It was nearing the end of August and we needed a trip to the shop for a birthday card and present to send.

Imagine my surprise to find in the shop the start of Christmas goods. The store were getting ready to put out Advent calenders. There were also a couple of areas being filled up with soap/deodorant etc gift boxes.

We have not had Halloween yet and so the store has both out!

I don’t mind things being put out early, especially with the cost of living crisis. It helps to buy gifts over time and it does makes sense. When the Advent calenders contain chocolate and are open on the first of December though, why are they the first things to be put out in store?

There is so much choice out there and if you have children into, say, Paw Patrol, there is one for that. If they are into Cars or something else there are some for them. Gone are the days when they were more on the plain side. I didn’t notice how much they cost, but as they are franchised, I am guessing they would cosy more.

Advent calenders were always something I looked forward to having as a young child. Inside some were fancy chocolate animals and in others some small blocks of chocolate, (you could buy to re-fill if you ate more than you should have). I did on occasions eat more than one day and so I always had a spare box in my drawer to refill. I was a little naughty on that front.

Smile and have a great day 🙂

After two to three years of construction, we now have two new train stations. There is a further station that will hopefully be open towards the end of next year.

The new stations were officially opened by government ministers on Saturday last. They were open for the public to use on Sunday.

We thought it would be a nice trip to have a look, so we caught the train and took a ride to the new stations. Passengers on the train were ready to exit at the first new station. One young lady stood by the doors as another couple stayed seated until the train stopped.

Imagine the surprise from them when the train sailed through the station without slowing down, let alone stopping. We all looked amazed and as the conductor came through the carriage, was asked why the train did not stop.

“It is the first day for all of us and just did not remember to stop. It has been a while since they stopped here. We will be stopping at the next one.”

I understand it has been about fifty-four years since they had a train station there, so all the trains are used to just rolling by.

We did not however stop at the next one as it is still being constructed. The following new one it did remember to stop at and the passengers had to cross over the walkway to access the return track and head back. Lets hope the train stopped on the way back!

We enjoyed a walk and had lunch at a local cafe before heading back home. The weather was warm but not too hot and so the day was very enjoyable.

We even laugh at the train that did not stop on the first day of opening one of the new stations. Lets hope it gets better from here on in.

Smile and have a great day 🙂

Fence staining is usually a job I do in the Summer time as the weather is guaranteed to be a more consistent temperature.

We are not near Summer but, as the weather has been dry for a few days, I took it upon myself to start staining. I love staining the fence with a brush. I find it therapeutic outside and amongst my plants. I do this practically every couple of years. It keeps the fences looking fresh and clean.

I managed to get most of the way around, but the weather has changed and it persistently rained for a couple of days or so. Once the fences have dried out sufficiently I will be back out there staining again.

We have around fifty fence panels to stain which is a lot but it keeps me busy for a while.

Once they have all been done we will be able to complete the rest of our planting ready for Summer. The garden always looks great in Summer and now it is looking a lot better in Winter.

Smile and have a great day 🙂

It was a while ago I spent some time taking bunches of grapes of my vines. We have three vines that we grow up our fences. One vine is a very slow grower, whilst the other two grown extremely quickly.

We thought we had brought two white grapes and one red grape. For the first year we had a large amount of red grapes on the couple of fast growing vines. For the last two to three years we have picked white and red grapes of them. The slow growing vine have us a couple of bunches.

After we had picked them we thought about what we could do with them. We had actually picked nearly three kilograms of grapes. Some of them were put into the freezer for use later.

I found a recipe for grape jam and thought I would try it. I have made many different jams and also marmalade so I was not too fazed by giving grape jam a go. It was easy to make and poured around six bottles.

I also found a recipe for a grape cake which I thoroughly liked the look of. Making the cake was easy too and it was very tasty when we tried it later.

The grape jam was very nice and had a very lovely taste. We have eaten all but one jar and are looking forward to picking the grapes this year. I just hope they taste as nice as they did this year!

Smile and have a great day 🙂

The price of fuel certainly shot up in recent months and stayed there for some time. It has started to come back down, but I wonder for how long?

I don’t think it will return to prices we used to have for some time, I don’t mean a few months, but I think it will take a good year or two before we see prices that we used to see!

You have to feel sorry for the people that do actually need to use it. I wonder if some more freight companies could use the rail system more, thereby freeing up the costs on the company that they pay for fuel. It could be that the logistics mean that they cannot use the rail, but maybe some could.

We do not go out as much as we used to because of the price of fuel. Not only fuel, but everything else that connected with the cost of fuel. We have used the train for a recent day out as it was cheaper than driving to that specific location. We try not to use the car for too many short journeys, but sometimes that cannot be helped.

Hope this situation sorts itself out soon.

Smile and have a great day 🙂

I was shopping at the local store and picked up what I thought was pineapple slices. When I looked closer, it was in fact sliced yellow melon.

I have never heard or seen a yellow melon but thought I would give it a try. I love the other melons and thought why not? I wasn’t sure what to expect but tried it any way.

It was not as sweet as the watermelon, honeydew or the cantaloupe melon. It was firmer and had a very pleasant taste. The juice did not dribble down your chin which was also good news as watermelon can be a little drippy.

It had a yellow skin and the yellow flesh inside was a slightly lighter yellow. It didn’t have to many pips inside. This makes a lovely addition to a fruit salad or to just even a melon salad. The varieties around are amazing and they are good for you too.

If you like melons like me, then if you see it why not give it a try, providing the cost is right for you of course. The coat of food has gone up so much lately it is truly scary.

Smile and have a great day 🙂

As you may know, we had a short break between Christmas and New Year. We had a lovely time away and came back feeling refreshed and ready to start the New Year.

Whilst we were away and enjoying the sunshine, which was rare, as it is usually grey and chilly., we had winds and rains where we live. We came back to the wooden fence that divides us and our neighbours leaning against one of the trees.

We called around to the neighbour to discuss having this fence repaired. As it is a boundary fence the costs are shared between both houses.

We booked fencers to come and have a look to give us a quote as it was clear that three fence posts had rotted away and needed replacing.

Whilst they were here giving us a quote for the fence, we asked them to look at our side gates. They are heavy and hard to open in the winter and we were looking at replacing them with something a little lighter in weight. Gates that would be easy to open no matter the weather!

We have received three quotes so far and are waiting on our neighbour to arrange for her quote before we decide. Whilst we are still getting winds from time to time, hopefully the fence will be repaired before another strong one arrives.

Smile and have a great day 🙂

Happy New Year to you all and hope you had or are having a good holiday.

However you all celebrated the end of the year, I hope you all had a great time.

We had a quiet Christmas and went away for a few days afterwards. The weather was very kind to us and for most of the break the sun shone, it was warm and it was very enjoyable. It only rained on our last day along with some strong winds, which all-in-all was very refreshing.

We walked a lot and did around eighty kilometres over the four days we were there. We enjoyed coffee and lunches out which was really very nice and made a change from eating at home most of the time.

The hotel we stayed at was in a great location and the receptionists were very helpful. Our room was clean and overlooked the roads surrounding it, but really could not hear a lot. It was a little dated with worn out carpet and old looking bathroom. The windows had some mould around the edges but at the end of the day, we were really only in the hotel to sleep and to rest on our return for the day.We were going to try the restaurant but we were really enjoying trying other eateries that were on offer.

We had a quiet night in for the end of the year as we had just returned from our short break.

I wish everyone a peaceful, prosperous and most of all a healthy 2026.

Smile and have a great day 🙂