Thank you all for the flower praise! Painting didn't work today - shoulder/arm is still a bit screechy when I try to hold my hand that high for any length of time. Next week!

The world is a weird place right now - stock of the most unexpected things are running low.
Hope this machine works well for you, PAV. And that it fits in the mini van and that helping hands are there to help you get it inside and hooked up!

Connie - I'm envious of your laundry room! My place has no utility room - so that laundry and water heater is in the bathroom. It fits and looks fine - but it would be nice to have a space that could just be messy and I wouldn't have to look at it day to day.

That is pretty frustrating. I hate replacing once good appliances.

Hmmmm...... I do admire your dream-agination! That's pretty dang good. Please note that I'm most motivated to invent replacement low cal deserts when eating at a deficit. Almost never when eating at a surplus which tends to involve their more cal cousins!🤣😹

if it does continue.... take two aspirins and perform a hunger level gut check on aisle 3!

By the way, if you're a doctor (or even not), ASAasa, asaasa, and ASAASA are NOT great passwords!!!!🤣😹🤣

Bella - what a dream. Imagine that you were going to eat-nothing-but-sea-kelp for 6 months! Thank goodness the chefs and store made an appearance.

PAV - you crack me up and sometimes I dont even know why.

Thank you, Athijade. These flowers are (were) coming along - I'm really enjoying them too. I'm going to miss this painting when it finally goes home. Saying you are not very good at painting is almost like a proper artist badge I think. We have to question/doubt our work for it to progress. Maybe share some of your work here too?

(downstairs tenants couple + adult brother + three kids + flatmate + dog)

PAV, can't beat a top loading washing machine! Finding one in the UK outside of a laundrette (laundromat for you folks across the pond) is like finding hen's teeth. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could find a domestic one...they are soooooo much better at getting clothes clean than a front loader drum machine.

I still have my washer dryer set I got in 2004 when I moved to PA for my first job out of college I love that washing machine - regular old top loader, but she's stood up to 18 years of wear and tear and I've only had to replace the lid switch and the water pump once each. The repair tech told me they didn't make 'em like that anymore and he suggested that as long as I could get parts, to keep it going.

The dryer with it has been an excellent appliance, too. I've never had to do anything for it. I thought an element was out in it a few weeks ago, but mom said to check the lint trap on the outside vent, and sure enough, it was clogged. I cleaned it out and the dryer has been working fine!


Finally, a beautiful, sunny day! Hubby and I are headed to town today to take some odds n ends to my sister who is staying with her boyfriend while she is recovering from Covid. Hubby wants to stop at Aldi's and I need to get some bird seed if I can find it!


On the supply chain issues: I'd say brace yourself because its only going to get worse, when you watch the news on what is going on around the world. And its going to be getting more and more expensive, too. I saw yesterday that some companies were already announcing price hikes on products. Gas is creeping up again, too.

This is why my husband and I have plans to put in a much bigger garden this year and are trying to get together with other gardeners in the church to start up a harvest club to see if others would be willing to grow extra if they have the room and share amongst ourselves. for instance, if one person has the room to grow extra potatoes or extra green beans or squashes or whatever, they could either swap with someone else who can grow good tomatoes or pumpkins, or they can get together with someone in the church who would like to have home grown veggies but either don't have the time, space, or ability to grow themselves. We are floating the idea too that for folks who'd liked to have home canned veggies but don't have canners, we could have a harvest day dinner with those in the church who do, have the person bring the jars and lids, come to the fellowship hall, and we all work on getting the beans or whatever ready and can them for whoever wants them.

I think it's a global thing. We only bought this house in August 2020, and our neighbour's house has just sold for twice what we paid for ours (despite being in much poorer condition and having less garden).

Fuel prices are crippling. Diesel is £1.55/litre and regular unleaded is £1.46/litre. Do you folks buy your fuel in gallons? If so, that equates to $5.87 per US gallon for diesel or $5.53 per USgallon for unleaded. It's a good motivator to run errands by bicycle.

Garfield is asleep, Connie has already had her pizza dinner, and Slowpoke and I are out for the first meanderings of the day!

Bella_Figura wrote: »

Who’s asleep?

GARFIELD!!!!! It's 3:00am! To BED you go! And if you're dreaming of ANTI-KELP... we'll talk in the morning

Gorgeous pic PAV!

Bella_Figura wrote: »

Fuel prices are crippling. Diesel is £1.55/litre and regular unleaded is £1.46/litre. Do you folks buy your fuel in gallons? If so, that equates to $5.87 per US gallon for diesel or $5.53 per USgallon for unleaded. It's a good motivator to run errands by bicycle.

Correction. That's the price per gallon in £s. Converted to $US that's $7.96 a gallon for diesel and $7.50 for regular unleaded. Ouch!!!

In Canada you pay almost 1.70 a litre? That's the equivalent of £0.99...so Canadians pay 32.2% less than we pay here.

Fuel prices here are beyond a joke. Domestic heating costs are also through the roof....I just bought 750 litres of kerosene at £0.58 /litre. Luckily we can afford it, but the cost of living hikes are plunging lots of families into poverty even if they're in full time work. Ten years ago there was no such thing as food banks in the UK - now thousands of families rely on them to make ends meet. It's obscene, in one of the richest countries in the world. The inequality between the haves and have-nots beggars belief.

Same here. Fruit and veg are rotting in the fields because Brexit has made it hard to get the migrant labour from eastern europe that our farmers rely on. Add COVID into the mix and it's a perfect storm. Massive issues in all the supply chains are causing huge price hikes.

We use about 1200 litres of kerosene a year for all our domestic heating and hot water....prices didn't drop at all over the summer, so I'm having to budget at £0.58/litre, which works out at around £700/year. However, our annual electricity bill for lighting, appliances etc. is only around £480.

So, electricity aside, heating and hot water is £700 + about £200 of logs for the woodburner...so total cost of £900/year.

Not sure how that compares to heating prices in Canada...this would be the equivalent of $1,540 in canadian dollars or $1,220 in US dollars.

And we keep a pretty chilly house....

Of course, to counter-balance this we spend £0.00/year on air conditioning!