Bits and Bobs

Last night, I managed to do about 4 inches of knitting on my blanket.  It is now 31 inches deep and has to be 60 inches by the time it is finished.  I must say that this is the longest piece of knitting I have ever attempted.  Still a long way to go.

It has been a quiet day today apart from the fact that my Facebook account was hacked.  Hopefully that is now sorted but we will see what happens.  Messages came through via Messenger but I have changed and updated my security settings.  Some people have nothing else to do.  They will get their cum uppance in the greater scheme of things.

I am slowly plodding away in the background, with ideas and finding stuff.  I am missing however a load of baking equipment, the more specialised kind.  I know a lot of them were in a box but there are a load more Bundt Cake tin pans that are missing as well. I have found about half of them.  Some might be in the unit, but they will not be found before Christmas, others may be in the back bedroom.  They will get found eventually.  Must keep looking.  I have so much baking equipment as cooking is one of my hobbies and I have also been adding stuff in over a 35 year period.  Well it will turn up at some point or another just not when you want it, but that is par for the course around here. (update - have not found the Bundt tins but have found quite a few others including a very large Festive Wreath tin which is like a Bundt tin but not quite).

I am also working on sorting out my preserving for next year.  My playing around this year has fed my need for being more self-sufficient on certain items i.e. making them myself from agreed bought fruit and veg but you have to deal with the hand that life feeds to  you.  Excuse the pun.  Just because you do not have the land to grow stuff doesn't mean you cannot benefit from home made produce. You can still make the best of what is around you.  

One day maybe I will get that large veg and fruit plot that I dream of, but for now have to deal with what we have.  In the meantime I try and buy items that have a good provenance. I am lucky in the veg shop I do have as most of the vegetables are grown out in the Lincolnshire Fens and are usually superb.  The eggs are also free range with lovely dark golden  yolks.  Chickens is something that I would like as well.  My grandfather taught me to chicken wrangle when I was a nipper!

I am also appalled at some of the prices being charged for specialist preserves like Apricots with Amaretto liqueur over £7 a jar.  You only use a little liqueur in the syrup not a bottles worth!  I spent some useful time yesterday plodding around Waitrose at their specialist products and making a note of the same to see what I can come up with on the preserves front next year.

So a lot of sorting out is going on behind the scenes. A list of mainstay items is being prepared (i.e. the things I want to make year in and year out as basics), and notes of other stuff I can do at particular times of the year in order that I have the option to either make or skip in any one particular year. This will also focus on seasonal items to make as well as from the shops but also from the wild. This encompasses both preserving and cooking and also crafting, gardening and other projects.

One of the reasons for this, is very unlike me, I am not really into Christmas this year, due to several issues, but as usual I am trying to make the best of what is to hand.  As a result of those issues which are mostly managerial and planning issues, things will be different next year one way or another. Christmas is very special to me and always has been but I feel disappointed in certain people, when I should be feeling so grateful for what I have (which I am in one way but not in another).  You never know it might turn out to be one the best Christmas's ever!

Have found another large box of Christmas decorations and emptied two other boxes of house stuff so quite a bit of stuff on the move and being put away in a home.  Mind you the dining room and the kitchen are a complete mess as I am working between the two I am having to.  It will get worse before it gets better, but at least getting stuck in. Plans concerning the kitchen went to pot but hopefully that will be started on Tuesday.  Juggling in several areas and occasionally a ball being dropped!

Managed to pick up a couple of reduced Poinsettias today.  Only small ones but ideal for the dressers.  Two came home at £2.50 each rather than £5 a pot.  They are not as large as I usually have, but at least it will be a blast of colour.  Colour makes you feel good even on a grey day.

Back to the grind.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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