A couple of you noticed a few differences in the blog the other day.
I've been having a bit of a re-think, a re-jig and generally tidying up the right-hand sidebar. It's nice to keep things the same but it's also nice to have a bit of a tidy up every now and then.
I changed the blog header picture a few weeks ago after our little narrowboat holiday and with my love of canal bridges coming to the fore I just had to have one headlining my blog for a while. I just love old stone bridges and it's so lovely that I live so close to so many of them, a five minute walk in either direction and I see three of them, a couple minutes further and there are more.
Well anyway ... stop rambling woman, stop rambling ... after changing the header I thought I would look at other aspects of the blog that needed updating. It's a good job I did, a few of the blogs on my sidebar Blog List are just no more. I do read some blogs regularly and comment most times I visit, some I just visit and quietly slip away and some I hadn't been over to for quite a while ... and some of them had gone. How long have you been gone I wondered and pulled my sad face 😞
So I knocked them off, I also knocked off a couple that have just turned into advertising opportunities, I don't need to be sold things, kept up to date with things yes, sold things, no thank you. And when escaping the flashing adverts take up more time than reading a post does it gets to a point where I say 'no thank you' ... and quietly leave.
I'm currently working my way through my YouTube list of subscriptions too and deleting most of them. One of my ex-favourite ones, a proper career YouTuber is now just a walking advert and it seems her only content is showing what she eats, what she wears and if I have to fast forward through her showing us how she washes and curls her hair once more I will literally go and shave it all off for her. Then when she advertised for an 'editor and content creator' for her channel it was just too much. Her career is 'content creator' if she is going to pay someone to do that for her and just carry on washing her hair live on camera ... well I have no words!!
Anyway I have to stop waffling and sounding like Victor Meldrew and get back to my neatening up of my own blog ... or maybe should I pay someone to do it for me?
I did find something on my Blog List that I thought I had already deleted and I was really pleased to find it there. Back in December of 2020 I started a blog called A Year of Modern Rationing and I was all geared up to follow it through in the New Year, and then Covid. lockdown and life threw me a curveball and it was shelved as quickly as it was begun.
Maybe it's something for me to think about once again. What better way to keep food and fuel costs down than to go back to rationing, and non-wartime rationing is a lot safer than wartime rationing.
Something for me to think about for sure. Is anyone else thinking of something like this or similar for the near future?
Sue xx
The rationing is interesting and I wonder how you will organise a non-wartime version. I'll follow that link through and I'm really looking forward to how this develops. xx
ReplyDeleteIt's only a thought at the moment, you know how I go down a rabbit-hole of ideas ... hopefully one will grab me a bit more soon.
DeleteUnfortunately for some, who are fussy what they eat or don’t know how to cook from scratch, life will get hard quite quickly. One lady on the BBC said it costs too much to use her cooker so is buying ready meals:( My first thought was, slow cooker would be cheaper, make your own ready meals by batch cooking if you are able, it will be better for you and probably cheaper in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI heard that comment, and thought "ready meals which are worth eating come at a premium price"!
DeleteThere has been a real 'knee jerk' reaction to the price hikes of fuel hasn't there, with people switching off fridges and freezers and saying that they would never use their cookers again. We just have to look to the way our Mums and Grannies cooked and make full use of the oven on a couple of days of the week and just reheat on other days. As you say it's much cheaper to make a big pot of something at the start of the week, whether that is in a slow cooker or even using your oven or hob, and use some and freeze some as homemade ready meals.
DeleteYes, Angela any ready meals that are tasty and good for you are ridiculously expensive.
Hi Sue, would you consider giving a list of your favourite youtubers and a brief note about their speciality topic?
ReplyDeleteI've share a lot of the YouTuber channels that I regularly watch under the label 'Weekend Watching'.
DeleteBut current favourites are Holly - The Café Boat, Narrowboat Liberty, The Mindful Narrowboat ... all narrowboaters. Sopherina, Claire's Journey ... both budget meals and meal planning channels. The Cottage Fairy ... lovely calming nature and simple living channel. Grack, Extra Grack and Barry Lewis ... all fun and 'try it out' style channels to do with food, travel and experimentation. Freakin Frugal, brilliantly funny dumpster divers in America and my latest favourite is Three Rivers Homestead, a busy family of 9 with Mom currently leading the #everybitcountschallenge preserving all the food they grow for Winter and the kids all joining in with homestead chores.
Hope that helps.
I have a Bank Holiday weekend ahead to fill so these will help, thank you!
DeleteSometimes 'stuff' just needs sorting out, and blogs are no different, really like how you have preserved your previous header pictures. I love your "My Blog List" though - over the years I have found some lovely new-to-me sites, thanks to you.
ReplyDeleteAnd the ones which have become irrelevant adverts and the "content creators"? Those are the blogs/channels where my visit will show on their stats as having left after about 3 seconds!
I think I need to do my five-yearly appeal for everyone to share their favourite blogs, that's how I find some of mine.
DeleteI used to wonder when a YouTuber said 'now I need to get back to work' what they actually did for a living. I have to admit I was a bit astonished at first when I realised that they just mean 'go and edit all this chat that I've just been saying and put it up on YouTube for you to watch'. I really have no problem when someone is teaching you something worth knowing, but when they are just washing their hair or doing their skincare routine over and over with products that they have been sent for free and then telling you they have a discount code for 5% off a jar of face cream that costs £60+ it gets too much. The companies producing so many things have really jumped on this as a cheaper than tv way of advertising haven't they, and younger impressionable people are falling for it hook, line and sinker.
I recently had to buy a new computer (cat piss on the hard drive. :-() so I lost my long list of bookmarked (I don't tend to "follow" blogs) blogs. I have found quite a lot of new blogs to bookmark through your readers. I click on their names, read a page of the blog and think "Yes, that's another one I'd like to read!" So thank you, Sue!! I don't think I'd be able to do any of the food challenges you give yourself, as Mr FD would complain too much. When you were cooking for Alan too, how did he react?
ReplyDelete'Cat piss on the hard drive' would be a brilliant excuse for why you didn't hand your homework in!! :-)
DeleteThat's how I find new blogs to read for myself. If I like a blog I'm reading I will look on that persons sidebar for the sort of bloggers that they follow, or click on the names of commenters that leave a good comment on mine or other peoples blogs and nip over and have a look for myself. It doesn't always work but occasionally it brings up a treasure or two. I found John Gray that way many years ago when he left a comment on my old blog, and we became good friends.
And like a couple of people are doing with mine at the moment, if a blog really captures my imagination and interest I will go right back to the beginning and read my way through. It can be as good as reading a very good book.
I meant to add, Alan was usually very open to the Challenges and strangely the one he loved the most was the wartime rationing one. It brought back many happy memories for him of things he had learnt from his two Scottish grannies, and of course I did a lot of homebaking with that one and he never complains about cake and scones. ;-)
DeleteThe blog I miss most of all is The Quince Tree, I just loved every post, there were recipes with cookbook-worthy photos, glimpses of family life, knitting being done and books being read. Then I remembered Wayback Machine and was delighted to see that quite a lot of pages had been captured so I'm going to have a good look through them over the weekend
ReplyDeleteThe Quince Tree was a beautiful blog ... sadly she was one of the inactive ones that I deleted yesterday. I didn't think to look at Wayback Machine for some of her posts. Her photos were gorgeous, so much better than my hastily shot images ... but looking at some of my very early posts, I'm better now than I used to be!
DeleteIf anyone wants to see what we are talking about the link to Wayback is low down on my sidebar.
Take a look at this, all the recipes seem to be there, or at least the ones I've clicked so far, this is great! http://web.archive.org/web/20160703035600/http://thequincetree65.blogspot.co.uk/p/recipe-index.html
DeleteI stopped having a Blog Roll, as people kept giving up/getting too full of ads. Now if one of my 'regulars' has a good post, I post a link. But I check other people's rolls, and notice that many of us are in the same group! Meal planning currently abandoned due to family commitments. Serious plans will be implemented in mid September
ReplyDeleteYes, there are a small band of us that appear over and over on each others blog lists. I should imagine things are very busy for you at the moment. Congratulations. xx
DeleteI haven't consciously starting rationing but I am slipping closer to it, What has made a difference is the cash envelope system that I started a few months ago, I am more thoughtful with my spending and less tempted to buy too many treats and whimsical items and we haven't suffered from it, also making food stretch further, eg last nights bolognese for the two men was bulked out with oats and veggies, leftovers will have kidney beans and spices for a chilli for them tonight and the rest of the meat I will make burgers for them tomorrow, now normally I would just throw the whole pack of mince in for the one meal. When I make mash, I cook a load and freeze in portions, also use some to make potato cakes by adding flour. A while ago I bought a Ninja Foodi, it was on sale but still quite expensive but so worth it, I hardly ever use my oven as it does nearly everything at the fraction of the cost and excellent for bulk cooking. For me personally , not eating meat and dairy saves money too.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as though you are really on top of things at the moment. It's amazing how far you can make a pack of mince (meat or meat replacement) stretch with a bit of know-how isn't it, and it's also amazing how just how far a little bit of meaty flavour can go. A tiny bit of mince, corned beef or chicken in a pie with the right sort of gravy can trick the men in our lives to think they have had a really good portion of meat.
DeleteNot eating meat or dairy and not relying on meat replacements too regularly can save a fortune!!
It's good to refresh. I have to dip in and out of youtubers channels when they become a bit too samey. Throwing food into a basket then cooking it up inside a car is the part of the video to fast forward. An observation, I always have to scroll sideways to read your blog. It is too wide to fit on my big desktop screen.
ReplyDeleteI think that's the answer isn't it, dip into them for a while and enjoy them and as soon as they go off on a tangent that doesn't quite sit right jump ship and unsubscribe.
DeleteI wonder why it's too wide, I post on a pretty small laptop and have my sizes set to fit neatly into the screen which measures just 30cm.
Ignore my previous comment. I forgot about the three little dots on the top right, where it is possible to adjust the font size.
ReplyDeleteI'm ignoring you .... ;-)
DeleteMy blog needs a good tidy up but that will have to wait until I can sit comfortably for longer. Even our cheaper beans and lentils are creeping up in price and nuts are like butter - getting so expensive. I am not sure where this inflation of food is all going. Wordpress blog roll is quite static unlike Blogger who put the new posts to the top. Most of mine are still OK... I think - it will only accomodate so many so if I choose to follow a new blog then an older blog can be missed off - quite annoying.
ReplyDeleteI know EXACTLY what you mean, I was in a lot of trouble and pain by the time I had finished yesterday.
DeleteI really do not get on with WordPress and try not to follow too many WordPress bloggers, you are one of the few exceptions. Blogger adjusts the blog lists according to when a blog post was published so all new posts come to the top and you know immediately who has put a new post up. This is very handy if you only have the time to read a few of your favourite blogs ... before you have to get back to work or your back gives up completely.
A few weeks ago my husband signed a contract to have solar panels installed. It will be expensive, but hopefully will insulate us from rising electricity prices.
ReplyDeleteA channel I rather like on You Tube is Tom Scott. I didn't really look at You Tube prior to the pandemic, so it has been interesting to see how hard it must have been to come up with interesting content when he couldn't travel very far.
I developed a bit of an interest in european house renovation vlogs. Some are better than others.
Solar panels can be a really good investment if you get the planning and siting of them just right. We had a large array (and a battery back-up system) at our old house and it saved us a fortune once we realised that we had to adjust it so that the Aga came off the set up each evening to stop depleting the batteries overnight. And interestingly cleaning them properly once a month really raised their solar collecting capacity. Another excellent resource at our last place was the huge rainwater harvesting system that saved us an absolute fortune as we were metered for our water usage, and the Welsh hillside was a VERY wet place all year round.
DeleteWe went walking in a wooded area near our home this morning with a Park Ranger and now it’s pouring down. We are going to spend some time doing a digital declutter and password clean up this afternoon. Catriona
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to be able to settle down to an inside job after a good morning spent outside isn't it.
DeleteI look forward to your blog and I do like your list on the right hand side and use to link and then read. Alas, I am Wordpress so I guess my blog won't make the list. I like Wordpress as I get almost zero spam. I am enjoying some of the content from the Three Rivers homestead challenge. I have some issues with her continuing to have babies( 9 plus she's pregnant again) but that's my personal issue of world population. You might like the youtube channel Happy Homestead. She is very authentic and down to earth and her content is good.
ReplyDeleteOh I do pick up some Wordpress blogs from time to time, there's always a chance ;-)
DeleteAs far as I have understood it she 'only' has seven children at the moment and one on the way!! Each to their own I guess ... I know I would never have been able to cope with that many mouths to feed or bodies to clothe. But I do like the way she is raising her children, and I really think that if more people were raised that way the world would be a much better and fairer place. I'll have a look for Happy Homestead, thanks for the recommendation.
Absolutely thinking about rationing - food and energy - as well as being a bit more canny about the sorts of meals made and how I shop. Big changes ahead for some us? Luckily I know just the blog to follow - full of information and good advice! So thank you Sue x
ReplyDeleteHaha ... I'll do my best with content ;-)
DeleteI have noticed many bloggers leaving or making their blogs invite only. I will need to do the same with my blog roll eventually but I keep hoping they will return.
ReplyDeleteNot so much rationing here as being very selective over what I purchase and trying more plant based meals. That is a bit difficult as I have a very meat wanting husband. Mind you once I told him plant based meals are healthier for your heart he is more inclined to at least try them.
I read an article here in Canada about how your heating costs are sky rocketing in the UK. I worry that people will have to choose between being warm and eating.
God bless.
It can be time-consuming blogging, especially those of use that use lots of photos, but I find it enjoyable on the days that I can manage to be at the computer for a while.
DeleteA lot of the bloggers that have gone 'invite only' or have simply stopped posting have had trouble with sharing so much of their lives and leaving themselves open to trolls or people that just want too much from them. I find that the best way to deal with those sort of really nasty comments is to come down firm but fair, it's worked for me up to now.
Oh our heating costs are going to be ridiculous from now on, how some families are going to manage I sadly have no idea. There have been lots of less well off families and pensioners already having to make the 'heating or eating' choice over the colder months for years and now they are going to be even worse off. The worst thing is that the fuel companies are still sharing their massive profits with their shareholders ... while their customers freeze and starve. We live in a crazy world.
I thought I commented here yesterday. I can never tell if I have or if the comment has gone to spam, but anyways, ignore the second comment...if there IS a second comment. We were at the retirement property for a good part of the week, and kept inside with the rain. There is something wonderful about being in a small place with 'just enough'. Just enough to make a satisfying meal. Just enough dishes to serve it. Washing up after is quickly done. Run a little vacuum through, a you are once again ready to sprawl on a sofa with your book. I thought to myself, this is EXACTLY what Sue is talking about. It felt like a vacation. The first three days were so wonderful that we headed back two days later for another two days.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean and that really does sound wonderful.
DeleteI love washing my pots and putting things back in the cupboards knowing that I don't have to contend with stacks of things getting in the way. In fact sometimes I leave the pots in the drainer overnight and find myself just using them all once again as I make my breakfast.
I always feel guilty removing blogs from my sidebar, there's a couple on mine that haven't posted in two years so I might take inspiration from you,be brave and remove them. It feels good to have a good clear-out, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I ever watch on Youtube are music videos and the odd hair or crochet tutorial. I always prefer reading to watching (books over films, blogs over vlogs). xxx