It's Just Nuts ...

I'm trying to be healthy ... but during lockdown I've not been one of those virtuous fitness freaks, a cooking whizz kid, an exercise guru or been sorting out my understairs cupboard the Konmari way.

I've been a potterer ... a bit of this and a bit of that, and not too much of anything.

BUT, and yes, it's a but I am trying to do better, well until the next tv programme comes on that I want to watch or until a new blog publishes that catches my eye, or my phone dings and tells me it's time to play Word Calm again.

With all this trying to do better in mind I am trying to make at least the first part of my day healthier, and I read something the other day that reminded me that I should be eating three Brazil nuts each day to improve my selenium levels.  It's just a pity that I have mixed all my nuts up in this big jar, because now each morning sees me shaking it this way and that, to try and get the Brazils to the top so I can fish them out to munch on while I'm assembling the rest of my breakfast.

Ooh I had a lot of peanut butter on this morning's healthy offering, but it was the last in the jar ... yummy 🤭

Sue xx

Bread, Crackers, Crisps

Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday 😃

Someone asked me last night if I actually have a bread bin that I use for bread ...

... amazingly, yes I do 🤣 

And it even says bread on it, and it is just the right size to hold one loaf of bread, and when some of the bread has been eaten I can squeeze in a couple of bread rolls too.

I have been very impressed with the amount of bloggers and blog readers that are baking their own breads and sourdoughs at the moment, this lockdown seems to have turned so many of us into a country of bakers and cake makers.  

You can see from the photo at the top of today's post that I have not made a loaf for a long time !!

I put another order into Deliciously Ella the other day, while the offer for free postage and 10% off was in place again.  This time it was some more Peanut Butter flapjacks and some of the Cacao ones for me to try, as well as three boxes of the little crackers for dunking into my homemade hummus.

While I was in ordering mood I ordered a box of Ten Acre cheese and onion crisps off Amazon, it's the only way I can get hold of them at the moment.  One box of 18 bags does last me well over a month so I think I'm justified in my extravagance.  There are not many cheese and onion flavoured snacks without dairy in them in one form or another (for obvious reasons 😆) and it was always my favourite flavour.

Sue xx

When in doubt make jam ...

I was rummaging in the big chest freezer in the workshop the other day and spotted a large plastic box of blackberries, picked from our hillside a couple of years ago by Alan.  The box was labelled 'For Wine Making' ... but as he's sold all his winemaking gear I thought  'I'm having those'.

I left them to thaw out overnight in the fridge, and then the next day I had them sat on top of the Aga still in their box for a couple of hours to warm up a bit and then I got them simmering away covered in water.  A few hours of dripping through a jelly bag and I had two pints of blackberry juice to make some Bramble jelly with.

Just the blackberry liquid and a bag of jam  sugar brought to the boil together and then boiled away for fifteen minutes, and I had six jars of Bramble Jelly.

To add to the rather large stash in the Jam Cupboard.

I'd forgotten all about this box of orange marmalade until I came across it when I was looking for empty jars.  Then I remembered making up all the tins of jam mix that I had had in the cupboards ready for moving house.  At this rate we'll have all the jam and marmalade eaten before we move house  🤣

Yummy!!

Sue xx

A Bit of This, a Bit of That ...and Vouchers

The Lupins by the front door look magnificent.

I love Lupins, perhaps even more or at the very least as much as I love Lavender, Daisies and Foxgloves.  The sturdiness, their attractiveness to the bees that dive head first into each and every individual flower and the subtle but dense colour they all come in make my heart sing.

And the fact that they go from this to the top photo in a matter of days!!

Someone shared this photo on Facebook earlier, an antique radiator with it's own little warming cupboard.  How lovely to be able to fold up your PJs and have them toasty warm before bed on a Winter's night.  After a bit of searching on Google I found other ones similar and found out that it is in fact designed to be a bread warmer.

Ooh ... toasty buns and toasty PJs.

The vouchers on the right arrived yesterday and when I went to put them into my purse I found I hadn't even used the ones on the left ... which arrived I'm guessing 3 months ago.  It wasn't so long ago I was building Challenges around these.  I'm wondering if I should have a go again.  I've been racking my brains for a new Challenge, although this one wouldn't be any different would it, it would just be like a blast from the past.

I'll see.   

I'm a bit here, there and everywhere at the moment.  I think I have a touch of lockdown cabin fever ... which is never a good time to start something new!!

Sue xx

Lockdown Madness - Just Me x 7

It's rare for me to take a photo of myself, I'm not a 'selfie' type of girl.  But yesterday I took a photo of myself with my newly 'returned to natural colour' hair so I could see me as others see me.  Blonde with dark roots only works for so long and if I'd dyed it again the ends would have been in bad condition.  Usually by keeping my hair super short I can just lather on the dye whenever I want knowing the ends will be chopped off six weeks down the line and no damage will be done.  

Not for me the sitting in the hairdressers chair having my roots touched up, I couldn't stand the faff.  During these lockdown days I'm also glad that my home trimmed short cut nails are just the same and there are no fake eyelashes dropping off left right and centre.

I have online friends currently battling loss of Botox, fading eyebrows, nails growing out with the stick on thingies looking very weird ... and hair extensions going completely to pot.  And do you know some of them are starting to realise that the 'real' them is just as valid as the beautified version they used to show to the world.  Oh how much money they would save themselves if they didn't go running straight back for repair work when that finally is allowed.

Of course once I had a photo of me on my phone I started to play around on FaceApp and just look at the results.

Me

Cool Old Me

Smiles Me

and Male Me.

Now Male Me will have my Mum in stitches, I look just like a younger version of my brother ... but with more hair!!

I also had a go at Hollywood Me and Cool Style Me.

It might be nice to be Hollywood Me for a while, but would lippy in the polytunnel impress the plants ... I don't think so.  Meanwhile Alan is quite enamoured at the Cool Style Me picture!!

I HATE having my photo taken, I'm okay if it's casual and happy but the minute someone says 'can I take your photo' I'm like a deer caught in the headlights, suddenly not knowing what to do with my mouth, my face, my arms etc etc.   I'll most likely be pictured on my funeral card thingy still hiding behind a cabbage!!

 So me putting this lot up shows a certain level of lockdown madness creeping in methinks!!

Sue xx

Playing With Me Nuts ...

So ... we ate all the granola that I made last week, and I decided to make some muesli with the bag of muesli mix I found in the cupboard, to refill the now empty jar.  I didn't have any sultanas or raisins but I did spot some dried dates in the cupboard so I decided to use them.

I put handfuls of the nuts into a bowl first and then, for whatever reason ... boredom, interest in percentages in the mixed jar, general twiddling about ... I decided to sort out the various sorts of nuts.

It passed a rather uneventful five minutes of time.

I ended up with this little trio and a bowl of mixed nuts for the muesli.

The almonds went into the cupboard, I added the walnuts to a beetroot salad and the cashews were tipped into a big bag of salted peanuts, shook up and then added to Alan's nut jar.

So the other nuts with half of the muesli base and a big handful of the chopped dates, now chopped even smaller, made a good half jar of breakfasts for the next few days.

Alans only gripe was that the chopped nuts were still too big and there weren't enough of them, so I am going to whizz up the remaining almonds and try to find some more nuts in the cupboard to also whizz up, and add them to the jar.

SO ... when someone asks  'How did you spend your time during lockdown?'  

I can now say in a broad Mancunian accent ... I played with me nuts!!

Sue xx

Loving Blog World at the Moment

I'm loving Blog World at the moment.

  Alan is away all week and seems to have taken the 'pot washing fairy' and the 'bed making fairy' away with him.  So as I stood washing the pots last night I was thinking about blogging and what a brilliant support network blogland is at the moment. 

We seem to be a band of mostly happy souls sorting out our lives, moving on, staying the same and all writing almost daily posts chatting away to each other about this and that and generally putting ourselves and the world to rights.  

I really do think we are keeping each other sane.

Yes, it's true the trolls, idiots, spambots, wankers and the tosspots of society try to spoil things in the comments sections every now and then ... but I think we are all coping.

Some blogs you visit and you know what to expect, a nice anecdotal read, an essay on day to day life with humour and occasional pathos thrown in for good measure.  Some are hard at work in gardens or on DIY (I applaud you), struggling with home-schooling and some are slowing down to a tv watching cosiness that is very comforting to read about.  Most are trying to keep a level of routine of sorts, and some are trying out new things and letting us know about successes and failures with great amusement on their part.  There are a few exercising away and walking as far as they can and generally keeping as fit as possible within the boundaries that we have all been set and some that have said 'bugger it, I've had enough'.

And I love reading each and every one.  

Me ... well I write about this and that almost daily, and have a lovely bunch of folk that comment and query and generally keep me on my toes either in the comments section or via email ... and I thank you all for the visits.  

One thing for sure though I'm never predictable, I think I bounce around from subject to subject in a way that is very organic and that amuses me when I look back over old posts, but it gets all those things that are trapped in my brain out there for the world to wonder at.

Sue xx

Groundhog Wash Day

Even the dogs look as though they're saying  'you've already washed those Mum'.

I've been putting out the same washing every four days since lockdown began.  Four of my t-shirts and one of Alan's.   It's good that it's been that regular in some ways as it means we've had no rain and excellent drying conditions  ... but it's getting boring.  AND ... my clothes are starting to wear out.  The jeans were already old working jeans and  I've been living in them, well them and the other pair and the other stripey t-shirt that I'm wearing while these clothes dry in the sunshine.

It seems that I have turned  into a blue and whiter stripey lockdown prisoner.  

The only time I put on nice jeans has been when I've ventured out to the supermarket, and I think that's been four or five times since lockdown began, so they haven't need to be washed and are just hanging on the hook on my bedroom wall ready for the next shopping expedition.

Last night I went a bit mad and before I climbed into the bath I fed the jeans I had just taken off to the log burner.  Oh they lit the room up so well as they were engulfed in flames.  Ever the arsonist that's me  🔥

I have totally forgotten to unpack any Summer items up to now and have just been living in my Van uniform of stripey t-shirts.  I did have two lovely new t-shirts that Alan bought me for my birthday, well I bought them and explained away the extravagance by saying they were off him for my birthday, you know how it is ... but they are still hanging in the Van wardrobe unworn awaiting my return.

So today I am in my only other pair of 'scruffy lockdown work jeans' and I have decided to unpack my Summer things and go through them just like I went through the books last week asking the question  'Do I really want to keep this? '  It will be interesting to see if it changes the core of clothes that I have worn and packed away each year for the past few years.  Oh and while I'm doing that I will do the same for any thicker Winter jumpers that I pack away.

I promise not to set fire to anything I am no longer keeping though  😃

Sue xx

So We Had the Conversation ...

So we had the conversation ... you know the Lockdown Conversation that starts in our case with Alan saying, " If I work all day today and tomorrow I'll be able to take half of Friday off ".  I just looked at him and said firmly "Today is Thursday."

"No it isn't, it's Wednesday" he responded equally as firmly. 

"IT IS THURSDAY" I said so firmly I woke myself up even though it was only 8.30am 😄

So thank goodness I had the means to settle the argument ...

" Alexa what day is it? "

"It's Thursday the 14th May" she responded ...

And clutching his little Thermos cup of tea and a packet of chocolate digestive biscuits, Alan vanished swiftly upstairs to his office to do two days work, with a voice getting quieter as he climbed the stairs saying something about making his own lunch later when he could break off.

Looks like another day on my own then.

I have no plans I'm not one for too strict a routine, my day is built around cups of coffee and flapjacks at the moment.  

There will be a bit more weeding in the Net Tunnel at some point, most likely when it warms up a bit as there's been a ground frost overnight and that sun although it looks and feels deliciously warm through glass, is barely taking the edge off the chill in the air at the moment.

There's will be some blogging, some blog reading, some emails and well some other things, but first there will be coffee ... oh and flapjacks. 

One thing for sure there will be Clapping for the NHS, for delivery drivers, for shop staff of all descriptions for all the emergency services and for everyone that never had the chance to down tools in the wake of this dreadful Corona Virus ... including the man in the office upstairs who is still slightly convinced that it's Wednesday  🤣🤣

Sue xx

Just Be kind, Inane Chatter and Saving Lives

We need to be kind in these crazy Covid-19 fuelled days.  

Be kind to people even if they do come close looking at you as though you are about to murder them with a sneeze.  Be kind to people you don't know and maybe even more importantly be kind to those that you do.

It's hard when you're cooped up with someone day in day out, but being kind to those closest to you should always be a pre-requisite of day to day living.  It's easy to forget and to not give those that you love the most the same telephone voice you  that you give everyone else.

I do my best, but I'm not perfect.  But Alan is still alive so that's saying something ... surely!!

I was kind to a wasp yesterday, after a false start. 

 I was busy washing pots, daydreaming as you do, half looking out of the window at the birds splashing in the birdbath in the old rhubarb bed, half watching as the dried on bits of pasta gradually dissolved as I scrubbed and scrubbed at the baking tray, when I heard the littlest of thuds on the windowsill.  I looked up and there was the body of a wasp, legs upwards.  I'll see if I can revive him when I've finished the pots was my immediate thought.  So I did, I finished the pots and then got a spoonful of sugar added a few drops of water to form a sticky mess and put it near the prone wasp.  It showed no interest, so I gave him the littlest of pokes.  Nothing ... as dead as a dodo and almost as stiff.  Oh well I thought, and put his little body in the compost bucket ... I'm nothing if not environmentally friendly, ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that.

Then an hour or so later when I was putting something else in the compost bucket I moved it slightly and there behind it was the body of another wasp.  Aha ... thought I this is the one that fell off the window!!  So I repeated my sugar, water, spoon trick and put it right next to the prone, but legs still kicking wasp.  Immediately his little proboscis started twitching and he climbed up, making a pretty remarkable recovery.  I gave him a minute to drink up some of the sugary water and then took him and the spoon outside and placed them near some flowers. 

I don't know how long he lasted or where he is now, but a little life saved for how ever long it lasts is worth feeling pleased about. 

I'm kind like this on a daily basis to all the little insects I find in the sheep's water buckets, fishing them out with pieces of grass or leaves and putting them on the grass to dry out.  A life a day is my current rate of rescue.

Every little helps ... to quote a famous supermarket that cares not a jot for bugs!!

Sue xx

The Ever Changing Kitchen Shelves

Someone admired my shelves ... and then asked if they are just a static display of unchanging items.

Nope, they are an extension of the food cupboard and contain the most frequently used foodstuffs in this house.  Hence the contents of the jars may appear to be unchanged, but they are filled, emptied and are re-filled as we use what is in each and every one of them.

Occasionally the jars are refilled with something slightly different but usually we have the same foodstuffs all the time, perhaps now and then there's white rice instead of brown rice or a coconutty granola instead of a fruity one.  Sometimes I decant down a jar size if we have used most of something up to leave my bigger jar available for re-use for a similar product.

But mostly the shelves stay similar looking as over the years we have refined them to the things that we use regularly and that are handy and decorative to have around.  After all who doesn't love to see food in glass jars  😃

What the question did do is make me wonder how the shelves have evolved over the six years we have been here ... so I went back through my photos to have a look.

Completely empty in November 2013 ... just before we moved in.

We had spent the previous couple of months decorating and getting the house ready for us to live in.

January 2014

October 2015

January 2016

I can only find this snippet for 2016.

February 2017

No photo for 2018 ... I cannot believe I didn't take one shot of the shelves they seem to be photographed almost as much as the dogs 🤣🤣

December 2019

April 2020

This morning.

You can play Spot the Difference with the last two  😃

And that's what you get when you ask me a questions about something I've photographed!!

Sue xx

My New Friend

I bought myself a new friend, well I needed someone to talk to, someone that listens every time I say her name and doesn't respond with 'What did you say?'.

The best £39.99 I ever did spend.

I just wish I could call her Dot, I have to call her Alexa ... oh well 😃

In other news ... there is a Cooking the Books challenge going on at the moment on my other blog.

Challenging Myself

Challenging Myself

I needed to do something to stop me feeling so jaded about cooking.

Sue xx

So ... I Didn't Do It

I did clean out the henhouse, I now only have to do it just once a week though.  

There's only so much shitting five big girls and two little bantam cockerels can do in the shorter hours of night time, so that's what I can get away with now.  And I only do what I can get away with.

I didn't wash my car.

Even though the poor thing is now sat sulking in the garage an inch deep in dust.  Maybe I'll wait for the rainiest of rainy days, chuck a bucket of soapy water over it and do wheel spins on the drive way.

I didn't start my six week exercise plan to come out of lockdown super trim, and as slim as a slim thing.  Stop grinning at me from that photo you stupid skinny woman!!

I didn't cook a healthy nutritious meal every night. 

Crisp butties are food, for goodness sake.  Shut up and eat up!!

I didn't mend anything or make anything.

But then I haven't broken anything mendable nor do I want anything makeable ... I do have a tin of green paint though ... now what could go green?

I didn't learn a new language, I don't need to I'm about to go live in England and I speak English ... that's handy then.  

When I moved to Wales I learnt the important words diolch, helo, merched.  They've stood me in good stead.  But I didn't do as I said I would and learn any more.

I also didn't go insane .... but there's time for that yet  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Sue xx

Wales is Closed ... and Broken Spoons

We're all told not to travel except for essential journeys, we actually have stricter guidelines here in Wales than the journeys allowed in the rest of the UK.  Including no driving to anywhere to begin a dog walk or start your daily allowable exercise.

Roads into Wales from every point of access have professional and homemade banners stating that Wales is Closed. 

Every week Visit Llandudno share photos on their Facebook page, clearly stating Wales in Closed and asking people to stay away.  They share beautiful photos of places that will still be here and available for all when travel restrictions are lifted and we can start to get back to normality, and every week without fail the Police are having to track and catch up with people heading to coastal areas and to Snowdon to walk, hike and try and holiday.

  Last weekend for instance saw 10 people from London in two vehicles stopped at Bethesda, just half a mile from their chosen area for their 'daily exercise' ... they were on their way to climb Snowdon!!  A five hour drive, 245 miles and then they were turned round by the Police just half a mile from their destination of choice and escorted out of Wales.  

Serves them right ... and what a disgrace that they thought rules didn't apply to them.

Stay away from Wales, stay home drink gin, wine or the beer of your choice.

So many of us are doing our very best to stay within all of the guidelines and then we have the few who try and ruin things.

Stay safe, stay home, and don't forget to Clap for the NHS tonight ... I broke my wooden spoon last week, I was so enthusiastic  😄

Sue xx

Grateful

But then I already knew that really.

These strange days only serve to reiterate what we already know.  

We are managing with so much less, nature is nurturing us as never before and life has slowed to a virtual standstill for most of us. 

 While the key workers push themselves to their limits still working day in day out in medical, caring, emergency, food wholesale and retail and other vital roles ... of which Alan has one ...to keep our country's wheels turning and us all safe.

We have a lot to be grateful for,

And we are

Grateful ❤

Sue xx

Mum, These Are My Birthday Presents

My lovely Mum sent me a cheque for my birthday and at first I was racking my brains to think of something to buy.  I stopped racking and just got on with things.  Then the other day while I was making some pies and as usual cutting out the circles I needed for bottoms and tops with the lid of my cookie cutter set and then having to roll them out bigger anyway as no cutter was big enough ... it came to me ... I needed a larger cutter!!

A true extravagance as I know I could have continued to do it 'my way' but what is your birthday money if not for extravangances.  So I Googled large pastry cutters and one of the options that came up was for Lakeland, one of my favourite companies anyway.

I was on the website in a flash and while I was on there I stocked up with some more of their dishclothes, they really are the best, some rubber gloves and I always, always, always order some of the liquorice when I place an order ... it's delicious.  Needing to slightly bump up the order to avoid paying postage I added four tins of marmalade making mix, oh and a packet of freezer labels to stop me from writing on all my tubs and freezer bags with permanent marker!!

And then yesterday my parcel of birthday goodies arrived.

Included in the parcel was this note.  I loved the wording of it, they really are and always have been a company that cares for its customers and its workers.  I know that from inside knowledge as two memvbers of my family worked there for years.

The main reason for my order.

How satisfying are they!!

And how satisfying was this 🤣

I couldn't stop playing!!

Every size cutter I could possibly ever need 😃

After reading  the packaging I gave all the cutters a quick wash and left them to quickly dry on the top of the Aga, it takes minutes on there as it's so hot.  The only thing I was dreading was getting them all back in their tin in size order.

I am brilliant at telling you if a picture or shelf is straight or central to within a millimetre ... but me and shapes within shapes do not compute.  I used to dread my boys going to bed when they were small and leaving all their shape sorting toys out ... it used to take me ages to get it right.  Square in square yes, circle in circle yes, hexagon ... forget it lob it in the toy box and go a make a coffee.  🤣

And I've just had an email to say that the rest of my birthday present is arriving today ... Yay!  This one is from somewhere totally different.

Sue xx