Luna doesn't like it!

Luna is a bit bemused that I have a table in the kitchen now!! The side eye is ridiculous when I'm eating!😂She had developed a bad habit of sitting right beside me on the sofa when I was eating and tried to lick my plate. So, yeah she's not happy.  To use a Scottish phrase "she's pure raging!" 😂😂

She sits and glares at me from the other side too!  But it's so good to have a space to eat and work at again.  And Miss Luna will just have to get used it!

Today I got my notepad out and sat with a coffee to try and work out some things regarding the YouTube stuff.  I now have an astonishing 1161 subscribers and that £1.76 video has had over 17K views!!  😱 I only re started the channel 2 weeks ago!

Thanks for all the input on how I should go forward with it all. I've decided I'm going to post 2 videos a week on Mondays and Fridays.  The Monday one will be a general frugal chat about what I do and the Friday one will be food related.  I know the Friday one will be more popular based on the analytics! I'll keep them to around 15 mins max and I'll try to do one take to the camera and then add in things when I edit it.  It's editing that takes up all the time due to the slowness of Clip Champ.  But as it's free I'm not complaining.

I'm still keeping my blog going as usual.  I enjoy writing too much.  I'm not linking them and I'm not mentioning this blog so they're completely separate things.  You'll still get to read the rubbish on my weekly doings!! 😂😂

Making (slow) progress

 

Yesterday was Luna's first gotcha day!  It's hard to believe that it was a year ago this wee lunatic came into my life and turned it upside down!!

Exactly a year later barking at birds outside on the road at 8am on a Sunday morning!!

Today she went back to day care for the first time in 3 months!!  It was fab for me and I know she had a ball.  I was able to paint the wall behind where the blue and orange bookcase will stand.  It's now had 3 coats of Natural Calico (free from my Lovely Mum as she bought too much!)  Bits of it still look like it needs another coat.  That mocha colour is proving hard to cover!

I started the other side of the door into the kitchen and it's had 2 coats now.  It definitely needs another coat. 

It's taking shape slowly.  I've booked Luna in again for Thursday so will hopefully get the woodwork done too on that wall then the bookcase can be moved back and the books will go back in.  I've accepted I can only do a wee bit at a time so I'm not setting myself a deadline on getting the whole room finished.

I had hoped to do a wee bit of gardening today as well but it's rained heavily.  Yesterday my neighbour kindly came into my back garden and fixed some wobbly planks in the fence.  He had removed an overgrown vine from his side that was damaging my side and is adding more planks to his side.  So my fence will be nice and secure thanks to him and his son 😊

Tomorrow I finally get rid of the prepayment meters for my gas and electricity.  Hooray!!  I've already paid 2 months worth of direct debits so I'm building up some credit for the Winter already.  I'll have a Smart meter so will hopefully be able to monitor my energy usage more closely.

Is this a new thing?

 

Or did I just not know that you can pay your car tax monthly by direct debit? 🚗  It costs £9 extra over the year (or 75p a month) but right now having £180 in my bank account is needed more.  This way I never need to remember to pay it, just like my TV license.  I'm trying to move as many of my expenses over to DD as I can so I can budget each month accordingly.

Luna has 3 days left until she gets the all clear from the vet to resume 'normal' activities.  I got her a surgical suit so I could take off the cone.  It was driving her (and me!!) insane.  She's definitely a bit calmer.  It's a hideous colour/pattern but all I could get in her size 😂

Rhubarb and coconut custard

 

Today's main meal was 2 of the free lamb burgers and half a pack of the Mediterranean veg.  I just chucked it all on a baking sheet and cooked it in the oven.  Oh my goodness, so much fat/liquid came out of the burgers!!  I had to mop it up a few times with kitchen paper.  They were nice but nothing special and not worth the £5 price tag!  Good job they were free!!  I still have 2 more in the freezer so will cook them separately next time.

I really fancied something sweet afterwards.  I didn't have any milk or enough milk powder to make custard so had a look in the storecupboard.  I used half a block of creamed coconut and 400ml of hot water to make coconut milk as per the instructions on the pack.  Then I made custard in the usual way and served it with the last of the rhubarb from the freezer.  It was really good.  I'll def do that again.  I was rather pleased with myself at my ingenuity! 😂😂

A very rare moment with Luna sleeping!!  She's more or less behaving like she hasn't had surgery.  She keeps trying to do zoomies in the living room and the garden 😱  She's wearing her harness all day now as she can slip her collar (and cone) no matter how tight I make it!  She knows when I'm trying catch her to hold her to calm her down and grabbing the harness makes it easier.  She's absolutely furious at being kept calm!!!  She's finished the painkillers but is still on the sedatives.  Frankly they're not that effective...

...except within the first hour!!  She fell asleep mid bite! 🙄🤣

Free (ish) food

 

After dropping Luna off at the vet this morning (she was furious I hadn't fed her!!)  I popped into town as I needed to do bank stuff etc.  The PIN machines in the bank still weren't working after last week's worldwide computer glitch so I got a paper receipt for my transactions.  Not had one of those in a very long time!!  I had a £6 M&S voucher which was my quarterly reward for using their credit card so it's basically 'free' money.  I paid 1p for the above veggies.  Green beans, spinach and Mediterranean veggies for the freezer and broccoli for the fridge.

I went to the community food place and got 4 lamb burgers, mange tout and tenderstem broccoli for free.  I joined their Pantry Club (£2) so I can now shop in the Pantry.  You can shop for 5 items each time for £2 (I think!) but I didn't buy anything today as I had plenty of food from elsewhere.

I went to the Bureau de Change as I found some old US dollars in a wallet.  I wasn't even sure if they still legal but they were!  So my $43 were exchanged for £30.27.  I went to Waitrose (as that's the free car park I use) and spent it on some stocking up items.  There were some yellow sticker bargains!  I got 2 packs of cubed venison (now bubbling away in the Crockpot) 2 packs of sausagemeat and a rump steak as I had no meat or fish in the freezer.  I treated myself to some fresh Scottish strawberries but that wasn't included in the dollar money.

I had the steak sliced and stir fried with some mange tout and broccoli.  It was delicious!! 😋 A real treat as I just don't buy steak any more.

Luna's home and feeling very sorry for herself.  She's still doped up and woozy from the drugs so she's very sleepy and calm.  For now...

What else can Luna get up to?

 

Earlier this morning Luna ate a wasp!  She was nosing and playing with something on the deck then spat it out.  It was a wasp (or similar looking beastie) and it tried to crawl away.  As soon as I said her name she grabbed it and ran.  And swallowed it in the process!  No side effects so far...

Then when we went our morning walk she ate some poo 💩  Some dogs are prone to this but she's never shown any interest previously.  Yet another thing I need to watch closely when we're out!! 

But the best news is for some reason I mixed up the dates of Luna's op and my hair cut.  I did write them on my calendar but it was tucked away in the drawer.  Thank goodness my vet does text reminders of their appointments!!!  She gets her op tomorrow, not in 10 days!  Yikes 😱

And the calendar is now up on the wall! 📅

Standing still

 

It feels like life is at a bit of a standstill until Luna has her op (10 more days!) and can go back to daycare.  As she is so demanding I've stopped all attempts at decorating.  She has so much energy and is the kind of dog the more exercise she has, the more excited she gets!  Last night she had the zoomies, threw herself off the deck at speed and face planted onto the slabs 🙄 It would have been funny if there hadn't been blood!  She's fine but she's got a wee skint chin. And was feeling sorry for herself!

The weather has been very weird here.  It's warm and humid with lots of rain.  I haven't seen a blue sky for ages, it's always cloudy.  My pots are doing ok but this is the first rose to come out.  It's a bit small but it's so pretty!

There's not even a hint of colour on the blueberry bushes and there aren't many berries at all this year.  I picked the first berries on this day last year! HERE.  Other than cutting the grass and keeping on top of the weeds, I've not done much actual gardening.  Especially as the pollen count is very high and my hayfever is really bad.

In the last few weeks, I've discovered a wee bit more about the previous owners.  They haven't redirected their mail 👀  Anything with their actual names on it I've put back in the post with 'not known at this address' on it.  But I've opened the other ones to find out they didn't have a TV license and were being threatened with a final demand before court proceedings.  They had a TV in every room and there's a huge Sky dish on the front of the house.  So they def watched TV!!  There was also an unpaid parking fines letter that said bailiffs would be visiting if they didn't get in touch.  I've had this before in a previous house so I know I just need to show them ID to prove it's not me.  So I'm not worried about it.

I've met a few of my new neighbours and they've all made comments about the state of the house and how I'm getting on with it.  It seems the previous owners were the talk of the street!! 

Another birthday!!

 

I am terrible at remembering dates and often mix up days and dates.  When I was teaching I always made a point of double checking I'd made a note of the correct date against the correct day.  Well, true to form I mixed up Luna's birthday 🙄🙄🙄 TODAY 11th June is her 1st birthday!! 😂😂😂  She doesn't mind!!

She absolutely loves her new garden, mainly as it's all grass atm.  I have plans 😉  I'm loving all the daisies and buttercups.  Seeing all the daisies reminded me of Frugal Lizzy Bee on YouTube making daisy balm.  Check it out HERE

So I picked some from the edges of the grass where I know for sure Luna hasn't peed there!  I've previously made salves/balms from my calendula flowers so this is a new one for me.  They're currently drying out on my bedroom window.  I'll keep you posted! 🌼

EDIT:  Another of my favourite knowledgeable YouTube channels on foraging and herbal stuff is Home is Where Our Heart Is.  They also show you how HERE

Cheese scones

 

I'm a bit obsessed with cheese scones at the moment.  I made a batch yesterday to test my oven for baking but remembered too late I didn't have a rolling pin any more (DIL took hers with her.)  So I gently patted the dough out into a round and cut it into wedges as I remembered seeing triangular scones before.  It worked out really well!  I'm doing it this way from now on!  Quicker and less faff than cutting them out 😋

Recipe loosely based on a BBC food recipe.  I'm writing it down so I don't have to keep searching for it!!

• 225g plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
• 55g chilled unsalted butter
• 100 to 120g finely grated cheese (depends on how strong it is!)
• 90 to 100ml milk

Sieve dry ingredients together.  Rub in butter until breadcrumb consistency. Stir in cheese. Add about 90ml milk to form a dough.  Add more milk if needed.  Gently roll/pat dough into a round and cut into 6 equal triangle pieces.  Brush tops with remaining milk and put on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 200C/180C fan for 15 mins.

The weather here has been very cold for June.  Last night we had hailstones for a full 10 mins!  The sky was black on one side and brilliant sunshine on the other!  Luna was bemused, as was I!!!

Happy 1st birthday Luna!

 

Luna is one year old today!  It's hard to believe that she's completely healthy and all grown up.  She's now 26kg which is about the average weight for a female Lab her size/build.  She's booked in for her wee op next month so there will be no wee Lunas running about!!

Today she 'helped' me build a flat pack bookcase.  I've made a mistake putting a bit at the top that should be on the bottom and vice versa.  But to undo it would mean me taking the whole thing apart and that ain't happening for a decorative piece of wood!!  I'll maybe add a trim over it and call it a hack!  My plan is to paint it a bright colour, maybe orange or turquoise.  Paint samples are on their way!

But I have too many books and not enough space to build another bookcase anywhere else.  I need to cull some (I've already culled them by half before moving!) or find other ways to display them.  I have at least 2 more boxes upstairs plus the ones in my bedroom 😮