The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

greenbee wrote: »

Actually, don't bother with the meal plan, I'll just move in

Looks yummy!

Ha ha, come on over greenbee - you can give us a kick up the b.u.m and get us moved licketty split - promise the new place will have a fancy annexe pad for ya!

So Sunday, and GreyingTowers clocks are all over the place, as I altered key ones before I went to bed, only to find that DH has altered them again - the wrong way - when he got up :rotfl: Is it lunchtime yet???? :rotfl:

Tea this evening is going to be left over baked orzo from the freezer. In the meantime, we will be taking a sanger out for a wander, even though the weather has decided to not play ball

Right, several hundred ducks to line up to make ^ all happen, so I must vamoose!

Have a great day - what time is it??? :rotfl:

Greying X

Upsidedown_Bear

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Have a great day - what time is it??? :rotfl:

Greying X

Time for another cup of coffee Or 3.
Have a good day all at Greying Towers and friends

Moneywhizz

Just saying I read your diary all the time and find it a breath of fresh air to hear about your daily adventures with your baby and life in general. You have such a good attitude to life, being thankful for every day and always able to find good in the day.

I wish you well with your moving plans and hope it all works out well for you. You deserve it. X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Upsidedown Bear - i've only managed a small cup of coffee today - out of the thermos at that! - DH seems to have made me several thousand cups of tea since 4.00pm. I'm not a huge fan of tea........ Have certainly drunk more of it since Baby Greying put in an appearance, and sometimes a good cuppa is just what you need, but I think my tolerance of it is beginning to wane..... or perhaps I'm just awash with the stuff today.

Moneywhizz - thank you. I try not to be too 'everything is always peachy in my patch'. Because I'm human and it ain't. But we are blessed, and reminding myself of that, frequently, certainly helps to not dwell on the things out of my control.

Well, we went off adventurising. The weather stayed resolutely sulky, which was a shame in that it didn't help the trees to show off their colours to their true advantage. But it most certainly didn't stop us doing anything that we wanted. So no complaints.

We went to an 'old bit' of country park (ie we'd been to it before, but not with BG) and had a lovely time walking along an 'easy' bit of track. Took some lovely pics - a great reminder of the day. Then we moved on to a reservoir, using a route that we'd never been on before. Wonderful. We saw plenty of wildlife up close. Including a buzzard, which was nervous of the car (we were on a single track road), but curious too, so it would let us get almost to it, and then fly on several fence posts, land on the post, and then take off when we got 'too close' again. When I got out of the car to take some scenery pics, I saw some birds that I think were fieldfares. Unfortunately, the 'in-car' binoculars (only NT ones) seem to have migrated out of the car into the house, so I couldn't get a good look, but I'm sure that is what they were. A big flock of them. In addition, there was a huge flock of starlings also sitting in the trees alongside the fieldfares (ie separate trees, but all together) - my goodness they are noisy birds!

We had a picnic in a quiet spot and listened to the food prog on R4 - all about pumpkins

We had a wonderful day out, all free apart from the cost of the fuel in the car. We've some wonderful pictures - including several half decent ones of me & BG - a rarity, as I am usually the 'right' side of the camera :rotfl:- and we've the memories of the birds, the tree colours and each others company The other advantage was that the country park, the road to the resevoir and the resevoir itself weren't over-run with visitors. We didn't quite have the place to ourselves - the country park is popular with dog owners - but it was about as near as you can get....

Tea was NOT as described earlier I'd forgotten that the piece of baked orzo was more of a portion for 1, and I've not got ooodles of veg to pad it out (got veg, but stuff like spianch and chopped leeks etc). So instead, I dug some lemony spinach hotpot out of the freezer and teamed it up with some brown basmati rice. OK, we had rice last night too, but brown rice is pretty distinct in its taste, so it didn't feel too repetitious. We have had a magnUm for dessert.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

getting to see flora and fauna up close

that we have a car to take us places - even if it is old, and we have to keep to tight budgets to keep it on the road, and pack a lunch........

that we hadn't planned a hike - someone* forgot to put the sling carrier in the car :whistle: :rotfl:

Ta for popping by and joining in. Mucho appreciated.

Greying X

* clue - t'weren't me!

Greying_Pilgrim

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

We had a wonderful day out, all free apart from the cost of the fuel in the car.

I lied. We stopped in a little market town on our way back. DH needed the gentlemans *excuse me* to spend a penny. It cost 20p

Greying X :rotfl:

greenbee

Tell him to go behind a hedge next time

Glad you had a lovely day. I did gardening. And am now trying to summon up the energy to go to bed, so I can get up and be full of energy tomorrow...

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, I have just heard something on the radio that makes me believe things will perhaps be OK. A boy called Connor, was on the radio. He lives in Thornbury, which ain't too far from Bristol, is it? He's going trick or treating for the first time this year, which for an 8 yr old, didn't seem too unusual. He's dressing as a skeleton. However, Connor is going to be collecting food for the local food bank. Hurrah. Whilst I wouldn't want to deny any child a few sweeties, T or T is not my cup of tea. So to hear that this little lad (and possibly others) is going to turn it around and make it a useful excersise is just brill. They still get the thrill of dressing up and going out and about at dusk, or after dark, but a charity will benefit. I hope the people of Thornbury are able to support Connor, as he gets to come back on the radio tomorrow and tell the whole of the UK how it went. Go Connor!

We will try and take our little donation to the FB today. Inspired by Connor

I need to pay my CC bill. I will do that over the phone, as I've got the hang of it now and it is so much easier than going into my bank. They always said they didn't mind doing it (CC is with another company), but their faces and actions always told another story. It's a shame, but I really don't miss having to go in there for any transactions any more i'm sure banks don't make it easy for their employees, so I don't suppose their attitude is entirely of their own making.

Tea this evening is a pumpkin and spinach bake, that will use up the remaining pumpkin from mrAl and some of the frozen spinach that is in the freezer. I have already purchased the other ingredients that I need, but I think I'll need some broccoli or cauli to accompany.

I'm pretty sure that the mums & dads in the street organise T or T between themselves and school friends, and only go to houses that are obvioulsy participating. It does tend to be the younger children that get involved. Thankfully. Hurrah for folks being responsible.

Right, best shift-a-tail-feather. Daylight is a-burning.

Greying X

rtandon27

Wow inflation is really something when spending a penny costs you 20p!!!

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 wrote: »

Wow inflation is really something when spending a penny costs you 20p!!!

I agree! I actually forgot to ask DH if the machine only accepted 20p coins, as we had to scrat round for change - luckily DH had a coin.

The car park where the loos are is free - and is usually heaving on a weekday/market day, as it is only small. I suspect that the charge is as much about stopping anti-social behaviour as anything. Which is a shame.

I agree greenbee - males have a distinct advantage in some things, and he didn't use it. We'd been out in a forest, and driven through countryside a-plenty! :rotfl: Still, that sort of behaviour can get you landed with a £100 fine, so 20p ain't too onerous :rotfl:

Greying X

joeyjimbles

Sorry, I'm a bit late to the diary-warming. Halfterm holidays last week and DS2 decided to do a huge project as one of his bits of homework. When he was packing up his bag last night, I noticed that he could have done a poster or a powerpoint but he made a vast production number instead. I'm proud of him, his ambition and his dedication but it has rather taken over the holiday. I do wish they wouldn't set homework during the holidays in any case unless it's something that can be achieved by going somewhere and experiencing something. One enlightened teacher told them to get some fresh air, have an adventure and lots of fun - I like their style.
Anyway, happy new diary. Lovely food as always and lovely to hear about your adventures. I asked the Manager about the frozen avocados in our little Mr T, and was greeted with an 'Ewww, what would you want those for?', so I'm guessing they won't be stocking them. I'll try the bigger one when I'm next passing. I still have 2 halves left in my bag from the last time I purchased them.
Soaked pulses over the weekend, and they're in the slow cooker now to make winter soup with random root vegetable oddments found in the veg basket. Must add some nice spices to make sure it doesn't come out too brown and worthy like last week's version.