Pain

 In the arse that is , my dearly beloved grandson who was going  home last night decided as one final treat that he wanted to go to Stickney car boot sale yesterday . I was rolling on the floor pleading nooooooo , so of course himself took no notice and said oh yes what a great idea . So off we went  . The overnight rain had kept the dust down if nothing else , there was still 15 rows of stuff to wander through , i think in my case it should say trudge through, they wanted to inspect every crusty tool and vehicle part so i lost them and looked at the odd bits i found interesting , i managed to buy a large kilner type clip jar for storage and a bunch of Sindy knitting patterns , I did ask the price of a lot of stuff but it was all out of my price range , A Simplicity Bias machine new in the box £50 it was a very fair price because they are £120 new in the shop but i dont have £50 for a need or a want...lol . There was also a house clearance bloke with 2 boxes of Sindy furniture and stables etc . i was after the clothes i can spot them at a thousand paces , but once again he wanted £50 ,  i dont think he realised the clothes alone were worth far more than £50, the world of Sindy became quite ridiculous during Covid and it shows no sign of calming down . Barbie who you couldnt give away is now doing the same.

The veg man however was his usual joy , huge tubs of grapes £1  ive had to pop loads in the freezer this morning but once again ideal for the winter , pineapples 3 for £1.50 guess im going to be practising my canning again , we got 3 melons so that grandson could take one home , his mother doesnt do fruit much . managed to stop himself buying tons of beetroot huge bunches for £1 but the prices of good keeping potatoes has soared theyve gone from 8 to £15 for a sack of Marfonas locally grown ,scary when winter is coming and theyre usually cheap now . I keep getting the £1 bags of scrubbed jacket potatoes they have 10 or 12 in them , i part cook them in the microwave then finish them when i have oven space, then into the freezer they go . 

So im off to hobble down the garden to pick beans , zonked off my head on painkillers after being up with cramp absolutely everywhere all night , guess you can can veg stoned , functioning zombie today sums it up , i will go chat to my pumpkins and squash the neighbours know im batty so they wont notice ...lol 

Chores

 So its food preservation time , its all very experimental at the moment , I know i dont need tons of anything so im doing 4 jars of each garden fruit and veg as it comes ready , its just so easy , though himself is eyeing up yesterdays canned plums already , hes not getting his hands on them till after xmas in the dark times when we can get bugger all fresh fruit and veg here . All im using is endless jars that once held Lidl gerkins that himself is addicted to ,  the plums are huge this year and the stones just fall out when you split them , it really isnt hard work , just chop them chuck them in a jar with a couple of dessert spoons of sugar top up with warm water , its much the same as jam making everything needs to be clean and the same temperature , im using the huge jam pan i picked up at the jumble the other week, it says 20 to 25 minutes so i give them 30 minutes boiling just to be on the safe side . For the weekend im planning an apple sauce fest , that wont be just 4 jars ...lol 

I went to my favourite obscure jumble sale on Saturday , just bought a cook book but i did get a couple of bits in the auction , another metal photographers case for himself to store power tools in. But i did by myself another chore , they sold it as an old tool box but it really isnt, its a Victorian service box , i remember my gran still had hers it was a wooden suitcase that you kept your personal bits and bobs in if your family wernt rich enough to afford luggage  , you usually had that and a carpet bag , its had a hard life the handles and metalwork have been changed several times but its already having a makeover , its been treated for woodworm , i think they were long dead but you cant be to careful , now its awaiting wood filler and rooting out the correct handles and waxing it all , It might become dolls clothes storage i accidently bought a small mountain in an auction last month it was an extra box that somebody didnt want when i picked up a dolls house cheaply , Free is always good 

On the dehydrator front , citrus fruit are a pain i got a huge bagful for a pound at Grimsby market , because i will use them for the apple sauce , i have found out it takes forever to dry slices,,,lol...live and learn 

Sad

 The demise of Wilkos is the first shop going under that has actually encroached on my world i get all my garden stuff from them as its cheap and good , the shops for the most part always seem to be busy but now we dont go out much i shop online , maybe thats the problem the generation that uses it is aging out of the retail world . I suppose thats whats happening everywhere , its not that people just want to shop online its that its been decided somewhere up the food chain that its what we will all do . Maybe thats why theres so much tagged clothing at the jumble sales?  nobody can access a changing room anymore , so you order more than one size or a different colour , ordering a different size or two the same size doesnt mean it will fit , theres no quality in clothing these days whatever the label . So as the tumbleweeds wander down the UK high streets , painting pretty pictures on the boarded up shops isnt helping matters and i have no solutions to give . 

 Himself hasnt been into a shop for years , hes no concept of the price rises and hes driving me steadly mad with his wants , hes dragging me off to Grimsby on Friday to visit the butchers he doesnt understand that it will be no cheaper and it will be out of our price range still i will go through the motions . Its not a case of being unable to afford food its just that our choices are pretty limited , the garden is helping big time, but its the daft stuff , you cant buy a cheap loaf within 15 miles , its £2 plus for a white Hovis , £5 for a little bottle of olive oil , toilet roll is creeping up week by week and dont even get me on the subject of Lincolnshire Coop for a shareholder owned social enterprise they are taking the piss and you have to remember for a lot of people they are the only shop they have access to . Have you noticed the government has stopped mentioning that they allow £12 a week for food and self care if you are in receipt of benefits, i wonder why ?  

Life and Stuff Like That

 Hello Folksies , whats happening in my non exciting world ?  Lots of gardening with my teen helper who is deeply impressed with my mini chainsaw , he had to climb behind the scrap car dumped in the garden by useful son the day before the lockdown !!  its still here folks but the sycamore was growing into it , so rather than give him another excuse not to move it , i tried to kill a teenager . 

My squash plants that i popped into the garden as i took the new potatoes up have gone mental and taken over the garden , tons of male flowers but all theyve yielded so far is a mini marrow and a single pattypan but ive a feeling they plan to go mental late in the season plus ive spotted a couple of pumpkins and a turks turban that are doubling in size every day . Green beans have yielded a couple of meals but i can see by the number of flowers that i will have a glut soon , not many tomatoes set on this year apart from a couple of mini heirloom ones that are tiny plants but with huge tomatoes and ive lost the label off them so will have to remember to save seed .

In the worls of elder care theyve down dosed mothers anti psychotics and shes awake again and receiving visitors , she has no idea who they are, but she will claim any visitor as a family member of some description . On her care front yet again we had heard nothing for 6 weeks since the kerfuffle over her attacking the manager of the new home that they wanted to move her to because it was the best value for money , Nobody is answering their phones or emails but yesterday my daughter finally got an email from her social worker saying they are leaving her where she is and having nothing more to do with the matter ????? in other words dont call us , we arent calling you . 

Finally got to the car boot this week first time since the monsoon season began , spent a grand token of £3 , two massive glass clip lid storage jars , i had seals to fit them allready, they came with tons of free dust but theyve cleaned up nicely i was given some seed pod trays that now have spring cabbage planted in them , donated by another lady who i bought a small basket from was  a tiny Victorian dolls head the size of my thumb i also purchased a bag of stamps and a book , So a good selection for the money i spent . Im going to try and take some photos later , maybe , if i have time , wish me luck 

Summers End

 Have the seasons moved again this year , its turned into Autumn very early this year , the nights are cool enough to need a blanket and you get up in the morning to heavy dew fall just waiting for the first frosts ? At least we are getting a break from monsoon season for a few days , so its out in the garden time . Just ordered a few extra seeds , japanese overwintering onions seem like a good idea , i noticed this year that onions were scarce early in the year. Then a selection of spring cabbage which should pop into the gap between kale and ordinary cabbage.

Other half is developing that worried look as i measure up part of his scrap yard to put in raised beds , he promised me that hes getting rid of stuff but it doesnt seem to be happening ...lol ..i was looking at the posh metal beds but theyre way out of my price range so i guess it will be pallet collars , saying that they last about 10 years untreated which should see my gardening days out . I wouldnt plant directly into this part of the garden its doubtless fermented in petrol and diesel and all the other bodily fluids leaking from his vehicles , ive already started fermenting several large builders bags of home compost and i will chainsaw loads of small branches to pop in the bottoms and keep my eye open for garden stuff in the sales 

First dehydrator experiment was a success two big bags of watercress are now a little jar full   , observation's , you need to split the thicker stems down unless youre drying just leaves . Also the instructions from Lakeland are pretty sparse and not very helpful , but its a good beginner tool and just two of us will be using it so its about the right size. I cant imagine it would be a lot of good for powdered eggs or anything very liquid but straight forward garden produce seems simple , experiments continue 

Shop

 Well it was big shop day today , mainly because i have the munchkin for a few weeks maybe ,,,who knows . The usual trip to the discount grocers for other halfs endless crisps and goodies aided by giving the munchkin £5 to last his whole stay  the only thing i bought was a case of Heinz vegetable soup , handy for me when i cant face cooking and its the smaller tins as well.  Lidl was as usual a bit hit amd miss . i noticed that they have shrunk the fresh fruit and veg aisles to nearly half the size but theyre still only half full , i got most of what i wanted , no cooking bacon yet again , but i picked up another 3rd off gammon joint for the freezer, frozen food was ransacked , i noticed that the munchkin has got an eagle eye for reduced stickers , shopping with granny does him good...lol  Ended up at Asda for the stuff i hadnt found anywhere else , virtually nothing on the yellow sticker front but i did get a couple of big bags of watercress so i may finally get to play with the dehydrator if i dont eat it like a bag of crisps first ..lol noticed ive got a few windfall apples so they may well be dehydrated as well and this may prove useful for the mountains of crab apples i waste each year , we shall see if im that motivated .

Food gripes of the week . JustRol  pastry was on offer the other day went to make a plate pie for tea the other night and all there is in the box is masses of paper and a tiny sheet of pastry not big enough to cover the pie plate i bodged it into a sort of lattice top but this is shrinkage at a ridiculous level , off the shopping list it goes .  Then i spotted a Seabrooke Crisps multipack Worcester Sauce flavour a rare endangered species in the depths of Lincolnshire , i was looking forward to them then i pulled the top pack out and it was soggy and it had to go to the birds , so i picked out another and it was open it decorated the kitchen rather well and made the cat spit when she tried to snaffle one , you guessed it every damned packet was unsealed , ive emailed them but heard nothing .

I watch a great many weird and wonderful things on wet days on You Tube , i watch a lot of cooking and prepping stuff cant say i agree with many of them politically but thats what the off buttons for . Ive noticed that theyre all going mad panic buying rice? so i bought 2 tiny packs today same as i do most weeks . Theres a whole array of smug folks prepping food mountains and buying lots of ammo . Here in the UK its more growing an allotment or garden and buying an extra box of teabags