🌞 Happy Days in our Golden Years 🌞

Jessy103

Hope all goes well with the solicitors and sorting out bully builder x (also currently reading Jane Eyre for the first time and enjoying it so far 🙂)

savingholmes

Let's us know how the Xmas lunch goes. 

Sorry I didn't notice the police word - that doesn't sound great at all. Perhaps involve the Council's trading standards too then.

Fortune_Smiles

Cheery_Daff said:

Good to hear your day has gone to plan! We have had torrential rain here too, and a good deal of very windy wind indeed (being stuck near the top of a hill as we are). Brrr. Neighbour's trampoline is wrapped around a tree in a field but we are otherwise intact, touch wood!

We too create some additional waterworks in the rainy season Although I imagine ours isn't as smart as yours In our case, the water trickles down the drive, which is fine, but then creates a little pond right outside the garden gate, making it impossible to get from car to house without either jumping or getting our feet wet. We don't dig through the drive, of course, but we create some elaborate small earthworks to channel the pond out into the fields Looks a little odd, but as there's only us down here it doesn't really matter! 

Thanks Cheery.  Our 'landscaping' is at the entrance to our drive so goodness knows what people think of it 😂

Fortune x
 

Fortune_Smiles

Humdinger1 said:

Dearest @Fortune_Smiles notvonly lawyers but also the police! Hope you're all OK? I'm sure all will go well and you'll get a just outcome.   May I thank you on behalf of a grateful nation for standing up to bullies.  Love Humdinger xx 

Thank you @Humdinger1.  We are fine.  It was quite unpleasant for a while but he's kept his distance since I involved the Police.  I feel I need to stand up to him as I can't bear the thought of him doing this to someone else.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Jessy103 said:

Hope all goes well with the solicitors and sorting out bully builder x (also currently reading Jane Eyre for the first time and enjoying it so far 🙂)

Thank you Jessy.  The opening line from Jane Eyre always crops up in pub quizes along with Moby !!!!!! and A Tale of Two Cities.

savingholmes said:

Let's us know how the Xmas lunch goes. 

Sorry I didn't notice the police word - that doesn't sound great at all. Perhaps involve the Council's trading standards too then.

Yes definitely SH - there should be consequences for this type of behaviour.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

A Proper Weekend

I decided to give myself a bit of a break this weekend and forget (most of the) chores and the bully builder.

We've had an amazing fruit harvest this year including quince and medlars for the first time.  The quince have been tried out in various pudding recipes and some is steeping in gin ready to decant in time for Christmas.  I've learned how to blet the medlars and prepare them for use.  We've had them as a topping on porridge and, yesterday, I made Medlar and Walnut Mince Tarts.  I'm not keen on the texture of them but it turns out Mr F is a big fan which is good as I made 12 for now and a further 12 for the freezer 😂  I have some medlars left so will try those in gin too.

I had intended to make the Christmas cake this weekend but had fogotten that I need to soak the dried fruit.  I'm making Mary Berry's cake recipe this year.  I usually make the WI cake recipe but I've always been a bit suspicious of the cooking time (very long) so thought I'd try Mary for a change.  She did me proud with the Victoria Sandwich recipe for Littlest Fortunate's birthday after all.  I've put the fruit to soak in Amaretto but need to get some more glace cherries.  I only bought one tub and Mary's asking for 350g!  Not that I'm complaining.  It's one of life's small pleasures finding a cherry in a bite of fruit cake.

The rest of Saturday was spent threading and checking my overlocker and preparing for a sewing workshop today.  I learned how to sew with sequins 😁  I made a sweatshirt with sequinned sleeves.  I need to shorten the sleeves, re-do the neck band and attach the hem band but I never go to these things expecting to have a perfect, finished garment at the end.  Its much more about the learning process and building confidence.  I would definitely feel confident sewing with sequins now although it's very time consuming so I'd need to leave myself plenty of time to complete a garment.

I did do a little ironing on Saturday night but I don't count that as a chore because I watch telly while I'm doing it.  I'm watching 'Rich House, Poor House' at the moment.  I remember very well being in the bottom 10% for disposable income whilst growing up but that was a very long time ago now.  We are fortunate indeed in the Fortunate household and I think it's good to be reminded of that from time to time.

We finished late at the workshop so I popped into the chippy on the way home and suprised Mr F with a fish supper.  Yesterday's meals were leftover Leek & Potato Soup and Aubergine & Butternut Squash Bake with garlic bread.  Mr F has made breakfasts so I've not had to do any cooking this weekend 😁 A very welcome break from the stove 😁

Hope you've all had a relaxing weekend too.

Fortune x

ruby_eskimo

Sorry to hear about the added builder stress but hoping that the legal people can do their thing and take some of the pressure off of you (and come to the right resolution).  Mary Berry's Christmas cake has never let me down although I haven't made it for the last couple of years, and before that I used Jane Asher's one which was equally good from memory.  

Sewing with sequins always make me think of the absolute nervous breakdown my mother had when I was in dance school as a kid - the teacher decided that one year for our annual show, the opening number's costume was going to be green leotards absolutely covered in sequins.  Which had to all be sewn on by hand.  And each sequin had to be topped by a small bead.  And they had to overlap in a particular way. And I was quite chunky as a child so the area to cover was quite large compared to some of my peers.  As a result I'm never allowed to wear or talk about sequins in her presence otherwise she'll spend the next 3 hours moaning about it all over again!

Fortune_Smiles

ruby_eskimo said:

Sorry to hear about the added builder stress but hoping that the legal people can do their thing and take some of the pressure off of you (and come to the right resolution).  Mary Berry's Christmas cake has never let me down although I haven't made it for the last couple of years, and before that I used Jane Asher's one which was equally good from memory.  

Sewing with sequins always make me think of the absolute nervous breakdown my mother had when I was in dance school as a kid - the teacher decided that one year for our annual show, the opening number's costume was going to be green leotards absolutely covered in sequins.  Which had to all be sewn on by hand.  And each sequin had to be topped by a small bead.  And they had to overlap in a particular way. And I was quite chunky as a child so the area to cover was quite large compared to some of my peers.  As a result I'm never allowed to wear or talk about sequins in her presence otherwise she'll spend the next 3 hours moaning about it all over again!

I feel your mum's pain Ruby 😂  We were using a heavily, sequinned fabric so the sequins were in place already.  However, they like to break machine needles so you had to remove them from the seam lines before you could sew with it.  It took aaaaaaaages.  Even though it turns out snipping sequins is my super power - I'd finished both of my sleeves before the other attendees had finished one of theirs 🥳

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Winter is Coming!

I could see snow on the welsh hills when I took FDawg for his walk this morning - suddenly winter is upon us!

I've had a productive week so far:

Monday.  Gym class in the morning then an afternoon of admin.  I meal planned for the week and did the grocery shop.  I got £6 off this week from the store's current promotion (I got free biscuits and mince pies last week 😁).  Booked a restaurant for our Book Club Christmas meal.  We've given up trying to have our usual discussions over the meal as it's always too noisy so we'll have a literary quiz instead.  I made an appointment for FDawg's annual check up at the vet and ordered his flea and worming medication.  The cost will be covered by our monthly payment plan.  Lunch was Halloumi Fajitas and supper was Masala Roast Carrots with Coconut Red Lentil Dal.  I also made an Apple Pudding to use up some of the cooking apples we have left.  It was a R1v£rf0rd recipe from the veg box and I can't find it online but it was effectively an Eve's Pudding with added mixed, dried fruit.  I found a tub of mixed peel left over from last Christmas so I popped that in as well and it was a game changer!  It was much appreciated by Mr F and Handyman.  Handyman usually comes on Fridays to help out with gardening and whatever else is on the job list.  However, Storm Claudia was visiting last Friday so we moved Handyman to Monday.  He is such an asset and has taken a great deal of pressure off us.   It's one of the things our previous mortgage payment now pays for and we definitely think it money well spent.

Tuesday.  Mr F popped out to our independent supermarket in the morning to pick up some glace cherries for me.  I decided I would add the full amount to the Christmas cake recipe as I don't want to mess with Mary! 😂  I also made the medlar gin, ordered a card and gift for a relative's birthday present, did some on-line Christmas shopping and cleaned a room.  Then it was gym class in the evening and an early night.  Lunch was English Muffin Pizzas made with leftover bits and pieces from the fridge and supper was the rest of Monday's Masala Roast Carrots.

Mr F has gone off to a show this morning so I have a nice quiet day to myself.  I have another room to clean and some more Christmas prep planned.  There's a chill wind blowing here in the Shire so I'm feeling very fortunate to have a warm house to work in.

Hope everyone is warm and cosy today.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Peace and Quiet

I had a lovely quiet, peaceful day yesterday.  After a bracing walk with FDawg we made the Christmas cake - with a full complement of cherries 😂  Mary's cake (23cm tin) is much bigger than the WI cake (19cm tin) so looks huge!  But I prefer a bigger ratio of cake to marzipan/icing.  I have ready-rolled fondant icing leftover from the Littlest Fortunate's birthday cake preparations so I'm hoping that will be big enough to use on it.  We may be extending Christmas through January in order to eat it up though 😲

Inspired by @Cheery_Daff, I tried my hand at chalk painting the window with some Christmas patterns.  I found lots of free templates here which you can copy, or stick to the outside of the window and trace on the inside.  Very pleased with the result and a low cost way to bolster the decorations this year.

Having got a bit carried away with chalk painting, I ran out of time to clean the room I'd planned to so cleaned a smaller room instead.  I didn't have much cooking to do as Mr F was out for the day so a bagel for lunch and a baked potato for supper sufficed.

We lit the log burner in the evening and I tried out a Christmassy manicure - dark blue with glittery flecks of turqoise.  I don't usually wear dark nail colours so it's going to take some getting used to 😂

There's a hard frost in the Shire this morning and I suspect a lot of ice about.  Take care on the roads everyone.

Fortune x