Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Ellidee

beanielou wrote: »

Baps look good to me

:eek: :rotfl:

kissjenn

I seem to remember reading about the ubiquitous nature table in one of Stephen Fry's autobiographies.

Gist was (and it made me laugh) that as a very young boy of about 6 or 7 he went to a local village school before being shipped off to boarding school at 8. In the class there was a nature table and his nemesis, a young lady I'll call Mildred because I can't remember.

Anyhoo the whole year was a battle between young Fry and Mildred to finding to best things to vie for the weekly Nature Table prize from teacher. Mildred was thrashing him until the last week of the school year, his last week there ever. The gardener on the Fry estate had found the body of a baby mole, complete and uncorrupted in every way. Master Fry took his trophy into school and delicately laid it on the table...superior grin in place...King of the Nature Table was assuredly his.

Mildred turned up with a donkey!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Piquant wrote: »

Oh yes, those baps look yummy! I don't think you'd want Mr Paul fiddling with them anyway....

Sorry I haven't been around for a few days, work insists on getting in the way of pleasure!

Ay up Piq - oh bleurk! I'd not want 'im fiddling wif me baps, nor me brack nor cream horn..... soooo not my type :rotfl: Yes, we missed ya - don't let it happen again

dreaming wrote: »

Your plans for the house seem to be coming together now, and I think it is good to have another perspective from a friend.

That is exactly it dreaming. My friend was able to be completely impartial, he is not in anyway connected with the area, there is no financial nor emotional attachment involved with the bricks and mortar that he was asked to objectively view. It was interesting that he considered it only necessary to do (at the moment) 2 'big' items on our list and so in some ways is encouraging us to save money without necessarily skimping on maintenance. I think DP did a bit of a 'knee jerk' reaction. Actually, we discussed it again later, and I actually had a brain wave (it occasionally happens ) and said to DP, if we carried out the suggested work, in addition to the 'tidying' decorating that we know that we have got to do, well, we would get to a stage where we would not be embarrassed to invite a letting agent around. Then, they could tell us if there was anything glaringly obvious that was 'against regs' or if we were tidy enough or too scruffy for the local market. DP could see the sense in that and seems happy for now.

rtandon27 wrote: »

Beyond funny! - hanging out in your neck of the woods really does make me giggle!:D

I know, dear thing, and it is simply impossible to find anything in the etiquette book about what one is to do. I mean, do we send a 'thanking you for your thank you card that you sent in response to our thank you card'? :rotfl: Just joshing, I know what we'll do, it has tickled her fancy that we are getting out adventurising. Next time we go on an adventure, we'll send her a post-card - that way she can enjoy our visits too. She's not totally housebound, but certainly is not able to go off walking etc which is what her and her late hubby used to enjoy.

Igamogam - they've even *re-branded* the nature table????? Lawks! euch! to *what they eat* flavoured cat and dog food though - it immediately made me think of the human that has to taste every batch of canned pet food produced _pale_

kem10 - it's amazing where inspiration can be found, but yes, it must be harder for schools to do the enthusing when there is so much red-tape around stuff these days. Thank you for your good wishes

beanie :wave: Lovely to see you and thank you for the compliment

Well, Dear Reader, my butterfly net has been in use and I have bagged another NSD :j So pleased. Tomorrow will definitely need some pennies spent, but I've got 9 NSD's in the bag. Super-chuffed

Dinner has been scoffed. It was as sweet potato jalfrezi, with steamed savoy cabbage and basmati rice. Photo here;



Unfortunately I didn't have any fresh coriander, so I was not able to add that to the dish, and also the recipe I have uses mango. I've never added it though, and only added some cauliflower this time because I had bought one at a good price from Ald* The following recipe is a little different from the 'Meat Free Monday' recipe that I follow, but it is a close representation, recipe HERE It does also have a recipe for jalfrezi spice mix - I use Jaymee O's jalfrezi paste recipe from his 'Learn to cook with Jamie' book (or a title similar to that - I've not got the book myself, just a copy of the recipes for curry pastes). The cauli and sweet potatoes were from Ald* - as was the savoy cabbage actually - the basmati rice cost 15p (I only ever buy it at £1 per kilo) and I used half a carton of passata (L*dl, 29p) in addition to an onion, garlic and the spices - plus a couple of small, not too hot chillis courtesy of my green-fingered uncle . Pretty frugal I think and definitely cheaper than a take-away

We just caught up with Jaymee O's new series. That Nottinghamshire cheese that they featured - Colwick - looked super scrummy, as did all the dishes that Jaymee made up for the chefs and deli owners.

I'm delighted to report that I got £30 for doing *nothing* today - the cashback for changing energy suppliers came through :j That will help towards the deposit for our holiday Plus I'm in credit with my power supplier, so they may yet lower the DD back down to what I was paying before

I de-cluttered my *smalls* drawer today. We've some clothes that are beyond selling/donating to charity so I'm going to try to take a bag to the cash for textiles place that has recently opened across the way. I'm expecting 50p for the lot, but we'll see. Those type of places don't seem too popular on MSE - perhaps more the postal ones - but if they play silly boogers, then I'll call their bluff and take me bag back. I've not got kilos and kilos of textiles, so i'll take what I can comfortably carry - there and back if necessary. Anyway, I've added some 'holey socks' to the bag, so it'll probably be 55p now :rotfl:

But at least some more de-cluttering was done - slowly, slowly towards our target

Plus 2 of the trades got back to me, so we're setting up arrangements to view/quote. So more progress.

Today I am grateful for the following 3 things;

for sharing - DP bought a 'duo' sn1ckers bar, and saved 1 part for me

for people taking the trouble to return texts/calls - nothing worse than waiting on someone else. At least I can tick stage one off my lists

for the National Trust magazine - go on, show us what we're missing by sending us the magazine choc full of events for 2014, just because we've cancelled our membership ......:rotfl:

Thank you so much for popping it - for all the lovely people who have taken time out of their day to comment on this diary - and to the reading lurkers :wave: I greatly appreciate your support

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

beanielou wrote: »

Baps look good to me

Ellidee wrote: »

:eek: :rotfl:

I'm going to have to call them something else aren't I........ :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

kissjenn wrote: »

Mildred turned up with a donkey!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Stephen Fry is just genius - I think he is great. Thanks for that kissjen - I'd not heard that one. Lovely to *see* you - ta for popping by

Greying

EssexHebridean

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

for the National Trust magazine - go on, show us what we're missing by sending us the magazine choc full of events for 2014, just because we've cancelled our membership ......:rotfl:

We got a copy too - and we've not been members since ours lapsed in June! :eek: BUT, more surprising still, the new NT handbook was in there as well - which means when we re-join this year in May/June, we'll get another one, which in turn means my parents will get given the spare copy!

The jalfrezi looks good - and it occurs to me that this sort of recipe would work equally well with butternut squash - a spare half-a-one of which I have to use currently...Hmmmm....food for thought there! well done on the NSD too - I can "nearly" claim one having just spent 50p in the charity shop on something which will be heading north in April - can't say what as the recipient will know, then! Actually, that was MrEH's money too, so technically....

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Bit of a late entry for me this morning - but we've been busy already Spending pennies, so I can't claim a NSD, but at least a chore is out of the way Tantalisingly close to those NSD double figures!!!! Patience never was my strong suit

DP is grumpy, as it is waaay too cold to continue with the painting, and he wants to 'get on' but that's life ain't it? Particularly half way through January!

EssexHebridean wrote: »

The jalfrezi looks good - and it occurs to me that this sort of recipe would work equally well with butternut squash - a spare half-a-one of which I have to use currently...Hmmmm....food for thought there!

Butternut squash jalfrezi would be super EH - and I know that you know this, but the only adjustment would be a slightly longer cooking time wouldn't it? Unless you diced the BNS super small - but flavour/texture wise - winner, winner - there's your dinner..... for sometime in the week

So I've got to shake a tail feather and get cooking a dish that I've not made before.... so looking forward to that. I'd better make some cake too - I didn't make the revised broonie recipe in the end on Friday, I just ran out of time. Mind you, I've just realised that I am almost out of any type of baking fat..... blow. Fatless sponge here we come :rotfl:

I should also sit down and start the epic 'list' for all the jobs we've got to do between now and 30th November There has been talk of 'Gantt' charts on kissjen's thread. I know what they are, just don't particularly want to construct one, as it would quickly show how behind schedule we were :rotfl:

Right, have a great Sunday - whatever you are up to Hopefully Piq will be through just shortly with a plate of leftover croissants from her brunch

Thanks for popping by, reading and commenting. Know that I appreciate it. A Lot.

See y'all later.

Greying

Karmacat

I just love, love, love the focus you've got on moving. And decluttering. And food.

Happy sigh :dance::coffee:

Piquant_2

Karmacat wrote: »

I just love, love, love the focus you've got on moving. And decluttering. And food.

Happy sigh :dance::coffee:

...especially food I swear greying is responsible in part for my weight gain! I virtually eat every meal she concocts. Then have to have a go at creating the dishes myself. Obviously with the exception of the sexy carrots..... and the baps [dirty snigger icon inserted here]

rtandon27

Piquant wrote: »

...the sexy carrots...

Hmmm... don't seem to remember the carrots!;):o;)

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 wrote: »

Hmmm... don't seem to remember the carrots!;):o;)

rtandon - at the risk of *encouraging* norty, norty Piq here..... I, in all innocence posted THIS to show our dinner utilising HG produce from the gardening parental's allotment. Norty Piq saw something that I didn't, and if you read posts 28 & 34 HERE, you'll see the train of thought...........:rotfl:

Greying