Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

Viking_mfw said:

Thank you! (Re book title)

No worries 😊 Let me know what you think of it 😊

KK

redofromstart

My strawberries are a mid season, bought from a B diy store for pennies last year. They are looking really promising. When we eventually move I will plant early, mids and lates, the same for raspberries.

The peas were an October planting of the last of a pack at the back of the polytunnel bed. One to repeat this year I think. 

KajiKita

@redofromstart, I did my usual October sowing of broad beans which are usually cropping by now but they got clobbered by that really cold spell 😢 Had to start from scratch and the replacement plants are only just starting to produce pods - which reminds me, I must take the tops out tonight and give them a good drink! 

I will have a think about what I could try overwintering in the greenhouse. It would have to be things that could cope with pots as I want the (small!) space for hardening stuff off from April really. 

KK

MissRikkiC

Yay to nice Tofu! It looked delicious 🤤 

KajiKita

MissRikkiC said:

Yay to nice Tofu! It looked delicious 🤤 

The ginger gives it quite a kick! I had it cold for lunch today and wondered why I was finding it so ‘hit’ and then remembered the ginger! 😂

KK

KajiKita

Cleared down my work email inbox to zero today!! 🤩👏💪😊 That feels soooo good! (There is an ‘actions’ subfolder with lots in it, but that is tomorrow’s problem! 😉🤷‍♀️)

NSD today and a 59p TT. Rocking and rolling here! 😂 I will be harvesting some strawberries shortly though, so that will help the produce tracker and I have downloaded and filled in the return of election expenses form I should have done already apparently… <ahem> Chilly here, so I might even bob the heating on for an hour before my shower tonight - it’s hair wash night and I do get very cold sitting around with a wet head these days. 

Mr KK having an excellent time in France - all the vehicles are running well, all the guys are getting on and mucking in together and he did a video of him laying a wreath at the new Hill 112 memorial for me / my grandpa / my grandpa's mates (my grandpa tried to take out a German machine gun nest that was harassing his platoon, on his own with just with a rifle and they got him instead - the platoon’s letters and a cigarette case is what saved him!) but after he was invalided out many of his friends from Sandhurst then passed through his role at a rapid rate and were killed - he felt guilty about that to the end of his days, so this wreath laying is for him. I got quite emotional watching that …. ❤️

My increased thyroxine dose is out for delivery, so that should arrive shortly. Need to confirm whether my haircut is this weekend coming or next …. Sorry, my life is so exciting! 😉 Might do some books, ornaments, furniture moving this evening to make a start on emptying the lounge ready for Mr KK’s return and fireplace base building 😊

KK

KajiKita

1.8kg of strawberries and more to come! 😳🍓
Think I need to learn how to make jam …..

KK

redofromstart

KajiKita said:

1.8kg of strawberries and more to come! 😳🍓
Think I need to learn how to make jam …..

KK

Yes, easy enough if you eat jam.  Save any empty jars.  My mum used to hull the strawberries and then loose freeze them before bagging with a sprinkle of sugar so they effectively made their own syrup as they defrosted and got served with meringues etc.  

Summer pudding?

I usually make jelly rather than jam as I am not a fan of pips. I started with a bramble jelly recipe (here) and now work on soft fruit with a little water (and/or chopped cooking apples from the garden for pectin) stewed for a little, left to cool then strained to lose the seeds etc, then juice of a lemon and 500g sugar per pint of liquid and cook till you get your set.  Probably quite a wasteful method but I don't like lumpy jam.  I've also made this one which was lovely.  Jam sugar with pectin is expensive and not really necessary if you have apples/lemon or dont mind a soft set jam.

KajiKita

Ah, so that’s what the lemon is for in the D3lia recipe ….! Thanks @redofromstart 😊
She says to dehull, split, layer up in a saucepan with sugar and leave overnight. I quite like the idea of a two stage process as I won’t have time to do it all in one evening, so I will try this method. I quite like seeds - useful extra fibre. 😊

KK

KajiKita

Had a random £690 land in the joint account today from EDF! I submitted some meter readings at the weekend and they told me that my DD was too high and our account was £690 in credit. I was planning on leaving it there as I thought it would be a good buffer against the winter, but they have obviously sent it back to us. Very odd considering the hassle other people have had getting their credit amounts back. I have swept it into the joint house savings, but as that has now ticked up to nearly £900 I am wondering if I should be putting it somewhere it could be earning some interest! I look at savings options offered by the same building society (the kind one that is giving us £100 some time this month 😊) it is sat in atm and see if they have easy access account I could use for this. 

NSD today, crazy busy diary for meetings today (kept being late as they were overrunning / I was pulled onto something else) and a late finish due to various, political, customer facing shenanigans…. 🙄 Horrible journey home through heavy traffic, (including a big works van absolutely glued to my rear end doing very late, jerky braking which was fairly unpleasant) because of that, and now I am bushed. Only managed to set up the sprinkler for the spuds / runner beans, cook food and prep lunch for tomorrow and now I am tired with the washing up and breakfast still to do. The strawberries I picked last night are going to have to wait until tomorrow to be processed - I have at least covered them with paper. 

Mr KK’s travel companions seem to have reached tiredness / saturation on the trip now, and are being feeble, lazy and whiny so I had to listen whilst eating my dinner, while Mr KK downloaded at me about it …..

Where’s my bed?! I am so done with today! 😉

KK