been less.  I think my knees might be beyond redemption but we'll see.

I'm also trying to get more into the habit of reading when I go to bed than reaching for my phone.  I have soooooo many books to read.  I've just finished the one the afternoon book club chose so now I'm moving on to the book the evening group picked. 

Tonight we had a quick visit to wish our Grandson Nathan Happy Birthday for tomorrow - they have plans so we won't see him on the day.  I can still remember every detail of the day he was born and the difficult first few months.  (He was very premature.)  But tomorrow he will be 9!  I'm sure he will have cake tomorrow but there was cake today too!

💖

Weekly Photos 22nd to 28th March 2026

Hmm not the best week for photos!

This was Sunday morning.  The parakeets were waiting for food.

Monday - these were over a week old then but still looking ok.

Tuesday was the day I did some jobs in the garden.  A tidy shed area and fairy lights!

Wednesday - nothing to see here! I forgot to take a picture :(

Thursday - I took this on my way home form the Foodbank.  I just liked the cloud formation in the blue sky.

Friday - progress on the jumper and Mr (or Mrs) Squirrel having a feast just after I had filled the bird feeders up.  He/she just seems to know somehow when there's new food.

Saturday morning v Saturday late evening.

I thought it might have actually gone past midnight but according to my camera I was still on Saturday - just - when I put the last piece in.

I find doing a jigsaw quite relaxing but it's also a bit addictive.

I'm still not quite in the habit of taking a photo every day but I have already taken one today so that's next week started.

#SoCS - 28/3/26 - Portrait

Linda provides the prompts for #SoCS and the link up is here.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “portrait.” Use it way you’d like. Have fun!

Why is it that when you take a selfie which is just another word for portrait, the result never looks the same as what I see in the mirror?!

Short and sweet.  I was at the Foodbank all morning dealing with deliveries so I'm off for a sit down and possibly a nap.  Hope no one takes a portrait of that.

Friday's Fave Five - 27/3/26

Thanks to Susanne for reminding us each Friday to count our blessings and then share them here.

I'm still using the Tulip picture even though Spring seems to be a bit undecided this week.  My tulips are beginning to droop a bit too but there's still plenty to be thankful for:

1)  We did have enough sunshine on Tuesday to do some tidying in the garden.  I put up some fairy lights too and I've ordered a couple of tree shrubs and a couple of lavender plants to fill a gap.

2)  Rubbish to the tip.  Hubby did this on Wednesday - there wasn't much but it was making the garden look untidy!

3)  Wardrobe clear out - I did this on Monday and hopefully a charity will pick up the bags of things I cleared out today.  Various charities do roadside collections so I put my 3 bags out this morning.  One bag has already disappeared!

4)  Efficient library service.  The evening book group picked out 3 books at our last meeting to hopefully give us reads for the next couple of months and the library already has copies of all of them.  Plus a book I reserved was also there for me to collect this week.  I love my library.

5)  One of our nephews has just announced that he and his wife are expecting a baby in October.   The tribe doesn't stop growing!

Today is feeling quite wintry again - low temperature and quite cloudy.  I wish Spring would make up its mind!

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 26/3/26

Well the big news here is that I got through an audio book at the weekend!

I wrote about it on my #SoCS post here.  As I mentioned there I've not been a big fan of audio books and this was borrowed accidentally from the library.  I don't think I'll be making a habit of it as I did find it hard to concentrate on it.  Even though I wasn't in bed and about to fall asleep.

Thankfully though it has kept my reading tally on track.  I'm actually 2 books ahead of schedule but this has been quite a slow week for reading.

I've been busy knitting in the evenings, although one evening I did start a new jigsaw puzzle and I've been going to bed quite late so I haven't read much of my current book "The trouble with Goats and Sheep" but I'm aiming to finish it by the end of the weekend.

I also got another book out from the library yesterday:

This is the first in the Karen Pirie series.  I recently read #6 that had been passed on to me so I thought I'd check out the first and go from there.  My library is quite efficient at getting book reservations in.  I really need to have some earlier nights and fit in more reading time!

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 25/3/26

Joyce provides the questions, we prepare our answers then we link up here. Thanks Joyce.

1. It's officially spring in the northern hemisphere. Does it feel like spring in your part of the world? If you're in the southern hemisphere it's officially autumn where you live. Does the weather say autumn? Which do you prefer-spring or autumn? Why?

Well as I'm typing this looking out into my garden the sun is shining so yes it looks springlike but.....earlier there was a big downpour and the temperatures are lower than they were last week. I'm not sure the weather got the spring memo just yet.

I prefer spring to autumn - I don't like losing an hour of sleep when the clocks change but the lighter longer evenings are worth it and watching things coming into bloom is lovely.

Autumn signals the shorter darker days of winter when you feel like you just want to hibernate, although the changing colours of autumn are lovely to see.

2. What's your favourite thing about spring? 

Longer days.

3. Spring into action, spring in your step, spring to life, spring to one's feet...which spring idiom currently applies to your life in some way? Explain.

I think spring into action probably - my to do list is growing!

4. Which spring food from this list is your favourite? What's a dish you like that includes your favourite spring ingredient?

asparagus, strawberries, salad greens like mesclun, artichokes, spinach, eggs, peas, spring onions

Eggs would be my favourite on that list - so versatile. We usually have eggs in our breakfast, and my favourite would be a toss up between scrambled or, as we had today, poached with smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce. Yummy.

5. What's one task on your spring cleaning list? Do you actually have a list?

Well I should have started a list because yesterday I emptied out and tidied our garden shed. That would definitely have been on there. Maybe I'll start the list with that because then I can cross it off and feel smug lol.

I also managed to string some outdoor lights up along the fence.  Not sure how squirrel proof they will be but they looked pretty last night.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Added to that (hypothetical) list would be disposing of all the old half-used etc containers of plant food, pesticides, weed killers etc. The ones that have been sitting there forever and are probably not effective any more. Today I have boxed them all up and applied for a hazardous waste collection. Thankfully we live in an area where you can get that done for free!

I might be on a roll here.

In the News this Week - 24/3/26

Of course the International news continues to be about the war with Iran and the knock on effects in the Middle East.  These are worrying times especially with the effect it is having on oil and energy prices.

There has also been speculation that Trump's decision to delay attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure, may have been leaked given the amount of trading that went on just before that announcement was made.  See here for more details.

At home I managed to find this feel good story about a terrier dog being rescued after disappearing down a rabbit hole.

Entertainment and the articles about who will or will not be the new hosts of Strictly Come Dancing keep coming.  So. Much. Click. Bait. out there.  I wish they'd just make the decision and put us all out of our misery.

In Sports I've just realised that the Football World Cup will be taking place when we're thinking of visiting our son this summer.  That will probably push flight prices up plus the cost of aviation fuel.  I'm sure we'll still be going but it will make it a more expensive trip.  Thankfully we won't be worrying about watching a game.  The cost of tickets has already caused a complaint to be submitted to FIFA about its pricing system.  Read more here. 

And in Miscellaneous news - my shed is tidy!  I spent time earlier pulling everything out, throwing out some stuff and collecting together all the old bottles of things like weed killer, plant food etc that I've also discovered I can get a free waste collection for.  Good job I'm not worried about spiders or cobwebs.  It was a job that was long overdue.  

A bit of Waffle - 23/3/26

We had a nice quiet weekend.  I didn't even end up doing the Foodbank session I was on the rota for as the delivery came really early and the Hub Manager was already there opening up the church for the Saturday morning karate sessions so she dealt with it.  

I did get quite a bit of knitting done, plus I listened to an audio book!  In error.  Well I mean I didn't listen to it in error but I hadn't intended to order in the audio version of the book from the library.  Anyway it was a pleasant enough way to spend time.

Several people have asked if the penny in the vase trick works:

This is after a week, bearing in mind they were given to us after they has been on display for quite a few days too.  So yes I think the penny works!

Today has been a day of two halves really.  This morning I went through my wardrobe and pulled out quite a few things that I haven't worn in a long time and am therefore unlikely to wear, plus a few pairs of shoes that I will definitely never wear again.  These have been bagged up ready for a charity collection on Friday.

I then decided I'd do a few bits in the garden but got a late request to do the school pick up by my DIL as she was stuck in waiting for a new tumble dryer to be delivered.  

I made myself some lunch and was having a cup of tea when she messaged to say the dryer had arrived in time for her to do the school run.  Back to plan A - the garden.

Then there was a general message from the Foodbank about some chicken packs that needed to be collected from nearby Enfield before 5 o'clock and put straight into the freezers.  Well no one else volunteered so I said I would go.  We have been really short of things like this in our usual deliveries so it was too good an offer to pass up.  Thankfully there were a couple of people at the Foodbank by the time I got back who were able to help me unload the car and get it all put away in the freezers.  

The garden will have to wait until tomorrow but the weather is looking okay.  The weather for the rest of the week is looking a bit unsettled with the only completely dry day being Thursday when I'm at the Foodbank.  There's nothing major to be done - hubby cut the grass last week - but I have some solar lights I want to put up plus I have a lot of pots that need emptying and probably got rid of and the shed needs a good tidy.

I am starting to think about getting some plants for pots to go on the patio.  It's a work in progress.  There are also a few bits of rubbish that need to go to the tip which will be delegated to Hubby.  He's been to the new one now and knows the way so no chance of getting a ticket like he did when he went to the old tip, got lost and went through a prohibited section of road!  At least I hope not.

Weekly Photos 15th - 21st March 2026

Afternoon tea on Sunday for Mother's Day

The completed plastic logging sheet which I submitted online on Monday.

The flowers that I brought home from the Foodbank looking pretty on Tuesday.  Look closely and you'll spot the penny in the bottom of the vase which is supposed to keep them looking good for longer.  They're still looking okay today.

Wednesday: The jumper is growing.

Thursday: My next knitting project?  Maybe.  I brought one of these home from the Foodbank last week but it didn't have the label on it.  This one had the label on it and I discovered on the reverse is the pattern for making the hat!

Friday it was nice enough to hang washing out!

Saturday - this is the audio book I listened to.

Funny how colours can look so different in photos.  That jumper looks purple in that photo but I can assure you it's pink!

Hope you're having a relaxing Sunday.

#SoCS - 21/3/26 - Easy/Hard

Linda provides the prompts for #SoCS and the link up is here.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “easy/hard.” Use one, use both, use ’em any way you’d like. Bonus points if you get both words into your post. Enjoy!

Well I'm going to use both by asking is it easy/hard to listen to an audio book?

I have never really settled to listening to audio books.  Some years ago my daughter gifted me a six month subscription to audible but I was still working at the time so the only time I really had for reading was when I went to bed.

Well I'm sure you can guess what happened.  I would often fall asleep listening to the book so I consequently found myself having to backtrack, trying to work out at what point I was up to when I fell asleep and often reading the same chapter over and over.

Needless to say I did not renew the subscription when the gift period expired.

Fast forward to now and I read a lot.  I'm retired so I can really read as much as I want and when I want.  I do love a physical book but I also like the convenience of reading on my Kindle App, especially when on holiday.  But I've kept away from audio books.

Until today.  I mistakenly ordered an audio version of a book from the library rather than the physical copy.  I decided to give it a go.

Straight off I had to speed it up.  The narrator's voice was boring and slow.  I worked out how to speed it up and I actually managed to listen to the whole book during the course of this afternoon and evening.

It was Wednesday's Child by Peter Robinson which is a DCI Banks story. (Actually #6 in the series.)  This is a very English crime series that has been televised.  I enjoyed the TV series and the books have been ok so far. (I'm trying to read them in order.)  They're not 5 star material but they're quite gritty at times.  This one was a bit more graphic than some and the crime centred around a child abduction.

My main problems with the audio version were that:

1)  I found the narrator annoying - and it was the same one for all the characters, men and women; and

2)  I noticed how much detail there was in all the descriptions.  Of everything.

Perhaps when I've been reading the books I've skimmed over that or maybe this book was just more descriptive than previous ones.

Anyway I finished it. 

But it hasn't persuaded me that audio books are my thing.  I was knitting while listening so it was productive in that way but I'm not sure I would necessarily keep all the plot details in my head if I was doing something that required a bit more concentration.  Chick lit might work I suppose but I'm not convinced.

I'll definitely be more careful when ordering books from the library in future though!

Are you an audio book fan? 

Friday's Fave Five - 20/3/26

Susanne reminds us each week to look back on our blessings and then we link up here.  Thank you Susanne.

1) Last Sunday was Mother's Day here in the UK.  We had a lovely afternoon with my daughter and her family.  We were supposed to go to them but we ended up here.  They brought the ingredients for an English style cream tea which we all enjoyed.

2)  We found out this week that one of our nieces is expecting her first baby later this year.  A baby is always something to be thankful for.

3)  Hubby and I sat through a TV series together this week. We don't often want to watch the same thing so it was nice to sit down together and we did binge watch it a bit over a couple of days.  (Series was "Gone" aired by ITV one of the main UK channels.)

4)  Flowers from the Foodbank - we had so many donated to us on Monday evening we didn't have enough buckets to put them in so we all brought some home.

 5) Our eldest son celebrated his birthday yesterday - he was working during the day but he and his family had dinner out at their local Nandos.

And for a bonus - I was able to hang some washing to dry outside today!  Spring is definitely here.

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 19/3/26

Well I only managed to finish one book since my last book post - The Killing Stones by Ann Cleeves.

The blurb reads:

"It's been several years since Detective Jimmy Perez left Shetland. He has settled into his new home in Orkney, the group of islands, off the northern coast of Scotland, with his partner Willow Reeve and their growing family. One stormy winter night, his oldest and closest friend, Archie Stout, goes missing. Ever the detective, Perez catches a boat to the island of Westray, where Archie worked as a farmer and lived with his wife and children.

But when he arrives he finds a shocking Archie's body, on an archaeological dig site and an ancient Westray story stone with precise spirals carved into it beside him, the clear murder weapon. The artifact, taken from a nearby museum, seems to suggest a premediated murder.

But Perez is so close to the case that he struggles to maintain an objective distance from the potential suspects. He finds it difficult to question Archie's wife, whom he's known for years. Rumours swirl about the dead man's relationship with a young woman new to the island, an artist. With each new lead, the case becomes more twisted and Perez wonders if he will ever find out what happened in his friend's final days."

I've enjoyed quite a few books by Ann Cleeves and I've watched the "Shetland" series which featured DI Perez on the TV.  This book finds Perez now settled in Orkney with partner Willow, a young son and another baby on the way.  Yet there didn't seem to be any explanation of how we got from Shetland to Orkney.  According to Google we've jumped 7 years but that wasn't accounted for in this book.

Having said that this book could easily be a stand alone and I do love Cleeves' way of describing things in detail and giving depth to her characters.  It was a little bit too neatly wrapped up for me at the end so no 5 stars but it definitely makes you want to visit Orkey for its scenery.

According to Goodreads I'm 2 books ahead of schedule to complete this year's reading challenge but my reading pile is not going down.

I have 3 books out from the library at the moment:

 


The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is the afternoon book club choice.

People Person is for the evening book group and

The Betrayal is for one of the 52 book club prompts:

"Inspired by the top grossing movie, in the year you were born"

The film?  Ben Hur.  My first thoughts were I'd have to find something on ancient Rome.  Definitely not my sort of thing.  Having looked at what the film is about Betrayal seemed a good fit.  My challenge my rules!

I've actually read The Trouble with Goats and Sheep before so that should be an easy one to get through and I'm starting with that one next.  Then I'll do the other book club one so that I'm ready for the next meet ups before moving on to Betrayal.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 18/3/26

Joyce gives us the questions, we provide our answers and we link up here.

1. St. Patrick's Day lands on March 17th. Do you believe in luck? Are there things you do thinking they'll  bring good luck or  things you avoid because they're considered bad luck? 

I think sometimes things feel like they're luck like winning a raffle, and sometimes the odds seem to fall in your favour but generally no I'm not a great believer in luck and I don't usually do things to avoid bad luck.

2. Forest-lime-sage-mint-olive-emerald...what's your favourite shade of green? Emerald.

3. In Ireland the meal on this day is often a hearty beef or lamb stew served with colcannon (mashed potato mixed with cabbage and leeks). In the US corned beef and cabbage is the more typical St. Patty's Day meal. Will you/did you mark the day with one of these dishes? Baked-fried-roasted-mashed...what's your favourite way to eat a potato?

No traditional St Patrick's meal for us but we did have roast potatoes with our chicken dinner.  I like potatoes however they are cooked but my favourite would be mashed.

4. What colour of the rainbow best represents your personality/mood today? Tell us why. 

I think yellow - it's warm and sunny here today so I'm happy.

5. Which 'lucky' quote resonates with you. Elaborate. 

 'Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.' E.B. White 

'Diligence is the mother of good luck." Benjamin Franklin 

'Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.' Seneca 

'Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.' Ralph Waldo Emerson 

I think they're all good quotes.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

My husband has Irish roots on his Mother's side but none for me so St. Patrick's Day is not a big thing for us.  However at my keep fit class there are a few Irish women so yesterday we were doing some movements to Irish music.  It was a bit bizarre to be honest.  We had a good time though.

In the News this Week - 17/3/26

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my Irish friends.  There are a few Irish women at the keep fit class I go to on a Tuesday and one of them had brought in a playlist of Irish songs this morning.  That was interesting!  The class is normally quite laid back as many of the attendees are elderly but today we got even less done.  But it still got me out of the house and enjoying coffee with friends afterwards.

Took my mind off the news for a while.

At home one of the big stories has been the meningitis outbreak in Kent which has sadly taken the lives of 2 students at the university and there are more cases being treated not only from the university but some schools.  Thankfully my grandchildren are young enough to have been vaccinated against meningitis as part of their childhood immunisation programme but this was only started in 2015 so most of the students currently at university won't be protected.  Many students in Kent are being offered antibiotics and vaccines.

International news continues to be dominated by the war in Iran.  Enough said.

The big entertainment story was of course The Oscars.  I'd like to do a detailed account of that but I haven't seen any of the films.  Apparently one of the big stories was that Timothy Chalamet had fallen down the stairs - he's not having a good time, missing out on the Best Actor award plus the controversy over his comments about Ballet and Opera.  I could probably let the dig at Opera slide but not the Ballet!   But it turned out the stairs story was fake.  You really cannot believe all you see on social media.

In Sports, despite a draw this weekend against Liverpool, my football team could face relegation from the Premier League!  Tottenham Hotspur are 1 of only 6 teams that have never been relegated from the Premier League since it was set up in 1992.  I say my team but I don't really follow them or much football at all these days.  I grew up as a Spurs supporter because we had family working at the club and my husband actually worked for them as an accountant for a while despite the fact that he is a West Ham supporter.  I couldn't even name any of their players now but I would still hate to see them go down, although by the sounds of things it wouldn't be undeserved.

And finally in Miscellaneous it is Red Nose Day, organised by Comic Relief on Friday - a big fundraising event on TV but there are also many events leading up to this.  One of these is a BBC Radio 1 DJ, Greg James riding a tandem from Weymouth on the south coast of England to Edinburgh in Scotland a distance of 1000km which he's aiming to complete in 8 days.  Anyway today he was joined for part of his trek by the Prince of Wales.  I love it when our Royals step up for things like this.  You can watch a clip of that here.

A bit of Waffle - 16/3/26

We had Grandson Nathan here on Saturday morning until early afternoon which was nice.  He's started a big jigsaw so he brought that here on a puzzle board and we managed to get the edging done but he lost interest after that.  Especially once he managed to persuade Grandpa to play football outside for a bit.

Yesterday my daughter and DIL brought afternoon tea to us.  We were supposed to go there but they've had a few issues at home with a leak and now their tumble dryer isn't working so they came to us instead.

We had cream cheese and smoked salmon bagels followed by scones with clotted cream and jam plus a couple of other cakes.  I also got a lovely plant which hopefully I won't kill and some nice soap.  It was Mother's Day here in the UK.

Of course we also got a load of washing to dry in our tumble dryer.  Just glad we live near enough to be able to help out like that.

Today I've had a fairly quiet day - I submitted the plastic count we'd done last week.  It would be nice to think that a collective effort might put pressure on our Government to try and reduce the plastic packaging we get.  There is a lot of unnecessary wrapping on food.  I try to buy loose fruit and veg when I can and I have various things that come as refills for starter bottles such as washing up liquid, fabric conditioner and cleaning spray and they come packaged in cardboard that can be recycled.   There is talk that when one of the local fish and chip shops closes soon that it will become a butcher's shop.  That would be good because a lot of the plastic we bin each week is meat wrapping.   Will have to see how expensive it is though.

This was our tally sheet:

This evening I've been at the Foodbank taking in deliveries and it would seem most of the supermarkets overestimated on flowers for Mother's Day as we received lots of flowers tonight, so many we didn't have enough flower buckets to get them all in water so I now have a vase of tulips to brighten my dining room table too.  One of the perks of being a volunteer.  

Weekly photos - 8/3/26 - 14/3/26

Well this week I have been tracking the progress of my neighbours Cherry Blossom tree.

This was taken on Sunday when it was only just starting to bloom.

    

I also managed to walk round the lake and snapped some tufted ducks.

Monday was the start of a week of counting the plastic going into the bin and recycling.

Hopefully the data will be used to put pressure on the Government to look at ways to reduce the amount of plastic packaging we use.

Tuesday

     

Wednesday - a close up of the blossom and it's already dropping onto our grass.

Thursday - a lovely start to the day but you can see how much blossom is dropping.

Friday

A close up on Saturday showing how bare the top of the tree is already beginning to look.

It really is a pretty tree when it's in full blossom but it is so short lived.