THE END IS NIGH?

I hope with all my heart that the above statement is true, at least as far as the book and rubbish mountains are concerned. At least by tomorrow I can begin to clean the living room it is a lovely room when it is tidy. My son is off gaming with his friends, down the pub this week because of the mess, next time they play I hope they will be able to come here again.

This morning we had porridge for breakfast some how we all fancied it today, its lovely sprinkled with brown sugar, it also had the virtue of being quick to make as we were all up a little late today. After clearing the kitchen I shot off to Homebase for yet another twenty heavy duty bin bags, goodness knows how many we have used. Next I made some leek and potato soup, our autumn leeks are just ready and we still have our own potatoes , we shall eat this tonight with lots of hot buttered toast followed by a Pavlova filled with fresh cream, wineberries, blueberries, and white chocolate shavings, I fitted a new blackout curtain in my son's room, as he often has to sleep during the day it is important that no light gets in to disturb him, I wish I could fit the bell ringers with a silencer as easily.

We have all decided to have fake fur throws on our beds this winter, I have ordered a huge black Mongolian type for my son. Pa wants a beige mink and I shall have a white mink I hope. Incidentally what kind of animal is a faux and why are people so unconcerned about it's welfare, where are the “SAVE THE FAUX” and the “BAN FAUX HUNTING” banners. Seriously though why do they insist on calling it faux fur, in my young days it was fake fur, I suppose faux sounds more “upmarket” in these aspirational times.....yuk. Actually we all feel that it may be necessary to have these warm covers next winter, these day a you just do not know what is coming next. I lived through the power cuts in the seventies when I was first married and very cold and uncomfortable it was, every night at ten o'clock the power went off and that was that. At home my family cooked our of doors or on an open fire, we had just moved to Coventry and were living in a shared house so such goings on were out of the question. I have no intention of being caught out again, we keep lots of charcoal so that we could if necessary cook indoors in bad weather,and I have a stock of such vintage items as griddles and flat irons, manual mincers and all sorts of things that do not require a power source. We are well stocked with candles and paraffin for the hurricane lamps, I am aware that this sounds extreme but it has come in very handy more than once and is something I look upon as insurance.

My free stuff stall has been busy all day, one man came with a car and took over a hundred old videos,and not a blue one among them, we kept those, just joking, have you ever tried watching one backwards its very funny. True to his word as always my son has cleared the living room of all the books and games, he and some gaming friends spent a couple of hours this afternoon bagging them up and carrying them out,to all of them and to my son my heartfelt thanks. Tomorrow they will be collected and the worst will be over, I still have the cleaning to do but that is not a problem. My neighbour made us a fabulous cauliflower cheese this evening and we ate it as a part of dinner, he is a good cook and it was very welcome. I am off to have a good long soak in a nice hot bath so I wish you good luck for the new week and may blessings light upon you.