A Restful Day

Work last night was hectic, there had been a 3 hour breakdown and the Domino effect kicked in. Only 1 cooking line was affected but because the Engineers had to work in the area all cooking had to stop and all materials removed from the cookhouse. Food safety is paramount. Once the problem had been resolved the area and equipment had to have a deep clean, we all joined in but lost 2 more hours, over 4 lines that is a whole shifts worth of work.

2 of the first shift stayed on for 3 hours and Michael worked opposite to me. we worked hard but sensibly and only left 2 hours worth of work to be picked up. Will we get thanks for this? Don't be so silly, we did not even get a request from management to keep them updated.

I had to pick some more apples today before the branches broke under the weight. My freezer has enough for pies and crumbles so I took a lead from Sue at Our New Life in the Country and made a batch of Apple Sauce and popped into some jars.

7 jars, all the seals have popped so they should keep, but I will keep a close eye on them. I will repeat this process until I run out of jars.

While getting my jars out I found these, Smooth strawberry jam, made last year for Francesca. She hated seeds in anything and this makes a good sauce if you heat it gently. It gives an edge to any fruit pudding and is sublime poured over Eton Mess while quite warm.

I have been watching these ripen on one of my walks with Ben and today we stopped and picked some, I will keep them in the fridge till Friday before turning them into syrup. I have time to pick a load more and when they have softened down in the maslin pan I will add elderberries. Once strained through a Jelly Bag the juices will have an equal weight of sugar added and be boiled until the right consistency and then bottled. The syrup is lovely when diluted with hot water, very soothing. It may not cure a cold but it does perk you up.

I have the four quarters of the Jelly Roll Jam quilt made and am just waiting for Francesca to decide if she would like them sashed or just sewn together, once done I will show and tell.

I won a give away last week and have selected my fabric £60 worth! Once it arrives I will share it with you.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Yet more goodies filling up my larder.

2.  Misty early mornings slowly turning into sun drenched days.

3. The smell of wood smoke drifting round the village. 

4. A new quilt plan in my head.

5. My village shop, flourishing and saving me a car journey at least once a week.

I do plan ahead and keep a good store cupboard but when you drop the milk on the floor as you take it out of the fridge,  as you do ..........................you need a shop on the corner rather than a car journey and a 30 minute wait.

All in all a gentle restful pottering day, it was so good I may just repeat it tomorrow.

Until tomorrow               TTFN                    Pam

Fighting Fit and Feeling Fine

Hi de Hi, I am fighting fit and ready to rock 'n roll, What a difference a day makes yesterday I was yeurghk and today it is gone.

A big welcome to two new followers, I hope you enjoy hanging out.

Work was smooth as silk last night, today may be different. There are a series of Briefings taking place over all shifts and departments so each session will take almost an hour out of the work time.

I was going to shop today but having checked the fridge did not need to, so win win.
Add to that this little lot,

Six very large mangoes, they are under ripe but just the job for a batch of chutney.

Two bags of salad leaves, my favourite mixes.

This little lot was a gift, ok it came from the staff shop, I no longer carry money to work and someone owed me a favour, saw these and knowing that I loved them, bought them for me.

Today Michael asked for beans on toast with grated cheese, easy meal and all from stores, no spend. The bread is homemade, cost about 6p, beans 15p, cheese 25p, total cost 46p. not bad.

I decided on a light meal so tipped some salad onto a plate, added cherry toms from the garden, more fresh basil, coriander and flat parsley from the garden. To add some protein and carbs to this I pulled this from the larder.

I bought these when they were on offer ages ago and used half a tin so the cost of my dinner was 25p. 

Our dinner cost 71p, I am dead chuffed with that and stuffed to the gills.

I took Ben out for a long walk as he was restricted yesterday and a rabbit shot out of the hedge and ran under his nose, he reared up on his hind legs as though he was acting in Ben Hur, he he that was serendipitous.

I watched a feww tutorials on FMQ techniques and had a little play, more on that another day.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Feeling fine, good health can not be over rated.

2. Seeing the scarlet splash of poppies, the gold of dandelions and their fluffy white seed heads glowing against a sea of dark green sugar beet leaves.

3. Turning a corner and seeing an ancient climbing rose frothing with white blooms wrapped in a lovers embrace with an equally ancient gnarled apple tree, glistening with red fruit.

4. Birds wheeling over a freshly turned field harvesting seeds and creepy crawlies.

5.  Having the time and opportunity to see and enjoy our countryside.

A  wonderful walk full of wonder and beauty, free to any one who cares to get out and find it.

On that note I wish you all a good day, what is left of it, and a restful evening.                       TTFN                       Pam

I Should Be So Lucky, Wait, I Am Lucky.

Last night at work I was hit by a fork lift truck!!, At least the pallet that he was moving hit me in the back. I was moving forward and have very quick reflexes, a good thing on both counts otherwise I would now be in hospital or worse.
The driver was moving forward with a fully loaded pallet so could see nothing, he should have been reversing until he reached his destination, he was not sounding his hooter, and when I spoke to him he did not understand English. I reported it to his supervisor and then high tailed it up to the office to make an official report.
As I said in the title I am so lucky. But I do not want to be lucky. I WANT TO BE SAFE.

My employers have "A duty of care" for me and all my colleagues, it is a legal responsibility, and I feel strongly that they are not fulfilling that  duty.

We have a high percentage of foreign workers with a very limited understanding of English. On the other hand if the foreign nationals left we would close, unemployment is fairly high in this area but there seems to be a hard core of able bodied people who will not/can not get off their bums and go to work

Rant over, I do apologize but I was rather shaken up by my near miss.

Time for a calming photo or 2.

Early morning in Rhydowen, Wales.

Road side bank in Pontsian, Wales

A splash of colour, Llandysul, Wales

That's much better, calmer by the photo.

I am doing well in my challenge to use it up not buy it up, I spent £2.68 on milk, £1.75 on veg, £1 on eggs and 50p on oranges last Sunday. From the state of my fridge I will not spend another penny until Friday or Saturday when it will be milk, cheese and eggs again plus a little veg and salad. so I should stay comfortably within the £10 projected spend.

I have 2 Quilt tops to layer and baste, I will try to get those done on Friday while I am on my own. If I try this when anyone is in the house you can bank on it that they will NEED to walk just where I amat least 10 times. Then I snarl and spit and they take umbrage. I use my tiled living room floor, not only is the grid pattern perfect, it is the only space large enough to hold an 80" square quilt. I can not sew in metric. 

I also need to have another tidy up with my scraps because I have used so many of them I can cut out 2 of the boxes. Winner Winner? Sob Sob, I love my scraps.

If anyone feels the need to get rid of scraps I will gladly pay postage, from almost anywhere.

Hello, My name is Pam, and I am a scrapaholic.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. The sun has got its  hat on and has come out to play.

2. I escaped unscathed from a potential disaster.

3. This week I will save £40. Woo Hoo

4. Francesca gets her car back on Saturday.

5. Therefore I get my car back also.

Dinner tonight is undecided, I think that it will be a lucky dip from my homemade ready meals. That way I can have an extra hour in the garden.

This is not laziness, this is why I tuck ready meals away on rainy days, so that I can have a bonus hour doing something outside on sunny days.

BTW Elaine Collier of Morgage Free in Three has posted a wonderful recipe for oaty bites, I will be whipping up a batch or 3 of these.                                 TTFN       Pam

Tear round Tuesday

I really seem to have my Knickers in a twist today. It all stems from Sunday night, one of the cooks had a half day holiday and just vanished at 2.00 am, as nobody had the sense or decency to tell me never mind ask If I could cope, I thought he had gone for break. I was very busy doing fast cooks and sorting out the storage area to get my stuff to cook so I took no notice whatsoever of the other line. I did eventually click that it was not running but as there were two senior ops working decided that if they couldn't be bothered then neither could I. It was hot and sticky, the fans were not even stirring the air and I was feeling the effects.
When someone finally asked me why I wasn't running both lines I popped, gave my best shot of vitriol and carried on doing my line. I left at 5.30 as I had not stopped for a break still in a major snot and with a raging headache to boot.
When I got home I had a cup of tea and went straight to bed and woke early with headache firmly in place, 2 lots of  "parrotseatemall" and I just began to feel almost human.
I slummocked round the cottage under a black cloud and achieved very little. I got a tub of meatballs in my dark barbecue sauce from the freezer and did jacket potato with them. I managed to finally select and cut the fabric for the last 2 sides of the Hug Quilt blocks and will sew them later.
I got to work last night to find Michael in the middle of an asthma attack so came straight home with him, it took a while for him to stabilise but we were in bed before midnight.
I slept and woke and dozed and woke on and off and got up quite early feeling unrefreshed. I scooted round the cottage, took Ben out, sorted a pile of ironing ready to do and remembered that I have a parcel to post so off I went. somewhere along the way I lost track of time and was convinced that it was over 2 hours later.
So I made coffee, sat down and had a blog reading session and caught my breath.
Now I feel fit to tackle the ironing and will watch something recorded on the sky box, once finished I am going to have a baking session before I sew my strips on The Hug.

I am still feeling decidedly miffed at TPTB at work and goodness help them if I have any C##p tonight,
as the (sort of) saying goes C##p on me once, shame on you. C##p on me twice shame on me. There will be no shame on me!

On  better note, and I should have started with this, I have some new followers and I have found a new blog to follow, I will share with you another day as If I do not start the ironing it will not be started. I know that Francesca does it at the weekend but there is a pile and she is still not herself.

Reasons to be grateful

1. A lovely bright day but a bit cooler.

2. A lovely new blog to read.

3. Michael feeling better.

4. Ben being all cuddly.

5. A plan for the future finalised and ready to be put into action.( more at a later date)

Enjoy what is left of your day.    TTFN     Pam