Making Good Use

Big Bird

Spotted this enormous heron perched on the roof of a nearby house yesterday evening.  I'd heard there was one in the area as he has been spotted before and also people are complaining about the fish stocks in their garden ponds going down rapidly.  I must admit seeing such a large bird in the gathering twilight gave me quite a shock initially.

Beyond Hideous

The weather yesterday, today and particularly last night has been beyond hideous in SE Essex - rain, rain, rain, monsoon, deluge, cloud burst, a little bit of wet snow, and then, for good measure, a bit more rain.  The garden has started to flood (we've lived here five years and I've never seen that happen before) and, just to compound the misery, the drain outside the kitchen door is flowing away at the speed of dead slow and stop - which is not helpful when one of the drainpipes from the roof empties into it.

I thought I'd see if I could get anything in the High Street to unblock the drain - seeing as the dire weather forecast looks set for the foreseeable future - but the only thing the garden / hardware shop could offer was caustic soda.  Now I'm pretty sure that may have done the job, but having read the instructions on the back of the pack I didn't really want to b*gger around with a powder that can burn you quite badly and have to mix it with water in a bowl (sans bucket here since it was used to flush out the sewerage chamber which had become blocked a few years ago.  But that's another hideous story for another time!!) and then slosh it down quite a small drain cover.  Nah, the odds on me doing myself a serious injury were just too high.

Failing that the only thing I could find was Mr Muscle sink and drain unblocker which had to be poured down the plughole.  That didn't sound quite powerful enough for what I was looking for so I've decided to leave it for the time being.  Especially as I've been here on my own for the past nine days but P is back this evening and then from tomorrow I'll be off to Bristol for a week so P can sort out the flooded garden and the over-flowing drain - yes, I think that's the best solution all round!

Mistress Chloe and The Ginger and White Gentleman

For some odd reason there are lots and lots of dogs where we live - and most of them are barkers or yappers - but only three cats that I know of.  Two of them are ginger and white and it's very difficult to tell them apart unless you can get close enough to see that one of them wears a pink collar.  That one is Chloe (known by us as 'Mistress Chloe') who is the 'new kid on the block' and who, apparently, lives all the way over on the main road but likes to wander around our gardens.  She is a demon birder and is rarely seen with her paws on the ground, she's usually wandering around on the top of the pergola-type thingy at the end of our garden or on the roof of our shed.  Presumably she feels she'll have more chance to catch a bird if she's a bit higher up.

Last week though I was quite astonished to find she had climbed so high up the pine tree and was standing at the far tip of one of the branches (those branches are not that thick) and giving the glad-eye to next-door's cat, Jester - aka in our house as 'The Ginger and White Gentleman.'

I've never really seen Jester with his paws off the ground, although I have seen him catch a bird on several occasions, and he is also the local champion mouse catcher.  He was determined not to catch the eye of Chloe as he's apparently not that keen on her.  Not surprising really as I once saw her beat him up in a fight.

I Promise This'll Be My Last Post Prattling On About Body Shop Bargains

Yup, I do definitely promise that I'll now shut up about various Body Shop bargains that I've managed to procure.  Today's bargain is a 250ml bottle of Pink Grapefruit Shower Gel for £1.00 - the retail price is £6.00 but I used my £5.00 off voucher from last Saturday's Telegraph to pay for it.

I've come across Body Shop Pink Grapefruit Shower Gel before (probably picked up at a car boot sale) and I really like the fresh and zingy scent of it plus any flavour Body Shop shower gel is lovely quality so when I saw it on the shelves in the shop I knew that was what I was going to spend my voucher on.  Please note too that the sun was actually shining when I took this photo - amazing!! - and very welcome, but it's gone back behind a large grey cloud again now.

Whilst down in Basildon this morning I did my usual route of checking out all the charity shops (nothing too exciting although I did find two short-sleeved T-shirts for my nephew - 75p each, and a hopefully useful and versatile plain white long-sleeved T-shirt for myself which should be good for layering - £2.75.)  Also called in at the town-centre church 'Bargain Box' where I got a book for myself - 25p - and a top which might suit my Mum - 50p.  Then on to Marks and Spencer food hall where I bought a couple of easy-cook meals for myself for the weekend - liver and bacon (yummy, haven't had that in years) and cod and chips.  P has been away for the past week and as he won't be home until Monday evening I thought I'd have a rest from cooking for the weekend.

Then, finally, a quick perusal of the sale racks in Evans where I found a nice winter-weight top reduced from £30.00 to £15.00 and as I still had £5.60 on a gift card to use up I only had to actually cough up £9.40 in hard cash.

Thank you all very very much for your kind comments about my hot-water bottle cover yesterday.  I particularly liked Barbara's suggestion that I think of it as being rustic - that's an excellent way to describe it. 

There Are Knitted Hot-Water Bottle Covers And Then There Are Works Of Art

I was reasonably pleased with how my knitted hot-water bottle cover turned out.  It ended up looking a bit like an off-cut from a cricket sweater, maybe the wool should have been knitted double to give better insulation and for some odd reason the Irish wool made my stitches look really uneven.   But then for a practical item that was only going to be used now and again it wasn't too bad - it served it's purpose and it fitted the hottie well.  Then I stumbled across this beauty, what a work of art, and now I feel terribly inadequate.  It's no good, my hot-water bottle cover will have to be unpicked and knitted again. 

Beauty Bargains

It seems to be the time of year for frugal beauty treats and treatments - check out Life After Money's post on foot pampering and Frugal Queen's  frugal beauty post - and I've also been feeling the need to do a spot of beauty pampering too.

It all started with the free £5.00 Body Shop voucher in last Saturday's Telegraph.  Just to check out what I might spend my voucher on I had a look-see at The Body Shop website.  It just so happened that they had a 50% off on winter essentials sale over the weekend and amongst the items that were half price were the world's best hand cream - Hemp Hand Protector.  My sister discovered this a couple of years ago and it is truly wonderful if you've got really dry, chapped winter hands.  I bought some for P for Christmas as he gets really dry skin on his hands in the winter and he really rates it too.  So, bearing in mind this usually retails at £10.00 a tube and it was reduced to £5.00, I bought three - one for P for his upcoming birthday, one for me and one for a certain sister's birthday (sorry S to reveal one of your presents already.)     

Also in the half-price section was their Vitamin E Moisture Cream which really suits my skin as it's not too heavy but has a great moisturising action.  As I've not a lot left in the pot that I had for Christmas I decided to stock up and buy two of these.  I also decided to give their Vitamin E Eye Cream a go too as it says it's good for reducing the appearance of dark circles around the eyes.  I could seriously need some help with that as on really bad days I can resemble a panda - not a good look on me.  Also bought was a pack of three Facial Muslin Cloths (only £3.00) which are supposed to give gentle effective cleansing and can be re-used again and again - unlike the little facial pads I sometimes use to try and get a bit of glow back into my old fizz-og.

As I'd spent over £30.00, only by £1.00, I also received this rather spiffy free cosmetic bag with travel size goodies in it - Moringa Body Butter, Aloe Soothing Day Cream, Aloe Soothing Night Cream, Moringa Shower Gel, Aqua Lily Body Lotion, Super Volume Mascara and Aqua Lily Eau de Toilette.  Very very nice as a freebie.

In theory I saved £31.00 on my purchases, plus the £12.50 free travel kit, although in truth I could have just bought the Hemp Hand Protectors and not all the other stuff which is for me.  But, just sometimes, it is really nice to treat myself to something in the beauty line that wasn't bought at a car boot sale.  And, amazingly, I remembered to click through to The Body Shop from Top Cash Back  which means I will, eventually, get 15% of my money back.

Birkenstocks with Bling

When I went to Billericay a couple of weeks ago I noticed some rather nice Birkenstocks in an upmarket clothes shop there (Billericay does tend to specialise in rather upmarket and chi-chi little shops), and they were not just your bog-standard Birkenstock sandals - oh no, these one's had been blinged to within an inch of their lives.  Now, I do like me a Birkenstock sandal in the summer and although I'm not normally taken by a lot of bling these really did take my fancy. 

That evening I mentioned to P that I'd seen a gorgeous pair of sandals that I'd like to put in an advance order for re: my birthday in June.  He asked a few inocuous details like which shop had I seen them in and what colour was I thinking of etc etc., which I thought nothing of at the time. No more was said about them by either of us so you can imagine my surprise when a pair of Birkenstocks - in the right size, the right colour and the right amount of bling - turned up last week as an early Valentine's present.  I was truly delighted, and stunned that he'd gone to such a lot of trouble to get exactly the right ones delivered to me.

I shall be keeping these for 'best' this summer as they are far too nice to wear traipsing round car boot sales or up and down to the high street.  I can honestly say, hand on heart, they're the blingiest pair of shoes I've ever owned and by far the most thoughtful Valentine's Day gift I've ever had too.  Thank you so much P, you're an absolute star.

Telegraph / Body Shop Voucher

Have just come across this offer (from Martin Lewis' Moneysaving Expert website) which Kat had kindly mentioned in a comment on A Piece of Wood blog, so I thought I'd give it a shout out here too.  I usually buy the Telegraph on a Saturday anyway and as I'm intending to go to Basildon again next Friday (our nearest Body Shop location) I'll certainly be making use of the voucher.  

'Grab a copy of The Telegraph on Sat 13 (£1.80) or Sun 14 Feb (£1.90) and inside you'll find a free £5 voucher to spend in store at The Body Shop.

What's more there's no minimum spend; so if you can find a product you fancy in store for a less than a fiver, you effectively get it free. Products under a fiver include Strawberry Lip Balm for £3, Organic Cotton Pads for £2.50 and Satsuma Home Fragrance Oil for £3.50.

The voucher's valid from Sat 13 - Sun 21 Feb and cannot be used with any other offers. No change will be given if your item is less than £5. One voucher per person, per transaction.'

Eke* It Out

I bought a small boiling bacon in the butchers this week, it was only £2.99 and I've managed to get seven portions from it in one incarnation or another - working out at approx. 42p per serving.

First up was an evening meal of my version of Nigella's Gammon in Cider recipe.  Basically you boil up the bacon in cider or apple juice (this time I used a combination of both as I didn't have enough of either and that worked fine) with leeks, carrots, onions all tickled up with cloves, black peppercorns, bouquet garni and a good sprinkling of demerara sugar.  Nigella suggests adding celery too but as my opinion of celery is that it is possibly the spawn of Satan in vegetable form I leave it out.  Served with plain boiled potatoes this is a really filling and tasty meal.  P and I had a l-a-r-g-e portion each - if we weren't such piggies we could probably have stretched this to make two evening meals.

Next day I fished most of the leftover meat and veggies out of the cider with a slotted spoon, chopped them up and added to cooked pasta.  Covered in a cheese sauce and baked in the oven this gave us another evening meal with enough left for me for the following day's lunch. 

To the remaining veggies, bits of meat and the cider I added a couple of boiled potato halves (leftover from the original evening meal)  and wizzed it all up with my hand blender to make a rather tasty soup.  That gave me two lunches and very welcome they were too on such chilly days.

Oh, yes, all the fat from the boiling bacon went out in the garden for any passing fox, feline, seagull or smaller bird to enjoy.  The only thing that made it to the bin was the plastic it was wrapped in originally.

*I had to get P's mega huge dictionary (known affectionately as the 'pocket dictionary') out to find out how you actually spell 'eke.'  The description given is 'to make (a supply) last, esp. by frugal use.'  Yup, that was definitely what I was looking for.

Ten Minutes Ago It Was Sunny

Yup, 10 minutes ago there was blue sky and bright sunshine.  All of a sudden the wind got up and the sky got darker and darker and then, whoosh, down came the snow.  Quite extraordinary!!

And here I was hoping we'd seen the last of the white stuff for this winter!!  Obviously I was wrong.