The Ration Challenge 2022

 

I've only gone and done it again ... I've just signed up for this years Ration Challenge.

 I missed out on last years because of health issues but I should be fine for this year and I'm determined to do it.  Hopefully I'll be able to bring into play all the things I learnt from my last two goes at it.  This year the official week is from 19th until the 25th June although it is possible to do it at any time if those dates don't work out for you.  

THIS  ... explains how it all works so much better than I could.

My fundraising page is HERE,  

The idea of fundraising early is so that you can 'earn' food rewards for passing various levels.  So I am mentioning it here and on my Facebook page in the hope that I might be able to earn myself a vegetable, or even a tin of tomatoes.  Up to now I have a spice, 6 cloves of garlic and salt to add to the basic rations.  😀

I last did the Ration Challenge in 2020 and my first go at it was in 2019.

Both times between us we managed to raise an amazing amount of money.  The first year we raised £780.90 and then in 2020 we went all out and managed a magnificent £1153.87

I will try not to be begging for money every day during the Challenge as I do realise what tough times we are living in, but it would be brilliant if anyone can spare a pound or two.  You really do not need to donate the large amounts that appear on the donations page you can choose to donate from as low as one pound and with gift aid even that would be raised to £1.25 if you are a UK tax payer.

Now all I have to do is to decide whether I post all about my exploits on this blog or instead go over to my Challenging Myself blog and use that again.

So much to think about.

If you fancy a go yourself ... and it is for a really good cause ... copy and paste this to take you to the signing up page. 

 https://www.rationchallenge.org.uk/signup?ref=dd033760-d8f7-11ec-a872-db633208bce4

Let me know if you do sign up and I'll be straight over to sponsor you.  It's a cause that is very close to my heart.

Sue xx

Thank You ... and Gather in Your Onions

 

Thank you for all the comments yesterday. 

 It would seem that we are all on the same wavelength, I thought we would be, but it was nice to hear from so many of you and some new commenters and gather in all our opinions.  I typed onions there at first instead of opinions and made myself literally laugh out loud ... and of course spell check did nothing as onions are a word.  So gather in your onions to your hearts content. 😄

I seem to be having two Fridays this week as I was convinced it was Friday all day yesterday, not that I'm complaining ... I have always loved That Friday Feeling.

My only question to you today is - What are you looking forward to over the weekend?  

If the weather plays fair I intend to pot on some tomato plants, have a tidy up of the paths and sleeper edges and then set Alan free with our new pressure washer to clean up the patio area which has lots of  unsightly green bits.  Then we may even go out for a coffee and a slice of cake and take the doggies with us.  They love the social side of it as much as we like the cake.

Sue xx

 

A Storm in a Teacup ... or a Slippery Slope?

 

Why are so many people on social media in such a bad mood!!

Why are so many people posting negative and just downright rude messages to people who post on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and to a slightly lesser extent on Instagram, YouTube and here in Blogland, is there really any reason to take your own unhappiness, anger or simply bad mood out on other people to try to drag them down to your level. 

 Do people that for one reason or another put their lives out there for others to read about or watch really have to put up with people that actually have no interest in their lives firing off nasty, rude and negative comments just for commenting's sake.

Let me just clarify that I am not accusing any of my lovely regular readers of any nasty intentions or nit-picking but I am suddenly seeing, on many platforms, the reason that so many people are now being labelled as 'snowflakes' 'Karens' and much, much worse.  Oh, who would be called Karen in this day and age ... I really feel for you, a couple of my best friends at school were called Karen. 

Yesterday Thrifty Lesley was called out on Facebook for calling her page 'Thrifty Lesley - For Fabulously Frugal Food' and told that she was part of the problem.  That frugal food wasn't fabulous and she should be out there rallying, writing to her MP or indeed standing for parliament herself not posting recipes that help people make the best out of what they have.

What the actual F*CK !!

Madeleine Olivia was jumped on last week by numerous people for daring to share a recipe for Chickpea Tuna on her TikTok and told how disgustingly awful it and all vegan food was, while over on Instagram ... which is still usually a lot more civilised ... she had nothing but praise and 'yumms' etc.

  When did we stop following our Grannies advice and just keeping our mouths shut and our fingers off the keyboard if we had nothing nice or at the very least constructive to say?

So what's your opinion on this, is it just a storm in a teacup or a more worrying downward trend in a lack of compassion, manners and common decency?

Sue xx

Taking to the Water

 

The Legato

We are both finding it so hard to get back into the swing of day to day life.  A mixture of feeling pretty yuk and not being able to go out much means that all routines are completely out of the window.  So what do you do when you just cannot get out of 'holiday mode' ... why you book another holiday of course  😀😄

We have just had ten days in the Spanish sunshine, we have a five day Warner Leisure Hotel holiday booked for September, so what could I choose that is completely different to fill a gap in the middle?

I'm sure you can guess by the photo at the top of this post that I chose a narrow boat holiday, and one that is extremely close to home.  There is definite method to my madness as Alan is currently still debating about whether he wants to buy a narrow boat to renovate as a bit of a hobby and it seemed a good idea to 'try before we buy' and combining this with a luxury no-lock, cruising the cut, mini holiday seemed an even better idea.

We had to go for one of the larger of the four boats on offer by the Duck Island Boat Company which is a small company close to home in the local marina, as they are the only ones that you can take your four legged friends onboard with you ... but this should be no hardship at all.  With the potential for a bedroom and a bathroom each we can spread out to our hearts content in the 56ft long boat.  Of course booking so last minute meant that we had to take the dates that were available, which luckily fell just right for us.  It's going to be a total luxury sort of narrowboat holiday, something that we really do need to keep in mind if Alan is buying an old boat to do up.  I doubt his will have proper flushing toilets and two en-suites!!

So we have something exciting to look forward to in July ... now what on earth can we do in June?

Sue xx

Oh, and if anyone would like 15% off a White Stuff order I have a link you can use.

https://whitestuff.mention-me.com/m/ol/ke0lh-sue-hall

Back Home with a Tan, a Crash and a Ping

We're back home after a wonderful ten days in Alcudia, Majorca.  

With lots of sunshine, good food and a child-free hotel it meant that there was plenty of relaxation, some drinking and lots of rest ... just what we both needed.  I managed to read my way through four books, yes FOUR books in 10 days, a record even for me.  Two fiction paperbacks that I left behind to make our luggage even lighter coming home, and two on my phone which picks up all the books on my Kindle account.  In fact I sold my actual Kindle years ago when I found I just wasn't using it.

We both travel really light and had just one suitcase between us that weighed less than 15kg, even though we were allowed up to 32kg in one case if we needed it.  Alan also had a small backpack just containing our lightweight jackets and our holiday paperwork and I had a handbag.  We were amazed at the amount some people turned up with, all adding to the chaos at Manchester Airport.

We didn't stray very far from the hotel at all, we just had a couple of short walks and sits on the beach watching the day cool down, and just a few hours one day in Port Alcudia people watching from a pavement café, and watching all the preparations for the Iron Man Competition that was taking place on the Saturday.  We actually got to see the runners going past our hotel in the 27 degree heat on the day of the competition ... madness!!

We both topped up our tans, Alan more so than me as he is a real sun worshipper and he also had a few  dips in the hotel pool, although judging by his gasps the water was cool enough to put a lot of folk off going in at all.  But over the course of the week as the temperatures rose more and more people started risking a dip and swimming a few lengths.

We got home to find all the animals very happy, the house left super clean and tidy by our house-sitter ... and the potato plants now looking a lot more impressive in their Bags for Life just in front of the shed.  Time to top them up with some more compost I think.

There had been a crash landing at some point during the week, as once again Ginger had used the top of the cold frame to jump down off the fence onto.  I think it is beyond repair this time so I will have to have a reconsider for next year.

Somehow all the plants have survived, no doubt due to the cooler weather and rain that Kathleen our house-sitter said she had virtually all week.

The Courgette and Cucumber plants are also looking good.

As are the Tomato Plants that still live on my windowsill in the living room.

The past couple of days we have been making good use of the sunshine and breeze to get all our holiday washing done, well we have had to find things to do at home as just two days after we got  home than we were both pinged by the NHS Covid App.  So following the updated instructions we are still in isolation for the next few days.

So it's working from home for both of us ... and early morning doggy walks up the deserted canal.

Sue xx

The Green ... I Love the Green

 

Torn between two worlds!!

I love this photo of my kitchen when it had almost been completed, the empty spaces, the clean lines, the promise of what could be.

I also love the homeliness of my clutter.

The basics out ready to be used, the books ready to be pored over and inspiration picked up and be acted upon.  The day to day life that this scene shows I live.

And the green ... I love the green.

Sue xx 💚

I Travel Light

 

I've packed up

I'm headed home

I travel light ... except for books  

📚