Seeing the sea before Winter

Something about the sea isn't there? So as its half term we all set off this morning for a simple day on the South Coast. We like Milford on Sea for its simplicity (and the beach cafe there!) Here's a selection of our photos from the day. We were particularly taken with a colony of jolly beach huts!

Apple Day

Just got in from a lovely village afternoon event. A lovely crowd of villagers met to cut up, crush and press apples. With tea and cake to fortify us we spent a very convivial afternoon around a cutting table with a steady supply of apples to chop up. We'd kindly been given some windfalls ourselves which we took to add to the mix and then we all took home a container of juice. After drinking some with our supper (there is a joint of local pork in the oven as I type - will go and make an apple crumble in a mo) I think freezing the rest for future drinking will be the best thing.

One of those events that make us glad we live where we do - there are a lovely mix of events in this village to cater for all interests.

Preparing for Thingymas

Thingymas - Downsizers' word for Christmas so that you wouldn't be accused of talking about it too early. I know how irritating the shops are with their stuff out in September but if you make things then you do have to be prepared.

Half term which the kids have just started is when I bake the Christmas cake so that's on the list for this week. I made two puddings last year so that's all sorted. Note to self - check on mincemeat stocks!

Yesterday we thought out the card list so that we can work out how many of them its possible to make. If its a huge quantity then we do buy some of them. I know there has been some move towards not sending cards for green reasons but I personally disagree with that. I find that there are some folk that we only keep in touch with at Christmas and the sending of a card is just a nice way of doing that - it says I am thinking of you and wishing you well at this time and for the coming year. ( I read a letter in the newspaper from an elderly gent who'd decided not to send cards one Christmas. He was besieged by phone calls afterwards from friends and relatives worried as to what had happened to him - had he died?) We recycle the ones we're given and bought ones chosen tend to be the ones that benefit charities. I think its a bit Scrooge like not to send cards , to be honest..

We'll also start to think about the hampers we give to close family members as that has involved sewing or processing so again needs thinking about sooner rather than later. I like sorting that out.

The photo is one we took at Westonbirt and used for some of last years Christmas cards.

this weekend

So a round up of what we've been up to. The kitchen has stalled slightly whilst we wait for the granite worktops to arrive which have been delayed. Next week hopefully the floor will be done and I've arranged for someone to skim the walls where the tiles once were and paint it in a couple of weeks time. We're not having tiles but an up stand all the way round the worktops and a splashback behind the cooker - all in black granite.

Yesterday we made some inroads in to the finishing details of the kitchen. We've been looking at things for a blank wall space we now have. It just needed a bit of art so yesterday we drove to The Yellow Hat Tribe gallery and now have a lovely painting of a little yellow hatted person on a bike with a very tall stack of wine bottles in boxes on the back of it - the boys said it was us!! The website link for Irene's Yellow Hat art is on the right and there are some lovely examples of her work there. Its a lovely afternoon out.

Still to sort for the kitchen are a blind, an adjustable stool for the pull out table (which is hidden behind a drawer front) and a new bread bin as the existing metal one doesn't seem to look after the bread well - think it sweats in there and then goes mouldy. Its been interesting how we've looked at the aesthetics of things in the kitchen. As you know for me being green is about not over consuming and I've had to resist the temptation to change everything to match the new kitchen. Having said that as we're not folk for regularly having things like new kitchens or similar I did think it was ok to have a new toaster! The old one was, at a guess, about 15 years old. We did look at a new fridge freezer but the swanky black one that would have added an extra WOW factor didn't fit so that idea has been scrapped. The old one would have been put in the garage as we could do with extra freezer space especially at this time of year when there is much to process from the plot and I need room for Christmas things.

Either way the idea is to completely finish the kitchen.

The utility needs similar finishing touches - floor and worktop. I've got to order a new coat hook assembly as I've seen one with a blackboard above it so there is space to write where various members of the family are on a daily basis - especially good for all the after school clubs of the kids. We also have a lovely painting that Tim's mum did of some advertising packing cases. Yesterday we bought it replacement picture tape to repair it before its hung above the washing machine.

Its been fun getting these finishing touches together for this project.

I've already found that the cooker is so useful with its extra oven. We had an autumn lasagne last night made with roasted butternut squash, mushrooms, onion and sweetcorn. That could bake in the main oven whilst the smaller oven gently reheated some homemade sticky toffee puddings from the freezer. It just means I'm not doing so much juggling.

An autumnal picture taken at Westonbirt. We have plans to go there next weekend to see this years display

Thoughts on being without a kitchen for a week

What a week. I don't post this for sympathy. Getting a new kitchen is kinda self inflicted isn't it? But we had a whole week with no cooker and no sink. The latter was actually the hardest. Washing up in the bath got very boring very quickly. There was nowhere else though. We have a downstairs loo but the basin in there is so tiny you'd barely wash up a tea cup let alone anything bigger. Trudging upstairs twice a day with bowl and crockery wasn't fun. Kneeling on bathmat to do it was hard on the old knees as well. Ah well.


What did I think of microwave meals for a week? Never again I think its fair to say. We don't own a microwave so were grateful to borrow one but its gone back today and I can't say I'm sorry.


Firstly there is the social aspect of eating. With everyone's dinner having to be done one at a time we couldn't eat together. That felt odd. Tim and I normally sit over supper and talk about the day, but we found ourselves doing other things like surfing the net whilst eating which I just didn't like in myself. It didn't give the main meal of the day its due concentration and importance; that didn't feel right. We didn't stop properly to eat but carried on doing 'whatever it was'.

The taste - they all tasted pretty much the same. When it came to choosing them (and boy did I feel embarassed in the supermarket with my trolley full of them) it seemed limited. There were pasta things, curry things or variations on cottage pie. Dunno, was I missing something? Surely you'd have done them all within a week and be back at the begining again.

The amount of rubbish it generated - we quickly filled up the bin with plastic trays I had no use for. It was all packaging.

The cost. I reckoned I spent over £40 on ready meals and a small pudding each for 4 people for 3 days. To contrast that I went to the farm shop yesterday and for about the same amount of money bought apples, lemons, mushrooms, 3 sorts of cheese, a free range chicken, 1lb of mince, croissants, bread flour, yeast, and pasties all round for lunch. The farm shop purchases will last me for more than a mere 3 days. Much better value (and tastier too!)

An interesting experience but give me proper cooking any day.

I tried to find a foodie picture -but I think I've used up most of them already. So I appologise if this is a repeated picture. But its of a real PIE, handmade and delicious (and no microwaves were used in its creation!!!)

The cat room changes -part of the kitchen project

This first picture is of the utility room before it was sorted out. The cats sleep in there at night, hence the cat room title. On the right is a broom cupboard with one rather high shelf above it. With only a vacuum in there it wasn't a good use of space. The gap you can see to the left has an electric socket there so presumably there was an appliance previously, but we've never found anything that fitted so we just put a boot rack in the gap. The slim cupboard inbetween had small shelves but didn't hold alot and again its height was a problem for little me. When we spoke first to the designer at Magnet we said that we felt that the re-design of this block of cupboards was a very important part of the new kitchen. If they were better fit for our purposes then it could make a huge difference to the usage of the room




This is the cupboards as finished. The right hand one has shelves in it (the vacuum cleaner can live in the garage) and the centre slim one is one of those pull out larder units. The end one has shelves in the top half and then a space underneath that we intend to put all our wellies and hats in to (and then shut the door on them..)

The whole wall is now functioning as a larder or pantry space. All the food items, drinks, and storage containers (I use loads to freeze down our produce) are safely and neatly stored in there. Its a cool room as there is no direct heat in it and its away from the cooking space so that will be a better place for food.

There is still above the washing machine to finish off with its worktop and of course the whole thing needs decorating and the floor doing. Slowly its all coming together though...

Kitchen - end of first stage

this is how it looked at the end of the first week! Door fronts and handles on cupboards. Glass fronted doors on the slim wall units either side of the range. Belfast sink in place. The worktop gives a good indication of the final effect but its actually a temporary one. We're having granite worktops and they are measured for, only once the base units are in. It has to be exact so can't be done before that. Its then cut and then it'll be fitted in about a fortnight's time. The floor tiles and plinths are still to be fitted as well at this stage.

But its a working kitchen!! We've been able to put things in to cupboards and I've started to play with the cooker. Interestingly although we've lost one complete cupboard because of the size of the range (its a metre wide) we've gained storage space as the new units are much better designed for our needs. The wall units go up to the ceiling giving us one more shelf all the way round. I can get right to the back of the corner floor units so I can use all the space properly.

Already the cooker is saving me time. I needed to bake for a school coffee morning. I made a large chocolate cake, a tray of flapjacks and bars of syrup cake all in just over an hour. It'd taken me all morning on the old cooker and I bet I'd have got fed up by the second item and not bothered with the third. I haven't even started on all of the features of this range so its a good start.

Kitchen day 4 or the range is coming

This was such an exciting day. The linchpin of the whole project. The range cooker. I was worried they'd not get it in the door as the hall is narrow, but it was bodily lifted by the two strong delivery lads straight in and connected up within minutes. It's absolutely FAB!! I've not stopped polishing it yet...

Day 3 of the kitchen project

Where were we on the kitchen project front - oh yes.. so day 3 saw this happen and wall units start to appear. Already it looks wider across the window doesn't it? all the electrics got sorted out on this day as well. We're having lights under the units and in the glass cupboards either side of the canopy and that all had to be tucked behind units.