To Nothing To Do List 28Jan – 1Feb /Computers don’t you love ’em and hate ’em

Well things happened last week that really put paid to my to do list.  It also meant that I couldn’t blog every day so I have now failed in my personal challenge. It couldn’t be helped and I will still blog but maybe not every day.

So from last weeks ‘To Do’ list:  I didn’t get back to reading, I didn’t make Bertie’s treats, I didn’t catch up with reading blogs, I never went near the store room and very sadly I didn’t get to go to the cinema with my friend. I did however manage to have lunch with another friend on Wednesday but even that had to be re-arranged. So as I said not a lot got done as planned.

This week there is very little on the list apart from having some windows replaced tomorrow and, as at the moment it is pouring with rain and very windy, maybe even that won’t happen.

So instead I’m going to have a little rant about the trials and tribulations of electronics especially today, computers.  I get up this morning no problem with computer.  After an hour internet goes down. Not good. Do the usual switch all off and then switch back on still nothing. Try 2 times more, still nothing. Really not good! Decide that the time has come to try and connect the cables directly into my desktop pc as the engineer should have done when the Virgin modem was upgraded 9 months ago. For his convenience he decided to leave the cables plugged into an old router so that I could change it over when it suited me to do so. Another big mistake. Should have made him do it there and then!  After some time attempting to change said cables (I’m not too good at these sorts of things) I give up.  Phone call to Virgin tells me that there is a problem in our area and the internet is down. Huh! It was never my cables anyway. However now I am so far into changing the wretched cables I might as well complete the job but as I am going out soon I’ll leave it til this evening.  Arrive home in the evening to have another go. Am now very sure that they are in the right place but still no internet. Phone call to Virgin “I NEED HELP” you should have done this in the first place. All I can say is that after spending a considerable amount of time talking with one of their technicians and a lot of “type this in, type that in” I still have no internet to my desktop computer. I know their modem is working because I have wifi on my laptop but I need to access the desktop as it has things on it I need to use.

Tomorrow morning I will be back on the phone to Virgin and I won’t be giving up until it works. Ha! That’s me talking now what’s the betting tomorrow still no connection to the WWB via desktop.

The Birds in our Garden

Today was Big Garden Birdwatch day for the RSPB. The day when those that can and want to spend one hour of their day watching and recording the birds that come to their garden.  They then submit the results on line to the RSPB who collate all the figures to see what is happening to the bird population.

We have always enjoyed feeding the wild birds in our garden and have a number of feeders and drinkers/baths.  We even have a bird nesting box with a camera inside and get very excited when blue tits come to nest and we can watch what goes on inside the box on a laptop.  Today however was rather dissapointing as we had far fewer birds than last year. We have been noticing recently that we are not getting as many varieties of birds and less in numbers. One of the good things though is that we are regularly getting sparrows and their number was declining. So today, for our hour, we just saw a solitary robin, blackbird and bluetit plus four sparrows and four pigeons. No finches, no long tailed tits and no woodpecker (he is my favourite!)

During the recent cold spell we did get black caps feeding from the fat balls but still the number of birds was not as we would have expected in such cold weather.

It will be interesting to see when the results are published later in the year (March I think) whether this trend is national or specific to this area.

The Plastic Box Mystery

I do hope I’m not the only person that cannot find the answer to the plastic box mystery.  Plastic boxes, for use in the home, are sold in lots of places. Supermarkets, hardware shops, market stalls. Expensive ones, cheap ones (where the lids never seem to want to fit the box after you get them home) and in just about every shape and size. Round ones, square ones, rectangular ones, large ones, small ones even mini ones,  just perfect for something you need to store.  You get them home and hopefully they are just right for what you had in mind. For the fridge, the larder, in fact anywhere in your home or garage or even your garden shed. What I can’t understand is why at times when these boxes are not in use and you store them do the boxes and lids become separated never to meet up again. I don’t store mine closed but I thought I always put them away together but no, when you go to the cupboard to get out the perfect box for your bacon rashers, cold meat or chocolate muffins, can you not find the matching lid and box. What happens to them when they go into the cupboard?  How can you finish up with so many lids and boxes that don’t match? Is it like the case of the disspearing tea spoons? They vanish as well or the pairs of socks when only one comes out of the washing machine and it’s partner is never seen again. Are they all together in a black hole somewhere? It makes no sense to me. Where are they all?

Please tell me we aren’t the only family that has this mystery. Does this happen to you?

Can you have too many pairs of socks?

Good question? Well I was chatting to a friend who, being stuck in because of the snow, had decided to have a sort out of the bedroom drawers.  Her husband’s sock drawer was the first choice. So she started to take out socks, and then more socks and then more socks, until it turned out he had in excess of 90 pairs. She thought this was far more than necessary and way more than she had. Was I shocked? At first maybe but then I got to thinking about what socks I have.  I have trainer socks, short socks for summer, short socks for winter (different colours you see) nice thick socks for winter and some thermal ones, plus a few pairs of long socks. I also have leg warmers but I wont count those. So when adding up how many pairs of each I thought I might have ( no way was I going to start actually counting them) I decided that maybe 90 pairs wasn’t that excessive (well maybe a bit ) 🙂

What do you think? How many pairs of socks do you have and do you think 90 pairs is excessive?  If you have found the time to read my blog today perhaps you would like to take part in my poll, just for fun, to see if I can find the answer to the question.

To Do List 21 – 25 Jan

Glad to say I managed to clear a few things off last weeks list. I’m sure it’s posting on this blog that’s spuring me on. 🙂

Emails are pretty much sorted. Just a few to go before they build up again.

Think the desk is ok now. It’s working well so must be, well as good as it’s gonna get I think.

And (drum roll) I made a start on the store room.  I know it wasn’t a big start but I went in there moved a few things around, took a few things out and felt good about it. Hopefully more this week.

Bertie had nails clipped, I went out to lunch with my friend but the evening dinner with friends didn’t quite go as planned because of the snow. We did have the meal but the friends couldn’t make it.  However we have re-scheduled, so something to look forward to in Feb.

This weeks list as follows:

1. Get back to regular reading times which dropped off over the Christmas break. (no reading got done again!!)
   
2. Make more treats for Bertie. I make 2 sorts (cheese and pilchard) pilchard last week and now the cheese are running out.  Still ongoing but supply hasn’t run out yet.
3. Catch up with blogs. I’m getting behind with comments/replies. Very bad of me should be top of list.
   Additions
   
4. Continue with store room. I’ve made it an addition as I made a start last week
5. Filing.  I think I need to add this to my list but I don’t think even adding it to my blog will make me get that done in a hurry.

Wednesday. Lunch out with a friend

Thursday. Cinema (will report on blog later in the week)

These outings are getting to be a regular occurance. Long may they continue.

A Walk in the Snow

Day four of snow posts. Not really a weather blog though just a few lines about a really lovely walk today in our Bluebell Wood. No bluebells today but lots of nice soft snow. All the muddy places were either covered over or frozen so we could go where we liked on all our favourite paths which have become difficult of late because of the rain.  Last week I posted photos of the beautiful carpet of leaves today it was a carpet of snow.  The road leading to the wood was icy and opposite the entrance were sledgers playing on the sloping fields but we were quite happy walking quietly round the wood which we had all to ourselves.

What do you do when it snows?

I was just wondering what people do when it snows? Really it’s no different to any other day when you’re stuck indoors but with snow you aren’t necessarily forced to stay inside. It looks so inviting you just want to go out and step in the pristine whiteness.  It may be cold but you can wrap up and unless you go rolling in it you don’t get wet like you do when when it rains. For fun I guess some build snowmen or even snow squirrels. Good sculpting material when the snow is really frozen so I guess any subject is possible. Others will go sledging or tobbogoning. Of course some, like my Hubby, will go out  and clear paths and the driveway. I like to make sure that the birds have food and water.

Do you go outdoors or do you just stay in and watch through the window? Should you just use it as good opportunity to clear something off the to do list. No, it’s Saturday today a ‘Do anything you like day’ so that’s not going to happen. You could go surfing on the internet, watch a film on TV, read that good book you can never find the time for. I could have started my new jigsaw puzzle. I didn’t but I might tomorrow if the snow’s still there.

What did you do when it snowed?

Slipping and a Sliding

I guess you have to be of the older generation to remember this song by Little Richard (1956) or perhaps not quite so old for Slip Slidin Away by Simon and Garfunkel (1977), both of which were appropriate for today. Apologies for 2 days of weather blogging but the snow did come as forecast, it is still here, and it is cold. I won’t put up any pictures as we all know what beautiful snowy scenes are like. Nothing like our back garden when we have been clearing the paths, trudging back and forth across the now white lawn sorting out the bird baths/drinkers and Bertie has been prancing round and round like a mad thing (obviously likes snow!) and is oblivious to the cold.

Glad to say we are not starving as feared because we managed to get out to a local hotel/restaurant (main roads were well treated) where we were able to have a half price dinner courtesy of the vouchers given out over Christmas in anticipation of slow business in January.  I will try not to blog about the weather tomorrow. 🙂

To Snow or not to Snow that is the Question!

Well today I have very little to say in my blog except that I have heard and read more than enough about whether or not we will be getting snow over night and tomorrow. How many centimetres they are expecting and how the spread will be throughout the country. I’ve heard about schools and businesses closing for the day because of the forecast and how many times the gritting lorries have been out, are expected to go out, and how much salt they will be putting down. I assume from all of this that we will get up to a white country and tomorrow all will be at a standsill. Supermarkets have apparantly sold out of pretty much everything, empty freezer cabinets, no bread, no vegetables in fact almost everything you could possibly want to eat. Quite how long we are going to be isolated from the outside world is yet to be seen. I for one will just stay indoors and watch it all through the window and as I haven’t been and stocked up on food, I’ll have to spend some time improvising on our meals. At least the cupboards and freezer will get emptied and the meals could be interesting. I will however be keeping an eye out for our feathered friends who really do need help when it’s freezing cold.

Enjoy the snow if you get out and about and stay warm. 🙂

Bertie’s New Coat

When the day started off there was no plan to buy Bertie a new coat. We intended going into the local town to look around the market for some things we wanted. However today there weren’t many stalls, maybe because of the cold weather and we didn’t find what we were looking for. We had seen the weather forecast in the morning, promising more cold weather and more snow so I thought while I was in town I might pop into the pet shops to see if they had a jumper that Bertie could wear at night. Well, to cut a long story short we finished up whizzing around several pet shops in the area and finding something I liked (and Bertie liked) in a pet shop which is very close to one of our favourite walks. Having bought the jumper we set off for a walk which was really nice. The ground was hard with frost and all was very white but it was CLEAN which made a wonderful change.  At this point Bertie was wearing his old, outdoor coat from last year when he was a little puppy (now a bigger puppy!) and it was looking rather small and not covering much at all. So as we got back into the car I made a spur of the moment decision and decided to go back to the shop to see if they had a bigger warm and waterproof coat, which luckily they did. So at the end of the day Bertie finished up with a new coat and jumper and we had a nice walk, all of which was a great improvement over yesterday.

Bertie Fashion Show

Did You Ever Have One Of Those Days?

Anyone remember this Elvis song?

Did you ever have one of those days boys?
Did you ever have one of those days?
When nothing goes right
From morning to night
Did you ever have one of those days?

You have to be of the older generation to remember this song I think. From a time when Elvis was in the army and I was a young girl. In the original song ‘Did you’ was spelt ‘Didja’.

Well you might wonder what I’m on about but I had one of those days yesterday. From the minute I got up it just seemed to go on and on. It was ‘To Do List’ day on my blog so I saved it for today. It couldn’t go without mention. I couldn’t list all the things but I got to the point of throwing my hands in the air and exclaiming “What now?”  Suffice to say I was extremely fed up. Why did the wheel on my mouse just stop working, when I use it all day? Why when I tried to put the usb in a different port (it’s wireless) did it try to load some completely different programme? Why didn’t Tesco have any of the things I needed to buy? Why wouldn’t the grill heat up on the cooker so I finished up having to use the microwave and nothing was ready to eat when it should have been? Why did it start raining when I thought it was going to be a dry day? etc. etc.

I said I wouldn’t list everything and I haven’t but you know what it’s like, things that wind you up one day when added to everything else, seem quite trivial and fade in your memory the following day. So I’ve moved on a day now, have been out to lunch with a friend and all is calmer. The wheel on my mouse is back to normal. I’ve no idea what the new programme was but I’ve ignored it. We managed to eat without the help of Tesco or the grill and today was a dry day.

Have you ever had one of those days? Elvis obviously had. 🙂

To Do List 14 – 18 Jan

Well last week I decided to make this my Monday blog topic. How much did I manage to tick off of last weeks list? Answer: Quite a bit.

Bertie’s treats got made and he managed to catch 3 pieces as I chopped them and boxed them up for the freezer.

The bedside cabinet drawer got sorted and Kindle now has a safe home.

Peanuts bought and feeders replenished which was good timing as they seem even more desperate now this colder weather has arrived.

Popped into local market town and did quick shop.

Also got to Optician and had a very nice trip to the Cinema. See earlier blog last week.

Sadly the not yet accomplished have to go back on the list for this week with new additions as follows:

1. Get back to regular reading times which dropped off over the Christmas break. (no reading got done)
2. Sort through emails and delete where necessary. How many bargain buys do you really need? Well many more arrived but none got deleted.
3. Make a start on clearing out the store room. This will probably take best part of a year   so will definately be on every week. Maybe seeing it here will encourage me to do it more quickly. (Probably not!) Def was no time to start this. 🙂
   Additions
   
4. Re-organise my desk. My laptop needs to go in a more central position as I am sitting slightly twisted and although my body feels comfortable my knees don’t. This will take some sorting as I like things where they are and don’t like change.
5. Make more treats for Bertie. I make 2 sorts (cheese and pilchard) pilchard last week and now the cheese are running out.
6. Catch up with blogs. I’m getting behind with comments/replies.

Tuesday.  Lunch with a friend. Should be yummy with lots of chat.

Friday. Out to dinner with friends. More yummy and more chat.

Any day. Bertie to have nails clipped. May clash with lunch out so may have to be delayed til next week.

I think putting my to do list in print is encouraging/shaming me into getting things done. Can’t repeat things for too many weeks!

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After the Rain…………

Well I have to say that I am now struggling to find a daily topic for my blog and I can see that I’ve set myself quite a challenge for blogging daily. I can probably always find something to write but with the relatively quiet life that I lead I doubt it will hold a lot of interest for my very kind followers. However I shall press on.

After the appalling day weatherwise yesterday, today was really rather nice. The sun shone and although it was rather cold it looked very pleasant through the window.  We took Bertie off to the Bluebell Wood again as with all the snow they keep forcasting (something just short of national emergency was the last report I read online) we don’t know where we will be going tomorrow and I’m delighted to say that for the very first time I saw deer in the wood and not just 1 but 3! They were galloping through the trees with a collie dog in hot pursuit. Once they reached the edge of the wood and went off in to the fields beyond the dog just stood and watched them go. I always knew there were deer in the wood as there is a sign on the gate entrance saying that some areas have been fenced off to protect the trees from deer but in all the time I’ve been going there I have never seen one and now I’ve seen 3.  As we carried on the walk we came across the scary tree trunk. This came down in one of the big storms a few years ago and has never been removed. I always think it looks rather sinister so I took a photo which I intended to add to this blog but for some reason my laptop wont accept any photos from my phone today. I will have to get my tech guru to help me sort this out tomorrow so I can add it later.  (You know who you are. 🙂 ) In fact next time I’m wanting a topic I might centre the whole thing around the the tree trunk and it will be called The Scary Tree Trunk.

Rain, Rain go away……………..

“Rain, rain go away and come again another day” was was the rhyme my mother used to say. I couldn’t say that, not the last bit. I don’t want it to come again, at least not for a very long time. I didn’t want to blog every day about the British weather but today it has been terrible. The rain over night was torrential and it hasn’t stopped all day. Maybe eased up a bit from time to time but no more than that. The roads are flooded and the fields under water. As well as that it’s been cold. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that it isn’t snow as the temperatures have dropped and we’ve been promised that they will drop even more in the next few days. Deep joy! Not a lot got done. We donned our macs and wellies, Bertie included (he doesn’t have wellies of course, just a mac) and went for a short walk but we were all glad when we got back.

So, sad to say, I’ve managed to avoid weather blogs for 11 days but today I just couldn’t resist.

Bertie’s Favourite Game

Never a day goes by when we aren’t expected to have a game with THE BALL. I don’t know when we gave Bertie his first ball or when he decided it was the best and only real game a little terrier wants to play. I suppose it just came along with all the other toys when he was a little puppy. (He’s just a big puppy now! 16 months) Squeaky toys were his first passion and if he can get his paws on one now he will spend many hours (well actually just a few minutes) tearing it to bits to get, firstly the squeaker out, quickly followed by the stuffing but it’s the ball game that he loves the most. At first we gave him what we thought were hard smallish balls that could not be chewed to bits in five minutes. We gave up on the nice tennis type balls as the pretty coloured outer covering came off in minutes, possibly due to the fact that they use fish glue to attach it. However it wasn’t long before the ball became the craze. Of course we didn’t realise just how strong those terrier teeth are and the first balls were destroyed in minutes. Literally, we got to the point where we were taking bets on how long it would be before they were destroyed. That was before we discovered the Kong ball. These are fantastic and now many, many months later are still going strong.

How can you resist those appealing eyes when he gets up in the morning and stands next to the cupboard where he knows the ball is just hoping you will get it out and play can begin. Well that of course depends on what time in the morning it is. All he wants is for you to throw it so he can run and fetch it. Anywhere will do indoors, outdoors…….. Outdoors is better because you can throw it further and bounce it about so he can catch it in his mouth.  He’s not a retriever he’s a terrier but he soon learnt that if you don’t bring it back no-one is going to throw it again. However so desperate is he to hold on to it that he very often grabs it just as you go to pick it up to throw. This is very annoying and can bring an early end to that session of play. We have to limit him to sessions otherwise it could go on all day, mainly because we get worn out not Bertie. That isn’t strictly true as he does tire and lay down, usually with the ball next to him, but that doesn’t last long and if you go near him he is up like a shot as he thinks more fun is coming. The following few photos may give you some idea of how much he loves playing ball.

A Trip to the Cinema

After a quick whiz round this morning with the vacuum cleaner, I left Hubby to take Bertie for his walk and went off out for the afternoon to the Cinema with a friend. We went to the local Odeon at Port Solent to see The Life of Pi in 3D. We collected our glasses in the foyer and what a brilliant experience! There are a lot of sea scenes, some in very rough weather and there are a lot of animals. Well, you could almost feel the sea spray and the detail was impressive. It was all so realistic but I’m glad to say that I didn’t actually feel like I had a tiger on my lap but some of the scenes did make me jump. 🙂 It’s the first time I have seen a 3D film and I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to another before too long I hope.

We went for a coffee and a chat afterwards and decided we want to go and see another film, Quartet. So looks like I have another trip to cinema coming up very soon but not this time in 3D.

A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods

Well today I managed to cross one thing of the to do list. It probably was the easiest thing on it. Pop into local market town and do a quick shop and collect from M&S but at least I have made a start. Oh and I did go the opticians yesterday. I’d forgotten that, so that’s 2 crossed off. Not bad!

After lunch I took Bertie out for his daily walk and today we went for a walk in the woods. As I said in my ‘about me’ page, we’re very lucky to live close to some lovely walks. Today’s wood is just a few minutes away by car and is called Bluebell Wood. Obviously at this time of the year there are no bluebells but in spring it is quite beautiful. Even now it is looking lovely because the fallen beech leaves form beautiful bronze carpets throughout. Unfortunately due the the huge amount of rain we’ve had over the last few months it’s pretty muddy and a quick session in the bath for Bertie is a must when we get back. (I wear wellingtons!) The brilliant thing about mobile phones these days is the quality of the cameras and as I normally have mine with me at all times I snap a few shots when I can.  Although looking at these they probably don’t look their best when they are blown up in size and the colour is hardly bronze but I’m sure you can imagine. These were the ones I took today including a tree trunk which looked very odd.

I can’t wait for the spring when all the leaves return to these trees. It is even lovlier then as the trees form a wonderful canopy. I’m sure I will be adding photos of the Bluebell Wood quite frequently over the weeks.

Wrestling with a quilt cover!

A short blog today but a hearfelt one. This has to be one of my pet hates about household chores. Changing the bedding. That wretched quilt seems to have a life of its own when you try to trap it inside a fresh, clean cover. Especially when it’s a thick quilt for the cold weather. You try to fit it in with the top corners in the right place but that involves you practically climbing inside to do it. Then you give it a shake. Right?  What happens next? It just come seems to come alive and lumps and bumps appear all over the place. The moving and shaking carries on (the quilt not you) until at last you think you’ve got it tamed and then, when you go to straighten it out, right in the middle, there is still a big lump. You have to undo the bottom try to get inside AGAIN and flatten it out getting madder by the minute. Why does the whole process take so long and cause so much annoyance?

If anyone has any simple instructions which could put an end to this frustration I would love to hear from them.  Rant over!

To Do List 7 – 11 Jan

I’ve copied this idea of a to do list for Monday’s blog from my friend Vikki. Now Vikki always has an interesting and varied to do list, one you look forward to reading.  Mine however will consist of mundane jobs with the occasional bit of interest added in. I’m hoping that seeing my list in print might just encourage me to bring a little something extra into my weeks. You will also note that I only date the list from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday I can do what I like as long as we get to eat. 🙂

How many people write a to do list regularly? Hopefully I’m not in the minority. I have a weekly one and a daily one but just how many things get ticked off by the end of the day/week will become obvious when they are repeated in the following week.  In fact I’m almost an obsessive list writer. Possibly this is to help me remember all the things that need to be done once I get involved in pooring over the internet, taking my dog out and other things which I probably prefer. Notepad in the kitchen, notepad on my desk  or even several in both places and then of course there is the sticky notes pad. How brilliant are they in their bright colours for the sudden urgent things that must be done very soon? Stick one of those on top of your pad and you’re sure to remember but of course you must actually do said thing to have made it worth while.  Unless of course you have stuck 3 on top of one another and then maybe they just got obscured.

So this weeks list looks like this no specific days unless mentioned:

1. Make Bertie some treats to go in the freezer. I like to make my own.
2. Buy some peanuts for the birds. We like feeding the birds and at the moment they are loving the peanuts. (So are the squirrels!)
3. Get back to regular reading times which dropped off over the Christmas break.
4. Make a start on clearing out the store room. This will probably take best part of a year   so will definately be on every week. Maybe seeing it here will encourage me to do it more quickly. (Probably not!)
5. Sort out drawer of bed side cabinet so I can put my Kindle inside after I get back to reading. I live in fear of spilling water over it as I have a glass of water next to the bed. Spilling a cup of coffee into my laptop a few months ago makes me nervous about liquids and electronics.
6. Sort through emails and delete where necessary. How many bargain buys do you really need?
7. Pop into local market town for quick shop and pick up from M&S.

Tuesday.  Opticians def don’t want new glasses but better get my eyes checked.

Thursday. Going to the cinema.  Woop! Woop! Something exciting. Going to see the Life of Pi in 3D with a friend. I do hope I don’t finish up with a tiger on my lap. I will for sure be blogging about it if I do.

Not sure if this is all doable this week. I’ve left out the boring stuff like household chores and supermarket shop which I suppose will have to be done as well. I guess it’s a case of watch this space and see how much is still on next week’s list.