Morgana Mittens

Hopefully less than two weeks till we collect our girl, lockdown restrictions allowing.

I have finished her little knitted blanket with a nice crochet shell edging in a very pretty green. And today postie has brought me a free box of goodies from Royal Canin for her, organised by her lovely breeder Sian.

Our son went back to the big city on Sunday after many months and surprisingly I'm experiencing empty nest syndrome all over again. It's been wonderful to have him home. He is sad to be missing Morgana's arrival, but I hope they get to meet before too long.

Bargain Garden Furniture

I don't shop for my food at Asda but I always look at their website, amongst others when I'm looking for household items, as we all know quality isn't always determined by what you pay anymore. When I was a child you could pretty much guarantee that if you paid more for something the quality increased, not anymore, that's why I always do my research before I buy.

Last year or was it the year before? I bought a really nice woven based, glass topped garden table from Asda just as their sale started, It has weathered extremely well and still looks like new. So when I decided I wanted a small patio set for the back terrace of the house I went straight to Asda.

I'm super pleased with it, £49 including delivery. I got the cushions from Debenhams online (another shop I never actually go in) in their sale for £16 for the two including delivery. Such good value even comparing to Ebay and Etsy. I've gone a bit mad on this Coral colour and I have now noticed Monty Don has the same type and colour table in his garden, which pleases me.  Although my love of this shade has been with me since I painted my dining room Coral last year. Our lovely son has been painting the fence behind in Cuprinol's Shades range, the colour is Willow.

We picked some strawberries from the garden last night, not many, but bloomin delicious with salted caramel ice cream.

Syd & Daisy Brown - A World War 1 Love Story.

Over thirty years ago now I had an elderly neighbour called Vera, who was, shall we say a little bit eccentric. A hoarder of sorts, but one that loved to dabble in the buying and selling of collectable and antique items. She lived alone, although she did have family, and every single day she would be out with her bus pass looking for the extraordinary to purchase. The idea being to sell said found items. In truth a small proportion did get sold but most were 'stored'.

I happened to be visiting her one day when she produced a large cache of letters, bills and post cards that she had bought from a house clearance. Over a cuppa I sat with Vera and looked through the box of ephemera with her.  And oh my what a story of love and life spoke to me from the past.

The box contained a lifetime of receipts, family documents, letters and postcards, all relating to the Brown family of New Eltham, Kent. On reading through with her I discovered the wartime correspondence between a couple, Syd and Daisy Brown. Now, Vera had already decided that she would separate all the items and sell them off individually to maximise her profits.

Dear reader, I couldn't let that happen, so I managed to purchase, ten postcards that detailed their lives apart during the war, their hopes and dreams of being reunited, Syd's eventual return to Blighty in 1919 and most happily the birth of a son Ken.  I suspect it must have been Ken's house that was being cleared when the items came up for sale.

I have had these cards tied up in a ribbon ever since, but I think it is time to sell them on to someone who will keep them together, but who will enjoy them and value them for their content, so I will list them today on Ebay.

I thought I would post about this story and show you some of the cards. The embroidered anniversary card is especially poignant , sent August 1918, celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary. Syd has added a note to this card at the top in April 1961.

It reads, "Dear Daisy died suddenly 11.15pm Wed 4th February 1959. Now as I write this, 20th April 1961, I miss her more than I can tell. I know we shall all meet again in God's everlasting kingdom". Syd.

Anniversary card front

Anniversary card back.

Mabel Lucie Attwell birthday card for Ken 1926 front.

Ken's birthday card back

1894 School Board award to Daisy front

Daisy's School Board award back.

Waste Not Want Not.

Dear reader you do know I love all things thrifty and mostly I only hand over hard earned money when I'm receiving a bargain in return.

Now, I do like to share any little gems I've spied, on my blog. Not because I have any links to the sellers, it's simply I like to share things that may bring a little (discounted) joy.

I receive a marvellous weekly newsletter from Martin Lewes who is a wizard at managing moolah. If you do not subscribe to it already through his money saving expert website, may I suggest you do.  His many nuggets of wisdom have saved us a lot of money over time and helped us make financial decisions.

Today he highlighted the supermarket special offers for veg and fruit boxes. About time the supermarkets started to do this. I shop at various big food stores and Morrisons have for a time sold 'wonky' veg at reasonable prices. Although I have to say sometimes the produce is not as fresh as it should be.

Whilst I'm picking bones, I might also add I'm not best pleased with Sainsburys, who despite the fact I've been spending heaps more during lockdown, have not issued any money saving coupons or double/triple points coupons during the whole of the lockdown. Shame on them, taking advantage of their regular customers.

Anyhoo, I was very impressed with this Lidl offer.

5Kg of fruit and veg for £1.50. Edible but not perfect, slightly past its best before date. All types of fruit and veg, some more exotic than others. A good rootle around and I think you could pick up a box that would provide quite a few meals. I believe they are only available early on in the day then anything left unsold is donated to good local causes.

If we stopped wasting and discarding so much the planet would be a lot happier. And so would I.

Thrifty Tipples

I have just seen a warning on Rosemary's blog about the new 'blogger format', I popped over to have a look and oh dear it doesn't look promising.


Changes always feel strange at first so I'm quite happy to give things a go but I can't seem to access my photos. That may be because the new format hasn't gone fully live yet? It does indicate an option to continue with this style of blogger so we shall see.

Anyhoo, on to more important things, thrifty tipples.

I originally posted about making elderflower fizz way back in 2014, so I thought I would revisit the making of said fabulous tipple as the flowers are just about ready, after all of our recent sun and rain.

There are many folk posting various recipes and I guess it doesn't really matter who you follow on this, as the results of this concoction are usually delicious whatever the ratio of ingredients are.

I did watch a deightful little film on Dick and Angel Strawbridge's site on the making of elderflower fizz, so if you like to see how it's done pop over there. (No pun intended)

Ingredients

600 grams caster sugar
4 litres hot water
2 litres cold water
juice and zest 3 to 4 lemons
2 tbsps white wine vinegar
25 or thereabouts fresh Elderflower heads (try to keep them upright when picking as this will help keep any natural yeast on the blooms and don't wash them for the same reason. You can strain out any bugs later, but feel free to pick the big ones off as you collect).

Kit

Flip top glass bottles or plastic bottles. I used glass flip tops from IKEA but if you check out the Escape to The Chateau way (above link) they reuse pop bottles. Wash these in the dishwasher just before you decant the fizz then the bottles will be sterilised.

10 litre plastic bucket for fermenting the fizz

Funnel to decant into bottles.

Muslin fabric to strain any unwelcome bits of flowers and creatures from liquid.

lemon zest

How To

Dissolve sugar in 4 litres of hot water, then add 2 litres of cold water stirring to mix.
Add the lemon juice and zest, then the white wine vinegar, stir well to combine.
Add the flowerheads cutting off any excess stalks before you do so.
Cover with a lid or clean tea towel and leave to ferment.

When I made this before I added champagne yeast and left it for 4 days before bottling. This time I'm hoping the natural yeast will work it's magic and I decanted after only two days. The last batch was soooooo explosive it broke the first bottle on opening, so I'm hoping I will get a good fizz that won't take an eye out.

Wash everything you use in hot soapy water and rinse well before use. ALSO WHEN OPENING THE BOTTLES AFTER TWO WEEKS COVER WITH A CLOTH JUST TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE.

Now if you can't be bothered to do this or you can't get your hands on the flowers you could order a very reasonably priced substitute. I've done both, so typical of me, FOMO.

I saw an advert for a case of 6 fruity La Vida Bonita, a VERY light soft 5% alcohol summer tipple, made from the Moscatel grape. Amazingly thrifty at £19.74, plus I got a small 10% cashback from Visa offers, so rude not to really. If you go to radiotimes.comvidabonita you can take a squiz yourself.

Cheers and a very warm welcome to my three new followers.

Love & Magic

I stumbled on the film version of Bewitched yesterday on the tellybox, yes I have seen it before, but no matter, I bloomin loved it. The gentle mix of magic and silly fun was perfect for a gloomy covid day. I delighted in the TV show as a child, when everything and all things seemed possible.

I rewatched Chocolat for the very same reason a few weeks ago. Fanciful imaginings I know but they warm my heart.

Bad News & Good News

Very bad start to this week, but doesn't do to dwell. Things are looking up, it's our son's birthday today and he's with us of course, so current mood is....................

Did someone mention Mumm Cordon Rouge? My favourite fizz. I've given up on cheap Champagne, it truly is a false economy if ever there was one, but I do buy Mumm when it's on special, normally a third off, buy it pop it away for a rainy day. And as luck would have it the forecast today is rain.

After all 'In victory you deserve Champagne, In defeat you need it'  (Napoleon Bonaparte).

Hello Knitting Chums

I had the bright idea to knit myself a very complicated jumper for our holiday later on in the year. Plenty of time at the moment right? I have made heavily patterned garments before, lots of Fair Isle and such. But with those patterns you do get a fair amount of pattern repeat which I find helps with the rhythm of knitting. Not so with this beast.

Wedgewood by Martin Storey

I have knitted about 8 inches so far and as every row is different my eyes boggle when I look at the chart. Each row is taking about 30 minutes. But I must press on otherwise I will have wasted money on the yarn and of course I won't have my impressive jumper for my hols, and that will not do.

I wonder if I take a copy of the pattern and enlarge it, would it make it easier? Then I could also cross through the rows I have completed as I do it. Mmmmm any thoughts folks?

The pattern is from one of the gorgeously lush Rowan knitting & crochet magazines.

I have also nearly finished a little blanket for Morgana the kitten. I just need to crochet an edging.

This has been made from washable wool that I had in my yarn stash. Left overs really from other projects so hasn't cost any extra. And of course sooooo easy to knit. The edging should give it a bit of a flourish.

Coming Soon A New Member Of The Family

A house without a puss is strangely empty, even with lots of folk living in it. So although we are still grieving for our ole puss Pendragon, we decided to reserve a new kitten , who should be with us in another 5/6 weeks. She is a British Shorthair the same breed and her Mother has the same colouring as our ole puss, which really rather sold her to us.

We have chosen a name that connects her with Pendragon too and follows the Arthurian legend that she was named from, following a holiday in Cornwall 18 years ago. Plus this little girl is Welsh. We have decided on Morgana and her second name is Mittens, which is her Auntie's name.

Sian the breeder is exceptional, kindness itself. She sends us regular updates and is already using Morgana's name to help her settle when she comes to us.

We are really looking forward to this new life in our home. I'll keep you updated on her progress.

Some peonies from the garden.