Still

 Still here still trying to fit in a bit of blogging , its that garden busy time of the year , so much to do so little dry weather to do it in . It would seem that all i do is burrn off endless sticky bud that the cats drag round in their fur its the winner of this wet year so far along with sycamore seedlings i seem to have 10 million of those also needing burning off . Now i know that sticky buds or cleavers are edible and yes ive tried steaming it , but its got to be the most boring veg on the planet , green mush pretty much sums it up .

The fruit trees seem to be drowning in blossom but there doesn't seem to be a great deal of  bees about due to the arctic wind. time will tell , gooseberry bush that i butchered last year has gone mental and i have actual ripening strawberries that i need to get the mesh covers on ...yet another job for the list along with planting out leek seedlings , first of the corn ready to plant out as well but it will need to be covered . Last of the main crop potatoes popped in last week , but may shove a few more in if i find any .

Ive jumbled myself into a coma the last few weeks and still have change from the original £10 i started with , 2 car boots attended at Metheringham ,with their usual strange bounty . loads of decorative tat if thats your thing, im there for plants and more large Kilner jars for my dried stuff , i did get an Ikea one this week , some 50s recipe booklets and of course a big bag of wool for my granny square fetish. 

So life continues here on the fen edge , boring bland and for the most part pretty uninteresting , hope your all having a productive spring ?

Bleak

Once again the new tablets made me a tad ill for a few days , theyve settled now but appear to be doing nothing  whatsoever for the problem they are supposed to miraculously cure , cant wait for the inevitable phone call from a medical professional telling me im not taking them , its such a regular occurrence i expect it ..lol

Anyway lets look at the edited highlights of the world news , was it just last week that the Israelis killed the British security team looking after aid workers , news for 3 days and now gone from our eyes , plus four aid workers of various nationalities, they had an enquiry sacked a couple of folks probably gave them each a medal and moved them to another spot to accidentally kill more folks.

Then it would seem there was a fair bit of rioting in London this weekend , didnt happen did it? well at least not in the major press outlets . How long can they keep taking no notice of the voting public ? Just dont mention the war seems to be the motto . Then the RAF are knocking Iranian drones out of the sky in our name ? What an utter shit show the world is at the moment , how the hell they think they can hide everything in the days of the internet is beyond me , just look beyond the BBC and the Daily Mail its all out there along with an endless supply of utter rubbish , but the truth is somewhere and its all very unpleasant   

 

UG

grumpy old woman post............... Told you my dealings with the doctors were getting worse . so i trailed out for my health lecture on tuesday , get  there after 3 detours diue to a water main collapse, resurfacing and homeless and lonely traffic lights in the middle of nowhere just parked in the road !!! I then have to sit in the plague riddled  waiting room for an hour, full of coughing kids and old blokes with a death rattle.  To be told they are changing my medication yet again !!! Some new wonder drug that they licensed for heart failure thats done wonders for those with type 2 diabetes , im not allowed to drive for at least two weeks till it kills me , she hands me a booklet telling me the tablets may rot my skin off , my pee may become acid and i may have blackouts ...oh be joyful ...then she starts lecturing me on my sex life ?  baffled by this stage , i pointed out it was a vague memory at which point she said oh your a lesbian? Now ive so far had three days of splitting headaches , my psoriasis is itching so i want to rip off my skin , im dizzy every time i stand up and my blood sugar is going up . Two weeks of this should be fun im currently sat on a carrier bag waiting for my fanny to fall out ? 

Time

 Having the time to blog is a problem at the minute , im hobbling about on a tiny patch of shingles damaged leg , bleedin painful but harmless . got problems with my doctors who now have outsourced there repeat prescription service to yet another company , who send you out an appointment time then nobody rings . Much like the statement on Ask GP that i have not been replying to there text messages that occasioned a phone call from one of their mythical GPs berating me for not answering , she was not very happy that i offered to email her a copy of my phone records showing that there have been no calls or messages.  if i could go to another practice i would , but if youre rural theres no choice . Tuesday ive got to go to another practice 15 miles away for a 10 minute appointment with somebody to show me how to behave when dealing with my health .  Why has it become so hard to just die in your own time without too much intervention because we must all want immortality . All a lot of people want is a quiet painless death. It doesnt matter if your 60 or 90 . i think the mummy experience has made me very bitter and twisted , the latest palava is that because the Local Cheshire East Council have cancelled their contract with mothers home from the 31st March her fees have gone up to £1640 a week!  the home wants us to tie into a three year contract , as mother is classed as terminal and we have no idea how long she will go on the answer is no. They are not happy and are threatening to evict her, but the bill is being paid every month and daughter is driving them batty just by saying no to a long contract , the state pays 90 something each week towards her care the rest has to be funded by mothers estate ...ho hum im not that nice a person so i cant wait for my touch your forelock and be grateful Tuesday appointment ....see you on the other side peeps 

Life

 Why is it the little things in life that really get your goat ?  Hotdogs, you know , the ones in a glass jar they have now gone down to 5 in a jar , what possible use are they ? You get 6 hot dog buns in a pack and if you live with a greedy git like me , thats 4 for him and 1 for you and a bun full of fried onions , shouldnt be a huge thing but its just yet more shrinkage nonsense . We dont even eat them that often ...lol

Mothers Day has come and gone but in a blinding flash i thought id get mother one of those fold out bouquet cards mainly because she wouldnt be able to chuck them at the staff, at worse she could inflict a paper cut . Anyway my cousin visited this weekend and found a pile of cards unopened sat on the side in her room , he opened them all but when he got to the bouquet card she told him to get rid of it , she didnt want paper flowers . One thing i know is that ive never being able to do anything that pleased my mother even tin the days when she had her marbles . I once sent her a bouquet at Christmas and her neighbour found it boxed on top of her dustbin the same day because she didnt want cheap petrol station flowers in her house . They were far from cheap they had cost a weeks grocery money . So if anyone has any suggestions of what i can get her for next months birthday ?  Himself has suggested a stake and a pile of kindling 

Seen It All

 So i was forced to go to town because i needed to treat myself for mothers day , himself wanted to go for a meal and we ended up at the usual Brewers Fayre  himself loved it  , i just had some wedges and the most cold  rock hard club sandwich i had to force down , it had three crumbs of chicken and three miniscule bits of transparent bacon, lashings of nasty mayo and a hot fried egg tossed on the top a slice of tomato and a load of salad leaves . URGGGGGGG himself started kicking off because i was struggling to eat it and the toast had been microwaved and had gone rock hard and rubbery . It was a shame because its always clean and the staff are lovely . But i was ungrateful because he had taken me out for Mothers Day . He then took me to the garden center , i really took my time wandering round just to get away from him , basket on arm i was people watching to kill time and let him calm down . I noticed a very smart older gentleman in the delicatessen part , always worth a wander to look for yellow stickers  he picked up a couple of bottles of wine and we carried on meandering for the dead plant section right at the very back near the bins where they have now hidden it , im rooting through the dead stuff but they havent exactly marked the dead stuff down and i notice hes sat on the edge of one of the raised beds , he takes a bottle of wine out of his basket opens it and glugs the whole thing down and pops the empty among the plants , then he does the same with the other bottle , looks at me and smiles and strolls away . I was gobsmacked ..lol ..well at least thats one way to get round the security tags.  I didnt buy a thing so himself was not amused, but at least i got a glimpse of the secret life of pensioners 

Think A Head

 So this morning i got a trip to Heron due to himself wanting me to post some stuff to the DVLA  that requires signatures and stuff so we ventured to the strangely sunny climes of Horncastle. Heron didnt produce any surprises but they had a big dump bin of yellow sticker stuff so ive stocked up on various bread stuff . brioche buns , different breads and current loaves and they has a stack of out of date Doritos something i dont usually get because himself would start to look like Pringles and Doritos given a chance , but fishing is starting this week and 10p doritos might shut him up moaning about what he wants for the food bag once ive picked the stickers off he will be non the wiser  . i didnt get him the pies he wanted because theyre now that damned dear i can make them cheaper , i have a stack of pie filling in the cupboard so im going to do a bit of ugly baking this week .

In the news...WELL ,,,what the heck is Sunak on about all the terrible extremists we need to be protected from ?  Is this a ploy to avoid an election by any chance ?  i keep expecting them to say we need a Unity Government  due to the terrible dangerous times we are living in , either that or the money that backs both our main political parties is crapping itself after George Galloway became a MP  , surprise surprise nobody fancied any of the candidates they offered . George Galloway is a well known grifter but he makes no bones about it, ,he will do anything that pays his mortgage, maybe he will be the most honest bloke in the Temple of Horrors known as Westminster?

Then there was the bloke from Kellogg's having his Gerald Ratner moment in front of the world , for those who cant remember that far back Gerald Ratner had a huge chain of high street jewelers selling  crap to the masses  who went on air and said he sold earrings for 99p, cheaper than a M&S sandwich the public were horrified that hed sold them tons of cheap crap and that was the end of his company . Mr patronise the poor Kellogg's  pointed out that if you couldnt afford proper food you could eat 2 bowls of his cereal a day . That has gone down like a ton of bricks as well , hope it hits his profits 

Prep Weird Stuff

 So here we go , one of my sad blog posts on the subject of prepping just to bore you all to death ...lol Now Mr Bah Humbug is all of a panic because theres a shortage of fishing hooks because they are all made in China and fishing bait is also getting very expensive in fact most hobby stuff is getting scarcer , i noticed that glue of various types is getting a bit thin on the ground the other day , but im not to worried i have mountains of craft stuff gleaned from my travels and im good at improvising anyway , do you remember making flour and water glue for scrapbooks many years ago? 

We had plums that ive bottled this week in a huge crumble that lasted for 3 days , asparagus from the freezer and carrot and swede mash as well , this was the time of year i had stored it all for , it just adds to the variety in our diets theres not a lot of fresh fruit and veg in a village with no shop and an overpriced community market for the wealthy . Seed potatoes were bought early and they seem to be vanishing quickly from the garden centers , theres tons of onion sets about so i picked up a mixed bag , the garden is still waterlogged and flooded but the kale is having a bit of a fit so i need to make some green powder in the dehydrator . I need to split loads of plants into pots just because there is talk of condemning the house we are in  , so thats yet another worry , they have a duty to rehouse us but it may well be in a tower block so im hoping to drag it out till harvest , we have to be careful that they dont put you in a B&B because theres no escape from them , thankfully him selves disability doesnt make it easy for them to get us out . Who knows what they will do the builders refusing to work on the house  has caused a big stink  and somebody locally has been on the TV about their ceiling collapsing and hit a family member so they need to do something 

Inspiration Failure

 Now i have a problem in life , its an enquiring mind thay doesnt stop . So i called in the butchers for a couple of slices of stuffed chine a well known expensive local delicacy and the young lad doing the slicing says would you like the bone ?  he charged me £3 for the damned thing that was a bag that heavy i could barely lift it . Now the chine is a huge lump of fatty back pork from a pig that has slices cut into it that are stuffed with a parsley mix and roasted , being a posh butchers they only cut the perfect slices off it leaving far more on the bone  than they use. it took ages to strip the meat which is basically ham from the rest of it 6 bags later thst will make amazing pies and sandwiches for the fishing season , but it also left a huge chunk of fat from the underside of the joint that i decided i would render to make flaky pastry . My gran always did this in the wash copper . Somewhere i had seen that it could be done in the slow cooker so i popped it in on the lowest setting and waited patiently it does take its time overnight and all the next day . Then himself said he could smell something burning , you guessed it had finally rendered and scorched a big lump of skin  ..AARRRGGHHHH still trying to decide if i can use it or the birds will benefit ..ho hum you have to try these things and theres still the actual bones to boil up yet . So £3 spent and an interesting experimental kitchen trial .

When

 When will the rain ever stop ? Its been warm enough to get on in the garden but its under water or just sloppy mud , ive potato sets sat tapping there feet, a bag of mixed onion sets, broad beans to set going its all very tedious and tapping my foot . So ive dug out my endless granny square bag and im trying to get going again with my daft hands just for something to do ..lol . We have heard no more from the builders and the council about all the urgent work they were going to do ..ho hum 

But in the scheme of things around the world lifes pretty good at the moment , ive been watching lots of weird you tube videos , Azerbaijan Grannies cooking , Polish girls cooking on wood stoves , Scrappers around the world , mental preppers who seem to be getting rather wound up about immigrants , best one this week was the gentleman going on about Chinese bio labs making viruses that kill none Orientals, all i could think about was how the UK would be endless Chinese takeways with no customers ? Im finding it hard to take life seriously . the news and press are worthless drivel not worth a visit . The Royals seem to be everywhere , it may be to distract us from the endless warmongering . Though at this rate next week it may be Prince Edward becoming a late life transsexual just to grab the headlines?  

Jumble 2024

 So lets take a look at the Lincoln Jumble Scene , the season having just got properly started , we have two Cat charities that do a jumble sale monthly in various villages and in the city  Lincoln Cat Care & Lincoln Cat in Crises  both are on Facebook . Then there are various others so it can take up most Saturdays . Advertising can be patchy so its play hunt the jumble on the internet . They all seem to have upped their prices to 50p entrance and 50p and upwards for the weird and wonderful stuff they sell . You get an awful lot of resellers on the clothing front so you need sharp elbows to jump into that melee . And theres a few dealers wading into the bric a brac but theyre a good source of useful household items and theyre cheap if your a shopaholic with a finance problem . I havent done a haul post for a while so heres a pic , plus i got a pile of Spiderman plastic plates because nobody has been blistering them in the microwave have they  GGRRRRR.  I got a WI preserves book because it had got some weird and wonderful variants on the chutney and jam front ,   a Beatrix Potter postcard book because it caught my eye, a magazine with a cover kit i liked ,  a pile of cotton yarn because i need more,,,honest  And to my daughters disgust a pair of vintage crochet covered wooden coat hangers , they tried to sell me a whole box of 70s fabric covered ones for a whole £2 but i just wanted the two pretty ones . I spent a happy hour and got a bag of  homemade sausage rolls and spent a whole £5............small things make me happy!!

Forward

 Neglecting you all again , im just rather busy with daft stuff . Mumsie and her toilet brush are still on the rampage and the arguments with family get ever more peculiar . latest one is over my lack of enthusiasm for renting out her bungalow , there is no way on this planet that i would ever want to be a landlord . Sell the damn place put the money in her account and use it to pay for her care . But the greedy grasping folks in the family want me to move into it then pay her rent , i have no interest at all in money so long as i can pay my bills and i wouldnt want to move to the other side of the country either . Then there was the 30k bill due for her care , just pay the damned thing she has the money ...AARRRGGHHH

Meanwhile in the real world lets talk wars and prepping , we seem to be on a slippery slope sliding in that direction regardless of whos in charge , and i think its now time to gear up a few things , ive been looking at producing my own sunflower oil its going ever upwards and its pretty easy to do , just grow black sunflower seeds and get a grinder , i started looking at the necessary equipment and an electric machine comes in around £300 plus so thats not happening but you can get a little manual grinder for around £80 so im saving , im not wanting to produce hundreds of gallons  so it should be ideal . 

 Then theres the gulf problems where the crap from China is going round the cape at huge cost and time , shouldnt make huge differences for me but it may well create shortages and huge price hikes . It will hit car parts and electronics plus certain foodstuffs . My first thought was cheap shoes for kids , if youve got kids or grandkids and have the spare money buy a few sizes up , school shoes dont change much so they wont go out of fashion . ive just ordered a kilo of peppercorns im a pepper addict so need my fix . Theres vast amounts of crap from China we can live without, but what do you think will be the stuff to stock up with now??

Chaos

 So 2024 is looking to be as much fun as 2023 

Here is my latest dealings with North Kesteven Council!! 3 weeks before xmas we had a visit from the letable homes scheme lady , theyre our landlord and they came to inspect work done by Keir their contractors before Covid , the wet room that was fitted for himself and the major mould issues. Left her rather speechless when i showed her ..lol  they had done nothing except fit a shower, tile a corner and tank the floor that was it . No repairs to the walls before they tiled no extra fan fitted no ceiling repairs they didnt even fit skirting board its a black mouldy disgusting mess i use gallons of mould remover , nothing does any good. Between that and the thick rust coming out of the hot water supply , which is nothing to do with them they say . I just give up , the kitchen ceiling now has a big bulge so somethings leaking but they say not , sons bedroom ceiling has started to grow mould as well but they think thats the guttering so they arranged for someone to do that the next day who never turned up and still hasnt .  i had signed a huge list with the council lady of all the repairs they needed to do to bring it up to the letable homes scheme . The following day a surveyor from the builders turned up with a 2 item list of stuff they were going to do , i told him to go back and get the full list i had signed that took till a couple off days before xmas he then came back with another surveyor who was here looking at stuff in the roof and announced it was unsafe for the builders to work on the property!!!!   over xmas they sent a letter from a different building firm saying they would need access on the 7th Jan on the 4th 2 builders turned up then another surveyor , they said they couldnt do the work either they would ring us . We have had 3 different companies send 4 surveyors who all say its too dangerous to work on the property ...i have to live in it . Theres no point of contact at the Council the women from letable homes walked out of her job and nobody else wants to talk about it . AAARRGGHHHHH

Well

 So i get another call from the home the doctor had been to see mother and said she needed to go into hospital immediately due to what he thought was a chest infection with the possibility of sepsis . He could only do so much because she wouldnt cooperate. The ambulance as duly summoned and she refuses to go in fact she was somewhat vocal on the subject and attacked a paramedic . they retreated the best they got was listening to her heart which isnt exactly beating well , shes been off medication for over 3 weeks now.  So i ended up having a long conversation with the floor manager at the home , mother dearest has been very vocal on the fact that she doesnt want to die in hospital , they do cater for end of life care, they have a proper full nursing team so thats the plan she stays where she is regardless of her condition , the home says she is very breathless but i pointed out shes still scrapping with folks and relentlessly abusive . Then i had to have a long talk with the GP for the home , he pointed out she may go suddenly and i pointed out that if he keeps annoying her he could be proved right . He didnt realise she had a DNR in place and has done for over a year . Despite her dementia when shes in there she has made it clear she wishes to die and supporting her in this decision is grim,  other family members have now chipped in and its turning into a huge family argument , her 90 year old brother supports her in this . Her quality of life is dreadful , she has a heart like a decaying Tesco carrier bag , shes blind , she hates the human race and has had enough.....

PS. shes feeling a bit better today , shes still refusing her medication      

Errrr Happy New Year

 So New Year New Start,  everythings going to be fluffy bunny and great , well it is if your drug dealer has delivered ..lol meanwhile the rest of us keep waddling on in much the same fashion . Got a phone call New Years Day Mother Dearest had had a fall , shes refusing all medication and not eating because they are poisoning her , she was found in a heap on her bathroom floor but wouldnt let them near her to see if she had hurt herself , in fact she was fighting them off with a toilet brush. Her room is camera covered  so the person on the desk spotted her go down and her help was straight on the job .  Daughter went yesterday and shes refusing to let anyone look at her, but shes sprightly and abusive so we dont think shes done herself much harm . The doctors seeing her Friday he may have to hit her with a tranquilizer gun then they will give her heavy narcotics for a few days . I wouldnt have a job in that home for all the money in the world , but all the staff seem to like her , they always say shes easy to care for compared to some they have in there.

So thats it a Happy New Year to you all