Feeling middle aged

Posted byNic 25 Comments on Feeling middle aged

Today, on a Sunday, in the rain, we went to garden centres. This is so something I never thought I’d be doing 😆 . In fairness what we weren’t doing was the mindless, purposeless wandering round because our lives are empty of meaning and we think looking at scented candles, overpriced vases, allegedly ‘home made’ flapjacks and potted herbs will enhance them. We were specifically looking for garlic bulbs, compost accelorator and apple trees.

It’s been wet,wild and windy all day here today without less than five minutes between rainfalls. This prevented allotment visiting so we did some allotment shopping instead. First thing though we watched some of the Great North Run on tv. A friend of mine was running in it so I was hopeful of seeing a glimpse of her (I didn’t) and I quite like watching sporting events like that on tv. We cheered on Jo Pavey who we thought was going to take first place but came in third and then headed off out. My friend did amazingly well and came in at a great time. Even more amazingly she only started running this year and in January was interval walking between lampposts speeding up at every other one – 10 months later she is running a half marathon with a fantastic time. I’m very proud of her 🙂 .

The garden centres were, predictably packed so we checked what we were looking for and did quick in and out manouveres in all of them. We came home, Ady cooked a lovely roast beef dinner, I cut up loads of rags into strips for a special shaped rag rug I’ve made for a gift (my first ambitious project yet – I have a plan for another already :)) and watched ‘It’s not easy being Green’ which I love. I spent some time hanging out on their forum earlier this year chatting about smallholdings and chickens and I’ve read the book that goes with the series but not seen every episode. It was being shown back to back on one of the tv channels today so that was good.

We had dinner watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I made raspberries, meringue and cream for pudding (well more constructed than made I suppose) and then I watched X Factor, the children played in the playroom (what a novel idea!) and Ady had a bath. We then swapped around, Scarlett went to bed to listen to endless audio books some with the book to ‘read’ along with, I had a bath and Ady and Davies watched Harry Potter. I then deigned to be in the same room as it but paid no attention to it as I made my rug.

I feel a bit housebound today despite having been out briefly so I’m hoping for some better weather tomorrow as we have a tentative arrangement to meet friends at the beach.

25 replies on “Feeling middle aged”

  1. We like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang too. A fantastic film advocating HE being better than school. 🙂

    It’s looking like wind and rain for us until Thursday. I’m hoping the forecast will prove to have been unreasonably pessimistic.

  2. Looks lovely here this morning – let’s hope we all get a few more days of it – I had enough of getting soaked over the weekend and it would be nice to get some washing hung out 😉

  4. Beach plans have been postponed in favour of them coming here. It is currrently dry (I have washing out) but D and S are crap at being at the beach for more than about 10 minutes before going in the sea regardless of the weather / temperature. If it remains dry I may try and get up to the allotment a bit later though for a fix of ‘fresh air and outdoorsyness’.

    Have got washing out though 😉

  5. Does washing that’s been on the line for 4 days count? I forgot I’d hung it out (can’t see line from house) now it has to stay there until it either dries or I get paid so I can take it to the launderette!

  6. Yeah I think we’ll let you have that Ros. I’ve had washing that’s been out for days and days this summer where I’ve refused to bring it in til it’s dry and it just kept raining.

  9. 2 or 3 weeks ago I had a load of socks – all C’s black work ones and P’s black school ones – out over a weekend. It rained so much that eventually I brought them in on Sunday night because they needed them in the morning and it was still raining, and had to wring water out of them by hand as they were so sodden. They still weren’t dry by the morning, and C dried two pairs by sticking the hairdryer in them. It’s not been a great summer for laundry 😆

    Bit grey here now, but I’ve just hung some out …

    Nic, have you ever thought of starting a new blog just for washing stories? 😉

  11. Draping it over the radiators isn’t posh Michelle 😉

    No, you’ve got a Sheila maid, haven’t you? I’ve been trying to work out where I could put one here without bringing the ceiling down, lol! I don’t really trust this house 😉

  12. lol yes, we have Sheila Maid. We did have to identify where the joists were and we were lucky in that it was able to go exactly where I wanted it to. Friends have put theirs above the stairs as there was lots of space there and even sheets could hang and not get in the way. Ours is in the utility as I like the window open to avoid condensation.

  15. Ooh like the look of both of those Helen. I hung one load of bedding out on the line but it is being rained on. About to drape the second load around radiators and on clothes airer though.

    I’m feeling a bit laundry revolutionised with our new (to us) machine and how ‘dry’ clean clothes come out – makes me realise how had it our old one was as it delivered washing still sopping wet most of the time so draping about indoors resulted in the house smelling of damp clothes and the clothes always being a bit musty.

  16. And I never knew those were called ‘sheila maids’ before – Julie has one in her front room above the fire which I’ve always envied 🙂

  17. Well, you can get Rachel Maids too but they aren’t the real deal. Obviously mine is a proper Sheila Maid.

    Everyone can pick themselves back up from off the floor now 🙂

    No, I wasn’t joking. It’s true.

  19. You can get all sorts – kitchen maids, pulleymaids, etc. I’d probably get a cheaper one because they look a lot lighter – don’t have that lovely chunky cast iron ‘Sheila Maid’ bit at each end. Above the stairs might be good, until we get our (mythical) loft conversion.

  21. argh – was it the first series of INEBG?? I really want to see that (oh the excitement of my life!). I’ve had the book for ages and love it.

    *ignores washing discussion ;o)*

  22. pmsl at washing discussion. I have washing on my line that has been out there for 4 days now. Indoor washing thingie, thats what I need yup, but not an electric one!! As for the linomotion (what a name!) there is no where in my house I could put it and still walk around it. So will have to carry on with clothes horses on radiators.

  23. Em, having used something similar for years instead of a wardrobe for the kids, we’ve got one of these on our landing – you can fit a lot of wet clothes on coathangers on it.

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