Anti climax

Well, she came, she collected the parcel ( apparently it was some special pro-biotic drink for her stomach!) she apologized for being a nuisance, she actually drove onto the campsite but said she wouldn't have been able to stay because "the cables and pylons give off electricity", she said it looked a"sweet little site". I just smiled and said receiving her parcel  had been no problem at all and off she went. Presumably to somewhere much safer!
Meanwhile, back in the real world, I collected another lovely pile of library books from the mobile library. They are mostly crime fiction this month 

  except for this one below, which if it is as good as it looks might get added to my wish list for my Home Front collection.

 As we have 2 or 3 blokes here tomorrow doing the concreting of half of the back path, I made a nice big fruit cake to keep them sustained. They have said they can come back in a few weeks to do the other half so that will be brilliant. Him Outside and I managed to get the smaller bits of rubble cleared and the shuttering edges for the path fixed. He went and collected the cement and ballast so we are right ready.
While he was collecting cement I popped into Co-op where much to my surprise they actually had one pack of reduced price neck of lamb chops and chipolatas. When I say reduced it's only by a third but living around here that's quite good. Amongst the reduced price fruit and veg there was a small swede ( and mouldy strawberries! - didn't buy those!) so the swede went with the lamb, value carrots from the fridge, our own onions-lasting really well this year- and mint from the garden,to make a nice lamb stew. Which is quite a treat, as lamb is something that we ate a lot years ago when we kept and bred sheep but is now priced out of reach. They had three packs of chipolatas so I got all three and popped them into the freezer.
I watched some tennis this afternoon and then had a surprise visit by a retired couple from Essex who've camped on the site several times over the last 20 years. They have had to give up camping so were staying at a B & B not far away so they could go to some Benjamin Britten events at Snape Maltings and in Aldeburgh (This is the centenary celebration of Britten with lots of special thing happening) and thought they would pop in to say hello.So we caught up over a cuppa. I thought it was such a coincidence some of our friendly visitors should call in on the same day as the" lady with the parcel"!

The joys of owning a small campsite.

We meet all sorts of  people who come to our campsite. Some like to chat about the area, the weather or the chickens, others just  say Hello, most are happy to be on holiday, some seem to find holidays difficult. Lots come back every year, some have become friends. We try to be cheerful with everyone. But sometimes I wonder how we do it.
Here is something that happened this week -
 Monday, Phone rings, A lady would like to come to the site  on Thursday for the weekend. Yes that's fine says I, write down details, answer questions re price, facilities etc. Say goodbye and see you next Thursday.
10 minutes later phone rings. Same lady - forgot to ask if it's OK to bring dog. Yes, no problem says I we have lots of footpaths close by for dog walking and  dogs are welcome.
Hour later phone rings. Same lady - Would it be OK to have a parcel delivered to us for her to collect as there is something she needs. Yes says I- no problem, just put" care of" our address and we will look out for it and keep it safe for her.
Hour later phone rings. Same lady - She has ordered the required thing and it will be posted to us, it should arrive by Thursday, please could we look out for it and keep it for her. Yes of course says I, No problem, I'm sure it will arrive on time. See you Thursday.
Tuesday evening, phone rings. Same lady - she has looked on OS map and now realises we have pylons close to site. Not sure if it will be suitable for her as she is sensitive to Electrical things close by.
Husband answers-  Says, that's fine, the pylons are on adjoining field, the cables are not  very near site and we can put her caravan furthest away behind the hedge or if she would rather not come no problem to cancel booking. She says perhaps she will book another site just in case she feels pylons are too close.
This morning phone rings. Same Lady- She says she has been thinking about it and  the cables will be too close to the campsite. So she is staying at  another site nearby.
 That's OK says I, no problem, thank you for letting us know and your  parcel has arrived safely, so don't forget to call in and collect. She says she will call in tomorrow morning.Sorry says I, but I will be in and out a couple of times tomorrow morning and could she call this afternoon or tomorrow  afternoon instead. Well, not very convenient says she but suppose she could re- arrange her plans for tomorrow!
Ok says I, We will be here all afternoon so we will see you then.
Hour later phone rings. Same lady-  Could I leave parcel out for her somewhere safe?
Not really says I, would rather keep it indoors and pass it to her directly. She says she will rearrange her plans and call in tomorrow afternoon as previously arranged. OK says I, we will see you tomorrow afternoon.
I'm so looking forward to seeing this lady and smiling and saying yes it was no problem to keep her parcel for her and I hope she has a nice holiday in the area!

Is it me?

Batten down the hatches!

Have you seen the weather forecast? Very strong unseasonal winds, could cause some damage, heavy rain overnight, temperatures below average!
I'm worried what the garden will look like after that lot!

Thinking about plastic and Big Brother, Plus a biscuit recipe.

  I was looking at some different blogs yesterday and came across a challenge that takes place in Australia each year. People sign up to not buying anything in plastic for a day, a week or  for the whole month of July. It is to bring awareness about the huge quantities of plastic waste ( estimated to be twice the size of Texas in the North Pacific alone)  that drift in the oceans, wash up on beaches and cause problems to so many areas of the world.
I don't think I have heard of this challenge via Friends of the Earth so it must just be in Australia.
Signing up for a day would be pretty pointless I reckon, a week would be easy but a month would be difficult without a way of buying milk in anything other than in plastic bottles. Is there anywhere that still uses glass? - No milkman delivers anywhere near us. This is the website if you want a look.
 http://www.plasticfreejuly.org/the-challenge.html
 I can remember when the Co-op stopped giving out plastic bags for free and now it is quite the norm to take our own reusable bags everywhere. But why are so many things, that could be sold differently, sold in punnets or on plastic trays? I shall give this more thought. It's good to be nudged to think about different things sometimes.

This morning I made a double batch of Peanut Biscuits - enough to last us for ages. I have 3 main biscuit recipes that I use and this one I've been using for years, ever since I saw it in THE PENNY PINCHER PAPER many moons ago.
 Basic Biscuit Recipe
8oz Plain flour         }
1tsp baking powder }     sieved together
Pinch salt
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
1 egg

Plus one of the following : 2oz chopped nuts/ 2oz coconut/grated zest of a lemon/2oz chocolate chips.

Rub fat into flour, add rest of dry ingredients then add beaten egg, mix to bind.
 Roll out as thin as possible, cut into rounds, put onto greased trays and bake for 170C, Gas 5 for 10 - 12 minutes, until just changing colour. Put straight onto wire trays to cool and crisp up.

I also made my usual weekly two loaves of bread.
Him outside started the job of putting down the wooden shuttering to make edges for the new path along the back of the house. He is taking it steady but seems to be fine.
Then he had to go up to Ipswich Hospital for  the pre- angio-gram check, blood tests etc. ( apparently an angio-gram could cause stroke or heart attack! - Oh Heck).
The sun shone for a while this afternoon, which was nice as we hadn't seen it since last Friday.
Dinner tonight fruit and vegetable curry, rice and home made naan bread.. When there isn't much home grown veg around I chuck in some chopped apricots and prunes to bulk it up a bit, tastes delicious. Tonight there was more fruit than veg!
Now about to watch something about a man avoiding everything that could be leave an electric trace  or on-line footprint,on channel 4 news - due to the news about secrecy being breached by USA. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU AND READING THIS!!!

Open Wide!

Actually they don't say that any more. My once a year visit to the dentist happened this morning and I need a filling so have to go back next week too. I dread going for weeks beforehand, it wasn't too bad when I had the same dentist for 18 years but then he suddenly retired and now it has been somebody new each time.
I then popped in the Co-op and got £42 pounds of store cupboard stuff, fruit, milk and other odds and ends for £22 thanks to having a £5 off an over £40 spend voucher + £14 of divi vouchers and £1 off fruit voucher. Seemed like a good shopping trip - pity divi vouchers are only twice a year!
 Last night I finished the 4th and final book about the Cazalet family by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I enjoyed them immensely and am so pleased they were recommended to me as I probably wouldn't have tried them otherwise. The library van is due Friday so my pile of books has lasted me well. I think there is another nice big lot awaiting.
That awful North east wind has gone thankfully, so although it's still grey at least it is a few degrees warmer today.
Him Outside  cut the grass on both parts of the campsite, then we have to make a start on sorting out the rubble around the back of the house and marking out the path edges as his 3 ex-work friends are coming at the weekend to begin concreting. The tablets he is taking are working well and he is feeling much better with no chest pains for a week now, so between us we should be able to get that work done.
We had our first strawberry for lunch - half each!  and the final asparagus for dinner. Now it must be left to recover until next year.

That's the story of our simple life on an ordinary Monday.
More wild excitement tomorrow :-) 

Three Cheers For The First New Potatoes!

Here is a picture that is a pleasing sight.

These are our first early potatoes dug today. The variety is Swift and this plus 3 larger ones that I quickly cooked for a potato salad for lunch are all from one root. This means we don't have to buy anymore potatoes. How good is that!
More signs of hopefulness on a cold June Sunday.

Tiny Plums have set.

Gooseberries are growing.

We might beat the blackbirds to the Morello cherries.

Our Green Man is still watching over some trees we planted 8 years ago.

Now settling down to watch mens tennis Final from Paris, plus doing a bit of  cross stitching.

(PS thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and welcome to Wendy at Blue Borage)

June 8th? It's more like January!

SOOOOOOOOOOOO cold here today. If  you couldn't see there were leaves on the trees you would think it was a winters day. The wind is a strong North East - straight down from the arctic and not a glimmer of sunshine.We didn't even bother to open the polytunnel doors. The Rayburn was lit for hot water earlier and now the woodburner is alight for warmth.
 Apart from collecting eggs I've been inside all day which is very depressing. Him Outside took the tractor with the topper to do the meadow at the second-home, then visited the elderly friend whose job it used to be. I fiddled about with ideas for card making but inspiration was sadly lacking.
At the beginning of the week  a cheque arrived for the  machinery that Him Outside took to the collective farm  auction last month. I put it away ready to add to the ISA. Then next day we got a letter to say that a computer glitch had caused the wrong date to be printed on all the cheques and we had to send it back. The date printed was 32/10/51! I wonder what the world will be like in 2051?
Dinner tonight was cold chicken with salad and potatoes and stewed apples and raspberries from the freezer. I had a good sort-out in the freezer depths the other day and was surprised that we still had several small bags of fruit left - mainly raspberries and redcurrants with a 2lb bag of gooseberries and a few bags of apple slices. I think I might mix the g.gogs with some raspberries and redcurrants and make some tutti- frutti jam. I'm checking the gooseberry bushes  for sawfly caterpillers most days and the crop is looking good as long so as the weather is  warm and we get some good rain  it won't be long before I'm putting this years harvest into the freezer.
Now going to watch Rugby - England  v Argentina. French Open tennis finals tomorrow, Queens Club tennis next week and Wimbledon very soon = My favourite time of the year!