Doing 'stuff'

 

I finished a sock 🧦  It's in a blue/green colourway and I don't love it.  It's one of the Regia Arne and Carlos designs.  But it's a finished sock and I'll cast on the second one tomorrow.  This pair might end up getting gifted.  Or I could be really organised and say I've started my Christmas presents for this year already 🎁😉

The weather is still absolutely appalling so I was very surprised to see that my Sarah Raven tulips are starting to pop up again in the raised bed at the front of my house.  This will be their 3rd year so I'm keen to see how they do this year.  Photo taken through the window but all that greenery is tulip leaves!  🌷🌷🌷

Since my leeks were planted in the same bed I decided to remove them to give the tulips a chance.  This may or may not have been a mistake!!  I've just stuck them in a tub and rinsed them off a bit.  The rain can clean them a bit more before I get round to chopping them up and freezing them tomorrow! 

I've been doing more cooking to stop me buying sweet treats!  Yesterday I made some crepes with the buttermilk from my last batch of butter making.  They were perfect with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of sugar! 🍋

Today I made a rice pudding on the stove top with last of my pudding rice.  I didn't have any kind of milk except some powdered Marvel in the storecupboard so I used that!  I used brown sugar so it has a slight caramel flavour.  Doesn't look great in a photo but oh my, it was delicious!! 😋

My pre ordered seed potatoes from Pennards arrived!  I have Epicure, Cara and Arran Victory.  I've been trying for the last few years to get Epicure as they are the classic early Ayrshire tatties I was brought up on!  I'll do these in pots and the others I'll put in the ground at the allotment.  Cara and Arran Victory grow well for me on the plot 🥔

My Kitchen Garden magazine arrived too!  For the first time in months it didn't contain lettuce seeds!!  I must count up the number of lettuce seeds I have.  I don't even like growing the stuff!!!  I think my subscription must be almost finished.  It was a gift from my Lovely Mum 😊

Even though I've been taking things slowly I've been pottering around and doing loads of 'stuff.'

No spend October?

 

I finally did a thorough inventory of the freezer in the garage!  I thought it would take me about 10 mins.  Nope, a full half an hour but it's totally sorted out now.  I've put 'like' things into carrier bags to make them easier to find.  As expected there's a lot of food in there!!  For example 17 mugs of soup!! 😱 Plenty of lunches sorted then!

I've worked out I have at least 20 meals' worth of meat or fish as the main protein.  I have tons of veggies and plenty of fruit.  I have a fairly well stocked storcupboard.  Could I do a no spend October?  I've checked all my non food essentials too and I think I could.  So, there's my challenge.  No spending in the supermarket unless it's an 'emergency!'  Never done a no spend at all before so this could be interesting!

I found some mashed potatoes in the freezer so made some potato scones.  I've been having them with a fried egg for my breakfasts these last few days.  I still have some of the red Desiree potatoes stored in the garage so they'll be good for next month's meals.

I ordered some seeds from Real Seeds.  They came yesterday.  Even this early I couldn't get some of the varieties I wanted.  I really like this company as they actively encourage you to save your own seed.  They also do low/no wage packs so growing food is accessible for everyone.  I think it's done on trust, you don't have to prove your income.   I'm going to try growing their quinoa on the plot next year.  If you check out Toni's post on Simple Frugal Life, she grew some successfully this year.  I thought it was worth a shot!

Today I'll be mostly keeping myself busy painting bits and pieces in the kitchen as my Lovely Mum is having fairly major surgery.  Interestingly, it's being done by robot!!! 🤖  Don't know if this is good progress in medicine or not!  We'll see how it turns out!  If you can send some positive thoughts her way today for a safe procedure and a quick recovery that would be greatly appreciated 💖

March Spending

 

I can't believe it's the end of March already and I've been off work for a couple of weeks now.  Yesterday was the first day I've actually felt physically well 😊 but I'm still in no rush to go back.  I've made an appt with the mental health practitioner at my GP surgery but it's not for another 2 weeks.  My colleagues sent me flowers and chocolates to say they were thinking about me.  Schools break up today for the Easter holiday.  I have a wee group chat with my work besties and this morning they all said they hate work right now.  Something is very wrong when good teachers say they hate their job 😞

Even though I've been at home most of the month (actually had time to bake a fruit loaf!) it's been a bit of a spendy one.

My March supermarket total was £207.96!  YIKES!! I did stock up on freezer items (veggies etc) and meat.  Some of it was cold/flu stuff plus many pouches of fruit pastilles as they soothed my sore throat and Lemsip type hot drink sachets. Even going for own brand medicines, it quickly adds up!  I also did a 'poor me' shop where I got a few ready made snacks 😳

My pet total of £139.08 was higher this month as Emma had a vet checkup because she's on daily steroids.  She'll need a 4 monthly checkup from now on.

My Amazon spend was lower at £91.64 which was a few DIY items.

And my miscellaneous 'other' spending was only £42.38.

Total for March £481.06

When I started my 4 year challenge the aim was to keep my spending under £500 so I guess I'm still on track. Selling the flat and incurring so many out of the ordinary costs has skewed my savings plan.  Although I did put my flat deposit money back into my savings.  I need to have a good think about how I progress now that my retirement is imminent! 

It's time to start off my seedlings so here's some tomatoes (Roma and Aurora) already up.  Plus there's some squash, sweetcorn and courgettes still propagating!

I've also started off my red onion sets in cells so that when they're planted it's harder for the birds to pull them out!!

The clocks going forward last weekend really knocked me for six again (bit like jet lag which is pretty common apparently) but it does feel a bit more Spring like here despite the rainy weather! ☔

Edited to add fruit loaf recipe so I can find it again as I donated that cookbook!!

Soak overnight:  350g mixed dried fruit, 30g brown sugar, 150ml hot strong tea, glug of whisky        Mix: 2 large eggs and 50ml water or milk and add to fruit mixture with 1 grated apple                          Sieve 225g of SR flour with 1 tsp mixed spice and add to mixture                                                      Bake in lined loaf tin for 1 hour at 170C or 150C fan or Gas 3

Ready to grow

 

I got out my seed tins from last year so I could do a wee audit.  I was ill at planting time last year so didn't sow as many as usual.  I got the tins out (old Sarah Raven collection ones) and went away to look out my heated propagator.  When I got back the washing machine had done it's final spin and had travelled out from under the worktop.  It's never been the same since the joiner who fitted my utility room moved it and then used it as his workbench!! 🙄 It's only 2 years old and it now makes a squeaky noise when spinning.  I'm hoping when I get my new floor fitted it will be level again and might work properly again.

I washed out all my propagator trays and some other bits n bobs.  I got some biodegradable sowing cells too.  I've got potatoes chitting in egg boxes.  In other words, I'm ready to get started!  In Scotland our growing season is shorter as we still get frost right into May where I live.  But now is a good time to get ready!

I spoke to the triage nurse at my doctor's practice this morning and I'm officially signed off work until the 18th of April.  She was lovely and supportive and said I would be able to easily renew my Fit Note after the 18th.  She also offered me counselling at the surgery but I said I didn't need it at the moment.  I'm not ruling it out, just don't need it right now. 

I'm still coughing a lot and have a sniffly nose so I'm still not quite right physically.  It's been very wet here so no gardening yet.  I'm binge watching The Handmaid's Tale from the start again and pottering about the house doing wee projects.  One of which needs bright pink chalk paint and another needs gilding wax! 😉

Day 12: It's all edible (almost)

 

I just can't stop myself!!  More bargain plants from Dobbies, these are half price herbs.  I bought 6 @ £1.49.  2 apple mints, 2 creeping thyme, 1 camomile (sadly they only had 1 left) and 1 creeping rosemary for my Lovely Mum.  They had rows and rows of them, all mixed up so I had to really hunt through them for what I knew I would use.  I drink mint tea and camomile tea so wanted them to dry the leaves and store over Winter.  I have spearmint in my garden so wanted a different one for the plot.  Thyme can be used on roast chicken and in mixed herbs (def going to have a go at drying my own mix this year.)

Here they are all planted up in my new herb bed!.  Hopefully they'll grow and spread a bit this summer then next year I'll split them and plant up even more.  One of the mint roots had grown right through the bottom of the pot.  It broke off so I've planted it too in the hope that it will take.  Everyone knows that if you leave even a tiny bit of mint root it keeps coming back so here's hoping!! 🤞

Of course I checked the food bargains too when I was there and got 5 unwaxed lemons for 18p!!  I'm going to zest and juice them, then freeze in ice cube trays.  The last time I scored unwaxed lemons was in my Lidl box.  I sliced and froze them then used them a week later to make elderflower cordial.

Recipe HERE  It makes 3 litres so you could easily half it.  You don't need to add the citric acid as long as you keep it in the fridge.  I do any way as I like to keep it cold.  The elderflowers actually came from my class garden at school!  I left plenty to become berries in the Autumn.

I'm venturing into the world of sourdough.  I've tried before to make a starter myself but making a gluten free one is tricky.  So I cheated and bought one from this wee company in Brighton  https://www.sourdoughbythesea.co.uk/  It comes in dried form and you add flour and water daily to activate it.  This is it on Day 5, all bubbly and ready to start using tomorrow 🍞 A standard GF sourdough loaf costs £3.50 so hopefully I'll be able to make my own better tasting for a fraction of that!  Plus you can make pizza bases, pancakes and more with a sourdough starter! 😋  Frugal gourmet stuff!

I was watching Lovely Greens on Youtube last night where Tanya was talking about seeds to plant in July.  Check it out HERE  I was so happy to see that I had many of the seeds she was recommending! (wee yellow packet is Swiss chard) Woohoo!!  More edible planting and therefore more food for me 😊

But this avocado was not edible 😠 One of the 2 pack that was labelled 'ripe and ready to eat.'  Nope, it was black all the way through.  And the other one was barely ripe and not deliciously creamy.  I was so disappointed especially as it was my treat item from my delivery.  Ah well, everything else above is edible or will be at some point 😋 

Quinoa, polenta and tofu

 

I've been going through my storecupboard with the intention of using up all the stuff that's been lingering in there for ages!!  I'm not a regular eater of quinoa and polenta so I've no idea how long they've been there.  At least I had the foresight to write the date on the quinoa!  Can't remember when or why I bought the polenta.  I don't think I've ever made anything with it so why did I buy it?? 😕

I made some quinoa last night and had it with fried halloumi.  I over salted it (forgetting that you don't drain the water out, you let it absorb) so the whole meal was just too salty.  I woke up this morning with a dry mouth!!  But I'll have it again to use it up, just less salt next time!

If anyone has any suggestions for the polenta, let me know!  The tofu is sadly well out of date!!!  I'm annoyed I've missed that.  Once the quinoa and polenta are used up I won't be buying them again.  With food prices going crazy I'm going to simplify my menu and ingredients.

I made some more bean bags for school.  That's all the cannellini beans used up and some soya beans.  These will be more useful than eating them!!

And my seeds are starting to sprout!  I didn't sow as many as I did last year.  I ended up giving away and composting more than half.  So I'm being more economical this time.  They're a bit leggy but I can transplant them deeper when the time comes.  Only ones that haven't done anything yet are the aubergines/eggplant on the far left.  It was older seed but maybe they take longer to germinate.  It always feels hopeful once seeds start growing 🌱

Speaking of hopeful, I've been offered a phased return to work.  Maybe next week or the week after.  I'm feeling a lot better, the cough has improved although I still cough and wheeze on exertion.  I've formally raised concerns with my union and HR about the pressure to return to work too soon.  And they're both taking it very seriously!!  At a time when we're seeing Covid cases dramatically increasing in Scotland atm I'm glad I'm being acknowledged.  

During my assessment for returning to work I was told that my chest infection probably wasn't from another virus as I thought.  It's more likely to have come from the original Covid virus in January. My  returning to work too quickly has had a direct impact on my illness now.

I'll not be making that mistake again!!

Starting seeds

I started sorting out my seeds ready to sow.  Thanks to my Covid isolation seed sorting notes (HERE) I knew what needed to be started first.

I plugged in my propagator and warmed it up overnight.  This morning I planted my tomatoes, chillies, sweet peppers, aubergines and tomatillos.  These will all end up in the polytunnel on the plot as they need more protection and heat than our Scottish Summer can provide!

Looking at my notes from last year I can see I'm starting 2 weeks earlier.  I'm trying to be more efficient this year and grow more produce. Finding that wee box of soft fruits in the freezer yesterday has definitely inspired me to get this season started 🍅🍆🌶