And now we go again...

greenbee

themadvix said:

Exciting news folks - the forecast for Monday (here in the east-ish) is sunshine! 

Don't get over-excited - my forecast has been showing my sun approximately 2 days ahead for ages... 

themadvix

greenbee said:

themadvix said:

Exciting news folks - the forecast for Monday (here in the east-ish) is sunshine! 

Don't get over-excited - my forecast has been showing my sun approximately 2 days ahead for ages... 

😂 OK, fair enough - but it's the first time there's been sun on my forecast in over a week!

EssexHebridean

Yep - I’m with Vix, we’ve had relentless grey on the forecast for what seems like an age now, and yes indeed on checking the lying bar stewards app….sorry, that should be “Met office”…we too are showing a solid few hours of sunshine for Monday!  Interesting seeing where people’s base loads fall - I’m sure I saw ours on the Octoprice somewhere but can’t recall or find it now! 

We do have a light breeze here today which is handy as I chanced getting the bedding through the wash overnight, so we pegged that out first thing as for a change after the last few days it wasn’t actually drizzling this morning. It was still as anything first thing, but the breeze started up about 10am and things definitely are drying which is a result! 

It’s been a pretty busy morning - I woken earlier than I needed to but rather than trying to snatch another few minutes sleep decided to just get up and showered. Hopped back into bed while I drank my tea, then we got that washing out and headed out for a walk. Porridge made and eaten when we got back, then I prepped some of those cheap squashes ready for roasting while MrEH had the oven on for making rolls.  With that done I headed off to get the shopping -  a bit against the clock as the chap was heading round to do the contract paperwork and take the deposit for the new door on the office which is going to be done shortly. Indeed, he had already arrived and was going through things with MrEH when I got back. Deposit has been paid - on a CC of course - and will be cleared off from savings shortly. Just a minor bit of hassle around N/wide declining the initial transaction and blocked the card  “in case it wasn’t you” - frankly it might have been more convenient had they just asked whether it WAS me via the app as I thought they were meant to. Easily sorted though in fairness by means of just replying appropriately to a text message. Anyway that in turn means also not a cheap morning - although the balance still to pay is more! 

Squash has roasted beautifully again - once it’s cooled I’ll scoop it off the skins ready to make soup tomorrow, I’m already looking forward to having that for lunch! 

I’m meeting a pal for a wander and some litter picking this afternoon, so need to go and find my grabby stick in the shed. Before that though I think I might go and collect a bag of dry leaves for the compost - the tree round the corner has shed beautifully and they do look suitably dry and crunchy so I’ll head round for a look I think. 

Makingabobor2

Breezy here in the East Midlands as well, and got washing on the line, 2 loads done on a 30c wash.  Fingers crossed it dries. 

joedenise

Not expecting my washing to dry - it's dry but there's virtually no breeze so no doubt it's going to end up on the airer overnight but hopefully it will be drier when I bring it in than it was when I put it out!

badmemory

The installers told me the battery shouldn't go below 10% however since the weather changed it has gone down to 0% a couple of times & quite regualrly to 4 or 5%.  It is now at 7% because it is taking power when the solar is not providing enough for the house to use.  There should be classes in this stuff as I really shouldn't be having to pick so much up off here, but thank goodness I have been able to.

EssexHebridean

Well I’m delighted to say that our bedding did dry out on the line yesterday - just needed popping on the airer indoors to take the chill off which was excellent news! I’ve another load I would ideally like to get through but looking at the Agile prices for today, it won’t be until tonight at the earliest! I am currently making soup - having started it off on the slightly lower rate from 0930-1000, the slightly above previous fix 24.xxp rate now is dealing with the simmer, as the “least worst” point to deal with it. (I definitely couldn’t face the idea of chopping onions earlier than I did!) DW ran overnight anyway so a bit of a saving there. 

As I mentioned the soup is now on its way - no chorizo to start it off with this week, but I will be getting one of those when I head round to Al’s shortly, so I’ll add some in at the finish I think. That will sort my lunch, and this week there will be some portions of it for the freezer too!  Last night’s tea ended up being a hybrid of curry and dhal from the freezer, rice cooked from scratch, and naans from the Indian takeaway which was a fine combination at a lower cost than full takeaway and was thoroughly enjoyed. As far as I know I am now out of curry dishes in the freezer, so next weekend’s batch cook might need to cover that, although it will depend on what meat I get from the farmer’s market. I may yet (subject to freezer space and electric rates) do a batch of ragu this weekend at some stage - although I may not really have the time at the relevant points, we’ll see.  A fruit loaf was made yesterday to deal with weekend breakfasts, anything left of that after tomorrow morning will get sliced and added to the bread bag in the freezer ready for another week. 

About to go freezer diving to extract the lambs liver I know is in there (tomorrow’s lunch) and also formulate the rest of the week ahead’s meal plan, at the moment it is a rough outline and mostly in my head, so needs some fleshing out. 

Jobs for today will include refilling the coal scuttle at some stage - I’ve asked MrEH to deal with clearing the grate before he heads off for rugby, and I’ll set the fire just before I light it later on. 

Dishwasher has already been emptied and reloaded with the stuff that wouldn’t fit last night
MrEH is going to deal with a load of washing up
I might investigate how much of the cream paint we have and if sufficient will make a start on getting that on the spare room walls - I’m hopeful a single coat will do the trick as the white emulsion covered better than it looked as though it would. 

Might also do some budget wrangling later, I think.

badmemory

You have made me realise how boring I have got as I too used to go freezer diving when I had a (cheaper to run) chest freezer.  I now have a 12 col spreadsheet covering the 6 shelves.   The first is either the expiry date or HF for home frozen.  If I don't half empty one of those Xmas is going to be a little interesting as it is crammed & where is Xmas Eve's prawn ring going to go.  Traditionally eaten standing in the kitchen between making bread crumbs (a lot) & grated cheese.

EssexHebridean

BM, never confuse sensibly organised for boring, the two things are not the same! I routinely do a few audit and note everything that is in there only to have lost track again within a week or so! 

I finally remembered to blitz the (very) dry slice of bread the other day - that's now been stashed into the breadcrumbs box in the freezer. We need to make a plain white loaf at some stage so I can get breadcrumbs sorted ready for bread sauce making. 

The lambs liver and a portion of our home cured bacon joined the last two onions for lunch yesterday along with some HG tatties which were boiled, drizzled in smoked oil and whacked in the airfryer for 20 minutes. Also pulled out the final tub of last christmas's red cabbage and apricot to have with that, and was reminded of how delicious it was (and how star-anise heavy, too!). I've agreed with Mum that either I will go round there and deal with the chopping for her to make it, or I will make it this year - although if the latter I will need to make a less star-anisey batch for christmas day & Mum as she's not a fan. 

Tonight's tea is the final portion of the last lot of black bean chilli - so another freezer space - and there will be another when I pull out a tub of pork chunks for stir frying on Wednesday, too. I did add a couple of packs of very reduced crumpets in, but those will be coming out over the next few weekends, I'm sure. I ventured the suggestion to MrEH that we might have soup & sourdough for tea next Monday too, which was enthusiastically received as the soup in question was the squash & coconut one! 

Headed round to Mum's yesterday and did a bit more sorting out in her loft - net wins for us were a radiator airer, a mid-sized suitcase (needed a minor repair, but that was easily done using a part from another one which was going to the charity shop), a large wood saw of Dad's, and we retrieved a wicker hamper which was ours anyway, and may now as well be stored in our loft! I also found a rather lovely thing in an old metal trunk which belonged to my Nan - a parcel of beautifully embroidered table cloths and traycloths complete with a handwritten note from Nan leaving them to me, along with her copy of Mum & Dad's wedding album, and her own wedding album - I already knew about those, but had no idea about the cloths!  They have stayed put in the trunk for now, as they are safe there, there is no risk of them discolouring any further, and we're going to need to work out what is going to happen with them (and some other old linens which will come to me eventually as well) as some may have historical interest. we also successfully sorted out a large bag of curtains and cushions for the charity shop, boxed up some spare dog beds etc for Mum, and emptied an old chest of drawers which will get dismantled next time we are up there. 

Budget wrangling was done yesterday evening - we're agreed that next year's "big house job" will be getting the front steps sorted out and rebuilt - we want to make them shallower and also to put a railing one side to make them safer too, both for Mum when she visits, and also for us in the future. The current steps are going to need sorting anyway as they are beginning to pull away from the house - we knew that this was something which would need dealing with at some stage. I think the first thing to do on that will be to keep an eye out locally for builders we would be happy to approach for a quote while also getting a better idea of what sort of thing we want. Once we have an idea of the sort of cost we are looking at, we can budget accordingly.

badmemory

Excellent idea with the steps, I did the same with mine a few years ago, but I now wish I had put a hand rail on the other side too.  I am now in the silly situation where I use a stick (a wobble stick not a walking stick!!) to go up to the garage & back, get in the car & go shopping without it because it is flat.