Life is a minestrone as the song says - my new diary

teapot2

Hello Hazelnutty, thanks for dropping by 🙋‍♀️.  Cats are so funny when something doesn't go to plan - they have a kind of 'I really did that on purpose' attitude!

teapot2

Not done a lot the last 2 days despite my lists no bad thing I guess.  The weather hasn't been good, very wet yesterday and really windy today.  Not at all like middle of the summer, I've shut all the windows and am sitting with a big jumper on.  I ended up bringing my pot of mange tout plants inside as they are quite tall and were getting battered in the wind so they are sitting in the kitchen for now.  Tried to amend my @sda online order but was getting really frustrated with it as it showed items were in stock on the website then when I added them and went to checkout, they were out of stock.  Got family for tea on thurs and was hoping to do eton mess for pudding but no meringue nests to be had despite them being in stock yesterday.  Not sure I can be bothered to make them so it looks like a walk to the shops that I hadn't planned for as anyway I don't have any eggs either.  The worst that can happen is we just have strawberries and cream which is yum in my book anyway.  Popped out about 9.30pm to the post box with a friend's b'day card as the post is only collected once a day in the morning, was still blowing a hoolie then.  

teapot2

Walk in the woods with family y'day morning, good fun and also sweet wild rasps consumed .  I walked to @sda after that to see if they had any of the elusive meringues in stock - they did .  I also bought some printer ink and paid for that from my business account as its for work printing mostly.  Did not like the shopping experience, they have removed all the one way markers and its a free for all with everyone piling in and little social distancing so not planning to go back any time soon.
Tiny humans and their mum came for tea today and all went well though unexpectedly it started raining heavily so they couldn't play outside.  Luckily as usual I'd tiny human proofed as much of the house as necessary so everything survived.  
Did a couple of Prolific surveys and just missed out on several more.  A couple of small invoices paid into my business account which is good but otherwise nothing going on money wise.  Am thinking about seeing if I can sell some stuff online again now as I stopped when lockdown started because I didn't want to be queuing up at the PO.

teapot2

Forgot to add that i also 'made' some Cassis yesterday morning as I'd ordered blackcurrants with my grocery/veg box.  So that can sit in the cupboard until December with the occasional shake of the jar and will be good for a couple of presents - very easy to prepare.  
On a less delicious note before bed I also removed several snails and slugs that were converging on my big planter at the front door after all the rain yesterday.  Wonder if anyone has tried woollen anti slug pellets with any success?  I don't want to use any that would harm wildlife and as these were being talked about in last evening Scottish gardening programme, I thought I might give them a try.  I like the idea that they also form a mulch and help with water retention.

the_cross_rabbit

How do you make cassis teapot2?
CRx

Karmacat

Don't know about woollen slug pellets, teapot, but I'm really shocked to hear that Asda have removed their social distancing marking!  Good grief

Hazelnutty

Are you in Scotland, teapot? Visiting mum there recently and the wild rasps delayed every walk we did

teapot2

the_cross_rabbit said:

How do you make cassis teapot2?
CRx

Hi CR, this is the recipe I used, I imagine it could be scaled up if you had a glut of blackcurrants [or vodka ] x

teapot2

Hazelnutty said:

Are you in Scotland, teapot? Visiting mum there recently and the wild rasps delayed every walk we did

Hi Hazelnutty, yes, I am - about 40 miles from Edinburgh.  Yes the rasps were lovely and sweet and the brambles are coming along nicely too.  We found some wild strawbs on another walk but they were quite sharp.  Love a bit of foraging [above dog leg height though  ]

teapot2

Good day yesterday, it was very hot [for here] from early in the day.  A friend came over, we've not met in person since before lockdown, after a catch up went to the woods where OH is buried and sat on a bench nearby for ages.  Its such a lovely peaceful spot and a very special place that I've missed these last few months.  We went for a sandwich and cuppa at the GC afterwards, it was very quiet so no queuing and a relatively comfortable experience.  Rained later in the evening - after I'd watered the pots, but that didn't cool anything down so not a very comfortable sleep.
Had a lazy day today, researched a few things on the interweb and ordered a birthday pressie for one of the highland tiny humans with some of my JL vouchers.  A bit of weed pulling in the afternoon as they have loved the rain followed by warmer weather!  I took a few items in from the garden towards my tea, I'm only growing things in pots so its very small scale but enjoyable.  I had a feta salad and contributed yellow courgettes, salad leaves, radishes, chives, mint, and purple mangetout, added in some home pickled beetroot as well.
Been watching various music festivals on FB and Utube this evening definitely not the in-person festival experience but no mud or queuing for the loo 🎪🎹🎙🎷