Friday's Fave Five - 13/6/25

Susanne reminds us every week to take a pause, look back on the week and find the things we're grateful for.  Sometimes that's easy, other weeks I find it more of a struggle but I'm definitely grateful to Susanne for keeping us on track.

You can find out more here.

1)  41 years married!  Our anniversary was on Monday and we celebrated by taking a slow walk up to Chingford and having lunch at the Forest Hotel which is quickly becoming a favourite of ours.  Excuse the order of the photos

My sticky toffee pudding - doesn't look that special but it tasted divine.

Hubby's Chocolate Delice.  It doesn't need to be huge - the chocolate is soooo rich.  I've had it before which is why I opted for something different this time.

This is the cheap steak option - I didn't opt for any extra sides as I wanted space for the pudding - we don't usually eat big lunches but the walk there (about 2 miles) had given us an appetite!

And this was Hubby's main - Olive and tomato stuffed chicken ballotine.

He also enjoyed a starter of a caesar salad with anchovies.

The Hotel and Restaurant only re-opened in January after a major refurbishment but seems to be doing really well.  For a Monday lunchtime it was quite busy and we hadn't booked but we were able to get a table.  It has a good atmosphere.

2.Apps!  I went to the library on Wednesday and I didn't have my card with me.  (I actually think I might have lost it 😢) But I was quickly shown how to check the book out using the library app on my phone!

3.  Loyalty schemes - I made use of a 20% discount voucher this week and an additional £5 off as it's my birthday month from Lakeland this week.  There were a few bits I'd been meaning to get so this spurred me on to order them before the discount expired.

4.  It's raining as I write this.  (9pm)  It's been another lovely sunny, hot day today - it's been a good week weatherwise but we do need some rain.  I'm grateful that it's coming overnight and not affecting any plans.

5.  I'm grateful for a clean and tidy house.  My brother and his wife were due to visit on Wednesday so always a good incentive to be prepared for visitors.  Unfortunately my SIL was unwell and we're going to have to rearrange but I'm grateful that the main house is now tidy.  The garden room and garage are still full of things that need to be elsewhere but I'm working on that.  My daughter is gradually working her way through her boxes of stuff (with a little encouragement - as in "here is today's box for you to sort" when she's here working lol.)  I'm also gradually giving away all the children's clothes etc. we had here.  We often get bags left by charitable groups to put items in and then they collect it from your doorstep so another bag went this week.

I also put a box of books out the front today and about 1/3 of them had been taken by this evening.  I plan to keep that topped up and out front on dry days.  Little and often is the plan.  But at least now it doesn't feel so overwhelming.

I even managed to get more knitting done - Maisie's jumper just needs one sleeve finished.

Have a good weekend all.

Time for Me! 20/10/16

Well I did eventually put my underwear on today, and top clothes, (I needed to get out and shop for dinner) but I decided that today was going to be a "Me" day.
We've been decorating on and off since Saturday, 2 coats of paint on the ceiling, 2 coats on the walls plus popping out for more supplies and ordering the carpet.  Tiring work when you've not done it for a while so today was designated as a day of rest and just pleasing myself.

Of course it's hard to completely rest when you realise the laundry basket is rather full, and the dishwasher needs emptying and oh there's some rubbish to be cleared up.  But there were breaks in between for blogging, reading etc.

We'll resume painting at the weekend.  I'm aiming to get it finished at the weekend so the paint has plenty of time to dry before the carpet is fitted.

I'm fortunate that I have a hubby who likes shopping.  I don't have to drag him to the shops.  In fact he'll often go off to do shopping on his own.  We even managed to agree on some carpet fairly quickly.  Just curtains and bedding and accessories to go!

The carpet is due to be fitted on 31st October and our first guests arrive on 4th November.  Sounds like I'm opening for business but of course this is just for friends and family but these first guests are actually friends of our son and daughter-in-law so I do want things to be as nice as possible.  We will also be welcoming DIL's Aunt and Uncle from America here in April next year so no pressure!

I spent part of today trying to find an anniversary gift for my daughter and her wife.  It's their first anniversary next week.  Their first year seems to have flown by.  Finding a suitable gift proved difficult.  I found a lovely record book for anniversaries that I thought would be a nice thing to keep but, fortunately, I spotted that on the page for recording things like where they met etc. there was a reference to "her" version of how they met and then "his" version.  Hmm, perhaps not such a good idea.

Thankfully I did find a site that had quite a few gifts suitable for same sex couples and hopefully the gift I've chosen will be delivered in time.  I also got a few ideas for Christmas presents so not totally a me day after all.  Actually, once you're married and have a family I think it's hard, but definitely not impossible, to have a totally "me" day.  It just takes a bit of planning and probably works best when away from home.