Steamer savings

On Saturday, I piled all our ingredients for our evening meal into these pots and pans so that I could cook everything on the heat of just one gas ring!

Broccoli florets in the top steamer.

Carrots and potatoes closest to the heat in the lower steamer.

And a joint of boiling bacon in the pan at the bottom, cooking away at a simmer.

I mentioned to the FH that if only I had had another steamer pan, I could have put a rolypoly pudding on the top - he urged me to go and get another one so that he wouldn't miss out next time!!

I admit that we do like these joints and sometimes we have them with roast potatoes, but that involves the oven, and I am trying to cut back our electricity usage so this kind of cooking arrangement goes a long way towards that goal.

And the pans - the big one at the bottom is a very good quality one from John Lewis which I have had for 11 years - the only thing is that it used to be black and the coating wore off the outside! The top steamer is stainless steel and comes from the same purchase as the pan, but the middle steamer is about the same age as me, if not older, as it was my mum's, and is still going strong. I use a steamer almost every day, so they are worth while having.

Copper marans girls

Here are a few of the new girls. They are about 13 weeks old, quite skinny and very timid, but they are getting used to fresh air now!

Here is their front door - normally we would just open the pophole but they are nervous about using it at the moment, so we are opening the whole section whilst the weather is good, and they can get used to coming and going.

Their legs look lanky!! They are lovely birds and I am very pleased with them.

Power up!

I was a trifle disappointed today with the whole electricity saga - there I was, expecting a good six hours of technology-free time!

The power went off at about 8.45am, just as the YFG was leaving for her day out, but later on, about an hour and a half later on, when the EFG, FH and I were enjoying a cup of tea, made with water from the flask I prepared earlier, there was a loud beep and we heard the answerphone come on, signalling clearly that power was restored.

I was dubious that that was that, and thought that since the power company had warned us it would be off for 6 hours, it might just be a temporary reconnection. But it wasn't. Power cut over.

I did enjoy the absolute silence for a while this morning - the kitchen was so quiet - no fridges humming away in the background, no kettle boiling, no toaster popping etc. And in the garden, one neighbour got his petrol mower out and did the lawn pretty early, which resulted in a lovely fresh-mown grass fragrance.

The overabundance of fruit flies in this area has been on the news tonight, and, boy, do we know what they mean!! There are millions of them, repopulating areas as fast as they are dying from the flyspray - and now my utility room looks like a fly graveyard and is going to need some heavy duty cleaning to get rid of all the tiny bodies. I want some of those hanging flypapers but I am not sure where to get any from, so I have asked UJ to check out a very traditional ironmonger's shop near where he lives as I think that if they are available, they will have them!

The FH and I spent some time in the garden this morning, before it got too hot. We were filling tubs with soil and then planting potatoes - I think we have 9 tubs of them now. We also filled some of the tomato troughs up with fresh soil, although there are more to do which need weeding before we can top them up. We still didn't get any seeds planted today - there's always tomorrow!

I'm off!

Just got to boil the kettle to fill the flask, and then we are set for our day without electricity. I have managed to get 4 loads of washing done, so that can hang outside in the lovely sunshine to dry, and I am hoping to get some gardening done.

Back later, when the power's on again - cheerio!

Planned power cut

There is going to be an electricity cut tomorrow in parts of the village between 8.30am and 4.30pm. I'm quite looking forward to it!!

No phone, no computer, no tv, no washing machine, no iron! So it also means no kettle, but we can fill a flask before the power goes off, we are going to boost the freezers to the max setting tonight and then leave them unopened tomorrow, and we have a gas hob so we can still cook if we want to.

The YFG is going out with some friends to the coast tomorrow, so it won't really affect her, and I anticipate a day in the garden, and some studying. I'm not planning on going anywhere, and the peace will be novel.

The incubator has been taken to a friend's house tonight, and will be retrieved when the power is back on later tomorrow.

Gymnastics competition

Yesterday's gymnastics competition went well, on the whole. We took a rather different complement of gymnasts from the year before and the results reflect that. Some of the older girls who competed in this one last year have moved up a level and will be competing at a comp in June. That meant that the girls and boy in the comp yesterday were younger on average, and less experienced. A couple of our gymnasts weren't able to attend because of the late notice of the date, and that also had a minor impact on the results.

However, the gymnasts brought home 7 Gold medals, 9 Silver and 2 Bronze, so we are still very proud of them. A number of them also managed some very creditable 4th/5th/6th positions in large fields, so they are also winners!

The gym is on holiday now until the first Tuesday in May, so we have a couple of weeks to think about some new lesson plans and ideas for what we want to achieve with the gymnasts next term.

I have spent today mooching around and doing very little as I feel so tired after yesterday - like I am just getting over the flu, that kind of tiredness - and I wasn't up early this morning. The EFG has made some Whoopie Pies this afternoon, and we babysat some friends this afternoon whilst their mum was busy for an hour. They brought "The Sword in the Stone" DVD along, which stimulated some interested discussions between us about the many variations on the Arthurian legend - including the "Merlin" tv programme which is currently being repeated on CBBC in advance of the new season starting soon. I have a book called "The Road to Avalon" by Joan Wolf, I think, which I love, whether it is an accurate reflection on the legend or not. I even gave the EFG a middle name from the book!

Winners ahoy!

The winner of the Allotment Notebook, picked at random from lots of little folded pieces of paper by the YFG this morning is..........drum roll, please.....................Silversewer!

Thank you to everyone else who was kind enough to comment.

Silversewer, please send me your address as a comment, which I won't publish. And Albedo, for the Home Farmer magazine, please could I have your address as well please so I can get them both in the post this week.