More Rain, Canine Visitors and A New Sporting Hobby - W/E 1st November 2026

It was a rainy start to the week.  OH wanted to get the greenhouse fully constructed, so he finished putting it together on Monday morning.  I slept really well on Sunday night, catching up on the sleep I'd lost the night before, so I felt much better. 

I headed out to do the weekly shop on my own this week, which is fine. I got lucky before doing the shopping, as I received a voucher from Lidl offering me £7 off my next £70 shop, so I used this voucher on this shop.  I avoided the charity shop, as I didn't need to engage in any unnecessary spending and just bought what we needed in order to keep within budget in the last week of the month.

It was a miserable day out and very busy in the shops. I don't know if it was because it was half term, or due to people shopping early in order to take part in the boycott of the supermarkets that had been organised for Wednesday of this week, to protest at the current cost of living. Either way, I was glad to get it done today and get home and chill.

On Tuesday, I went to Zumba as normal in the morning, which was good. There weren't many of us though, which is  pity. In the afternoon, I did some financial housekeeping for the end of the month, a bit early, but it's unlikely I'll spend anymore this month. In doing so, I realised that I'd been paid a second small lump sum from a pension, which indicates that the pension payments should be coming through next month, which was good news. I'll just wait and see if I'm taxed on it and if I am, I'll need to contact the Tax office for them to sort out the tax codes. They did say that any tax paid should be paid back to me the following month, so that is good if it happens.

Wednesday, was the first dry day we'd had for a while. I decided not to go to the Green Gym this week, as I had a lot of work to do in our garden emptying the old greenhouse and getting the new one up and running. It took most of the day, along with some pruning and tidying. I posted separately about this with some photos of the new greenhouse now in use. 

We also had a dog come to stay for the day, as OH's friend and his family hadn't been able to do what they'd planned on Sunday and went today instead. He spent most of the day outside with me and I walked him later. He was no trouble.

After Aerobics on Thursday morning, I decided to do some sewing. I wanted to make progress on the skirt that I am making using some fabric cut from a Seasalt dress that was too big and that didn't suit me. I got my overlocker out for the first time in probably a year or so and overlocked the edges of all the pieces of the skirt to give a better finish. I then put the zip in, did the darts, attached pockets and then sewed all the pieces together. It fitted perfectly. I now just need to recut the waistband, as I made it a little small, iron on some interfacing, overlock the edges and then attach it to the skirt.  This will probably take another afternoon to finish, but I was very happy with my progress today. It's the first time I've done any dressmaking since I did some sewing classes 18 months ago. I used my hand crank machine for the stitching on this project and it worked well. 

From today, we have our neighbour's dog staying with us for a week. He's a lovely boy and is also no trouble. OH tends to do the morning walks and I do the afternoon ones which are shorter. It's nice to have canine company again.

I got notified today of the date of my ultrasound, to potentially diagnose what I think is an inguinal hernia that has been troubling me lately. It's in 3 weeks time, which isn't too bad. I'm hoping it will give me a diagnosis, although I'm not sure if I'll be offered any treatment anytime soon.

On Friday morning, I got up and out early to attend an over 50's Walking Cricket session at a Leisure centre across the borough. The minute I walked in, someone came over to introduce themselves and chat to me, so it felt very friendly and supportive. After a warm up, the first half of the session was training in bowling (overarm), it was harder than it looked. Needless to say, I need to do a lot of work on my technique. My abs were also sore later, so I can only think that this is what caused it. Who knew?

The second half of the session we engaged in a game. The rules and scoring were new to me and the scoring particularly sounded quite complex, but we all just got on and played a game where everyone got to both bat, bowl and field. It was really good fun and there were another 4 ladies there, which was reassuring. I really enjoyed the session and then some of us went for a drink in the cafe afterwards. I will be going back, but I've planned something else for next Friday, so I'll be back the week after. I'm really glad that I went though.

Saturday, began cold and misty here. OH was out cycling and LB was at work early, as she was working at a market today, so I was on dog walking duty. I needed to wrap up well for the first time this season. We had a good walk and then chilled at home most of the afternoon. 

Later, OH was taking the dog out, so we all went up to our local high street to get a few bits of food for supper and we stopped off for a drink at a local restaurant, which was nice. I dropped into our local charity shop on the way home, but didn't see anything I liked.

On Sunday, I was really tired. I had a long lie in before getting up. OH was on dog walking duty, then heading out to a cycling event and LB was working another market today. So our doggy visitor and I were home alone. I decided to spend the afternoon watching the new Sense and Sensibility movie on TV, which was good. 

Later, I drove the dog to the park where LB was working at a food market and we visited her at her stall before taking a long walk around the park until she was packed up and ready to go home. It was a quiet day, but I wasn't feeling great, very tired mainly. I'm not sure if I'm coming down with something.

Hope you've had a good week.

Financial Roundup - October 2026

October has been a very eventful month financially, in comparison to a normal month. This is mainly because I turned 60, finally received two small pension lump sums and small monthly pension payments are now just around the corner. (Hopefully, from November onwards) This means that I will no longer be using savings to live on, on a month to month basis and I will also have a little more income than I've had for the past year.

I'm looking forward to this new phase of life and it does mean that there will be a little more money available for the odd day out, exhibition ticket, theatre trip, sewing course, etc. As a consequence, I've decided to create another sinking fund that I pay into each month for just this kind of occasion and to pay for new glasses or dental treatment. I'll still be putting money aside each month towards birthday/Xmas gifts to ensure that I have the money I need at the time I need it, but a separate fund will be useful to draw from, just to enjoy my life and the time I have available to me a little more.

It's been a very frugal year in many respects and I've had to keep tight control of my finances. It's not been that difficult, but there have been things I've wanted to do, that I just really didn't have the money for, so I'm hoping that this fund and having my free travel card, will make it easier to do those things and will also stop me frittering away income every month on unimportant or unnecessary things.

I'm not really looking to increase my savings too much going forward, but I will be depositing a little bit here and there where I can afford it, just to give me a bit more security for the future. I doubt that this will be much, as there isn't really much scope for it these days, but I may rearrange some of my existing savings to facilitate more income going forward. The reason for this being that my bank has reduced the interest on my ISA savings by 1%, which does make a bit of a difference. As a consequence, I will probably be transferring some of my savings elsewhere, where I can possibly get a better return. 

At some point in the future, I will also need to think about starting to spend my savings, as the whole point of accruing them was to help support me in retirement. However, going from saving to spending feels like a difficult thing to do, so I'm not sure when I'll feel completely ready to do this.

With regard to the monthly budget, October has been a slightly more expensive month than normal, for a few reasons. My allotment fees were due costing £35, I paid £36 for my new travel card and spent probably over £20 on postage and Post Office services to send off some documentation for my pension, which is nearly £100 of extra expenditure. In spite of this, I've managed to keep within my means this month. I've spent a bit on gifts for Xmas, but this has come out of my Xmas sinking fund and there's only a couple of areas where I've gone slightly over budget this month.

Going into November, I'm not entirely sure what my income will be. This will depend on whether both pensions start to be paid to me and how much I am taxed on them. If they do both get paid, I should have a little more income, if not, I may have a little less. However, there aren't any large expenses on the horizon. 

I will be focussing any spending in November on buying Xmas presents, to try to get them all bought by the end of the month if I can, before it gets busy in the shops.  I'm just waiting on lists from OH and LB, so I make sure to buy them exactly what they need or want. I've also got the odd inexpensive day out planned too, which I'll blog about when the time comes.

A Day in the Garden Putting the New Greenhouse into Use

This week, after all the rain had cleared and the weather took a turn for the better, I decided to spend a day in the garden, putting our new greenhouse into use. The greenhouse had been delivered a couple of weeks previous and OH and I had gradually got it all painted with preservative ready to construct. 

It cost around £500 to buy untreated, which wasn't cheap, but if we'd wanted to get it painted before delivery, it would have cost another £500, so we decided to paint it ourselves. OH just ordered some preserving paint in the same colour as our garden room and bit by bit over the last week or two, we gave all the parts a couple of coats of preservative.

OH then constructed it over a couple of days and it was ready to go. Here's the greenhouse empty and ready to be put into use:

We bought the new greenhouse to replace a small metal and plastic greenhouse that we've had for a good few years now. It's worked pretty well for us, but we wanted something a little bigger that would look a bit more grown up. We do have limited space in our garden, so in the end we went for this one which I think is 6ft x 4ft. It was as big as we could get into the space we have on our decking.

Here's a picture of the greenhouse that we had previously:

There's nothing particularly wrong with this one, but it was getting a bit full and does look a touch messy. It was a cheap solution at the time and has lasted well, but it's time for a change. I will see if anyone at the allotment wants me to take it there, as not everyone has much room at home to grow seedlings on. It would be good to keep it in use until it falls apart. I will probably just need to get a new cover for it as the current one has ripped in a couple of places, they're not expensive though.

I chose a dry morning and set about emptying the old greenhouse and putting the new one in it's place. It took 2 or 3 hours to do this. Once I'd emptied the greenhouse and moved it out of the way, I had to sweep the decking and fence and also prune back a bush to the side of it before we could put the new greenhouse in place.  OH had to do this, as it was just way too heavy for me to even push.

I made sure to brush everything off to get rid of snails, spiders (there were some big ones) and cobwebs, before placing everything in the new greenhouse. I did get rid of a few things, but not a great deal, as we do use most of what is in here. There are currently only two shelves which did mean that it was difficult to find a space for everything, but OH is going to build at least one more lower shelf into one side and may be some higher ones too to put the seedlings on. That will be a job for another day though.

Eventually, everything was put in and it now looks like this:

We really like it, it looks so much tidier. I will move more stuff around as and when we get more shelves, but for now one shelf has all the plants I need to overwinter on it and the other has seed trays and hand tools. Pots, bags of compost and other larger tools are all on the floor, but corralled into dustbins to keep them tidy and organised.

After finishing the greenhouse, I then tidied up the decking, sweeping behind plant pots, cutting back some plants in the border and also pruning back a couple of plants that had got a bit unwieldy. I was probably a bit brutal, but I'm pretty sure they'll grow back. I also planted out a plant I've been meaning to put in the border for a while, but couldn't actually get to it. OH also returned the bench and table to the decking area so it was back to normal.

Here's a picture of how the decking area looks now:

It is a little bare, but there is more to cut back later in the year or maybe next spring. It looks much tidier though. All that's left to do in this part of the garden is repot up the hanging basket which is just about over, but I will do this another day. 

The patio area of the garden is the next area that I need to tackle. I have some plants on the table that need putting in one of the borders and we need to try to brush the algae and moss from the bricks. We're also going to clean off and paint the dividing fence with the same preservative as the shed and greenhouse, as it's looking a bit worse for wear. This will be easier once everything has properly died back.

It was a good day's work and it looks completely different to how it's looked all summer, but at least half the garden is now winter ready. We now have several bags of garden waste to take to the tip, as we don't get a collection anymore, as you now have to pay for it. We can't actually take it at the moment, as there are some road works on the route which will take ages to negotiate, so we'll have to wait a few weeks to do that, but I'm happy with the day's progress.

A Rainy Week - W/E 25th October 2026

It seems lately, that the world has gone completely mad. Everywhere I look or listen, in the news and on social media, there are protests/riots, flooding, price rises, potential shortages, doom mongers, etc, etc. It's pretty overwhelming. I find myself just wanting to focus my attention on staying home and doing things that make me feel good, such as working on our garden or sewing. I try not pay too much attention to all the doom and gloom out there, and I don't usually like to talk about it here on my blog, as I like to keep things positive, but there's a balance to be had, between keeping abreast of what's going on in the world and just burying your head in the sand. 

Anyway, on Monday, LB came with me to do the weekly shop out of town. It was nice to have company. We did visit the charity shop this week, as LB wanted to go in and I don't need an excuse. I did buy a couple of things. I made sure to fill the car with petrol whilst out, as it is cheaper where I shop and who knows when or if it will become harder to get hold of, I don't want to get caught out. We don't use a lot of petrol in a week, so it lasts a while. It was actually quite a nice sunny day, but for the remainder of the week there was a lot of rain forecast.

Tuesday, I headed to the gym for Zumba, which was good. It was raining on and off all day, so I spent the afternoon in the house. I decided to do some sewing. I finished an alteration job on the hand crank machine, then cut out the fabric pieces for a skirt I'm making. I also completed a garment bag for the wardrobe and repaired the hem on a pair of trousers, so quite a productive afternoon.

In the evening, OH and I watched a movie called Nebraska, which was funny. It was about an old guy who is convinced he's won a million dollars and is fixated on travelling from his home in Montana to Nebraska to claim it. It's a funny film about family, purpose and getting old, but was very entertaining.

Wednesday, was my day for going to the Green Gym. Despite the rain, I decided to venture out, only to find via a voicemail once I'd got there, that the session was cancelled. Having spent money to catch the train, (as my new travel card doesn't cover travel on the train route) I was determined not to waste anymore money on the journey home, so as I had plenty of time, I decided to try to find my way home using my free travel pass. It was a bit confusing at first, but I soon found a pretty quick route involving two buses and a tube and was home in more or less the same amount of time as it took to take the train. In the end, this did me a favour, as I'll use this route in future and save myself the £4.60 fare each time I go. Have travel card, will use it. I also still managed to get 5000 steps in and get out of the house, so all was not lost and I also ended up with an afternoon to do as I pleased.

For the remainder of the afternoon, I decided to do a bit of re-organising of my Xmas gift drawer, which is slowly filling up and also sort out some of my fabric scraps, which were overflowing, on account of the alterations I've been doing lately. Small jobs that needed doing and felt very satisfying to get done.

Thursday, was probably the driest and sunniest day of the week. I attended a class at the gym in the morning and then after lunch I did a bit more painting of the greenhouse panels. I managed to get a second coat on a few more pieces, which brings us a little bit closer to being able to construct it. OH then finished work early and completed the painting on the remainder of the panels, so it is now ready to be constructed when he gets some time over the weekend.

I did a few other jobs that I've been meaning to do once I'd finished painting. First, was to make some more homemade air freshener and deodorant, as I was running out of both. I then put some more jam on the stove, as I'd managed to acquire a few jam jars that I could use. I'm using smaller jam jars these days and I don't actually have that many, so I save them as we empty them of their contents and when I've got enough to make a batch of jam, I clear the freezer of a bit more fruit. I am now struggling to find room for the made jars of jam though, as the pantry shelf is almost full, as is the fridge.

Friday, was a bit of a lost day, partly on account of having a long lie in and partly due to the fact that I didn't really do anything very productive. Not every day has to be productive though, as everyday life isn't like work. It should be enjoyable and restful sometimes. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 

It didn't help that it was raining for most of the day.  I did venture out to the postbox to post off some financial details regarding some shares I own, so they can pay me some potential dividends and then I went to the allotment, but there wasn't a lot going on there. It was a bit grim really, as it's been very wet.

We finished the evening watching Celebrity Traitors which does frustrate me a little, as it always seems to become more like a popularity contest, than a genuine attempt to find the traitors, more especially with the celebrity version.

On Saturday, I made a point of getting out of bed early and making my way to a new gym for a free gym session. It is the same free Over  50's session that I used to go to, but it is in a different venue. I caught the bus there, as it is a bit further away, probably a 35 minute walk and I needed to be there for 9.30am. It was a good session, although I did take it quite easy as it was my first time in the gym for probably a couple of months and I didn't want to pull anything.  It was nice to see a few familiar faces, including the instructor. I've completely lost my gym mojo lately, so I'm hoping it will help get me back into going. I'm going to try to go there regularly from now on.

I did a bit of top up shopping on the way back home and then treated myself to a sourdough turkey bacon sandwich for lunch, which was very tasty. LB returned home around lunchtime. She had stayed over at a friend's for a Murder Mystery night, which she'd enjoyed. Sounded like fun.

Saturday afternoon was chilled. It was stormy with high winds and super heavy rain, especially later in the evening, but most things withstood the onslaught. We watched the first episode of East of Eden on Netflix tonight, which was good. I do love John Steinbeck novels. I've read quite a lot of them.

On Sunday, I felt tired after not sleeping well. I had to be up early, as a friend of OH's was dropping off their dog at 8.30 am and OH was out cycling. We agreed to look after him for the day as their family were all going out to celebrate one of the kid's birthdays. I did a few jobs around the house before heading out with him for a walk. It was a lovely bright sunny morning after the storm, but the wind did pick up at times, so I had to keep away from the larger trees just in case.

I've been looking into joining Walking Cricket sessions in the sports hall of a Leisure Centre in another part of the borough. They're for over 50's, both men and women. I used to play a lot of cricket at primary school and really enjoyed it, so I thought it might be fun and a bit of a different way to keep fit. I may go along on Friday of next week. I also created a new Pay As You Go multisite gym membership, as my previous one had run out. Now I'm 60, it only cost £1.75 for the year. I did this mainly because it entitles me to free swimming in the borough and I can go to the open air Lido for less than £2. I'm not sure if/when I will brave it, but it's good to have the option for such a small fee.

On Sunday afternoon, OH started to construct the shed. Before he started, I managed to do some drastically needed pruning to the plants in one of the beds around the decking. I've just not been able to get to it, as there's usually so much stuff on the decking, but OH had moved it all off in order to give him room to construct the shed, so it was an opportunity not to be missed.

We both spent two or three hours putting the shed together. We didn't quite get it finished, as there's still the doors to hang, the roof to go on and the whole thing to be screwed down to the base, once it's properly squared up, but it's looking good so far. I peeled all the sticky plastic off the windows and cleaned them up while OH did the construction. They all came up well. I'm excited to get it into it's final position and get everything put into it. OH may need to build a couple more shelves or pieces of staging though at some point as there's currently only two shelves in it. I'll post again when it's finished and moved to it's proper position in the garden.

Thrifted Household Linens - Repairing, Repurposing and Replicating

The other week, I mentioned that I'd bought a cotton duvet cover and pillow cases from the charity shop for £4. It was this one:

I don't normally use anything white, as it is a magnet for dirt and stains, but this set was 100% cotton and had a very pretty embroidered panel across it. Unfortunately, this embroidered strip had several holes where it attached to the rest of the cover, but I decided that this was a very easy repair for me, so I bought it and repaired it when I got home. I think the cotton thread was inferior quality, which is why this was in such a state, so I more or less re-stitched the whole panel on both edges. Hopefully, it should now wear better.

I am undecided as to whether to dye this cover and the pillow cases, the jury is still out, but I put it on a 60 degree wash and once it had dried, put it on the spare room bed with an old cotton blanket on top. It looks quite nice for the moment. Here's a picture of it on the bed:

During the same charity shop trip, I also bought this super cute cotton child's duvet cover. It is no good to me for using as a duvet cover, nor for clothes making, as it is too small and the print is just a little bit too childish, but I did think of another use for it, so I bought it for £2.

My prospective use for it was to make one of these wardrobe hanging bags. Above is a picture the one that I bought on holiday at a car boot sale in Cornwall for £3. I loved the animal print on the fabric and figured that I could replicate this quite easily once back home and use up some of my fabric stash. It wasn't my intention to buy any fabric to make one, but £2 isn't a big outlay and I need a few of these to protect some woollen sweaters and the odd dress/jacket I have from moths in the wardrobe.

I was lucky enough to find some long zips in a charity shop in St Ives. They had just stocked the shop with lots of crafting supplies for a yearly craft festival, which was happening in the town the following week, so I bought 5 for £4.50 and these will be the perfect size for this project. They are not as fancy as the original one, but they'll do fine.

After washing the child's duvet cover, I set about making a sweater cover, It was the perfect length for this.  All I needed to do for this project was to cut off the top and bottom seams, turn it around so that the side seams were to the front and back. It was a little wide for the purpose I needed, so I did have to make it a bit narrower and then shape the fabric at the top for the hanger, re-stitch it top and bottom and insert a zip. Pretty simple really.

Here's a picture of the finished bag:

I'm very happy with it and it cost £3 to make (i.e. the cost of the fabric and the zip). Before making it, I looked up some similar handmade ones on Etsy and they cost £22 or more. (Albeit made a bit more expertly) Another online company, which sells very upmarket versions, charges up to £160 for these. I'd have to be a millionaire to pay that kind of price. Happily, I don't need to. I'll let you know when I make any more, it's on the to do list.

There have been a couple more household linens that I've thrifted lately. The first was this beautiful embroidered cotton pillowcase, that I got from a charity shop in Penzance for £1. I do love a vintage pillowcase, as the quality of the cotton always seems much higher than pillowcases you buy these days. So pretty and with no stains or damage.

The final household purchase I made was at the charity shop the other week and was this felted wool blanket that I paid £2 for. I think it must have been put in the washing machine and had shrunk, so I decided that it might be good to use as a rug this winter. Here's a picture:

I have bought some anti slip corners for it, to prevent any accidents, but it seemed a shame to leave behind a lovely natural fibre item that still had life left in it. If it doesn't work out as a rug, I can always fashion it into a couple of cushion covers for the sofa.

I don't often thrift household linens or fabrics these days, as I already have quite a collection of vintage bed linens and fabrics, but I have to say that I'm very pleased with these few that I did buy and I'm glad to put them back into everyday use. 

A Productive Weekend in the Garden - W/E 18th October 2026 - Part 2

The remainder of this week has been pretty uneventful. On Thursday, I went to a class at the gym in the morning and then didn't really do much for the rest of the day. I think I just needed an afternoon where I did very little, as it had been a busy start to the week. It was a bit of a lost afternoon, but sometimes it's necessary and is good for the soul.

On Friday, LB was off work and was heading out to do some thrifting. I decided to go along with her and try out my recently received bus pass. I didn't want to spend much money thrifting, but I did spend a few pounds on a few very inexpensive items. We had a nice afternoon out together, exploring places old and new. We were home by about 3pm and chilled for the rest of the day.

Saturday, OH was cycling in the morning, so I had a lie in and then spent the morning doing a few small sewing tasks, which involved doing a few small alterations to a couple of things.

Later, when OH was back, we decided to venture out into the garden and started painting the new greenhouse with wood preservative. It rained a little, intermittently, but we managed to get one coat of the preservative on most of the pieces of the greenhouse, before it started raining more heavily and we gave up for the day.

I then caught up on a bit of ironing, getting through most of the ironing basket, which was looking quite full. OH bought in a takeaway for supper, which is rare, but some days neither of us feels like cooking, and this was one of them.

On Sunday morning, we decided to have a little trip to Columbia Road Flower Market, a very popular East End market. We haven't been for quite a while. I wanted to find some plants to make up an autumn/winter hanging basket, as our summer basket is just about finished. I was also on the look out for some small succulents to put in the tiered basket that I got from a car boot sale earlier in the year. I did managed to find all of the above, save for two more succulents that are still needed. I spent £20 in total, which wasn't too bad for 9 plants in total.

Here's a picture of some of the plants I bought:

I just need to pot them on into larger pots and the hanging basket.  I'll post another picture when they're potted on.

When we got home, we resumed work on painting the greenhouse and managed to give everything a first coat and some things a second coat of preservative. We chose to do this ourselves, instead of buying it ready painted, as it saved us £500 and it hasn't really taken too long to do thus far. Luckily, the polycarbonate windows had a stick on removable coating, so we didn't have to be too careful on the frames around them, this made it much quicker and easier.

I will continue to work on the painting through the week, but we are forecast quite a bit of rain this coming week, so I'm not sure how far I'll get. Here's a picture of some of the progress so far:

I'm looking forward to when it's all finished and constructed, but it might be a couple of weeks yet before this happens.

A Wardrobe Changeover and Some Progress Made - W/E 18th October 2026 - Part One

Back in London, the week started off with a lie in. Travel, I find, is tiring, even if it's within the UK. I eventually surfaced, did some unpacking from the weekend, showered and headed out to do the weekly shop, albeit a bit later than usual. This week, I kept strictly to buying only what we needed for the week and it did keep the groceries well within budget for once. I did use £7.00 worth of vouchers and nectar points, which did help and I did drop a couple of Xmas food items into the trolley. I'm trying to buy at least one item each week now to spread the cost.  For once, I didn't visit the charity shop, which was progress for me.

Our new greenhouse arrived first thing today. We just need to paint it with preservative before we can assemble it. I'll probably do a separate post on our progress on this front.

On Tuesday, I woke up late after a terrible, restless night. I had breakfast and quickly got ready for the gym, only to find that my class had been cancelled. Luckily, this time around, I hadn't left the house, which was an improvement on the last time this happened.

Instead of the gym, I decided to do a seasonal wardrobe change over, as it's starting to cool down. The weather seemed appropriate as it was drizzly outside, but by the time I'd finished it was sunny and dry. I tried most things on, to make sure they still fitted. Some things were a little snug, which was a bit depressing. The most depressing thing, however, was how little colour there was in my winter wardrobe.  So much black and navy, very little else. I've got so many chunky jumpers for very cold weather, but I don't know if I'll need them this winter. 

I did leave a few summer items in there to make sure I get more use out of them and to have a few lighter options for warm days. There's also a few things in the laundry, that aren't black or navy. Here's a picture of my new wardrobe offering:

Pretty unexciting, but it needed to be done. It will be good to be able to choose from things I haven't seen for a few months.

After lunch, I decided to once again try to get my pension documents certified at our main post office. My bank statement had arrived whilst we were away over the weekend and all I needed to do was to photocopy it on OH's printer before heading out. I walked into town and finally on my third attempt, I got the documents certified and sent off. It was a relief. 

On the way back, I started getting a very nasty stinging pain in my groin which was very uncomfortable. I get it quite often when I walk any distance and it is quite debilitating. I decided it was time to see the doctor about it, as I'm concerned that it might be a hernia. I called the surgery, filled in an online form and then by the time I got home, the surgery was on the phone asking me to come in. I just about managed to get in on time, no thanks to the traffic and new road system in our area and the outcome is that I'm going for an ultrasound in the next few weeks, to see if it is indeed a hernia. 

I have to say, that I got impecable service from our NHS today, which I was very grateful for. I've been ignoring this issue for a while now, but it's been getting steadily worse and at least needed some sort of medical opinion. The doctor did also give me some useful advice on how to manage things in the meantime, so I'll be taking that on board going forward and see if it helps, especially when walking any distance.

When I got home, I decided to make soup for supper, chopping up whatever vegetables were in the fridge and throwing them all in along with some left over stock from the freezer. It was very tasty and used up lots of veggies we had languishing in the fridge.

Wednesday was my day to go to the Green Gym. When I got there, I learned that we were working on clearing the pond which was leaking and needed a new liner. Myself and another lady got to work on cutting out some reeds, whose roots had all grown together to form large masses. It was hard physical work, but eventually we got all the plants removed and then removed the old liner, which was split in several places, ready to put in a new thicker liner at a later date.

I remembered to take a few photos this week whilst I was there:

We had a good day today, but I was shattered when I finally got home. I was perked up by finding that my new 60+ Oyster card had arrived, so at least next week I'll be able to catch a bus to and from the train station for free, which will cut down the travelling time and save me the 30 minute walk each way. I can't wait to start using it.