Just over a day to go on my commitment to make headway on clearing the blockage, so of course I'm spending time writing this blog.
Monday's chinese style duck with pancakes was delicious. A definite winner, and we will be making it again.
Tuesday: After visiting my Uncle and my dentist appontment, I made a mountain of bolognese. I had planned to cook lamb steaks for dinner but couldn't be bothered to cook any more, so we ate some of the bolognese. Slow cooked bolognese is better left for a day to mature, so freshly cooked it wasn't my best work - but it was OK. There was lots for the freezer.
I also decided to buy a pre lit Christmas tree. That took quite some research. We'd talked about it last year, and decided not to (I'd left it too late, and they were too expensive anyway). I'd had an email about one from one of the suppliers, which made me look, and I saw that there were quite a few on offer (with an extra 20% off ending 30th September). I'm not sure that it's the right thing really, but we can always put it up this year, and then sell it for next year if we don't like it.
Wednesday: An excellent Pilates class. I drank plenty of water, an hour beforehand, so it was much better than usual. Afterwards, I moved a couple of bits from the problem room, and then decided to turn my attention to looking for something or the living room. That took some time. And then I had arranged to see my BFF to show her Hi-de-hizero. I knew she's appreciate him, and I was right. We tried some quite expensive ready-made Passion Fruit Martini cocktails, which were OK, but wasn't quite what I had expected. So, I didn't get very far in my stated objective.
Today, Thursday, the Christmas tree arrived. I knew from the info on the website that it would be a disappointment on opening the box. They must get complaints every year because they give quite a lot of info on how the tree will not look its best when you get it, and that it needs 45 minutes of floofing to make it into the sumptuous tree we see on the website.
We got it out of the enormous box, and connected it to make sure all was working, but we didn't do any of the floofing. It's now in the storage bag (bought at the same time, also 20% off) in the summer house.
I'm not convinced tha I've made a good decision. I should have made a point of going to see a few "in the flesh" last year. I'm sure (I'm telling myself) it will look better when we've spent some time on it. Come back near Christmas and see.
The box it came in was quite large, and it has handles. I offered it free on our local FB group. DH is always surprised that I do this, and he's even more surprised when empty boxes are taken. This was no exception, and someone requested it fairly quickly.
I managed to clear some stuff from the guest bedroom/sewing room. I've had two feeble forays in there, sorting a few bits out. I made a decision to dispose of a few bits, they are even in a bagredy to go out with the recycling next week, so I'm regarding that as proper decluttering (rather than redistributing). I need to put some stuff in the loft, I'm sure that if I can clear the landing it'll feel a lot better. I'll feel a lot better. I think that there is something in Feng Shui as I do feel better when things are clear.
I was planning to ave a go at the tee shirt today, but it's very cold. Too cold to be disrobing to try things on. I'm wondering about cutting and making it, and then trying it on tonight or tomorrow morning. I might see if I can maintain momentum and do it.
It really is chilly willy. I don't want the heating on yet, and I'm not going to light the stove. I put the duvet on the bed last night (we've been happily sleeping under the duvet cover up to now), so it's definitely getting chilly.
A week ago, DH mentioned testing the heating before winter; I said not before October. (When I was younger, it was Not before November). It seems that a week is a long time in weather terms. Today I've retracted, and suggested he test it briefly today, just in case there is a problem. I'd love to light the stove today, here's something so homely about a log fire. But it will be October. Fortunately that;'s only a couple of days away, lol.
In Henopolis, the Girls are all at various stages of moulting, and are still looking a bit fed up because of it. I've disallowed access into the "fruit cage" part of their run. They haven't been using it very much, so I thought I'd give it a proper rest. It also means that, if (when) Flockdown is announced, they'll have somewhere they can visit that they haven't seen for a while.
Before Covid, we had 22 birds. 2 Boys, 20 girls. 4 Girls were stolen a couple of weeks after Lockdowan was announced. We had to evacuate all the Girls to the garden here, and we had to cull the boys (which was so very sad, our lovely gentle breeding boys). 16 girls was far too many for the garden. We had 4 coops, 3 flocks. When it became apparent that Lockdown was going to last awhile, we merged the flocks. It was painful.
We had many Golden Oldies and, since then, nature has reduced the flock. When I got down to 12 girls, I thought that 12 was a good number, and I'd get new girls when I had some spaces from 12. When I got to 10, I thought 10 was a better number, better for the grass, so that became my new "up to" number. When Gloria died and I was down to 9, I thought 9 was an even better number, better than 10. And when Katy went, I thought 8 was about perfect, and I'd cap the flock at 8 girls.
Looking at the lovely girls, Poppy is over 10, Phyllis is 8, Fleur and Fay are 7 (I never expected Fleur to last this long!). Even the youngsters are 4,4,4,3. Phyllis is likely to be the next to go, she's looking her age, has lost weight, but doesn't look ill (although hens rarely do). Poppy, my little warrior, is dropping down the pecking order, so I guess she'll go in the next year or so. For the first time since Covid, it might be time to think about adding new girls to our flock.
Maybe.
But I think I might buy sexed chicks, rather than hatching our own.
Probably. Maybe.
