Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Greetings Hollyberries,
Gosh this room has fallen so dark already, that I can barely see what I'm typing! I must switch the lamp on or risk typing more gibberish than usual!
Pleasant day so far. Town first thing, with a quick pop into the C**p first just to pick up a couple of items on our list to make use of a 10 x dividend points voucher, then off to the market for our fresh fruit, veg & nuts plus a stock-up of bird food. I get so much pleasure from the birds in our garden that my finances would indeed have to hit a truly parlous state for me to stop buying their peanuts, mealworms, etc. I love getting our fruit & veg from the local market. The greengrocer is very knowledgeable - for instance today, Mr F chose a brussell sprout stalk & asked if they would keep until Christmas Day. The answer was yes, they would, but they will be even fresher if we slice a tiny bit off the bottom of the stalk then stand it in a bowl of water somewhere cool. So he's trying that.....I shall just have to remember not to step straight in the bowl if I pop in the pantry without putting the light on! The peppers looked lovely today, so I bought a couple for this week's meal plans but also some for the batch coking I'll do with all those lovely turkey leftovers, so I prepped those ones & froze them. One less thing to buy later. We finished much quicker than we anticipated so visited our local charity bookshop where they had two DVDs on our wishlist for £2,99 each - brand new, still in their wrappers, never even been opened. I expect they were an unwanted gift for somebody at some point. Truly a case of right place, right time for us, though. As I said the other day, it's simple pleasures that are keeping us going at the moment, isn't it?
Well, the verdict on those cranberry & gin jelly sweets I experimented with yesterday? I will certainly try making jelly sweets again, as they do look good & were not difficult, BUT there are a lot of buts:
1) The mixture set, but not firmly enough for me to be able to present the finished sweeties in a pretty cellophane bag which I would want to be able to do if I was gifting them.
2) It was impossible to turn the mixture out of the tin. I tried various things but there was no budging it, so in the end I had to mark it into thirds in the tin, then lever it out with a fish slice. I think maybe it needs a silicon tray, which I don't have, but the recipe didn't suggest this. It said to 'ease it out of the tin'. Well, I'd like to see whoever wrote that instruction perform a successful jelly removal, that's all I can say! So that one's surmountable.......but the next one's more of a biggie.....
3) The finished jellies do look very festive & quite professional (even taking into account the above problems) as they are sort of a frosted pink with their sugar coating, but I think that frankly they taste of sweet bug*er all! I can taste neither cranberry or gin. If you blindfolded me & gave me one to eat, I'd say that there was a faint berry-ish flavour, but that's all.  Mr F says he thinks they taste of cranberry but he can't tell there is gin in there (& that means the gin would have been better off in me!). 
Conclusion - there are serious issues with this recipe, but making jelly sweets (my first go) isn't difficult in itself & wasn't expensive. I think I will try making them again next autumn (potentially to practise for Christmas) but I will use my own mixture & jellify that. I think making a sieved blackberry puree & putting a liqueur in it would provide a much more full-bodied flavour.
So that, m'dears, is probably more information than any of you ever wanted on home made jelly sweets experimentation! 
Well, it sounds from various hopeful clinks in the kitchen, that Mr F is making me a cup of tea, so I shall say 'bye for now' & wish you all a peaceful evening. We will get through this, but it can't be rushed. Viruses don't stop at county borders or have a break over Christmas. We can only be as vigilant as possible & keep on bug*ering on. 
Take care,
F xx

Tescodealqueen

Shame about your sweets stubbornly sticking. My OH talked me into buying a huge sheet of silicon liner which I thought I didn't need. It's been a game changer! It's marked on the backing sheet so you can cut to size and we've lined roasting to s, cake tins, bread tins and everything has just slipped out of the tin. I cut a segment to knead the very wet bread dough i use and it's been so much easier to handle. I use it when crafting so the stuff doesn't get stuck while drying. It might work with your jellies if you can find some, especially if you are having another go. Just going off to listen to Boris, we have no plans to go anywhere but it looks like some people are going to have to change their plans

HairyHandofDartmoor

That was a good bargain for the charity dvds, I've got some great bargains in charity shops too . I don't suppose the new virus regulations will affect your Christmas plans?

foxgloves

Hi HHoD, 
No, our plans won't be affected, thanks for asking. We were always going to be staying at home this year & celebrating ourselves. Without the pandemic, we would have invited Mr F's sister & family over on one day between Christmas & new year & our best friends on another day, but with covid, I had already decided not to go ahead with either. Fully expect the new virus strain to be seeded into our area as apparently the trains out of London to our nearest big city centre were rammed last night just hours after people were told not to travel. Global pandemic bad enough on its own without poor leadership & selfish me, me, me individuals.
Ah well, I've had a nice productive morning. 
F x

foxgloves

Tescodealqueen  - Your silicon liner sounds like a useful item. I think in future, if I make those sweets again (though it will be with my own recipe next time), I could even consider using silicon moulds for making chocolates, etc. I'll see. I don't expect I will attempt them again until next autumn.
F

foxgloves

Evening Sunday Savers,
What a day! The first thing I thought about when I woke up was all those people stuck in Tier 4......& not at all happy about those who immediately decided to get on trains & risk spreading infection to other area of the country that have been in Tier 3 for ages & have been hoping very much to get covid levels down. The 2nd thing was that I can't do anything about other people's selfish idiocy so I stayed in bed with a huge cofffee & finished my library book. I did guess one of the bits of the main characters secret past & my suspicions were correct, but then, just as I was feeling like a smuggins, there was a twist towards the end & I couldn't stop reading it. It turned out to be a bright sunny morning here, not the mizzle I'd been expecting, so I have spent a productive hour & a half in the greenhouse, watched from the hedge by our robin. I weeded the greenhouse border, trimmed all the wilted summer growth off all my agapanthus pots & arranged them for overwintering, ditto the massive bird of paradise plant my Mum gave me a few years ago. The greenhouse will almost certainly be too cold for it, but it has outgrown available space in the conservatory, so its only option is the greenhouse until it is again warm enough for it to go on holiday to our back courtyard.
I transplanted my baby parsley seedlings to give them a bit more space in their pot & nipped out the sweet pea tips to encourage them to grow some side shoots. I trimmed a few straggly bits off the grape vine, asked Mr F to lift the wormery in for overwintering, then swept the bench & floor. It's tidy enough in there now for me to sit on my gardening stool with a coffee on a bright day. I also had a quick assessment of what food we have left out there......there are about 5 celeriac ready to pull & eat, plus the late summer sown mizuna is big enough for stir-frying. In the greenhouse, the autumn sown mizuna & perpetual spinach (I use recycled growbags for winter salads) are big enough for my to take a few baby leaves for salads. There is one forlorn lettuce left in one of the beds which I had missed, but looks as though the centre of it will be useable in a salad, too. There will be no seeds going in until the very end of January, when I start off my chillies. 
I've done a big laundry load & that's on the heated airer and made tomorrow's packed lunch. It's Mr F's cooking night, so I am going to do my piano practice then start reading my next book. I shall fetch my shawl first though, as the temperature has dropped in here & I feel minded to be a tightwad tonight & wait another hour before lighting the stove.
Take care, m'dears. If you are newly in Tier 4 & your Christmas plans have been spoiled, you have my sympathy. It would have been kinder not to get people's hopes up by making promises that were always likely to be dashed in the midst of a global pandemic. Like everything else in life, this will pass. It is going to take time, patience, a bit more common sense & more consistent leadership & central messaging. But we will get there. We have to hold the line & remember that while hands & masks are important, the real key thing is distance......seeing as absolutely few folk as possible & staying well back when we have to do so. The longer it takes for everyone to get the message (including the deniers in government), the longer we are going to be living like this. I for one would like to be part of giving Covid the finger, rather than enabling its spread.
I need to play some Christmas carols now to get all these moans out of my head.
Love F x

DawnW

Can you protect the bird of paradise plant with fleece or bubble wrap Foxgloves? Seems a shame to risk it.

Toni'sfriend

"Take care, m'dears. If you are newly in Tier 4 & your Christmas plans have been spoiled, you have my sympathy. It would have been kinder not to get people's hopes up by making promises that were always likely to be dashed in the midst of a global pandemic. Like everything else in life, this will pass. It is going to take time, patience, a bit more common sense & more consistent leadership & central messaging. But we will get there. We have to hold the line & remember that while hands & masks are important, the real key thing is distance......seeing as absolutely few folk as possible & staying well back when we have to do so. The longer it takes for everyone to get the message (including the deniers in government), the longer we are going to be living like this. I for one would like to be part of giving Covid the finger, rather than enabling its spread."

What wise, wise words. Thank you. Think I'll go play some Christmas songs as well. Greg Lake here I come!

foxgloves

DawnW - Yes, you are right. I must try that. My Mum managed to get hers to flower, so she bought one for me & challenged me to see if I could get mine flowering too. It never has, & even though Mum is no longer here to tell, I would like to see if it might flower next summer. I will investigate what bubblewrap I have.

Toni's friend - It is all we can do, isn't it? And you reminded me I haven't played Greg Lake yet this year. I have the piano music too, so no excuse! 

HairyHandofDartmoor

Very wise words Foxgloves. Some of the people leaving London last night by train had booked their tickets ages ago and didn't know about the new rules apparantly, but there was obviously a lot of people who'd changed their plans at the last minute and decided to get out of London. I hope the new mutated strain of the virus doesn't spread too quickly to the rest of the country. Anyway this too will pass as you say, so we must try to put it out of our minds if we can and try to be grateful for what we do have.

Your garden activities are very soothing to read about. I haven't touched my garden since half term, so it feels a bit neglected but it can't be helped.