Showing posts with label decorating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decorating. Show all posts

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

A busy week

It's been a busy week! A slight crisis at work has meant I've done more hours than usual, at all times of the day, including staying overnight. I also went on a surprise visit to my family at the weekend. All this would have been fine, but I've had a dreadful cold too, and been completely worn out. I've been burning tea tree oil in an attempt to avoid giving it to guests. 

We had two guests last night, and we had curry, baked potatoes, and home made bread. I also made a version of another Entertaining with Stork recipe - a ginger and cherry loaf, with banana instead of the ginger. It was beautiful straight out of the oven with hot custard, and tasted very nice cold this morning too.

In a break from the phd this morning I made another batch of the face scrub. I've enjoyed using this for the past couple of weeks, it feels nice and smells gorgeous. It's quite abrasive the first day or two, then softens a bit as the days go on. This little jar holds enough for about a week, so it's a scrub for a couple of days, then a paste for 5 or 6 days, then the new batch starts as a scrub again. It works well. 

Something unusual happened this morning - a man knocked on the door and asked if we'd like to buy some fresh fish. I vaguely remember there being a fish man when I was little (although I don't think we ever bought anything). I don't even eat fish, but we decided to have some for Peter. We had to change our minds slightly when we discovered the price... But we got 5 pieces (about a pound) of oak smoked kippers for £8. Probably not a bargain, but apparently it was very nice, and it'll do a few meals. 

I've said before that we spend lots of time watching the birds out of the kitchen window. The other day we were having a cuppa and this squirrel turned up.

He stayed for ages, snuffling up all the seeds on the bird table, and ignoring a wood pigeon that was trying to intimidate him. I know some people try to keep squirrels off their bird food, but we don't - and isn't he cute?

Monday, 23 March 2009

Bathroom and baking



Well, it's not finished, but it's got skirting and a floor! It's taken me the best part of 2 days, swearing a lot, and there's quite a few imperfections, but I'm happy with the effort I put in and the end result. There's still a bit of tidying needs doing, but for now I'm celebrating!
I've also made an experimental loaf in the bread machine (all my loaves are 'experimental') - with chives and rosemary from the garden. Here it is, along with one of our home made scones.

Not a great picture! On the wall in the background are a couple of plastic automatic tea dispensers - which almost never have tea in them. I must do something about that soon! 

For now though, I'm going to have a well deserved bath in the new bathroom.