Country pursuits and grime busting

 

Happy Monday all. Another week down, plenty achieved and feeling good.

The experiment I was doing at work has been a success. I've almost entirely caught up with everything I was behind on and I'm finding a lot of peace in my day now I've cut off the timewasters. Each morning at 8am I'm at my desk and instead of firefighting and fixing other people's issues I'm reading a personal development book or working on one of my assignments for my leadership diploma. A month ago I could not have predicted I would be doing that or feeling so positive about my work future.

It's good to have boundaries.

-oOo-

Friday was crop harvesting day in the fields around the property. Good job the weather wasn't stifling because we had to shut all the windows due to the dust and influx of thunderflies coming off the crop. The farmer had grown linseed this year for the first time since we've been here and for about a month we had the most amazing field of blue flowers. But then it turned to yellow and the farmer came along and sprayed it off so for at least a month we've been looking at dark-brown dead stuff. 

As only the linseed at the top of the plant was wanted there was a lot of chaff left over, which he piled up and set fire to, leaving big patches of scorched earth. That was a first. Normally he plows the chaff back in to function as an organic soil conditioner but there must be something amiss with the chaff from linseed. Or perhaps it was the herbicide they used?

-oOo-

On Saturday morning I did something I had been thinking about doing since 2003 - I went clay pigeon shooting. In 2003 I went on one of those corporate shooting events and while I missed just about every shot, there was a particular position that I scored 9/10. It was quite flat and the clays came straight across from the left. I've always wondered why and resolved to go back and chat to an instructor to find out. It's taken me 18 years. 

Anyway, I rocked up at the shooting range first thing Saturday so I could squeeze it in before the Sainsbury's shop. I had a great instructor and managed to hit 14/25, which both he and I were very pleased with for, effectively, a first attempt. And his opinion about why I managed to hit 9/10 before? I am left-eye dominant so I was quicker to track the clays coming from the left, and being flat and low I didn't have to move the gun much, just mostly hold still and judge when to pull the trigger. 

I'm going back next week for second lesson. My bonus is due at the end of July so for once I'm going to spend a little on myself, take some lessons and see if any aptitude I have could turn into a new hobby. I have to say, I found it surprisingly relaxing. I mooched around the supermarket in a very laid-back manner and when I got in had a nap. If it's going to be that good a stress reliever I'll be up there every Saturday morning to shake off the working week.

-oOo-

Sunday morning I was up with the lark and doing battle with the nettles in the paddock. Absolute beasts around 7ft high now. We have a petrol brush cutter but my shoulder is annoying me at the moment and I haven't got the strength to pull the cord to start it up. Instead I had to resort to an electric strimmer that my father gave to us months ago because he couldn't get it to work properly. Then Martin tried and he couldn't get it to work well either so back into the tool barn it went. Enter me who actually read the instructions and fixed it. I find strimmers don't work well if you put the line spool on incorrectly and haven't noticed that grass has wound around the main shaft and is throttling the life out of the motor. Once the line and spool were mounted correctly, and the years of fibrous material prized out it worked quite well. Shhhh...don't tell Martin. 

Then Sunday afternoon was spent cleaning the kitchen. The warm weather has given us such problems with flies this year that we have pulled out all the stops - no food left out (not even under cover), no washing up in the bowl, fly papers, fly killing clings for the windows and the usual fly traps outside on the patio. Still, I opened the food waste bin at lunchtime to find maggots around the lid. They'd got in. So everything was cleaned and sanitised around the cooker and sink within an inch of its life. Then I thought as I have the cleaning bug I might as well do the log burner side of the kitchen. It's not often I give that side a good clean. I pulled everything out or down off the shelves, got out the soapy wood wash and gave it all a thorough scrub from top to bottom, including the doors, drawers fronts and floor. Afterwards, there was a distinct echo in the room. Does dust absorb noise because the room sounded empty afterwards? Embarrassing to admit, as it might give you some idea of the scale of dust on those shelves but there you go. One day both sides of the fireplace will be boxed in with cupboards to prevent the build up of dust and grime. 

I've also made a couple of changes to try and improve things. I'm getting rid of the door blinds that you can see in the picture. They are difficult to clean and the plastic beading at the bottom is broken. I'm going to find some gingham curtain material and make up a set of curtains. Not sure what colour yet, possibly grey, blue or light green if I can find some at a good price. That way I can wash them periodically.

I've also decided to get rid of the plastic drip tray and cutlery container. I bought black to match in with the microwave and tea/coffee/sugar containers but it has been a pain from day one. Because we have such hard water, every week I have to spray vinegar and bicarb on it and scrub it down (the bottom picture is after the cleaning). Then I have to do the same to the taps and sink, which are coated in it. It was so bad on the draining board this week I used the caustic mix I usually use for descaling the kettle. 

I've decided to replace the black drip rack with a smaller white wire rack that could be put in the dishwasher once a week, and have reused a Cath Kidston hand towel to sit underneath, placing the corner up near the tap to absorb the water. It belonged to my mother but I didn't put it in general circulation because we have so many towels of our own. So it sat in the airing cupboard not being used. This way I can see it every day and it cheers up the place a bit. When it gets damp I'll hang it up to dry and put it through the wash every week. 

-oOo-

I finished a good book this week called Unnatural Causes by Dr Richard Shepherd, a forensic pathologist who has spent 40 years trying to uncover the truth of how people met their end. He talks about some very high profile cases he was involved with and how pathology has changed over the years, for the better in some aspects, for the worst in others. His speciality was knife wounds, and I must confess I did laugh at his descriptions of his wife and children complaining that he had been messing with the Sunday joint again. Yes, he used whatever joint was in the fridge to evaluate the signature profiles of different knives for his studies. Often the result was not slices of roast beef on the plate but lumps. 😆

I also finished this puzzle, which I've been working on for months, not because it was very hard but because I don't tend to be downstairs any more in the evenings. As I've stopped indiscriminately watching TV the marathon puzzle sessions have stopped. Most evenings we watch Life Below Zero, which starts on one of the Freeview channels at 7pm and so coincides with dinner, but after that I'm off. I make an exception of Friday or Saturday so Martin and I can kick back together and watch a couple of films, and that's when I do my puzzles now. I probably don't get more than 50-75 pieces placed on these evenings. That would have annoyed me in the past but it doesn't any longer. 

I'm enjoying the journey, not just the destination 😁

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Steel Kitten

The 'Do Not 'Disturb' signs go up

I was pleased to see the back of last week. It was very stressful for me but I'm hopeful I have resolved the problem, which my current reading list should hint at its identity. 

I start my working week on Tuesday but lately my brain has convinced itself it should start Monday evening at 11pm. It rolls around all the work issues I could face the following day until I fall into a fitful dozing session around 3am only for me to jolt awake 15 minutes before I am due at my desk at 8am. I reached screaming pitch last Tuesday morning. After having a week off I looked just as tired on my return as on my leaving. The problem - in a nutshell - is my own inability to say 'bugger off' when yet another impromptu zoom meeting/call/instant message rolls in from my colleagues. The constant interruptions and lingering meetings mean I am behind on my work. That is what is keeping me awake worrying.

I spent the whole week being ruthless with my time, blocking off my calendar, refusing meetings, not answering the phone, blocking everyone on video-conferencing software and cracking through everything I had been behind on. My entire calendar is now blocked off in chunks over the next few weeks to accomplish a list of goals to get my backlog of work completed. Anything else is secondary. I sellotaped this phrase to my screen as a reminder to use it: “I’m sorry I’m completely scheduled this week with no free time, perhaps we can put something in the diary for next week or the week after?” Funnily enough, it sorted out a lot of people who just wanted me to do their work/ thinking for them on the spot. The rest had to be dealt with by blocking on video conferencing software so they couldn’t get through to me. I set my profile to Do Not Disturb and now no-one gets through unless on a safe list, and only my manager and the CEO are on it.

The second step was resigning from a social committee at work. I was flattered to be asked a year ago to represent my department. In  all honesty I knew it wasn't a good fit for me but decided to give it a go. I hated it. The emails were never-ending, the zoom meetings impromptu and stretched out by extroverts who loved nothing better than to wile away the time yakking - meanwhile my workload was piling up behind me and I was behind on my promises. The final straw was volunteering me to represent an additional 'hobby' club at work. Enough was enough. I felt like a massive weight had been lifted the second I pressed 'Send' on my resignation message. They weren't that happy but I don't care any more. I can't do hobby stuff in deference to my revenue-generating work.

-oOo-

Despite the heat this weekend I decided to get out and go to a car boot sale on Sunday, the first one for quite a few years. I have got out of the habit of doing them, not sure why, Probably because I got fed up with bringing a load of stuff in and not having a place to put it. We really got back into the gardening again lately so I was on the lookout for anything gardening related. 

Didn’t find much in that respect, however, I did find a brand new leather belt for Martin (£1.00), six new handkerchiefs (50p) to replace some that are fit for the rag bag, two Oxford pillowcases (£1.50), a Stephen Fry book (50p), a piece of Laura Ashley fabric (£2.00, about 2m) and two dresses (£3 and £2). Total spend £10.50 plus sunburn. I got that for free.

-oOo-

Thursday was our 15th wedding anniversary and we went out  to the local Nepalese curry house to celebrate (coincidentally, it was also five years since we completed on the property). It’s the first time I’ve been out for a meal in 15 months and it was absolutely wonderful. But there were signs all around of the fallout from COVID-19. The food is very good and the restaurant used to be packed with tables crammed in cheek by jowl. Now of course with social distancing the tables had to be a prescribed distance apart and there weren’t that many people eating. In the old days  the place would be full, despite being a Thursday night. This time there were only six tables out of a possible 15 and by the time we left at 8:30pm just three tables remained. Another post-COVID change was with portion sizes. We normally have a Tandoori mixed grill, which comes out on a sizzle platter and is absolutely piled with meat. This time the meat was all neatly arranged on the platter with no piling - as sign of economies to avoid having to put the prices up on the menu (and probably incur more expense having them reprinted). There was enough food though, but I guess we'd used to taking some home in containers and having it the next day.

                                                                            -oOo-

I've been trying to propagate as many of our existing plants as possible in an effort to reduce our garden spending. Over the years the driveway has been a good source of thyme, oregano, poppies, foxgloves, gooseberries, strawberries, alchemilla, wallflowers, fleabane, lavender, bluebells, nigella, aquilegia, tomatoes, spinach, and buddleia. Every now and then I have a wander round, dig them up and pot them on. I find the occasional self-seeded sweet pea but that does not like being transplanted so it has to take its chances against the cars. 

It's very helpful on months like this one, which is shaping up to be a pretty expensive month. We’ve managed to have the house insurance, classic car insurance, an oil delivery and payment for having a Wills updated all come in the same month. I did start the Will process quite a long time ago but what with work being busy and the solicitor going off on holiday, we’ve only just now managed to go in last week and sign them so that’s one worry off my mind. 

I've had a few nice little frugal wins though (although not quite on the scale to balance the outgoings). 

The boss stumped up £20 per person to cover snacks and drinks for Euro finals night so we had pizza delivered. 

The regular savers matured so that was £100 in interest. 

Then I realised that the healthcare plan I have at work has a dental and optical component to it that I hadn't used so I quickly ruffled out my receipts for my sight tests, glasses and dental check-ups since February and put the claims through. That should pay me back about £120. My firm 'gives' us about £250 to ‘spend’ within the health plan, and you can shape different components to suit your circumstances. If it costs more than £250, you can pay extra out of your salary. I have a basic health plan, which reimburses me £60 for sight tests and £60 for dental check-ups and hygienist fees, as well private consultancies, hospital treatment if necessary for any illnesses, and complementary heaIthcare (physio, acupuncture, etc). In addition I've chosen critical illness cover to pay out a lump sum of £50,000 if I become seriously ill. That costs me £5 a month. Absolute bargain. 

                                                                            -oOo-

So, all in all, a quiet but productive week. I successfully cracked through a load of work and accomplished all but one of my goals. Tonight will tell...will I sleep or not...?

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Steel Kitten

A week of roses and financial planning

My week of annual leave passed by all too quickly and work looms tomorrow. 

Still, I managed to get done a lot of the things I wanted too, including a trip on Thursday to David Austin's rose gardens and plant centre over near Wolverhampton. Beautiful roses and now was definitely the right time to visit, as almost every rose was in bloom. I have a ridiculous amount of photos of my favourites to pore over for ideas.

The one above is stunning - a ground cover rose called Raubritter.

This one was a lovely mauve colour with yellow centres called Blue for You. Very strong fruity scent.

And this one - Old Pink Moss - was a very close match to the rose that I found in the churchyard when scattering my mother's ashes. Again, very strong scent.

I was incredibly restrained and came away with only one rose - Blue for You.

I do intend to buy Old Pink Moss at some point. Raubritter is also a contender just for its sheer exuberance. It is ridiculously prolific - it immediately cheers me up just looking at it. David Austin does have incredibly healthy good quality roses. I've got some in the garden already. This is Gertrude Jekyll out by the back door. 

-oOo-

 

I was in Lidl's on Friday and I happened upon one of these - the £1.50 fruit and veg box. 

I'd heard about these mythical creatures on various frugal blogs but never actually seen one in the flesh. That's because I was looking in the wrong place. My local Lidl keeps them by the tills, not in the fresh produce section where I had been looking. I decided to road test one. 

Absolutely gob-smacked at the sheer amount of stuff here, especially the amount of fruit. There were  another two large potatoes that aren't in the picture because I put them to the side out of shot when unpacking. This will last us most of the week. I already had a cauliflower in the fridge so today I'm going to use all of it up by doing a large dish of cauliflower in white sauce. I'll freeze half and the rest will be for dinner tonight to go with a lamb casserole I made yesterday. I've also got a vegetable lasagne to do for the freezer to use up some aging veg so I might lose the aubergine in there, perhaps slice it up and use it to replace some of the pasta sheets. 

-oOo-

After my last post Maria asked me about the gluten free cake recipe I used. 

It’s a basic mix that I used for non-gluten free Victoria Sponge cakes but I swopped in Doves Farm self-raising flour and made up only about a quarter of what I normally do, so only 2-3oz of butter, sugar and flour, 1 egg, bit of baking powder and vanilla essence, 1oz of flour for ground almonds and the fruit sliced on top. I gleaned from the internet that the key to gluten free baking is to make it a bit wetter than you think you should so I thought in this case the fruit would add the needed liquid as it cooked down. However, it seemed to make a very damp cake and while very tasty it was thin and fell apart easily. I decided to go back and do it again, this time doubling the amount of mixture to make it sturdier. In effect I was making one layer of what would have been a Victoria sponge.

I should add I also had a plan B, which I believe is essential to successful cooking. If it didn’t work I could dump it in a bowl with some cream and make it look like a deliberate effort at a dessert. 

Good that I had that plan because it didn't work 😁

Well, it sort of worked. The fruit disappeared into the depths of the cake. I see now why sponge flans were invented. 

Still tasted lovely but I may not worry about trying to perfect this. I think this is a case of how fruit behaves in a sponge unless the sponge is baked first and you add the fruit later (i.e. a flan). 

-oOo-

I was heavily focused on financial stuff this weekend. I've worked out that to retire at 55 (in seven years) I need to have a minimum of £350,000 and we're already a good part of the way there, which is encouraging. I used Guiide and Firecalc for the basic calculations, which showed me that £350000 will give me a 91% chance of retiring without running out of money. For a 98% chance of never running out of money I need £400,000. Up until last month I couldn't see how it was possible to build this because we needed the money we had saved to cover the shortfall between Martin's former salary and current pension income. However, a combination of my recent pay increase, Martin no longer having work expenses and our reduced spending has shown me that actually it is possible. This month we are on track to pay all of the bills without touching any of our savings. Every month that the savings stay the same or increase brings my retirement that little bit closer. 

I've not included everything in the figures. Inheritances are excluded, even those we have been told we should get later this year, as to me that is an added bonus. Until that money lands in our bank account it isn't real. I have also ignored the house equity, keeping that 'in reserve'. The plan is that sooner or later Martin and I are going to downsize - perhaps 7-10 years - at which point the remainder of the mortgage will be paid off and we will have some extra cash in the bank for our retirement. If it all goes wrong over the next few years, if the markets take a heavy downturn and take years to recover, if I become ill and can't work or lose my job and can't find another, then there is always that to fall back on.

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Steel Kitten

A satisfying week

Happy Monday all. Extra happy because I have this week off work. Shame it's going to be so grim weather-wise but still. I live in the UK and as all Brits know, this is how our summers roll. 😁

So, I succeeded in getting my airing cupboard sorted and looking much better. The rooms look clean and tidy without all the fabric piled up everywhere. I even managed to put everything in piles by size order. I have single, double and king size beds in the house so I keep bedding sets for all them. There was quite a sizeable pile of stuff to go to a charity shop.

Last Monday I also worked out how to do great crackling without drying out the joint. I've tried for years to work it out but never could quite manage it and end up with succulent joint as well. So, I actually looked it up on the internet (and I thought the internet was just for reading blogs and looking at cat memes 😁). Wash and dry the joint thoroughly then score it. Rub on sea salt, especially into the cracks. Slice an onion and pile it in the middle of a roasting tin. Put the joint on top and add 1/2 - 1 inch of water (I used boiling water) carefully to the bottom of the tin. Start off with the oven temp on high 200 - 220oC and then turn down to 160-170 after 20 minutes and cook as normal according to weight. Watch the level of the water and top up as necessary. 

To go with it, I found some rhubarb in the freezer and made a nice tart compote and fnished everything off with a plum crumble. Leftover pork went into the freezer with a few other bits of leftover roast meat, ready to be transformed into something amazing at a later date.

For the first time in quite a while I made a cake, a strawberry/raspberry, vanilla and almond one layer gluten free cake. I very rarely bake gluten-free as the results are usually pretty poor. I only did a little bit of mixture, probably about a quarter of what I would normally do for a Victoria sponge, in case it was a failure and I wasn’t sure how much the fruit would sink if I made one much bigger. It was amazing. Twenty-four hours later there's only one slice left. I should have gone bigger. 

Harvested my first pak choi, which I wilted in a pan with some rocket. I picked it because it was starting to run to seed - I could see the flower spike beginning to grow up in the middle. It was so nice I’m thinking of getting some more seeds going and see if I can have a supply through the winter. 

A few weeks ago we bought four more chickens two point-of-lay at 18 weeks and two young 8-week old cream legbars, complete with little frizzy hair-styles. 

Our existing chickens haven't been so well this winter and they no longer lay with any regularity so we invested in some new ones. The babies have only this weekend got to a size where I'm comfortable letting them out to roam a bit. Baldrick has been catching a lot of wood pigeons lately and the baby chickens were about the same size. I didn't want them ending up a cat snack. 

A few other things happened.

We went to a funeral on Thursday afternoon, which went very well. The deceased was the friend of Martin's I'd mentioned before that was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. They gave him about six months to live but in reality he only managed six weeks. He was a bit of a local character, and if something was going to happen it usually happened to him so there was a lot laughs when his wife shared some of her stories during the service. It was a very light-hearted service and what Martin's friend would have wanted. He was never one to feel sorry for himself. 

A few weeks ago I was surprised to be awarded £150 in vouchers from my firm to celebrate seven years of employment. I asked for garden vouchers and early last week we bought two new recliners for the patio. We got one out to road test and it immediately started to rain. Back into the shed it went and there it has stayed. British summers...😀

Finally, I've got back into Life Below Zero, which is probably my favourite TV series of all time (trying not to binge watch though. Don't want to fall back into the trap of hours of mind-numbing screen-time). I feel a real affinity for the life of Glenn Villeneuve and the reasons he lives out there. He has a child-like innocence and wonder about life that I wish I had. You can tell he has spent a great deal of time thinking about the values he holds dear and then adjusting his life to fit with those values. He is always learning, always willing to accept that there is more for him to learn. It’s refreshing. It's made me wonder how I would cope somewhere like that, if I could survive. Truthfully, probably not. I like a bit of adversity, I enjoy challenge but the uncertainty of the food and water supply, the continual presence of predators, I would never relax or sleep soundly. Frankly, I don't know how Glenn does! Sleep deprived I would make one false move with an axe or a chainsaw and that would be that! 

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Steel Kitten