Shopping Spree

 

 

Well not really a shopping spree, but more like an enjoyable stroll around Mr T*sco, picking up a few things we needed and/or fancied, spending a total of £8.50 of the £2 House Keeping Challenge money.   I actually bought 10 bottles of Sparkling water but I wasn't going to lug them all into the kitchen just for a photo!!

 

 

 

On the way back I had to call into the Post Office in the village so it seemed rude not to pop into the Charity Shop next door for a little browse.  I struck lucky ... a pair of Monsoon linen trousers for £4.49 and a Dvd that looks like it might be right up my street for £1.99.  Once watched I'll sell it at the car boot sale for £1 and get half my money back.  So that's a good deal then, a home 'movie night' for 99p, I might even rustle up a bowl of popcorn and I know for a fact there are chocolate ice lollies in the freezer to serve during the interval :-) 

 

These extra purchases come out of my personal spending money so I'm  not raiding the housekeeping money for treats don't panic.

 

Lovely Hubby is off work today as he has an eye appointment so we are off into Reading, a quick browse around the shops, a leisurely coffee and then a spot of lunch out (we have a voucher for our favourite Italian place).  After that I intend to nip into good old M&S and stock up on some fresh foods.  I have vouchers to the value of £26, they will help keep the cash in  £2 House Keeping tin just that little bit longer.  Oh and when I returned from my shopping spree at Mr T*sco I found my latest vouchers from them in the post box, so that's the rest of the month's fresh food sorted out too.

 

Once we've done all that we will be back home to try and bring the undergrowth that is supposed to be our garden under control.  Fingers crossed that the weather will be nice to us all this weekend.  The sun was out beautifully at 6.30 this morning and now she's vanished again, it's just not fair :-(

 

Sue xx



The Year of Less - Less Books

 

 

Yesterday was a pleasant day, and one of realisations.

 

I realised that I no longer have the need to browse through books looking at pictures of other peoples homes.  I no longer need to gather inspiration for what I want.  I know what I want in my home, and bit by bit, piece by piece as other things leave the house, the things that I want are showing themselves and I have them all.

 

This sudden realisation made it so easy to let go of so many of my books. 

 

 

Section by section I emptied the shelves ...

 

 

 ... and one by one I flicked through the books.

 

Housey ones just didn't make it back.

 

There was space left over to sort and catergorise the ones that were going back.

 

Gardening books together, self sufficiency ones together, unread cookery books together.

 

By the time I had finished, the shelves were full again ... 

 

.... all full, but now none were piled on top of others, all had a place ...

 

... and all had been looked at.

 

Yes, I still have a lot of books, but now these can be perused at leisure in the next sweep of sorting.  For now I know that all the ones of the shelves are ones that I do want to look through when I have time to do it properly.

 

I'm wondering now if the fiction books that I own will ever be read.  I am pondering at whether they will be coming with us to the new house at all.

 

It feels good to be sorting, during this Year of Less I'm enjoying that now I have even less books. I filled two plastic boxes with books for the car boot sale yesterday, books that should get us a good price, who'd have thought it, me letting go of books and feeling better for it !!

 

You can click on any of the pictures to get a closer look at the book titles that got to stay, I know I love to have a good nosey peek at other peoples bookshelves :-)

 

Sue xx

The Leftovers Handbook

 

 

Last month this wonderful book was published, I was itching for it to be available after reading Suzy's lovely Blog, Sudden Lunch for quite a while and absolutely loving her descriptions of the wonderful food she made out of snippets of tasty morsels.  Her style of writing is just so easy to read it's as though you're chatting to a friend and one that's on the same wavelength as you too.  After leaving a comment on her Blog Suzy contacted me and asked if I would like a copy to review and I jumped at the chance, unfortunately the freebie copy never arrived but I decided to buy my own copy anyway, I just couldn't wait :-)

 

 

It really is my sort of book.

 

Set out for ease of use with hundreds of ideas for using up those little teeny tiny leftovers you find lurking in the fridge, the ones that perhaps your head says "ahh throw it away it's not worth bothering about", but your heart says "that was tasty, it cost me money, I want to use every last little bit".

 

I read it from cover to cover the minute it dropped into my post box and that same night made this ...

 

.... I can't really say it was made with leftovers, just things that were sat waiting to be used in the fridge, but now I know how absolutely delicious this sauce is, it is going to be my 'go to' recipe for any leftovers that I do find lurking there.   Of course I've had this sauce before and have cobbled together my version of it many times, but this one has the proportions just right and that makes it soooooo very tasty.

 

It would go wonderfully with chicken, with salmon, (oooh smoked salmon would be brilliant), with leftover vegetables or Quorn pieces, with meat balls for Lovely Hubby, anytime a tomato sauce would not be right or simply not fancied, I now know that this one would be.

 

And who knew you could make scones with porridge, I will be making purposeful leftovers to try this one out!!

 

So this is definitely a book well worth having within easy grabbing distance on your kitchen shelves, laid out alphabetically so you can go straight to the ingredient you have, so it is very easy to use, and with the 'Handy Hints' and 'Cook's Treats' dotted through it's inspirational.  Suzy also has a section at the back with Basic Recipes and Guidelines and a final chapter on building your basic Storecupboard.  There is a link that will whizz you straight to Amazon on my sidebar

 

All in all a brilliant book and one I would heatedly recommend.  If my free copy ever shows up it will be winging it's way to my lovely Mum, who's another queen of using up every last little scrap she finds lurking at the back of the fridge or cupboard.

 

 

 

And talking about making the most of everything you have around, remember this sad Parsley plant, left unwatered when we went away that half recovered and was then hacked to within a centemetre of it's life .....

 

 

... here it is this morning, just one week after it's 'haircut', looking green and happy and full of newly emerging goodness.

 

 

Something that lives next to the Parsley on the kitchen windowsill are these two Basil plants, on the agenda today to be turned into jars of goodness to be tucked into the cupboards for eating over Summer.

 

A day in the kitchen is most definitely called for, temperatures have plummeted here and it is much too cold for me to be able to plant outside the seedlings from the greenhouse, I do hope it picks up a bit for this weekend, I'm running out of space in there.

 

Sue xx

Living Simply

 

At the moment I am in full swing, simplifying our lives and our possessions, and with the prospect of hopefully, having found our 'forever home' I can visualise what we have in the rooms of our new house. 

 

It is a lovely simply shaped house that has recently been refurbished to what looks like a very good standard.  There are three bedrooms one of which we will need to use as our office, and downstairs next to the living room is an open plan kitchen/dining/conservatory room.  (Sorry but I am not tempting fate by putting any photos of the house on here until we have the keys in our grubby little mitts!!)  When we move in we intend to keep it simple, as simple as we possibly can.

 

For some reason this plan brought back to mind the house in these photos.  It was at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, which is in Chichester and which I visited with Mum when we were on holiday together last year.  The whole place fascinated me, seeing how folk had lived through the ages and we spent many happy hours walking round the houses that had been real homes to so many people.

 

 

 

The house in these photos was the 'youngest' house on the site, I'm sorry I can't remember from what year exactly but they were built and lived in from the late 1800's.  (It, and it's adjoining semi are called Whittaker's Cottages if you have a look on the website.)  Things didn't change much from this time, especially in the countryside until after the two world wars and so many of the items in this cottage I could remember from in my grannies houses.

 

 

This is what living used to be like. 

 

 For normal folk you lived like this, no house full of things you might use once in a while, just a house containing the day to day necessities of life.

 

 

You worked to pay the rent and feed your family, you bought what you could afford to buy, there were no credit cards or adverts to tempt you to buy what you really didn't need.

 

Times were hard for so many folk I know, there are no rose tinted glasses that can make the past seem all sunny and light, but in many ways life was lived more.

 

If you wanted something, you made it, whether it was food or furniture.  If you wanted access to fresh fruit and vegetables you grew them in your own back garden or bartered with your neighbour, you couldn't wander the aisles of a large supermarket throwing into your trolley exotic fruits from other countries.

 

 

Children shared bedrooms, and played outside with each other, ball games, skipping, building dens and playing tig.  They treasured the toys that they were given (again usually handmade) for birthdays or Christmas and didn't expect something every week like so many seem to now.  Learning to knit with Mum or with Gran was more fulfilling than any solitary computer game played for hours in the loneliness of your own room.

 

And yes there are a lot of beds in this room, in the brochure it said that this house had been home for a family with Mum and Dad, a young baby sharing their bedroom and six children and plus a toddler in a cot sharing this other bedroom. Topping and tailing being the only way to sleep.

 

 

I loved the productive veggie patch in the small back garden.

 

I didn't love quite so much the outdoor 'facilities'.

 

Now there's no way we would trying to recreate this type of living at our new house, we will have running water, central heating, space for us and guests to be able to sleep comfortably.  But what I want to take from these pictures and the images still fresh in my head from the visit to this wonderful Museum is a way of living.

 

Working for ourselves to produce what we need for ourselves, producing just enough extra to give us an income and of being satisfied with what we have.  Of spending time doing things we love, not shopping for things we don't need.  Going a few steps backwards is not always a bad thing, especially when you look at folk that have already taken more steps forward and seeing the dissatisfaction in their lives with what they have and what they are for some reason, still striving to get more of.

 

We live pretty simply at the moment and it's starting to feel really good, but we are still in that jettisoning stage where we are realising how much we were suckered in to acquiring things to fill spaces and feeling the need to get rid of them to get back that space.  Another car boot sale or two and we will really be there.

 

Living simply really is the only way forward for us and this Year of Less is working in so many ways.

 

Sue xx

 

We Think We've Found It .......

At last we think we've found it .... the house and land that will be our forever home.

 

With the view from this top picture at the front of the house .....

 

 

... the road sign at the front gate giving you a clue of where it is ....

....this view up our very own hillside ....

 



... and the land to the left of the house as far as you can see that would be all ours, (the trees and the grass).

 

 

With land to the right that's part of the 'front garden' too.

 

We have our fingers, toes and anything else very firmly crossed while we put everything into motion with surveyors, solicitors and our mortgage company.

 

It would be our very own 4.5 acres of North Wales.  Near the road at the moment but with the Highways plans in place for the road to be moved in the next couple of years, so then we would be tucked away in our own little welsh haven.

 

A Scottish man and an English girl, we just had to end up in Wales didn't we :-)

 

 

 

We were very excited to get back and discover that during our weekend away the new girls have begun to lay, and yes, they lay BLUE EGGS.   (You don't know with a Hybrid whether the eggs will be true to form until they start laying.)

 

 

 

We are so pleased they are the most beautiful little eggs at the moment, in this picture they are next to one of the eggs laid by our Black Maran Bantams.  They will get bigger over the next few days, nature is kind to hens with their first few eggs starting small and gradually getting larger until they are used to laying. 

 

So a very exciting weekend and one we were lucky enough to share with Mum who came with us for the days viewings and put us up at her house so it wasn't the same manic rush up and down the motorways.  We now have a tense couple of weeks ahead of us and we try and sort everything out.

 

But life here goes on as usual and now I have to get out to that greenhouse and get my next wave of seeds in, and do a lot of weeding while I'm out and about.  The grass and the weeds have gone mad in our absence and it all needs bringing back under control.

 

Sue xx

The 'Eating from the Tin Bath' Challenge

Every year I plant seeds, some in the greenhouse (the coldest and draughtiest greenhouse I have ever known), some by mid May straight outside in the beds of the Veggie Patch.  This was cobbled together last year to be the same size as an average back garden so that I could see how much productive space I would need at our forever home to grow enough for us and the chickens to eat throughout Summer and as far beyond as possible.

 

Last year was a poor year to do any sort of experiment and we were lucky to get anything from it.  This year it is in the process of being made ready, with the paths being weeded and the raised beds weeded and turned over ready for the seedlings from the greenhouse.  The fruit trees and bushes are looking good and up to now (touch wood) we have had no hard frosts since the blossom appeared, so we might stand a chance of getting more than one cherry and more than the three apples we got last year.

 

 

As well as having the Veggie Patch I have pots of herbs and other edibles nearer the house and last year I planted Tomatoes in this old tin bath.  They didn't do too well, it was too wet and chilly for them and I think we only got about a handful to eat.  This year I pondered what to do with the bath, after all it was  half full of reasonable compost and just begging to be used.

 

Then I had a little brainwave. 

 

So many of my lovely readers say how they wish they could grow just some basic crops for themselves but that they haven't got the space to do it, so I got to thinking what if I had only a tiny yard or a picture perfect garden that I didn't want to turn over to veggies how much could I actually grow in a tiny space to feed myself and my family and for how much investment.

 

And so was born .....

 

 

This tin bath was here at the house when we moved in so it cost me nothing, I guess you could find something similar if you put your mind to it.  At the tip, at a car boot sale, rotting in someone elses garden. If you can't find something similar think differently what have you got that you could use, plastic boxes, old washing up bowls, the children's old plastic bath or paddling pool, whatever you choose all you have to do is put in some drainage holes, tip in an inch or so of stones gathered from around the garden, it's amazing how many you find while you're weeding just keep a bucket next to you and put them in, (or raid the gravel on the drive, no one knows if you smooth over the holes you create). This Challenge has got to be cheap and easy so rather than tip in more compost to fill it up to a more plantable level I tipped in one full lawnmower bag of grass clippings and stirred it all around, it made the soil more aerated and less dense, better for little seeds to grow.

 

Then I looked through my stash of seeds and picked out the real basics.

 

Lettuce (Lollo Rosso) - Free when I joined in with 'Dig-In' last year

Spring Onion - 50p (bought in the August seed sale last year)

Radish - 50p (ditto)

Half a pack of Peas - 25p (ditto)

10 Radish Seedlings that I couldn't fit in the bucket with the others - 5p

 

Pretending I was a bit more of a novice at this planting lark than I am, I simply made a line in the compost at the back and sprinkled in all the peas.  Then two more lines for the Radish, and the Spring Onion seeds and then I got arty and made two circles of seeds with the Lettuce seed at either end.  I planted the already growing Radish seedlings in a line along the front, I wanted the bath when it is in full growth to look nice as well as being productive.  I covered all the seeds with a layer of sieved compost and then gave it a good water.  Then I put another layer of dryer compost mixed with some of the grass clippings on the very top to stop the water evaporating (believe it or not the sun was out when I did all this, totally unlike today).

 

So the cost of planting out my free tin bath was £1.30.  The price of a single lettuce in the supermarket last week.  Lets see what I manage to get out of it, I will post pictures of the bath weekly and keep tabs on what and when I harvest from it and we will be able to see what value of crops we manage to raise in this small space.

 

You know how much I like a good challenge and this is a good challenge.  Have you ever done anything similar and did it work well?

 

Sue xx

 

No Longer a Vegetarian?

I was minding my own business walking round the paddock with the dogs, throwing sticks for Rosy, getting exited when she brought them back to try to encourage Suky to have a go, she really doesn't understand this throw and fetch game, she will run after whatever you throw and then just sits looking at it until you get there, as if to say 'here it is Mum, do you want to do that again?", I was laughing when Suky rolled and rolled in the grass, like a little chubby chipolata round and round, just for the sheer joy of it ....  for once there was nothing yucky to actually roll in!!

 

I was obviously getting carried away with the shouting of encouragement and the laughing, I swallowed a fly!!

 

It came right at me, it and I didn't stand a chance.

 

It took hours for the feeling where it had hit the back of my throat to go away and copious amounts of water and cups of coffee.  I usually apologise to insects I accidentally kill, but this one did not get an apology, he should have been looking where he was going!

 

I guess I'm hard pushed to call myself a vegetarian if I'm consuming living creatures!!

 

Sue xx

 

 

The picture at the top of the post refers to this old nursery song, I used to sing when very small and that popped into my head immediately after the event!!

 

There was an Old Lady song   There was an old lady who swallowed a fly I don't know why she swallowed a fly - perhaps she'll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a spider, That wriggled and wiggled and tiggled inside her; She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a bird; How absurd to swallow a bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider, She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a cat; Fancy that to swallow a cat! She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider, She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die! There was an old lady that swallowed a dog; What a hog, to swallow a dog; She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider, She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a cow, I don't know how she swallowed a cow; She swallowed the cow to catch the dog, She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider, She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a horse... She's dead, of course!