Sniff and Pluck

It's persisiting it down, again.  The weather won't let me sort the garden and hedges out..or the leak in the garden room.  Arghhhh.

We're both recovering from really bad colds and have irritating coughs, but we're Lemon and Honeying for England.  lol    Tena Lady is helping out, too!  lol

We're decluttering while we sniff.  A skip shall appear here soon and, hopefully, will help rid our house of useless clutter.  We've tons of garden rubbish, stuff that can't be recycled.  Anything that can will be recycled and freecycled or sent for the jumble sale (in aid of a local animal welfare place).  We need space for our work.  Me for the business and Junior for hers.  Am fed up of the dining table not being used for dining!  lol.  Gives me indigestion, eating from a lap tray.

Junior is blossoming in to a beautiful young woman.  She had her eyebrows (or, monobrow, as she described them!  lol)   shaped the other day by a beauty technician using a method new to me.. 'threading'..I think it's called that.   She looks lovely.  Never hardly squirmed, apparently, during her 'plucking'.   I wasn't there.  She went with her sis-in-law, who has all sorts of beauty therapy/treatments lined up to try.  Next one is for nails.  She can go for most things, except spray tanning, body piercings or tatoos!   Those are banned.   Junior's current beauty fad IS nails..and we have them all and all the jazz that goes with this 'hobby', including a stack of nail varnish colours.  lol

Anyway, Crimble is not far off so we are on with the present hunting/designing/making.    Bought my first pressie the other week....and promptly ate it (with help from others).  So much for buying tins of biscuits early!

It's cold here, so it's Tomato, Basil and Bean soup for lunch to help warm up our insides:o)

Heating is on.   Alas, couldn't wait until December which is when I planned to turn it on.  I really do envy people who have these multi fuel burners in their homes.  What I would give for one but, too expensive, as ever.  Bugger!

Happy

Am very happy.

Going to be a granny, again.

Mac is working, at last, too.

Yay!

Weather..not just a British thing.

To all my friends and readers in the USA, I hope you keep safe and well amid all this Hurricane Sandy stuff. 

Keep safe.  Much love. xx

Welcome to the Family

New car parked outside.  Yay!  

No more lugging heavy shopping up and down hill 'n' dale.

Junior is happy.  Only a couple more years and she'll be able to take her driving test.  lol

I always give my cars names. 

I had one which I bought from a Mr Holmes.  So we called it Sherlock.

Last one was named Judith, courtesy of Big Bro.  Registration number plate made that sort of obvious. 

This one is same make, less doors...and a tad racier.     Anyway,  she's called Ursula.   She's sort of a twin.  And my thinking behind this?    Phoebe out of Friends stuff.......she has a twin who is less conservative and a bit of a goer.....blah, blah.

Yeah, I know.  What an imagination!  lol

We're Doomed!!!

There I am..pootinlg away and thnk, yes, I'll blog that.

Fifteen minutes later, when pc has fired up and  I'm 'on'...I forget what the f**k I was going to blog about.

Hail...Old age!!

Equilibrium

I have fallen into the trap...of blogging negativity. Lost my mojo.  I've noticed that a few bloggers are suffering the same.

We do tons of stuff but I don't seem to blog as much because my camera is pooped.  Need to post piccies.!!

Not for long, though, this slump!.  Give it a month or so and we will be back to normal.  Yay!

We have news, too.  Can't divulge just yet.   . 

And...I am going to get my iMac mended.  Can't be doing with plonky, slow pc.  Eeeew.  It is such hard work.  No offence to pc owners.  I just like my Mac more. 

Well, at the mo, I am surrounded by mogs who are preening and cleaning themselves, ready for a good night's kip (she hopes).  They have just had a chicken dinner.  That should keep them quiet for a good few hours.....she hopes, again.  lol   Plus.. the heating's been on for the first time in AGES!......  Hoping it will keep 'em quiet/knock 'em out.  lol.  One can hope.  Nothing worse than a mog or two 'playing' at 2 am..when your joints are so  jammed that you can't can't get out of bed quickly enough to 'shut 'em up' before they wake half the street up with their antics...eg. usually  loud and bangy (to me) hockey type games...favourite article being Junior's rose hair grip..which they always seem to find no matter where she 'hides' it.   or, failing that, with any rogue bottle tops/pen tops they may find.  Little tinkers.

Come 6am they are sparko!  Arghhh....

Nice neighbour gave us some apples.  Good old British ones..but we have no idea what 'breed' they are.   Her neighbour has trees that overhang into her garden.  They are never picked.  Just allowed to drop, which is such a criminal waste of food.  So, she picks the overhang lot and uses them.  I aim to make a few apple pies...most aimed for the freezer.  Apples are another food that has been hit by the manky weather.  Produce down by 20% in this country alone.  Expect not the pristine specimens in the supermarkets but the 'normal' type...with the odd blemish here and there.  No point chucking 'em out .  Waste not, etc.o)

Talking of no waste.  I found a website that reckons you can feed a family of 4 (parents and 2 teenage kids) for £100 a MONTH.  You need to menu plan.  Might be of use to people.  Times are hard so every bit helps.  It's called Cheap-family-recipes.  Google it and you should get it to come up.  Might be of help to you in these hard times.

Anyway, off to make Mexican Hot Chocolate.  It's from the Barefoot Contessa.  Easy to veganise.

Basically, melt some chopped chocolate into hot milk.  Add a pinch of cinammon, some vanilla extract and a pinch of cayenne pepper..  She uses a cinammon stick as a stirrer.    That should keep you warm at night for a bit:o)

I should be so lucky

It was our Gardening Club's Annual Show this weekend.   I won the best herb display last year.  I got a certificate but the £5 prize money  never found its way to me and I never said anything out of embarassment.   Didn't enter anything this time just mainly because we've been too busy, but next year we will.

Anyway, we had a good look round, bought some plants (including spider plants which the mogs are doing their utmost to eat), some onions and homemade blackcurrant jam.....  Had a cream tea.  Lovely.

The exhibits were quite good.  There were some carrots there which I swear were 6 feet long and some onions the size of melons.  Brussel sprout plants about 6 feet tall.  Amazing....but I am easily impressed.  lol

There was the usual tombola.  Lots of ok prizes, some naff ones but it was the wines that caught my eye.  lol    Lots of NICE wines to be won.   Yay.   So, Junior and I had a go, with a view to winning the aforementioned vinos for me and make up goodies for my dear daughter.  So, two quid lighter we gets our tickets (5 for a quid).  I muttered to the Tombola Lady that I never win anything on these things, but 'today I have that lucky feeling.' 

After opening them we ended up with one lucky ticket each!  Yay.  Daughter is happy.  Now for what prizes we get?  Excited.  Tombola Man takes our winning tickets up to the Prize Table and brings our winnings to us.  Yippee...

Junior won a travel size bottle of bubble bath...and I won a bottle, too..........of Tesco Everyday Value Tomato Ketchup! 

Hmmphhh!