Cooking

Thank you to those yesterday who helped me to identify the tree. Here is some trivia about it that you may or may not know - new to me anyway, but those who new the tree may know this. The Berberis is originally from South America and the berries it produces in Autumn are edible and make a very nice jam apparently. Anyone tried this? Full of vitamin C it seems.

I have company today, a very good friend is coming over from Cheshire to see where I am living and to have lunch (which is lucky because I have to stay in for a delivery today as well). Now I don't think I have spent very much at all on food this month, I had a lot in the store cupboard and have just topped up on basics now and again, probably about £20. Having said that I have spent excessively on gardening stuff, which is fine, but it has been done with a certain amount of gay abandon. I just feel that I have no idea what I have spent and I need to very much get back on track before I decline into overdraft. So with that in mind, yesterday I set about cooking. I didn't particularly wish to get the car out and go to the delightful Rochdale supermarkets so I took the 20 minute walk to the co-op instead. My co-op is a very expensive shop! There are rarely any bargains to be had (although I did pick up a couple of little gem lettuces for 49p) and so I shelved my original plan of making a Thai green chicken (or prawn) curry because the chicken and the prawns were just too expensive in there. Instead I opted for using up the rather large amount of eggs I had nearing their use by date and to utilise the fact that the oven would be on by filling it to capacity and beyond. So £5 was spent on a piece of gammon that was over a kilo (apparently half price but I know that a piece like that was never really £10 to begin with - they are such cheaters). Still, not a bad price for a large piece.

Now before I start on the food, I would like to just point out that my photography does tend to make anything like deeply unattractive, the camera on my phone gives most things a slightly orange tint that makes the food look rather ghastly. I promise you, it looks better in reality.

So last night, first I made an apple cake to use up 3 rather sad looking apples and 2 of the eggs.

and then I made a banana loaf to use up another couple of eggs and 2 black bananas. Sampled 2 slices.

Third was the tortilla which used the remaining 4 eggs up and some old potatoes. Instead of frying the potatoes (a job I hate) I actually just oiled them and put them in the oven to roast as it was on and then transferred them to the frying pan when they were done. Made life much simpler and no real difference to the end result.

and lastly was my gammon, which I boiled first and then I blackened in the oven with a honey and mustard glaze.

Along with a salad and some fresh bread which is cooking now, I think that all of this will provide us with a nice lunch and will leave me with great leftovers for the next few days.

Anyone know what this tree is?

I have a tree in the garden and I would like to know what it is, so anyone who knows or has any clues please tell me. Sorry some of the close ups are bad - not a good photographer!
Its a bout 9 feet and has thorns. 

yellow, orangey berries.

Bookcase project

I have a lot of books. I have been collecting books since I was a teen and as I am regularly re-reading books I never get rid of one unless I hated it. I don't buy so many now, just the occasional second hand or 1p amazon special now and again.
Storing my books has been a problem over the years and this is probably the first time in about 20 years that all my books have been in one place. I have had hundrends stored in my parents loft for many years and in various other cupboards. Finally I have them all here leading to problems with having them all out. One day I will have floor to ceiling bookshelves (when I convert the garage in a few years, but until then I would like to be able to get at most of them without hunting through boxes.

This week my project was to build a nice bookshelf for a small selection of my books, out of cheap flat pack furniture, modified by my own fair hand to look a little better and more in keeping.

So I went through the hateful experience the is shopping in IKEA. Where else can you get a flat packed bookcase, nearly 2 metres high for £19.99? So home I came with a KILBY bookcase which was swiftly put together.

First thing that I added was a moulding around the top and down the sides....

As this is to mostly contain paperbacks, this bookshelf has a monumental amount of wasted space between shelves, so some extra shelves were needed. I cut these out of plain cheap white covered chipboard. Making it a much more respectable 7 shelf bookcase (8 if you count the top)

I then primed the whole thing...

and added some brown paint to the edges and corners..

and finally gave it a couple of coats of cream paint (the same as the colour on the bedroom walls).

A bit of discreet sanding allowed some of the brown paint to show through a bit at the edges and corners...

The back was added (not sure I should have left that grey, but it can always be changed at a later date)...

Finally some of my books were put in and I think it looks much better than the original piece of flatpack that it was. The beading was the biggest expense coming in at £10, and the extra shelves cost me another £7 (although I still have enough particle board for use in another shelf in a future project.)

Now I have to come up with some more places to put more books, something for the kitchen I think.......

A few garden photos.

I've been busy in the garden the last few warmish days and getting some things done.
Indoors I have seeds on the go

5 different types of tomato here. Lots of seeds all done well, so I will be giving some away to friends.

Leeks on the left, marigolds on the right.

I've always wanted a rose growing up the front of my cottage and finally got one in yesterday. Thought it would be problematic as it is a North facing wall, but after some research it seems that this rose (Zepherine Drouhin) does very very well on North facing walls so fingers crossed. It has lovely red flowers and is thornless.

Another rose in the front, this is a golden wedding floribunda.

Victoria Plum tree.

Kept my rosemary planted in a pot for now.

2 little box trees in my home painted pots.

Considering my profile photo, I thought that this Green Man would be lucky, watching over the garden.

Stuff

Hello all,

Sorry, all been a bit quiet from me in blog land this week. Had some house guests (and more on their way). I'm being taken out to dinner by them this evening as a thank you for staying, which is a rare treat for me, and I intend to enjoy it thoroughly.
I have one or two projects on the go which will be blogged about on completion later on this week (unless of course they turn out disastrous, in which case, I will just pretend they never happened and never mention them again).
I have been gardening off and on, weather allowing and the results of that will also be blogged about later this week, Victoria plum tree in, some roses (always wanted climbing roses on my house).
Also later this week I will post a photo of a tree I have in my garden, which I can't identify. If anyone can I would be very grateful.

So lots of promises of things to come but not a lot of action today.

Enjoy your weekend one and all.

Gardening opinions wanted.

I have been working in the garden any spare chance I get while the sun has been shining. It has been lovely!
Here are the photos of what I have been doing.

First tender rhubarb stem appearing.

My bramley apple tree.

2 gooseberry bushes, a nice big healthy plant in the front and a smaller one behind.

2 Blackcurrant bushes.

Now although I am a theoretical gardener, that is, someone who has read a ton of books on the subject, but has not necessarily had tons of practical experience, I am looking for opinions from those of you who are much more knowledgeable

.

As some of you may have noticed, from the photos of my house, there is a section of my garden that is quite sloped (ok, very sloped) If you look at the photos of this post you can see the slope in some of them.

So I want your opinions on how best to use this slope to my advantage and I will tell you what I have been planning. Bearing in mind that I can't afford to do anything that costs much - I am sure there is plenty of great things I could have done if I paid money to put terraces in etc, but I have to do all the work myself on the cheap for now. So far I have planted my 2 gooseberry and 2 blackcurrant bushes on the slope and I was thinking perhaps that it could be a good idea to use the slope for fruit bushes in general, that way, there is initial planting and then they can be left alone more than other things could. I have 2 redcurrant bushes waiting to go in and I would like to add raspberries  to the mix. What would you do with it? Do you think my idea is a decent one and could work? I don't want to cause any damage to the 'structure' of the natural slope and cause the earth to slide or anything like that. All advice and opinions are welcome.

My story, final part.

Hello again everyone and as usual, thank you all for your comments.
First off, for those who asked, here is a link to a brief sound clip of me singing something 'light'. A quick duet encore from Guys and Dolls (not my usual repertoire) with my best friend singing with me (my onstage wife). I only start singing about 2 minutes into the clip. Hope you enjoy, sorry about the cheezy pictures.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFfYD04DYI8


OK, here is the third and final part.

I learnt so much in those two years of saving. I found out how much money was saved by turning everything off at the plug when not in use. I learnt to not heat the house ridiculously and get used to living in a cooler environment. To have throws on the sofa to wrap up in on a cold day, to turn the heat off in the rooms it didn’t matter about and just to heat the rooms I used. I learnt to switch the tap off while I was brushing my teeth and a million other small things. All sounds so simple now, but it was a learning curve at the time.

Finally I did it, saved the £10 grand the month that the flat went on the market and around the time that I started this blog. So now I had £47,000 when it would sell.

I gave myself a budget limit for buying my new house and kept as much to it as was possible. Yes, I could have afforded more, but why should I? I want to be mortgage free, I don't want to owe anything to anybody and I want to live my life peacefully with security. I don't need a massive house filled with the latest gadgets. I need somewhere to sleep, somewhere to have friends round, somewhere with room too cook and a garden to grow.

So my final bit of advice to anyone who wants to downsize in their life and spending, to live a better life and to get closer to nature is to just do it! Don’t get sucked into commercialism, learn to laugh at how ludicrous advertisements are, once you get into the habit of looking how they work, you realise what nonsense it all is. Don’t get sucked into random supermarket shopping, don’t be embarrassed to buy nothing but value ranges if necessary or yellow label food, learn how supermarkets work, they just want to part you with your money, they don't need to be the cheapest, they just need us to believe they are the cheapest, which means that we have to do the hard work of knowing where to go for what. Don’t be embarssed to say to friends, NO, I don’t want to go out for dinner because I can’t afford it, but hey, why don’t you come over to mine for dinner instead? Try living on the bare minimum for a month and then once you have done it, cut the budget down again to push yourself even further. Stop buying alcohol, it is a real money drain, so just have it on special occasions, or better still, try making your own, forage for some of the free items you can use for nettle beer or blackberry wine. Get rid of credit cards and make clearing debt a priority. My life is so much richer for what I have done and I will never tire of it now.

The only thing that has changed now and has more room for change in the future is my attitude towards work. I no longer want to spend months away from home (letting my poor veggies die in the process) and I am putting a lot of thought into what happens next for me. I want to have a dog, a cat and maybe a couple of chickens. I have had a good 15 years in this profession and have enjoyed a lot of the experiences I have had, but I can see a change coming. Maybe it will take a year, maybe it will take 5 or 10 but I am looking ahead and seeing what possibilities are there. Believe it or not I am already getting long in the tooth, at nearly 40, for the profession I am in – the roles of the 'father' are increasing and the role of the 'lover' diminishing. Like so many other ways in life, sadly the way we look is becoming more important than the way a singer sounds and youth rules. Sad to say, it is generally worse for women, as I know plenty of wonderful sopranos whose careers are coming to a close in their mid 40’s because people want to see someone young on stage (or at least companies believe that this is what people want to see). Commercialism and celebrity culture is infiltrating everywhere and even long established art forms are suffering for it. I am not sure how long I want to be a part of it, but time will tell. I feel that I have made the first leap and I have completely different priorities now than I had 10 years ago.

So what does the future hold for me in my little cottage? Who knows, no point in second guessing it. I have to go to London for 2 months, mid-April and to be honest I have mixed feeling about that. I am so settled here that I don't want to go really, but I know that once I start working I will enjoy myself. I will be staying with very kind friends to keep the cost of living there down, but with the best will in the World, the travel at least will be an unavoidable expense. I have organised friends and family to come and water my plants while I am away, as necessary, although Lancashire weather may just mean that won't be needed. On the other hand my utility usage will go down to nil while I am away. I am able to teach both singing and piano and music theory, so when my present contract is over (October) I am looking into the possibilities of maybe doing some teaching to make some extra cash. I will certainly be taking a local job if I can get one for the 'inbetween contracts' time, I'll turn my hand to anything. 
One thing I do know now, is that I have found the place where I am meant to be and am enjoying the way my life is going, then there is no stopping me. I have loads and loads more to learn. This will be my first year of 'proper' gardening, and I am sure I will make mistakes. I still waste money sometimes and often am annoyed when I think, well that could have paid some money off my mortgage. But the secret is to never beat yourself up over mistakes. Just learn from them and then carry on learning in the process.


Incidentally, I went out to a friends house last night and we had humous and bread and then chicken and chips. There were 2 good sized pieces of chicken left and half a tub of now out of date humous (only by a day) and my friend was chucking them out - so guess who came back with a little tin foil package. Lunch is sorted!


Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it.