Sunday Summary

The last few nights I have woken up really cold...

...so off with my pretty crochet bedspread and...

...back on with the winter duvet.

I had tried adding some extra blankets under my crochet blanket, but I need the weight on me to be lighter, so feather duvet it is.

It has been so cold and damp today that I have actually had to put the heating on!

The last few nights I have been trialling this 'white noise' machine...well actually I can't stand the white noise so using the fan setting, but the trouble is for it to work at covering the motorway noise I have to have it set so loud it is too loud for me anyway.  I actually like complete silence, which basically just never happens here.   I have a complete inability to block out the road noise which might not bother some, but having spent most of my life in the country until I came to live here, I find it very hard to cope with and the last couple of years the noise levels have really increased and become bothersome.  Not helped by the fact that for comfort I need to sleep in the bed in the back bedroom which is closer to the noise.  I have been using earplugs for so long now that they are irritating my ears, so something else needed to be done.

We are still trying to move, and found a property, but had to pull out due to some charges/convenents on the land that we were not happy about.  We saw another one, that in my mind was a steal and absolutely perfect apart from some stairs, but hubby just flat out refused to consider it for that reason.  To say I have had a hard time coping with this disappointment is an understatement and has pretty much clouded the last month for me.  There has been absolutely nothing come up up since and I am finding it all rather depressing.  Yes I know people will say there will always be something else better come available, but at the moment it just doesn't seem that way...bearing in mind I have been wanting to move for 13 years now, and hubby has been promising we would for the last 11 of them, and I have been searching for the last two years... getting him to actually commit to putting our house on the market though is another thing altogether!  There is always an excuse, and sometimes I feel like there always will be.  Let's hope I am proven wrong.

I am trying to remain positive, but sometimes it is so hard.

A couple of other new appliances have made it into the house this past week as well as the 'noise' machine.

We needed a new kettle and I heard that you don't get quite the tainted taste with glass ones, so after a bit of research I eventually went with this one that lights up when it is on.  Trouble is you can see the scale forming very quickly.  We have only had it a few days (not even a week) and you can already  see the scale, so it is going to need cleaning very regularly.  

My son recommended this oil diffuser/humidfier and as I had been suffering from what I can only describe as my nose smelling dry, I thought I would give it a go.  So far I quite like it.

I got a selection of different oils to try as well and use lavender in the evening in the hope it will relax me ready for sleeping.

Talking about sleeping, the new pain specialist I was referred to has given me some muscle relaxants to try to see if they help me sleep and not wake up with such sore feet and legs. Hopefully will stop the muscles in my shoulders and back stop going into spasm as well. I have started on a very low dose and gradually work my way up.  So far I think it has helped.  

I decided that the paint must surely be hard enough on the window sills now to start putting things back.

So this plant pot is the first to go back in the hallway opposite our bathroom.

Now having a son that likes to keep up with technology is a bonus for me as I then get his off casts... in this case a 'new to me' iphone.  A bit bigger than my other which was a great size in terms of portability but so hard to actually see anything on the screen!

I got myself a nice case for it, as although he gave me a cover with it, it didn't cover the front, and I am always worried about dropping them so feel they are safer in a leather case.  I love this blue one.

What a great quotation written on the inside. 

'every day is the best of the year'

Certainly Friday was a good day.

It was my daughter in laws birthday and my son made her a lovely Victoria Sponge birthday cake.

She was very surprised.

It was as tasty as it looks - he really is a very good cook.

He also bought some fun cupcakes, although they didn't really compare in taste.

His beans are still growing amazingly well.  I hope this cold and wet weather weather we are having doesn't kill them off.

Whilst sitting outside the other day in our garden I watched a little Chaffinch gathering up fallen seed.

Such a cute little fellow

Look at his feet though - I didn't see this until I uploaded the photos.  Looks like he has some kind of disease/fungal problem with them.  It didn't seem to be inhibiting him in any way though.