This week’s meal plan: the coming-and-going one

Posted by louisa on Monday 21 March 2011 in weekly meal plans | 2 comments

We stuck to the plan much better last week than the week before – not perfectly but much better.

As well as continuing DIY madness (which is proving to be more disruptive than we thought), John’s out at a conference for three days midweek (and we’ve got a friend staying over to go to it too) and I’m starting to be get into crunch mode for the play I’m working on so we’ll be coming and going a lot. I’d still like to have a plan to avoid slipping over to the easy junk food option but I have a lot less inclination to cook for myself though and I think this is reflected in the easy/less-than-varied choices.

Sunday dinner: pasta with herby sausages, peppers & olives

Monday lunch: curried egg mayo sandwiches
Monday dinner: chicken fried rice

Tuesday lunch: leftover fried rice (assuming there is some) or a toastie
Tuesday dinner: homemade pizza (since the friend is over and that was one of the things we swapped out last week) or possibly a curry with some more friends, as they’re in town for the film festival

Wednesday late-lunch: pasta with tuna & olives
Wednesday supper: (John out at the conference dinner, I’m rehearsing ’til 10) crackers & cheese

Thursday lunch: leftover tuna pasta
Thursday dinner: tortilla, with sweet potato, wild garlic & chorizo, with side salad

Friday lunch: samosas & salad
Friday dinner: company meal out (Little Tokyo in Leeds, mmm!)

Potatoes, seedlings, big bulldogs & have-a-go bullycats

Posted by louisa on Thursday 17 March 2011 in growing | 8 comments

I’ve been really careful, well, kinda careful this year to not overwhelm myself with seedlings.

It’s a bit of a balancing act, isn’t it? Ensuring that you sow enough to get adequate germination and to survive the tribulations of growing into seedlings, being transplanted and being put somewhere that ninja slugs might reach them (nevermind late frost snaps, being sat on by the dog or a myriad of diseases and other pests) – BUT not sowing too many that it’ll overwhelm your available resources (including time and space).

Last year, I accidentally grew way too many squash and nearly all the rest of my veggies suffered as a result – I’m keen not to make that mistake this year so have been cautious when it comes to buying and planting. Or at least I thought I had been – even though I’d resisted the cheap large bags of seed potatoes I’d seen, the small amount of seed potatoes I have bought are going to go further than I thought.

This afternoon I’ve planted out some Swift potatoes – which apparently provide small but very early spuds – and used up a third of my existing potato containers/bags — and I’ve still got another six varieties chitting and nearly ready to plant out. Admittedly I’ve only got a small amount of each variety but still, by my maths, I’ll need at least another eight to ten containers/bags for them all. It’s times like these that I really wish I had an allotment or at least beds that were deep enough/wide enough to warrant rows.

Any recommendations for potato-growing containers/bags or stuff to reuse for said containers?

I’ve also asked on Twitter for recommendations for topsoil and/or compost suppliers – we just don’t have any spare soil in this garden and our compost heaps aren’t pumping out enough of the brown stuff just yet. If anyone else has any suggestions around Leeds/Bradford or offering affordable delivery from elsewhere, I’d love to hear them :)

Aside from the potatoes, it’s all go in my seedling nurseries – I’ve got stuff that needs a warm environment (tomatoes, peppers, chillis, squash, cucumber) in the propagator, and stuff that doesn’t mind the cold (early lettuce, broad beans and after being reminded about them by Gillian, radishes) in the greenhouse. Lots and lots of green shoots popping up. But hopefully not too many of any one thing ;)

The jostaberry canes are planted out too – although that little job was interrupted by a big bulldog coming over to meet Lily-dog and Boron the old, toothless cat deciding he wanted to fight said big bulldog to prove his manliness or something. Thankfully the bulldog is good around cats so just tried to get out of the way of Boron’s swats but a scary few minutes for me all the same!

More fruit bushes-to-be – jostaberry

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 16 March 2011 in growing | 4 comments

A while ago, I said I was done planting fruit bushes for the year, then about a week later I remembered I had some honeyberry bushes on order but once they were planted up, that was it re: fruit bushes for the year. Oh, and there was also the then on order, now planted out cherry tree – definitely nothing else. Definitely, definitely, definitely.

The magnificently wonderful John B popped around last night, bringing with him some of his damson wine (which my John has declared amazing), a jar of his homemade “John’s Spicy Sausage Sauce” (which we shall use to spice up our sausages ASAP) and some jostaberry canes.

I hadn’t heard of jostaberries before John mentioned them to us a while ago – they’re a cross between gooseberries and blackcurrants. Early on, they have the taste & transparency of gooseberries but they darken to end up like big blackcurrants. They also have rather big spikes on them.

He pruned his bushes at the weekend and I won’t be able to plant the cuttings until tomorrow so they might need a bit of TLC – or might just flat out not regrow – but it’s worth a shot.

I plonked them in a tub of water when they arrived and we decided it looked like the worst, most painful, most relationship-ending bouquet of flowers ever — unhappy Valentine’s day. Hopefully though, they’ll eventually make us berry happy indeed.

Jealous

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 15 March 2011 in anti-consumerism, meta | 13 comments

As well as learning how to screenprint, we fed our neighbours’ cats this weekend – both the ever-so-friendly white cat next door and the two huge timid-but-getting-friendly black & white chaps next door but one. We feed them quite regularly because our neighbours are social divas & jetsetters – but don’t mind a bit because it only takes five minutes and we get lots of cat hugs as “payment”. I always come back covered in white fluff and get sniffed accusingly by the dog & our (black) cats.

But feeding the cats does have one negative aspect for me: jealousy.

Next door’s house can only be described as a show home. They bought the rundown house cheaply before the boom and spent a huge amount of money refitting it completely. It looks like something from a magazine – the seamless granite worksurfaces buffed to perfection, the wet room sparkling, the guest bedroom like a suite in a boutique hotel. A lovely combination of pristine modern design and wonderful reclaimed vintage items.

Next-door-but-one’s isn’t as expensively polished but my, it’s lovely. It’s more shabby chic – which is more my preferred style – with the emphasis on the chic not the shabby. Muted red & white lino squares set on the diagonal in the kitchen, mismatched dining table chairs, pale walls with coloured woodwork and original (Victorian) features up the wazoo. It feels cosy but relaxed, like a home should.

Can you see why I feel jealous?

A number of my friends have really nice homes but there is something about our neighbours’ houses, particularly next-door-but-one, that really gets to me. I think it’s because, while the layouts are surprisingly different and we have a side extension, the houses are structurally the same so it feels like we could have such gorgeous houses if we threw enough time/money at it. … But what we’ve got – and especially what we’re slowly working on making our own – is fine, more than fine, great in fact.

It feels a bit like what happened with the Kindle a while ago – a desire for something being built up through repeat exposure, not because of a genuine need but it’s shown me what’s possible. Because I generally avoid the broadcast & print media, don’t enjoy browsing/being in shops, and shy away from “stuff” blogs or websites (the only blogs about pretty “stuff” I read are ones showing you how to make said lovely things), I’m not regularly exposed to things that provoke desire in this way. It scares me that these houses, which are not using psychological tricks to sell me things, provoke such a strong emotion: it makes me realise how vulnerable I would be to advertisements, or style magazines.

I find myself thinking about what our house is not – stylish, polished, finished – rather than what it is (a place for us to be happy together, and we are very happy here).

I’m not sure how I’ll get over it, or at least learn to deal with it. Perhaps I should do the self-esteem building/depression-beating trick of writing a list of positive aspects, things I like, about our house to review whenever I’m feeling jealous of the other people’s houses or whatever.

Any other suggestions on how to deal with it?

(Photo by namida-k)

Learning how to screenprinting

Posted by louisa on Monday 14 March 2011 in making | 0 comments

I’ve written on my general personal blog about how we have been learning how to screenprint this weekend. I’ve been itching to try it for a while – it was on my main goals list for 2011, although I’m not sure I mentioned it on my list here because it didn’t seem simple/frugal living related. However, we had such fun that I want to mention it here to encourage everyone else to have a go ;)

The day course introduced us to the basics of screenprinting – the process of creating our own photo-emulsion screens, using paper stencils, printing solid colours, colour blending, and printing onto paper & fabric – and was in itself a lot of fun. But the best thing is the place we did the course, Factory4 in Leeds, offers workshop facilities/equipment for anyone wanting to screenprint (or make fine silver jewellery, woodwork, or frame pictures) but doesn’t have the money or space to buy all the equipment themselves — this means we can practise our skills without having to spend a lot of money. (It’s an hourly fee of £4 to use the equipment, which includes a technician’s support if needed, and £3 to borrow an A2-ish size screen, the photo emulsion for it and the destencilling soap afterwards.)

Actually, our reasons for wanting to try it do have a kinda frugal element – John wants to design his own t-shirts (so will only have to buy plain basic shirts rather than fancy pre-printed ones) and we both want to make some artwork for the house (which will be cheaper than buying it all in – we do like to support independent artists but have a lot of walls to cover!). Once we get better at it, I also like the idea of printing onto recycled/reclaimed materials to give them a new lease of life, so that’ll cut our material costs further. But cost aside, weeee! so much fun!!