Two Books and a Scoop.........

 .....were my car boot sale finds on Saturday.

Unusual to find two books at a boot sale that look interesting.

I dithered over the 'Back of Beyond' as the man was insistent on wanting £2 -  hate paying that much! I wasn't 100% sure that I'd not read it but knew there was an interesting, old  book about trees by this author on my shelves and thought that on Amazon for 'Back of Beyond' it would be more than £2 for sure. 

Thank goodness it wasn't listed in my book of books read and would be between £5 and £22 on Amazon so £2 was OK after all.

The other book was in a house clearance box so just 50p and is also about someone who bought an old cottage but this one is in Australia - that's a bit different.

The 50p scoop is for the greenhouse for compost - had one just like this but it split last year, which I only remembered after spending ages looking for it a few weeks ago.

Back Tomorrow

Signed Out and The Horse Chestnut Tree

 Very odd things happening with google here - it kept signing me out of the blog over the weekend. I managed to sign back  in twice after a lot of faff with passwords etc and having to get  number codes sent to my phone. It didn't last long as I was signed out again on Sunday!  I tried to find out why but the answers were a bit vague. Eventually I got back in again long enough to write this and   I think my comments on other blogs may have popped up as anonymous, so apologies for that.

  It was not just google who didn't know who I was  but also outlook (hotmail), BBC iplayer, Facebook Groups and  Wordle although I would have lost my streak anyway - the word was BYLAW. I only got the A!

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The Horse Chestnut I'm following through the year has changed so much in the month since mid April .

It's looking lovely with the white flower 'candles' and the leaves fully open but fresh  still Spring green.

And who knew all the ways the bark is/was used............

Horse chestnut bark (Aesculus hippocastanum) is a traditional herbal ingredient, rich in aescin and tannins, used to support circulatory health, specifically targeting vein health, reducing leg heaviness, and treating vascular issues. Primarily prepared as a decoction or tea, the bark is used for its astringent properties and can be used in topical preparations.

I'll not be trying it!

I'm scheduling this post for Monday morning and will see what happens, will I be signed in or not - that is the question. 

Back soon..................... I hope

Saturday 16th

 Halfway through May.

I'm an idiot.......... you'd think I'd been growing stuff long enough to know not to plant things out before late May so why did I put the 2 courgette plants out in the garden in early May? Without covering them.

Monday morning there were two very frost damaged plants sadly drooping and turning black. It was cloudy Sunday night and I wasn't expecting temps to drop so low..........but they obviously did. Thank goodness there are plenty of courgette plants for sale at car-boots. On Monday night and the rest of the week I made sure to put fleece over the tomato, cucumber and other mini plants and seedlings in the greenhouse, the forecast was for more chilly nights. Two new courgette plants will be coddled in the greenhouse until 'all danger of frost is past'. Daytimes this week have been cold too with a N.E wind, not very nice after the warm weather. 

The gumpf with all the information about the new Recycling system starting in June arrived in the post this week. A more detailed look at what can go in which bins and a calendar so we know which week is which bin. 

At the moment I have a basket in the under-the-sink cupboard for all the dry recycling which can just be tipped straight into the bin, but now paper and card need separating from cans and plastics so either I stand outside sorting or I find somewhere in the kitchen for the different things.

I know this is a government initiative but I can't help thinking that some people won't be able to manage to sort or remember the correct days and will worry about the dire warnings that bins won't be emptied due to  putting 'the wrong thing in the bins'  and more stuff will end up in the general rubbish bin and landfill than there is at the moment.

I've had a week of  restocking the freezer with batch made meals after realising that there were just 5 boxes of Quorn korma curry and 3 boxes of pizza topping left- don't like getting that low on choice.

 I started with 8 boxes of salmon, brocolli,sweetcorn and pasta bakes while the bread machine made two more pizza bases but before finishing  off the pasta bakes I had to turn a bag of bits of crusts into dried breadcrumbs for the cheese/crumb topping.

(Note to self - if you keep adding bits of crust to a bag in the freezer you do actually need to dry them and turn them into crumbs before the morning you want to use them)

Next up was two nut loaves using the recipe on the recipe page and I remembered to use the jar of cranberry sauce that was still in the fridge - after being unopened at Christmas.

I squashed the mix down in the tins a bit more and gave it a bit longer in the oven than last time so it all held together rather than falling apart. I cut into 8 chunky  pieces as they turned out to be not very deep for slices.

Finally several servings of Bolognese sauce using Quorn mince, cans of tomatoes, onion and a red pepper will be made today or tomorrow. 

There's nothing in my diary for anything happening to visit this weekend except for a small craft/plant fair in the village. 

Have a good weekend - I shall be back Monday.