Not Really Here

I've had a dreadful night and I've been a zombie for most of the day. It's like the laptops booted up but none of the programmes are loading. I'm still not sure which way is up. But I dropped bear off for his pub quiz then parked up in the fancy Aldi and got my knitting out. There are rooks nearby.

I think that's the best chance of showing all the nests in the trees near the car park. I may not be the most competent human at the moment, but I had a wonderful time watching the rooks tumbling and playing in the gusty wind just for fun. I may feel like my brain has been disconnected from the network, but watching the joy of those rooks was a breath of pure relaxation and a moment when I felt completely calm. It was pretty awesome. I'm glad I found the good in the moment. 

I'll be back tomorrow when I hope that I'll make more sense.

Hugs and good health to all

Normal for Me

I got around thirty minutes sleep on Sunday night and I spent most of yesterday in a daze. The times of me keeping going for 48 hours straight are long over. 

Things are ticking over. I repotted all but one of the surviving chilli plants.

I got the self watering tubs, but I plan to keep spraying the surface of the soil anyway. There are six plants left. 

Cherie recommended forgetting about the chilli plants, but I have high hopes of overwintering them and that would make it okay. All but one of our windows face south, and I can get a table set up next to the window in my room, which is always warm. I'm looking forward to seeing how your basil grows. My experience with mint is that there isn't that much difference, but that may be because I'm a philistine.

I took a pic of the scarf. 

I like the colours. I hope that some seafarer will get the benefit from it. I haven't sewn the ends in as I've lost my good wool needle. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Quiet Day

I didn't get home until 2.30am this morning. Bear had a good time and I was happy to pick him up. It was strange driving around at that time of night. The roads were so empty apart from taxis and it was such an uneventful run. 

I finished the scarf and started a hat, but I haven't got pictures yet. I don't want to put off posting any longer and my phone's battery is almost empty so I'll take pictures tomorrow. I do have some pictures of me trying to be growing things. Cherie, you talked about a race. Well I planted some parsley, basil and coriander in those mat things. The plant pots are quite small.

But they're slightly bigger than the ones suggested on the packet. The packet says to sow any time, though I have my doubts, and to put in a pot, sprinkle a thin layer of soil over them and then water. I'm fairly confident that the kitchen stays between 15-20C as it says in the instructions, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

I'm not sure how many will germinate. If even half grow, I'll have to split them up and hopefully get a garden full of them. I've got rocket and mint to plant as well, which I may do tomorrow. I have a load of chilli seeds that I could still plant, though it's desperately late, but I may still go for it. I also need to replant the seedlings that have survived as they've outgrown their original pots. 

I'm putting all the info down in case anyone else is considering the discs with seeds in them. I'll share how they go.

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Wish My Mind Was Different

I've had a few really bad nights and I woke up this morning so tired that it hurt. I gave up trying to stay in bed, had a longish nap in the chair, then was still yawning so I made a decision. I was absolutely definitely going to settle down, watch some YouTube/listen to music and finish off the scarf I'm knitting as part of the Lent knitting for the Mission to Seafarer's I'm doing. It was straightforward, uncomplicated, and nearly finished. In other words, a perfect project for when I was too tired to think. Besides, once it was finished, I could take a picture and use it for the blog.

How much knitting do you think I did?

To be fair, I've knitted a few dozen rows while I was watching Gladiators, but otherwise, for some reason, I got stuck in on some writing stuff. I had a piece published in an anthology, Grumpy Old Gods III back in 2019 and the rights have long since reverted to me. I'm not exactly sure what reminded me of its existence, but I woke from my nap with a purpose. So far today, I've dug out all the bits I wrote for the Grumpy Old Gods and I've republished them on my blog. The original story is here and the collection is here and I honestly believe that it's two of the best characters that I've ever written. It was quite a job as I'd made a complete mess of the punctuation which needed correction and I had to search through a lot of old files, but it was worth it. 

I've also written down two more cat stories for when I republish Cats in the Bible and sketched out the next chapter for the White Hart. So much for knitting. 

As well as all the writing, there were a few more tiny wins. My lunch was using up the last of some chorizo that bear had opened, chopped and sizzled up with some mushrooms and onions from the freezer, so I'm using stuff up and avoiding waste. I also got a better pic of the apple blossom while I was taking out some recycling. 

And now I'm going to have another nap as my eyes are closing and I'm picking bear up at 1am. He's supposed to be out somewhere in Kirklees celebrating a birthday but he's promised to take an Uber to somewhere that I can easily collect him. It's nearly 10pm now and I'll need a little shut eye to be safe to drive.

I just hope that my mind will co-operate for once.

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Good Day

First things first, the creeping toadflax that is allegedly a weed has started flowering.

I love its delicate flowers. And I need to get a better pic of the apple blossom.

I keep thinking that I'm going to get rid of the tree and it keeps surprising me with pretty flowers.

Dinner was what has become the Friday night usual - a version of oven chips, nice sausages and gravy with veg. The men almost inhaled it tonight. It's one of their favourite meals so it gets trundled out on Friday. Usually I cook frozen peas, but today we had carrots, and I'm sort of proud of that. The meal planned for Sunday is Moroccan Beef, which has two carrots in the recipe. I can only get a 1kg bag in the delivery, so I have a lot more than two carrots. Tonight we had a sort of fake roasted carrots. I peeled four big carrots and cut them into chunky batons. I stirred them around in some oil, garlic powder, onion granules and italian mixed herbs. There were recipes around that included things like lemon juice and nutritional yeast, but I stuck to the absolute basics as these carrots were going to get covered in gravy. Then I cooked them for four minutes in the microwave, gave them a good stir, then cooked them for four more minutes. They were gorgeous and I will definitely do that again, possibly with lemon juice if gravy isn't involved. As I'll no doubt have a few carrots left on Monday, I may do that to have with veggie sausages and some of the leftover chips. There aren't enough chips in the bag to do for all three of us, but they would certainly do for a couple of servings for me. Or one serving for bear, perhaps with beans and bacon.

Bear finished his final coursework before his A levels with two hours before the absolutely final, no more excuses, last gasp deadline. The last couple of days have been tense but he's worked hard and I'm proud of him. 

And I'm proud of myself for chasing down on the waste. It may be very small triumphs, but they're triumphs just the same and I'll enjoy them.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Look What I Did!

We had a very pleasant Moroccan lamb and lentil stew on Sunday, which required half of a red cabbage. We all enjoyed it a great deal, but we used 300g of lamb instead of 500g and it was still about double the amount we needed. There was half a red cabbage left, so I pickled it using this recipe and it looked like this.

I was most impressed by the pretty colours staining the kitchen roll I used. As far as I can tell, that's the only thing that got stained and I'm taking it as a win. It has to settle for a couple of days in the fridge, but should be great for the men's sandwiches at the weekend. Of course the kitchen smells... intense! Normally I put out little saucers of vinegar to get rid of bad smells, but as it's mainly spiced cider vinegar that's causing the problem, I'm not so sure that it would do much good this time. 

This Sunday coming, we're likely to have Moroccan beef. It will use up the leftover apricots and some prunes that need finishing off, and we have all the spices. I'll have carrots left over from the bag that will come in the delivery for that recipe, but I've seen some very pleasant recipes for carrot and lentil burgers so I'm not so worried about that. Having said that, every time I try and plan food, something goes wrong, but I think I've got a fighting chance this time.

I've had some good coupons from Tesco this week, including 10% off herbs and spices. I added some coriander seed to the order, as that was about the only spice missing from the selection of allllll the spices. There was a good deal a month ago and I stocked up on our favourites, so there isn't much to get.

... you ever have that sinking feeling? The recipe for the pickled cabbage called for either coriander seeds, fennel seeds or caraway seeds to go with the mustard seeds and peppercorns as the spices. I ignored the caraway seeds, which I normally have with cabbage, and added fennel seeds. Except now I can clearly visualise the label. I didn't read the recipe properly. Instead of fennel seed, I've added fenugreek. 

Bugger.

This is why blogging is so useful. I honestly wouldn't have realised without posting this and checking over the recipe to talk about the choice of spicy seed. I wonder how it will affect the taste? 

Here's a question - I've added a small jar of Tesco own brand coriander seeds to the order. It's £1.00 for 26g, or 38p per 10g/£38 per kilo according to the website. I could buy some Natco coriander seeds at £1.75 for 300g or 6p per 10g/£6.00 per kilo. Is it worth buying the bigger bag? I'll be honest, I'm not sure that I'd ever use 300g of coriander seeds, but for only 75p more, it seems insane not to get them. There's a whole section on BBC Good Food here but it's still not a guarantee against waste. I suppose it depends on how much pickling we do. 

I need to go away and add fennel seed to the grocery list (small Tesco own brand jar of 36g costs £1/£28 per kilo or Natco 300g is £2.65 or £9 per kilo, though I could get the 100g for £1.30 or £13 per kilo) and to drag everything out of the kitchen cupboards to see what I can use up to avoid waste. There are worse hobbies than avoiding waste. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Slight Improvement

I'm pulling out of the pity party. I was so annoyed with myself. Still, I've got a few things done today. For example, I threw some stuff from the garden into the bin - just before bin collection day! It's stuff that I'd been meaning to get rid of, like old plant pots, and today I actually got rid! The garden is a mess. I want to cover up the bed in the middle as it makes it hard to enjoy the garden, but I kind of like the japanese maple.

You can just about see it. I wonder if I'd be able to transplant it. The pic also hints at the dandelion situation here.

I can feel all the real gardeners out there wincing. I was plotting to get rid of a lot of these, but they are such a resource for pollinators at the moment, and they're so cheerfully sunny. Still, the laurels opposite are in full flower (and triggering my sniffles), so there are some other blossoms available.

There are also ivy, brambles and nettles in the garden to contend with - I ought to make nettle soup. It's the right time of year and it's supposed to be good for the blood.

I've thrown a few things out, fiddled around with some bits and I ate a reasonable lunch! It was chicken nuggest and mushy peas, so not a brilliant lunch, but it's adjacent to some nutrition. It's a work in progress. Besides, I love mushy peas. 

Hopefully I'll have more progress tomorrow. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I'm Annoyed with my Waste

I love sweet and sour sauce. I have to be a little careful as a lot of jarred sauces contain gluten and I really couldn't be bothered to make my own, but it doesn't stop me liking it. Over the last year or so, when they've had the offer of three for the price of two, I've picked up a couple of jars of sweet and sour, usually one or two a year. I thought that I was being sensible. Today I threw out three jars of sauce that had significantly expired. 

Yes, there was probably a margin for error but I didn't feel like risking it. What is even more annoying is the reason that they didn't get used up. You see, bear doesn't like sweet and sour, so I don't bother making it when we're eating together. Besides, bear makes his own arrangements most of the time. DH eats pasta bake four nights per week and he and bear construct fancy sandwiches on Saturday. I make something for me five nights per week but it's usually something like soup or I'll cook store bought veggie sausages and have it with pasta or baked beans, or, most likely, I'll stuff myself with really bad junk food. Last week I decided that I'd make a big pot of sweet and sour and have it over a few days. I have a freezer full of prepared veggies, some quorn chunks, which only I seem to like, and I could use a jar of sauce and have three or four meals. Except those jars were out of date.

I'm frustrated that I've wasted the food. I'm frustrated that I've wasted at least £2. I'm also frustrated that I've obviously spent at least a year happily sorting things out for DH and bear but not having the energy or the inclination to eat reasonably. No wonder I'm run down. 

At this point I ought to promise myself to eat better, take more care, and perhaps turn out the cupboards. The chances are minimal, but I suppose that they're statistically above zero, so I shouldn't write it off. I'll post about any successes on here. 

Writing stuff - finally another chapter from the White Hart here. 

Hugs and good health to all.