Cucumbers ... and a Confession

 

This for me has been the year of the cucumber, and considering how hot and dry it has been this year I am amazed by how many cucumbers I have managed to get off just one plant. 

As fast as I pick them another takes it's place, growing like an alien under the cover of the leaves, surprising me a few days later by already being ridiculously big.  They are tasty thank goodness, and have been my snack of choice whenever I get the nibbles, well it saves on buying any biscuits.

I have a confession to make ... I have never actually made a wrap!!

I always make sandwiches, I do buy wraps but I use them as thin pizza or quiche bases or to make homemade 'nacho style' crisps, never have I made a wrap in place of a sandwich until this week that was.

I had run out of fresh bread and needed to make Alan's lunch, the thought of driving backwards and forwards was too much so I got some wraps out of the freezer, thawed them to warm them and make them more pliable, and had a go.  The one you see on the plate with a bite out of it was my trial wrap ... it worked, although I struggled a bit with the folding at first.

I loved it.  Now I don't usually buy them for me when we are out and about although Alan has them regularly, I find the ones you get in the shop seem to be all bread and hardly any filling, mine were much more filled and so much more balanced.

I also have to confess that the 'chicken tikka' flavoured pieces of chicken that I used in Alan's wrap had been bought in error for Ginger, he has the plain chicken regularly but I doubt that's he's a chicken tikka flavoured kind of cat. 🐱

Alan had no qualms in using up the chicken, I had already admitted to the error of my ways.

Two wraps for Alan's lunch and I made another one for me while I was practising my new found rolling techniques.  As you can possibly just about see, I got super good at it by the time I made Alan's.  😄

Sue xx

Underfloor Heating ... and a Wildlife Haven

 

Alan has worked like a trooper this week and he has the sore, creaky knees to prove it.  

All the underfloor heating mats were first glued into place, with the doorways and edges being like a mind-boggling jigsaw of little bits cut to keep the pipes travelling logically in the right direction. 

 Then he was onto the task of pushing all the pipes into the grooves.

Missing out areas where we do not need the heating to extend to.  This is in the en-suite, and beyond the line of bricks is where the shower tray will fit.

All I can say is he has a LOT more patience than me.  😄

By Thursday evening he was all finished.

All the pipes lead to the manifold, which he is commissioning this morning.  An engineers delight and a total mystery to me. 😐

Then we will have the weekend to wait and check for any leaks before he starts on the next job, which is laying the floor tiles in the main room ready for the kitchen to be installed the following week.

He's had a busy week, and he's rewarded himself with a new set of knee protectors ready for the tile laying.

I've been taking him his lunch each day, and we sit on the back step while he eats.  The 'mountain' as it's now been christened, is alive with all sorts of insects and it's fascinating to watch.

So much so we have decided to keep a wildlife area when we finally get around to sorting out the garden next year.  It's the least we can do for all those very necessary little pollinators. 

Sue xx

A Morning Out in Morecambe

 

After a week of working hard at the bungalow, mostly on his own, Alan needed a break and some nice fresh air.  So with the temperatures going down nicely, and a weekend virtually to ourselves we headed off for breakfast in Morecambe last Saturday.

And that was just what we did, had breakfast in one of our favourite cafés, Ralphy's and then went for a circular walk on the prom.

We stopped to read the billboard, telling us about the coming Eden Project North.

It's been promised for so long, and was stuck in the planning stages for years.  Alan was hoping that they would have broken ground on the development and there would be something to see.  Unfortunately, there was no sign of anything happening yet, although it had been reported on social media that they were starting in June.  

It will be very good for the regeneration of the town and it's tourist trade when it finally happens.

https://youtu.be/whhHTVQH44o?si=qFlejGcgdmXBGLxd

We bench-hopped along the prom and stopped for a while to look out to sea, it was such a beautifully clear day and we were playing 'spot the Cumbrian town' on the opposite side of the bay.

Sometimes you just need a little seaside break to clear your head and re-invigorate yourself, ready for some more hard work the following week.

Sue xx

Art, and Mixed Fruit Jelly

 

Tea, toast and marmalade - Artist Lucy Almey Bird

It's that time of year again for me, time to dig out all the fruit peelings, cores and random bits from the freezer where they have been added to for months, and make up a batch of Compost Heap Jelly ... only this year I have renamed it Mixed Fruit Jelly as there was so much good fruit in there too that would never have ended up on the compost heap.

I assembled all the bits well over a week ago and chopped some extras up.

They simmered away nicely on the hob ...

... then I discovered a tub of extra blueberries in the freezer so these were added and I kept it all puttering away for quite a bit longer.

After a night of dripping away through a jelly bag and into a large bowl, the resulting liquid was stored in the fridge ... for well over a week, it was just too hot to be stood at the hob boiling up any sort of jam or jelly.

With the weather having cooled considerably now I got it out this morning and boiled up the beautifully coloured jelly.

Three and a half jars of beautiful tasty Mixed Fruit Jelly.  Alan is very happy with his two jars, he loves this stuff, no matter what the colour and what the flavour.  I think it just reminds him of our smallholding days when we had jars and jars of jewel coloured preserves lined up in the cupboard.

Sue xx

Shopping and Shopping Bags

 

My little black fold-up bag is probably one of the hardest working things I have owned for years.  

I bought it way back in 2013 when we first moved to North Wales and I shopped regularly in Marks and Spencer in Llandudno.  I had simply forgotten my shopping bag one day and didn't want to buy a plastic carrier bag, so a reusable bag that was actually made from recycled plastic and sold at the checkouts seemed like a very good idea.  It used to tell me all this information on the bag, but after thirteen years of constant use the words have faded as has the logo for M&S.

Anyway it came with me yesterday, as it always does, to Aldi and held all this shopping with ease.

14th - Aldi - £16.97

Once again my shopping included some things I don't usually buy, as some of them were for Alan's lunches ... not the Tasty Licks I hasten to add, they are most definitely for Ginger.🐱

Once the bag was unpacked, my bag was refolded and is now happily living in my handbag until next time.

11th - Booths - £52.96

A couple of days earlier I had shopped at Booths for some things we needed and some treats. The shopping was away and in the cupboard and fridge before I even though of taking a photo, so once again there is just a photo of the receipt for posterity. It's proving to be much more expensive to shop for both of us for two meals a day ... especially when there is a hard working man begging for treats.  

 But it's not a problem, he deserves them all.  😄

Sue xx

Towel Rails and Underfloor Heating

Alan fitted the electric towel rail/radiators this week while the electricians were there to sign off his work.  Mine is in chrome to match all the chrome elements of my shower room.

While Alan's is in matt black to match all the black elements of his bathroom. 

It's good to have some form of radiator in the bungalow, as these will be the only place to dry knickers and socks when you need them in a hurry after washing things in the colder, wetter weather of Winter. 😄

Can you even imagine colder, wetter weather at the moment, I know I can't!! 

The reason for the lack of any other radiators in the bungalow is because we are having underfloor heating.  Alan has been working out the layout of all the mats on the floor this week.  He is hoping to start the gluing down of them either today or tomorrow, then the pipes will be inserted into their positions next week, ready to be tiled over.

Laying them out ahead of time means that he can double check that he has enough of the straights and  curves as well as the blanks that he needs to cover all the floors.  

It appears that there are indeed enough of what we need.

It's all coming together nicely.

But I am very impressed by my very skilled husband.

Sue xx

 

A Week of Lunches

 

Lunch 1 - Homemade Vegetable Soup and a toasted crust of bread.

My lunches, frequently also called dinners here up North ... .with me it depends what mood I am in ... are quite simple affairs.  I've been trying to get away from just sandwiches at every midday meal and have also been attempting to use up the bitty bits from the fridge and freezer at lunchtime.  The more I delve in the freezer drawers the more I seem to find.

Also leftovers, and the last one or two of anything make for brilliant lunches.  

Lunch 2 - Fishfinger Butty and homegrown tomatoes.

Lunch 3 - Leftover Rice and Roasted Vegetables.

Lunch 4 - A Tomatoey Vegetable Medley

Lunch 5 - Homemade Soup and half a Garlic Bread

Lunch 6 - A Sausage Bun with Ketchup

One thing most of my, and our meals have had in common this past couple of weeks has been the addition of courgette.  We are in the midst of a yellow courgette glut and I am determined to keep up with the output this year.

Sometimes just a few slices and sometimes a whole lot more.

Lunch 7 - A Vegetable Omelette

It's been a very tasty seven days.  Now I have just started on a 'Week of Teas' ... we will see how long it takes me to photograph seven nights of evening meals.  I keep forgetting ... I have a lot on my mind ... but no-one wants to see a half eaten plate of food, so I will persevere.  😄

What is your favourite type of lunch?

Sue xx

Shopping and Tidying

 

4th - Aldi - £24.13

It's been a bit of a manic end to the week.

We had seven viewings over the week, culminating in a second viewing on Saturday morning, one more first viewing at lunchtime and then three offers being put on the table all in the space of a couple of hours during Saturday afternoon.  Two of the offers are for the full asking price and one £5k lower.  Because all this was happening as the agents were getting ready to close for the weekend, we will find out tomorrow whether the one offer that we have accepted can move forward as quickly as the potential purchaser has said he could.

Anyway with all the comings and goings, last weeks shopping posts are slightly different.  I have the receipt for an Aldi shop that cost me £24.13, but no photo of the shopping.  It was all put away or taken around to Alan's before I realised, and I just did not have the will or the energy to get it all back out again.  So just the receipt for posterity.

7th  Booths £20.43

Then there is the Booths shopping from Friday which has no receipt, as I turned down the paper copy at the till and then accidentally deleted the email version off my phone.  I did this shopping after we had a coffee in the café there while we were out of the house for a viewing to go ahead.  It's just a few treaty bits which were all on offer with my Booths card.  I only actually needed bread and milk.  

At least I remembered both of them. 😄

It will be really good news if one of the full price offers works out, it means there will be no more tidying up every time we want to go out just in case there is a last minute viewing required.  No more wondering where I have hidden certain things to make everywhere looks super tidy and spacious when I get back, and now the things that usually live on the bench behind my front door, that have been living in the boot of my car can return to their rightful places.

Back to normal would be very good.

Sue xx

Quadruple Cooked Chips

It should imagine you've all heard of Triple Cooked Chips, available for quite a cost at lots of cafés and restaurants these days.  

Well, I had some a few weeks back when we went out for lunch to a local garden centre.  Alan was having a sandwich and side salad, he's a real salad man and always has been, and as I wasn't terribly hungry I decided to just have the side of chips to share with Alan along with some mayonnaise for dunking purposes.

The side of Triple Cooked Chips was £5.

Admittedly you did get a good sized portion, so much so that even with Alan having a few and me dunking away to my hearts desire, I couldn't finish them off.  Alan laughed when I fished a small poly bag out of my handbag and put the remaining 7 chips into it, I told him for that price ... for any price for that matter ... they were coming home with me.

They were popped straight into the freezer when we got home.

 

Then the other day I found a box in the freezer with just two fish fingers in it, not really enough for a fishfinger butty but then when I spied the chips in the same freezer drawer, my lunch idea materialised quickly.

My simple lunch a Quadruple Cooked Chip and Fish Finger Butty ... and very nice it was too.

Gosh those chips were really nice!! 😄

Sue xx

A Week of Breakfasts

 

Breakfast  1 - Yoghurt, Fruit and Granola

To lots of you this will probably be the most boring post you have ever looked at, but I did it with a purpose.  I wanted to photograph my breakfasts each day as a visual aid to remind me at a quick glance the variations that I am having in my current diet ... and by diet I mean way of eating ... I am not on a diet. I dislike that the word has been hijacked over the years to mean a weight-loss type way of eating.

It's not strictly chronological as I forgot on a couple of mornings to photograph what I ate, or remembered halfway though and realised that no one really wants to see a half eaten bowl of scrambled eggs, or a slice of toast and jam with two huge bites out of it.  But the things I forgot to photograph were not the end of the world, so as soon as I reached the magic seven days of photographed breakfasts I called it a day.

Breakfast  2 - Stewed Apple and Weetabix

Breakfast  3 - Strawberries and Weetabix 

Breakfast 4 -  Cheesy Scrambled Eggs on Toast

Breakfast 5 - Weetabix with Strawberries and Homegrown Blueberries

Breakfast 6 - Tomatoes and Red Onion on Toast

Breakfast 7 - Cheesy Scrambled Eggs with a Buttered Crust of Bread

I do eat other things occasionally and not always what is considered to be 'breakfast' food.  I have been known for instance to have dahl and rice, or soup and toast.  Breakfast doesn't have to mean cereals, fruits or something on toast.  In Winter porridge makes a regular appearance, but the weather has been far too warm for porridge this last few weeks.

Of course all these breakfasts were served with the obligatory cup of black coffee. I like at least two cups to start each and every day.  First I have just a cup of coffee, and then an hour later coffee and breakfast.  It's the civilised way to do things. 😄

Now I am in the process of doing the same thing for my lunches, but in the meantime ... what's your favourite breakfast?

Sue xx