A chill is in the air

The last two days I have noticed a real change in the weather. The morning air on Sunday had a smell of autumn to it (if you have any idea what I'm talking about). I felt quite excited that Sunday morning because I thought, ooh autumn's here.

I love autumn, it's my favourite season. The warm days, cool nights, harvest time, trees changing colour, dark nights drawing in and snuggling in the house under blankets on the sofa watching TV.  I love the change in meals from light summer food to warming hearty stews and home made hot puddings.  I love the clearing of the garden  and preparing it for next spring with bulb planting.
 

For the last two days I have felt quite chilly around the house so I have worn a fleece. The house would most probably have been warm enough if I had shut the back door but I like to leave it open all day so the dog can keep going in the garden. I see me having to close it soon though. When you think about it, today is only a day away from the last day of August and we should be basking in late summer sun still. I refuse to have any heating on in the house yet. We watched a film last night and I was chilly so wore my really thick winter dressing gown and soon felt lovely and warm. Fuel is way too expensive at the moment to have the heating on this early. 

Hubby changed our gas & electric suppliers the other month and today we received a cheque from our old supplier for £92 which was owed back to us. Tomorrow I am going to ring a double glazing firm who gave us a quote for a damaged window http://frugalinyorkshire.blogspot.com/2011/06/just-short-post-today.html to come and do the work. Easy come, easy go. Bye bye £92.

Have any of you succumbed to turning the heating on yet?
Bye for now.

Menu Week 29/08/11

MONDAY - Tuna nicoise, homemade coleslaw & homemade bread

TUESDAY - Sausages, mashed potatoes, steamed veg and yorkshire puddings & gravy

WEDNESDAY - Spaghetti bolognese and homemade garlic bread

THURSDAY - Mushroom risotto, parmesan crusted chicken and salad

FRIDAY - Savoury mince on jacket potatoes, roasted carrots, broccoli & peas

SATURDAY - Enchiladas and salad

SUNDAY - Roast chicken, sage & onion stuffing, mashed potatoes, veg & Yorkshire puddings


Feeling a bit fed up today. I go back to work tomorrow after 3 weeks holiday and I don't want to go back. I've loved my 3 weeks off and the thought of having to return is making me feel down.  Also returning to the voluntery job tomorrow so a double whammy, it's going to be a hard day tomorrow.
Guess once I get tomorrow out of the way it might be a little easier. Might.

Lazy Day

I have had a nice lazy day which started off with Christmas shopping! Daughter No1 showed me a dolls house she had bought my grandaughter for Christmas and showed me some of the accessories that she would like to be bought for the house as gifts for Christmas. So I have ordered my first Christmas gifts this morning which Hubby was rather disgusted at. I know lots of you out there will have stacks of presents already and will think I am rather late getting my first gifts. Now I've started I shall be on a roll. I asked daughter No3 to start thinking about what she wants for Christmas and shall start my Christmas file shortly. This is a file I do every year with my budget, what I buy every person, what I cook each year and how much I spend on food and drink. 

I had a lazy morning today then took my dog for a long walk. I went blackberry picking. All my favourite blackberry haunts are so overgrown this year I just can't get near them.

I take a bag with me on every walk and collect a few berries each time and then freeze them. When I have enough to make some blackberry jelly daughter No3 and I get jam making. 

The house has been very quiet today. Hubby has been out at the cricket club playing cricket and doing very well at it which continued with celebratory drinks at the club until this evening. Daughter No2 went to York to stay with a friend for the night and daughter No3 has just been occupying herself in her room this afternoon.

Have you enjoyed your Sunday? Have you got a lay in tomorrow or are you one of the unlucky ones who have to work on a Bank Holiday?

Hush Hush

Quiet please, grandchildren asleep. Hubby collected grandchildren from daughter No1 on his way home from work this evening. As soon as hubby walked in the door he was stressed, grandchild No2 had cried in the car for the last 15 minutes of the journey for no apparent reason. Brought into me and continued to cry. Daughter No 2 arrived back from a day out with friends to all the crying and declared that she was not happy with all the racket and the kids had better not be staying for two nights because she can't cope with it. Hubby then decided they had better go home tomorrow if this continued because he can't cope with crying kids anymore. My god, (sorry for blaspheming if you are religious) I do find it difficult dealing with tiny children now, I hold my hands up and admit it ,but poor daughter needs a break from them and the night or two I have them is hard, but I can give them back and be baby, toddler free for quite a while. Poor daughter has to put up with it 24/7  because we don't live local. The 3 year old is good at sleeping but the 1 year old is a pain in the butt at times and right on que has just started moaning in her cot because the dummy is not in her mouth. Think I had better get to sleep because I can see a broken nights sleep on the cards!  Enjoy your nights sleep because I don't think I'm going to enjoy mine!

Until tomorrow x

Good clearout day

Started the day with some ironing then onto the girls bedrooms. Been wanting to clear out their wardrobes and drawers for ages. Got daughter No3 to sort through all the junk in her wardrobe whilst I showed her all her clothes and threw a pile on the bed she did not want anymore. We got a huge pile of rubbish for the bin and paper to recycle and a big pile of clothes for the charity bag and a small pile for the rag bag.

We went for a nice walk with the dog then it was time to sort out daughter No2's room. She never throws out any old clothes so her wardrobe is always overflowing with stuff. Well she was rather ruthless today and we got rid of loads. Both girls even sorted through their underwear drawers and sock drawers.

This is the amount of bags we got to give to charity and for charity rags. I recycled lots of paper and put plenty in the rubbish bin. Feels a lot better now we can see what's in the wardrobe and drawers.

We had roasted vegetables tonight and I roasted them in this...

The oil leftover from a jar of sundried tomatoes antipasti. Don't throw the oils from olives or any other type of jared veg in oil. Use it in salad dressings or for roasting things, it gives them a lovely flavour.

Menu Week 22/08/11

MONDAY - Fish pie, peas, carrots and broccoli.

TUESDAY - Spaghetti bolognese & homemade garlicbread

WEDNESDAY - Roasted chicken, roasted vegetables, new potatoes & home made facaccia bread

THURSDAY - Leftover chicken  & bacon bits in a creamy sauce on vegetable rice

FRIDAY - Omelette, jacket potatoes, homemade coleslaw, corn-on-the- cob, salad & HM bread

SATURDAY - Chicken/tofu fajitas

SUNDAY - Roast of some kind, veg, mash and yorkshire puddings


I made the other day some courgette and parmesan soup http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/italianstylezucchini_9833 with my home grown courgettes. I did not add as much oil as the recipe said and I added veg stock instead of chicken. I added a whole tub, 150ml, of cream instead of the 60ml the recipe said. It made a lovely soup which I shall be having for lunch for a few days.

I made some courgette and mushroom bread from a recipe I found on the internet. The taste was lovely but the dough was very wet when I made it and I added extra flour and left it in the oven for over an hour but the middle was still a bit wet. Because it tasted so nice I will use the rest with my soup but will toast it and may make croutons with it. Shall have a jig with the recipe and try to make a it again with a lot less liquid. So no bread recipe yet.

Day 7 & 8 of my hols

Happy 17th Birthday to my daughter

Birthday Girl

Time passes so quickly and then they are grown up. She wanted money from everyone for her birthday so she can go clothes shopping. Today she's gone with a group of friends out for the day and then on to somewhere for a meal. We shall have a birthday cake and candles when she returns this evening.

DAY 7
COMBE MARTIN

Rain was forecast on the news for this day so we drove north to Combe Martin which is a lovely tiny place and has a lovely bay. We spent the whole day on the beach exploring rock pools and relaxing on the beach reading and having a picnic.

The day turned out to be a lovely hot day and we stayed on the beach until quite late then went and ordered a pizza and ate it in the car before driving back to our hotel. Another lovely cheap day.

DAY 8
WESTON-SUPER-MARE

After checking out of our hotel we went to Weston-Super-Mare for the day. We went to see the Sand Sculpture Exhibition then spent the afternoon on the beach and ate lunch.

The sculptures were really good. I heard a little boy ask a guy who was repairing a sculpture how long they took to do. Some were 5 days up to a week with a team working on each sculpture. They were very impressive. Another very cheap day.

From Weston-Super-Mare we headed up to Worcestershire to stay overnight in a hotel so we would not have a long journey home in the morning. We came in budget with our holiday so no getting into debt on this holiday. Even came home with £50 spending money left. back to saving each month for next years holiday now.