This week...

 ...has mostly been about movement (I’ve covered over 70 miles walking & running this week!)  and finding my way round my new phone, or more specifically it’s camera. With my old iPhone SE being 4 years old, there have been huge advances in phone cameras since I bought last - not least in terms of the low-light capability...

Moot House - Harlow

It deals really well with both the bright doorway and the darker shadowed areas in the foreground and on the roof, neither blowing the highlights or losing the shadows, and replicating really well the colours present in the scene - it’s nice to find a mobile camera that doesn’t try to cancel out warm light in a shot.

There has been plenty of lovely warm autumn colours to try it out with too - this time of year our town really comes into its own with all the green spaces and planting turning to yellows, reds and oranges. 

I’ve picked up on a project I began some years ago again recently too - my other blog,  Recording Harlow which looks at the history of our town, and specifically what has changed over the years. Quite a bit of my walking this week has been around the various neighbourhoods searching for bits of history and also trying to capture more of the autumn colour where I can.  

We also have several areas of woodland scattered around the town - among them Brenthall and Barnsley Wood which forms the border between two of the newer housing developments on the east. At this time of year there seems to be fungi wherever you look in the woodlands - so a good opportunity to try out the camera’s close up capability too - and it’s no slouch! 

Another thing I have long envied those with newer phone cameras is their wide angle lenses - and the new iPhone doesn’t disappoint on that level either! There is a fair bit of distortion but then you expect that with this field of view...

Our Lady of Fatima Church 

...I’m certainly looking forward to playing with THAT setting in the Hebrides, it’s just meant for those wonderful landscapes! It’s certainly done justice to all the detail in our local Catholic church, above with good sharpness across the frame from spire to the intricately patterned brick wall. 

So far then, hugely impressed. Apple have gone over from giving us the option of using HDR mode (high dynamic range) to “auto HDR” which I confess made me slightly nervous as this is the sort of thing I’d usually rather have control over - however it’s a gentle touch that ensures that the detail in a bright yet overcast sky isn’t lost, and that colours are dealt with faithfully. Photographs from the iPhone 12 are mostly good to go straight from shooting from what I’ve seen so far, with less need of stand-alone processing apps to bring out the shadows and control the highlights. Depth of field is nice on close ups, and there is a portrait mode to create blurred backgrounds to help the subject stand out if required. I’ll be enjoying some more exploring to put it to the test even further this week, anyway! 

Robyn.

It’s all new...

Transition to the new Blogger interface has happened - I was reverted to it a while back and it quite simply didn’t work at all on the iPad - on the odd occasions it would let me make a new post at all it was impossible to post photos, and as we all know this blog rarely has a post without a photo! So after a few days of trying, failing, and using the old interface anyway, I eventually switched back for as long as it would let me - and that time has now come to an end it seems, time to do battle again! 

First reactions are good - the new post button appeared straight away this time without needing the repeated refreshes that were needed last time out. Posting a single photo too is now seamless - which is a relief as it was the main thing I was worried about. Fingers crossed this is a good sign that the earlier niggles have now been fixed.

And now for the reason behind today’s choice of photo - which you will have spotted is a favourite Hebridean beach. The balance for our upcoming trip is now PAID and I’m finally starting to believe that we might be going! Ironically we have now been told that a Friday ferry crossing has been reinstated on our usual route over, obviously that has happened AFTER we had booked our crossing! We’re sticking with what we have booked though - ultimately it gets us another day across there, so why would we not?! (As “downsides” go, that one is none too bad!) Although we were only across last at Christmas, this trip feels like a long time coming having had to deal with the disappointment of the postponement in May, and I think it’s safe to say that we both really need a couple of weeks to just switch off and relax. 

Something I have been saying almost since we started going across to the Hebrides for a fortnight each year is that I want to spend a good chunk of one day just sitting on a beach with a book with no pressure to do anything - and I’m determined that this is the year it will happen. What tends to happen once we’re there is that each time a day comes along where the weather would lend itself to sitting on a beach, that weather also lends itself to a walk up a hill, or an explore of another island, or whatever. The feeling that we must be making the maximum use of all our time is always a strong one, but this time round I think we also need more than anything else to thoroughly relax. I’m not a sunbather by any stretch, but I can very happily spend a day on a beach with a book, a bit of paddling, maybe a game with a frisbee, or possibly a fly of a kite thrown in....well, as long as the thought of  a walk up a hill, or an explore of another island, doesn’t get in the way, that is! 

Robyn

Truth? Or Fiction?

I was thinking about favourite bloggers from years gone by this morning - who is still about and who has faded away. Some leave, then return (Sue from Smaller & Simpler Life - you!)  others seem to disappear for ages then you discover that they’ve been blogging again for ages, you just hadn’t found them - Tracey AKA Fostermummy! Others have been about seemingly forever but still manage to keep it new and fresh (MeanQueen). Then there are those who simply disappear completely - anyone know what happened to Saving For Travel? I miss her blog, with her clever ways of saving to enable visiting fabulous destinations! Less missed, certainly by me, is another well known blogger who closed down her blog allegedly after being trolled - but certainly after she had herself treated another member of the blogging community in a truly appalling way. Prior to that she had pretty much entirely re-written her back-story, and my (and others) suspicion is that she actually chose to close down before she was called out - in the background of “all things money saving” but hiding in plain sight were brand new cars, luxury hotel stays and countless other contradictions. And this is the thing with blogging - and I guess to an extent any form of social media - you can choose to lie, to dress your life up as something it is not, but the chances are that people are going to be smarter than you give them credit for, and they WILL suss you out. I remember on one occasion after I had done “Frugal February” when we were working to pay off the mortgage - we’d cut things to the bone, lived from the cupboards, made our food shops cash-neutral, opted not to spend on going out, etc, and ended the month on a tiny spend. Shortly after a friend was asking me about it and after chatting on the subject for a while she gave me a conspiratorial smile and said “so go on then, how much did you REALLY spend?” - unable to believe that it was not all a front to look good on the blog, she was convinced we had to have made the whole thing up, in essence. I’m not sure if she was pleased or disillusioned when I explained that no - if you see it on the blog, then it’s true, I refuse to gild the lily to make life look “more perfect” to outsiders!

It is no coincidence that the blogs I’ve always enjoyed the most are also those - I believe anyway - that play things pretty straight. I think that Tracey has commented before that she refuses to curate her life to fit what people might expect. It’s not just blogs either - Instagram is a prime example of an environment where. People,  an portray their lives as absolutely perfect - no burned toast, split seams, petty arguments over the housework or favourite novels dropped into the bath for our favourite influencers - all is shiny and perfect, every photograph oh so carefully staged, never a hair out of place or a dirty plate left in view in their perfect loft apartments. Do we think they really live like that? Hell no - at least not if we have even half a foot still on solid ground, but of course that’s the thing - they rely on those who have been sucked in to perpetuate the myth , and for every one person who DOES believe that is how those lives really are, there is the potential for that follower to find themselves feeling that if their life is not that perfect, they have somehow failed. In fact of course what they are measuring their full unedited life against are the edited highlights of someone else’s. The “best bits” only - the perfect healthy dinners, the immaculately made up, posed photos, the fitness routine that frankly, even during lockdown, most of us would simply not have had time to maintain!

Next time you are looking at an Instagram account, or reading a blog, and you find yourself feeling a sense of it all being “too good to be true” then perhaps consider that in fact maybe it IS too good to be true - that you are only seeing the bits of someone that they choose to show you, but in fact, when the shutter isn’t clicking, their life may well be much the same as yours - after all we do all have to load the dishwasher, empty the washing machine, and get the shopping in - that stuff just doesn’t make riveting viewing on social media! Start considering it to be only half the story - with the other half, that they choose to keep quiet, being FAR less glamorous!

Day 100...

The end? Or the start of the beginning? Take your pick, but with - realistically in England at least - lockdown coming to an end, it’s time to move into our new normal, and so this will be the last day I blog with a day number I think. 100 days, over three months, more than a quarter of a year - whichever way you choose to look at it without question it has been a very strange time to live through . I said at the beginning of these daily blog posts that it felt as though it was a pretty momentous time in our history, and I still feel that’s true. My generation’s grandchildren, great-grandchildren and beyond will be taught about this in schools - indeed, it makes you wonder how, in a society that seems ever more consumer driven - how unbelievable it will seem that all shops were shut, and in most cases for so long, too!

I’m going to try to give a pretty honest “pro’s and cons” take on how things have been right here. It  has been a very tough time to live through - from the initial terror, the numbers that were being reported early on as likely mortality figures for the U.K. if no lockdown was put in place were horrendous - hundreds of thousands dead was the figure being suggested by experts - and from my perspective it felt as though I would be extremely fortunate to emerge with both my parents still living, for example. Through to the restrictions placed on us early in lockdown - I found being told I could only go out once a day for exercise incredibly difficult - not that I always DO go out more than that, but usually, I have the option if needed. Having to queue for access to food shops was a strange one to get used to as well - especially as at first there was precious little in the shops to buy! Adjusting initially to both of us working from home, and then to just MrEH being in that position - our flat isn’t the biggest, and losing one entire room several days a week to be “office space” has been a challenge. The drop in income - me being put onto furlough and MrEH having his hours dropped to three days per week - so 60% of usual income - we were probably better equipped to cope with that than a lot of people, but it’s still been a challenge to juggle day to day cashflow. The uncertainty around this too - my furlough period is still open ended - the right decision for the company as the aim is that by the time I go back things will be back in a fairly even keel again but still an odd, uncertain position to be in. Silly things have contributed to this as well - it feels as though our food spend has gone through the roof - because usually we would eat at least some meals away from home, on days out or weekends away - and so those would come from different budgets. Similarly we’ve been buying beer in with the food spend - and that of course would usually come from our own spending money so not be visible at all on our joint spending. In fact we have been spending far less than we would in usual times, it’s just appearing differently - and more obviously - in front of us. Then - and for me this is by far the biggest thing - the cancellation of so many much anticipated events and plans. The first for us was the decision we had to take with the rest of the working party to cancel The Great British Beer Festival, then our holiday celebrating a close friend’s 50th birthday on Lundy, and our own fortnight in the Hebrides. Airshow after airshow cancelled - including several that I had expensive and technically non-refundable accommodation booked for. I have missed my aviation photography too - no trips to Scampton since February, and my only proper aviation photography since then has been a single trip to Lakenheath soon after  lockdown restrictions were first eased.

So - that’s the negatives, but there has undoubtedly also been many positives too. Referring back to that last point about the airshow accommodation  - people proving that they can be very kind about things, by agreeing to either roll over bookings to next year or being willing to refund, even against the terms of the relevant booking site. Spending more time together - I’ve said before that MrEH is probably the only human being on earth I can imagine spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week with, and this has underlined that fact. Of course there have been niggly moments - it would be crazy to suggest otherwise, but generally speaking we’ve been perfectly content to continue doing the majority of things together without either of us feeling that time alone is something we crave (and for the avoidance of doubt, as checked with him he felt the same about this too!). Rediscovering the love of our little outside space on the balcony - taking the time to do the much overdue work of painting, putting decking tiles back down and repairing the fences both sides. Time, generally in fact. It is going to be quite difficult to readjust when the time comes to our previous level of “busy” I suspect, and indeed, I think we are already starting to consider that perhaps we don’t want to return to quite the same level. The ability (not just for me, but for many others too) to commit more time to exercising outdoors - I have several friends who have begun the Couch to 5k programme and seen it through during lockdown - one good friend ran her first ever 5k earlier this week and was utterly delighted with herself, quite rightly! It’s been a delight to see so many others getting grabbed by the running bug! Indeed for myself too - when the weather has been hot having the ability to decide just to run around the woods, and on other cooler days venturing further afield. Exploring so much more of our local area as well - quite literally turning along roads in the mornings simply because we’ve never walked along them before, and at weekends heading out to places we’ve often talked about going before. Walking the sculpture trail is something we have idly discussed doing for years, similarly going to find the remains of the temple. Doing more baking has been good fun too - from simple stuff like flapjacks and scones, through to chocolate brownies and chocolate banana bread - everything has been delicious and we’ve found a few recipes we will make again. Also in the kitchen - my sourdough starter has been a triumph, giving us the ability to have freshly baked sourdough bread every week. If I’d known how simple it was I would have done it ages ago, and even the bread itself is dead easy - far easier than a traditional loaf!

So there you have it. MrEH is back to 5 days working now although there is still a financial impact....for us thankfully for the moment at least mostly cancelled out by no travel expenses. We have our Hebrides holiday re-booked for later in the summer and are crossing fingers that we can go. I’m planning a Scampton trip...soon! Pubs re-open at the weekend. Some shortages still exist in te shops - bread flour is still tricky to come by, in particular. We still have a long way to go with the virus for company I suspect and we may well still have difficult times to come, but this point seems to mark the turn into a new phase.

I may well still blog most days I think, I’ve got used to it and am enjoying it again. I believe I am right in saying that this is the longest consecutive run of daily posts I’ve made since I started the blog - perhaps I should see that as another lockdown positive?!

Robyn

#CCC - virtual decluttering

I decided that there was no better place to start blogging about my Conscious Consumption Challenge than by talking about some decluttering on the blog itself!

I love my "cloud" of tags on the right hand side here - it makes it easy to find posts on a particular theme easily, but over time the cloud had become rather more widespread, let's say. Sometimes I blog something that needs a particular tag because I'm joining in with others. Sometimes I start a tag thinking I'll do more round it, then in my usual style get utterly distracted by something else and never blog about that thing again. Sometimes I forget exactly what tag I might have used before for something and use something that seems about right - only to realise afterwards what the "standard" tag for the subject was. Either way it has meant that I had quite a lot of tags over there that had only one or two posts on them, and quite a lot of others which while they had a good few posts, duplicated almost totally with another, similar tag. So in a few minutes of spare time I sat down and began methodically working through the tags, getting rid of quite a lot, and adding additional tags to some posts where I felt they would fit better. It's a bit of a work in progress really - there is more to do, but already it is starting to look a bit less cluttered.

In the process of working through the tags I also found posts with expired links which I have deleted, and even a few full posts which for various reasons are now irrelevant, so those have been deleted as well. Again - a work in progress, I suspect there is more to do, there is after all 10 years of posts on here, even if some of those years have been less prolific than others!

Another task I undertook while I was at it was to go through my reading list - some of the links on there were to old blogs that no longer exist and look unlikely to ever make a reappearance. Others are from people who stopped blogging some time ago, or now blog elsewhere. Then the real nitty gritty and where the value in this exercise lies - those blogs that I still have on my list because I enjoyed them at one stage but now I just skim past. Some others that I followed out of duty to particular people who were in my life at the time, but who I have now drifted away from, removing the need for a "loyalty follow". That done I added a few new ones that I had gleaned from the sidebars of other blogs that I DO still follow, to add value to my list. This should mean a less cluttered reading list and blog feed, and not missing stuff that I actually want to see amongst a tide of stuff that sparks no joy or interest whatsoever.

It's another step towards remembering that decluttering can happen on all sorts of levels - a while ago a friend told me how she manages a "zero inbox" for her emails - and while I've not managed to get mine to zero, I drastically cut down the amount of stuff sitting in both my personal and work emails, and do a weekly "filing session" tidying up both and making sure that anything that needs attention, gets it. The result is far less clutter, less stress over the possibility of missing something that needs a reply/action, and items being put in folders meaning that they are easier to find later if needed.

While the classic perception of decluttering is about physical "stuff", the virtual clutter can also serve to drag us down mentally, and should probably be considered as worthy of attention as the books, CD's, clothes etc that we usually picture in our minds when the concept comes up. when was the last time you undertook a virtual spring clean?

Robyn

Who cares...? (And who cares if they don't)

I posted a while ago that I was struggling with what to put here these days. With the time to put anything at all. and although I've posted a few times since, that remains unchanged - I've still been wrangling in my head with the same old "nobody's interested" thoughts - which is why THIS POST from Jen over at My Make and Mend Life really struck a chord with me yesterday. Her phrase about comparing other people's beautiful outsides with her own scrunched up insides especially - that makes SO much sense!

It's easy to lose sight of the fact that, online, what you see of a person is what they present to you, what they want you to see. That person who's so upbeat, so cheerful, so damned GOOD at everything they turn their hands to - in real life might possibly be full of gloom and not achieving half what they sound as though they are - it's just that the bits they show you make it all look shiny. Remember "Friends Reunited"? Remember how utterly implausible it was that everyone you'd been at school with had ALL landed these high-powered impressive sounding jobs, and how it made you feel ever so slightly like perhaps YOU should have done that, too? Well here's the thing - I bet you anything you like the majority either didn't have the job they were leading you to believe that they did, (case in point, the lass who I was at school with who I knew full well was working on a florist's stall at the station - suffice to say that was NOT what her FR profile claimed she was doing!). It's not all about people trying to "big themselves up" though - sometimes it's the way we read what people have written, the way we interpret it. Sometimes it's the very fact that we compare ourselves to others, and to how they're making their lives sound, without sparing a thought for whether that life would make US happy, or whether it would be a form of torture for us.

Blogging is a funny old thing, and I realised recently that the thing I've lost sight of comes back directly to the way I am about things in real life. I said to a friend recently that my default setting is to always assume that people won't want to hear from me. I'm rubbish at suggesting phone calls with pals, for this very reason - there's a bit of me that always thinks "they'll make an excuse, they won't want to chat with me, they'll have more interesting folk to speak/spend time with" - it always surprises me when someone suggests a phone call for a natter, in fact, it AMAZES me. If I don't phone you, it's not that I don't want to speak to you, it's that I assume that YOU won't want to speak with ME!  I hesitate to tell people when I consider them a good, or close friend, because I'm always wary of the fact that they'll be embarrassed because they don't feel the same - that to them I'm nothing more than an acquaintance. I'm reluctant, a lot of the time, to suggest to friends that we go places, or do things, for the same reason - I assume that while they might well want to go to those places, or do those things, they won't want to do it with me, and will then feel awkward about refusing.

I have a friend - yes, I'll go as far as to say a good friend - whose "default setting" when stressed, or busy, or unhappy about something, is to shut themselves away from the wider world. I know they will be keeping in contact with the people who are absolutely central to their everyday life - partner and parents - but beyond that, radio silence. I've spent years feeling each time this happens that it's their subtle way of telling me that they don't want to be in touch any more, but they're uncomfortable with actually telling me that, and only recently have I realised that actually, it's just their coping mechanism when things are tough, and that the best thing for me to do is to be there - to drop a text every now and again, a tag on social media with something of interest to them - just little things to let them know that I'm still here, still on their side. And as and when things settle down for them, we'll be back to normal. I don't like it, but it's part of that person, part of the way they are, and while when they're quiet I miss them like mad, ultimately, it's not a reflection on me, it's just the way things are.

Confidence can be such an issue for so many people - and we should all remember that the person we see who appears to be absolutely super-confident may actually be anything but. I started blogging in the first place not because I thought anyone would want to read, or to look at the pictures I posted, but for me, as a record of things we'd done, places we'd been, small triumphs, that sort of thing, and I'd really like to get back to doing it for that reason. I actually like looking back on my blog posts, I can get lost for ages in stuff I've written before, and so often that reminds me of things I used to enjoy but I've lost sight of. So I guess the bottom line is who cares if anyone else wants to read my ramblings. If I can look back on them in a few years and think "Oh yes!" then that's as good a reason for carrying on, as any.

Robyn

All quiet... (In every sense!)

A few days ago I had a good natter with my lovely pal from The Wind & The Wellies about struggling to find ones voice when it comes to writing stuff online, and the reasons for that. In fact she's very sensibly written a whole blog post on the subject already. She talks much sense. Go. Read.

Done? Good - I'll carry on then! Well, I say I'll carry on, but that's not entirely straightforward it is it - because as I said to her earlier, I'm just not sure what to write about...and that makes it just a little bit tricky. It's been a funny sort of year - the summer was once again massively busy and full of all sorts of fun, but in the background there was been some stresses (which I mentioned here previously) which have only finally sorted themselves out quite recently. In the process of it I thought I was going to end up losing contact with a very dear friend - not through either of our fault, or even really choice, but simply because that was going to be the best thing for both of us. In the end - thank goodness - we found a way through, and in fact have probably emerged with a stronger friendship because of it. It's made me realise quite how much I valued the whole relationship though, and maybe that's no bad thing, to have that sort of reminder from time to time? All in all though the process of dealing with the situation has taken up a hell of a lot of my headspace over the last little while, and not left that much time for writing stuff on here.

There is the added issue of, since the airshow season finished, I've not really done a huge amount to talk about. There have been odds and ends - a couple of beer festivals, a trip to Birmingham for the Good Food show (think lots of cheese, and nearly as much smoked fish...) and a couple of trips up to Scampton to see the Reds winter training. All good fun, but not really anything that's made me think "I must tell the Blog about that". Thankfully though there is plenty of plans for the New Year - a trip to Manchester, a weekend in Norfolk, some more Island adventuring, and indeed some Ireland adventuring too, more pointing the camera at Little Red Jets (as I do) and a few other odds and ends to be crammed in there too. Then before I know it the airshows will be starting again - we're already starting to plan where we're heading next year although for me nothing will be set in stone until we see the Reds display calendar for the year - I will then plan my summer around that.

Other than that - life continues much as normal. Whilst living less frugally than we were this time a year ago - that is as the result of a conscious choice, that sometimes there are things that are worth spending money on as they save us valuable time, or give us enough enjoyment that they are worth it. The renting of the garage for example, gives us back space at home, and will help my car to stay in good condition for longer. MrEH is looking at a shirt laundering & pressing service as a possibility at the moment too - ironing is nobody's favourite pastime is it, and over time it's impossible to keep white shirts looking as crisp and fresh as they ought to with home laundering, so while he probably wouldn't use that sort of service on a weekly basis, he may do occasionally just to give his work wear a freshen up. Other stuff doesn't change at all - I still pretty much entirely cook from scratch as that's the food we prefer - ready meals (unless they're home cooked and frozen ones!) don't suit us. We shop around for the best deals on things, buy train tickets for planned adventures when they are first released for the best prices, meal plan and budget for stuff.  All good, all ticking along. We're still not sure exactly what and when our final target is, but at the moment, as things stand, that is also just fine. I'm tentatively planning a "use it up" month for January - aiming to tackle to store cupboard, larder, freezer and fridge - so some inventive meals may be beckoning! Whether that becomes a Frugal Friday theme I've not decided yet, but you never know.

Life is good - and you can't ask for much more than that, can you!

Robyn

Truth or Lies?

I wrote a post a while back about the ethics relating to writing blog posts - here it is if you want a read. It's something that raised its head again for me a while ago after a conversation with a friend, so I thought I'd explore it a bit more. We were talking about my Blog - my friend has said before that she enjoys reading it, especially the Frugal Friday posts, and she was remarking on my "Frugal Food February" of the other year in particular. She asked "So come on then, how much did you REALLY spend during the month?" I was a bit lost for a second...the penny dropped eventually though and I explained that the amount was exactly what she'd read on the blog. I went on to explain that everything I write on the blog is truthful - I see no reason to lie and and liars always get caught out in any event.

I wrote my Frugal Friday posts for several reasons - first that I enjoyed writing them - it's a challenge having a deadline to write for each week and for a while I felt like I needed that - it was good for me as it meant that I had to sit down and write that amount of words each week without fail. The other reason is that I know other people enjoyed them and have even found them useful - and if I can do something that I find enjoyable, which also helps others, then why not? I'd enjoy them a lot less though if I was constantly trying to remember whether I'd previously mentioned a particular purchase, or whether I'd conveniently forgotten to refer to it. Take MrEH's car replacement last year for example - I mentioned it on here because a) it was a £2k spend, and NOT mentioning it, particularly when Frugal Friday comes about, would have felt like I was lying by omission b) It was a good chance to "talk through" a process that I've done before and so find relatively straightforward, yet I already know from the feedback I've had on it that a lot of folk found some of the points in it useful to know and c) I've posted pics in the past of the old car when we've been on camping trips etc - now you're an observant lot, I know that, and so I think it's fairly likely you would have noticed MrEH's car had changed colour from blue, to red! At that point, people would be sitting there scratching their heads and wondering what else I'd not mentioned - you can be sure of that. Likewise my new camera, and lens - bought last year. Yes they were big (massive!) purchases for me (around £1,600 in total) and on the face of it, far from frugal, but in reality it WAS frugal - I'd saved up, waited until I could afford it, and until I was certain that it was a purchase I wanted to make, and that I would get good value from it. Had we had debts that needed clearing (aside from that mortgage, and you already know about our assault on that!) then the money would have gone to those first and foremost, but we don't, so I routinely save from my personal income to ensure that I can afford to indulge myself on occasion, once the money is there. Once I have though, I'm quite happy to talk about it on here, there's no reason not to and ensures I can be comfortable within my own moral-framework.

If you're a good liar, you can probably get away with it, and nobody will be any the wiser. Of course if you're a blogger who's keen on product promotion to earn money, or on getting yourself nominated for various high-profile awards, that's a more dangerous game, and it gets even MORE dangerous if you were to be that sort of blogger and a bad liar with a poor memory, to boot. A relatively small amount of research confirms that there are JUST those sorts of bloggers out there too!  Reading through various blog posts myself and a pal  noticed one or two slightly "confusing" discrepancies - discounts offered in exchange for a product promotion initially weren't mentioned at all, and was then subsequently referred to as a 15% discount, before later increasing to 25%. That's minor though and pales into significance when you consider the "Frugal" blogger who "forgot" to mention the purchase of a 20k brand new car - my memory is bad but even I'd not manage to forget something like that! (And oddly enough the tweet which gave the game away has now been removed...however a screengrab is a useful thing!) How about reading posts by someone who has regularly told us that they don't use their heating as they "can't afford it", and yet their family members have regularly been pictured wearing t-shirts in the house in midwinter, or mysterious vanishing pots of money, there one minute and dedicated for a particular purpose, and missing without trace the next? Of course it is entirely reasonable that the writer of a blog chooses what to write about, but, when that blog is of a nature that might even be considered "preachy" on matters of frugality, and its writer is never shy to castigate others for what they see as "wasting money" does it strike you as a bit two-faced, dishonest even, to take a "do as I say, not as I do" approach without making it entirely clear that this IS the approach you're taking? Another good example is the "changing or vanishing history" - where stuff that was previously posted on a blog gets removed altogether or edited to change it's context. In one case I know of that even applies to the reasons why a person got into debt in the first place - originally an honest admission of having done too much "keeping up with the Jones'es" but now apparently due to mysterious "Circumstances beyond their control"...

My question is - is there any need for this? If someone wants to write a spoof blog then that's great - it will be a good read and people will flock to it for that reason - but a blog purporting to be truthful is something very different. If people are voting for a blog for awards, don't they have a right to believe that the blogger concerned is being truthful, not leaving out or even deleting things that don't suit their "theme"? If you have voted in any of the well known Blog Awards over the past few years, are you absolutely sure that the person you've voted for is all that they seem, and as honest as they claim? If there is a little niggle in your mind, then consider doing a bit of reading, and research, then you can make your own mind up, can't you... ;-)

Robyn

(Anti) Social Media...

Most people are agreed, social media is a pretty good thing. Let's face it, without it we wouldn't be chatting here now, would we?! It enables us to keep in touch with those we might otherwise lose contact with - those people who can't form a part of our everyday lives either due to distance or circumstances, but who we wouldn't want to lose contact with entirely, either. In some cases it also lets us rekindle old friendships that have drifted away for whatever reason - last year my best friend from Primary school and I found one another again due to the wonders of the internet - I knew she had become a quite successful actress (which was precisely what she always wanted to do, so yay for her!) but had been unable to track down any form of contact for her until she popped up on Twitter. SO lovely to be back in touch with the person who features in so many of my childhood photos! iMessage lets me stay in touch with a very good pal who spends too much of her life back in the USA, and better than that, it lets a whole group of us who are a close unit hang out and chat together. Sometimes social media even lets us make new friends - My aviation-photographing Partner-In-Crime Claire and I met after I saw her stuff on Twitter, then spotted her standing at the fence at Scampton. Within a few minutes we'd sussed we were kindred spirits with an identical mad streak and that was that! Similarly my pal Ross first made contact by messaging me on there after seeing some of my photos - that then lead to my Very Exciting Project last year too which would never have taken off (pun intended) without Twitter either!  One of my very very bestest chums in the whole world (yes, we're secretly five year olds!) & I met through an internet forum in the first place - not having her in my life now is unthinkable, but without the WWW we'd probably never had crossed paths.

Sometimes though, Social Media is very much NOT a good thing. It can be abused by those who have "ulterior motives" - take as an example the very public trolling suffered by celebrities including Tom Daley and more recently Sue Perkins - how on earth can ANYONE consider it reasonable to suggest that they would like to see someone burn to death? Forums have for years provided outlets for those spineless bullies who would not in real life have the courage to say boo to a goose to pick on those they perceive as weaker than them and this now seems to be moving on to other forms of social media too. Sometimes this can take the form of outright unpleasantness, at others it's more of a quiet picking away at a person, designed to make them feel progressively worn down. Sometimes it is, I think, as simple as the bully needing to feel better about their own life by denigrating the lives and choices of others. A very close friend of mine has been completely put off one social media outlet where she used to post regularly due to just this latter sort of behaviour - the problem is that the perpetrator is so sly and clever about it there is little that those of us who have seen it can do without them being able to come back and just say "Oh but I only meant..... I'm upset that you've taken it that way" thus deploying the attention and sympathy back to themselves. Don't get me wrong, a number of us know she's doing it, but actually pinning down anything black and white enough to say "that's out of order" about is tricky. The world of the "Keyboard Commando" is a strange one - and in a lot of cases the phrase "you need to get out more" can seemingly be applied very literally to them - so often these seem to be people who have very little "real life" interaction, and some form of balance is required, I think.

Other "questionable" uses for Social Media to me include those who seem to "friend collect" on FB. OK, so you've got 567 "friends" on there - really? I mean, honestly? Firstly I bet only a fraction of those would know you if they passed you in the street, and secondly, no, that doesn't make you better than anyone else. (I overheard someone recently asking someone else "Oh, so a real friend, or a facebook friend? and I kind of knew what they meant - there seems to be two definitions now). Then there are those who are mostly on FB for self-promotion - and no, I'm not talking about promoting a business or similar, but those who's every second post is essentially telling you how wonderful they are and how fabulous their lives are. Well sorry, I have news for you - if you WERE that wonderful you'd crack on and DO all this stuff without feeling the need to be constantly searching for pats on the back! I have a friend (real, not just FB!) who does an INCREDIBLE amount for her charity of choice - and yet she just quietly gets on with it - she has separate feeds on Social Media for her charity stuff and occasionally posts stuff from there into her personal feeds yes, but you never see a "look at me" post from her. Another friend volunteers on a regular basis for a charity that helps those affected by alcohol abuse in others - and again, she just gets on and does it. Special mention in this category goes to those who use Social Media for Social Climbing...crawling all over people while they are "useful" to them and dropping them like hot-cakes as and when someone more "useful" comes along. Just stop it - go and get a life of your own and stop trying to steal everyone elses.

The other potential problem with the "instant gratification" provided by social media is the anxiety it can cause. WHY has so-and-so not "liked" that Instagram Photo or Facebook Post? What does that person mean by that comment about how badly they've been treated - are they talking about me? I know X read that iMessage I sent them so does the fact that they've not replied mean I've upset them? Does the fact that I've not replied mean they think they've upset ME? Don't even get me started on those wretched ticks on WhatsApp! Another anxiety causer can simply be that tendency to be connected to EVERYONE in our lives ALL the time, meaning that on the entirely inevitable occasion that friend Y* has upset you you have nowhere to vent that frustration where friend Y won't see it - thus risking starting the whole "is that about me" cycle all over again! In extreme cases you can see this being played out in a game of social media Tennis - FaceBook is especially good for this - as one person posts something, then another posts something that is quite clearly in reply, and so on. (A few folk *might* have been acquaintanced on my FB as a result of this.) That's one reason why I do occasionally do a rant like this on the blog - it's just the most marvellous place to say "Waahhhhhh!" without all and sundry immediately replying with "You ok?" - it's lovely that people care, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it is as simple as yes, I was  pissed off, but I've now had a nice cathartic rant and felt better...well, until I felt under pressure to explain myself as a result of 47 people all asking if I'm OK, that is!

Come on then - what are your pro's and con's of Social media? Have you shared any of these experiences? And please, I know this goes without saying but please DON'T identify anyone on here!

Robyn



* I don't have a "Friend Y" so far as I know, so if you're reading this, no, it's NOT about you. Of course, some of the earlier stuff might be....there, that's given you food for thought, hasn't it... ;-)

On blogging (or not blogging), and "stuff"...

So, I didn't blog much from the Hebrides this year, did I. I did do a fair bit on Instagram, and on Twitter - both mediums that suit the dubious nature of internet signals up there rather better than blogging. For a start both can be done from my phone very easily, whereas blogging is easier on the laptop, and while I have the laptop with me, it has to be turned on, and a signal obtained that is actually strong enough to do anything from...and as bizarre as it sounds, if it is raining, or the wind is in the wrong direction, that's not always going to be viable!  When I blog I also tend to feel like I should post "proper" photos, from my "real" camera, rather than pics from the phone...and yes, I know that's a pressure I put on myself, not one applied by anyone else, but that doesn't make it any the less real...

When we were away in 2014 I found myself on several occasions slightly resenting "having to" do my blog post - there were other things I felt keener to do - going for a walk, or just sitting on the sofa with a book. And then I felt guilty about that, so I got on with it and blogged anyway. But you know what - we were ON HOLIDAY for goodness sake - what on earth was I thinking?! So this year I decided in advance that blogging was going to be minimised - I'd see how I went with it. I still stuck the credit on the dongle for the laptop, but then discovered when I got there that there was an intermittent 3G signal which would enable me to do almost everything I would want from the phone, so that has been struck off the list for next year.

The holiday was what I needed - no question. I've been struggling with some personal stuff for a while now - no, before you ask, nothing serious, and yes, I'm fine, thank you, it's just "stuff" that I need to work through, and work through it I will, but the fortnight away gave me the space to acknowledge that my head's not in a good place and I need to cut myself some slack to deal with it. Sometimes it's tough when you're juggling all that real life throws at you to actually step back, look at the clutter in your head, and realise that the only way it's going to fall into any sort of order is by making time and space for it to do so. This summer is looking like being another ridiculously busy one - and with the amount of fun and excitement we already seem to be having lined up for us it seems ludicrously self-indulgent to be wittering on about "needing space", but I know from experience if I don't start the airshow season in a healthy state of both body and mind, I won't last the pace - and there's no WAY I want that to happen!

So, for now, I'm going to blog as and when I feel like it. There may be photos, there may not. In the meantime though there is another bit of islandy-adventuring to come - a wee trip to Lundy Island which both sounds and looks like somewhere from the Famous Five, doesn't it! That will be my first chance ever to see one of the UK's rare-breed ponies too - the eponymous "Lundy Pony" - which is quite exciting too. There WILL be photos in due course I'm sure, but most likely not while we're there as - in the true spirit of islands, it's another place with an utterly rubbish mobile signal - hurrah!

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown 2015...

It's creeping up on us now. It always does to a degree, but with having only been over there a few months ago this year it seems to be more than usual. Oddly enough we found that this happened when we were getting ready to go at New Year, too!

I'm undecided as to what I'm going to do as far as blogging while I'm there goes this year - while I do enjoy doing it, a sporadic internet connection can make it a bit tricky at times, and I'm veering towards probably only doing very simple posts this year - a photo or two and a brief description, probably.  I will be posting pics on Instagram & Twitter though - links to my accounts there are over on the right hand side. The internet connection over there gets ever better - those with fixed broadband are now reporting something close to the kinds of speeds you can get on a standard connection on the mainland, albeit generally at a higher cost. Connecting via a dongle though tends to rely on a direct line to the mast and the wind being in the right direction...and any sort of mobile internet connection on the phone is pretty much a dead loss.

Robyn

Well goodness me...

... *she says brightly* - it's been a while, hasn't it? Everyone OK I hope? All present and correct? I've been mithering for a while on what I should do with this. I mean, I think it sort of lost its direction, but that's a bit daft after all, it's had a change of direction or several in the past and always survived the experience, hasn't it? Maybe the answer is just to let it meander along to itself for a bit and see where it wants to end up. I've always kind of felt that without pictures there's no point in posting - after all it *did* start life as a photo blog...but chatting with some very smart, sensible and lovely chums over the weekend, we all reached the same conclusion - that actually first and foremost we write for ourselves...NOT FOR ANYONE ELSE! So here I am, ready to ramble about...well, whatever. I think there will more often or not be photos...I mean, more often than not I've been taking them, so it seems silly not to show them to you, too!

So - after my fabulously exciting summer, where did I go from there? Well, quite predictably I think everything went a bit flat and empty feeling for a while. It wasn't just me - a good pal had a simultaneous "isn't life shit" few weeks back in October/November too - which would have helped mightily if we'd done the sensible thing and actually talked about it...but of course we didn't.  Of course the bottom line as both of us have since realised is that really, life isn't shit at all, it's jolly good fun mostly, but after the sheer amount of fun and fabulousness we both had through the summer, it was inevitably going to feel like nothing exciting was ever going to happen again when it all finished! Ah well, you live and learn, and then you start all over again with plotting and planning exciting things! The winter has certainly had some fun crammed in to it as well - lots of time spent with lovely friends both in Lincolnshire and elsewhere. MrEH and I went up to the Hebrides for a week over New Year - just amazing to see the islands at a different time of year and we planned our travel to incorporate the "beach landing" on Barra, too.

Bit of a dream come true that - it's been on our list for a LOT of years! Also confirmed 100% for me that I love flying regardless of the size of aircraft too - this little 15 seater was the smallest thing I'd flown on but I loved it! Half the reason for going over was to ascertain how we found  the place in the winter months - we were wary about lack of daylight ion particular, but in fact it proved to be none too bad. The light during the day on a bright day is just incredible - absolutely beautiful, so you can forgive the fact that there's not much of it until 9am!

The weather bothered us a lot less - albeit we experienced a good mix in the week we were there from snow, beautiful sunshine as you see above, and some very heavy winds. (That's very heavy winds of the "don't go out in this unless you actually need to" type - which up there really means that you should avoid going out!) Interestingly though there was no weather during that time worse than we've encountered before with one exception, which was icy roads - something we were greeted with on arriving on Uist. We know already about the potential for days and days of strong winds and driving rain, so that came as little surprise, and snow is actually relatively unusual. All in all it was a successful visit, confirming to us that actually, in the long term, the Hebrides would suit us quite nicely.  We're off up there again soon, too - looking forward to a fortnight staying in the same place as last year. There is also another "Island" trip to look forward to as we're joining a large party of friends on Lundy for a week. They've been after us to go with them for years but this is the first opportunity we've had.

Once back from both of those trips I will be back into the thick of the airshow season again pretty much immediately - lots planned again this year, Claire and I have had our heads together plotting trips pretty much since the Reds released their display schedule last month. Looks like once again we will each be doing a few shows that the other can't manage but hopefully the vast majority we'll be together. All in all, we're looking forward to another fun-packed summer, whatever it may bring!

Robyn

A is For...

I confess, I usually run like the plague from those themed blog things - it's not that I don't want to join in, it's that I know I'll get so far with it, and then forget, and the it'll all be spoilt and everyone will hate me. Well no, not really. It's really that I'll get so far with it and then forget, and then I'll feel like I've failed.  Well you know what - who cares? A good friend of mine has just got to grips with embarking on something she's been thinking about for ages. Years pretty much. And she finally confronted her demons over that whole "expectations" thing - what will other people think, what will people say if....you know the ones. So this, on a smaller scale, is ME confronting MINE.

So - the idea - it's called the Alphabet Photography Project and has been started by Podcast - you'll find their "A" on that link. Which scuppered me for a moment, as my first thought was an "abandoned" picture too. I'm sure there's no rules against me choosing the same, but no, I wanted mine to be something different to any others I'd seen - it would have felt like cheating otherwise. I also wondered if it's possible to so far as possible make my posts on this theme about things that for whatever reason make me happy. That sort of links in with #100DaysHappy - another thing I've not joined in with.

So.....A - is for Aquilegia.

Beautiful, delicate flowers, coming in all manner of colours - I love them and when I see one for sale, in full bloom, I can rarely resist  buying it. As a result, our little strip of flower garden is full of the things - which, at this time of year, makes me smile each and every time I go out there. Now that's GOT to be a good thing, hasn't it!

Robyn

Looking back.....January

Last year I did a "Look back over my year" post at New year, and had awful problems working out which photos to include! As it rather seems as though we've done even MORE this year, I thought I'd break it down to one month per post, and pic out some of my favourite shots for whatever reason, over the year...(August's going to be fun!)

Starting at the beginning (well where else?) January saw a couple of trip round London with the camera in tow. I went for a good look at the Battle of Britain Memorial...

This is another work by the sculptor Paul Day - who is also responsible for the fabulous "Meeting Place" sculpture at St Pancras Station.

I also managed to grab a couple of days working up in the City of London - and used my lunchbreaks to good effect wandering along the Embankment...finding both fish...

...and fowl...

The final weekend of the month saw us heading up to Manchester for the National Winter Ales Festival. Bizarrely this was my first visit to Manchester so as well as spending the day at the festival on the Saturday we made some time to explore...

Very proud of it's velodrome is Manchester - there are bicycles everywhere!

A fab fountain in the city centre...

...and the most amazing and varied architecture. You hear a lot of negative stuff about Manchester, but I liked it - the people were friendly, the public transport seemed to work well (in spite of some truly awful weather on the Saturday in particular) and parts of the city are fantastic to look around. We'll be back!

Robyn.

Words...

That's what this blogging business is all about really, isn't it - words. Pictures too, sometimes, but for most of us, it's all about the words. They're powerful things too, they can be used for good or for ill - a simple phrase can strike fear into the hearts of millions "I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany" (Neville Chamberlain, 1939) or can bring joy to just a single recipient - "I love you". A single, unprovoked and ill considered response from a friend, perhaps when they're having a bad day, can wreck trust forever, and irretrievably damage a friendship if not apologised for, while an offer of help or support can confirm that friends exist where we didn't realise they were.

Words (and punctuation!) used badly can completely alter the tone of what is meant...

Really? Can we?!

But used well they can create a picture in your mind of what the writer intended...

Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop --

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop -- only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Edward Thomas

 Of course words are just part of it - a person can communicate their feelings perfectly well without words so long as one can see their face - the very reason for the current heated debate on the subject of the wearing of full-face veils for cultural reasons. That's a whole other minefield, and one which I don't intend to get into, but there is no question that words without expression can be problematic. Over the telephone tone of voice comes into play, but when we're working purely in "print" it's all too easy to be misconstrued.

Words. Treat them with respect, use them wisely. Use them sparingly. Above all - enjoy them - they're there to be played with and appreciated!

Robyn

Cheap Buckets!

I was sitting minding my own business this morning when my phone bleeped to alert me to a new tweet - "I've linked to you in my latest blog" tweeted Cheri @ CwtchCorner "I hope you don't mind!" Intrigued I clicked over for a look, and was instantly grabbed by the concept, not least because I too have never really had a bucket list - there are things I want to do, sure, but to me the idea of a bucket list always seems that if you don't want to skydive naked into the Grand Canyon, or do a tightrope walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge dressed as Dame Edna, you're somehow seen as "copping out" and not really doing it properly.... (Oddly enough, my good pal over at Wittgenstein's Watering Can blogged about being brave without being into Extreme Sports recently...)

Sometimes the things you do that really stay with you are almost incidental - if you'd thought about putting them on some form of "bucket list" or life list, you might well have done so, but opportunities come along and you simply take them without any real thought of perhaps achieving something of an ambition. Thanks to the company I used to work for, and Construction Industry Charity The Lighthouse Club, I had the chance a few years ago to take part in the inaugural "Lighthouse Run" a 2 day road rally from John O'Groats to Lands End. The entire company (well those of us who drove) were invited to put their names into the hat for a draw to select the lucky 4 to represent our company - to my astonishment only 4 of us stepped forward so I was in! It was a fabulous experience and regardless of the fact that people have run, cycled and even attempted to swim (yes, really!) before, I'm thoroughly proud to be an "End to Ender"

End to End Club

I started a list a few years ago of places I wanted to go within the UK - one of the first of those were the "Furthest Four" - the most Northerly, Southerly, Easterly and Westerly points on the British Mainland. The Northerly one was ticked off at the same time as the Lighthouse Run - Dunnet Head. Mr EH and I did the most Southerly together - The Lizard in Cornwall. I'd previously been to Lowestoft in Suffolk so that was the most easterly dealt with - so I'm just now looking for a reason to visit Ardnamurchan Point to complete the set! At the moment that one looks like it might be some way away - our spare cash is going to the mortgage and to fund our annual Hebrides trip, so it might be a while until we have sufficient spare funds to finish the set!  I wanted to go and see the Red Arrows practise at RAF Scampton - and ticked that off on the day we set off for our Holiday last year. A trip to Orkney was also ticked off thanks to the lovely OrkneyFlowers - we headed up there for Easter! The next reasonably budget "want to" is to see The Vulcan fly - it looks like it's going to cost us something, but we're considering going to the Dunsfold Wings and Wheels festival later in the year - if we make it that one will be ticked off the list, too! For me it's about seeing things and going to places, rather than doing extreme sports or scaring myself silly! Another adventurous type who I know has a similar list of "Would Like To's" is Jenni at A Cheerful Living Adventure - I wonder if she'll tell you about hers too?

Of course those of you who know us are probably wondering why I've not mentioned our big, proper, HUGE target - to move to the Western Isles! Well you see part of the deal with this challenge is that you have to talk about at least one "budget" plan, and one extravagant one, and while the Hebrides move isn't exactly extravagant, it's certainly not going to be cheap! Of course the very fact that we are overpaying our mortgage will actually mean we make a saving over time - you pay an awful lot less interest if you pay a mortgage off over a shorter time than the original 25 year term! At the moment ALL our "unexpected" money is going towards making our mortgage free date that bit sooner, so no prizes for guessing where any prize money would go if I won it! Once we're done with the "paying off" we'll be saving like mad for a few years more as once we're there there will still be the costs of finding somewhere to live, relocating ourselves and all the trimmings of our lives, creating income for ourselves, and once we are settled down there frequent trips back no doubt to see friends and family. Exciting, yes, and a bit scary too - in fact, almost exactly the things which I said didn't feature on my bucket list - fancy that!

Robyn

This post is part of a competition being run by those chaps over at MoneySupermarket  for bloggers to blog about their "Budget Bucket List" - why not go and join in?!

Frugal Friday..

I'm not even going to pretend that this post is being written on the day it's appearing - of course it's not - as with most of you there is such a lot going on at this time of year Blogger's helpful "Schedule post" option is coming into its own once more! I've had some help writing this one too, from some of the lovely bloggers who have joined in with the Frugal Friday spot in the last 12 months - we've talked about all sorts from Cwtch Corner's Cheri and her "Cafe at Home" (I loved that post - what a great idea, lovely coffee and delicious homemade biscuits or cakes on a budget, AND you don't have to trail out in the cold to get them!) to buying clothes and generally being a Frugalista....that one fromthe fabulous Singlegirl . I asked each of the contributors to let me have their absolute No.1 favourite frugal tip, and this is what they came up with.

Dreamer at Living a Slow & Simple Life has this to say... "My favourite frugal tip is just to take a step back whenever you are doing anything and truly look for the potential in whatever you are doing or producing. Whether it is a way to use less energy, make something stretch further, make something multi purpose, or just a way to utilise what you have to the absolute limit there are always ways to make little improvements. In the long run it is all these little steps that add up to make your money go further and help you get good value." - watch out for a Guest Post from Dreamer appearing next week - the first one I've ever featured! Very good points there too - just taking stock can be your greatest tool in the Frugal/Simple Living armoury I think! (And then there's MAKING stock, which is also good!)

Wittgenstein's Watering Can's Rachel summarises things nicely too - "My frugality is all about spending money. Being frugal for me isn’t about not spending anything, but about making my money go further. I get excited by super-cheap reductions in the supermarket and about bargain clothes (if someone says “I like your dress”, my first reaction is “thanks” followed very closely by “it was in the sale/from a charity shop/ off eBay”). I’ll also repair and recycle things, like the odd collection of growing containers in my garden – olive oil tins, colanders, old Ikea storage boxes – rather than buying new. I grow some of my own food and I cook things from scratch because it tastes better, mainly, but also because I can’t bring myself to spend money on ready meals if I can knock the same thing up myself for less. This all means I have money spare for the things I really want to do, which I wouldn’t have otherwise. If I wasn’t frugal, I wouldn’t have been able to pay the fees for the Masters course I’m doing, in a subject that utterly fascinates me. I wouldn’t be able to treat myself to nice weekends away to coincide with the study days for my course – finding bargains on hotels (having a load of frugal friends who know the best sites helps ;-)) so I can splash out on really good meals, one of my favourite things to do. However, my best frugal moment this year involved playing music – being able to save about 1/3 of my wages each month meant that when a great deal (yes another one of those) on a new instrument appeared, I was able to snap it up and replace the savings within a few months. There’s great pleasure in getting a bargain, in stretching your money, and in getting something for nothing. But it's also wonderful to be able to spend your money – not just on the things you need, but on the things that you love." I love the recycled containers idea - we use mushroom cartons from the supermarket for growing seedlings in the spring, but now have the idea of a row of tins with cheery plants in growing on our wall next spring! And yes, to me frugality is all about enabling your life, rather than DISabling it.

Meanwhile, Cheerful Living Adventure's Jenni touches on another fab idea.... "My one frugal tip would be to take a deep breath and wait. Whatever you want, whatever you need, just wait. You don't have to wait very long - half an hour will do, or even five minutes if that's all you have. While you're waiting, ask yourself 'what do I really need? What do I really want?' I often find that the thing I really want or need isn't what I'm about to buy. If I'm replacing something that's broken, often the perfect thing will catch my eye after a week or two, usually much cheaper than if I'd bought it straight away. If I'm gazing wistfully through a shop window at something so fabulous that I feel I have to have it right now, then it's more difficult, but it's still possible to wait. Sometimes I'll walk down the road and back, or go home, and if I'm still thinking about it later, then yes, I might go back and buy it. But often that intense longing passes as quickly as it arrived. Being able to wait is the key to finding treasures in charity shops. Carry a list of things to look out for, but be patient. They'll turn up eventually, or you might realise you can live perfectly well without them.

Waiting is skill, and if you can cultivate it you might find it can save you a fortune." Now THAT truly is common sense...I can see I need to work on developing a sense of patience!

Finally, Horticultural Hints from Fay at The wind And The Wellies.... "Thinking of growing your own in the coming year? Why not its rewarding and a really frugal way of enjoying food with zero miles. You can’t get more local than your own garden, windowsill or patio. Space needn’t be an issue. A simple pot of herbs on the window sill brightens up your day and can yield lots of lovely flavour enriching herbs for your table. When faced with the garden centres and their pots of prepared herbs/vegetable starter packs these can be expensive. The solution? Well those who are a bit more canny can invest in a packet of seeds or swap with friends to start things going. If you’re a bit less experienced or not so green fingered, supermarket herbs are a fantastic buy. Each pot has up to 50 small ready grown plants in it and if carefully split up can give you sufficient herbs for months.  Set a pot free today and rather than spend £1 or so on a small bag of herbs, split up a pot of herbs take good care of it and you’ll be eating herbs right into the late summer.  All the better if there’s a deal on! Enjoy."   Inspired? Then here's a link to Fay's method to get you started - I've done this myself the last few years and she's right, it really does work, and just think of all the happy little plants you're giving leg-stretching room to as well - got to be good karma in there!

Thanks so much to everyone who's joined in with the Frugal Friday posting over the past year - I do intend to continue with the series for now at least - while the ideas keep coming, I'll keep on posting them. I've had some great comments from some utterly unexpected people on these too - and it's always nice to think that others can gain something from what you write, particularly when you primarily write for your own enjoyment!

The first space in the series for 2013, as I mentioned, will be taken up by dreamer's Guest post - remember to pop by and take a look!

Robyn

(The photos on this post were all taken on a weekend away with a couple of the folk who feature within the post)

Friday frugality also from Jenni today : A Cheerful Living Adventure

A bit of fun...

The lovely FrugalMummy over at My Beautiful Life tagged me in this game - she tells me that it works like this:

Here are the rules:

• every tagged person has to tell 11 things about themselves
• answer the 11 questions from the person who tagged you
• list 11 questions for the folk you are going to tag, and they should have fewer than 200 followers if possible
• don't back-tag

Hmmm....11 things about me then, well  here goes!

1) I was about 8 when I got my first camera, and I have been obsessed with taking pictures ever since.
2) If I could choose to be anywhere in the world, I would choose here:

3) I am currently reading "Beyond Chocolate" in order to hopefully get over my issues with food - namely eating more of it than I should!
4) I have recently picked up and begun playing the clarinet again after a break of over 30 years. I have now reached the stage where all of a sudden things begin to fall into place again and I am remembering the joy that playing an instrument brings.
5) My No. 1 food weakness is crisps. I love them, so am mentally altering the name of the book mentioned above to "Beyond crisps"
6) The nicest sandwich in the world is Marmite, Peanut butter and mature cheddar cheese.
7) We have an accidental cat. MrEH was on the phone to his brother. Their conversations are not known for making much sense to the rest of the world, so when he turned to me and asked "L says do we want a kitten?" it is perhaps not entirely surprising that I assumed he was joking, and said "Oh go on then, why not!" Three weeks later HRH The cat moved in.
8) I am such a dog-person at heart, that it seemed not in the least strange for me to decide to teach HRH the Cat to sit when she was a kitten, in spite of being assured that you "can't teach a cat to sit". You can, I have, and she still does.

9) My earliest memory is sitting in front of the black & white TV in the front room of the first home I can remember, watching the Bohemian Rhapsody video. No surprise that I grew up to become a massive Queen fan, I guess.

10) If I had to choose between Facebook and Twitter, Twitter would win every time.
11)  I have a shockingly bad memory. One of the reasons I love photography so much is that photos are such a superb memory-jogger.

And FM's questions for me were thus:

1. In which month is your birthday? July. Lovely having a summer birthday!
2. What is your favourite colour? Purple. Or blue. Or perhaps red......
3. What one thing do you wish you could change in your life? I'd quite like to be 3 inches taller.....
4. What is your biggest regret? I don't have regrets of my own making - there's no sense in that. However, I do very much wish that MrEH had met both my Grandfather and Great Uncle - Grandad would have like the fact that he is such a gentleman, and Great Uncle Bob, well, the pair of them would have talked for HOURS!
5. What do you feel is your Christmas tradition? The one that endures, unchanged, is that Mum and I do NOTHING other than please ourselves on Boxing day - we spend a lot of Christmas Eve and the day itself cooking and sorting out food - on Boxing Day, if someone wants something cooked, they do it themselves!
6. Which part of your body do you dislike the most? I'm trying to get over disliking any of it. See point 3 above. having been told by several people recently that I have lovely nails though, I'm learning to love my hands and fingers.
7. Which celebrity would you take out for dinner, and why? I should think that if it were possible to get her "off duty" as it were, the Queen would be fascinating to talk to. She's seen so much, travelled to so many places, and had so many difficult situations to deal with in her life.
8. Who was your favourite teacher at school, and why? I had a superb Geography teacher who had a real knack of explaining things and rarely got frustrated with any sort of lack of understanding. Oddly enough the strangest teacher I had was also for Geography - this was the chap who threw himself repeatedly against a chalk-covered blackboard in order to illustrate Coastal Erosion. It worked though, I have to say!
9. What do you like to do in your spare time? Walking, taking photos, reading, listening to music.
10. I'm coming for dinner: What will you cook for us to eat? Ooh, tricky one. I'm afraid I'm going to answer as though no vegetarians were involved.....we'll start with something like goats cheese, maybe lightly grilled with roasted cherry tomatoes, fresh rocket and a drizzle of Balsamic dressing. Main course - I'd probably turn to my old favourite and cook the wonderful mutton Tagine from the River Cottage Cook Book. I find Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recipes fabulous, and his writing possibly the best of any food writer since Elizabeth David. For pudding we'd have something light - perhaps a home made ice cream - I might hand that over to MrEH actually - his Blackberry & Calvados ice cream was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted.
11. What are you planning for your garden next year? Two chairs, a table, a tall glass of something cold and a good book! ;-) After this year's disasters on the growing-our-own front I am far from ready to consider next year, yet!

Right then....who to tag?

Dreaming of a Simple Life
A Cheerful Living Adventure
Intentionally Frugal
Cwtch Corner
The Wind & The Wellies
Wittgensteins Watering Can
Single & Utterly Fabulous


And my questions for you ladies.....

1) Marmite - yes or no?
2) If you could be anywhere in the world, where would you choose? (Chance to get photos in here folks!)
3) Dogs or cats? And why?
4) What is, in your opinion, the best sort of cheese.
5) Streetfood or posh restaurant?
6) Who was your very first best friend, and how old were you?
7) What is your idea of a perfect Sunday?
8) How many different homes have you had in the course of your life? Which was your favourite, and why?
9) What size are your feet?
10) What was your favourite childhood book?
11) If offered the biscuit tin - what would you ideally hope to find inside?

Tag! You're it!

Robyn