Little kindness

I struggle with scented cleaning products.   I like the idea of scent, but the reality is often not good.  Sometimes they sort of smell OK, but my breathing system has other ideas;  sometimes  they don't set me wheezing, but I don't like the smell;  occasionally, my breathing is OK and the smell is tolerable;  rarely, I find something where I actuallyy like the smell.  Mainly, I use an unscented cleaner, but the manufacturer has stopped doing it.

A while ago I picked up a bottle of Method diluteable cleaner, a scent called Bing Cherry.   This was in the rarity category.  It is quite a strong smell, so I don't use it exclusively.   I was running low, so I looked to find it.   I couldn't.

I realised that it was a scent that Method had brought out for a while and then stopped doing.     I searched high and low for it, and was shocked at the price it was selling at on Ebay and Amazon.   I found it apparently in stock for collection only at a nearby B&Q.

 I was a little surprised.  Most of the B&Qs didn't have stock, so I suspected it was an error.  I ordered a few bottles anyway.     I received a call from a lovely lady, D,  who apologised but there was a stock error, and they didn't have any,  was it OK if she refunded me.    I was fine about,  thanked her for letting me know.   The phone call was an unexpected kindness. 

I decided to buy some of the price gouging ones from Amazon.  I had it them in my basket, and I was looking for something else.  I got distracted, and didn't check out.

This morning,  I was looking to see if there was anything else I wanted, when I got a phone call from a fairly local number.   It was the lady from B&Q, D.

She was phoning to let me know that she had found some!

I said I'd log in and buy them immediately, while she was on the phone.  The B&Q website wasn't having it though, it now thought they were out of stock.    D asked me if I'd be collecting today. If so, she'd put them to one side and I could collect them and then just pay at the till.   I said I'd be straight there!

That was so much more than just good customer service,  that was real kindness.  Good customer service was phoning me to let me know they were out of stock.      Kindness was thinking to phone me back the next day  when she found them to see if I still wanted them.

 

 

Bin busy

At last, after several months of nothing,  a 60cm unit came up for sale. Brand new, still in packaging.  I bought it and we agreed that it would be used for our new bin unit (another FB marketplace bargain, it's been sitting in the summerhouse for months!).

For the last few months we have had a 500 wide pullout, which had two tall bins in.  We'd put a small bin nestling in the top of one of them, for food waste.  The bin system and its cabinet came with our slightly preloved kitchen purchase.  They've worked well,  much better than we expected.  We weren't sure about having them and probably wouldn't have gone out of our way to do so. if they hadn't already bin there. Although they were expensive, they were a bit temperamental.  In the end, I decided to look for something even better, that would also manage the food waste more neatly   

The purchased unit had several drawers in. all on Blum runners.   We've removed those and stored them , they will be useful in a later phase.  DH installed the new bin pullout, and we were quite surprised at how much better they are than the previous one. 

We don't have a front for the unit.  My plan was that DH, who can do anything,  would combine two drawer fronts together so as not to spoil the line of the units.  I naively thought it would just be a case of putting a couple of plates on the drawer fronts to make them into one solid front.    It turns out that isn't the case, the fixing for the bin pullout was not in a great place for this.  Wwe considered just leaving the front off for now. and actually I didn't mind that at all.

DH pondered over the challenge, and decided he wanted to do a trial run of making a false front.  I think me reminding him that I was looking at false fronts wherever I had a cupboard door was a factor,    We had some white drawer fronts  from a bargain purchase of several drawers.   At the time, they were the right width (slightly too tall) for one of our cabinets, soo DH took the best drawer fronts and reduced the height.  The remaining drawers were binned,   but we decided to keep the fronts in case we needed something termporary in future,

Two of those drawer fronts were reduced in width (which cut off the damage) and DH used them to create a new slid front.  He also fashioned some metal brackets to attach them to the bin unit pullout,  and it worked really well!   

We'll replace them  as and when I manage to get the correct fronts, but that may be some time.

 

 

 

 

Learning

We did the next bit of the kitchen this week, and it was an interesting learning exercise.  Once again I am glad that we decided to do a trial!

Some months ago, I bought a preloved length of granite with a cut out which was almost perfect for the undermount sink I had chosen.   We had agreed that we'd put this worktop in as a temporary exercise so we could test out granite, and the sink, and everything, before committing to new worktops.

I bought the sink and the new water softener a few weeks ago, and we've been waiting for my plumber cousin to have time to come and fit it all for us.   

That all happened at short notice last week.

All the existing sink plumbing, which had mushroomed over the years, was replaced.  New water softener installed in a cupboard away from the sink (a FB Marketplace bargain cupboard,  brand new, gorgeous, has a sliding shelf).    The existing dishwasher and water filter was plumbed in, and the new sink unit was installed an the sink plumbed in.    It's a drawer unit, so it provided a bit of a challenge.

The sink is enormous, the opening is about 73cm or so, and is divided 1/3 -2/3rds.  We had a brief discussion abut which way round it should go, and we went with DH's preferred option which was small sink to the left. His logic was sound , the draining board is on the right .  I didn't mind,  if it turns out to be "wrong" then we can fix it when we do the worktops properly.   We also had to make snap decisions on where to put the tap and the spray, and again I wasn't too fussed.    We re-used our existing taps, which are 25? years old now.

By Thursday night DH confirmed that he was happy that a second dishwasher would fit  and  I ordered a mid range Miele (having had a less than great experience with not one but two top of the range Mieles before).  DH isn't really keen on the idea of a second dishwasher, but he could see that I was determined. I got a Miele as he said he preferred the baskets in our old Mieles (vs the Bosch we have now).  I thought it might make him a bit happier about it all. 

 It arrived today, fab service from Costco, and is now installed. 

The refit of the other bits took a couple of days, and we had to wait 24 hours for the sealant to dry before using it. sealant on the sink was put on yesterday, so we've not been able to use the sink until today, and it's interesting.   

Update: We've had it in and useable for a few days now, and my initial thoughts are:
    (a)  Having an undermount sink is lovely
    (b) I might end up putting the sink in the utility room or the downstairs bathroom (when we build it) (the sink is big enough to bath a dog); 
    (c) the tap position isn't ideal, it's too far back (it could only come forward a small amount (or the sink should go back a bit, I guess), but   there isn't much leeway.  I don't really want to go for a different tap;  
    (d) I should have thought more about where the spray hole was going; 
    (e) I might have been hasty in getting rid of the pop up plugs, despite the problems they cause ~
    (f) Any idea I had of being able to have one of those clever basket-round-sink things for the top drawer has gone right out of the window, and I need to see if my desire for that outweighs my desire for a big sink
    (g) DH. lovely man that he is, is looking at various Heath Robinson ideas to see if he can come up with something rather than just giving in and fixing the top drawer fascia on so it is immovable. 
    (h) my dislike of draining grooves in a worktop is NOT going to go away;     
    (i) DH was right when he said the bottom of the sink was a long way down
    (j) the second dishwasher was a good idea 
    (k) we need a system so we know which dishwasher we should be loading
    (l) I need to work out what to do with the handtowel.  I've got some ideas, but I need a bit of time on my own to try it out
    (m) I had no idea until today how much easier it is to have the dishwasher controls on the inside top of the dishwasher door.  This had seemed like a stoopid idea when we first got the Bosch dishwasher;  I found myself wishing for it when I was grovelling on the floor trying to see the darkened touch screen  on the new one.  I may have sworn a bit
    (n) thank goodness we did this as a test-install before committing to getting worktops done.  We have that opportunity to fix anything.

We're still discussing what to do about fitting the top drawer panel.  When we realised there wasn't going to be room for one of those basket arrangements,  I agreed that we would have it as a dummy panel.  However, there is a very small space to the right, and I can see that being useful for things like bottle brushes.
 

We're still considering options (something else came up which required attentiom).  We'll see what happens.,

 

 

 

Poppylicious

Poppy and Gloria, after the fox

My gorgeous, gorgeous Poppy died yesterday.  She was 13 years and 4 months old.

 She arrived as a fertilised egg from Castle Farm, and was a Welsh Black which is an Indian Game x Australorp cross.  She had the best characteristics from both breeds, including a stunning sheen on her soft inky blank feathers,  high intelligence, and a calm nature. 

 

In 1992 we had a hugely successful hatch of a number of breeds.   Poppy She was one of 8 females hatched from 12 Welsh Black eggs, the others were boys.    The lines from Castle Farm were super strong and resilient, and many of the girls lived to an excellent age (several of them over 10)

Poppy reached the oldest age we've ever had, and we've been so very lucky.

Poppy & the pre-fox girls

Poppy was such a bright and clever hen.  As a youngster, I took her and my beautiful exchequer leghorn Lotti Borlotti, to Miss Teen's school. She was very well handled at that age, and put up with it (although  she didn't seek it out).   

She was the sole survivor of a fox attack when she was 3? years old.   We brought one of her sisters, Gloria (who also lived to a great age),  back from the allotment to keep her company. 

 

She was a G'zunder.  Her preferred method of escaping from the netted area was to go under the netting (compared to, say, Fay's flying over the top).  If she was out, we had to walk along the fencing, looking for the tiniest of unpegged gaps.

She started slowing down a couple of years ago.  I'd been making sure to seek her out to give her treats for a couple of years now, I think, and I've been surprised for the last 2 winters that she's survived the moult and the spring.

It's been the last 6 months that/'s she slowed even further, and  I'd been fully expecting her to go for all that time.  She had lost a lot of weight, but was still alert and interested, eating well.    During this time I'd got into the habit of sectioning her off in the evening, so she could have her own private supply of food a and treats before bed, without having the others come and steal it. 

For the last month or so, I've also been giving her some additional protein each morning, hand feeding her live mealworms, or a boiled egg boiled specifically for her, or some rinsed tuna, or whatever.   She always eats well, and seeks out the food if I put it on the ground.

For the last couple of weeks, she's taken a bit longer to eat, stopping for a break part way through.  At treat time, whenever that was, she learned not to run after food that I'd thrown for the others, as I always kept some in my had to offer her while the others were otherwise engaged.

I've known that her death was imminent. and each day that she was there was a lovely surprise,.  

Yesterday when I went in to the run first thing, I found her lying on her side  the floor.  I thought she'd had a stroke, or maybe fallen off the ladder and broken her leg.  I gave her some mealworms (they provide hydration as well as protein), which she ate with gusto.  That gave me hope, and I then picked her up carefully and foundn that she hadn't damaged anything. I imagine she fell - or was knocked - over, and was just unable to get up.  

I stood her upright, put a bowl of live mealworms down and a lettuce next to it, and shut the gate into that section of the run so she could get herself sorted in peace.  

 A bit later on, she had had walked to the closed gate  so I went and opened it and let her outside.    I thought about bringing her inside, but I realised that this might be the end, and I didn't want her last day to be any more stressful than it needed to be. She walked down the garden path to the pampas, and sat with the others.  They spent all day in that area, and there was always someone at her side. 

In the evening, they all went into the run, and the others went to bed.  She couldn't climb the ladder, so I picked her up and popped her gently in the coop.  

This morning, worried about her getting knocked over in the door dash,   I got up before the auto opener activated.  I opened up the back of the coop to avoid a mad crush, and I saw immediately that she'd died.

I'd known it was coming, of course, but it was still a horrible shock. I'd begun to think she was going to live forever. 

I'm relieved that she went quickly, without us having to intervene.  I'm happy that she was eating her favourite foods yesterday and she that she spent her last day in her favourite place with her friends and frenemies around her.   

I am full of sadness and loss.  Mostly, it's the loss of my lovely, lovely girl.  But it's also the end of a chapter, and it's brought many memories flooding back:  

 Those 8 Welsh Black Girls were part of the largest hatch we'd ever done, and we were lucky to be blessed with many many girls that year.  Poppy was the one that I chose to live here in the garden, the other 7 went to the Allotment and we had many subsequent hatches from them all. 

... the memory of the horror of the fox attack,  which was even more vivid today as I was looking for photos of Poppy in her youth.   

....I've been thinking about Poppy's sisters,  the Allotmenteers,  and what a huge part of our life that all was, and the other Welsh Black ladies and their offspring.    They were amazing birds, and I am immensely grateful to David from Castle Farm and the skill and dedication he had in producing such hardy and sturdy birds, and such fantastic fertilised eggs.

I'm so very lucky to have had Poppy.

A 

 

 

 

 

 

A year in a month

Where does the time go?

 

 It's been a busy-not-busy few weeks.  We've been trying to go out a bit more, which requires a lot of effort as we are both home bodies.  We haven't been out together as a couple for months (February I think. and even that wasn't really a couples going out thing) and we've ended up doing a year's worth of going out in the space of a month or so.

 We went to see the Gerry Anderson memorabilia exhibition at the Brands museum in London.   It was exactly as advertised, but not what DH and I expected.  Our fault entirely, not theirs.

 We took  the opportunity to look round the museum, of course.  I very much liked the display of products that related to my childhood, and it reminded me of the jigsaw puzzles I've done which do the same thing.

 When I got home, I finally managed to clear the dining room table again, and I sat down and did a confectionery version of the puzzle.  It took a few hours, I didn't look at the picture,  and I loved doing  it.

 I've since taken it to my Mum's, and we did some of it together.  We didn't get time to finish it, so it's on a jigsaw board under one of the sofas, so she can finish it when she fancies (or we can finish it next time).

 We took a new version of the RNIB scrabble to my Mum's a few weeks ago.  It's fantastic.  The pieces are large,  the board has little things in which keep the tiles in place,  and the board rotates.  The tile holders are also excellent, much better than the original versions.

We've played a game with Mum each time we've visited since, and she's played it with one of her friends as well.

I liked it so much, I bought a version for us as well, and I bought it from the RNIB shop so that they'd benefit too. 

In other news: 

The kitchen has ground to a halt.  I've got the new sink and the new water softener waiting to go, along with the new unit they are going in to.   I've not ordered the 2nd dishwasher as DH wants to see how it all fits together before I buy one.  I was hoping it would all have been bedded in a couple of weeks ago, so I could order the dishwasher now, but I'm, having trouble getting a fitting date from the lovely chap who is going to do the plumbing.

I finally got DH to the kitchen showroom to look at the wall units I had been considering.   Not sure what we are going to do now, as he had some valid concerns about them.    Fortunately, we've got a lot to do before we need to make a decision on those,  so I'll mull over what to do. 

We've made a small step forward on the downstairs bathroom/lift plans,  and that too has taken longer than we'd anticipated.  Illness was the cause of the delay, so can't be helped.

On my medical "kitchen sink" journey,  I've had a bit of a hiccup.   I got out of the habit of taking the amino acid supplements. I'd started to substitute a protein powder / collagen drink in place of the tablets every so often.  And then, I'd sort of not been doing either.   I wasn't convinced that the amino acids were doing much, they hadn't seemed to make a difference to my thyroid numbers. 

But then I had a bit of a health "crash". That's an exaggeration.  A bump in the road, perhaps.   I had a few weeks where I was feeling somewhat crap.  Eventually, it occurred to me that effectively stopping the amino acid tablets might have contributed to the backsliding, and so I restarted taking them.  Well,  I restarted taking 2 out of the 3 I'm meant to take.  Symptoms have decreased,  so maybe they are doing something after all.

I'm having a blood draw next week so I can see what things look like now that I have been taking a folate supplement for a few months.  I can then make a decision on what to do next.

And on the chicken front:

All is carrying on.   The Girls are still moulting, still looking very uncomfortable and still squabbling.

Poppy is still here, which is a minor miracle.   I'm now hand feeding her something full of protein (like mealworms) twice a day.  The others also get some of what Poppy has, but Poppy gets to have hers on her own.   She's started escaping from the walk in run and coming down to the kitchen.   I don't mind,  she's not going to be here much longer so she can do whatever makes her happy.

She's still eating,  still getting up in the morning,  still enjoying the sunshine. I'm hoping that she'll go quickly and quietly.  If she stops being interested in food, or starts showing signs of being in pain (it has to be very bad for them to let the weakness show), then DH will step in. 

We've replaced the rear tarp on the run. We've started to make preparations for Flockdown, and already have a foot bath tray with Defra (or Apha, or whatever they are now called) approved disinfectant in.   

 In the Garden:
The medlars have been sitting on trays in the guest bedroom, and we've been freeing them as soon as they have bletted.  We have many kilos in the freezer, and I'm looking forward to making yet more Medlar pies.    I asked DH to freeze some unbletted ones as well, as I need some unbletted ones in with the bletted ones when making jam.    DH did as I asked, although he  bagged the unbletted ones in the same bags as the bletted ones, so that may be a bit of a challenge to sort out.

We hadn't quite finished harvesting when the parakeets arrived and destroyed the remaining fruits.  They peck each fruit, seemingly only once, ruining it.  The squirrels stole some of the damaged fruits, but the rest were just lost.

The chillis did well, and DH brought the dehydrator into the kitchen to dry them before slicing and freezing.   We've got plenty to last now.

The tomatoes have been cleared from the greenhouse, and we've stored most of the winter logs in there now.

And back to going out: 

Oh, we went to an immersive Pink Floyd experience the other day.  It was at Cultvr in Cardiff.  The audience sits in vaguely reclining, fairly comfortable, seats under a domed screen.  They then play the album  Dark Side of the Moon while immersing the audience in colourful and interesting graphics.    It was really good,  most enjoyable, and I'd go again - both to Cultvr, and even to do the Pink Floyd thing again.  I don't think I've ever listened to the album non-stop before, it's a bit before my time.

I've  been to see Friends - the Musical Parody, which was a good show. DH opted out of that one, which wasn't a surprise.      We saw the Buddy Holly Story together, which seemed like an odd choice as neither of us are particularly fans.  It was toe tapping though,  as obviously we recognised the songs etc.     And we went together to see the Simon and Garfunkel story, which was very enjoyable as I didn't really know their tale (although I recognised many of the songs.

Sorry to have dumped it all in one post.  I need to do it when I can!