I was wondering about manure! š
This topic contains 27,896 replies, has 831 voices, and was last updated by thinatlast 1 day, 15 hours ago.
Good evening all.
Penguin, I hope that your health problems can be fixed simply, I’ll be hoping for the best for you. I had a chuckle about food deliveries from the garden centre (and Thin’s response). I guess if you aren’t selling as many ornamental plants you need to find something else to sell to stay in business.
I did a relatively easy FD yesterday but have struggled with my NFD today. I went to the shops briefly to buy fruit and veg. Like Betsy I contemplated the menu at the seafood shop and almost bought calamari and chips. I was quite happy when I talked myself out of that and also the hamburgers that the next cafe were advertising. I went home and made a bowl of 5 grain porridge for lunch. Unfortunately my will power went steadily downhill from there. Dinner was healthy but I’ve also had 4 unplanned slices of toast (with nut butter & cheese) and 6 mini chocolate eggs. What is it about being mostly confined to the house that leads me to conclude I’m entitled to whatever treats I want.
Hopefully my NFD tomorrow will be more controlled.
Take care everybody.
Thanks for the good wishes folks.
It is now almost impossible to get a delivery slot from an orthodox supermarket. The garden centre has always sold fresh veg. One of the guys has their loyalty card and does buy manure. He went online, discovered that they had expanded their range and organised a five family delivery to one house. There was a knock on my door and my order had appeared outside.
Penguin – the garden centres here have sold out of seedlings and seeds too as people start worrying about their food supply and think they should grow their own. Flour too is in short supply here – everyone who wanted to try their hand at sourdough has now discovered they finally have the time to make it.
Good morning, cloudy and cool but it was lovely and clear the last couple of nights, to make moon viewing a treat.
It was a not a fast day for me yesterday after all. I am being kind to myself as I am still not feeling very sparky. Planning for a fasty fast day on Sunday.
Penguin, so glad you got back in! And what an excellent home delivery. Seedlings became part of the great panic buy here too, one of the positive responses I think. Along with the enormous interest in sourdough bread. (PS Just saw your post LJoyce saying the same thing)
Haha Thin!
And Betsy!
LJoyce, Betsy, there must have been something in the air! Failed fast days all round. Hopefully Thin will be carting those big batteries to somewhere she can leave them and be too preoccupied to feel horror and despair at our failed fast days.
Betsy I hope the fish and chips and icecream treat has set you up well to have a couple of great fast days.
LJoyce, it is particularly hard that you managed to avoid the fried food, but then couldn’t be triumphal the rest of the day. Best wishes for today.
Oh dear, I’ve realised why I feel so terrible, I bought a (smallish) block of 90% chocolate when I last bought coffee and milk, and ate it over a couple of days. Not worth it Cinque!
Oh well, I will drink lots of water and enjoy the lovely spicy soup I made yesterday, and see when my spark comes back.
Enjoy your gentle and creative (I hope) Easter, everyone.
Cinque, it’s hard to avoid the chocolate at easter – it’s everywhere on those rare days I go to the shops. Sorry to hear that it’s making you feel bad today. (That’s what fried calamari and chips would have done to me, had I weakened!)
Thin, can you believe it’s 36C in Perth today, in mid-autumn! I imagine there are a lot of people who will want to be out and about in that sort of easter weather.
Lindsay, you mentioned a few days ago that your device didn’t count gardening as steps. I did an experiment today and set my fitbit exercise program option to “circuits” when I started gardening. It did a reasonable job of allocating the right number of steps to the activity – it was only 500 less than I would have allocated if calculating manually. If your device has that option it might be worth trying. It’s also possible that there are other exercise options that would be better but my device only allows me 5 choices and of those the circuits are my best option.
Hope you are all having a good day.
Cinque, very funny. I’m watching. And it’s usually the case that those still posting here are doing better than those not.
We’ve never celebrated Easter, except from the standpoint of staying home and enjoying the peace & quiet while all the rowdy neighbours left town to follow like sheep down south. So nothing’s changed.
We are asked not to move our boats over Easter. I can’t quite understand why but we will comply and then move in search of food next week. We have a lot of LL products but no fruit and we’re low on vegetables. The online delivery has collapsed. After joining an online queue as no. 7,514 for one of 15,000 new slots last evening, I got to my turn after some hours only to find there were ‘no delivery slots’.
LJ, yes 36C in Perth; 23C in Warwickshire.
Evening all,
It was an absolutely gorgeous day today. Sunny, calm and a nice 18 degrees. I hadnāt been out for a ride this week because the weather has been a bit š© so I went for two today. One in the morning and one in the evening. I did about 60 kilometres in total, and also went for a 90 minute walk with the family in between. Iām completely knackered now but feeling really good. Thereās nothing like exercise in the sun to boost your mood.
Have a great day everyone
Good morning,
I’m feeling a lot sparkier and ready to fast tomorrow!
LJoyce, hooray that your food indulgences were not with foods that made you feel awful.
Woohoo Thin, I’m properly on board again.
Hoping you can find a lovely source of vegetables that can deliver before you run out.
Neil, what a magical day.
I’m just cruising now. I’m the world’s worst grandma in that I haven’t ever bought Easter chocolate for my darlings. I don’t need to though as my daughter makes sure they get all the hot cross buns and chocolate eggs they could possibly need.
I am hoping to work today on my ‘Grandma Challenge’ game I am devising with little puzzles and activities for them.
All my work with my garden and fridge contents is paying off with happy enriched soil, lots of seedlings, things pulled out (and strawberries replanted) and the freezer and fridge packed with delicious nourishing foods. (touch wood and whistle nothing goes wrong now). Ooh and I made my most delicious beet kvass yet.
Sending good wishes
Hello everyone and happy Easter
Busy doing decluttering and Spring (Autumn) cleaning. I am going to start fasting again next week as it seems I will be WFH for much longer than initially thought. I’m very happy about that selfishly
Glad you are feeling sparky again Cinque
Glad you were able to get some groceries delivered Cali. I feel fortunate that our Coles up the road is reasonably well stocked and rarely has a queue. OH finally got some rice today as we were down to less than half a packet. He had to buy a 5kg sack but that’s ok, it will keep.
Thin, I laughed and laughed at the ^^^^ all clip. So very British and I love British humour. Glad you got your batteries and I hope you found a way to get rid of the old ones
I couldn’t open your video link Penguin as it says it has been removed for violating You Tube’s Terms of Service. I am sorry to hear you have health issues and sending healing thoughts across the world
I laughed too at the pics of Aussies dressing up to take out their garbage Cali! Aren’t we an inventive bunch over here?
LJ, I too am struggling with a persistent part of my brain telling me that being cooped up in the house means I can eat what I want to compensate. I had a good week but it all went downhill yesterday and today was no better. OH and I (and Maxx) demolished about 3/4 of a bbq chicken we got from Coles like hungry gannets at lunch time and since then I’ve had half a packet of rice crackers. It has to stop.
I felt sad at Miss nearly 7’s diary post but in a way it is good that she is communicating how she is feeling.
Hope you are feeling better Quacka.
Must go and rescue my clothes from the line as it has started blowing a gale and I have stuff on hangers that may already be in next door’s garden!
Take care
Cinque, so happy to read your chirpy post – you sound great!
I’ve given up on trying for online deliveries. There are now 10 times the number of existing (pre-covid19) customers shopping online – all of whom are apparently in an official ‘extremely vulnerable’ category meaning that we’re unable to access the website at all. As an over 70, OH is supposedly in a vulnerable category, told to be self-isolating, living on a boat, no car, can’t use public transport and often more than 5 miles through fields & over stiles from the nearest little grocery store that may well have empty shelves when we arrive.
Thank goodness for our fitness, health & love of walking that we can make these hikes but it’s really not practical. So next week we’ll move to moor up in a large town and I’ll get what I can carry from the supermarket. We really don’t consider ourselves vulnerable, but the sheer scale of the ‘extremely vulnerable’ category does make me wonder. Sorry, it sounds like a whinge, but it’s just a report.
Meanwhile, we’re enjoying the Warwickshire countryside immensely. We heard (herd?) some cows moo’ing last evening so untied the mooring lines and ‘walked’ the boat along the canal (shame we don’t have a horse) and tied up opposite the next field. Now we’re looking at a healthy herd of cows for a change of scenery.
Neil, lovely feeling after some good exercise. I know it well. But not on your scale.
Anzac, delighted that video made you laugh; I was hoping you would see it. Excellent about WFH – long may it last. As long as you stay out of the kitchen, he he.
Very happy to have tomorrow’s FD meal in the mini-freezer.
If you are looking for something to watch while isolating this weekend, Andrew Lloyd Webber has a series of his plays showing for free on YouTube, one per weekend for 48 hours. This week itās āJesus Christ Superstarā a recent version, I believe, since the actors have laptops and cellphones. I think you can watch it in Australia. Tom Minchin, the actor who plays Judas is from Perth. https://www.timeout.com/news/jesus-christ-superstar-tim-minchin-on-why-you-should-stream-the-show-this-weekend-040920 Iāve always loved the music but have never watched it other than bits here and there from older versions. This one is excellent so far. Watching it now.
https://m.youtube.com/theshowsmustgoon?uid=dmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag
Quick good morning on my fasty Easter Sunday.
Cold and grey here, Miso the cat is on my knee.
Dried things are soaking for my lovely miso soup. That’s the other miso, okay!
Anzac, how lovely to have been decluttering, and woot woot for working from home. You will love getting back into 5:2ing again, especially waking up in the morning feeling light and lovely.
Here is a different link to the cute Sound of Music song Penguin shared (with a Favourite Things parody thrown in) https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/04/let-julie-andrews-teach-fight-covid-19-sound-music/
Thin, I’m glad you are working out the practical ways to manage empty shops. Hooray indeed for your good health, both of you. And you still haven’t fallen in the water?
Cali, a good shout out, and Tim Minchin is wonderful.
I’m off for a bit of facetime with my darlings (Miso is off my lap so I can move). Hoping you are having a good day, but sending out good wishes to Gday and Quacka and anyone else who has been poorly. Do let us know how you are going.
Best wishes all.
Cinque, glad youāre feeling sparky today!
Thin,sorry youāre having trouble with online shopping. Itās the same here unless we want to pay a fortune for quick delivery. But at least I can drive over to the store and donāt have to walk across fields. Glad youāre mooring in a large town next week where you can stock up. Hope you have enough until then to come up with some imaginative meals.
Anzac, glad you enjoyed the Bin Isolation Outing site. We now have visions of all Aussies with closets full of costumes now! š
Good afternoon everyone, and happy Easter Sunday. Did church online this morning, and have stayed on the computer to catch up with posts.
Ah, online shopping. I was sent a link by Coles to sign up, being 70, but haven’t done so to date. Might run into the problems you’ve had, Thin, but being in a Melbourne suburb, it’s easy for me to get to the numerous supermarkets in my area, so why even bother. As an asthmatic, yes, I’m mainly staying home, and practising social distancing if I have to go out, but I’ve discovered that one of my local Woollies tends to just have a quiet regular stream of customers rather than a hoard, so I’ve been mainly going there.
After my indulgent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were a FD and a FD800 respectively, followed by an oops NFD, but still down 700gm on last weekend, so I’m happy that the scales are being nice to me. Haven’t needed the hammer, Cinque; maybe your threat was enough to make them behave š
The doorbell went a little while ago – the little girls from across the road were standing away from the door, but had brought me a fairly large Easter egg; lovely of their parents to think of me – I gave the girls and their little brother Kinder bunnies a couple of weeks ago, as I suspected the self-isolation was coming.
Anyway, now I have a large egg to add to my “no-no” collection. In fact, so far so good; I’ve been allowing myself a little treat here and there, but within my calorie allowance. Fortunately for me (or not!), I don’t have Cinque’s problem with chocolate making me ill. I can’t imagine not being able to eat chocolate š
CalifDreamer, great that you can shop fairly easily, too. Oh, a story to make you chuckle re hoarding of toilet paper – our government has now banned the resale of toilet paper over the internet, as some people were asking ridiculous prices for it, and because of the over-buying, supermarkets are refusing to accept goods back for “change of mind”. Well, I heard on the news of a Sydney man who tried to re-sell his hoarded TP to a supermarket – 5300 rolls! Guess he’s set now for his lifetime š
Anzac65, great that you can continue to WFH – did you rescue your clothes before they were gifted to the neighbours courtesy of the wind?
Neilithicman, good for you in continuing to exercise vigorously, and yes, being out in the sun is a real mood-booster.
LJoyce, I’ve never thought to set my fitbit if I do any gardening; I’ll have to try to do that.
Cinque, Unlike your Miso, Wilbur was outside for a while, but is now curled up sleeping on my bed. It’s been a cold couple of days, so not hard to stay mainly indoors.
Penguin, did you finally manage to get the plants you wanted? It’s great that you have somewhere which will deliver to you.
Have a great day, everyone!
Good afternoon and happy easter everyone.
Betsy, I made the same decision about home delivery. Even though I qualify as a vulnerable group I haven’t signed up, like you I figure I have lots of shops nearby and can manage.
I started setting my fitbit for active tasks when I realised it didn’t count steps while grocery shopping if my hands were holding the trolley. I found it did a better job if I told it I was walking before I started. Now I just give my best guess for how active I am – weeding I classify as yoga and digging/raking as circuits. It’s close enough that I can just accept my daily step count as being within 10% of my actual activity for the day.
Thin, if you have to go too long without groceries that farmer may need to keep a closer watch on his cows! Hopefully the next mooring site will be close enough to grocery supplies.
Anzac, getting used to doing FDs at home is a really good thing, because it means that even when work eventually gets back to normal you aren’t limited to FDs only on days in the office. It will give you much more flexibility in the future.
Cinque, how lovely, enjoy chatting to the grandies. Will they be climbing all over each other this time too?
Cali, Tim Minchin is very well know on this side of the world. I’ll keep an eye on that site for any musicals I’d like to watch.
Neil, sounds like a very active cycling day, hopefully you get a few more of those before the weather gets too cold. There are a lot of families on bicycles here at the moment – I’m hoping the good habits continue once this crisis has passed.
My NFD eating was definitely more than I was happy about on Thursday and Friday, so I decided to start another strict week yesterday. I’m aiming for 800ish daily. We are about to have an unusually warm week here so it’s a good opportunity for me to try and get a bit closer to my goal weight.
Take care all.
Cinque, hello fast buddy. Hoping your day went/is going swimmingly. Is someone doing your shopping for you? I hope so. I have no bananas to rely on today but I could boil an egg if I get desperate. It’s Mexican chicken soup for dinner, 277 cals (misprint last week said 177 I believe).
Cinque, as for your comment about my not yet having fallen in the canal – I think you’ve been reading my blog, ha ha! Very timely as I just posted an account of how I almost fell in.
LJ, very funny about the cows. OH has his eye on the sheep I think! We decided the original spot was better so ‘walked’ the boat back to the field opposite the sheep! The past two nights saw me resort to ‘pantry’ food for dinner. One was tuna mornay totally from packets and tins except the cheese. I don’t want to rely on pasta at all but OH was very happy with it. Last night I stuffed the remaining capsicums with brown lentils and couscous. Roasted some sweet potatoes and parsnips with garlic. Not a big hit with OH at all. He likes to have all these dried goods supplies but not so keen if we actually have to eat them! I thought the lentils were delicious, lots of different spices, etc but not really practical for boating as they took too long to cook (using up gas).
As I don’t normally cook like this, I will have to revise what meals can be made from ‘longlife’ products as Penguin calls them. Everything seems to revolve around pasta. Any ideas you clever people?
Not relishing the thought of mooring in a large town TBH, it greatly increases the chance of contact with an infected person. But we know the town and will get what we need and move on quickly. I asked OH to help me make a list and he came up with chocolate, honey and beer. Sigh.
Betsy/LJ, if things worsen in Oz, I’d encourage you to embrace the online shopping. It’s only money. Your health is far more important. Sounds OK for now but it only takes one unscrupulous person. There was a good article on ABC explaining how long the virus can survive outside a host i.e. on various surfaces which addresses CalifD’s earlier question about bringing groceries inside the home. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-03-20/how-long-does-coronavirus-last-on-surfaces/12074330
Did you know that cats can pass SARS-Cov-2 to each other? No known zoonotic cases but an artificially infected cat passed it to another cat. Also, dog owners, did you know that dogs are fomites? A young man with a pug allows it to jump on our boat twice a day as he walks past. We’ve asked him nicely to put it on a lead as he passes but he just ignores us. Rude. I’m sure he’d want his parents or grandparents treated with a little more respect.
CalifD, we watched Contagion on Netflix last night. Within seconds, we realised we’d seen it before but watched it anyway. Very much like what’s going on now.
Happy Easter all. Stay safe.
Good morning, and happy Easter to you all. I don’t post for a few days, and so much whizzes by. I’ll answer what I remember, with apologies for those I don’t.
I recall the discussion about online shopping….commiserations about having to get groceries Thin. Hope your sortie into a town allows you to stock up before you move on.
LJ, Betsy, I’d heartily endorse Thin’s advice about buying online. I’d never done it before, but having to quarantine for a fortnight meant I had no option. OH has COPD, so is vulnerable (and also his age) so no problem getting the priority service. I have made some errors (for example, thinking I was buying 5 potatoes, but getting 5 kilos. Bananas are sold by individual piece, with a top limit of 5, so I thought the same was true of potatoes). Online, I take my time shopping, looking carefully at labels for nutrition and additives, but especially for country of origin. I do look at labels in supermarkets, but sometimes time’s short or the stores are busy. As soon as I’ve submitted a list, I start another and add to it as I notice something is running down. I think I’ll keep shopping this way, post Coronavirus.
Cali good you got your order sorted, and so quickly.
Penguin I hope your health problems are being addressed. Not a good time to not be well. How are you going sourcing flour? It’s hard to get here too. I made a ginger slice with my last remaining stock of wholemeal plain flower on the weekend. The health benefits of the wholemeal flour were offset by the sugar in it, unfortunately.
I was cleaning out my cupboards the other day and found a leftover from when my kids were little, so I’ve put it to good use. My little boy used to love getting the hedgehog sprouting.
LJ thanks for the tips on setting the FitBit, and how to measure gardening. I find now we are back to taking Rosy to the park, I’m getting my step count back to normal thank goodness. As you say Neil, sunshine and exercise are great mood boosters.
How is your Grandma Challenge going Cinque? Hope you are feeling sparkier. My son has asked us to record ourselves reading books for his two. Not quite the same as having a child parked on your lap, cuddling in and turning the pages, but something close to normal (or new normal, I should say).
Anzac my DD’s neighbours are dressing up too, to take out the garbage. It started with one in a captain marvel (?) suit, and now there are half a dozen households getting into the spirit. If nothing else, this damned virus is helping communities re-engage.
Sad news this morning about Tim Brooke Taylor. I’ve had Goody Goody Gumdrops going around in my head since I heard the news – which is an inappropriately cheery song considering he’s just left us. Good news that Boris Johnson has recovered sufficiently to leave hospital.
How are you going Quacka? Feeling any better?.
Gday hope you are okay.
Betsy, I looked at my bee chart (aka google) and the blue banded bee is in Vic, as Cinque says. Hope you see one ….they will make your heart sing.
Good morning,
Lovely day after fast day. I’ve had breakfast. Sparkiness is relative but I have enough of a spark this morning to attack my kitchen. (She says hopefully) (No, determinedly).
I’ve got the Jamie Oliver program, that was on TV last night, playing in the background with his suggestions for cooking while staying at home. I do like him. Started with risotto, then a 7 veg tomato sauce. I wonder what will be next.
Cali, sad to report I put out the bins last night dressed as someone with no imagination! Luckily no-one had a camera.
Betsy, you are doing so well. Going at your own pace with no extra stresses, suits you well. And you have a while yet to work out what things you need in place so you can maintain it when you are back on your research. I bet you will nail it this time.
(Jamie’s onto a cake now, so I can concentrate on writing š )
Hello to Wilbur, Miso is outside at the moment, She will be happy that the week is looking fairly warm.
LJoyce, I mostly got to watch the kids putting on those filters that give them bunny ears and dogs on their heads and all manner of amazing changes, and laughing madly. But it was sweet.
Little Miss 3 is starting to look like a four year old, so I am feeling that keenly. Miss 5 has a VERY wobbly tooth.
My week won’t be as strict as yours, but I am putting all my good habits on loud volume. I have had a mindful and delicious breakfast with a sensible portion. Good start!
I am still going out to shop. Psarakos market, where I do most of my shopping is mainly vegetables with a small independent supermarket, a poultry stall, butcher, and fishmonger (also a bakery and a cafe and a jeweler). Indoors but set up market style and fairly spacious. It is cheap and I managed to go at a very quiet time. I definitely managed to do a shop that will last me longer than two weeks, maybe three (apart from milk and coffee) but if necessary I can get the Woollies delivery, or one from the local fruit and veg store that is excellent but a lot more expensive than I usually buy. Glad the option is there though.
Thin, ooh! Lucky escape! I will have to find your blog.
Happy Fast day and lovely morning after!
Such an interesting question to make things that don’t use too much gas. My tip for lentils is to soak them in a big jar, then rinse them off and keep them sitting on the window sill, rinsing every few hours depending on the temperature until you can JUST see the sprout starting. At that stage they will still taste like lentils, but will cook in just a few minutes.
Hmm, I wonder if you have room for haybox cooking. eg: https://www.milkwood.net/2015/07/06/thermal-cooking/
(Jamie is making a pizza, SR flour base (I prefer yeast) but what a delicious topping). Good luck working out the double brackets š
I thought my homehelp might be my weakest chink for catching Covid19, but it might be Miso the cat, who spends time in the homes of half the neighbourhood!
Lindsay, a treat to have a nice newsy message from you. Is the ad out? Is Mr Lindsay famous? So glad you have got the online shopping sorted. My daughter loves it too. And if I fail at the once-every-few-weeks shop, I will do it too.
Ooh I love your hedgehog sprouter! Is it wheat sprouting?
I wondered about reading books to the kids too. Miss 5 can only be still for short periods but she might find it comforting at times. I am hoping to work on my grandma challenge today, but oh dear, the kitchen had better be the priority.
I am also so, so sad about Tim Brooke-Taylor. Such a dear, funny man, and a few generations of kids growing up with the Goodies.
Oh dear, must go, the kitchen bench is begging for mercy. Cheers all, special call out to you from me too, Penguin.
Bye all
PS Jamie made a good one-pot stew.
Afternoon all, just a quick post. It looks like our lockdown is working. We only had 18 new cases yesterday and it was the third day in a row that we had more people recover from covid19 than new cases.
Weāre having a rest day today because itās pretty nasty outside, but Iām now sitting at 1840 kilometres for the year so far, so Iām less than 200 from my goal of 2020. I should be finished by the end of April.
Weāll have a great day everyone.
Morning again. A quick one, while I have a minute waiting for my cup of Lady Grey tea, perhaps with a piece of toast, and a game of Bananagrams. My OH and I are VERY competitive, but quite evenly matched. It’s a nice morning routine we’ve slipped into.
Thin it’s mung beans in my hedgehog sprouter. I had an unopened packet in the pantry. They were ‘use by’ 2018, because I didn’t have time to find out what I could do with them.
I’ll going to post a picture of my diabetes plant (or did I do that already?) I’ve cursed it for its triffid like growth, but find now the little new shoots can be added to just about anything savoury, and it’s providing us with fresh greens each day. Tasteless, by the way, but fresh and green.
Yes Cinque, the ad is out. We get some funny texts and emails from friends who are seeing it. OH describes himself as the face of Covid-19.
Good tip on cooking lentils Cinque….and yes, Jamie Oliver is terrific. I love what he tried to do for school lunches. A friend posted a video of a little English girl crying because all her favourite fast food shops were closed. Amusing for a second, until you think what her destiny is if her family keeps feeding her that way.
It’s tough isn’t it, watching the little ones get just that little bit older and wondering how long this thing will last. We spent so much time with Miss 4 in particular as DD works and tries to finish her Masters, and I dread having her going off to prep next year, without having these last few months with her.
Miss nearly 7 is happier now and loves doing her covid diary. She writes very sweet things – like the worst thing is not seeing us. Unlike her sister, who seems bullet proof, ohe is a sensitive little one She loves watching cooking programs with her mum ‘because, mum, nothing bad happens in the end. you just get lovely food’.
How is working from home Anzac? Are you more productive, do you think, without the distractions of meetings and colleagues?
OK my boy’s PhD won’t edit itself, so I’d best get back to it. I feel guilty, but am struggling to generate the motivation to do it. I need to give myself a long hard talking to.
Enjoy your evening all (it’s now mid afternoon – I got distracted after morning tea and didn’t get back to my post)
Morning everyone, good to hear from you Lindsay. I like the hedgehog sprouters. And I love bananagrams. OH won’t play but DD and I had many fun games over the years. I have it on the boat so I suppose I could play on my own.
Cinque, my former neighbour was big on thermal cooking and we’d planned to get one for the boat but hadn’t been able to find one here. She also does ‘haybox’ cooking, although I’d not heard that expression before. She makes a nest in a laundry basket with a pillow.
Thanks for the soaking recommendations. I’d only ever done it overnight. It wasn’t so much a question about limiting the use of gas (although it is a factor). It was more about how to cook a decent meal when you have limited fresh ingredients. I gave the tuna mornay as an example but can’t think of many dishes that don’t involve what I call ‘non-food’ pantry items such as Lindsay described when starting on-line shopping. And I don’t want to rely much on pasta if possible.
Neil, good news for NZ. Let’s hope people don’t become complacent.
Down to the 57s after my FD. Something to smile about.
Good evening everyone.
Thin, I spent most of my walk today pondering your question of how you make healthy meals with an OH who doesn’t care for legumes and you have very limited cold storage. I have a few suggestions, although some will add a lot of weight to a backpack. I tried to think of ways of providing you with fresh food that would keep for more than a week or two so you weren’t limited to being near a shop.
– Vegetables and fruits that store very well in a cool place and don’t need refrigeration: root vegetables with their dirt still on, whole pumpkin and butternut squash, whole melons, new season apples. (The only issue with the pumpkin and & melons is that once you cut it you have to eat a lot of it to avoid waste – unless you have a freezer.) Even tomatoes, if you buy those that are quite unripe, can sit in a bowl on the counter for up to 3 weeks before they are too squishy to eat. Pears don’t keep as well as apples, but very firm green pears can take up to 3 weeks to ripen.
– Fresh eggs will keep in a cool place for 6-8 weeks.
– Nuts – would your OH cope with those rather than the lentils?
– Matured cheeses keep well, but unless you buy a whole wheel they really do need to be in the fridge.
– Grow some greens: if you can put one or two trough shaped pots on the desk and get a bag of spinach leaves you’ll have leaves for both salad and cooking in about 4 weeks. You could also steal Lindsay’s idea and grow sprouts.
– Perhaps try presenting legumes in a different way (although I personally liked the sound of your stuffed capsicum). Some legume patties, like felafel, don’t require cooked legumes, just soaked legumes. Then you process them with herbs and spices etc and pan fry the patties. That would use a lot less gas, but depends on whether you have a food processor or chopper to mince up the soaked legumes. The best legumes for this are chickpeas, channa dal (split chick peas) or split fava beans. You can also buy felafel mix in a box. I have never tried it but a friend of mine says it’s nice. I always make mine from scratch, but if I was cooking on a small boat I might resort to the boxed variety.
– Pasta! Yes I know you would rather not, but it doesn’t have to be white wheat pasta. There are some reasonable legume pastas available and I also occasionally use wholemeal fettucini. Slendier also make lower calorie legume spaghetti and fettucini which is a reasonable alternative.
Lindsay and Cinque, thankyou for sharing the grandies stories. I know you are missing them. I hope that phone calls and face time can get you through until the next cuddle time.
Take care all.
LJ, that’s fabulous, thanks so much! I love the felafel idea and don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that myself. I only have a stick mixer and that, along with the microwave, must be used judiciously. I keep the root veg. under the sink where it’s dark and cool and and have two butternut squashes waiting their turn to be cooked. I discovered that a lot of veg. we’d have to put in the fridge in Australia doesn’t require it here. I use eggs a lot for frittatas. They’re often easy to come by and I must get more adventurous with them.
I do have some wholemeal pasta, Jamie Oliver’s I think. There must be other tinned fish that can be used in recipes (so I can do something besides tuna mornay). I’ll look online. Also I’ll check out legume pastas.
We were buying mixed nuts before we left the marina but, as they’re horrendously expensive, I wasn’t cooking with them. We’ve run out but we’d roast a small ramekin dish portion each after dinner which, because it was planned, I considered it not really snacking but part of that day’s calories.
I must do more about growing my own greens on the roof. I have colourful plants up there when herbs and greens would have been better. I’ve saved your post in a word doc. for future reference so thanks again for the time devoted to thinking about it and then writing it out for me!
OH did admit that he felt ‘quite full’ that evening after the lentils and couscous – so there’s a plus!
Neil, your NZ ICU nurse is getting a lot of accolades for caring for the British PM. Good for her!
Thin, I just found some silly typos in my post.
The growing greens idea should have read put a trough shaped pot on the deck and sprinkle generously with spinach seeds. I also add beetroot seeds because I like the baby leaves. A perpetual lettuce plant might be a good idea too.
If you have to be frugal with the stick blender I would recommend using channa dal rather than chick peas as they taste the same but require less soaking and processing time.
You could also use the legumes as flat bread or batter (pakoras) by using lentil or chick pea flours.
Morning all,
Growing things onboard sounds like a good idea. I saw one tv programme about a group that had whole gardens on board, they had like 4 or 5 barges and each of them grew something different to share with the group, similar to this setup https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/amp/floating-allotment-garden-barge.html
Yes the New Zealand nurse got plaudits over here too. The prime minister said she contacted the nurse to congratulate her but felt guilty for talking too long because the nurse was on a precious tea break.
Another cold day with freezing wind, hail and even the occasional snow flurry so Iām missing my cycling again. Looks like the boys and I will be doing our exercise in the lounge in front of the log burner.
Good morning lovelies,
Neil, your country is acing it! I’ve been reading articles from all over the world holding NZ up as the best practice example.
Hope you had a nice snuggly indoors day. Best wishes to you all, including your mum.
Lindsay, what a lovely morning routine. Aha, mung beans! best sprouts. Well, alfalfa are my favourite, but mung beans are so delicious.
Google couldn’t find me the ad š But being ‘the face of Covid 19’ is an interesting claim to fame, haha.
I don’t remember a picture of the diabetes plant. Hooray for healthy things that can be added to everything!
Oh I love Miss 7, I think that is why I love cooking shows too.
I loved Jamie Oliver’s school dinners too.
I asked my daughter if she would like me to read to the kids, remotely, but she said she didn’t think it would work because they get too excited at the thought of me. Ha. I am a very exciting grandma š
Hope you can manage that editing with lovely treats to promise yourself at the end of a session.
I’m going to be tested looking for greens in the next week or so. I’ve got celery left in the fridge, what a wonderful keeper it is, and a serve of frozen peas left, and some spiced cabbage I cooked and froze (a few serves) and a few frozen spanakopita, but I like to have at least 2 serves of greens a day and no beans or chicory left in the garden. I still have warrigal greens, and spring onions and chives and plenty of parsley. Hmm, I’ll be fine.
I’ve got chard, peas and matador spinach growing but they are tiny seedlings yet.
It is 11 days since I went shopping, and I have the longkeeping veggies left. Fascinating that they are the veggies of my youth: celery and carrots in the fridge, potatoes, kumara, onions and garlic in their respective pantry baskets, and a whole jap pumpkin waiting to be broached. The sweet potato is the only one we didn’t have growing up. My big quarter cabbage was great and sat happily in the fridge for a week, before I ate it up and made that spiced cabbage dish that is so tasty and freezes fine.
But thinking of you, Thin, isn’t it lucky that greens are the easiest to grow, considering they are the hardest to keep.
And just quietly, I think Mr Thin might come to love the legumes. Keep at it, slowly and surely. š
The haybox is the original thermal cooking technique the newer models are a bit easier.
Today I am going to make a Middle Eastern chicken and chickpea dish. Looking forward to it!
Hmm, can you tell food is on my mind. I got the kitchen fairly tidy yesterday and I am just as sparky today (so far) so more will get done!
Ooh Penguin, the kidlets other grandma is living with them, but had to go to Emergency yesterday with gallstone pain and was able to be sent home, but told to come back if she turned yellow. Synchronicity! How did we manage that?
Ok bye now. Best wishes all.
Thin, will OH eat split green pea soup? Thatās sort of a mainstream legume dish that most people seem to like. I add a few sliced carrots, a few diced onions and sometimes small pieces of smoked ham or bacon for flavouring.
Growing some greens and herbs on the roof sounds like a good solution too. LJ has lots of good ideas.
Lindsay, Miss 7 has the cutest way of expressing herself. I predict she will be a poet someday. Such a sensitive little girl.
Penguin, thinking of you and wishing you a good outcome for your procedure tomorrow.
Cinque, it sounds like your granddaughters are happy with visiting with FaceTime and maybe arenāt patient enough to sit through a story. I bet each feeds off the otherās excitement. Itās so nice we have the technology these days to make all of this possible. It sure makes a difference in these trying times.
Good afternoon and I hope everyone had a great Easter ā well, as great as can be in the circumstances
Thin, did I miss seeing a link to your blog? You mentioned it to Cinque on Sunday and Iād love to read it if thatās OK with you?
I was really sad to read about Tim Brooke Taylor too Lindsay and I too have had Goody Goody Gumdrops in my head ever since. I loved the Goodies and now one has gone in such a terrible way. And thanks for asking – I am about 17 million times more productive WFH (very slight exaggeration) and Iām working directly with a fabulous VB developer who is quirky and funny and 67 years old! He refuses to retire and lives on his own way up in the Blue Mountains. He used to only come to the office about once per month so this WFH is practically the norm for him. We get along like a house on fire. I do the business design and he somehow makes sense of my nonsense and builds applications that help the business with their manual processes. We have already delivered three and the next one is going to be awesome. I love this detailed work and without the constant distractions in the office it is going really well.
Iāve had a headache for 3 days now ā a bad one. I know it is stemming from my neck and normally one round of physio would sort me out. Itās from hunching over my laptop and my ribs end up somewhere around my ears. My physio is still open but Iām loathe to take the risk. Iām getting closer to having no choice though.
Gāday and Quacka, would love to hear from you to make sure you are both ok.
We are being blessed with some lovely weather. Cool in the morning and evening but sunny and low to mid 20ās during the day. OH and I actually just had a swim! The thermometer said it was 25 but it felt much colder. Very refreshing though!
I am quite quite sure you are THE most exciting grandma ever Cinque. My nieces post gorgeous little clips most days of Miss nearly 2 and Mr 6 months. I havenāt even met Mr 6 months great-nephew. He was born just before we went away and then it was only a couple of weeks after we got back that all of this mess started.
LJ, the information in your head continuously astounds me! I canāt remember my own name some days but you have a wealth of fantastic advice and information about health and food.
I hope you are OK Penguinā¦.
Hi Cali, Neil and Betsy
Must go and do some work, bye for now
PS: FD tomorrow!
Anzac, I think you summed up LJ’s information to hand on food very well. Glad that working from home is working out except the headache. I’d be loathe to visit the PT too but I bet he/she’s wearing a mask if you get desperate. Make sure you’re sitting ergonomically as best you can at home. I was surprised to read that hairdressers are still working. I thought I had a great excuse for bad hair. I’d rather not post my blog link here as there are too many identifying details (and I’m paranoid). However, I’m happy for you to read it, Anzac. From memory, you met up with Cinque last year? Are you happy for her to pass your email address on to me if she’s willing?
Tim Brooke Taylor was credited with writing ‘The Four Yorkshiremen’ which makes me laugh just thinking about it all these years later.
LJ, thanks for your later suggestions, also copy/pasted into yesterday’s document.
CalifD, split pea is a great idea, never thought of it without a ham hock.
Neil, thanks for the link, great article. We can plant things on the roof – we have to find some planters and a nearby nursery first though.
Cinque, can your home help go shopping for you? Why are you not on a list of vulnerable people for home deliveries? I loved reading about all your healthy veggie choices. I think you’re right about OH. He will actually eat whatever I put in front of him. Last night, we had the leftover brown lentils, couscous & roast veg. served with a pork chop. He thanked me for the dinner, as he always does, and then said it was delicious! He commented that the lentils had a lot of really interesting spices. Go figure. I think it’s a mindset that it’s only a meal if it contains meat. The only difference in that meal and the other was pork substituted for capsicum!
I managed to get a bridge delivery! i.e. the food truck comes to a canal location with just a bridge number and a postcode. Every evening, I’ve gone online at 6pm and waited in a 15,000 strong queue for hours only to be told there are no slots. Last night I got one for 6.30pm on Thursday. It’s still light then so we just have to scramble down a steep bank with the delivery which is no real obstacle. The web site was slow and really problematic, wouldn’t accept a food item I chose and then added three, etc. so it took ages to complete. Obviously on overload. But I got an order! I am going to chat to the delivery man about who exactly qualifies as ‘extremely vulnerable’. I read a sob story by a woman claiming ‘her children would starve’ without this service because she has to travel by car 30 minutes r/t to the grocery store. No wonder I’m the world’s greatest cynic.
Hi Betsy, Lindsay, Penguin.
CalifD, link emailed to you.
Betsy, I somehow missed your earlier post about the man trying to sell his hoard of TP. Unbelievable! Oh yes, forgot to add that woman I mentioned above claiming extreme vulnerability has six children. Don’t they have television?
Here’s a heartwarming story for all of you feeling overwhelmed by bad news:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52269398
Aussies, have a laugh about the ‘hot weather’ mentioned! It was 23Ā°C.
Good evening everyone! Have you all been enjoying Easter treats? I’ve actually been successfully rationing them, which is a change from last year.
Lots of interesting posts. Thin, amazing the woman who found driving 30 minutes too arduous, but I guess with the U.K. being around the size of Victoria, distances are not the same as here in Oz. I can drive for more than an hour, just to get to the other side of Melbourne. Anyway, hope your bridge delivery works and that you actually receive all that you ordered.
Anzac65, great that WFH is going so well for you, and the man you’re working with sounds a very interesting person.
LJoyce, I continue to be amazed at all your cooking knowledge. I guess I’m just not particularly interested in experimenting, though I’ve been thinking of trying to make a tuna mornay (if I can locate an easy recipe). It’s not something I’ve ever made before (I know, I’ve been told it’s really easy!), but I have several cans of tuna, and want to do something with them.
Neilithicman, hope the exercising in front of the fire was as successful as being out and about. Wow! Your cycling is going really well.
Cinque, it’s lovely that you can catch up with the littlies via social media, in this time of separation, and if they’re too excitable for story-telling, it sounds as if just seeing grandma is satisfying to them. Get them to tell you their stories!
CalifDreamer, split pea green soup? Sounds very filling. Hope you and your family are doing well. I’ve been watching the news from the U.S. with considerable concern.
LindsayL, loved the picture of the hedgehog with the mung beans sprouting. What a good discovery. Re the bee, now that I know such a bee exists, I’ll be a lot more watchful. Maybe I’ll get lucky; if Cinque has seen one, they must be around.
Okay, time to think of closing off. Wilbur is still outside, and I’m letting him enjoy the warmer outdoors for the moment, as that will be changing in another couple of days here. I did some shopping today, and managed to pick up some dried milk powder for a friend who really does need the help of online shopping. Dropped it off at her place on the way home. I like to think I’m making life a little easier for her and her husband.
Whatever is happening in the world around us, keep your focus re weight; don’t gain, stay at maintenance, or lose if you need to (like me!).
All the talk of growing our own food – wonderful. And LJ you are amazing, with your knowledge and taking time to impart it. Thank you.
Neil when I was in Dunedin, we bought some beeswax wraps at Ballantynes. The shop assistant told me that the store in Christchurch has beehives on the roof, and all employees get a jar of honey each, per year. What a great contribution from a retail store.
OH and I tended our girls a couple of days ago. No honey this time – we left what was there for the hive to get through winter – but the plus was that OH was calmer (I told him to think like his son) and neither of us was stung. Hurray!
Betsy you may hear the blue banded bee before you see it, because it buzzes quite loudly as it pollinates. Good luck!
Cinque my lovely treat at the end of the editing is taking Rose to the park and letting her gambol in the water before she runs and runs. (I do have other treats as well, I am ashamed to say). Here she is, looking more like a drowned rat than a setter.
https://imgur.com/GyldwfE
Here too are the images of the diabetes plant In the close-up you can see how little shoots come out all along the stalks, at the joints with the big leaves. It’s the little ones I use.
The second pic shows how it can take over without judicious pruning – it’s sending shoots right up into the kaffir lime. However apparently it thrives in pots.
https://imgur.com/mgRtgDv
https://imgur.com/y5G102z
This is an interesting read about its medicinal properties, with a click through to an academic article about it
https://www.rareplants.net.au/shop/edible-plants/gynura-procumbens-diabetes-plants/
Cinque, my vegan brother grows sweet potato in pots on his high rise verandah. He just cuts a piece off the end, with a couple of eyes, and when it shoots, uses the leaves. He says they shoot quickly.
Cali you are right about Miss nearly 7 . She is sensitive, and a great reader and writer. All she’s ever wanted to do, since she was in kindy, was to be a children’s book writer, and she produced her first one at 4. It was absolutely charming, and actually, a nice little story.
What great news about your WFH success Anzac. I wonder when this is all over if employers won’t find that some jobs are more productive out of the office, and that they could also benefit economically, by not needing as much accommodation and other resources. My uni has moved to online delivery, although I opted out this trimester because of my internet (or not!) issues. But there’s been no discussion of some form of recompense for resources that are being used at home. One colleague told me she’s had to buy a printer, upgrade her telecommunications package and all the other expenses associated with running a home office. I guess those discussions will happen when this is all over.
Anzac, are you looking down to your laptop and tilting your head down? Can you put it at eye level? How about a hot water bottle across your shoulders every few hours – I find it really helped when I had the bursitis/back issue.
Thin how exciting the food delivery to the bridge will be. You are living a real Boys’ Own adventure! Good luck with it all. I love the randomness of online shopping … you choose one thing, but it’s out of stock, so another comes. Then there are all the little refunds – 10 cents here, 1.20 there, that show up on the credit card, to compensate for the alternatives they provide.
Thin I don’t know who in the UK qualifies for home delivery, but it sounds like the grocery stores haven’t really come to terms with home deliveries. I think Woolworths scaled up here really quickly, Coles less so. Frustrating to wait in a queue of 15,000, but good I guess that so many people are staying away from physical stores at the moment. Your mother of 6 potentially starving children sounds like she could be a little prone to exaggeration???
Penguin, good to know you’ve had your treatment and are home relaxing. Just the place to be, and the thing to do. Best wishes.
OK up and on with the day – Rosy is waking before 5 these days …I hope that ends before winter sets in!
Hello hello,
Day before fast day for me.
Cali you are right about my little grandkids not being very patient, haha. Exciting news this morning, Miss 5 woke up at 4am to find her wobbly tooth had come out! We have just had some facetime now so I could hear (and see) all about it.
Hooray for our wonderful technology.
Anzac, you need to address that headache and neck ache today! Can you ring your physio to get advice for how to set your monitor and adjust your chair or whatever is needed? Put on the timer and get up every twenty minutes or whatever, for back stretches and neck exercises? So important!
It is just delightful to hear about the lovely work relationship you have got with the VB developer (I’ve tried to work out what VB stands for, Virtual Banking?). It is so nice to think of your job being so creative and productive and pleasurable, I hope your bosses can appreciate it.
We’ve got a week of lovely weather too, it makes everything so easy. I’m trying not to do too much in the garden, but now I have been given some broccolini seedlings and I need to find places for at least a few of them.
Ooh we need that vaccine so we can cuddle our little darlings!
Thanks for your kind concern Thin. I know homehelp take frail clients shopping so they can help with carrying things etc. But luckily I don’t need that, it is just a lot of housework I can’t manage. Home delivery is an option, but oh dear I do love choosing my own veggies, and with supermarket foods, it is always only a couple of things I need.
I went past the shopping centre yesterday but it was too busy. I need to go early, and I am going to wear a facemask. My sister is a good sewer is making some for herself and me too. I don’t think they give that much protection, but at the very least they will signal to the workers in the shops that I am taking precautions for their health.
Haha re Mr Thin needing his bit of meat. Oh well, legumes can bulk a bit of meat out so well! Ooh and that bridge delivery sounds so romantic, although you mightn’t think so while sliding down the track with boxes and bags.
I know when Klondi stopped posting it was because she needed to give a lot of time to family members. I have been wanting to get in touch with her for months, but haven’t managed it.
Loved the story of the old man walking around his garden to raise money. How wonderful it caught on!
Just going to post this, make a coffee, and then come back and write some more.
Hello again, back and lovely coffee had been made and drunk. Only problem now is the men with leafblowers outside the window. So loud. (and I thought they weren’t due and was hoping to have the leaves for my compost bin).
Pollyanna here, probably good not to do one extra activity today. Thanks guys.
Betsy, Wilbur will love today! Miso the cat is already outside, curled up in the sun. So nice that you could help out with the powdered milk. Little things can make such a big difference.
Penguin, https://www.wishesgreeting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/get-well-01.png Hooray for the procedure done, the pain lessening, and being in the comfort of your own home.
Lindsay, great news that the bees have stores for winter and that everything necessary got done with NO STINGS!
A Rosy run is the best reward. Hope you can cut down on the other ones (says Cinque, as if she doesn’t reward herself with food, ever).
What a happy healthy beautiful dog Rosy is, even bedraggled! But I do hope she learns to sleep in soon!
The diabetes plant does look interesting, and they say it will grow down here, even if I have to grow it as an annual. I will look out for it.I just love having lots of different greens. Especially the ones that just taste green! (That is the only way I can describe the warrigal greens). What a good idea to grow kumara for the greens. I was way too tentative in trying the leaves when I grew some, but I might try again.
Ok off to look at my list of things to do.
My chicken and chickpea dish turned out really well, I was hungry for protein! I will enjoy eating today and fasting tomorrow.
Btw, our fast days are a good protection against the worst of Covid 19. I don’t have the reference, but I read that obesity is a factor in 25% of Covid 19 deaths, so it is up there along with diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease. Every fast day we do helps us.
I’m going to do a lovely one tomorrow!
Best wishes all.
Afternoon all, I had my weigh in this morning and I was up 900 grams from last weigh in to 88.9 kilos but the breakdown on my scale showed my body fat percentage unchanged, my muscle mass 100 grams up and an increase in my hydration level. I think that now Iāve got it sorted how to stand on it I should get more consistent results.
My boys are both back to school today ( weāll online school) and the younger one had PE so so made sure he got out and pounded the pavement to do the exercises he was supposed to do. Monday will be a novelty because it will be the first tome Iām going to be working from home.
Have a great day everyone.
Good morning from a lovely sunny Sydney ā 26 degrees today
FD today, my first for a long time. It is just past 11.00am and Iāve had two black coffees with Stevia and lots of water. So far so good ā hungry of course but it will wane.
Thanks for the tips about my neck. I have a good chair and a big screen that is at eye level. But when I am really concentrating I donāt realise that I start to hunch forward and often look at the laptop instead of the big screen. My own fault and my physio berates me (in a nice way) every time I go about my bad posture. Iāve got a wheat bag that Iām putting on it a couple of time per day and doing my neck stretches but it has gone too far and Iām going to have to go up to the physio. My friend goes to the same one and she said they are being really careful and cleaning the tables thoroughly after every visit and limiting touch by using towels. Iāve just made an appointment for next Monday. He has two clinics and only does Thursday and Monday at the one up the road and the only time he had tomorrow clashed with a work meeting unfortunately. He is a wizard. Being the clumsy oaf I am, I am one of his best customers. I probably paid for his last overseas trip but I donāt care! OH should be going for his crook back but he resents the high price he charges. I canāt nag him so he just has to suffer.
Cinque, VB stands for Visual Basic which is a computer programming language. So for example we take data out of a transaction system and he writes code that will import that data into an excel spreadsheet, transform it and/or produce updated output data. The VB code sits hidden at the back of the excel spreadsheet and the user will press a ābuttonā to start the import and another to start the transformation. The processor we are building now is for offshore payments that need to be manually typed into a payment system. The data from the transaction system needs to be enhanced with additional information. For example, the recipient of the payment (a bank overseas) has a special code that must be used (every bank in the world has one) so instead of the user having to go and lookup the bank code, we store the codes for the banks we use for payments in a separate tab in the excel processor. The user imports hundreds or lines of payment data and the VB rules look at every bank name and will go and fetch the special codes and add them to the data automatically. That is just one example but it might give you an idea. Itās very technical and I am not remotely technical so I write the requirement in a business way and my developer writes the code to do the work. Easy!
I was interested in the statās about obesity being a factor in 25% of Covid19 deaths. Wow, it really hits home just how important it is to lose and keep the weight off. I am redoubling my efforts ā not because Iām afraid of Covid 19 but because it has reminded me of the vital importance of being a healthy weight.
Rosy is beautiful Lindsay but I was sorry to read she is getting you up so early. Maxx used to as well but is better now. He woke me at 6.30am this morning which is fine as I like to get up fairly early. I love reading about your grandkids and I smiled about Mess nearly 7 wanting to be a childrenās book writer. I learnt to read very early and one of my earliest memories is at kindy or perhaps year 1 being sent to the back of the room to read Golden Books because I was so far ahead of the rest of the class. All I ever wanted to do was become a journalist and eventually an author but, well, life happened and I didnāt end up going to University so I ended up in banking. So ironic because even though I came in the top 5% in the state for English for my School Certificate, donāt ask about any other subject. I only just scraped a pass for Maths and only because my mathās teacher took me on as a project and kept me in at lunch times giving me extra lessons. I went to a Selective high school and they donāt look favourably on anyone failing any subject. This was the reason I opted out at the beginning of year 11 as the pressure was too much.
SO very glad you are home and feeling better Penguin. Rest up for sure, you need to recover gently.
Betsy I didnāt buy any chocolate or Easter buns as I knew I would be unable to ration them like you are doing so successfully. Well done! My developer is definitely interesting ā he is about 7 foot tall with wild grey hair and has done so many interesting things in his life. We chat mostly over skype and often sidetrack into life stories or opinions.
Thin, thanks for the lovely story about the elderly man walking for the NHS charities. It certainly warmed my heart. I have Klondiās email address but Iām loathe to contact her as she might see it as an intrusionā¦.but I just want to know she is ok.
I love the Four Yorkshiremen! One of the funniest skits ever
Neil, I bet home schooling is challenging and Iām glad you are able to WFH when you return to work next week. Here the PM is encouraging parents to send their kids to school when it goes back after the Easter Break. Iām not sure how I feel about that.
Well Iāve waffled so long I have to close now as it is nearly 11.30 and I have a meeting. Hi to everyone I havenāt mentioned
Good Afternoon everyone
Thanks to all of you who have been asking after me x
I’m happy to report that I am 99% better. I tested it out yesterday by going for a 9.5km walk which my lungs handled really well but my hips didn’t, so I’ve been doing stretches today to fix those hips up. A couple of weeks ago, when I thought I was getting better, I went for a much shorter walk but found my lungs couldn’t handle it so I was happy when I was ok yesterday.
I’m back at work today. I’m getting the ‘big talk’ tomorrow from the bosses so I guess I will find out then what they will do with me over the next few months. Very uncertain times at the moment but I think my job is safe at least for the next six months while the govt is paying the Jobkeeper allowance. After that, who knows.
Today is FD for me. So far so good. Hope everyone else fasting is doing well too. Actually, hope everyone is doing well even if they are not fasting š
Take care all X
Sounds like every one is present and correct. Read all the posts and have now run out of time. Thanks for the Klond report. Cinque, those noisy leaf blowers have to be the most anti-social gardening tool ever! What’s wrong with a broom and bucket? I used to watch my neighbours’ lawn mowing man blow the leaves from their driveway out on to the street where they could make their way down to the next home. Don’t get me wrong, OH had one too but he wouldn’t dare use it, at least not if I was around!
An update on the story of 99 y/o war veteran Tom Moore, Ā£5m raised:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52290976
Look what the school children are doing for his 100th birthday! I love this story so much.
Good evening everyone. Today felt odd as I had a couple of medical appointments to go to – it felt like pre-covid times. I’m shocked by just how tired I feel tonight – clearly I’ve gotten used to lounging around the house all day.
Penguin, I am so very glad you are mended and home again. My biggest worry was that you were having to spend days in a hospital, which feels like a risk place to be at the moment. I hope you get back to full health quickly.
Anzac, I had a physio treatment today (neck & lower back), as I can’t manage more than about 6-8 weeks without a treatment otherwise I get migraines and more back pain than I can cope with. I wanted to let you know that my physio practice had made significant changes and I actually felt quite safe. They had changed treatment that I would normally have to eliminate any face to face treatment positions, so the physio wasn’t breathing on me. I was facing away at all times. The treatment table and client chair were liberally sprayed and wiped down with alcohol before I entered the room and they were happy for me to wait outside the premises before my treatment so I could avoid the waiting room. They also had hand sanitiser that I could use as I entered and left the premises. The receptionist put the Hicaps and Eftpos machines on the counter so I could swipe the cards without her touching them. They also sterilised biros after each customer had used them to sign the Hicaps slip (although I could have used my own). So, if your neck needs attention it may be worth calling your physio and asking them to detail exactly what changes and protections they have in place – you may find that they have done enough to keep you safe. I actually felt safer there than I did having to join a queue to get into the chemist yesterday or in the supermarket.
After writing this I’ve just looked back at your recent post to see that you have made an appointment.
Cali, I remember growing up that split peas were really the only legume readily available – not that I cared for them as a child. These days we are spoiled for choice with so many legumes to choose from.
Quacka, good to hear from you. I am very glad to hear that your lung capacity is feeling normal again. I hope that whatever your boss has to say next week is reassuring.
Neil, I think it’s quite reassuring to have your scales explain your weight fluctuations.
Cinque, I’m another who hates leaf blowers. It’s not just the noise it the fact that they end up on the street and then block up the storm water drain.
Lindsay, Rosy looks darker when wet – more mahogany than red.
The added costs of working from home are always a bit of a negotiation. In the end you just have to keep all the receipts so that anything the employer won’t fund can be claimed at income tax time.
Thin, thank you for emailing the link to your blog. I aim to start reading tomorrow as today has been too busy.
I loved the story about the elderly man walking to raise money for the NHS – he’s been featured on the news here too as a “feel good” story.
Betsy, I have a couple of tuna mornays that I make – one traditional and the other more of a tuna bake.
– The tradition one (my mother’s recipie) is pretty simple. Make a bechamel sauce and season with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg (although if using tuna in brine you may not need any salt). Add a large tin of drained tuna and a large tin of drained corn kernels and some fresh parsley, if you have it. Once heated this is topped with croutons made by pan frying cubes of bread in butter. I rarely bother with the croutons and just have it with toast. I also usually add frozen peas (and use frozen corn instead of canned). What is slightly unusual about this mornay is that it contains no cheese and isn’t served with rice.
– The baked tuna mornay comes from my sister in law. You combine the following in a mixing bowl: large tin drained tuna, 1 cup cooked rice, 1 tin evaporated milk, 1 tin of “cream of” condensed soup (I use cream of asparagus, or celery or vichyssoise), 1 cup grated cheese, 2 cups (or more) of finely chopped/grated appropriate veg (corn, peas, celery, spring onions, capsicum, green beans, zucchini, carrot…), fresh herbs if you like. Mix it together and then pour into a large creased baking dish. Cover with either breadcrumbs or cubes of buttered bread. Bake at 175C for about an hour, but check after 45mins. I sometimes find I need to turn the top element of the oven on after 45 minutes to get the top a bit browner. This can be made entirely with stored items if you use frozen/tinned beg.
I always seem to keep the various tins required to make this baked version in the pantry – just in case.
There is something else I love making with tinned tuna or salmon – patties. I bind them together with some cold leftover mashed root veg (usually half potato and half pumpkin). Then I add some finely chopped spring onion, capsicum, celery, corn and coriander or parsley leaves. Add enough breadcrumbs to form a fairly firm mix (it will depend how wet your mash was). I add a generous amount of lemon herb seasoning (or lemon zest and dried oregano) and 1 tsp Massel chicken or vegetable stock powder. If you aren’t sure whether it’s holding together well you can add an egg too. If you are are in the mood, a little chilli can be nice too. Then form into patties and coat in either breadcrumbs, dry polenta or semolina. Pan fry gently in a little hot oil – don’t let it get too hot or the crumbs burn and you want golden. These can also be frozen before or after frying.
Hope that helps you find a use for those tins of tuna.
Time I had a decaf chai and an early night. I’m still shocked at how tired I feel after driving to 2 appointments.
LJ, Betsy, looking at LJ’s second recipe, my tuna mornay must not be tuna mornay at all. Dead easy though! Definitely not gourmet. And definitely never heard of it with rice.
I don’t measure but I mix equal quantities butter or margarine with plain flour in a saucepan over a low-med heat to make a blond roux. (recipe books say different but I learned that in high school domestic science a hundred years ago and my white sauces are smooth and creamy and never fail). Lots of freshly ground pepper, small amount of salt. Add milk in small quantities stirring vigorously until each addition is fully absorbed by the roux, continue adding in this way to desired consistency and gently simmer for a few minutes to thicken, stirring continually.
Remove from heat. Add grated cheese. In its basic ‘camping’ form which is now translated to ‘boating’ and the need to keep dishes to a minimum, I lazily add the tuna to the sauce before mixing it all into the steaming hot, drained pasta.
In its posher form, I’d have blitzed breadcrumbs, sliced tomatoes & grated fresh parmesan to form a topping and put in the oven with dabs of butter to form a crust.
I’ve started a file for simple meals like this, adding LJ’s chicpea and felafel ideas and CalifD’s split pea. I found a chicpea curry online that can be made almost solely from tinned foods. I’m going to modify your tuna patties for the same purpose.
Good morning everyone
It’s day after FD for me and I have that lovely light feeling that Cinque mentions. It’s soooo good! I went for another walk early this morning and lungs are still good although my hips started playing up again so I cut the walk short at 4.5kms. It was a warm morning and the sunrise was beautiful – pinks, reds and oranges. It’s a lovely way to start the day.
Penguin, I’m glad you are home and didn’t have to spend too long in hospital. AS LJ said, it doesn’t seem the best place to be at the moment. Wishing you a speedy recovery š
Well this is just a quick check in. I think the lady boss is coming in today and hopefully we sill get to work out what we are doing. I hardly slept all weekend just thinking about what we will discuss and what they will expect of me, only to come in yesterday morning and my manager said it will maybe be Thursday before she comes in! He did tell me not to worry about it, which is easier said than done! It’s just the uncertainty, you know.
G’day, I hope you are ok. I’ve been thinking of you.
OK time to go do a little bit of work, at a snail’s pace. Argh! Don’t they I know I’m a duck??
Take care and stay safe x
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10:12 am
9 Apr 20