This post also appears on Patreon.
Friday was a busy day.
The morning was taken up with my 3rd dermatology appointment (3 down, 21 to go). This appointment really does take out the entire morning. Although before we went, the poet did squeeze in at least one Teams meeting. When we got back I had my quiet reading hour, although it wasn’t quite an hour, more like 40 minutes. I’m reading a book for review, so it does count. And then it was time for our midday breakfast which was also a bit late.
I managed some of the client edit job in between breakfast and dinner, but then we were off again, this time to the vet’s. Only the spaniel needed to go as the vet wanted to take an ear swab. (Floppy-eared dog.) But the spaniel won’t go anywhere on the lead with just one of us. We all have to go. And by the time we’d all squeezed into the consultation room, it was too crowded and I had to go and sit outside again, once the spaniel had settled, with the puppy.
I had such big plans for when we got back. I still had today’s blog post to write. I had my weekly finances to do. And I had my weekly backup as well. But by the time we got home again, I didn’t have time for any of that. I’d also forgotten to schedule in Patreon time for the Saturday story that only appears on there first. So Friday wasn’t a very successful work day in the end.
I thought I might be able to do some of it at the weekend. The poet went out to get meat from the butcher and a butter dish from Tesco. Tesco isn’t our regular store these days, but we do go there occasionally. Before we did the weekly shop, I wanted to try and get a butter dish as we wanted to switch back from ‘spread’ (not really margarine any more, but you get the picture) to real butter.
While he was out, I prepared that Saturday short story for Patreon and got it posted. But I didn’t have time to write up a blog post from scratch as well or any of the other 2 jobs I missed on Friday. So those were moved to today, with a bit of jiggling around.
His trip was successful and he got back in time for us to have our midday breakfast. But then we were straight out again. We’re gradually leaving the dogs for a little bit longer each time, and this was going to be the longest yet as we were going to the supermarket via the farm shop.
At the farm shop we got ice cream, made on site, ham slices, from the farm, Yorkshire butter, which comes from Wensleydale, and cheese, also made on the farm I think. I think the farm make their own butter too, but they were out of it by the time we got there. We already get our milk from them, and if they do make butter as well, we might get it added to the milk delivery. It’s very local to us, but it would save us a trip if they could deliver it.
We’re probably going to get an ice cream maker, possibly a joint Christmas gift, and probably one that also makes gelato and sorbet. But in the meantime, we’ll try the most local ice cream we can get. But it was VERY expensive.<
We completed the shopping on the way home, but we were about an hour late for our 3pm meal.
On Sunday, we had a bit of time in the garden. While I played with the dogs and then cleaned up after them, the poet raked the leaves off the grass onto the borders and fed the birds. Even that simple job of raking the lawns has made a big difference, and it only took him about 15 minutes. We also did washing and emptied bins.
The poet got the bread maker out and went in search of the instruction booklet as he wanted to add seeds to his next loaf. Now, while I’ve always thought the bread machine is a bit of a cheat, he can make bread (he had a good teacher!), and very well too. But using the machine means he’s free to do other things when he’d normally be mixing and kneading and shaping. So while the bread proved, he started a pork joint off in the slow cooker (crock pot?) and prepped the rest of tea, including mixing the batter for Yorkshire puddings.
While he did that, I made 18 fairy cakes (not cup cakes, they’re like queen cakes, or butterfly cakes without the wings), and an Eve’s pudding, using eating apples that were passed their best but still a bit too good to throw away.
We ate very well on Sunday evening.
Today, it’s back to fitting things in around hospital appointments.
