And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

PennysIntoPounds said:

Lovely work in the garden centre. The colour of hydrangeas depends on the PH of the soil so do check if you want to keep it pink!

You truly do have a classy joint with your house mouse only going for the posh hot choc 😂

ROFL at the mouse PiP! 

That's great info about the hyrangeas although mine might have to take it's chances as I have absolutely no idea what sort of levels our soil might be! I will definitely do some investigating though! 



When listing the MSE bits of yesterday I did forget to mention the two loads of laundry that almost fully dried on the line during the day. A few bits still damp when we took everything in, so it all got popped on the airer but will be ready to put away when we get home this evening so hurrah for that. I was surprised it dried as much as it did to be honest allowing that the ground was still a bit wet, handily though there was enough sunshine to make the difference! 

Also did the lamb shoulder in the multi cooker - although it has a roast function I actually opted to use the air fryer setting and it worked really well - 45 minutes starting off at 170 and dropping to 150 degrees for the final 10 minutes left it with a lovely crusty outside around the fat and  beautifully juicy and pink inside. The roast potatoes however were done in the oven. Oh - and in other cooking exploits over the weekend I attempted chelsea buns. never made them before, used the breadmaker for the dough and they worked pretty well although I suspect Mr Hollywood would have told me they were slightly underproved and underbaked! I've noted in the recipe book I worked from that in future I'd want to drop the temperature and increase the time a little, and we are both agreed we would be happy to have them again. For the time being though there are still 4 in the freezer, and I've discovered that it's possible to rebake them for a few minutes which improves the texture. I reckon the main issue with them was that the bread machine programme finished while we were out and so they rose and then fell back again i the machine, and then didn't rise as well as they should have on the second prove as a result. I should also have slapped more of the glaze on them when they came out of the oven I think to really get that sticky, shiny top. 

dreaming

Mice! My much-loved (some of the time) cat has a habit of bringing live mice in and letting them go. He literally just loses all interest in them rather than playing with them as most cats seem to. I have sometimes managed to get them to run to an open door by using the broom but I have humane traps down baited with chocolate as a "mouse-man" told me that was the best thing. He also said that they come in during the autumn anyway, and if there's one mouse, there is likely to be another - and then, of course, lots! The worst was the one that unbeknownst to me lived behind the fridge and freezer (side by side under a worktop) before venturing into the trap and being released.  It had obviously been there for some time as the smell became overpowering when the appliances were running and I had to keep pulling them out and vacuuming as much of the droppings as I could round the motor (I did switch them off!) and mopping the floors and walls with bleach. So I would say go with the traps if necessary but do remember to check them regularly.

milann

😂😂😂 hope the mouse enjoyed the hot chocolate powder. 

All is sounding well with the house and garden 👍

Cheery_Daff

Oh dear, you do have my sympathy with the mouse! 😂 Pesky critters. As you know, we favour a humane trap (but we also spend a lot of time driving back and forth to the Mouse Layby on the local moors in the dead of night, so you may not want to follow our example) 😂😂

beanielou

Cheery_Daff said:

Oh dear, you do have my sympathy with the mouse! 😂 Pesky critters. As you know, we favour a humane trap (but we also spend a lot of time driving back and forth to the Mouse Layby on the local moors in the dead of night, so you may not want to follow our example) 😂😂

           

Sallyforth

My immediate thought to the furry visitor issue was get a cat!
SF x

themadvix

Seconding the chocolate in the traps suggestion - years ago my mum used to do typing for a pest-control man and it was his opinion that a Mars bar was the best bait!

dreaming

themadvix said:

Seconding the chocolate in the traps suggestion - years ago my mum used to do typing for a pest-control man and it was his opinion that a Mars bar was the best bait!

Yes it was a mouse-man (nicer than pest control man I think) who told me to do that. Dare I admit to occasionally eyeing the traps when I feel the desperate need for chocolate? I've never actually succumbed to that temptation btw! I am having the flooring replaced in the bedroom next month and the (very heavy) wardrobe will have to be moved for the first time in about 10 years - I just hope there are no mouse skeletons there amongst the inches of dust. I keep thinking about having built-in wardrobes fitted but lost the will to live when I had a guy round last year to measure up from a well-known firm. First he tried to tell me that what I asked for wasn't really what I wanted, then spent a very long time measuring up and blamed his laptop when he couldn't use the room planner programme. then did what seems to be the norm of telling me the price but if I signed there and then he could reduce the price by 45%. I hate that - do they think we are stupid?. A few days later I got a feedback request, and then an e-mail offering a further discount as well as the 45% off. Makes me feel they were obviously over-priced to start with so I decided to stick with what I have (even if they turn out to be mouse catacombs).

Humdinger1

Mouse catacombs!! Took me right back to a holiday in Rome about 20 years ago.  They have catacombs there with human (monks, no less!) skeleton tableaux all dressed up in ceremonial robes.  You start off casually sauntering and end running like a lamplighter, screaming the while...love Humdinger xx 

EssexHebridean

TMV I was literally about to respond to dreaming to say that my recollection from childhood when our victorian terraced house was seemingly mouse-heaven for a good many years was that mars bars were about the most successful thing we used as bait! Certainly Milann I don't think they had any complaints with the hot chocolate! Sally - we would LOVE to have a cat again, indeed the past few days have seen much recollection of our old cat - known on here as "HRH The Cat" and how entirely delighted she would have been with any home that had its own ready-installed light snack system - ie, MICE! On the other hand, had HRH still been about I suspect mice would have rapidly released that EH Towers was not somewhere sensible to set up home!  Sadly though the acquisition of a pet of some sort has already been discussed and dismissed as a possibility right now - 2 days a week at least both of us around out for the full day, and we also tend to be away at weekends reasonably regularly so realistically speaking we'd have to factor in a fair bit of costs for cattery stays...not an option at this point in time.

Cheery should we get the humane style traps we absolutely would not be driving the little beasts anywhere I can assure you! Of course it is a lot easier for us as we can just walk a few hundred meters up the road and round the corner and release them into the woods across the road - meaning they would have an awful lot of houses to choose from before finding their way back to ours! Where you are your house really is their only warm, dry, heated option isn't it! 

A nasty soggy wet sort of day down here this morning, whether that was the cause of the rotten traffic on my way in I'm not sure, but either way it was all we needed after MrEH also forgot to set an alarm last night and we woke up a good 20 minutes later than was ideal! Annoyingly since some of the radio stations have switched over to the DAB+ system my clock radio will no longer find a signal on Planet Rock - and much as I have tried to persuade it to use a different station it seems that the one it's choosing is set up with the alarm setting so I need to find the instructions to enable me to re-set it. I think it finalises that I am going to stick a replacement on my Christmas list though - research needed. 

MSE Stuff:
- Interest now landed from our long term savings pot, that's the last lot for the month from any of our savings so now we are truly in the twilight zone banking wise for a few days!
- Banks checked and all fine and as expected.
- Some CC money shuffling done - the spending on house bits from the weekend mostly transferred from my personal savings, and the money spent on bargain priced seeds transferred from the Household pot. 
- Food spending from the weekend also balanced off - it was indeed as I knew it would be a high-spend week - but the target is now to make sure that next week is the absolute opposite. I wonder how little I can spend?
- Signed up to the new octopoints scheme and made sure that notifications are on in the app so that I don't miss any savings sessions or free electricity options. Handily we are still in a position to run things like the WM and DW overnight if that happens to be when will benefit us, so we'll be keeping a keen eye for any savings opportunities. 
- Last night's nosh did indeed end up as the planned stir fry - a third of the pack of mince - and the remainder has been split down into two further portions and frozen. A couple of years ago each of those packs of  mince would have done 4 2-person meals, now frankly 3 is beginning to feel a bit stretched. 
- Also spotted one of my pack of peppers had developed a slightly mushy spot so immediately whipped that out and cut that bit out before slicing the remainder and freezing for future use. The rest have been transferred into a stay-fresh bag to keep better, and I will be keeping a close eye on them.

MrEH was planning to make rolls for lunches today I believe - I shall check with him shortly that he remembered. Handily we've delayed that by a few days thanks to scoring a pack of rolls in T's on Saturday marked down to a price below which we could make them for, so that's stretched our own resources out a little. 

Spendiness:
I was hoping for a big fat "nothing" here, however as I was running so late this morning after the traffic (indeed, I think the motorway was actually closed ahead of me for a while as we sat without moving for a good 15 minutes at one stage) I opted to save time by parking the car close to the office and moving it as needed to dodge the various parking restrictions. That means parking in T's car park for a while - and to do that it requires you to be a customer, so I nipped in after parking and purchased 2 packs of ibuprofen for a grand total of 80p. Something we will actually use, and in fact until last night would have actively needed, however I also popped in last night and made precisely the same purchase! (Although on that visit I also spotted a tin of ghee for £3 which was the sort of bargain I was not prepared to turn my back on allowing that the next time I cook a curry will use up the last blog in my existing tin!)
I have ensured that I have an alarm set on my phone ready to move the car ahead of the free parking period in the car park expiring - getting a parking ticket really would just round the day off!