But Are They A REAL Company?

There is more to life than the new kitchen, and I am not going to let this project dominate the blog. But already there have been things which have made us smile. So to brighten up your day too I share this...

Paying for it - well, I figured out that if we consolidated all the various savings pots into one, and paid them into the main bank account, that would work. But if we paid with the M&S Card we'd have 'protection' and also lots of loyalty vouchers [and we'd pay the card balance promptly from the bank account]
Step One, up the credit limit a little bit to ensure we could do this. We always pay off the bill each month, but in case of the unexpected [like last week's £400 garage bill because Bob's car locks weren't working] we wanted to be sure we were not going to incur extra interest charges. This is relatively straightforward. You send M&S an application for the increase, and say what it is for [if you say "guns and drugs", presumably, they refuse. But "kitchen renovation" is OK] and you have to send details of your earnings or pension. The moment the approval came through, Bob contacted our Online Designer to confirm our order and pay Only she was off sick!

Step Two, contact IKEA Customer Services, and point out the Spring 10% offer runs out on 1st March. No problem, they said, because you are at the point of ordering you will still have a 28 day 'grace period' to pay up. But we want to get on with it, please! The guy was very helpful - explaining he would send the bill, plus a security code, which would be valid till midnight. A two part bill - worktops, and everything else.

Step Three, go online, input the code. Pay Bill 1, then Bill 2. So Bob paid Bill 1, then tried in vain to pay Billl 2. My phone pinged [I am the primary cardholder] "Your card has been blocked due to suspicious activity". I telephoned M&S and had the most surreal conversation....

Why has my card been blocked?

    Just the second card, suspicious activity. £742 at 11.15am

Yes, my husband was paying for our new kitchen

    That's a lot of money for a new kitchen [what?! This bloke hasn't bought a kitchen lately]

That is just the first part of the bill. You know we are doing this, it was in our application for n increased credit limit. Which you have already approved. 

    Are you sure this isn't a scam? 

Of course I am sure, we are buying from IKEA

    But are they a REAL company? [where does he live? I know they have no stores in Norfolk, but...] 

Yes, I am sure - they are a huge Swedish company, with outlets across the globe [I decided against saying that allegedly 50% of European children are conceived in IKEA beds!]

    But have you used them before?

Yes, since 1988 when they opened their first UK store in Wembley. You have cancelled my husband's card and I think you should not have done so.

    We have to be careful about suspicious transactions. He will get a new card within 5 working days. 

But we have to pay the second part of the bill before midnight tonight. Can I use my card for that

    Well OK, but only if you are completely sure IKEA is a real company and this is not a scam.

YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP, COULD YOU? 

The work goes on, the game of Tetris continues in the back bedroom as I hunt for random kitchen tools and food items which I know are in a box somewhere in there. Julian WhatsApped me

"Dear Lord and Lady Kitchener, your cousin wants to see you, would you have an available bed?"

I cheerfully replied that the sofabed in the lounge was clear for him this week.

I think he may get a more comfortable bed with Lord and Lady Kitchener-Fellowes [another Julian] but possibly have less fun!

    

Lent 2 : Rooted

Lent 1 was Reflection, Lent 2 is Rooted.  I went out last week and took the March photo for My Tree. TBH, the tree doesn't look that much different from the January and February photos. But you can see the crops in the field are lusher and greener than they were a few weeks back. I started thuinking about trees, and their impact on the environment.

They help make the air cleaner, taking in bad gases [CO2 etc] and breathing out fresh Oxygen

They provide shelter for many animals, places to live, eat and raise families
They shade the earth and keep it cool
They help prevent flooding, and their roots hold the soil in place
They help reduce climate change
They have a big impact on us all

Trees are mentioned an awful lot in the Bible - beginning with the Trees in Genesis - the Tree of Life and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - and ending in Revelation with the Tree of Life, again - whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. And "the tree" is frequently used as a description of the Cross of Jesus. Here are just a few examples...

• The cedars of Lebanon, beautiful and strong, used for building Solomon's Temple
• The oaks of Mamre, at the placed where Abraham met with three angels - sturdy and established
• The fig tree where Nathanael encountered Jesus
• The olive tree, a sign to Noah that the flood waters were receding, and its oil used for anointing, it is a symbol of peace
• The palm tree, representing success and triumph. its branches waved as Jesus entered in Jerusalem
• The almond tree, representing God's watchfulness over his people, and also resurrection, new life and growth.

If my life is to have any sort of positive impact on others, I need to have strong roots, faith is not a superficial thing. I need to be willing to 'hold out the olive branch' working for peace and reconciliation. [we so need to see 'the healing of the nations' right now]
Like the oaks and the cedars I need to be both attractive/winsome, and firmly established in my beliefs.

I must speak out the gospel, offering new life and hope.

Like the properties of trees mentioned earlier - do I help make the world a 'purer' place, by fighting against evil?

Do I offer shelter and comfort to those who need it ?

If I am secure in my faith, am I able to offer help and strength to those who are struggling?

Paul says to his friends in Ephesus " I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love," A good aim, I think

• 
  

This Blessed Plot...

 ...This Earth, This Realm, This England*
or in my case, "This blessed plot, this raised bed, this mini-greenhouse..." I have been outside, and negotiated my way round the woodstore cottage and checked on a few things outside. 

I have emptied the bottom half of my compost bin, through that flimsy little sliding door - and put a layer of compost on the raised bed.

The two troughs of tete-a-tete daffs hich were sheltering beside the oil tank are all in bloom, so they have been moved to the front, beside the door.

This is one of the four plastic supports from the old water butt. It is held in place by a large lump of concrete found when we were sorting out the patio and dead decking. I am using this contraption to force some rhubarb. I had a quick peek - a few fine bright pink stems with vivid greeny yellow curly leaves under there. Maybe when Julian comes next week I shall make a fancy pud.

Inside, the potatoes seem to be taken forever to chit, but the pepper seeds in the propagator are showing signs of growth. Sadly not the 'mild red pepper' which I could eat, but the two blistering hot chilis I planted for Bob have both developed leaves.

* This is the only bit of Richard II I can quote. Currently I am studying Romeo and Juliet in order to help a young friend with her GCSE Revision. I will close this post with a favourite Ogden Nash poem, which I dedicate to the frazzled parents of adolescent daughters

The Romantic Age

This one is entering her teens,
Ripe for sentimental scenes,
Has picked a gangling unripe male,
Sees herself in bridal veil,
Presses lips and tosses head,
Declares she's not too young to wed,
Informs you pertly you forget
Romeo and Juliet.
Do not argue, do not shout;
Remind her how that one turned out.

A String Of Pearls

I love the idea of an oyster dealing with the irritating grain of sand inside its shell by covering it with nacre, which becomes a wonderful opalescent sphere. Taking the awful thing in life and turning it into something utterly beautiful. I have four pearls set in a silver brooch, which my Uncle and Aunt in Australia sent to my grandmother many years ago, and when she died in 1975, they said i was to inherit it.

I'm old enough to remember a singer with a very powerful voice called Pearl Bailey. My Dad always called her Pearl Barley [I suspect he was not alone in that]

In the long hot summers of my childhood, I used to dream of a cool drink of fruit squash, made with Pearl Barley.[but Mum said it was too expensive] Robinson's Lemon Barley Water was synonymous with Wimbledon Fortnight. The company ended their partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis Club in 2022, the drink having been first invented to hydrate their players in 1935.

Pearl Barley is a tasty grain which features in many national cuisines [cholent], the slow simmered Jewish Sabbath stew, and krupnik a rich Polish soup] My Flemish MIL often added it to her casseroles. I bought a packet last year. And forgot about it, until last Monday. I'd put a curry in the slocooker in the morning, then in the evening I could not find any rice to serve with it [all my cans and packets are in boxes in the back bedroom]

I measured out some pearl barley, and used my microwave rice cooker to produce a delicious accompaniment. This is a brilliant Joseph Joseph gadget which I found for a fiver in a CS, and use regularly to make perfect rice.

Do you ever use Pearl Barley in your cooking?

How do you cook your rice? 

As Nice As Pi

 Tomorrow is Pi Day aka World Mathematics Day.

We may or may not eat pie. Last week was British Pie Week, and we had Chicken Pie on Friday, and Steak Pie at my bro's on Sunday. There will be maths today, because there is maths every day in this house.

Also there's going to be a Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse. 

Hopefully it will be red and glorious to see.

A partial eclipse here in the UK,  but total across the pond. I may possibly set the alarm and get up to watch it! Details HERE

A day of pies, maths, and moonlight...what more could you want?

You Be Fred, And I'll Be Ginger!

This is one of our family phrases being said a lot at Cornerstones lately. Specifically when two people have to pick up a heavy item and carry it together through the home, or outside to the garden or workshop. It all goes back to this wonderful 1982 carton by Bob Thaves. Ms Rogers was a very gifted woman!

Health And Safety Notice #1 I must stress that neither I nor Bob wear high heels when moving heavy stuff, we always don appropriate footwear for the task! But one of us will often have to go backwards as we carry a cupboard out onto the patio, and it is helpful to decide that before you pick something up.

Dismantling the cupboards has not proved too difficult. Many units are going to be repurposed - one length of worktop is going to make a new bench for my garden workshop [ie the old garage] at a height which I can reach. Other units are to be rebuilt at the end of the coach-house for storing 'car' stuff. Some will becoming shelving in the loft. There is very little going to the tip! We are recycling as much as we can. Much is currently under a tarp, looking like a little house.

Bob reminded me of four years ago, when we had a 'dragon' on the patio, storing the leftover wood from the Lathe Palace construction

Stripping out a kitchen reveals so much. The walls were initially magnolia, then salmon pink, then magnolia again, then we added a blue feature wall. This will be the third set of cupboards in 50 years, and the many holes and rawlplugs bear witness to previous fittings. And why are the pitifully few electric sockets all different styles and at different heights? [and apparently fitted without the use of spirit levels!] I thought the contorted plumbing under the sink was bad enough - the stuff behind the cupboards is like some sort of copper and plastic macramé work. 
Before anything new goes in, there will be much "making good" of the walls, and tidying up of pipes and cables [and installing good quality matching power sockets]

Things are mostly relocated to the back bedroom - no chance of granddaughter sleepovers for a while! A friend asked if we were living on 'sandwiches in the lounge' for the duration. I was able to reassure her we were managing to eat 'proper' meals, using the Futility Room Mini-Kitchen.[more on that later] And Adrian and Marion kindly invited us for Sunday lunch, which was absolutely splendid.
I am very conscious that if we were using a firm of Kitchen Fitters, they might have taken one look at what has been revealed in the stripping out, and declared that there's Lots More To Be Done than originally envisaged, and extra £££s would have been added to labour costs.
Health And Safety Notice #2 We are paying due care and attention to energy levels. Regular breaks for a sit down and a cuppa. Bob sits on the Dalek when working low down, better for his back than bending. Heavy loads are either divided into two smaller ones, or we work together to shift things. And we have a calendar charting the days when we have other commitments, so we are not working too many hours.
Fortunately we are able to laugh at ourselves, and have fun as we work, which makes the task so much easier.

 

Venerable Beads

Rosie had such fun during half term, using Hama beads for the first time. But first we had to sort the colours into plastic bowls to facilitate her design work.

This meant the task took longer than I'd expected. I remembered that when we were in Kirby Muxloe, I had them all sorted into glass jars - but when we moved, I emptied them all into two big tubs, and recycled the jars, to make packing easier [and lighter]

But last week, whilst watching TV in the evening, I sat with a tray on my lap, and Bob's sharp needle-nose tweezers, and sorted the lot. It took hours

I haven't many spare jars at the minute, but this is what 10,000+ beads look like all neatly separated by colour [I gave up with black, white grey, and stuck those all in together]

Despite declaring last year that we had finished doing Holiday Clubs, we are going to run a One Day Event in the Easter Holidays. As I was sorting, a craft idea involving threading the beads occurred to me [but nothing with hot irons, when you have a crowd of youngsters to contend with!] 

I immediately stopped sorting, and grabbed my tin of mini Tiptree jars.

It didn't take long to put a scoop of mixed beads into each of 30 jars all ready for April!

Have you ever done any crafting with Hama beads? 

They are fine until you catch the edge of the jar with your elbow, and sprinkle them in a rainbow all over the carpet!