Countdown to Christmas 2023: launching into summer with more Christmas planning (thread 2)

[NoWordForFluffy]

Here's our new thread. Almost missed that it was needed!

Can somebody add the countdown again please, as I've no clue! 🤣🤣

177

new month and into the second half of the year

windy , dry , not much in the way of sun (yet) . Good day for washing

Similar weather here, 70. The parasol just blew over! 🙈 I shall leave righting that to DH. 😁

I'm mostly napping, Firefly. It's really taken it out of me this time.

Been a bit windy here as well. One of the panels is loose in the greenhouse.

DS is at Scout camp, and DD took full advantage of his absence to raid the pea plants and strawberry patch.

I can't believe it's July now, where has the year gone?!? The kids break up in 3 weeks and I haven't organised summer holiday childcare/adventures yet, it's very unlike me to be this disorganised!

176

I made an amazing spinach soup today (fresh spinach, celery,garlic, roasted onion and roasted potatoes -in the freezer-and vegan stock powder ) in the soup maker .
Delicious and vegan but very green .

I kee[ thinking "Oh I could make this soup as an easy starter for Christmas" but we 'd be busting our guts .

So better to be all Nigel Slater and have a bowl of rustic soup and fresh bread as a light meal .

175 I can't sleep so thought I'd pop on and say hi. DH & I have had a bit of a disagreement today and I can't switch my brain off 🙄

Fluffy I hope you're starting to feel better soon

70 your soup sounds delicious 😋

It's been really humid here all weekend and I've spent a fair amount of time in the garden so I've ended up catching the sun. You'd think at my age I'd know better by now!

Does anyone know why my strawberry plants have slowed down production in the last week after having a smashing start? I was getting a jar every few days but this week there have been very few.

Morning!

I'm on the way to the hospital for another early appointment. I had to get up at 5! 😴😴

Crazy, they're maybe just coming to an end. Ours do that. I hope you can sort out the disagreement with your DH.

I had a shocking night's sleep last night. I just cannot get comfy on my back. 😩😩I'm off the strong painkillers now, which is good news as codeine is evil.

How was your appointment Fluffy? I hope you've managed a nap or 2 today!

I haven't really had chance to talk to DH today but I think it may be one of those things that we just agree to disagree on.

I've given the strawberries an extra feed today in the hope I get some more fruit from them. I'll be gutted if their season is over.

Also, I've learned some important gardening lessons about spacing. I've had to pull up one of my broccolis because they're so crowded, and today I pulled up half my onions. They're small - I've planted them too close together, they don't have the space to grow as big as I need them.
Similar story with my carrots - I'm going to repot them in deeper containers and space them out more.

On the plus side, for the first time ever, I picked something from the garden and used them for tea - my onions may be small but they are mighty 🔥🥵

Ooh, feisty onions! 🧅

My appointment went well, thank you. I needed a bit of extra stitching and physio. Back on Weds for a wound check then Monday to see my consultant. Meet myself coming back.

I have some things I won't talk to DH about. It makes life much easier!

174

Biblical Rain at the moment good for the garden but it brings out the snails which our FemaleCat likes to hunt down and eat (like she's starved ) maybe she;s une chat Francois ?

DH is watching TV , Micheal Portillo is at the Burlington Arcade , I thought "Ohhh I bet that looks lovely at Christmas " << >>

I've ordered Christmas Stockings for DS and DD .......well . it is July

I am knitting Christmas stockings socks 70. It's been a fairly cool day here so doing some Christmas knitting has been the perfect way to occupy myself.

173 How's the shoulder Fluffy?

Systems are playing up at work so I've thinned/ replanted my first attempt at carrots and tidied up a few bits in the garden.
If the IT problems continue I'm going to dig out the baby blanket I've been crocheting for months and try and get a few rows done on that.

Your sock yarn looks very festive buck

Things are still a bit frosty between me and DH. I think he was frustrated and I was upset when we argued but now, he's fine and I'm still simmering (absolutely not helped by hormones making me want to cry every 5 mins). I need to pull myself out of it, neither of us are going to change our feelings and we've dealt with enough stress over the last few weeks/months.
😩 why is life so hard sometimes?

Hi folks. Day off today with lots to do and I am struggling to motivate myself. I feel like I have been dug up which isn't helping my get up and go.

Crazy I think life is blinking hard work and relationships with people go through ebbs and flows depending on how we are feeling. If you feel weepy and hormonal, have a good cry then carry on. It is fine to feel how you do, but try not to stay there for too long as it gets harder to get out. I speak with experience there.

172

Morning!

The sun is out here today. It seems like it will be a nice day. ☀️

Crazy, the shoulder isn't too bad, thank you. I'm trying to make sure I do the physio, though the therapist didn't tell me how many reps of each exercise or how often to do them, so not entirely helpful!

I'm sorry things are still frosty with you and DH. ☹️

Loving the sock, buck! 🧦

why Did you get your to do list done yesterday?

Fluffy some guidance with the physio would be helpful wouldn’t it?!

Things are thawing between me and DH mostly because I’m biting my tongue not to bring the same issues back up again as know it’ll get us nowhere

The systems in work were off for 30 mins at a time throughout today. I didn’t want to wander too far from my desk so spent the time sorting through my Christmas magazines. I chuck them in an old gift box to dip in and out of when the mood takes me and had no idea what was in there.
Today I discovered I have:
GH 2015, 2020, 2022
GH Get Ahead 2018, 2020
GH Christmas tips booklets 2016 & 2017
Red 2019 & 2020
Country Living 2020 & 2022
Good home magazine & Christmas bakes booklet 2020
The Christmas magazine with booklets for food & crafts 2022

I’m going through them slowly, ripping out any crafts or recipes I want to try. Is that a bit mad, having the ideas etc stuffed together in a folder or something? It seems such a waste to just throw them away

171

Ooh I love leafing through an old Christmas magazine Crazy - they don't really change year on year do they?

I do like the pages of the Blind Taste Test , (though I do wonder how independant or anonymous they are ) when they say they've sampled 30 mince pies

I keep my copy of GH Christmas in the bathroom ( it doesn't leave the bathroom so no LooGermTravelling ) to read and Nigel Slater by my bed <ooh err >

I’m going through them slowly, ripping out any crafts or recipes I want to try. Is that a bit mad, having the ideas etc stuffed together in a folder or something? It seems such a waste to just throw them away

Crazy I've got cross stitch patterns from the early 90s carefully torn from copies of Needlecraft and New Stitches - both of which don't exist any more.
Only 3, OK, maybe 4 - ish - lever arch files worth, in poly pockets with an index and my DMC and Anchor threads are stored in numbered order too.

Sorry your DH is being an arse. Men can be such...Men sometimes. 🤦‍♀️ You have to just agree to disagree. Or I could discreetly hire a mini-digger...

Fluffy, I hate physios since one sat plonked herself down on my back while I was flat on my front on me and I suspect cracked a rib. I couldn't breathe properly for a couple of weeks and when I told the GP they told me that she'd left 🤔 quite suddenly.

70, girl cat (remember, my 2 are "indoor" cats) escaped 2 nights ago...she got as far as the roof over the front of the house (the first floor steps back by about 8ft) DH has joked about her "night on the tiles" 🤨 and has been warned that his dangly bits are in danger of contact with my much cherished cricket bat if he doesn't remember to close the ensuite window in future. 🤬 I'm mostly calm - for now- but at 51, I'm blaming my possible lack of/maybe too many hormones --and marrying an idiot who can't close a window. 😾

Puss most of the stuff that I do is haphazard mainly cleaning but my craft stuff is kept immaculately. Everything has a place and I can put my hands on anything within a minute.

Crazy my sympathies. I have mini digger contacts if it helps 🤫

Fluffy my shoulder specialist ended up referring me to a different physio after the online service was so spectacularly shit that he ended up having to operate again after my shoulder seized due to crap physio.

Hugs Crazy. You and DH have had a lot going on lately. Are you going away over the summer?

I keep my Christmas magazines in a box under the bed and they usually come out around the beginning of November. I like to reread the full thing, so don't pull bits out, but I have ring binders with recipes pulled out of normal magazines.

How are you getting on Fluffy? Am I right in thinking you've still got at least 10 days before you can lift a cup of tea?

Are all your windows closed, Puss? It's a warm one tonight!

170

One hundred and seventy

It;s a hundred days till we go on holiday (and I need to get a swimsuit , no point looking in October !)

We are meant to get thunderstorms tomorrow ......... easily pleased , me !

Morning!

It's lovely here first thing, but apparently we also have the apocalypse coming later on, 70!

Firefly, I don't have to wear the sling from Monday, and can lift nothing heavier than a cup of tea for the next 11 weeks. I'm back seeing the surgeon on Monday too.

Woolly, that doesn't surprise me re physio. The quality can be a bit crap at times. I'm not signing up for another op though (doubt it would be possible anyway)! Well, I need a shoulder replacement at some point, but hopefully I can delay that for bloody ages. I'll talk to him on Monday about that.

Puss, thankfully the physio didn't sit on me. I shall run away if I see the slightest intention of them so-doing (physio on Tuesday).

169

Morning!

We had loads of rain and some thunder yesterday. My allotment will be so happy today! Our two water butts are back to being full as well, which is lovely!

I'm off to the allotment this morning to pick stuff (mostly various beans, plus peas and courgettes), as well as doing some weeding.

My sling is currently drying on the line as it got very sweaty overnight. 🥵 It's like some form of torture, putting a perimenopausal woman in a rubbery sling overnight in summer! 😩😩😩

OMG. WTF have I stumbled upon here?!?!? Is this genuinely a thread full of people who love Christmas and allotments and are not busy tearing each other down? I just.... as I dreaming?? HI Y'ALL!!!!! This is amazing.

Nope ,not dreaming , this is a Christmas Safe Space

And no Judgey sneers of "It;s July " unless it;s

"It's July and you haven't put the sprouts on yet? You'll need to put them in the pressure cooker and out the pressure cooker in the microwave or else they'll be raw . RAW I tell you"