20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #37 - w/c 23/11/20

Look who's here!

Say hello to our granddaughter - Ella Susan, born on 17th November.

Finally we can buy pink!

Now there are 6!

2020 has been a difficult year but for us it's also been full of blessings.

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #36 - w/c 2/11/20

Well here we go again after a long break so a few photos to look at.  Most of them were taken today, a couple are from Sunday.

Today I ventured out for a walk - I'm getting to know the local area around the lake and park close to our house.

I was very glad of these:


It is very muddy as we have had soooo much rain. Some parts of the path are really only suitable for wellies.

 

We live close to the river Ching which winds through the forest area. This is one of the bridges over it.

 

Not particularly secure looking but it serves its purpose.

 

It's not a particularly big river and it twists and turns.



The forest gives way to the open parkland.



There is a play area for children and also a cafe that's still open for takeaways.



And then back to the forest again.



The lake


 

Another bridge over the river that also seems a bit rickety but at least there are guard rails on this one!



 

Plenty of squirrels about today.

These fallen trees are an important landmark when heading home - get to these trees and then turn left (or right depending on which direction you've come from) to find the path that leads out onto the road for home.

The circuit from our house through the forest and around the lake is probably about a mile and a half - I keep forgetting to set my Fitbit to track it when we head out. Next time!

20 in 20 Autumn Update

Well I've called this an Autumn update as I realised to my horror that the last update I did was back in July!  We have been a bit busy and times have been strange.  I haven't always had the same desire to blog. Not good.  But here goes:

1. Fill out weekly/daily planner
I am still doing this and it does make me feel like I have some control over what's going on.  ✅
2. Garden projects: Get window boxes for front garden plus big planters. Stepping stones for rear garden.
Well of course we stopped doing new projects at our old house once we knew we were moving and now we have a new house to work on.  The garden here is quite a blank canvas of 2 areas of grass.  Patio areas and a corner with raised beds of mainly lavender.

We did manage to get the grass cut a couple of times - it was very long when we moved in, but it has been very very wet!

We've also taken delivery of a shed which will be installed next week, then I can get the gardening tools, lawn mower etc in their rightful place.  Not sure what I want to do with the garden yet but will definitely be making it low maintenance.

✅

3. Plan a lunch date/date night with Nick once a month (theatre/cinema/meal/outing)
Well we did manage to eat out once back in August when the "Eat out" scheme was still up and running but of course now we're facing total lockdown again so I think I need to think outside the box on this one.
❌
4. Eat at 6 new-to-me restaurants
The restaurant we went to in August was new to me - it was a pub close to our old house that has recently been completely refurbished.  It had a limited menu due to all the covid restrictions but it was fine for pub food.  Brings the total of new restaurants visited to 3.  Don't think I'm going to make this target by the end of the year.
❌
5. Complete the A – Z blogging challenge
Done ✅
6. Plan Family weekend for my birthday
Next year?
❌ 
7. Take up an exercise class
Not happening!
❌
8. Plan a road trip/holiday with hubby.
Hopefully one day!
❌
9. Visit the beach
At some point!
❌
10. Complete my reading challenge (52 books for the year)
I've completed this challenge and am currently at 64 books read.  (Something good to come out of lockdown!) Full details can be found on my Goodreads page here.
✅
11. Keep a gratitude diary
This is a big fail.
❌
12. Blog at least once per week (plus regular memes)
Well August was quite a good month but September and October were not! ❌
13. Take a photo each week and blog about it.
Again the move has scuppered this one.  I haven't posted any weekly photos since the end of August even though I have taken photos.  I will try and continue this again from now and allow myself some slack due to moving house and still give myself a ✅
14. Read 12 books on my TBR pile.  
Completed!  ✅
15. Finish knitting WIP (blanket of squares)

No change during June. (But I am about 2/3 of the way through the 3rd blanket  for the new Grandchildren.)❌

16. Try out a new recipe or do a bake each month 
Nick has taken over the cooking for the time being but the last couple of weeks I have taken more of an active role in planning the meals.❌
17. Visit/see Noah every month
Well we saw them in August and then we managed to meet the new Grandson at the beginning of October.  With covid restrictions I'm not sure when we'll be able to visit again.  ❌
18. Get damp treatment done in house
Well I guess I could give myself a ✅ for this one.  We didn't actually get the work done but as we no longer have the house it's not something we have to worry about any more!

19. Maintain weight 

Still fluctuating but no significant gains (or losses.)
✅
20. Be kind to myself. Whilst I think it's good to set myself challenges sometimes life gets in the way or I just have days where I really can't be bothered. I need to accept this and not be hard on myself when things don't go to plan.
Things are definitely not going to plan this year!  But I am being kind to myself.
✅

9/20 (45%) - better than July but might be as good as it gets!

Well it almost feels futile trying to carry on with this but I don't give up easily and it's a way of remembering just how difficult this year has been.  Taking on board #20 it's also good to remember that a lot of good things have happened too.  We have 2 new Grandsons who are both doing well.  We have been able to meet them and although we can't see them as often as we'd like they are too young to know what's going on.  It's harder with the older ones but we're doing our best.  We've also managed to complete the move to our new house and have another Grandchild to look forward to before we say goodbye to 2020.

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #35 - 30/8/20

Oops late again with this post.

Back in the day when we used to wander up to our local shops on a Saturday morning (or at least when hubby did)  we would pick up the Saturday paper and we would challenge ourselves to the pub quiz.  If any of the kids were around they would join in too.  And we'd keep the paper for a while in case they visited later as they would still enjoy seeing who could get the best score.

Of course we haven't been venturing very far in these strange times and you can no longer get papers delivered easily so last weekend was a rare treat.

I managed to beat hubby but then we sent it to the kids and I think many of them walloped us.  It was still fun challenging our brains.  (Or lack of them!)

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #34 - 23/8/20

Well I know this is 2 in a row but didn't want to be late again in doing this!  These are from my walk this evening.

The burnt areas are already showing signs of recovery.

This tree will probably be a lasting memory of the fires.

I could hear lots of bird noise and spotted all these parakeets!

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #33 - 16/8/20

Making these kept me busy during this week.  I made 2 sets of these so Hubby and I have matching pairs!

I'm late posting the picture but it was taken during the relevant week.

20 in 20 - July Update

Ha another late report!  But here goes:

1. Fill out weekly/daily planner
This is mostly still working although I do end up being a few days behind at times.
✅
2. Garden projects: Get window boxes for front garden plus big planters. Stepping stones for rear garden.
On hold until we have the new garden to work on.  For now it's just maintenance and keeping it tidy.
❌
3. Plan a lunch date/date night with Nick once a month (theatre/cinema/meal/outing)
What's a date night?  Been so long since we had one I've forgotten what it's like lol.
❌
4. Eat at 6 new-to-me restaurants
See above!
❌
5. Complete the A – Z blogging challenge
Done ✅
6. Plan Family weekend for my birthday
Next year?
❌ 
7. Take up an exercise class
Not happening!
❌
8. Plan a road trip/holiday with hubby.
Hopefully one day!
❌
9. Visit the beach
At some point!
❌
10. Complete my reading challenge (52 books for the year)
I managed to read 9 books in July so I'm way ahead of schedule now. Quite a few of these were added to my Kindle app - books are about the only thing I'm spending money on right now! Full details can be found on my Goodreads page here.
✅
11. Keep a gratitude diary
This is a big fail.
❌
12. Blog at least once per week (plus regular memes)
I crept up to 21 posts in July with a few original posts so a better month overall.✅
13. Take a photo each week and blog about it.
I might have been a tad late with some of these but keeping to the plan.✅
14. Read 12 books on my TBR pile.  
Completed!  ✅
15. Finish knitting WIP (blanket of squares)

No change during June. (But I have made 2 out of 3 blankets for the coming Grandchildren.)❌

16. Try out a new recipe or do a bake each month 
Nick has taken over the cooking for the time being.❌
17. Visit/see Noah every month
We didn't manage this in July but we have been in August.  ❌
18. Get damp treatment done in house
At this point in time our house still has a buyer and they are aware that damp treatment is needed.  We reduced our price to reflect that so we won't have to get that work done.
❌
19. Maintain weight
Fluctauated during the month but no overall gain.
✅
20. Be kind to myself. Whilst I think it's good to set myself challenges sometimes life gets in the way or I just have days where I really can't be bothered. I need to accept this and not be hard on myself when things don't go to plan.
Things are definitely not going to plan this year!  But I am being kind to myself.
✅

Well 40%  ✅ in July.  Slightly up on June.  The move is going ahead slowly.  Covid-19 continues to dominate our lives and I think we're all a bit out of sorts with all of that.

Hopefully when we move it will give us a kick start to be more motivated.

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #32 - 9/8/20

It has been so hot here that there is an ongoing fire risk to the open land by our house.

 

This is an area that was destroyed on Monday - our house is behind the tree line towards the right.

This was a little further away but you can see the scorched line to the left of the fire engine which extended quite a way.

This picture was taken from my bedroom window this morning.  Fortunately a passerby had noticed it and the fire service were there very quickly.

We're being promised thunderstorms tomorrow and maybe big enough downpours to cause flash flooding!  This land is so dry though that it would take a lot of constant rain to relieve the threat.

If I was working at home right now I think I'd have to set up my office in our cellar - it's the coolest room in the house.

 

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #31 - 2/8/20

Well this is well overdue but the photos were taken at the right time!

First a couple of photos taken during our daily walks:

The sky was particularly impressive that night.

And then my favourite of the week:

Look at that smily face!  We hadn't seen Grandson Noah since February and he was a little shy around us at first this weekend but he soon got over that.  He's such a little chatterbox now, although sometimes we needed Mummy or Daddy to translate lol.

 

 I still need to work on my selfies skills!

 

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #30 - 26/7/20

Yep a day late again but here we go:

A lovely belated birthday present from my son and his family.  (Well more from the DIL considering the content)

A perfect present - chocolatea, Waterstones gift card to buy new books and a new bag to keep them in, hand crafted by Grandson Noah.

What's not to love?  Of course seeing him this weekend was a good present too!

I also had another gift card from my other son and family this week too.  One plus side of Covid-19 - birthdays go on and on.... (mine was back in June)

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #29 - 19/7/20

Snapped this one in the garden this week.

And then we had Rory for a few hours on Friday. "Read to me Grandpa!"

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #28 - 12/7/20

Well technically I'm a day late but it's been that sort of week.

This is a screen shot of the photos I took this week.  Not very exciting.  Apart from the rucksack they're all of jigsaws that I've done.  I was trying to see if any of our kids wanted them before I add them to the "pass on" pile in my house.  As in pass on to someone else rather than just trash.

We're still sorting things into that pile or the trash pile, slowly.

We feel a bit in limbo again this week - the survey on our house was done on Tuesday 7th and we've yet to get any feedback on it, despite chasing the estate agents.  We don't know if our buyers have had the report back or not and consequently we don't know if there is anything to worry about, or not.

I'm sure the optimists out there are shouting out "no news is good news"  or "don't worry until there is something to worry about" which of course I get.  I'm just not very good at doing it.  Of course there are various scenarios from this, the worst case being that there is something very wrong with our house, the buyers will pull out and we will be back at square one with a problem to solve.

I know that this would not be the end of the world.  There are things that could happen that would be much worse.  And of course we would deal with whatever is thrown at us.  It's just the not knowing that's frustrating.  It deters me from making much effort in the house.  I'm not good at tempting fate so the plans to do a really thorough deep clean is on hold but the longer we wait to move forward the less time we may have if suddenly everything takes off and we head for the end of August deadline that has been proposed.

The Covid-19 situation is not helping.  Especially now that restrictions are being eased and the messages given out by the Government are far from clear.  They seem to be passing the responsibility for keeping safe onto employers and the general public.  Our PM even seems to think that things might be quite normal by Christmas.  It would be lovely if he's right but I'm not convinced.  Wearing masks, keeping apart and avoiding certain activities is not normal!  But I've ordered some pipe cleaners and plan on making some more masks so that we're prepared although we're still being extra cautious.  It will keep my idle hands and busy brain occupied.

In other news Hubby and I actually sat down and watched a film together last night.  "3 Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" was on.  I'd say it was an OK film.  I didn't like the ending and it was hard to follow what was being said at times due to the accents and the sound seeming a bit muffled and of course if you don't like swearing it's one to be missed.  During the adverts they were promoting "The Post" which will be shown next week.  That's the last film Hubby and I went to see at the cinema.  Thankfully there are so many films available on cable/Netflix that we don't miss going to the cinema. (We don't even miss the popcorn as we're not lovers of it lol)

On a final positive note we're seeing Grandson Rory this afternoon.  Can't be miserable around him!

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #27 - 5/7/20

I finally managed to get a haircut!

Before:

After:

I decided it was time for a change.  I'm getting used to it lol.

And yes I'm rubbish at taking selfies!