Away From The Madding Crowd

Katiehound

^^^
I see the programme is 5.30-7.30 pm tonight on channel 4
I hope Lucy is playing her piano near the beginning!! it's only a short composition

Just to add that you can see it on catch up- she played around 6.45, so into second hour of the programme

Humboldt

@Katiehound thank you for taking the time to share the links. A moving piece by the male voice choir. As you so aptly put it 'tingles up the spine'.  I had to look on Y0utube for the clip of Lucy Illingworth performing 'I'm walking with you'.  Again, a very moving piece by an immensely talented young lady, who is only 15 years old and blind.  

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week.

“The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything” – Oscar Wilde.

Money saving.

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250. Week 2 spend for September was £49.36.  Total spend to date for September is £143.11.

Bought a jar of Very L@zy Teriyaki Paste (use by date is 12/24) reduced to £1 in S@insbury’s.  

Colm@n’s packet sauces, i.e. spaghetti bolognaise, chilli con carne, etc are currently 50p in S@insbury’s (Nect@r Price).  Great to have in stock for a quick meal.

This week’s main menu.

Monday – Tabbouleh (Middle Eastern couscous salad) with goats’ cheese and Moroccan spiced falafel. 8 x falafel still only £1.15 at Ald!.

The falafels also make a nice lunch - warm wholemeal pitta breads (I put them in the toaster on the defrost setting), stuff with the falafels (warmed in the microwave), salad and minted 0% fat Greek yogurt dressing.

Tuesday – Pasta e Fagioli (a traditional Italian dish that is a cross between a chunky soup and a stew) with a hunk of olive ciabatta bread. Ciabatta was reduced in price and frozen until required. Celery was also reduced in price. I will swap the spicy sausage for bacon, and use the remaining bacon for Friday’s meal.

This recipe is from ‘The Shirley Go0de Kitchen’ book, which dates from the mid 1980’s. Some of you will no doubt remember this wonderful lady. This book (which cost me £1.95 at the time) was one of several things that played an integral role in teaching me how to make the pennies go further.  Sadly, Shirley is no longer with us, but I will always be grateful that she shared a different approach to shopping and cooking, to help others eat well and spend less.

Wednesday – BBQ chicken drumsticks, a small portion of oven chips and fresh corn on the cob. Chicken drumsticks were reduced in price and the BBQ sauce is homemade. I will cook the spicy aubergines for tomorrow at the same time, then reheat in the microwave.

Thursday – Spicy stuffed aubergines with chickpeas (Tesc0 recipe), with salad.  I will use the remainder of the courgettes in tomorrow’s meal.

Friday – Bacon and courgette creamy pasta. Quick, simple, and tasty – sauté onion, garlic, add bacon, then courgettes, stir though half-fat cream cheese and add to wholemeal pasta.

Saturday – Meal out.

Sunday – Warm potato and smoked mackerel salad (recipe from my recipe scrap book). 

Weekday breakfasts continue to be mainly oat based.  Breakfasts at the weekend consisted of  avocado and poached eggs on sourdough toast with chilli and lime, and fluffy banana pancakes (H@iry D!eters recipe) with mixed berries, 0% Greek Yogurt and honey.  Ald! 500g frozen black forest fruits and 500g 0% fat authentic Greek Yogurt, are £1.89 each.  Lunches this week will be homemade soup from the freezer and salads.

Healthier lifestyle.

Completed 1 free workout via Fabulous50’s on Y0utube.

Completed 4 free meditations.

Step count for last week was 77,239.

Simple pleasures.

The kindness of friends.

A general tidy up in the garden.  I bought autumn bedding plants from Ald! (packs of viola/pansies £2.99) and hope to get those potted on sometime this week.

Made a sourdough starter…fingers crossed it works.

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

bluenose1

Thanks as ever @Humboldt, just caught up with your thread and love the Wilde quote. 

Back from a fantastic but very exhausting 2 weeks in Florida, we were at the Parks for 8am most days and walked well over 20k steps a day. Though did manage a few hours to relax early afternoon by the pool and had some lovely meals.  Already considering returning in 2026 but will see how much we enjoy Lake Garda and our cruise first as costs so much.

Have been a bit remiss on my meditation but getting back into it. Listened to a lovely 10 minute Yoga Nidra one today that really relaxed me and set me up for the day.

We have been tidying up  our garden, need to give the roses a good pruning next. I am worried that if we don’t cut back some of the trees this year we will have to get professionals in, but my husband seems oblivious.

Hope your sourdough starter worked, love sourdough bread.

Humboldt

@bluenose1 I was pleased to read that you had a good holiday.  We have a cruise booked early in the new year, but are currently researching a touring holiday for next autumn.  As I have said previously, we like to travel, and we often find it difficult to make a decision as to where to go.  No doubt actual costs and a good offer will help narrow down our choices. I'm sure that you will soon settle back into a routine at home, meanwhile, don't rush and enjoy the wonderful memories of your latest holiday.  

I am hoping to buy some more spring bulbs for the garden pots this weekend.  Each year I move the bulbs from the pots into the border and buy fresh.  I use the lasagne method of planting (a few layers), and the flowers are a welcome addition to the garden after the winter months.

Sourdough is something that I have wanted to make for some time.  I have found that there is a vast amount of information available regarding the process, most of it conflicting. I have decided to not put pressure on myself (or my starter), and to keep it simple, together we will attempt to sort this between us lol.  We are still at the feeding stage, but things appear to be progressing ok at the moment.  I will keep you updated.

Today's simple pleasure - it has been lovely to be able to view the magnificent harvest moon over the past few evenings.

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week.

“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy” – Oscar Wilde

Money saving.

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250.  Week 3 spend was £56.31.  Total spend to date for September is £199.42.

Completed a short survey from our energy supplier, and gained £5 credit towards our energy bills.

Ordered 2 summer dresses in the M&S sale, saving £30.50.

Bought a H@bitat cast iron casserole pot in the S@insbury’s sale, saving £15.00.

Took advantage of the S@insbury’s buy 6 or more bottles of wine and save 25% offer.  The saving of £10.10 resulted in a free bottle of ‘t@ste the d!fference’ Prosecco for the festive season (currently on offer for £8.00).

Still harvesting homegrown cucumbers and rainbow chard.

This week’s main menu.

Monday – Warm potato and smoked mackerel salad, with a green salad.  This is a meal swap from last Sunday when we had golden vegetable soup (H@iry D!eter’s recipe) with a hunk of rye bread.  

Tuesday – Slow-cooker sausage casserole (Go0d Fo0d recipe).  I will swap the chipolatas for the pork sausage that was reduced in price and frozen until required.

Wednesday – Spanish chicken (H@iry D!eter’s recipe).  To fully utilise the oven, I will cook a batch of cheese scones for the freezer, and bake the potatoes for tomorrow’s meal.  

Thursday – Baked potato with prawns in a homemade marie rose sauce, with salad.

Friday – Macaroni cheese surprise (He@rt UK recipe).  If my homemade sourdough starter is active enough, I hope to fully utilise the oven by also cooking a sourdough loaf.

Saturday –  Chilli con carne with a small portion of brown rice.

Sunday –  Slow-cooker spiced root and lentil casserole (G0od F0od recipe) with homemade flat bread.  Fingers crossed; I will be able to use my homemade sourdough starter to make sourdough discard flatbread (F!fteen Sp@tulas recipe).

Breakfasts continue to be mainly oat based. Today’s overnight oats included perfectly ripe figs (89p x 4 @ Aldi), with a drizzle of local honey and 0% fat Greek yogurt. Lunches will include homemade soups from the freezer and salads. 

Healthier lifestyle.

Completed 0 free workouts.

Completed 5 free meditations.

Step count for last week was 80,498.

Simple pleasures.

Last week DH and I made the most of a gloriously sunny day and had a trip to the coast.  A long walk which included fabulous views, wildlife sightings, and ended with an ice cream.  Perfect.

Doggie sitting, hence the increase in steps lol.

My homemade sourdough starter continues to progress well. 

A F@irtrade rose bouquet (reduced to half price in Aldi).

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

 

mark55man

Thank you @Humboldt for your comments on my diary.

Here's a quote from my book group book (reading Jayber Crow part of the Port William series by Wendell Berry).  Annoyingly its Part 6 (this offends my OCD but I couldn't face reading 5 just to get to the chosen one - they are separate stories set in the same place in different periods).  Its a very well written and restful sort of book (about 1/3 of the way through)

"Company is like snow - the longer it stays the worse it looks"  a bit antisocial in nature - but more than a grain of truth

Humboldt

Hi @mark55man how true is that quote!

I have to admit that I am not familiar with the Port William series of books, but a quick search provided an overview. I was quite taken with 'A Place on Earth' (part 2). However, like you I would prefer to start at the beginning and work my way through the series.  I am so grateful that you, and others take the time to recommend books in their comments, and have added the series to my ever increasing 'to read' list.  

Today's simple pleasure - having just finished another book, I now have the pleasure of choosing what to read next.

mark55man

you are welcome, and yes it is a nice choice to have.

Just FYI - the other reason why I decided to just read Book 6 was that it was actually quite expensive for a kindle book and the ought of possibly paying similar for Books 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 somewhat put me off

bluenose1

Great  update @Humboldt. Love both yours and Mark55man’s quote, will be thinking of the snow one over Christmas no doubt 
l have been making a lot of spicy carrot and lentil soup lately which sounds similar to your spiced root and lentil casserole. I find it  a lovely, tasty comfort food with added benefit of being relatively inexpensive. 

I did an online Morrisons shop this week, spent £100 and didn’t really feel I had much to show for it. We eat a lot of fruit, mainly strawberries and blueberries with Greek yoghurt which is getting something of a luxury at the prices charged. Really need to start meal planning and prepping more than I do.