From debt to freedom...

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you SH and Cherryfudge.  My friend commented that we’ll all have the best gardens we’ve ever known - Britain in bloom indeed!  That’s a good reminder SH, I will put bean sowing on my to do list for today. I was able to share some of the antirrhinums with a friend, by leaving them in a space for her, which she collected whilst on her daily walk. I’ve put some spare plants by the garden gate and have sold  a few. I have sold plants at the gate in previous years. I was going to use the money to make extra payments off the window loan. Every little helps, as they say.

Tuesday was quite busy, I went into work for a few hours which included a virtual meeting. I will need to spend time  today getting tasks done and need to factor in time each day to respond to the growing number of emails! The younger children have got on with some home learning tasks. Building a new routine for the start of a new term is this week’s challenge! Parenting today involves proofreading an essay for DD1 ( it was good to see her on a video call and chat) and helping to mix different types of icing to help DD2 with her home learning task! She couldn’t decide on which Easter cake to make so has done a chocolate cake, with a huge chocolate  rice crispy nest, filled with mini eggs, which looked really effective. She has also made a triple layer carrot cake, which she is going to finish off decorating later. I don’t think either of her teenage brothers have discovered the cakes yet🤫. Our flour supplies are getting quite depleted but haven’t seen any on the shelves for about 4 weeks 😳.

DD2 and I did do a Mr T trip yesterday evening. We tried to go a little later than last week - 8pm but it was still so busy that the queue to get in was 15 deep, which perhaps doesn’t sound a lot but was more than last week! I was surprised by the large amount of Easter eggs reduced . Usually there are perhaps a section of shelving with the odd few not sold. Yesterday it was pallet loads of Easter eggs as we got through the doors. Perhaps people have only bought for those in their household rather than wider family and friends or perhaps a larger amount are bought by holiday makers than I realised. Quite ironic really that you can buy chocolate eggs with ease but finding hens’ eggs is still quite tricky!

crazy_cat_lady

Sorry - I'm not jumping on that bandwagon . My garden is grass, weeds and pavement. I love reading about it all though, and wish I was more interested in gardening. 

Cherryfudge

crazy_cat_lady said:

Sorry - I'm not jumping on that bandwagon . My garden is grass, weeds and pavement. I love reading about it all though, and wish I was more interested in gardening. 

Perhaps you could grow a punnet of catnip on a windowsill?

savingholmes

DS managed to get loads of eggs the other day - the hen variety when he went to Mr A - but still couldn't get flour. Enjoy your bean planting and plant sales. 

Mumoffourkids

I just braved a food shop. Had to queue to get in but it really didn’t take long. I also got chatting to a lady in the queue and then we followed each other round the shop! Couldn’t get flour or eggs though. I have some eggs but as I intend to do some baking soon, I will need to get more flour and eggs in the next few days. Got everything else I wanted though.

I am so pleased That loads of us are gardening. I am planning on planting a few more seeds today as the seeds trays are mostly empty because we planted out over the weekend.

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you CCL, Cherryfudge, SH & Mumoffourkids.

Today (Wed) has been busier. I seemed to spend quite a long time ploughing through emails. There is a big increase just due to trying to do my job remotely. Balancing that with supporting my own children has been a bit of a juggling act. The younger DDs are getting on with home learning quite well but do need monitoring and explanations with maths particularly. DD2 can crack on quite well and has her lessons delivered remotely ( very small cohort) , so out of all of us is working more closely to her normal college timetable. 

Unfortunately I didn’t get much outdoor time and felt the poorer for it and got engrossed in work stuff I didn’t do proper mealtimes for myself ( did the children though) and ended up eating far too much chocolate😬, so also felt distinctly sluggish afterwards . I did take a cup of tea outside for 5 minutes to appreciate the beauty of the dusk sky and the cool air.

Sleeping patterns are all over the place again. Tomorrow I have got a list of work tasks to go through but hopefully will carve out time to be outside.

Drawingaline

Flour is impossible to get atm! But I did buy quite a few reduced easter eggs and melted some down to make a chocolate tiffin type cake. So no flour needed. It's my grandma's old recipe and haven't made it for years. Always reminds me of her. 

janb5

Another recipe fellow forumites. 
Shortbread

8 oz /250 g unsalted butter – softened

4 oz /125 g caster sugar

8oz /250 g plain four

4 oz /125 g semolina

Pinch of salt

Vanilla sugar to decorate.

Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add the other ingredients to the bowl and mix well to form a biscuit dough.Spread the dough in a 8” x 10”/ 20 x 25 cms baking/roasting tin and chill in the frig for about 30 mins,Preheat oven to Gas 2 /150 C/ 300 F.

!!!!!! the shortbread in patterns with a fork then bake for approx 50 minutes or until lightly browned.Remove from oven and leave to cool slightly in the tin.Sprinkle the shortbread with vanilla sugar and cut into fingers before it is cold.

 You can half the amount of semolina and substitute ground hazelnuts and add some finely grated orange rind.

 

 

 

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Jan, I have quite a bit of semolina in the cupboard, this recipe is a useful way of using it up...and no eggs needed !  Getting eggs still seems to be tricky.

Thursday was mainly spent doing work tasks, with intervals to check that children were on task with their learning. It’s hard to keep some motivated whereas others are working steadily. I did suggest to DS1, that since he isn’t working and I am, he could do one meal a week. Let’s just say the response wasn’t positive 🙁.

I did make myself  sign off the work emails at 6 to make myself feel an end to work for the day. I cooked tea and then got to the allotment to water the seedlings. The cornflowers and love in a mist ( Nigella) are coming on well, so hoping I can start to leave them outside to harden off ready for planting out  soon. I did dig over part of another bed. Once the initial hard crust of earth ( clay soil  here)had been got through, the soil underneath was quite crumbly so shouldn’t take too long to rake over and get ready for planting.

DD3 and I had a little stroll with the elderly lurcher, along the lane and across one public footpath in a field . It was dusk, so the sky was a beautiful deep blue colour with the last vestiges of the sunset in the west. As we walked back we saw bats flitting about.  I do enjoy walking in the evening, the cool air is so refreshing.

janb5

Hi HSL,  I have a bag of semolina particularly for this recipe and it`s cheaper than ground almonds!
I have some cornflower seeds but no greenhouse.  Could I plant the cornflower seeds in directly or is that risky?