Moving on

Cherryfudge

I was going to go for a run today but DD had a dental appointment near here and we agreed to meet up with H, so that took away running time - though I did run round doing a small amount of housework before going out, does that count?

I also thought to check the inside of the melon before throwing it out and to my surprise, given the grotty state of the exterior, it was fine. I ate a slice and blended the rest which is now in the freezer as an experimental sorbet.

I certainly got my steps in today - over 22,000. We met up at the nicest coffee shop and I had my second pumpkin latte in two days. J had a matcha with white chocolate and I tried a sip: I think the white choc sold it to me! The girls had sandwiches but I decided I needed to use up fridge stuff rather than eat out (also I'd just had melon) so that saved a few pounds. We had planned to go for a walk too, but the clouds were very dark so we settled for walking back to H's and spending time there. It was good to see A more mobile after the back incident, though he's still not himself. We had a nice time just talking and playing with the baby and unusually for me, I was first to go but had to think of work timing.

H gave me a bag of apples off their tree and on the way back I gathered more rosehips from the hedge that was cut back yesterday. I hope tomorrow to be able to do something with them. I also thought to check the Olio app. I've never got anything from it (there's not much round here) but I'd noticed 1celand puts their discounts on it so I checked rather than have a fruitless journey when I didn't have much turn-around time. They did me proud and I got a box of a dozen large eggs at half price, ready for DH's baking session tomorrow.

The latte had cream so that was enough calories for the afternoon, then I had an overnight oats before work and another helping of chickpea tikka for a main meal when I got home. On the way home I called into Mr T for margarine and flour for DH, and happily caught optimum bargain time: three punnets of doughnut peaches at 32p each instead of £1.30 and a gigantic bag of fresh spinach for 40p instead of £1.66. With some other discounts, that ostensibly saved £6.15, but of course I wouldn't have bought the peaches or spinach on full price. Some spinach went into my dinner and some will be frozen, but I may end up giving some to A and H if they can use it - 500g of spinach is a big bag!

Having dodged the rain all day, I got caught in the last few minutes of walking home. I was very glad of my umbrella (an MS one as it was part of my Mum's large collection) but my uniform and shoes went straight in the wash as I thought the wash plus spin gave them more chance of being dry for tomorrow.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £9.56
Entertainment: £5.20

Cherryfudge

DH has the day off today and has been sorting financial bits and pieces: he'd accidentally used the wrong account for some payments but now he's transferred the money so everything is back where it should be.

Meanwhile we've had rain showers and some thunder and lightening, so not a lot of washing is going to happen. Yesterday's is nearly dry on the airer and the two pairs of trainers dried so well in the airing cupboard that I've waterproofed them and they are now just airing to get rid of the smell. It means I can wear old trainers to work and not worry about bleach marks on a good pair.

DH has searched for the small leak that's now appeared under the washing machine, but can't find a cause so we are waiting to see if just moving the machine inexplicably sets it right! He's now cooking the large bag of apples from the neighbour as some are bruised and need to be processed before they go off. I guess I'd better gat back to the greengages... at least those have slowed down!

I gave DH a haircut, following mine of the other day. I accidentally set the clippers lower than usual, so he won't need another cut for some weeks!

In other MS stuff, we are using up leftovers for our dinner meal and I have rosehips to process this afternoon.

Watty1

Looking forward to hearing what you do with the rosehips. I dried some last year as a treat for the horses, only, they don't think much of the "treat" and prefer the purchased bag of treats I was gifted

Laura_Elsewhere

Watty1 said:

Looking forward to hearing what you do with the rosehips. I dried some last year as a treat for the horses, only, they don't think much of the "treat" and prefer the purchased bag of treats I was gifted

Might they have disliked the notorious irritant-hairs inside the rosehips? I am always baffled by internet recipes that recommend cutting or chopping rosehips, because the tiny hairs inside around the seeds are such an irritant- they’ll irritate the airways and the digestive system, as well as skin (children used to use them as itching powder, to great effect!). 

There are old recipes for rosehip jam but they emphasise spending the hours and hours to clean each hip completely… every other established recipe I know of leaves them whole, as in rosehip syrup or rosehip jelly. 

Cherryfudge

I got distracted and have only put all the rosehips in one bag, which hardly counts as processing. I've found a R1ver C0ttage recipe that recommends double straining them to get rid of the hairs.

DH made a batch of little cakes and I tidied the things that hang on the back of the bedroom door, which led to finding two bags that need to be mended. I worked out an experimental solution for one (it's just a tote bag but in the interests of not putting it in the bin, I wanted to strengthen the handle that is disintegrating). I pinned some reinforcement in place and bravely took the cover off my sewing machine. Then I discovered there's no bobbin in it and I can't remember how to load it up on this machine. (Said machine and I have an uncertain relationship). I spent some time searching for the bag with the instructions and the bobbins in and realised that in some months of not doing any sewing, crochet or knitting, I've lost track of what I have and where it all is.

In the end I had to get ready for work - three hours tonight and a lift from DH as it's been showery all day. When I got home I decided to check the loft while DH is in the house with me, and the bag was there, right by the loft entrance. I think we stashed it when Auntie came to stay.

Tomorrow I want to make a batch of cakes for DH's cake stall, so I'll need to go to the shops. I also want to make a wooden spoon puppet of Abraham! This sounds very random but it's for a project we are working on this term: the children love the wooden spoon puppets for some reason and they are very versatile so Abraham could double as Goliath or an Apostle without too much difficulty. Then there are the rosehips and greengages...

Nothing spent today unless DH has been to the shops while I was out. 

in_need_of_direction

I know about curiosity and the cat but why did you feel the need to stash the bobbin bag?

Cherryfudge

in_need_of_direction said:

I know about curiosity and the cat but why did you feel the need to stash the bobbin bag?

  Put like that, it does sound really peculiar! The sewing machine is in the guest room, which was a mess. I had organised it enough to set aside a little table and set the machine up with a cover over it so that there was one fewer step to learning to sew by machine. However, all the accoutrements were in the (large, ugly, battered) carrying case which is actually from an older machine but super-tough. I just shoved the lot out of site and forgot where I'd put them before Auntie came to stay!

There are only a modest amount of bobbins, honestly!

Cherryfudge

It was on the cool side this morning so I didn't get started for a while: I need warmth. In the end I made myself be active, got dressed and did some jobs around the house. It was quite showery so I kept putting off the trip to the shops and eventually wrapped up in an oversized waterproof and a big sweatshirt. Please to say both the pairs of trainers that I sprayed with water repellent have held up well so far.

By the time I got to the town centre, the rain had stopped and I felt a bit overdressed!

A few errands got done: library books returned, activity bag for Sunday collected (pleased to see I had the same lesson last year and the accessories are in the bag ready for this time), some messages sent for the cleaning team (we are still finding our way with new members and a new leader), good use made of this week's Nectre offer and collected my free pastry from L1dl on the way home. After all that I forgot to get more cooking oil so I couldn't make the carrot cake, but I would have been very pushed for time if I'd tried. I just put chocolate and smarties on the little cakes DH had already made.

Work was two and a half hours, and DH got more cooking oil after his work so this evening I've made carrot cake muffins and used up one of the three packets of icing sugar that have been cluttering up the kitchen. I also discovered some of the cake sprinkles date back to 2017, so I didn't feel I could put them on cakes that are going to a fund raiser! I did manage to find some in-date ones so those are all ready to go tomorrow.

Tea was fishcakes. I'm not doing well on using up because more has come in than has gone out. DH is eating his way through the apples but the rosehips are still waiting to be cooked and I've not checked for greengages for a few days. Meanwhile I got more flour, margarine, cream cheese and eggs for this baking and haven't finished any of them. The sewing hasn't happened either: after the slow start the afternoon was just full.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £26.34

Watty1

Thought of you this morning as checking emails.  I occasionally buy from a place called "Wasted Kitchen" as they sell salad bento boxes in a local deli and do every month a meal (I've never tried it, though the bento boxes are fabulous, around 6 small servings of different salads and make a fantastic meal).    Anyway their emails are always about eating seasonal and greengages got a special mention (greengage gin and greengage martinis!)

rtandon27

@Cherryfudge - I'm with you on feeling overdressed yesterday - it was torrential here yesterday and as we don't have the central heating on yet at home, the damp made me feel chilled - I ended up wearing a wool nordic sweater over my t-shirt and arrived at the physio who had her heating on & had to strip off my thick layer!

@Watty1 - those bentos sound fabulous!  I've bookmarked the place as a want to go in my g00gle maps should we be out your way at any point!