Wet.

After a welcome night's sleep I woke to a grey world. Grey mist blotting out most of the view was a good enough reason not to leap out of bed. It was back to our leisurely routine of tea and then porridge before beginning the day's tasks. The mist turned to drizzle and then proper rain with a hint of blue in the sky.

The biscuit box was empty so I planned to do some baking. The chocolate & peanut butter cookies had to become just peanut butter because the only chocolate in the house is too good to use in baking. However they still tasted fine and there was even a choice of crunchy (baked on the top shelf) and chewy (baked on the middle shelf). I also tried a recipe for apple cinnamon muffins from cookingonabootstrap a blog/book of economical recipes by Jack Monroe that she first devised when she had very little money. I had to halve the amounts as I only had one egg left after baking the cookies which also need one egg. They were very tasty with both the apple and cinnamon flavours coming through well. That's a recipe I'll use again.

At the same time as baking I began a Spring clean of some of the kitchen cupboards namely the one that has oils and sauces. I kept my eye open for anything that was far too old to keep but as I must have had a good clear out when we moved I only found two items to chuck out. Not only did the labels say use within 4/6 weeks of opening they were several years out of date! Not that I would ever have used them myself. I wage a war on grease in the kitchen and I found that my strategy of standing the sauces and oils in plastic ice-cream tubs had kept the shelves fairly clean and only needing a quick wipe over.

Once my work in the kitchen was done I began tidying away all the materials etc that accumulated in the sitting room during the great sofa cover alterations. First I had a break watching my favourite show The great Pottery Throwdown. which has returned for this year's contest. It's a return to my childhood world of studios and clay and so interesting to see the pottery made in the show. This week's challenge was to throw miniature porcelain items less than 6 cms high. This was first demonstrated by the potter Geoffrey Swindell who made these tiny masterpieces.

 Absolutely gorgeous.

Mostly Sunny.

I'm back to my usual non-grumpy mood today. First there was the knowledge that I wouldn't have to go through another night of being woken every hour by a buzzing in my ear and the relentless squeezing of the blood pressure monitor. Too intrusive for much sleep. The morning was grey and gloomy with light rain falling as I walked to the car. Within minutes the rain had increased to a point where I needed to have the wipers on at double speed and I could see hail as well. I felt sorry for the many parents walking their children to school who were caught in the rain. My appointment was even earlier, by a whole 10 minutes but I gave myself more time so that when I found cars queueing in the surgery car park it wasn't stressful to turn around and park nearby. Breathing a sigh of relief as the monitor was taken off I queried why I hadn't been asked to make any notes on what I was doing. The nurse said they'd never asked patients to do that in the 10 years he'd been there. I guess that because he got the results up on the screen straight away (38 readings in my case) any anomalies could have been discussed there and then. It turned out that my readings were all perfectly normal which is good.

I didn't make any stops on the way home and by that time the traffic wasn't too heavy. The rain stopped before I got out of the car and after that the day was bright and windy. Perfect for washing so I got a load in the machine and then out on the line. Later when I saw some approaching showers  and rescued the washing it was nearly dry. From then on it was back to the sewing of the final cushion cover and IT'S ALL DONE. A very long job but now I have something I'm happy with though of course I put the throw back over the sofa.

A Grumpy Day.

I've found it very hard to be the calm and cheerful person I aspire to be today. Too many things have sent me into a grumpy mood which I'm trying to overcome. First there was the early rising and leaving the house at the time I'm usually waking up with a cup of tea. The day was grey and wet, the traffic heavier than I anticipated and arriving at the surgery the sight of several cars waiting for a parking space in the surgery car park had me turning around and parking in a nearby residential street. I was just in time and soon fitted with the 24 hour blood pressure monitor. Very tight at all times, positioned so that it's uncomfortable to bend my elbow and the anticipation of it turning on every hour through the night. (Every half an hour or more during the day.) My mood was not improved when earlier this evening I looked at the NHS on-line information on the monitor and saw that I should have been asked when I go to bed, for the change in frequency, and more importantly asked to fill in a chart noting what activity I was doing each time a reading was taken. Which I wasn't. While I was at the surgery I enquired about the missing prescription and it turned out that it hadn't gone to Tesco's, in fact it hadn't gone anywhere. When I explained in a calm but slightly irate manner the sequence of events they printed off a new prescription and amazingly had it signed in a couple of minutes. I still had to take the prescription to a pharmacy to get the medicine and decided to take it to the pharmacy in Tesco's as I was going there anyway. Not a good move as there was a long queue of people at the pharmacy counter. I did a bit of shopping and went back when the queue was only 6 people. Handed in the prescription and after a bit more shopping returned and collected the medicine. 

On a better note I took back the fluffy pj bottoms and had the security tag taken off. However before going to Tesco's I had called in at B&M hoping to get doubles of the sofa and chair fleeces to put away for the future. The smaller patterned fleece was there but no sign of the large fleece which was very irritating. Nor was there the red fleece I had hoped to buy as a housewarming present for Vytas & Sally when they move to the house they are currently buying. As I'm working on my weight I couldn't indulge in a 'naughty' to cheer myself up but I did buy these packs of gift ribbon reduced from £1 to 10p. They should keep me going for a few years.

The early rain turned back into stormy weather on my way home so I spent the afternoon grumbling to myself, doing my exercises and knitting in between having the machine take my blood pressure.

Pictures from the web - Above The train line at Dawlish, south Devon. Here the railway line runs right next to the sea, something I used to look forward to on my travels down to Cornwall. Below -Porthcawl on the Welsh coast opposite Lynmouth. The surf report for Newquay, Cornwall gave the surf height at 22 ft. for anyone brave or foolish enough to venture out.

Wind and Rain.

After a brief moment of blue this morning strong winds heralded the arrival of Storm Brendan and a yellow weather warning. I believe the winds peaked earlier this evening with power cuts and trees down across the west of the country. Tomorrow morning should be quiet but it's due to get windier again in the afternoon.

This morning we had a visit from a chap to do an energy efficiency survey. You need one when selling a property and as the estate agent hadn't organised one when we first put the house on the market Peter organised it himself. It'll be cheaper than one through the agents. As we suspected the so called possible viewing never materialised. So that was most likely the estate agents trying to install false hope. I wish they wouldn't.

In the afternoon I was back sewing again and got the first of the seat cushions done. To get a good fit I pinned the fabric, inside out, over the cushion sewing the seams while the cover was on the cushion. It was only as I was nearing completion that I suddenly realised that because the cushion is not symmetrical the cover would have to go on the other cushion which is a mirror image of the first cushion. I'll just have to be careful to make sure I pin the fabric for the second cushion on the right ie the one that already has a cover, cushion. 

Before the rain became too heavy I was able to watch the birds at the feeders. The male blackbird was picking up fallen seeds from the ground and a pair of hedge sparrows were feeding on the fat balls. The other day I noticed that a robin was having difficulty getting to the fat ball feeder. It kept hopping up and trying to hover underneath the feeder. It had a go at clinging on to the feeder itself but didn't last long like that. The sparrows generally sit on an adjacent branch and lean across so I'm not sure why the robin didn't do that. I've now wired a thick twig through the feeder to act as a perch in case that helps.

Windy.

It's been a windy day. I wondered if I'd made the wrong call in not putting any washing in the machine but later heavy showers made their presence felt. 

I spent the afternoon on my knees working on the cushion cover and at long last it is done to the best of my ability. Now there are just the seat cushions to do.

Peter went out again to hunt down my prescription but guess what? ………… No sign of it and after some checking they think it's gone to the pharmacy at Tesco's. Why? And who knows if it's there or not?  What if it had been something I really needed from last Thursday when it was due? I'm up at the surgery on Tuesday morning so I'm going to try and make a complaint with the Practice Manager. Not much chance to see her/him then but at least I'll insist on seeing the senior pharmacist. Then to make my day I've looked in my bag of medicines I collected from Boots on Thursday, the bag that I asked the assistant to check before it came into my hands. In a sealed ie unchecked bag are 3 boxes of tablets that I had said I didn't need. Now they will have to be destroyed. While there is no cost to me directly repeated over millions of patients it's a significant financial loss to the NHS which is struggling for cash. 

In my spare moments I've been knitting my sparkly fingerless mittens. One is done and the first stage of the second is done. It's not the actual second mitten but a test to see where I should begin knitting if I want the 'random' colours to match. Once I've made a mark I'll have to undo all of this test piece and then begin again from the mark. Extra work but on the bright side I'm getting better at knitting with 4 needles. 

Wet.

Today has been grey and wet. The morning mist soon blurred out the view with first Hartland disappearing, then the sand dunes and eventually the second bend of the River Taw. Right now it's raining quite heavily.

I've spent the afternoon working on the cushion cover with Speedy lending a helping hand by rearranging the strips of tape and then attempting to knock all the things I was using from the stool I'd put them on. I ended up having to keep the roll of cotton in my pocket after he decided to bat it across the floor. Having worked out a plan for the cover, leaving a space at the back so that cushion still attached to the frame with the Velcro, I set to work pinning and stitching. Usually I aim to stop any 'work' around five o'clock but hoping to get the cover done I carried on. By quarter past six I admitted defeat and simply plonked the cushion still with the cover on inside out and pins in some seams back on the sofa and chucked a throw over it. It'll have to wait until tomorrow for completion. I'm also thinking about changing the not very effective elastic around the lower section for Velcro to pull the cover in. Still the end is in sight.

Peter had to walk into town so he made another attempt to collect my missing prescription. After waiting for over half an hour he was told 'they didn't have it yet,'. This time they didn't even say the paperwork was in transit. Even if they need to use physical paperwork how long does it take to transport the papers from the surgery which is about 2 miles away? I was told they were 'in transit' on Thursday. Even I could have walked that distance in an hour or less. A good thing I can do without the stuff which is a swap back of a spray for my rhinitis as I still have the old not as good stuff.

Sunny.

It's been a bright and sunny day with a bit of a chill in the air. I've spent most of my day, or at least the afternoon, out in the back garden. Not gardening but brushing back the pile of our large fluffy throw from the sofa which had been washed yesterday. It's easiest to do while the throw is hanging on the washing line and for once I got both sides of the 7ft x 7ft throw done in a day. I had an old work fleece on and somehow my bare legs (still wearing shorts most days) didn't feel at all cold. The cold doesn't seem to affect my legs but my toes, in flip-flops, eventually felt like ice. The brushing generates a lot of fluff which gets everywhere including on my eyelashes and in my mouth. To clean up the fluff  I brought the hoover out into the garden. Last year proved that hoping the fluff would blow away was not the best idea. (My neighbour also hoovers her decking occasionally.) Yesterday's application of bleach to the paving slabs proved effective against the green so I mixed up more bleach and water and swilled it over some green patches on the decking. 

I also brought the dehumidifier up from the garage to keep the condensation in the conservatory under control. Despite the garage roof getting a coat of sealant in the summer the garage feels a bit damp so everything stored in there will need a good clean once we move.