Tidying Up...

I rescued a mirror from across the road - Gail and Pete are having a major refurb done to their shower room and Pete had put it out for the rubbish.  John spotted it and thought it would look good in our garden.  

John was hoping that if he positioned it outside the back door he might be able to see when Miss Minnie was eating 'up top' so that we could rescue her bowl before the pesky ants got to it.  

Although not a great lover of artificial plants sometimes they can be used effectively so I hold my hands up and admit that the 'ivy' to soften the raw edges of the mirror are courtesy of Jumbo!

Hazel very kindly gave us some money for our anniversary.  When we were in Jumbos the other day I saw some lovely garden lanterns that were ceramic rather than metal and so I plan to get a couple of those to put in the garden - they will remind me of her.

On that subject sadly she did not get home to bed until 4.00am UK time - poor Haze her journeys back from us are never without issues.  Last time her flight was cancelled completely.

We were having today home alone.  The forecast is for poor weather over the next few days and then sunshine.  June has been very unpredictable.  We had earmarked a lie-in followed by cleaning and tidying up after having a visitor and I was moving my clothes etc back into our bedroom and John his back into the guest room.  I just couldn't cope with my stuff in there because the wardrobe configuration was different and so I couldn't see anything or find anything.  We are also using this as an opportunity to have a clear out.

I really got in the swing - starting with my shoes.  

Very sadly my favourite mid heel black M&S court shoes have gone to meet their maker which is very sad because I haven't been able to find any decent mid heeled black court shoes over here.  They are either flat or sky-scraper.  

My red shoes (red shoes no knickers as Dad would say) were bought for our silver wedding anniversary to go with my lovely red and black, gone to charity as now too tight, Lindy-Bop dress and were looking past their best.

The black toe-post sandals are being ditched because despite John repairing them the toe-post bit keeps pulling through and the black flip flops are just plain knackered!

I then started on my clothes.  John and I only have one small wardrobe each and mine was so overcrowded I didn't really know what was in there!  When I stacked all the items on my bed I realised that there was far far too much and so I was quite ruthless and the charity shop will benefit as a result.

Both our beds have drawers underneath.  The drawers under our bed are not connected to the bed and so provide a perfect hiding place for the cats to get a bit of quiet shut-eye so we have to be careful that anything put in them is protected from cat fur.  The drawers under the spare bed are incorporated as it is a divan, unfortunately one of them had fallen off the runners (too much shoved into them) and in trying to release it the divan halves became unclipped so it became a major exercise to get the bed back together and it was too hot and sticky for that exercise!

John settled down to watch the cricket which was, as anticipated, hugely exciting - it is the first match of the Ashes series and Ben Stokes had unexpectedly declared early.  That decision was questionable until England managed to get Australia out and retain an small lead.  Rain stopped play for a bit and when England returned to the field lost two wickets very cheaply.

Whilst he was watching I was rustling up a Sunday meal from whatever we had left lurking in the fridge/freezer.  I had some lamb fillets that I had bought from Naz in the week, some potatoes, frozen peas and beans and Yorkshires.  

I made a lovely red wine and cherry jus to go with the lamb.  We weren't overly impressed by the lamb - it was Greek and actually had very little flavour, New Zealand it certainly wasn't but then again it was about half the price.  I had really hoped it would be as good as the New Zealand because Mum used to by that and it was amazing.  

I actually had a glass of red wine with my meal.  I have been giving it a miss because it seems to cause me heartburn but John has a shed load of his favourite French in because it was on offer.  It it lovely but I hope I wont pay for drinking it today.