Holding On and Letting Go 🎈

Moralpanic

Sounds like an amazing day all round.  Well done! 

Merlin's_Beard

Well done! Sounds like you had a good day.

beanielou

Great results 

ruby_eskimo

Congratulations on getting perfect scores at the show and sounds like a lovely way to spend the day.

Fortune_Smiles

Smug Mode 😊

Thanks guys.  It was our regular WI meeting this evening and we sat around being very smug indeed 😆  I must have been overcome by the good cheer as I've volunteered to lead the show team next year 😲

Today has been lovely.  Only myself and Mr F to please, no looming deadlines, beautiful weather.  I've accomplished quite a lot but in a calm, meandering way:

Health

• went for a 45 minute walk with Mr F and FDawg first thing
• spent an hour in the veg patch
• made Broad Bean & Feta Cheese Toasts for lunch.  I made double the recipe so there'll be some to have with salad tomorrow
• I wasn't very hungry this evening so just had some pitta bread and houmous.  Mr F had pizza from the freezer with some leftover chorizo on the top.

Wealth

• picked redcurrants and blackcurrants and prepped them for the freezer
• harvested the broad beans from the main broad bean bed and cleared that area.  We have a secondary broad bean bed as well this year as I had to find a home for some spare plants, but those are in a more shaded area so can be left a little longer
• chased up our Fencing Man to come and correct some of the work he did for us.  Long story and I don't think he's going to stand on for the work.  However, I'm fed up with workmen doing an iffy job and thinking they can get away with it so he'll have a fight on his hands if he doesn't put things right 😠
• ordered a juicer.  Mr F and I have been talking about getting one for ages and I had quite a lot of CP points to use.  I've been waiting for book vouchers to be available again but it seems they aren't doing them anymore.  So, I bought an Arg0$ voucher with them and put it towards the juicer instead
• sent DS2 and wife an anniversary present

Happiness

• our WI meeting was a social this time so we visited a member's lovely garden and had tea and cake whilst feeling smug 😆
• I took some punnets of redcurrants to sell to raise some funds.  There are two aspects of the WI membership fee.  Half goes to the National Federation and half goes to the local WI.  We decided not to charge our members the local fee for this year as they didn't get much for their money during the pandemic.  We'd like to waive the local fee again next year as many people are struggling.  However, we'll have to raise some funds in other ways if we do that
• it doesn't look as though my local writing group is going to continue going forward so I've started putting feelers out for others I could attend.  I've found one in a village that's not too far away that looks promising.

Another calm, meandering day is in store for tomorrow.  Bliss 😁

Hope your week's off to a good start.

Fortune x

savingholmes

Enjoy your juicer but consider using a straw to reduce teeth damage... speaking from experience!!

Hope you find a new writer's group.

Your WI group deserved to feel appreciated as do you.

Suffolk_lass

Carrot and apple juice is my favourite home-produced juice (cooking apples) as not too sweet. I preserve cordial with crushed campden tablets (used in beer-making to stop re-fermentation) - I wonder if I could bottle some windfall juice and preserve it or whether I need to first pasteurise it?

Re courgette glut, I made this BBC Good Food cake in a pair of loaf tins with paper liners and froze them (having received 3 nets of oranges in a TGTG bag).

I also make a simple courgette soup. Sauté diced onion, carrot and optional sweet potato in veg oil until they have softened not browned, then add three diced courgettes, top with water and add a veg stock jelly, a pinch of mixed Provençal style herbs (I mix oregano, thyme, mint and basil) and half a teaspoon of lazy chilli. Bring to the boil then simmer (I put the cast iron casserole in the oven on 140) for 40 minutes. Let it cool a little then blitz with my wand mixer and decant into storage.

It keeps for over a week in the fridge (or freezes) and my preferred serving is with either a pinch of flaked salt and a swirl of cream, a dollop of Greek-style yogurt or some crumbled soft garlic and herb cheese.

Fortune_Smiles

savingholmes said:

Enjoy your juicer but consider using a straw to reduce teeth damage... speaking from experience!!

Hope you find a new writer's group.

Your WI group deserved to feel appreciated as do you.

Suffolk_lass said:

Carrot and apple juice is my favourite home-produced juice (cooking apples) as not too sweet. I preserve cordial with crushed campden tablets (used in beer-making to stop re-fermentation) - I wonder if I could bottle some windfall juice and preserve it or whether I need to first pasteurise it?

Re courgette glut, I made this BBC Good Food cake in a pair of loaf tins with paper liners and froze them (having received 3 nets of oranges in a TGTG bag).

I also make a simple courgette soup. Sauté diced onion, carrot and optional sweet potato in veg oil until they have softened not browned, then add three diced courgettes, top with water and add a veg stock jelly, a pinch of mixed Provençal style herbs (I mix oregano, thyme, mint and basil) and half a teaspoon of lazy chilli. Bring to the boil then simmer (I put the cast iron casserole in the oven on 140) for 40 minutes. Let it cool a little then blitz with my wand mixer and decant into storage.

It keeps for over a week in the fridge (or freezes) and my preferred serving is with either a pinch of flaked salt and a swirl of cream, a dollop of Greek-style yogurt or some crumbled soft garlic and herb cheese.

That's a good tip SH.  Thank you.

Thanks for the ideas SL.  So far we've had orange and redcurrant juice (which was a bit sharp for my taste) and chard, courgette and apple which was surprisingly delicious.  The courgettes are complaining now because it's hot out there again.  Might slow them down for a while 😆

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Nothing Doing

I have absolutely nothing in my diary today so am off to a very relaxed start (still in my pjs 😂).

We had Chard & White Bean Minestrone for lunch yesterday... with extra courgette 😆 Then leftover broad bean and feta with salad and chicken for Mr F and king prawns for me.  The chard, rosemary, bay leaf and lettuce were from the veg patch.

I got my chores done and some paperwork.  I reconciled the credit card account and found that a refund due from M&$ is not showing as a credit although my on-line account with them is showing the payment has made.  I've contacted them to find out what is going on and they've responded already asking for copies of the credit card statement.

In the evening, I met up with some friends to attend a book signing.  This is something I really enjoyed doing pre-pandemic and I'm delighted to see that the book shop's diary of events is full again.  I had a £10 reward voucher from the shop which I put towards the event and a copy of the book.  The remaining cost will come from my personal spends.

The op I made on the mortgage is showing this morning which brings the amount we've paid off in 5 years to 67% 🥳  Hoping to make 70% by the end of the year.

I've had a long catch up call with a girlfriend this morning and now I suppose I'd better get off my bottom and get stuff done 😆

Have a great day all

Fortune x

savingholmes

Sounds like great progress as always. You sound like you are reclaiming your life nicely. Is your art nook re-established now?