Blogtober 2024 : Day 18

Today, I have been Waiting in For a Parcel.

It’s being delivered by a delivery company that don’t have a good track record of being able to find our house so I haven’t wanted to risk not being where I could see the driveway, and the four hour window for 12pm to 4pm which didn’t seem so bad when I got the email has stretched on and on.  It’s 3.50pm and the parcel is still not here.  Pfft.

Anyway, the good news is that I have blitzed the kitchen and repaired a scratch on the wooden floor (using a nut – my Mum showed me this trick years ago but I noticed that Nancy Birtwhistle had it as a video on her Instagram account the other day).  I’ve just looked up a link to attach to the blog and they all seem to use a walnut but I used a Brazil nut and it’s worked fine 🙂  I have got my steps in once again taking stuff up and down the stairs to put it away.  You’ll be wondering how we managed to move around our house with the amount of stuff that was in the wrong place, and I am wondering that myself!  They’ve only been small things, though – hair bobbles, paperwork, pens that needed to go up to the office – so they haven’t taken up much space on the working tops, but now that they are all away and I have a clear surface, it feels brilliant!

I’ve been listening to podcasts and webinars as I’ve been going along, catching up with a list that I wanted to listen to, and I have had a surprisingly enjoyable time.  I would never say that cleaning and tidying up is up there with my favourite things to do, but there is definitely something about not having things dropped in your clear space twenty minutes after you’ve finished that makes the whole process much more pleasant! 🙂

I’m pausing for a minute to make a brew.  I must confess that it’s been a while since I blitzed the house quite as comprehensively as I have been doing today, and I need a minute with a brew and a Jaffa cake.  I deserve a Jaffa cake!

It’s well past 4pm and the parcel is still not here.  There’s an update to the tracking info and it’ll be here “by the end of the day” now.  In courier company speak, that’s 7pm but I do feel sorry for people who deliver parcels later in the night – and for people who might feel uncomfortable having parcels delivered when it’s gone dark.  I spoke to our parcel postie the other day as he turned up as the light was fading and said that I as surprised they were still out so late.  He said that the Royal Mail parcel service vans were delivering up to 7pm and later, and it was going to get later still as Christmas got nearer.

Back to my tidying up.  The good thing is that I am finding things that I had forgotten I had bought – well, I say “good”, but I’m starting to realise that I have bought things and filed them away somewhere, then replaced them when I couldn’t find them.  I was very pleased with my box of bulbs from the supermarket yesterday …

but then I found another bag of bulbs that I had ordered online.  I also ordered some English bluebell bulbs that will be arriving at the end of next month.  I do quite like it when I order things that are going to get sent later as they feel like an unexpected surprise when the parcel arrives – a bit like a present to me through the post!  I’ll have to find room for 150 bulbs in the garden somewhere, but I’m sure I’ll manage it!

I ordered some seeds, too.  I’m going to try to sow my sweet peas before Christmas this year.  I never manage to do it in time but in theory, once the house is cleared up and nobody apart from me is creating any more mess, then I should have time for all kinds of things that previously got put to one side.  My husband is not messy.  He has learnt to deal with my creativity over the years, and I have learnt to contain my creativity to a manageable level, but sometimes it spills out over the edges 🙂  These packets are not all sweet pea seeds.  The seed company were selling off some of their surplus packets in a bargain lucky dip pack and although I should know better than to buy these, I can never resist.  I was delighted with some of these packs, though – ladybird poppies, zinnia, iris – I think I’ve done really well!

It’s dinner time now and I think I am done with the cleaning for today.  I’ve only scratched the surface of what I need to do really, but I’m happy with what I have done and I won’t feel in the least bit guilty about sitting and knitting this weekend now!  I’m up to the toes on the Winter Haven KAL design but have paused whilst I decide whether to carry the pattern down the toes or not … there are tough design decisions to be made sometimes!

I was going to finish off by vacuuming the conservatory sofa as our cats seem to think that it belongs to them, but as you can see, there’s an occupant …

Ahh, she’s so comfy and so fast asleep, and the vacuuming can wait.  Both of our cats always sit along the join of two cushions rather than on one whole cushion.  We’ve wondered if it feels like they’re sitting on legs as they prefer to sit and stretch out along our outstretched legs when we’re sitting down rather than curl up on a lap.  What do your cats do?  Is it just ours that are like this?

It’s the weekend tomorrow – doesn’t that seem to have come round fast?  I hope you’ve got a good one lined up, whatever you are doing! xx