the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

Today I hit 70. When I was younger that seemed like an ancient age, but having got there it somehow doesn’t. I am fairly fit and healthy, some bits are a little clapped out with wear and, perhaps, abuse. Generaly though I am doing OK and am grateful for that. The love of a good woman helps a lot and the Wonder of Wokingham does police me well to curb some of my excesses. She is the good angel on one shoulder to counteract the demon on the other who urges me on to bad habits.

These are worrying times though. Inflation is rampant and it gets harder to make ends meet. We are not too badly off because we have the fruits of many years of hard work behind us and I am still, albeit part time these days, working. Like many we are cutting back on our spending and consumption at the moment because we don’t know where all of this is going. The government, despite all of the shrieking on social media, are doing a good job at trying to address both the short term and look at the longer term. Hopefully things will improve, but if a certain lunatic in Moscow presses the button it won’t matter anyway. Some of us have been here before…

But let’s look on the bright side and assume that we do not vanish into the mushroom cloud. Christmas is coming and we have that to look forward to. There are things that we can do to help ourselves. One thing that the Berkshire Belle and I have done for years is to start putting something extra in the shopping trolley each week to start building up the Christmas stash. There are lots of things out there that will keep to beyond Christmas and New Year: The shops are full of things already. We still spend the same amount of money maybe, but it gets spread out over three months or so and doesn’t seem so hard.

Another thought for this year is to maybe consider a Turkey crown rather than a full bird. It will cook in less time so that saves a bit on your energy bill and it certainly saves on some of the waste. Buy one now as they are freely available. A lot of the supermarkets are also flogging off beer and soft drinks that they have been caught out with overstocks after the sudden drop in temperature. Check the best before dates, but there is plenty on sale now that will last past Christmas and you can cash in on the savings. It won’t be on sale in December.

We decided not to take a holiday for the third year on the trot and I am using up my work holiday weeks to try and take us around on day trips. It costs money to travel of course, but we are trying to amuse ourselves without breaking the bank. At this time of year the weather is not always conducive to walking around, but we are making the effort to get about and explore a bit. It helps to make us feel that life is returning to pre-Covid times a little, although that virus is still lurking around and the cooler weather does seem to suit it.

We have had invitations for another Covid vaccine dose, but having tried to book we have no centres within about 50 miles which seems ludicrous for a town with over 160,000 citizens. We wanted to wait as late as possible before getting jabbed on the basis that the protection would be stronger through the really cold months and so we have left booking an appointment for now. I have an appointment at the doctor’s for an annual blood pressure test and a blood sample in a week’s time and they may well give me my ‘flu jab then. If they offer the Covid one I’ll take it just to get it out of the way.

In the garden I am not up to much at the moment. Just a little light maintenance, but the leaves will soon be falling heavily and I will have all that to clear up along with doing the late season pruning. When we had the fencing done we thought that we had lost some things, but they have all come back and we are thrilled with that. It was a strange year in that the foxes did not do anything like the damage that they did in 2021, but I had held back on some planting just in case and I also had to put off some jobs whilst waiting for the fencing guys to do their stuff. Because the new fence was about 5 weeks late I did not do some of what I had planned either. Then came the really hot spell and we lost some things to that instead. Overall I am fairly pleased with progress out there though and, with no major infrastructure works to come next year I can look forward to doing things at my own pace.

Stay safe wherever you are.

PS: With Sod’s law in full swing I have just read that there may well be a turnkey shortage this Christmas. If you can buy one now, get it. There were plenty in the shops this week.