Decorating!

The hall is finished, it only took two mornings to do it, it is a very small hall with four doors in it.

The living room is next, the paint is due to arrive later today and it's a similar colour to the existing paint, the whole room will be painted and it will cover up the white stripes where the plaster was chipped off and replaced.

I'm not having the ceiling painted or the skirting and doors, just the walls.

The decorator lives a few doors away from me and I could tell by his conversation when he arrived that he knew I had encouraged the local children to call round for sweets on Halloween. He seemed to find it amusing that I'd done this against the instructions of a neighbour who doesn't approve any children visiting, not even my grandchildren. I played dumb and just said how much I'd enjoyed seeing all the children dressed up!

Samhain

Samhain was very successful, I had an almost endless stream of visitors and gave out many sweets.

Some were toddlers with their parents some were older and in groups of four or more.

My grandson, dressed as a superhero, arrived in a group of six, my granddaughter came with just one friend they were both dressed Lorax, I only recognised my granddaughter when I noticed her rollerboots.

I think my favourite was the father and son dressed as dragons.

All were exceedingly polite and everyone said thank you.

Next year I shall probably dress up as a witch myself, though I don't wear a mask as I don't want to scare the little ones.

No doubt my neighbour will be round tomorrow to complain but Sufficient unto the day, Matthew 6:34. For a pagan I know a fair bit of the bible.

Almost one year.

I've lived in the village for almost a year now, I've made a determined effort to join in with village life.

I joined  the Autumn group first, then went to the coffee mornings and finally I started attending the pensioners monthly lunches.

Sometimes I go to the local pub for lunch, I go alone partly as I have no one to go with and partly because I'm comfortable on my own, it's a very friendly pub and only once have I been made to feel uncomfortable by two women at the next table who were pointedly whispering about me. One of my neighbours also doesn't think its appropriate for me to go to the pub but her opinion doesn't bother me either. 

Gone bust!

I had a text from my Drs surgery this morning to say the company that provides their website and online consultation service has gone into administration. 

The surgery had no advance notice of this and they, along with many other surgeries have been thrown into chaos.

Oh dear

What a shame! 

My first husband has managed to annoy all four of our children simultaneously, usually he only pisses them off one at a time. I'm not really sure what has happened though I do know It was something to do with his birthday.

He has always expected all four of our children to attend him on his birthday along with their children and they are expected to provide expensive gifts. He has always been difficult to buy for and extremely ungrateful, when I organised a microlite flight for him, he complained that one flight wasn't much, he would have preferred a course of six flights! As I was working in our business at this time and he refused to pay me a wage he was lucky he received anything.

Our children rarely tell me anything about him, they know I'm not really interested although I do always ask after his health. 

This morning I popped in to see my oldest daughter and she was seething from an email he'd sent her, tomorrow I'm seeing my other daughter so I will no doubt hear more. All I can do is listen sympathetically. I do not make things situation worse when they tell me things, I have no need to, he has managed to upset everyone on his own.

Soup du jour.

It's definitely soup weather at the moment, I still have some broccoli and stilton soup in my freezer.

Today I'm making another soup, this soup has many names, including fridge debris soup and simple soup. 

I'm using one very large carrot, three aged potatoes, an onion and a handful of orange lentils. I use these as they cook quickly.

I went to the village shop to buy some bananas and they had parsnips on the shelf,  I bought two and tomorrow I shall make curried parsnip soup.

Default setting.

My default setting now is scruffy.

I dress for comfort, warmth and dog walking.

My mother was glamorous and immaculately turned out when she went anywhere.

The best I can manage on a good day is tidy.

The main reason I leave my house is for dog walking, this doesn't require glamour, it requires comfortable shoes and appropriate clothing

Anywhere else I go, I like to ensure I'm not flashing any part of my anatomy.

There have been times when I've needed to dress up and I have done. I have dressed up for weddings, funerals and BDSM parties.

I do have one tidy outfit so if I needed to I could look respectable.