My Weekly Round-up on Saturday 13th

This week.....................

 I heard it on Radio 4 so it must be true  "people who go to bed  between 10 and 11pm are less likely to suffer with heart problems" Oh Good, I thought, as that's the time I head off to the land of Nod. How had this bit of health news had been found?..........one week of checking with a wrist worn device?! Surely that can't be right. I only heard it on one news bulletin so no idea..............

 

My new chest freezer was delivered only 3 weeks after ordering it which was good as they said between 4 - 8 weeks so I wasn't sure if it would actually arrive before Christmas. (Although why is it the only day in the week that I get invited for a coffee meet-up is the very day I had to stay in for the delivery of the freezer?) Now I can get busy with making some things that I've not had room to store since moving.

 Pastry cases for a start, because if I'm doing one pastry case for a quiche then it's as easy to make 4 and put 3 away and then I can quickly make my own quiches again  which will be good and I'll also make a big batch of  naan breads. 

I've already been out and bought some Christmassy vegetarian things and stocked up with the so called "party foods" like mini vegetable spring rolls, prawns in tempura and small prawn toasts which I eat a few of with  vegetable stir fry and noodles. Because they're in the Party Foods frozen section they're not always available all year round.

No spend November seems to have been abandoned because I bought a spring tine leaf rake! There's a huge Sycamore in the back corner of next door's garden and its leaving leaves in places where they can't be collected by using the mower (not that the grass has ever dried out enough to mow it recently). It could count  as a Christmas present to myself along with a metal cage for mulching the leaves and another compost dalek to fill in alternate years! I've pinched more random paving slabs from round the side of the bungalow and added them to the bit where my one dalek compost bin is already standing, so right ready for another one. The dalek arriving is better than the one I have because it has a lift up door on the side to get the compost out. Think I may move what's in the old one into the new one - good to turn it anyway.

The Christmas card writing is proceeding except that I counted how many cards need short letters included ....10. I'm so bad at letter writing now (blame the blog!) so doing 10 letters, even short ones, is a bit daunting.

 

Final job yesterday was to get my seed order done - it feels very good to be sorting seeds and planning for food production just like I've done for the nearly 40 years. Almost everything in my seed tin was way out of date so it's a case of starting more-or-less from scratch.

 

 I shall grow  a small plum tomato called Sun Grape and a large plum called Super Mama in the greenhouse with aubergines, cucumbers and two types of peppers - 1 red and pointy and the other a regular shaped orange colour. For outside I have saved seed of climbing French beans and runner beans and I will also grow some beetroot, leeks, squash, sweetcorn and courgette. Then I got tempted in by a special offer for some onion sets, shallot sets and garlic bulbs which included a square growing bed/bag.

 

Another weekend ahead when I'm not sure what's happening - although there's a Christmas Bazaar today in the village where I stayed  in the holiday let bungalow or maybe a visit to a tree nursery or another church.

Have a good weekend

I shall be back Monday

Sue