Saturday 9 November 2019

Second Saturday in November

Thanks to everyone who liked my two just-for-fun posts this week and  for leaving lots of comments
Here are some replies to comments from early in the week...........

Shouting BANG! when the snaps in crackers fail, reminds me of The Good Life on TV
I'm glad so many people are going to enjoy the new Ann Cleeves book and to Jenny - yes I've read The Salt Path - and loved it.
To Chris - I think a library waiting list of 658 must be a record!
Re The Gates - There's nothing at the road end of the lane to say it's a dead end but as it's not got a proper road surface it ought to be obvious. From the road end of the lane you can't see my house but now you can see the gates. I only need to have one gate open to get my Fiesta through so just open it in the morning if I go out and shut it in the evening before dark.
The footpath up the lane and down the meadow is hardly used and mainly by local people who can do a 2 mile circular walk, a few dog walkers and sometimes by rambler groups as part of a much longer walk.

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My Round-up of the week............
It certainly turned much colder last week, Wednesday was really chilly and some proper autumnal fog too. Plus rain off and on and it was too wet for boot-sales last weekend, the small local boot-sale was completely water logged and will probably have to stop before the end of November. The big boot-sale  should carry on until mid December - hopefully.

I've had an unsettled week which often happens after a weekend where I've spent time with family. The family last weekend were Col's sister's family because it was her birthday. There were 8 of us for Sunday lunch cooked expertly by my niece who is a Brilliant cook.
Then I go home alone  and days after seem a bit flat and I have to work hard to keep from feeling low. This wasn't helped on Monday by burning the sausage rolls I was making for taking to WI......stupid woman ......expensive mistake.........trying to do too many things at once. I quickly made some fruit slices instead and had already made cheese straws, so with the things the other two people on catering duty had brought there was plenty for everyone.

It was because I was feeling a bit low, flat and pointless that I decided to put my mind to a (sort of) BLOG CHALLENGE! The idea came from two places one of them being this large machine below. It's the sugar beet harvester, working on the field on the other side of the track from my house on Wednesday last week.

You mustn't be in a hurry driving on the lanes at this time of year because around any corner could be a tractor and tipping trailer emptying it's sugar beet load onto a hard standing, or a HUGE lorry taking up the whole road as the sugar beet is loaded from a heap by another machine called "a mouse".

The photo below comes from the web and is actually in Germany but is exactly the situation you could find here. You don't get held up for very long because it takes just 6 minutes to fill the lorry!
Sugar beet harvest mouse northern Germany in 2015 No 2.Not ...


One other reason for driving carefully is MUD on the roads. If trailers have carried their load from fields along roads you can be sure there is plenty of mud..........and it can be very slippery. A good farmer will have a tractor and scraper nearby ready to try and clean the roads but they can't get it all up and it will be slippery until there's a good rain to wash the mud away.

The nudge to my challenge is because this beet is taken to either the  Bury St Edmunds factory in Suffolk or Cantley in Norfolk  to be refined into sugar. Silver Spoon sugar is British and local as all sugar beet is grown and processed in East Anglia or the East Midlands (as opposed to Tate and Lyle sugar refined from sugar cane grown on the other side of the world).
So ..............Local Food................that's my sort-of  challenge for sometime next week. More about this when I get organised.


This week I'm grateful for
  • Getting through a rough patch unscathed
  • People smiling because of my blog posts
  • Good books to read
  • Bright ideas!


Back Monday as long as I survive our family bonfire and fireworks and food  party! Never done it before so it will be interesting.

Have a good weekend
Sue

P.S. Has Marlene in Cheltenham(?) got a different blog as she re-started The Simple Life one on 2nd Nov but now that's gone too?

21 comments:

  1. Have a good weekend Sue. I can imagine it must be more difficult after you have spent some days with friends/family and company.

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  2. I have been like you this week Sue I cannot get it going I don't like miserable days.
    Yes I agree it is getting colder but I feel so sorry for the people in West Yorkshire.
    We have mist this morning but I must go shopping I need to get on with the Christmas shopping.
    Have a nice weekend Sue and everyone else.
    Hazel c uk

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  3. I think she has finished altogether. Sorry about you feeling down.

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  4. Ooooh - a blog challenge. I dearly love blog challenges! Looking forward to yours.
    I think Marlene has stopped blogging (for now, anyway). I miss her posts.
    I'm sorry you've been feeling down and glad that maybe things are picking up. It's not long till my time in Bury now, just three weeks.
    xx

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  5. I have asked for British sugar in Waitrose and received blank looks. The ignorance of staff in a sugar growing area like here never ceases to amaze me. Waitrose only stock Tate & Lyle.

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  6. Interesting comments re The Salt Path. We had it as our book club choice...it was a really marmite range of reactions! Arilx

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  7. Morning Sue, Glad you've got through the blip and wish you a lovely weekend.

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  8. I found coming home to an empty house when hubby was in hospital last year, bad enough, so I can understand how you feel. I'm gladd you passed through the moment, it's great to see family doing so much.

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  9. I learned something about sugar beets! Wow, had no idea they were grown where you live.
    I have not been very regular with my blog posts. So much yet to share about Barcelona trip but I need to get it over and done and move on.

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  10. We get tractors round here rather than forage type machines - but the tractors are often hedge-cutting, which slows thing down a bit on our narrow lanes.

    We also get "sheeps" . . . today I suddenly came across a dozen, going on a jolly somewhere. We got more than 3/4 of the way down a VERY steep hill when we met someone with a trailer coming UP, and he wasn't prepared to drop back the 30 yds of so to the passing place. I ended up reversing over half a mile up the hill and back to the previous farm. NOT amused. Thank heavens I was in reversing mode - sometimes my driving brain goes walkabouts!

    I'm going to check to see if our nearest (town) boot sale is on tomorrow - not been to one for weeks now.

    Sorry you had a flat period after the family get-together. Inevitable I think. ((HUGS))

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  11. Hi Sue. I hope you have had fun at your family bonfire evening. Feeling flat after family events seems to be par for the course. It is easy to feel so empty even though we know our families love us so much. I still feel alone when I attend functions by myself. Somehow I don't think it is something I will ever "get over" but I hope it is something I will gradually get used to. Sending you luvnhugz xx

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  12. Those low patches will come, no matter who we are. And it's not easy, to take ourselves by the bootstraps, and pull ourselves back up. But, recognizing them, is half the battle. You did, and you worked on bringing your self back up. Good for you.

    🍁πŸ”₯🍁

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  13. Well done on all fronts. In Australia we just about grow most foods somewhere because of the climate extremes, yet if you don't try hard pay attention and read all labels,imported food is creeping in everywhere! Everyone in the world should be supporting there local farmers, I'm quite passionate about food miles.

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  14. Local Food will be a brilliant challenge. I always buy Silver Spoon sugar since I found out it was produced near you ( I think it was you, Sue, who told me) and I buy locally produced veg whenever I can even if it costs a few pence more. Food miles are important.

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  15. The bulk carriers have been parking on the main road on my route to friends collecting sugar beer. As the bulk carrier moved off a lorry came down the road I thought he was going to hit the boom loader but he just missed it. Marlene has sadly decided to give up blogging. X

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  16. Your challenge will be an interesting one. Looking forward to seeing how you manage it.

    God bless.

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  17. Looking forward to reading about your new challenge. Snow plows will be clogging up our roads, we're expecting 10-15cm of snow overnight! Marlene will be missed.

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  18. I do admire the way you pick yourself up, Sue, it's very inspiring. Your challenge will be interesting, am looking forward to reading about it.

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  19. I think that at this time of the year huge farm implements on the road are a hazard everywhere. I have been stuck behind more than a few of them unable to pass. If the worst thing you have done this week is burn the sausage rolls I think you are okay!

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  20. 658!!! I hope they have multiple copies

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  21. Oooh … a Challenge brilliant. :-)

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