Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Blackcats

It is indeed chilly and it has rained and rained all day.  I'll keep my vest on for a little bit longer  ☃️

DawnW

It is certainly cold here. OH says there is a North East wind (I don't do directions!)

Onebrokelady

It's been very chilly here today ,of course it rained the whole time I was outside and stopped when I got home, the 🐓🐓 were happy though as they got to pootle round the garden all afternoon and their waterlogged run has dried out nicely this evening 😊 

foxgloves

Well at least the chickens enjoyed it! Another cold day here but beautiful sunshine so I've been out for a walk to make the most of it.
F x

moving_forward

Thanks for the heads up about sowing cucumbers, I have some seeds somewhere left from last year - Will go a hunting in the shed over the weekend.

foxgloves

Good afternoon from a sunny bench by our wildlife pond. I've been chopping up the recently felled holly tree for disposal & have stopped for a cup of tea & to straighten my back. Good job Mr F isn't here or I'd be in for some major earholing for not wearing my wrist support while secateuring like it's a new Olympic sport. I'm enjoying the sunshine though & the birdsong is just gorgeous. There is a blackbird who will come right up close to me because he knows I'm the person who puts out the songbird mix.
There are now at least 11 lots of frogspawn in the pond - the sun is reflecting off the water, making them glisten so it's hard to count properly. It was icy overnight.... I was woken by the sound of car windscreen scraping & the birdbath was frozen. It clearly hasn't bothered the resident frogs, though, who have clearly very much been getting it on, despite sub-zero temperatures!
Well, I must make a move. I think I will aim to fill another couple of bin bags with chopped up holly, then jump in a nice hot bubble bath before my muscles sieze up. Awww, my blackbird has come to the pebbly pond edge for a drink. I think he needs a name of he's going to be as tame as this. 
Back to the secateurs..... 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Sunday Savers,
A couple of squally showers here, but mostly a sunny day so we jumped out of bed, applied breakfast & a bucket of coffee & set about chopping up as much of the 2nd felled tree (the big one) as we could fit in our garden wheelie bin & a couple of sacks ready for next collection. Need a nice dry & still evening this week for a bonfire now, to get rid of the other half, which is currently all over two of the big beds I need for vegetables.
Didn't post yesterday....got lots done though, including full house clean & grocery shopping. The 'gaps' in the shelves due to people buying extras were quite interesting. I didn't expect there to be any hand gel (there wasn't, of course)......There was loo roll, but all small packs or the most expensive brands, not much soap, there was plenty of bread but bread flour (in two supermarkets) had been hit by people stocking up & there was very little. There had been a run on pitta breads & rice and supplies of noodles were dwindling, but I'd got the wholemeal ones on my list, as they don't go as clarty so there were plenty of those. Apart from paracetamol & antiseptic liquids, there weren't really any other very noticeable gaps.
Anyway, I've been thinking about the corona virus & trying to be prepared but not to feel scare-mongered into unhelpful behaviour by all the media coverage. Oh, actually, I think I'll start a new post.........
F x

foxgloves

Right, so I don't want to be bounced into panic-buying by certain strands of the media. I can understand the huge run on hand sanitising gels as the official advice on scrupulous hand hygiene has been consistent, but I am sure that the stockpiling of loo roll started because aspects of the media began running stories about supplies running out in other countries. I am a planner & so I sat down with Mr F to talk about what we are actually talking about here, in terms of groceries. I decided to look at it as though there's flu coming, as that's the nearest thing to this new virus, I think? So if we were to be poorly for a couple of weeks & needed to stay at home to avoid spreading it further, we'd need extra supplies in. Then it occurred to me that we might 'overlap' so perhaps 3 weeks would be sensible. We never buy ready meals or instant stuff & carry good stocks of store cupboard ingredients because of cooking everything from scratch, so I did an audit of dry goods.....pasta, rice, etc, & we already had plenty in. We bought a few extra tins of pulses & tomatoes - the sort of things from which we can make various different things - & a couple of chickens for the freezer - I know I can get 3 or 4 days' worth of meals from a chicken, as well as soup, so it seemed more sensible to do that. There's also a ham hock in the freezer, which also does 3 meals plus soup & can just be bunged in the slow cooker. We already have plenty of soap as well as plain bleach & disinfectant for keeping surfaces hygienic & other essential supplies. We bought 2 boxes of emergency cat food in case we are poorly, as we can't have a ravenous furry on our hands! I only very occasionally do an online grocery shop, as I much prefer to be able to choose myself & to use the local market for its excellent fruit & veg, but I'd be perfectly happy to place an online order if we couldn't go out. 
I've had flu, but Mr F hasn't, so apart from seeing me in a pathetic heap 3 times, he doesn't really know what it feels like. Based on my experience of flu, I have checked the medicine box, but it was re-stocked relatively recently so the sort of things I'd want in for flu such as paracetamol, cold & flu capsules, cough lozenges, etc, are all covered. The only other things I thought of were a couple of soothing herbal teas (which were on offer in the supermarket yesterday) & to have some home made french onion soup in the freezer, as it always seems to help with chesty virussy things, so I asked for some beef bones at M*rrisons yesterday (got a big pack for about £4 with lots of meat on which I'll use for something else) & I'll have a soup-making session early this week. I feel prepared now - we can't do anything else. I do feel that the media needs to find a better balance between informing people with facts which are presented in context, rather than in a way guaranteed to scare people & to send them into a frenzy of supermarket shelf-stripping.
What do you think? Do you agree? Are you making sure you have a couple of extra weeks' of supplies in?
 I won't be bounced into panicking & herd behaviour. But I do believe in a degree of sensible planning. It must be all that risk assessment training I've done in the past, or perhaps I am generally quite a cautious person.
Interested to hear your views - we have some good discussions on here, don't we? 
Definitely time to go & light the fire, fight Cat for a space & finish my book.
Have peaceful evening, all,
F xx

Broke_Bear

Definitely on the right track foxgloves, sensible precautions without going overboard.
i have given up with the reporting as there now only ever seems to be two modes - Fear and Panic. I would personally like the FACTS and be allowed to make up my own mind.  I will be looking out for my mum and perhaps staying away if I become poorly with a cold or otherwise. I do not have the space or inclination to stock up for the apocalypse but will be looking to pick up a few extra bits over the next few shops so I have enough for us to cook suitable meals for a couple of weeks from the freezer and pantry.  They may not be what we ‘want’ to eat but, if required, will see us through and will get eaten anyway in the long run!

Blackcats

Hi Foxgloves - I think you are absolutely right - as usual!  Stocking up on store cupboard staples and keeping the freezer well stocked is sensible and proportionate.  As you know real flu knocks you out so ready prepared soup in the freezer will be perfect.  I inadvertently added to the loo roll crisis this week because I didn't check existing supplies at home and so I bought a pack of 12 this week and already had a pack of 12 in stock.  I could, of course, make my fortune by auctioning one pack on the bay of E.