Tag Archives: recycle

Wasted Wednesday

Had a lie in this morning before dragging myself from bed, fighting with my trousers (second leg only, the first goes well most mornings). and eating breakfast.

Then I lost control of my day as Julia took over, sorting, decluttering, throwing away.

It’s not easy. We’ve just about filled the first skip and haven’t made much impression on the clutter mountain. I also had six bags of clothes in the back of the car, four bags of books and a bag of recycling.

However, when we left the house, the first job of the day was to buy replacement ear rings for Julia, who lost one yesterday. The books went to Age Concern, just along the road from the jeweller.

Then we went to a clean Salvation Army clothing bank. The local one is surrounded by rubbish and broken glass and we’ve stopped using it. After that we went to a supermarket car park with the paper recycling and did some shopping. Pasta bake again tonight.

After that it was Flu Vaccine for two and then home to tidy up.

We ran into some friends we hadn’t seen for a while when we were in the surgery – a sign of getting old I suppose. They are our age, but are grandparents now and have many more health conditions than we do. It sets things in perspective when you realise how ill some people are. When I’ve spoken to a man who takes 20 pills a day my five don’t seem too bad.

Julia is out at a meeting, as I write. She never stops.

I’m going to make tea in a minute.

It doesn’t seem much of a day. No visits, no scones, no bookshops. Pretty pointless really.

The featured picture is a fallen leaf – very haiku. It’s a reminder that I didn’t get my nature walk today.

Bins, boxes and barbecues

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We only sold four lots over the weekend. Two of them sold on Saturday afternoon, after the Post Office closed, so we packed them before we left. Two sold on Sunday. Then, as we looked at the small pile of post someone bought another lot.

Five parcels.

I think we might have to postpone plans to buy a new box of teabags.

Meanwhile, I just had a phone call from Malta. Apparently the weather was great at East Midland Airport, glorious over France, lovely over the Alps, grey over Italy and murky in Malta.

It’s a lovely evening in Nottingham. Nice and bright and warm and I didn’t need to queue up, sit on an aeroplane or defy nature to get here. I just sat on a chair.

It’s also, according to the photograph Julia just sent, dark in Malta. You’ll have to take my word for it as I’m struggling to download the photo. It seems to have plenty of water and reflected lights in it so I’m sure you’ll love it if I manage to download it.

Julia left me a packet of Mr Kipling Cherry Bakewells. It was waiting for me when I returned home and helped ease the pain of parting. Unfortunately I can’t provide you with a picture of that either. I suppose I ought to be ashamed of myself.

I had ham sandwiches for lunch. I also had ham sandwiches for tea. At the moment I’m debating having ham sandwiches for supper. I like ham sandwiches, and cooking for one keeps the shopping simpler. I’m considering what to buy for tomorrow. If I buy a piece of gammon I can cook it and use it to make ham sandwiches for the next few days.

So far I’ve only used white cobs and Branston pickle. I have multi-seed bread and a choice of mustard or tomato relish available, so I’ve barely scraped the surface of the variety of choices available in the world of ham sandwiches.

I may even consider salad.

If ham sandwiches start to lose their appeal, and I don’t see why they would, I have a reserve stock of cheese.

It’s fairly clear from this that the difference between a normal man and a recluse with a ham fixation is only a few hours. That, I suppose, is why it’s good for men to get married.

Today’s pictures are some I took in the Mencap garden last week. The theme is recycled waste bins, boxes and barbcues. That gives me an idea for a title…

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The Decluttering Diaries – January Results

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At the beginning of the year I set myself a target of decluttering by stealth – throwing out an item of accumulated detritus each day (by dumping, giving away, recycling or any other means) and getting rid of a book a day. Little by little I hoped to make a noticeable difference without too much stress.

So, the January results are in, and how have I done?

Books

Target: 31 books given away. Actual: Er…0

I haven’t done too well on the giving away of books. I think I’ll say that I’m confident I can move this along in the next month and bring it back on target.

Clutter

Target: 31 items removed from the house. Actual: 6

I had a good ferret round through a load of old paperwork and threw out the envelopes and other bits I didn’t need to keep. It felt good to take charge of things, but the feeling soon faded.

I also sorted some bits of useless junk, which went in the bin.

It’s a start, though even I have to admit that it isn’t much of a start. February is going to be an interesting month.

The book picture is a random book picture because I mentioned books in the post. I’ve decided I need some pictures around the blog to brighten it up.

Progress of Sorts…

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Make chicken stew. It’s in the oven. Several hours late.

Soup? Er…just about to do it. Veg are ready but I need to wash a pan as I’ve been storing compost scraps in it for the last few days. Yes, I need to empty a bokashi bucket.

Curry. It won’t take long.

Living room – I’ve moved stuff round, which is related to tidying, though not closely related. More a cousin than a sibling.

Hoover. Perhaps tomorrow.

Meanwhile I have washed up and done the recycling, which I’d forgotten about. I often forget the washing up, though not as much as Number Two son, who is a world class amnesiac. Also watched darts and discussed the finer parts of sports marketing and sponsorship with Number Two son. Had bacon cobs with mushrooms for lunch.

Cut up plastic bottles to make poppies. (and give me an excuse to re-use old photos of poppies).

Poppies made from plastic bottles

Poppies and corn wreath

A Bench Made From Pallets

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If you search the internet for details of garden benches made from pallets you will find far more information than you need. They are even advertised for sale, so if you want to pay £795 for some pallets with cushions on, this is your chance. What is the world coming to?

It will come as no surprise for regular readers to find that I have never spent £795 on a piece of furniture in my life. I came close once – £700 for a Victorian iron bedstead – but it’s an antique so is hopefully an investment rather than just furniture. That was actually advice a dealer once gave me – buy old furniture because it’s already knocked about and you can probably get your money back if you need to sell it.

Anyway – back to pallet benches. The Joe Swift video shows how to make a simple, functional garden bench. He used a single pallet with nine slats, we had to use two pallets because we only had 8 slats, and one of them was broken. However, it worked, and we have a solid garden bench.

We left it with a number of pre-drilled holes and marks so the group could finish it and sand it, which they duly did yesterday. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there to see it, and we can’t use Julia’s photos due to safeguarding restrictions. You will have to put up with photos of Julia instead.

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Mushrooms, books and cookery

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It was a day for firsts yesterday (yes, I’ve slipped another day – fell asleep writing and decided to take the hint). It was the first time I’ve “planted” mushrooms, first time I’ve used chive flowers in a quiche, maybe even the first time I’ve admitted cooking quiche (I’ll have to look back and check that). And it was the first time I was able to be really critical in a book review.

The quiche thing sort of crept up on me, as I’m definitely of the Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche school of cookery.

Anyway – first the mushrooms. I bought two sorts of mushroom spawn – one for grey oyster mushrooms because they are supposed to be easy to grow and one for blewits because they are a local delicacy. We will see.

I’m growing them on paperback books. The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley. I bought it on the basis that it was supposed to be about the psychology of leadership but it turned out to be about making decisions based on the amount of grass on a wicket. I’m sure it’s a great book for a cricket captain, but overall I was disappointed. I bought it cheap in a sale because it had a damaged cover so it seemed a good way to recycle it.

Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell was a mistake. I’ve given up reading her novels because I want puzzles and whodunnits not super-successful wooden characters and… Well if you like them you won’t read further and if you don’t like them you will know what I mean. Growing mushrooms seemed a more fitting end than passing it on and perpetuating the series.

You soak the books in water, spread the spawn on pages about 50 pages apart and hold them together with elastic bands, Easier said than done with wet books and escaping mushroom spawn, I can tell you. They suggest 400 pages, so The Art of Captaincy was a bit short, though it hadn’t seemed like it when I read it. They are now bagged up and incubating in my desk drawer and will be refrigerated later. Ironic when you think about the way Scarpetta’s clients end up. I will keep you in touch.

The quiche was more of an immediate project – done in about 45 minutes from picking the herbs. We had smoked salmon left over from the weekend sandwich making so I bought two pastry cases, added torn up chive blossom, chopped fennel leaves and a splash of nutmeg and that was basically it. Four eggs and 300 ml of milk wasn’t quite enough for the filling but it was adequate. I will make a note next time. cook for 30 minutes at about 180 C in a fan oven.

I wanted to see if there was a way of ensuring a good decorative effect so I tried two methods of filling – one laying the chive blossom and fennel on the salmon and pouring the egg mix on top. In the second I mixed them in the egg and milk and poured it all in.

Results? No real difference. The salmon and fennel showed up OK but the chive flowers seemed to disappear.

Taste. Three tasters in total – two were happy and I thought the smoked salmon made it just a bit too salty. Seems to be a success, and as the salmon, chives and fennel were free it was quite economical. Picture below is a guide to quantities – I never remember to weigh and make notes.

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Life after the Care Farm