Review of the year - looking back at 2014 in pictures

Like everyone else in blogland I'm looking back before jumping into the New Year.

So how was 2014 for us on the Simple Suffolk Smallholding.
Despite C seeing more of the hospital than we would have chosen, 2014 has gone by so quickly, we were very busy juggling so many different things; The Campsite, Growing for sale and for us, Chickens and Eggs, Haymaking, Cs odd jobbing.

We read dozens of books, visited car boot sales, sat in the sun now and again, cut wood to keep us warm, ate our own fruit and vegetables and generally lived a quiet and simple life.

Here are some of my favourite pictures from 2014

First violets of spring

Arrival of our new cats. Polly - friendly, Mabel - shy

My 59th Birthday

A reminder of some of the interesting things found at car boot sales this year

My new radio - saved for over 6 months

                                   

Our new garden shed, built from scratch by C and the shabby-chic ladder with plants

From a fruitful garden

Haymaking on our field

A free load of firewood

Family BBQ at the home of C's sister

5 Giant pumpkins

C after the Hardly a Heart Attack saying Thank you for all the good wishes from blogging friends

Free meals

Christmas dinner for 12

Thank you to everyone who reads and comments
Thank you to everyone who reads and doesn't comment!
Thank you to everyone who writes interesting blog posts for others to read
Thank you to people who give me ideas for books to read
Thank you for those who share recipes and crafting.




Back Next Year!
Sue

What being debt free, organised and frugal means to us

Choice.

Being frugal back in the 1980s gave us the choice of whether  I had to go back to work after having the children.
Being frugal gave us the choice to move house several times to end up here with  a home worth more than many others
Becoming  debt free a few years ago gave us the chance to save some money which in turn gave C the choice to change from full time employment to part time self employment.
Being frugal and debt free means we are able to choose what we do with our pennies.
Being frugal and organised is knowing there is always money put aside for bills and for all expenses and even for the unknown around the corner.

Fearless

We don't have to fear the postman bringing a bill
We don't have to worry about what will happen if C has another heart attack and can't work
We never need worry about being cold or hungry
We know we can downsize when we need to, we don't have to worry about being able to manage here.

Content

Despite having money to spare we are content living the way we do
We don't have to join in with consumerism
We don't feel the need to queue for the sales
We have hobbies that make us happy without costing a fortune
I'm happy with my blog and won't be adding lot's of ads and sponsorship.

Back Soon
Sue

A Catching up Post

First, welcome to MummyHughesy, Crown princess and Lindabwick22 who have clicked the Google button and f land, SusiWa and Treehedgewytch via Bloglovin

So where have I been for the last day or two?

On Sunday we had a day out visiting Cs sister and brother-in-law. Everyone who was at our house on Christmas Day except our eldest and her other half who had already headed home to Surrey, were there plus our nephew and niece and their partners. The Logo Game competition was in progress when I took these pictures.

  It's a good job she has a large house. 16 people fitted into one room.
 Everyone ate too much yet again and we brought home some of the food we had taken so another lot of leftovers in the fridge!

This morning we had to go to Ipswich as C had a hospital appointment - a 3 month follow-up from the October heart "event". We didn't bother to go into the town centre for shopping, still nothing needed. So it just a quick stop at Aldi for milk and veg, hospital and home. The doctor at the hospital has changed some tablets yet again so hopefully C will lose the breathlessness that's been a problem since October.

I now hope we can stay at home for several days without visitors, without driving anywhere and without overeating.

Back Soon
Sue

Loving Our Quiet Life

Other parts of the country had snow but we just got rain, a LOT of rain, non-stop 15 hours of rain and then more on and off all day. The chicken runs are lakes. Thank goodness the forecast is for better weather until the end of the year.

The house is more or less tidy, everything that came out of the dining room cupboard before Christmas has gone back in again. We are eating our way through the leftovers and that just leaves the decorations to come down sometime before New Year.

I easily resisted the opportunity to go shopping, both in the real and virtual worlds as there is nothing we need. Instead I've been dipping into books old and new, finding my desk in the craft room after things that were not needed in the living room were dumped on it and filling in my new diary with all the birthdays etc.

I am very happy with the quiet life we lead. It was lovely to have a house full of family but I couldn't do it often!

Hope you had a good day,we did.

Thank you for all the Christmas greetings on comments on 24th and I enjoyed reading everyone's Christmas posts over the last few days.

I think that Christmas day went well, it was all a bit of a blur - No, not too much alcohol, just very very busy. Cooking for 12 involves lots of juggling of dishes and pans, plates and jugs! All worth the effort as I've never seen so much food demolished so eagerly by all the family.

I think C caught us all mid-munch!

 We didn't get to Aldeburgh for a walk along the prom as it was well past 3pm, and beginning to drizzle by the time we left the dining table.

We had some lovely pressies. I have 7 Penny Pincher Letter Friends and we swap small presents, often home made, each year and because they are a total surprise they are fun to unwrap. There were also   presents all the way from Tiree and from the US - also penfriends, and also a good surprise. Then of course lovely gifts from all the family, often from our wishlists so always something really wanted. (The books below for me!). Our eldest, who always finds me something lovely gave me a beautiful Christmas table cloth amongst other things and there were things from my wish list from the other children.
Our lovely neighbour who says " I don't do presents!" always gives us both some money - which is a pretty good present as it often is the only money that I get all year that I feel I can do whatever I like with ( I'm sure there are words in the wrong order in that sentence!).
Amongst other things, C had a sundial from me and a rain gauge from our eldest, so has some jobs to do sorting out the best place outside for those. He secretly got me this beautiful hand turned Sycamore bowl.

 While the brilliant butter dish in the colours of my kitchen came from our friends.

Today me and C spent the morning washing dishes, saucepans, plates etc etc left from yesterday, putting things into the cupboard and getting the living room furniture back in its place. And thank goodness I hoovered up as  my sister, brother-in-law and nephew called in after walking on the coast!

This evening has turned much colder and snow may well have fallen in the west and north of the country. I doubt we will get much over here on the coast - we rarely do.

I hope your Christmas Day and Boxing day were everything you hoped for.

Did you see TV News with those nutters queueing at 3am for Boxing Day Sales? I'm glad I wasn't!

Back Soon
Sue

All ready

We are ready, bring it on.

It's Christmas!

A long time waiting for a carving fork!

I've had a kitchen of my own for nearly 40 years but I've never had one of these until today.

Looks like a lethal weapon!

 No idea why, just never thought of buying one at the right moment I guess. It's already been used today for lifting the ham joint that I cooked, out of the water and into the roasting tin. It will make it a lot easier to carve too, and the chicken we have for dinner on Thursday.

All the shopping has been done and we don't need to go anywhere for days. I avoided buying any more of anything fattening, last year we were given 6 boxes of chocolates, so this year I've not bought any which means we probably won't be given any! 
I also didn't buy a bunch of flowers for £12, a luscious chocolate dessert for £15 or any of the dozens of other things that are vastly overpriced just because it's Christmas.

The weather shows no sign of giving us any of the white stuff for Christmas, in fact it was so warm, with a good drying wind that C decided to cut the grass around the front and in the orchard. Grass cutting on December 23rd must be some sort of record or just plain nuts, but it's not stopped growing so really needed doing.

Back tomorrow
Sue

What have I forgotten?

Considering it's just 3 and a bit days 'til we have 10 visitors for the day I don't seem to have done much today, which makes me wonder if their is something vital I've forgotten to do.

We  needed to shop in both Leiston and Saxmundham before Christmas and originally planned to do both tomorrow. But car parks will be jammed by 9am at both I'm guessing, so I decided to split things. Then C said he wanted to get new wiper blades for the Jeep so it was Saxmundham and Tescos today.
 I had vouchers for £6.50 which helped and covered the cost of extra things we needed to buy as a contribution for Cs sister when we go after Christmas. She emailed everyone last week inviting us all before adding up numbers and finding it came to 18! And they have 16 there on Christmas day too. She must be mad! They have a huge old farmhouse so plenty of room but it will help if we contribute towards the food for the day. I'll also make a trifle and bake a quiche to take.

So my next job was to make some pastry  cases for quiches, while C hoovered up.

I've swapped the frozen stuff we need for Christmas from the outside to the indoor freezer to save a bit of time on Wednesday and that's about the sum total of today's jobs.

I'm now off to check the lists to see what's been forgotten

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Things can only get lighter

December 21st - The shortest day, from now on things get lighter and colder. The old weather saying " As the days lengthen so the cold strengthens" is usually right. The weather man on Countryfile said it's more likely to snow at Easter than Christmas, and I read somewhere about how few Christmases have actually been white since records began and it's not many at all, although I still like to send Christmas cards with snow on them.

Today the 3 largest vases/jugs I have, have been filled with a mixture of greenery from the garden. We are so lucky to have lots of different evergreens growing here ranging from Rosemary to huge conifers. As predicted, the berries have all gone from the Holly. The blackbirds that arrive from the North soon cleared the Pyracantha and Holly but they are not so keen on the Cotoneaster Lactis berries.

I've decided my favourite things about Christmas Season are

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Bringing in lots of greenery from the garden on the Solstice

Laying the Christmas dinner table

  While I was fiddling about in the dining room, getting out all the "best" stuff ( which was actually bought at a car boot sale for the bargain price of £10 about 7 or 8 years ago) and giving everything a wash or wipe,  C has been cleaning the conservatory. There were  black mouldy spots on some of the plastic roof struts. So doing it bit by bit with a sit down in between he has got round the whole lot and cleaned the window sills and hoovered up. Job well done. We are going to heat the conservatory on Christmas day and spread ourselves around as there just isn't room for 12 to sit in the living room.

Yesterday we delivered presents to Cs sister and their family. We went via Snape Maltings and called in at the Christmas Food and Drink festival. It was free to get in unlike the bigger version in September . There were several local producers there and we sampled a few bits but I always feel guilty trying lots of stuff with no intention of buying - silly I know. We did get a big bottle of local apple juice for Christmas dinner.

So Sundays jobs from the list have been done and I shall be back tomorrow after finishing the Monday job list.

Sue


P.S.Welcome to pensive pensioner, a new follower on Google and thanks to everyone for comments

Busy Saturday

We spent the morning in various parts of Suffolk finishing up at our son's for lunch. Now we're home and watching the Strictly final.Very Close this year but Caroline should win after a brilliant Show Dance.
A better post tomorrow
Sue

Two big cocks!..........PHEASANTS I mean, honestly, what did you think I meant?!

Taking my lead from John at Going Gently, that's a title sure to push up the page views!

There were 3 free things that happened here today

Look away now if you are vegetarian or squeamish or don't agree with shooting.

 We were still sitting down after lunch when there was a knock on the door and our old friend from the village had brought us 2 brace of pheasants. His grandson had been beating for a shoot and had brought them over, but Roy had already been given some from a local shoot so he has passed them onto us. They needed getting into the freezer quick. A few minutes of yuckiness and that's made us 4 free meals.

 After several grey gloomy days and heavy rain last night, today we had lovely sunshine and two loads of washing were soon flapping on the line drying for free.Although I very rarely use the tumble dryer anyway, preferring to wait for a decent day and finish them off over the Rayburn

C hitched the tipping trailer to the tractor and brought it round to clear up all the stuff he has cut down over the last few days. We are looking nice and tidy for Christmas visitors.

Later C cut my hair - another free thing - and now I'm also tidy for Christmas!

Not much on TV again tonight so we'll get into Christmas mood by listening to Friday night is Music Night on Radio 2, which tonight is all sorts of Christmas music, poetry and prose. Last night we were treated to a special Take That performance on Jo Wiley's Radio 2 programme . Pity there is only 3 of them now but they still sounded good.

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

What we've been doing

C has been working outside, testing himself with what he can do without getting out of breath. So far he has trimmed the top off the front hawthorn hedge on both sides of the gateway and cut down some of the small  Ash and brambles that were creeping under the Horse Chestnut tree, taking light and moisture from the things in the fruit cage. The Ash were only cut back about 5 years ago.

He is finding that working upright is no problem, but bending up and down soon makes him feel not quite right so that he needs to stop.
 We now have heaps of prunings all along the front fence and in the orchard waiting to be cleared up.

On Tuesday and Wednesday he also worked at our neighbours for a couple of hours sorting out her strawberry bed which had got in a mess. He brought home a few runners and has put them in some spare growbags in the poly-tunnel, they hadn't really rooted so may not survive - we shall see.

Last year, after Looking at all the Christmas trees we have on the smallholding we bought a cheap artificial one from B & Q ( did you know some fake trees are over £200)  This year, because we have a crowd here, we put our tree up in the conservatory. But the living room was looking so un-Christmassy I had a brainwave and we carefully picked it up and stood it on a small table wedged in the corner behind the TV - we wouldn't have been able to do that with a real one! It looks a bit odd but at least it's cheered up the living room.
We don't do 'hanging things' anymore because the room was re-plastered when the extension was built and the few bits we have pinned in resulted in bits of plaster all over the floor and cracks in the ceiling. We don't want to have to decorate the room before we move.

One of my favourite clearing up jobs it to sort through STUFF, get rid of the useless and make everything take up less room than before. I spent most of yesterday clearing out everything from a small pine bureau in the craft room, tidying up and clearing out things from a tall chest of drawers and fitting the useful things from the bureau into the top drawers. Now the small bureau ( bought off ebay many years ago) which seemed such a good idea but actually never got used properly as the drop down front bit wasn't high enough to sit at, can go out in the shed ready  to go to the auction house or car boot sale.

Today I put the marzipan and icing on the Christmas cakes and wrote lists.
Here is something to bring joy to list makers everywhere - A List Of Lists!

•  shopping list for the 23rd
• the jobs that need doing between now and 23rd
• jobs for Christmas eve
•  things I want to do between Christmas and New Year
• ideas for things to make for next Christmas
• things to look out for in the sales ( that's a very short list only wrapping paper and presents)
• things to look for at car-boot sales next year

Now I only need to write a job list for Christmas morning and I'll be sorted, with dinner for 12  on the table by around 1.15 to give us time to take Cs Dad down to Aldeburgh for some sea air in the afternoon. ( Hopefully leaving the kids behind to wash up!)

Back Tomorrow
Sue

No pieces missing

Just a quick post today, I seem to be spending too much time fiddling in blogland recently.


 All 1000 pieces present and correct, the puzzle has kept me out of mischief for several hours.
It will go back into it's box and off to the next car boot sale we do where I shall hopefully get my £1 back for it.
Now I shall get back to reading and preparing for feeding our 10 visitors on the 25th.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

A Winter Week Without a Salary, Odds and Ends and Home Farmer Magazine Review

I've just realised I have new followers on Bloglovin'. The numbers went down 2 and then up 3 so welcome to Tannia, Helen Roasty and Loraine, thank you for reading my ramblings.

I went to Saxmundham this morning for milk and a few bits and the final voucher for a Christmas pressies. Came home and wrapped up the present and then realised I had 2 more things still to sort and wrap which took me to the very end of my Christmas wrapping paper. I shall need to look out for some in the January sales, I don't think I have bought any for several years. I quite fancy getting some brown paper and printing with potato prints or something similar but in reality I know I'll never get round to it and it would probably end up being more expensive anyway.
We had a very nice hand made card in the post the other day and I said to C that I really ought to make more cards other than the few I make for my Penny Pinching Pen Friends. He said the same thing - that it's probably more expensive to make them than to find some cheap in the sales or at car boot sales. ( The thing he doesn't know is that I probably have enough of a stash of card making bits and bobs to make several years of cards!).

*    *    *    *

I'm in trouble again for correcting a mis-quote on another blog. The problem was because it was misquoted it changed the whole reason for the quote and it gives me the heeby jeebys to see something in print that I know is wrong. I think when I'm even older and crustier I shall be one of those grumpy old women who write to newspapers and Points Of View to correct mistakes - Oh what fun!

*    *    *    *

Once again a copy of Home Farmer Magazine has arrived for me to review. As always it's filled with interesting articles. The food bit in this January edition features Norfolk recipes, marmalade, porridge and sausage making.
John Harrison writes about rhubarb and Sara Evans-Charrington has recipes for home made cleaners.

I was very tempted by an offer of a free book just for the price of postage until I remembered that I had them both! Sometimes I forget just what we have got - too many books perhaps? No, that's impossible!
Another good offer is for 5 packets of seed for greenhouse growing worth £10 for £2.95 and a bigger collection of £32.75 worth of various seeds for £15. ( I still haven't done our seed order yet so I need to check out this offer)

There is an interesting bit about Comfrey and comfrey "tea" for fertiliser. We just bung a mesh bag of it in a water butt however John Butterworth has built a special pipe contraption which could be better and avoid some of the smelliness.

My favourite features as usual were smallholder Dot Tyne's diary from her welsh smallholding and the pages of short news items of interest to smallholders and gardeners.

*    *    *    *    *

And Finally - a couple of times in the summer when our income from self employment is good I've done posts about what we earn, how we earn it and how we save some for winter.

This is why we need to save  - here's  a weeks income from December

Thursday 4th Dec - Eggs £8
Friday 5th Dec - Eggs £7
Saturday 6th Dec - Eggs £8
Sunday 7th Dec - Eggs  £13. Cs pay for working at our neighbours £12.50
Monday 8th Dec - Eggs £9. Hay £5
Tuesday 9th Dec - Eggs £6
Wednesday 10th Dec - Eggs £15. Hay £5
That makes a weeks income of  £88.50. So it's a good job we paid off the mortgage all those years ago, don't have any debts and have put money away during the summer months.

*    *    *    *    

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and a special thank you message to my penfriend D from the States - kitchen pressie arrived safe and sound - I shall be good and save it to Christmas.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The up-market side of Suffolk

It was a beautiful blue sky morning, just right for a walk. But I had bread rising before we decided so we went out straight after lunch instead. Typically the sky clouded over just as we got to Southwold.

Southwold is 20 minutes north of us and one of the most expensive places to own property, even the beach huts fetch £100,000. The sea was flat calm and it was chilly but there were crowds of people about especially through the town which is full of small up market touristy shops although Costa, Tesco Express and W H Smiths have managed to sneak in during the last few years. Southwold is the home of Adnams Brewery and today there was a smell of their beer brewing all over the town.

We don't have many Lighthouses in Suffolk, this is one of them

The pier

We came home via a shop called "Wild about birds" to buy a new seed feeder as ours is cracked and letting too much seed out. I've never seen so many different types of seed for birdfeeding as they have in that shop.

That was our Monday jaunt.

Home in time for a cuppa and washing up the lunch things and sorting eggs.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Card making

Christmas cards have all been sent and presents wrapped so time to clear my desk in the craft room.

For a complete change I made birthday cards

Using the things I bought with my Craft Creations voucher, I've made 7 variations on a theme ready for next year. That's the ladies birthdays sorted now I need to do some for the men of the family and then some Christmas cards for Next Year.
Nothing like Being Prepared.


Thank you for all the comments on the Leek recipes yesterday, I hope they were useful for someone .

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Have you had a leek lately?

That's the vegetable with a double E.- obviously!

If I had a small garden with only space for a few winter veg I would definitely grow leeks. They are one of the most useful things we grow.
 The price varies in the supermarket depending on the weather but they are not as cheap as some of the other winter staples like carrots and parsnips so I would choose space for leeks every time.

We sow in pots and outside. Then they are transplanted into holes dibbled with something like a pointed broom handle. Water them in rather than filling the hole with soil. You can earth them up to make them whiter but in our heavy soil we don't do this in case they rot. Instead we have shorter white bits but the green bit is edible too so it doesn't matter.

We never eat them just plain boiled when they can turn into a limp mess.

Here are some of our favourite ways of using leeks

As the base for a vegetable curry - chop leeks,onion, an apple. Melt butter in a pan and stir the veg in cook 'til soft. Stir in tablespoon flour and dessert-spoon( or more) of curry powder. Cook for a few minutes then mix in half pint hot stock. Then you can add some softer veg, or cooked potato or dried fruit, a spoonful of chutney, some pepper. Add extra stock or hot water as it cooks.

Leek and Potato soup. The are hundreds of recipes for this everywhere, so I won't put one here.

Leek Fritters - slice a couple of leeks length ways and then into thin slices. Soften in a little butter in the microwave. Leave to cool, mix in 3oz plain flour, 1 beaten egg and enough milk to make a thick batter. Then add plenty of black pepper. . Heat some oil in a frying pan and put in large spoonful of mixture and flatten, cook 'til golden and turn over to cook the other side, Drain on kitchen paper -towels. Lovely with bacon or ham.

Leeks Braised with Thyme. - Soften some butter in the microwave, with a tablespoon of chopped thyme and stir in leeks that have been trimmed and cut into thick slices. Tip into a roasting tin so they are in one layer. Pour over ½ pint hot vegetable stock. Dampen a large piece of greaseproof paper and scrunch it up then lay over the top of the leeks. Cook in a fairly hot oven for 30mins. Remove the paper and pop back in oven for 10 minutes until the edges of the leeks are browned a bit.

Leek and Ham Bake - Cut some leeks into thick slices and cook in water until they have just softened a bit. Drain really well and tip into an oven proof dish. Mix in some pieces of ham. Pour over a thick white sauce. Sprinkle plenty of grated cheese and dried breadcrumbs over the top and bake in the oven for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Leek, potato, mushroom and Stilton bake - Much the same as above but cut potatoes into thick slices and boil with leeks sliced to same size until starting to soften. Add the sliced mushrooms for a couple of minutes. Drain really well. Tip into oven proof dish and cover with a thick white sauce that has had a couple of ounces of Stilton crumbled in.  Scatter dried breadcrumbs over the top and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

And finally the the Pasties I made last month.

Useful veg.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Panic!

Imagine my horror  the other night when I went on the library website to order a book, and found this


" ! A £1 charge will apply if an item is reserved from the joint Suffolk and Cambridgeshire(SPINE) catalogue."


Aaaaaagh I order dozens of books, how have they sneaked this in - from free to £1 - without telling us. PANIC! PANIC!

There was a FAQ page about this new joint venture with Cambridgeshire  Libraries but it didn't really explain anything so I emailed a message.

 Back came a reply. " If you live in Suffolk and order a book that's in Suffolk Libraries it is still free. You can now browse Cambridgeshire catalogue and if you order a book from that then a £1 charge applies"
PHEW what a relief!


Many Thanks for the comments about my very rough looking wreath - honestly it doesn't do to look closely!


 Back Tomorrow
Sue

I was almost tempted

This gorgeous everlasting wreath was in a Thompson & Morgan Seed Company Christmas brochure that arrived through the post last week.
It's 21.99 and I looked at it for ages . If we kept it for 20 years ( Heck, I'd be almost 80!) that would work out at only just over a £1 each Christmas. And if I had sent for it I could have had a pot of 5 indoor hyacinths for half price of £4.99.

I showed C and of course him being the voice of reason ( i.e mean!) said well, get it if you want but will it really last that long and wouldn't you rather have £20 worth of books? I can always rely on him to remind me of my priorities!

So I found the old foam wreath that I had bought from a charity shop last year for 99p( it came already covered with red crepe paper and with a few ribbony bits and bobs), wired on some conifer and holly sprigs and hung it on the front door.

It's OK as long as your don't look too closely.

 Frugal saving of £20

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Ticked off

Mince Pies ✔

Cheese straws ✔

Suffolk rusks ✔

More presents wrapped ✔

Back Tomorrow

Sue  ☺

Get out the highlighter pen

The Radio Times is in!
Like so many other people it is the only time we buy a copy, it's a Christmas Must-Have in this house.

The children used to spend hours deciding what they wanted to watch and the whole thing would fall apart before Christmas day arrived.

Thank you to Philip and others for comments about comments! I'm pleased to hear nothing strange is happening . Kev asked what a Vegetable and Nut roast looked like, so if he would like to look HERE. This is the recipe and picture of the very tasty individual roasts I made for our two vegetarian visitors ( and one for me too to make a change ) for Christmas day.

I've now almost finished shopping for presents, just one more voucher to buy. Now I must get out the wrapping paper and sellotape. I don't do posh wrapping, my pressies always look as if they been chucked together!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Thwarted!

I went to friend A's yesterday with some ideas for books to suggest to her, only to find she had them all on her shelves already! We have the same taste in reading so often swap lists and every time we go there I spend ages perusing her shelves to see what she's bought since the last time.

Much more like a winter day today, very cold but sunny. It's all to do with the full moon the other day according to C. I took a picture of the moon rising the other night but it didn't come out well. I said ages ago that I wanted to save up for a new camera but haven't made a start yet. Perhaps that will be my new years resolution.

The Christmas day Vegetable/nut roasts have been made and will go in the freezer, one more thing ticked off the list.

In between jobs I've been keeping warm and having a go at the 1000 piece jigsaw, its going to be a long job to get it done.

I seem to be having a problem with someone commenting on other blogs and it's somehow linking to my name. John Grey at Going Gently asked if I was Phillip or Sue and now Pat at Weaver of Grass has commented on my blog about a comment on her blog which was left by Phillip but she thought it was left by me. What's going on here?

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Over the border to Essex

We had a lovely day out today visiting some friends in Essex. A is such a good cook so we always look forward to eating with them. We took a couple of bales of straw over for them and after lunch took it to their allotment where they also have chickens. They live close to a busy road in a busy village but their allotment is a couple of miles out of the village in a lovely high and open place.

It's no wonder  that in the summer they take their lunch and spend the day there, very quiet all round except for the steady stream of planes going into Stansted Airport. It was freezing there today though and we were glad to get back to their house for a cuppa.

We did a Christmas pressie swap, caught up on family news and I checked over her bookshelves to see what new books she has and noted down a few titles.
Then it was a long drive home along very busy roads. Where is everyone coming or going to on a Sunday evening?

Welcome to Doo a new follower on Google Friends and to Maggie and Rebecca on Bloglovin.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

A Christmas Puzzle on a cheap Saturday.

A sharp frost this morning (which is only our second frost of the winter) with a thin layer of ice on the chickens water. But as the sun was shining from a blue sky it felt OK.

We got some more scrap-wood cut up and added to the heap and late morning I biked to the nearest village where they were having a Christmas Fair. Last weeks Christmas Fair in Knodishall was packed full of people but this week in Friston was much quieter mainly because there was almost nothing there. The people running it are all elderly and since we moved here the fair has shrunk each year. It doesn't help that almost half the houses in the village are second or holiday homes so stand empty at this time of year.

Did I spend anything ? I hear you all asking, after all this is supposed to be a blog about frugal and simple living.
Yes,  I'm afraid I spent £1.
 On this jigsaw puzzle, which I thought looked a good one to do as we've not done one for several years. I hope its all there, nothing worse than a jigsaw with one bit missing.

This afternoon I cut C's hair, saving several £s ( what does it cost for a mans haircut nowadays?) ; made some fairly cheap tomato soup( using our own tomatoes from the freezer, value carrots and our own onions, add a bit of tomato puree and flour for thickening ,pinch salt and sugar  and plenty of black pepper) and finished a brilliant library book - for free.

Eggs were collected and boxed up ready for sale tomorrow. We are now selling about 10 boxes a day ( down from 16 when we had more chickens) but things are much easier with less hens, less cleaning out, less littering, fewer bags of feed to shift etc.

Yesterday C untangled the out-door Christmas lights. They were rescued from my Dad's house when it was cleared out years ago. We haven't used them for a while. Since having the replacement plastic fascias there was nowhere to bang in nails to hang them on but now we have the new shed they have been fixed to it today to cheer up the garden in the December gloom.

Indoors, the first Christmas cards to arrive have been hung on a length of red ribbon which I had in my craft box so saving several £s compared to buying a special thing to hang them on.

So THAT'S how to have a frugal simple Saturday!

Back Tomorrow
Sue


 

Thank you, plus cars and cats

Yesterday I re-did a post from last November and this resulted in lots of comments that made me laugh as everyone joined in the OTT Christmas discussion. Brilliant blogging fun. So thank you everyone especially Gill, Ilona, Trudie, Twiggy and Practically Penniless for cheering up a very grey dismal day.


 I'm told there are videos everywhere on You Tube etc of cats doing funny things.
 I will add a picture of Polly to the collection.
 The foot stool is not usually there but Polly found it handy for looking closely at the snooker balls.

We went to look at a car this morning.

At the moment we have one of these


It's a workhorse and has been used for the last 6 years to pull heavy trailers  and to drive across fields as well as going to do the shopping. It's built like a tank and easy to drive and you sit up quite high BUT it uses diesel like it's going out of fashion and it's almost at the top of the tax band.

Due to Cs Hardly-a-heart-attack we are not going to do haymaking on the two fields we rent, just our bit here. So we only really need something that will pull a small trailer and it would be good to have something that's only £30 a year to tax and did a lot more miles to the gallon. C studied t'internet and thought one of these
would be OK. There was one at the dealers in Leiston and we went and drove it up and down the road for a few miles.

The problem is, before the Jeep we had one of these, (with side windows), you sit up quite high and

actually have to climb up to get in. It was easy to drive and we kept it for years.
All this means it's about 20 years since we had an ordinary sort of car so the Ford Fusion felt very small and not all that comfortable to drive either. The Jeep has comfy leather seats, the Ford felt like sitting on a brick!

More thinking needed.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

I must have calmed down since last year

First I must welcome Angry Parsnip a new follower of my ramblings.

Searching through my old posts for something, I found this which I wrote in November last year. I can't remember why I wrote it but I think it must have been someones  blog post  that made me think ENOUGH!

Every year some people seem to  get themselves into a tizzy about the approach of Christmas. They are worrying about the commercialism, the never ending ads on TV. The over eating. The debt. But I can't see the point of getting all "het up" about it ( as we say in Suffolk).

You can preach all you like but there will always be some people who go completely OTT. This is the time that shops take the most money, so of course they are going to advertise. You don't HAVE to buy what they are trying to persuade you to spend on. However much money you give some people they would still spend it on things others consider unnecessary. However little money other people have they will still spend it all and borrow more. 

You can be annoyed at the shops playing Christmas songs in November, but there's no point in raising your blood pressure over it. Just do your shopping and leave.

 You can be an all-the-year-round Christian or at only-at -Christmas-church visitor but you will be made welcome whoever you are. And if you are not - then find another church next year because if a church doesn't make a stranger feel welcome then they are not doing what they should be doing.

You can be Pagan or Atheist as long as no one is hurt by your beliefs of non beliefs. 

You can stay at home, read a good book, watch TV  or go to huge family parties, in the whole great scheme of things as long as you are not hurting anyone then it doesn't matter.

You can spend a fortune on presents, make them or buy them secondhand. If the recipient doesn't like it then it's their problem not yours.
CHILL
It's just Christmas, it happens every year. Enjoy it or not.
BUT DON'T GO ON AND ON ABOUT IT!

 Thank heavens that no-one  has really gone on and on about Christmas this year, either that or I've not noticed or I am a much calmer person.
However I do have a few  pet hates on blog posts..... smug selfies, people who go on about how wonderful their life is               ( tempting fate I reckon), people who moan about not getting comments, people who have lots of adverts all over the place and repeated swearing for no reason. Oh, and people who take me too seriously!
 Other than that I'm a happy blog reading bunny!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The Stats Lie, Photos and Other Stuff

The other day when things were quiet I filled a post writing about the stats for my blog. Then yesterday I was searching for something I'd written last year and came across posts that had over a thousand views that were not listed in the 'All Time Highest Views' part of the stats page. So that  Famous quote about Lies, Lies  and Damned  Statistics ( I can't remember what it is without going to look in my Quotes book - someone will know!) is definitely right when it comes to Blog posts.

Yesterday C had to take the Jeep to the dealers in Ipswich for them to look at the tow bar because we had been sent a re-call notice about a possible problem. While he was there he got them to check the electrical system on their clever computer to see why we have a problem sometimes with the battery going flat for no reason. Anyway, as this was going to take an hour he dropped me off in the town to finish a bit of Christmas present shopping. I managed to find a blue shirt for Cs Dad at a sensible price and the other few odds and ends I needed, but By Golly the town was Heaving! and it was only the 2nd of December heavens knows what it will be like in a couple of weeks.
We called into Aldi on the way into town, that was packed too and trolleys of things waiting to go onto the shelves standing in the way making it almost impossible to look round properly and they had moved things around since last time we were there. I got in and out as quick as possible.

Thank you to whoever it was who mentioned on their blog how easy it is to get photos printed from a memory stick in Boots. Knowing I was going to be in Ipswich, which has the only Boots branch  with a photo shop, we transferred some of our favourite photos from the blog onto a stick and I went in expecting to have to ask for help but even this old computer illiterate person managed, and now after a gap of years I have some pictures to stick in the photo album. It's funny that there are dozens of pictures of our first two children born in 1980 and 81, holidays and the various places we lived but after our youngest came along in 87 and  we moved here in 92 there are gradually fewer and fewer until 2008 when photos in the album suddenly stop. So there is a picture of our youngest on her first day in the 6th Form in 2004 and then NOTHING until ones I have just printed taken when all our family were here in January this year. That's a 10 YEAR GAP! so thank heavens for blogging which has got me taking photos again.

I have a December job list now, it's very long and seems to involve lots of cooking/making/baking/freezing. I really need to get on with things but I've had 3 trips out in 3 days. Monday we went to get chicken feed and I took my overseas cards to the post office. Yesterday Ipswich and today my normal monthly shop at Tescos. Crafty b*****s, to make way for Christmas stuff in the smallish Saxmundham shop they've almost abandoned their value range. So if you want just normal day to day stuff -Tough. I wish we had called in at the big Tescos on the outskirts of Ipswich yesterday but by the time we had had the whole morning out in the drizzle we just wanted to get home and light the fire. To make matters worse I planned to get some voucher cards for my sister and sister in law in Tescos this morning but they had nothing under £25. Now much as I love my rellies £25 is a bit too much! Which means we now need to trek back to Ipswich to M&S or Debenhams or Next. Damn.

I think that's it for now.
Back Tomorrow
Sue

Review of the month, looking back at November

 At the beginning of last month I shared my list of November plans, by mid month 6 out of 17 were left to do.
At the end of the month..............

1. Continue eating our own fresh apples and fruit from the freezer so that we spend no money on fruit apart from an orange and a lemon for the Christmas cakes.✔
2. Make a double batch of Naan bread✔
3. Make a batch of Tomato and Herb rolls✔
4. Do the main monthly shop✔
5.  Sort the seed/veg plant order and make sure it is less than the £100 that it was last year.
6. Get chicken feed on the way back from Ipswich when C has his 24 hour heart monitor fitted✔
7. Christmas cakes to make, 1 for us and 3 small ones for gifts ✔
8.  I need to find out what Cs Dad and Brother would like for Christmas and get them sorted     out ✔
9. We need to clear the 2 runner bean beds and store the canes away and pick off some beans for drying.✔
10. More clearing in the 3 poly-tunnels ✔
11. Chop a few more sacks of kindling wood✔
12. Clean out the empty chicken shed✔
13. Clear a few veg beds - at least 3 ✔
14. I want to fit in  some cycling or swimming or both for fitness
15. Go and see the sea✔
16. Visit charity shops in a different town✔
17. Confirm how many people will be here on Christmas day✔

I've done a list of what we want for the seed order but I'm hanging on for one more seed catalogue to arrive to compare prices.
So that just leaves cycling or swimming - whoops!

Apart from the list above we also

•  Hired a breaker and got the rest of the old shed base broken and rubble cleared. And thanks to help from our son we got the soil moved in to fill the hole and C leveled it.
• Loads of good books read and another lot collected from the library van
• Spending well down on November last year
• We still have leeks, parsnips and Brussels sprouts in the garden for winter
• 20/30 days were no spend days
• Payment received for hay sold in the summer
• Christmas present shopping started  and almost finished
• Christmas card writing started and almost finished
• The house has been valued and we've decided to do nothing about moving for the time being
•  Found a way to clear out the big chicken shed between us without too much effort
• We've been cutting wood to build up the wood store - all heating free as usual.
• I'm now doing more driving which has built my  confidence.
• We went quizzing after a 18th month gap since last time
• Vegetarian recipe devised for Christmas day and a new pasty recipe tried too.
• Opened the 5p tin and 'found' £30 for Christmas meat.

On the down side
The cat cost a small fortune
We have had so much rain, the field is waterlogged and we can't move the chicken sheds to somewhere dryer until we have a hard frost or a week of drying wind.
I've not had time for swimming or cycling for exercise ( although I have had time for blog writing....... that's odd!)

Thank you to everyone for comments over the last few days.
Back Tomorrow
Sue ☺

Library Book Photo and Year in Books link

Here is my very last Library Book photo of 2014 because the van isn't round again until January

It's a good thing I didn't wait for the Do-Ahead Christmas book as there is nothing in it I fancy making. The Secret Life of Trees looks a bit heavy going.

 Some of the books above are crime fiction by authors I know and a few of the other books are new-to-me authors. 6th from the right - A Very Private Diary by Mary Morris is the story of a nurse training during the war. I've already started it and it looks to be a good read.

Linking in with Laura at  Circle of Pine Trees for the Year in Books
Here were the books I read or tried to read during November. Three  (Eva Dolan, Kerry Tombs and Stephen Booth) were untried authors, but I couldn't get on with any of them.

I loved House Bound by Winifred Peck, a book from the 1942 re- published in the usual grey cover of Persephone Books. The story of a well-to-do woman forced to manage without domestic help. It sounds funny to us now but back then even middle class women born in the late Victorian or Edwardian period were used to a cook and a girl domestic at the very least. Suddenly they all went off for better paid jobs in the munitions factories or joined to serve in one of the Forces.
I also enjoyed Three Houses by Angela Thirkell. First published in 1931 this is the memoirs of Angela as a child growing up and the connections with the artistic members of her family.

I will have plenty to read over the next couple of months because I still have some here from Octobers collection and I might get some for Christmas too, and then of course there are several hundred on the bookshelves if we get snowed in!