A Day of Domestic Trivia and Frugal Doings

If the truth of the matter be known I'm a bit of a home bird really. Much as I enjoy heading out for adventures, I am equally happy to have time at home to potter and please myself. Having enjoyed the company of two dear chums last night and maybe having indulged in the odd sweet sherry or three with them I had no specific plans for today. I toyed with the idea of doing the Park Run but I'm dancing tomorrow and besides I fancied a lie in. Most unusually for me I did not emerge from my pit until 7.30. Humphrey was not impressed!

Looking back over the day it's certainly not been wasted. The last of the ripe raspberries have been picked and are now frozen and the lurking veg has been rounded up and evicted from where it had taken up squatters rights in the fridge. One big batch of soup later has fed us for lunch today and will do so again tomorrow whilst the compost heap has been denied our leftovers. The slow cooker has been put to work with a lentil curry bubbling away in it and a list of foods that need to be finished up has been drawn up as I've started cleaning a few of the kitchen cupboards. The identified culprits will go towards forming the basis of the menu plan for next week.

A spot of housesparkling to keep the homestead looking reasonable for the next few days has been done and I've put the new to me airer which I picked up from the charity shop last week for £2.50 to use. We don't have a tumble drier [partly down to space and also the cost] nor is the heating set to high. As we're now past the time of year where it's not worth me line drying anything I've decided to set up the additional airer in the garage. I figured that there is still air flow out there and although the washing will take longer to dry than in the house, it stops the place looking like a Chinese laundry! Today is the first time for trying trialling my new cunning plan! Finally, the Christmas pudding vodka is underway - this is a new one for me to try but it sounded like fun. It is for us to enjoy over the festive period not intended to be given away as gifts. This is the link I've used http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/christmas_pudding_vodka_45343

To be honest I've probably been just as productive today as when I have a long list and plan my activities like a military operation which is my more normal approach. It's been good to step off the hamster wheel for just a few hours.

I saw this fellow in his marvellous hat last weekend- it simply tickled me to see such a marvellous blast of colour on what was frankly a dreich kind of day.

Arilx