Wild and windy

The weather here this morning is rather wild; the wind is blowing hard and I am a little concerned about the chook shed - once I open the door to let them out, the wind will be blowing directly into it, as it is coming from the west-ish, and might take the roof off....but I can't let them out and then shut the door as they will want to be in and out to get some shelter, lay their eggs, and get out of the rain, if it rains........what a pain this weather has become.

But I should be counting my blessings here, instead of moaning!  We live in one of the most well-drained areas of the country, where flooding is rare to any great extent, and contained where it does usually happen.  We do expect certain places to flood each winter in this area, but they are "washes" which are areas of land where the floodwater is allowed to go, and it is contained within the washes by banks.  A few roads are affected, but the diversion signs go up very quickly and locals know whether the route is likely to be flooded based on the recent rainfall

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(photo from en.wikipedia.org)

There are areas of land where the Fen skaters used to practice each winter - the land would flood and then freeze solid in the winter, and people would go out and skate - some of the greatest Fenland speed skaters came from areas I know.  The FH went with an old friend to a cemetery on the Cambs/Norfolk border only last month, and there was a grave there of a speed skater called "Turkey" Smart, and he had skates on his grave!  The friend had a family connection to the area and wanted to revisit old haunts, so they went on a day out and spent some time in the area.

Drying dilemma

(image from Argos.co.uk)

I posted some weeks ago about my frustrations with the damp November weather meaning that my washing wasn't getting dry in the verandah, because that largely relies upon sunshine to heat the area and heat the washing up!  Inside I have only two airers which the FH made, which take a load between them.

So I went to Argos and spent a little money - £26 odd.  A little, compared to the lot I had slightly considered spending at Lakeland on a heated airer!!  I bought two of these airers, pictured above.

They will hold about a load each, depending on what I have washed.  If it is a load of towels, or trousers, they have to share the load.  One is near a radiator in the lounge, and the other is on the landing, again near a radiator, but also at the top of the stairs, taking advantage of any rising heat from downstairs.  Now that the weather is definitely colder, we are using the central heating for about an hour in the mornings whilst we get up and moving!

And are they helping?  You bet!  In conjunction with the original airers, and an over the radiator type of rail which is actually over a door where I can hang items on coathangers, we have the washing dilemma sorted out here.  Most things are dry within two days, and the washing heap isn't getting too big these days.  

Bearing in mind that I am drying all this stuff indoors now, I am aware of the need to prevent condensation, and I have several windows open a crack on the first notch to allow air to circulate.  When the weather is fine and dry outside, windows are thrown open for at least 15 minutes a day to get some fresh air.

Christmas craft

(image from lakeland.co.uk)

This photo doesn't do the "Merry Christmas" bunting I have seen in the Lakeland catalogue justice at all.  It is quite a bit nicer than it appears in this photo, and something I think I could make a version of!  

The original in the shop is £12.99, which for 14 triangular pieces of material and some letters attached to some stringy stuff seems rather expensive.  I'm not buying it, don't worry.

I think that I may have enough Christmassy material [or at least red, green and white material] stashed away somewhere that I could make it.  If I make judicious use of pinking shears to reduce fraying, and quite liberal use of glue, I may even be able to get away without much sewing......I am not that great at sewing.

This weekend may well find me digging out the fabric and having a look to see what else I might need.  We are lucky to have had a Boyes shop open up relatively recently in one of the nearby towns, and they have a fairly cheap haberdashery section, so I could get a few bits in there if need be.

Can any of you expert seamstresses out there offer me any advice or top tips?

Linking for Lesley

For Lesley and anyone else interested in the hobnob type biscuit recipe - the original is here on the MSE forums.

I double the amounts and it makes a good batch.  They freeze very well if you want to bake a big batch and save some for later.  If you don't freeze them, be sure to hide some or they will all be gone in a flash!

Update on the day

The mince pies have turned out well, as this recipe always does, but it was late in the afternoon before I had time to make them!  I had forgotten this morning that I had to go and help to clean the chapel, so I had to go and do that first - I got home at 3pm, and had to rest for an hour as I was so tired from all that cleaning as it does involve a lot of humping furniture around to clean around it - chairs and stuff.  The lady with whom I was doing it and I were shocked and saddened to find woodworm in the altar table today, so we treated it with some goo in a bottle, and will have to keep an eye on it.

Five dozen pies have been made, as well as some hobnob biscuits, and I have two Christmas puddings in the slow cooker where I am going to leave them overnight.  It is this wartime recipe from Rationing Revisited, and it smells lovely.  I didn't have any marmalade, so I used honey.

My Approved Food order arrived nice and early this morning, so I was able to use some of the Mincemeat with Dark Chocolate in some of the pies so that the FH could do a taste test.  He had to eat a few to make up his mind, you understand, but he quite liked the new mincemeat.  It is by Duerr's, but I haven't seen it in the supermarkets, so it is a good job I ordered four jars....

The wind is howling round the house tonight and the rain is really lashing down out there - I have been thinking about all the people affected by floods and by damage done by the winds today.  I hope everyone keeps safe and dry tonight, and I wish our American readers and friends a very happy Thanksgiving.

Baking day today

Tomorrow is the annual Christmas Coffee Morning at the chapel, and several dozen mince pies have been requested....some will be eaten as refreshments and some will be packaged for sale.  That will be today's job, then.  I also need to dig out a few books and cards to have on a stall, in the hope that someone might want a few little presents, and I probably need to make some  kinds of cake for the refreshments too.  I am the refreshments lady at Coffee mornings, although one of the other ladies usually makes a chocolate log concoction which people rave over, so hopefully she may have time to make one of those this week.

The amazing mince pie recipe is here because I shared it last year.  I will try to add in some photos later when I have made the pies. 

I have been reading recipe books lately and had an idea for a modification of the recipe, which is to grate some orange rind into the pastry.  It sounds like it might add another dimension to the taste.  Alas, I can't try it today as I have no oranges, but perhaps I will try it in a later batch - there will have to be more, for the Songs of Praise afternoon, and for the family here.   

I still haven't spent any thing on groceries, but today might be the day!  I also know that there will be money to pay for the YFG's piano lesson, and for the new Grade 2 pieces book that the teacher gave her last week.  Once I drop her off at the lesson, I have to go to the shops for a few bits like fruit and some chilled items. I am confident that I will spend less than £20 which is the challenge for the week.  I will report back later!

Spending update

Since I posted on Monday about the Grocery challenge I am doing this week, I haven't spent anything on food yet.  In fact the only spending at all has been £1.05 on some photocopying for the church!

Tonight's slow cooker meal is going to be some of the rabbit I bought in Holt whilst we were on holiday last month.  I have popped it into the slow cooker with a tin of chopped tomatoes and some garlic, and it will cook slowly until about 8pm tonight.  The aroma is already appetising!  I know that the girls probably won't want rabbit, so I have got some meatballs out of the freezer for them.  I still have enough vegetables between fresh ones and frozen to last another couple of days at least, so we are good to continue with the challenge.

Slightly disappointed with my Approved Foods delivery which was ordered last week and scheduled for delivery today - I had to get in touch because there was no delivery slot on the DPD website, and apparently the package is so damaged that DPD have decided not to deliver it to me but to send it back.  AF are sending another one out today, but sans the Matthew Walker Christmas Puddings that we were looking forward to - I was going to use a couple of them for Christmas hampers for gifts and a raffle prize for the chapel on Friday.  Never mind - I shall have to change my plans a little.  I could always make a couple as I think I have everything I would need, apart from the pudding bowls...