TARRAGON & THYME

Today that is.  I am back in the front bedroom wading.  Shifted more books, sorted a load of magazines out and got rid of more rubbish. In the real world have got to the bottom of why the Doctor has been very interested in my blood results and why I have already had a couple of repeat tests. My white blood cell count is a little low, but that could be down to illness and will be reviewed again in due course. My Blood Sugars are good, my Liver function is good my Cholesterol level is borderline, and based on a module where they predict where possibly issues may arise they have determined that I need to go on medication to try and sort this out and get it in line before it goes on to cause further problems. I am therefore to be put on Cholesterol medication for the foreseeable.  The one she is popping me on can apparently cause Liver problems and also aches and pains.  I get aches and pains anyway; quite a lot!   No matter the medication that is taken we all ...

 Wading my way into the bedroom only to find that one of my boxes of classic books had collapsed and got into a bit of a mess.  So finding another box as you do, and going through each book individually cleaning it and re-packing it into its new box.  I have some lovely books here and I am looking down to reading them again especially during the winter months.  Reading is my first love as you can lose yourself in the stories of others.  Some of the books I read for my GSE English Literature exam the Go Between, Animal Farm, Lord of the Rings.There was also  a book of poems.  We only ever received printed copies of these  (obviously I do not have that). All of them old friends.  I was taught from an early age that if you have a book you always have a friend. This was particularly important as I was an incredibly shy child; we lived in tiny hamlet villages where other children were few and far between.  I think that made me a bit of a lone...

 We were supposed to have had an appointment today but had to cancel it due to G not being well.  it has been re-convened for a week on Wednesday. I therefore had a bit of a lay in this morning until 9:30am and then got up sorted breakfast and then started work.  It has been a very busy day.  I am still wading through the washing and still have a load more to do despite having been washing all day.  Fortunately everything I have washed is now air dried and in the bath broken down into bin bags ready for me to start operation ironing sometime this week. It is broken down into bags so that I am not doing piles of stuff at any one time.  My back would not cope with that this week.  Fortunately the weather has been good today and I got everything dried outside. Will carry on with the washing tomorrow and then hopefully that will be it on the washing front. That will be a big relief. We ran out of electric and so had to go and get that sorted out. This enta...

Saturday evening I got stuck in the bathroom.  I have patched one of the walls and part of the ceiling to cover cracks and bad blown plaster.  I have just enough filler to do the bit of bad plaster over the bath which will be dealt with tomorrow.  It is a necessity really starting to clear this room up, and get it nice and clean again before finishing off the kitchen being as it is tacked onto the kitchen downstairs.   I have done a lot in the kitchen and the bulk of what is in the bathroom is the ironing.  I have a big job on my hands but will not be tackling this until I get the new flooring in which will probably be around 8 August 2025.  Have bathroom flooring to put down as well.  Then I can iron knowing that the floor is clean and my laundry will stay clean.  The trouble with 20 year old laminate flooring is that it looses its surface, chunks get taken out of it and it is a Devil to keep clean.  It has been a scrubbing brush job ea...

 Time is of the essence for me here at the moment and therefore to save on time for me, I have bundled two and a bit days into this post.  Hopefully will be back to the normal routine by the end of next week. Thursday Evening I have the gum boots on the in the kitchen still getting stuck in.  Progress is not as good as I would wish, but there we are tiz only the depth that varies.  All the sink area is now squeaky clean and organised nicely. The cupboard is all sorted underneath and hopefully the rogue shelf has now been sorted out. The window and paintwork around the window has been washed down.  The nets have been washed and re-hung.  I do not bother letting them dry.  They dry naturally at the window.  I have decided that I need a new mop bucket so that is now on the list as well. The old one has a split in it and it will not be long before it is spilling the contents on the floor. Things are mounting up and I am going to have to pull the horns...

 I get it, I am very fortunate compared to most on the food front as I sometimes have more choices than others.  Equally though,  I do go without other things to ensure that my family is fed and that we have good meals on a daily basis.  My priorities are different to everyone else.  I do not do things in a day, but when I come across them.  I have a small preserving fund which allows me to take advantage of any offers I come across; a float if you like. Moving forward I am going to be preparing a lot of food for the Pantry shelf which will ensure that we have ready to go meals off the shelf.  At the moment we have an influx of fresh ingredients, I want to ensure that we have an array of meals and ingredients ready to use in the Winter months that will feed us well without any preservatives.  I am talking meat, vegetables, stews, soups here initially, but this is not just about preserves it is about a good stock in ingredients available in the Pan...

Wednesday It has been a long day today.   After cooking G his breakfast I then trotted along to the Doctor's surgery where I was seen by two Nurses.  They made sure that I was aware that I had another appointment in about six weeks time, and I confirmed that had already been set up.  They took blood from my still bruised arm, although were concerned that the bruise was still there.  That is just how I am.  The left arm was the better arm for getting a vein to stand up. One attempt and it was done.  More experienced Nurse.  No messing.  I think the Nurse who saw me last week was junior to the two I saw today.  I had, had as per instructions quite a bit of water before attending the appointment.  Apparently, it helps with getting the vein to attention too. I got the feeling that something is going on that I am not aware of at present though.  Will see what happens.  Maybe will find out what is going on when I speak to the Do...

 I overslept this morning and have not got anything done.  A little Jack Russell got into a two and eight and over-heated and have had to cool her down.  I did not get to Home Bargains.   I went into town and went to  B & M.  Shout out for Suet Ladies.  Morrisons charge £3 for Atora, Waitrose are about £2.30 and B & M are charging £1.99.  I have come home with a couple of boxes, but intend to get some more.  Thinking Christmas Puddings, Homemade Mincemeat, Stews, Dumplings, Feeding the Birds, so want to have a decent stock of items in by the time the nights are dark.  I shall have a better look around B & M another day. There are quite a lot of things that will be needed in due course and I am obtaining them in my usual fashion a little bit at a time. I did come back with some plaster repair for the bathroom though as some of the plaster has blown in places and needs patching up and then painting.  I also bought som...

 On the industry front today.  Things have been done just not where they need to be done. Unfortunately I have had an upset tummy today and I am not at my best.  However I intend to do some stuff this evening.  There is more to do than I had thought. We have had showers (now a full blown Thunderstorm), it has been humid, I have had a headache, and totally out of sync. The bags I had sorted have been delivered to the CS and I am finding more items.  I did deliver a Dog Bed around there but they had closed for the day so that will have to go tomorrow together with any other items I have located.  I am trying to be good and have a really good clear out. Despite not being as industrious as I need to be I have picked 1kg of Blackberries out of the garden so not a complete fail.  Every little bit helps. I have also picked some more Marigold Heads for drying naturally on the Dresser.  I will plant more of these next year as I have plans for all sorts of ...

 All day long.  I have emptied boxes out and disposed of a load of old ones that are no longer supporting contents securely.  Empty boxes that I had in the dining room from recent purchases have been recycled for this purpose.  I have the packing to do now, but that will have to wait until tomorrow I will be in the bedroom all day.  The back bedroom is the key to getting the rest of the house tidy as it is the storage room.  There are lots of items in other rooms that need to go in this room; therefore it is the key to the rest of the house being sorted. A load of stuff I no longer want will be making its way to the charity shop tomorrow There are two big bags full ready to go.  The front garden is full of rubbish again and will be taken later on in the week to the tip! I have also found 4 bags of preserving jars and 6 demijohns.  They are now downstairs in a big tub, ready for processing. I intend to clear the shed out on Tuesday and then once th...

 come back another day. So goes the rhyme from my childhood. However, I for one (and I do not think I am on my own) to be very relieved to have a good old dousing.  It started last night and has gone on until about 4:00pm today.  The Sun is now out and the temperature much more comfortable. The plants seem very relieved to have moisture instead of heat.  I am relieved as I only have to water the greenhouses tonight.  Should do a lot of good. It was not an early start today as Missy had night manoeuvres on her mind last night.  As she falls easily these days by choice we make sure that she is either caught or rescued without hurting herself, which means that we were suffering lack of sleep as a result.  I do intend to be up early tomorrow though as I have an awful lot to do.  However I do prefer to be busy. I had to nip out at about 2:00pm today to go and stock up on pet food as we were out.  I also nipped into Sainsbugs to pick up a few thing...

Wednesday night I was going into the kitchen again, however real life had different plans for me.  When I checked the plants in the garden I realised that they needed the water this evening, and so I got stuck in and got everything watered up. I also hoed down one side of the patio and I intend to put some stone chippings down that side to stop the weeds coming through and then put some planters on there.  Plans for Thursday I plan today to weed the other side and re-arrange the plants, and then tidy the area by the bathroom wall up as well.  So will see what happens.  Trying to do a bit each day on the garden in bite sized chunks should make it a bit more manageable. Also continuing on with the washing as we have rain forecast quite a bit in the coming days and I want to get as much as I can out of the way with. I need to go and buy Soap-powder, stone chippings, fabric conditioner from Home Bargains and a few other bits and bobs.  Whether that will happen today...

 ....very disconcerting.  I racked up to the Local shop to do the lottery for Saturday and Monday night.  Not realising that today was Thursday.  I was convinced today was Saturday.  Ooohps, me thinks might have to do some more crosswords to keep my memory on the spot.  Never mind, that gives me a couple of days longer than I thought I had.  There is always a silver lining. This afternoon, now I have realised it is Thursday, I have been pottering in the kitchen.  It is slow going, last night I did not accomplish much as I had to water up which I had not planned on doing.  My back was killing me last night and I did not sleep too well as a result.  Just could not get comfy.  Now I am moving about, my back seems to have freed off a bit, but I will be taking paracetamol this evening before going to bed, and spraying my back up (which I have already done today in any event).  Just got to keep plugging away at things. I have managed...