Away From The Madding Crowd

~FlowerPot~

Hello, been following your thread for a while. Thought it was time to pop in and say hello. 
I love your meals plans and quotes 
Thank you for sharing
Flowers x

Humboldt

~FlowerPot~ said:

Hello, been following your thread for a while. Thought it was time to pop in and say hello. 
I love your meals plans and quotes 
Thank you for sharing
Flowers x

I am so pleased that you took the time to pop in Flowers, it has made my day. I have been reading your thread for a while too.  I so admire your determination and resilience. Don't be a stranger.

Today's simple pleasure - The petals on the last rose in the garden sparkling with frost. 

bluenose1

Morning @Humboldt. Enjoyed your weekly update and thanks for breakdown of your grocery expenditure. I definitely need to take a leaf out of your book.
I have been ordering far too much stuff in January sales. The  Christmas socks I bought the family went down well so for some reason I have ordered 30 pairs for next year as the Christmas advent socks at White Stuff were on offer. Think I need help for my sock fetish
We had one day of heavy snow here and it was magical to be in our local woods, even the dog seemed to really enjoy it. Just cold and icy now, and I am frightened of falling over so hardly been out.
Though the bright sunshine here today lifts the spirits and I have been doing exercises indoors.

Katiehound

Hi Humboldt, I assume that you are away now on your holibobs! Hope you are having a good time & fun.

I came across this quotation in the week & thought it was a good one to share:

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have."

Karen S. Magee, motivational author

~FlowerPot~

Katiehound said:

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have."

Karen S. Magee, motivational author

Thats a great quote and very true

flowers x

mark55man

I like that quote as well.  Thank you

Organgrinder

mark55man said:

I like that quote as well.  Thank you

Many of us on here seem to make the most of what we have. It's what makes most of the advice on here worth reading.

uralmaid

Very true and I am in awe of some of you.

Humboldt

Hi all, just catching up after our holiday.  

Hello my name is @bluenose1 and I have a sock fetish lol.  Wh!te Stvff do some lovely, good quality socks at a reasonable price in the sale. I love what I call 'happy socks'.  Today's socks were sky blue with daisies on them.  Just in case you were wondering, yesterdays featured various dogs wearing party hats.  

The snow was bad when we were travelling to the airport.  However, we only had a short delay whilst they de-iced the plane prior to take off.  We are certainly feeling the temperature difference now that we are home.

Loving the quote @Katiehound, thank you for sharing it.

Hi @flowerpot, @mark55man and @uralmaid , thank you for taking the time to comment.

Such a great comment @Organgrinder.  I could not agree more.

Today's simple pleasure - my happy socks!

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week.

The bad news is time flies.  The good news is you’re the pilot – Michael Altshuler.

Money saving.

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250.  Due to being on holiday, total spend for weeks 2/3/4 was £50.92.  Total spend to date for January is £102.91.

Interest gained on various savings accounts for January was £165.39.

Holiday spending was within budget, with a little currency remaining for another time.

This week’s main menu

I must admit that our healthy eating attempts have been somewhat thwarted by Christmas, and then a winter sun holiday, but what is life without a few treats!  We will now revert to our normal routine and adjust soon enough.

Monday – Roast chicken, sage and onion stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce (from the freezer), roast vegetables, lightly steamed spring cabbage and gravy.

Tuesday – Ping meal as above (cook once, eat twice – saves time and energy costs).

Wednesday – Cottage pie (H@iry D!eters recipe) with more lightly steamed spring cabbage.  I will replace the potato and leek topping with mashed swede and carrots, and add peas (frozen) rather than carrots to the mince mixture.

Thursday – Ping meal as above.

Friday – Homemade cheese quiche (from the freezer), baked sweet potato and a large green salad.  I will utilise the oven by also cooking a sourdough loaf.

Saturday – Salmon with chilli ginger sauce (H@iry D!eters recipe), vegetable stir-fry and noodles.  Salmon and chillies were reduced in price and frozen until required.

Sunday – Peppered mackerel and potato bake (from one of my recipe scrap books).    

Weekday breakfasts will continue to be mainly oat based.  S@insbury’s currently have 450g of Fage yogurt on offer at £1.75, yummy with fluffy banana pancakes (H@iry D!eters recipe), or overnight oats.  I will use up any left-over roast chicken for lunches, along with various homemade soups from the freezer.

Healthier lifestyle.

Step count for week 2 was 44,112, week 3 was 74,395 and week 4 was 52,691.

Our holiday provided a complete break from the normal routine, with lots of new things to engage the brain and stimulate the mind.

Simple pleasures.

Home.  A hot mug of tea and a thick slice of hot buttered toast.

Time to read.

Books read 1/25 – Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (a Christmas gift). 

For years, rumours of the ‘Marsh Girl’ have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl.  Buy Kya is not what they say.  Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. 

Having enjoyed the film, I was pleased to be gifted this book.  I do not think the above book overview describes it as well as the New York Times Book Review ‘Painfully beautiful … At once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative, and a celebration of nature’.  Although the film didn’t get rave reviews, I personally would recommend both the book and film.

Books read 2/25 – The Girl on the Landing – Paul Torday (passed onto me by a friend).  From the author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, another film that I enjoyed. 

‘You think you know someone – but you never really do.

Elizabeth has been married to Michael for 10 years. She has adjusted to a fairly monotonous routine with her wealthy, decent but boring husband.  But then, on holiday in Ireland, Michael begins to change.  It starts when he thinks he sees, in a picture, the figure of a girl on a landing’

This book was not at all as I initially thought it would be. It turned into a thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.  Not sure that I would want to watch the film.

Treated myself to a pot of tete-a-tete daffodils. A little bit of Spring to brighten my kitchen windowsill.

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