A Much, Much Cheaper Option.

 

I went way past my dinnertime yesterday and only really thought about food in the late afternoon, so I fancied something small and tasty to tide me over to my tea.  I opened the freezer for a rummage and  spied a box with one vegan battered sausage in it. 

Now I bought these a while ago when I was making us a home cooked 'chippy tea'.  Our usual chippy order is 'one medium fish and chip meal, one medium fish portion, a battered sausage and a pot of curry sauce'.  From this Alan has the fish portion, the sausage, the curry sauce and half the chips, I have the rest of the chips and the fish.  It suits us both and makes it affordable as an occasional treat.

When I replicate it I buy these battered sausages as Alan really likes them, I also used to have some of the instant curry sauce granules from Aldi, but I think that I threw them out when I was having a bit of a UPF blitz and there was only a bit left in the tub. 

 Oops, I had forgotten about doing the homemade chippy teas. 😐

One sausage cut in half on a little bun with two sachets of tomato ketchup from my freebie stash and I had the perfect little late afternoon snack ... and do you know what I absolutely loved it.  

Now I might just have to buy another pack and a tub of the curry sauce granules to appease Alan next time he says 'Should I go to the chippy?'.  It's a much, much cheaper option.

For those not in the know I am originally from Manchester in the north of England, and there dinner is at lunchtime and tea is our evening meal.  Having also lived down in the south it used to get queried a bit as there it was lunch and then dinner.  But ask yourself this ... if you live in the UK what were your school DINNER ladies called.  

I rest my case.  😄

Sue xx

Canalside Walk

 

I used to share so many of our canalside walks on here when we had the dogs.  It's just not the same without them.  There's no little companion to talk to and to stop for a while and drink in nature while they sniff and explore what must be so many glorious scents for doggy noses.

It all feels a bit flat ... but it is beautiful.

There were lots of little clumps of bluebells in the long shaggy grass.

It's sad to see all these new houses in what were until very recently vast swathes of green fields.  The people that live on these boats are going to feel very overlooked in the near future.

Just how our schools and the single doctors practice that our town has, are going to cope with yet another influx of new people I really don't know.  This new development has hundreds and hundreds of houses and flats along the length of the A6 and going way back into what was all farmland.

Heading back for home it made me realise that I will miss the proximity of the canal when we move.  It always feels calm and green, especially if I head away from the new houses and the noise of the builders.

Sue xx

My Bank Holiday Weekend in Pictures

 

First thing on Saturday morning we went out for breakfast to one of the garden centres we like.  We got a small breakfast each and our free coffees for May.  As usual my 'Vegan Gardeners Breakfast' was brought to the table with a couple of packs of Lurpak butter on the plate and I had to ask for Flora instead, which the waitress brought over with a smirk on her face.  I am starting to realise that someone in the kitchen is out to try and annoy vegans!!  For anyone that doesn't know I am not vegan, but I don't eat meat and I can't eat dairy, but the intolerance often shown to vegans is absolutely infuriating.  I have left a review on Trip Advisor after this visit, enough is enough.

After we had finished eating and drinking  we wandered around to see if they had any Tumbling Tom type tomato plants, but no such luck.  So we called next door to an even bigger garden centre and there we struck lucky.

Alan bought me a tray of spring onions and six Tumbling Tom style tomato plants, three of them being called something else and being yellow.  We detoured to Fleetwood on the way home for some fresh air and another cup of coffee.

The tomato plants are all now in the 'bedroom greenhouse' until the weather gets a bit warmer.  😄

On Sunday we went to visit Mum.  

She's back at her care home now, but still not doing very well.  As is now our habit we stopped at the motorway services to get a snack and a coffee, Alan had the free steak bake that I had available on the Greggs app and we both had coffee.  I wasn't in the mood for a pastry so I decided to get a portion of fries from Burger King ... £3.65 for a large fries and a little pot of mayo!!  Wow, it's a good job Alan's pastry was free. 😐

This stop on the way home is proving to be a very necessary decompressing stage, we are both coming out of the visits more despondent each time.  It's so hard seeing someone you love declining and getting absolutely nothing out of life.

On Sunday we went to Booths café for a quick breakfast before shopping at Aldi.  Alan had a small cooked breakfast and I just had a couple of crumpets, Booths are always good at supplying Flora, there are no problems there.

Then it was onto Aldi for the bits of shopping that we both needed, seemingly this week I will be living on fish, peas and tomatoes.  I was really surprised that the tins of pink salmon were only £1.45, so I thought I would try them, I usually buy red salmon.  If it's just as nice I may stock up a bit as the date on the tins is December 2030.

  As usual I didn't need much, my cupboards are ridiculously full.

The receipt for posterity.

So it's seemed to be a very foodie Bank Holiday weekend, with a bit of plant buying and a detour to the seaside for a coffee and some fresh air.  It's also been a very snooker-y one for Alan as he has been glued to the Snooker World Championship for the last week and the final was over the weekend.  Now he's back to the bungalow for a few days of things really moving forwards.  The solar installation will be finished by tonight, the gas pipes will be disconnected to the road tomorrow and the new windows should all be installed by the weekend.

Big changes.

Sue xx

Appreciating What You Already Have

 

After sitting looking at the soil and rock pile at our new bungalow the other day, shown on Thursday's post, I came home and appreciated what we have here all the more.

Having no money at all to spend on the garden this year is setting me a nice little challenge, making the most of what I already have.  The little tin bath at my front door has been refreshed with the free rockery plant that I got from the garden centre as their April freebie for card holders ... along with the usual two free coffees.

The forget-me-not seeds that we got off the vets after Suky was cremated appear each year, (both Suky's and Mavis' ashes are in this little tin bath, so they will always be with us).  The tall twiggy plant at the back grew from sticks that were in a bouquet of flowers that Alan bought me a few years ago, I just pushed them into the soil et voila.  💖

The little vegetable bed at the end of the back garden had this years veggie seeds sown yesterday.  

There are just rocket, radish and three types of salad leaves in there for now, along with the perennial chives and thyme plants.  Seemingly there's also a random potato plant, which I didn't have the heart to pull up, but I will have to won't I ... maybe I'll try to transplant it.  😀

I was also going to sow some spring onion seeds, but I have none.  Also, much to my dismay I have absolutely NO tomato seeds.  How did that happen?  I was so upset going through my seeds tin and finding it devoid of tomato seeds that Alan asked what sort I had wanted to sow.  I told him that I was simply going to have a couple of hanging baskets of 'Tumbling Toms' this year, so he said that he will buy me a couple of plants when we next go to a garden centre.  Which I think will be very soon with a Bank Holiday Weekend upon us and two free coffees available at two of our favourite ones

Across from the vegetable bed the rhubarb is looking brilliant already and will soon start to be picked, and the apple tree is having a very leafy and blossomy time.  As are the blueberry bushes, two are full of little flowers and the third is the one that always blooms a bit later anyway.

As you may have spotted on the new header photo, we also have a little bit more colour appearing now that the daffodils have all gone over.  

I'm putting the photo here as well as one day in possibly the not too distant future, the header will change and then later readers will not know what on earth I was on about. 😄

Ginger in the garden first thing yesterday morning. 🐱

I hope he's still with us when we move, and that we can make him a new garden to explore and play in.

I hope you have a wonderful Bank Holiday Weekend, if it is one where you are.

Sue xx

Shopping ... and Piles

 

This weeks shopping was from Booths.

As you can see I didn't buy much, apart from not really needing too much I am quickly running out of available cash as I crawl slowly towards my first State Penson pay out in May.  The money I made from my Facebook Marketplace sales is just about keeping me on the straight and narrow, as the interest on my savings is also going down and down each month. I am now paying for all the necessary things for the renovation as Alan's account has virtually emptied.

We are not destitute by any means ... as the next paragraph clearly shows, but I am determined to stick to my guns and make it to my first pension date by using cash.

 I called into Booths because Alan wanted me to pick up a bacon bun and a takeaway coffee for him while he was hard at work in the bungalow.  I had been to the hairdressers so I was in the vicinity.   I got myself a coffee too and we sat on the back step discussing garden plans now that we know the way the sun hits the garden at various times of the day.

It going to be a long time until the garden looks anything like a garden.  This photo was taken at the start of the month, but apart from a few weeds appearing on the soil and rock pile nothing has changed ... but we can make plans.  😄

The front garden is very similar.

Sue xx