Not Mint

Again a quiet day. My leg is very bad and I didn't have much sleep. The highlight was when the delivery from Tesco came. I'd added two living pots of mint to the order. I have two big tubs that are perfect for outside the kitchen window, a bag of compost and the mint can deter the flies (allegedly). They had run out of the living mint, it seems. Instead they included three jars like this

I've found Tesco's herbs and spices great quality for the price.

I politely asked the driver to take them back as while it would be a reasonable substitute in something like a raita, I probably wouldn't get much growth if I planted it. He chuckled. The Tesco drivers round here are lovely. 

The living rosemary came, though, and I'm cautiously hopeful.

I gave it a good water and I hope to get it planted soon. The chillies are doing quite well. There are some quite chunky fruits growing. 

I'm waiting until they turn red to pick them, although these would probably be fine. 

Writing stuff - Connections eMagazine is here. There is a reprinted article about research by me and a review, but, to be honest, the best bits are the stuff I'm not connected with. There's a great interview with a young band called Magnatas Court as well as with authors, fiction, reviews, advice on writing, an article about herbal and magical uses of shepherd's purse, a piece about neurodiversity - all sorts!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Further Quiet

I meant to add to yesterday's post, it was roadworks all the way yesterday. On the way to drop bear off, there were four separate road works with traffic lights and on the way back, when I tried to avoid those roadworks, we ended up with getting stuck behind road closures and having to zigzag around all the back streets and hit even more roadworks until we were giggling every time we hit a new one.

There are quite a few chillies coming on the plants. This is called 'Twilight' and it starts purple and goes through a few colours before turning red. It's not there yet, but there's a lot ripening.

By the way, this is the reason why I'm so tempted by a chainsaw.

The elderflowers are beautiful.

And I also took a couple of pics of the honeysuckle in the garden.

The honeysuckle is almost as vibrant as the weeds!

I've got a few more inches knitted on the sweater which is good. Hopefully I'll have more fun things to post tomorrow.

I Didn't Buy a Chainsaw

There are a lot of things that I didn't buy today when I called in to Aldi, but I'm proudest of the chainsaw. To be fair, I walked out with more crisps than I planned, but I had the wipes that I wanted for the car. They have small packs that are ideal for slipping into the glove compartment and aren't too expensive. And I saw the chainsaw, right next to the heat weedkiller, and I resisted temptation. 

 This is a pic from last September and may explain why a chainsaw is so tempting.

Apart from that, it's been so quiet here. I'll have to get cracking and have good things to report.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Tired

I definitely need an early night. I've had a headache all day and accomplished little, but I'm taking the quiet time. 

I didn't do anything worth a pic today, but DH called in to B&M Bargains while he was out and saw this.

It is unfortunately accurate for both DH and I. The pic includes the bag of carrots that were converted into batons, coated in oil, flavoured with onion granules, garlic granules and oregano and microwaved. For those not familiar with B&M Bargains, I guess it's like a Dollar store (not that I know what a Dollar store is like). It sells a lot of cut price processed food, home staples like cleaning sprays and all sorts of cheap decor. Normally I try and be respectful, but there is usually all sorts of pretty things that are a low price but I wouldn't expect to last. There's a tour video here

And I've just worked out how to insert a YouTube video!!! Nothing will be safe again!

They sell garden supplies and DH picked up a watering can for me as I can't find the cheapo plastic one that I've been intermittently using since father was here. We've replaced it with another cheapo plastic one. DH said that he was extremely tempted by a lot of stuff, including the baking trays that he unexpectedly came home with. I've been tempted by a lot of the ornaments and if you keep an eye out they sometimes have good deals on regular food brands - but you have to watch out for the price per weight, as sometimes they're cheaper than the main supermarkets because the item is smaller. 

I baked another apple loaf. The men were very keen on that. They seem to be particularly happy about the baking so I'm carrying on. The next request is a repeat of the banana chocolate loaf, and after that I may have a look for something that can use up the impulse buy of cut price preserved ginger in syrup. Another impulse buy was some gram flour but I think I'll turn that into veggie fritters. 

As for getting stuff done, I may try some sort of reward system, similar to what Kirsten suggested. I'll see how things go. 

I am nodding off at my keyboard here, so I'm off for an early night.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Thank You!

Days continue quiet. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's pretty dull when I'm making a blog post. 

I was determined to make a post, and I had so little to put in, that I actually went into my garden. I keep looking at it and feeling overwhelmed.

That's 'before' but it's not changed much. I spent around fifteen minutes fossicking around, which doesn't sound like a lot but it was a lot more than my back appreciated. Besides, it was getting late and I picked up a couple of nettle stings. But I pulled out some weeds. I didn't pull up many, but it's some. And that was a big deal to me. Fifteen minutes every day could make a big difference, especially as it's such a small garden and I'm planning on putting paving stones or gravel on the central bed and weed suppressing fabric punctured by an overplanting of lavender next to the window, which would cut down considerably on garden maintenance. I managed this small pile.

Which I deliberately didn't bung in a bag for the tip. I want to wait for them to wilt a little which makes them easier to manage, especially the nettles. But going out once or twice a day with a kettle of boiling water will certainly reduce the weeds between the paving stones and I plan to be ruthless with a shovel for the rest of it. 

I got nearer to the white rose, which is one that father planted. In the middle of a lot of white roses...

...and the photo doesn't do it justice, was a purple flower.

It's not a brilliant pic because the light was weird. But as far as I can tell, it's a clematis, a relic of one planted years ago that I'd forgotten. I need to get busy there because the glorious rose and the faint echo of the clematis are competing with goosegrass, ivy and brambles and that's going to be a job of work.

I need to deal with this as well.

The camomile is pretty, though I think that the rosemary is done for, but I plan to put some planters out with the herbs that I've grown. The ones on the kitchen windowsill are getting mold on the soil so I need to get them out soon. According to the internet, the plants should be fine once I get them outside. 

Speaking of the internet, I googled to see when I should pinch out the tops of the chilli plants. Apparently I should pinch them out when they reach between 8-12 inches. That's a shame as the tallest one is already around three times that height. It's a work in progress.

I shall be putting bear to work at the end of next month when his exams are over. 

I've also been doing 'Sunday Knitting' or rather, knitting for the seafarers and the scarf I'm working on is an inch or two longer, which is good. 

Anyway, thank you for being here and encouraging me so that I was determined that I would do something blogworthy, even if it's just a few handfuls of weeds. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Distracted

One of my favourite authors had a book published and I found it yesterday. It's The Pretend Fiance Fiasco by Pippa Grant and it's hilarious. There's some great characters, a funny cat, lots of glitter and all sorts of shenanigans. It's number six in the series (perhaps my favourite is No 2, America's Geekheart) and while it can be read by itself, it is great to see from the perspective of the series. 

I've spent a lot of the last twenty four hours with it, although I skipped the sticky bits. It's quite steamy and I usually skim those to get to the plot. I wish I could write as well as Pippa Grant.

Otherwise it's been a calm couple of days. Bear is keeping on and doing okay, and there's not much else to report.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Wonderful Evening

There's still not a lot going on here. Yesterday I baked the banana chocolate loaf. This was a hit, though I used chocolate chips rather than chopping up a block of chocolate. I'm finding it easier to bake just a little at a time, and it seems to work for the men. I promised to make the apple loaf again next.

Today was another quiet day, but I tootled out in the evening and took some knitting time. There is a wild rose growing up the hawthorn tree in my favourite knitting spot.

I hope that this gives some idea of how it is growing, though the pics aren't brilliant. I love wild roses.

Bear had another exam today. According to him, his teacher said that it was the hardest paper he'd ever seen (one of the Pure Maths modules). He's not sure how he's done, and he came home and started revising again straight away as he has a Physics paper tomorrow. I'll be glad when this is all over, no matter what the result. Bear seems to be doing fine. I'm doing my best to make it easy for him. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Grumbles Continue

I'm looking back at today and wondering what happened. I managed to do some stuff, despite having a stomach making industrial quality noises, but it still feels bitty. I haven't much of a triumph today.

There have been some wins, though. I finally sent off this month's meter reading. I loathe sending in the readings. It's so fiddly to get to the meters and the gas meter is particularly evil as it's actually sunk almost below floor level and is always covered in cobwebs. I've done writing and checked emails and generally been tootling along. I even made a batch of biscuits, though I forgot to take a pic.

They are Banana Bread Cookies, and theoretically are ideal for the men. I can do them in batches of ten, they're relatively healthy with lots of oats and honey with the banana instead of refined sugar, and the men inhaled them. I may have messed up a little as you're supposed to pulse the mix in a food processor and I blitzed it instead and the mixture was a lot less firm than I think it should have been. The men have requested that I do them again, though, but next time I think that I'll add some mixed spice or cinnamon. 

Bear had been practising for his exam by doing past papers. He said that today's exam was the hardest that he'd ever done. I'm kind of worried, but I'm being really positive whenever I speak with him. I suppose it's an even bigger reason to make biscuits and cakes for the men. According to DH, I should make bigger batches than ten biscuits.

As I failed to take a pic, here's one from June 2018.

I think that it's kind of pretty.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Feeling Restless

A short story that I submitted a while ago got rejected. I'm a little sad about it, but I understand why. It's very specific to West Yorkshire, and as it's come back, I can see parts that could be improved, other bits that could be tweaked and perhaps ways that it could be made less regional. I want to be clear that I think it's a good story and I'm not ashamed of it, otherwise I wouldn't share. I had a quick look around, but I couldn't see another market for it, so I've posted it on my writing blog and I'll put the links and other thoughts under 'writing stuff'.

However, I haven't done picture worthy stuff today, so here is the pic that I posted with the story.

Steve Partridge, Cairn on Shunner – geograph.org.uk – 959288, CC BY-SA 2.0

It's been a bitty sort of day. I've gone back to a list and it's helped, though I've done less than I wanted. I found out that the rolled oats that I had in the cupboard went out of date last month, and I don't like keeping oats over. I'd risk it with rice or pasta, but my experience with oats is that they can go rancid quite quickly and it's unpleasant. Not only was I frustrated at the waste, but I'd wanted to make some biscuits that were full of bananas and oats. I'll try them when I get some oats in as they sound delicious and I like that they're a small batch. I'm absolutely adding spice to them, though.

I decided that I'd need to make another apple cake, as the men had almost finished the teabread, but I'm out of eggs. I realised this just after I'd made eggy bread for lunch, when I realised that the box of eggs that I'd seen on the counter were marked as being best before 23 Mar 2025 and not 23 May 2025. I wasn't taking the risk of cracking those eggs.The eggs for the eggy bread may have been a little stale as well, as my tummy has been objecting vehemently since, so I'm having to get a delivery instead of picking something up because I need to stay near a bathroom, which means I need to get more than £50 to avoid the delivery charge and I've added some bits that we can do with, but I'd not wanted to spend so much. Grumble. 

I may be picking up the mood from bear. He has his first proper A level exam tomorrow and he's feeling it. 

Writing stuff - As I mentioned above, I've put the rejected story on my writing blog. It's quite a long horror story, but I think it's a lot of fun. You can find it here. As you can probably tell, I'm struggling a little to wrap up the latest craziness at the White Hart, so after I've dealt with this crisis, I'm likely to find a new place to start a series. I've got a few ideas that may or may not work out, but I'll keep you informed.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Resilliant Rosebush

I referred to this elsewhere as The Rose Bush that Refused to Die. It's not a bad description.

That's how it looked around half an hour ago. I bought it when it was just about a collection of twigs, long before bear was born. I got it at a garden centre for 50p because it was half dead. I stuck it in the garden and, apart from watering regularly in summer, have ignored it ever since. It's been overwhelmed by Gladys, ravaged by aphids and ants and I never get around to dead heading (did I mention the aphids and ants?). It's still flourishing. 

When I get out and actually do something in the garden, I'll share a better status about what's going on. For some reason, I've been dipping into gardening programmes and that never ends well. Realistically, with bear moving away and DH's preferred meal plan, it's going to have to be flowers. I may see if I can plant garlic, though, in the autumn. 

Speaking of what we eat...

I didn't notice these forming. Another of the plants is now over three feet tall and I think I should pinch out the top shoots. 

I forgot to post about the teabread that I made yesterday. It's an incredibly easy and basic tea bread, with the dried fruit soaked in tea overnight before being baked. To be honest, it's a little flat as it's written as it includes no spices at all! But I soaked the tea in Chai tea and the flavour was amazing. 

Today has been wonderfully quiet. I've spent my time with the YouTube videos and knitting. I've decided that for at least this Sunday, and possibly ongoing Sundays, I'm going to knit for charity. That means the Mission for seafarers and I've managed an impressive amount of scarf. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Avoiding Things

I used to always watch the Eurovision, but I can't face it tonight. Once upon a time, it felt like it was a good kind of silly and a lot of fun. Now there seems to be so much tension and politics that I can't get into the mood for the daftness. Instead I've watched the FA Cup Final (was pleased with the result), several YouTube videos and I've got a load of knitting done. 

I'm actually using yarn from my stash and knitting a sweater. It's a nice, easy knit, the boat necked tunic here. I actually paid for the pattern! I'm using some basic, plain aran that I got from Aldi, which I don't think was much more than £6 for 400g, (around 800 metres according to the ball band, or roughly 875 yards). 

It's a lovely easy knit, and great to get on with while watching tv or thinking about something else. 

It's supposed to take 800g, and I have 1200g, so I'll have enough to make the fancy wrap that's on the inside of the ball band, that is, if there's no unpleasant surprises. 

I also, if I remember correctly, have another 800g stashed in green aran. If I have, and I make a similar sweater, I could make it a wrap in black as a contrast, depending on how tricky it was. 

Speaking of Aldi, I also picked up a pan.

They had some nice pans in Aldi for the price. This was £12.99 and I've been keeping an eye out for this size for a while. I was considering getting a few pans for bear for when he goes away, but he's not sure what will be included in accomodation, so he'd rather wait, and I don't blame him. I've stashed quite a lot of Clubcard points, though, and there's currently enough to pick up most of what he'd need for cooking if he shopped carefully at Tesco if he decides to go there. 

Going back to the knitting, I'm using some extremely cheap interchangeable needles from Temu. Normally I'm careful to say inexpensive but I suspect that these are just cheap. I can't resist copper coloured stuff though, and I weakened. 

I used them for all the hats that I knitted for the Mission for Seafarers, and I didn't have a lick of bother. As soon as I changed them out for a different size, however, they had a tendancy to loosen. One of the 'needles' detached from the cable in the middle of a row. The language that I used was appalling as I rescued my stitches and I'm thoroughly ashamed of myself. I've tightened them again with the gizmos, so fingers crossed that I can carry on. I may or not be eyeing up an extremely inexpensive blue set because I'm also a sucker for blue and an idiot.

I've promised myself that once I finish that I can have a go at a jacket that I've seen. It's a brutally easy cardigan/jacket, though it's knitted in one piece until you divide for arm holes and at my size that's a lot of stitches, but it's in chunky and I don't think that there's any chunky in my stash. I've seen some yarn that I'd like, but I'm finding it hard to justify buying any, especially as I'd have to pay full price! I may make a target that if I knit a certain amount and clear enough from my stash then I can treat myself. But it's a great size to go over thinner sweaters and under a coat, and it should be straightforward to knit so I may weaken early. I think I'll see how I'm going at the end of August. I've got a lot of started projects that I'm avoiding like the Eurovision and it wouldn't hurt to use the jacket as an incentive to get things finished. 

I am also avoiding the idea of planting potatoes. I absolutely could do that and I have plenty of containers. But I worry that I'd not keep up to watering and I'd get it wrong when it comes to digging stuff up and whether I'd actually eat them... 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Fingers Crossed

I finally got the courage to pot on the seedlings. I'd been really nervous about it, and I'm still not sure about how I did. I watched, re-watched and re-re-watched Alan Titchmarsh's video on it (here), but I was certainly more robust with the poor little plants. I didn't pot all of them, because we'd never use that much parsley, but I potted on most of the coriander, with a couple of seedlings per pot. 

They were past ready. I've been checking every hour or so, and they're not dead yet. 

I also planted some of the 'seeds in a paper mat' rocket which is currently on the windowsill in the kitchen. 

I've been thinking about this. I have a suspicion that I wouldn't do well with proper gardening, but I've found myself watching gardening programmes on YouTube. The trouble is, I'm not sure how much we would eat if I grew a lot of veggies. DH has his pasta bake, I eat rubbish and after September, bear will very likely be making his own arrangements a few hundred miles away. I'll see how I do with the chillies, which absolutely will be used. I must get DH's recipe for pickled chillies to share here. He's almost run out and I'll need to buy some more chillies for him to pickle, but I'm hoping that this will be the last I buy for some time, or at least the last but one. 

I'm planning on planting a lot of lavender. It's fairly trouble free, is great for pollinators and I love the scent. I grew up with the sense that gardens should be productive and have fruit, veggies and herbs. Lavender is sort of productive and if I feel the need I can always make lavender bags. And, to be fair, I have huge amounts of honeysuckle, two flourishing roses, a lilac and I think that there's a clematis in an unexpected corner. The lilac looks lovely this year.

Plus some of the weeds are pretty and the damned bluebells are back. I adore bluebells, but I've never managed to thin out the bank of them under Gladys. I'll try and remember to take a pic tomorrow.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Still Here

Warning - long and self-indulgent anecdote! When I was six, over fifty years ago, I needed an emergency tonsillectomy. Yep, I had to have my tonsils out as an emergency procedure. Sometimes I wish that I could have a medical event without drama. Not only was it urgent, as the tonsils had swollen enough to affect my ability to breathe, but I reacted badly to the anaesthetic. When I say that I reacted badly, I mean, it was a serious question whether I would make it. I went under a fortnight before my seventh birthday and woke up the day before. Did I mention drama? As a kid, I thought it was amazing. I got spoiled rotten and had loads of ice cream. Looking back, I really feel for my poor parents. 

The drama continued when I was, I think, thirteen, so around forty years ago. I had glandular fever that was treated as flu until I was actively away with the fairies. I was not in any sort of reasonable condition. My mother trundled me into the doctor's room and the nice old doctor told me that my tonsils were very swollen. In one of the only times I have contradicted a doctor, I told him that they weren't. He assured me that they were. I told them that they weren't. He told me that they were. I said that I'd had my tonsils out, then apparently (I can't remember because of raging fever) I collapsed and was taken to hospital in an ambulance, because I had to have the drama. Again. 

As far as I can tell, because I had such a bad reaction to the anaesthetic back when I was six, and because my tonsils were in such a bad state at the time, instead of a neat prune, I got a ragged hack. This means that their remain still swell and do the job of fighting infection. However, if they are already irritated because of something like a cold or hayfever, anything can set them off and I feel like there's a crumb stuck right over my windpipe and I find myself feeling like I'm choking and I'm absolutely not active. Which is the long story why the seedlings didn't get done today and it's getting serious to get them replanted.

But I did make a cake (and failed to get a pic). I made Yorkshire Apple Loaf, and the men loved it! Apparently it's light, crumbly and very sweet as well as utterly delicious. According to them, I'm going to have make it at least once a week going forward. The website of Yorkshire recipes looks like it could have a lot of fun ideas.

Cherie asked about a close up of the curtain. 

It is just plain knit with King Cole's Opium on 6.5mm needles. The recommended needles are 6mm, and the yarn is extremely thin thread then a big fluffy stretch, then back to extremely thin. I cast on 100 stitches, knitted a couple of rows, did an eyelet row (knit some stitches, yarn over, knit two together) then just did straight knitting until I'd knitted two 100g balls of yarn. I love it when a yarn does all the work for you.

Someone mentioned salt on the weeds. I've considered that, but I was worried about  salty run off affecting other plants. Gladys is downhill from a lot of the weeds. I plan to go out with a kettle of boiling water on a regular basis.

Writing stuff - I posted an article on my blog about Facebook friends. At the start of the year, I had 4.6k Facebook friends and I had physically met two of them. I was concerned that I was heading to the limit of 5k Facebook friends and I wanted to get rid of the accounts that weren't being used or were the remnants of scammers or creeps. I thought that I would share the process. I've also started the process of getting physical copies of my books to a wider distribution by using Draft2Digital. Of course, the more important thing is to get new books out there, but I'm a work in progress.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Apologies

I'm sorry for absence and I hope that no-one has been fussed. It's just me going through a bit of a bad patch. I've been out of sorts with myself and I also feel disappointed in myself. There's been an awful lot of nothing going on. Well, not quite nothing but a lot of not very much. 

Bear is getting stuck into his revision and is studying hard, with the occasional break. Last week he had his prom and looked devilishly handsome on his way out in black suit, black shirt, black dress shoes and a matching tie and pocket square in self coloured black paisley. He went from the prom to clubbing and rolled in at 6.30am, looking remarkably good despite the hour. I came down at 7.30am and he was going through some past papers for the maths exams. If he doesn't get good marks, he's going to be devastated.

The chilli plants are doing okay, despite my best efforts. I've got six going at the moment, and I repotted the three that were small and in small pots to bigger pots today. I just remembered that I didn't have good pics, so here are two of the plants at time of typing.

I'm hoping to get a good harvest over the next few months. I haven't transplanted the tiny herb seedlings quickly enough. They're on the list for tomorrow. I hope that they survive.

Do you remember that last year I started knitting curtains for our tiny porch. It's maybe a metre/yard square and it get's stupidly hot in summer and ridiculously cold in winter. I thought the right sort of curtains would cut down a little on the heat transfer, although there's not much I can do about the uninsulated and leaking roof. Well, in an act of defiance, I actually finished them.

It's using King Cole Opium yarn in plain knit. DH thinks it looks amazing, it will wash and go up wet, and if it all goes wrong, it didn't cost a lot for the yarn. It's white to reflect heat in summer and it's an extra layer at the window to insulate against cold in winter and I'm very happy. There is one problem - the hooks. DH put up the curtains for me with command hooks, that is, sticky hooks. Did I mention that the tiny space gets like a sauna in summer? And it's been a little warm this week? The hooks have been dropping off the wall like it's been greased. I'm letting DH get on with it.

Speaking of knitting, look what I got done over Lent - even with a bad shoulder that took me out of the game for a week!

Two scarves and four hats are ready to be sent off. I'm considering marking off a particular time during the week for knitting for seafarers as I find it very soothing. I've also dug yarn out from my stash and I've started a sweater for me. My current sweaters are wearing very thin indeed.

As a random aside, last time I was parked and waiting for bear, I ended up near a hedge that was apparently full of spiders! Except I think it's a type of caterpillar at this time of year that leaves cobwebs everywhere. Whatever it/they was/were, they were industrious enough to put me to shame.

It doesn't look it, but it was night when I took the pic, the flash lit it up, so I didn't see anything scuttling around - not that I was going close to the place!

I haven't done much in the garden. Gladys isn't coming back strong, and I suspect that she may be fading with old age. She must be nearly fifteen years old, and I think that's old for a fuchsia. I'll see how she does this year and maybe bite the bullet and replace her. I have plans for the garden, and a lot of work to do. I saw an electric weedkiller in Aldi for £14.99. Apparently it blasts hot air at 650C (around 1200F) to kill the weeds between cracks in the pavement. I decided that I wasn't safe to be trusted with anything that hot and picked up a long extension cord instead.

I hope to use this blog as motivation - if I start the day with the thought of 'what can I do to put in the blog' then hopefully I'll get something done.

Writing stuff - I finally got a piece up on my writing blog for the White Hart here. I'm trying different ideas to increase my productivity, so watch this space. 

Hugs and good health to all