Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Spendywendywoo

Nps @Suffolk_lass, some great updates on here - make my little few lines look piddly lol. 

Glad you got lots done and you have some time away to look forward to

Suffolk_lass

Confession time! I went to L-shop to get a middle air fryer yesterday (it should have been today) so I went round and picked up, just fruit - nectarines and plums, but then I saw the big boxes of huge loose vine tomatoes. So I bought a box £8.82 @ £1.59/kg and cooked them up into passata. 8 more jars in my pantry. With one last batch when we get home from hols, this will be enough for winter. Mr Sl unhelpfully observed that I needn't have grown any, when seeds, compost, feed and faffing have been taken into account. Thanks for that. They won't be the same as homegrown, but I did reduce them to intensify the flavour

Oh yes, I bottled three jars of conference pears and 11 (250ml) jars of stewed blackberry and apple too. With eight apples in my pantry to hopefully store for a while too. Pantry is looking a tad stuffed really, and I can smell garlic in there, so I need to determine which head is not cured properly and use it.

We are taking the rest of our potatoes away with us this weekend. They just had the first signs of sprouts last night.

Suffolk_lass

Used the Air Fryer for roasted/fried potatoes - we were impressed and it will stay in the camper when we know we have electricity. 

Today is all about clean dry washing (1 load in the washer, one to go) before we leave again tomorrow, and I need to deal with the courgettes (roasted blitzed and jarred) and tomatoes (chopped and frozen) too, so the decks are clear

EssexHebridean

Ooh you've reminded me that we have spotted a pear tree near to home with what MrEH tells me are some nice tasting pears on it - we might have to take a wander with the fruit picker this evening... 

Happy travels! 

Suffolk_lass

Oh gosh, back from hols on Tuesday (almost a week ago) and still chasing myself to catch up. I completely cocked up the free electricity Saturday - got the timing all wrong, so Sunday, a bit of SL teamwork and Mr Suffolk lass ironed a flat sheet and a Kingsize duvet cover while I made 3 cakes, dried towels in the tumble dryer, washed coloured towels at 60c, ran the dishwasher and blitzed soup and whizzed an all in one cake. Let's see if we can exceed £1 with that lot. Oh, and I turned off the solar while I did so. With 7 minutes to do on the dishwasher and 9 on the towels, we turned off the iron and oven at bang on 11.59 and turned the solar back on a almost exactly 12.00!

We have had a much needed break, doing far less than we could have done, but persuaded ourselves that pottering, relaxing, reading, strolling and eating and drinking were all time well-spent. I cooked for my Mum's 96th birthday, and MrSl discovered a path from Mum's to Dumfries House. We usually walk the dog there but as of 1st September they are charging £5 to park if you live outside 20 miles away. We have been in the habit of a 1-2 hour daily walk involving the grounds and often the wonderful walled garden. Mum hadn't applied for a pass for her own car, but I have for her and hopefully for the days we want to explore, more than walk to and from, we can borrow her car in future. She has a disabled badge but we cannot use that without her coming, and she can no longer walk 3-4 miles (!) and would be sat in the coffee shop on her own if she came with us.

Planned spending
The week in the middle of our trip involved a cottage in the Highlands and we happily eat out four times, had F&C takeaway and enjoyed coffee and a scone in local places, to support the economy. We also cooked for ourselves some evenings, good simple fayre.

Had the chimney swept on Friday (£45) and have asked the oil engineer to book us in for the annual service. I have also booked my car in to have the cracked windscreen replaced. A bump on the A1 split the chip and the creep means it is in my line of sight now. I need replacement wiper blades too and the excess from the auto-transparent sand people is £164 of unplanned spend! The second hand Navarra our friends were holding that we were looking at (mostly for beekeeping!) has been sold while we were away (absolutely fine) but we do need to replace Mr Sl's car as the sills are on their way. The dilemma is whether we go pick up truck for beekeeping driving across farm tracks or a modest hybrid or electric vehicle. He hardly drives these days - a monthly bike meet if it is raining and odd things like haircuts and flu jabs. I think we will probably err on the side of the useful truck.

A bit of saving
Won a modest £25 on the PB between us and it has been reinvested. Our percentage win rates for 2025 so far are 5.15% (me) and 3.18% (him). I still take part in the "Save £12k in yyyy" challenge on here and have exceeded my target for the year, with just over £10k so far against an anticipated £6k. Rounding the accounts to the nearest £50 has made a huge difference, along with honey sales, winnings, and dividends. I do have to top up my account this month as my state pension is about a week after my humungous holiday-spending CC goes out, but I might even move it back afterwards. I am also trying for less than £200 in grocery spending so there is some spare for December.

Poor Auntie lost her balance and fell, breaking her femur. It has been pinned but she is still in a rehab place, learning to walk with her frame and lift her leg with her dog-lead strap before she is allowed home. She is 93 or 94 now but was in good form when I visited her on Friday. Both my local cousins are with her daily and the other sibling has travelled from Hertfordshire every Sunday since she fell. Poor old thing, she has to work past the pain if she is to get home.

Right, bees today - we need to check they have taken syrup, feel heavy and all have strapping to ground anchors, as well as still alive surviving robbing by other colonies or wasps, and I might move one colony into a polystyrene nucleus (smaller box) as they are quite a small colony. All of these tasks are once the temperature warms up a bit, and with a forecast of 19c, this is the plan (grey and overcast at the moment!).  

I also need to plant up the little metal trugs with autumn colour, move pelargonium pots into the greenhouse for winter, empty the spent tomato compost onto the beds and bury some bulbs. Time to get a wiggle on!

Suffolk_lass

I've got the gardener here this morning, so it is all autumn pruning, and digging/weeding. I received my garlic bulbs in the post yesterday and we agreed where I want to plant them. I ordered a large bag of pelleted chicken manure too!

Mr Sl did half the bees yesterday. I need to do the other half, either this afternoon or tomorrow, while it is warm, as I want to  move a small colony into a nucleus (easier to keep warm)

I've got my study group this evening so I really need to do a couple of hours preparation, and we will have leek and cauliflower cheese for a quick, easy supper.

Enough from me. Back to the garden it is!

Makingabobor2

Enjoy your gardening. I went out to the washing line still in pjs earlier and ended up doing a few bits I'd noticed needing doing.....I really should have got dressed earlier.. lol

foxgloves

I'm aiming to do a few garden jobs tomorrow - not too many, but I think the fresh air will do me good. I have a few small tasks lined up which will be perfect. I love Autumn gardening.
F

Suffolk_lass

I ended up pottering and weeding two raised beds, one of which now has the transplanted strawberries from the neighbouring one. I left two or three lettuces that have not bolted, and have more strawberries to move from the fruit cage. I also cleared the courgette plants, which had been in the fruit cage. Meanwhile, my gardener friend cleared the raspberries and asparagus and I now have a temporarily weed-free bed in which to plant my garlic. He weeded another bed too, but it had onions in this year, so resting it over winter, it now has a rectangle of old carpet covering it as a weed suppressant. We agreed where the rhubarb that is under the russet apple tree is to move to as well - a much sunnier spot to see if it fares any better. We prunded the rose that grows on the back of the cottage and a very overgrown euonymus that had ambitions to cover the path into the veg garden from the patio (resulting in wet legs after every bit of rain!).

More tomatoes have made their way indoors from the greenhouse and are ripening in the kitchen, on the sill. I am in two minds whether to make a chutney or relish with some of the remaining green fruits, or keep freezing, as they ripen, ready to make more passata. I still have eighteen jars in my stores (all this year's but including the tray I bought from Aldilidl when they were on offer) the shop bought tomato batch is definitely not as tasty as the home-ripened batches, but one of them is with basil and the other contains chilli - I might have talked myself into a plain salted batch.

I was hoping for better weather today but it is overcast and still, as I loll in my nightie, having had a bit of a lay-in. I felt rather cold and shivery last evening, so went to bed quite early, and then made myself go back to bed when I woke up at 04.10 this morning. I don't know why but I was wide awake until the radio came on at 05.30 and then I went back to sleep until 08.00!

So I may plant up my autumn trugs and move geraniums (pelargoniums) to the greenhouse now it is a tomato plant free zone. I still have a hive to transfer to a small poly nucleus, assuming they have not suddenly grown, and assuming they are still alive, three weeks after I last fed them. I also need to jar up and deliver honey to my hive hosts, but that might slip until tomorrow.

Big spends - a bit of money saving
We have capitulated after suffering failing batteries for months on our phones (it's a PITA recharging in the car and as soon as we get back from anything outside the house) - so we have paid the big river people 99p to take advantage of fourteen days dog-food named bargains and each saved around 35%  compared to the best price from anywhere else in their two day event. I have also invested in a small rechargeable stick vacuum cleaner by the sons of Dye, which is not the latest, but works on animal hair. With two animals and currently a drag around cabled cylinder one which Mr Sl hates (he uses it most of the time as I have to wear a mask, if I use it), I felt it might reduce the grumpy swearing and make life easier for him. 

Today, I need to get to the SM and pharmacy, but not until late afternoon - a click and collect from Morries and a prescription I need to collect, plus my walk-in flu jab at the GP surgery.

Time to do some getting on with it, I think! Have a good day

Suffolk_lass

Flu jab had, I clicked and collected and did not go in the store, but I am likely to need to before the end of the month. In the meantime, we are eating what we have in. I have portioned and bagged mince and chicken breasts, and they are in my kitchen freezer. I am waiting for today's forecast sun and warmth to materialise. Lots to do outside. The garlic planting and trug making up were both postponed by the drizzle. And I must jar up some honey today. Oh, and if I can find room, I have three punnets of tomatoes that need prepping and freezing, ahead of my big batch-making. It will be plain passata. I know we will eat that!