A Mixed Week - W/E 21st June 2026

This week has been a mixed one. It started off with an out of town shop as usual on Monday, of which there was nothing interesting to report.

On Tuesday, after my class at the gym, we got packed up and ready to travel north for OH's brother's funeral. There were a few small issues to iron out before the day of the funeral the following day, that had been causing stress, but by the time we got to bed this had been done and everyone was in a better place.

As a consequence, the day itself went really well. The service was good and I think most people came away feeling that it had been a good day, albeit a sad one. It went as well as could be expected in any case and it was nice to meet family members I hadn't met before and catch up with others that I had.

After drinks and a meal in a local pub with everyone, OH and I set off back to London mid afternoon. We've spent so much time away travelling for holidays and visits in the last few months, that OH needed to get back for work and to get back to some sort of normality. It's always strange when you come away from a funeral. It churns up lots of different emotions that take time to settle back down.

On Thursday, both OH and I went to the gym in the morning, me to my class, OH to work out with weights. We both then walked back, stopping off at my favourite mulberry bush in the park, which is currently laden with fruit. We ate a few berries before continuing the walk home.

A bit later, we headed over to the allotment to water and harvest. There was lots of lettuce, peas in pods, gooseberries, raspberries and blueberries to harvest, plus a few beetroot and one ball shaped courgette. I planted out a couple of the white borage plants that I'd grown from seed. They were getting too big for their current pots. I also weeded a little and put the bins out ready for emptying the next day. We do love spending time down on the allotment, it's very calming. 

Back at home, I had sewn some sunflower seeds last week. Two different varieties, one red, one yellow. They have both germinated well. I'm a bit late sewing these, but hopefully they'll still have time to grow fully.

Friday was a quiet, stay at home kind of day. It was hot outside and as I didn't need to go anywhere, I was very happy to stay home and just catch up on a few bits that needed doing and stay cool. OH was cycling in the evening, and LB was out at a party, so I stayed home alone and finished watching an old BBC serialisation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Ann Bronte, followed by starting a BBC serialisation of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, which is my favourite of all the Bronte sisters' books. A lovely self indulgent evening, with no football or cricket, for a change.

On Saturday, OH suggested that we head out for the afternoon on our bikes. We cycled over to Hoxton Market, had some lunch in a cafe and then wandered through the market. This market is the opposite of many of the gentrified markets in East London. It is still a very traditional East End Market, probably one of the last ones remaining, so it wasn't too busy and we could stroll through with our bikes.

We then decided to visit the nearby Museum of the Home, which is a museum of interiors that as a family, we have visited many times over the years, although we haven't been there in a good few years. It had changed somewhat since our last visit, with some new galleries being created. We walked through the museum first and then went out into the gardens which have lots of interesting plants in them.

On our way home we had ice creams en route and then cycled via the back streets of Hackney to our local Lidl, to pick up some bits that we'd run out of and also some bits for a BBQ later in the evening. We had a nice afternoon out. I rarely go anywhere in London on Saturdays, as it can get so busy, but being out on bikes, we were able to avoid the busy areas and find parts of London that were not so crowded.

Later, we had our third BBQ of the year. It wasn't too hot today, as it clouded over at times. I was thankful for this.

Sunday, was a super chill day. OH was out cycling all day and LB was working, so I was home alone. I went to the gym and worked out late morning, and then came home, had lunch and pottered around doing jobs that didn't get done the day before. It was hot again, so I was happy to stay inside most of the day keeping cool. I did pop out later to water the allotment, but only when it had cooled off in the evening.

A chill end to a sad beginning to the week.

Back to London and Reality - W/E 14th June 2026

Having returned to London on Monday afternoon, we were excited to see how our garden and the allotment had fared in our absence. We were lucky that there had been lots of rain whilst we were away and as a consequence, we hadn't lost any plants. In fact, they were probably a bit over watered if anything. I spent a little while pottering in the garden, deadheading and checking up on all the plants and then later OH and I walked over to the allotment and harvested lots of lettuce, raspberries and strawberries. 

Everything had grown really well on the plot. The peas are growing pods and there are small fruit on the tomatoes and cucumbers. OH planted out a few more lettuce and I weeded a little. There was absolutely no need to water at all. There's nothing worse than going on holiday and coming back to dead plants, so we considered ourselves lucky that everything was okay.

On Tuesday, I got up and unpacked from the holiday. I had done my laundry the day before, but needed to unpack toiletries and other items. I had booked my usual Zumba class for 10am and I was very happy to get back to it. I got drenched in a torrential downpour on my way home. It was just as well that I was intending to have a shower and change when I got home, before heading out to do some grocery shopping out of town.

I set off at about 12.30pm and visited a few shops to get everything we needed. I used a £5 off voucher at Tesco and another £5 off voucher I'd accumulated at Lidl, under their new points scheme. It was good to get some food in the house, as there was virtually nothing fresh when we got home, save for what we harvested at the allotment. We had to just manage with what was in the freezer and pantry.

On Wednesday, I didn't have to get up early for anything, so I stayed in bed late reading a bit of both of the books I'm currently reading. I didn't really do much reading on holiday, so it was good to get back to it. I eventually got up and ready, did a bit of blogging and later in the afternoon headed out to meet a couple of friends for an early supper. One friend, like me, is celebrating her 60th birthday this year.

Anyway, I stopped off at Lidl, during a torrential downpour, to pick up a bottle of wine, and a woman was having a full on melt down, due to a security guard watching her. She was screeching at the top of her voice for over 10 minutes about how she was going to lose him his job and, of course, the staff were so distracted by her it took longer to get them to authorise purchases and other people used the distraction to try to shoplift. It was chaos. This is a perfect example of why I don't like to shop locally. There is very rarely any kind of drama when I shop out of town.

I jumped back on another bus and met my friends at the restaurant. It was good to have a catchup of everyone's news. Both my friends were celebrating birthdays this month, and the birth of a new grandchild is also imminent for one of them, so we managed to work our way through two bottles of wine between us, which was unusual. Eventually, we left and headed our separate ways home.

On Thursday, I was booked into aerobics at 10am. It felt like hard work today, probably because I was a bit hungover. My body felt like a lead weight. It doesn't help that I haven't been going as regularly, due to one thing or another. I didn't do a lot in the afternoon, save some laundry and have a nap on the sofa. I was feeling tired and completely lacking in motivation. I did start a new sewing project in the evening. I've decided to make an apron for gardening in, to hold gloves, secateurs, my phone, etc. I'm using what's left of some jeans I deconstructed. I'm just not feeling like working on my ongoing projects at the moment and needed a fresh challenge.

I didn't sleep well on Thursday night, as LB was out at a concert and with friends. I never sleep until she gets home, which was gone 3am on this particular occasion, so I couldn't get myself out of bed very early on Friday morning. When I did eventually get up, I showered and then pottered around the kitchen doing odd jobs. OH went to the allotment and harvested more produce, which I weighed and washed when he got back. 

I did a bit of machine sewing on the new apron project in the afternoon. It didn't take long. I'll post a picture in my monthly makes post. It's not been a very productive week, especially knowing that we're going to Yorkshire again next week for the funeral of OH's brother. I can't seem to settle into doing anything. The weather hasn't been great either, although it did finally stop raining on Friday and we got some long overdue sunshine again.

On Saturday, it was lovely and sunny, so I spent the afternoon pottering in the garden. I potted on one of the white borage plants I grew from seed. Here it is in it's new pot:

It's growing to a good size, but should get bigger. I'm hoping the bees like it and the leaves are also useful for plant food, besides being pretty that is. I've got a few more plants and want to put some at the allotment and some in the garden.

My old cactus seems to be happy at the moment and is sending off lots of flower buds, some of which have opened. I always love seeing this plant flower.

I picked the rest of the blackcurrants from the garden bush. I picked a few before we went on holiday and froze them. I weighed them all together to add to my tally. Not a great amount, but there's another bush at the allotment, along with lots of gooseberries, which when put together make a nice jam. We've still got four jars of jam that I made last year, but I will be making more once I've harvested everything.

I also ate the ripe black mulberries from my tree in the garden. They are so sweet. Again, not a huge crop, but very tasty.

Later on Saturday, OH and I took a stroll over to the allotment, where he harvested a row of new potatoes and I did some weeding and planted out a couple of dahlias I'd bought whilst on holiday. I also harvested some of the gooseberries. The paths that I'd cleared of weeds a few weeks ago, had more weeds growing through, so I cleared them all ready for the inspection at the end of the month. I may need to do a bit more if they grow back in the next two weeks.

On Sunday, I got up, put lots of laundry away and then got ready for the gym. I'm having to virtually drag myself there these days, but I need to go really and my gym session went okay. I didn't do a lot for the rest of the day. I read just my library book, which was due back the following day, so I needed to finish it.

Hope you've had a good week.

A Week Away in Lincolnshire - W/E 8th June 2026

I was very excited for this week, as it was going to be different from the usual.  We were going away for a week and LB was coming with us. For this holiday, we decided to stay in the UK, what with all the hooha over aviation fuel and flight cancellations, not knowing when OH's brother's funeral was going to be and the fact that OH was going to Europe for 10 days cycling the following month. LB and I were happy to have a UK holiday, on the condition that we at least had a hot tub to relax in, so we set about looking for a comfortable place in a countryside setting with a hot tub.

I was quite surprised at how expensive it is to rent accommodation for holidays in the UK now. It has doubled in price since before Lockdown. Sadly, the days of renting a lovely cottage for £500 for a week are long gone, in most places in the UK.

Anyway, after a bit of tooing and frooing over whether to go to the South West or Suffolk/Norfolk, we eventually decided on South Lincolnshire, near The Wash, mainly for it's proximity to Yorkshire, in case the funeral was going to be that week, although it wasn't. We hadn't really visited this area much and it is close to the Lincolnshire Wolds and there are lots of other interesting things to do in the area. We rented a converted Windmill with a hot tub, near the coast on the edge of The Wash. 

LB and I don't like super hot weather, so we were quite relieved to find that the week we were going, things would be cooling down a bit and we'd even have some rain. (Which was good for the garden/allotment whilst we were away!)

We were staying Monday to Monday, so on Monday lunchtime, we packed up the car and headed north. It was probably a 2-3 hour drive from London, although it took us more like 4-5 hours, as we stopped for lunch in one of the oldest pubs in the UK, which was also purported to be haunted by a ghost from the 11th century. We also stopped off in the largely Georgian town of Wisbech, Cambs. for cake and a cup of tea in a lovely cafe, before finally getting to the windmill. Here's a picture of it:

It was lovely inside and out, but did have very steep stairs to each floor, which were much easier to negotiate coming down backwards. We spent the first evening settling in and I slept really well, which was good.

On Tuesday, we headed into Boston, Lincs. mid morning and had a wander around. We explored the town, which we enjoyed, picked up a few bits of food shopping, had some lunch in a cafe and then drove as near to the Wash as we could and went for a walk along the newly named King Charles III coastal path. We did a bit of bird watching and then got completely drenched walking back to the car, as there was a heavy rainfall, so we then retreated back to the Mill for the remainder of the evening to dry off and chill.

Wednesday, OH went off on a bike ride, so LB and I headed to Skegness 12 miles up the coast. I remember having childhood holidays here with my sisters and parents. Unfortunately, it started to rain heavily when we got there. We dived in and out of a few shops and then drove up to meet OH at a cafe a few miles away. After lunch, we drove up to Mablethorpe, which has a lovely sandy beach and took a little walk on the beach and had a 99 ice cream. Got to be done at the seaside. On the way home, we picked up fish and chips in a beautiful little village called Wainfleet St Mary, and took them home to enjoy, followed by a soak in the hot tub which was lovely. (Finally!)

On Thursday, we drove over to Lincoln and visited the norman castle there, which houses one of only four remaining original copies of the infamous Magna Carta. It was something that OH has wanted to do for ages, so he was very happy to go. 

We visited the victorian prison that was subsequently built in the castle grounds and also walked part of the castle walls, as part of our admission ticket, which gave great views of the historic part of the city which you can see in the photo above, with it's cobbled streets and small independent shops. OH also took a look in the Cathedral, but a service was just starting, so he couldn't stay for long. We had lunch in a pub and then, as we were only 1 hour away from OH's mum's house, we decided to pay her a visit for a few hours. We also visited his brother's partner too, before returning to Linconlshire and our rental.

Friday, OH was heading out cycling again, so LB and I headed to the town of Spalding this time, to do some thrifting. There were lots of charity shops in the town centre and they were so reasonably priced. We had a lot of fun visiting them. I spent £15, but bought three tops, a dress and three new, uncut sewing patterns, two of which cost just 10p each, plus a few other sewing bits, as some of the charity shops had great crafting sections. I'm hoping they'll help get me back into making some of my own clothes. The clothes I bought will be included in my monthly clothing purchase post at the end of the month. We were both thrifted out by the end of the day. We met up with OH later and had lunch before returning to the mill.

On Saturday, I had been looking forward to visiting a local car boot sale, but unfortunately the weather was awful with high winds and rain. I figured there'd be very few sellers braving it, so I looked online for something else to do and found a National Trust property that sounded interesting. LB was happy to stay at the mill and OH had booked himself on a Brewery tour, which I wasn't really interested in. I dropped him off and then made my way to Gunby Hall and Estate. Here's a picture of the house:

It was £12 entry to the house and gardens, and as I particularly wanted to visit the walled garden, I opted for this. The house was interesting, or should I say, the family who lived there were super interesting. The volunteers in each room were very knowledgeable and were very happy to tell you about the history of the house and family. I really enjoyed it. I then had a walk through the walled garden which was a mixture of flowers and fruit/vegetables. I always love visiting walled gardens and this one wasn't a disappointment. It was definitely a good choice of somewhere to visit. Here are some pictures of the walled garden:

In the evening, we all went out to a local bowling alley and booked a lane for an hour. We managed to squeeze in 3 games, which was fun. On the way home, we picked up an indian takeaway from a shop in the village. The food was amazing and it was a rare treat for us.

We finally got to a car boot sale on Sunday in Adderthorpe. OH cycled there and met LB and I once we'd finished browsing. I didn't buy a lot, but I did get 4 plants for £5 in total. One thing I loved about Lincolnshire, was that there were lots of houses selling plants outside and you just popped the money in a tin. I bought two more plants from such a stall, but could happily have bought more if we'd had room in the car. Here's a picture of the ones I bought:

They included two dahlias, a rosemary cutting, spearmint, a purple verbena and a purple sedum, the latter two were bought from the stall on the side of the road.

After leaving the car boot, we drove to Skegness again, for OH to visit this time. Luckily it was a  lovely hot day. We had a game of crazy golf, (which is a family tradition at the seaside) walked the beach and pier and had an ice cream, before returning for our last night at the mill.

We had a lovely stay, despite very changeable weather, and it was very restful. A wonderful change from the hustle and bustle of London life.

Monthly Clothing Purchases - May 2026

This month, I have once again bought quite a few items of clothing, all second hand from both Charity shops and car boot sales. I haven't spent a huge amount and have tried to stick to summer clothing, mainly in natural materials.

The first item I bought was from a charity shop on our local high street. I bought this pair of black leather Mary Jane style shoes that cost £8.

I thought the price quite reasonable for leather shoes from Hush Puppies and they were in very good condition. They looked and felt comfortable too, which is essential for me these days.

I then bought this lovely 100% cotton print dress for £5 from a car boot sale. Unfortunately, when I got it home, it didn't look very nice on. I tried to make a few changes to it to make it more flattering, but I couldn't get it to work for my body shape and it now can't really be donated, so I'll probably just use the beautiful fabric for a sewing project. It was a bit disappointing really, but you live and learn. This sometimes happens when I can't try something on, but I liked the print and fabric so much that I wanted to take a punt on it. It's a beautiful lightweight cotton, so I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

We then made an emergency visit to Yorkshire and I did visit one or two charity shops whilst there. I bought this very comfortable looking pair of sandals for £3 in one shop:

You'll notice that there's only one sandal in the photo, as on my second time wearing them, the sole of the second one completely detached from the upper. We're going to try to glue it back on, but I'm not optimistic. It was a great pity, as I liked them. 

When we returned to London, I visited my favourite out of town charity shop and spent £3 on a floaty short cotton dress, which I promptly cut down to make this top. This is another lightweight cotton and should be a good option on hot summer days. I also bought a pair of brand new black jersey cycling shorts for £1, to wear under dresses on hot days. For £1, they are super useful to have.

I also paid a visit to my favourite local charity shop nearer to home this month and bought this pair of leopard print pants. They are polyester, which I'm not keen on, but I do like a bit of leopard print and they fit comfortably and were reduced to £2.50 on the sale rail. I decided, after taking the photo, to elasticate the ankles to make them less formal and more jogger like, as it's my preferred style in trousers. I will probably wear them in the winter months, as polyester is too hot to wear in the summer. I can see me wearing them with a big sweater and boots.

Finally, on the second Bank Holiday weekend, we made a visit to a different to us car boot sale and I bought a few pieces of clothing.  First was this bright green cotton dress for just £2,

I do like this dress, but for some reason it makes my bust look very, lets say, matronly, which isn't exactly a good look. I'm divided about whether to hang onto it in case I lose a bit of weight in that area, add some iron on embroidery in this area to detract, or to cut it down to a skirt. I'm not going to rush into making a decision. I'm going to see if I can find some embroidery patches first. I have one, which did make a big difference, but I need two, one for each side. Hold fire for a possible transformation.

I also picked up this 100% linen shirt for £1, which I couldn't leave behind,

some cotton blend loose fitting pants for £2, again jogger style,

and finally another cotton (jersey) dress for £3. This last dress was a bit of a gamble, as it was size medium, but I bought it anyway, and when I tried it on, it looked okay. It's a very simple sleeveless tiered maxi style, very easy to throw on on a hot day. I'm very happy with it.

In total then, I spent £30.50 on clothing this month, but I did get a lot of different options for my money.