Helen

Last week I decluttered two paperback books to the second-hand books shelf in the Co-op, and when I looked yesterday, they had gone. I hope someone enjoys them. They were pony books that had been our daughter's, so much newer than the old paperbacks I'm just tearing up and putting in the paper recycling. I won't donate things to charity shops that I wouldn't buy myself and so many of my old paperbacks from the 1970s have just turned brown.

Then today I re-homed 3 large plastic storage boxes that I don't need since I bought the large Ikea Kallax unit which is now in my study.

And, having mentioned the Kallax unit, I'm going to order a new taller and narrower bookcase to replace the current one. At the moment there are two baskets and one pair of drawers that can't be fitted into the Kallax unit because those spaces are being blocked by the bookcase. So basically that project is not quite finished and is currently stalled. I have a habit of almost but not quite finishing things, but this needs just one last push to complete it.

43/52 for the group 2026 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: Q is for Qwerty

I didn't want to do the obvious photo of a computer keyboard because it's grimy and doesn't look good. After some thought, I went round town photographing signs and here we are!



The Q was difficult. There is no letter Q in the Welsh alphabet and we don't have a Queens Street or Queens Square, so I had to resort to the lettering on a pack of Quorn.

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In other news...

As usual on a Friday I did the food shopping in the Co-op and then drove up to see M. After doing the crossword and zygolex, M asked me to find her copy of The Wind in the Willows. That turned out to be a wild goose chase. M has a lot of books and I couldn't find it anywhere in the downstairs lounge. She then explained that she thought it was in the top bedroom, but I couldn't find it there either. At this point her carer appeared and said she had also been unable to find it, despite searching everywhere.

M suggested that she might have given it to someone, but said that she'd like to buy another copy. The edition she wanted was published by the Folio Society and when I looked online, it was £70 (not including P&P). I said I thought that was rather a lot and offered to look for a second hand copy. And yes, there was one in good condition for £17.50 (£22.50 with postage). I have now bought it for her and she'll pay me back next Friday. I hope it won't take too long to arrive.

Yesterday our son and grandson stopped by for a few hours. Our granddaughter was in Tennessee attending a gymnastics coaching camp, our daughter-in-law was really busy because it's half-term and she runs sports activities for kids. So Mike decided he'd drive up to North Wales to show his son the places where he grew up.

They arrived in time for lunch. It was a bit of a squash getting four adults round our dining table, but we managed. Grandson is not, strictly speaking, an adult. He's only 16, but already taller than his dad! Unfortunately the weather was awful in the morning, but after lunch and a chat, the rain stopped and we did a tour of the town so Mike could see what has changed since he moved to South Wales -- not much! -- and Will could his dad's old haunts, which were new to him.

One of the little back streets we wandered around. The house name on the left says "Riverside" and we had just crossed the River Arran via a little footbridge.



Mike and grandson left about 4.15 pm to travel on to Porthmadog where they had booked a hotel room. (We don't have room to put people up in our very small house.) They went the scenic way along the coast so our grandson could see Harlech castle. Mike phoned later to say they'd arrived safely, checked into the hotel and eaten dinner. They'll be driving back today. fortunately the weather is dry, so the run home should be better than the journey up.

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P.S. I must make a point of posting more here. I find LJ/DW to be a useful record of what I've been doing and I like to look back at previous years occasionally. One reason for not posting is that I am more active on Mastodon than I used to be. But Mastodon is more like Twitter. It's for ephemeral conversations, not for proper journalling.

52/52 for the group 2026 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: P is for Peeled

Fruit is the obvious subject for this week's theme, so I photographed what the Co-op calls an "Easy peeler" this morning and then ate it for breakfast. It was very nice.



This is actually the second time "easy peelers" have featured in this alphabet challenge. I used them earlier in the year for "Africa".

A week or so ago I got the routine email telling me that our gas Homecare was due for renewal. It said: Your HomeCare will automatically renew for £490.41. You previously paid £479.83.

Like with everything else, the price had gone up, in this case by just over £10. I would have sighed and paid it, but I noticed that the option we were being charged for included cover for the central heating system. We only wanted boiler cover and the gas fire serviced each year.

So, I thought I'd contact British Gas and ask to be moved onto the Homecare 1, which would cover just what we needed. Our central heating system is simple and there aren't all that many radiators. There are a couple of local plumbers who could deal with any problems. I thought, surely that will be cheaper?

I gritted my teeth and went online where I discovered that you couldn't change tariff on the website, only by phone or the text chat. I opted for the text chat and was soon online with a British Gas Solver. I explained the problem and the British Gas Solver said they could change the cover. The chat was exceedingly slow. It seemed to take the British Gas Solver ages to find what they needed. Then they said that they could do the Homecare 1, but after downgrading the cover to Homecare 1 the total cost of the cover will be £542.41 annually.

What??!!

I typed back, "That is more expensive than the price of Homecare 2 plus the gas fire cover. Have you got the price right?"

At this point I was thinking that if downgrading was going to be more expensive, I'd abandon the plan and just go with the original quote.

The British Gas Solver went quiet again, just posting a "Thank you for your patience," message.

Eventually they came back with a much more sensible quote of £416.85, which I have accepted.

But honestly, how can prices for the same service vary so much? It's ridiculous that if you haggle you can get a reduction of £125. Perhaps the British Gas Solver had made a mistake with the first quote, but I will watch the payments like a hawk and also check that the cover is correct and what I asked for.

39/52 for the group 2026 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: M is for Midway

I bought a new bag recently. They're made locally and come in various fun designs. They're also waterproof, which is a very useful feature in Wales.

38/52 for the group 2026 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: L is for Loaded

As I was away for a few days last week, I'm still catching up with the weekly photos. Yesterday was fine, so G and I went for one of our regular walks in the forest. We were surprised to see that one of the huge log piles had finally been loaded onto a lorry, ready to be taken away. The driver had just folded the grab crane away and in another five minutes and we would have met it coming down the track towards us as we plodded up the hill. But we were just in time for me to get this shot.



The sun was in the wrong place, there was lens flare and a whited out sky, but with a bit of tweaking in Photoshop and transplanting some blue sky from another shot of the lorry, it will have to do. It does fit the theme perfectly, if nothing else.

The purge continues. Present-me wants to know why past-me kept so much stuff. In fairness to past-me, there were times when she was stressed and working long hours. She also hated parting with stuff, especially anything of sentimental value. You then need to take into account the fact that I have over 50 year's worth of notes and bits of stories that "I might write some day," and you can see the problem. So over the past few days, I've been going through the heaps of old folders and files which contain notes about WIPs and potential WIPs. I'm chucking a lot away, but some I'll keep until the relevant novel is complete.

I've also taken some photos for the Memory Lane folder on the computer and then chucked the actual items away. I do not need the basic embroidery stitch sampler I made when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

I have booked a slot at the recycling centre for tomorrow morning. I'm taking: the cardboard packaging from the Kallax unit; the glass shelves from the old fridge (which somehow got left behind when the delivery chaps took the old fridge-freezer for recycling); the old Singer sewing machine that no longer works and is too heavy for the new dining table; plus an assortment of dead light bulbs and batteries. I've also got a couple of bags of clothes to take to the charity shop, but that will probably be Friday.

We have made a new resolution. We will go out for walks even if it's raining. By "raining" I don't mean torrential rain lashing down, I mean drizzle. This new resolution has been made in the expectation that we're going to have a warmish wet autumn and winter. If we don't walk in the rain, we won't get to walk at all.

So... Last Monday, despite the fine drizzle, we went for a walk round some local lanes. It was the Bank Holiday, so we wanted to avoid places that might be swamped with tourists. The total walk was about 4½ miles.

Pausing for breath as we climbed the long hill, I looked back. Normally there would be a view of hills in the distance.



( More here... )

A solitary rowan tree.



( Carry on here... )

34/52 for the group 2026 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: H is for Hairdo

I was stumped for a subject at first. I don't have a "hairdo", I just have unruly hair. But last Wednesday I went to our County Show. There were lots of things to see, including this girl and her pony who have had special hairdos for the competition.



I've been rather slow to post about the morning I spent at the show. I've now processed the photos and will post more tomorrow.

In other news...

It suddenly occurred to me that there are possibly a couple of formal events I will want to attend in the near future. Investigating my wardrobe revealed that I can't put together an ensemble that could even remotely be described as "smart". I therefore ordered a couple of new pairs of trousers today. While I was rummaging in the wardrobe, I pulled out several items of clothing that can go to the charity shop.

While I was in the mood to order things, I've plucked up the courage to order another Kallax storage unit. This time for my study. It will replace the stack of Really Useful Boxes^[TM] that are currently in here. It will look smarter as well as giving me more storage that's easier to access.