A late bit of Waffle - 2/6/26

And just like that it is Tuesday!

I was busy yesterday morning doing chores and then I did relax and finish a book I was reading in the afternoon.  I was going to fit a walk in but that didn't happen so I walked up to the Foodbank for my Monday evening slot rather than drive.  And yes it is mainly uphill.

I fully intended to blog after I got home.  I'm usually home by 10 and it's nice to wind down a bit before going to bed.  Except best laid plans and all that.  I didn't get home until gone 11 as one of the stores had problems with their scanners.  All the food they donate to us is the already reduced in price stuff that has to go because of sell by dates etc.  They have to scan it all though for their records.  The store was the one at Ponders End which is a huge Tesco.  We probably get as much stuff from there as we do from all the other stores together.  So it's worth waiting for.  But we waited and waited!  Plus the poor guy doing the collection was on his own last night so that didn't help.  Anyway he finally arrived and our team of 3 set to work at getting the stuff sorted and put away in the fridges/freezers as quickly as we could.  Thankfully one of my colleagues lives just around the corner from me so she gave me a lift home.  Walking home at that time wouldn't have bothered me, it's only a 10 minute walk, but I was really tired by then.

So I got home to see that Hubby obviously hadn't seen my message about putting out the dustbins.  He was too busy playing his guitar.  I don't like putting them out that late as it's hard to do it quietly but doing it in the morning isn't an option as the one bin is collected as early as 6 am most weeks. 

I definitely needed winding down time before going to bed after that.

And I've overslept this morning so no exercise class for me today.  I might join friends for coffee afterwards.  I'm waiting to here what the plan is.

As yet I have no plan! Oh except I have to make an appointment to pick up my new glasses.  

A bit of waffle - 4/5/26

Well the A-Z challenge is over for another year (apart from the reflections posts and the road trip) so time to get back into the normal rhythm of blogging.

That didn't go too well yesterday when I didn't do a photo post.  Hadn't taken many photos, again! But here are a few that didn't make it to my posts during last week:

Not the best photo but you can just about see the baby coots. There are several coots nesting around the lake and the parents of these were being very territorial and chasing ducks away.

Egyptian geese.

The resident heron.

Some of the trees around the lake are very old and I love picking out the unusual shaped ones.

I'm not sure how long these tree remains have been in the lake - I hadn't walked down there for a little while

But this shows where the tree has gone over into the lake.

Nesting coot.

And I couldn't resist posting this screen shot.  Part of my morning routine is to do the New York Times set of puzzles - Wordle, Connections etc and of course the Spelling Bee.  I usually try to get to at least the Amazing level and I do occasionally reach the Genius level but I had never managed a Queen Bee where you find all the possible words, until last Monday.  And it was quite a tricky selection of letters so I was feeling very pleased with myself.

Today has been a Bank Holiday in the UK although of course it doesn't make a lot of difference when you're retired.  But it did affect the timing of charity collections at the supermarkets for the Foodbank as the supermarkets were mostly closing early.  I ended up having to do a collection from our local Tesco at 5 pm as we're a bit short of drivers at the moment, one has moved on to train to be a Fire fighter and a couple were away on holiday.  But thankfully we were all finished with sorting out the donations just before 7 pm so a nice early night for me and time to blog.

I'm about half way through Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to work it into the 52 Book Club Challenge.  I've also downloaded Penitence by Kristin Koval which was a magazine recommendation and I've reserved Welcome to the Neighbourhood by Jane Fallon which will tick the "Published in 2026" box.

I need to get back into the habit of reading before I go to sleep, I've been a bit lax lately.  There really aren't enough hours in the day, especially when you get caught up in waffle!

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.

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.  

November Gratitude Log - 8/11/25

Day 8 and today I'm grateful for the volunteers that collect the donations from the parishioners of another local church and bring them to our Foodbank each Saturday and also for the ones that collect the items that are placed in the donation crate at our local Tesco supermarket.  We are very fortunate to have a big group of volunteers, in various capacities that help with the running of the Foodbank - it's not just about giving out the food each week.

And to all the members of the public that put tokens into the charity box at Tesco.  We collected the most tokens last month and will receive £1500 from Tesco.  Makes a huge difference!

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon - 19/10/25

Yes today has definitely been a lazy day!  I needed one after the last few days.

A big chunk of Thursday was spent at the Foodbank - we had a huge delivery of lots of fresh food in from our regular supplier plus a lot of other items which all had to be taken in and then organised and distributed.  It was hard going as I was the only person in the back storeroom this week.  Then the church had to be cleared of all the food and set up ready for a weekend concert.

Friday I caught up on a lot of household chores and laundry.

Then yesterday I was back at the Foodbank to take in another delivery.  Thankfully my fellow volunteer Sally was there to help with that because this is the picture I took after we'd been sorting the contents of bags for almost an hour.

Every Saturday we get a delivery from people who attend a church in nearby Woodford Wells.  They put a donation bag outside their houses, volunteers collect them and bring them to us.  This week we also had a big collection from a nearby school that had been brought in on Friday to deal with. There were bags everywhere and they needed to be moved as we have to be able to walk through the store room as it's a Fire Exit route.

Sally and I spent about 2 hours opening up all the bags and grouping things together in crates.  Usually we would try and write dates on the items and put them in their proper storage area but there was no way we could do that on Saturday.  I didn't get an after photo as I actually did a video to send to the Manager showing her what we had done.  Most of the things were stored in the green crates you can see in the picture but we had to leave a lot of cereal boxes on the work table.

Hopefully the team that come in on Mondays to set up the Church ready for the Tuesday session of the Foodbank will be able to make some more progress.  It's a good problem to have though.  We're always grateful for donations.

When we'd done as much as we could I made my way round to Tesco's where Hubby was doing our shopping - in my rush to get to the Foodbank in the morning I'd come out without my door keys!

Saturday evening I was back at the Church but this time for entertainment - 

This band have for the last few years done a concert at the Church with proceeds going to the Foodbank.

The band was formed by John Ongom back in 2002.  John was originally from Uganda but came to England to study and stayed.  When he tried to find a band to join he couldn't find what he was looking for so he just set up his own.  Sadly John died in 2018 but the band continues under the musical director Angus Moncrieff who was born in Highams Park.

It was a really good concert and well attended so hopefully it will help our fundraising efforts.  And it was nice to be out with Hubby for the evening.

But all that is why today has been a very lazy, quiet day.  It's also been raining so that was another excuse for not getting out for a walk.

I've read the paper, caught up on some book reviews and last night's episode of Strictly Come Dancing.

Now I'm off to bed to do some reading while Hubby catches up on the weekend's football on TV.  I've just started Sense and Sensibility.  It may take me a while. 

Perks of being a volunteer - 2/10/25

I was at the Foodbank today as usual for a Thursday.

It was a busy morning - we had training first thing about looking after our own wellbeing which was interesting and useful.  Then we had our usual session.  There seems to be a glut of carrots at the moment.  The deliveries we've had from a local supplier for the last few weeks have contained LOTS of carrots.  More than we can give out even.  

We do liaise with other providers when we have this issue and there is another group that goes to venues on Friday and Saturday who will come and collect excess food from us.

However, as volunteers, we are also allowed to take surplus items home too.  Today I have come home with carrots (we still have loads to give out on Tuesday), a cauliflower and a couple of bread items.

Tomorrow I hope to be making soup!  And yes I've checked what I need and added a few missing things onto my shopping order which is coming in the morning.  Hopefully I'll be all set.

Although I might get started on one of these - bargains picked up on a Facebook local site.

Or try and finish assembling Daughter's granny squares into a blanket.  I've nearly got them all sewn together but then it will need an edging and all the ends will need weaving in.

And then there is still a book to be finished for the daytime book club......

I'm so glad to be retired!

Helping at the Food Bank

It's a sad state of affairs that so many people in this country are currently relying on food banks.

We have a local Food Bank that operates out of the local church.  It's open on Tuesday and Thursday and recently they were appealing for volunteers so I decided to give it a go.

There are various roles and sessions volunteers can take part in - e.g. there are volunteers who make collections from local supermarkets that support the bank themselves but also have a trolley that shoppers can put donations in.  There are also volunteers who help in the evenings putting those collections/donations away and restocking the storage crates that are used during the sessions.  

They are also supported with food from local allotments and a nearby bakery.

I went initially for a visit and one of the gaps was for volunteers to help out at the Thursday daytime session which works well for me as Hubby is involved in a walking group on Thursdays so it made sense for us both to be tied up on the same day.

I'm really enjoying it.  The bank has been running for over 3 years now so it's well organised and people coming to use the bank have to have a referral.  People can't just walk in off the street although anyone that does would be signposted to people that could help them.  We've had several sessions recently where staff from the local Citizens Advice Bureau have attended and there is also a worker from Christians Against Poverty on hand to help people with debt advice.

Hot drinks and snacks are provided free to the people using the bank and some of the volunteers have been trained as listeners and their role is to engage with users.  The church also provides a "Warm Space" during the winter months.

I'm grateful to be part of this worthwhile venture but sad that it's needed.