Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and  Happy New Year to all our past and present readers, friends and family. xx

Lest We Forget

Apologies

Where has the time gone.

RL has just taken over so for the moment I will put blogging on a back burner.

This doesn't mean that I don't still read others blogs but I just do not have the time to keep mine up to date at the moment.

Best wishes to all who read

Maisie

Back to Normal

Well as normal as we can be.

Tom has settled into college althouigh there was an initial hiccup in that one of his 'A' level subjects was no longer being offered (Sport of all things).
David has settled back into school ok; and myself and Dave are now both back at work.

There has been a definite coolness in the air the last few mornings and certain veggies are no longer growing, so it is time to clear out these and look at the next stage.

We have chopped down a couple of trees and cleared a good space in the back garden as we need to have a new oil tank and it has to be sited in a different place.

We still have swede, parsnips, carrots, spring onions and leeks in the garden and tomatoes, cucumbers and both bell and chilli peppers in the greenhouse; there are also some all year round cauliflowers which we are trying under a netting cage.

We have been fairly lucky in that although some crops haven't produced huge amounts it has been enough for us as a family, and we have given some away of others as well.

The potatoes we grew in old compost bags were delicious, so we will be doing that again next year.

I will have to have a look at my menu plans as some days we need an evening meal which can be served at varying times due to Tom's time of arriving home and other activities.

Catch Up

Apologies again for the absence in posting.

We have been away on holiday and also have all the usual things going on in school holidays.

The garden has been producing well, although a little slow at times.

I am looking to concentrate on using things we have in the cupboards and freezers again for the next couple of months and only buy essential fresh items. I have just stocked up the freezer with a big meat order so we are set with that for 2 months; I also noticed that there are a few things in the tins cupboard that have been there a while, so if in date I may well donate for the village Tombola stall if not then they will get incorporated into meals. I need lunches just for myself again once back at school so that is an easy way to use things up.

The boys and myself have just over a week left before we return to school and Tom starts college, he also gets his GCSE results tomorrow, hopefully he will get what he wants.

Dave has next week off as holiday so will be doing a few tidying up jobs outside etc.

I hope to get back into more regular posting once things have returned to "normality".

Tom's Handy Work & Dave's Crazy Paving

Tom decided yesterday that he was going to take down a tree at the bottom of our side grass area, which although not over big was overhanging the road and was generally getting in the way.

Here is the result of work so far, he will strip the branches and saw them into logs for the log pile for winter.


Dave has been laying some crazy paving using some broken slabs he has been allowed to take from the farmers land next to where he  works.
Here is what he has done so far.

Apologies

I feel I should apologise for my lack of posting, but life has just gotten in the way.

We have been getting the garden sorted, trying to fill as many gaps with produce  so that we can reduce our grocery bill. The idea being that we grow enough veg so that the veg box delivery will incorporate fruit as well so that is taken off the supermarket list.

I am still making 99% of our bread, buns, cakes etc it is only really when I'm short on time that I purchase items.

As myself and the boys have been off school this week and there has been a day out with friends dinners have not been from the menu plan, but have still used bits up from the freezer.

Another thing we need to look at is that we have to pay for the college bus for Tom now instead of it being a free pass, so that is another £300 per year to find, plus books and along with an increase in car insurance of £130 per year and then general increases as normal, so we need approx an extra £500 for normal living expenses. So this is where I'm hoping the garden will help.

I'm hoping to have a stall at a local car boot sale in a couple of weeks time which will hopefully get rid of some clutter and also be an outlet for some of my jams that i have been making.