Frugal Living UK

40!

2013-05-11T02:41:00.000-07:00

Yep, you guessed it, I'm 40 today. Lordy Lord.

Very Quick Stew

2013-05-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

I go away working for 4 weeks tomorrow (minus weekends) so really didn't want to be cooking much today but still wanted something delicious.
Time for a quick stew in the slow cooker. This recipe was given to me by a friend in Brighton, so if it's good, all credit goes to you Adrian.

A few changes here and there based on what I had in the house.

Brown off some cheap casserole beef in oil with some shallots (didn't have any so added chopped onion instead) cook for a couple of minutes and add a tablespoon or two of flour.

Add some beer. (I got a cheap bottle of beer from Lidl and shoved that in) and a glass of red wine, didn't have any so added a glug of port. Crumble in a beef stock cube and add some button mushrooms (again, no button mushrooms in Lidl so some chopped up chestnut mushrooms.)

That's it! Bung it in the slow cooker for a few hours.

I did that at 9 this morning and I am not kidding when I say it took me 5 minutes. It took me twice as long to find the bottle opener, this being a virtually tee-total house.
Here's how it looks after 8 hours, the smell is heavenly.

Will serve it later with mashed potatoes and peas and let you know how it is, seconds for lunch tomorrow and then any left will go into the freezer for a portion or two on one of the weekends I am home. I love quick and tasty cooking like this.

Knackered.

2013-05-03T02:29:00.001-07:00

Sometimes my wish to be home goes against my better judgement. I did a show in London last night and then drove home listening to my usual selection of radio plays to keep me awake. Got in at 3.20 this morning and my head hit the pillow at 3.30. Of course, being me, I was awake at 6 as usual. I'm good for nothing today - which is a shame as I have to go and do one of my old ladies gardens in a while. Wish me luck - I feel like death.

Upcycling - not to everyone's taste.

2013-05-01T04:03:00.000-07:00

I rescued 3 dining chairs from my sister's garden last week. As I have mentioned before she is at the end of a huge remodeling of her house and, me being always on the look out am profiting. Her old oven is already in my house and now I took the three dining chairs that she was about to put on the tip.

They were in a bit of a state, it has to be said. Having brought up 3 children on these chairs they were covered in grubby fingers, crayon and paint and thick with dirt having been out in the garden for a few weeks. I just call that a challenge.

So first thing was to clean and sand them down, no easy task actually because the dirt was matted on. Here is one after the cleaning and sanding (forgot to take a picture before this process)

A traditional looking chair, it wasn't a very nice colour pine varnish finish so I wasn't keeping that.

Next I primed them with a tin of primer I had leftover from a previous project.

Now comes the part when I go off the main track. My intention was to just paint the cream to match the legs of the table, but sometimes, when I get looking at paint colours a strange feeling comes over me and I start wanting to experiment. Not always succesfully. I have a lot of blue and white crockery and love this combination and started wondering about maybe painting them blue. After humming and haaing I thought, what's the worst that can happen? I don't like them and paint them again.

So Swedish Blue was decided upon. Decide for yourself. I'm not sure about the result, but it is growing on me, haha.

Still, a big improvement from a filthy old chair in the garden. I will liven them up with some nice pastel shade cushions and maybe get something blue onto the table to tie them in. If I am fed up with them in 6 months I will paint them a new colour.

What a lot can happen in 12 months.

2013-04-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

I missed my blog anniversary! I was 2 on the 10th April. So much has happened in 2 years and I can't really believe that when I started the blog I was still living in a tiny flat in miserable London and only dreaming of a life in the country. Now I can't imagine living anywhere else.

I love my house and I love my town, but the thing I love most - if you hadn't guessed - is my garden.

Today was spent in there pottering about, the grass had it's first mow of the year. I strimmed. I planted some purple sprouting broccoli in the raised bed (currently the rasied bed is home to that, leeks, spring onions and one black Russian tomato.) I have some runner beans and Morning Glory gone in.

Thought I would provide the latest before and after gardening photos, because they are always fun to look at. 1 year ago and today.

1 year ago. I must say the grass was healthier, probably because it had hardly been walked on.

Today. So different.

A year ago. Untouched but so rural and lovely.

By the way, the near bed is so full because I have put pots and stones on it to deter the cats - seems to be working.

Took this just after the doors and windows went in last year.

It is nice to look back and see the difference.

Well who knows what the next 12 months will bring and what the before and after photos will look like then.

Next before and after will be the bathroom - later in the Summer months.

Things are finally happening in the garden

2013-04-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

There has been a huge amount of activity suddenly in my garden in the last few day. Good job, it has a lot of catching up to do.

I can almost here the rhubarb grow. I must admit that not having touched it at all last year has clearly made it's root system good and strong. It is well on and has grown every time I look at it.

The 4 inch stem and leaves on this clematis have grown in the last 36 hours.

These Alliums have suddenly taken off. On the right are the gigantic ones and on the left, well another sort, can't remember what now, haha.

Even these delphiniums are coming through. I am most pleased about these, because I found them at the end of last summer hidden under a tree, doing nothing because they were in full shade and were just a tangle of leaves. I transplanted the roots and had no idea whether they would survive. And here they are.

But there is one thing that makes me sad and that is my complete inability to grow rosemary. Yes, this herb which is usually hailed as a herb that 'anyone can grow' seems to hate me. Every rosemary I have ever had has died and yet I don't think that I do anything particularly bad to it. This one is no exception. I hold out a little hope that it may return to life, but it really does look dead.

So to cheer myself up I made a batch of Paul Hollywood's savoury scones. Ironically they are supposed to be cheese and rosemary scones but I replaced the rosemary and made them cheese and chilli scones. Have to say, I love this recipe, it really did take seconds to make and they are the nicest savoury scones I have ever tasted.

30 Ways to save a pound.

2013-04-24T07:39:00.002-07:00

To celebrate the 30th birthday of the £1 coin, Money Supermarket is holding a giveaway for bloggers. For each money saving tip you write they will pay you £1 (to a maximum of £30).

Well, this is right up my street as I spend all day every day saving a pound. The following 30 tips are just some of my ways of saving money.

1) Make your own laundry liquid, it woks just as well as any other and probably saves me a pound a month at least, probably more.

2) Use old grey water from household chores for watering the plants, just make sure it is water with not too many chemicals in. Save pounds from your water bill if you have a lot of plants to water in the garden.

3) Always walk instead of taking the car for short distances. Exercise and petrol saved.

4) Making your own bread will save you about a pound every single time you do it. And it tastes better too.

5) If you are a keen gardener, get organised early and buy seeds instead of plants. You will get way more plants for your pound and at a fraction of the cost, with just a little effort.

6) Don't ever leave any items on standby. I reduced pounds off my electricty bill by turning everything off at the plug except the fridge and freezer this way.

7) Talking of freezers, make sure you are not running it too empty, it costs more. Get a freezer thermometer, that way you can find the optimum temperature and make sure you are not running it too cold as this costs more.

8) Bulk cook. Can't stress enough, but no excuses that you are cooking only for one and can't be bothered. I cook for one 95% of the time and I always make the effort, just make too much and freeze it, then you always have a meal in the freezer.

9) No takeaways. I can't remember the last time I bought a takeaway, honestly. It must be years now. If you fancy a take out style treat, then make something special. It will still save you pounds and will be much healthier.

10) Don't spend money on ridiculous toiletries that promise things that they can't possibly deliver. A product is physically incapable of taking away wrinkles. Basic stuff is fine.

11) Men, don't buy expensive shaving creams, I have had my shaving soap for about 2 or more years and it is still going strong. At least another year, possibly two left in it. Saved me pounds, even in competition with the cheapest shaving foams.

12) Bags of salad in the supermarket are ridiculous. Because they have already been torn up and shredded they have no chance of remaining nice and fresh for very long. Buying a nice tight lettuce, such as a romain or a littl gem will last for twice as long. 2 little gems are half the price of a bag of salad saving you pounds in the long run.

13) Be very careful of BOGOF offers. They are absolutely fine if they are an item you use that has an incredibly long shelf life, or an item you can freezer, but fresh items with short shelf lives are pointless and supermarkets know this. They count on you not using it all up and having to buy more.

14) Also with supermarkets, be careful that an offer really is an offer. Many will hike up the price for a couple of weeks before they roll it back down to a price that is more than it was in the first place, to fool you into thinking that you are getting a deal. There other trick is to change the quantity, so you are paying more per 100g than you were before. Cheeky blighters.

15) Don't waste money on air fresheners. Think about the chemicals it must produce to make the smell in the air that you are then breathing in. Buy some essential oils, these will last for yonks and yonks. Saving you a fortune. Particulary compared with the plug in airfresheners. Yes, they may not use much electricity - but they are still using electricity that you are paying for - 24 hours a day.

16) Leaving lights on when you are not in the room is a no no in my house. With one exception. I have a hall light on a timer with a very very low energy bulb in it, for security purposes. The rest of my lights are off unless I am in the room.

17) One of the most effective ways to cut the cost of my gas bill is to turn the timer off completely on the boiler. In fact it has never been on. If i am cold, then I turn the heating on. If I am warm then I turn it off. Otherwise you are heating a house that might not need heating. Saves pounds and my gas bill is less than £20 a month.

18) Baths eat money up. They use tons of water, they use gas to heat that water. Save a bath for a special occasion when you really feel like you deserve it. A quick shower - no need to hang about - will save you pounds over the course of a year.

19) If you can bare it, only wash up once a day. I often do this, neatly stacking my dirty dishes through the day in one place or in a bowl. This is very possible without causing problems, especially if you are only feeding yourself at lunchtime. One bowl of washing up water a day will save you pounds over the course of a year.

20) This may go against some peoples sensibilities, but rinsing all of your dishes as you go wastes gallons of expensive water in a year. I never rinse and no harm has ever come to me. Instead, I start washing as the water is filling and you can rinse some of the more important things - glasses say - while it fills for nothing. It is easy to just do a quick rinse of the cutlery container when you have finished and if you dry up, I don't believe that you are going to die of fairy liquid poisoning. If you can't get your head around not rinsing, then fill a bowl with some water and dip the pots in it. Running a tap down the plug hole is like pouring pounds in the bin.

21) And while we are worrying about peoples sensibilities, do you really need to flush every time you have a wee? What about using grey water if you do.

22) Always make your own pastry. Last time I bought pastry it was about £1.30. Well I reckon I can make the same amount of pastry for 30p saving you a pound each time. And it's not hard. just takes practice.

23) Don't go to the pub, it is a terrible drain on finances as a pint now usually costs well over £2 and often over £3. Instead, if you still want a drink, try making your own. I have had success with home made elderflower Champagne, flavoured liquors and these cost very little to make. Make good presents too. Invite friends around to taste it, much more fun and saves you bags of pounds. Alternatively, just don't drink at all - it really isn't going to matter to you in the end.

24) Don't ever hire anyone to do anything that you could do yourself. Yes, there are tasks that I don't enjoy - cleaning the bath, cleaning the windows, unblocking a drain, but they really are quite easy and don't take that long and cost you nothing. Paying someone else will always be a big drain on your pounds.

25) Don't join a gym unless you absolutely love it and go 4 times a week or more. Gyms rely on people signing up and paying a monthly fee and then rarely going and tons of people do. There is nothing wrong with it if you are going 16 or more times a month, you are getting your money's worth, but if you stop going you are saving a pound every day or even more in some cases. Use the great outdoors. Walking, running costs nothing except a pair of shoes. If you want to do resistance training use your imagination.

26) Don't idly sit there watching tv just because you can't think of anything to do. I enjoy TV, but I only put it on when there is something that I want to watch. If you just have it on in the background then you are wasting your electricity. I think you can save a few pounds this way.

27) Get organised with birthdays. The amount of times I have, at the last minute, remember someones birthday and had to run out and get a card wherever I can get one from fast. These usually end up being the most expensive places and a card can cost lads these days. Making cards is pretty cheap, if you can be really creative and organised about it, otherwise get a selection of cards from a shop when you see them very cheap. If they need posting you can send them second class and save a few pence too if you are prepared. A birthday reminder email or app service is good, you can get them to email you 2 weeks before a birthday.

28) Teach your children the value of a pound. My brother has a great system, his son wanted a new computer so my brother said that if he saved, for every pound he saved my brother would put a pound in. Well blow me down, if the little boy of 9 saved up £200 of his own money, pocket money (earned through chores) and Christmas and birthday money were all put aside and he learnt in the process that wasting his money on tat was a sure way of slowing the computer purchase down. It was a good way of teaching a child the value of things and the art of savings and in the long run will save that child pounds when he is an adult.

29) Get a waterbutt. Rain water down the drain is wasted money. If you water a garden you can harvest it and use it on the dry days to water your plants. A water butt will cost you about £40 all in, but over the course of a year will probably save you that. Over the course of more than a year you will be in profit.

30) Give DIY a go. I am self taught in hundreds of things. The internet is a huge resource for finding out how to do something you never did before. If it is a big job and you don't know where to start then always call a professional, but most small jobs - putting up shelves, fixing a leaky tap, changing a door handle, are dead easy. You will save pounds every time you DON'T need to call in a tradesman.

Cat protection

2013-04-21T01:59:00.001-07:00

It's turned cold again this morning, in fact, I have icy cold little fingers as I type this. Didn't frost last night though. unlike yesterday. Typical, on the day that I plant out some sweet peas. Fortunately I had the foresight to wrap bubble wrap around them and was out there at midnight doing just that. They are all absolutely fine.
My raised vegetable bed was being used by the local cat population as a giant litter tray so I took action yesterday. I was going to make it a 'square foot gardening bed' anyway, (thanks to Sarina's good suggestion) so I knocked a few nail in and added string, this left me with 18 separate 1 foot squares ready for different veg collections. As there is nothing yet in them I filled every square with anything that I could find to just put the cats off - small plant pots, rocks and stones - you get the idea.

and guess what? This morning, no digging and no cat poo.as I add some veg seedlings to it I will remove the stones or pots accordingly and by then, hopefully the cats will have given up on it and moved to a different place, hopefully, not in my garden.

This weekend I tried sourdough loaf number 2. I thought it was going badly, as rising seemed to barely happen even though all in all it had about 24 hours! However, as it turned out, it seems to have worked far better than the last one. Although it lost it's lovely round shape by not coming out of the bowl cleanly.

Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so I will be road testing it for taste and texture in the form of a good bacon sandwich in a little while, when it has cooled a bit.

Nom nom

Busy few days.

2013-04-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

I've been in and out, dodging the rain most of the time. One second it is beautiful and warm, the next rainy.
I now do two ladies gardens on a regular basis, which is a nice bit of extra money and quite franky, a pleasure to do most of the time. It's only a couple of hours here and there, but maybe it could build up? who knows?
Did I mention that my oven broke down? Can't remember. It just stopped working which didn't really surprise me as it must have been over 20 years old. Fortunately on the day it stopped working my sister was throwing out her oven so I grabbed it (although I think that her builder wanted to nab it, because he tried very hard to not let me have, cheeky bugger).
So, much as I was tempted to try and put it in myself my mum was horrified and told me I had to get an electrician in. Did so and the kind man only charged £20 so I'm not complaining (watched him carefully and I could have done it myself, but never mind)
Anyway, it works perfectly, but my sister wants shooting - it was filthy!!!!! So a packet of Oven Pride later and I have a shiny new oven, hooray, cooking is back on.

Other things I have been up to - my first sourdough loaf. I can't say it was an absolute success, but it wasn't an absolute disaster either and I have learnt from my mistakes. There is nothing wrong with my starter, he is happily sitting there, bubbling and alive. The loaf itself had two problems, first of which is that it definitely needed more rising - I will give it a few more hours next time and somewhere warmer I think. The other problem was with my cooking, my oven was a bit too hot I think (still trying to get used to the new oven) and so it was very much cooked on the outside, but still a bit stodgy on the inside. Having said all of that the taste is beautiful, but it is just a bit dense - makes wonderful toast though. Loaf number two should be a better effort thanks to my trial and error first loaf.

My sourdough starter

Dough

Ready to bake.

First loaf

Made great eggs on toast though.

I haven't been neglecting my own gardening and working in the greenhouse continues to be a joy. Today I planted out some of my sweet peas - I know it is a bit of a risk mid April, but they were getting way too big for their pots and really wanted planting out. Hopefully no more frosts, but I will keep on eye and wrap them up if there is. 2 wigwams at either end of the new bed.

I'm desperate to get some veg in that raised bed in the distance - every morning the local cat population have used it as a giant litter tray!!!!

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend - time for me to have a piece of the Victoria sponge I made and a cuppa.

gateway to the greenhouse

2013-04-16T12:31:00.001-07:00

I finally did it, only 8 months late. I put the arch way up between the trellis and the decking. The men who did the deck did offer last summer, but I said I would do it myself. Well it took me a while, but I decided that today was the day - and now it is done.

I think that it finishes it off nicely and I look forward to the rambling red rose that was planted last summer on the left of it, finds it's way over the top.

A job well done.

Tomorrow - my first sourdough loaf.

greenhouse pleasure.

2013-04-15T01:07:00.001-07:00

What a joy it is to still be able to potter about in the greenhouse even when it is raining.
Things are looking great in there, most of the plants look strong and healthy and happy and will soon be ready to go out after any lingering frosts have passed. In hindsight, living here, where it is colder than in the South, I will start things off just a few weeks later as some of them are getting too big and I am trying to waste time before they can go in the garden.

Plenty of sweet peas, amongst other things. If there is a poor performer it is the lobelia but I do actually blame the compost. I usually just use a multipurpose from B&Q but this time I bought a special John Innes seed compost and, do you know, it is terrible, by far the worst compost I have ever used. It has ruined the lobelia because it clumped into rock hard piece and I am sure the roots have had great difficulty in pushing through. After 2 months they are still only half a centimetre and some are dead. Everything that I did in the multipurpose has thrived beautifully.

The daffodils around the apple tree are ready to burst forth which is going to look lovely.

And finally, tada, here is my new freezer.

Now I'll be able to find things and not have food frozen in lumps at the bottom, never to see the light of day.

Coriander and lemon Hummous

2013-04-14T03:36:00.003-07:00

Loads of you asked for the recipe I mentioned, which surprised me somewhat - I thought I was the last person to start making homemade hummous and everyone else already did.

So here it is.

I will base this on a normal size can of chickpeas - although I actually made it with a half size can as I discovered they were 3 for a pound and a half can makes more than enough hummous for me to eat by myself. I just halved all the following ingredients.

· 1 x 400g tin chick peas, drained and rinsed

· bunch coriander, roughly chopped.( I just did this buy eye.)

· 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

· ½tsp ground coriander (I couldn't find mine so I missed this out, I'll try it next time)

· 2 lemons, juiced (I actually just used lemon juice from a bottle, about 2 tablespoons - again by eye)

· 1tbsp tahini (I would probably not buy this especially and would just miss it out, but I happened to have some. A friend of mine uses peanut butter in his instead and says that it gives a saltier and nice texture, but I have never tried)

· 3tbsp olive oil - again, by eye.

And that's it! Just put it all in the mini chopper or blender, whatever you have, even s stick blender (you can probably even just mash it although it won't be quite so fine perhaps. I then added some salt, to taste.

I prefer this coriander and lemon flavour one as I find ordinary hummous a little bland.

Let me know if you try it.

I'm back

2013-04-12T01:32:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

The wanderer has returned and somehow, although I have been away for a month, it is still cold! I've had to put the heating on this morning, partly because the house has been empty for a long time, but mostly because there is such a chill in the air. however, it hasn't gone below freezing and isn't forecast to either.

The good news is that all my seedlings and plants have survived, just about. The longest they were left unattended was a fortnight as I popped home for Easter and my home style seedling irrigation system - a washing up bowl full of water in the bath with a large wet towel draped across the bath with all the seed trays on it, one end in the washing up bowl - worked a treat, maybe a little too well as everything was very damp.

All the seedlings, with the exception of the aqualegia and cosmos, have germinated, which seems something of a miracle considering how cold it must have been indoors here and the bigger plants that I left in my mothers care are all ok she says, although desperate for potting on.

The garden, if not a picture, is at least pleasant. The daffodils are going to burst forth imminently everything is budding, but all the clematis look dead! Last time I saw them they were budding forth and then the snow came and all the buds are dried husks now. I hope they may come back, but I am concerned about them. Also one of my azaleas looks decidedly unhappy.

I was staying with lovely friends who made my time away a joy and from them, I have learnt new recipes, 2 of which I have tried already and one of which will be started today. I have never had great success with home made hummous, but the one they made me was so delicious that I tried again last night with much greater success. I think the problem with my old attempts has been that they have lacked flavour so their coriander and lemon hummous has changed this and it was absolutely delicious. Had that for my tea last night.
This morning I made tzatziki, another simple dish, but one that I have never actually tried to make before. Since I got my yoghurt maker for Christmas from my sister I always have a surplus of yoghurt so this is a perfect solution for using some of it up each time I make some.

The recipe that I am curious to try today is to make a sourdough starter. I was fascinated by how my friends nurtured this pot of slimy beige liquid, but one taste of their delicious home made sourdough bread was enough to convince me to give it a go. If nothing else, it will be fun, so today I will make my sourdough starter, I think it takes about a week, but I will play it by ear.

All good, cheap, easy things to make today then.

Oh, and I had a spot of good financial news while I was away, so I treated myself, finally, to a new freezer, yes, a brand spanking new one, which will be delivered tomorrow. Mine is absolutely about to give up the ghost and I am terrified of losing all my food stores if it suddenly stops working (also I am rather concerned about it blowing up or setting on fire or something, it ices on the outside now as well as the inside and all around the electrics is solid frozen ice, can't be good). It is not often I actually get something completely new, so I am like a kid at Christmas.

Well, I am glad to be home for 3 and a half weeks and will finally catch up with all of your blogs over the next few days.

No pictures today I'm afraid, but I will remedy that next time.

1 weeks down.

2013-03-15T02:39:00.001-07:00

I'm home for a long weekend - good stuff. My first week working in London has gone quite well. Not too hectic as my schedule gave me a lot of time off, I have to admit that I didn't really use my time wisely, I just watched dvd's and read books under a duvet most of the time but it was my way of relaxing and getting through it all. Luckily I was given today off, so I drove home last night arriving at 12.30, 6 hours sleep and now I am enjoying being home until at least Sunday night. Can't complain (unless it is about the shocking price of petrol).
I managed to 'acquire' a free set of wooden shelves that fit perfectly in the remaining gap in my greenhouse too, so shoved them in the car last night.
When I stepped out of the car in my driveway at half past 12 last night I felt myself relax totally and the smell of the air, the very freshness hit me like an intoxicating drug. It is funny, but after a day or so you find you don't really notice how polluted the air is in the city, but as soon as you are back among the trees and countryside it really becomes very clear. People often describe cities as being 'vibrant' or 'energetic', but the real power is in the energy of the country air and the vibrancy comes from the myriad plant and wildlife around me, I found it reviving like a tonic.
It's pouring with rain though :-( Ah well, you can't have it all.

That time of year again big sigh

2013-03-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

My precious seedlings are dispersed to willing (or forced) friends and family, my house has been cleaned, my bags are packed and my heart is heavy. Yes, I am off to London. 4 weeks of rehearsal and 4 weeks of home sickness. I drive down there this evening ready to start Barber of Seville tomorrow morning. Hopefully 4 weeks will fly by? I then have 3 and a half weeks at home and then another 4 weeks of rehearsal through May for Traviata. I am sad that I will miss some of the wonderful changes that will happen in the garden over this time but I am really hoping to get back some weekends this time, if not all - that is why I decided to drive, so that I can be spontaneous and set off driving home at 3 in the morning if I feel like it or if time allows. I can't do what I did last year and be tied to British rail and megabus and it's nightmare prices and timetable peak time hassles.

For once being frugal will have to take a back seat, petrol costs will be huge this month, but for my own sanity and peace of mind it will have to be or I'll go crazy.

On the subject of being frugal, I had a funny experience when putting in my present metre reading to NPower. I put in the gas reading and got an immediate message back saying that it was an 'inplausable reading' because I hadn't used enough. It made me double check, yes I was right - 98 units of gas in the last 4 months. Maybe NPower is not used to a frugal user. Pretty good going I reckon. My combined gas and electricity bill continue to be £32 a month so I am doing something right as the rest of the country seem to have extortionate bills. I used a lot of electricity by my reckoning though - probably from having the oven on - this will reduce over summer.

Well I don't know when I will be posting next, bare with me. I will post if I am back at the weekend or if I get an opportunity and I will try my best to keep up with your blogs. Keep well, one and all.

bye for now.

DanX

March seed planting.

2013-03-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

What a treat and a pleasure to be able to do my seed planting in the greenhouse and to make as much mess as I liked! The weather has been beautiful today and so, although it was a very chilly start to the day, I knew that the weather would be good. So the washing was on at 8 this morning and has subsequently dried on the line outside - after years of living in a flat in the past, I still get immense pleasure from something as simple as drying clothes outside.
At the weekend I made another greenhouse bench and a potting table, so the greenhouse is fully equipped now. I only spent £20 as I mostly had offcuts of wood left to use.

So today I have planted:

Tomatoes (Gardeners Delight and Tumblers, which have been highly recommended to me)
Cosmos
Aquelegia
Verbena Bonariensis
Shasta Daisies
Echinacia
Snapdragons

Definitely run out of windowsill room now, but tomorrow I am taking my seedlings that I planted a month ago to my mum to look after as I have to go to London next week (yes, it is that time of year again - sigh) for 4 weeks, so I have left the new seeds wrapped up in plastic bags to germinate. I am hoping to get home every weekend this time so keep your fingers crossed for me that this works out. I don't think I could bear a repeat of last year.

Last job of the day, I put up a little birdhouse. I don't know if any birds will use it, I hope so, but it looks really pretty anyway.

It is only 2 metres off the ground, which possibly isn't high enough, but sadly is the highest suitable place in the garden. If I have no luck I will rethink.

First flowers of the year.

2013-03-04T00:17:00.000-08:00

Last year I made some bulb pots. The idea was to get a continuous supply of flowers from February right through to midsummer from one pot. I carefully worked out varieties to cover every season and so hopefully, seamlessly flower from one to the other. So far so good. We have had the snowdrops and have now moved into the second lot of flowers, iris. These little beauties seemingly open up in a matter of hours, one minute it will be a tight closed bud, and I will look a couple of hours later to have the whole flower revealed to me. They are so pretty.

Just one snowdrop left in that pot. The iris will be followed by (if memory serves correctly) narcissus and then there are some tulips and some alliums in there too. Truthfully, I can't fully remember everything I put in, but if it works and I end up with a continuous supply of flowers coming up, then I will be very happy and do something like this every year.

The narcissus around the base of the apple tree are all up and ready to burst forth with a stunning display soon.

And finally, my favourite clump of snowdrops, the true first flower of the year in my garden.

I love that you can put bulbs in months and months ago and almost forget about them, and then they suddenly all sprout up and say hello.

More DIYing

2013-03-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

I couldn't believe the price of greenhouse benches/staging. They were either monstrously expensive £70+ for a 3 foot bench for the nice ones or about £20 for something so small and flimsy that it would hold only a few light plants and probably break in a second.
What do I do when faced with this? make my own of course.

This lovely 6 foot bench cost me £30 in wood and is a foot and a half deep too, suits my needs perfectly and would have probably cost me over £100 if I had bought it from somewhere.

I am rather pleased with the labours of one afternoons work and look forward to filling it with my trays of seeds etc. I will make another some time, but next project will be a larger platform for potting.

New garden bed, stage 2

2013-02-28T10:50:00.001-08:00

Today I enjoyed some gorgeous weather, it was sunny, warm and just lovely. I got some gardening done and it was a pleasure to be outdoors again in the sun, long may it last.
The bed that I put into the middle of my lawn, the one that looks like a whale which you can see on a recent post moved onto stage 2 today. I added a rose arch and a rose and clematis to climb over the arch. I didn't spend much on the arch though, they range in price from £9.99 to £200 so it is hard to know if you are getting value for money. I went, not for the absolute cheapest, but a relatively cheap one all the same at £25. It looks nice and I am looking forward to seeing flowers hanging from it.

Rather like the bed, it looks a little random at the moment, but you have to imagine it with flowers dripping from it and the bed with some tall plants and flowers seperating the two halves of grass.

The rose is a Phyllis Bide, pale pink, and the clematis is a Perle d'azur - sky blue. Both planted. Let the growing commence.

How to stretch a portion into 3

2013-02-25T00:21:00.000-08:00

I have read a lot of blog posts recently on how much the price of meat has gone up. I have to admit that I had not noticed, simply because through January and February I have barely shopped, it has been a store cupboard 8 weeks and gradually the stock of my freezer has been reducing. I am, however getting lower and soon I will have to brave the supermarket again. Consequently I have barely spent anything on food recently, which is lovely.

So with all this in mind I went to my trusty freezer list to see what was in there and among other things I found that I had a portion of beef stew that I made a few months ago. I thought that it would be a good idea to make this stretch a bit more, so armed with my new pastry skills I decided to put it into a small pie. What a good idea this was. One portion of stew put with pastry makes 3 portions of stew.

So yesterday's lunch was a third of the pie, some oven chips (I wanted mash really, but I have run out of potatoes), peas and gravy, with some of my home made pickled red cabbage and pickled onions.

In future, when I make a casserole, I will try to make a pie out of one of the portions.

Other news is that my 20 year old oven has given up the ghost. The mini top oven is still working but cooks very very badly, hence the slightly overdone pastry. Not good when you cook a lot. Luckily, my sister is throwing away a perfectly good oven as she is having a new kitchen, so being me, I have swooped in there and nabbed it. It is a slightly different height than mine (integrated) but the same width, so it will fit in the space with room on the top. A bit of carpentry should sort that out. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that nothing else gives up working. My broken bath, by the way, is working perfectly ok for showers with some heavy duty gaffa tape. This stuff works like a dream and there are no leaks so far and I haven't had to replace any tape yet. Should do me for a few months.

From tiny seeds.....

2013-02-24T01:49:00.000-08:00

All the seeds that I sowed at the beginning of February have germinated and are beginning to reach for the sky, some faster than others. In a week or two I will start the second lot of seeds to germinate.

Meanwhile, this is what I have got:

Lobelia, Crystal Palace variety (you can just see my greenhouse in the background there)

Some leeks, only just appearing.

One tray of sweet peas, standing tall and even like a regiment.

Half of this tray is filled with delphinium, pacific giants and the other half with sweet william.

Some more sweet peas, in pots this time.

This next week will see me starting tomatoes and cucumbers, squash and yet more flowers, among other things.

New flower bed

2013-02-22T09:57:00.001-08:00

Hello all,
I'm constantly apologizing for my lack of posts lately, but, truly, I haven't really had much inspiration of late, the muse has not been with me as they say.
There has been some lovely weather finally and what a treat that has been. However, as I got out there today to do some gardening, it started snowing - again! Oh well, some gloves on, a thick jumper and all was well. It hasn't stuck.
So I took the plunge and put spade into lawn. There is something about digging a new bed in the middle of lawn that feel quite scary, but I went with the power of my convictions and went for it anyway. It was a record for my stony soil, I managed to complete the bed in 3 and a half hours and, although it looks stark and a little weird at the moment, I am imagining it full of flowers later this year, with my stepping stone path on the far side of it.

By the way, look into the bottom end of my garden.

The result of 14 hours of hard labour.

Take care.

A rather strange meal and some baking.

2013-02-11T01:57:00.003-08:00

I cooked a strange curry last night. It was actually rather nice although it could have gone either way.
I started by wondering what I could do with the last portion of the Christmas beef and some yoghurt that was nearing it's end and curry seemed the obvious choice. So I set to, frying an onion because I like the onions to be very soft in a curry.
I suppose my mistake was that I didn't check the ingredients before I started cooking, because first I found that I had a lot less beef than I thought left. what should I do? I added 3 slices of gammon that were also in the freezer. Gammon and beef curry? odd for sure. So I duly defrosted them and added them to the onions and added my curry spices and a can of tomatoes. Now for the yoghurt. Mistake number 2 - the yoghurt had gone off! I was cross, firstly because I hate to waste any food and secondly, because I like a creamy curry best. So a hunt around the fridge and cupboard unearthed a tin of coconut milk. It will do,and so the curry evolved into something else. In it went with some chilli flakes and some green beans from the freezer that I wanted to use up.
Funny how very odd mixes can end up being delicious.

I know this looks like an especially unattractive photo - everything I seem to snap at night comes out weirdly orange. But it was tasty, believe me.

Other stuff I made yesterday included a treacle tart with some pastry I had left over from a pie. Another Mary Berry recipe. And with the tiny amount of pastry left after that I did 4 mini custard tarts.

Finally, as the oven was on, some chilli, cheesy biscuits with the sum total of my home grown chilli peppers in them.

All delicious.

Pretty nice bread and butter pud

2013-02-08T01:43:00.000-08:00

Making my own bread, when there is just me can mean that I get an excess. I usually freezer any that is going stale and then at a later stage, when I have enough, bake it in a really really low oven and then put it through a processor as bread crumbs (considering I just saw a tiny pack of breadcrumbs in the supermarket priced at £1.99 I can't quite believe that anyone would pay that ever!).
However, I was watching the Mary Berry story on tv the other day and I thought that I would have a go at bread and butter pudding. I a, usually fairly disappointed with a bread and butter pudding but I now know that it was because I was given a 'bad' one in the past. This was delicious, frugal and really nice. I used margerine rather than butter - simply because I had some and was short of butter at that moment, and I didn't use cream, again, because i didn't have any and also, using semi skimmed milk instead makes it healthier. Even without these 'luxeries' it was delicious.

Just before it went in the oven, seemed to neglect to take an 'after' pic.

Mary Berry's bread and butter pudding.

Ingredients

150g/5oz mixed sultanas and raisins
75g/3oz caster sugar
(1 lemon or orange, finely grated zest) I didn't bother because I didn't have any.
½ tsp mixed spice
8 thin slices white bread, crusts removed
100g/4oz butter, melted Margering was fine.

For the custard

2 free-range eggs
300ml/½ pint double cream 300ml of extra milk instead.
150ml/¼ pint milk
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Preparation method

1. You will need an ovenproof dish about 2½-3 pint/1.4-1.7 litres volume (18 x 23 x 5 cm/7 x 9 x 2 in).

2. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and use some of the melted butter to grease the dish.

3. Combine the dried fruit, sugar, lemon zest and spice together in a bowl and toss to mix well.

4. Cut each bread slice into three strips. Take sufficient slices to cover the base of the dish and dip one side of each one in melted butter. Lay them in the dish, buttered-side down. Sprinkle with half the dried fruit mixture. Repeat the layering, laying the bread strips buttered-side up. Lay the third and final layer of bread strips on top, buttered-side up.

5. For the custard, beat together the eggs, cream and milk in a bowl and pour it over the pudding. Sprinkle with demerara sugar, and then leave to stand for about one hour if time allows.

6. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden-brown and crisp and the pudding slightly puffed up. Serve hot, or there are some who insist that it is delicious cold!

2013-02-05T22:47:00.000-08:00

Snow came again yesterday and I got stuck in, unable to drive again. I had to go to Bacup so decided to walk it instead, an hour each way. Was very enjoyable although I have a sore foot now as walking a long way in wellies is never great for the feet.
I was worried I was going to get stuck in again today, because I was planning on visiting my father but there seems to have been a steady melt all night and I think that I will be fine, although driving over the Pennine hills is alway a bit hairy in bad conditions.
I know I said that I had finished with the seed buying, but over the weekend I found a shop selling off a lot of their seeds for 10p a packet so couldn't resist. Bought some hollyhocks which I will put down in a couple of months, these won't flower until Summer 2014 but they are such a lovely flower, it is worth the wait. I bought some echinacea seeds, candytuft (no idea what these are, but they look like pretty pink flowers) and 1 pack had in it night scented stock, sweet alyssum and lavender seed - not bad for 10p. I've never attempted to grow lavender from seed and imagine it is a very slow process, but it is worth a try. Can never resist a bargain.
I can envisage my windowsills being very full over the next 3 months.