dear diary ~ progress with the preparations

Well I certainly feel much lighter today with my new shorter hair cut but no less tired. I am not sure if it is a tiredness of the body or the mind but I expect it amounts to the same thing in the end.

Before we head off we are trying now to ‘eat the pantry’ and fridge of course, and yesterday we made an omelette to use up the last of the eggs and filled it with an assortment of left over veggies from the night before – sweetcorn, green beans, courgette, button mushrooms and cold potato – it turned out well and we used the last of the watercress and roasted a few baby potatoes to go with it. I tend to use watercress in place of lettuce because it is nutrient dense. Those tiny leaves and stalks contain good amounts of Vitamins A, C, and K and smaller amounts of vitamin E, thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B6, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and copper as well as antioxidants and phyto-chemicals. So well worth eating some every day. I have been growing the American landcress in recent years which is quick and easy to grow and just as nutritious.

DH made a good quantity of leek and potato soup for the freezer and is making mushroom soup today. I have a tupperware box in my fridge named ‘Soup Collection’ and we put green bits and other odds and ends of veg in it like the thick broccoli or cauliflower stalks and the very green tougher ends of leeks etc to use up in soups. The red peppers and onions left in the pantry will travel OK as will the grapefruit and oranges and I can eat the two bananas before we go.

There are towels and tea towels left to wash now and dry but they are not ones I will be packing so if they are not dry in time it won’t exactly matter too much. So far today the weather is dry enough to put them out on the line with the duvet cover and sheets. I like to change the bedding before we go away so that we come home to a freshly made bed.

I have been busy planning meals for when we are in the caravan and making a list of things we need to add on to our general packing list. I have a little more paperwork to complete before we go and cards to write and then I can concentrate on the packing.

Fingers crossed it will stay fine enough to get the seed potatoes planted later this afternoon. This wet, cold miserable weather has gone on long enough now and has prevented us from doing much at all in the garden since last week. There are tulips in the borders waiting in the wings ready to burst out into flower once the sun appears and no doubt this will happen as soon as we leave and I will miss the best of them!

I have plants in pots that I want to take up to Scotland with me – a lot of self seeded aquilegia and fennel and I will need to put them somewhere sheltered overnight so they dry off a bit before they go in the car.

One of the lovely things that happened that I forgot to mention was the grandchildren did a surprise indoor Easter Egg hunt for me and DH before they went home. How sweet was that – they left little clues on Post it notes around the house that said things like ‘this way‘ and ‘up here’ for us to find the hidden eggs. We had to pretend they were hard to find and they got so excited when we discovered one. Sweetie, who is only four, could hardly contain herself and once or twice blurted out where an egg was hidden when we got close!

Yesterday I spent a bit of time packing away the Easter decorations – I didn’t have many but similar to the after Christmas period the house suddenly looks rather bare. I washed my windows and all the lovely Easter drawings the children did are now gone so I am pleased I remembered to take a photo. I will probably repeat this activity at Halloween and Christmas if they stay here – it keeps them busy and occupied for a while. I will keep the lovely cards up though for a while longer and then I will probably use them to make recycled ones for next year.

On my last trip to the village I called in at our local, but very poor library and managed to find a book or two to take away with me – probably won’t be taking Peppa Pig – the children enjoyed it (and secretley so did I) but I will skip packing it.

The watercolour book is very informational with lots of practical tips and illustrations and the aim is to try and improve my painting skills – same with the photography book although on first glance it looks a bit technical in places for me.

I think this might have been a bit of a rambling post and like my head at the moment all over the place as we now rush to be ready on time to go away.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and once again I apologise to anyone dropping by expecting to see a ScrapHappy Challenge here – there has been very little crafting going on, hopefully next month will be better.