The New Normal: Lotta love

Ever had a new pair of shoes so lovely you have to wear them straight away?  Fresh out of the box …..

Today they are back on as nipped down to the shop on the other side of the woods (like little red riding hood) in my new shoes with my shopping bag to get a few things.  Not driving today as it's Friday 13th and I am a very superstitious person, I have the lucky black cat, but still worry.  I was testing out my new Lotta clogs today which are super comfy and go with everything I own... thanks to my blogging friend *Vix* for discovering them and sharing on her blog - she has many pairs - Lotta of Stockholm is a Swedish lady who brings these lovely cloggy shoes here for us to enjoy, at reasonable prices - very well made.  As I have a wonky foot I am delighted to find something pretty that is also comfy.

Finished  my book, The Boy with the Topknot, it made me laugh out loud sometimes.  This story was about a young man of Pakistani heritage growing up in Wolverhampton in a family with mental health issues... funny in places, heavy in others but worth reading.  My next book is

Which (rare for me) I bought as it's a new release and our online library (books you can download and read free) has a huge waiting list...  also my library allows cyber space freebie reads of all the latest magazines so I have not bought a paper copy of anything much for years ... this week I have the latest copy of Landscape Magazine to browse.  Our library has more magazines available online than I could find time for - we are very lucky.

Finished this weeks work shifts  So now I have a few days off  to relax.... yesterday I did bodypump at the gym and tomorrow I have a pilates classand bodypump back to back classes to look forward to, then a bit of swimming ending in a sauna (hair treatment on whilst cooking) to make it a really perfect 'love your body' day!

7The morning has been spent in the kitchen - I don't like cooking but I do like baking - so made pizza dough (some for tonight and some to freeze), and a wholemeal loaf for the freezer.   There was a lot of pepper/mushroom/chilli left overfrom the topping so have put that away to make omelette for breakfast. 

  There was a kilo of chicken needing to be used by tomorrow so I marinated and cooked chicken tikka for the men to have in wraps for lunch tomorrow.    Am trying to get ahead a bit by batch cooking and using up left overs.  Earlier in the week I had cooked and frozen multiple chicken curry and lentil dahl which will save me some time when I am on lates next week.

I dried some herbs from the garden earlier in the week and bagged them up today so they are airtight.

I went online and ordered some muslin to make lavender bags.  (I also put in an online order for BarryM nail colours and cuticle oil as they have some good offers on).

We have had so much rain that the garden is very slow this year - so I think it will be looking its best in late Summer. I'm not going to complain about a bit of rain when there are countries suffering wild fires at the moment - climate change is affecting so many people in different ways and it will soon be beyond our grasp to correct or slow the damage we have caused to this planet.

When we get sunny intervals I nip out and lie on my garden chairs - yesterday I took a blanket and went to sleep for an hour and Mollie cat joined me (she slept under my chair but I awoke to find her next to me, on her back, with her feet up just like me!).  She lets me stroke her feet now, but if hubby touches them she swipes him!  

Back to the kitchen - but only to admire my handiwork - my breadmachine did all the work for the wholemeal loaf.  I have another in the machine now which will be ready at bedtime! Sliced and frozen that's next week's packed lunches taken care of.

Mollie has a boyfriend, I tried to film him but didn't have the camera on!  He's twice her size, light grey tabby with a deep voice and has taken over our conservatory - nothing would move him - will try to get a picture of him - she isn't impressed.