TARRAGON & THYME

G is going fishing tomorrow and I have plans of what I am going to be getting up to whilst he is out to play. He is also fishing on Tuesday and that will be a different story altogether. No shopping planned, but a bit of work and a bit of preparation planned for Sunday. That will be the first part of the morning. I will not get all of the items done, but just to get a few out of the way with would be a blessing.  It would be a start and then I could continue on with the rest during the week. Creating and Playing is a central part of the Christmas celebrations for me; perhaps the most important part. The following are on the list: Start to glue my pegs together to create Snowflake ornaments; Get my Oranges Dried - Dragging down the big girl to deal with a large batch of these; Get my Lemons Dried  - using the smaller machine; Get my Apples Dried - (when the other machines have emptied); Start my Natural Decorations Ornaments, consisting of spices and natural items foraged and c...

It has been horrible weather wise here today, like so many other places over the British Isles.  However, the rain is very much needed as although we have had a lot of wet weather recently, still more rain is required to fill the lakes, rivers and reservoirs up.  G goes fishing on a regular basis and the lakes where he fishes, are about 18 inches down on what they normally are. I have been in the house most of the day, wading through the washing and the drying.  Slowly getting through it, and getting ironed and put up on hangers, aired before putting away.  All work that needs doing. G is fishing again this Sunday and next Tuesday. I had hoped to go shopping this Sunday, however that will now be Tuesday.  Instead I will get stuck in on outstanding jobs in the house. My Laura Ashley boxes have arrived and I am very pleased with them.   These boxes are going to be so useful; they are so spacious and very good value for the money.  Will be ideal for ...

For the past couple of days I have felt very off colour, culminating yesterday with my eyes watering constantly and a severe lack of energy.  I therefore went to bed early. I thought I was brewing for a cold as I have been sneezing a lot.  As I was cold and shivery in any event (despite the heating being on) it was the best place for me. I crashed out and slept for a good six hours before being woken by Missy who was asking for going out.  This morning I feel so much more with it and my eyes are not sore.  Right upwards and onwards. In respect of the boxes I ordered yesterday from TK Maxx, I am not sure whether they will be delivered today or tomorrow.  I suspect tomorrow though as it was late when I placed the order. I therefore think it will be tomorrow when they are delivered.  So pleased to have located these; very chuffed indeed.  There were some other ones as well that I had seen in their shop when I initially went in-store that are also availabl...

The fridge was completed last night and now I have the task of filling it up again!  I have done a little shopping on the veg front and some fruit, which has now been put away in the fridge. Today though, I did manage to go shopping for a little while, but not to all the shops I had planned on going to.  There is always another day and G will be fishing on Tuesday again. I could not make my mind up  but after pinging backwards and forwards as to which shops I was going to go to today.  I eventually decided on a re-visit to the shops I visited the other day, principally to see if M & S had added any more Christmas items to their display stand. They had a little bit, however I am still not impressed.  I did however buy two more Santa Mugs!  I shall never go to heaven. *I also went back into TK Maxx I was hoping and praying that they had more of the boxes that I bought the other day.  Sadly not, (I knew I should have bought them then) but I did buy an...

Not as productive a week as I would have hoped for, yet things are slowly moving along.  I am taking breaks here and there in-between as well so that I am not overloading myself.  Yesterday evening I started a deep clean on the cooker.  It is a bit of a piecemeal job which I started last night with the Hob.  It has been partially cleaned but I was hoping to get some heavy duty cleaner on it. That will have to wait though.  I had to cook G's breakfast and so am just pressing forward on a mini clean for now, which was my outline plan anyway.  Will go back with the deeper cleaning element another day when I have more time and am not going to be interrupted.  As I say  "one step forward two steps back"! The plan for today was to strip the fridge out and give that a good deep clean which is the deep clean prior to the mini clean which I usually do just before Christmas.  This is needed in any event as I am starting to take inventory of the items t...

On Tuesday of this week I went out on a little adventure to have a look at my local M & S, Hobbycraft, Asda George at Home. Poundland and TK Max.  These shops are all on a trading park outside of the town and not in the City centre and although near a bus route it is a bit of a palaver and so I went by taxi which made it a lot easier for me. M & S I was very disappointed in the offerings from M & S this year overall. The Christmas shop items they had in did not consist of many items, far lower than what they normally have.  In retrospect I wonder if they had all the stock out.  Although the products are absolutely top notch, the design aesthetics chosen for the different decorations I did see today just did not do it for me.  The only amendment to this is that I found two Santa Mugs for £6 each. The ones I picked up are definitely Santa Claus, but I understand that there may be a Mrs Claus too. This is the start of my little collection of different Santa ...

Things are quietly moving forward here, although movement is not as quick as I would like it to be as usual.  There we are such is life.  Washing is being cleared, hot meals are being had most days although tonight I did something a little different for us for this time of the year.  I have been craving a baked sweet potato for ages.  G is not keen on them baked and prefers a standard potato.  I therefore did the plain potato for G and the sweet potato for me. My version I served this with lettuce, coleslaw, fried onions, grated cheese, sweet yellow pepper, the sweet potato - no meat for me and it was very tasty and went down an absolute treat.  The fried onion with the grated cheese went very well indeed. G's version, well he had Rump steak, cherry tomatoes, lettuce leaves, coleslaw, fried onions, grated cheese and his baked potato.  I must say I really enjoyed mine. G's version My version I do not always fancy a lot of meat to eat in any event. ...