Stepping Stones and Sarongs

The welcome break in the weather today gave us a chance to get out on the mountain.

I dug inn these steps with my own fair hands and I'm rather proud of it! Hopefully we'll get another good day tomorrow so that we can put in the last few, then, our job out there immediately becomes ten times easier. It's that steep first bit that's so difficult. I must be honest, I'm shattered now. 5 1/2 hours of grueling exercise can do that to a girl though. (Husband has already gone to bed!) It won't be long now until I'll be planting - although I'm told we have to buy some topsoil first.

Friday and Saturday I spent giving the house a good going through, I've neglected it a bit over the last few weeks. With a night out looming on Saturday night (just gone) I needed to decide what to wear.

Of course, my new artwork means that I have to not wear anything at all on my upper back. My good friend had very kindly sent me some gorgeous halterneck tops, and I had my heart set on wearing one of them for the night out, but, due to my "blessings", it needs some extra work doing to it to save me from getting arrested for indecent exposure.

So I went through my things. Somehow, through this process, my eyes are more open to the things I already have, which is wonderful,so there were loads of things I'd have liked to have worn. I have some beautiful sarongs, barely worn, sat in my wardrobe. So, I did some research online, decided upon the most effective way to wear my beautiful black and print GHD sarong that I've never, ever worn, and I thoroughly enjoyed wearing it! I wore it as a halterneck top with shiny black trousers and I was really happy with the look.

Of course, the amazing thing about it is that I could wear it another 50 ways without it looking like it did on Saturday, and that has to be a good thing. The other great thing is that as my weight comes off, I don't have to alter it or give it up!

So I got to thinking about the many benefits to sarongs. I have some of the gorgeous vintage fabric given to me by my stepmother that I can use in the same way. I just need to put a hem on either end of each of the 3 pieces and potentially, that's 150 new things to wear! Sarongs are DEFINITELY the way forward!

Monday Afternoon Baking

Rain stopped play on the mountain today after 4/5 hours. This photo was taken before today's work, but I don't think you'd be able to see what I did really anyway because of the way the land lies. I must take some pictures from the bottom so you can see how steep it is - you really can't tell from this!

Two bonfires and tonnes more raking and clearing have left us a bit more knackered than we were yesterday, so the rain wasn't that much of a nause. It's the gradient that's the killer.

We've now spent some money on it. We bought fencing, not enough for all of it, but enough to keep the kids out. There's so many sheer drops, glass and rubble at the moment that it's really quite dangerous for adults, and you know what kids are like. We couldn't not buy it, we'd be leaving ourselves wide open. We just hope that when the time comes that they can tip my lovely topsoil over the top of the fence. Of course, we didn't buy it from B&Q, we bought it from a local farm shop and, luckily, it was a hell of a lot cheaper there too.

I've now officially become a gardener. I've found myself going through my wardrobe looking for clothing that doesn't look too shameful but doesn't matter if it gets wrecked. I just can't wait to get the steps in to the top half - take a lot of the "bum work" out of it! This is a life changing development, this hillside. It's going to require a lot of my time and attention. But don't you worry - I'll still find time to go wittering on on here!

So, rain stopped play after lunch, so what else to do but bake cakes? 5 batches of biscuits and a banana cake (my famous banana cake! recipe on request). My biscuits turned out with varying successes, one recipe in several variations, but I'm not overly enamored by the recipe, so I'll find a new one. Anyone got a good one? Still, got some supplies for Wednesday. Would have had more but we had to try them (",)!

Whensa Your Dolmio Day?

Today I have been mostly making homemade Italian tomato sauce. The "young people" scoffed the last batch the other week after the Blackout!, so I ordered a crate of tomatoes from the food co-op last week and after school today Meg and I embarked upon a marathon sauce making session and the results are marvelous, if we do say so ourselves.

There has been much thriftiness, creativeness and gardening-ness since I've been away.

Ms. Brooks cordially invited my good self and a couple of mutual friends around for a lentil-fest on Friday night. I'd not been out for a while so was rather looking forward to some tasty home cooking and good company, I just needed something new to wear.

(Cue a pair of Steve's old jeans and a big gorgeous wrap my Nana gave me)

I un-stitched the inside legs of the jeans, shortened, and made a lovely grey denim skirt. Then I stitched the end of the wrap to the side at the other end and made a gorgeous grey fluffy knitted poncho that everyone admired. It's incredibly warm too and a great use of the wrap as it was a bit big to be a scarf, and I don't really use wraps, so now, it's a lovely jumper type thing. Hey presto, a whole new outfit for nowt.

Thanks to Ms. Fleming, the growing is going good too. I've now potted up my apple seeds that are growing beautifully and the leeks, onions and tomatoes are all sprouting. I've gratefully accepted the gift of a whole load of gardening stuff, along with enough jars to make my Syn free sauce. I've had to transfer them to another window sill too as I ran out of space on the other one.

So the "Mumatron" has promised me two lovely emails of hints and tips in keeping with my frugality/anti-consumerism. One of them is about different uses for Bounce tumble drier sheets. I'm looking forward to that one, I must be honest.

The crochet is coming along beautifully and I've found some lovely inspirational thought for the day type words that fit in nicely with the theme of the blog. Stand by for inspiration.

Serendipity Rules O.K.

I'm going to have to retract some of yesterday's rant.

It's been weeks now I've been needing to buy a new data cable for my phone but for some reason I just didn't get around to it. Always thinking "I'll just give the old one a few days to turn back up" which, of course it never did.

So I'm very glad something made me do it yesterday. I don't know what though. Usually my tightwaddness would override my need for it and my complete abhorrence of the amount of money I'd already spent would have stopped me. But it didn't.

If I hadn't bought that data cable yesterday I would not be talking to you now. My modem has died. Well and truly, so I'll now be relying on the good old fashioned mobile phone to keep me blogging for a couple of days.

A good result too today. Just had a gorgeous meal with one half of my family and was talking about my new mini-greenhouse (kitchen windowsill). My Stepmother offered me the use of half of her greenhouse. Now that's an offer I cannot refuse. I'm going to need to do some research now to decide what to plant in it. I reckon a combination of half a greenhouse and a load of raised tubs in my yard will do us just about fine.

I'm thinking peppers, corn on the cob, chillies ...