Getting used to it now

We've had a week and a half of this weather now, and the forecasters today have mentioned that it may be the New Year before this cold snap passes, so if we aren't used to it, we may as well get used to it soon!! I have adapted my habits with the chickens - I soon got fed up of breaking ice in the waterers each morning, so when I shut the hens up at 4pm now, I empty all the waterers and load them up into the wheelbarrow to bring them up near the house, ready to fill in the utility room each morning. The chooks are loving the hot mash, so I will continue with that, too.

It has been the end of an era here today: my beloved Vauxhall Astra estate car (1.7TD) (red) (N reg) has been replaced. We got it as a family car back in 1997, I believe; we certainly had it in January 1998, but the details get blurred so far back. We had just the one car back then, but on moving to England and the FH going to work for a year, we had to get a second car; we got a really old banger that I just couldn't get on with, so the Astra became "mine" then. It has never let me down - never broken down when I have been out and about - and been a lovely car to drive all these years. It was second hand when we bought it through the Network Q programme, and we got just £5 change from £8,000. We bought it outright, and it has served us well. I am not sure what I am going to do with it now - the windscreen wipers only work on full, the headlights come on when you indicate, the steering is getting a little shaky - so it was time to retire it. RIP Red. It is on the driveway now that the insurance has been transferred to the new Vectra, but I know that there will be a little tear in my eye when it finally leaves us. Soppy, I know!

I had a big baking session last night as the lunchbox supplies were getting low, there were no biscuits, and the natives were feeling hungry because there was nothing to snack on! So I made some iced finger buns, some cupcakes, some peanut butter biscuits and some Viennese biscuits which still need to be sandwiched together but I hope they will eat the finger buns first as they are a dough recipe and will dry out before anything else........

Speaking of dough, the charming Paul Hollywood who appeared on the Great British Bake-off, wrote a book back in 2004 called "100 Great Breads". I thought I'd like a copy so I started looking around the internet for one. Well, talk about rare as hen's teeth - there is one on eBay for sale at £55 (and it has a bid!!!!!!!), sellers on Amazon are offering them for anything from about £75, and there are a few on abebooks.com but they are ridiculously priced as well. I have put in a request at the local library for one, but there are none in the county and so it will have to be brought in from elsewhere, if there is one to be had in the country! The £5 I will have to pay if they find one will be well worth it........and there will be a lot of recipes copied out of it if it turns up, I can tell you!! Obviously high time Mr Hollywood turned his attention back to writing books.

The stock cupboard is looking a bit bare in places, but nothing too bad. We bought some eggs in the village yesterday for the baking, and some leeks which I soon turned into leek and potato soup. The FH bought some bread from the Co-op in town when he went to pick the girls up from art club at 5pm, and there isn't really any need to worry about anything else until next week sometime. Snow is very good for the bank balance in terms of grocery shopping, in my case. I have been tempted to look into an online order from a supermarket, but I don't want enough at the moment to justify the delivery charge, so I am not indulging.

The YFG is supposed to be going on a trip to Warwick Castle next week so I will have to contact the school early next week to see what they think about the likelihood of that going ahead.

I must take some snow scene photos one of these days!!