Day To Day Doings

A friend of mine who reads my witterings from time to time remarked recently that she thought that my life always sounded so interesting. I guffawed and reminded her that this is Blog la-la land and I'm only showing the world edited photos and edited highlights. I don't lie about what I do but much of it is low cost, if not free and against a backdrop of lots of grunt work and a very thrifty lifestyle.

Originally I intended this to be a wholly thrift focused blog [I'm not keen on the word frugal...it has too many connotations of hairshirt and deprivation for my liking] but my skewed take on the world won't allow it to be neatly boxed into a single category. Instead you have this slightly idiosyncratic, offbeat offering. There's no great masterplan to the content of the blog....just whatever flits into my head and takes my fancy really!

Just to balance out the excitement of the trip to the White Horse this is what else I've been up to this week beyond the daily paid housesparkling I do for clients. A couple of friends have very kindly been passing over their excess courgettes, potatoes and runner beans. I do my best to waste as little as possible particularly when somebody has gone to all that effort of growing the crops in the first place. This week has seen me make two batches of Sri Lankan runner bean curry [recipe here http://gnatbottomedtowers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/curry-night.html] and a batch of courgette and chilli soup [inspired by Scarlet over at the Beyond the Nook]. I've also stewed a bag of windfall apples for crumble and have been freezing our raspberries which will be turned into jam shortly. We went out and picked blackberries a fortnight ago and they are now bubbling away in a demi john for Mr GBT's latest batch of Hobbity Booze.

Money from a recent inheritance has allowed us to be a little more extravagant here at GBT. We've practised make do and mend for years and have maintained rather than replaced things. This is what has been funding the garden makeover which Mr GBT has worked so hard on over the last few months. I varnished our new garden furniture yesterday so that is should withstand being left outside during inclement weather. It has a distressed paint finish which I don't entirely trust not to rust!

However, despite our spending it has all been planned and carefully considered. I always was a dyed in the wool thrifty soul and that won't change. I think my latest freebie will attest to this fact.....this arrives later this month. New and at no cost. The thought of a firepit has appealed to me for quite some time but I could never justify buying one. It's definitely a want not a need and yes I'm hopping from one foot to the other in sheer excitement. Points amassed from a shopping scheme I belong to have "paid" for it. Should I be worried that my teenogre has informed me that it's cool? Does this mean I shall have to share it with him and his mates I wonder? I have already had to explain to him that it will definitely not be suitable for toasting marshmallows over [eww sticky] but toast will be fine. Let's hope for some dry evening over the next few months then. Here's the beast of which I speak. The stars and moons are cut outs so should look fab when backlit by the flames.

Arilx