Taking a detour

SBB wants to buy a new car. I'm completely fine with it and don't really have a preference. He wanted to go driving at the weekend to find out if anywhere on the Island has the one he wants (some kind of BMW - I don't really know which one. A car's a car as far as I'm concerned!)
We were in Newport when he decided he wanted to go looking and wanted to head out to Rookley to the place where he'd bought his first car. From where we were he just had to head down through Carisbrooke high street and turn right.
He did not.
Instead he headed out towards Shorwell - hoping there'd be a left turn towards Chillerton.
There was not.
We ended up heading out almost to Brighstone and then a large circular route through Blackgang. It was a random detour, but at least there was some lovely scenery.

Loss and grief...

I've been putting off writing this. Part of me didn't want to write it at all, but to continue blogging without saying anything would have felt like I was pushing it aside as though it didn't matter.

Two weeks ago Pancho died.

She was our beautiful fur-baby girl. We miss her. That's all I can say right now.

1 week old (taken from breeder's website)

Little things make a big difference and a Sports Direct haul

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For a home improvement blog we haven't been doing much in the way of DIY recently. But we have done a couple of jobs that have been lingering on our 'to-do' list for years. Yes, that's right. Years.
We 'finished' the bungalow about three years ago - completing bits and pieces after we moved in. I think we even went a few months without a bathroom door but eventually the most important bits got finished and all the doors were hung... Except one.
The back bedroom, aka the junk room, aka the future nursery, had a door waiting to go on. I'd painted a base coat on one side but then I accidentally dropped it on it on the edge of a radiator and gouged a massive hole in it. SBB repaired it but I never got round to painting it. And so it sat, resting against the wall for 3 years. We didn't really mind that there wasn't a door on the back bedroom - plus Cillian enjoyed running in there and hiding under the bed when we weren't looking.
Then, last weekend when SBB decided that the door had been sat unused for far too long and decided to hang it. And here it is...!

Okay, it's not a very attractive door I'll grant you but it feels like we've finally got a complete house.
Another job that's been nagging at me was wardrobe storage. Years ago I bought a wrapping paper storage bag that is designed to hang on a hook on the back of a cupboard door. I'd intended to hang it in my wardrobe on a dowel rod and had even had it specially made in yellow and white fabric to match our bedroom. I'd told my dad about it and he very sweetly made four shaped blocks with holes pre-drilled to insert the dowel into.
Then, I'm ashamed to say, they sat, unused, on my dressing table for... ooh... probably about 2.5 years. But I've finally fitted them! Completely on my own too - SBB was out and I measured, I cut (slicing up my thumb nail in the process. Doh!) and I even used a level to make sure everything was square. It was the dirtiest level SBB owns (it lives in the garden and was covered in mud and spiderwebs) because he'd taken the key for his toolbox with him - but I was not deterred.
I was so happy to get them up - although I did forget to use the level when I attached the last one so it was a little wonky. Whoops.
But here they are, and I can't help smiling every time I open my wardrobe now.

Finally - just because I'm so chuffed - I'm going to share a clothing haul. SBB's Gran and Grandad always get me a M&S voucher for my birthday and sometimes for Christmas which is great because I only tend to shop there when I have a voucher.
This time I had a bit left on a old gift card and then this year's birthday voucher. I wanted to buy a new swimming costume as the last one I'd bought (also an M&S purchase) had been worn to death but when I got there they had the smallest section of swimwear I've ever seen and no basic, 'normal' costumes. For shame, M&S. For shame. The only option for me was the bandeau costumes which, for the bustier woman, were downright indecent. So that was a no. I left with a new pair of work trousers, three t-shirts (two white and one purple), a pair of white linen shorts and a birdhouse. I know the birdhouse seems a little random but I didn't want to leave anything on the gift cards and couldn't really find anything else I wanted - and who doesn't want to encourage birds to nest in their garden?

So, when I came home I went online in search of a new swimming costume. I just wanted a basic costume and I knew I'd seen some in Sports Direct so I headed to their website. I found some. I bought some. One for £3 and one for £4. That's right. £7 for TWO swimming costumes. Awesome. While I was there I decided to have a little browse of the rest of the sale and this is what I got:
2x swimming costumes
2x basic t-shirts
1x three-quarter length sleeve 'baseball' shirt
2x bikini bottoms
1x basic white vests
1x green vest
1x pair jeans
...all for the price of one M&S swimming costume. I was a little bit chuffed.

You can see my little spree in the picture below (although it doesn't include one of my white M&S t-shirts or the purple one as they're in the wash)

Have you recently bagged yourself a bargain?

These boots were made for planting

Flowers are growing quite happily in our garden (so are the weeds, but that's another story) and the bumble bees are really loving the lavenders I've bought, which is lovely.

There's been something I've wanted to try for a while; putting flowers in boots. My mother-in-law, who (as the daughter of a gardener) has a lovely one in her garden that I've been quite envious of, so when I noticed that SBB had left a pair of his old work boots in the garden over the winter, I knew my chance had come. I casually asked him one day what he was planning on doing with them.
"Nothing," he answered, "I thought you'd like to plant something in them."
"Really?" I asked, delighted. "How could you tell?"
He smiled. "Because I know you."
It's true, he does, and the fact that he thought of me and purposely kept them for me is lovely.

We were in B&Q, looking at plants. I was looking for something that would be okay in the pot and I'd been looking for a few minutes before I remembered I know NOTHING about plants. Nothing. SBB suggested just talking to his mum and asking her advice. I agreed and then I saw them. Geraniums. We shared a look and identical smiles. You might be thinking that we're a bit crazy so at this point I'm going to mention that we're fans of The Dubliners. In order to get the reference (and the joke) check out Seven Drunken Nights, by The Dubliners.
It had to be done.

There's a Headcrab in my garden

I made an odd discovery in our garden recently and I'm not sure what it is but it reminds me uncomfortably of a Headcrab (from Half-Life) or the red and black thing that chases Chris Pine in Star Trek. If anyone has any clue what it is, please let me know - it'd be nice to know that an alien species isn't hatching in my garden.

Creepy, isn't it?

Butterflies have been abundant and I've been trying to snap pictures of them when I can.

We've also got a new blackbird in our garden. We already have one blackbird that lives in our hedge and makes a next every year - he's rather friendly and is perfectly happy to come and sit near our feet when we're digging anything up in the garden. I've named him Benji.
But when we were last out in the garden we noticed a different blackbird - it may be Benji's son, we're not sure. He looks a little raggedy (possibly due to still losing his baby feathers?) so I've called him Scrappy Toots.

He's quite friendly, though, and came all the way up to my foot but I didn't want to get my phone out to take a picture in case it scared him away.
 

SBB has cleared along the back hedge, creating a tunnel in the foliage which looks rather magical, I think.

 

Working in the garden

Well it turns out that God does indeed move in mysterious ways. In my last post I was feeling a little depressed about the state of things then, barely 48 hours later, I was struck down by a stomach bug that my sister-in-law thoughtfully brought down with her for our Bank Holiday family get-together. I lost about 9lbs in four days. I couldn't eat anything. It was awful and I'm not sure I've ever been so ill.
All I could think was how lucky it was that I wasn't pregnant and therefore didn't have to worry about anything other than being ill.
See? Mysterious ways.
SBB and I have been working in the garden. I had to tackle the front garden because, frankly, it was looking like someone had lost a game of Jumanji out there.
Then I turned my attention to the hedge bed which is currently edged with stone but I have plans to bed in some grey bricks that SBB rescued from being thrown in a skip. The webbing also has some weeds and brambles growing up through it so I'm going to replace that too.

SBB has been working in the back garden, putting a path in alongside the finished patio and digging out the garden path to our driveway which we've been working on (I'll post pictures later)

Happily, the sunshine and warm weather has brought out the flowers - and the bees!

Pre-pregnancy - 7 months in

We're just entering our seventh month of TTC - or 'Trying To Conceive'. I've joined up to a couple of forums to chat with other women who are trying to get pregnant and that's about the only acronym I can remember... and I've still no idea what 'evap' is.

There seem to be babies everywhere - even on the Audi advert at the cinema. We turn on the TV and we have recordings of Jane the Virgin. Laura Diamond thinks she's pregnant. We decided to try to finish off the Friends DVDs and realised that we're watching the series where Emma's just been born and Monica and Chandler are trying for a baby. And if you've read the latest Harry Dresden? Well, you'll know.

I also seem to be at the age where all the women I went to school with are either pregnant or have just had babies.

Last year after my sister-in-law got pregnant she told us that they'd decided she'd come off the pill and they'd 'just see what happened' - you know, oh-so-casually. I usually have the Jeremy Kyle show on while I'm cooking and, as you'll know if you've ever watched it, it seems the contestants (yes, I call them 'contestants') just need to message someone on Facebook and they get pregnant. There was a girl on there the other day - she'd been with her boyfriend for nine weeks... and she was nine weeks pregnant.

It seems to be so easy for everyone else.

Realistically, I know that it takes time - about 6 -12 months for the average couple - and that in the grand scheme of things, compared to some couples that try for years, 7 months isn't a great amount of time. But the frustration is starting to set in.

Also, if you've ever read online articles on how to get pregnant, the information is confusing. I've read baby/pregnancy-related sites that say the only time to try is around the time of ovulation (and if you miss that 48 hour window, you're stuffed) and I've read the NHS website that said a woman could get pregnant at any time of the cycle - which is always what I was taught growing up. My mother used to tell me that my reproductive system was always trying to get pregnant, working against me at every turn, so I'd sort of assumed that when I came off the pill last year that getting pregnant would be pretty quick. If I'd have known then what I now know about the process I'd have come off the pill much earlier.

The other part of the frustration is not knowing what's going on. I've thought I might be pregnant a couple of times but the tests were always negative (obviously, otherwise this would a less frustrated post!). To SBB I've likened the process to being blindfolded and being asked to throw a dart. At a moving board. In the dark. Whilst you yourself are being spun in the opposite direction to the board.

Luckily, SBB is remaining quite positive and supportive but I know he's starting to feel left behind too. He's a great believer in things happening for a reason, and usually I am too, but I'm also impatient - I want to know what the reason is and what sort of timescale we're looking at!