Trying to Get Motivated

 

The allotment In January 2021

I took delivery of my weekly shopping yesterday afternoon.  A couple of items were substituted.  They had no 4 pint cartons of milk and no sweetheart cabbage (again) although they did send 2 x 2 pints of milk and a small savoy cabbage so all is not lost.  G usually gets a treat of 2 bottles of beer, but they were out of stock too so he will have to go without.  The shopping came to £46.92 and I've ordered more meat for G this time; a pack of lean diced beef for the slow cooker, which will make him 3 meals; a pack of 8 sausages for hot dogs and to serve with veg and gravy; and a pack of bacon for weekend breakfasts.  The thing I forgot to order is CAKE 😒 so I will have to have a baking day at some point or G will get withdrawal symptoms!

I'm trying to factor some form of moving into my day right now.  With the weather being so cold and, frankly, dark and dismal every day, it's so hard to get motivated.  We are told to stay at home but it's driving us mad.  On Tuesday we took a long walk to the local Crematorium where lots of family members are buried, ashes interred or scattered and, probably, where we will ultimately end up 😅 I'm ashamed to say that it has been so long since I last visited that it took me a while to locate the plot where my mum and dad are. The whole site has been opened up and extended so much that it all looked completely different but I found their stone in the end.  When we can, we intend to go back and take a plant or something so that it doesn't look neglected. Even if I could get hold of some flowers they wouldn't last 5 minutes in the bitter cold.  

As you can see from the photo above, our allotment is totally bare.  This shot gives a better idea of how much ground we have to cultivate.  The area covered by polythene sheeting nearest the camera will be the potato bed, the next prepared bed will contain fruit bushes (G has put in 6 raspberry canes and a blackberry)  The apple trees need pruning but we hope to do it in slightly warmer weather.

I have also taken up my knitting needles again.  I used to knit quite a lot of baby stuff for charity but, with the shops all being closed, it seems a bit pointless so I'm knitting myself some fingerless mittens.  I quite fancy knitting a long cardigan but can't get the yarn I like as it's out of stock.  I think the whole country must be knitting! Nay....perhaps the world!  

Are you a knitter?  What do you have on the go?

Before I go, a warm welcome to another new follower.  I'm sorry I can't tell who you are.  Blogger has removed the facility of hovering over the avatar to find the name.  Welcome anyway 😀

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

2021 Food Spend to date:

January  £46.35    £93.27

Post on a SUNDAY??

 We woke up to a street and garden covered in a heavy frost once again and, boy, it's cold outside.  Around 9am we heard our security camera activate and it turned out to be the postman....wearing SHORTS!  He was particularly welcome because it was G's birthday yesterday and we have had no post for several days and so some of his cards were stuck in the system.  Amongst the pile of mail were 2 birthday cards containing lottery tickets and a scratch card.  No luck with them but it gave him a bit of a lift to check them anyway.  We know there is still one card out there somewhere but it proves we need to post things extra early for them to arrive on time.  Sunday post is unheard of here so the PO must be really busy and trying to play catch up.  Well done brave Postie!

I'm going to cook a hot lunch with veggie roast, roast potatoes, swede, carrots, peas and gravy.  I might even make some Yorkshire puddings if I have time. Tea will be pitta pizzas, I think.

My bed has been stripped and is in the washing machine, the bedroom windows are open a tiny bit to let in some fresh air and now I'm off to prepare the veg.  It seems strange to have G here on furlough again so I'm trying to ignore him and do my chores without interruption 😁  It's not easy...why does he not hear when I ask him something yet knows when I creep downstairs to avoid him! 😂

Oh, and a warm welcome to more new followers 😊

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

On Expensive Sticks and Food Budget!

 

I'm glad I made some of you smile with my comment about the expensive sticks 😀  Thank you all for your encouraging comments.  The photo above was taken in September 2020 and shows how our trees looked when we planted them.  That particular corner of the garden is very wet and boggy even after creating drainage by digging a hole and filling it with gravel so I really hope that they will survive until Spring buds them up again.

In an earlier post I explained that I really want to bring our spending on food back down to a reasonable level this year.  Another lockdown has kind of thrown a spanner in the works already.  Having to stay at home again means no YS bargains for the next few weeks at least although I made a good start with my Tuesday food delivery which came to £46.35  It would have been a little more but one of the items had fully open packaging so I refused it and had a refund.  In addition they had NO CABBAGE 👀

The next shop has been delayed until Thursday 14th so I'm ekeing out the food we already have by making soup.  Lunch today was HM vegetable soup with a couple of 'bake at home' crusty rolls.  I have bread in the freezer (as well as flour and yeast for the breadmaker) and longlife milk for when the fresh stuff runs out, so we can manage perfectly well until next Thursday.

We have :

Fish fingers

Eggs x 6

Quorn pieces for curry

Pasta bows

Filled tortelloni

Baked beans

2 x ready meals (one each)

Cheese

Packet cooked ham for G

Potatoes

Carrots

Swede

3 sweet Peppers

Onions

Rice

Frozen oven chips

Frozen chips

Frozen broad beans

Ice cream 😁

12 x mince pies

Tinned fruit

Greek yogurt

Porridge

Cornflakes

Muesli

If I plan carefully, we will be fine.  I really don't want to visit the supermarket.  In our area there are 672 Covid cases per 100,000.  Far too many for comfort.  We should be the 4th group in line for the vaccine and might get it by the middle of Feb.  I'll let you know how we get on.

Welcome to my new follower!  I'm so sorry but I can't tell who you are.  I do hope I haven't bored you rigid already with this diary post!

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

2021 Food Spend to date:

January  £46.35 

There IS Hope.....

 When I woke up this morning it had begun to snow again and the temperature was barely above freezing. 

We are once again under national lockdown. It won't change much about our day to day life because, having been in tier 4 anyway, our lives have been severely restricted for some time.  G took a call from his manager at 'You Can Do It' this morning, asking if he wants to be furloughed again due to his age.  He reluctantly agreed (he will miss the activity of working in the garden dept as well as talking to colleagues) but requested that he be able to return to work once he has received the vaccine.  He will be 71 this Saturday so might get the jab before the end of February if things go to plan.  I like the freedom of weekends to myself but really don't want to risk him picking up the new strain of Covid.  He has been very lucky up to now.  Two of his colleagues have had the virus.  The first person was in March/April during the first lockdown.  He spent 3 weeks on a ventilator and has since suffered extreme fatigue and depression.  The second, a young student aged 21, picked it up in the week before Christmas.  He has had milder symptoms in that he didn't go to hospital but felt very ill and is still off work.  He too is suffering fatigue and very, very down.  

3 family members (who I never see in the flesh) have also had it, one aged just 23.  This virus is very real.  It makes me so angry when I see and hear people dismissing it as a hoax.  

A big thank you to the people who commented on my last post.  I find it so very sad that people worldwide are having to battle with not seeing their families as well as having to cope with health issues and day to day pressure of daily life. But we can all plan for the future.  It seems that, after hugging family members, travel is the second thing most longed for.  I echo that.....

Stick with it my friends, we are on the last lap and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

To end on a lighter note:  did you notice the two trees in the photo of our garden?  No?

I'm not surprised because they just look like (expensive) sticks at the moment, especially my lovely Rowan tree 😅

Roll on Spring....

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x