The Books That I Read in August

 

I do love a book with it's own bookmark ribbon.  😄

Fingers in the Sprinkle Jar by Chris Packham

I found this book very 'bitty', Chris jumps from timeline to timeline over his early years and I didn't enjoy this side of it at all.  I didn't read it all fully and gave up completely about two thirds of the way in.  It could have been so much better.

Donated

Slimming One Pound Meals by Miguel Barclay

While I do like Miguel's books I am being a bit ruthless in the ones that I am keeping.  I no longer find myself needing to have or to keep every book that a person I like reading or cooking from writes.

Donated

Cooking on a Bootstrap by Jack Monroe

I have all of Jack's books and regularly make things from them, but I had two copies of this book.  This copy is one of the original 'crowdfunded' editions so I have kept this and donated the other hardbacked copy that came out afterwards.

Kept the original, and Donated this one.

5 Ingredients 10 Minutes by Jules Clancy

While some of the recipes in this book seemed really good, reading it again six years after I originally bought it I decided that some were just so basic they could barely be considered a recipe.

For instance, take a bag of mixed leaves and top with a flaked cooked salmon portion and pour over a little lemon juice as a dressing.  To me this is an idea not a recipe.

Donated

Dinner's ON! by Barry Lewis

This wasn't a bad book by any means, but it was quite meat heavy and it was big. I don't eat meat and I am still on a mission to cut down on my big books and whittle down my cookbook collection.

So, it was Donated.

Only Connect The Official Quiz Book by Jack Waley-Cohen

I was lucky enough to find this book on the £1 charity book table in Booths.  I love the show and watch it religiously every week, so to be able to 'play' the game myself was really good.  I did quite well ...in everything except The Wall.

Donated ... back to where it came from for someone else to enjoy.

Thinking On My Feet by Kate Humble

My final book of the month and finished just yesterday, was this one year diary of Kate Humble's walks, both local to her in this country and overseas when she travelled for work engagements.  It was a really good read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

But I would never have read it again, so it was Donated.

All in all a good month of reading with more cookbooks than usual as I am trying to whittle down my collection so that I don't clutter up my soon-to-be new kitchen. 😄

I do find myself in a position these days to be able to be quite ruthless with the books that I keep.  Maybe I am simply becoming a book reader, and not always a reader and collector.  They can on occasion be two entirely different but compatible hobbies.

Which are you?

Sue xx

Rounding Off August - Freebies and Shopping

 

4th  Barton Grange Garden Centre

We ate or just drank out more than either of us thought we had during August.  But almost every time I managed to bring something home with us to add to the 'freebie stash'.  We only bring home things that we have picked up thinking that we will use them with our drink or meal, and never ever take from the 'help yourself' pots on café or restaurant tables.

The things that I bring home would be swept into the bin by the person clearing the table after we have left if I didn't take them.  I have seen it done far too often for my liking.  I do not believe in waste.

8th  Burnside Garden Centre

We get two free coffees a month at this garden centre.

14th  Dobbie's Garden Centre

We also get two free coffees at this one.

14th Also Dobbie's Garden Centre

Alan did not get the meal that I thought he was getting, so we didn't need the mayonnaise that he would normally have used.

15th  Ralphy's Café in Morecambe

We went for breakfast here, you always get a little biscuit with your coffee which is really nice, a lot of cafés have stopped doing this now, but we did not want to spoil our appetite for the food before it arrived.

16th  Rivington Services

I got a free coffee on my Greggs app, you buy nine and get your tenth cup free.  These add up quite quickly as we stop here on our way home from visiting Mum, so we're usually there twice a week ... it's our 'decompression zone'.

26th  Barton Grange Garden Centre

We went for lunch here, the salad came drenched in a very tangy dressing ... far too much dressing in both our opinions ... so the mayonnaise wasn't actually needed.

29th  Booths Café

A tasty pit stop for a bacon bun for Alan and a coffee for me.

30th  Rivington Services

There were no napkins at Greggs, so Alan walked over to the Burger King outlet and picked some up, also getting some salt and ketchup for his chicken nibbles and sausage roll.

30th  Rivington Services

However, there were doughnuts at Greggs so I picked up the free one that I was owed.  😁

31st Booths

And finally, this morning we had a very early lunch.  Alan didn't buy the coffee that I thought he was getting so the sugars were superfluous.

Barton Grange - 26th - £3.29

The only shopping that I have done this week was to buy some bread rolls from the garden centre.  We go to Barton Grange regularly as rather strangely, it is the cheapest place to buy Ginger's preferred cat food.

We are both trying not to shop too much as we want to whittle our food supplies down a bit ready for moving in a couple of months.  Which is a bit opposite to what a lot of people are currently doing after the Government has seemingly issued instructions that every household in England should hold more supplies for 'emergencies'.  Maybe once the kitchen has been fully installed we can start moving some food over and see exactly what we have.  I'm sure two more weeks won't make too much of a difference.

Well, I hope two weeks won't make too much of a difference!!

Sue xx

You Win Some, You Lose Some

 

I was stood in Morrisons in Morecambe, just inside the doors where there was a huge display of doughnuts.  Ooh, I thought they look nice, what a lovely sweet treat.

Then I looked at the list of ingredients ... and immediately changed my mind. 😐

So when we got home I rewarded myself, and Alan, with a nice fresh salmon and pasta salad.  It was so tasty I didn't even need a sweet treat of any description.

Later on determined not to waste the crusts off my loaf of bread, I made some garlicky croutons to go into a bowl of soup for my tea.  I left them slightly too long and had slightly charcoal-y croutons.  Still edible but not the luscious little pillows of bready garlic-ness that I was hoping for.

You win some, you lose some.  😄

Sue xx

The Kitchen Delivery, and What I'll Miss When We Move

 

Late yesterday morning the kitchen was delivered.  

At the moment it's all safely boxed and/or wrapped up, but peeking into the visible bits it's already looking good and just as we wanted it.  So for the rest of today Alan is grouting the floor tiles at the kitchen end of the living room ready for the kitchen to be installed on top of them starting next Tuesday.

Alan worked like a trouper on Monday and Tuesday tiling the whole of the living room as there was a chance we would be needed to help my younger son move into his new home on the Wednesday.  He's a big lad and he did have his partner and her brother to help with the lifting and shifting, but after having a biopsy last week he still had stitches in his stomach so he had to be very careful. I thought it best to leave them to it if they could manage, as it is a big sense of achievement to move into your first purchased home together without the parents.

 Happily he managed everything he wanted to do and we weren't needed, so Alan had a well earned day off and we went out for lunch ... still on standby, just in case.  😊

Somehow it got me thinking about what I will miss when we move, so I went around the annexe snapping at the things I thought I would miss most.

High on the list is my beloved SMEG fridge freezer.

It's been my best ever purchase, and while they are expensive to buy they do keep food amazingly well.  I must have recouped a lot of the money spent on this beautiful appliance in non-wasted food costs over the years I've had it.

I couldn't make my mind up over whether I will miss the little half sized section of my kitchen sink.  

We both made the joint decision to have a one bowl stainless steel sink at the bungalow, as this is what we were used to before we moved here.  Having a plastic bowl in the sink means that you don't really need the centre section much, as you can pour things down the side of the bowl if you need to drain them.  

Having a bowl in the sink is the usual way of doing things in the UK.

I will definitely miss my radiator cover.

It's been good to have a sort of seasonal change of my favourite things on top of it, making me smile daily, and looking lovely when it's all illuminated at Christmas time.

I will also definitely miss having actual radiators.  They are very handy for quick drying of things that you need in the Wintertime when the heating is on.

I will miss having the two sets of French doors.

 I currently have one set in the living room, and the ones in this photo are in the bedroom.  On a hot day it's great to fling them all open and let air circulate.  Ginger has never quite got used to the doors looking identical, but leading him into different rooms when he comes in from the garden. 😺

At least we will have one set in our living room at the bungalow, letting lots of light flood in.

Something I thought that I would have to let go was this useful little drawer unit.  It's currently being well used in the kitchen of the annexe, but in the bungalow it might fit into my bathroom where it would be extremely useful.  I have my fingers firmly crossed.  🤞

What would you miss most if you had to move house and leave  something behind?

Sue xx

A Shopping Catch Up Post - and a Warning

 

Just a catch up post of the shopping that I have bought since my last shopping post.  Time seems to be running away with us at the moment and I have fallen a bit behind.

19th  Sainsbury's - £43 exact

I spent quite a bit on this shopping trip last week, but I treated myself to a new travelling coffee cup while they were on offer, and some hair dye, also on offer ... which I have still not round to using yet.  The Linda McCartney meat free products were all on special offer '3 for the price of 2' so I was careful to choose three products that were all the same price.  I'm not falling for that get the cheapest one free malarky!! 😄

And ... as you will notice my favourite toilet rolls were back on a reduced price offer, it was good timing as my last rolls were just about to run out so I bought a pack of those as well. 

As well as buying my things I got a couple of things for Alan which are also on that receipt.  I've been picking up a few things for him each time I go out while he's been so busy at the bungalow.

The receipt for posterity. 

Aldi - 22nd - £13.83

Going to the shops twice in a few days meant that I really didn't need much at weekend when Alan was going for his main shop.  So I just got the things that I had run out of and a little treat of a bunch of simple flowers.

The receipt.

The 'warning' that I mention in the title of this post is about the blogs listed on my, and many other people's sidebars.  Blogger in it's annoyingness is more often than not failing to update when a new post is published.  So you may see the name of a blog that you follow on my sidebar and see from the title that it's a post that you have already read the previous day or earlier.  BUT ... .if you click on the blog name rather than the post title it will more often than not take you to a brand new post that hasn't yet been updated by blogger.

It's a frustrating thing if you just quickly scan the list and think that you have nothing new to read, when in fact there are lots of available posts just waiting to be discovered.

If you read my, or anyone else's blog on your phone, you can get to see the blog list by scrolling to the bottom of any post and clicking on 'View Web Version', then you will be able to view blogs as though you are on your laptop or main computer.

I hope this helps.

Sue xx