That Wet Stuff Again ... Pie Weather..

Hello there ....

Yes .. we've got that Wet Stuff again .... its not stopped all day..

 Every thing in the garden is looking soggy and bedraggled...

...lots of colour but looking damp and dreary.

Its so easy to feel dreary yourself if you are not careful ...

there is a lot of cold winter ahead of us ... can't start to feel dreary so soon.

I need to keep busy and feel I am doing something useful... something to help stock up the larder or 'put by' for tough times .... I do believe they are putting up the cost of power gas/electricity ...  Oh joy! 

 Anyway the oven was on low warming up some of last nights Lamb Hotpot ... for today's lunch .... so I made a couple of sweet pies.

Simple fillings of jam (for Richard) and some of the Mincemeat I made the other day (it is yummy)...

..a simple warming treat with a dollop of custard.

We had a simple dinner of boiled eggs and toast (dippy eggs and soldiers).

 I am trying to cut back on the amount of meat we eat ...after all we  don't need meat everyday ... although Hubby P does does enjoy it and has a fright if I try to introduce him to a chick pea.

 

Even Percy the pigeon was looking a bit fed up today .... he tends to hang around the garden when Hubby P is out and about.

 Here he is having a chat with Hubby P ... you can just see him on top of the bird house.

I stayed inside out of the wet... thinking of what useful thing I could do to prepare... to stock up... I thought the best thing would be to try and make a few pennies.

I had spent all my paypal 'savings' on a Approved Food order last week .. so I need to replenish funds.

So I set about listing a few bits and bobs on ebay .... its been a wonderful thing for me ... I don't ever get huge prices for things ... I just list little bits ... but it all adds up 'many a mickle makes a muckle' ..an all that.

There must be lots of ways of earning extra money ... and every little helps ... after all you wouldn't walk past a 50p coin in the street and not pick it up ... every little helps.

In the dim and distant past ... even pre Hubby P ... not quite the stone age .. but a while ago...I was on my own with two small children.

Money was very tight .... I did ironing for people, cleaning, baking, sewing, delivering leaflets, selling crafts, babysitting, and even a stint at making/packing Christmas cards ... they sent us the wrong ones to pack ....full of glitter ...

My friend and I had a kind of conveyor belt system going with the children helping .... gosh .. there was glitter everywhere ...we were finding it months later.

The things we did for a few extra pounds ... every little helped.

There was no ebay then ... I could put a card up in the Newsagents window ..'Such and such For Sale' but I remember being a little afraid of having strange people come to the house ...being on my own.... tis indeed a different world nowadays.

So .... every little helps ... what is it you do to make a few extra pounds.... what can we all do .... any ideas?

xx

 

Revamp.....Reclaim.....Re-hash....with a hint of School Dinners !

Hello there ... hope all is well with you.

Just a little bit of pretty to start with ....

 

 How do you like my little pink chocolate box?

I think it is so splendid ... I was smitten at first glance ... its a bit battered and bent  ... but 'arnt we all ..d'harlings!

Such a thing has just got to have been designed to hold love letters....once you have scoffed choccies of course... love letters ...ummm ....do you think I could wangle the odd one out of Hubby P .... not something I could envisage these days ....

 Mind you .... I must say he is always so busy.

He's been Revamping today ... giving a new lease of life to some rather excellently made but tired looking furniture.

I suppose Revamping is a rather old fashioned word nowadays .... should it be Upcycling Recycling or something.

Anyway it means he has spent time and effort on something that was a bit tired and worn looking... and made it into an attractive and functional piece of furniture. 

  

  

 Even the handles are just so stylish ....

 Here we are ... all done and ready to be loaded into the van .... ready for sale.

So .... what have I been doing ... other than faffing around with the camera?

Well .... it must be said I have been rather inspired by the Wartime Farm series on TV. I find it fascinating what they did with so little.... I am sure it was all very stressful and not at all what anyone would want to go through ... but all the same an incredible feat ... feeding the country on so little.

 

 So inspired ... and the fact that I have a rather large stock of suet thanks to Approved Foods bargain prices.... I fancied an old fashioned steamed suet pudding .... a jam rolypoly ... just like we had for school dinners.

I wanted a real trip down memory lane ... I wanted that warming sweet stodgy fulfilling taste... that special smell... and it had to look the same.

I did a bit of trawling the web ... I wanted to make it in a puddin cloth ... this way of cooking was often used in the north where the cotton mills often meant there was plenty of odd lengths of cotton about (it was cheap and readily available). 

Another ... of the many ... names for this type of pudding was 'Dead Mans Arm' this was because the rolled up pudding was cooked in an old sleeve of a cotton shirt ... the pudding being a bit pale and puffy/flabby looking oozing red jam... could be likened to a dismembered arm.

Bit gruesome... 

 

I followed the instructions and the pudding steamed gently away on the lowest of heat.

It did stick to the cloth somewhat and didn't look just as it should ... or as I remembered it .. I think I should have floured the cloth more.

But the smell ..... wonderful smell... as soon as I started unrolling the cloth ....

..... It took me right back to the school dinner hall ... and Mrs Green dishing up the pudding... with lashings of bright yellow custard.

Hubby P wasn't too worried what it looked like and we ate it up with much glee ... wonderful!  

Not that I would have felt like going out to do an afternoons work after such a pudding ....

This pretty little flower was featured on Wartime Farm too..... its Soap Wort .... it grows a bit rampant in my garden.

Its a wild flower .... and can be used as a mild soap.

On the programme Ruth (the historian)makes a soapy solution from the plant to wash her hair. 

I find all this fascinating stuff ...yet ...

 all this knowledge and know how is just ... well .. disappearing... just not getting passed down from mother to daughter as it once was. 

It has never been so easy to pass on information, to store it , to retrieve it ... and yet day to day...in everyday homes and families the art of everyday growing... cooking... caring ... is being lost.

.... how many young people do you know who can bake a cake... sew on a button ... wire a fuse....etc

Am I getting a bit carried away ... or do you think you might agree ....should we be worried? 

As they say ...'Is It Me??

Enough of the ramble for now ... take care x

Just a Quicky ... baking today and .. Little Sis Travels Again!

Well Hello there... just a quickie whilst Hubby P is off picking up more stock for the weekend. 

Its nice to have the odd quiet hour to myself...

I had a notion to make some Mincemeat for Mince pies ... it getting near that festive time ... and anyway they are nice anytime ... especially with custard.

 Turfed all the ingredients out that I 'knew I had in the cupboard' ... no Mixed spice ... Oh bother .... I'm all fired up now for the making.

Well what would they do in the War?.... use what they had ... so its a bit of a codged up job .... It has spices in it ... just not the stated 'Mixed Spice'.

 

Looks just fine .... let you know what it tastes like.

 

Made some yummy Mocha Squares .... I was inspired by Faith  Hope and Charity Shopping blog .... sorry I'm no good at the link-y thing.

As you can see Hubby P was lurking and before I had finished cutting it into squares he was off with a bit.

 

It is all rather yummy.

Wandered outside half an hour ago to bring in the washing...

 

One or two nice splashes of Autumn colour..

 

How do you like my bedstead .... it was just a lone thing ... the remains of a bed ... looking for a home .... it can rest in the garden .. just looking ... well .. beautiful..

 

 

   Just wanted to mention my sister and her partner... they are seasoned travellers of the world and ... well ... live to travel.

This last year they have seen their livelihood ... earning power.. diminish as have many people.... and decided to finally sell up... every last thing ... 

and travel through America ... Mexico and on to Belize. Somewhere along the line .. at some point they will have to settle on a plan/somewhere to make a new life.

There is of course a lot more to this story than these few sentences ... and if you are intrigued as many are I have ....

da da (drum roll!!!) 

....managed to do a link-y to their blog...

Look at my side bar ,,,, On To Plan B .... Two Brits and a Hungarian Drug Addict.

I know I should be able to Link it here .. but one thing at a time.....

Any of you Girls across the Pond spot them give them a wave ...

must say I do miss her.

Must go ... bye for now (let me know if you visit their blog .. and what you think) 

xx

A Little Bird House For My Soul ....and ..Apples!

Hello there ... hope you've all had a good few days.

'A  little Bird House for my Soul'

Yes ...

I just love the idea of pretty little bird houses and bird cages ... not that for a minute I would like to cage a bird ... I like to see them fly free... 

Ahhh.... but the artistry than went into the vintage cages..

... what girl could resist!

This larger one (above) I have had for a while ... its not a good pic but maybe you can see the sweet little budgies it has painted on the glass panels. I've put a few crystal chandelier drops inside .. to catch the light.

And just how cute is this ... little seed drawer ... I was so excited when I saw this ... its just so ....well itsy bitsy cute *

Hubby P spotted these and bought them for me ... for me to keep! So often these days I find he's hidden stuff in the van because its 'stock'....to sell on ...well....I know really... he's got to make a living and .... well ... I can't have EVERYTHING! ....

 I do 'borrow stuff ... for a while ... but then again the house is only so big ...

But these little bird cages really did have my name on them so they had come home ... and ! .... Hubby P put on his 'Glamorous Assistant hat' to help with the placing of them ... well I pointed and he screwed in the ceiling hooks ... rather nice vintage-y hooks I might add .... from his 'special stash'.

Whilst we were on a roll .... I persuaded him up a ladder to pick what remains of the Apple harvest ...haha

Not altogether confident ... 'you'll be fine' says I ...holding the ladder with one hand whilst wielding the camera with the other..

 ..boring stuff holding ladders.

Looking about me 'Gawping' ... as Hubby P so cruelly put it ... I did notice one or two bright spots in the garden ...

.... this rose was the most perfect yellow.

After all the hoo ha.... the apples were rubbish....

...just look at this one ... and most were just as bad.

This was all we got .... we might get a couple of crumbles out of them if we are lucky.

 Have you had any luck with your apple trees?

I read somewhere that some early fruiting Apple trees are in blossom now ... they have taken the cold wet summer as winter and have come into blossom now... which they think is spring. When Huppy P was up the tree he said there was one or two blossoms. If they flower now it means no fruit next year...

 Strange seasons ...

Just had to share this with you ... so sweet... I picked it up the other day.

I would like to think maybe it is a Disney fabric ... Bambi and what was the rabbit called ? I cant find any indication of who made it or designed it or whatever .... but it is so pretty.

It was in two pieces so as usual I have put one on ebay to recoup some of the cost and the other has been stashed away ... for now .. for a special .... something.

Oh... and yes ... I have been faffing about with the blog... thought it was about time I had a change ... dont know that its what I had in mind ... its all so complicated ... but I got to a point where I was fed up trying to work it out ... just hope you can read it okay.

Bye for now xx

Thrifty Snippets in the Garden .....

Hello there ... what a lovely day it has been here ... Autumn in the air but sunshiny and mild ..... 

Hope you have had a pleasant day too..

Just a surprise Snippet in the garden today ... I thought I would share with you.

 The garden is beginning to look a bit sad ... i wasn't actively working in the garden ... it was a day of 'sorting out'....all the boring stuff !

 I was sorting through all the old paperwork ... letters from the bank, utilities and whatnot....I tell you ... boring stuff. And I went up the garden to burn any documents with sensitive info on them... you just cant be too careful these days.

 We are lucky to have an area where we can have a little fire pit ... we sometimes have a little fire and sit out around it with a glass of wine.... New Years Eve is a favourite ... that's if its not raining of course.

Anyway as I ferried my old letters and whatnot up to the fire ... I was fiddling about tweaking the plants and mentally rearranging the garden ... as you do.

I was just thinking how pretty the Nasturtiums looked .... how long they had flowered and lended their 'splash of colour' to brighten the garden.

Looking closer I noticed lots and lots of little seeds ....

....plump juicy little seeds ... ripe for the picking.

Apparently the seeds can be pickled and taste a bit like capers ... although I have not tried it.

 I do enjoy the tender little leaves and flowers in a nice salad ... minus the caterpillars of course.

Leaves taste fresh and peppery ... nice. 

Of course at this time of year we wouldn't get a look in ... the caterpillars have discovered just how tasty they are.

 

I picked just a little handful of the seeds .... just enough to give a few plants next year ....although some will perhaps spring up from the scattered seed left in the garden.

Don't they look nice .... such a pretty shape and they smell so lovely too.

 

I put them in a little dish and will sit them in a warm dry place ... hopefully they will dry nicely into seeds which look like brown shrivelled little brains ...

I can plant them next spring and they will burst forth with their distinctive scent and bold fresh colour... a treat for all the senses!

So how goes it with you and your garden?

 ... any thrifty ideas ... 

I find seeds can be so expensive these days.

Bye for now xx take care xx

 

Just A Couple Of Thrifty Snippets...

Hello there .... hope all is well with you ...

And a hello to my new followers ... its nice to think these few words... everyday ramblings ... are winging their way around the world ... for like minded folk to take a peek at.

Tis' indeedy a wonderful thing this ere 'tinternet..

Anyway ... just a couple of Thrifty Snippets for you today.

Breakfast ... can be a bit boring I always think.

It always feels a bit rushed ....and I always think I should start the day with something reasonably healthy .... although last nights leftover curry or stodgy pudding can be a temptation! ... so whats it to be.

I tend to favour Branflakes and they are a fairly good price at 88p ... sometimes I add a bit of fruit .. fresh or dried .... banana has been a regular addition ... I've had one or two about the place.  

But it got a bit boring so I priced up Muesli (shock horror at some of the prices)... the Value Muesli came in at £1.18/1kg... a reasonable price compared to others .... but it is a bit ..well .... same-y/just fairly oat-y...you know what I mean.

So I had a rummage in the cupboard and found some chopped nuts (  Approved Foods .... cheap and cheerful ... 3 bags for a £1 ..I think) ...I added a good old sprinkle of them to the bag of cheapo muesli.

I scrunched up a few handfuls of Branflakes and added those....and a goodly amount of sultanas (Value range ... well a sultana is a sultana!)

Gave it all a good old mix up .... and you know what ...tastes a darn sight better....

I chopped and added to my breakfast bowl .. a couple of ready to eat prunes .... yes they come in Value Range too ... I like a nice Prune ...they remind me of school dinners. 

So now I have almost twice the volume of what could pass as a very posh muesli ... very nice ...a change from Branflakes ... although it will be porridge weather soon! 

Just had to show you this .... this flashy toaster has made Hubby P's week.

A couple of weeks ago our old and trusty toaster died ... Hubby P was in a panic ... how would he manage (toast is about the only thing he can manage/chooses to make himself ....)

He spoke of buying a new cheap-y one straight away... but I would have none of it ...just wait said I ....one would come along.

After all its what Hubby P does...he does house and shop clearances all the time... lots of electrical's pass through his hands...most of which are in excellent condition. 

I swear the world has gone mad ... so much 'stuff' thrown away ... often because the colour scheme in the kitchen has changed.... or it hasn't got this years whizz bang modification.

And come along it has ... maybe its a bit RED... and it doesn't really match ..well...anything else in the kitchen ...but hey ...it makes a statement!

....and it makes toast ....much to Hubby P's delight.

Just a quick word about Approved Food again .. I notice they still have this on ... margarine in a tin (in the Tinned Goods section) I didn't know you could get margarine in a tin...did you?

I thought I would try it ....handy I thought to keep in the store cupboard ... and cheap enough at 3 for 99p (450gms/tin).

Anyway I tried it ... maybe a bit basic for spreading on bread ... I do prefer Sunflower spread (or butter if I'm feeling rich) ... but better than some of the Basic/Value margarine's...good and solid ...not watery...if you know what I mean.

I used it for baking and it was just splendid .... its worth getting some on your next order and giving it a go ... and it will keep well ... its in a tin! 

Well enough wittering from me ... its nearly breakfast time again.

Whats your favourite frugal dish?

 ... do share ... I think we all get bored with the same old dishes frugal or not.

Bye for now xx take care xx

 

Giveaway Winners and a Quicky Update picture Style!....

Hello there .... I'm sorry its so late in the evening (we've just finished work ) .. but I did promise you the Giveaway Draw for the funky tea towels.

So with the help of my Glamorous Assistant .... otherwise known as Hubby P .... we have drawn names out of a hat (well an old dish actually) but hey .... its all done with the utmost aplomb!

Anyway ..... down to it ... the Winners are ... I pulled  two names from the 'hat' ...

Morning AJ

and 

Mum's Simply Living Blog

So well done Anne and Mum for sending the positive vibes ....

so girls if you could email me your address I can get your winnings sent off to you.

It being late I thought I would just leave you with a picture -ish update of this weeks doings.

Finally managed to get the curtains finished for the summer house.

 

Not really the fabric I would have chosen ... but hey ... it was a large piece of nice new fabric .... given to me sometime ago and been sat in the cupboard....and has made up into splendid curtains. 

Summer house is coming along now ... and looks all the better with curtains up... I will get some interior pics taken for you ... when I remember!

 

No time to spend in the garden this week ... it is looking very lush with the heavy rain.

 

 

But  there is little left of the sprouts.....

 They have been demolished by these pesky creatures! I have never seen so many caterpillars....must be the damp warm conditions.

 

 

All the apples on the tree seem to be affected by blight ... very very poor crop ....most of them have ended up here on the path ...in this condition ... not many apple crumbles this year I'm afraid. 

How's your fruit crop .... is everyone having a bad year? 

 This brave little sunflower was one of the few bright spots in the garden ..... its going to be a long winter.

 At least my Geranium cuttings are rooting ... some nice plants for next year.

A bucket full of goodies from the carboot sale ... and an exciting gift from Hubby P ...but news of that later... 

Its late now and as you can see we are in the middle of sorting stock for the coming week .... I know it looks chaotic ... but there is a 'system' ... or so Hubby P assures me!

Do give me news of your doings ... I get a bit bogged down with endless boxes and work and more work ...

We've given up with the boxes for tonight and I'm off to bed ...

Take care for now xx