First Week of May 2023

This week I've been happy to welcome a new month. I can't quite believe it's May already, but here we are. 

The week started with a trip out on Sunday morning. OH was taking part in a cycling event near Chelmsford and he persuaded me to go along with him and visit a local car boot sale. I took a bit of persuading to get up at 6.30am on a Sunday, but I agreed to go.

We set off at 7.30am and the streets were empty, which was great. I dropped OH off at the venue for the event and then drove on to a new to me Car Boot Sale in Boreham, near Chelmsford. It was a big car boot sale with lots of stalls. My difficulty was, that the dog hates walking around car boot sales and I struggled to see a lot of the stalls, as she kept lying down in the grass and refusing to move, bless her. I gave up torturing her and we returned to the car after an hour of looking.

To be honest, I was only looking for plant pots anyway and there seemed to be very few that I liked, so all in all it wasn't a very successful visit.  I did add two more plants to my collection.  These two small, what I think might be Agave plants, that I bought for £3.

On the way home we dropped into a garden centre to pick up a few bits. OH wanted some compost and I needed a new trug for the laundry, as one of the handles on mine had broken.  We then stopped for a drink in a pub. We finally got home at about 1.30pm, by which time the traffic on the roads around London was annoyingly busy. In London, on weekends, you need to be up and out early or don't bother, unless you want to be stuck in traffic, that is.

The afternoon I spent in bed. I was so tired I slept for nearly 3 hours. I'd woken up at 3.30am and hadn't properly got back to sleep. I could have slept for longer, but didn't want to affect my sleep later.

On Bank Holiday Monday, OH and I decided to head out early again, before the traffic got busy, to get some things for the garden this time. OH needed wood and chicken wire to create some new covers for the raised beds in the garden and I was still on a quest to find some plant pots for my houseplants, plus some houseplant compost.

Between Wickes and B&Q, we managed to get everything we needed and I did a small top up shop of bread, milk, etc. at ASDA, to last us the rest of the weekend and we were home by 12 noon, by which time it was starting to get busy, so we were glad we'd got out early.

When I got home, I potted on some plants in to the new pots I'd bought. I managed to do all but a couple of plants, which I'll do when I get more houseplant compost, as I ran out again.

OH spent the afternoon building the new raised bed covers.  He did a great job, they look so much better. He also raised the sides of the far bed, as they was lower than the one in front. Here's a picture:

Just in case you were wondering, the beds need covers in order to keep foxes, cats and squirrels out. OH has already planted one up with lettuce seedlings which are doing well and we don't want to lose them to these visitors. The garden is gradually starting to green up again, which is always nice to see, it seems so bare in the winter.

I applied for a job on Monday. It's something completely different to jobs I've worked in recent years, so it will be interesting to see if I get an interview or hear anything. I'm not really applying for much at the moment, but if I see jobs that I think I'll enjoy, I will apply. I'll keep you posted.

On Tuesday morning, I did a bit of cleaning in the sewing room. I went through all the desk top and drawers, throwing out old irrelevant stuff and organising things a lot better. It was quite satisfying.

Late morning, I headed off to do the weekly shop. I had another £7 off a £70 spend at Tesco voucher, so I decided to use it and buy lots of things we use regularly. I've got one more coupon like this, but I don't know if I'll use it, as I'm spending more than I need to really. I don't mind being stocked up on things, as it will mean buying less on future shops, but I don't want to overspend too much, when I'm on a tight budget now that I'm not working.

When I got back, I had to go straight back out again, to attend an appointment at the Building Society to open a new ISA. They were offering such a good rate that I decided to get the benefit of. Unfortunately, you can only deposit one initial sum and you can't add to it over the fixed term, which was disappointing, so I deposited what I could spare, as it will earn a lot more interest here than where I previously had it.

I returned home from the appointment and decided to make a beef stew for supper, with some reduced price beef I'd had in the freezer for a while. I used up the last of the vegetables in the freezer too. There's now just a couple of packs of frozen tomatoes left, that OH will use in soups and some packs of frozen blackberries, which I intend to use to make more jam when I get around to it. Once they are all used up, I can give the drawer a good clean and then we should have space for any surplus crops we grow this season.

A couple of parcels I'd ordered last week came on Monday. One from H&M, which was two pairs of printed summer trousers. A bit of an impulse buy, but they weren't very expensive. They should be nice to wear in the warmer months. Most of mine are a little snug at the moment, so I needed some more.

The second parcel was from Temu.com. I'd seen a YouTube video where someone had ordered from them and their opening prices are ridiculously low, so I placed a small order to see what things were like. Most of the items were okay and all small practical solutions for around the house. One was a present for OH for his birthday later this month. I've now placed a second order, as I've seen some more things that I'd like to buy. This will probably be the last order I place though, as I don't have too much spare cash these days.  I'll do a haul when it eventually arrives. (I would do one for this order, but I've already put everything away all over the house).

On Wednesday morning, I woke early from a really deep sleep, which I haven't had in a while. I could tell it was deep because I can remember dreaming, which I don't always do. I felt super refreshed, as I've been feeling very tired the last couple of days.

I took the dog out and then decided to return to the Soca Aerobics class that I used to attend, before I started my last job. It's a free class, which is now held at my local gym. I walked there, as it's only about 15-20 minutes from where I live. I really enjoyed the class, it felt so good to get moving/dancing again.

When I got back, I decided that I was going to wash all the dirty plant pots in the garden. There were quite a lot of them, so many in fact, that when I've been trying to find pots to pot on plants, I can't find any the right size that are clean. It felt great to get that job done until later in the year, when there'll probably be more to wash. I also potted on a couple of small trees into larger pots, as they were growing well.

OH sadly found a dead fox on the allotment on Wednesday, he Googled what to do with it and found that he needed to bag it up and put it out for the council to collect. Not a nice job, bless him.

Thursday, I was up early as usual and off to my volunteering session. I caught the bus again. It was just myself and one other volunteer again. I think they are short on volunteers at the moment. We did what we could anyway. On the way home, I dropped into a nearby Poundland for a few bits we needed and to activate my new credit card. (It's not a new one, a replacement one for one that expired) I bought this cute bamboo wind chime for the garden for £1. It makes a nice gentle sound.

I also bought a book that sounds like a nice summer read for £1.50.

I applied for another job today. This time in retail again, but a weekday job, more on the merchandising side, rather than customer facing. I think I would be more or less in charge of myself in this job and it would involve travelling between different shops, which would suit me. I'll just have to wait and see if I get an interview.

On Friday morning I took the dog out for a walk. I picked up this book en route from a Little Free Library. I read the author's book French Women Don't Get Fat maybe 10 years ago and enjoyed it, so I'm definitely looking forward to reading this one. I don't think I've already read it.

Thankfully, the torrential rain and thunder waited until we got home before it started. I made an online sale today, which I was grateful for. Not a huge sum, but every penny counts when you don't have an income.

I didn't sleep well on Thursday night, so it was time for a nap again on Friday afternoon. I did a bit of work on my 1" square patchwork before napping and then when I woke up, I realised it was nearly 5pm and I hadn't posted the parcel for the online sale, so I quickly wrapped it and hot footed it to the Post Office. Luckily there was a collection on Saturday morning, so I managed to catch that one before the Bank Holiday weekend.

On Saturday, OH was out cycling for most of the day, so I got up and was about to take the dog out when it started raining and just didn't stop. It wasn't great weather for the Coronation, but as I couldn't get out with the dog I decided to sit down and watch it. 

I eventually managed to get out with the dog at about 12.30pm, and then when we got back, OH had returned from his cycling event. We just chilled for the remainder of the afternoon. I did some work on my quilt and we watched some TV. 

A quiet end to a short but busy week, I hope you enjoyed the Coronation week.