TARRAGON & THYME

Woke up to the Sun this morning which was lovely to see.  It has since slipped away a bit.  At least it has been dry.   Back to some work today.  G has popped on the first coat of paint on the Porch ceiling in the backdoor entryway.  It will definitely need another coat and probably a third as well.   Since then, I on the other hand have been in the dining room trying to sort out those food boxes a bit more.  I am doing an inventory so slow going so that I have some idea of the items to hand and what I have as my start basis. I also intend to make up a Pantry Inventory List in order that I can keep tabs on everything as well.  I have found a small box with some different herbs and spices in which unfortunately I do not have jars for at present.  It will happen gradually as I do recycle jars and bottles and I also keep my eyes open for any vintage glass storage ware as well.  I have found one box and I believe there are others b...

Yesterday evening after tea, I went back into the Pantry for a little while and managed to get all the items I had just chucked in out of there so that I could actually see what I did have available.  Under the large bottom shelf I have several containers stored. They contain a lot of dry ingredients of different sorts, spices, herbs, flavourings, pasta, rice, noodles, flour, bread flour etc. I have dragged them out along with the contents of the other boxes and I am sorting them into some kind of order after filling up some of my empty jars. I have four other boxes to amalgamate into the Pantry one way or another.  Once I know what I have I will then be able to work out what I still need for the Pantry. As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, my hope for this year has been very much to be able to get a handle on what food I do have for the Pantry but also to gather a few items each month whether that be basics for making my own preserves or to store ingredients with long...

 Came out to play for a while today.  Thank goodness.  I do not do "grey" too well at all.  Life is and always has been for me absolutely full of colour.  It is a little warmer today too. I feel less tired than I was, but am still taking things steady. G has a check up at the Doctors to go too shortly and whilst he is out and about, I shall start sorting the Pantry again.  I have all afternoon to play and try and get jars filled and items sorted out a bit better than they are.  Whether it will be complete or not is another matter but more effort will go into getting it just how I would like it and jars will slowly get filled up in readiness for use. I am not sure I am going to get everything in here in any event, but I shall endeavour to do what I can.  Any excess will have to go under the stairs. One of the main reasons for going through the extra tubs that I have found is that I do not know what is in there. There are certain items needed in any...

It has been a cold and very wet day here in Peterborough today.  I did not realise it was raining, but had woken up a little stiff and then realised when I got out and about why.  A couple of pain kilIers were needed today though as a result. It is a sad fact of life that the older we get the more we watch the pennies especially if you are retired and only have a set income coming in a month.  It is a different way of living to when you are younger.   It means for me staggering things out a bit so that we get as full a coverage as we can within any one month.  Appreciating what we have but being "thrifty" in the process.  Now I am not a purist, but I do adjust plans to suit any one situation during the month.  That is for me where having the gas and electric cards gives me an idea of what is left and I can then prioritise items that need to be done rather than what I would like to do (especially with regard to preserving goodies i.e. the electric ...

I was up early this morning as I did not sleep well.  I have a habit of nodding off to sleep when it is time to get up and then I just crash. After the events of the last few days I have decided that this afternoon I am going to have the afternoon off and just to sit and chill. I hurt today.  Will probably return to sorting duties again tomorrow.  I may do something with the food boxes a little bit later on, but at the moment I just want to sit and chill.  In the end I fell asleep for a couple of hours.  Unheard of for me. It has been a sunny and breezy day here in Peterborough, not real warm but pleasant.  Have had the windows open to let some air into the house.  Freshens things up a little bit.  Also have had the washing machine on and as there is a nice breeze the washing has gone out on the line as well.  Always smells much nicer when has been out in the fresh air. Although the tumbler fluffs things up like the towels and makes them love...

 Last night whilst sorting through the dining room as you do when you just cannot settle, I came across two different carrier bags.  Not sure what they were I decided to look and it would appear that I have found my missing sugar - all 7kgs of it.  I knew I had more as it is one of those things I do tend to buy when I have a few pennies spare. Now that is timely, as I have some Lemon Marmalade and Seville Orange Marmalade to make.  Have more than enough to do this now and I have jars as I found a load of those on Friday in any event.  So one happy bunny.  I will be able to get on with this during the week.  Possibly one project a day in order that I can keep my kitchen reasonably tidy.  I also hope to get some frozen Strawberries and turn them into some Strawberry jam as I have run out of last year's efforts. I am going to need more sugar though as I also have some wine that I want to make as well as the marmalades and jam.  There are always ...

In real life I am still cleaning.  This time in the dining room.  Despite the fact that my arm has been kicking off for the past few days.  I have found though that having the hot water bottle on the bit that is most painful is actually helping to soothe everything down.  The hot bottle gets switched around a bit as last night the small of my back (where the bone is slightly out of alignment) decided to kick off.  Probably all the bending and running up and downstairs beginning to take its toll.  Despite the inflammation I am managing to keep on top of it, together with the regular upward stretches throughout the day and rotation of the arms as well seems to be keeping a lid on it.  I mention this as it has helped me immensely and I did not know whether it would help anyone else out there.  I am still doing the exercises the Physio gave me, however these are ones that I have come up with and seem to be helping me.  Physio was okay with this f...