Marks Grans Blog

 I feel a more upbeat post is required.  I've been a bit down in the dumps but the weather has improved - if you can call frost and fog but dry an improvement!  At least when its cold and dry it's lighter and brighter.  I've just returned from a long walk with my own and my daughters dog and it was lovely, I felt refreshed.  I've only been out once in the past three days as the rain has been horrendous.  I was tempted to go to the nearby park for a nice long country walk but as hubby was working I decided against it. I'm beginning to see some Christmas trees going up.  I have my lights in place in the front garden but they are not yet switched on.  I would like to put my tree up a bit earlier than normal however it won't be before the beginning of December.  Much as I love all my decorations and everything Christmas, I think I'd get fed up with the decorations if they are up too long and I like to leave them up till after New Year so the begi...

It's been a blah sort of day here.  I was so productive yesterday, as well as making sure everything was in order for the plasterer and being super organised and having everything I could need all day out of the kitchen, including our lunch, I also made 7 face masks for various people, including a Christmassy one for myself and hubby.  I have 7 more I want to make, all are cut out and ready to be sewn and that was the plan for today, that and making some cards I need.  Did any of that happen?  No.  I went to the shops this morning to get bread and that has been the extent of my activity for today.  Well, I made lunch but that doesn't really count.  Other than that I've done nothing. Zilch. Nada.  I hate days when I feel this way.  I feel fat, frumpy, old and lazy and the weather is horrible too.  It's blowing a gale and raining horizontally so even the dog won't get a second walk today.  Hubby took him this morning and they both got...

 Our kitchen is getting plastered as I type!  Four years ago, to the month, hubby took down our false ceiling in the kitchen which was put up in the 80's (false ceilings were all the rage then).  Our kitchen has a sloping ceiling as it was built to look like an extension to the house.  Why the builder thought this was a good idea I don't know.  It's caused several problems for us since we bought the house - back in the 80's.  The house was built in the 30's and originally the kitchen was very small with two cupboards at the end of it. One for storing coal and one a pantry.  Quite why you would have your coal in the house when you have a bungalow I don't know!  Anyway, by the time we got the house the pantries had been removed and a long narrow window installed at the low end of the kitchen.   Also, for some strange reason there was also a step down into the kitchen from what is our dining room.  Most people have managed to take it a...

Does anyone else watch 'self improvement' videos online?  I love them.  I watch Ted talks and all sorts of others on You Tube and try to hold the information and use it to 'guide' me.   I'm not saying I follow it all to the letter and some of it is just nonsense but,for example, Matthew McConaughey has a new book out called Green Lights and I can't wait to get my hands on it.  I've watched as many clips of him being interviewed about it as I can find and I like his thinking.  Jay Shetty is another one I like listening to.  I came across him on Facebook and now I follow his You Tube channel.  He also has a book out called Live Like a Monk but strangely I don't fancy that book so much!  I want to believe in magic!  I want to believe we can get/do anything if we put our mind to it.  I read the book 'The Secret' and I loved it.  I'm a big believer in the law of attraction.  My youngest son lives by it.  He's never even re...

 Today I'm grumpy!  I get days like that sometimes.  It appears for no reason and I can't settle to anything and get cross very easily if things don't go to plan.  Hubby knows to keep out of the way. It may have started last night when I tried to download my photos from my phone to the computer again.  I've been having difficulties with that and it occured to me that iphones update all the time and they change all sorts of things so perhaps my photos could be downloaded since the last time I tried.  It downloaded some of them then declared no more could be done and stopped!  I can't even tell you the words I muttered on the several times I tried again - why does is say 'try again' if clearly it makes no difference!! Anyway, after numerous goes I was about to give up when I inadvertantly scrolled further down the help screen and it said, 'you might not be able to download your photographs if they are stored on the cloud'.  Well, who knew!  I h...

It's that time of year again.  It will be here in no time although I do think all the decorations I've seen up already indicate people are ready for Christmas this year!  It might even be one day out of comfy joggies/jammies!  I've got my lights up outside but they are not yet switched on.  I'll do that nearer the end of November this year, normally I'd wait till December.  The tree etc will go up at the beginning of December, perhaps a week or so earlier than usual.  I should point out the photograph was taken a couple of years ago in December when we took the dog a walk in the snow to nearby Cathkin Braes.  Its looking north across the city. I've done ok with my shopping so far this year.  I started in September!  There were great sales on earlier with shops trying to offload all the stuff they hadn't been able to sell during lockdown and I picked up a few bargains.  Strangely it was all the men in the family this year I was able to ge...

What do you do with emails/texts etc from friends/family after they die?  I have a folder in my email file with all the emails my friend sent me.  I'm never sure whether to delete emails from friends so I keep them in a folder.  It's been handy in the past to look back on information they've sent etc but two of my friends that I used to email have since died and now it feels so awful deleting their mails from my life.  Same with Whatsapps and texts on my phone.   To this day I still get emails from my friend Marie who died two years ago.  No, I don't think she's haunting me but I do think her daughter is having a hard time deleting her email account and it gets hacked once in a while and its a shock to the system when I find an email from her.  I've contacted her daughter a few times but she claims she cannot find the password to the account and without that she can't cancel anything.  She still had a Facebook page until very recently but I a...

I suppose it might depend on how you read your favourite blogs if this post resonates with you.  I read mine mostly on my laptop.  I was a typist in the olden days so I like to position my fingers properly over the qwerty keyboard and type merrily.  I also like the large screen in front of me, all the better to see the small words!  The point I am getting to is this.  How many blogs do you have bookmarked in your favourites?  I have over 50 yet on a good day I read the same half dozen.  I've now sussed how to save favourites on my phone (it took a while!) so I have two or three saved there but I can't comment from my phone as it wants me to sign into blogger for that and I can't remember my password! I have it autosaved on the computer and I know I could find it out or change it or whatever but on my phone I'm happy to just read, it takes too long to press the tiny keys!  This is why I'm sometimes late to the party when commenting!  If I've r...

 The dreaded lurgy is approaching.  Most days this week I've heard of someone testing positive.  Today was pretty close - my grandson's girlfriend.  We do not actually know her but obviously it affects my daughter and her family now.   That said, we are hopeful it will pass on by!  My grandsons girlfriend works in a care home and as such she is tested before every shift so at her shift during the week she tested negative but this morning she tested positive.  He's only seen her once this week, sods law, last night for the fireworks but he swears they didn't kiss or cuddle and barely even touched other than she handed him a packet of sparklers.  She's not been to their house since last weekend thankfully.  Our grandson is keeping as much distance as he can now in the family home and we'll be keeping them distant too.   We'll still have to dog sit but as before my daughter will drop him off at the door where he zooms in and when ...