Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

I've been sitting knitting for too long & am getting very stiff in my beam end. Time for a challenge, I think. How many jobs can I get done between 3pm & 4pm?
Ready, steady, Go!
Oh hang on, I just need a wee first.... 
F 

HairyHandofDartmoor

foxgloves said:

I've been sitting knitting for too long & am getting very stiff in my beam end. Time for a challenge, I think. How many jobs can I get done between 3pm & 4pm?
Ready, steady, Go!
Oh hang on, I just need a wee first.... 
F 

Go for it Foxgloves. Looking forward to a final tally 😁.

Baileys_Babe

How many did you get done @foxgloves?

foxgloves

Well, it was a blimming useful hour! I set the kitchen timer & off I went:
*Fetched the dry laundry in off the line.
*Sorted it out - put all the towels away in the linen cupboard, folded Mr F's stuff & left it for him to put away. Folded & put all my stuff away.
*Watered seedlings again as the warm day had dried them out.
*Sowed more celeriac seed for back-up as first sowing is very slow-going.
*Sowed a tray of lettuce.
*Planted out my autumn sown sweet peas & tied them in to their wigwam. Watered them & fetched glass panes from shed to give a little protection at night. 
*Planted out a delphinium, a primrose & an aquilegia. Watered them. 
*Found 3 troughs & lined them with crocks ready for sowing some salad stuff later this week. 
(Paused to drink half a cup of tea..... the other half got soil in it so had to chuck it) 
*Watered remaining plants in my 'nursery corner' which will be planted out in the next few days. 
*Packed some stuff away in the shed. 
*Fed a box of kitchen scraps to the wormery.
*Sprinkled some seed out for our featheries. 
I was pleased with that. Shows what can be done with the timer set for an hour as a challenge. 
As for the rest of the day? 
This morning I baked the sourdough loaf I mixed up yesterday, I skyped my sister & then Mr F & I had a bit of kitchen time making a batch of my secret recipe hot chilli & mango sauce. Bottled 7 jars of that & was grateful for an old pair of recycled hair dye gloves to wear while chopping the scotch bonnets. I've also done quite a few rounds of my jumper while sitting outside in the sunshine. 
I'm going to cover my greenhouse plants in a moment, then apart from making fajhitas tonight & a big salad, I don't intend doing any further jobs. We might discuss meals for next week, though, as I'm keen to visit as few shops as possible (virus really spreading up here now... think we must be a couple of weeks behind London) & not to spend more money than is necessary. 
Take care everyone.... especially you NorthernSoul as you have had enough sadness without this terrible national emergency on top of everything else. 
Love from F xx

PurpleFairy26

Gosh that was a productive hour wasn’t it. I’m tired just reading it 😂 

I’m thinking of mixing half plain flour with the bread flour I have to stretch it. What do you think? Even the online plastic free place I use can’t get hold of big bags of bread flour to split so not sure where it all is! 

foxgloves

I think that's worth trying, Purps. I've done some investigations into a reasonably local windmill. Defo no deliveries, shop closed, no mail order but they do seem to have been doing 'Click & Collect'. I don't know if they are taking on new customers but it won't do any harm enquiring.Their flour is very good - I've bought it in the past from farmers' markets. 
I do have flour at the moment. Yeast not such a problem as I still have my original sourdough culture & am getting on well with that (received a banneton for Christmas) but of course flour is necessary to keep my culture jar alive, as well as making the actual bread.
Re my 3pm to 4pm jobs challenge.... I might do it as a fairly regular thing. This is a classic time for me to have a slump (as it was when I was working too) as well as starting to fancy snacks. Little pickers wear big knickers, as we all know!
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

Wow you were on fire Foxgloves 😁. I just suggested to DH that setting an timer for an hour could be a good technique for him if he's struggling to get going on things.

PurpleFairy26

Thanks foxgloves. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ve been trying to look locally too but with no luck. I’ve registered for a localish one online that periodically release delivery slots so will keep trying. 

foxgloves

'Ey Up, Sunbeams,
Woke feeling vaguely headachey this morning - that's what comes of sleeping right through to 7am. That's a late wake-up for me. I usually wake between 5 & 5.30 am & get up at around 6 -6.30. I don't think doing lots of jobs in hot sunshine has helped, so I'm going to drink a pint of water in a minute to see if that helps......it's surprising how much headachyness turns out to be from mild dehydration. Anyway......I've been quite productive on the whole. I've baked a simnel cake (will decorate it tomorrow), defrosted what I need for cooking tonight's meal, pr*cked out three trays of 'Cosmos' seedlings, watered all my greenhouse plantlets, moved my agapanthus collection of pots outside - they take up a lot of space in the greenhouse but I can always pop them back in if I hear there is a late frost forecast. I've also taken all my conservatory plants outside & thoroughly hosed them, as they were looking dry, dusty & sorry for themselves. While they were out on the lawn soaking up some water, I vacuumed the conservatory & wiped all the windowsills. I've put the plants back in there now & will dose them with houseplant food tomorrow, as I want the pelargoniums in particular looking good for my outdoor tubs & containers next month. Oh, & I've emailed a local flour producer to see if there's any chance of placing a 'click & collect' order. I expect they are inundated, so I'm not massively hopeful they'll be taking on any more new customers, but if you don't ask, you don't find out, do you, so I thought it was defo worth a go. If I can get a secure source of flour, I will be able to keep my sourdough culture alive (it needs feeding with flour each week in advance of mixing up dough) & then I think I'll send my sister a bit of yeast (I still have a small unopened tin), as she has flour, but can't get yeast! I think we're all trying to find ways around the shortages, aren't we? One of the things we've tried has turned into a bit of a small win & we may stick with it......our local supermarkets haven't had much in the way of individual yoghurts recently - last week, Mr F said there were really only the ones with the 'corners' & I'm not keen on those, so he's been buying big pots (whatever ones are on offer) & as we are serving it in ramekins (albeit quite generous ones), we're getting a good 4 servings from one tub, When these are on offer at £1, that's 25p a serving & much cheaper than the equivalent quality of individual yoghurts we would usually buy.....so I think we will stick to doing this even when supplies return to normal, as it is better value.
Well, Mr F has just brought me a pint glass of water, so I think I will sit on my shady bench on the courtyard with my book & see if I can get rid of my muzzy head.
Please take care, all of you.
F x

Toni'sfriend

Oh, I like your idea of doing as many jobs as you can in an hour. I think I'll try that if you don't mind. It might get me into the routine that is now sadly lacking.