Cheery's country living adventure

Baileys_Babe

We use chickpeas in all sorts of dishes, the 2 that jump out are chana masala (chickpeas curry) and homous.

I often use the aquafaba to make meringue kisses or occasionally cake.

Good point about veganuary @Viking_mfw

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, lots of excellent chick pea recipes in here - if only I had some!! 😂😂

Having a bit of a grumpity moment here. It'll pass, I'm sure, and I've helped it along with tea and crumpets for lunch, and a downloaded issue of Country Living Magazine from the library. 

But now I'm going to get back up, because sitting here for hours when part of my grumpiness is down to the sheer number of things that need doing, won't help...

First job is the one I abandoned in a strop - fitting the draught excluder to the back door. Theoretically simple - if you can cut the draught excluder brush to fit. Finally found the hack saw, but hadn't realised there was also a piece of wire in there, for which I need pliers. Can I find the pliers? Probably yes, if I look for long enough, but I couldn't do that without first having a cup of tea...

So. Wellies on and put to the garage, and maybe while I'm in there I'll find the giant bag of zip ties that I've also spent half the morning searching the house for.

YAWN.

Must remember to fill in our consultation form today as well. And other potential things

* more wood chip in the chicken run
* zip ties for roof of temporary chicken extension (I've accepted the actual chicken extension won't be built before the chickens are out of lockdown, so trying to cobble together a temporary one myself)
* trip to the loft to dig through curtains
* start the plasterboard!
* might put something lentilly in the slow cooker for tea - eating has proper gone downhill this week and it can't be helping my mood
* video chat with a couple of pals at 4 - I was meant to have done something before then but I'm sure they'll forgive me if I haven't.
* end of month finances round up!

Right, best get on. 

Viking_mfw

Sorry @Cheery_Daff, when I went to get baked beans out for lunch I found I've apparently stockpiled all the chickpeas... my fault! 

Cheery_Daff

Ha, well Viking I do hope you have something nice with them! I have crumpets so I can't complain 😁

Well I'm still grumpy, but I have at least got something done - the new roof on the temporary chicken run! I use the term 'roof'very loosely - but it will at least meet the bird flu restrictions. 

Can't actually use the space yet as the bottom of the area is just chicken wire, which the small birds can get through, so I'll need to go back and finish netting that tomorrow, but I got too cold to finish it today.

Had a nice zoom chat with friend, although the second one didn't turn up, not sure why. 

Off to see if Mr Cheery wants to go for a walk, or whether I should get up into the loft and sort out these curtains. Won't be putting them up today mind you- that will involve drilling, and enough boring DIY things have gone wrong today that I'm not risking anything else!

greenbee

Having curtains up will be nice Cheery, so that's something to look forward to!

Cheery_Daff

Certainly is! These will be draught-excluding curtains on the door of my study, so even more cheerful!

Karmacat

Extremely cheerful!  Sorry the grump is still visiting you - very sensible decision not to do any drilling  

Cheery_Daff

Well, today has been a short and gloomy one, and I am annoyed that I have wasted half of my precious weekend being in a strop. 

To be fair to myself, I have plenty on my mind at the minute and while I am mostly dealing with it cheerfully, it's not surprising when a bit of not-cheerfulness erupts. 

NOT helped myself by eating utter rubbish today. Porridge for breakfast, ok, but crumpets with peanut butter and honey for both dinner and tea? Three chocolate bars, sneaked in the car on my grumpy trip to the DIY shop? Cheery you are not acting in your own best interests my girl... 🙄

Still. Let's look at some positives.

* I got some of the draught excluder fitted, and have the right equipment to do the rest
* I fitted a rudimentary roof to the temporary chicken run, and had a nice time hanging out with my Beaky chums
* we responded to the local consultation, which is VERY local and does affect us
* I hung up the washing I put in the machine yesterday
* I wrote a blog post
* I had a nice chat with a friend about gardening
* Mr Cheery and I walked for an hour round the lanes in the dark, and we didn't slip on the ice, and we saw some twinkly stars
* I have had a nice soak in the bath, with a clean and warm towel waiting for me at the end

So not all bad 😊

This week there is still plenty of work to do but things do calm down a little before the week is out, thank goodness. I'm going to book a day off at the end of next week so that will be something nice to look forward to!

Ooh, and I've not done end of month banking so can look forward to that tomorrow 😂 and the regular saver runs out on Wednesday, so a bit of shuffling of the interest to the mortgage and the balance to the premium bonds. And of course the draw is Tuesday so I'll watch eagerly to see the £1m jackpot arrive in my account 😁 (which it won't, because my new bonds aren't even in the draw til March, so I still only have the £5 which have won literally nothing in 40 years 😂 )

Karmacat

There *is* some good stuff in there, Cheery, you're right.  But the food won't be helping, unfortunately you're right on that too - it's one of the ways that I find my frozen veg convenient   even when I just want stodge, like pasta and lots of cheese, I can chuck some frozen broccoli in with the pasta and eat it **first**, to get it out of the way, like unpleasant medicine   pure fruit juice works in that way as well.  I know I won't cook regularly, so I do stuff like that.

Here's to becoming a premium bond millionaire, with a day's holiday to come immediately after that  

Cheery_Daff

You're right of course. And if I win a million on Tuesday I might also hand my notice in , never mind booking a day off 😁😂

I've put ingredients for a Joe Wicks smoothie in the blender, and I'm going to put soup in the slow cooker first thing. Also going to take my iron tablets and do some flippin exercise!!