Sunday 26 March 2017

Great boots


I'm currently wearing a great but old pair of knee high brown boots to work (Emma chewed my good black ones!!)  as my winter work uniform is leggings, boots, tunic and cardigan.  On Friday in the staff room someone commented that they loved my brown boots.  I had a quick think and then said 'Oh I've had these for years, they must be about 10 years old. Worth every penny.'  My lovely probationer friend quietly said 'I was 12 when you bought those.'  Cue much hilarity from everyone!!!

Saturday 25 March 2017

Another year older


I celebrated another birthday this week 🎂  It was just a normal work day and then my lovely mum, my aunt and 2 of my boys came to visit at night.  OH was working away so I hadn't planned anything fancy.  Mum brought a selection of buffet foods and pizza for the boys so it was a lovely easy night.  I even had a GF birthday cake!


Imagine my surprise when these gorgeous flowers arrived at work for me!! Most unlike OH but a lovely gift that really made my day 💑 And it gave the kids something to talk about!! 


Today was a beautiful sunny day.  A tropical 17 degrees C!!  The girls had a lovely time free ranging while I potted up some blackcurrant bushes and did a bit of weeding.  This is them sharing a dust bath.  I even had my lunch outside!


And Emma just loves lying in the sunshine as long as she has company.  She's happy to be outside with me when I'm just pottering but every time I went inside she followed me!

The clocks go forward tonight ⏰ Even though we lose an hour it really makes a difference getting up in the mornings.  Spring is on the way and it's the last week of term. I can just about hang on for 5 more teaching days then I have 2 weeks and a day off! 🎉🎉🎉

Sunday 19 March 2017

Productive Weekend


The weekend weather forecast for Central Scotland was wet and windy. It was certainly windy but the rain never appeared so this meant I've had a productive day in the garden today.  The girls enjoyed a bit of free ranging.


I planted my Epicure potatoes.  1 potato per pot in 4 of them and 2 teeny ones in another.  Emma was determined to get in on the act!!  OH and my lovely mum got some to plant too so we'll see who grows the most 😉


I cleared my newest raised bed, it was full of weeds.  This bed had my salad crops and peas last year.  It needs topped up with some fresh compost from my Recycling centre (they take all our garden and food waste and turn it into free compost).  I'll do this during my Easter break.


There are still a few leeks in the winter bed.  I used some this morning to make soup.  They're not very big but they do taste lovely.


This is my most productive bed atm with purple sprouting broccoli, curly kale (in the middle) and spring greens.  This will be my salad bed this year once I've eaten everything!


I did some tidying up and weeding at the front.  My purple heather is thriving a bit too much!!  Once flowering is over I'll chop it back a bit.  Despite the local dogs stopping to pee on it (!) it seems to like where it's growing.


Last night's whisky peppered steak for OH and me!  You can't really see the flames of the whisky in this pic.  It was very tasty 😋


I did go to Sainsbury's yesterday as I was out of coffee, loo roll and shampoo!!  I stuck to my list and spent £65!!! That included a bottle of wine (as it's my birthday next week and OH is away so we kinda celebrated last night) plus a few major store cupboard items.  That should see me through the next 2 or 3 weeks (I hope!)  I managed to get a reduced organic chicken.  After cooking I stripped all the meat off it and made stock with the bones last night.  Today I made Chicken and rice soup and put all the wee scraps of meat back into the soup.  I got 6 portions so that's lunch sorted all week!


The rest of the meat will be portioned up for freezing/using this coming week.  So far my meal plans are:

Overnight oats/porridge with fruit for breakfast and soup for lunch each day.

Monday - Chicken stir fry
Tuesday - Pulled beef and veg in a wrap (one portion left in freezer)
Wednesday - Birthday meal with family (provided by my lovely mum)
Thursday - Salmon and veg dish (I've got some cooked salmon lurking in the freezer)
Friday - eating out with OH
Saturday - chicken pot luck
Sunday - leftovers

Only 2 more weeks until the Easter break.  I'm really looking forward it.  So far I've got no plans other than planting lots of seeds and painting DS's bathroom.  And sleeping a lot!!

Monday 13 March 2017

A low cost week


I'm always reading that it's possible to live on £1 a day and I'm full of admiration for those people.  I've read that some people save money by meal planning and then sticking to their lists.  And some only live off yellow stickered stuff.  I meal plan, make lists and take advantage of yellow stickers but I still spend more than I want.  So, after checking my freezers and cupboard I'm making this a low spend week.  I gave myself £10 and popped into Sainsbury's after gym tonight.  I spent £9.35 on 1kg of brown basmati rice, 1kg of carrots, goats cheese, frozen blueberries and a bag of unwaxed lemons (cos I'm full of the cold!) The goats cheese is my luxury item at £3.40 for 240g!  It's a hard cheese so can be grated like cheddar for cooking. 


My raised beds are still producing some veggies.  My curly kale is still good and it's free!


My purple sprouting broccoli is delicious!! 


My 10p mint plant from a few weeks ago is thriving on my kitchen windowsill.  It's made a few pots of peppermint tea.

Last week I tried something new.  I scored some baby fennel for 10p.


I sliced it thinly and dressed it with some of my homemade blackcurrant vinegar dressing.  I liked it!

So back to this week's meal plan from the freezer/cupboard.  Breakfast is either overnight oats or porridge with blueberries, bananas or raisins.  Lunch is Lentil, kale and quinoa soup I made at the weekend with oatcakes and a slice of banana loaf.

Monday - oats; soup: turkey and veg bolagnaise with penne pasta
Tuesday - oats; soup; turkey lasagne with carrots and broccoli
Wednesday - oats; soup; pulled beef with rice and carrots/sweetcorn
Thursday - oats; turkey sausages in cider gravy with rice
Friday - oats; soup; chicken and veg stirfry
Saturday - boiled eggs; tuna wrap; rump steak with polenta chips and veg
Sunday - pot luck!!!

The hardest part is going to be cracking my snack habit.  I just don't have many 'snacky' things so I'll need to be creative or go cold turkey.  Eeeek!!

Sunday 5 March 2017

Is it useful or edible?


Remember a few weeks ago I did a viability test on some old seeds? 3 of my artichoke seeds eventually sprouted and I wondered if I could transplant them into wee pots.  Well, I did it and 2 of them are looking ok so far.  Fingers crossed!


I bought a couple of gravel trays (£4 each) to make moving/watering my hotchpotch collection of pots easier. I also got the last windowsill greenhouse for £1.  I suspect it was from last year but it's in perfect condition so bargain!


My seed potatoes arrived and I've got my first earlies chitting on my windowsill. Epicure are famous as Ayrshire potatoes (I'm an Ayrshire girl!) and usually one of the first new potatoes to hit the shops.  There's a bid to get their identity protected as there is a long history of commercial growing.  Some more info here.   My dad reckons they're the best potatoes in the world!  Closely followed by Jersey Royals that already have EU protection.  He knows his tatties!

It's still too early to plant seeds here so I'm restricting myself to getting things ready for the Easter break in 4 weeks.  I do hope the weather is dry so I can spend most of it outside in my garden.  My planting philosophy from this year on will be 'Have nothing in your garden that you do not know to be useful or believe to be edible'  With apologies to William Morris!!  Any flowers must be useful for insects or be edible themselves.

I also bought a book called Free Range Chicken Gardens as I'm interested to learn more about how I can grow stuff in the back garden without it getting trashed by my hooligan hens! They're not happy at all just now as they're not free ranging thanks to DEFRA rules regarding avian flu.  I'm in a very low risk area but I'm still being cautious.  They do have a decent enclosure but they try to escape every single time I open the gate!!

In other news, I've been out running a few times and so far haven't suffered any ill effects.  OH has changed my gym routine a bit so I'm pushing my body in different ways.  And I'm still trying to get into a yoga routine as well. I do hope all this work on staying healthy pays off as I get older.

I bought another Icebreaker merino top in black.  I love the purple one I bought last year so when I saw it reduced again I splashed out.  I'm trying to keep to my green principles on clothing and thought a black top like this one would be an investment.


I've been steadily adding more sock yarn leftovers squares to my blanket.  17 in this picture.  I got a few donations from my lovely mum's knitting group so lots of new colours are being added.  Once I've done 3 more I'll stitch them on and post a picture.

Work has been good (long may that continue!!) with my efforts on raising attainment in writing being recognised by management and commented on in a staff meeting.  It's these small moments that make the job worthwhile.  Although I was brought back down to earth when I had 3 of my kids' parents brought in by the Headteacher because of their playground behaviour!!  😒

Just 4 more weeks until I get a 2 week break from school 😊