Away From The Madding Crowd

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week

Buy less, choose well, make it last – Dame Vivienne Westwood.

Money saving

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250. Week 2 spend for July was £62.56.  Total to date for July is £134.13.

Having read the article in the MSE weekly email about car finance mis-selling, my DH and I used the free tool and guide to email our complaint (you can post if you prefer). The tool generates a well-worded complaint. It was easy to use, simple to follow and took minimum effort on our part.

We were gifted some homegrown vegetables, which I will put to good use.

This week’s main menu

Monday – Bacon and lentil soup (P!nch of N0m recipe), with a hunk of wholemeal sourdough. I will use homemade chicken stock from the freezer, add some celery and more carrots, and not include the potatoes and leek.  I will cook the soup in the slow cooker.

Tuesday – Beetroot burger (Go0d Food recipe) in wholemeal bun, Greek salad (using good quality dried herbs purchased whilst on holiday in Greece), with homemade coleslaw. 

Wednesday – Crustless cheese & onion quiche (leftover from last week and frozen until required), homemade coleslaw, and salad.

Thursday – Roasted veg, whole-wheat couscous, feta, and fresh basil.  Dressing made with olive oil, fresh orange, honey, cider vinegar and dried herbs.

Friday – Tuna pasta bake (Go0d Food recipe).  I will add extra vegetables and use 30% less fat Cheddar cheese.

Saturday – Fish and chip takeaway.

Sunday – Spicy autumn chicken (from one my recipe scrap books), homemade garlic flatbreads.

Weekday breakfasts continue to be oat based.  At the weekend we enjoyed a breakfast of poached eggs with homemade broad bean hummus (N!gel Sl@ter recipe ‘a green hummus’) on wholemeal sour dough.  This recipe is a great way to use up larger broad beans towards the end of the season.  I chose not to add the mint on this occasion. Lunches will include the remaining broad bean hummus, homemade soups from the freezer, and salads.

Healthier lifestyle

Completed 2 free workouts last week via Fabul0us50’s on Y0utube.

Completed 5 free meditations last week.

Step count last week was 46,660.

The Heart M@tters email from the British He@rt Foundati0n contained an interesting article this month,  ‘How many steps a day should I walk for my heart health?’ I have included some of the information below:

The idea of 10,000 steps a day traces back to a marketing campaign launched by a step counter company during the 1964 Olympics in Japan.  This number was picked because the Japanese character for 10,000 looks like a person walking (well I never knew that!). Despite its marketing origins, the idea caught on and many scientific studies have looked at the health benefits of 10,000 steps a day. 

Research has linked walking 10,000 steps a day to a reduced risk of developing dementia, cancer and heart and circulatory diseases, as well as having mental health benefits. The most comprehensive research to date found that as few as 2,337 steps a day started to lessen the risk of dying from heart and circulatory disease, while at least 3,867 steps reduced the risk of dying from any other cause.  Above this amount, the researchers found that every extra 1,000 steps a day was linked with a 15% reduction in dying.

For people aged 60 and over, the biggest improvement to health was seen in people taking 6,000 to 10,000 steps, after which the benefits tailed off.  For younger ages, it was between 7,000 and 13,000 steps. Another larger-scale study suggested that how fast you walk could be just as important as how far.  If you would like more detail, check out the BHF website.

Simple pleasures

An overnight stay with family.  Lots of chatter, walking, and a yummy homemade curry.

The jasmine that covers one of our garden fences is now in flower.  Whilst the weather is not nice enough for us to sit in the garden and enjoy the scent, I have picked a bunch to enjoy indoors.

On yet another rainy day this week,  I researched some new to us walking routes to try when the weather improves.

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my diary.

Katiehound

Glad you liked the ports list- it was a bit of a challenge to my brain! Just to say parts of the old cities may well be reconstructed after bombing, I remember there was only one original building in a central  part of Rostock- the others are copies of what had been.

We were given a gift in Helsinki- a CD of Jean Sibelius' work 'The Trees'. I've listened to some pieces online- very atmospheric. It seems the composer didn't write down his ideas and then develop them on paper, he wrote out the complete piece: symphony, concerto, whatever from memory.

Today's free pleasure was seeing an orange tip butterfly in the park when I was out with the dog.

This quote seems to be perfect for (this) summer!
'You can't make a cloudy day a sunny day, but you can embrace it and decide it's going to be a good day after all.'- Jane Lynch
Actually it has been sunny today and the washing dried, now it's on the grey scale....... but dry until about 5 pm

Nebulous2

Thanks Humboldt. I have very little involvement in food shopping, but have a rough idea that our budget for 3 is around £600 per month. As such I am in awe of your £250. Your meal plans look very good as well, you certainly don't appear to be skimping. 

My son is very scathing about the non-scientific nature of the 10000 steps, but he is an obsessive hillwalker and can easily do 60000+ steps in a weekend when out in the hills. I don't think he appreciates that for most mortals it is a good baseline.

We don't count steps, but do a minimum of 3 miles a day with the dogs, which rises to 5 or so in good weather. 

We are still away, and have moved to a different site, with an even better woodland walk attached. The weather has improved, so it's all good, we are really glad we didn't cancel... 

tiddles

Also wanted to say thank you to @tiddles.  Your support is much appreciated.

You are welcome, Humboldt. I find your posts both interesting and motivating, but I don’t often comment!

bluenose1

Loved the weekly update @humboldt. Tried to find the bacon and lentil soup recipe from pinch of nom, wasn’t available so have treated myself to a second hand copy of the book as have liked the sound of a few of your Pinch of Nom menu choices.
I am making a bacon shank and red lentil soup with carrots, onion and leftover baby spinach today so hoping it tastes nice as have just merged a few online recipes. I am lucky,  as long as I tell my husband it is healthy he will eat all my offerings.
Interesting article from BHF, I average about 15,000 steps a day, surprised the benefits curtail after 10k steps after 60, something to bear in mind as may be better doing more resistance training, stretching etc.  I did rucking for first time yesterday, only with a 10lb weight but  it definitely got my heart rate up.
Also  really enjoying daily meditating, love how relaxed and peaceful it makes me feel, years ago I thought it was all woo-woo.

@Katiehound - had to google what an Orange  Tip Butterfly was, can’t remember seeing one before. Attended a local butterfly walk last year which made me start noticing how many types there were.

Enjoy your woodland walk @Nebulous2  We go out most days into our local woods, I absolutely love walking there, where we are there are that many trails we  never get bored.

Humboldt

Morning all.

@Katiehound I very much liked the ports list, thanks again. I had to do an online search of 'The Trees' by Jean Sibelius, and what a find.  Such a beautiful collection of compositions for the piano. What I learn from these forums, never fails to educate and inspire me.  Great that you got to see an orange tipped butterfly. Sadly, the recent poor weather, has resulted in fewer butterflies or pollinators in our garden. 

@Nebulous2 thank goodness you chose not to cancel your holiday, think of all you would have missed out on.  Whilst the weather in the UK can be unpredictable, we can still enjoy it's wonder and beauty.  For such a small island we have an amazing array of different landscapes, unique flora and fauna, amazing history, wonderful traditions, etc, all of which are to be valued and enjoyed. Thank you for your kind words regarding my grocery budget and meal plans.  I have previously mentioned how and why I choose to work within a budget, so I won't repeat myself, but the money saved funds our holidays, be they in the UK or overseas. 

@tiddles thank you for your comment.  I am more than happy for you to cheer me on from the side-lines.

@bluenose1 The bacon and lentil soup recipe can be found in the PInch of N0m Quick and E@sy cookbook. Like you, I am happy to adapt most recipes in order to use the ingredients that I already have.  I too am lucky, in that my DH is happy to eat most things, providing they are substantial.  We were both very impressed with the beetroot burger recipe that I used yesterday.  However, the recipe was a BB( Food recipe and not a G0od Fo0d recipe as stated.  I also added some Cajun spice.  The recipe made 6 large burgers, 4 of which are now in the freezer.  I will say that it is a messy job and would advise you not to wear white when making them!  Go you averaging 15,000 steps a day!  I am hoping to do more when I fully retire, but for now I have to fit things in around my part-time work. 

Today's simple pleasure - woke to sunshine.

Katiehound

Today's simple pleasure- just a moment ago have counted about 14, maybe 20 swifts some soaring on the thermals & the 'ton up boys' hurtling low round the chimney pots.Here I managed to photograph some.
Some stunning clouds too- Mare's Tail?
(tree got in the way! I was craning my neck: sorry the pics are so big)

I haven't seen any butterflies lately- just that one in the park- one blink and I would have missed it

Nebulous2

Good to see the Swifts. I'm fairly sure ours have fledged, the noise overnight had certainly reduced - though we haven't had a night at home for a while.  We will find out soon. 

Our simple pleasure today was a great one. Baby red squirrels. There are quite a few red squirrels near where we were staying, but today we saw some small ones chasing each other and playing in the trees on the edge of the campsite... 

Katiehound

I haven't ever seen a red squirrel....... green with envy!

Nebulous2

Katiehound said:

I haven't ever seen a red squirrel....... green with envy!

I spoke to somebody on the campsite with a motorhome who said the same. When we pointed them out to him, he struggled to believe what he was seeing!

We've spent a lot of time close to the battle lines between the Greys and the Reds. We stayed in a large town for over 20 years and when we went there we regularly saw Reds. Over the time we were there they gradually disappeared and the parks were taken over by Greys. I understand that since we left some Reds have made a comeback, with a bit of support. 

In the more rural areas here Reds dominate. My Grandmother stayed in a care home for a while and had a bird feeder attached to her first floor window. A red squirrel regularly came and fed from it. It brightened up her day watching its antics.