Light the fire...

savingholmes

Good luck with the weather. If you see the sun - tell it to come here too

woodfired

Well after a bright and sunny few days it's turned miserable once again and I'm holed up in the winter snug living room with the candles and fire lit enjoying a peaceful Friday evening.   DH is out after playing golf this aft and I have spent a lovely few hours with my sisters having lunch and a catch up. We all contributed food and drink so a cheap but very cheerful gathering with all of the children too.

We've had a busy week, DH is very busy at work which is excellent and I've been busy with my job, helping him and general summer holiday jobs.  So achievements this week include:

Cleaned out motorhome, all tidy and ready to go on the next trip.

Dried and cleaned all awnings/carpets/rugs and other bits that were soaked last week.

Managed a food shop and meal plan that has been followed so far.

Washed and dried ALL laundry, all baskets now empty and most washing folded and put away (just a few forgotten bits of DS')

Washed children's bedding and remade beds. 

Cleaned the whole house today and yesterday including bathrooms.  Just need to do wash the big windows in the back room (now need doing urgently following sticky toddler hands at lunchtime!)

Tidied up the garden, starting to think about autumn jobs and preparation.

£500 OP to shop loan - takes us a penny under £55 000.  Slowly edging down, spurred on by a nasty letter this week announcing my new interest rate at 10.12% eeeek!!!
£500 per month of a £700 payment is interest - disgusting. 

Now I am going to enjoy having a lazy tea of RM curry and a glass of wine by the fire.  Happy Friday everyone.  WF x

lucielle

Enjoy your curry. Well done on the housework, I hate cleaning windows. 

L

woodfired

Me too Lucielle, me too!  Its the job I always put off and may have got away with it for another week or two but not now, those handprints are ridiculous ha!

woodfired

Friday evening! At last!

A busy week over here, I've been helping with DH's work and juggling my work too with several staff members off at the moment for varying reasons.  Just next week to get through and then things should settle down hopefully.

Today has been some work for DH this morning, delivering to his main customer.  Then I nipped over to the Auction Mart to watch my Dad sell some sheep in the first of the Autumn sheep sales, that really means Autumn is on it's way!  Dad bought lunch afterwards which was a treat. 
Then I stopped to deliver my customers groceries on the way home, still continuing with this for a few customers after beginning during covid.  It helps out a few elderly people so I don't mind. 
A bit of tidying once I got home and now I'm relaxing in front of a fire in the living room, tea will be a quick one of leftover curry in a naan bread with salad for us and pizza for the children, nice and easy as I'm tired today.  A quiet evening in watching a film and an early night are planned and I'm really looking forward to it!

Ooh, and a quick add on to say that we have borrowed £10k out of DH's business to pay off our business loan.  He's had a few big orders come in this past week which will more than cover this amount and it means we have halved that loan since January.  I'm so pleased and I'm feeling very lucky to be in a position to pay this off so quickly, although things will slow down now.
Finally I made an OP of £236 to our original house mortgage to bring the balance down to a nice, round, £205 000.

I hope everyone has had a good week, happy bank holiday weekend all xx

savingholmes

Glad things are going so well for you.

woodfired

Good morning.

The weather isn't looking too great today but my washing baskets are overflowing so I've had to put some washing on and will probably dry it in front of the woodburner for the first time in a long time.  I lit the fire when I got up this morning as the temperature has really dropped this week and it was a bit cool in the kitchen.  Thank goodness for DH's endless free wood, it feels wrong to be burning wood in August but at least it doesn't cost anything to do so.

Today I plan to clear out the fridge, do some more washing and move some vases and other clutter out of the utility room cupboards to make space for some winter preps stock such as bulk buy firelighters, loo roll, pet food and detergent.  It's definitely getting to nesting for winter time! 

Yesterday we cleaned the patio, tidied the garage and did a bit of gardening.  We mowed the lawn and collected up the first lot of fallen leaves and I binned my outdoor tomatoes that had all succumbed to the dreaded blight.  Fortunately those in the greenhouse seem to have escaped so far although they show no signs of ripening anytime soon. We have deadheaded all the baskets and pots and I must say my garden has never looked so good so late in the year.  We always have a good show in spring and early summer but it usually looks a bit unloved by this point.  We seem to have done a better job with the upkeep this time and I've panned new planting more carefully to continue the flowers through the summer. It does seem to have paid off, not having loads of building work going on has also helped hugely with this of course.

DH has just set off to play golf with his brother and friends and DD is off to the football in the next hour so it will just be myself and DS at home, I will get on with my jobs then take the dogs for a nice walk before we meet up with DH and our friends for an early dinner in the pub later on.  Hopefully a very productive yet also enjoyable bank holiday weekend, the best kind in my opinion.

Happy Sunday

WF x

woodfired

Just popping back to document my productivity this morning

Washing now on the airer in front of the fire, smalls on my hanging rails above utility radiator (heating not on but will still dry in a day or so)

Tidied the sideboard cupboard in the living room.  Found a  furry fitted sofa throw in there that i didn't remeber having but popped it on the leather sofa, looks nice and will be cosy.

Moved assorted vases to newly emptied cupboard from utility room.

Washed lots of bowls and serving platters that were dumped in utility cupboards after house renovations, they will now go in the cupboards under the island.

Sorted through and folded lots of random dishcloths and tea towels.  Now neatly stored in utility. 

Restocked dog food bin.

I now have a entirely empty larder cupboard ready for my winter stocks that will arrive tomorrow. The other cupboards in there are now more organised and far easier to locate items.

I have gone through the fridge and thrown out any unsalvageable bits, not too many I'm happy to report.  I almost threw away a small bag of uncooked crumble mix from last weekend, however, I instead picked out the older, slightly wrinkled, apples from the fruit bowl and made a quick apple crumble.  Not wanting to use the oven I've popped it in the AF (with a pyrex lid to begin as bits of crumble were flying everywhere!) and that will be a quick dessert that I may even freeze for another time.  I now just have some old bits of veg to make use of, I think I'll make an asian style salad with a peanut butter and sweet chilli dressing using some grated carrot, quarter of a white cabbage and a bit of onion - I have some dried noodles in the cupboard for the base and prawns in the freezer if I fancy some protein. 
I'll use the old leeks and some more carrots in a veg soup, may throw in some odd bits of cheese too and that will do DH's lunches for the week.

Then the fridge should be nice and clear ready for a re-stock either tomorrow or Tuesday.

lucielle

Gosh you’ve been busy!  Now I fancy some crumble!
L

savingholmes

Sounds a productive weekend.  You made me want crumble too! I adore it - especially with the extra crunch of oats.