Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 29: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

Here is a link to the prior thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4967206-come-and-tell-me-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-28-calmly-through-the-day

Welcome to all regulars, lurkers, and new contributors! Everyone is welcome to join.

Uman, didn't see your updated post for some reason. I wonder, though, if questions are enough?

I'm back in bed, should've been asleep an hour ago. Robins are chirping. Wonder if they are confused. Weather has been warm, now snow again. A friend saw a bear lumbering up the drive a couple weeks ago and not far away cougars were spotted in someone's back yard. This was just after I was chatting to said friend that our warm weather was going to bring bears out of hibernation with no food yet.

Got up with baby at 4:00am. Havoc will likely be awake by 7:30 and it's already just past 6:00. Rain started overnight and snow is washing away. Roads look fine.

Math, everything okay your way?

@Mumtobabyhavoc wow your animals are so exciting. We were thrilled the other week at a hedgehog in the garden. Sometimes we see rabbits in the field across the road and deer have been sighted locally. Oh yes, we have seen elephants in a field nearby, but that was when a circus was in town!

it’s such a grey day today, so I’ve hunkered down with knitting, some squaredle puzzles and Married At First Sight Australia. Scallops and calamari for dinner tonight. We do love our seafood.

I hope all babies are behaving well. I loved mine being small, even though I was a single parent for 16 years we were very poor but had incredibly good friends and my mum was such a godsend. Those years have just flown by. I’m very blessed now.

Uman, I've never seen a hedgehog. I'd be curious! Last year there was chatter here about hedgehogs. I think Penguinsa and Bizzey have experience if I remember correctly. I'd be pretty freaked out if I came across a cougar. Bears here are brown or black, not grizzlies, and you can usually make noise and back away safely.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar

Havoc !! You have an amazing memory!!

Uman ( hello !) ...I do have experience with Hedgehogs!

I am not an expert by any means ...but I do have a regular in my garden every night !

In fact my little chap missed me so much when I went away for 4 nights, that he/she came through the cat flap
(that I didn't know worked as I don't have a cat !!)...

And ended up in my bedroom 😅🤣🤣!!

As I said then ...if I didn't have the boys to witness it and put the little chap outside...I would have thought it was a dream as well 🤣🤣!

Bit early for HH at the moment....but we have had some unexpected mild weather...so who knows ..

I have a resident fox in my garden as well ...

Bizzey, Post a pic of the fox and hedgehog if you can!
I've watched docs on the arctic fox. They are amazing creatures. I'm now reading a out cougars and bears while semi-watching/listening the the US news on CNN.
Baby is sleeping beside me quite contentedly after 2-month vaccinations today. Toddler is refusing a diaper change...💩. I think an ambush is necessary.

Well ...if you insist !

Photos!

Hedgehog,,,behind big bin in side of garden.
Fox ...April last year ...getting a bit of early spring time sun ...before garden was sorted out !

Hedgehog in my best white towel ....is when DS put him/her out in the garden after the shock of the poor little mite being in my bedroom , after we had just come back from holiday ! 🤣

To this day...if I didn't have photographic proof and the ds's being witnesses....I would have sworn that I dreamt the fact that a hedgehog was in my bedroom !!
🤣

🦔 @bizzey that is incredible! We occasionally see one in the garden but flipping heck! My cats are totally unbothered if they see one

They are declining in numbers, I support local hedgehog rescue so follow them on facebook
They always say a hedgehog out in daylight is in trouble

Feeding advice

Wow @bizzey love those pics. One of my friends had a fox in her kitchen, that came in through the cat flap. Her husband went into the room to find the fox eating the cat food. Apparently they both screamed, husband ran one way and fox escaped back outside. 😂

Hello all - many thanks for your good wishes. The region ended up with eleven confirmed tornado touchdowns, none near me, though we did experience about twenty minutes of the hailstones. DD and I went into the porch / mudroom off the kitchen to listen to the clatter. It has three walls that are basically banks of windows, so it's ideal for weather watching.

Dcat slunk into the bathroom and hid behind the loo as she always does when there's thunder and lightning. She went on a wild spree of destruction last night when the storm had passed, and still had a good deal of residual jumpiness today.

The electrician finally came to fix the light switch in the kitchen and he did the bathroom switch too, on the other side of the common wall, as that had also been dodgy for a while.

I rearranged the kitchen a little this evening - swapped the air fryer with the toaster/ kettle, giving us a bit more counter space. DD tried out the new space by making double chocolate muffins.

Gosh Math ...11 tornados 😲😲!

Interesting that you have aid you swopped your appliances around ....

DS keeps saying we need an air fryer....I keep saying No... as I do not have enough surface space .

Plus ...I haven't seen a red one yet !

Kitchen stuff is red themed !

Long time no post here from me. It’s 5.30am and I’ve been awake since 4am. Life has been so busy. I got a new job, and we had a few leaks that ended up requiring redecorating two rooms. All far too exciting for my liking. Life has quietened down now I hope. Although I’m listening to the wind howling outside and wondering how many trees will have come down by morning and whether we’ll actually have electricity.

Math - my daughter sent me videos of the storms you had the other night. They were spectacular!

Math, your weather was on our TV news last night. I'm glad you came through okay, and hopefully the cat has recovered from the trauma. Ours hide when we have thunderstorms too. Or sometimes they jump into a box.

@ZZTopGuitarSolo, lovely to see you! I'm so glad you found the new thread and rejoined us. We need more US based posters! Were your water leaks from the storms last July? We had major flooding and road closures from that weather.

@Mumtobabyhavoc @Umanresources

Living in London we don't get any bears or cougars but there was a couple of hedgehogs in Mum's Hampshire garden. One was curled up, tè other ws grunting . Not sure if one was being a bully or randy! My Sil saw a muntjac deer in her garden. Sweet but rather destructive.

Oop North there have been sightings of big ats. Black panthers I think.

Lots of deer here, too, Death. I never tore of spotting wildlife, either! 😁

Just had a spinach and cheese omelette with roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts and asparagus for tea.

(I really like that British term! I'd sound quite pretentious if I used it here irl, though!). Havoc and baby are napping (late for Havoc).

Looks like a snow sky.
Going to make a latte and finish off the carrot cake.
Need to go to Costco later to return a package of grapes that I bought two nights ago. Spider webs inside. 🙀🕸️ Not dealing with that.🙅‍♀️
Also need to buy toilet paper.

Bizzey, really love those pics. Thanks for sharing. Are the foxes docile, or do you need to be concerned?

@bizzey weve got a Njinja Speedi, which I love. It’s great for cooking meals very quickly. I find it really difficult to spend a long time in the kitchen and this makes fabulous meals in half an hour.
@Mumtobabyhavoc we go to Costco too, especially for the toilet rolls. We sometimes get things delivered from there, although you have to order a minimum of two packs, which means 80 rolls. We’d just got an order at the beginning of the pandemic, which worked out so well for us, as there was such a shortage.
I’d be so scared of the spider’s web in the grapes, no wonder you are returning them.
I remember watching Modern Family when Mitchell discovered Costco and loved how much you could get for your money, and how big the jars of olives were! I felt the same the first time we went there. We once bought a garden table there. It didn’t look that big in the shop, but just wouldn’t fit in our car. Thankfully, my brother had access to a van and came to the rescue!
Fish and chips for tea tonight. My adult daughter and I shared one portion between us, OH had one on his own, none of us finished it all. Such a lot of food!

Fish and chips sounds good Uman The portions are huge here as well. We had fish, chips and baked beans here too but just coop ones.

All the wildlife sounds great Havoc though I also would be nervous of a bear in the garden. We saw brown bears in the wild in Finland which came very close to the watching hut maybe a metre outside but they were very tame and we were with bear experts, it was two cubs that came close. They put salmon out for them.

Welcome back ZZ and congrats on new job.

Lovely hedgie photos Bizzey was also us with the hedgie but no sign of him recently. We used to get garden foxes in London, Silkiecat would make loving eyes at them and they would make eyes back but I think fox was thinking dinner and cat was thinking boyfriend.

Well done on making more counterspace Math We only have a galley kitchen so not masses of counterspace.

Thanks Half Trying to sort things privately but that's proving complicated too as need referral.

Had a friend not seen in ages e-mail and want to meet up so will try and arrange something. DH had a piano club online meeting after work. We discovered DS has been using the toaster to make himself hot cross buns and toast and adds butter to both, lots of butter. So that's microwave and toaster he is using since I got the new ones.

Penguinsa, sounds frustrating. Happy your ds is fixing himself different things to eat. Will be nice to catch up with friends.
Welcome back, ZZ.

Uman, the thing with Costco is you get 1/4-1/3 more for comparable price. It's essential to plan so you don't waste. I split up packages of meat etc into freezer bags.
I avoid delivery because mark-up and tip negates savings. Also, the shoppers aren't discerning and I've had crappy produce delivered since they don't take time to check packages.
Snow in the forecast at 50% chance for tonight again. Raining now, though.
Oh, I forgot about a pot of water boiling in the stove last night. 🤦‍♀️ Scared myself. Had to open windows for over a half hour and turn fan on. Boiled it dry.

Hi @Mumtobabyhavoc. We don’t usually get fresh produce from Costco, tinned tomatoes, tuna, fitted sheets, dried herbs, part baked baguettes and panini are our go-to staples from there. We are in the UK and it’s easier for me to get some things delivered if my OH is working away and I don’t drive. The Aberdeen Angus steaks are fabulous from there and well worth a visit. We tend to go more in summer, especially for the salads and fruits then. I used to get so many things for my students and classroom when I was teaching. Christmas used to cost my OH a fortune. I’m so not good with a budget!

Today we had such a lovely tea, roast crispy duck, new potatoes and peas and one of us (not me) had cherry sauce with it.

I’ve almost finished my scarf and tomorrow I’m going to begin knitting a beret. If I make as many mistakes with that it will look more like a hairnet. I used to be a good knitter but seem to have lost my ability to concentrate.

Havoc, I don't have a Costco close enough to shop at, but I do have a membership at BJ's, which sounds very similar. Huge packages of everything, which is fine for us as we have a lot of storage space in our garage.

I rang the ortho nurse to ask about my MRI report but haven't heard back. Penguinsa, I'm shocked you can't get an MRI to check for cancer recurrence. They're not that expensive to have done. Can you get one privately without an NHS referral?

DD had her first wedding dress fitting today. I'm waiting for a report. The invitations are supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'm in charge of posting them.

Uman, I'd love to shop at your Costco. I have gone to the States' Bellingham and Maui Costcos. The different products are fun to shop. My go-to's here at home are fruit/berries, bakery, milk/dairy, meat etc, diapers, pharmacy, clothing basics and kids clothes, pretty much what you'd normally shop except for small amounts of items and things like lactose free cream or ice cream when needed/wanted. I take the car there for tires/tire servicing and buy household goods from cleaning supplies to small kitchen appliances. Currently mulling purchase of fridge/stove and washer/dryer. Prices and customer service are excellent.

We have fresh snow on the mountains!
I had chicken salad with grapes in a croissant for lunch.
Plumber is here to fix bathroom tub faucet.