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

Memories of Easters Gone

So many memories tied up in photographs.

Every Easter when we were children we would go round to visit my Gran.  She was my Mum's Mum, and gosh I loved her to bits.  Mum criticised her all the time to my Dad in the hearing of me and my brother and I never understood it or thought it fair even as a child.  Now as an adult a lot of the things that she said and did still seem so unfair, especially considering that my Mum is so like her in so many ways.

We are stood outside her large four story rented house in this photo, she was relocated there after the family home was totally flattened by a bombing raid during World War 2, and she stayed there until she was rehoused in the early 1970's.  As a child I loved the old house, but found parts of it very spooky as it was very gloomy in all but the front 'best' room, hence the photo being taken outside on the street.

It was about a forty minute walk to get to Gran's house, but back in the day we were all used to walking much longer distances weren't we and it just seemed normal.  Gran would walk round to ours most Saturdays as she loved to watch the wrestling on the television, she refused to have a tv in her house until her dying day, she thought that they would burst into flames willy nilly.

I have to say none of mine ever have.  😁

 We didn't have to travel any where near as far to visit my Nana, Dad's Mum.  We lived downstairs in her house.  So we would get our new Easter clothes on and troop upstairs to receive an Easter egg and have our photo taken.  I loved my Nana, just as much if not more, although sitting and posing for a photo with her seemed strange.

I would go upstairs and watch television with Nana most nights, our favourite evenings together were Mondays, when it would be at least one quiz show, usually University Challenge ... Nana did like Bamber Gascoigne ... and then Opportunity Knocks.  A highlight of watching tv upstairs was that I got to sit on a chair, downstairs we only had two armchairs so me and my brother would sit cross legged on the floor when we watched anything.

It's funny, but oh so nice, how two photos can bring so many memories flooding back.

Wishing a very Happy Easter to all my readers, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  Perhaps you are making memories for the future, or simply reliving lovely ones from the past.  Both are wonderful things to do.

Sue xx

My Easter Shopping ... and Temptation

While Alan was doing a final pre-Easter days work with the builders at the bungalow yesterday, I took myself off to the shops for the things that I wanted this week.  First I called to Aldi, gosh it was really busy considering it was only 9.30 am.  People with full trolleys and the Easter egg aisle was virtually impassable.

I'm pretty stocked up with most things at the moment, so these were just extras that I fancied and replacements for things I have used.  Of course I had to include Ginger's Tasty Licks, a very necessary thing at the moment as he is on two lots of medication from the vets, one for his arthritis and one for his over-active thyroid.  They must taste nice as we have no trouble getting any of his medicines down him. most unusual for a cat!  🐱

The receipt for posterity ... and price comparison in a years time.

Gosh doesn't fish and wine bump up the cost of the shopping, I may have to have another try at frozen salmon fillets, the last lot that I got were not that nice though.

Then it was round to Sainsbury's as I had a £2 off coupon for the little Oggs cakes and they are currently on Nectar offer at £3, so I got them for just £1 which makes them a very nice Easter treat.

I picked up some of Alan's favourite cough sweets, he eats them in the car when he's travelling, I like the black traditional ones but not the honey or cherry flavours, so they are all his.

So pretty bog standard shopping for me really.  

We don't do family meals or even visits at Easter any more, which is a shame.  So there's no need for us to stock up on the makings of a large lunch.  I think I am going to try and rectify this once we move and we have our lovely big open plan living area.  It would be nice to get everyone round once in a while.

As I paid for my Sainsbury's shopping the machine spat out a very tempting coupon.  It's £18 off a £60 online shop, I need to sit and have a think about this one as it is a really good offer.  Perhaps to good to miss ... I don't know.  🤔

Sue xx

Lots of March Freebies for Posterity

 

I did well during March collecting freebies while we were out and about.

Alan bought me the Vegan Meercat sweets as they were the last two in the farm shop, and they weren't going to be restocking.  He had picked up some HP sauce for his sausage butty and then changed his mind.  This is a frequent happening so I don't know why he continues to pick them up ... we rarely eat HP or brown sauce at home, although I do like tomato ketchup with a sausage butty.

Napkins and a little butter pat.  Alan uses the 'real butter' pats when he is cooking a steak, so it's worth us bringing them home.

Lots more napkins, and not all ours.  Alan spotted a real wad of them on the next table to us at the services, abandoned by the people that had left the table.  I must have rubbed off on him, because he actually asked me if I wanted them ... of course I did. 😁

It was a good month for freebies collected on the Greggs App on my phone, helped by me buying my son and his partner four doughnuts on his birthday to take home with him.  You get one free item for every eight that you buy.

On one visit to the services we managed to get one free sausage roll and ...

... a free Americano. 

Not all ours, but all collected in on a visit to the garden centre.

Yet more freebies from Greggs ... I told you it had been a good month didn't I.  😄

The final Greggs freebie of the month was a glazed doughnut last Sunday on the way back from Mum's.

A highlight of a trip to Booths for a coffee, three napkins and a book.

I've been good recently and not really browsed the charity book table, but on this day I did and Alan surprised me by saying that he had just found a pound coin next to our car in the car park and did I want a book.  

This one was there, brand new and calling my name.

Another wad of napkins and a few packs of salt.

And finally from Dobbie's on Saturday last week, the ketchup salt, peppers and napkins were ours and the mayonnaise had been left on the chair of the table we sat at.  

They all came home.

So all in all March was a very successful month for gathering things in, and with all the napkins that have come home with me yet another month where I don't have to buy any kitchen paper.  My last purchase was in November of 2024!!

I'm on a roll, even if I'm not actually buying any.  😄

Sue xx

Robins, Riverford and Renovations

We called to our local garden centre on Saturday to return something, so we decided to get some breakfast and a coffee while we were there.  We were very well entertained at our riverside window table by a pair of robins, a pair of some kind of tit and a couple of little black and white birds dashing here there and everywhere.

Have I ever mentioned my complete lack of knowledge of flora and fauna, my head is just too full of other things for any of this to stick ... the robins are lucky that they mean so much to me.

.

The river was hurtling past, right at the very top of the bank, fascinating and very hypnotising to watch while sipping my coffee.

We didn't go for a full Riverford box last week, instead we got a salad bag each and some additional blueberries and another pack of hot cross buns.  But ... I've had enough of the hot cross buns now, seasonal eating is good but you can gorge too much on something when it suddenly appears on your radar.

I loved this week's newsletter.

On our way back from the garden centre we called to the bungalow, it had been a few days since I had last seen it and Alan and the builders had been working hard all week.

This is the view from the front door.

This is the old kitchen, who needs windows with glass in them when you can have a wooden board that the wind relocates. 😄

The old living room.  

As I said who needs windows, or in this case part of the front wall too.  We do seem to have gained a coat hook though.  Proper posh!! 😁

The biggest gain of the week is an actual concrete floor in the living/dining/kitchen room.

An actual surface to walk on!!

Just four more layers on top of this and the floor will be done, ah well it's all progress.

Alan and the builders will hopefully have all the floors to this stage by Thursday night, when the builders all down tools and head off to Spain for the Easter weekend.  We are obviously paying them far too much. 😄 

Sue xx

Just Read Books

 

With the suddenly colder weather back again I've been sinking into books almost every afternoon.  

It's cosy in my little living room with the sun streaming through the French doors on the sunny but 'cold outside' days, and it feels even cosier if the rain is battering the glass and I can be inside with the heating on and a cup of coffee to hand, and of course the occasional biscuit ... or three.

When the warmer weather appeared last week Alan brought our garden chairs down from his spare room and put them on the patio, then the weather turned cold, wet and windy and we have yet to actually sit on them.  One day soon ... hopefully, it will be warm enough, perhaps with a cardigan on, to sit outside and read on one of them.

We can but hope.  😎

In the meantime I will sit indoors and carry on really enjoying my latest book, it's one by Stanley Tucci.  It's the sort of book that I love, very foody ... enough to make me hungry while I read ... and very well written.  He has a slight sarcastic at time humour that I find funny, and gosh doesn't he know a lot of very famous people so well.

Being half Italian and a really good home cook, he's making me want to eat more pasta with his wonderful descriptions of the meals that he makes, which can only be a good thing considering my current spaghetti mountain.  😄

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Sue xx

Purely Bungalow Renovation News ... and Floorplan

This meme really strikes home. 

We really are downsizing our home for the final time.  While I will have more square footage than the lodge, Alan will have a lot less than his current house and we will be sharing.  Hence this final move being quite possibly the last one we make together.

So it's important that we get it right.

After weeks of no floor, then a gradual infill of rubble floor, this week has seen Alan and the builders getting ready for the concrete to be laid.  The bricks from the walls being taken down were mostly used to bring the level to the right height.  Alan sunk the main pipes that will come from each bathroom into the floor and then all the gaps were filled with a top layer of sand, to protect the damp-proof membrane from puncture.

 On top of all these layers the thick insulation boards were laid in place in the dining/kitchen/living room ready for the concrete to be poured.  Our chief builder Paul could not resist a little tap dance to celebrate, now Alan just has to break it to him that this photo is going all around the world.  😄

It's all starting to come together nicely.

Nearly all the windows are now at their new sizes and with new concrete lintels.  This will be my en-suite shower-room window.

Country Cook asked in the comment section the other day for floorplans, so she could visualise how we are changing the layout of the bungalow.  Alan has all the 'proper' ones at the bungalow.  But here are two of the basic ones I worked on while I was originally changing the layout.  The original layout is on the left and our new one on the right.

I am a very visual person so I always look at floorplans of a property before understanding it or buying it.  Hopefully these make sense to you.  

I think that the best thing about this simplification, apart from it about to be the bungalow design that we have always wanted, is getting rid of the excess of doors that used to be there ... at least we managed to sell them all.  😄 

Sue xx