Bread and Butter

Well today has been my one and only 'free' day of the week. I made a goodly list and set to, cleaning various parts of the house. I also made some bread rolls, and some butter, being glad of the buttermilk the process left me with for some scones on Sunday. Half is also in the freezer, as is half of the butter. I cook with butter never margarine and the price has been going up. Though I buy the cheapest I can it just about works out financially better to make my own from double cream...not necessarily for the weight of butter only, but taking into consideration the buttermilk.

 

Just separating

Ready to squeeze

Squeezed and rinsed

The rolls I made were 25% wholemeal and I have not photographed them...however they did look rather lovely and hubby has already helped himself to two at teatime. He also found the rock cakes I baked earlier, at this rate he'll have nothing for packing his lunches again soon!

The Buttercup paint I bought for the dining room sadly was not suitable. It turned out to be much the same colour as what we have in the kitchen. I next bought a tester of Autumn Embrace, lovely but still rather dark...we now have Moroccan Spice ready to splatter on the walls...it's bold, it's bright, and it will have to do for now. When I used visualizer I realised that yellows just looked dull in the available light, whereas the oranger colour kept more of its vibrancy.

Hubby is currently out painting our patio walls...I need to ignore his size 12's trampling on the flower beds for the good of goodness knows what....I just do! 

I really love this part of the garden in Springtime

These tulips have continued to pop up for a few years now

The lilacs are just about ready to bloom, as are some Lily of the Valley

There is always something to look forward to in a garden

The cloth I used to squeeze the butter is now in a pan on top of the woodburner, just in case anyone was worried that it wouldn't get a good or hot enough wash the way I have been continuing to do my laundry. Yes I'm still using the bins and wooden spoon!

I caved in last Sunday and loaded the dishwasher, it took ages, and so Monday morning at 6am I was unloading it and trying to put everything away. Plastic cups and cutlery were dripping wet, my back doesn't take kindly to bending down and quite frankly I just wondered why I did that every day. I much prefer the hand wash method. Dry and put away. Job done. 

My work shifts have been all over the place this month, and will continue to be so, so I have re-jigged my household chores schedule. I use Opus One as my planner, and have daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, and one off tasks listed. I changed all but my daily tasks to allow for more flexibility as in as long as I wash the bedding each week, it doesn't matter which day. Likewise monthly jobs such as cleaning windows. I do love a list! 

Well hubby has made his way back inside and it is getting later. We'll enjoy some cosy time by the fire, before heading off to bed reasonably early and resting to prepare for whatever life throws at us tomorrow.

Blessings, J. x

Back to Living

Well, I have now been back to work for just over a week.  After three days working on the trot I am officially shattered. Happily so though. We have celebrated a wonderful Easter and hubbys' birthday. One big party all the way really. I have begun weeding the garden...and hubby has been busy sowing and tilling in the vegetable plot and greenhouse. He has aslo tidied up and mulched the fruit cage occupants. 

Our electric hungry Aga has been turned off for much of this past week. Last evening we grilled in the garden and tonight I cooked just on top of the Aga. Still she will be on for baking sessions and roasting days. I lit the fire later this evening. It is nice just to warm the living room through and prevent that slightly damp feel that is so easy to attain at this time of year with no radiators downstairs.

Still our laundry is being pre soaked in the red bins then washed in cold water only. I have had no issues so far with this method and it's saved a lot of electricity.

I haven't resorted to using either the tumble dryer or dishwasher either.

I have cooked all our meals, and been as economical as possible. 

I have been catching up on your lovely blogs, however reading mostly on my ipad I am unable to comment...it is only on the Mac that it allows me so don't think I'm not checking in!

Tomorrow is bedding day, and I have my first appointment with the physio. I have not even taken paracetamol for my back in well over a week now. Only being sensible and a good old hot water bottle. Yes it is stiff, yes it is sore, but unless poked it is not so painful. It feels different and I hope that now it is finally beginning to heal. I feel different too. I had not lifted a paintbrush since before Christmas, however since coming off everything I have done a little painting of the landing on a few days when I wasn't working. I have purchased the paint for the dining hall too. It needs its own identity and something to lift the walls. Buttercup by Dulux in an eggshell finish I hope will do the trick. Hopefully as I have two tins of the stuff!

I do hope it looks good...

Well the bread is out the breadmaker, and I am away to my bed to rest for the night.

Blessings, J. X

Woah...April...

I began this post...well just the title some days ago before another wave of OMG overtook. Life has been anything but plain sailing here the past couple of months with a multitude of illness and injuries befalling us/me in particular. Today hopefully is the very last day I will be off work sick, however my back is far from recovered, and though I hate to admit it I feel this is partly my fault. When I originally felt the elastic band like break in December my first thoughts after ouch were how to keep moving and working...so I took ibuprofen...I wore a clip it all in petticoat and away we went. Yes it hurt sometimes, well most times but I was able to do my job. When it further went at the end of February, just a few days before Covid struck us all down I was doubling up on pain killers to keep moving. Then after Covid shuffled off away from my body I paid a visit to the doctor who gave me some lovely extra strong medication to take the pain away and once again keep me moving. However...Naproxen...anti-inflamatory...can keep you awake at night, makes you feel awful generally, and can quite literally bust your gut. Codeine...bungs you up, sends you to sleep in the day so you're not quite as  mobile anyway. Straining to go to the toilet whilst suffering with a torn back muscle is not a happy event. Then Lansoprazole, which you need to take to protect from the effects of Naproxen, well basically it dries your mouth out and in my case made the centre of my tongue sooo sore. Early one sleepless night/morning I was downstairs reading about the effects on injury of trying to override natures way to heal with inflamation...where nature rushes blood and nutrients to the injured site and pain stops us from overusing the affected body part so reducing any further damage. Not a comfortable read when I know I was happy to be given a large packet of drugs from the doctor originally. The next morning I took nothing but paracetamol...if I can't manage on paracetamol it's a sign I really should not be doing it anyway. 

That really hasn't been all of it though, after Covid came the most horrendous chesty cold...I still have the lingering bits of it and after a night in bed it takes a while to clear out all the tubes! However I was determined that I would let my body do it's thing and would not be resorting easily to antibiotics which I have had a few times in the past couple of years. Then on Saturday a water infection started. I tried so hard to flush it out, but yesterday I did ring and plead for some help, which arrived in the form of Nitrofurantonin.  A three day course. I had caved in. No more ...please...I return to work tomorrow on a mercy mission for a part shift before doing all day on Thursday. I will take it steady. I will be tired...I will learn to say no...hopefully.

So April, you have brought us some lovely sunshine, but accompanied by winds that literally have felt contained little chips of ice. Many showers and some gradually lengthening evenings. You have dried my washing on the line most days, and many plants are putting on fast growth in the flower beds...we did our best to protect the blossoming fruit trees when nights were really cold and the wind blew from the North East. Eldest grandson calls ghosts ghoosters and we certainly had one of those in the garden for a few days!

Protecting the pear harvest...

Anyway, I need to prepare today for my return to work tomorrow, I am going to be working mid afternoon to early evening so making a large cottage pie for today and tomorrow seems a good idea.

Sincerely hoping not too many of you have succumbed to the awful heavy cold/chesty thing I had.

Blessings, J. x