Indulge me?

Hello, thanks for the comments yesterday.

Having a bit of an indulging post today. Twice in my life I have been accepted onto photography courses. Once as a teen and once a few years ago. For various reasons had to turn the offers down. I still like photography although the tech side has totally left me behind these days. I'm just a point and click kinda girl these days. Can I show you a very small (I promise) variety of my favourites shots I have taken?

 

A bit fuzzy but I like the colours, a bit like a watercolour

 

 

  

Always a puffin in there somewhere.

 

 

Thanks for that.x

Swim!

Hi all
thanks for the comments and follows.

2nd attempt at this post as I just managed to delete. Lack of sleep catching up.

Been quiet on the blog but still been dipping in to read them all. Talking of dipping...went for a swim today.

Until Xmas I was swimming regularly 4 or 5 times a week. But gave up to save money. It was a cheap little private pool, bit shabby but was so warm and had no deep end. I am terrified of deep water. No traumatic reason. But if my feet don't touch the floor its a sad sorry splashy sight.
Todays was a regular pool. I figured out where the deep end was and walked around the shallow end ...just to make sure. Then swam for my life. I had to it was freezing. A good swim around an obstacle course of people stood talking or doing handstands. Only got kicked in the head once.
Only managed 50 mins used to do 2 hours.
The best bit - the showers were private with their own doors. Luxury.

The reason for the swim. Football. The season is upon us poor parents of enthusiastic amateur footballers. A season of car parks for me as I wait. We live too far from the team for me to drive home. So car parks in summer, Tesco in winter. 3 lots of training a week so I think I better get me a reward card. x

Greece, Greece, USA, Wales and Egypt.

Is everyone going away but me. Feeling proper sorry for myself. The title is the just the tip of the iceberg of a list of places where people either  are or about to go. Greek Islands are popular as you can see. This could be the first year without a glimpse of the sea and it's all wrong and odd. Finances and family dictate otherwise now. Sure we could pack a tent and some pot noodles and go seek a field but there's no wi-fi (poor son) and who would water the tomatoes (me).

The urge is so strong to go sometimes but I think I'm kidding myself and searching for something that has been and gone. The freedom of a beach holiday somewhere warm where the only dilemma is what to have for dinner. Or the ravages of a UK seaside  where we had to hide from the wind whipping the sand against our skin. Just so we could say we had made a sandcastle. Backpacking on ferries hoping the bus runs on Sundays else it's a long walk to the hostel. All holidays from different stages of life with none to be repeated.

Staying in the here and now can be a drag. I tried sitting in the sun but lasted less than 10 minutes. Without a pool or sea breeze to cool down in it was uncomfortable. Also washing needed hanging and the beans picking. But home is comfy. Dressed in slob clothes, windows open to catch a breeze, pile of books to read and to be written and some days we can have just to ourselves.

Maybe we'll head of to London, where I'm from, for a few days. When this heat has gone. Tried to describe the hell of tube travel in this heat to 'poor son'. Seems a more suitable place for a teen and have oyster card will travel. He should learn about it as he seems headed that way one day. No fields and mountains for me but my time will come. Could truck on down to Brighton, my other homeland. Would get my sight of the sea at least. x

Top up

Morning.

My weekend top up shopping list is:
Milk
Lager
Flea treatment.

All bases covered I reckon.x

Scraps

Evening.

Aldi are selling slug tape at only 2.49 ish. Much cheaper than it was at the beginning of summer so have bought some for next year. No idea if it works though as I favoured the cheaper 'torch at midnight hunt for snails and slugs'. Could almost hear them crunching away some nights. It worked though as everything survived, although it's been so much dryer this year. Beginners luck.

 Look...

 

Daddy courgette, mummy courgette and baby courgette.

 

Perspective on a photo not great but baby is quite big and mummy and daddy resemble marrows. Will have to eat the bloody things now. Well baby did get chopped in half for dinner but most of him is languishing in the roasting tin. Courgette overload now for real.

 

 

Dessert was odd tonight had forgotten to serve the French beans and was so dismayed to waste stuff I have grown 'poor son' grabbed the pan and ate his way through them while I had a few in an ice cream bowl.

 

 

Last scrap.

Just watched a documentary on beeb 2 Penguin Post Office. Brilliant and recommend it....if you like penguins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04bzsjs/natural-world-20142015-7-penguin-post-office

superb documentary.

 

Night x

Cage me in

Once a week for a few hours I do voluntary data inputting. It's a way of having current IT work on my CV and also my 'boss' will be an up to date referee. It's in a very stuffy room with no windows and one fan that cannot turn due to blowing all the papers around. I sit there knowing I don't need to be there and boy do I have to make myself stay. It's very boring work and repetitive but a means to an end. I think it's helpful to get used to an office environment again as I only realised today I have not worked in an office since 1992. Before nursing and home ed/carer I worked with visually impaired people in a uni. It's a long time and I feel like a free range chicken getting herself ready to be a battery hen again.

On the up:
I have made £25 from a magazine for one of my 'top tips' - no idea which one- which top tip I know which mag.
And I have made my first risotto that did not crunch.

Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday and people joining me. I daren't list like some people do as I am never sure was here before but it is very much appreciated. x

Lovely distraction

Hello.
I'm a real newbie to writing blogs but have been reading them for over a year now. And I love them. I sit and log on to find out the next chapters in peoples lives. Be it a house move, a nosey in the cupboards or a sadness they share I read away and share joys and pain. I worry if they have not blogged for a few days and hope everything is ok.  I have learnt a lot about so much and now have a wide range of blogs to read. I have not joined all the ones I read yet as the list increases and my pile of library books is gathering dust.
Last night I sat to blog but got distracted by other blogs. I'm a sucker for the lists of blogs that people read and also the comments. Then I click on the people that comment if they have a blog. So it goes on till I have a whole line of tabs open. Like a million diaries to read and I seem to be trying to read through them all.
My own blog has no identity yet. A scrapbook rather than a defined theme. But maybe that is my life at the moment. I am without definition at the moment. I used to be a carer, I used to be a home schooler, I used to be a nurse. But what am I now?
This is not a sad post, I'm not sad. How could I be when I have so much. I have my health, love from my son, family and friends, a mad dog that adores me, a home and I have potential to do something now. It's the confusion of knowing where to go next. In the panic to earn and the chase of paid employment the potential can be left behind.
Confidence is the key. In myself and talents I may have. I doubt that this blog will entertain and yet I still keep going as hopefully it will bring clarity. Also though it's like being in a great big friendly gang. So thanks bloggers.

Sewing help

Hello.

Have noticed that some very talented people read my blog. Can I ask for some advice please?

 

I would like to make the top an open top. Will it work to cut down the middle and hem the sides. It is half cotton and half polyester. Only £2 in sale so doesn't matter if I wreck it. Just wondered if it would hang funny.

 

The brown skirt is my fave but I never wear skirts these days. I have attempted to follow a you tube video to turn it into wide leg trousers or palazzos. But could not follow what she was doing. It is made from silk.

 

 

Does anyone have any advice or know a good place for some? My skills are basic - can hem, invisible mend a bit, put buttons on. So real basic, am just replacing some elastic in some trousers to try and get a bit more use. Am very proud with that so that shows you my level. I do have a sewing machine but we don't get on so I tend to hand sew.

Any advice is great even if its a good book.

Thanks.



Fisherman's Friend and Flash Floods

Cooking is not my forte but I struggle on and try as I like to know what ingredients I am eating, I also like to be able to pronounce them. So many convenience foods have chemical sounding things in them. Same with dog food. I source the good stuff and proudly serve it up to the gremlin. She then looks at me and lays down next to her bowl with a sigh. Most times 'poor son' attempts to tuck in, in fact sometimes he actually enjoys it. I appreciate how he always tries it and have now twigged sometimes he lies to please me. So now he says it was lovely but he doesn't think he'd like it again for a while - oh the tact.
But place cheap rubbish in front of them and the joy is evident. Cheap Asda dog food is barely chewed its that popular - just gremlin on that one mind. And the  Aldi fisherman's pie(not friend as I keep calling it) is treated as a gift. Dinner in quarter of an hour, now that's my sort of cooking.


It rained and rained and then it rained a little bit more today. We had to pile out the old towels and sheets against the back door. There's a bit of design issue out back and the water does not drain away and tends to seep over the back door. We've been on red alert as the larder (old coal shed) is in the firing line. I popped out to try and sweep some down the drain and have tried catching some in tubs. I hoped it may help. So far its just a trickle now and the sun is shining. Certainly woke me up.

spot the snails-rescued and released now.

 

Hope all well with everyone in this eventful weather.

 

Highly illegal

Evening.
I've been looking after my friends children today. They are home educated like 'poor son' was. Being out and about with them reminded me of the two main questions I was asked when people discovered we did home ed.
'Is it legal?'
The times I wanted to reply 'Sssshhhh no but don't tell anyone.'
As if I would tell perfect strangers about it if it was illegal. Still grin at that one.
The other
'How can you bear to have him at home all day? 'or 'I couldn't have them at home all day'
Sad eh?  Never said much to that one. Often as a home ed person I encountered people that seemed to think it was a slur on their choices of school. Not at all it just worked well for us. He's at school now and loving it. Home ed was an absolute blast and then equally it was lovely to stop being the teacher and be mum on the school run - did miss him though ha. I feel we've had the best of both worlds.

Hope everyone is coping in the heat. My morning dog walk was in a thunder storm and we were drenched. My evening one was a paddle in the brook and we were drenched. x

Waiting in the heat.

It's been a funny ol week - funny in my head sort of funny. Having just gone from a busy timetabled regime we have had a few weeks of not much and it was great really. Exams, courses, schooling all over for both of us. I concentrated on my growing(plants not myself) and writing and worked up to writing this blog.

Then all of a sudden this week I'm just waiting around.

Waiting for words to come into my head. It's like they are swimming around in there but the minute I pick up a pen they hide away. Maybe it is all to do with discipline and motivation. I made myself complete a job application this morning - quite an involved one that wanted to know so much with the same info being repeated under different headings. Bigging myself up on forms is not my cup of tea. I know also that I need to get some stories out there and experiment with a few factual articles. And that's when the words hide.

Waiting for the plants. The deluge of peas is over, the toms are slowly growing, the beans are ok and the courgettes are waning(thank goodness). Am letting two just grow and grow out of interest. There's not much to pick now and I miss it.

This slump needs to stop as I need to earn. And this in itself creates a barrier. Almost like a panic.

I need to stop mooning about and get on and just do what needs doing. Not moaning as I appreciate just what I have. I'm just trying to focus and this seems to be my place to do it. My motivational trick....looking at crofts on Right Move - whatever works I guess.

And this heat is not helping, strewth it's hot. Last night I did a dog walk in the rain then picked that evening's beans in the rain and it was lovely. So cold Tried a bit of deforestation in the garden today but it was just too hot. Perfect drying weather tho on the bright side.

Take my chair....please

For two days I have been ringing the council to book for them to collect a big armchair. I even got up extra early to get in first but did not work. I can hum the hold music I know it so well and was doing earlier when breaking for some lunch.
Get in before they shut then and finally at 4.45 today a human voice not a robot spoke to me. Trouble was it made me jump and I nearly cut the call off. Hit the correct button and spoke to him. No he had no idea why it was so hard to contact his department and yes I could have it collected.....at the end of August.
'You're kidding?'
But no he was deadly serious.
I remembered my brother was coming to visit in a few weeks and he has a white van. This cheered up the council man immensely who told me all about the permit he could send me for free. I just needed to give the registration number of the van.
Silence. I have no idea and knew what was coming next.
'Ring back with it' he suggested.
'Noooooooooooooooooooo! Don't make me' I suggested back.

Am now trying to figure out if I know someone with a chainsaw.

Could have been my tip top moment.

I followed the instructions:

1. Place knobbly end of romaine lettuce in water
2. Wait.

Ok so far so good

Cut some up with my dinner and the result was .... disgusting. I like a bit of peppery oomph in leaves but this was so wrong. An awful taste where instinct took over and it was despatched. Was it me or was it the lettuce?

Frugal Ethics.

Hello and thanks for following me.

Ideally I would buy fairtrade, organic, free range, chemical free and cruelty free. Reality is so different these days, especially as the income decreases.

The two I try hard to stick to are cruelty free and free range although with a bit of chemical free thrown is as well. The co-op own brands are superb; cheap and with the bunny logo. Sainsburys and Superdrug are not too bad although they are not totally bunny logo'd up yet. M and S are good but I have to avoid them as the food dept is my biggest downfall. But they are superb in all ranges and surprisingly the cost is reasonable.

To be chemical free and still afford to eat can be a struggle but looking to ideas from my nan's era give great ideas. Would not be without my vat of bicarb of soda these days. I did try the shampoo and conditioner free idea. Not my finest hour as the natural yoghurt curdled in my curls. So have compromised...don't wash my hair, not really but have reduced amount used. Dr Bronner's castile soap is a beauty but boy does it strip coloured hair. Am on a grey refusal trip at the moment. But it makes a great cleaner for everything. And of course good old coconut oil that I first bought to cook with but is now my conditioner and moisturiser (but ssssh lets not tell anyone as every time something gets popular the price increases - I remember when pomegranates were not a luxury).

I was vegetarian and can be most days quite happily but 'poor son' is a right little meat eater. So I try to stick to animals that have had some semblance of the life they are entitled to. We spent a summer in the countryside a few years ago, near dairy and meat farms. That was the closest I have come to being veggie again. Seeing and hearing them made me really connect and the guilt intensified. Goodness knows I want to give up milk but I love the stuff. Chilled skimmed milk is my drink of choice.

A local butcher sells locally produced free range pork at a great price. The bacon is the same size cooked as uncooked. I guess it's not pumped full of water. Also the free range chicken is good. Mostly it's not much dearer than the supermarket, apart from their real super duper low priced stuff that seems to taste of nothing and is purely from intensive farmed animals.

So that is why a lot of my time is taken up with trying to maintain my frugal ethics. I stare enviously at people filling their trolleys in one shop and not stopping themselves from picking up the pretty pork skewer kebabs, that I really like the look off. I pick up the packs of meat and then remember the trucks of tightly packed cattle I packed that week. Did I mention I live near to a cattle market!! I try and picture the fields of free range pigs that get to snuffle in the dirt. Happy pig meat we always called it. Then I put the pack of meat back, sigh and try and figure out when I am next passing the butchers I use. Then go find the quorn range and wonder if I will ever be able to stomach it.

Thanks for reading x

Boogie night

Saturday night. Clubbing, boozing, dancing....nah. Just downloaded Gardeners World as it's all about container gardening. Might even have a bit of cheese on toast after watching it.

Here's one I wrote earlier

At the end of last month the Nursing Times website (popular nursing magazine) put up a few words I wrote. My intention to make anyone who works on a ward to stop and think next time they encounter a patient who also suffers from dementia.
May I share the words with you, rather than link to it as you sometimes need to register to read it in full.

My mother, Rachel, was admitted, via a clinic to a liver ward. She had pain free jaundice due to an obstruction. She was also suffering with medium stage Alzheimer’s. She presented well and could communicate, laugh, joke and had no behavioural problems sometimes associated with my mother’s level of dementia. However she was also likely to forget any conversation, not be able to find the toilet, not remember where she was or why she was there. She would also be very scared and bewildered, bored and fed up.  Rachel a lifelong voracious reader could no longer process the words in a book and no longer had the concentration to watch a TV programme.

I was formerly a nurse then full time carer of my mum, as well as a single parent. By being on the ward I could sit with her, reassure her, wash and dress her, sit in on conversations with medical staff and then explain it all to her as many times as she needed. My face was truly the only one she could recognise anymore and just my presence reassured her as she trusted in me totally.

Decisions were a hard one for Rachel. Choice of a sandwich or which colour lipstick to put on could be too much for her. She needed the decision being made for her but at the same time not taking her control away. Patience was always needed as any sign of impatience seemed to shut her down and rendered her unable to cope.
We were lucky in that the ward soon realised how helpful having me there was and the hostility and confusion of staff soon dissipated. I realise not all carers can be there though and often can use a hospitalisation to rest up a little. My family relieved me at visiting hours so I could go home and check out the rest of my family. We lived like this for a full week until a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was given. Then we were given a side room and all family could come and go as needed. This enabled us to set up a 24 hour vigil of family carers so she never had to be alone again.
The conclusion was that by the flexibility given the hospital admission was not as stressful for my mother as it could have been. Patience and flexibility made it a positive experience.
Rachel, my mum died on 11^th March 2013.She had peace and dignity in her last few days thanks to the NHS.

                                                                *******************

I feel it's important to get the word out there using any means possible because it just may help one person for just one hospital visit.

Thanks for reading this.

Hide and seek with the beans

The GYO is going well.

 My clever tomatoes are working away. They are getting quite jungle like and I have to keep separating them from the other plants as like naughty children they are bullying my mange tout and taking over their space. I really should have marked up which are which at seedling stage still I like surprises.

Courgettes plod on - nuff said (have to hide em now else poor son is going to start giving them away...to anyone).

Mange tout are my little stars. Gently and unobtrusively they sit in their pots producing little pods. Found a huge one yesterday that bully tom had hidden and is was like a normal pea pod and beautifully sweet, unlike the flat ones I normally pick. Does that happen? Can I let the others grow like that? Mostly they just seem to get longer so I pick them.

I discovered a cluster of French beans last night. Hidden from view they had reached an Amazonian size. It is the best game of hide and seek ever with my produce and I get to eat the hiders.

Hey bonus I planted some American land cress in a tray with no drainage. Forgot about it and now have lovely peppery leaves although the compost is a green, slimey, shiny mess.


PS thanks to people who follow me and comment - you make my day x

PPS any idea what these are?

I know that's an apple.

 

The mug, apple and 2 p are my clumsy attempt at size perspective. I call them cherry plums but I think I made it up. But they are yellow with a stone, plum like, kinda bland and make the garden smell like a brewery when they drop and rot.

 

 

Thanks but no thanks.

Never got the phone call today from my latest job interview. So many job descriptions say 'such and such' desirable not essential. Then you get there and they are so flipping essential it turns out. Could have saved me petrol money. Although its all good practice (practise????). For instance I now know to not have such a shocked expression when I am told the hourly rate for the job. Knew I blew it on that occasion, but gosh was it low.
My age doesn't help I think and the gap I had to care and bring up 'poor son' but gosh some of the jobs I've gone for a monkey could do. Obviously not as desirable as a monkey these days. And don't get me started on the attitude to being a single mum. I have returned to an age of sexism and ageism, unless it never actually went away and I've been out of the loop.
I have updated my accounts and IT knowledge and now do voluntary date input and am doing well there they have said, they are aware the work is brain numbing but have said I have shown initiative etc. Even the cv was done by a professional as a favour by a very sweet person.
Could it be that my heart is not in it. Deep down I want to remain my own boss but we desperately need a wage coming in. No job I have interviewed for has excited me but that's ok. Isn't it? I don't think that comes over - I knew the am dram stuff would come in handy.
I know I have skills it's just deciding what to do with them and how.

Oh and to top it all the story I submitted to People's Friend was rejected today. I don't flinch normally but I loved that story and the characters.

Never mind we are in good health, have enough food for the week(ish) and love each other very much. What more could an aged, unemployed, single parent ask for.

Hello
Susie is the name of the gremlin type dog in the header photo and producer of said dog poo. Gremlin as in the bad ones not the cute teddy type one. She is supposedly a jack russell but theres something else in there for sure. Some suggest corgi, others chihuahua and one suggestion of a Lancashire heeler (the colouring is spot on). We have had her for four years now and she seems to get odder each season.

                                                                  hiding in the bed


No jack russells and no small dogs were my only requests as we visited the rescue centres. So we came home with a tiny jack russell.She had half a tail and a persona like Eeyore. Goodness knows what life had thrown at her.

She does have issues, a long list of dislikes and fears that make her tremble. She growls for 50 per cent of the day especially at 'poor son', luckily he chose her and adores her - even when she nips him. She will not tolerate visitors. On a side note we discovered the only room in the house that has a door that will actually shut is one of the bedrooms (took us ten years to discover this so we must do a lot of open plan living) -she's imprisoned in there when small children are involved in the visit, we let adults take their chances.

She's about a foot high and protects me from the postman and the dog that sneaks into our garden. She has sat and mourned with me, twice. Once when my mum had to go into a care home for long term respite while I staved off a nervous breakdown. Then a second time when the tiny lap that she had snuggled on for many a peaceful nap had had enough of fighting illness and left us.

I've not even started on the escapology. To date:
one lead (snapped in half when she saw a cat)
two collars slipped out of regularly
two harnesses eased herself out of
one tiny gap in the fence(in her slim youthful days)

                                                              it's my lolly stick now

Seized Up

Last night for about one dreadful hour I could not text. Messaging would not work. It was frozen. Did I have a really important message to give or receive? Did I heck. And yet I was in a foul mood (or fowl as I first put). 'Poor son' tried all he could; uninstalling apps, killing them, and I was on forums. Clear the cache (no idea) he said or back to the old Nokia brick.

But wait, what did he mean I would lose all the levels I had gained on Angry Birds. I could put up with that I suppose. But Coin Dozer, all my prizes would disappear. It's a free app game thingy and its like the coin falls games in the arcades from years ago. the coins and prizes drop and you feed them right back in for more virtual prizes. I love it. I have not gone so far as to spend real money for virtual dozer dollars and coins. Although once I did watch an long advert online in return for free coins, Very sad but o you should see the prizes I gained that day. I am a fool.

Back to the seized up phone. I had an idea that often works with the TV remote. I took the battery out and gave it a little warm up then popped in back in. It worked. The phone is souped up and ready to go, just waiting to actually need to send a message now.


The smart phones we have were from my first swap. First swap and first smart phone. A bike that was outgrown but in lovely condition for 2 outdated but newer that what we had phones. It felt great. Bartering or swapping. What a system. I remember in the Faith Addis books something about a bartering scheme amongst the smallholders of the area. Does this happen? I think it was for jobs and skills as well as things. I could live like that for sure. Good way of getting rid of gluts maybe....courgette anyone?

Hello.
So exciting to have followers and comments, thanks to you all. must stop checking every 10 minutes though.

O lor the courgette pizzas were awful. I made 4 we ate 1 and I froze 3 for later (never). Then we had fish fingers. It was the garlic. I have a garlic squidger press thing and used that for the first time - it was a bit addictive and 5 segments later I finally stopped. The taste and the smell was unreal. It still smells of garlic in the kitchen. In fact if I save the pizzas for when I'm poorly and my taste disappears again I won't have wasted them. I promised my son he didn't have to eat them again....ever. Wouldn't mind he peeled the courgettes off.
Gave the latest batch of courgettes away. But the new load is on the way.

Also, I have my first tomato. Its about 2 millimetres big and a perfect shade of green. Beautiful. So proud. Keep telling them to push harder as I love tomatoes.

Don't raw mange tout taste so green!

I'm not a natural in the kitchen. I texted a friend to ask how to whip cream last week. Once she stopped laughing she texted instructions. Now I could plead I have a lactose intolerant child so cream has never really featured in our lives. Turned out I had bought something called Elmlea that isn't even cream. My favourite cookbook is called 'How to boil an egg', this might explain a lot. I do cook all the time now and have done for years although we do still get personal pizza menus delivered and have a lovely calendar delivered each year from the Chinese takeaway. When I lived and worked in London I had every fast food place within easy reach. My journey from tube station to front door passed so many...it was fantastic....sorry, so bad. Having a child was my turning point, no more bowls of Frosties and a token apple for dinner. Annabel Karmel became my saviour.
No money for takeaways at the moment. Roll on employment. Except I have the frugal bug and the growing green things bug. So may have buggered that up haaa.

Thanks for reading

Anything to eat today...so long as it's courgettes.

Nothing like picking the veg that still feels warm from the morning sun,if I lived in the med. So nothing like picking tepid veg that is drenched from all the rain. Still getting a kick out if it though. The main things growing are the courgettes and mange tout. Courgettes do take over a bit don't they. I wasn't expecting them to be so successful.  Underneath all those courgettes is the garden bench.

We'll learn to love them I'm sure. Maybe courgette pizza tonight as I can hide them under the cheese. Not forgetting the steamed mange tout...again.
I do hope the tomatoes work. There's been lots of yellow flowers for quite a while now.

I think it's quite telling that I cannot decide on a description for this blog. It's the mish mash of my head. Not a frugal site as so many do it better. Home education - nope because we don't now. Crafts - still learning crochet after trying off and on for 10 years - not a natural then!! Maybe it will become apparent as I ramble on. I'll probably post about being a carer at some point because that had huge impact on my life. I currently have a piece on the Nursing Times website about people with Alzheimers on a regular hospital ward. That is something I would like to delve into further - but not here. For now it's nice just to be a part of this and to not worry about hitting the right word count,

Hello.
Back for another try. I do love it when blogs give a good overview of the person writing the entries, maybe I'm nosey but I just love knowing how people live.
I started reading blogs when out of necessity I needed to live very frugally. It became a bit of a challenge and I found the blogs were great support and incentive. Bloggers become like your friends and you listen, learn and look forward to the next post.
I was a carer for years as well as a single mum also home educator. So things were very busy. Then my son went to school and last year my lovely mum got very poorly and died. After the sheer worry and responsibility of caring for someone who was very ill, she also had Alzheimers, the worry of no work or income honestly hardly touched the sides. Of course I am looking for work now having retrained but there's always someone who pips me to the post due to experience. I keep looking at other things to earn but nothing has quite worked yet.
I used to be a nurse but am now looking for office work. This does not thrill me but the thought of what the money may provide eventually does. I would like a smallholding eventually you see. Just a piece of land, the house bit's not quite so important; luckily I love caravans. I want an orchard with hens and ducks roaming free. Maybe a sheep or two, even a goat. And big patches of lavender and mint. So not too much then...
I keep trying my hand at writing to hopefully earn a bit because I have a head full of characters and stories but nothing too concrete has come from that, just a couple of things. After the sadness comes hope though.
The good side of having no money is living simply and I cannot imagine going back even when I do earn. I'm slowly learning to grow my own veg. I have managed a few broad beans, plenty of courgettes (gosh they really grow) and mange tout. Am now waiting with baited breath for the tomatoes and French beans. Hope it all works as I'm a tomato snob. I love British toms, the organic sweet ones and as I could not afford to buy them I decided to grow them. It's all in containers at the minute as we may move eventually. My mum and I shared a house so she had a bedroom, the bedroom is now empty and the government has deemed it necessary to charge me for that room. Even though I saved em a fortune in schooling and caring costs ha. O well. Yeah the bedroom tax is a bit unfair. Its emotionally hard to move on, I've not even managed to sort out the clothes yet. Not a hoarder just its the final thing and for some reason the hardest.
Sorry rambling intro but a pleasure to meet you all.

Hello.
This is odd but beats talking to the wall or my tomato plants. Really think I should be reading the 'help' or 'how to' section. Guess I'll use this as a tester and see what happens. Learn as I go. The blogs I read have such a good look wonder if I'll ever figure out how they do it.

Well so far have added some of my favourite blogs to my profile and a photo of my dog. This is getting very exciting. Tried the help pages...no idea at all. Thought it might be a bit like the web designing I have done but so far is much more confusing. Will get the nerve to add a little about myself soon.