Tales from The Shire

beanielou

Loved it

XSpender

I enjoyed your story

the_cross_rabbit

fantastic story loved the ending.

the_cross_rabbit

really enjoyed both stories especially the knitting one. Well done

the_cross_rabbit

Hi fortune thanks for the advice on my diary (which I've just realised I've spelt balloon wrong) on the WI and running. I need to buy some new running shoes and need to concentrate on how i run. How did your run go? My name and title of diary are from books by Nick Butterworth. My girls loved reading them when they were little. In fact DD2 was reading the cross rabbit and giggling when I was trying to think up a name. DD1 loved the hedgehog's balloons and was always so pleased when he finally got one. So every time I come on the forum it makes me smile.

doingitanyway

You are running now and being so creative. That is what I call 'in the zone' well done you

Fortune_Smiles

Thank you lovely forumites for your kind comments about my story. I am just a couple of ratings off 4 stars now so fingers crossed

I am well and truly pooped. A busy and boozy weekend with DS2 and wife was followed by a surprise visit from my DC. I waved one set of visitors off just as another arrived :rotfl: We spent less than expected and everyone arrived bearing gifts of the alcohol and food variety which helped to keep costs down.

I accidentally ordered an organic fruit and veg box before everyone arrived. I'd been toying with the idea of restarting a box order as I know we ate more healthily when I had them before. I entered the order but then decided I'd start after my guests had left but mustn't have cancelled correctly. So, the fridge is stuffed with fruit and veg. I've also been gifted runner beans (twice), a marrow, some duck eggs and a whole bucket of peaches. One lot of runner beans, the marrow and some of the peaches went home with DS2 as I just couldn't cook fast enough to get through them. And the courgettes are still growing :rotfl:

Recipes to use everything up so far include:

Courgette Carbonara
Goan Prawn & Coconut Curry
Creamy Beetroot Risotto
Moroccan Vegetable Casserole I doubled up the spices for this one as I find it a bit bland otherwise.

Pay day has arrived so money has been shuffled. There's not a lot to spare as I'm squirreling away as much as possible for the new gate. At least this week's shopping bill was a small one due to all the fruit and veg in the fridge :rotfl: I also received £50 in C0-0p vouchers through the post which were an incentive for taking out my home insurance with them :T So that should help with the food budget.

I'm feeling a bit lack lustre now. Too much rich food, alcohol and late nights I'm definitely in need of a de-tox. Perhaps someone will invite me to go and stay with them for a week and entertain and cook for me the whole time

I hope everyone is well and happy.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

The theme for this weekend has been 'Cooking' as some kind soul left a carrier bag full of plums on our doorstep yesterday :cool: We've checked with all the neighbours and it wasn't them so our benefactor remains a mystery. So plums have been added to the fridge of mists and mellow fruitfulness :rotfl:

Yesterday's lunch was a tuna salad to use up some of the lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, spring onions, courgettes, new potatoes, chillies and sweetcorn :cool: Supper was leftover curry. Not really cooking I know but I also made:

• Peach Gin - of course
• Plum Gin - obviously
• Roasted Peaches & Plums - to have with yoghurt for breakfast
• Plum & Almond Sponge Cake - which also used up some leftover marzipan I had in the fridge from Christmas :cool:
• Peach Crumble - for which I used this recipe but substituted the fruit
• Peach Cordial - which I'm hoping will be delicious with prosecco

I also made a Peach Crumble for my neighbours as it was their son-in-law who donated the bucket full. Plus I made up a bag of plums and peaches for lodger friend. Even so, I still have two peaches left in the fruit bowl and half a carrier bag full of plums. I'll probably make a plum cordial with some of those but need to pick up some lemons first. I'd share if I could but all our local friends have their own home grown produce and we have no passing traffic to take advantage of a 'Help Yourself' box.

I am all cooked out now. Supper might be fish and chips from the freezer :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Although the plan was to do something with the runner beans

In other news. I completed Week 6 of the Couch to 5K Programme this morning :j:j:j I can run for 25 minutes solid now. $arah Mi11ican told me I was a "proper runner" and I do feel as though I might be although I'm still very slow. Next week's runs are all 25 minutes Good job too as I need to work off all these recipes :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Mr F has spent the whole weekend in the barn servicing the trucks. This saves us a lot of money of course but I do think he got a bit carried away with his shopping basket at the dealership as the costs are £100 more this year :eek: His truck has some shiny new bits on it too :think:

Right time to..... cook supper :rotfl:

Hope you've all had a fab weekend

Fortune x

the_cross_rabbit

Well done fortune on the running. I'm still recovering from shin splints but hopefully will start back next week. Will be using some of your recipes as we always end up with gluts of stuff. We planted nectarine and apricot trees this year. Looking forward to gluts of these too, although it may take a couple years till we're at that stage

Fortune_Smiles

the_cross_rabbit wrote: »

Well done fortune on the running. I'm still recovering from shin splints but hopefully will start back next week. Will be using some of your recipes as we always end up with gluts of stuff. We planted nectarine and apricot trees this year. Looking forward to gluts of these too, although it may take a couple years till we're at that stage

I'm feeling very smug about the running Cross Rabbit. And I think I might be finally losing some weight now I'm doing the longer runs :T

We want to make our top field an orchard and plant all sorts of fruit and nut trees. We have a plum and two variety apple tree in our veg garden but lost all the plums this year to plum moth Fortunately our mystery benefactor must have known about this :rotfl:

I hope you're back up and running soon

Fortune x