Strimming me softly

This terrace in the garden has been too steep for us to mow using our heavy old petrol mower. That has now been sold on Ebay and we're going to buy a lighter, smaller machine. We don't need one that can mow quarter of an acre, the amount of lawn is far less here than we've had in the past. So this section has been left to go to rack and rooney. Brother, Dave, gave us his old strimmer months ago to do it and today is the first chance we've had to get it going. It has been in the garden store behind the scaffolding which was difficult to access. DH looks rather handsome and summery in his wrap around safety glasses!

Here's the ensuite with the garden store underneath, now scaffolding-free. 

You can see the black pipe bottom right going round and out of the picture, that is the new waste pipe for the loo, shower and sink which leads back into the main drains for the kitchen and the main bathroom. DH has been fitting that this weekend. 

Here's the messy bit outside the garden store

This bit needs fencing off. The bit beyond is going to be a vegetable garden with a greenhouse eventually and I'd rather Missy wasn't peeing up my parsnips! That bit of the garden is also still open to the river and whilst I can pretty much trust Missy not to go in it (and she is always supervised when out there anyway), I'd like to let her out without worrying and if we get another dog ... (another story) we won't pass a home visit without it being fenced off. So the far edge of the paving is going to be the line to be fenced with the foreground bit a new decking area (you can see the materials for that), the steps up to the garden store will be replaced, they're really steep and falling over. So more work to keep us busy!

Geoff has got plenty of work on at the moment during the week and I am still working on my beads, here is a new colour of bubble beads which have gone into my Etsy shop just this morning! 

 

Right, I'm off to go find the rake to use on those loose strimmings!

Beauty secrets never to be told

On a normal day, I don't wear a lot of make up, a bit of foundation cream, some loose powder and this is the kohl pencil I use to outline my lower eyelid. I use it every single day, as you can see, I have had it for sometime, I cannot remember when I bought it, well over a year ago I'd guess. I sharpen it with a specially purchased kohl sharpener when it gets too blunt to use.

Imagine my surprise this morning when tugging it open, this happened! A ready made sharpener in the lid, how handy! I gasped in wonderment at this revelation. How can I not have noticed this before?! If you look at the first photo there's even a line to give the observant make up user a hint but no ... I have been scrabbling about in my pot of bits and pieces for years for a separate sharpener never realising that make up manufacturers did this.

Is this the only one, or have all the kohl pencils I have used in my lifetime of using makeup had sharpeners in the lid? I feel this is a piece of wisdom that one's mother ought to tell you. Why was it never mentioned in Jackie magazine which I read every week from cover to cover when I was growing up? Instead, they went on and on about the importance of cleansing, toning and moisturiser when this very handy time-saving device existed. I feel like I've been deliberately made to feel silly by the beauty industry. Everyone, please check your kohl pencils if - like me - no-one told you this amazing secret.

There is a horse bath in my cabaret lounge

The title is an homage to Peter Kaye/Phoenix Nights fans if you don't understand it! :-)

So "Why", I hear you ask "is there a bath in your lounge, Sue?"

Well, after 3-4 months with not much work, DH is now gainfully employed again so we're now back on course with finishing off the new en suite bathroom. The sanitary-ware has been delivered, most of it fits in a corner out of the way in the bedroom (no photograph of that, sorry). No room for the bath though ... hence it being in the lounge!

The walls have been plastered and skimmed out. The new room is full of odd little bits of sticky out pipes and wires like this. 

The bit behind the shower hasn't been painted because that's going to be covered up with cement board once the bath has gone in for the shower to be fixed to, you can see more sticky out pipes for that on the right hand side. 

We've done a first couple of passes with emulsion paint. One more coat on the ceiling, don't want to be painting that once all the sanitary ware is fitted. 

First coat of stain on the door, still got to finish the threshold, trying to find some matching laminate for that. The stairs will be carpeted so no need to do too much to them except sand down the fill holes where it's screwed together.

Now the scaffolding has gone (after Jed got the roof tiles on!), we can even open the windows! 

Our plumber is booked for a week on Monday, the race is now on for DH to get the waste pipe fitted into the drains before he arrives!

Ordering of lighting track on the list of jobs to do before the electrician arrives for second fixing too. It's all go again here!

Badger-friendly Chilli

I'm furious that the government and the NFU are pressing ahead with the pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire. My MP is writing nonsense to me trying to justify it all by saying badgers are killing all the hedgehogs and bees (! honestly - smacking of desperation there, Nick Boles!)

I refuse to support beef farmers who are supporting their union in wanting to exterminate badgers and therefore I won't be eating or buying beef in the future.

I don't eat much meat as it is but I will miss a nice hot Chilli Con Carne. I have therefore devised a delicious meat-free vegetarian alternative for those who want to join me in boycotting beef. Here's the recipe (barring the oil for frying the onion and garlic, it's also sin free on a Slimming World Green Day!)

Serves two greedy adults with enough left over for lunch for two the next day with a buttered jacket potato, DH says he prefers this version to the one I make using beef mince.

• Slurp of olive oil
• 1 large finely chopped onion
• 3 rounded tablespoons of green puy lentils
  
• 3 rounded tablespoons of red lentils
  
• 1 500g carton of passata (or large can of tinned plum tomatoes including juice)
• Half a pint of stock (preferably vegetable but if you don't mind it not being vegetarian, chicken would be fine too) I use half a teaspoon of Vecon (available from bigger Holland and Barratt shops) but go easy on the salt if you use it because it's highly seasoned already
• 4-5 medium carrots finely diced (around 400g)
• Sliced green pepper
• Can of red kidney beans drained and rinsed
• 2 level teaspoons chilli powder (or add however much you like to make it as hot as you prefer!)
• 1 rounded teaspoon of cumin
• A little salt to taste

1. Fry the onions and garlic on a low heat until softened
2. Add lentils and stir til coated in the oil
3. Pour in the passata or tinned tomatoes and the stock
4. It will seem quite liquid at this point but don't worry, the lentils will swell and absorb a lot of liquid
   
5. Add tomatoes and green pepper
6. Season with chilli powder and cumin
7. Bring to the boil and simmer for around half an hour, checking it's not getting too dry - add a little more Water if it needs it
8. Add the kidney beans, simmer for a further 15 minutes
9. Check seasoning, add salt to taste if required
10. Served in my photograph with boiled brown rice

By adjusting the seasoning and some of the ingredients, this can also be adapted for spaghetti bolognaise or cottage pie.

Enjoy!

Where did two months go to?!

Not much blogging lately! Two months have just flown by!

I've been a busy bee making beads though, as the photograph shows, these are the latest ones for sale in My Etsy bead shop. I'm calling them Cosmos beads and there will be lots of different colour varieties in the future. Why Cosmos? Because they remind me of photographs taken by the Hubble telescope.

So what's been happening on the house renovations? Some but not as much as we'd like! The scaffolding is still up around the new ensuite, the external cladding was finished some time ago. It's all watertight now and we've had several downpours which have held testimony to that definitely being true!

The cladding is green oak which will darken overtime as it weathers and then gradually lighten up again.

We're waiting for Jed to come and put on the roof tiles, guttering and then remove the scaffolding. It's a tiny job for him and he's busy at the moment and so he's going to fit us in when he can. 

We could be getting on with the inside ... here it is all insulated and looking silvery ... quite like the look actually. Next job is the plastering, Geoff hasn't got any plastering contacts who are working at the moment, so he's putting feelers out about that but once that's done, our electrician and plumber are ready to get the second fix underway. Just decorating and blinds to put up then! 

Geoff's business has taken a clobbering with the economy and unfortunately hasn't had that much work to keep him occupied and so you'd think he'd spend more time on it but he's spending all his time looking for more clients/work so we don't run out of funds! He gets very nervous when we use our savings to live on, I guess I should be grateful he's so conscientious but I'm so CLOSE to this ensuite, I'd really like to get it finished ... (hint hint, in case he's reading!!!) :-)