Taking Five Minutes

 

The River Wyre

I had to go into town yesterday to pick up my new reading glasses, after about five years my prescription had changed enough to warrant a couple of new pairs.  It meant that I had to pay for an hour on the car park even though I would only be ten minutes, so I made good use of the ticket and sat by the river for a few minutes.

Sometimes you have to take five minutes in the fresh air for your sanities sake.

I had been woken at 4.30am with my phone ringing on my bedside table.  Mum had taken a turn for the worse and the care home were calling for an ambulance so they rang to tell me.  Then an hour later I was woken again by the ambulance crew telling me that a visit to hospital was deemed necessary.  I don't cope well with being woken from a deep sleep and having to make serious decisions, so the rest of the day saw me in a pretty much zombie-like state.  Thank goodness I was only picking my glasses up and not having to choose any.

Another thing to hit Facebook Marketplace, to boost my food shopping budget this week was this little cupboard.

 I bought it off FB Marketplace in 2021, and posted about it HERE.  It was just before we completed the move into our current home, and while I have loved having it, it just won't go anywhere in our new bungalow, it was a bit of a clutter-gatherer anyway but it was lovely. 

I decluttered it a lot for the FB Marketplace photos and have managed to sell it for £20, just a bit less than I paid five years ago.  It's going to be someone's bathroom cabinet in a little old cottage, above an old fashioned sink set into a little sideboard.  

I'm happy it's going to a good home.

Sue xx

Anything to Declare?

 

Aldi - 20p

At the start of the week I picked up some of the Easter 'bargain vegetables' from Aldi.  This year once again they were promising that they were absorbing the loss and not the farmers ... I hope that this was true.

The potatoes were 8p for 2 kilos, the onions were 8p for 1 kilo and the carrots just 4p for a kilo.  Lots of food but not much money.

They might have been cheap but I was still going to look after them and make them last as long as possible.  So they were all unpacked, left to breathe for a while and then repacked into my Lakeland Stayfresh bags.

Booths £9.60

We went for a coffee at Booth on Easter Monday so we got a bit of shopping while we were there, I spent £9.60 on a dozen eggs and two organic long-life soya milks.

Booths £7.25 + £1 for the book.

I called back to Booths on Wednesday to pick up a ready made pastry case, after being at the Doctors.  My back has been really bad and I just couldn't face making my own pastry, I cheat when I have to and I am more than happy to admit it.

The soya milks had been reduced since our last visit so I snapped up two more at the new lower price, along with four lovely looking Gala apples that were four for the price of three and a loaf of bread.  I kicked myself on the way home as I remembered that I have one of these loaves in Alan's freezer.  Oh well, it will all be used.

I was waylaid by the charity book table on the way out and this book forced me to buy it.  I am already halfway through, it is brilliant.

Have I anything to declare ... ?

Only my complete inability to stop shopping for food when I am supposed to be on a shopping ban while I work on making space in my freezer and random food storage areas.

Oh well, it was only me that knew about the ban, I didn't tell Alan and I didn't tell you ... so no one knows.  😁

Sue xx

Renovations and Rice

 

The wall is up, and it has stayed up.

This time they put it up in two halves, first the bottom, then the top ... not side by side halves or top then bottom!!  😄

This is the reverse of the same wall.

I bet you come to visit my blog for these riveting photos don't you, I am more than happy to oblige.  😁 

Here, have a bonus photo, the planned layout for the battening that Alan will be putting up on the inside of all the exterior walls of the bungalow over the course of the next couple of weeks.  This will have the extra insulation in each of the spaces before being plaster boarded over. 

We are doing this to raise the EPC rating as the bungalow had quite a low one to start with.  Hopefully by the time we are finished it will be much improved, even at the expense of the room sizes.  What with all this lining, and walls going up the space inside will be shrinking very quickly.

Alan will have to follow my lead and learn to live smaller.

I've been enjoying the pack of salmon that I bought over the Easter weekend. 

 I've eaten it differently each time.  This photo shows it as part of a quiche, served with roasted sweet potato mini wedges.  Yes, all the pastry edges of my quiche fell off when I was getting it out of the tray ...not that that matters in the slightest.  

Pastry is pastry is pastry and I love pastry.  💖

I

I had one portion of the salmon with leftover rice, peas and spinach.

One portion was had as that lunchtime salmon bun I showed on the last post, and the final one was served with a simple bowl of the roasted vegetables ... and a rather large dollop of mayo. So tasty, and it's really handy to have something in the fridge that gives you inspiration for simple but healthy meals isn't it.

Renovations and rice, you never know what I will be writing about next ... and neither do I. 😁 

Sue xx

Sunshine, Crisps ... and Base Floors

 

Doors open, sun shining and washing drying on the line again.  

How lovely it is to have some sunshine back after the awful weather of the last few days.  Sunshine brings out the best in people doesn't it, and living alongside the canal it means that we see lots of dog walkers who always love to stop and pass the time of day if we are at the front of the house.  In memory of Mavis we still have a large bowl of fresh drinking water for passing dogs, and it seems to have been very well used today.

There is one big dog that we have nicknamed 'splashy dog', as he has a big drink and liberally splashes water everywhere, the bowl usually needs refilling after his visit. 🐶

I had a bit of a cookathon with the last of my Riverford vegetables yesterday, not wanting to waste anything that I have paid good money for.  They might not look much, but oh boy do they taste good. 

 So much so that I decided on a salmon and roasted vegetable bun for my lunch 

I kept it simple, but delicious, and it was really filling.  Perhaps there was a little bit too much salmon on that bun ... but sometimes you just have to don't you.  😁

I am now on a shopping go slow after spending all of my Facebook Marketplace profits on stocking the cupboard, the freezer and ordering my favourite crisps direct from the farm they are produced on.

This should keep me going for quite a while, and buying direct from the small family farm that grows the potatoes and makes the crisps, is my way of supporting small UK businesses.   

I will share some with Alan ... if he's good. 😄

https://youtube.com/shorts/8BQzZi7FGI4?si=N6-opO0_OerIu30l

A quick walk through of the bungalow at the weekend, at last we have a level surface to walk on.

Sue xx

That Was a Week That Was

 

It's been a funny old week and weekend, both weatherwise and family wise.

The weather can't quite make it's mind up, one day we have glorious sunshine taking the edge of the cool breeze and I can get washing dry on the line, the next the skies are grey the wind is howling and then it's starts to sleet ... and once again I put off actually digging out my Summer t-shirts and tops from under the bed.

In the first of the family news, my brother visited Mum on Saturday, she got very angry with him and then fell asleep and didn't wake up again.  We went yesterday and she slept through the whole visit, even with us both being very noisy in a bid to wake her up sensibly.  Graham went back again this morning for another visit ... he only lives ten minutes away from Mum's care home ... she said hello and then fell into a deep sleep.  A lot of this is obviously expected at this stage of events but it's still a bit discombobulating.  Luckily our three hours on the motorways was much quieter than usual and our pit stop at Greggs on the services was very tasty on the return journey.

The other family news, in the much wider family was a very sudden and shocking death, publicised in the local news in Manchester and all over social media.  As a Mum it's really shaken me and made me really sit and think about how easily things can change for us all.  Just when we think life is ticking along relatively nicely, life stops us in our tracks and shows us that it's best not to assume anything.

To round the weekend off nicely, two of the guys were in the bungalow building the bedroom wall this morning ... and it collapsed.  Luckily neither of them was injured, but one guys toolbox suffered complete destruction.

'It's life Jim, but not as we know it!!'

Sue xx