Food budget

I ran a quick check on our accounts for the year and our food and household items for 11 months totaled £2,800. So as long as Xmas does not get out of hand we should be within the £3,000 budget I had set for this year. This will be less than 15% of our income. On top of that spending we have taken about £800 worth of fruit and veg from our garden.

Its been very frosty here the last few days so we have been late getting up and getting going.  So late we have missed the early morning news and have ended up watching a programme about charities using waste fresh food.  For the first time ever I have realised the use of mobile phone Apps! Apparently there are some UK cities that have organised restaurants and bakeries who put end of the day food on a "Too good to waste" App and people can go locally and pick up a bargain rather than the business putting the food in a bin.  Another one where people put food they are not going to use up before the best by date on a local App and others come round and take it and use it. What really good use of technology!

Really must try to get up and get going tomorrow!

Parsnip crop

We are still working our way down the rows of parsnips and carrots left in the veg garden. Both have been exceptionally good - then we have ideal soil here. Loam with no stones - in fact, if we find a stone it is a cause for celebration!

This parsnip is a record breaker.  3 lbs, over 24 inches long. These kitchen tiles are 12 in squares.

Or in another measurement - at least two pans of soup per parsnip!

 Here is a recipe I tried today:
700g of chopped parsnips
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic

Onions and garlic are gently fried and you add:
1 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp each of cumin, turmeric, coriander and ginger.

Simmer with 1 litre plus of veg (or chicken ) stock for about 45 mins and then blitz.

It is quite thick and I have been adding more water with each serving.

Very warming!

We have had a few dry days with clear skies and sunny periods which have allowed us to see the flocks of Brent geese as they come off the Norfolk marshes and head to the sugar beet fields which are now mostly harvested. When there are 100 plus in a V formation it can be quite noisy.

Thrifty Chicken

Brought a small roasting chicken this week for £2.76.  I was very pleased with how this worked out for the week:
Sunday - slices as roast chicken plus potatoes, parsnips, carrots and sprouts from the veg garden.
Monday - casserole - legs basted in stock with onions and carrots
Tuesday - carcass stripped and bones simmered for broth, then bits made into a stew using broth and plenty of veg with dumplings
Wednesday - chicken biryani

Not a scrap was wasted.  Also on Sunday I did a beef casserole along side the roast to use the oven space. This was divided into two and popped these in the freezer for use at the end of the week.

We have got used to portions around 200g of meat between us for most meals.  For these 4 meals we definitely had far more than that each day. By Thursday we were quite happy to forgo meat and have a smaller meal of omelettes.

Chair project

Been working on this chair project this week.  It is a leather tub chair with a fixed seat (not an Ikea one which I have discovered would have been much easier).  I didn't want to spoil the leather at all, it is in good condition, but I wanted to add some colour and pattern as it was making the corner of the bedroom quite dark.

The fabric (on the floor) came from the Oxfam shop for £5.60. When I did look up ideas on Pininterest I could see most makeovers involved stapling which I did not want to do that except on the underneath.

I developed a paper pattern following the existing leather panels and kept fitting and trying out the shaping till it fitted.

In the end I tacked it all up with big loose stitches and then machined it up in stages. Eventually it fitted reasonably. I could not re do any bits this time as I had limited fabric. If I do this again I might choose a fabric (and have enough) that could be cut on the bias around the back semi circular bit.

Meanwhile it has transformed the corner of the room and I am pleased with the make over.

My first upholstery project - I might find some others!

Thrifty bedroom remakes etc

Been popping in and out of the house all week. Waiting for the sun to warm things up enough for a few hours gardening and then when it cools by 3.30, or rains, I pop back in.  I have been doing a few things in the main bedroom to improve our lives.

Since 1998 we brought one of those pine bed frames, king size, but a very thick yellow varnish.  We have moved 8 times since then and every single time we promised not to put the thing back together. Then we do because with a hard orthopaedic mattress it is actually a comfortable bed!

But I hate the end rails and the headboard is so uncomfortable for leaning against for reading. In retirement we are doing more and more reading! I have tried pillows and throws but the varnish makes everything slip off. We were watching one of those make over programmes recently and agreed a frame could be added with foam padding. Husband promised to put on his "to do" list.

Meanwhile I had an idea. By tying a very rough piece of wood to the back I created a surface to wrap on old worn out blanket round. I then cover it with half of a worn out  blue cotton duvet cover. (At least the linen cupboard was looking emptier). Once I had sewn the blanket and cover in place I pulled the wood out. We tried it for a few days and agreed it was about right for now and that it had cost nothing.

Then I found a throw in the charity shop for £1.50 and decided to cover it again to add texture. I then found a big needle and did some "quilting" points before adding some buttons from a craft stash.

The throw is a bit worn in one place (does not look as bad, I think the photo brings  out the worn  bit)  but the colour overall is about right. I may add more buttons as I come across some interesting ones.

As a quick revamp it has been cheap and is now much more comfortable!  One day we will do the frame and foam with some super fabric.

In another charity shop I found some fabric for sale for £5.60. It is just the right pattern and colour to cover the brown leather chair in the corner of the bedroom.

Again I was influenced by that "Money for Nothing" programme on BBC. If they can do it so can I!  I have started to make a pattern using last weekend's newspaper. We don't have weekend papers often and I like to make good use of the money spent! (We also did 80% of crossword puzzle without looking anything up this time!).

I might have to use some plain cream fabric round the back as the pattern stuff may not be quite enough. I will post more on this project later as it may take some time!

Meanwhile in another charity shop (I did the round of charities as a distraction on the way to the dentists!)  I found this adorable baby quilt. It will be good to have something for visits from the two grand children who will be 3 year olds next summer as we are going to buy a low single bed for them to have now they are too big for cots.

The sheep's ears stick up like flaps. The back has numbers on it. so sweet. And only £3.50!

Not looking forward to the expected storm this weekend - I hope everyone stays safe.

Dentists and wild life

Returned from dentist check up only £19.50 worse off. He put my loose crown back in again (3rd time) and warned again that it needs to be replaced soon.  Eye watering estimate £300 - will need to start a savings account! No relief in charges unless we get our savings down below the £23K benchmark and claim pension credits. Mind you with dental bills like that our savings will soon evaporate.

I wish I was good at wildlife photography.  Late this afternoon just as the sun was setting with a rosy glow below some storm clouds, a helicopter was going home flying low, tractors and trailers were thundering by a beautiful kestrel hovered right outside the front windows. It was determined to hunt and ignored everything happening around and about.

I had just called my husband to see when a much larger bird rose up near by taking us by surprise. We were astounded.  It was a Red Kite.   We saw them all the time when we lived in west Wales but this was the first time in East Anglia! Perhaps it has been blown here by the high winds?



I wish I could have caught a picture like this!

Winter fuel payment

Had the letter from DWP today re winter fuel payments being made to us shortly. Just as well as we had spent 75% of our joint allowance on a lorry load of logs on Monday!

In the last 2 years we have demolished all the old sheds and replaced them with lovely new ones so our problem was where to stuff the logs out of the rain?

Not to worry. We have kept various timbers and posts and had some left over roofing material!  Husband set to building a log store behind the fence. I am relegated to finding suitable bits of wood from the stash and fetching tools.  In the end only 3 bits of wood needing cutting to length!

Took an afternoon and a morning to wheelbarrow the logs from the drive and stack them. 

We kept a couple of wheelbarrow loads near the house in a corner of one shed (in boxes) ready to use. We won't want to come right up to the store in pouring rain!

Luckily the weather has held out for this task to be completed and was even warm for a while (12C). Some stormy skies came and went.

By the time this and a couple of other jobs were complete we realised we had missed the Children in Need rickshaw ride that came through the village. Never mind - we had a cup of tea instead.

Meanwhile the spare plates have been dug out of the cupboards and washed ready for any Xmas excess.

The far corner of the cupboard had been home to several spiders so it had to swept out and washed down. Yuk.

Dentist tomorrow and this is not going to be cheap!  Dreading it.

Preparing for Christmas ( or Not)

Not great fans of fussy Christmas's any more so very little prep is done here (in comparison to other bloggers,  and the rest of the world, who seem devoted to it!).

Various reasons, My mother and mother in law were so impossible with demands at this season for years and years, we were glad to see the back of the "family festivities." These days are adult sons have gone their own ways.  One son has converted to Islam so only superficially takes part to give his girls some experiences.  Another son is married to a Hindu (non practising) so does not go the whole hog either. Other son's partner is a bit like my mother and spends money they have not got so it does his head in and we hide as his moaning does my head in!!!

So what have I achieved by November 13th?

I brought a jar of mincemeat in this week's shopping.

I practised my sausage roll making - husband ate them all so there is nothing "in store" for December!

I started to deep clean some rooms in case we have visitors. I might dig out the "Christmas" plates and platters and give them a rinse later.

I got out all the left over cards and charity freebies that come unsolicited and the list. We need 20 cards maximum.

I have gone out to my sewing cabin and made some cards.  Using an appliqué pattern off the Interwebby I  copied the outline on to a cheap blank card from Wilko's, extended the antlers of this reindeer, used hatch lines to decorate the body and added the bauble. Lightly water-coloured. Its cute!  I may do another one if the husband insists on watching reality TV tonight (otherwise my brain may melt with boredom).

Another appliqué pattern for a reindeer head which I copied on to some sample Christmas fabric I had in the stash, backed with fusible stiffener. Looked up appliqué stitch on the new sewing machine and practised changing the stitch size (smaller on the horns). Buttons for eyes. 

I have been keeping some old wrapping paper for a couple of years as I liked the designs. So I used the robin to make my own applique pattern.

I think I will add some fluffy white fabric under the hat and make the mouth more distinct before gluing to a blank card.

Husband's prep? Brought some outside lights for his workshop to be decorated and made the annual phone call to his sister early.

I will read everyone else's bloggs with interest to see what preparations I am missing!

Blue skies

I should have taken a photo today but all you would have seen as would be pure bright blue!

Such a lovely day here. Got up to 12C for a while with bright clear sunshine. We have not a serious frost so I had to take up the dahlias and cut off the foliage so that I could plant my wall flowers.

Eventually the husband appeared outside to supervise - he has had man flu all week,

Oh well, rain forecast for tomorrow I shall hide in the sewing cabin where I am learning how to use my complex machine to do applique. I am making some applique Christmas shapes for Christmas cards for the little people.

Back soon
xx

Sweet potato non-harvest

All summer we have encouraged a dozen slips of sweet potato to rampage down one side of our poly tunnel. The vines were going out the sides and all over the path.

We enjoyed the pretty purple flowers though they died quickly.

As the temperatures dropped and the time to dig them up approached I mentioned to my husband that I had chased a mouse (bravely on my part) out from under the foliage when I was watering the day before.

He went to investigate. All he found was holes and chewed out skins and a few measly tubers!

Look out mice - I have some nice portions of poison for you next!

Poor packaging

Whoops!  Posted this earlier without an explanation! 

Yesterday we had a delivery of ironmongery/drawer sliders which was in a big box with loads of paper and quite unnecessarily packaged.  Today we had some wooden curtain poles wrapped in just corrugated cardboard. Quite minimal but should have been enough. Except someone had belted it and broken one of the poles, dented another and shattered 24 curtain rings into pieces. 

Sent of complaining email.  Hopefully we will get some speedy replacements. These were for my sewing cabin windows as the temperature is dropping and it is a bit chilly. Hoping some curtains will help.

Teaching the grandchildren

What did Grandson learn from us retirees while spending a week on holiday with us?

Its OK to relax!!!

Father
What you doing J?

Relaxing like Granddad.

Granddad relaxing and reading a book.

Granddad relaxing and making noises and reading a book.

Father 

What noises James?

Relaxing Noises.

<pause>

Father

J, did Granddad fart?

No. Granddad not fart.

Take it from Grandma - it was snoring noises and we are not teaching him rude noises!!!

Thrifty ways

While we were on holiday last week my grandson objected to his "jim-jams" having a tight neck. So Granny took them home, unpicked one side and put in two facings in a matching red fabric and two poppers.  Sent back in the post so he can get a few more weeks out of them Kids grow so fast!

On the way back from the post office I search 3 charity shoes for new boots.  The cheap ones on the left I brought 4 years ago for £12 in the cheap shoe shop and have worn them to death. The uppers were fine but the soles were cracked but finally the front fell off. The short brown ones to the right are barely worn, leather, Clark's, and were only £8. As I no longer have to yomp round urban areas between meeting meets for work they should last twice as long! 

At least I have managed some thrifty ways but there are several things building up in the house that are going to require attention and spending. Always something!

Autumn harvest

A cold start yesterday but the afternoon was sunny and dry so we did some harvesting!

Enough veg for the next few days. yet we need that hungry family of 10 again to get through these giant parsnips. One lasts quite a few days.  Left some on doorsteps of neighbours (while they were out).

I have tried a new thing to get the last tomatoes from the polytunnel to fully ripen. I must have heard it somewhere - perhaps Gardeners World last week - which is to put them with a banana. It worked very well with the last bowlful.

I have been keeping a food diary this week for two reasons. One my husband has not felt well once or twice and we can't work out what is upsetting his tum. Second, food prices are rising and we need to see what can be improved health and money-wise.

Misty garden work

Usually you can see the wind turbines 8 miles away but on Monday this week you can barely see across the road. We have several buddlia in the front garden but one is rotten at the base so we have brought a mahonia to replace it. Will also give colour in the winter/spring. 

It must be age but we are getting better at preparing to do these tasks. We go to the shed and agree ALL the tools and put in the wheelbarrow before the long walk to the front! We are also using more and more of the small pieces of old tarpaulin (the grotty plastic stuff - cheap but frays). Two pieces canm out - one to put the soil on and a larger one to gather the branches.

Because it was rotten a few whacks of the spade and sledgehammer removed the stump. Soil replaced, trod down, raked and re seeded.

Branches were towed in their tarp up to the bonfire and we went for coffee before collecting the tools. Still very foggy.

The other buddllia need reducing by 50% this year. A task we are putting off for a while longer.

New followers

Welcome to new followers!

Like Sue in Suffolk mentioned a few blogs ago it is quite impossible to get the link to peoples blogs through the icon. I tried taking the name displayed and searching but that did not seem to help either.  I hit on the idea of clicking on the name shown on any comments and that got me back to some people's blogs!  So I can now follow some new people!

It is a good job I signed up for some IT lessons in the local library last week.  I think I need to learn some new tricks.  The lessons are about "Tablets" , or i pads, and the way they work differently to anything run through Windows. It was quite interesting.  I am thinking of replacing my laptop and old PC with one medium size tablet that I can take out to my sewing cabin and use there.  I want to follow U Tube videos and follow some of the on line lessons/tutorials that are available for sewing and painting and other crafts.

First cold day of the autumn today with a slight ground frost in the coldest pockets and shadowed places. At least it was bright sunshine and not the gloomy fog of the last 3 days.

 Lots to post about this week which will have to wait as I can barely stay awake after a full day of gardening.