Sunsets and red wine..

Well actually its Rosé wine, but its all our own making and although Im not generally a Rosé drinker, its very very drinkable... we've been drinking it now a few weeks but it wasnt quite ready, still a tad cloudy, but the other evening the weather had been lovely, and we decided to sit out on our terrace and watch the sky, we dont actually get the full blown sunset, but we do get some wonderful skies, the sun slowly sinks behind the treeline and if its a bit cloudy we get a stunning display...

We chose to watch this display with a bottle of our wine... it was now clear, crisp, fruity and a lovey pink colour...

Planting Begins... In a big way..

Just as we planned to begin our main planting marathon this weekend... its raining..
Our lovely neighbour from the next vally has again promimsed us seed potatoes, up untill last year we didnt plant many, as the cost to us is a huge outlay, and we felt we didnt eat that many to warrant it... hehehe then he gave us lots... and we were eating our own new potatoes in June and justt kept digging for ages... we had our own spuds for half the year and it was fantastic! They tasted so different and better... I, who am not a great spud lover... ate them every day... they fed our helpers and us for months...
So when he offered them again this year... we jumped at the chance. As he's a widower, we kept him supplied with fruit and veg last year in return for the spuds and it worked well. They are not bought seed, so where they come from I dont know...
As soon as the rain stops, we'll be down there, digging... Im planning two spud areas, one for new spuds in the squash area, and as we dig them the squashes nearby will have room to grow and spread...
The main crop will go in the back yard with the corn, tomatoes and strawberries.
This year we will have three large patches orf corn, as last years was so beautiful and sweet, Ive managed to aquire another two packets plus some seed I saved from the last years that I dried myself.
The main planting will begin as soon as possible, peas, carrots, beets, herbs, then the corn and beans, we have lots of different ttypes again this year, some lovely Heritage climbers sent to me by the lovely Minx who read my post on how the bugs ate my beans and sent me a pressie... bless her!
Plus a few of my own runner beans not munched on, some portuguse dwarf green beans like runners but they stay small, french beans, yellow waxy pods, and some Im going to grow for drying and freezing.
My 60 blackcurrant cuttings I took a couple of weeks ago, all show signs of life still , so hopes for a huge amount there are high... I just have to keep them alive through the summer...
The tomatoes, aubergines, and peppers and chillis will be planted out about mid april, after we feel frost has passed... Ive been caught many times before..
I'll continue with planting lettuce from the seedbed, plus the odd packet of rocket and salad leaves all summer, and as soon as this lot is all in the ground, I'll put in a few more cabbage caulis and brocc, as the ones I put in almost a month ago are going great guns now...
So... the best season is almost upon us... I cant wait...

Frugal Living ..Update

Well its been so long since Ive had the chance to update this blog properly, I thought I'd have a real spluge today. Im in town in the internet space where its free, so am using my time wisely. Now we have the use of a laptop at home that costs us 1euro an hour... I only click in check mail and quickly get out again.. all the nice stuff like this... has to wait till we come into town.
But the good part is, we dont have to come in now hardly at all. So we are saving tons on fuel... we make each trip we do make, have to do many things while we are here, collect water, buy shopping, pay bills, get fuel and do all our internet stuff in one go...
Well  life with us seems to be picking up somewhat, we are getting some bookings for the cottage, which is helping our finances.  We still have a long way to go to dig ourselves out of the hole that a bad summer and even worse winter left us in, but we are happy and reasobaly content that its starting to happen. Our frugal lifestyle really helps and we enjoy the way we live too...
The hardest part for Rick at the moment is that he has no work... he hates to feel that he doesnt contribute to our finances... silly sod.. He works so hard around the place , his contribution means this place keeps ticking over regardless of lack of money. He is so resourceful when it comes to making things out of nothing but scrap... but he has found it hard to adjust to the idea that for the foreseeable future, we'll not be doing any more work to finish the house, it just isnt an option finacially.
Im not that bothered, yes as far as most folk are concerned, we live like hillbillies.... hehehe but I love it..
We are warm and comfortable during winter. This year more so than ever before. In summer we have a lovely cool breezy place too... the food is all homegrown and tasty, we can just about pay our bills and get by. Yes its tough, but we have more than some and less to worry about than the poor people in Japan.
The house improvements will wait... I cant spend my whole life worrying about what we dont have, we must enjoy what we do!
The frugal living has become a huge part of our life now, I look at everything as a challenge, to try to find a way to do it cheaper, better or even for nothing... and I love that challenge.

Frugal Living Tray bakes.

As we try not to buy shop bought/made cakes or biscuits, I generally make Rick a couple of sweetie type things a week. Im more a savoury person myself but he does love his sweet stuff during winter. Its a comfort food type thing I suppose.
This tray bake it a cheap but tasty alternative to a time consuming cake making.

Mix together in a bowl, 8 oz s/r flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, two tablespoons of cooking sugar, and a handfull of dessicated coconut(optional I use cos he loves it) Rub in 2 oz of cooking margarine.
Then add a dash of milk and mix to a firm dough.. you may need to add extra flour to stop it being sticky.
I then roll it out to fit my roasting tin.
Put in a hot oven for just about 6-8 mins... till light brown.
Meanwhile, I melt a large dollop of either jam, golden syrup, honey etc ... whatever I have most of...
As soon as the bake comes out of the oven, mark into squares with a pallette knife, brush with the melted sweet stuff and sprinkle with more coconut...
Lift each square onto a cooling tray while still warm...
The possibilities with this recipe are huge...
Ive even topped it with lemon juice and icing sugar when I had no jam...
Ive added old milkshake flavering when I had some left over...

It takes minutes to prepare and bake ... sadly generally only lasts the day...