Here's the Skinny!

Saturday morning is my club weigh in.  I know it's not for everyone but I need the accountability.  So far I've lost 5lbs 😊 I really have been eating well and haven't felt deprived at all.  I've even eaten chips and crisps this week and had gin (!!) and Prosecco.  It's all about balance.  I think the digging at the allotment helps too.

On the way back I popped into TK Maxx.  They've just had a load of Skinny Syrups delivered.  I'd read loads of enthusiastic comments about them so thought I'd give them a go.  Yep, all true!  Just a wee splash of syrup and squirt of foam turned my healthy waffles and plain soya yoghurt into a breakfast treat adding zero calories.  I'm a convert!!

Girls Day Out (aka Gin Queens on Tour)

Yesterday I went to Edinburgh with 3 of my colleagues to do an Edinburgh Gin Distillery tour.  It was a riot from start (Prosecco on the train!) to finish (coffee and chips in Wetherspoons!!)

It cost £25 for a 75 mins talk and tour about the history of gin, tasting the botanicals used, inspecting the stills and finally tasting the many types of gin and gin liqueurs they make.  It was great fun.  The tour included a miniature of their classic gin and I bought the Seaside Gin and a tour exclusive orange blossom and mandarin liqueur.
 

Then we went to Tigerlily for lunch and cocktails.  We all had a veggie yellow curry.  It was delicious!

We had the Disco Ball cocktail for sharing! 🍸

After that we went to a speakeasy for a few more cocktails  then decided that coffee and chips were in order before heading back on the train.  It was a lovely day out for 4 ladies of a certain age.  We've decided to do it more regularly!! 😮😆

Allotment video

Here's a wee video I took this morning at the allotment site.  Blogger won't let me upload the one with me talking.

Try this link and let me know if you can access a quick tour of my corner in the communal garden!

Talking video

Getting started

So I'm all paid up (£13 a year for the rent!) and the lease is signed.  I went back this morning to find my plot had been strimmed as promised!  I made a list of jobs to do and equipment needed.  First job is to fix the rotten gate post.  I was allowed to take a post from an abandoned plot but I had to wrestle it from a HUGE spider!!!

If I leave a path on each side, a seating area at the gate end and a compost area at back, I still have a veggie patch that is 4 metres wide by 12 metres long for planting up. The tower you see on the Ochill hills in the distance is The Wallace Monument. 

And facing the other way you can just see a wee bit of Stirling Castle in the top right hand corner.  It's just brilliant!!

I can't put a shed on it as it's part of the communal garden so I need to think outside the box re storing tools.  I have a few ideas I think might work.  Watch this space!

I am so excited!!

I've been given a veggie patch on my local allotment site!! And yeah it looks like this!!! 😮😂

At the start of May I put my name back on the allotment waiting list, thinking I might get one next year if I was lucky.  Yesterday I got an email offering me a (large) veggie patch in their communal garden on the allotment site.  I went to see it and accepted a lovely corner patch near the water tap 😊 If I prove I can keep it in order I'll be offered a full allotment plot in due course.

This is a different site from the one I belonged to before.  It's almost city centre next to the rugby club.  I could easily cycle there!  I had a good walk round it and it's full of quirky sheds, greenhouses and makeshift polytunnels.  Just my style.  The site I was on before didn't allow any of these.  I met a few plot holders and it all felt good.

As it's late in the sowing season here I've ordered some Autumn and Winter cropping vegetable plants to get me started.  Cabbages, cauliflowers, kale and purple sprouting broccoli and maybe some flowers as well.  I've got a month to clear and prep my patch before they start arriving.

Cannot wait!! 🌿

I made it!

It was a very long term 4 but I made it to the holiday in one piece.  It's been a tough one personally and professionally. My life is taking a different direction to the one I had planned and to be honest I'm still working it all out.  But it's all good and on my terms.

I took the plunge and joined Slimming World.  I know it's partly my age and some bad snacking habits but I just cannot lose weight easily any more.  One of my young colleagues has lost 3 stone so when I asked her about it, she invited me to go with her to her group.  It was actually great fun!  I'm 2 weeks in and 3.5lbs down already.  And the amount of food I can eat is fab! I was rather chuffed with my homemade healthy waffles for today's breakfast.  Joy over at The Frugal Factor has loads of great ideas I'll be using 😋

Last week's weather was rather bizarre.  The hill outside my house was flooded thanks to heavy rain and flash flooding.  Apparently there was footage of my town on the BBC Breakfast News! This wee sports car tried to drive through it.  Clearly not a local or he would have known about the weird dip in the road there.

It took an hour for the fire engine to pump the water away!  View is me hanging out my bedroom window!! 😂

I'm not going away this summer so I have 7 lovely weeks to spend in my garden and work on my house.  Can't wait!