smallholderwannabe

This blog is mainly a rambling kind of diary of the transition from smallholderwannabe to smallholder.

Friday, August 23, 2019

My Preserving Year 2019



I was given a bucketful of plums so I have started on my preserving year - my record of what I made. I find this a useful memory jogger for me, especially if I forget/don't get around to labelling everything. Jars that are given away always have nice labels but stuff that is just for us may just get a piece of paper tucked in the box. And pieces of paper in this house seem to get up and walk away somehow... : ( Hence my list - it gives me a bit of a clue.

Jams

Plum
Blackberry and apple (21 lbs)

Chutneys

Red pepper and chilli jam

Drinks

Strawberry soda

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Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Anniversary

It was our wedding anniversary last Friday. We had managed to avoid all appointments/jobs/meetings etc so that we were both free for the day. We had planned to go out and have a picnic and go for a walk. But that was the day that the heavens opened and stayed open all day. The best laid plans of men, men and me : )

We decided to forget the picnic and have lunch at home and go out for a drive and end up at some hills not too far away. We were hoping that the rain might ease off for a few minutes. Well the rain did decrease from steady downpour to merely heavy rain for a bit so we got out of the car and ran from the car to the monument at the top of the hill and back again just so we could say that we had got out of the car. We did have fun and laughed at ourselves and came home again and made ourselves a nice dinner.

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Saturday, August 17, 2019

Holiday -ish

We have been away for a week. The main purpose of the time away was to go and see my mother-in-law in the nursing home but we had managed to free up enough time to have a week away. We were hoping to go and see Mum several times but have enough time to have a couple of days for us. It turned out that mil was much happier than the last time we were down there. Her dementia is much worse and that means that she is much happier in herself and not worrying about the things that were not making sense to her as she was last time.. It was a much harder visit for us but good to see that she was much happier in herself and not really in pain any more.

We went with Airbnb again and stayed in a log cabin near the National Trust place, Lydford Gorge. We were on a farm and the place was really lovely. the owners were nice too and we could have chatted for ages but farmers are busy people. They left us a breakfast hamper which was lovely of them. A loaf of nice bread, a block of local butter, a bottle of local milk, a pot of really nice yoghurt, a canister of tea (tea, not tea bags), a canister of ground coffee and a cafetiere and a tin of one of the posher instant coffees.

The only problem we had with the cabin was that the nice lady had provided feather pillows and my husband is allergic to feathers...  She uses feather pillows in her own house but managed to come up with enough polyester stuffed cushions etc to do us the night and we went to Tesco the next day and bought pillows. The duvet was filled with local Devon wool, which was the first time I had come across a woollen duvet. It was much heavier than the polyester one we use at home but was lovely.

We have stayed in a different Airbnb place each time we have been down to the southwest to see mil. They have been lovely places and we have been very well treated and loved the experiences. Next time we go down, I expect we will be Airbnbing again.

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