Musings #63 - May 2025
A broken tooth and what is it about the outside loo?
Well hello May!!
My lent challenge of no sugar, no chocolate and no Instagram was most interesting - mainly that I really crave chocolate before my period and I really eat sugar when I am thirsty rather than actually drinking the water. I was very hydrated in Lent! There was something about the feeling that someone was watching me - I don’t know who - but that there would be some shame were I to break my lent challenge, but come the end of Lent and the shame has gone!
I told myself that I would keep doing no sugar and it’s just not happened, ice cream/biscuits/strawberry jam on toast - yes please! Anyone else?! Or am I the only one who cannot seem to keep away from sugar!?
And the cherry on the top - I haven’t been to the dentist since pre Angus was conceived rather than born (!), so 2021 at least - and I’ve had no issues since then. Eat what I want, drink what I want, then I stop eating sugar and chocolate and one of my crowns has split. Even nature doesn’t want me to stay away from choc/sugar. Either that or the crown was being held together by the sugar and it’s finally been released! I did have the nerve removed so it’s not actually painful which is quite amusing!
Anyway, May takes us to Angus’ birthday, a few other friends birthdays and Rob is going to 2 stag dos… I am not big on the hen do/ stag do world, it’s so expensive and a constant competition about who can be the most legendary and have the most impressive do. Maybe I am jealous that I’ve actually only been to 1 hen do other than my own…!
Animals are growing well, I love leaning over the garden gate and watching them be themselves, pottering around and living. Time seems to stand still.
I love the routine of pottering around looking after them all and growing plants in the garden too, I have my little systems and methods that make things go like clockwork. My house is less clockwork and more ‘lived in’ as kindly name it!!!
My love for Instagram hasn’t really re-ignited after Lent but that is a story for another day. What is your May like?
Topics on my mind
Country villages
Moving from Yorkshire to North Lancashire, I see less red brick houses to more stone houses, less hedges and more dry stone walls; there is something magical about seeing how different worlds live off particular styles of houses/homes/field sorting. I find myself thinking about how there will be big names in villages that no one else has ever heard of outside the village and their memory will live on in some people’s lives and their stories shared. But 40 miles down the road, they’ll have their own people that everyone knows - they are the real celebrities. Another point on country villages - thatch roofs really are beautiful, a liability, but beautiful and captivating! Wisteria really enhances the villages regardless of what the house is built with!
Outside loos
When did the loo come inside? Was it a mark of status and position in the community? I ask, because sometimes it would be so much nicer to be able to disappear off to the outside loo and not be found for a little bit. You know, just maybe 5 minutes peace. Or peace to make a smell (not me, obviously, women only poo out sweet smelling things, wink!) and your body make weird noises. Am I the only one who worries about the thickness of the bathroom walls/door?!
Privacy…
Once you’re married, no one asks about your relationship, or how your dates have been, or who you’re sleeping with! And yet, checking in on married people is as key, just not as fun and gossipy! Next time you’re with a married friend, ask them how they’re marriage is going, when their last date was and is the same person they originally thought would be in their bed every night, still the same person or is it someone else in the same body. You could get some good chats out of it, or it’s just fun to see people squirm at the idea of having the conversation. By the way, discussing how YOU feel about something is not putting someone else under the bus, saying it’s their issue that you feel that way, is!
Things I would like to bring to your attention at the moment are:
Another book recommendation for you - Educated by Tara Westover - an autobiography of life with some rather extreme parents and a rough brother (and many nice siblings), it is gripping, heart breaking and makes you fall in love with family again. I started it a while ago and didn’t like it but tried it again and it had me hooked.
Bought this dress for weddings this summer with a Boden promo code they sent in the post - excited for it - now to find a hat!
This popcorn is awful! I thought it was ‘Netflix and chill’… it’s chilli. Yeuk! And thankfully, it is out of stock everywhere, I must’ve got the last bag!!!!
I haven’t listened to much more than Tractor Ted all month - I am starting to hear the music in my dreams!
Love, Verena
