make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

I have to jump through the hoops(no choice):(and I will I am certain I will be forced out because of the bedroom tax. If the Lords ha managed to stop that coming in I might have been able to stay put...but I'll wait and see what happens...So many will be affected and most are not as shown in the media.

You said about feeling guilty going on facebook Spikey...did you see the link regarding someone using Twitter?

They make you a prisoner in your home, in trouble if you stay indoors but dare to do anything that keeps you sane and in contact with the outside world, if you go out you are afraid someone is watching...and you may have a condition that varies...

Look at me if I don't make a meal for myself who else will but if it looks like I can do too much in the preperation of it, that would go against me.

Yet less than an hour ago I could hardly move my legs and my knees were hurting...

Popperwell

Good post about the bread Spiky and I agree I have used them mixes that you mention...

smileyt_2

That blog was very scary but it feels so true. I look at my elderly dogs and I worry myself sick about what will happen in the next couple of years and whether I will be able to keep them alive. There would be no point for me carrying on if I had to rehome them. But this government has no compassion and most people would laugh themselves silly at what I've just said. I'm already thinking I probably won't be able to afford to keep another dog once these two go to the Rainbow Bridge but that would have a very detrimental effect on my mental health.

Sorry that's a bit morbid.

Tess is currently lying next to me on the sofa, farting away like a trooper .... :rotfl:It's a good job I love her.... won't be lighting any candles tonight though ..... :rotfl:

Went to the local vegan grocery store this morning (it's a fantastic place, stuffed to the ginnels with wholefoods and much cheaper than its nearest competitor). They have a notice up in the foyer of the shop saying what's in season and what growing conditions are like for their suppliers. At the moment they are saying that growers are struggling because they can't get on to the land to sow seeds for the next crops, let alone harvest what's already growing. And slugs are a problem for commercial growers too, many farmers have had entire crops of spinach and salad leaves and the like ruined (these are organic farmers, I don't know what the non-organic ones use against slugs). There are just too many slugs for the crops to cope with. They showed a photo of one of their supplier's fields - it was basically a lake. Even if the weather turns for the better, crops are going to be in short supply and very limited choice this year.

I think I'll be getting my dehydrator out and scouting for supermarket bargains.

On the up side - I have three, yes THREE, blueberries! They were delicious :rotfl:and I'm hoping the rest will ripen soon. The tomato plants in my little plastic greenhouse are getting flowers on them so I will start feeding them from now on and keep my fingers crossed. I've been getting a text message every day from Blight Alert but I'm hoping that as the toms are in the greenhouse they won't get blight.

Right, I'm off to feed me and the poochies and then I'd better hoover. I have finally got round to emptying the hoover so I can fill it again with yet more dog hair .... :rotfl:

GreyQueen

Great post, SpikyHedgehog. I also enjoy the theraputic kneading of bread.

Just a quick mention in case anyone wants to buy it- the Burgen linseed loaves are always in Iceland at £1 which is the cheapest I've ever seen them non-whoopsied.


Well, today's score on the shed door is.......

:j:j GreyQueen 111 vs Gastropods 0. :j:j

Mwah ha ha, I have been on the allotment this afternoon and clearing out the soft sappy weeds from the potato baulks. I de-topped them on Thursday night and killed upward of 100 slugs and snails then. Today, I was hauling armloads of sodden chickweed, black medic and scarlet pimpernel outta there and guess what was lurking underneath? :mad: It's like a nightmare, in places they are in huddled several at a time. I feel beseiged. Some of those critters are 4 inches long and fatter than my thumb and they eat twice their own bodyweight every 24 hours. It shouldn't happen to a gardener, it's too much.

They'll eat me out of house and home. S'pose it's a bit like having teenagers but without the grunting and miasma of Impulse/ Lynx.:rotfl:

Then, just before I went to the tip with 2 more of the 16 bin sacks of potato haulms (12 left) I picked the first batch of broad beans. The bu88ering slugs have even been after them. They're chewing through the pods to eat the beans inside.:mad:.

I will be having a mass harvest-blanch-freeze sesh on the broad beans tomorrow and I'll have my knife in hand to see if I can reduce the population still further. Gawd help me if they've all laid eggs because it's already like a gastropod farm up there.

I can see me having to resort to pellets but I shall wait until the tatties are up (lots more murderous opportunities during that process, I expect). I shall have to keep working the ground to turn up eggs for the birdies to eat. If only the two plots flanking mine weren't derelict and 5 feet tall in couch grass. I bet it's a slug hotel in there.

I'm running a mental feasability study about having a "moat" of slug pellets down either side of the plot. I suspect it would cost hundreds of spondulicks which I don't have.

They're on the peas, too (wails).

Sorry if anyone has just eaten, I needed to vent.:o

Other than that, all is well in my corner of the world. Despite constant threats, it managed not to rain for a few consecutive hours and there was even a stray sunbeam. Chilly for the time of year, though.

I can see me in my dotage (pull up a chair, it won't be long, folks) reminiscing to the children about the Old Days when we had summers where you could fry eggs on the pavements, it were that hot in 1976, lass, we din't know how lucky we were.

Oooff, thanks goodness for tea and scones, that's all I can say.

Have a good evening, everyone, GQ x

fuddle

I thought I posted about the disaster. Doh, I didn't click send.

It all surrounded on my curtains. The curtains I was very excited for, the curtains I had waited 3 years to get. I have to buy two pairs to fit round the large bay window. I openedone pack and smelt washing powder. I just knew they had been washed, and if they had been washed, they had bound to have shrunk. I sized them up agains the other pair, a more stiffer solid colour. Yip, they had been washed and shrunk by a good 2 inches So that meant a trek back to exchange only to find they didn't have any other to exchange with. Eventually tracked some down after a drive around and they're up but it's been a pain of a day.

Who would do that? Who would wash something, ruin it and pretend it's no good, return it, get their money back while the next person has to have ruined goods. It's just selfish. Customer services didn't apologise and why should hey, it wasn't their fault. I jest feel blergh.

But I'm sat with them closed and candles on. All over with but I feel deflated after a frustrating day.

It didn't end there. We came home to dripping from the garage freezer. We think it's breaking. I've a full stash of milk in there for the month. I hope it lasts!

All in all, a pants day. Still, if thats all I have to worry about, I have no worries at all.

fuddle

Sorry about the typos, I have had a glass of wine and I don't normally drink so it effects me a great deal.

katieowl_2

smileyt wrote: »

That blog was very scary but it feels so true. I look at my elderly dogs and I worry myself sick about what will happen in the next couple of years and whether I will be able to keep them alive. There would be no point for me carrying on if I had to rehome them. But this government has no compassion and most people would laugh themselves silly at what I've just said. I'm already thinking I probably won't be able to afford to keep another dog once these two go to the Rainbow Bridge but that would have a very detrimental effect on my mental health.

Sorry that's a bit morbid.

Tess is currently lying next to me on the sofa, farting away like a trooper .... :rotfl:It's a good job I love her.... won't be lighting any candles tonight though ..... :rotfl:

Went to the local vegan grocery store this morning (it's a fantastic place, stuffed to the ginnels with wholefoods and much cheaper than its nearest competitor). They have a notice up in the foyer of the shop saying what's in season and what growing conditions are like for their suppliers. At the moment they are saying that growers are struggling because they can't get on to the land to sow seeds for the next crops, let alone harvest what's already growing. And slugs are a problem for commercial growers too, many farmers have had entire crops of spinach and salad leaves and the like ruined (these are organic farmers, I don't know what the non-organic ones use against slugs). There are just too many slugs for the crops to cope with. They showed a photo of one of their supplier's fields - it was basically a lake. Even if the weather turns for the better, crops are going to be in short supply and very limited choice this year.

I think I'll be getting my dehydrator out and scouting for supermarket bargains.

On the up side - I have three, yes THREE, blueberries! They were delicious :rotfl:and I'm hoping the rest will ripen soon. The tomato plants in my little plastic greenhouse are getting flowers on them so I will start feeding them from now on and keep my fingers crossed. I've been getting a text message every day from Blight Alert but I'm hoping that as the toms are in the greenhouse they won't get blight.

Right, I'm off to feed me and the poochies and then I'd better hoover. I have finally got round to emptying the hoover so I can fill it again with yet more dog hair .... :rotfl:

SmileyT I didn't get past the first paragraph without tears in my eyes...don't worry about it hon. I wouldn't be here without my dogs either, they are the reason I get out of bed in the morning. When I lost my special dog boy, I lasted a week before I rescued these two...one of them was broken hearted at being given away (the other one is a bit too dim to really have those sort of feelings) and we spent about a fortnight lying on the sofa chest to chest mending our broken hearts...we are rarely more than a few feet apart even now, and I hate leaving her to go to work, I never go away from home, and she sleeps in my arms every night - five years on!

I honestly don't know what will become of any of us...but where there is a will there is a way! I'm sure you will find a way to keep dogginess in your life! (((hugs)))


Kate

GreyQueen

(((((((((fuddle)))))))))))) that was a nasty thing to happen, esp as you had been looking forward to them for so long. No wonder you feel gutted.

I really can't bear the dishonesty of people who return stuff they've used. Mum bought a new mobile from Argos a few years ago. Only it wasn't new because it had some else's stored numbers on it. She was very angry and took it back and they couldn't be bothered to say sorry either......sigh.

Put your feet up, hun, have a wee grizzle if it helps (crying secretes stress hormones via the tears so if you feel weepy, weep, it's getting the stuff out of your system).

Popperwell

fuddle wrote: »

Sorry about the typos, I have had a glass of wine and I don't normally drink so it effects me a great deal.

Enjoy...you deserve it!

Pooky

How naff about the curtains Fuddle....but (and sorry if you don't want to hear it) have you allowed for shrinkage when you wash them?

We've had torrential rain here for most of the day, lots of local flooding, the water was up past car bonnets in places.

I had a look at the preppers site and the idea of storing water really did make sense to me. I chatted to DH about it and he agreed, no point stocking up on food for bad winters/income cuts etc if the water goes off for a day and you can't have a cup of tea. So we will set aside some empty bottles and make room in the garage to store and rotate some.

I do think there's a lot of uncertainty with the changes to the benefit system but there does have to be change. The last government spent to much, it's got to be cut back across the board. The bedroom tax seems sensible to me (sorry if that offends anyone) and I read that mortgage relief is being cut too, so if you come out of work and can't get something else then you'll be expected to sell your house to release equity, it's fair, life shouldn't be about expecting the government to provide long term. The system as it stands has left far to many people dependant on it rather than using it as a back up, as it was intended. (of course I appreciate the complexities of disability, illness etc, it's not clear cut which is why it needs changing and simplifying) ((although I won't hold my breath that the word simple comes into any of it))