Last week

Last week was a week full of sorting, again.  

I do declutter regularly but always manage to fill a bag for the charity shop each time.  I didn't pick up my knitting or stitching much during the week so no progress worth showing but I did manage to pickle the beetroot I'd harvested from the allotment.  Only enough for one jar this time but we do have more in the ground which aren't ready to pull just yet.  I've not tested it yet, the recipe I found online was a simple one, just vinegar and brown sugar and it said to leave in a dark place for about two weeks.

If it's not good at least there is only one jar and I can try out another recipe for the rest.

Since the oven had been on to sterilise the pickle jar I made us a cake for the weekend as well.  

The recipe for this Anglesey cake came from this little book, 

I have several of these Favourite Recipe books picked up from various trips, I added The Grow Your Own Recipes to my collection from our recent visit to The Black Country Museum, there are definitely some things in there I will be trying out at some point and If they are as good as the cakes I have made from the baking ones we won't be disappointed.

I also had a lovely surprise parcel arrive last week.  

My lovely friend Jo, who I'm sure you know blogs at Through the Keyhole sent me the most thoughtful gift.  She has been reading the Seven Sisters series by Lucida Riley and thought I might enjoy them too so she sent me the first book to get me started, but not only that, look at all the other Autumnal goodies she included along with the book.

I admit I got quite emotional when I opened it.  I shall enjoy using them all, in fact the Caramac chocolates have already been enjoyed and I made a hot chocolate using one of the chocolate sticks last night 😋 Thank you again Jo for being such a kind and thoughtful friend.

Speaking of reading and books, I noticed that for Prime Members Amazon has a three month free trial offer on Kindle Unlimited.  I haven't read anything on my kindle for at least four years but when I looked into it I quite liked the look of some of the books on offer, so I signed up and right away downloaded a couple and chose to start The Lost Bookshop.  Evie Woods is a new author to me but one that I will look out for again as this is so far a very enjoyable read.

I made the most of the sunshine yesterday and spent a couple of hours in the morning at the allotment, I have onions to go in so prepared where they will be planted and gave all over a general tidy up.  In the afternoon took everything out of the bathroom and sanded the woodwork down, horrible job but has to be done.  Today I've painted the woodwork and the ceiling and tomorrow will give it another coat and put everything back again.  Sometime in the next couple of weeks I will do the same to the shower/laundry room, although giving the shower a good descaling on Saturday Mark discovered that the inside had corroded so badly that we now need a new shower 🙄 

At least we found out before any damage was done.

-X-