Tales from The Shire

greent

I've never heard of St Mark's flies - have just G00gled them and I don't think they're much of a 'thing' here - I don't remember ever seeing any. 

Nature is very much in evidence here, too - it's great  

Fortune_Smiles

in_need_of_direction said:

I know exactly what you mean about finding this site and the benefits.  It was only after working out that we could, at an absolute push, pay off our mortgage, that my sleep improved.  It’d leave us probably needing to do a balance transfer to pay my tax bill when it comes due but just knowing that we could eradicate our biggest outgoing if we had to, made such a difference.

It does help to remove some of the stress doesn't it.  Pleased to hear you're going to be ok INOD.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

greent said:

I've never heard of St Mark's flies - have just G00gled them and I don't think they're much of a 'thing' here - I don't remember ever seeing any. 

Nature is very much in evidence here, too - it's great  

You'll know them if you see them Greent.  You can't miss their long legs dangling underneath them and they are rather good at flying into you.  We have huge swarms of them on the lanes here but they disappear after a week or so.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Poetry

I didn't get much in the way of chores completed yesterday but I did get our virtual social life up and running.  Weekly calls with family are now booked along with a weekly call to my girlie chums.  I've also set up the app to join my writing group this evening.

I went off meal plan for lunch as the lettuce that turned up in my veg box on Friday was enormous.  Far too big to get used up in the side salads I'd planned to accompany meals this week.  There was also a large cucumber in the box (which I initially mistook for a courgette 😆) so I put them both to good use in Cucumber, Pea & Lettuce Soup.   I reduced the water to 1 litre and added some mint from the herb garden.  It was quite tasty but very thin so today I added some whole peas and some crumbled feta and it was a bit more substantial.  There's enough left over for lunch tomorrow too.  Supper was leftover Halloumi Traybake.

We spent several hours catching up with the boys via video call.  It was lovely to 'see' them.  We gave them the  quiz we hosted on Sunday and much fun was had.  It inspired me to write a poem about lockdown which I will not subject you to here.  I'm not much of a poet and prefer to write short stories usually.  However, this one will do for writing group tonight.  I hope the app works for me.

Hope everyone is doing well

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Success!

I managed to join my writing group for a call on Tuesday.  The sound quality wasn't great and there were only a few of us but it was good to catch up.  Also 'met' up with my girlie chums last night - lovely to see them all.

Lunches have been the never-ending porridge pot of Cucumber, Pea & Lettuce Soup.  Suppers have been pasta based - Tagliatelle with French Beans & Pesto and Courgette Carbonara.  I'd been planning to make my own pasta, something I've not done before, but fresh pasta is back on the shelves for the time being so I'll save that experience for another time 😂

I decided to go ahead with this week's T£$co shop as we're getting low on some fresh foods.  Plus the delivery is booked for today, not yesterday, as I thought.  Too much meat upsets my tummy so we are largely pescatarian in our meal choices.  Mr F admitted this week that he is missing the occasional meat based meal.  He can usually indulge during his hotel stays but, of course, he's not going anywhere at the moment.  So I have ordered him some good, steak burgers and bean burgers for me and we plan to have burger and chips on Friday night before joining R1ch@rd H@mm0nd's quiz.  I've also ordered some cream cakes as a little weekend treat.  Trying not to fall back into my previous bad, cake habits but get some balance between healthy eating, keeping our spirits up and marking the weekend.  There's a danger that the days will all melt together otherwise.

Tonight we're planning to watch the National Theatre's production of Frankenstein.  We're very eclectic in our tastes 😆

Happy Thursday all

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Staying in is the new going out

We have quite a social life now 😁  On Thursday we watched the N@tion@l Th£@atr£'s production of Fr@nk£nst£in.  We watched the one with B£n£dict Cumb£rb@tch as the creature.  Very interesting and thought-provoking performance.  I know B£n£dict so well from Sh£rlock and P@r@d£$ £nd that I wondered how he'd convince me in this role.  He did, thoroughly, and although both Fr@nk£nst£in and his creature do deplorable things, I came away feeling sorry for the creature.  You can watch here with J0nny L££ Mill£r as the creature if you're interested.  We made a donation to the Theatre for the viewing which will come from the fun money budget.

We had our burger night on Friday and joined Rich@rd H@mmond'$ quiz.  A bit disappointing as it wasn't live and the questions were mainly based on cars.  Mr F and I did appallingly 😂

Last night was Bingo night with my family and, tonight, we have a catch up and quiz night with the boys.

All very good fun and helping me to feel connected and upbeat.

Meals have been burgers (beef and stilton for Mr F and sweet potato and black bean with smoked cheese for me) and Warm New Potato Salad with Bacon and Blue Cheese.

Other than having a virtual social life we have mainly been gardening.  It would have been Mr F's dad's 100th birthday on Thursday so we bought a bay tree to plant in the courtyard to honour the occasion.  It arrived yesterday so we planted it out straight away.  I planted out my green beans and three courgettes.  I hope they survive as I didn't harden them off beforehand.  I needed the space in the cold frame to pr1ck out my cauliflower seedlings.  Perhaps I need another cold frame... or a greenhouse... and a potting shed 😁  I have spare courgette plants but, if the green beans fail, I'll be left beanless!

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend, despite the situation.

Take care

Fortune x

PurpleFairy26

Sounds like you’ve had a busy old time fortune. Hope the seedlings survive. I lost some tomato ones as put them out too soon but again it was for space saving reasons! I think I’ve saved one by bringing it back in. Fingers crossed yours survive. 

greent

I accidentally hardened my tomato plants off after forgetting about them the other evening....! oops! Still, they survived, and hopefully the weather is improving again now   I didn't harden my courgette plants off before planting them out - they were getting far too leggy indoors and had tiny flower buds appearing, so I just went for it - so far they seem to be ok...….

Fortune_Smiles

PurpleFairy26 said:

Sounds like you’ve had a busy old time fortune. Hope the seedlings survive. I lost some tomato ones as put them out too soon but again it was for space saving reasons! I think I’ve saved one by bringing it back in. Fingers crossed yours survive. 

Hi Purp 😀  None of my tomato seeds have come up 🙁  I've planted a couple of slices of shop bought ones to see if I do any better with them.  Hope yours survive 🍅🌿

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

greent said:

I accidentally hardened my tomato plants off after forgetting about them the other evening....! oops! Still, they survived, and hopefully the weather is improving again now   I didn't harden my courgette plants off before planting them out - they were getting far too leggy indoors and had tiny flower buds appearing, so I just went for it - so far they seem to be ok...….

Fingers crossed GreenT.  There's a chance it may drop below freezing in the early hours Monday and Tuesday.  I've made some cloches from old plastic milk bottles so at least a few things will have a fighting chance.

Your courgettes are way ahead of mine.  I can see lots of courgette recipes on our threads in the future 🥒😂

Fortune x