Ice-creams and Solar Panels

 

A well deserved ice-cream at the seaside.

We went to Morecambe for breakfast this morning, it's less than half an hour away up the motorway so it's a place we frequently visit.  Not quite as often now that we don't have the dogs but we do still go at least once a month.  

Alan tucked into a very well deserved ice-cream for his dessert.  Do breakfasts have desserts?  I don't know usually ... but this one did.  It was a lovely day, the third or fourth sunny one this week, but the first time we have been able to make the most of it.  Even then we had to dash back home for the latest vaccinations for us both at the doctors.  Alan joked to the nurse that since he retired all they seem to want to do is to stick needles in him, it is getting a bit excessive. 😐

Alan has been busy all week at the bungalow battening the walls for the interior insulation, and together we measured up and marked out the measurements for the en-suite bathrooms and their contents.

Simultaneously, the guys came to fit the solar panels on both sides of the roof.

We have a large array so that we can hopefully generate more than we actually use, especially on days like this.  There's not as many as we had on the small holding in Wales, but we are not too far off.

Up in the loft are all the control panels for the solar panels and the batteries.  Alan had made sure that the floor had all been boarded safely in the areas that they needed to access.

Alan had laid the piping that will hold the wires that go over to the garage, as that too will have a roof full of solar panels.  Unfortunately, the company had sent the wrong fixings for these to the installers, so it is all being finished off and commissioned next week.

Here's the lates YouTube walk-through.

https://youtu.be/oFv6_OOUfRI

We're back to hospital visiting tomorrow, but hopefully we will be able to stop at the services on the way home and enjoy a little bit more sunshine, along with a sausage roll and a coffee from Greggs.

Sue xx

Riverford, Freebies ... and St George

 

We got our Riverford box last week, this one is going to be our last for the foreseeable future as we want to trial using our local farm shop for organic farm fresh vegetables and fruit that are grown right on our doorstep.  But we owe a massive thank you to Riverford for opening our eyes to the real delight of organic eating, something we had never really dabbled in before with anything but the eggs that I buy.

Alan had the choice for the final box and he chose the Small Fruit Box which we then divided between us.  Now as you know I'm not really a 'fruity' person, but it's been quite nice to have some lovely sweet oranges, and I even ate two of the pears which were so juicy.  I'm weird in that I don't usually like fresh pears but can eat them canned ... or bottled in brandy ... until the cows come home. 

I couldn't bring myself to eat any of the kiwi fruits, luckily Alan loves them so he got the lot.  Apart from hating the texture of the skins, I have been warned in the past not to eat them as anyone with a avocado allergy can also become sensitive to kiwis.  How true this is I really don't know, but I tried to make myself like avocados with disastrous results so it seems wise not to push things for something I'm not that keen on anyway.

Everything that we have had from Riverford has been just that much nicer than the fruit and veg that we had previously been buying from Sainsbury's or Aldi.  So now our experiment is to find out whether this is because of the organic side of it or the more seasonal aspect of it, in my opinion I think it's most likely to be a bit of both.

The little old wall cupboard was eventually picked up, weirdly we both had trouble with dates and times due to hospital parking.  Why do hospitals have such undersized carparks that leave you circling and circling to find a place for such a long time, while you either go in for your appointment or try to visit someone?  

But anyway, eventually we managed to swap the cupboard for the twenty pounds and we were both very happy.  😃

As this little cupboard used to hold my 'freebie stash' it meant that it was time to do something about the sheer amount that I have amassed over the last six months.  We used to use things up much more quickly on our little holidays and weekends away, but we've not managed to have any of them recently so supplies had built up a bit.

You can tell that I wasn't really concentrating on what I was doing ... I was convinced that this sugar tin had white sugar in it, and just poured in the two white sugar sachets without looking properly.  

Oh well, sugar is sugar is sugar.  😁

Everything is now sorted and ready for use at home.  The tomato ketchup sachets had already been put into a tub of their own, but now the salt is in 'Pepper' the name of the salt cellar ... after the cat that I had when I originally bought the cruet, he looked just like this ... sadly the salt one got broken many years ago, so now we just have Pepper holding the salt, and the pepper from the sachets is in the little jam jar as it was two different kinds of pepper and not just the white pepper that I have in my pepper pot.

Did you manage to keep up with that confusing waffle?

I used the two random sachets of mayonnaise on my lunch, slightly too much maybe, but very tasty.

It was a satisfying little job to get done, and now everything is either on the shelf ready for using or tucked away in the main food cupboard, and I have a very nice space on my wall where the old cupboard used to be. 😁

Happy St George's Day if you are here in the England, a day that often slips under the radar. 

Sue xx

I Will Be Back ... Tomorrow

 

Sorry to be missing in action a bit at the moment ... I will be back to annoy you all very soon.

In the meantime I am taking one moment at a time, and drinking lots of coffee.

Art by - Rosy Made a Thing

Oooh, where is the lavender when you need it.  😶 

Sue xx

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