Hiccups

The last week could have been better. It seemed to be filled with incidents that tried my patience.

On a recent visit to the garden centre to purchase new plants, hubs and I spotted some small mats designed to absorb water off wet boots. The label stated that they were also suitable for use in kitchens. Since the mat in our kitchen was looking the worse for wear we decided to buy a couple. The colour was right and they looked ideal for positioning by sink and cooker.


They’d only been down five minutes when we noticed bits of green fluff all over the floor, fluff that had been ‘walked off’ the mats. I began to feel guilty for suggesting we buy the damn things. Anyway, after a few days of picking up and sweeping away hubs dealt with the mats by giving them a once-over with stiff brush and vacuum cleaner. Since then, and it’s been several days, I’ve only picked up a few green bits so there’s hope yet for keeping them.


Why don’t cameras pick up true colours? Those mats are green, NOT the colour shown.

oOo

In between rain showers I decided to go down the garden to top up the bird feeders. Two years ago I purchased a ‘baffle’ to cover one of the feeders. 


The baffle is made of a transparent and extremely hard material. It fits like a dome over the feeder thus defying the squirrel access to the bird seed. It worked well until last week when I discovered what the squirrel had done. He’d only been gnawing the edge of the baffle in an attempt to ‘eat it away’. I can only imagine the little beggar lies across the dome to do this! You wouldn’t believe how cross I felt. I’ve now smeared the baffle with Vaseline in the hope that it will make his little paws sticky.


It’s an ongoing battle between him and me. Actually we didn’t see him for quite a few days and now I’m wondering if chewing the baffle had made him sick ... (insert witches cackle) ...  I can but hope! A US pal told me about the Droll Yankees method of defeating the squirrel and for your entertainment and mine here is a short video of the squirrel fling. There is also a squirrel catapult but I think I'd draw the line at that.

There was some sad news that stepdaughter’s partner had been made redundant. They’re okay but readjustments will have to be made. Wish they weren’t so far away.

Then there was a disagreement with a WI member over the WI blog which left a sour taste in my mouth for several days, plus a feeling of why did I bother! I so dislike altercations.

Talking of blogs, with all this going on I felt pushed to find the time for updating this one, so I’ve decided to cut down on the amount of posts per week. For instance, I might leave the stories for a couple of days instead of one, which should please friends who say they keep missing them.  What's the betting I revert back to old practices when I find out how much I miss the daily contact. 

But you know, throughout the irritations and upsets hubs and I can still laugh. Just lately we find ourselves laughing at the silliest of things. As I look back over recent days, it makes me feel truly grateful.