Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day

[Mumtobabyhavoc]

New one!

Previous:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5276546-come-and-tell-us-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-33-calmly-through-the-day?page=1

Saw the consultant today. The fusion has gone well and I can now start to move away from the boot to proper shoes over the next six weeks when I see him again. I don't have to wear it at night any more. Hooray!

Morning everyone. 🙂 It's just getting light here at 6:24am and it's a chilly 12c. Sunrise today is at 6:49am. Fall is here already!
DC are still asleep. 😇😇

That’s good to hear @MyrtleLion. Onwards and upwards now.

It’s been quite chilly here today @Mumtobabyhavoc. I’ve spent a lovely afternoon, watching a cosy murder set in sunny Greece, with the heating on and chopping up onions, celery and carrots very finely for the freezer. We use them as bases for quite a few meals. We can buy them ready made, or I could use some sort of mechanical or electric chopping machine but I like the mindfulness of it and I do it quite slowly.

i can’t believe how much my bookmarks have taken over. I’ve had to buy another stacking storage box for all the supplies I’ve just acquired.

@Umanresources

Sounds like a lovely afternoon!

I am obsessed with the whittards in Westfields.

They have yeas and hot chocolate to taste and I sampled stuff 4 times today!! A lo vely hot chocolate and one called spiced apple strudel . Delicious!!

Cz

That's great news @MyrtleLion, you must be thrilled to have the boot off.

@Umanresources, what was the murder mystery? There was a British TV series called The Durrells in Corfu that ran here on Netflix or Amazon Prime that was really good. Do you make the bookmarks from the rolled up card stock in your storage containers?

@Deathraystare, I've just googled Whittards. I wish we had them here, I love a good hot chocolate.

We had our usual Facetime call DD and SiL on Sunday. They're planning on spending Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with us, which is lovely. They did it the other way last year.

I'm ten days away from my last day. My replacement has approached me about working 5-10 hours a week for an hourly rate doing a lot of the job admin for a few months so that she can focus on other things. There is a lot of admin - getting bills paid, dealing with vendors, budgeting, etc. I wasn't thrilled, but she's thinking of a very good hourly rate, enough so I'm tempted to give it a go. She still has to get approval for it, but I suspect she will. I've been handing off the admin tasks to her, but I think she was underestimating how much of it there is.

There were tree frogs on the deck last night, but by the time I came out with my phone to take pictures they had disappeared. They can change color to match whatever surface they're on. The picture attached is an old example. That post is about an inch and a half wide.

The boot is not off completely. Just at night. I am using one crutch at home and will use two for longer outings. It's very sore though. It will be a long process still.

Sounds as though you are coping well @MyrtleLion with one crutch. Congratulations. I hope the pain killers are working for you.

@MissConductUS I have blank watercolour bookmarks, which have a hole in the top for a tassel, so I had to buy tassels. I bought laminating pouches as well, plus clear cellophane bags, also the Washi tape can be used as decoration, as well as being used as a border. There are bookshelves tapes, musical tapes and Van Gogh tapes for decoration, they also are helping me with the painting. I’ve got stamps, stencils, ink pads, watercolour paints, brush paints, and felt tipped pens! It does take me a while to make one, especially if I paint a small landscape on it. I’ve done some animal ones as well, with googly eyes.

The murders were The Sunshine Murders, and they feature Peter Andre, the singer playing a Greek pathologist. There were only 5 in the series, so I have a couple left to watch. I might watch one tomorrow while I’m making another few bookmarks,

Oops I forgot to add the photo.

These are a couple of bookmarks I did for my grandsons. I think I’ll try to paint a LS Lowry type tomorrow.

Lovely @Deathraystare!
You are very organised @Umanresources- wish I could be so focused!
@MissConductUSwhen I was (very) young we had a series based on the book ‘my family and other animals’ by Gerald Durrell which I also read. I loved it! Maybe doing just a few hours a week will ease you into retirement, I could imagine it is a big adjustment.
@Mumtobabyhavoci love Autumn so much. There are beautiful berries along the road on my way to work, orange, and I dream of stopping to cut a sprig to decorate my living room (but I would never!)

There seems to be a push to get a lot of roadwork started here, just in time for leaves to fall all over everything, and autumn rains to turn dug up streets to mud. There are lots of spray painted markings showing where gas lines and water pipes lie underneath, and No Parking signs tied to parkway trees.

I'm curious which type of berries you are admiring Sprouts.
Miss it must be so weird to sort of work for your replacement. What are your plans for the first days of retirement? Sleep in? 😄
Death, any news re housing? I love hot chocolate, too. I've be making it the old fashioned way on the stove: cocoa, sugar, whole milk and a bit of dark chocolate melted in. Whipped cream if I've got it.

Had dc out to Science World today then ice cream as a treat after.

Your hot chocolate sounds amazing, @Mumtobabyhavoc!

I make it with cocoa powder, mixing the powder to a smooth paste with a little bit of milk, stirring as I pour in hot water just off the boil, then adding milk and sugar to taste. It's creamier than just adding hot water to hot chocolate powder. I think the stirring emulsifies the cocoa powder. I do the same when making instant coffee. Mind you I now drink black cardamom tea or filter coffee without milk as I'm intolerant to dairy.

Not much happening while my leg is healing. I watched The Narrow Road to the Dark North on iPlayer last night. Very harrowing details of the Second World War Japanese POW camps.

My great uncle was in Changi building the Burma Railway but would only tell me that he had malaria. He didn't say anything about the brutality and starvation. Sadly he died when I was 10. Apparently he was at lunch in the works canteen and when his colleagues called him to return to work he had died of a heart attack while sitting at the table.

It's warmer here than earlier in the week but overcast and the forecast is for 25 degrees and sunshine tomorrow. A lovely sunny summer and an autumn that doesn't know what it wants.

Myrtle, now I'm thinking about my egg nog recipe. I love it warm when just made and I also make my latte with it.

I’m not sure what the berries are @Mumtobabyhavocbut they are bright orange. I only see them from the car.
i think I read that book @MyrtleLion- was it a book before a film?
we dropped DS off at his uni accommodation today, and I am already missing him and worrying if he will be ok. There were tears all round.

Sprouts, could you take a pic and Google image search? Are they on someone's property? Would a snip. be out of order?

A neighbour has a fig tree they've planted outside their property line and I'm considering a stealth pilfering operation if the fruit ripens. 😹

It's a gorgeous day here. The wind blew the clouds away and we just got home from a really good playground/park adventure. DC should sleep well tonight. Baby is dozing off in my arms as I write this... 😇

eta just checked my pedometer app. We did almost 2k walking/running/exploring etc. 🏃‍♀️

I hope your DS settles in well and finds university friends soon, Sprouts. He'll be back for Christmas before you know it.

I love hot chocolate, and have lots of photos of the DCs all rosy cheeked and stirring mugs of it, with snow, snow forts, snowmen, and lost mittens visible in the background through the diningroom windows. They always liked mini marshmallows floating around on top.

I bought a sturdy looking lavender plant yesterday in the supermarket and repotted it this evening. I'm leaving it out overnight as the low temperature will be pretty warm, amd tomorrow will be sunny and on the hot side of warm. Fingers crossed this will be the year I manage to keep a lavender plant alive through the winter.

havoc, I once had an excited phone call from an old neighbour about an apricot tree that was growing in the fence between two apartment buildings about twenty minutes from my home. It had had a bumper crop, apparently, and if I wanted apricots, I should waste no time as the birds had already found them. So I gathered a good few buckets and bags for life and ended up with enough apricots to make enough jam for two years. The tree sadly didn't survive the polar vortex we had a few months later.

It was a book and also a Japanese epic poem, but I haven't read either.

Managed to buy some damsons at a street market today-I've been looking everywhere, and this is the first time this year I've seen any. Haven't decided what to do with them yet, so I'll stick them whole in the freezer for now.

Havoc took self -running - to the bathroom to poo on tbe potty. This is a major milestone as toilet training has been resisted and, consequently, glacially slow with daily battles, tears and frustration all around.

That's terrific news, Havoc!

Well done to little havoc!

We're having weirdly humid and warm weather this weekend. DD and I went to the farmers' market in the morning and bought doughnuts and a jar of honey, and got several kitchen knives sharpened. Currently watching a Miss Marple mystery on Britbox.

I am eating dark chocolate with sea salt because I casually mentioned it may night anf my DH went and bought me some this morning.

Also now able to walk three steps to the ensuite with a crutch and no walking boot at night, and able to walk from the bedroom to the living room without a crutch in the boot. It's about six metres. Progress!

Did a bit of cleaning and tidying, some niggling jobs, ie top of fridge and put 3 liads laundry. Have just finished lunch of a toasted tomato sandwich with tomatoes from the garden. It rained overnight and the air feels cool and damp, but the sun is poking through.