Several things settled, a few more to do.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Although is was quite frisk yesterday, you could say it was nice weather, because it was dry, we had sunshine and it felt like Spring is around the corner. I think today we have temperature of about 10C, which is quite good for the time of year.

Last Monday I right away called the watercompany to settle for the bill I have to pay because of the leak. It was a tiny little bit less than I though, so that was more or less good, they already adjusted the 3-monthly amount to pay to the amount I usually pay. Now only the bill has to be payed.Good that's almost done with.

Tehn the day after I took all necessary papers and let them copied in a shop and I could sent them away to the accountant for the tax stuff, also a task of this week done and dealt with. Gosh I feel almost proud of mself LOL.

Rest of the week we did more or less the usual stuff, although Jan went to hospital for an ultraspund abdomen(as he has twice a year) and give some blood for normal test, in about a week he has his appointment with his doctor for the liver and stomach etc.  

Oh, Friday I went to the optician for my new glass, and yes, it is all much better. I just think they didn;t do the eyetest as it should have been. I still have to get used a little bit to the pair of glasses, but I think it will be okay. 

Then I have heard a bit of distressing news of my friend Heidi. Well, more or less distressing for me, because she and the family will move to another house. And that one is , much further away from our house then the actual one. She said I can come there rather easy with the tramway, but it will take probably 0 minutes more or less to go there. Not too bad, but it isnlt the same as when she was living near to us. Then I could walk to her when I wanted, or take the tram but arrived there within nort more than 15 minutes. It will be a little bit different, and more difficult to see eachother often. I don't have a driver license(can't have it because of my epilesy), so that makes it not easier. Well, we will figure out a way to meet somehow every now and then and there is the phone, of course(although it isnlt the same as chatting face to face).

I know heidi wasn;t completely happy about the house she is living in now, and I really hope this one will be more to their liking and that they will feel really "at home"there. Somewhere next week I will go to her to help a bit with the parcelling up her stuff, At least we can make a start and then see how it goes. She will be moving quite soon as i understood, somewhere beginning or half of April, so there is some work to be done to be able to get everything over to the new house(they will have help from her husband's brothers and perhaps a friend or two).

Yesterday I was doing a small grocerie shopping(I bought us a ready fried chicken for Saturday's supper) and going home again I bought some mini-violets and 3 forget-me- nots, to fill one or two planters on the terrace. I didn;t do that, I did let Jan do it, to keep him busy for a little while in the fresh air(smart hey?). Perhaps it is still a bit too early in the season, but it felt so good and it looks nice when we look through the window. It feels more like Spring this way.

Good, now it is time for me to go into the kitchen to look into my stew that is simmering, probably will need some more time to get it tender, but it needs checking every now and then.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, in safety, and hoping vaccination programs will go faster!

Spring is in the air.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Oh yes, we definately are going to have a lovely week with the weather. Temperatures will rise and already today it is about 14-15C but it could get higher during the week. Wind will go down too, more sunshine, almost dry, how wonderful this is??? And then knowing I have to feel sorry for a lot of people who have trouble with cold, ice, snow , powerloss because of that etc. I do feel sorry for them, but can you blaim me for feeling happy with our weather at the moment? You can never know how long that will last at this time of the year.

Last week I went back to the optician for my pair of glasses. They checked again, had some incomprehensible comment on it, but at the end, they will give me a knew glass with a little bit of different strenght on the right side. Okay, happy with that, I guess, and after that I will have to see if it is really better, because I am not yet totally happy with the new pair of glasses. I knw, it also has to do with the right eye, that has starting cataract, but still I think, you should have a pair of glasses that give you good eyesight. For now I also have a bit difficulty reading on the computer screen, 

If it will not be much better, I perhaps should go to my doctor and then to eye doctor again in hospital. But let's first wait and see what will be with the new glass.

It was all by all a quiet week, again, yes, with this lockdown and the curfew, there isn't very much you can do, only to go out for some grocerie shopping and to some shops that are still allowed to be open. However, when I was in the street of the optician, there also was a shop I have near me too, and it looked as if it was open. It is a kind of all kind shop, with some clothes, some kitchen stuff, some yarn and other hooby stuff, a bit of everything. It was the shop where I got my yarn for the couch cover I am knitting. I was short, but shop closed. Last week i saw that they handled a package point, poeple could call them or mail them and then on day after you could pick up your ordered stuff. I didn;t do that but asked the lady at the door if I could buy some yarn if it was in stock. And she agreed to it. I was lucky to be able to buy at the door the yarn! Now I can go on with the knitting, yippee!

parctically all shops are closed and they try to survive in any way they can and who blaims them? Lots of them get some support from the government, but there are also small ones, or just started ones, that have bearly right on some support. It really is time that the government speeds up the vaccination programme, so that soon, although under certain restriction, shops can open up and partly normal life can start up again. It is taking all far too long now.

Tomorrow I will have to make an not so nice phonecall, it is to the watercompany. I got a mail that it is time to report the waterlevel figures. We have to do that once a year and then they see what will be the next monthly amount you will pay.(if you used more of course you will have to pay the plus-amount).Because we had that terrible leak last year, I will have a very high bill to pay extra. I talked on the phone last year with a lady to explain and she told me to call her back as soon I got the yearly mail, then she could not do anything about the big bill but she could adjust the monthly amount to our usual(which would already be lovely). So tomorrow will be a necessary call, but one that will cost a lot of money! Nothing to do about it, we should have been perhaps more careful, but we had no idea at the time. I will be glad that it will be done and payed and I can forget about it.

In the garden already there are all kind of signs of Spring, as the ulips bulbs already are coming out of the soil,(far too soon, butthey survived the really cold winter week), our daffodils however suffered from the ice and snow, they look not good, but snowdrops make up for it, and with the high temperatures we will have this week I bet everywhere you will see suddenly new life in nature. Just hoping that we will not get a set back in Marchor even April.

For now it is lovely to see some blue sky, with sunshine, feel much nicer temperatures when I step out of the the kitchen, the birds also feel much better and come by more frequent, so in little things life is still good. Now the big things will have to be taken care of! My friend Edna already had her first Covid -19 vaccination, I am so happy for her, because it is more safe for her now. But I have no idea when we will be in the row for it. 

It's all for this week, there aren;t much very exciting things to tell about nowadays.I wish you all a very lovely week and stay safe, keep up the Covid measures, they are still important !

A late post today.

 Goodevening everybody!

Yes, it is after dinner, so very late for me to post. It was just a lazy day and I woke up a bit later, than took ALL my time to wake up, then had something to eat, after that it was time for speedskating on tv, in between I even showered and prepared a it for dinner. So only now there is quiet time to write a short post.

 Valentine's day is a bit of special day for me. It is the day my mother passes away, now already 29 years ago. Yes long ago, but I always burh a little candle on this day. It always is hurting when a parent passes away, but I think my mother chose a wonderful day to do so, and meet her husband in that mystical place where all is peaceful and happy.

Our weather has been cold this week, although there was a lot of sunshine, but temperatures were not as I like them to be. But there is good news. Next week the wind will turn and temperatures will go up again even to 10C daytime. And no more frost at night. Now only the snow and ice on the sidewalks has to melt down.It is now very slippery and not always very easy to walk on. So I stayed in a lot this week.

I did go out to get my new pair of glasses. But I am not yet completely happy with them. The glass for the left eyeis okay(that's the operated one), but the right one is not as it should be. I cannot see real sharp through it, it distracts me, and it didn;t get much better after a few days. (Normally it takes a day or two to get used to new glasses). They also have to adjust the frame, it hurts behind the ears and a bit on the nose too. So there is work to be done. I will see if tomorrow is a good day to go to the shop. Let's hope that they can fix all and that I can be happy with the new pair of glasses(they are expensive enough, you know)

I will go watch a bit of tv now, and knit some more on a couch cover. 

Have a lovely week and stay safe.

King Winter finally arrived here.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Yeah, we have winter here. It started yesterday evening to snow(and it is that very fine snow like caster sugar) and at times real hard wind from the NE, which makes it feel colder . Lots of people seem to be happy with it, and you always have to admit that when the snow is fresh and untouched, it looks beautiful. But that's all because I could do without and without the colder temps that come next week. In our part we will have daytime around -4, at night it could go to -8C and eastern part some degrees worse.

Just one thing will be better next week, it will stop snowing somewhere tomorrow and slowly there will come more sunshine and less wind. So may be I can go out on wednesday and pick up my new pair op glasses. Yes, they called me yesterday afternoon, but I was busy cooking and the weather was getting not nice anymore, so I told them I would try to pick it up somewhere next week. 

Yes, yesterday i made a pan of chicken soup and backed a small pirog(that russian kind of meat pie), it all took a bit of time, but it was good for me to be busy with it and we had it yesterday for dinner, just as we will this evening. It all tasted good.

Last week it was quiet, and so happy with it. I did the usual things, nothing special, but we are happy with the new windows. We really feel the difference in temperature in the sitting room and the little bedroom. Our bedroom always will feel colder, because we have a wall that is an outside one and also under the staircasethat leads to above appartments. But still there is much difference, for all there is  no draft coming from the window part.(with the old windows, single glass and such, it was not nice).

Friday we had a visit from my friend Heidi, which was ever so nice. we didn;t actually see eachother for longer time and I missed that. I think we all miss near contact to our family and friends the most, but we have to hold on with the distancing for a while more to keep ourselves and the others safe. All will go better when everybody will have a vaccination, but that takes still some time.

Tomorrow will be the birthday of Séverine(Heidi's daughter) and she will already have 19 years. Gosh, I still can see her as little girl of 5 years old, who brought us our rings at our wedding, dressed in a beautiful pricess-like dress! And now she is a young lady, studying for speech therapist. It is something that suits her well, I think. She is helpfull, kind, quiet, has patience, all things needed  for such a job.

So, I will check now on my laudry, don;t think it is ready yet. Then also check in the garden, if there isnt too much snow on the outside of the the kitchendoor. I already sweeped away a thick pack of snow twice today. May be not directly necessary, but without a thick snowlayer in front, it will open easier.

Also will check on the birdfood, if there still is enough, the poor creatures will have a rough week, so we should help them a little bit, as well as other animals, specially when there is a lot of snow and frost. 

I wish everybody a wonderful week, please stay safe.