Bad, Evil Piles!!

Hmm, talking to the mess certainly makes me see the piles and so far I am starting to sort them out!! I have been to the sales today too - first time in years, but hey!!

The only problem was that the stuff I wanted wasn't in the sales. I have been spending some amusing moments screaming at the ceiling of my kitchen, because above it there has been a mouse chewing at something VERY loudly. I first heard it in the night of Christmas Eve when the house was full, so I couldn't scream at the thing - my children would not have been amused at 3a.m.!! So, I have been to the shops to buy the largest pot of mouse poison available and fed it to the varmint. Apparently it takes 4 - 10 days for them to die. Then that leaves about a week of rattling the door latch to warn the mouse that I am on my feet, battering the ceiling beam with the sweeping brush and screaming blue murder at the noisy little beggar. This is the routine, he seems to know how to react because he only starts to chew again when I am sitting down again - beast!!

Overkill? No way. My lights were flickering and I have known them chew through electricity cables with ease.

And what have I been screaming at them?

"You evil little rodent - leave me alone!!" That is the polite version...

Happy Christmas everyone!

Wherever you are, I hope you have a good celebration of Christmas or the Winter Solstice or whatever you celebrate. I love this time and will post again when I have recovered from our own family celebration.

Enjoy!

I think I've cracked it! All I need ...

is for Tami to post a blog about untidiness and its outcome being dire, then I would sort out my life and not just dump things down.

Why am I writing this? Well, she blogged ages ago about what happens when you flush the loo. Overnight I started to remember to put the loo seat down when flushing and also in my lovely bathroom I keep my toothbrush well and truly inside the cabinet. Not even I could contemplate cleaning my teeth with a brush covered in loo flushing spray!!

Now the article about where you put your handbag when out shopping - and going to the loo, has got me thinking and changing where I put my handbag down.

So, this is a challenge to Tami, I NEED a blog about the awful (and here I mean the original meaning of the word!) perils of untidiness.

PLEASE?

Thank goodness I lost the Christmas cake!!

You might be WELL aware that I lose things easily...OK, have I mentioned the fact that I lost the Christmas cake?

There was no excuse for buying the cake this year, so in September I made a cake for Livvy's birthday and Christmas. Fine!! Then I decided to decorate the house - fine again!!

But, when you decorate a small house, things have to be moved around. Well, that's OK if you can remember where you put things. And I can't!!

So, at the beginning of December I realised that I had lost the cake. Plenty of time to find it I thought. Then we had a celebration for Livvy's 30 th birthday and the first thing that Tim (her partner) asked me when he came into the house?
"Have you made a Christmas cake this year?"

"Oh yes," said I "ages ago."

Hah! I think I got my come-uppance for saying that. The debit card disappeared soon after and so the searches were on. I have an immaculate study, but no card. So, I gave in and admitted to my bank that I had lost it. I must admit I wonder what would happen if you lost the card and had no secondary account to back up things, cashing a cheque without a card is not possible at my bank. Time to change??

OK, that apart. How many hours do I spend looking for things; the answer has to be - far too many. Let me tell you about today.

I remembered that I had put some things under the cupboard under the kitchen sink - behind the kick board thingy. The dustpan and brush and I thought I recalled putting a tin under there. Well, I had a tin full of dried fruit, but no cake. Drat!! Then I heard the ominous sound of dripping water. There was a leak somewhere under the sink. After much furtling around under the cupboards the leak was found. The connection between the water pipe and the dishwasher had loosened. Easy enough to sort out. Good!! It also meant that I had cleaned out the cupboard under the sink, so tomorrow I can get my washing up liquid refilled when I go to the market. (Bear with me, this is a complicated story!!)

After the moments of awful stomach lurching feeling whenever I find leak in the house, this was a positive outcome, but I must remember to check this every six months or so. So, that's whyI was pleased to have lost the cake.

Why am I so cheerful about this? Well later on, my son rang me up and I was recounting the story to him. I usually stand in front of the place I am talking about when on the phone. Then I continued walking into the spare bedroom, turned around to leave and there, staring me in the face was the tin containing the Christmas cake. My son did not appreciate my shriek!!! But I appreciate his phone call. I was just about to start making another cake, in fact I had bought the dried fruit... so I shall pack it in the tin and put it...?

Shocking!

Yesterday my daughter was 30, yes 30. I had my birthday two days before but it was her age that made me really stop and realise how old I am. Aaargh!!! I just don't feel that old and I certainly don't want to sit in a chair and do nothing for the rest of my days. There, that's my confession done, no more of that!!

Several bloggers have been asking how we celebrate Christmas - well, in my case it is very much as if there were still young children in the house. (Me???) I love a real Christmas tree and it still has the original angel who sits on the top - she is a paper doily creation from Olivia's young days. We made her together and she is much cherished. In fact, Ru's partner has asked for one for their tree, so I shall have to buy some more cake doilies to make model number two - I think the facial features will be left for her to fill in!! We have white lights at the moment and lots of glass balls in red and gold, I also hang other little Christmassy things which are bought , then we have a tradition of hanging little felt stockings on the tree and they have chocolates inside them. Then there are the bags of golden coins - I love those!! The children were allowed to empty one stocking a day after Christmas day until the tree was taken down on Jan 5th. I still put things inside some of them - and treat myself!!

I then decorate as much of the house as I can - the sitting room has swathes of greenery along the main beams and lots of holly and ivy in other parts of the room, the doorways have swathes of greenery and baubles above them. Some of these are inherited from my aunt and so are about 60 - 70 years old. The golden flowers are ones I have made and they are about 15 years old. Are you getting the idea that I keep everything? Well I do, and so each year the box of decorations gets bigger as I pack them away. So next week I shall climb into the attic and fight my way to the back and dig out all of the boxes from the trunk where they are kept. The boxes themselves are quite special, I have used all the lovely chocolate boxes that I have received in past years - our Luxembourgish friends always bought very special hand made Belgian chocs when they came to stay. I also make the weath that goes on the front door, this year I have managed to find a base that will keep real flowers alive, so now I need to look for some greenery and some Christmas roses to use for the arrangement. Perhaps the plants in the garden might provide some blooms.

I still have the treat of buying one more decoration for this year, so I can go shopping again then?!!

The Lists, the lists...

What have I been doing? Well... lots and I am so pleased to say that I have been getting on with things. It would be so easy to do nothing. But, let me just list a few things - made the Christmas puddings, mincemeat, lost the Christms cake somewhere in the decorating splurge. (Oooops!) Made a cushion and covered it for Shirl's garden bench, am making a tabard for Livvy's Christmas pressie, and have sorted out bags of clothes for the local charity shop. I have also made several batches of different pot pourris for Christmas presents. What is left to do? Well, hundreds of things before Christmas I just write them down daily and tick them off as they are finished.

How on earth did I find time to get to work? Well, that's a difficult one to answer!! What is on tomorrow's list? Cards, make little sachets for the pot pourri, make some mince pies, spend the evening with Freda whilst Ted goes to his woodwork evening and knit another 3" of Livvy's tabard. Now when shall Igo up into the attic and retrieve the decorations? I think that will be on next week's list.

I love this kind of hectic preparation for Christmas and being at home means that I can really enjoy it all. Be warned, it does not mean to say that I shall be ready in time.... ( Our local tv news programme has just stated that Dec 12th is the day to start feeling Christmassy - yess, I am ahead of time!!)