Another Short Week - W/E 3/6/23

Another short week this week, on account of the Bank Holiday. The schools are on half term too, so it's pretty quiet here in London, as a lot of people go out of town. It makes the roads much less congested, so I'm not complaining. Not that I really went anywhere in the car this week.

Tuesday got off to a late start. I did my little exercise routine in the morning and then took the dog out. I bumped into another dog walker and we had a good chat as we walked along which was nice.

By the time I got home it was time for lunch. I then sorted some laundry and hung out some more before retiring to the sewing room to read. I'm currently really enjoying Kate Humble's A Year of Living Simply. It's a really good read. She talks to people who are living interesting lifestyles or are involved in some really interesting projects in various parts of the country/world. I had a bit of a nap, whilst I was up there too, got to admit.

Later, I made us a chicken casserole for supper. I don't often make these, so it made a nice change. Whilst I was waiting for it to cook, I did some mending of some of my underwear. It's been sat in a basket for months and months, so it felt satisfying to get the items repaired and back into circulation. One less job to do.

I spent the evening making more patchwork pieces for LB's quilt, whilst catching up on YouTube videos.

On Wednesday, OH took the dog out to the allotment in the morning, so I got a lie in. I didn't feel like going to Soca Aerobics this week, so I arranged to meet him there, but I got distracted doing some sewing. 

I found a pair of cargo pants in the wardrobe that needed a few inches cutting off the length and re-hemming and whilst I had the sewing machine out, I decided to make another table runner that I'd already cut to size.  I also repaired some more underwear, as I'd gone through my drawer to look for anything that needed repairing. Everything is now up to scratch, until more start to develop holes. Holes are usually just between the fabric and the elastic at the top, so are easily mended.

When I'd finished and had breakfast, I went to the allotment, but OH had already moved on to walk the dog. I stayed and did a bit of weeding and took some pictures to post on here, then I met him back at home.

Once home, I decided to make some jam. We had 8 bags of brambles in the freezer left over from last summer. I'd taken some out the night before to defrost, so got to work.  I used a slightly different recipe this time, as I had 3kg of fructose to use up. OH had bought it for some reason, but found it way too sweet. It is apparently 3 x the sweetness of regular sugar, so you need to use a third as much as you would regular sugar.

When I normally make jam, I use half sugar to fruit ratio, so this time I used one sixth fructose to fruit which seemed crazy, but it still turned out very sweet. Whilst it was on the hob, I baked some cookies in the oven from a Lidl triple chocolate cookie mix. The last time I used one of these, I burnt them slightly, so was determined not to do the same again.  They came out okay. I probably should have made them smaller though.

Once I'd taken them out of the oven, I put my jam jars in to sterilise for 10 minutes. The 750g of fruit and 125g of fructose made one 350g jar of blackberry jam. 

It didn't take long either. Not as long as it usually takes to make jam, which was good, as it saved on gas. I've got another 4 packs, possibly 800g of brambles in the freezer to make another jar at some point and then that will clear the freezer of most of last year's crops, save for just one bag of tomatoes to use up in soup.

After lunch, I decided to tackle the remainder of the ironing basket. It didn't take too long. It feels good to finally be on top of it. I also got some fabrics together ready to start a new patchwork project. I'm using a curtain as one of the fabrics, so I had to unpick parts of it ready to use.

On Thursday morning, I didn't go to my volunteering. I'm taking a break from it and I'm not sure if I'm going to return to it for the time being. In the morning OH and I went to B&Q instead, to get the pavers for the end of the garden. I also got a couple of hostas to plant into the gaps once they've been laid. There was a 20% off all outdoor plants offer on, which saved us some money. On the way home, OH dropped myself and the dog off and we walked the rest of the way home over some large open green spaces.

After lunch, I didn't do a great deal, but I did start the new patchwork quilt project. I made enough pieces for a couple of the blocks that it will be made up of. It's exciting starting something new, I hope I'm going to like it as it takes shape.

On Friday, I took the dog out in the morning and then when I got back, OH suggested going out for lunch. We got on our bikes and rode over to a place called Hackney Bridge on the canal side. It is like a collection of different food outlets all selling different international foods. There are plenty of outside tables and as it was lovely and sunny, we enjoyed sitting out and eating a bowl of mexican pinto beans, rice, chicken, guacamole and salsa. It was really tasty. This venue holds a flea market on Sundays, which I'm yet to get to, but it will be interesting to check it out sometime.

When we got back, I did some more laundry and then did my usual thing of retiring to the sewing room and doing more work on the new quilt, sewing the first block together. It looks okay so far. I also finished reading Kate Humble's book. It is due back at the library next week. I've got one more borrowed book to read, but I may have to extend it as I don't think I'll finish it in a week.

On Friday night, we found a new series to watch called Maryland on ITVX. It's free to watch, but just has to be streamed from a phone, which I don't know how to do. I need to learn, as there seems to be quite a bit of programmes to watch on there at the moment. 

On Saturday morning, OH was taking the dog out, so I got up and cycled to a free session at the gym. It was the New Age Games over 50's session. I don't often go to it, but money is tight this month, so anything I can save helps a little. I was a bit early for the session, which is held in a small gym, so I went into the big gym to use the rowing machine for 20 minutes. The small gym session gets so busy, it's hard to spend much time on each machine, as there are so many people wanting to use them. I actually quite enjoyed the session and went on lots of different toning type machines, that I don't normally try to use. It made it more varied than pounding on the same machines all the time and the hour went really quickly. 

Since hitting menopause, I've found that my body can't take high impact aerobic exercise as much anymore. It just makes me want to eat more, so I need to move into doing more pilates, yoga, lower impact body conditioning and weights. It's hard to get used to a different pace, as I always loved fast and highly choreographed classes, but I just don't think they benefit me as much now. I still miss them though.

On Saturday afternoon, OH laid the pavers we'd bought earlier in the week and he hung some solar lights and the hammock. The back of the garden looks much better now.  The hammock and the lights just bring it to life. Here's a picture:

All that is left to do is to plant along the back fence. I was really happy with the results and will post another photo once this has been done.

LB called us this evening. She's bringing 10 Uni friends to stay at the house for the weekend, when we go away to a wedding in a few weeks time. We're hoping the house and garden don't get wrecked. The next couple of weeks will be busy, cleaning and readying the house for the onslaught.

Hope you've had a good week.