Daily Project round 8

[SpiritOfEdna]

A brand new shiny thread. Whether you want to do one extra thing a day, or a brain dump of what you have to do this is the place.

I've just googled the house I mentioned and it is an old rectory, dating from the mid 18th century. Very, very beautiful ( it was sold recently so I saw estate agent pictures) Updated inside of course since I was there and the pictures were taken in the summer so it looks a lot less spooky now.

@SingleThreadJoiner2 how lovely of your parents! I was in constant chaos with children and my parents would help me out like that sometimes too. I try to pay it forward with my children now ( and mum, bless her, but mainly emotional/admin support for her as she is so well cared for at the home 💕)

I have the anxious feeling of lots of bits to do, and I know I'll feel happier when I have written a list because it's all a bit scattered in my brain. A couple of appointments today and definitely some emails to respond to/write.

Better make a start! I hope this new week is good to you all 🙏

Morning all. Loving all the house talk too! Your house sounds lovely @petalpower as does yours @FourSeasonsLobelia.

Our house was built in 2018 so no history to it but it is built on what was the original orchards/nursery gardens for what was a “palace” and is apparently where Henry VIII first met Catherine of Aragon. When she first arrived in England she was brought to the palace here to meet Arthur before they married. The palace itself burnt down years ago and was then rebuilt as a large house I think and is now a Four Seasons hotel. I’ve now given away my location completely if anyone googles!

Our previous house in Somerset was built in 1907 and Alexander Fleming (penicillin) lived in it for a short while.

Your parents sound great @SingleThreadJoiner2.

Yesterday I changed DS’s bed, finalised the landscaping plan for work starting tomorrow and ordered lots of plants to plant.

Today will be busy as I’m going to Ireland tomorrow.

• dishwasher - done
• clear one kitchen window and countertop as new blinds being fitted this morning
• finalise new rug size and curtains for dining and sitting areas and new Roman blinds for kitchen
• change a bed and dust room
• vacuum
• Sort packing
• gym or walk

I’m sure there’s more!

Have a great Monday all.

I sometimes wonder if our house is haunted - SpiritDoggo will sit bolt upright on the bed in the middle of the night and stare into the alcove - she is very still, alert and doesn't bark. Who knows 👻Finally finished reading the Rose Field. Overall, disappointing not very gripping and the ending was a complete turn around to what I thought it had been building up to. You wonder whether he got fed up with it and just wanted it to be over 😃BUT some beautiful writing in there and an idea I heard him debating with a neurologist on R4 many years ago makes an appearance (I thought he was bonkers then 😄)

• contacted a structural engineer - thanks to ChatGPT advice - to come and look at our downstairs floors - sloping and bouncy
• Bathroom survey booked in for end of November, after we come back from Cornwall
• Photos taken of front of house for windows guy
• Looked at car insurance quotes as mine is expensive and can potentially halve it, just need to look out for the renewal
• Busy re-arranging food cupboards. Just chucked out some mouldy cooked rice 😄Need to find space for stuff from a Costco trip - a very exciting tray of beans.
• the covering from the garden table has blown off during the night it was there at 12 when I let SpiritDoggo out and it's not in the neighbour's gardens
• just booked next set of refpilates classes

That's it for today, it's annual appraisal time and I need to look at the targets I haven't achieved 😄, have good one, SoE

That was quick reading @SpiritOfEdna! I could never get into Philip Pullman books. I still have Northern Lights somewhere. I've joined a thread that our @Peridot1 is also on, about reading what you own. I need never buy a book again, but continue to do so 😳 None this month though so I'm on a winning streak.
I've just finished The Friday Night Knitting Club and highly recommend it as a sweet observation on human life ( and the connection with knitting) Not highbrow in any way but well written with likeable characters.
Next up is a Cecelia Ahern: In A Thousand Different Ways, because her books grab me in a way that eg Neil Gaiman can't, at the moment.

Oh dear. I'm writing essays again!

That's some provenance with your homes @Peridot1! A book I read as a child described a ghost walking along the landing appearing as if it was on it's knees, because the house was built on a old site and the ghost was walking it's original path.

Pony duty again this morning. Not quite as much fun in wind and rain, but it'll be bracing! Leg is so much better sleeping with a thick pillow between my knees that I've ordered a specially shaped, firmer one. No painkillers needed for over a week now. Better sleep too. Evidently pain was waking me more than I realised.

Bin was stinky this morning, so my kitchen was also 🤢 Dealt with that. I intend to give the place a thorough vacuuming today, and deal with littlest's/spare room which has become a dumping ground. It happens so quickly!

Best wishes to you all 👋

@WinterFrogs - I have a pillow/cushion thing for between my legs too. It has a strap so you slip your leg into it. It definitely helps my lower back. That and doing some stretches before I get out of bed.

I think am being quite good at not buying any new books but then remember I had a few delivered in the last few weeks! One is a collection of writings from Irish writers and my oldest nephew has a story included. I haven’t read it yet but have packed it to take back to Ireland today to get him to sign it. Quite impressed we have a published writer in the family! I tend to just write lists…. 😄

Today will mostly be travelling. Have almost packed - am so rubbish at packing light. Oh well! Landscape guys are due to arrive shortly and we need to talk them through what needs doing. It’s more than they are expecting I think so they may run away screaming.

List for today:

• dishwasher/kitchen
• change my bed
• finish packing

Have a great day all. It’s looks lovely outside although cold so I should go for a walk but I think it will be too tight time wise so my walking today will be mainly in airports. Enjoy your pony time @WinterFrogs.

Hey everyone 🥰

Today has been a slow one, took dd to sainsburys for some ingredients for a beef stew and dumplings 😋

Then I bought ingredients for a stir fry and a beef curry as well 🤭

Need to clean clean clean the flat, probably tomorrow and start some painting in the hallway that ive been putting off for months!!

Omg this chat about period houses 😍. I love the look of some of the older ones in the countryside, although i do wonder as to how practical updating them is.

As you know, I love the city so love victorian and Edwardian architecture but I can picture these homes, in lovely villiages, pictured on a postcard 😍

Interestingly (to me 🙈), the guy who owned the house next to my old (rented) one, said that a woman and her mum lived in the house before me and i think that the mum died and then the daughter died there all alone 🥺

I hope that, if she was still there in spirit, she was comforted by our presence and saw what a lifesaver that home was to us, omg.

Made me glad me and dd were leaving though 🥺, that wont be my dd's story.

@SpiritOfEdna i'm the same when I get a good book, I get sucked in and can't put it down - sorry it fell apart towards the end. Ive read a few books/seen a few shows where you can tell that the writer just wanted it finished 😭

@FourSeasonsLobelia youre so lovely to visit the lady who lived in your house 🥺. I bet the family are grateful 🙏. Its little things like that that make the world go round, generations looking after eachother.

@SingleThreadJoiner2 Nobody Wants This is really good! Definitely worth getting into. How lovely are your parents, can you send them my way 😭

@WinterFrogs glad to see some improvement in your knee - hanging out with ponies sounds glorious 🙌, although I imagine quite physical. Hope youre feeling better and didnt end up getting that cold?

@Mumtobabyhavoc hope youre all well and the kids are better?

@Peridot1 what a cool history your homes have had 😍. Have a lovely time in Ireland

I do wonder about our current flat, built in the Victorian era, has seen. As we're on the top floor, we might be in what was inhabited by servants

I think about how it was lived in during ww2 mainly though. Might pop to the local museum with dd (and her tablet to keep her entertained) and see what there is to find out 👀👀

Love to you all, have a lovely evening 🥰🥰

Edit, sorry my post is so bloody long!!

Winter, Peridot. Add me to the pillow list. Can't sleep on my side without one.
Peridot, wishing you a good trip.

Have been coughing a lot, sinuses still congested, squeaky voice by end of day yesterday.
Need to get a grocery shop done, though. 😫
Despite the cold, had kids out for a good walk Sunday on Burnaby Mtn and yesterday to the pumpkin patch at Richmond Country Farm as it was the only sunny day forecasted for this week.

@Peridot1 ,have a good trip!

Yes I an very lucky with my parents, I think they try to over the compensate for the fact that they're not here very often (they're still in my home country) so when they come they want to be helpful. If I was still living back home (= the place I left 25yrs ago...) they would be doing little and often, I guess it's a cultural thing, I see it with my friends.

Today I didn't do laundry or tidy the guest room, which needs to happen before guests arrive on Friday, but I did pay for next months after school club and topped up the government childcare account.

@mumofoneAloneandwell still under the weather, but have stayed in all day. Havoc has been a challenge, possibly as a result of being inside and still not 100% well. Both dc are having a late nap.
Your meals sound great! Set a plate for us three? I'll bring dessert.
Today: baked apple cinnamon buns, laundry washed and hung up, previous dry laundry put away, general tidy, cleaned bathroom

It's 10c and rainy so, I'm eating a cinnamon bun and having a cup of tea in peace.

Yum- buns.

Hope everyone has a good day. My main thing is to transfer some money internationally and tidy up for the cleaner.

But I really need to make a list.

Morning all! Congratulations to your nephew @Peridot1! My writing talents only extend to lists, WhatsApp messages and long, off topic essays on here when a thought gets hold of me. Have a great time in Ireland!

@mumofoneAloneandwell I often think about how any place I am might have looked years/generations/millennia ago and how they might look, far into the future. Recently I read Ancestors by Alice Roberts, and it made me realise how much history could be beneath our feet. I'd recommend it.
Thank you for asking - the cold turned to nothing so I don't know what that was all about!

I hope you feel better soon @Mumtobabyhavoc Small children do seem to catch everything and pass it on don't they. We had a year of littlest bringing home germs from nursery before our immune systems caught up. She's made it to half term without bringing anything home from school 🙏 Enjoy the peace and quiet and your bun 😋

Ah you've still got two days @SingleThreadJoiner2 ! Your parents sound like my daughter in law's mum! She lives in a different country so she comes across and gets her mothering done in two week long bursts. She's lovely! A very adored MIL for DS and whatever she is to me (my opposite number I guess?) We've all been very lucky in the in-law department.

I must call a plumber today as we have a very ancient leaky tap and we don't know where to start fixing it. The whole kitchen needs a bit of an update really.

I will clean the tv and the stand it's on. It has gathered dust and a bit of clutter.

Emptied bins ✔️
Wiped mirrors ✔️
Run hoover round ✔️
Made bed ✔️
Dried a load of washing and put it away ✔️
Shredded some papers ✔️

So that feels like a good start. Off to shower and I'll clean it while I'm in it.

Have a good day all!

Morning! Want to body double? I'll be making a list at 7. 50....

List making starts ... now

On it! 💪

I have ten things so far, Granted 1 item just says 'Christmas'.. There is a whole world of present-buying trauma associated with that one and a number of sub-points.

Give mind mapping a go @FourSeasonsLobelia ( need to take my own advice in that!) I find them very soothing.

I have mostly work related things on my list and in the middle of it is 'make dinner'.

Now i need to figure out what order to do things in as i have errrand in opposite directions and neither can wait till tomorrow.

It's all about the time management. Sigh!

I think I'll prep dinner first or I'll be attending to that way too late and end up with sandwiches like last night

Dinner done. Remembered it's bin day and got rid of some slightly suspect meat that would have stunk the bin out so it was still in the fridge.
Dinner is done! Some admin too. Now the phone calls as it's a more reasonable time of day!

@WinterFrogs - I think the part of the genius of JKR in writing the Harry Potter books over a relatively short period of time (7 in 10) was that when they were finished they were finished with a epilogue which satisfied (some of) the readership that had grown up with the books. Others - like me - could ignore 😄. If I recall rightly The Northern Lights trilogy started the Lyra stories in 1995, so 30 years on and anyone starting as a YA reading the Northern Lights trilogy - or having it read to them at 10-ish - will be at least 40 and that a very long time to be invested in a set of characters with a fairly complicated world-building thing going on. Anyway, I thought I would read it quickly and then read again, but I can't be bothered 😄 I do remember the excitement of reading TNL, and I wasn't a child then !!

Anyways, today

• go and pick up a gift at Next when I get a gap this afternoon
• prep comments for people's appraisals - goddamn those 360 degree appraisals
• had a quick bedroom tidy today this morning - shoes away and rogue wrappers
• measure a frame so I can order some perspex for it. I also need to clean up the frame and maybe repaint it
• water plants
• work out cost of revamping bedroom for 2026 - needs floor/curtain rail/painting/new furniture and start a savings pot for it.
• do some washing, off to football tonight so I need some clean warm clothes 😄

That's all, have a good one, SoE

Good morning all 🍂💕

So today, the agenda is to clean my hallway of everything thats been stashed there, and start painting it. Thats it, but it feels so overwhelming.

Phone down now and just gonna make a start 💪

Makes sense about the books @SpiritOfEdna Have fun at football. Stay warm!
I achieved quite a lot today and was so pleased I'd cooked early as littlest dropped in for her tea and I had time to play with her.

I hope it went well @mumofoneAloneandwell 🎨

How are you doing @autumnangel ?

How far did you get with Christmas plans @FourSeasonsLobelia ?

I got plenty done and I'm proud to say I managed my errands, ticked several work related tasks off my list and delegated a couple.

I have just written tomorrow's list 💪

Winter and SoE, applauding your productivity! 🌸👏
Mumofone: did you get hall painted?

Had dc to playground today. Managed a bit of a walk there as well. Rushed home for phone appt to find email from person saying might not make it, but no confirmation after that. I couldn't open Teams and emailed to please phone or FT, but no reply. All. Day.
So I crawled into bed to nap with baby who slept beautifully while I scrolled...why do I do that to myself??? I don't often get the option to nap and God knows I need it. 🙄

Getting handyman in to look at several repairs tomorrow.
This evening i vacuumed and washed the kids' rain gear.
Threw away two pumpkins that began to rot and will check the remaining two tomorrow. Have got two medium sized and one mini from the pumpkin patch visit a couple days ago and plan to carve them tomorrow. Baby picked up the mini and wouldn't put it down, so it was a keeper. 🥰
My extra job was running vinegar and water through the coffee maker then a couple pots of plain water to clean it out. We have soft water, so no need to de-scale per se, but it can get grotty regardless. I also pop the lid up after use to dry it out and try to remember to wipe away any residual water from the filter basket etc which makes me feel like I'm quite attentive. 🤣😇

Good night. ☺️

Sweet dreams @Mumtobabyhavoc It sounds like a lovely day!

I've started well. Medicated the cat and did my stretches while the kettle was boiling. Finished today's list. Paid an invoice. I need to get a spare key cut today.

I also got connections straight off the bat which thrilled me as that is very rare for me.

Leaving the house at 7.30 today so I'm just setting straight before I go.

My dinner preparation brilliance didn't last into today.

Have a happy Thursday all ☕️ 🍰

Hello from a very cloudy Dublin. Although I have seen some amazing sunrise photos from friends on FB so I must have missed that!

About to get sorted to go to the gym. Maybe. 🤔

@WinterFrogs - I got Connections quite quickly today too. High fives to us both!

I got wordle in 3 and connections fairly quickly today too! Beautiful sunny autumn day here. Lovely dog walk with friends/neighbours earlier. Must crack on!