And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

Theoretically we could if needed - generally speaking though we find as long as you have sufficient insulation from the ground that solves the issue of "cold from below". Currently our setup involves some small picnic blankets from the Land of Pounds bought years ago spread out as a first layer, then an ancient sleeping bag of mine which is in theory waterproof on the outside as the next layer - "waterproof" side down to help with any dampness (although with modern tents this isn't really an issue). Sleeping mats go on top of that, then sleeping bags, with as said fleece blankets always available as a "topper" just in case - I frequently start with one of those over the foot end of my sleeping bag but nearly always kick it off mid-night! If it's really cold I shove a pair of fleecey socks on too! 

Anyway I have ordered a camping mat which appears to be reasonably thick, have some sort of built-in pump, and get good reviews, so we'll see what that's like. The standard single width inflatable mattresses get really mixed reviews and it looks very much as though it's pot luck whether you get one that is good, or not,  and I'm not willing to go with something which seems to be almost "disposable"! If the one I've ordered is no good (I'll be trial-inflating it tonight, to check) then it can go back and I'll try something else. 

There are discussions happening here around allotments. We've been saying for a while it would be nice to have more growing space, and as it now appears that we also have more time, it's come to the forefront of our minds again. We'd definitely continue growing stuff in our actual garden, BUT having proper space for things like potatoes for example would be superb - and realistically, we could then be self-sufficient in those for much of the year too. I'd love to be able to grow onions and leeks as well.  We would appreciate more space for soft fruit, and some small fruit trees even, perhaps. Just the simple thing of being able to "hedge our bets" on some crops to mean that if a crop fails in one location it could yet succeed in the other...  Needs thought, and as yet we don't even know how long it might take to get a plot - it seems to dramatically depend on where you want to be in our area. MrEH is making enquiries... 

Frittata style omelette last night used up some of the mushrooms and a couple of rashers of posh bacon we bought at Ludlow which turned out to be painfully salty - it feels as though the sides weren't rinsed after curing, but just sent straight to the air drying process. I'd already decided that it was going to be used essentially as a seasoning (as we have been talking about elsewhere) and thankfully although the mushrooms were ready to throw in the pan I'd not got them going or salted them yet. In the end we got away with it by not using any added salt at all, although I've made a mental note to rinse the remaining rashers before they're used!

Couscous for tonight - the protein will be halloumi but I'm undecided about the veg yet - and I may just opt to make up a bean salad to go alongside as we have home grown toms and cucumber to use, and quite a lot of shop-bought peppers. Tins of beans are plentiful in the cupboard, so that could be a good win as a "use what we have" and "energy saving" meal. 

EssexHebridean

Camping mat arrived - quite a lot of stamping on the pump required to inflate the thing, but it does seem to be quite decent once it IS inflated. the telling thing now will be whether it stays inflated overnight, of course! Of course now the forecast overnight temperatures for Friday night are getting low enough to make me twitchy - but we're still planning on braving it at the moment! 

Last night's tea involved one HG cuke, several HG toms, a can of butter beans and a red pepper from the bargain pack from Lils - so the only cooking involved was the halloumi, and toasting some seeds to top it all off. (And that in itself is a reminder that I need to go to Als to see if they have pumpkin seeds in stock). I've switched things about a bit and used the stew for this evening and I think we'll go with daal and rice for tomorrow now. The banana bread I made on Sunday is feeding us for puddings through the week - which in turn means a saving on yogurts - so that's a (tasty) win) - there are plenty more nanas in the freezer waiting for another low electric day as well so I can make another one! 

Banks checked and all good - although the payment I made to the S&S ISA via a debit card at the start of the month appears to have failed as there is nothing pending and nothing showing as a transaction anywhere - I'll give it a few days and try again, as I don't want to risk it being taken twice. It must be said the payments to that are a bit of a PITA - the DD always takes forever, and while the debit card method is quicker when it works, it doesn't always seem to work! 

amber03

Good luck with the allotment. I had one that was just around the corner from me and enjoyed it. The reason why I gave it up was that it was run by a committee from the local parish. They were a jobs worth who did not like to be questioned. We weren’t allowed sheds or storage space so all tools had to be taken home. If your allotment got abit untidy you were issued a warning, after two warnings you were evicted from your plot. So you can imagine during the summer when everything including weeds were growing fast and trying to maintain your garden at home , it was never ending. No surprise where now they have quite a few empty allotments as quite a few people had had enough and left. I pass what was mine most days. When I had it I bought a small apple tree and seeing all the harvest from it is annoying. Have tried to grow a few bits in my garden but it’s not the same as the allotment.

EssexHebridean

Yes, as lovely as it is having a garden it's not the same as having the space afforded by an allotment is it. We're finding that the choice between growing a lot of different things but only a small amount of each, against a lot of one crop, but then missing the variety, is a tough one.  I think most of our local ones do allow sheds - when we lived in London and had the plots there we were fortunate as both had sheds on them when we took them on, albeit the second of the two also got a lot of work done by us to make it a lovely place to spend time. 

Forgot to add - two free books yesterday from a front garden wall near the office - one of them a hardback Bill Bryson. 

Humdinger1

Found your and resubscribed yet again @EssexHebridean! Why i keep losing the subscription i really don't know.  Anyhoo, spiffing to catch up with you and your activities again.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

EssexHebridean

Thanks Humdinger! Sorry I keep “dropping off” - no idea why that happens sometimes but it’s happened to me a few times with various people too - most recently PiP! 

Another Friday then, and a reasonably productive one so far:
- DW run overnight when the electric was cheaper
- WM as above
- washing went out on the line first thing and will be brought in shortly - we’ve not had much sun today, but it hasn’t been cold, so hopefully it might dry. 
- free exercise this morning with a walk checking out a couple of local allotment sites that might work for us if we could get a plot.

- the thermostat is turned off as we’ll be away from this evening until Sunday - I only want the heating kicking in if it gets SERIOUSLY cold! 

- we debated last night about me popping to a local hardware place this morning to replace the trug we always used when camping as a washing up bowl - it’s now used in the garden instead. Then I remembered that our old washing up bowl was under the stairs - and we agreed that would work perfectly, so a spend prevented there!
- a quick freezer audit done this morning means I now know what I need to target using
- a list of prompts for various bits of meal prep/uses for stuff in the freezer
- and most of next week’s meal plan written
- shopping done in Lil’s - as usual a few bits I will still need to get but £18.33 spent.
- that spend included a bag of each white/wholemeal bread flour, a pack of pumpkin seeds as I am conscious they have become very hard to get, and rolls, bacon and eggs for this weekend’s breakfasts. 

- MrEH made rolls for the week’s lunches, and I made use of the oven being on by prepping and roasting the remainder of this week’s mushrooms, the rest of the pack of peppers bought last week, and any of the home grown toms that had split or otherwise needed using fast - those were done with seasoning and a couple of fat cloves of garlic and will make a glorious base for a pasta sauce! 

- the mushrooms are now open freezing and will get transferred to a box shortly, when the peppers will take their place. Toms are already in a box freezing. 

- while in Lil’s I used my free bakery item coupon to nab a salted caramel bun which we will share with a cuppa this afternoon
- jaws has been taken for a run around downstairs 
- all ripe toms harvested, and MrEH did the runner beans first thing. I may yet do a bean prep session if I can be confident I will be able to get everything that needs it open frozen before we leave later! 

I now need to search out something else from stores that will fill a need in the new tent - because this one is larger it doesn’t have accessible storage pouches along my side of the sleeping area - they are on the other side of the divider between the two sleeping compartments. As a result I have nowhere to put my important odds and ends like glasses, jewellery etc overnight. My plan is to find some form of small plastic storage box or basket which will work - I surely must have such a thing? (Although to be honest for this trip I would be open to simply using an old ice cream tub or similar!) 

PennysIntoPounds

I did miss you but presumed you were busy quaffing delicious things 😁🍻

That sounds a solid mse day.
Liking the container challenge! Ice cream tub sounds good, or a bit of tupperware. They have the added benefit that once you leave and you're wearing your jewellery and specs, you can use them to take any leftover food back

EssexHebridean

Well PiP it absolutely would have been a good plan had I not managed to leave it sitting on the side in the kitchen! Oh well - we fixed the situation by using both sides of the sleeping pod on this occasion so I had access to the storage pouches on "my" side. 

It was chilly overnight - Friday night not so much so although we were grateful for being able to sit in the tent itself when we got back from the pub. Saturday night dropped REALLY cold mid evening though, and the wind got up - only slightly, but enough to make a difference. In sleeping bag - with the bag pulled right up round my neck, I was plenty warm enough but if any gaps appeared the breeze rapidly made its way in and cooled things down! New sleeping bag is great though - very cosy! Daytimes were relatively warm for the time of year - indeed I didn't even need a coat on for a lot of the time we were out and about on Saturday/yesterday. Friday night we walked to the nearest village for a chippy tea and a few beers in a very pleasant pub. Saturday we started off with bacon & egg butties cooked on our camping stove (and another advantage of the larger tent is having sufficient ventilation available for the space to not have to use the stove outside!) then walked to the village and got the bus to Huntingdon. Had a wander round there, found a couple of interesting shops with eastern European ingredients and bought some oddments (cheese for tea, some  packets of various flavourings at a very good price indeed, and some crackers/biscuits also for tea).  Quick beer in nice pub. Then another bus to St Ives - and a general wander there. Takeaway lunch and (unsurprisingly!) a couple more nice pubs. Realised they had a "Gr@pe Tr33" shop too so took the chance to buy some bits to top up household supplies of dried fruit/seeds at a better price than we can get locally. Headed for the Wait-flower shop to grab the remaining bits for our tea, then attempted to follow Google Maps instructions for walking back to the site which turned out to be utter bunkum unless we wanted to walk along a dual carriageway with no pavements or walkable verge... Naturally that was a "no", and we ended up retracing our steps and going a slightly longer - but much safer - way!  Yesterday was a slow start with butties using up the remaining bacon & eggs and designed to mean we didn't need to worry about lunch. Then packing up, trying to remember how to re-fold the tent (failed at the first attempt, succeeded at the second!) and finally ambling home via a walk at the Fen Drayton lakes RSPB reserve.

Not TOO spendy - beers from our personal spends of course, as was the food we bought out and about, and the bus fares (£2.50 per trip which we were impressed with). The campsite was paid from our joint fun account. The tent was great - although it is a devil to get dry when there's not much breeze, and we ended up having to wipe the inside with a microfibre towel so we could pack it up. we've got some notes of things we want to get to make the inside more workable for us - an additional table, the large picnic blanket for the floor, and a few other oddments.

This week's meals are planned and mean that no further food shopping needs doing aside from MrEH buying himself some bananas. I think things will change slightly as the local-to-work's football team supporters club are doing one of their occasional "Ale Nights" on Wednesday and we're thinking about heading there. MrEH has a rugby match on Friday night - if the weather is OK and it's not too cold I may go and take photos for them. Saturday has no plans currently, and Sunday we're meeting a pal who'd heading to our town for a sports event in the morning - currently the plan is that we'll head to the brewery taproom at a town slightly north of us. 

themadvix

Glad you survived and it wasn't too chilly! It sounds like a lovely fun weekend - I think we might have to emulate it in the spring - it's about the right distance for us to take the teardrop for a shake-down trip!

PennysIntoPounds

Sounds like a brilliant time 🍻