Frosty flowers and wintry showers.

Ooh My Word, it was a chilly start to the day, the sharpest frost so far this winter.
My little spring bulbs are holding up well though.

I have most of them in pots and troughs, once the last ones have flowered they will be tucked behind the greenhouse. It is sheltered and they can just sit and build up ready for next year when I hope to have a glorious display. These Irises have been flowering away for a couple of weeks now, such delicate looking blooms for such a tough little cookie. They do not like being disturbed which is good enough reason for container growing.

Another tough little flower, I have dozens of these in pots and in the garden, they are providing a little bit of colour while the Hyacinths grow.

This is redder in real life and is the only one to flower, so far, in this trough. There are more buds waiting to unfurl.

Here is my experiment, the deep pink and white are glitter yarn, I am quite pleased with it.

It should be like a posy and I am almost there. The next one will have a double ring of leaves in a few different colours, and other flowers besides the roses.

I am going to back this with fabric and add a hanging loop, it will go on a wall somewhere to add a little splash of colour.

The wreath destined for the charity shop is still here, I asked if they would sell it as the form is polystyrene and nobody was able to tell me.

The craft stall in the covered market sells wire wreath forms so I plan on trying one out. I will probably cover it with fabric rather than crochet, I think that the wire will show through crochet.

The dentist was relatively painless, both physically and financially, cue a big sigh of relief.

I popped into Tesco on the way home and picked up some grapes, peaches and bananas that had been reduced to pennies, and 2 kilos of mushrooms for just over £1.

I felt in need of comfort, nursery food for dinner so went through the cupboard.

A tin of corned beef, fat removed (hardly a teaspoon full) and diced. 

An onion, a green pepper and 2 small sticks of celery diced fine and softened in a little oil and a dab of butter.

Add the corned beef and stir gently till it starts to break down.

Tip in a tin of baked beans , stir and heat gently till it bubbles.

Serve with mashed potatoes and griddled halved tomatoes.

Serve three greedy/hungry peeps, lean back and sigh gently. realise that a few grapes are just the thing for pudding and get somebody else to make a brew.

The most expensive ingredient was the tin of meat and that was £1.25 in Poundstretcher ages ago, the potatoes came from a £5 for 25Kg bag, the onion from a £1 for 5 Kg bag, the pepper and celery were RTC and cost around 10p. The tomatoes cost me 35p RTC and the beans were 25p. A little oil, butter and milk plus the gas for cooking bring me up to an approximate cost of £2.50 for 3 good meals, and some left overs for lunch today.

I could have made this feed 4 easily  by cooking more potatoes, we were all really full even though I did not pile the plates up.

I do have another tin of corned beef in the cupboard, and a repeat performance has been requested.

Oops, I just remembered that I did whisk a chilli from the freezer (10 seconds in the microwave), chopped finely, it went in with the onion. That was from my windowsill and cost less than 1p.

Now I am off to Wyevale, I am taking a friend and I hope to get my seed potatoes. I read on the website that they have Nadine in stock and I intend to grow some in half barrels this year.

Wrap up warm, the forecast is wintry showers, brrrr.

                            TTFN                                  Pam