Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday

It has been a long day today.  

After cooking G his breakfast I then trotted along to the Doctor's surgery where I was seen by two Nurses.  They made sure that I was aware that I had another appointment in about six weeks time, and I confirmed that had already been set up.  They took blood from my still bruised arm, although were concerned that the bruise was still there.  That is just how I am.  The left arm was the better arm for getting a vein to stand up. One attempt and it was done.  More experienced Nurse.  No messing.  I think the Nurse who saw me last week was junior to the two I saw today.  I had, had as per instructions quite a bit of water before attending the appointment.  Apparently, it helps with getting the vein to attention too. I got the feeling that something is going on that I am not aware of at present though.  Will see what happens.  Maybe will find out what is going on when I speak to the Doctor next week.  I was a bit waterlogged as in the space of about an hour and a half I had had 1 pint of water and that was on top of my tea and pills.  Kept having to nip to the loo!

Then set too in the kitchen and partially the Pantry.  Starting to get sorted.  Will have an early start on Thursday as I will be continuing with the kitchen.

Then we had a couple of minor disasters. I had stacked stuff outside the back door after it had been sorted out for the Pantry.  I hadn't realised but it had started chucking down with rain and I ended up with water inside the back door, and on the floor.  I eventually managed to get everything in and it is now drying.

I was supposed to have started off the Gooseberries in Syrup last night (Tuesday night) but got waylaid on something else.  I went to check on them tonight, but despite being in a cold place, they started to turn a bit.  I therefore set too and topped and tailed the Gooseberries and I have frozen them.  These were too marked for using for Gooseberries in syrup and so I have prepped them up ready to make jam once I get a few spare moments (pressure marks from where the Gooseberries have laid against each other on the bush. The colouring does not scrape off and so I tend to chop the coloured bit off.  There will be enough here for us for jam for the year.  I will get more Gooseberries next week and make the Gooseberries in syrup. I may double-batch them preparing them on the day I buy them.  Will need some more jars as well though. That was therefore work that was not anticipated but at least it has saved the Gooseberries.  That is an achievement in itself.  I now have a nice little stock of fruit to turn into jams and jellies, which I may have referred to before including Cranberries, Raspberries, Mixed fruits and now the Gooseberries (this is just the freezer fruits).

Another late night.  I did not get to bed until 2:45am.

Thursday

Started in the kitchen again although not as early as I had hoped was up about 9:15am.  I am not 100% at the moment, and so tired.  No energy again, but I need to keep plodding on.  I do not have much choice on this for external reasons.

At long last have opened my Instant Pot Pro Plus the one with the Canning function.  I have stripped a cupboard out to keep it in as well as my Kitchen Aid so that it frees up more space on the worktop. I already have my Ninja on the worktop.  I am looking forward to playing with this in due course.  There is a lot that I want to do.  So primarily to start with I will be stripping out cupboards washing them down and then get stuff put back in there.  Getting stuff put away is the headache at the moment. At least I have two useful boxes out of this in order to pack some of my more fragile stuff in upstairs.  What goes around comes around.  In fact I may use one of the boxes to store some of my new buys in with regard to kitchen hand equipment until I can get sorted a bit more with my two poly towers that I keep all my hand equipment in.  The Instant Pot is now in residence in the cupboard.  Eureka.  I have also put in my enamelled cast iron Dutch Oven that I bought primarily for making no knead bread but which I also use for other things as well.

I am still waiting for my new light fitting/Chandelier for the dining room.  This has now arrived and is a build up one.  Job for G I think as my electric skills are non-existent.  There is also the cherry stoner and my seeds yet to arrive.  My fresh yeast arrived yesterday.  I will package it up and pop it in the freezer later into useable portions.  I had hoped to keep it in the fridge but the use by date is this coming Sunday so am going to freeze it and wrap in useable portions in cling film. I am not wasting a scrap. The bread making is definitely on my list of things to get to grips with, especially as on my maternal side my Great Grandparents owned their own bakery in Sheffield and my Uncle Jack was also a skilled Baker as were a lot of my Aunties on Mum's side.   Once the kitchen is sorted this should happen reasonably quickly.  I am also going to tackle the Sourdough again as well.

I am sorry if I go on a bit about family members and history, but it is an integral part of what made me who I am.  Even though family members may not be here in the physical I still feel them and have the deepest respect and love for them as they really did battle the odds to survive under extreme duress. The trouble is that we are taught to love individual family members from birth, but no one gives you a pattern for how you should proceed without them, especially if you do not get to say goodbye.   The same feeling goes for my Dad's side too and shows a remarkable amount of strength and determination.  Something that I try to learn from and try and remember when things are not too good for me and remember that I have it good compared to how things were for them.  We have lost so many family members over the years that my Dad's side of the family in particular is very small.  My Mum's side not as big as it was but there are plenty of cousins, second cousins and third cousins.  Mum was one of 10.  However we are down to just two of the siblings now my uncle Geoff and my uncle Georgie who is the baby out of the 10.  

Today in the kitchen has been moderately successful.  I have done quite a bit in the kitchen.  The back porch area such as it is has been gutted and down by the side of the cooker.  I have not long been in the under-sink cupboard and remedied the rogue shelf which keeps falling down and stripped it out and washed it.  Washing machine has been washed down and a cleaning wash run on it.  As has the dishwasher. That is one side of the kitchen completely dealt with.  I have the window to clean later on and the nets to wash but I tend to do that at night when the next door neighbour has his blinds down.

We are having burgers in buns with a little fried onion, salad leafage and Kraft Dairylea cheese slices for our tea tonight.  That will do nicely and will not require many pans to cook it and will be quickly done so that I can get a sit down and then get back to the kitchen.  It is going to be a late one.

If I can get as much done in the kitchen as I can today that will mean that I can then tackle the bathroom and the little room tomorrow.

As always I do have a big washing pile to deal with. Have just established no more rain due today.  It has been drizzling on and off here thus far.  That means I can get on with the washing and get it hung out early tomorrow.  Supposed to be 26 degrees tomorrow and sunny so proper drying weather.  Want all the washing and drying out of the way with before Saturday if possible.

Right am off to get on again.

Have a lovely evening folks.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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