The latest calamity

The minister has four chapels to directly oversee and is the superintendent over about 12 chapels in this circuit, and we have him on the plan to take the Harvest service on Sunday afternoon.  It's a special service and people are coming from other villages as well.  There's a kid's Harvest competition for him to judge too.  I had a meeting with his wife yesterday as she is now my tutor for the Faith & Worship course since the last one retired, and she let us know that unfortunately, he was admitted to hospital on Monday night with a pulmonary embolism, and he won't be here on Sunday. of course.

The acting Super rang me yesterday afternoon and let me know that although he had tried, he couldn't find anyone else available to take our service, so he thought I might do it, so I told him that I would love to except that I would be travelling home from Aberystwyth; he then said that the chapel would have to do it as a Local Arrangement, to which I replied that actually, I do those too....I wondered about asking Rev Bob if it was too far to come [ ;) ]....I sighed and phoned a friend!

The outcome is that we have decided that our husbands will stage-manage the service, or direct operations, if you will.  We have children who will read prayers, we have a band to play the music and some volunteers to do the readings.  There won't be a sermon, but there can be a short "message" about the harvest meaning.  It will be fine, I keep telling myself, as God will be there and that is what matters.

Today has been quieter really, and I have had the chance to do some washing, hoovering and tidying.  The bags are not yet packed for Aberystwyth, but the clothes are washed ready at least!  The route is planned and the offer of a satnav has been taken up so we shall have TomTom directing us when we feel the need.  UJ has returned from a blustery week on the North Norfolk coast, and we are glad to have him close to home again.  The caravan there has been sold and we believe it will be removed from the site next month so that era is well and truly over now.  We shall have to look for other affordable holiday venues for next summer as I want to have a holiday together somewhere next year: the EFG will be off to uni next September so I feel like next summer is our last certain opportunity to do things like that, as who knows what she will find to do in the future?!

I was going to add that not a penny has been spent today, but that wouldn't have been true as the FH has been to his lunch club.  He is getting concerned about the sustainability of the group as the attendance has dropped significantly lately and the costs are not being covered.  It would be a shame to see it close but the charges can hardly be raised any further as they are already charging £4.50 for a main course and a pudding, which whilst not extortionate, is still plenty.

Sleep

Not getting nearly enough of it, so off to bed!  Hope you will excuse me tonight :)

My day off

Monday has lately been what I call my day off.  I quite often have nowhere that I need to be on a Monday, except at home, and that suits me fine.  There's no gymnastics to rush off to, no church meetings [well, once a quarter, perhaps], not often need to go to school for anything, and I can potter about at my own speed, especially if I have had a busy weekend with gym and church.  It is not quite a day of rest, but it is a day to plod!

Today I have plodded around a little, done some housework, put laundry away, went to town briefly with the FH along for the ride, cooked a nice dinner with meat from the freezer, and spent the afternoon and early evening working on my Faith & Worship course, ready for a meeting tomorrow.  I had a long bath tonight, and read a book in there - so I missed half of Doc Martin...whoops!

Sometimes a day like today is very necessary to recharge the batteries.  I have also made some plans for the route to Aberystwyth.  I had a look at the supermarkets on the route once we hit Wales, for the possible facilities we may need to use once we run out of service stations on the motorways and hit the A roads.  I think we should all move to Aberystwyth, as there is a Morrison's there - and nary a Tesco for 40 miles!  I am just beginning to work up a little enthusiasm for this trip - just a smidgen, you know.  I've got until Friday.

Our Sunday in pictures

This morning, we waved the girls off with my cousin and her husband as they went out for the day:

(image from mkweb.co.uk)

Places like that are my idea of hell on earth, so I was very glad not to be going!

We went to chapel, a bit like this:

(image from telegraph.co.uk)

And when we came home, there was a phone call from UJ.  He has been at the caravan on the North Norfolk coast since Wednesday and I was very glad to hear that he hadn't been blown or washed away in the terrible weather!

Then it was time for one of these:

(Image from justrec.com)

And I actually had a sandwich as I tried out some "freefrom" white bread from Sainsbury's.  It's not the best in the world, but it is a meal and will be useful on the Aberystwyth trip next weekend.

We lit the fire this afternoon as it was chilly:

(image from classic.co.uk)

And we spent the whole afternoon sitting and chatting by the fire.  Without the tv.

The girls got home around 4.45pm and we had a cuppa with my cousin and her husband, whilst they showed us some photos of their recent wedding on the internet:

(image from eofdreams.com)

We were invited, but we didn't go to their wedding - we went to the first two...long story!

They left, and I popped some baked potatoes into the mini oven for our tea, and we caught up with the girls.

Tonight, we have watched some tv:

(image from bbc.co.uk)

(image from en.wikipedia.org)

I have done all the ironing and then I sat down with my knitting to watch Downton Abbey:

(image from telegraph.co.uk)

But I am finding Downton all a bit traumatic this series, aren't you?

I'm off to bed with a book now.........Hope you have had a good weekend.

Winter warmings

A friend posted a link to this on Facebook, so I nipped over and had a look.  I'm not sure I believe it at all, since these papers do like to sensationalise stuff - it's all in the name of selling the paper, I suppose.  It is definitely colder here this weekend, and all the rain doesn't help at all; the woodburner is alight tonight, and the FH and EFG are watching tv and toasting their toes.  The YFG and I are in the office, and we are both well wrapped up in jumpers, with our socks and slippers on.  We're not cold, but we aren't quite as warm as they are!

Our winter preparations are well underway, and we feel reasonably secure in the knowledge that we won't starve or freeze if we can't get out for a couple of days.  We have two loads of firewood as well as the pallet wood that the FH has been collecting, we have a tank which is half full of oil, and two bottles of gas for the hob.  We can get through power cuts and still keep warm.  The food stores are full [although I do think we need a couple more cartons of UHT milk, must make a note!] and we will be fine, whenever the snow comes.

I don't doubt that the snow WILL come, it is just a question of when.  I really hope that it doesn't hit this weekend [I'm fairly sure it won't] as the EFG and I are off to Aberystwyth on Friday for the Open Day there on Saturday.  This week I will be making preparations for that trip, and sorting out stuff to leave here for the FH and YFG - UJ is coming to be with them for the weekend, as the responsibility of looking after the FH is too much for a 14 year old and I would rather that UJ was here with them in case anything goes wrong whilst we are away.  We will be away for two nights, so I am slightly concerned about my food [wheat and dairy restrictions] for that length of time as we usually self-cater, but you can't self-cater for two nights very easily as there just isn't anything available.  We have booked a hotel for two nights, so I am going to ring them on Monday and see what they can do to help me!

The girls are going out with my cousin tomorrow so I am looking forward to some rest and relaxation once I get the church service done in a nearby village - I will be home by 12, and then my feet will be going up!

Vintage portion control

Knowing that UJ is storing the accumulation of at least three houses from when several households came together in the 90s, I asked him the other day if he had any spare plates in the stash.  He is a man with a serious stash of household goods, I kid you not!

So on Wednesday, he brought me four of the above, and I instantly recognised them as "the rosy plates" on which we would eat our dinner when I was a child, and indeed, until I left home.  There was a set of four of them, which I now have in my possession.  They seem to be made of some kind of coated pottery or even perhaps a kind of pyrex.  They are over 40 years old and there is not a chip or a crack to be found in the set.

Now just look at the difference in size between what were our dinner plates, the rosy plates, and what is the common size of a dinner plate nowadays!  The bottom plate here is an example, but I have plates of that size from several different sets, and they are all big!

Portion control is important for several reasons - for health, for wealth, and for the reduction of waste!  It helps people who have eyes bigger than their bellies, for instance, to see a full plate, and think that they have plenty.  Tonight the folks have had meatballs with tomato/onion gravy sauce and spaghetti.  The FH thought he could do with more sauce but I pointed out that his plate was brimming already, and I wanted the sauce as a planned-over!  I had some spaghetti left, so I stirred the sauce into it, popped it into a freezer container and there is a quick meal for someone in a hurry, all ready to ding and eat.

A small shop

A relative recently commented that I probably had enough food in store to stock a small shop!

He was right - and this is probably the time of year at which the stores peak, because of all the harvesting and preserving we have been doing.

The pickles and chutneys, jams and jellies are on all the shelves.  The only thing left to make is the sweet chilli jam, and that won't be long.

The beetroot chutney is perhaps the prettiest to look at, but actually no one sees much of it, because the jar empties within days of coming into the pantry from the stores!

Having food readily available at home means that I can rustle up a meal like this - beans, home made baguette and a tinned salmon quiche - from scratch at a very reasonable cost.

And keeping food in the freezers means that we  never scratch our heads, wonder what to have to eat and order takeaway - I may sound strange but I have never ordered takeaway in my life.  The contents of the freezers vary with the seasons - this photo seems to show a time when we had plenty of meat in stock but right now, the freezers are packed to the gunnells with frozen fruit - pears, apples and plums - that we have been given.  

It also means that weeks like this week, when the purse is stretched to the limit, I can make do with a very small grocery shop and we can eat from the freezer and cupboard.  A very worthwhile investment in time and money, in our opinions.  

Why is the purse stretched this week, you may well ask? The bill has come in for the Skoda service and new tyres at £449, and I have been to the dentist this afternoon and parted with £128.   I hadn't budgeted for needing all four tyres replaced, for the car, and nor for needing a bite guard as well as a filling at the dentist, so both bills were a little larger than anticipated.  On both counts, though, better to spend now than leave the issues to get worse!