Your day (apart from gardening) what took place ? 2024

@cactus_girl . Good to know some things still last. I used my stork book a couple of weeks ago to make some mince pies…..down to our last two now oops! Have to get the book out again soon then..

 

@On the Levels I am seriously envious of you. We're on day 25 of a postal strike in this country. I bought some fun cards and now they can't be sent.

I have a duo tang just for Christmas recipes. I make 17 different kinds of cookies (5 are gluten free) and I have all of the recipes in this folder. Some are photocopies from my various cook books and there are a couple that I really liked from online and then there are the ones that were passed down to me.

I'm working out my timing for the baking. It is wicked expensive to bake after 7 a.m. up until 7 p.m. on weekdays so I've got to get it all done evenings, early mornings or this coming weekend. Then I can assemble the trays for giving to my family and friends.

 

I shouldn't have said it was a chore. But writing cards to so many friends who are suffering like we are it has been difficult...so the word chore.

 

@On the Levels, I find writing cards a chore because going through my address book so many people no longer with us.

 

Walked to work, bit misty

 

@On the Levels yes, our address books are a reminder of those we can no longer write to however I look at Christmas cards as my way of telling people I care and just to touch base. I just lost another friend (brain tumours) and will be writing, in a Christmas card, to her husband about some of the fun things she and I did over the years and words of sympathy as well. Unfortunately our postal workers are stealing my Christmas joy. The cards of something I enjoy sending and of course, receiving.

I'm going to have a fun day because I thought of a fun project to do and I love being creative in making practical things

 

MRI scan all morning. I was looking forward to a decent lunch in our favourite bistro in Agen but we had quite possibly the worst steaks we've ever eaten in France, and that's saying something! After having to ask for steak knives, the waiter brought two huge knives that looked suspiciously like kitchen knives, but even they bounced off I'd asked for a jacket potato instead of chips but got....chips. Very disappointing.
Then off to the agri-supplies shop for chicken feed. Sold out. I'm looking forward to crawling off to bed tonight in the hopes that tomorrow turns out better

 

Chicken feed supplies can be intermittent here too @noisette47 so now I make my own - bag of mixed seeds for wild birds plus a good scoop of chia seeds and another of linseeds, a generous addition of black sunflower seeds, some crushed baked egg shells and a scoop of chilli powder to stop the meeces stealing their food. The hens love it.

My day was spent reading all morning because it was too cold to play outside and then a bit of admin and some sorting in my sewing room in the afternoon and then ballroom dance class with OH this evening. Not a bad day.

 

I went to a new plant shop that's just opened in my nearest town, and I tried not buying anything, but I was unsuccessful and came home with a cactus

 

I used to have that book and did the Christmas cake a couple of times. Delicious!

 

Or … you could look on it as “I was successful finding a new cactus”!

 

I bought four last week and another four two weeks before that ! It's becoming an obsession (well it always was an obsession really )

 

I shrunk the recipe some years ago to fit in a 7in baking tin as there was only the two of us eating it. But then with the decorations on top it wouldn't fit in my cake tin so I did the reduced mixture in an 8in tin. Now it fits. And no icing round the side. I also soak the fruit in hot water the day before and allow it to dry overnight so that it is quite plump.

 

Hoping you are alright!

 

Thank you! Apparently not. How do you feel about inheriting 50+ big pots of terrace plants and assorted citrus?