That Was (Most of) The Week That Was

 The thing about living in town in an all mains gas/electric bungalow is that for the first time since 1979  we have no alternative self reliant heating or cooking.
Anyway, with dire warnings of a cold winter and possible problems with electricity supply (something to do with no spare capacity from power stations), I suggested we go and get the gas ring from the beach hut. Now we have the gas cooker out in the caravan and the gas ring indoors, I don't feel so vulnerable, but I will be so glad to get back to the country where we will have a wood-burner and hopefully, eventually, a propane-gas range cooker.

There had been some high tides in Felixstowe near the hut,by the looks of the stones washed up onto the prom and a strange phenomenon............. loads of oyster shells washed into the corners by each wooden groyne.

The weather on Wednesday was awful - rain all day. We didn't get out for a walk at all. I just made a card for the wedding next month, read and then started writing my Penny Pinching News letter which is due to go to friends for January 1st . A very lazy day.

 It was Col's blood test on Thursday morning (platelets are up a bit again thank heavens) and then in the afternoon we got out for a 2½ walk - up to Asda and back and no sitting down halfway. Definitely the furthest he has walked since he started feeling poorly a year ago.

Today he is off out for Brunch with ex work colleagues and I haven't got much that has to be done so will get on with finishing the tapestry glasses case or reading.

I've actually abandoned quite a few books recently, yesterday  the new Ann Cleeves, Shetland series - Cold Earth. I've been spoiled by the TV series and the books are completely different. "The 12.30 From Croydon"  is another of the British Library Crime Classics but the story is told from the point of view of the murderer -hate that! "Antidote to venom" was another the same. A friend had told me about a crime series set in Canada by Louise Penny but I couldn't get into the first of these "Still Life" so that went back unread. I wanted to read "A Woman's Place" by Ruth Adam but had several other books at home I preferred first so it went back but it's still on the shelves at Broomhill so I may borrow it again.

 This is the latest photo of our grandson Jacob which daughter has sent, now 5 months old this is his first time on a (rather too big for him) swing. What a difference from the poorly little fella back in July. Can't wait to get down to Surrey soon to see him properly.

Thank you for comments, I shall mention nothing about the country across the pond and just say welcome to another follower.


Spending up-date in Low/No Spend November
Milk, veg and other bits from Aldi, bread and bits from Asda and fruit from the greengrocers £16.50
That book 50p
Pack of 4 gas cartridge thingys for the beach hut gas ring. £8
Boiler repairs £80 Aaaaaagh!  ( That's rather spoiled the low spend plan)

£299 +£105 = £404

Back when something exciting/interesting/noteworthy happens
Sue

Ooops but no apologies!

We've been extending the walks day by day and yesterday did  2.07 miles, which is peanuts I know for most people but for someone who was in hospital until  the middle of September it's not too bad. This walk took us in a circle via the Emmaus charity shop where we knew he could sit down if he needed to.
Much to my surprise I spotted a Persephone on their book shelves, one I hadn't got. Oh dear, what a dilemma, a No Unnecessary  Spend month but there was a 50p book for my collection.

This wasn't sideways when I took the picture!

Actually it wasn't a dilemma at all!
Persephone number 35  "Greenery Street" by Denis Mackail is on my bookshelf.

Thanks for the comments last time and welcome to a new follower

Back Soon
Sue

PS I don't do politics or religion on this blog but I'm praying for a sort-of safe result today!

Le weekend (or is it La weekend)

Le or La ? I failed French O level way back in 1971 and have since forgotten most of what I did learn.

On Friday we popped over to see our perfect granddaughter - 3 and a half weeks old now. She's always perfect when we see her but daughter A says she's being a right pain at night!
We went via the house that sells apples, we've been detouring that way because they've got bags of Cox's for 50p and they are just delicious, got a bag for A too. Did a small shop at Co-op in Leiston while we were there as I had a £2 off £10 voucher. Our local Co-op near Aldi has been turned into a McColls convenience store and a Subway and they have sent Co-op members in the area 2 x £2 off £10 vouchers to make up for the inconvenience. There are 3 other Co-ops on the edges of this estate so I'm not surprised that the one in competition with Aldi has been forced to close.
Friday afternoon was wet and nasty so I sorted out another box of books for Ziffit. Whoop whoop now raised just over £100 and cleared about 50 books!

Saturday morning by request of Col we went to the Needham Market carboot  (though I didn't take any persuading!) It was blinkin' freezing then it started to drizzle so we weren't there long. Me being on Low spend November I just bought some pears for £1 and this new bag, £1, plus a half started tapestry kit, 50p, for making a glasses case. I love rescuing half done craft kits and will finish this for a Christmas present. The bag will also be a present for a friend as they have a Sherlock Holmes game which they often play at Christmas. I'll put her other present inside it.

I was able to resist all books as I didn't see a single one I wanted! And Col just bought some washers.

Next job was Cranberry Chutney for the hampers............... should be simple but after searching  Morrisons and Aldi  for frozen cranberries with no luck I looked on My Supermarket and found Asda didn't have them either. Only Tesco, so called at Tesco in Saxmundham on the way to daughters but no, none there  which only left going to the big Tesco on the edge of Ipswich where you have to walk half a mile to find what you want and at last found them.
So, how to mix and match two recipes from different books.

On the left is a recipe from The Good Housekeeping Book of Preserves, on the right it's the WI book I used the other day. I had 400g of cranberries and decided the GH book didn't have a big enough proportion of  vinegar or sugar to fruit (and I didn't want to use sultanas or raisins) but I didn't like the idea of cooking the onions and apples in butter or using brown sugar as per the WI recipe.
So my recipe was (and apologies for mixing metric and imperial but that's how my mind works!)
 400g cranberries
Approx 12 oz prepared cooking apples ( peeled,cored,chopped)
Approx 10oz red onions peeled and chopped ( red was what I had but ordinary would do)
¾ lb white sugar
15fl oz distilled white vinegar
2 tsp mixed spice.

I put the apples and onions in the preserving pan covered with a bare minimum of water and cooked them for about 10 minutes until they were starting to soften. Then strained and put  them back in the pan.
Then I added the vinegar and sugar on a gentle heat stirring until the sugar had dissolved, added the frozen cranberries and left on gentle heat until they defrosted (Should have defrosted first I guess). Then I mashed up the cranberries, brought the pan to the boil stirring then reduced heat to a simmer for about half an hour stirring frequently. After that time the mix had thickened up nicely and was looking good. I gave it another 10 minutes just to be sure all excess liquid had been boiled away and then the wooden spoon dragged across the bottom of the pan allowed me to see the bottom for a second  and I potted up into hot sterilised jars and screwed up tight.

 This made 4 and a bit medium jars, I've taken the photo with one lid off so you can see the consistency. It tasted like a fruity sweet and sour mix of jam and chutney. Should be good with turkey or chicken.

Our son came over Saturday afternoon so his Dad could give him a hand with a car repair. Nice to see  Col back in overalls again. He just has to be very careful not to cut himself because the low platelets would mean blood might not clot.



I'd temporarily run out of library books so read this from my shelves. I'd previously read a book by her called "And then there were nuns; adventures in a cloistered life". Both were good.

Saturday evening, our first ever November 5th on a housing estate. Blimey it was like living in a war zone! (but without the fear). How many pounds worth of fireworks went up in smoke I wonder? I love fireworks, would happily stand and watch all of them anywhere but wouldn't dream of buying any! I noticed the £49.99 one from Aldi lasted  all of 115 seconds.........

Sunday
We walked to the library again and they had 4 British library Crime Classics in for me. I'd suggested them on the website and they bought them all. LOVE Suffolk Libraries. Also the new Ann Cleeves - "Cold Earth".
I've started the rescue of the tapestry glasses case. It's half cross stitch but someone had done bits one way and other bits the other diagonal.Then they had done some cross stitch which was all lumpy! I took out the cross stitch bit but there was too much to undo all the wrong tent stitch so I carried on the best I could. It looks OK as long as you don't look too closely. Not sure if it will be good enough to make a Christmas present.



Apples, milk, veg, eggs, frozen cranberries, Dreamies for the cat and a couple of other bits £11.63p.
Car boot sale pears £1 and Xmas gift bits £1.50

Total in the Low/No Spend November challenge £299ish

Back Soon
Sue

1,000 and counting

Drum roll please........this is post number 1,000.
Who knew that I'd still be blogging after 3½ years. So many things have changed, life is completely different and not by choice and changing again next year.
I hope that I've charted the ups and downs without regrets or too much moaning.

 Many people have been reading from the very beginning - Thank you all  for your encouragement and support.

 Anyway, enough of all that, where have I/we been out and about to so far this week?

 1.Into the town centre to put the Ziffit cheques into my building society and pay a bill. I was foiled at The Grape Tree shop as they've stopped their loyalty card scheme but the lady said if I sent off my card which has 9 stamps on they will send me a £9 voucher. So not completely wasted.
Went in Poundland and got some more items for the 3 hampers. Looked at the all their various fairy lights and Christmas decoration stuff but didn't buy any. Not something I buy every year like so many people do. I don't feel the need for a different colour scheme/theme. It's all a matter of contentment - I have no need to search for a new look!
2. Walking - especially Colin who is now up to 1.5 miles with no stopping and sitting down. I've kept him company on some walks and feel better for it.
3. His weekly trip to hospital for a blood test. Now he's fit again I don't need to go with him to drop him off at the door before driving round and round for a parking space. Platelets still not climbing as they should be D**n!
4.As I'd decided to use the Wyevale voucher for Christmas presents, we thought we might as well go while they were having their "Christmas Event" afternoon and get free mulled wine and mincepie and 10% off some things too. Not impressed by their Christmas decorations just camels and glittery reindeer.

Thought these were just plain awful!

  But the non-alcholic version of spiced drink was delicious and a bottle was 'bought' for us.

.
  Presents for Col's brother and Dad sorted. Big Tick off the list and all without spending any proper money so not included in the November spend.


"No" Spend November. Dried fruit and nuts for cakes for Christmas gifts + biscuits etc for hampers £16. Dark chocolate bars for Col £2.
Running total £284.

Back Soonish with 1001 ( and I defy anyone my age to say 1001 without starting to sing the cleaning carpet ad!)
Sue

That recipe

My mention of mixing a tin of grapefruit with a tin of cheats ready prepared marmalade mix had lots of people asking for more details.
Here is the recipe from the book  W.I Jams,Pickles and Chutneys

I'm making this later so will update this post to let you know what it's like and if it tastes good I'll add the recipe to my separate page.

UPDATE
It works and tastes delicious.
As Pat says in comments - people on statins shouldn't eat grapefruit and it does have a HUGE amount of sugar in it. I've put the recipe on my recipe page with more details.


Welcome to some more followers, hope you enjoy reading.



Back Soon
Sue

No Spend November...........Well sort of

I'm doing my No Spend November challenge again this year. Last year it was because we had no produce to sell out the front on the stall and Colin was too poorly to work for other people - although at the time we didn't know what was wrong with him. So we started to live on savings and the income we had earned during the year from the campsite, selling eggs and produce and the car boot and yard sales.
This year we actually have more income than last year as we have the Employment Support Allowance of £109 a week until 31st December and a £10 Christmas bonus - WOW! But with the move approaching we will need as many pennies saved as possible

My idea of no spend isn't NO spend but rather limiting spending to paying bills, feeding us and the cat, diesel and Christmas stuff (because if I left present shopping until December it would throw me into a panic). Other than that I shouldn't open my purse.....that's the plan.To keep on track I shall list everything here for the world and his wife to ponder over!

I've also been thinking of ways to buy some presents without money......sounds good doesn't it.
I've got some Wyevale garden vouchers which I didn't use here - I could save them to use at the cottage,but the only things we will need are fruit trees etc and they are ridiculously expensive at Wyevale. so I could go  and see what I can find for pressies. Then if I spend £10 at The Grape Tree on dried fruit I will fill my savings card and that will make £10 to use for presents - chocs etc. The Morrisons saver card has provided me with a £5 voucher after yesterday main November shop - that will buy another present. Then we have about £25 left in the Pay Pal account after selling last years wedding clothes on eBay.....More presents.
 I need to make some more food gifts for the hampers for sisters and brothers in law. Cranberry chutney will be next and then mini Dundee cakes and I came across an idea for altering the tins of the cheats lemon Mamade by adding a tin of grapefruit to make it more interesting.

The makings for a different marmalade

  Therefore.......spent so far..............Direct Debits - Council Tax, 3 months Water and Sewer + Mobile phone + Charity = £200ish, Morrisons November main shop £66 (including Cats £12, things for making items for Christmas hampers and Christmas food gifts £10)

Total £266

On a completely different subject.............we were watching the lunchtime news on Tuesday when they were talking about the government putting more money into the fight against cyber-crime. The reporter said we are used to hearing about computer and phone hacking  but what about your kettle being hacked? I thought I'd heard wrong......kettle?? how on earth?. Of course I'm way out of date and apparently your kettle can be linked to your phone so you can switch it on so it's hot when you walk in the door. Good grief, whatever next. Just makes me want to run away to the woods and heat my kettle on a campfire!

Back Soon
Sue

A New Month

From one of the books I picked up on Saturday  Celtic Book Of Days-- Samhain - The New Year

From sunset last night to sunset this evening Pagan and Celtic people would have celebrated Samhain. The beginning of the dark half of the year - Not my favourite thing to celebrate that's for sure and I'm still suffering from being awake too soon and hungry at the wrong time of day all due to clocks changing. You'd think I'd be used to it after 61 years but no, I still moan for about a week until my body clock settles.

After getting back from the book sale last Saturday we walked round to the jumble sale at the Scout Hall and apart from 20p to get in only spent 20p on a new notebook/diary in a case that will be a Christmas present.

 Decided I'd better not go to the car boot sale on Sunday (due to spending  too much money at the book sale)  so spent the morning in the kitchen. We were given some windfall cooking apples so I made a pie and used some in the mincemeat mix. Then I rustled up some tomato soup (carrots, onions, tinned tomatoes,tom puree, stock, flour to thicken) cooked some chicken joints for Cols lunchtime sandwiches and finally shoved a tray of scones in the oven as the cake tin was empty. That's the most cooking I've done at once since we moved here as cooking and baking all seemed a bit pointless when I was spending so much time on my own.

Looked on my recipe page to see if the mincemeat recipe was listed there and it is but then I found a couple of comments that I didn't know were there - whoops, sorry folks. Is Upcyclerbypaint still reading?.

 Colin's fitness is coming along in leaps and bounds (hope it's not just the steroid tablets!) and yesterday he decided he was well enough to walk to the library and back........his first time, I've done it a couple of times but really prefer to bike, even if it means pushing the bike up the hills. 0.83 of a mile according to Mapometer, 15 minutes sit down to look at the newspaper and 0.83 home again. It was blinkin' warm walking yesterday, it's up hill nearly all the way home but he was less worn out than I was!


 And about as far away from Pagan customs as it's possible to get, here is part of a poem written for children

Dull November brings the blast,

Then the leaves are falling fast.

(from 'Months' by Sara Coleridge)

Back Tomorrow
Sue