WOYWW 497

Sorry not to join in WOYWW last week. It’s been an extremely busy time with a lot going on and I’ve got very exhausted and have had to rest as much as possible between our various activities.

No desk pic again this week because my mystery project is still under wraps but hopefully all will be revealed next week. In the meantime, here’s a fun little gift I made for the friend we had lunch out with today (writing this on Tues. evening).

“Peachies” is a joke we have with our friend over a mistake made with our name when we were together once, and it stuck. Hope you like my vintage-style label.

Lunch Out

One of several meals out this week – today’s lunch at a lovely place where they have peacocks wandering around outside, and they had decorated their Christmas tree with a peacock theme. I just had to photograph these gorgeous decorations, which included clear baubles with a peacock feather inside, baubles made with overlapping sequins in peacock colours, and peacock feathers sprayed with something to stiffen them, and painted with glitter – just gorgeous!

Sourdough

After a break for a week, I made sourdough again this week. A great success. I think I’ve really cracked it now.

Car Woes

The steering on the car has been a bit ropey for a while so we took it in to our friendly car mechanic today and he put it on his lift, with me in it, and I spent the next hour or so up in the rafters of his garage, doing my knitting – a most uplifting experience! He can repair it, but had to keep the car in overnight so he sent us home in his courtesy car. My hubby should be able to pick it up tomorrow, all being well.

Computer Woes

A nightmare week, having to format my hard drive and reinstall everything. I had a minor problem which online research assured me could be safely cured with the removal of a couple of small files from the registry, after safely backing up the registry in case of problems. Problems? I’ll say. The computer wouldn’t boot up at all! What use is a registry backup if you can’t access it? Grrrr. Major stress, huge amount of work, some things still not operating as they should and needing tweaking. Two external hard drives not being recognised by the computer but eventually I narrowed this down to a problem with their enclosures (they hadn’t been tried before) and they are now being examined in our local computer shop, and I should get them back in a day or two. I wasn’t worried about my data etc. because I back everything up religiously. It’s going to take me a while to get things back to normal, though.

Kitty Woes

Ruby is grounded. Again. Despite extra defences, she was straight over the fence again. Stronger defences were installed by my hubby, and after a short period of frustrated yowling because she couldn’t get out, she made another attempt and succeeded. My hubby says he will get this sorted, and in the meantime she is strictly an indoor kitty. Lily gets so anxious when Ruby gets out, and comes running to tell us, in great distress. She’s such a good girl, and Ruby is an absolute terror! They are so different.

They are different in their tastes in TV, too. Lily likes educational programmes like wildlife. Here is Ruby watching Star Trek.

Health Update

I am seeing my surgeon on Thursday, following my recent CT scan which showed the return of my parastomal hernia. I am hoping he will agree to leave it alone and just keep an eye on it for now, as I really don’t want further surgery after being so ill earlier this year. It’s not giving me much trouble.

It’s been quite a week and I’m not surprised I’m exhausted.

I shall be glad when this season is over. It’s my least favourite time of the year!!! Can’t wait for January and a good rest and at least another 11 months till next C. (I’m not a bah-humbug type – really – but at this time of year I always feel like emigrating.)

Here’s a seasonal funny.

WOYWW 489

No change on my desk this week. I’ve been really tired all week and in between commitments, I’ve been resting, and during that time, have done quite a lot of knitting, working on my peacock scarf.

This is how much I’ve done so far. The ball is now considerably smaller and the scarf will now go round my neck, so hopefully not too much more knitting now! The yarn is fabulous – I love the way the colours merge into each other. It’s a single ply roving and in places, not very twisted, so it’s easy to split it with the knitting needles, especially working in moss stitch as I am doing, but apart from that, it’s lovely to work with. The edges are getting quite fluffy with handling, which makes me think the whole thing may be a bit vulnerable to that, but we shall see.

In the above photo, I’ve laid a few of the incomplete crochet peacock feathers on top to show and how the colours go with the scarf.

Cooking

Sourdough this week – not terribly well risen but a great texture and flavour.

I also made some more crackers from sourdough starter. These really are delicious and very easy to make. I’m not buying crackers any more. These are so tasty and are made from such wholesome ingredients with no chemical additives. They are also quite filling so you don’t need to eat so many! They are very crisp, and the bumps on them are actually air bubbles. They’d probably come out flatter if I forked them.

Fortunately I’ve got plenty of ready prepared meals in the freezer from previous cooking sessions so I haven’t had to think too much about doing a lot of meals when I am feeling so tired.

Health Update

CT scan tomorrow to check whether my hernia has returned – but I already know it has! I can feel it, and also I can see it, and it’s quite large. It’s really frustrating.

My support pants are due to arrive later this morning. Unfortunately the road is up outside our house at the moment and closed to traffic so I’ve had to arrange for delivery of the parcel (and my weekly Tesco order) to come down the garden from the road at the back of us. I spent a frustrating time of the phone yesterday a.m. trying to get through to the delivery company. They had no contact number on their website and their “contact us” section was useless – just a lot of different boxes that didn’t relate to what I wanted and I needed to speak to a real person! I googled them and found a number eventually, and then had to wait 20 minutes on the phone before anyone answered! I told them their customer service left a lot to be desired… Anyway, hopefully both deliveries will get to us OK later this morning.

My sleep patterns are all disrupted again… I get more and more wide awake the later it gets, and have to make myself go up in the small hours or I’d be up all night. Then, in the mornings, I am finding it very difficult to get going and when I haven’t had any commitments, have rested in bed till about 10 a.m. and haven’t been able to accomplish anything much until the afternoon, often suffering quite severe headaches. With ME, one’s diurnal rhythm is often disrupted, and I go through phases of this and there’s not a lot to be done about it, unfortunately! At least I am sleeping quite well once I do get to bed.

Kitties

Neither of them are doing anything terribly interesting at the moment except sleeping! They go out briefly and don’t like the weather much. Ruby is being a perfect pest at meal times – she has decided she adores butter, which she can smell at 500 paces, and I can’t turn my back on her for a second if there’s butter around! At meal times she’s constantly pestering us, woofling her nose and craning her neck, and climbing up after our food. I keep threatening to put her out!! Once temptation is out of the way, she is happy to settle down on my lap and be a good girl. Lily never bothers us while we are eating. Their characters are so different!

Here are a couple of sleepy photos for you.

Butter wouldn’t melt……. or would it?!

Lazy lot.

Meal Out

We had a lovely meal out with our friend last week and I gave her the box, which she was delighted with. Here is the pub where we had a truly excellent meal.

The food was so beautifully presented that I had to photograph it! Our three main courses:

I love how this fish is served, with the crispy skin matching the almost metallic glaze of the plate, with matching lines!

Our desserts. I had the lemon tarte and I loved the way they had served the lemon sorbet in the shape of a lemon.

We have been given a ticket for a meal for two at a local Michelin-starred restaurant, which we shall be enjoying soon. I’ve no doubt I shall photograph the dishes there, too!

As well as the box, I also gave our friend a jar of my home-made apple chutney, and I dressed it up a bit with a couple of labels that I die-cut, and a fabric lid tied on with some nice rough jute string I’ve got. Nice rustic look!

Harp Recital

On Saturday one of our church members gave a harp recital and talk. He’s only recently taken up the harp and he has already taken Grades 1 and 2 and passed both exams with distinction! It was a most interesting afternoon, and as well as playing several pieces on his two harps, he spoke about the history of the harp, and how the different types of harp work. He also showed some slides and videos. I had not heard him play before, because I was ill last time he played in church.

I particularly liked his Celtic (lever) harp (in the foreground in the above photo), with its very pretty shape and contrasting woods. It’s apparently even more difficult to play than the pedal harp.

I also took this close-up photo because I thought the pattern that the strings and their shadows made was most decorative!

This week I actually managed to get the accounts done! Whew. That’s a weight off my mind until next month.

So you can see it’s been another pretty busy week. I am trying to cut down on things at the moment because I’ve been far too busy lately, which is probably why I’m back to suffering from more fatigue than usual.

Chutney Labels and a Great Meal Out

Today our friend took us out to lunch at the Cott Inn, Dartington. This is an old-fashioned Devon pub in a beautiful country setting, which offers first-class chef cooked meals. We were not disappointed!

Today was the day I was working towards, to complete the boxes for the Floral Mini-Albums I made earlier this year. Our friend’s copy of the album has now left its biscuit box home forever and is now proudly ensconced in its new box! She is delighted with it and I am so happy with her response.

I decided to give her another little gift – a pot of my home-made apple chutney from the Bramleys off our tree in the garden. It’s the first time I’ve made apple chutney and now it’s had time to mature, it’s turned out superb, though I say so myself!

Rather than just giving her a plain jar, I decided to make some labels for it and pretty it up a bit, going for a rustic look.

I used dies from two different sets to cut the two labels.

The larger tie-on label was cut from recycled book packaging from Amazon, and the smaller stick-on one was cut from 100 gsm copy paper. Both were distressed with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I drew a little apple on each label and coloured it with coloured pencils. I cut two circles of cream polycotton fabric from my stash for the lid, and tied on the larger label with jute string.

The outside of the lovely pub where we met for lunch.

Inside:

The food was quite delicious and beautifully served. My dish was described thus: “Free range Devon chicken breast, goats’ cheese, spinach and watercress mousse, prosciutto, crushed potato, spinach, red onion marmalade, bruised baby gem, chorizo cream sauce.” Wow!

This is my hubby’s beef and stilton pie. I love the way the mashed potato is served!

Our friend chose a fish dish.

I love the way the chef has chosen different plates to suit the varied dishes, and in particular I like the way the lines cut in the crispy fish skin are echoed by the lines on the rim of the dish, the metallic glaze of the dish also reflecting the silvery effect of the fish skin. Very artistic!

Our desserts.

The others had a scoop each of locally-made ice cream and I chose the lemon tarte which was accompanied by lemon sorbet in the shape of a lemon! Again, the perfect dish to set off this dessert.

I should have photographed my spiced carrot and sweet potato soup, too. The two pieces of ciabatta were cut diagonally and set on their ends in the most attractive way.

All very creative and extremely chefy! We will definitely be returning here.

It was raining when we arrived, but as we left, the sun was shining. What a lovely day we had.

Walk-In Pantry–Complete!

This morning the electrician came to fit the light in my new pantry. After he had gone, I finished putting the food in, and added the things to the inside of the door, so the job is now complete.

Here’s another view, standing slightly further back.

Here is the new light. To the right of it you can see the sensor. This detects movement, and turns the light on, so it comes on when you open the door. If you don’t keep moving, the light goes off again. There’s something you can adjust on the sensor to set this time interval.

The light switched on. In the photo it looks very dark beneath the top shelf but in reality the light illuminates the entire space very adequately.

All my jars with their labels. I am more than delighted with how they look!

The marble slab. This feels lovely and cool. When I was growing up, my mum had a huge walk-in pantry with two vast slate slabs, and a ventilator window to one side. Every pantry should have a slab! My hubby and I chose this light colour, thinking that it would reflect the light and keep the interior of the pantry nice and bright. You can see I’ve got my water filter, the egg rack, some tomatoes and cherries, and the butter, keeping cool on the slab.

The spice rack on the right-hand side of the pantry.

Before replacing all the spices, I cleaned them all with a sponge and warm soapy water. When the spice rack was in the utility room, they got very dusty. The jars are now all in alphabetical order, making them easier to find. I have had to put the larger jars in the shelves at the bottom, and there are also some spare ones down there too. This rack was made for me many years ago when I got my first place, and it’s been with me on every move since. The top part of it has two rows of hooks for hanging utensils on, but I haven’t filled these yet. It will be good to free up a bit of space in the utensil jar beside the cooker, which is bursting at the moment – I will be hanging the ones I use less frequently on the spice rack, and now it’s in the pantry it is much more accessible.

Here is the left-hand side of the pantry. There are tins at the top, and the taller spaces are occupied by things in constant use.

The temporary arrangement under the bottom shelf.

I have taken one of the moveable shelves that I made from the top and put it under here for the moment – I can’t have it on the top shelf because if I do, there isn’t room for the really tall jars of pasta etc. The right-hand side of this space under the bottom shelf will eventually be occupied by the wine rack, which will be reduced in size to fit, but in the meantime it will be used by the new kittens as a climbing frame! Two previous generations of kittens have used it and they have all absolutely loved it.

Underneath this moveable shelf I’ve got a couple of plastic baskets with miscellaneous things in – these will occupy better places once we start munching our way through the huge number of duplicates found when I sorted out that horrible old cupboard!

Inside the door.

This afternoon I put the finishing touches to the pantry by fixing the three metal mesh magazine racks to the inside of the door, for storing my rolls of paper etc. The top one holds greaseproof paper, baking parchment and foil – packets which are open and in current use. The middle one holds the centres of rolls of kitchen paper. Each one holds different sizes of freezer bags, and I’ve written on the top of each roll what it contains, e.g. “LH,” “M,” “S” – “Large with Handles,” “Medium” (without handles), “Small” etc. This was a storage tip I picked up years ago and it’s brilliant for keeping your freezer bags organised and tidy. Unless the bags have been used for meat, I wash them and re-use them. I used to keep these rolls in one of those red plastic baskets, but this way, they take up much less room. The bottom rack holds unopened rolls of baking parchment, cling film etc. To the right is a hook on which I have hung my apron. All this stows away tidily when the door is closed.

I thought long and hard how best to attach these racks to the door. I got this idea from Pinterest, and it seems that most people attach them with Velcro, but I didn’t want to do this. Because the racks are so thin fore-and-aft, there was no room to insert a screwdriver to screw them to the door. I drilled holes in the door where I wanted the fixings to go, and wrapped a cable twist around each screw, which I then screwed into the door. I marked the positions of the screws on each rack with a thread tied through the metal mesh, and lined these markers up with the screws, threading the cable twists through the mesh, and twisting them together to secure the racks in place. It was an awfully fiddly job but it works a treat! The racks had to be placed with plenty of space above them, in order to be able to get the paper rolls out.

The rest of the kitchen is still somewhat chaotic. Now that lots of things have migrated into the pantry, I’ve got the chance to free up space in the rest of the kitchen and get things organised better, which will mean having fewer things out on the tops, and the whole thing will be a lot tidier, and easier to keep clean. Positives all round!

Finally, a review of the journey from chaos to order, with some pretty horrendous stuff in between (dry rot!).

What the space originally looked like. When we moved, I had asked the kitchen fitters to leave this cupboard as it was part of the character of the old house, but this proved to be a mistake because it was a complete pain to use.

You can see from this photo of the top half that it was absolutely full of stuff, but what I wanted always seemed to be at the back, and I had to take everything out all the time. My hubby put the intermediate shelves in for me which helped a bit, but the whole thing was absolutely awful and it made me tear my hair with frustration on a daily basis! I used to dream of a walk-in pantry but couldn’t envisage how it might work.

The bottom half of the cupboard, cleared, and with the old heavy duty sheet of lino on the floor removed, revealing the dry rot underneath.

What a total nightmare!

It turned out that the rot had only invaded two short joists, and once these, and the rotten floor boards above had been removed, it was just a case of replacing what was lost. In order to do this, the whole of the old cupboard had to be taken out.

During the time the work was done, we decamped into Mum’s tiny kitchen in the flat. It did us fine! How fortunate we are to have access to two kitchens! (You can see how long ago this all was – there are primroses growing on the bank outside!)

The old cupboard and rotten timber removed.

New joists going in.

New rendering on the walls after the old had been hacked off – they had to remove quite a lot of material to make sure the dry rot hadn’t tracked up into the wall.

New floor boards.

The repairs completed, waiting for decoration and the construction of the new pantry.

The old defunct ventilator blocked off, and a new one installed.

New flooring.

The frame of the new pantry being constructed.

New shelves installed. When this work was finished, I applied several coats of linseed oil to seal and protect them, and finished them off with a coat of beeswax polish.

The door with the side panel made from spare laminate floor pieces. The cornice from the side of the double oven unit has been put along the top to complete the finish.

Making additional free-standing shelves.

The additional shelves completed, and waiting for the slab to arrive.

My beautiful new pantry all fitted out and filled with food and lit up!

I am beyond thrilled with it. It probably sounds silly but to have a walk-in pantry like this is a dream come true for me. I am going to enjoy my cooking so much more now.

The whole project has been finished in time for the arrival of our new kittens on Thursday. This is a fresh start in so many ways!