Food

 Has anyone noticed the quality of big brand is deteriorating rapidly ? I had a tin of Heinz Ravioli last week as a rare treat comfort food and it was bleedin horrible couldnt find a scrap of meat just a bit of grit in the feeble watery sauce. Even himself has given up asking for Mr Kipling bite size cakes that taste of nothing but sugar . Nothing seems to have any quality to it , despite the price hikes . 

Its been a funny old week , we are trying to venture out only once a week due to the fuel costs or maybe once a fortnight when we have no doctors or hospital . Himself is on a moanathon over frozen bread , hes so picky that i wont bake for him its never right. nearest loaf is a 10 mile car journey away so he will just have to suck it up . theres wraps and pittas if hes that desperate. I managed to kill the dehydrator the bearings have gone and it just squeals fortunately it packed up just as i finished the last scraps of the easter cheap veg , it is still under warranty as it came from Lakeland so i will send daughter on a mission as we dont go into central Lincoln anymore , the parking charges are horrific.

Not many thoughts on the impending apocalypse , just bugger on regardless im afraid , not a thing can we do about anything . Just remember if we ever get to vote again we need to take a lot more thought about the quality of those we elect .    

Plan B

I decided to not carboot today and it was a good decision , up all night with the house shuddering and stuff blowing about , one great bang at 4am got me up , still dont know what it was . So up for a cuppa and a cuddle with the cat , watched loads of canning films on YouTube .

My Kitchen Tanja  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyUE9q7Aauo

Country Life Vlog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq5jz7kpYAk&t=218s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq5jz7kpYAk&t=218shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq5jz7kpYAk&t=218s

The dubbing on the Romanian canning is very AI but the information is accurate , the Azerbaijan granny is just relaxing as she produces industrial quantities. 

Now im watching the cat scuttle up the garden because just to add to the weirdness we have giant hailstones . I did venture to the carboot at Metheringham  , it was icy and now my eyelids keep sticking ..ho hum this ageing and falling apart is just annoying. stunning amount of purchases , 3 kilner spice jars another small kilner type jar £1.50 spent . This years car boot wants list is quite small , a few more manual kitchen bits to help with my crappy hands , more kilners of one sort or another , dont need clothes the jumble keeps providing, but need to find some bigfoot wellies because grandson doesnt like getting his motorbike boots mucky ..lol

 On the jumble front im spoilt for choice this month , subject of course to the fuel situation a lot of them clash with each other so im going to have to make management decisions, i may just go to those nearest  

Crystal Ball

 This is getting fun isnt it as the jets scream above us ?  I really have shopped like a Doomsday prepper this week , the poor little Amazon guy has a double hernia and a nervous twitch . Popped out this morning to the food pantry , usual amazing mixture of the weird and the odd , lots of posh bread sliced bagged and popped in the freezer, plus they had free bags of potato wedges so more freezer fodder , got more of the catering cartons of Bechamel sauce nobody seems to want , i made cauliflower cheese with it last week and it was gorgeous , himself was horrified. I think we are all going to have to be more innovative with our cooking as the world goes to hell in a hand basket . Popped into iceland to see what they are giving away , got a few bits from the half price freezers , god awful orange breaded chicken things that the others in the household love , a pack of fresh meat burgers for under a fiver !!! and kebab meat because it stops himself whining that he wants to go out for a takeaway ..URGH . I went a way bit feral in Lidl , just a couple of extra everything we actually use on a weekly basis and a giant pork joint because they didnt have any of the smaller size , i was very good about the 8p veg just 2 giant swedes , 2 lots of parsnips and a big bag of carrots . I had 15 pounds left out of the monthly budget so i popped in the chicken factory and the freezer is now full . Himself was horrified when it was all unloaded , but then i saw a you tube video about them running out of milk containers in south korea , so ive emptied my bank account on milk , the amazon guy  is going to love me.

Just in case im going to do a car boot at the weekend  , because the one thing ive run down to afford my grocery blitz was pet food and if my cat doesnt have what she wants i will die and be eaten .

Now this may all sound rather ridiculous , but in the event of things going a wee bit tits up , we are buggered , theres no shop other than a tiny coop 5 miles away and it covers a big area , you cant walk their safely its an A road with no paths and great big land drains either side. Its 15 miles to a supermarket and you dont know what will be there when you get there ? or if the fuel will be available . Im sure the government has bright ideas but im sure they wont do sod all for rural areas . 

Yep im going slightly  mad !!!!  

Armawhatsit

Got up with good intentions , then decided to dehydrate the singular last big green winter squash that seems to be kicking round the kitchen , trouble is the last big ones are so dried out and hard that with my crappy hands its no mean feat , usually i do them with an axe but the other day himself said try your little chainsaw , fortunately i decided to take it out to the garden . It was interesting to say the least , i will now be known as tango tits for posterity , i was dripping in bright orange flesh from head to toe, it sprayed everywhere but once you start to do these things theres no turning back , i couldnt get the chain saw apart to clean , so i took it to himself who goes of his head at how i could be so stupid . But he told me to try it !!!   apparently he was only kidding .ho hum .

Meanwhile in my urge to activate the garden , i tipped out one of my builder bag compost heaps to revitalise the raspberry patch and found a load of huge potatoes that must have grown in there last year so they were a bonus. I did need garden slaves for this job and ive another huge one to go into the veg patch so may need to beg for assistance. The arctic wind has however stopped playing outside  , i just turn blue and numb and get told off for wearing a balaclava and looking like a terrorist, planning a lot more squash and corn F1 so wont be able to gather seed , though i may still chuck a little of my rainbow corn at the other end of the garden for this year and even have a couple of little melon plants that wont go out for months  all good fun !! 

Mutterings

 I wandered off to Sleaford Food Pantry the other day , they were having a collaboration with the local food waste initiative , they had huge catering bags of spaghetti and Fusilli £3 or £5  , not of use to me, but great  if you have a family , tons of veg and fruit , which as im drying everything i can lay my hands on is great value , catering size trays of chicken tenders which the vultures devoured for their tea in fact for my allowance i could hardly lift the bag.  we go a couple of times a month , but you can go 3 times a week , there always seems to be something they have a glut of that they are trying to give away. Theres also a little rabbit warren of a shop called Wise Owl its part of the B&N franchise , the shop is so tiny that they always have a sale section and i dropped in lucky , heinz spaghetti 4 tins for £1.50 , curry beanz the same , lots of extra cheap tinned veg , i could barely carry it all ..lol  I still have £10 of this weeks grocery budget left . So im going to go and make veg powder from dried veg , keeps for years 

 The one big problem there is rurally is there being no fuel available , the garages are selling out . Not sure where this is going , but its going to be interesting 

Delivered

Sometimes i doubt my own sanity!!   I did say to the troops if theres anything you need mail order get it now before the charges go through the roof or we struggle to get stuff delivered ,  For the first time ever they have listened and the delivery's have never stopped this week. I dont ask what they consider essential but today im baffled , a huge air compressor that the fit lad from DPD struggled with and i couldnt even get through the door !!!  and just now another delivery of a set of tyres !!!  for someone who cant afford the groceries he must have found the magic money tree 😛

Prep

 I decided to do a stock take on the food front , errrr well theres a few gaps mainly on the meat front and of all the odd things, dehydrated mash not the cardboard cheapest one but decent catering mash , i dont think i will ever need too buy pasta again ..lol..at least its immortal , over the years ive changed what i stock , its now less healthy long term , but more stuff the useless ones could cook and eat if i snuffed it..lol. You have to be practical . Stuff you could eat out of the tin cold if you had to , i need to increase my plain tea and coffee because they drink that  and never tell me its running out. Ive lots of ingredients but im the only one who cooks with them ho hum well i suppose they could trade them ..lol  im running the dehydrator most days because i got some giant parsnips and carrots from the food pantry its usually later in the yeat that i do this , but i hope to be up to winter levels of dehydrated fruit and veg within a month , also picked a big bag of sprouting garlic from the food pantry that will go into the garden this week . It makes it sound very hectic but it isnt , i just panic mentally about life on a fixed income . Have to laugh himself has just spotted my granose meat substitute on the counter , im not eating that shit is the refrain . Hes been eating it for years when ive needed to spread a block of mince , you can get it cheap from Home Bargains sometimes. its near the sell by date but its another store cupboard immortal . What he doesnt know wont hurt him.

Im currently trying to drum up some veg garden labour , deafening silence  

World Wide

Im afraid im a passivist, so everything going on in the world is pretty abhorrent at the moment , none of the people involved are in the right regardless of their religion creed or whatever . Its the lack of concern for the public that is terrifying , just bomb away for the glory of oil and money . One certainty is that if they back the Israel faction into a corner they will use nukes without any hesitation .  Trump cant remember what lies hes supposed to be using from day to day . Iran has been quietly buying missiles from Temu  for years while everybody was watching them for nukes  . Ho hum ..who the hell knows where this is going. 

im doing a stocktake of supplies, odd stuff that ive run down and not replaced , country living will be in a bad way with rising fuel costs and delivery will probably be the first thing to go which hits you hard when theres no other options , himself and his brother are going off to replenish his welding gas tomorrow, I had to remind a friend about her cooker gas , its the stuff we would normally forget till Autumn that we have to get now before it vanishes , if the problems drag on till next winter we will freeze , heating oil has already gone up by a third in less than a week ...im so mental that ive even considered one of those green plastic greenhouses in the dining room for all the houseplants and me , cheap and cheerful with a candle heater and a carbon monoxide alarm ..lol 

Somebody just mentioned canning jars and lids , i got a couple more Kilner clip tops yesterday at the jumble and will order more disc lids plus garden myself into a coma despite not planning to this year . So for those who never get the urge to can or jam make , dont put your glass jars and lids into the recycling, save a box full and put them at your gate marked free they will vanish in no time.

Right im off  to go and gibber in the corner , while trying to remember stuff ive forgot  

Sleep

 Well living in the middle of two huge airbases , the last 2 weeks have been a tad noisy as well the usual fighter jets but its the cargo planes at night  that are a killer, the house vibrates and that wakes me up even with ear plugs . Just to make it more fun theyre war gaming next week . Living here for years we dont notice it like the incomers they look a tad worried when the jets are screaming above us . But hey theres a war on what can we expect ?  More things to be peeved about are the garages running out of fuel , i get it , we are very rural so people need it for work , but theres no shortage yet, it should take a few weeks for this to hit , people flogging petrol cans for ridiculous amounts on facebook are taking the piss , plus the big chain garages upping the prices already. No amount of dont panic will make folks not panic , so we shall see.  i will stock up on milk just because im at the last pack from the january delivery and a couple of other bits we are low on , but otherwise im pretty well stocked so i dont need to go anywhere we have a vehicle fueled and it can be used just for hospital and doctor visits and we will just sit here and watch the news .   .  

Mind Games

 Here i am , vanishing up my own backside trying to please everyone and pleasing nobody..lol  Anyway I got treated to a day out the other day which was good for my sanity . Spalding with my daughter , she had a hospital appointment and hadnt been there before , we went into the actual town centre , bitter winter wind but it has a ton of charity shops and the empty shops are worse than anywhere ive seen . its clean , pretty and has enough good obscure charity shops to make it worth a wander round, there was a God botherer shouting about Jesus the whole time we were wandering . I do think that allowing the Springfields retail outlet out of town has killed it . We did pop there but only visited the garden centre because they had a dead plant sale on, i bought rather heavily,  oops . Decided to pop into Boston to do the charity shops and pop to the big garden centre there sadly they are under renovation so nothing interesting for us , the charity shops however were quite good a lot of them have shut but theres still a good few and the YMCA had loads of lucky clothing  bags for at the most £2.50 they even had some large size ones  something you never see , so i snaffled a couple and was pleasantly surprised it was mainly summer stock some to keep and some to carboot. Im counting the days till the season starts  i cant cope with this level of crap everywhere and theres loads more to come from mothers yet . Legal matters are turning into a literal shit show and not knowing what the hell is going to happen is constantly preying on my mind.  

Glass

 Ho Hum forgive me because ive sinned , i was bidding on a live auction last week that had one lot i actually needed , won that for a whopping £3 which i was very pleased with . So to me as it was the furthest one i visit , it seemed quite logical to bid on 3 £1 lots that came up after it and i might as well get a little car boot and charity stock for the same amount of petrol . Went yesterday and found that i had bid on huge lots of glassware and had also gained even more that other people hadnt took in fact a full van of glassware which i just chucked into shopping bags to the horror of the staff at the auction. I discovered years ago that wrapping glass is a waste of time you damage far less if you  literally plonk them in bags with the heavy bits at the bottom ..lol ..So im sat here surrounded , all the ordinary tableware glass will go to the local bottle bank , you cant give it away . Theres a ton of small crystal that im boxing for the charity shop . Then theres the good stuff which is seriously heavy crystal vases , some modern ones and all the weird stuff im sorting through , theres two nice china tea sets that i may facebook because im insane , and a lot of pretty bits that will sell at the car boot .  Smashed one huge crystal bowl dropping a set of crutches on it and maybe two cheap glasses . Ive also got a huge box of planters  to sort through , the dining room and kitchen look like a battlefield , im just trying to psych myself up into a crystal washing session ,  I may try photos later if it stays fine ..lol 

Shoppin

I just wrote a  whole post pressed enter and the whole thing vanished , its days like this i want to just give up with computers im finding it harder and harder to cope with modern life . Anyway here we go again 

I was dragged to the depths of  Currys the other day because i broke the foot on my 20 year old cylinder cleaner , now i was contented to wait till i found another foot . But himself insisted i should buy a new one . Well the first thing i found was that they had just one bagless cylinder cleaner on sale , so i ended up with that , i had to point out to my daughter that i cant use the huge stick hoovers because they pop my shoulder out of joint and hoovering this house where you never know whats going up the hoover be it a half chewed mouse or a few nuts and bolts isnt for something fragile . I cant even get the thing apart to empty it without assistance . Even better they didnt have any stock it has to be delivered . What is the point of this palace of a shop if you cant buy anything ?

Another strange question why do they sell nearly 50 different coffee machines  all with different pods ? heres me with a cafeteria that ive had years that i can tip any pod into , just baffles me .

My daughter was trying to convince me how much i need an airfryer , i cant eat greasy food so why do i need an airfryer? 

So thats me im unable to comply with all the modern needs and wants , ive even turned off my phone now mother has gone and i dont have to listen to her dramas , all thats on it is adverts so whats the point ?

PS... i caught the slimy buggers trying to chuck the old hoover in the bin ...no chance im sure i will find a spare foot somewhere 

Smoke

 Well here we go again i can only bite my tongue for so long, lets talk about the smoke and mirrors of the Epstein files latest drop .  Anybody would think that it was aimed at those who Trump is upset with  , everybody else has been redacted , its taken them years of black marker to make it say what they want.  Trump can shout fake news as much as he wants everybody knows he was bosom buddies with Epstein. Then theres Peter Mandelson aka The Prince of Darkness offering himself up as some kind of ritual sacrifice , he knows no shame , never has never will , so who is he protecting ?  Blair or the rest of the Labour ruling classes ? Or perhaps royalty? hes not taking the fall for the benefit of anyone but himself so whos paying for this theatre thats the real question we should be asking .  I do think this is all Trumps punishment for not telling him hes welcome to Greenland . 

 The fact that they released the names and addresses of some of the victims is truly disgusting , by accident of course. They have had the Epstein files for so long that who can tell what is the truth in them, multiple agencies and shysters have used them to their advantage. Theres no justice going to take place in the USA over these matters . This is why the vast majority of the victims never come forward because it seems pointless , youve rebuilt your life you have children and family why would you risk that for a moment of fame and to be vilified by the media for stuff you had no control over.  Virginia Giuffre and the other public victims are the bravest people walking and look where that has got them  

Done

 So thats Mommy Dearest put to rest , there doesnt seem to be many of us left , but those who remain are in their 80s and 90s and pretty lively .  The officiate at the crem , couldnt understand when we started sniggering at the choice of the hymns she picked them herself  , she always said it was great if nobody knew them and she was right . We donated her posh plastic wreaths to the undertaker to be reused , he seemed quite chuffed . We then adjourned to her favourite pub for dinner and drinkies , we had to be careful not to give Aunty Mary any booze otherwise it would have turned into a Reform meeting , her and mother were both great singers of Nigel is wonderful . We had the Thelma and Louise aged duo who managed to get lost on the way to the funeral but made it to the pub , they somehow ended up in Stoke and then belted down the motorway in the wrong direction in their tiny car , the general consensus was make sure they go out of the carpark before everyone else ...lol  There were cousins who i hadnt seen since they were kids and Uncle Roy, well into his 80s , there were pictures at grandmas of him as a teenager and he hasnt changed much at all . Then we sat and swapped tales of how bleedin batshit crazy mother was and the legendary drinking . It was a very long day and the weather was atrocious .  Meanwhile back at the bungalow can anyone explain why someone would have a large wardrobe full of cleaning products and hundreds of candles ? Daughter has made heroic efforts at cleaning the place out , but theres still tons of stuff left , hopefully the furniture can be shifted on facebook , it goes up for sale today .

Dib Dib Dib

 Will the 29000 people who are currently without water become the next generation of preppers ?  The simple fact that the penny hasnt dropped that our government will do nothing for anyone in the event of an emergency somewhat baffles me . I grew up in the Lincolnshire wilderness back in the 60s it wasnt a case of prepping but common sense . We had a bus once a week on market day , a mobile butcher , a mobile shop that was if you lived in a village, so of course you made sure you were well stocked up with most everything . It wasnt till the late 60s and the 70s that ordinary people got cars and could shop further afield this then killed the mobile shops and the bus services over the course of a few years. I hate the fact that we are so reliant on Amazon , we are even having to have then deliver our milk each month , all the cat food comes in bulk as well , daft stuff like toiletries , wash powder batteries etc etc Amazon . You cant have morals or scruples if you live rurally . We are surrounded by chicken farms but cant buy eggs , bird flu has killed folks selling eggs at the gate , they stopped the dairy selling milk at their gate , we have posh farm shops that are for the tourists and middle classes just dont look to closely at the labels folks , country of origin may well be the other side of the world but it will have a Union Jack on the packaging or labels, so thats fine. What a bloody mess we are in and they dont want to resolve it  

Spring in my Step

 With all thats going on in my little bubble im looking at maybe giving the garden a miss this year , ive tons of seed saved and may just grow a few container things and portable edible stuff . Its all the decisions that need to be made , plus the possibilities of stuff not going as planned . I would quite like to stay here where i am settled its not great , but nowhere is, maybe i can become the village witch or something , you know grey haired and wrinkly followed around by my familiars Dave the hedgehog and the cats. I know one thing i dont want to move to Cheshire and mothers bungalow or to some barren pensioner ghetto any where else . I like life going on around me , kids in the street , neighbours getting hammered and falling out , im just a common none working class sort of person  But once you get folks sending you endless estate agent blurb you realise what you dont want not what you want , himself would be a nightmare in a little middle class estate theyre used to him here so they dont bat an eyelid . its funny the only thing im looking forward to is a big branch shredder..lol . You see once again even from the grave Mommy Dearest is trying to make me conform to her ideals and it isnt happening , its just screwing with my mind every day . So if my posts seem a bit odd dont worry i will get my head round things eventually but i need time to think 

Gammon

So himself had his monthly trip to the blood folks the other day it didnt start well when you couldnt get near the disabled parking or the drop off points due to the weather , so he had to do snow on his crutches . Anyway he come back in a foul mood because he knew doing that amount of walking would leave him in agony . Now he comes to the good bit , the little hijab wearing blood lady  asks him if its alright if she does it or does he object and want someone else ?  This baffled him and he said he didnt care who saw him , so he asked her why and it seems a lot of the gammon fraternity refuse treatment from her . He was horrified by this but i set him off by saying well you do look the part . Epic rant started but i pointed out your the right age your nearly bald and you wear the outfit .  Theres nobody less of a gammon but i also pointed out that a lot of his friends have a fondness for flags and ranting about immigrants and  a few family members. What is the world coming to .  

Weird Rants

 Now that we have entered the realms of the funeral industry , end of the month by the way somewhat appropriately on my ex husbands birthday as Mommy Dearest loved him so much as he wasnt  a miserable joy sapper like me and would happily sit and day drink with her till falling over then drive me and the kids back from Wales . Those were the days . 

Todays weird thought , shouldnt someone be on dragons den punting rental funeral flowers? the cost of them is horrendous and this time of year even higher peaking for Valentines Day , you can get huge arrangements of plastic flowers off amazon which im sure she would like because the last time i sent her an Interflora bouquet she shoved it in her bin because they were cheap looking ...bless

Then theres her address book where shes scribbled out loads of people and wrote dead next to , some are very much alive just dead to her , theres a notice gone in the local paper in a vain try to round up any remaining family and friends but when your 90 youve pretty much outlived everyone,  so we have no idea how many will turn up.

You just know on the day of the funeral there will be blizzards so we cant get there  

Cold

bleedin hell its a tad chilly , managing on an hours heating in the morning and an hour after dinner , fortunately the suns out and even in a winter it warms most of the house up , sadly not the kitchen dining room which has reached a balmy 12 degrees  due to the smallest radiator in the house in the biggest space , ive been wrapping the tropical houseplants up in bubble wrap at night..lol  though im nice and toasty in bed with a hot water bottle and a cat , no snow it seems to be catching  all down the coast and inland here .But heres a catcher , brother in law rang and asked to borrow some money for electric , he has never done this before , so much for the super duper air source heat pump the council has fitted recently , its costing him £20 a day and they cant turn it off or down , he says its like the tropics he has to have the windows open just to breathe. Another eco bollocks government funded scam , but hey net zero and all that . His house is a prefab Airy house and theyre just not suitable for whats been fitted 

Mommy Dearest

 Well on the 22nd mother left the building after a row with her carer about them putting thickener in her cuppa tea . They went back an hour later and she had sneaked off with no fuss or bother , please no condolences , i wasnt sure how i would feel about this but my only emotion is relief . My daughter and other family are the ones grieving . My son has decided to christen dec 22nd dead granny day and we are to celebrate with enough alcohol to fall over and eating maltesers till we throw up , his grandmother hated him and made it very clear from when he was small . It being xmas everything is a bit of a cock up. The coroner got involved because they are very keen about deaths in care because they covered Harold Shipmans area , i had  a slightly odd conversation asking if i had and doubts about the validity of her death and any suspicions of foul play , none whatsoever so they agreed they didnt need to do an autopsy and we could apply for a death certificate but theyre shut for xmas so more faff about ,  we found out that the undertakers who she had specified had retired but the People at Golden Charter who she had a prepaid funeral plan with gave us another one , they were really helpful , but  nothing can progress  and its unlikely to do till late january because theres a backlog. My daughters got her organising head on and mothers solicitor isnt answering anything so i presume theyre off till after the new year . We shall see life goes on , im just glad that her money will cover her care home expenses and anything else that arrives , i never wanted it and she was always well cared for which was all that mattered . But im sure there will be a few folks popping out of the woodwork questioning where the money has gone