Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Cheery_Daff

I never would have thought of the library for stamps either, so thank you! :j :j

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Running late. But what can you do?





Inspired by what I had posted t'other day, I finished off a letter to my 'learned friend' last night. Queued (briefly) in the PO at lunch, only to find...... you can't get 2nd class 'picture' stamps anymore - they only do them in first class - whuuuttt???? How on earth is one supposed to make ones missive look the tiniest bit interesting to the recipient with a ubiquitous 'blue' stamp shoved on it??? 'tis bad enough that the envelope is being 'recycled' from some bank or other that routinely sends out envelopes (I think you are supposed to make deposits wif 'em or summat...), but no interesting stamp???? *sigh* However, a couple of us gals had the notion to post a letter in the box as the postie was collecting, the postie let us put our letters in the bag that was being taken away, and didn't make us wait to post in the *empty* box IYSWIM - our letters got into the system *quicker*. :j

I also bumped into our 'elderly' friend - who had received a card from us..... today :rotfl: Good to see them, and looking so 'engaged' - hope I'm as with it as I age........

Here's one for the botanists. I saw a hawthorn bush today. It's blossom was out. The blossom was white, but with a very definite red/rose 'ring'. It was definitely a hawthorn, due to the leaf shape. But I thought that hawthorn had a totally white flower? Thoughts please

Dinner this evening was inspired by MWC and MrMWC and the availability of sweet potatoes in a recent Ald* S6. I did a version of *Shepherdess Pie*. I think my one owed less to G. McKeith and more to the BBCGF version but I did consider putting beans in, as I had a tin of RK beans, but I decided against it in the end. I hadn't any cheese, so I put a dollop of HM yoghurt in instead Accompanied with shredded cabbage and French beans, it was a cacophony of green and orange, but yummy none-the-less



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

Interesting, engaged people - how different they are to the *wannabe* crowd............

Our postal service - when it's good, it's very good.......

my waterproofs (again) - got caught in a downpour, but at least I was not part of a wedding party trying to take pics of their special day in the rain

Ta for popping by. Always appreciated. Always

See y'all later.

Greying x

liltdiddylilt

Hello Greying

Catching up with you with my eyes half closed to all this amazing food my ketogenic diet calls for some serious cutbacks in odd departments but I am seeing the benefit on my migraines and waistline, if not my pocket as it is so EXPENSIVE to run a human bean on dark green veg, cream, butter, coconut oil, macadamia nuts, MEAT MEAT MEAT and EGGS EGGS EGGS :eek:

Lovely to see you back. Lots of the hawthorns where I grew up always had red/pink rings around the flowers. No idea as to the why though!! A hybrid or something possibly?

Hugs x

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey there Lilty-girl! Lovely to see you

Youch! To the cost of good food - but good health is priceless, and if it's showing benefits already, then....... I know what you mean though. We're having another *more month than money* scenario, and I'm wondering whether it's because I've bought cabbage, avocado, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, spinach, salad, tomatoes......... Mind, I've never found *trash* food to be cheap either (not that I've bought a lot), so I've no idea which way to take through the maze...........

Mmmmm, I was looking at some hawthorn today. I'm going to have to go back and take another look at the hawthorn I looked at yesterday, as I'm pretty sure that the rose/red was on the petals. But in my examination of a compliant hawthorn bush today, I did notice that even the white flowers have pink stamens (? is that the bit of the plant I mean?), seemingly, until they are pollinated, and then they turn black - which is how I thought hawthorn flowers looked all the time....... so if nowt else, I've learnt something today - take a look and see if you agree



We spent this afternoon in the British countryside It's so *fluffy* at this time of year! We went to a NT property that we'd not been to before. It does never cease to amaze me how folk will all but barge you out of the way to look at *dead people's stuff*........... The guides were uber enthusiastic, which was nice, but actually, there were really good interpretation sheets in every room, and they were just telling you what was on the sheet. Still, I know that some people love interaction with human beings, so I'm certainly not knocking it I don't know how busy the tea room was, but I have to say, DP and I had the semi-walled garden all to ourselves again whilst we ate our picnic. Shame, as it was a beautiful spot, there was quite a lot planted in the garden - veg and flowers and the amount of bird and bee life was sensational. Just constant humming and tweeting (in a relaxing fashion - honest ).

Walking through the estate, it was just a plethora of green and white - with horse chestnut, cow parsley and hawthorn dominating the landscape

We certainly felt very *rich* indeed

Right, I'd best go and get dinner started. We'll watch it in front of the telly, watching anything other than Eur0vision..........

TTFN,

Greying x

starnac

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Right, I'd best go and get dinner started. We'll watch it in front of the telly, watching anything other than Eur0vision..........


Greying x

It's at times like this (see also Big Brother, I'm a celeb etc) that I am grateful for not having a TV Licence! We don't even have to try to avoid it :rotfl:

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

starnac - eminently sensible! I have to admit, if I was on my own, I think I would have to consider long and hard the usefulness of a TV licence. Although most of the programmes I watch are either on bbctwo, bbcfour or various versions of channelfour, I'm sure I could do without And if it was a choice between phone/internet or tv then the former would win hands down.

Dinner last night turned out to be yum. It was a recipe from the Royal Marsden cancer cookery book, I copied it out, because it had the sort of ingredients that I use. And I was mightily impressed. I'm linking to the recipe that appeared in the DM - sorry! But it is the correct recipe The only thing that is different is that in the book it is called Chickpea and Sweet Potato Mongolian Stew It's definitely a keeper of a recipe for me, although I didn't put soy beans in (hadn't got any) and I didn't put the cream in either (hadn't got and didn't think it necessary - yummy HM yoghurt was sufficient ) Pic;



Not too sure what we will achieve today. It's at times like these, I wished we lived up the side of a mountain. Other people can really let themselves down, particularly when alcohol is involved (and generally the *wrong* side of midnight.... *sigh*) I suppose when you are younger, you always think that more or louder = having a better time. It's only as you age that you realise that sufficient, really is sufficient, and it doesn't affect your enjoyment of the moment. That is either there or it isn't.


Right, I'm away to find a cup of coffee and have a think. I might even look to see who won the blessed competition.........

See y'all later.

Greying x

moneyistooshorttomention

That's one of my snippets of info. learnt for the day then I reckon - ie that hawthorn stamens change from pink to being black if they've been pollinated.

Wonder if that applies to other things too? That is going to have me checking on my fruit tree flowers at intervals to see then...in case the same thing applies.

prior to wondering whether I think I might do another Buddha Bowl for dinner today or no....having now done myself a few variants on that and thinking it seems a handy sort of way of thinking of "what to do for dinner" for a single person (ie using up a bit of this and a bit of that etc).

beanielou

Have ordered the Royalmarsden book from library

Greying_Pilgrim

Ay up Beanie - lovely to see you The book has some ingredients that are a little 'chi-chi' and on the £sive side, but it's a good book, got good info on food and nutrition for us all I think. I certainly combed it to see if I could get better *bang* for my nutritional buck. Ta for popping by - great to have you here, always

Well at the risk of being a *hawthorn bore*, I've concluded that Lilty is right (not that the gal was ever in doubt ) and hawthorns must have different varieties. Why have I not noticed this before? So the hawthorn flowers I saw yesterday were totally white. The following is the 'mottled' bush that I saw t'other day, as you can see, the pink is on the leaves, and interesting the un-pollinated stamens are sandy coloured (and I'm assuming that the others have been pollinated.....



And I'm sorry there is no clear leaf in shot - they are hawthorn type leaves, it was just difficult to get in shot - I was standing on tippy toes as it was :rotfl:

But look what I manage to walk past every day and didn't *notice* until today.......



Eh? I'm assuming it is a hawthorn because of the leaf, but look at the lovely colour of the flowers and frankly, spot your stamen..... :rotfl:

Marvellous. All this has quietly been going on in nature all this time and I've not noticed until now........ fascinating.

I also noticed yesterday that horse chestnut blossom actually has red in it too, but I'll not bore you with pics. Although I may actually have taken some..................... :whistle:

Now you know how to keep a Greying occupied for hours, deposit in a hawthorn plantation! :rotfl: At least, in my defence, it is harmless and it is free :T

TTFN,

Greying x

starnac

I work occasionally in a hospice and have heard good things about the Royal Marsden book. Although I didn't realise the ingredients are £sive. I'll certainly keep that in mind if it's mentioned again. Thank you.