Tag: DIY

Shopping.

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It’s an ordinary Saturday. We’ve done the shopping in an hour…all the food for the week. It’s actually quicker (and cheaper) to go to the next town over to buy our food because of the traffic  around town and because  it’s market day. We try not to shop on the weekend, but this week it was unavoidable. Today’s extra purchase logs for the fire before the price goes up for winter.

We took to making a plan and a list about a month ago on account of the austerity and all that. We are still having a treat of steak for lunch with celeriac chips (fries to my US chums). Meal planning bores me senseless, but having an accountant as a partner it works for us. We have a couple of favourites and have found an app (any list) that means we can share lists across two phones. Definitely makes shopping more efficient.

As a side note, several vehicles have pulled out in front of the car todayboth forward and in reverse. Stay awake, people. I know it’s hibernation time for some of us, but safety first!

This afternoon’s tasks are to turn the veg beds and the compost. This, hopefully, will increase our yield next year. It’s been a weird one for the garden and for foraging this year. The climate changes are definitely making a difference. Even in expert hands, the growth of foodstuff has been unusual this year. Of course the garlic goes in now as it takes the best part of the year to mature, but it takes very little space or effort.

The house is almost done too. A panicked flurry of activity to prepare the room for the nieces to visit last week means the guest room is almost complete. There are pictures to hang in the living room and a cost of paint in the utility space. Next spring will hopefully see the front garden completed. We’re putting a wildflower lawn in for the bees although I think the idea of a beehive has been put to rest.

Funny Old Month

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I know it’s been a while. I’ve been distracted by going to stay with my elderly dad. He’s not too steady on his feet but won’t sit still. Mum, on the other hand, is arthritic but won’t stay still (largely because it hurts) and it heavily involved in the WI (Women’s Institute) and the Trefoil Guild of the Girl Guides. Those organisations have conferences. These may involve a long, bust meeting but they also involve a chance to go away with your chums to a nice hotel and have a change of scenery. Mum has been to a couple of these lately. I’m called in to stay with Dad. It’s not a chore. When you consider everything my parents did for me it’s my turn to give back and I do it happily.

Our plan on this occasion was to make some black puddings as well as the usual gardening and running about in the car to fetch this and that. (Dad seldom drives these days and never beyond the village). I’d ordered dried blood, seasoning and groats. Pig fat would be acquired once I’d arrived. The groats were put in to soak overnight. Dad has it in has head that his mum made black puddings with more groats (barley) than blood. This was to be the basis for our attempt. Sadly, the skins we got hold of were not edible, but cleaned intestines do not keep well and can be pretty dangerous if not cleaned thoroughly. We could peel the skins away once the puddings were cooked. We treated back fly on the broad beans, did a run to the farm shop for bird seed and to the butchers for the aforementioned pig fat, picked blackcurrants, and watered the tomatoes. Enough for one day and there’s cricket on the telly.

Day two.

The resulting black pudding

Yep, we succeeded in making a black pudding without making too much mess in the kitchen. It was a little of the recipand a little by dad’s memories, so the resulting out was a little unusual but not bad. It weighed in at close to a kilo. We let it cool and had a slice for breakfast next day. Notes to self : more blood, less barley, and cook the barley first. I still have a stack of ingredients so I’ll experiment with them til we get this as he remembers. The whole thing basically came in kit form and it’s not as hard as you think its going to be. The great thing was to do something he really wanted to do and to try together. Cherish your parents, they will be gone before you know it.

Decorated (still no medal)

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Well, more, in the process of decorating. Over the pandemic we began ‘project renovate’. one of the things people were still allowed to do here in the UK was have building work done. So the kitchen was refitted and a new garden scheme with raised beds to grow food became a reality. The log burner went in … then things kinda stalled. Between the holiday season and a sort of hibernation mode very little was happened over the last weeks but with the arrival of more spring like days and the utility bill came the realisation that something needed to happen to stop us heating the whole house and inhabiting easier to warm spaces. The kitchen table serves as an office and the living room as my den, which is nice because its south facing and catches even the slightest sunlight and warmth. I do have to say that once the curtains were removed it got a lot cooler in here.

We’ve gone mad and decided that this is not a cash cow but a home. Ignoring the current TV fads for flip and resale beige nightmares we decided we are living here so mad colours it is then. the living room will be purple. First coat applied and second on it’s way. This development has been somewhat slowed by my having sprained something in my wrist making holding a paintbrush a short term proposition at best. I’m good at the fiddly edging bits though so it can be done in short bursts. Certain parts of the room need to be finished first so the build in seating can be fitted. We’ve booked the carpenter so a line has been drawn.

Better get back up my ladder then.

Yep, it’s purple