Not a bad day

 Did the usual morning shop after the groceries had been delivered and put away. I took another box to the charity shop while I was out. I saw Sher in the bakery store but she didn’t have time to go for a drink so a bit later in the morning I went to Mondo and bought three take away chai lattes, one each for Sher and Haley, and one for me. Took them to the shops and they were both pleased to get a surprise drink. Fathe Christmas was outside the coffee shop!

I popped into church to look at the Christmas trees on the way back.

After lunch I walked up to Freeport, the stream that was bone dry, and then a trickle is bow in full flow.

I bought some socks, took a picture and walked home.

I am now settled down to watch the Strictly final.

Not very productive today!

 A pretty quiet day today, I went to see Bel this morning and she was in quite good spirits, she had received a parcel from her nephew in Jersey and she is looking forward to spending Christmas Day with her neighbours.

We had an early lunch and thenI packed clothes into one of my suitcases, I am going to just have sufficient clothing in the wardrobe for the few weeks we re still here and get the rest into my suitcases. Little by little. Jean came this afternoon and we had a good chat. She isn’t hve the whole family round at Christmas which is good, as there are a lot of them nd her health is far from good.

After she had gone I had a walk in the town to collect my prescription and do a bit of shopping.

I haven’t taken any photos today found a five year old one of the now missing nativity, it had quite a lot of characters then. Also another photo from a few years back.

A productive and interesting day

 This morning Tina and I got busy, firstly we loaded the car with my growing pile of stuff for the charity shop. Then, back home and loaded the car with lots of stuff for the tip. Darren had left stuff that could be reused and we had a halogen cooker and a microwave that were still working, so those we put in the donation area and the rest in various bins. Back home again and we moved the crates and bags full of church archive stuff, some really heavy. So not far but we loaded the car again and they are now in a safe place away from our dining room! Then we got the painted pottery and cake for Caroline and took them up to the potteries. Rob was there but looked really unwell, he had been even worse last week. We had a cup of coffee there and the first pic of the day.

Actually I have realise that wasn’t the first pic, it was of a tasteful nativity scene.

Talking of nativities we went to see the plastic light up one with ever smaller number of characters. Sadly it isn’t there this year, we were so disappointed as it is usually a highlight of the year! Then we went to Bugtopia as Tina had never been there before. 

We had an interesting walk round and saw quite a lot of the creatures and animals.

There were a lot of models there, I haven’t been for a couple of years and that is different.

Three pics of the handsome golden pheasant.

The civet is a solitary nocturnal animal but showed itself when it was feed time, more of him later.

The golden pheasants are called Donald and Melania, Melania appeared when the civet Wes being fed, hoping for a titbit.

The keeper came to feed the civet, I am going to post all the pics as he was so cute. He was moving and eating, so not as sharp as they could be.

We did see the giant lizard before we left, high up out of the way, the funny thing was that we had been in touching distance from it when we arrived, we both thought it was one of the models!

We made out way to Mappleton but the cafe was closed. We went up to look at the sea as we were there.

We had a walk along the cliff path, we haven’t done that before, but could take pics from a different view.

To round off the day a hungry kestrel was hovering. Not much zoom on the phone but I tried.

When we were watching the civet eating the keeper told us a bit about them. I won’t go into detail but she told us about civet coffee. Not nice and anther way humans abuse animals.

Visit day tomorrow, so not likely to be productive..

Feeling a bit better

 I slept quite well considering I had three hours in bed in the afternoon. The pastilles and medicine seem to be helping and the headache as gone. Tina had letter she wanted posting and I had a package to send so I walk eked to the post office via the park entrance. The winter pond is now back, those trees are very tolerant.

After going to the post office I walked back via the sea, it was a very cold day today.

This afternoon I packed a couple of boxes one with pictures and large flat items and one with small precious ornaments and their display cabinet.

Tina had a zoom call with a removal man in Scotland who will besinding a provisional quote and she has another man coming to give a quote next week. While t was cooking I started dismantling a couple of frames that had lots of photos in. I will keep the photos and the frames can go to the charity shop.

Taking it easy now and won’t go to bed too late.

Last cake delivered and feeling under the weather

This morning I was up a bit later and nearly choked taking my morning pills, I often get catarrh but at the moment it is really bad, and I have a sore in the top of my mouth similar to when you have eaten something too hot.too hot. It was a miserable day weather wise so I sorted out my rain coat.

Last night the man fron the auction place in Scarborough to look at the stuff that we won’t be taking with us. Tina has some quite large items most of itch they will accept and I have a few smaller items that will be going. They won’t be collected until the new year. We thought we had found homes for some other items,  bed, rocking chair and small wardrobe as some one hd been on Facebook suing that the van they hired wa in n chide t and everything was ruined. But this morning they he had a better offer.

The auction man did want the corner chair and Tina left it of the Medway landing on the stairs. That is now Pandoras favourite new place.

I went to the hub to meet Linda and give her the cake and went to the chemist on the way back and got catarrh pastilles and medicine. I really didn’t feel well after lunch, coughing well and a headache and feeling a bit nauseous. So I did what Tina suggested, put the under blanket on and went to bed. Stayed there for three hours. Still got quite a bad headache and can’t stop coughing when I start but hopefully o will be on the mend tomorrow.

No more boiler blues

 This morning I did some chores and took it easy. Went to lunch with Sher at Mondo, I picked the smoke salmon with cream cheese with rocket, pickled onion and capers. I didn’t want the pickled onion and asked the waitress what capers tasted like. She brought two out on a dish for Sher and I to try, we wish we hadn’t! So I didn’t have those either! The rest of it was tasty. We chatted for a while then decided to have a cream scone, very nicely presented.

I did walk down to the newsagents and bought a selection of their incredibly cheap cards. My hip was causing me a lot of pain, took my mind off the knees and calves for a bit!

Tina and I gathered together the items for the auction man to look at and tell us they would take. Some they will and some they won’t, we will get a list soon but they won’t be collected until the new year.

Dom, the gas engineer came early afternoon and we now have a working boiler and heat and hot water, thank goodness.

I am delivering the last cake tomorrow. I do have one more to go but that one will be collected. 

Feeling chilly!

 Extra bedding and I slept reasonably but the house has been very cold today. Went to the boot sale with Darren, we weren’t sure if it would be open as it is due to close completely because the new owners want to expand the leisure activities. There is a petition to keep it open, but I doubt that will be successful. There were a handful of cars and no cafe open but the sky made it worth going.

As it looked like a good sunrise Darren drove us to the front on the way home, and after photos we had a cup of chocolate. It is amazing the colours the camera picks up, quite different to what you re a ually seeing sometimes.

  

As we have no gas I used the slow cooker, the air fryers and two portable electric hot plates to get a nice Sunday dinner. After the kitchen was cleared I decided to go for a walk, it was a cold wind but I had been feeling cold indoors my way. I walked to Tesco and along the trail to the front. Didn’t take photos as there was nothing outstanding and I have taken so many. I did take a selfie at the front, trying to get the sky behind me.

I got a bit of shopping on the way home. Haven’t done much since, got my large hoodie on so was warm for the first time today, even dozed off in the chair. Was woken by Tina, she had ordered here’s under blankets for their bed and mine in case the boiler saga continues. She helped me get it one the bed. Apart from the Strictly results in a bit I haven’t nothing planned for the evening.