Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

silvasava

vhalla - Just had a look in my old Dr Hessayon manual.

Right - Climbers in tubs - West facing will get afternoon & evening sun, so most clematis. Check they're not the 'rampant' kind though. I can recommend a lovely dark red called Niobe as it grows 8/10ft tall & flowers for a long time. Clematis are also partial to a bit of chalk but if you are planting in tubs you can plant virtually anything. My front garden is west facing & I have Camellias 'cos they're evergreen & look good all year round. Passion flowers are good & there's some lovely coloured ones AND the fruit is edible.
I suggest you post on one of the gardening forums 'cos there's lots of people with far more expertise & experience than me!
For your south facing area - if its not been cultivated for years DONT be tempted to plant root veg straight away 'cos it will be eaten by lots of 'wriggly' things - it needs to be 'cleaned' (not the right word) first - but again the gardeners will be able to give you more specific advice. (did that in our garden & when I peeled the spuds its a bit disconcerting to have this creature looking at you!!)
ps: Got relly's in Lincolnshire - Sleaford & Bourne

vhalla1478

Many thanks for those recommendations, Silvasava, will now have my head in gardening catalogues when I should be doing something else!! What time of the year do I think about planting the items you mentioned>

I know Sleaford and Bourne very well - when I was an antiques dealer I used to do a lot of buying round there.

Viv x

HOWMUCH

Good afternoon everyone, well I went to collect the T shirt this morning we have had the covering of snow which other's have mad comment on so as I was walking to the bus stop, yes using my bus pass and not petrol in the car. Guess what there's a lovely skip full of goodies on the main road. It's full of lovely household items, this house has had a skip before about 2 years ago and I got some nice items then. I always ask before hand. I will try and get a photo on of the items I rescued this time around.

HOWMUCH

Forgot to say thanks everyone for the lovely recipes xxx

And another thing I forgot too I rescued 4 amaryllis from outside the flower shop in the village where I work they were in a basket that said free to good home in need of TLC, they are now on my windowsill they have no flowers cos I think they may have been used in an arrangement but the leaves are re growing and I've googled and you can get them to flower later this year. The price tag on them was £3.95 each.

I've rescued alot of things this week...........lol

mothernerd

I've just written to several seed companies asking them to take me off their mailing list - I will order on-line when I need something. Recovering from a major op (and downsized back to old terrace), so not going to be able to do much this year and it was torture seeing all the lovely veg. This time last year I had about 17 trays of seeds on the windowsill - brought a plant pot across from the other house last week, hoping I can maybe do chillies, set off some pea shoots to put in salads and will look through my tin of seeds to see what I can have in my third tray.

Hoping I can put a few onion sets in the one narrow raised bed I have left here and have asked those members of the extended family who have littlies that if they are chucking out carrycot stands or similar I want them - I love the grow troughs in the catalogues but have several large heavy duty folding 'bag' type containers and can use the stands to raise them to a comfortable working height (I may have to move again this year or next) which will work just as well.

Scraping out the last of a tiny tin of vaseline to use as lip gloss and using a combination of E45 (get it free on prescription) and the 'aftersun' cream from last year (bought a family four pack of varying factors after the doctor proclaimed my outbreak of eczema was due to sun exposure - getting the garden at the other house sale worthy rather than the 'min-allotment I prefer) as moisturiser/ body lotion.

Also still using up pens/pencils etc from an old office job - the building was closing and groups and individual members of staff were transferred.gradually. Most of them dumped the contents of their desks wholesale by the bins - I 'rescued' as much as possible. The stationery trays are good for holding a dozen or so small plant pots and help stop them falling over.

The only shoes I have are two pairs of walking boots and one pair of trainers with 'vibram' soles (suitable for on mountains). When I was diagnosed with diabetes I was told I had to wear flat lace up shoes and those were what I had. They are great in this weather. I kept two pairs of 'footglove' slip-ons for funerals but the last two I went two (I've reached the age where funerals are my primary social activity) I kept my grey walking boots on throughout (crematorium lots of wet leaves) and the other I only put my shoes on during the service, once I was inside the church and my feet still hurt. So sent those to the cs before Christmas.

Just solved the problem of what to wear for my cousin's 60th birthday meal. My current 'best' black skirt is past it's best. I have a dress but it's sleeveless and short. I should be off crutches but still need someone to tie my shoelaces (not allowed to bend that far) and have got rid of the rubber socks (worn for the first six weeks to prevent blood clots) and bed socks (needed loose socks) but don't think I could manage tights or anything too restrictive.

My summer cardigan has had to be retired (saved the buttons). I am planning to make two to replace it using material I have but will not be fit to use the sewing machine yet. I have very few clothes as I have been losing weight steadily since my diabetes diagnosis and have discarded each set of clothes as I progressed to a smaller size (mostly used up as 'painting clothes - I wear my clothes to rags).

So last week tried on my black linen trousers, they are comfortable and I can get them on unassisted. So only a cardigan to find. Have been round the charity shops but no luck so far.

Thought this morning that some of the material I have could be used as a shawl (just handstitch the ends and leave the selvedge) but was the wrong colour for the dress. Then thought DS3 has a black shirt, he let me go through his wardrobe but the shirt had short sleeves and a breast pocket - know from experience these just look wrong on me. Then found his short black cotton kimono (he also has the matching wrapover waistcoat and double bib dungarees and am not going to go and ask him all the correct names for them). Kimono is perfect - worn untied will be like a waterfall cardigan. Ties are long so will have to work out how to tie them back without spoiling the way it hangs but no money expended and don't have to spend the next week (or two) trying to handstitch a whole garment.

silvasava

Vhalla - you can plant them now! If you want to get some veggies going you can do potatoes in tubs too - Poundland, Home Bargains & Morrisons all have various types of seed potatoes in smaller quantities than the garden centres & cheaper!

GreyQueen

Afternoon all.

I've had a real OS day - pootling around at home and on the allotment and places in between.

Debated going into the shop for a cake but decided to improvise with what I had to hand. After all, if we truly had nothing to spare, no cash on hand, we'd just have to get on with it, wouldn't we? And I think getting to use the stuff already to hand is an excellent discipline.

Sooo, dug out the banana cake recipe but the quantity was for 2 loaves in 2lb bread tins and required 8 over-ripe bananas. I had 4 so decided to halve the ingredients. Wasn't sure if I should go down to just the one egg, so decided to keep both in there. The recipe was for plain flour plus baking powder, but I'm out of baking powder so I just used SR flour. And it was to use vanilla extract, but I had a choice of almond or peppermint (used the vanilla up just before Xmas) and I thought the peppermint would be just too weird, so almond it is. I also used dark brown sugar as I had some of that to use up.

Have absolutely idea how this improvisation will come out. I can best be described as a lackadasical cook, but it's in the oven now and smells delicious, so I have high hopes.

I also brought a shoebox back from the allotment thinking it was flower seeds and its actually mostly herbs with a few pkts of veg seeds thrown in. How embarrassing to forget your own belongings. I shall pore through those and write a list and am intending to sow a lot of herbs. These are all date-expired pkts, given to me like that, haven't let them go OOD, so we'll see what comes up.

I have hopes of jollying up simple recipes with HG herbs and even drying some for use over the winter months.

sashanut

Hi all :j


Well thought I better post re my attempt to make do re the wallpaper. I was going to post here last night but feeling too disheartened. I did do it yesterday as promised, but probably should not have tried to do it in the short time that DH was out of the house. Did everything correctly although I wasn't incredibly happy with my skills - note to self, do NOT take up decorating as a career....it was cut a leetle bit too small. Well, still I thought it looked good, then was a good girl then washed up the brush, put all items away - clean - removed all the evidence. DH came back but true to form didn't notice....but then as I came down the stairs, suddenly realised that I'd matched the pattern wrongly :eek::eek::eek: Quick as flash, whilst it was still wet, I ripped it off the wall again - back to square one, grrr. No-one noticed, even though the wall plaster was wet all evening.....




OK, well today I decided to make attempt no 2, I am nothing if not stubborn. Only, I couldn't find the wallpaper shears. After aimlessly searching for a while, I suddenly realised - I put them in the proper place!!! Right, I have now finished attempt no 2, this is better than no 1 ....probs by attempt no 10 I might have done it expertly.....this time it is correctly matched, not cut too small for a change...


Better go now & do a bit of prep for tea - making Danish pastries for the first time, already didn't follow the instructions properly :eek: so goodness knows how they will turn out. However, DH always happy with HM food & DD on a diet, so who cares? Along with fajitas for main course, bit of a clash of cultures there ......GQ your cake sounds great, hope it turns out grand. And you can always put custard on it & call it pudding if not..

GreyQueen

I am pleased to report that the Improv Nana Cake is a success.Couldn't wait for it to finish cooling so nabbed a slice off the end. The almond essence does give a bit of a surprising flavour to the bananas, but probably much less alarming than the peppermint flavour would have been.

[Deleted User]

Hi chums need some inspiration I use a walking stick and my stick has a strap on it thats ...shall we say almost worn away to nothing (I have had my present flowery stick for around five years) and my DGS Henry chose it for me, so I prefer it to the boring brown one I keep as a spare.Now any ideas as to how I can replace the strap Its there so when I'm shopping. I slip my hand through it, and don't forget it and leave it behind.
Now take into account that my sewing skills are limited to hand sewing, along with my endevours to make do and mend I need any suggestions as to how I can replace it without it
A. costing a fortune
B. if possible 'cannabalising' something I may have or can find indoors

Nothing wrong with the stick, its fine, and has been re- tipped several times by the local cobbler,quite high -mileage on it as well :):)
so thinking caps on chums any thoughts would be appreciated.
JackieO