A poorly Karma

Just popping in to say hi! 

Yesterday was filled with ordinary housework and trying to entice our cat, Karma, to eat something, anything. As she’s diabetic, she needs to eat before having her insulin. By her teatime, she wasn’t even wanting tuna or the freshly cooked chicken I had done. After a call to the vet, it was decided no insulin and a 9am appointment this morning. 

So this morning she had her temperature taken, that’s ok, heart with stethoscope, that’s ok, but she has a tender abdomen. Bloods were taken and I had to wait for the results. 

A phone call this lunchtime confirmed she has pancreatitis and the vet said the reading was very high!  So I have some meds to give her and go back in two days time, unless she deteriorates, in which case I’ll take her straight up. Hoping she improves a bit with the meds, as they’ll have to give fluids intravenously if they don’t. 

First dose has been given and Karma actually had her tea, so fingers crossed! What with hubby’s sciatica and Karma’s pancreatitis, it’s not a happy household at the moment. 

I’m having a quiet evening with an overdue perusal of some mags, while the footy is on the tv. Hoping to bring you a more cheerful next post, cheerio for now, Ann x

A quiet few days

Hi folks!

It’s been a quiet few days, really.

 Friday was Blue Cross day. I sat with some lovely cats. Some wanted to play, some were quite nervous, so just quietly read to them. The chocolate cupcakes went down well. In the evening, hubby and I went over to our daughter’s, she cooked us a very nice meal and we met Ernie. He is staying at the Blue Cross, until he finds a new owner. My daughter had him for a sleepover, to give him a break from kennel life and took him back to BX where she works in the morning.

He is adorable.......

Overnight storm Hannah well and truly arrived! 

Saturday, hubby was working. His back is excruciatingly painful with sciatica at the moment. It’s awful to see him struggling with it. Son was hungover, the joys of being young and nights out! I did the normal Saturday shopping. In the afternoon, I went to the last league home game of the season and we (Exeter City) won :)  Hubby’s train wasn’t due in until just after ten and our little station isn’t far but as he’s in pain walking, I said I’d pick him up. First though , I ran him a bath, so he could jump (metaphorically!) into it as soon as he got in and ease some of his pain.

So, it’s earlyish on Sunday morning and the storm has passed. I’ve given Karma her food and insulin, she’s now curled up on my chair. We are having a quiet day today, although our son has work. I shall be feeding the washing machine intermittently, not sure I trust the weather to peg out though. Apart from making meals, I’ll probably be knitting or meal planning and the like.

Hope you enjoy your Sunday, whatever you end up doing, 

Cheerio for now, Ann x

A cheats bake

Afternoon all!

Every Friday, I like to take a baked treat up to folks at the Blue Cross. But occasionally, there are times when I’m lacking in just that.........time.

So, I still bake, but have a helping hand, in the form of Wright’s cake mixes. They are a world away from those cardboard box kits and taste lovely. Today, I used this one.......

Just add water and veg oil. You can make a 2lb loaf cake, but I opted to make cupcakes. They come out as good as a ‘from scratch’ bake and I would say they’re between a sponge fairy cake and a muffin consistency.

Then of course, it’s just a bit of fun decoration!

Hopefully, next week I’ll have time for some proper baking and perhaps try a new recipe (I do use the BX peeps as guinea pigs sometimes!)
Off to prep the dinner, so cheerio for now, Ann x

All Change Tuesday

I had a lovely Easter Monday. Hubby and I went to see his sister and hubby. We had a great catch-up and some scrummy food, whilst sat out on the patio in the sun. A lovely end to the Easter.

Today, I had an early appointment with the hairdressers. I knew I wanted something different, but wasn’t sure what. I’d had the same style for quite some time (for me!) and have had the blonde colour on it for a very long time. I went grey quite young. But I’m not the same try all over. A silvery grey in the front, changing to darker the further back I go.

After a long discussion with my hairdresser, who I have been with since 1990, we decided I would have a lot chopped off and grow the rest out by regular cuts. I left it to her what style she cut it into. She knows me and my hair well.

So I went from this.........

to this.......

What it will look like when I wash it is another matter, haha! But I’m very happy with it and will be even happier, in time, when all the colour is out and I can see what my natural colour is now!

After pampering myself this morning, it was back to normality of housework, which is still ongoing. There’s threats of rain and thunder here today and tomorrow, so the garden will have a drink! 

Thanks for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x

Digging in the heat

Well best laid plans and all that! If you had read yesterday’s post, you will know of my intention to sit in my deckchair, in the sun and read my book.
Hubby goes off to Cardiff and I drop our son into his work. Get home, put some washing on and think, just before I sit in the garden, I’ll just get rid of a few weeds in the left border.......

3 hours later, I’ve cleared just this area! Unfortunately, there wasn’t just the normal weeds. There was a Pieris that I had planted long before we remodelled our garden a few years ago. It was a lovely shrub and I didn’t have the heart to dig it up at the time. But now, it wasn’t doing so well, so today I dug it up. Boy, did it take some digging to get it out too! The other fly in the ointment,  was a Red Campion plant which was getting out of control. I didn’t quite envisage the massive root system! Still, I’m not one to be beaten and eventually this little section of the border is clear of unwanted plants. 

So after showering, I eventually got to sit in my deckchair and eat my tea! The sun was still very hot, even then. 

I’m on the settee now looking through my wildflower seeds and can feel my muscles gradually seizing up. At least I know I’ve done some exercise! No gardening for me tomorrow though. 

Hope you’ve all had a good Easter Sunday, cheerio for now, Ann x

BBQ Time

Another lovely day. Hubby and I went to Topsham for breakfast and to stock up in the zero waste shop there. I love filling my milk bottles up! There is also a very good butcher, so we bought the bits and pieces needed for our first barbecue of the year.
The walk around Topsham was very slow today, as hubby’s back locked while standing in the check-in queue yesterday, coming back from Spain. He’s now in a lot of pain with sciatica, bless him. But he has a chiropractor appointment at the end of the week, so hopefully, something will be done to help him.
I had to pop over to the supermarket, after Topsham, for finger rolls etc. The whole world and his friend were there, buying huge amounts of food! I whizzed around with my list, drove home to find this little beauty all ready....

 

It was a Mother’s Day present several years ago and I love it. However, my daughter arrived for the barbecue, while I was making two crumbles (an apple one & a rhubarb one) and took advantage of said empty deckchair. But as I was up and down helping with the barbi food, I was content to use our other outdoor chairs. My daughter’s partner arrived and we all ate scrummy food, lamb and mint burgers, old English sausages, cooked by hubby followed by crumble and custard. We were all well and truly full up!

I will occupy the deck chair tomorrow. Hubby has to go to work tomorrow, as does my son. So I will be relaxing and reading, in between feeding the washing machine. 

Here’s hoping we have lovely weather for Easter Sunday, 

Cheerio for now, Ann x

Blooming bargains

So yesterday was my weekly meet up with my friend and we decided as it was the Easter holidays, all our usual haunts would be busy. So we just met up in town for breakfast and a mooch around the shops.
We had breakfast at Comptoir Libanais. It is a Lebanese restaurant and their breakfasts are a bit different which makes a nice change. We did a round of our favourite shops. I bought a couple of linen mix summer dresses from Next, so no more clothing purchases needed for the summer now (she says!)
I had to pop into a supermarket for a few bits and saw a couple of planters which were half price, so I snapped them up!

This one was £4, down from £8. There was no label, but I’m assuming it’s a Ranunculus.

This one was down to £7.50 and has a variety of plants which once they’ve had their season, will be planted in the garden in different places. The planter will then be reused. I need to re-oil my duck, he’s looking very dried out!

Today, I’m just about to leave for the Blue Cross. Earlier volunteering than normal, as Exeter City are home and it’s a 1pm kick off, so I’ve had to juggle things around today. My hubby and son are flying back from their golfing holiday too. They’re due to arrive home around the same time as me. It’s been nice having my own space for a few days, but I have missed them!

Hope you have a lovely Good Friday and the sun is shining for you, thanks for popping by,
cheerio for now, Ann x

A mizzly yesterday, a sunny today

What a miserable start of yesterday! A really heavy mizzle before slightly lifting, as I made my way to have a deep tissue massage. I have one each month, she keeps my back and muscles working better, as well as having a natter all the while. By the time I came out, it had brightened a bit, so I took myself off to Dawlish Warren for a walk.

I was there two weeks ago, bright and sunny then and a clear view over to Exmouth. Not so yesterday........

There were a couple of people, chancing their luck, trying to catch a fish or two. I wonder if they caught anything?

It was still quite chilly, so after a while, I made my way home to get on with some chores.

So today I woke up to very thick fog, which took an age to burn off! It is my daughter’s day off today, so she came over and we went to a garden centre for coffee (I needed to get a couple of grow bag trays) We had a look around at all the gifts things, could’ve spent a fortune, but didn’t :)

I just came away with my grow bag trays and a bag of seed potatoes. I grow them in a couple of potato sacks. The days of digging trenches to grow potatoes are long gone!

The sun is glorious here now, so I’ll be doing a bit of garden pottering, I think. I’ll leave you with a photo of the gorse growing by the beach, such a rich colour! 

Cheerio for now, Ann x

It’s a bit chilly!

What has happened to the mild spring weather?

On Saturday, I didn’t actually go outside until the afternoon, when I went to watch Exeter City. Crikey! Someone had turned the thermostat down and the wind was bitingly cold!

Sunday, I decided that hubby and I would go out for lunch and then stop off at B&Q for a load of bark for the garden. We went to Greendale Farm shop for lunch. I got out of the car and nearly got blown away! Lunch was delicious, I had roast beef. I picked up a steak and ale pie for my son and some huge slabs of rocky road, for our tea. Later, we filled the boot with sacks of bark for the garden tidy-up.

Hubby and son left our house in the early hours today to fly to Spain for a short golfing holiday. So it’s just me and Karma for a few days. I needed to pop into town quickly this morning and found although sunny, the cold wind was still hanging around. Once home, it was a quick change into my old gardening clothes. The area around my bird feeders were awash with accumulated germinated seeds. It looked a right mess, I can tell you! But easily remedied. Black membrane had been put down with bark on top (& now the weeds from the seed) So I carefully moved feed station out of the way, rolled up the old membrane, bark & weeds and put into a bin liner. Simples! New membrane & bark looks lovely and the feeding station is back in place and fully stocked up.

All this was done under the watchful eye of our robin, sat in the cherry blossom tree, telling me how it should all be done!

After a bit more weeding, I had a more relaxing afternoon, watching a couple of episodes of Vera, while my muscles were letting me know that lugging a few 100litre sacks of bark around, wasn’t a bright thing to do!

Here’s hoping tomorrow might be a bit warmer,
thanks for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x

Friday fancies

A normal Friday for me today, which involves baked goods and homeless felines.

I looked through Mary Berry’s Fast Cakes book again for Blue Cross treats. I decided on Iced Queen Cakes, which look like this...........

They’re very grown up little cakes, but mine were a bit more comical. I couldn’t resist the llama and cactus toppers! 

I thought they were ‘ok’. They certainly tasted alright, but I felt the icing was a bit thin. I don’t generally do this sort of icing, so I guess I’ll learn from it. Anyway, they went down well at the rescue centre and that’s all that matters :)

I didn’t get many cuddles today, as the cats were either nervous ( so it’s a quiet chat to them) or they wanted to play. The feather toys were popular today! I also set up some empty pens with bedding etc. This is something I enjoy doing. I try and make the beds and hidey boxes as comfortable and squishy as possible. Often the cats are bewildered or scared, so it’s the least we can do to make their stay as comfortable as possible.

Now to give my own diva puss cat a cuddle and tell her how lucky she is, haha :)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, cheerio for now, Ann x

Spring front garden

Our front garden is tiny. When we moved in to this new build just over 25 years ago, the builders had put down turf. It was such a pain to drag the mower to the front, for 2 seconds and it looked so bland. So the turf came up and I’ve experimented ever since with what to put in such a small garden. I’ve had roses, gladioli, lupins (which hate our soil!) at different times.

  It’s only been in the last 5 years or so that I’ve been happy with it. Lots of plants which the bees and butterflies love! 

The little cherry blossom tree is the longest stayer, along with the pyracantha below the window whose thorns, I hope, would deter any burglars climbing in! In flower at the moment are Pulmonaria, Perennial wallflowers, the Cherry blossom and Aubretia. The Lavender is greening up nicely, as are the Verbena and Poppies. There are few other perennials just waking up and sprouting their foliage through the earth. These fill the gaps in the summer and autumn.  

It is a very small patch, but the bees are already filling their little ‘tote bags’ with pollen and as the months go by, the place will be literally buzzing! I’ll leave you with a few pics of the individual blooms.

Cheerio for now, Ann x 

Cards and cattle

Another bright day here today and as my son is working later shifts this week, we decided to out for breakfast/brunch. We went to a favourite place, Greendale Farm Shop, just outside of Exeter. The produce in the shop is fantastic quality and the food in the cafe/restaurant is lovely. After filling our bellies, I bought some of their eggs and then we wandered around to see some of their residents, mainly the chickens!.......then I saw them. I hadn’t noticed them before, perhaps they were new! But I had to say hello.........

I love Highland cows! So we had a little chat, well it was a bit of a one-sided conversation, before being dragged home by my son.

This afternoon,  I made the remainder of my Easter cards. I found a few more decoupage sheets, so I left stamping for another day. 

I’ll leave you with pics of the Easter cards.

Thanks for popping by,

Cheerio for now, Ann x

Easter crafting

Yesterday came and went quietly. Roast gammon for lunch and a relaxing afternoon (apart from feeding the washing machine every now and then!)

Each week, I meet up with my friend, Wendy and we go somewhere for the day. But today, she came over to my house and we had a cardmaking day. Of course we had to stop for elevenses, ahem, cream cakes and later for some lunch.

We’ve been making cards for years and both have quite a stash of goodies. Today we were both making Easter cards. The ones I made today were decoupage cards and quite quick to make ones too, as I had to send two off today in to post with some Lindt bunnies. Tomorrow I’ll make a few more, probably using some Easter stamps and be able to take more time.

So here they are, must admit, I do love Easter bunnies! Apart from making a few more cards tomorrow, I’m hoping to sow some more seeds, if the weather is as nice as it’s been today.

Cheerio for now, Ann x

Big Garden Birdwatch

Every year I take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch. I sit in the dining room, in prime position, with a big mug of coffee and wait..........This year, as last year, it was a squally and cold day, so I was surprised anything turned up at all! But the draw of seed, sunflower hearts, peanuts, mealworms, Nyger seed, suet bits, sultanas and apple proved a winner.

So the results have now come out and top spots haven’t changed. Not that I’m surprised, we have loads of Sparrows (no.1) and Starlings (no.2) in our garden. In fact we have Starlings living in the front corner of our house throughout the year. Tenants do change, but we’re rarely without any. Sometimes we’ll have Sparrows in the back corner, but more often than not, they’ll live in my neighbour’s house and pop into our garden for a meal.

One bird which we’ve had a huge increase this year, was the Goldfinch. They are beautiful and we’re lucky to have so many. Thrushes have been sadly missing from our garden and are declining in England, so the results are showing. This is such a shame!

We also get many woodpigeons, collared doves, jackdaws, a few blackbirds and a robin, who ‘helps’ when I’m gardening. They all get on really well and share the food.......until the magpie arrives. Then everyone flees, including the jackdaws. The magpie is a beautiful bird, but does it have to be so bloomin’ nasty?

So we’re very lucky to have so many feathery friends, despite having a cat. There is strict timing involved, so the bird food doesn’t go out until Karma is having her 4 hour + nap! Not only to stop her getting the birds, but also to stop her eating the mealworms!

So who are your most popular garden visitors? Have you noticed any new birds popping up?

I’ll leave you with Karma, in her usual spot.
Cheerio for now, Ann x

Baking for the Blue Cross folks

No blog yesterday, as apart from normal chores and a brief visit to a local garden centre, nothing very interesting happened. Still felt wiped out, so took to the sofa in the afternoon.

However today, I’m feeling a bit better, so I perused the baking books for tomorrow’s offerings to take up to the Blue Cross. I decided on Mary Berry’s Lemon and Poppyseed traybake.

Hot out of the oven and the lemon drizzle soaking in

                                         Had to save a piece for my dear hubby!

The rest are packaged up for tomorrow. It actually made 18 pieces, so two tins have been filled. I haven’t made this before, so fingers crossed they’re a thumbs up! 

Think I’ll have a cuppa before tackling the ironing pile, 

cheerio for now, Ann x

A visit to the beach

We have bugs in the house, or rather my dear hubby has passed on his germs to me! Woke up feeling rubbish, sore throat and achy joints etc. I hadn’t intended to do much, just mooch about the house doing this and that, feeling sorry for myself. However, I gave myself a kick up the derrière and decided a trip to the beach was in order, to blow the germs away. So in the car and off to Dawlish Warren, a beach about half an hour away. I parked up, bought a hot chocolate and made my way up the path overlooking the beach. It was very windy and a bit chilly, but lovely sunshine. So I settled on the bench, with the dune grass behind, sheltering me from the wind and enjoyed this view....

It was beautiful there this morning and very quiet too, just a few people walking their dogs. I prefer this beach out of season or in the summer evenings. It gets VERY busy in the holiday season! Feeling a bit revitalised, I got back to the car, just as the rain arrived. 

The remainder of the day has been spent doing some of the housework I should have done whilst I was at the beach. But some things are more important:)

Enjoy your evening, 

cheerio for now, Ann x

A splendid Sunday and productive Monday

My Mother’s Day started with a scrumptious hamper from my son and daughter. Wine, cheese, pate, crackers and chutney, lots of my favourite things! Very spoilt! Me, hubby and daughter then went down to Plymouth to pick up Mum and take her out for lunch. The photos are our view during the meal, which one would you choose? The food was delicious and we all left feeling very fat and full.
Before taking Mum home, we parked up at a spot overlooking the sea and watched the marine traffic. We didn’t get out, it was very blustery, to say the least! Then dropped Mum home and made our way back to Exeter. Must admit, I didn’t do much for the rest of the day, too full of food, haha.

Today the weather has been beautiful, so washing out in the line early, shopping done and then I decided to get my onion sets in and seeds sown in the raised beds. So parsnip, carrot and beetroot seeds have been sown so far. It’s meant to be showery tomorrow, so all good :)

I’ve had a quick coffee and so I’d better get on with some ironing and dinner prep. I’ve got skittles tonight, fingers crossed for a good score!

Cheerio for now, Ann x