+++ Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++

redofromstart

Funnily enough @Sun_Addict we had a conversation when I lost my best cat ever (miss you Mrs Brady) in which he said you have cried your heart out for her, but I bet if it was me you would just roll your sleeves up and get on with things.  He was partly right, I did both.  The thing is I still have my fellow residents to worry about.  I suspect if I had been living on my own the balance might have been more on the emotional side.

Anyway, lots more garden stuff done over the last few days and this afternoon I am off out on an adventure.  An adult first for me in that I am going on a tour of a historic house.  It does happen to have nice gardens but this is mainly to look at the manor house as I expect the gardens to be more about grand landscaping.  The house has an armoury so DS1 is coming with me which will be nice. Tomorrow I am at a plant fair, on my own this time.  

Sallyforth

Enjoy the plant fair and buy one for me!

redofromstart

The plant fair had some pretty things but very expensive so not very tempting to buy anything for either of us @Sallyforth although most stalls seemed to be doing a steady trade. 

DS1 and I enjoyed the small area of formal gardens at the country house but neither of us found looking round the house itself or the formal landscaping hugely interesting.  I was interested to see some Manton dueling pistols though (for my fellow Georgette Heyer fans). 

Out two days in a row meant quite a lot of walking, so yesterday was mostly about being sore and tired.  I did make a banana and fruit loaf which turned out well despite me halving the quantities and guessing at 40 minutes for cooking time.  Following the technique made a lot less dense cake which I preferred.  I am trying to make space in the freezer (frozen pretzels in L1dl from Thursday) so a half leg of lamb got used up making a lamb hotpot, vaguely based on the chicken hotpot from the previous week.  Cubed the lamb, put it in the instant pot with the bone, onions, carrots and lamb stock.  30 minutes.  Discarded the bone and the soggy veg, skimmed off the fat.  The base was then onion, carrot chunks, green lentils, more lamb stock, tom puree, worcs sauce and the crumbled lamb.  Reduced till just covered, and then topped with sliced 5 minute boiled potatoes.  Oven, lid off, for 40 minutes or so.  Plenty left for tonight.  Great way to get us both to eat green lentils. 

I also made more pretzels, froze the dough (pre bicarb bath)  this time to see if that works any better.

Very little F&V left here, enough to feed us all tonight though. I did take a stroll to see what I could get locally but understandably the village co-op had very little 'fresh' stuff on the shelves, it reminded me of early lockdown for completely bare shelves.  I hope that people are being nice to the staff, it must be stressful and worrying for them.

doingitanyway

Yes our Co op is very sparse too.
You are making lots of yummy food...

greenbee

She just needs to start a delivery service DIA

doingitanyway

Yes, @greenbee I would sign up to that!

LadyWithAPlan

I think having to appear strong and get things done for DS1 + 2  have indeed meant you have had to 'get on with things'.
Great DS1 interested in the garden design (and digging!0

i have just been in the countryside for the weekend with various family members - all with gorgeous looking gardens but many hours are spent in the upkeep!

Seasidegal58

I've just caught up with your diary redo - have missed the last few months. I admire immensely how you've been doing these last months - the rowan tree sounds beautiful- in my mind one of the loveliest trees. 

And belated birthday wishes. Xxx

redofromstart

Don't worry, normal 'not cooking/baking' service will resume shortly.  I am just using things up.  I went out for F&V and L1dl had the pretzels in early so I brought five boxes home, contents have been squeezed into the small freezer and a joint of beef taken out to slow defrost for casserole.  I can probably fit another two boxes in without turning the chest freezer back on in the garage.  Freezing the unbaked pretzels worked better for t@Seasidegal58

More weeding done last night, and lots of watering.  Good signs of growth on my magnolias which is good.  The poor wisteria is putting lots of shoots out too so it will survive the massacre for the scaffolding.  If/when I sell it should have recovered enough to be pretty for photographs.

Yes @LadyWithAPlan it is easy to underestimate the time and effort that go into keeping a garden remotely on form. I do sometimes think it would be nice to have a much smaller garden and perhaps be able to keep on top of it.

Lovely to see you back posting @Seasidegal58. 

House progress - I am chipping away at clearing things but with little progress on the big jobs - namely the gates/hard standing, the windows, damp, the ensuite.  I need to chase and set up appointments, but as everyone else has found it is hard to get people to even come and look, and anyone who is any good has a long waiting list.

Garden - DS1 is making good progress on sorting the lawn and it is now vaguely flat.  We have feed and seed ready for the right weather and I need to work out what that means.  Plant of the week has been some freesias in pots bought in L1dl last week at £5 each, they smell lovely as the flowers are now open.  Need to look at the aftercare. 

Doing more things for me - the trips out at the weekend came into this category.  I have picked up a free entry voucher for a NT property too, must pick one with a decent garden though.  I am making good progress with the crochet throw although I under-estimated just how much wool I would need and had to source some more.  I also signed up for some training courses, some relating to my employment, and the others to do with the garden for light relief.  

Finances - Swings and roundabouts with tiny increases to the spousal pensions being offset by increased bills. Need to gather numbers to do my tax return, I think a small refund is due so some motivation to sort this.  I have the P60s, just need to make sure I have the right interest numbers.

Outstanding Sadmin - Need to do his paper tax return, but need info from others first.  I will have to write/email for this I think, I was waiting to see if anything would be posted first.  I think there will be a refund.  Also need to do something about the limited company. 

greenbee

Given that you're not currently working, I can recommend doing the 'things for you' on weekdays - particularly now we're getting towards summer. It's certainly starting to get busier round here at weekends, to the extent that it's easier to stay home then and get out and do stuff during the week. Having grown up in a tourist area, we never went far at bank holidays etc as it was always so busy (and where my mum lives now, it can take forever to get out of the village during the day at weekends - particularly changeover day!).