Shoe B Careful

Heres a weird one for you , has anybody else had their shoes disintegrate while wearing them of late?  I had a pair of couple of year old Evans boots worn maybe a dozen times and put them on Saturday, went to take them off and most of the surface of the boots disintegrated in my hands , they weren't expensive by most peoples standards but to me they were, not repairable so into the bin they went . Now strangely enough a couple of weeks ago i bought a nice Joules handbag at the jumble and much the same happened to that . So it being cold and because im bored i looked it up on line and found hundreds of people online having the same problem a lot have contacted retailers and been told that its not their fault so go away . I kept trawling and found some answers , hydrolysis is when the souls disintegrate and it would seem that the vinyl covering of pleather as they call it now has to be biodegradable so quite literally they are designed to rot in landfill. You have no idea when buying shoes how long theyve been made surely they should come with a sell by date ?   

Shoppin

 I must have had a premonition , his part for his van has finally turned up !!!  Now the garage just has to find the time to fix it ..lol at least it will mean i can have my kitchen and living room back , i currently have his disabled wheels stuck in the kitchen and his hoist and other disabled gubbins in the living room , they had to be removed due to the value of them before the wretched vehicle could go to the garage so ive been walking round a track for months .

On the shoppin front i'd seen on line that Tesco had half price beef joints , so i thought Xmas . popped in yesterday and was stood at the side of the chiller of beef with three other folks shaking our heads the aforementioned Clubcard special offer , was shrink wrapped vivid red and looked like the end bits off proper joints , i picked up a small you know it will shrink to the size of a beefburger on cooking lump, £25 and this is half price? There is retail piss taking everywhere but thats one of the worse ive seen . Half price shoulder of lamb £18 bugger all on it just a bone. Well i needed bread and eggs and they took some finding, theyve just revamped little Tesco and theres no logic to it . Everywhere were folks wandering round muttering , one women was in the stock cubes muttering about how they had gone up by over £1 in a week,  I guess we are paying for the revamp !! with their billions of pounds profit they are taking the piss .. 

Eternal Autumn

 I look out the window and it seems that we are having the longest autumn in living memory , its either very grey or very sunny . The heatings been on for an hour just to bleed the radiators , im still having to sleep with the window open and a single sheet . But then there was some cheerful chap online the other night pointing out that the worst winter in 20 years started this way !!! The level of birds this year is amazing a lot have managed two batches of young , we are absolutely infested with wrens and tits , so i cant tidy the back garden because they like to pick all the seeds off the weeds . We have a huge ivy that covers and hides the oil tank its now in flower and is covered with bees and wasps daily . Theres hundreds of ladybirds whever the sun comes out . The bald patches in the lawn have filled in i sprinkled them with wildlife friendly seed,  different clovers and grasses so it might be a tad alternative this year and will doubtless upset the neighbours as always . The hedgehogs are still up and feeding every night . in fact its positivly brimming with life out there , which is how i like it .

Meanwhile in the real world the disabled adapted van has now been sat in the garage for 3 months waiting for a part that you can only get from America , which with all the dumb tariff fiddling about is sat in a depot somewhere ?  Even himself who always buys Ford says never again ..ho hum I will stick to watching the wildlife and trying to motivate myself into Facebook Marketplace listing a ton of accidental auction lot Denby tableware , I wanted a doll and two big boxes of pots turned up as a bonus ...lol..i dont want to store it overwinter and tableware usually goes before xmas .

Learning Curve

 I ventured to the Community Pantry last week on my own , due to Himself doing something with his brother that didnt require me . It did cause a bit of an argument because he insisted how would he cope with nobody to make tea and lunch . There are times hes very clingy toddler but BIL was there so i didnt see any problem . Friday is a day i rarely venture into town but it was as dead as a doornail , so i was enjoying having a bit of a gossip with one of the volunteers , an elderly lady of a very great vintage , who like me doesnt tolerate fools and idiots . They were trying to wrap her in cotton wool and she wasnt having it ..lol..The pastor was fussing round her and he was getting told in no uncertain terms . Anyway she was telling me they are now holding cooking classes using fresh foods , they get mountains of fruit and veg donated . They had social services there that day , they had bought a minibus of coming up to 18 care leavers . the plan was that they would learn to make potato wedges or sweet potato wedges a nice simple idea you would think . Anyway there was a major problem , they are not allowed to use knives or own them . In fact they didnt even know how to use a knife . So quite how they are teaching them any measure of independence was beyond both of us . She had suggested that they teach them to peel potatoes in a sarcastic manner . The pastor had promptly scuttled off to buy safety peelers .  The world is going to die if nobody even knows how to peel a potato isnt it? I can see that a lady in her 90s can see that and im sure you can 

Happy Shopper

Oh my did i have a good day at the jumbles , a little church one that was fill a bag for £6 and i was determined to get my moneys worth , rammed it with large size clothing a large book and a pyrex sauce dish that matches my everyday snowflake pyrex then finally i spotted some gorgeous fabric and shovelled that in as well . then on to the next where i also got a huge bag of big sized clothing and of all things for 50p , a veg slicer never used  , that was on the little list in my head having broken mine and using it a lot for the dehydrator. I washed everything when i got home and the line was full its been out a couple of days in the wind and rain trying to get rid of the fabric conditioner smell ..lol There seems to be tons of large size clothing at the jumbles at the moment . Is it because every ones on the skinny jabs?  

My daughter then turned up with a couple of boxes i won at an auction weeks ago , they got forgotten in her garage , i'd only paid a couple of quid for them because id spotted a Tiny Tears arm sticking out ..lol turns out ive two Tiny Tears and a huge Woolworths pram doll , plus a whole box of weird 70s  electrical goods and clean baking tins , so i guess i will be doing a car boot in the Spring . On her way out my daughter  spotted the fabric id bought , says you do know what that is? nice fabric to cut up for patchwork ?  it would seem its an expensive bed set by Joules who knew , its meaningless to me . ive been told that once its dry shes selling it on vinted ..lol

Im Back

 Now mobile , still a wee bit wobbly , usual nerve problems . But hey ive a double jumble out in the wilderness near Spilsby for Saturday to aim for  . Ive being playing kitchen catch up , finally got my apple pie filling canned , doing pears tomorrow . trotted down and finished harvesting squash , more than i realised because they had been hiding under the corn and tomatoes , strangely the outdoor tomatoes are having a second flush theyve gone lush and green again and have set on loads of the small tomatoes , which every time we have a sunny day ripen, its nearly november, im sure the first frost will finish them, but hey theyre getting used . Maize corn are a bit sparse but they have a myriad of different colours so i will save seed for next year . I was planning to harvest the dried beans but its rained so they will have to wait again .

I thought that having barely bothered with the internet i would get up to tons of news and goings on , I was wrong , seems i missed the Rapture and all those folks who got left behind are whinging . It doesnt seem to have crossed their minds that the godly might have actually been scooped up and it was a minibus full Maybe they arent quite as godly as they think they are?

Just sat here watching a pair of kites being harassed by the crows over the back garden , thats it life goes on and nothing thats happening in the world makes any difference. 

Unclean

 Here i am ringing my leper bell yet again, buggerin shingles and its a bad batch not sure whats triggered it, though himself has been a bit rough and been to the hospital so it could be any viral plague hes picked up , 3 days wiped out in bed now staggering about nuked on painkillers , just for a change it figured it would wrap right round my thigh , no point visiting the doctors once its hatched antivirals do jack nothing. they did there usual aka nothing , so got up and threatened them with murder , now Sarcastic son has some bug , hoping its the same one or my life could get interesting. lol

Anyway daughter rang this morning and said they were taking me to the cat jumble , im not infectious just crippled , a jumble sale on painkillers was fun, tons of stuff i neither needed or wanted ..lol.. so for a change i came home laden with studio pottery and West German pottery. i was watching the resellers nearly scrapping over onyx table lamps  guess theyre having a moment on Vinted ? Surprisingly they had an awful lot of really good woodturned stuff that nobody bothered with all labelled as to what wood it was , i did tell one of the resellers to get it but i didnt stop long due to being crippled and a wee bit away with the fairies , first time ive been on my feet for long in over a week , now im feeling it . So it could be build a pillow nest with a good book kind of weekend 

Plus sized

 Amid the dull and draining time of year...you know winter is coming and all that , its the little things that cheer you up , went to pick up my solitary win at the auction and the porter had saved me a whole bucket full of plants that some other bidder had turfed out of the planters they had bought , they have been admitted to my plant hospital and will be ready for sale in the spring ..lol  waste not want not , and all that , and ive gained two large planters and a big strawberry pot as well from my little bid , its always a good time of year to start buying garden stuff , just because you can store it outside till Spring . Ive always been of the view that if youve £5 in your purse you should try to turn it into £10 by whatever means you can . 

Popped into Lidl to do as ordered by the government stock up on water and toilet rolls for the big storms at the weekend . Managed to spot a unicorn veg box at the checkouts £1.50 worth of goodness , 3 huge bags of sprouts , bag of onions that i cant figure how they are out of date , bag of bananas that arent even ripe , 2 grapefruits  , net of tangerines , pack of nectarines , half a dozen decent apples to add to the mountain and a solitary sweet potato , i think the sprouts may have put people off ..lol.. doesnt work for me, we love sprouts . Usually in the rare event you spot a veg box its all wilting lettuce .

Ive a whole weekend of veg processing to face , so im being prepared and dragged the gas camping stove in case the weather is suitably grim and my huge collection of jars and pans are ready to roll , i will stick an extra £20 on the electric and can myself into a coma 

Season

Season of mists and mellow chainsaws , got to love this time of year , wet cats trying to climb into bed with you , xmas tat everywhere and endless crappy perfume adverts on the TV , i was so fed up and bored yesterday that i leapt into action when daughter suggested lets go to Torksey, .havent been in over a year and nothing has changed theres still tons of blokes with huge Ikea bags waiting to run in , now theres hoardes dragging fishing trolleys piled high , meanwhile we had a casual wander i bought A David Essex autobiography  and an odd couple of quid bit of Sylvac, may manage to photograph it , daughter informs me she has fixed that problem but cant fix my facebook problem ..lol such is life 

Now lets get to the bit where i rant ...bloody charity shops . Have you tried to donate to one lately ?  Himself was at the hospital the other day so i went for a wander round the top end of Lincoln , Hospice superstore in a row of units in an industrial estate , you must now book an appointment to donate ! and they then sort through everything you take and hand most of it back , i watched a poor bewildered bloke going through the ritual and he was totally bemused when she refused to take a couple of boxes of books because they appeared to have been read . Then handed most of the clothes back because they wernt tagged in fact unless it was new she didnt want any of it . i wandered into the shop theres hardly anything in it except overpriced tat . They now have designer rails .  Ive been to some of the other shops they have locally and theyre much the same , You can only donate on certain days or the right phase of the moon guess they have new management with even higher salaries as that is the way it usually goes .  Su Ryder have a large store just up the road and they seem to be much more reasonable  , guess they are getting more donations . I know they need to make money but they have lost the plot .

Cycle

The busiest time of the year is upon us , harvest the garden time  , the heavy rain means i can get the potatoes up finally , lots of them but very small but thats what a drought does , ive squash to bring in and a bean row drying up nicely , still no cauliflowers just tons of leaves..lol , dozens of tomatoes waiting for some inspiration on that one, we eat tons fresh but we dont use hardly any in the winter , im the only one who eats chutney so four jars is enough for me ,i may dry a load and see what i can hide them in over the winter ..lol, maize corn to dry for popcorn, plus himself will use a load for fishing , it breaks my heart really i just use a small patch these days but once upon a time every inch was productive and it saved a fortune with a big family . Living in the countryside you can barely give produce away , everybody i know gardens or they shop at the posh farmers markets , though i did laugh the other day when The Riverford Organic delivery van broke down out on the lane.

It would seem the newbuild over the road has sold , well it has a sold sign , i noticed someone had drawn a bullet hole on the forehead of the gurning estate agent photo , at least i think its drawn on , hes so well loved in the village he is ruining . its all a bit strange as nobody has seen a single viewer and in a small village full of the neighbourhood watch that is dog walking pensioners  thats odd . I expect its an investment buyer from away. theres a big market for posh rentals for the RAF officers and the other nationalities based here its easy money the rent is astronomical the military pays it and usually you dont see them much these days as they are always at work, but we have to watch out for Americans driving on the wrong side of the road and the Saudis suffering from culture shock. at the moment we have lots of Japanese air force here for war games. We have the jets screaming out at all hours as Putin plays silly buggers in the Baltic States so sleep is optional.

PS the roof is still leaking , not a thing have we heard in over a weak , i will chase it up later and doubtless they will have tried to contact us or have called and nobody is home   

Mess

 Well yet again my descent into gibbering madness continues !! the first proper rain of the season , the big cracks in the ground are showing signs of closing and a whole crippling day of potato lifting to face. Life was looking promising for a moment there , plus i made the first chicken stew of the season, but no something has to go wrong yet again . Sarcastic son potters in to tell me there water dripping through the ceiling in his bedroom . This was Saturday night , i rang the emergency repair number only to find it was dead !! so i had to wait till Monday morning when the call centre opened , they seemed very unconcerned when i pointed out that the chimney stack looks to have moved and they are going to have a contractor get in touch for which im still waiting and with another big storm forecast for tomorrow it could be interesting . Sarcastic son has resolved the matter by sleeping with decorator plastic sheets over his bed and a line of buckets where the worst of it is , star that he is he pointed out that if hes killed in a collapse think of the compensation !!! hes such a cheerful soul

Drawing In

 Its getting dark earlier every night , the squirrels have totally decimated the hazel bushes , mainly the fattest squirrel ever , hes huge and likes to throw stuff at you and swears a lot ..lol . Little hedgehog has grown so fast im not sure what was in the posh cat kibble , hes living in the hedge bottom under the big tree , his brothers and sisters have moved on , but this little one seems to be about most of the time , he has white spots on his bum so hes easy to spot , he will easily make his target weight before winter .

Im very technologically challenged at the moment , im currently locked out of facebook because my computer doesnt have a camera?  it seems i must send a 3d picture to be authenticated , i dont have internet on my phone either , so we will see how this pans out but its no great loss . Then theres the computer telling me its to outdated to be supported , so if i vanish im not dead its merely me being eradicated by technology .  It would seem that at the moment this is my only contact with the outside world..lol  Doubtless one of the kids will get annoyed enough with me to sort it all out .

Grandson is currently sort of in residence at the moment , having miserably failed his exams , being unable to go to college because of this , told he must go back into 6th form but the school wont have him. Hes after going into the building trade , so hes working on that . Daughter has had a wee bit of a breakdown over it all , hence ive ended up with him here pottering around with grandad and endlessly chasing girls ..lol.. ive had enough boys not to be phased by much of anything , they all have the gormless know it all phase , he will knuckle down eventually hes to intelligent not to, his epic level of sarcasm is why the school dont want him back ..lol 

Rantin

 Now i know nobody listens to my political rants but here i go again .....

Taxation . why do they have to make it so complicated ?  most just have PAYE to contend with . The rest seem to have to employ endless scheming tax avoidance schemes to make ends meet . Lets just simplify the whole scheme , no offshore accounts , no uncles next door neighbours dog , no climate claptrap.  Nothing but PAYE across the board , every penny profit made by you is paid by you to HMRC . Then they decide how much they give you back . Big companies Amazon and the like , still have to give up their profit to HMRC . There would be squealing from up the food chain . The accountancy industry would take a kicking but there would be plenty of new jobs at HMRC. All you would have to do is convince HMRC that your  expenses etc are legitimate. It removes all these mistakes that the rich make in one fell swoop . Your guilty till you prove otherwise . The government would be solvent in months . 

Too simple to ever get anyone elected , but wouldnt it be hilarious  

Goat

 im having a very grumpy phase at the moment , lack of sleep and hobbling about arent helping . Im finding everything is getting my goat . More problems with the van , hes now spent more on repairs than the bleedin thing cost , he cant go out anywhere that involves walking and its all my fault because i cant manually lift his buggy even in pieces . And of course if he cant go anywhere he thinks i shouldnt either , bollocks .

 I did a car boot on Sunday with daughter and her friend , sold tons of stuff for pennies just to clear my dining room out for the winter, made a quite respectable amount of money , saw a couple of the vloggers i follow online , even flogged a load of cross stitch kits to one of them, people seemed to be buying loads of craft stuff because winter is coming. Made another contact with someone whos opening a little shop in their barn .

Garden wise its all gone a bit mental, still cant get the spuds up the ground is basically cement , the tomato's have taken over i keep tripping over squash , but the pumpkins are tiny . Tons of the speckly italian beans for drying , caulis are huge but not a flower on them , so i will keep plodding on . then ive the pear mountain to tackle , i dug all the canning stuff out so thats going to be next weeks project . Plus i started a garden project that im already regretting..lol    

Bin There

 Its been a funny old week the bathroom renovation via the council contractors turned into the usual farce one lad turned up , sucked his teeth and announced that it cant  be relined because the internal walls are too thin ??? he then said all he could do was spray the whole room with mould retardant and scrape the loose paint off before undercoating over it the next day  but he needed to consult his manager . Well he sprayed it left it turned up the next day and his manager said they cant even fill the holes because they are our responsibility !!!!  their  soddin contractors made the damned holes fitting the new fan and light fittings. So he just slapped undercoat everywhere and left , its already flaking off and its not even been a week . I took photos and emailed it to the council , who say its a decoration problem and its up to us to resolve it . I just give up 

Heres another gripe , bleedin you tubers filming everywhere i go , we are totally infested with them . I know we are a holiday destination but its intrusive . My fat arse has appeared 3 times this week, that i have found , im a private person and it makes me really uncomfortable . Im supposed to be doing a car boot with daughter next week . Theres one in particular who shall remain nameless who likes to buy electronics and games then brag on how stupid everyone but him is and how he makes thousands from stupid people . Someone did point out that they only bother you if you have something to hide , i have nothing to hide but there are maybe a dozen photos taken of me in the last 40 years , i just hate it . My gran used to say that every photo eats a bit of your soul  

One of Those Days

 From getting up this morning its been one of those days , everything petty and annoying has just happened today , from a huge bill for mothers care , that yet again has gone up by £100 a week now over £1800 a week , the printer not working when i needed to urgently print something off , the cat  doing a flying take off and slashing me to bits and its still dripping blood everywhere . Picking tomatoes in a pale pink top and turned into tomato tits with green stains everywhere and it hasnt washed out . Went to the garden centre with himself moaning and groaning , they only had big bags of the gravel i needed and there was nobody to help AAARRRGGHHH  managed to manhandle it into the boot and sarcastic son split the bag getting it out of the boot and just left it .  Himself has been telling me how useless i am all day and i could cheerfully murder him . Ive a huge chine bone to process for the freezer , 10000 plums to do something with , finally found cooking apples so need to get on with apple time and the house is a shit tip and the builders are going to be in this week to reline the bathroom . 

TOMMOROW HAS TO BE A BETTER DAY

Scorchio

 Well once again its reached the level of Bedouin in Tescos , its a tad warm, at least we have a bit of a breeze today to make it a little more normal summer. ive a ton of half turned tomatoes which will doubtless glut all at once , i cant see down the garden for the maize corn , squash and pumpkins  and for a change i cant get the potatoes up due to the concrete soil !!! The plums have gone mental but they are tiny this year . Not tons of apples but enough and a scary amount of pears , the dehydrator is flat out , but i can never have too many apple chips and this year its going to be a ton of pear chips as well . Its to hot to be canning , so it can wait for cooler days, i need to be stocktaking whats left from last year before i make more . i did nothing with the gooseberries this year because i had a lot from last year left and im not one who cans for the sake of it and theres only two of us that eat it. Electric costs alone make it not so economical in the UK.

  Ive been buying at auction again , currently parting out loads of craft stuff, daughter ran off with loads of stuff i didnt recognise so i presume its for card making, yet more gorgeous linens lace and doilies all spotless , wool , knotting needles , crochet patterns the box of bags turned out to be vintage 80s good makes so have gone off to my daughters friend who sells shoes and bags, theres a huge expensive leather camera bag  so my camera gear will get an upgrade , strangely there was also 2 Sony Walkman CD players in leather bags as well . Im quite enjoying them , back in the day we never got named brand anything it was always knock off copies or came from Tandy , does anyone remember Tandy on the high street? With commission it came to a whole £7.50 and the reason it was so cheap , right at the front of the tiny photo was a huge brand new car headlight, i sent useful son the photo , he identified its make and model straight away and a new one is £400 Mr Bah Humbug is getting it listed as we speak , its going to pay for this weeks grocery haul and fuel...lol  im walking through a track in the dining room and theres another big sale tomorrow...AAARRRRRGGGHHH 

Babies

 Its official im now the foster mum of 3 or 4 tiny hedgehogs , theyre the size of tennis balls and kept setting off the camera last night but you couldnt see anything there , on going out to investigate theres a little one on the doorstep struggling to eat the giant cat kibble i put out for the big hogs , totally un bothered by me , i managed to find some kitten kibble and the feeding frenzy began , ive been out on a mission this morning for more kitten food, ive put more rocks in the water trays so they can get out  , second litter of the year these need to be well fed and up to weight by october or when the weather turns . Theyre the youngest ive ever seen in the garden , i saw 3 together last night and something was rustling under the trailer so i think there may be four . I already have half a dozen regulars so it looks like a good year for hedgehogs .  Though i havent seen a single snake this year .

Now its go play in the garden day , bye for now

Selfish

Not around much mentally at the moment , Mommy Dearest keeps preying on my mind . We got the phone call last week , come now shes dying the emergency doctor had been called . My daughter was all for dropping everything and i told her just to wait , the following morning she had perked up started eating again and was being her usual abusive self . Daughter waited till the weekend to visit and found that granny thinks its now 1950 and shes dating Michael her first boyfriend , she did tell me once that it was him that gave her bruised knees all the time??? its just dragging on and on they think it may be another tiny stroke , but shes DNR and getting her to behave enough to go for a scan is impossible . Shes now in a stripped room because she managed to get the shower rail off the wall before they confiscated it , anything can be a weapon or a missile and David her main carer still loves her , that man is a saint . I dont think people realise just how bad it can be in a locked Dementia unit. SIL says she may be  blind but she can hear the rustle of a packet of Maltesers at a thousand paces and despite difficulty swallowing can manage to eat them.  Theres no dignity in Dementia and knowing that the variant mother has is frequently hereditary doesnt make this any easier at what point do you decide to end it?  mother botched her suicide and this is the result .   

Jimmy 2

 I will probably upset someone with this one , cant say im worried about that . 

Its as if good old Trump is starting to give off major Jimmy Saville vibes , if your overseas reader look him up . He was a monster hiding in plain site for many years , everybody knew there was something off about him , many knew exactly what was happening but because of his fame and fortune just kept quiet. He had a lot of people he payed off , but he also collected the dirt on other people and used it to keep folks quiet. Within a couple of weeks of his death the money dried up the silenced realised it was safe to speak and the shit hit the fan . Decades of abuse surfaced . Met him on a couple of occasions and he was creepy , he dragged my 9 year old daughter onto his knee when we were holidaying near his cottage and i wasnt moving an inch away from her , as an abused child myself its a spidey sense that stays with you always . His huge gold draped bodyguard stood behind him and i just dragged her away . He was a very old man at that stage . My daughter to this day in her 30s says its her claim to fame "i sat on Savilles knee and nothing happened "

Trump, well do you really think hes an innocent? Daddys money has bought silence for a lot of years and abusers dont get quieter with age. He seems to be able to ignore that teenage girls are children . He has a long history of going legal to silence people . Because your legal system can drag on for years and years people give up or he silences them with threats and money . Screaming hoax all the time isnt fooling anyone , the reason this hasnt gone further is that Epstein had the dirt all across the board all parties and countries so everybody was hoping that time alone would make people give up . Now the big question is will his minions support him ? or will he quietly be suicided or a sudden death . At which point it will all come out . They will deny all knowledge and continue on making billions without him?  Time will tell 

UC the Beginning

So ive waited till we have finally got the Universal Credit sorted to tell you the story . Did the application online with the help of daughter , so that Himself didnt throw the laptop through the window , hes much better behaved when shes around.  We then had to await a letter so we could speak to someone , they wouldnt speak to me , it had to be himself . Lovely and sexist of them !! anyway i was telling him the questions he had to ask and then he had to repeat them to the dweeb on the phone . He managed to get it so that they would pay my carers allowance direct to me . A small victory because of his mental health difficulties and we asked them also to pay direct housing costs to the local council .  We were then sent a letter to attend the local Job Centre for an identification interview and to produce our paperwork , we had to contact them to ask for the appointment at the local office because it has proper disabled parking and access, the one in Lincoln has turned over the disabled parking to EV stations !!! . We finally got this sorted out and attended , himself only managed to hit one room divider on his buggy so he did well , hes struggling with the controls at the moment so taking him anywhere can be interesting. He was also having a shouty day due to his hearing going yet again . Once theyve decided  its you , not being made easier by the fact you dont have a passport , but have fetched every other document on the list , though you only need 3. I did suggest they could always get the security guard to confirm it . Well he is one of our sons..lol  They then print out what applies to your claim you sign it and they witness it .  I think the lad  was baffled when i proceeded to read it before signing it and i pointed out i wouldnt trust the DWP with anything . So far so good . This all takes around 3 weeks .

Then i hear himself shouting , hes had a phone call to tell us we will need to move because they wont meet housing costs if you have a spare room ? i managed to get the phone off him before they hung up and tried to explain that i was his carer and wife at which point the dweeb on the phone goes "hes disabled? " Oh be joyful there is no communication between Universal Credit and DWP  it would seem . Anyway they wanted to speak to him again and i explained that he cant control the shouting its due to a brain injury and they asked a quite reasonable question about why we had a spare room and he shouted that i sleep in there so it isnt spare , because he has night terrors and has tried to kill me on a couple of occasions . Well that was a conversation stopper !!  Anyway theyve now decided we are allowed a spare room!! 

In all the process took the full 5 weeks, we were well prepared , they did keep asking if we needed foodbank vouchers , but then we started to get the letters from the council threatening to evict us because they still hadnt paid their share of the housing costs!!! thats taken 3 months to sort out because they basically kept the money and didnt bother to give it to the council .

Now the other strange thing its that from the day you apply you will be bombarded  online on whatever social media you use, with endless posts about fraud and how errors are all your fault and you will be punished . Talk about paranoia inducing , this is everyday!!  Im immune, but if you had problems mentally this could tip you over the edge. 

Overall we are are about £30 a week worse off  which is what we expected , personally im £12.50 a week better off because i dont have to pay for the privilege of my not spare room  

So Much

 Thats me so much to do so little motivation . struggling to find the urge at the moment im afraid . Tons of crafty stuff to finish, I  have an infestation of sewing machines and japanese vintage clothing along with a huge box of embroidered linen  , from an auction that told me i had won nothing , they then sent me a threatening invoice two weeks later!! Went to pick up and found there was much more than i had bid on . Quite literally there was the kitchen sink and a waterbutt among it . I would imagine it was stuff somebody had refused to take , but once im motivated , it will go to new homes..lol.

Now heres a question , why i have i suddenly become popular in Brazil and Thailand ?  Speak to me whoever you are , or has some weird algorithm lost the plot . 

So once again the prices are soaring in the supermarkets , why do they insult our intelligence by saying inflation is just over 3% its not little price rises , popped into Iceland yesterday and noticed they had a fresh meat offer 3 for £12 looked at the packs and was horrified , there wasnt enough meat in each pack to feed one person , wafer thin barbecue sizzlers  , basically they would be 2p barbecue turds in seconds. The garden however is going well. the mixed outdoor heirloom tomatoes are going slightly mad and the bees love them , along with the squash and pumpkins . Somewhat oddly my big bean row that is covered in flowers dont appear to be setting on at all , potatoes have perked up now we have had a couple of  days of showers .  But thats just gardening every year a different challenge , i was deeply envious of a guy down south who had succeeded with a huge outdoor melon patch , bet he had sweet potatoes as well 

Lousy

 im doing a down in the dumps post , I do wonder everyday what will happen with mommy dearest , if things keep going down hill with her behaviour its full time psychiatric care , the dementia  department where she is is modern, heavily camera monitored  they all have individual rooms and shower rooms , they do lock them in at night and i do think that shes well looked after . But we did look round the very few options when she first came off Council care , they were pretty grim , places with few staff no cameras and that funny smell . Shared rooms are a no no as she did try to suffocate another patient for snoring at the hospital . Plus she has a history of  trying to injure staff and being sectioned . I dont think anyone including the doctors expected her to live this long . They can no longer dose her with anti psychotics because of her heart, they at least gave the staff a rest from her endless abuse , the home is ringing every day about what has happened . If she was a pet we could have her put to sleep and it would be a kinder option for her and everyone around her . Shes not even covered by the new euthanasia legislation . So this could drag on for years or it could  end any second , nobody knows . I wish her GP was Harold Shipman at times . 

Bits and Bobs

Went out for a couple of hours yesterday to the metropolis of Horncastle with my daughter , dragged her to the 50p bookshop and a couple of the stranger antique shops , the ones with the filthy windows and stuff piled up to the ceilings , wandered round the charity shops and bought zilch . I think mr BH had sent her on a mission to find something for my birthday ...lol fail 

We popped into the big garden center and pretty much all the stock was on sale due to the Scorchio and the winds . Came home with one battered outdoor monster and a couple of £1.49 lost label houseplants. Just got home and settled for a nanna nap and the phone rings its the home

Mommy dearest was awaiting the paramedics , once again she had fallen they would ring me back when they knew what was happening .  Half an hour later the lovely David her carer rang back  to say she was fine . But then he can barely get his words out for apologising . He said mother had been spicy all week , he had taken her lunch, which she had thrown at him , stood up to go for him and put her foot in her dinner and ended up flat on her back .  So i then had to reassure him that it wasnt his fault , we are well aware that she is getting increasingly violent it has been noted by visitors .  It does however raise the question of how long they will be willing to keep her if she keeps trying to injure staff .  Full time psychiatric care is bleedin grim in that area . David is a huge Ghanaian but i wouldnt fancy the chances of some wee girl against her. 

Scorchio

 Its a bit warm today , so i was up just after 5 doing the washing and a few chores . Having said that if i dont hoover soon it will be like walking on a gravel path due to the cats just spitting cat stars everywhere because shes mardy and cant handle the heat .

Daughter and adopted daughter nagged me into doing a car boot sale yesterday it did stay cloudy till just before home time , Mr BH said to take the car because he needed the vans and i should have been suspicious when i noticed the battery booster pack in the wheel well and you guessed it got to going home time and it was dead flat and wouldnt start .AARRGGGHHHH  He does stuff like this to make me think i cant live without him.!!! got home and told him even better id driven home with no lights indicator or dash board working . So he had to troop out in the tropical sunshine to examine it . Why was it beyond him to tell me it needed a new battery before i went out ? Well at least id sold enough horrible crap to buy one...lol i never get ahead . Daughter bought a car load of stuff from mothers bungalow shes gradually emptying it ready for it to be sold to pay for her care . Just general household kitchen stuff  , but what gave me a giggle is we had a mini van full of middle eastern families wandering round and mother had a ghastly green and gold dinner service very back to the 80s and a very young girl and her mother didnt even haggle when we told them it was £3  , we didnt want to take it home under any circumstances...my mother would be horrified ..lol   

 

Incoming

 Well i had a belter of a weekend two huge car boots and 2 decent jumble sales, didnt buy very much , half a dozen clothing items plant pots and a very nice Portuguese stoneware vase.

Can you tell i shop when im stressed ? If we are not stressed by current events there has to be something very wrong with you , plus just to make it fun we are slap in the middle of 3 big airbases and a spook station . Its become very noticeable of late that theres a huge increase in air traffic plus the usual screaming jets and the notice was out today that its all night every night this week. We are also seeing much more military traffic on the roads round us . Anybody would think there was a war on .

Ive been trying to persuade the troops here to get their backsides into gear , dip the heating oil tank and fill the vehicles seems to be rational to me , but alas not for anyone else in the household . Must remember to buy an extra couple of packs of bog roll while im out and about , thats good for stress . Lets be honest none of us have a clue what this is all about , its not been done in any of our names , its all about wealth and power , but for most of us , we have grown kids who could be dragged into this , if that isnt a reason to stress i dont know what is 

WTF

 I had to bring this one to your attention . I was looking for underwear and this gem popped up on the Yours site . For a whole £20 . It would be worth buying for the hysterical laughter from your partner . obviously modelled by a size 16 at the most, as are all big girl fashions . Here is Beryl wearing this seasons hot undies fashioned from a McDonalds napkin and velcro.  You just know someone at Yours thought , Love Honey sells really well , lets go into sexy undies . I do somehow think this will be available in the sales shortly..lol 

Why Do I?

Why do I buy stuff from auction just because its cheap ? i do sometimes wonder . I went to pick up my stuff today , a glorious huge Denby vase that never in a million years did i think i would win for the price i payed that i was chuffed with . But id also bough a couple of concrete little planters for a whole couple of quid , so the guy smiles at me at which point i should have been suspicious he then says have you got £3 in change?  can he have it ?.  I still didnt click, so i gave him the money and he toddled of and came back with a huge trolley of every kind of weird and wonderful garden ornament known to mankind . He looked at me with puppy dog eyes and said ...please will you take them , we had a clearout of stuff that hasnt sold . So i now have a van full of the strangest ornaments known to mankind , fairies, ducks, doves , tortoises even a meerkat planter..lol   Himself never said a word but when he pulled at home he said ....Please tell me what the fuck youre planning to do with them ... Ive had a brainstorm and im going to hide them in the beautifully landscaped gardens of the overpriced newbuilds over the road , he seems quite impressed with that idea! 

Quietly Mad

 Today i shall be commentating on the state of the world , so for those expecting veg and junk , turn away now .

Well , what can i say America appears to have lost the plot , battering grannies for objecting to their families and neighbours being kidnapped by stormtroopers . But thats not the whole story theres so many different stories all tied up in the threads we get fed through the news that the truth isnt been told by anybody. Meanwhile whens hes going to deport Prince Harry and the kids ?  Harry has allowed for this eventuality by buying a mansion in Portugal on the quiet , if  he came back here im sure they would try to revoke his citizenship or just post his new address on the internet while withholding his security.  Im sure that the whole problem with Meghan was the fact that she was expected to be the brown faced  token royal and she was having none of it . cutting a ribbon 3 times a week wasnt the job she wanted while licking the arse of the Royals higher up the ladder was never going to happen. 

Greta Thugberg ..oh hum , possibly the most annoying woman on the planet , who in their right mind would go annoying Israel they have become the most genocidal wasp nest on the planet ?  It merely promotes her look at me side , even if she has an ism . She has helped no one but her own publicity machine. Its disgusting what is happening in Gaza , but hey theyre buying weapons and ammunition off us , so those in control will always look the other way.  Its all about money , its always about money or daft sky gods that arent the same as the other sides sky gods .

So yes im sick of the world at the moment , though nobody cares about your views im still going to give them!! 

Knit One

 The weather is once again keeping me out of the garden ..lol  The sun is shining and the birds are singing but its rained for 2 days.  Ive tried to amuse myself inside ive cooked loads of compost repotted everything took loads of cuttings and just pottered around , ive a huge  pile of gorgeous  victorian lace to starch and travel iron staring at me , the only thing i do iron .  The mending mountain to tackle , a whole load of severed Victorian pot heads staring at me , a big bag of miscellaneous limbs and bodies etc etc  i need to send a memo to myself  not  to be horrified when i do go to pick up an auction lot and find that the blue suitcase of broken dolls turns out to be the size of  something that a murderer could store a body in , packed with filthy Victorian baby clothes as packaging .  It was a good value ,who in their right minds would want it purchase and underneath it all was a pair of 1950s Steiff doggies that will pay for everything and then some, that you couldnt even see in the crappie photo .  i also got another mixed craft lot , once again the photo was dreadful , lots of cottons and sewing bits , a big bag of vintage hankies and scarfs and belts , but once again i got a ton of knitting needles im always trying to give bundles of them away to anybody who will have them , ive even used a few as plant supports . I have a complete set of needles of my own that i rarely use just because these days i find it hard work and crochet is much easier on the hands.

Now for another little thought , the world of houseplants . Now himself hates plants in the house and even outside sometimes , he killed most of the ones i had when i first moved in with him , or they died from the cold . Now we have double glazing and heating we can afford just a little of , Im gradually replacing them all . I know what can hack the cold and because we have no windowsills im using ultra cheap LED grow lights that cost pennies to run and the dining room is turning into my little jungle , theres a lot that have come from the car boot but im also addicted to the world of Etsy plant cuttings , for some of the more dramatic and hideously expensive stuff if you search on a regular basis you can find cuttings cheaply , ive stuff that came as a couple of leaves in a jiffy bag thriving .By next year i may have vanished under them all.  

Time

Or lack of it , ive been very busy its peak gardening season and i ended up doing all sorts of daft projects in the garden , we have had grandson here for a few days hindering Mr BH to the point i ended up having a paddy with them both for them both not listening to each other and just sulking and shouting . They have both been hard work and i was relieved that grandson had toddled off to his girlfriends and its disabled fishing tomorrow for himself . It will be sigh of relief day tomorrow after ive picked a load of stuff up from the local auction , nobody was bidding on a bank holiday weekend so i can sort through stuff at my leisure tomorrow , dread to think the pictures were dreadful ..lol

We went to Carrington Steam Rally on Sunday , lovely sunshine but i never took my hood down due to the howling wind , we took a picnic to keep the cost down , Useful son and his fiance came with us , so not a bad day out at all . Now its gone all nice and showery im not having to water stuff which is heaven , but the howling gale is back today and i keep having to chase the washing down the garden . im currently sat watching all the fledglings in the garden particularly the Goldfinches eating the greenfly , there seems to be an awful lot this year , we have tiny Wrens swearing at you all the time how can something so tiny be so noisy ?  The blackbirds keep coming in the house to steal cat biscuits from the food dishes , im starting to feel very witchy talking to them all .

 So thats my boring life this week at least theres a big jumble sale Saturday in Lincoln 10am Birchwood Scout Hut ...see you there 

Monday

 Well another week another fresh start ..lol

Last week turned into a bit of a shit show , went to Ingoldmells to visit son and his fiancé, they were staying there for the week , it was every bit as stereotypical as i remembered though in an update for you all, it now has the same endless market stalls , less fake branded goods and endless stalls of tat they all seem to be full of endless dog boutiques and weed accessories the vaping hoards were all marching round with a couple of nice friendly French Bulldogs being attacked by hoards of Chihuahuas in pushchairs , very surreal . I cant say i bought anything , himself managed a big cooked breakfast and i was trying to stop crying with laughter at a young couple with a baby in a pushchair who were arguing 

"Well you shouldnt have given her such a long ffing name, then you could afford the bloody tattoo"

Himself "ive never seen so many people in buggies " he didnt see the irony as he sat in his buggy or the huge disappointment as we had to leave early  due to his batteries going  flat 

Just to finish the week , we had to shove him in an emergency ambulance Friday , our wonderful ask GP yet again , it was on for 3 minutes so we had to join the bleedin queue to ring them , i barely got his name out told them he had chest pains and she screamed at me to ring 999 and hung up .  We looked at each other and rang for the ambulance , who promptly sent out the paramedics , nice lads as always only took 10 minutes as they were in the area, they wired him up and said we dont think its his heart but we will pop him in anyway just to be sure , as i said the dreaded GPs said we had to ring you but we didnt think it was his heart this time, the paramedics looked at each other and said the name of our surgery and laughed . It would seem they spend all day going to calls from our surgery . I picked him up at tea time , it would seem he has an infection under the muscles of his chest , painful but not his heart so hes just grumpy and immobile at the moment , he cant use his crutches with one arm and hes sulking because he had to buy new batteries for his buggy .

Im trying to build up the will to do a post on the shambolic world of  Universal Credit , its bad and ongoing , i may save it till the end of this saga 

Pulled

 Well its my lucky day today ive pulled , this super keen bit of man flesh is all over my facebook 

Mike William

Kay Chamberlain Thanks for sharing... pardon me intruding, honestly I must say you are gorgeous and charming...I went through your profile and I found you so interesting and worthy of talking to. Your beauty is engaging and ravishing still your smile is captivating and enchanting. I would love to converse more better perhaps be of a better friend. Kindly add me up. God bless you truly....best wishes

Please bear in mind my profile pic is of a very large beardy garden gnome . Is he kinky for gnomes ? does he want my bank details now to save him wasting his breath for weeks ? Hes from Rockford Illinois , so is anyone out there living near him ? Hes been widowed , so someone may have seen him weeping in a cemetery?  Hes a polo player as well . gosh its a good job im not in the market for a turkey teethed toyboy  Somehow i dont think i want him to be my BFF ...lol   it baffles me how people fall for these romance conmen , its like theyre a punishment for being female of a certain age 

Sweet

 Community Pantry week , early trip to Sleaford and home by 10 with a great haul of veg and 3 bags of sweet and savoury pastries , doughnuts apple turnovers those little pizza breads different sweet flavours of croissant, the freezer is bulging . We also got a big bag of fruit and veg . Popped into Iceland and managed to get some reduced belly pork its been chinese marinaded with an ancient pack of seasoning  and once again into the freezer . Lidl was a bit strange they seemed to have altered things yet again , the meat chillers have halved in size the veg section is once again huge like it was before covid and everything else seems to be cramped into smaller areas , they did however have loads of cheap pasties so thats the fishing season took care of once again ..lol 

Another weird question , why does every bag of carrots i buy seem to be riddled with cabbage root fly ? theyre rotten in days so ive got the dehydrator on all the time AARRGGHHH

Now to the fun stuff , having found how little our pantomime dame mayor can actually do , she and the Boston MP Richard Tice have decided they are going to block all the renewable energy projects in Lincolnshire , bit daft really when one thing we have is tons of wind and solar going free if they ever find a use for mud we are all going to be rich. It does make me laugh when theyre moaning about the solar taking away good farmland , the point is that this land was only turned over to farming during world war II  its not great quality , it needs more fertilizer and water that we dont have and the solar farms are good for sheep grazing if nothing else, in fact they grass round them helps the soil structure and prevents our annual dust bowl conditions and improves the air quality. Ho Hum its going to be fun 

Bank

 So we have a Bank Holiday with weather more appropriate for this time of year..lol  Its bleedin freezing howling wind  with glorious sunshine , had to be up really early with himself today , hes gone out for the day with useful son and his newly appointed fiancée to Truckfest so he will be back tonight , tired , crippled and as mardy as his arse . I think the look on my face when he said did i want to go said it all, it would be like me dragging him to a Craft Event..lol 

So i pottered off to Methringham Car Boot , not a huge amount there , but there is an awful lot of them round and about today, couldnt be arsed to go to any others it was just to cold , managed to get one item off  this seasons list a large ceramic planter in deep red for a whole 50p , other than that i bought stuff just because it satisfies my inner hoarder . a box of vintage Bossons flower plates and a Homepride Fred flour sifter when my hands defrost properly i may get around to photographing them and posting them on a forum i belong to .

Now then on to the fun stuff , it would seem that we have a wonderful new mayor from the Reform Party along with a few councillors as well, Dame Andrea must have been attracted to the job by her well known loyalty and public service , I read with interest the job description and yes it does seem like a pointless job for a leach . We shall see , does this mean we will see more of Farage in our wonderful rural area than his constituents do in Clacton ? I wont insult those who have voted them in, they have their reasons and views , im used to being a minority voter and can live with this . I may say i told you so a few times over the next few years  and she does seem to have a way with her finger . May she provide much fuel for my sarcasm 

Meanwhile

 I think ive near gardened myself to death in the last week...lol  but theres a method in my madness , food production must be improved , still loads of stuff still to go in 'my jewel corn has generated a treat , squash is all peeking,  a way to go with my miscellaneous tomatoes that have barely grown but what the hell ,need to source some cucumber plans as mine all just upped and died the other day  , which is a bit weird .  Though i wonder why im bothering with our daft arsed government wanting  to practice shading the sun , thats going to be good for the endless solar farms isnt it? 

In the real world however we have to elect a new Mayor on Thursday, 80 thousand pounds to do exactly what ? totally baffling i cant see why we need one they serve no purpose just another imaginary job dreamed up by the government . As for the candidates a more dubious scrofulous bunch ive never seen , i will vote , Labour seem to have the biggest budget theyre all over Facebook singing the praises of their candidate, all i will say is that i wont be voting Reform ye gods im not that desperate   

Easter

 Well i cant say weve done anything exciting , merely cleaned out a couple of sheds that himself had filled with mountains of crap , real crap not even useful crap , daughter came to lend a hand on her new scooter . Himself is so proud one of them is on 2 wheels . I know i hoard stuff but why would you fill a shed with packaging and boxes?  broken chairs and weird mechanical stuff you have no idea what it is . We found a pile of stuff belonging to useful son , he left over 5 years ago !!  Himself was trying to weasel it back into another shed but he was hounded into  taking it to his sons garage . Daughter was none to pleased when i pointed out she needed to take her fish tank home , shes been left 5 years as well .

Went to a Metheringham car boot but didnt buy much , at all , a pyrex bowl that doesnt fit in the microwave , so it can go back to the boot sale and a Beatrix Potter ornament that i have no idea why i bought it ? Dont know anybody who likes them either..lol Today i went to a secret jumble at Holland Fen its really the bog end of nowhere but we saw a sign last week , it was very cheap and i came home with a plush Gruffalo, 4 books and a tiny ornament for the dolls house . I spent £2 , the Gruffalo is smiling at me from the shelf . So apart from endless garden pottering thats my very boring holiday weekend , just the way i like it 

Rainy Day Chores

 I do love a rainy day and i can put my feet up and visit my filthy shit pit of a house , sort the dry washing yurt out , put all the houseplants and seeds out in the rain , fetch them in again, realise the windows are filthy , need to clean  the filth from where all the houseplants lurk in fact vanish up my own bottom while listening to my backlog of you tube prepper videos , catching up on days of emails . Oh im also making pizza breads for the freezer with dried up sourdough french sticks and weird cheese portions from army ration packs i happen to have a carrier bag full of them from the tin factory , as you do . The sourdough breadsticks were from the community larder , i came home with a load because nobody else takes them the lovely lady also gave me a bag full of beef dried rice in  packets  because they are out of date and they cant sell them or pop them in foodbank parcels , go figure they are good for at least 2 years after the sell buy date. this is becoming a feature of life anything they cant get rid of seems to end up with me ..lol  though himself did say hes starting to look like a cabbage i ended up with a fridge full last week .

The jumbles and carboots are proving excellent at the moment , i only bought 20 books this week..lol well the Salman favourite  recipe booklets , which ive flicked through and could always ebay . Got the unicorn of my dolly family a Teeny Weeny Tiny Tears  shes currently awaiting a spa day if you want to shock yourself look on ebay at what they are fetching these days !!  Still on my unicorn list is a ginger beardy Action Man and a stripy jumpered Jacko the Monkey ...one day maybe , I picked up loads of garden stuff i needed as well and im still spending my xmas money .

Its himselfs birthday today and daughter has taken him out somewhere , i do think its more of a treat for me than anything , the silence is wonderful 

I Have A Problem

 My name is Kate and i have an addiction , yep i admit it im a feral book buyer and a hoarder , i did two jumbles and a car boot sale this week .  The first jumble i bought a whole dustbin bag of posh fabric , a couple of books a big vase for daughter more crystal knobs that once again dont fit what i wanted them for, brackets for another little job and a stack of docraft paper pads for crafting  all with change for £5 . But then we tracked down to Branston Booths one of the best jumbles in our little universe. I admit it i went a little mad you see all books were 10p  , so i could hardly walk they had so many ,  i have a mountain of crime thrillers , more cookbooks and a gorgeous 1850 wildflower book should keep me going till next Spring..lol  also got a couple of plants and a few practical bits and bobs . Himself was feeling a bit unwell so i didnt stay for the auction , which looked rather good . But to make matters worse i went to Metheringham Car boot and struck it lucky there was a gentleman flogging loads of 1930s books and among them was a stack of cookbooks and a book on the buildings destroyed in the London Blitz  which im currently reading. 

This week im only going to a secret Jumble at Billinghay Church Hall 9am ,  it usually has schizophrenic pricing  and the weirdest things, there is a cat one in Lincoln as well but im going to be good and only go to one. I promise to try and not buy any more books .

Neighbours

 So we had a bit of an incident yesterday with himself , lovely sunny day but hes been doing an awful lot of painkillers of late hes not sleeping and to say hes on full on grouch mode is an understatement . Anyway the new mcmansion over the road is sort of furnished now, we think its going to be the showhouse and theres been folks there all weekend , apart from the floodlights on all night , no problems other than vehicles being parked in dumb places . Anyway yesterday was a glorious sunny afternoon and id parked himself in his van on the grass with a trail of plastic garden chairs towards the house . im pottering around in the garden and i noticed what appeared to be someone hiding behind the front hedge , didnt think much about it , i thought it was someone waiting for their dog to have a crap , next thing theres a drone buzzing our houses over and over , which because we have a military air exclusion zone is a no no. so i went in .  Next thing i hear himself shouting , hed used a plastic chair as a walker and collared the bloke behind the hedge . Now he shouts because of his hearing , but Essex boy with the turkey teeth was right in his face . Hed asked Mr hide in the hedge if he had a drone licence and got the yeah of course i have and himself was informing him he will be reporting him to the Civil Aviation Authority because this is an area where drones are banned. hed asked Mr Turkey Teeth for his name and licence number and got told to fuck off . I thought it was going quite well as himself hadnt head butted him.  In potters himself and hes promptly on the phone to the police , giving the vehicle registration number and a description , its an answer phone so they wont do a lot . Then he dropped the bombshell that i hadnt considered , this creepy so and so was filming kids and teenagers sunbathing going over those gardens over and over again ....im just hoping he isnt the new neighbour and was just someone from the estate agents . Because later we had a visit from a neighbour asking about what was going on , who promptly said he wont have that drone very long if hes living here  

Fire

 Well thats the annual fire down on the veg patch over and done with , just the ashes to spread and a full box of chicken manure fertilizer to throw around then its full on planting time , im always later than some people getting stuff in , but its open and very windy here so it makes sense . going to pop my sweetcorn and squash in today in pots because joys of the countryside the mice eat everything you direct sow ..lol ive cauliflower and loads of broadbeans awaiting planting and the spuds are waiting patiently . Thats this weeks garden plans 

Anyway what else is going on in the world , it would seem the farmers are planning a grain movement strike ?  could be interesting or maybe not , will all the old grannies be out scooping up all the bread just in case , I shouldnt think the supermarkets will miss a chance to ram their prices up yet again and we can live without bread also i can always hope theres a shortage of Mr Kipling products , another branded product that seems to have become inedible even for himself . On the subject of brands whats going on with Heinz , did they finally realise that they had priced themselves out of most folks shopping baskets? I had got to where the only Heinz product i wasted my money on was salad cream , everything else there were equally as good own label products , now they seem to be on offer everywhere B&N has been doing the curry beans at two for £1.50 so I have a great load stocked up , the big kids love them , they also had cheap HP sauce which is himselfs favourite. 

This week we have to start the application process for Universal Credit wish us luck im really hoping its as seamless as they claim , but if not i can manage on what we have in stock and whats a few threatening letters after all these years , just have to remember to order a few more cases of cat food , then im done, the end of an era i will not have another penny from anywhere till i collect my pension in five years. Under universal credit everything goes to the male head of the household ...joy   

Bizzy

Its that time of the year , full on gardening season  and the arctic wind is howling , such is life . Himself insisted that we went to the huge carboot at Stickney yesterday morning , hes in his shorts i was in 4 layers , hat, hood gloves big boots etc etc . Ive always felt the cold , comes from years  in unheated homes and working in freezer warehouses back in the day .  Now i dont even have the luxury of going home to a hot bath a shower just isnt a substitute ..lol.  On a plus note himself is whacked off his head on painkillers , hes finding that the vibrations from his scooter is crippling him more than usual so he will likely be asleep for most of the next two days. Did i spend a fortune ? I came home with a big bag of cheap veg , bakery stuff and a trio of small planters for in the house . I always enjoy rooting through the house clearance stuff . I did however just at the very end of the boot sale find a 80s floor to ceiling plant stand for the grand total of £2 never opened , they start at around the £50 mark online for a cheap chinese import , this weighs a ton so may survive living in the bathroom of doom and yes i sneaked out this morning to the first of the local carboots and spent a whole £1.50 on a plant and a hanger .

So happy Mothers Day to you all in the UK , i got a plant i could never have justified the cost of buying from my daughter, a  Thai Constelation Monstera its tiny and nobody but me seems very impressed but ive been lusting after one for ages. i have to cook chicken dinner for my pet zombie  thats my exciting day, bless him , if he ever stops snoring ...lol

Conform

 Well this is the end of the world...well some seem to think so .  The government now has the right to root through your bank account if they think your commiting benefit fraud .  Actually it just means they will do exactly what they want and you are guilty till you can prove otherwise . Governments do what ever they like these days but how long till they do something very wrong and start killing people?  Meanwhile they are trying to defund the disabled because we are a drain on the rest of society while bringing in the Assisted Dying Bill its .  all a bit suspect. 

Those who have been involved in the trials of the bank account rooting have found that they have to prove who they are paying rent to , have to prove what every individual payment they are making is for and the people they are dealing with have no clue about being disabled , one man stated he had to justify buying extra catheters because he should be getting them from the NHS . But sadly the NHS may be brilliant but they often dont supply the most up to date supplies you need or enough to last all the time so yes we have to buy what is useful to a particular disability of various natures . Another example was a lady paying to see a private mental  counsellor from her money , why? because there is a 2 year waiting list .DOH 

Disability will never be a one size fits all , no matter what they try to legislate , so hurry up and climb into the suicide pod , you know your a burden 

Crystal Ball

 i think the weird dreams may be triggered by a change in brand of my latest vitamins , i have to take B12 and vitamin D all the time from the doctor , im not good at absorbing things through my gut due to it being somewhat battered and scarred , so for a lot of years ive being doing 30 days of various vitamins and minerals a different each month so i dont overdose , but this time the magnesium has had B6 added to its mix and the weird dreams are pretty epic . Ive either become a seer or a Sybil but who believes a prophet in there own lifetime ?  We are living in times that make Revelation and Nostradamus look pretty tame . I was off in fairy land last night and Keir Starmer had just offered all the incomers citizenship if they joined up and fought in the trenches of Europe for us . Sadly it didnt go as well as he expected and hoards of them were down at the South Coast buying lilos and peddling frantically for France. On the home front i was doing the washing up while watching tanks trundling across the meadows at the back of the house, all very trippy and who knows maybe its all a premonition? 

Shower of S!!!

 Well here we are again. another journey into the unknown starts , blew a car up Monday that we couldnt afford to lose at the moment , so ho hum here i go again trying to perform miracles with what we have . Now i had one of those weird dreams the other night , hadnt even eaten a huge block of cheese so it must be stress related .  I dreamt that because we are governed endlessly by toss pots, we decided to instead let comedians stand for election,  no party loyalty just a sense of humour . Hear me out on this one , Ukraine doesnt seem to have done to bad from the idea , hes not perfect but hes better than anything we have on offer . I didnt even like some of the comedians on offer , Ricky Gervaise and Fergel Sharkey were running the enviroment , The Home Office was under the thumb of Jo Brand , DWP had peter kaye in charge after all he was in a wheelchair in his Phoenix Nights days it was going quite well then Jimmy Carr was put in charge of the Tax Office and Frankie Boyle became the prime minister . So ho hum how wrong could it go ? 

Observations

 Well theyre dragging out the whole dont be sick because your worthless narrative by the Labour Party at the moment , who knows what diabolical ideas theyve got from some think tank . But the whole thing smells of eugenics , get rid of the disabled and sick theyre costing to much , strangle the NHS till only those who can afford treatment get it . Do they really think that you can cut down on the sick after a damaging pandemic , for which their doesnt seem to be much in the way of treatment from ?  Then theres the fact that employers just dont want disabled employees , the job market dying due to ever more AI , its all a perfect storm at the moment . Go away and die seems to be the motto of the moment and guess what they will Assist you to do it , its all very Soylent Green if your old enough to remember the movie .

On another crystal ball moment , i had a thought . Do they need to train everybody up for desk jobs to free the younger generation for conscription ?

Aint Life Fun

 Well our own personal apocalypse arrived on the mat the other day , we have had notice that we must transfer to Universal Credit , so thats five weeks of no scrounged funds from the government ..lol cant say im that phased its not unexpected and its nothing to the 9 months we had to go without in 2017 , pantry is bulging all the vehicles are legal ive got enough saved to pay the rent and the council tax so no real worries . However we also have the cutting of disability benefits on the Horizon , but we will bugger on as best we can . Life as a scrounger is damned hard work . Himself doesnt have many worries on the being fit for work front , with his ever worsening multiple conditions and the class A drugs . I couldnt care less, chewing members of the DWP is a skill ive learned over the last few years.

OH ive been told i must tell everyone that Uncle Roy is a year youger than Mommy Dearest shes 90 next month  and is still quite batty in her elder care prison , it seems he reads the blog and I got it wrong  

Well

 With all thats going on in the world , lets get on to the important stuff . Gardening. This is a bonus a whole week of sunhine and frost and a almost helpful son . Plus the council turned up to paint the outside of the house with just a letter through the door the night before .  Bless , though how painting a door that was disintergrating as fast as they were painting it was a fresh challenge for them, and ive just been watching them paint over the huge patch of ivy on the house opposite a quality job as usual . Now i just have to persuade one of my slaves to put back all the big planters theres a couple of monsters that i cant move an inch to put back . Raspberries are chopped down awaiting compost piling on them , apple trees are pruned , hazel branches cut down for my bean rows , more seeds to pop into pots today . Spring bonfire pile growing nicely , i can always blame the builders..lol   inspected the potato sets today , just starting to peep so plenty of time for them .

Now lets talk politics , theres no nice guys in the world of politics , but boy have we got some really epic nut jobs around the world at the moment , what will happen? who bleedin knows , the one certainty is the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer , it gets harder and harder to eat to a budget , folks cant afford warmth , something will give eventually but you cant speculate on what , i think its a bit like Jenga theres all the big moves you get away with and then become more and more blase about,  till a tiny little thing makes everything collapse ...those are the times we are living in  

Glorious

 Got up this morning to gorgeous sunshine and hardly any of the sub zero wind , so pottered happily outside all morning . Broad beans huge propagator full sat outside on the garden bench , note to self must remember to tie them down before the next howling gale . Asparagus , leeks , celeriac and a few cabbages in the other propagator . All will sit outside till they feel like making an appearance , im in no rush for them , then the propagators will turn there hand to squash and cucumbers and jewel corn . Inside i will start a few tomatoes and peppers .

Much to my surprise sarcastic son , turned up asking for garden jobs , bear in mind hes barely left the house since before covid . I asked him what he wanted to do and he said pruning , apparently hes been watching lots of gardening videos on You Tube . Hes done wonders in the back garden near the house , but he got maybe 10ft away from the house and said he was going in now because he was starting to panic . Is this a sign that hes finally found a decent counsellor , the job center have fixed him up with one due to the total indiference from our GP .  He did say the new counsellor was nice and got that he has agrophobia with anxiety issues , she has told him to set little goals and it doesnt mean hes a failure if he cant complete them . Big difference from the last idiot he got who kept telling he was a failure at every turn and actually worsened his condition . Mental Health care in the UK is a soddin joke 

Looming

 Yes the start of the gardening season is upon us ..lol , even if its bleedin freezing out there and its a wee bit waterlogged. Sat and ordered the last of the seeds for this year  More squash , beans and beetroot , last years massive failures havent put me off , crap weather is a feature of the job and if the gloom continues it might not be much of a season this year but you will still get some decent titbits if nothing else . Lots of King Edwards waiting to go in and my usual orkney blues and pink fir apples all sat waiting and ive not bought any of them theyre all savings from last year .  i will start a few tomatoes this week just half a dozen seeds and pop a cucumber or two in , the broad beans and the leeks can go in a propagator outside theres no need to rush them . Subject to the weather i plan on chopping the big raspberry patch to the ground and drowning it in a huge garden builders bag of leaves and kitchen scraps then topping with grass cuttings in a few weeks . Ive plenty of raspberries in the freezer and in jars so a year off wont hurt .

 Not sure what is happening at the bottom of the garden due to the builders deciding to flail all my bushes off !! also caught them discusing sawing my willow tree down , i did point out its actually 3ft inside my garden . They slopped off at that point but i wont be suprised if they start building fires at the base theyve done that on other peoples bounderies , there was much muttering about scummy council house tenants . Thats State Housing to those of you abroad . Theres a lot of predjudice on that front , even the bleedin estate agent was saying they will struggle to sell the two houses facing us because we are council tenants . 

Highlights Lowlights

Another pretty boring week , looking out the window at the rain , at least it isnt snow . We have come to the end of  himselfs current hospital cycle and we have a whole month off , im awaiting appointments which may take weeks months or years , who knows . 

I was deeply impressed that i managed to get a whole 3kg of brown rice for the grand sum of £1.50  it was just in date , so ive kilner jarred it with oxygen absorbers and it will last me a year . You cant keep brown rice for much longer as it can go rancid . The dreaded crisp lady had a big box of wholefoods bags hidden amid the 100% unhealthy usual stock . On the prepping front do remember to rotate your stock , dried anything can be practically immortal , spices etc lose  there strength once unsealed but they are still usable if you add a wee bit more , the sniff test works best if it has no smell it has no taste , tinned goods last years past the date , anything with tomatoes not so long. it depends on the quality of the tin and lining , certain tinned fruit lasts longer than others . You cant tell by the brand the only way to tell is by opening one and having a look . Dried fruit is another near immortal if its looking a bit shrivelled soak it in a cup of tea and its as good as new . I'm on a mission for a wet day and will do a stock check , anything coming up to its usable lifespan goes on the worktop in a box and its added to the next couple of weeks menus. 

Chicken stew is starting to smell good , made with a couple of garlic chicken thighs and the juice and skin  from yesterdays chicken and veg , wilted celery a couple of sad carrots and a big tin of 5 bean salad that ive been trying to find a use for, it was years out of  date but when opened were perfect . So its stew and dumplings for tea ...it looks that sort of day

OOPS

 Well ive tried for weeks to avoid this but im afraid its got to be done  . Im going to comment on US politics even though its none of my business and you lot voted for this muppet . As a comparison , nobody here voted for Liz Truss we just got lumbered with her lunacy because the Tories never listen to anyone who wasnt a donor   What the hell is going on, the return of the orange one seems to be going well doesnt it?  Meanwhile Musk is runnng riot in his normal mr wonderful mode as he starts the asset stripping of every government department he can get through the doors of . Theres so much bullshit being pumped out by the usual suspects online its hard to tell what the actual truth is .  Musk is the real danger , he knows best and is only happy when destroying anything he gets his hands on . Bezos and Zuckerberg looked like a pair of hostages at the inaugerration and its made the news a giggle every morning when we get up . No matter how bad things are here in the UK this shambles makes us look good and at the moment we still have cheap eggs . For a country with so many guns is nobody a good shot?