Encouraging Nature & Home Cooked Goodies

As our bungalow is a new build on a smallish brownfield development, we wanted to quickly establish some trees and plants which would encourage wildlife into the garden.  After just 8 months we have done better than expected.  

Visiting the bird feeder on a regular basis so far we have seen:

a pair of robins, 2 blue tits, a wren, 2 magpies, a blackbird, a crow, the inevitable wood pigeons and a squirrel!  He is hilarious to watch as he climbs inside the dome and slides back down again, when he realises he can't get any further, just like he's on a fireman's pole! 😂 We have a naughty little field mouse who nibbles on our seedlings in the cold frame 😏and two nights ago we spent a few minutes sitting in the dark watching bats flying in a circle over the garden, presumably feeding on the wing and gobbling up all the midges and flying insects.  I just hope they don't find a way into the loft because we wouldn't be able to touch them. The next day I sent G up the stepladder to check the loft for signs of occupation 👀 So far so good..... I don't mind them in the garden at all.

We are still endeavoring to be frugal with the food shopping and when I remembered a pack of ready rolled shortcrust pastry that I had in the freezer,  I popped it into the fridge overnight.  Yesterday I made a cheese and onion quiche with it as well as some jam tarts with the bits of left over pastry.......

My cooking is never pretty!  But it was tasty ......

And there was enough left to feed 3 of us for lunch today served with new potatoes and salad.

Whilst the oven was on G made a lemon curd ( we had no jam) apple bread and butter pudding which he had seen on the TV prog Eat Well For Less.  He is not a cook but it turned out very well 👍

Thinking of the shopping, has anyone noticed that it's the Basics range of groceries which is in short supply?  I have waited several weeks to buy the 65p jar of lemon curd as the next price point was far too expensive. There are still lots of almost empty shelves in the supermarket.  I have struggled to buy my favourite washing powder as well as own brand crisps and biscuits amongst other things.  Basics pasta, own brand flour etc  Are you having the same struggle in your area?

Take care x

A Lovely Bit of Gardening

I have been completing some online surveys to raise a bit of extra cash and received a £10 M & S voucher this week as well as a £2 loyalty points one from their credit card (which I hardly ever use) We took a trip to the store and got two fresh salmon ready meals, a box of biscuits for cheese and a bottle of beer for G.  For £12 spent elsewhere I could have got more for my money but the vouchers meant that I got them all FREE 👍 and the bonus is.....I don't have to cook tonight! 😁

On our way back I wanted to post a letter.  I've never used this box before but it certainly made me smile 😃  ......

G has been concentrating on doing something nice with the new garden, so most of our spare cash has been spent on making a pot bed beside the garage where it gets a lot of sun.  He got this shelf unit from work for the princely sum of 50p.  We don't think it will last a long time outside but it's worth the risk for displaying our new succulents this summer.....

This is the pot bed.  G laid down some edging to keep the gravel in, took off the grass, laid weed suppressing membrane and covered it with gravel.  I really like it and it will be even better as we add pots of flowers during the next few weeks.  And I'm looking forward to seeing the roses flower this year as we brought them from the last house in quite a bedraggled state!  The big pot to the right of centre needs to be emptied and the plants split and re-done but G will do that next week hopefully.  I have a pot of strawberries to the far right and some lettuces hanging in the pot on the little fence to the left of the photo......

The weather is threatening rain today so I suppose we can't go very far but I do need a bit of a walk as I didn't sleep very well last night and feel thoroughly sluggish.  

Take care x

Magic Bag a Good Result!

As I've not been feeling up to scratch over the last couple of weeks, I've not felt up to baking or indeed cooking anything which takes a lot of standing and bending to do, so I've been looking for a Too Good To Go bag once again.  I was put off by the last one, some of which ended up on the compost heap as it was way past best eating condition.  By setting my phone alarm for 9pm I managed to snag a Morrisons bag for collection between 2pm and 4pm yesterday (Sunday)  so at 2pm I drove the short distance to the supermarket to join the short collection queue.  It turned out that the woman on the till had forgotten to cancel the orders and was being told off over her headset 😟  When it came to my turn I offered to forget it and get a refund but...no...my order was being honoured and someone was picking items for me.  We ended up chatting and laughing ..... and what a bagful I got too 😀

I got a bag of pea shoots, a brownie doughnut, 4 x cheese and onion rolls (8" long!) 4 choc chunk muffins, pack of 9 crumpets, pancakes,  small wholemeal bread, 4 x fruited teacakes and 2 x Maryland muffins.....

At full price the items would have cost £10.13.  The YS total was £5.71 and I paid just £3.09 

The healthiest thing in the bag was the pea shoots but I have frozen most of the packs of goodies so that I won't have to do any baking for quite a while.  We ate a cheese and onion roll each with oven chips and baked beans for tea yesterday and will eat the others with a big salad today.  G enjoyed the chocolate brownie doughnut, it was far too calorific for me!

All in all a good result this time.  I will definitely try Morrisons again.

Thanks so much for popping in.  Stay safe x