Cripes..........it's all changed!

I know I've been away for quite a while, but this new layout has me a bit confused!  I 'spose I'll get used to it, and it serves me right for neglecting this blog so badly.
I've not posted for ages I know, but I hope you will forgive me.
 I've been in a dark and lonely place for a while, but I am beginning to feel a bit better about life,...... and myself come to that!
After bursting into tears at my doctors surgery, purely because the Nurse was kind enough to ask how I was coping, emotionally, with my Diabetes, I've been  given therapy sessions for severe depression, and with the last session due next week, I know I'm going to be OK now.
I have to sincerely thank the Nurse for noticing how down I was, and after a hug and being told  "what I really needed was a Mum", she got me the help I so desperately needed, but was too ill to realise for myself. Actually, telling me I needed a 'Mum' totally destroyed what little self control I had left, because even tho' I lost my mother 20 years ago, I still desperately miss her every day.
Anyway, apart from that, I've spent a lot of time reading other peoples blogs, and gaining inspiration from how they are coping with life and absorbing their ideas & suggestions, (I even commented on a few of them!), and now feel ready to start writing again.

I've not made any Cards in a long long while, not even for my daughters birthday at the beginning of this month, but I have been cooking a few things, including some proper meals instead of 'making do'. Yesterday for instance I went a bit crazy and made some bread (plaiting it for the first time ever).

I had to fight off my daughter long enough to take this picture, as about 30 seconds later it had lost it's end, which was smothered in butter, and vanished!

I also made an Orange Victoria Sponge as I had an orange that was looking a bit sorry for itself, so I grated the peel into it, and spread some home made marmalade in the middle.

Finally, I set to and made a Shepherds pie for dinner last night. We had half of it with the last of the Runner Beans, (courtesy of my father's garden). I used half lambs mince, and half pork mince, as this was what I had left in the freezer, and added some brown Basmati rice that was in the fridge. It helps the meat go a lot further, and no one ever notices it's in there. Sometimes I add some porridge oats for the same reason, but rice is better camouflaged. 
I forgot to take a picture of it when it came out of the oven, so I can only show it half eaten and looking a bit dry after going cold. We will have the rest of it today, with some other veg, not sure what yet, I haven't checked the fridge!

Moving on from cooking.......I'm still waiting for the Housing Association to come and fix the damp in the walls in the living room. I've been reporting it for the whole of the 3¾ years I've been living here, constantly being told by their surveyors that it's condensation. However, in March they replaced my windows with new double glazed units, and half the plaster came off the window recesses. The people fitting the windows re -plastered, but called the housing surveyor out  to see "how damp everything was". 
I said I'd been reporting it forever, whilst bodging the bits that fell out, (I'm no plasterer), so he came back with a damp meter!!!!! (Glory hallelujah! A surveyor with a brain!). Yes! It was registering as damp, so he called a firm to come and inspect and quote a price for the job. 
The workman took one look and said the damp proof course was compromised due to the age of the building, (before 1900) and the fact that the front doorstep bridged the damp proof course anyway. The surveyor said he would raise a work order and get it all done, but of course I would have to redecorate afterwards.
 I'm still waiting............with promises that it would be done soon being made at regular intervals. I'd like to get it done before Xmas really, anyone taking bets on that?  
I'm on the exchange list for a move, and have been for just over 2½ years now, so I may get a transfer before the work is completed at this rate!
Anyway, best not bore you with my witterings any longer. Enough is enough for one day. I'll do my very,  VERY best to blog on a more regular basis now I'm beginning to feel part of the human race again. I sure have a lot of  news to catch up on, that's for sure.
Catch you soon.....bye now.

P.S.............as blogger is refusing to publish the font in black ( insisting on white) I've changed it to the darkest blue I can find.........fingers crossed it can be read!