Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Nothing spent today. Work was okay... and now I have  week off! We'll be away for part of it: my plan for tomorrow is to clean out the fish tank, do the laundry and find some knitting to take with me. The weather is forecast to be HOT again so I may not get knitting done.

Things I'm thankful for: time off, the grass being green again, still light in the sky at a quarter to ten, finding my missing book about crochet.

Cherryfudge

I lost track of my July list so here's the last version:

Ironing  done and grown again
Outdoor paintwork - steps and gates - steps complete and now chipped, gates not touched
Replant wall boxes -not done
tidy borders started
tidy hedge -started
take down small tree by back gate done by DH
Sort jewellery box not done but I'm not a jewellery person so it will probably sit there till I next panic about 'finishing' an outfit
Finish knitting project for baby - procrastinating on this one
Clean fish tank - can't remember but set up to do this afternoon
Keep on top of raspberry picking  -raspberries harvested, old canes removed
sort out toiletries - not done
Send new house card not done, bought but lost! Sent one to someone else, though.
Send birthday cards - done
By/send anniversary card - done

I don't think I have an August list. So far today I've done lots of oddments of laundry and mended a bucket handle. The plastic hand grip had splintered but I remembered I had an out of date bandage in the fabric recycling bag (I don't know how bandages go out of date but they do) so I wrapped the wire where the plastic had been then bound it round with carpet tape. It's quite nice to hold - squashy! How durable is a matter for experience to tell.

Cherryfudge

Today I have a mountain of ironing and a second 3bay purchase has come through. I've remembered to leave feedback too.

Yesterday I picked the gooseberry harvest - 26g! Now eaten, full of flavour but rather too tangy. I think those are cooking gooseberries.

The fish tank is cleaned, DH bought compost for me but with another heatwave forecast I'm delaying the garden work till it passes. Even the grass won't be cut for a few days more despite having regrown. I don't know if that just means more yellow grass but we'll see.

Yesterday's tea was a medley of swede chips (I think I need lessons in making these: oven roast didn't quite work), oddments of other veg that needed using and some very nice sausages. There is still a lot in the fridge that needs 'dealing with', including lots of parsnips that I prepped yesterday afternoon then didn't get round to turning into soup for the freezer.

Onwards!

Sun_Addict

I parboil my swede chips first then cook them in the air fryer.

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

I parboil my swede chips first then cook them in the air fryer.

Aha! I wondered whether to parboil them! Thanks, I'll do better next time!

Cherryfudge

I've made the parsnip soup according to how many parsnips I had to use (i.e. increased the onions, curry powder and water, and added tikka curry powder instead of ordinary curry powder and used less stock... and it accidentally turned out really nicely. Oh, and I used plain yogurt instead of cream - definitely worked. There are three more portions to go in the freezer if there's space.

While it's cooling, I have a banana cake to make, or perhaps I'll just see about freezing those, too. The heatwave hasn't really hit up here yet. Its pleasantly warm. Still seems a bit odd to be making a wintery soup and doing baking, though!

Cherryfudge

The day got hotter as it went on but I cooked anyway: banana and blueberry muffins, three of which are already eaten.

I've done some cleaning and sorting in the kitchen - a never-ending need - and DH made a tuna pasta for tea with extra garlic but we ran out of sweetcorn and he forgot the basil. That turned into another good discovery.

I went round to my friend's house this evening and took biscuits... so nice to sit out in the warm dusk though eventually it was going dark and we went indoors. Rather a tale of woe as both the friends I was with have health issues (but the good news is the huge reduction in waiting lists for the sort of treatment they both need) and tomorrow is the funeral of a mutual friend's husband. Both the people I was with have also been at funerals in the past week, both of younger people, and yesterday there was a terrible accident near where I live where someone died...  really there's been some awful news recently. That said, it was good to see them both and we've planned another evening together next week.

I need to get myself to bed soon as we're travelling tomorrow. Dh has bought himself a very big backpack (half price in sale, out of holiday budget) and with the hot weather requiring light clothing not jumpers, won't have enough to fill it! He's very pleased with it though.

Spending
Holiday: £42.00
Housekeeping £2.70 + whatever DH bought.

Things to be thankful for: my friend getting the treatment she needs, recipes working out, our chemist getting back up to speed after a few days closed due to staff shortages.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I hope you enjoy your trip away and it's lucky for you that it's not too hot where you are. Is it hot where you work? My workplace is a health hazard on a hot day!

Cherryfudge

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

I hope you enjoy your trip away and it's lucky for you that it's not too hot where you are. Is it hot where you work? My workplace is a health hazard on a hot day!

My work gets too hot to the point where management is trying to get air conditioning installed. Some of our clients have health conditions that can be made worse by heat, and of course it's hard to work or sleep if it's too hot. I think it's a problem or problems with the design of the building and the fact we don't have total control over the heating.

Cherryfudge

We got back late yesterday from a very enjoyable, if expensive, trip to London. We did our best to go to cheap or free things during the day but fares and programmes and eating out all add up. It's been a  while since we'd been in London and we'd completely missed the fact that tube fares are cheapest if you just swipe your bank card rather than buying tickets. This meant paying maximum for fares on the first day, after which I wondered if being on the edge of a zone was pushing fares up and we asked a member of hotel staff who very helpfully explained it all and saved us a small fortune.

We may not have left London in our hearts - we lived there for some time and loved it - but it's certainly left us behind!  

Other than that, we bought programmes for the evening events (£15) and had a meal out each day, hot drinks and a cake each day and a picnic each day. Breakfasts were at the hotel.

It was far too hot to walk much (hence fares) and we didn't go to the shops so the only other expense was £14 each to go to an exhibition at the V&A. We'd bought theatre tickets and entry to a paid-for gallery already.

I haven't added it up yet: the details are strewn across my diary. phone and memory.

We missed today's rail strike but our train home was delayed just over an hour so we can claim some of the fare back. The drought was visible in a number of dust clouds over fields and one crop fire seen from the train. Trees are starting to change colour and so many fields are yellow. We didn't get in till after dark, but it was a pleasant temperature to walk home in though I was pretty well exhausted by then and thirsty despite having water bottles and buying drinks as we went along.

Two minor things wrong at home: a houseplant has suffered from the heat and I don't know if it can be revived, and the fish tank filter had accidentally been turned off when we went out, but the fish seems okay. I put Epsom salts in the bath to counter lugging the bags all over the place. I hope they don't damage plants because I poured the bath water on the garden today!

Today was car boot sale day (list here) and an evening trip to L!dl. Car boot finds included sewing and knitting supplies, three items of clothing and some books for the baby. Groceries included a discount on chicken and a £1.50 box of fruit and veg (bag of baking potatoes, bag of rather manky carrots, two small oranges, a punnet of rather bashed nectarines, a banana, a lemon, half a courgette, an aubergine, a large tomato and a small cauliflower). That's tomorrow's dinner sorted, plus some for other days.

One financial misfortune today when I realised I had some out of date Mr T vouchers. I've torn them up and put them in the recycling, and rescued a couple that go out of date at the end of August. I always save then to get the most out of them by trading them for discounts at the various things offered on the website, but there's never really anything I want so they ended up getting forgotten during lockdown and are now defunct.

We also heard that H and A's guests for the week tested positive for Covid soon after going home so lunch with them is cancelled tomorrow. The baby is very snuffly. Parents are testing negative but it's early days so we thought it best to be careful though of course we've had ample opportunity to catch it while away.

Spending today:
Car boots £12.50 of which £3.50 = clothing and the rest is a mixture of gifts and hobbies
DH had some grocery spending, plus fish and chips and an ice lolly. I spent £13.91 on housekeeping.

Things I'm thankful for: a good trip away, safe journeys, fun today and the fish surviving despite the filter being off.