Slow Living - Doing It Old Style!

leftatthetrafficlights

@Brie - I hope your new working arrangements go well 😁 

My grandbaby was up early this morning so I'm a bit tired but I'm having an easy morning now that I've dropped him at school before my ds and other grandbaby come over for a visit at lunchtime 😍 I've stripped and washed the bedding (currently in the td) and all the towels are currently washing. Other than emptying the dw, that's pretty much all I've done this morning!

I'm not sure if I'm going to do my exercises once they have left or just have a rest day - I know I'm still recovering so I'm not going to push it if I'm knackered when they've gone.

My garden is absolutely full of birds this morning 😍 I had my chamomile tea in the kitchen so that I could watch them, I'll need to refill their feeders as they've pretty much emptied them in the last hour!! We went to feed the ducks last night and they were, as expected, very grateful - I could have put an entire bucket of food down for them and it would have gone 😳 as it was we refilled the pot and gave them two loads (I keep a 5l tub in the boot, just in case 😉)

Dinner last night was red lentil pasta with mushroom and walnut bolognese, rocket, blueberries, watermelon, carrot and apple 'rice', balsamic and hemp seeds - lush!! There are enough leftovers for this evening so it will be a repeat performance tonight for dh - I'm going to have a salad, grains and butter beans with some type of dressing. 



Time for a lemon verbena and hibiscus tea, have a fab slow day 🐌 😁 

Brie

@leftatthetrafficlights
I am formulating a plan.....

Have I mentioned that your dinners look wonderfully refreshing?  It's all that colourful fruit I think.

leftatthetrafficlights

@Brie - thank you! 😁 I think you're right, there's just something about fruit (paticularly watermelon) that just gives the feeling of lightness - beige food always looks stodgy to me even when it isn't!! 🤔😂 

Had a wonderful day today with my grandbaby, we did lots of playing and laughing 😍 as she left she gave me a big hug and told me that she wishes I lived with her - heart melting moment!! 🥰😁 

I didn't do the exercises after they left, far too tired, so I'll get on with it again tomorrow...

Dinner tonight was a salad of rocket, blueberries, watermelon, carrot and apple salad, olives stuffed with lemon and hemp seeds, mixed grains, butter beans cooked in stock, dill and lemon verbena and a yoghurt and dijon dressing - the fluid that the beans were cooked it is absolutely lovely so I'm going to add some potatoes to it and make soup at the weekend 😋 

leftatthetrafficlights

Yesterday was a bit of a write off - I came downstairs at 2am as just couldn't get to sleep and didn't start to drift off until at least 4.30am 🙄 I've had a week of poor sleeping and I have no idea why as there's absolutely nothing bothering me or on my mind!! 🤦‍♀️ hopefully it's just a result of feeling poop for a couple of days and sort itself out quickly 🤞 

I've had a busy day today - did my morning exercise routine and spent time in the garden sorting the brassica beds and getting the more tender herbs into the greenhouse to overwinter. I checked the harvested squash that is in there and all are well so we'll be having a couple of those tonight for dinner. Tomorrow I'll get some more winter salads and some broad beans sown. Dh is currently sorting the plastic cover for the hoop bed to protect the crops against the predicted cold weather next week then he'll be doing the final grass cut of the season. 

It feels good to have been productive - I've not done a lot this week and had started to feel a bit antsy so it was good to get outside 😁 

This afternoon I'm going to do some writing, possibly some tv watching and hopefully some snoozing - dh is talking about lighting a fire later but I'm not convinced that I won't melt so I'm trying to discourage it!! 😂 

Have a fab slow day 🐌 😁 

Brie

leftatthetrafficlights said:

Yesterday was a bit of a write off - I came downstairs at 2am as just couldn't get to sleep and didn't start to drift off until at least 4.30am 🙄 I've had a week of poor sleeping and I have no idea why as there's absolutely nothing bothering me or on my mind!! 🤦‍♀️ hopefully it's just a result of feeling poop for a couple of days and sort itself out quickly 🤞 

Need to change your night time tea?  I find that if I change occasionally things will work better.  So I've been just having chamomile but ran out of that and discovered half a box of Pukka NightTime in the cupboard.  I know I've got some hemp tea in there too but it's not bagged so a bit of a faff.  Need to give the tea cupboard a bit of a tidy I think - lots of remedy teas that will get used now it's cold (cold remedy types, sage, throat ease etc)

leftatthetrafficlights

@Brie - it's definitely worth giving it a try, thank you for the suggestion! 😁 

Dinner tonight was dark speckled lentils, spaghetti squash, purple sweet potato, roasted tomatoes, rocket, broccoli sprouts, strawberries, blueberries, lemon stuffed green olives and balsamic 😋 

Duchess2

@leftatthetrafficlights sorry to hear of your disrupted sleep. Sometimes a change of pre-bedtime routine can help. Just to reboot your system. Wow your dinner this evening looks gorgeous. I hope you get some rest tonight. Relaxed happy 💤

leftatthetrafficlights

@Duchess2 - thank you! 😁 Last night was a lot better sleep wise so I'm hoping that all is back to normal 🤞 

I've had a very peaceful day - did my morning exercise routine, fed the birds, did some writing and watched some tv. Dh made a fire and I've basically slobbed in front of it most of the afternoon 😍 

Dinner tonight will be lentil and veg casserole with a suet crust - I made it last night while everything else was cooking so other than doing some additional veg with it, I've nothing to do. Dh is going to watch the football in a minute so I'll find a book and do some reading i think 🤔 

Anyway, not much else to report so have a fab slow evening!! 🐌 😁

Brie

Art class this afternoon.  Always good fun even if the art is a disaster.  The ladies at the class are good fun and the teacher makes her own ginger biscuits to have with our cuppa.  She says she will likely stop doing classes in the next few months/year which is in part why I'm quitting work as I would like to keep up with things and there's a Thursday morning group she belongs to that I can go to instead.  Actually I think that's probably one of the best reasons to stop working - to dedicate myself to my muse!!!

leftatthetrafficlights

@Brie - your art class sounds like fun! I think that changing things so that you can do something which brings you such joy is a great idea 😁 

Yesterday I ventured out to the city to meet an old friend for lunch - I haven't seen her since just before covid so it was lovely to catch up 😁 we spent a couple of hours chatting before parting ways and I had a quick mooch around a few shops to pick up some bits before heading home. 

I decided to treat myself to a mug infuser for my hibiscus and lemon verbena tea as I only had a teapot with an infuser which doesn't handle smaller quantities of water very well so I tended to only drink the tea when dh was around to share - now I can enjoy it whenever the fancy takes me! 😁 

I bought some stuff from the health food shop too - some more walnuts, a couple of bags of wholewheat pasta and some tamari. I'm finding that setting a grocery budget for the season and ditching the bulk buy fund is really helping me be more mindful of my spending; I've worked on an annual budget before but that felt too prolonged, however, knowing that the money allocated has to last until the beginning of spring in February is making me question whether I actually need things and I'm no longer mindlessly purchasing items because they seem interesting! I've spent a considerable amount already - barberries are not cheap and would normally be from the bulk buy fund - but I know that my day to day expenditure is definitely reducing 🙌 I'll update my signature once I get the figures from my 'roadmap' diary. I'm writing everything bought in there along with what I'm using from my inventories so it's proving very useful and will be excellent to use for comparisons later in the year 😁 

Today I'm having a quiet morning of rest - I find being with and around people quite exhausting - and will clean the house this afternoon. We've still got leftovers in the fridge so no cooking will be required this evening but I've got some kidney beans in soak that I need to cook today ready for cabbage, beans and rice tomorrow - it's one of my favourite comfort meals and perfect for the cold weather we've currently got 🥶 

No exercise done yesterday (other than walking around the city) so I'll get that done before the housework but I've had to order some walking boots as my trainers are not waterproof (as I discovered last week walking through dew soaked fields! 🤦‍♀️😂) so definitely no walking today - I could use wellies but they're not ideal for a decent walk! 

Last night's dinner was a salad of rocket, pomegranate, watermelon, strawberries, mixed grains, butter beans, broccoli sprouts, butter bean puree and balsamic - piccie not great as I put the broccoli sprouts on the top so obscured the rest of the meal!! 🙄😂 



Have a fab slow day!! 🐌 😁