The cost of living

 Somehow, I managed to unpack the car this morning.  I took two Panadol before I started, to ease my aching back and other sore body parts . . .  I managed it on my own, as although I asked for help with the tables, but no reply to my text so I carried on . . .  The Panadols have now well and truly worn off and I can't wait to get to bed tonight.

You might just make out a Thrush who was enjoying the Blackberries in my hedge.

I had a Greggs breakfast in the car - a sausage roll.  I'm glad they don't state the ingredients or I would probably never eat anything from there again!  I also had a can of Diet Coke to stop me falling asleep over my trolley in Tesco.

I bought some more things for the storecupboard.  Jane (Frugal Queen in France) was suggesting that plum tomatoes were a better buy than already chopped ones as there was more of the product in the tin and less juice.  I thought I would try it and see - they are the same price anyway.  I bought 4 tins, and another pack of Passata and Tomato Puree with red wine in.  I was going to buy a small can of Corned Beef for the store cupboard - to eat if no electricity to cook with - but they were £4.05 in Tesco - clearly the new haute cuisine!  They are half that price in Aldi . . .  I was only in Tesco because I had 8 things on my shopping list and I was feeling wiped out and not up to going to Aldi as well, but of course you know it's difficult to stick hard and fast to the list and I ended up with more but the meat I bought (2 gammon steaks, a small pack of good (5%) mince and two Tesco steak pies) will do more than a week's worth of meals and I bought 8 various tins for the storecupboard, and replaced an empty Ground Nutmeg and running low on Ground Ginger (x 2 there).  Cat bics that I use on special offer two, two for £8, and Twinings Earl Grey teabags also on offer, so two of those to stock up as I was down to my last pack.

I also bought a new winter sheet for my bed, brushed cotton, which is already washed and drying in the top hall.  It replaces one which has never really been deep enough and has now got saggy elastic stopping it from being a proper fitted sheet.  It was £15, which boosted my bill, but needs must.

I am now absolutely on my hunkers and the thought of getting my hotty botty made up and warming my feet is very attractive.  I have an electric blanket but don't use that until the depths of winter or the mattress gets too hot.

Reading: JD Kirk: Better the Devil (excellent! although it was making me lol at the Fair!).

Today's Podcast: Fairies, from the Three Ravens folklore podcasts.

This will be the last time . . .

 Is what my brain is singing right now.  Oh my goodness, I am absolutely BUSHED.  It is all the packing and lifting single handed which is so exhausting.  I was tired when Keith and I did Fairs together, and he did all the lifting and packing.  On my own - well, I know I will have to call on my offspring to help if I do this Fair again.  That in itself is a moot point because new owners have managed to pretty well kill this fair in the single year they have been running it, just from sheer greed.  Putting prices up abruptly (20% on our stalls alone and more on the ones in the two posher buildings, especially if you have a fitted stand to hand paintings or display furniture.)  There are NO outside stalls up beyond the main buildings now - there used to be dozens - apart from a few under cover in the nearest outbuilding, but they used to go right up to the gate where the traders drive in to set up.  There used to be LOTS to the left of the main ring too.  Those are getting much fewer in number - a good third down.  The two front halls are half and 2/3 empty and it is not a good look.  They have managed to get rid of the stalls selling tea/coffee/chips/burgers etc, and the named breed sausages, ice cream - many were stalls which had traded their for 25 years or more.  The replacements have really hoiked their prices - £3.50 just for a cup of tea!!!  Burgers £8.50 - £12.50, canned drinks £3!  etc to cover costs.

Anyway, it was good to see old friends and make new ones, and have lovely chats with people, buying or not.  I have some pennies towards my MoT and other bills.  I am home.  Unpacking will happen over the next couple of days and I will ask for help with the awkward tables.

This made me laugh.  This lady had bought a taxidermy fox and it had suddenly rained heavily so they wrapped it up for her, but all you could see was its brush and a bin liner over its head, like it was going to do a bank job!!!

Quite the strangest thing in the Fair.  Much as I like the unusual, NOT for me!!!  

I liked the furniture on this stall - very much to Keith's and my taste.  The little chair with the wicker back is a lady's version of an Orkney lambing chair.  I think the plain chair behind the nice stick-back on the left is a Wainscot chair.  My favourite is the primitive stick back on the table.

I call that a cheating rocking horse!! One dimensional . . .

A typical outside stall.

What the ??

More personal belongings on my stand - the Richard Bebb (signed) books we bought when they were published - he had an open day at his premises and he was signing them then; the beautiful painted enamel white crane pot holder; the beautifully turned lignum vitae candlesticks, and behind, the Thomas Toft platter by Carole Glover, of Charles II in the oak tree.  That has gone to live in a beautiful Medieval house, a forever home.

Now I am going to cook myself a tiny meal of leftovers and rice and have an early night.

Just some photos

 I am absolutely worn out, so just a few photos around the Fair.

If I had had the money to spare, this painting would have come home with me.  It was absolutely lovely and the light in it just magical.

This hall used to be crammed with more stalls than this.  Not that many people this morning, though it did liven up later.

Tam, Jon and Rosie came over in the afternoon and I took 20 mins off to have a look around the more expensive stands in the front two buildings.  I have to say, they were looking very empty of stalls, badly so.  It has the look of a Fair in decline . . .

Off to watch the last half an hour or so of a good drama, Emily, about Emily Bronte, which is on BBC and I was watching last night.  Then my bed will be very welcome indeed.

It's raining, it's pouring . . .

..... so I am very glad that the car is packed up and we drive in at the Fair and unpack under cover.  I might get a bit damp putting the 2nd lot in (mainly boxes of v. old stock which will go on a £10 and under table), but I'll live.

Feeling tired as Alfie woke me yowling to go out at 4.30a.m. and I didn't get back to sleep.  I will probably have to have a mini nap before going to set up.  Still, I began the day well and stripped and remade my bed before I came downstairs, and have the duvet cover in the washing machine already.  I made sure the bed was remade straight away as no way did I want to wander up there at bedtime and realize to my horror that I had forgotten!

I've nearly finished Running for the Hills.  One bit was quite frightening - an odd man in green shorts had been on their land, looking for a pathway to the mountain or something.  Not quite your normal hiker.  Then that night Jenny (the mum) decided to take the dogs into the house for protection as she had a bad feeling about him.  Just as well as in the middle of the night the dogs were going hysterical with barking because they heard someone outside. This happened several times and she phoned the police, but it was an hour and a half before they arrived.  When they came downstairs, the most aggressive of their dogs had nearly bitten through the windowsill wood trying to get out to see off the intruder.  As they lived in splendid isolation high up on the mountainside, with no near neighbours, this would have been an awful experiencce.  One wonders what would have happened if the dogs had been outside as usual - they may have come out to a corpse!  The aggressive dog was very territorial and even if it saw walkers a mile or so away, would race off to bite them!!  It makes living through a blizzard and opening the door to find a wall of snow an absolute breeze in comparison.  Fortunately they were rescued by neighbours, who took them down to their farmhouse before they ran out of food.

I made a chocolate apple cake yesterday, and bought some ham for rolls.  I will get the rolls this morning. At least they will be a day fresher.  So, we will see what the weekend brings.  I just hope I can shift the very old stuff by half pricing it.

Enjoy your weekend.

P.S.  Trying to comment on various blogs but the comments won't publish.  Anyone else having this problem?

Blooming hard work!

 I have just mostly loaded the car - all the heaviest things have gone in anyway.  I will put in more boxes and what I can fit in the front seat and well tomorrow.  The tables are always so difficult to manhandle.  Keith never had a problem of course, but he had muscles!  He could carry two boxes together . . .

I have taken the mansion dollshouse to Pam's for her to fit 3 doors on (pin gone at top) and babysit until Christmas.  

On my railwayline walk, I picked some more Elderberries so will strig those after tea and freeze them.

I need to beg help from Ed & co as the hinge has dropped on the main stable door (bottom door) and it needs lifting off so a big washer can go on.   I think I have to source a washer in the morning though as they are meant to be a fairly exact fit and the sort of washer I found would be a bit loose and needs to be steel and not brass as this one is.

A little scratch built stool in oak and elm, made from oddments - chap had a pile of them he's made.  Just polishing it up each day now.  It had delightfully wonky legs.

A little bit of produce from the garden.  I've had a few of the lemon cucumbers - now it has cooled down a load of them have suddenly started appearing on the plants in the greenhouse.  I have some more Telegraph cucumbers very slowly filling out and lengthening up in the polytunnel.  The Red Zebra tomatoes are a delight to eat and I will grow those next year but won't bother with the plum tomatoes which all split, each and every one.  The heat just overwhelmed them.  Should have grown them outside this year.

Oh, how lovely, I have just had what I think is a Garden Warbler land on the fence just outside of the kitchen door (the Georgian one nailed shut).  So pretty.  No, just checked it and it's a Chiff Chaff!  Always heard them, never seen one until today.

Well, the way my shoulders are aching now, it was a good move to give myself 48 hrs off before I have to unload it and shift it again!  Glad it's done.

Tea is leftover chicken curry (a portion from the freezer).  It pays to cook extra and freeze.

Right, time to eat and read my book.

Tired is better than shattered

 I slept for 11 hours last night, which gives me some sort of idea that I had overdone things or had a bug.  I have done little today.  Read a chunk more of my book (and still angry because they are lambing OUT - his mother pursuing reluctant giving-birth ewes round a pitch black mountainous field with just a torch and on her own when they first arrived).  It must have been bliss later when they had students helping at lambing. I sat on the sofa and strigged the Elderberries and froze them (1lb).  I can cook them up into Syrup another day and may wander out and try and find some to join them tomorrow, though I don't recall seeing any on recent walks.  Perhaps the old railway line . . .

I managed to persuade Ebay to let me have the money for the scooter, so that is in my account now.  However, whilst checking my bank account I noticed that Plusnet had taken £49 from my bank in payment for my broadband this past month.  I don't think so!  Just gone out of contract, so I have renewed it for 24 months much more cheaply.  

I've done some more of my x-stitch but have made an error, so must do some unpicking.  Sod's Law.

Then I made a big decision this morning, something I have been thinking about for a while, and I took the lovely willow basket with Keith's ashes in up to my bedroom, and put it on his big chest of drawers, a tall Carmarthenshire-made one we bought at an early auction in Wales.  It cost £180 I remember.  Anyway, downstairs there was a little scattering of ashy dust where the basket had been so I rubbed my hand over it and went out to his workshop and rubbed it across his old workbench, where he had always been happy.  A bit of him will be with it always now.  There were tears, of course.

Then there was a timely arrival - the Just X-Stitch magazine I had bought on Ebay.  Some really lovely designs in it.

I have twice taken this photo, the right way up and twice the computer had decided it needs to be viewed sideways.  Apologies.

And a sideways cat, which I am going to make for "I".  

Tea tonight is a cheating one - boughten Scampi, with a potato cut up for home made chips, and left-over veg.  

Yesterday's long-haul Podcasts were great - The Rest is History's in depth discussion about Jack the Ripper and his victims.  I have 3/4 one left to listen to.

Isn't this copper dipper lovely?  I gave it a polish up, to go with my kitchenalia at the weekend. Tempted to keep it but don't need it.

A little German lemon squeezer.  SO cute.

Well, I need to get the veg out now, so will leave you contemplating an autumn calendar now that September has arrived.

Exhausted

 I really didn't want to get up when the alarm(s) went off this morning.  I think I really did need more sleep, as by the time I had driven partly in near darkness and then driving into the rising sun, I found if I leaned forward when I was at the Fair, my head was a bit dizzy.  I wasn't excited before going, on the way, or once there.  This is unusual.  Anyway, I saw old friends and had a lovely chat with some dealers I'd not met before, and when I got back to the car, the chap in the next car and I had a good chat too.  The day was not wasted.

I loved this box lid, but unfortunately by the time I reached it I ony had the princely sum of £2.23 left in my bag . . .

I ended up with less money to spend as I was lucky enough to find Rosie's Christmas present.  

I had planned to buy her a Doll's House.  I didn't plan on buying her a Mansion house, but hey-ho.  I really loved this and it came complete with a big box of house contents.  This hit the exchequer with a big bite, but the Christmas present buying is going well and I hope to be done and dusted with it by the end of October latest. Looking up dolls houses on Ebay and Etsy, some of them are big prices in the hundreds.  The scale models of Georgian dollshouses especially.  One Oxford House kit was £650!!  I always remember a wonderful dollshouse shop in Bath, which sold tiny pineapples, bowls of fruit, copper cookware, chandaliers.  Ooh I was a child again!

These stunning German pieces were on the North & South Vintage stall and I had a lovely chat with the owners.  Very special designs these.

On a friend's stall.

On another friend's stall.  Beautifully stitched.

I loved this (on yet another friend's stall - we always chat, esp. as she's horsey).  

Last 3 photos from one of the Builth "neighbours" I chat to.  I would love the little stable in the background.

The view when I plonked myself down on a bench to ease my aching arms and shoulders (that dolls house is hefty).  Fortunately another friend helped balance it on the camping trolley on the way back to the car over the rough bit of track, and helped me lift it into the car.

I am so glad that tonight's meal is leftovers from last night.  All I want to do is sit down and do nothing now.  Think I will take a Panadol and see if that will ease my head, which is a bit tight from all the concentration today.

Coming home, I passed lots of bikers going home in the opposite direction.  There has been the usual Bank Holiday biker fest on the showground and they had it wet in their tents, poor souls.   I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Tomorrow is September.  I am SO glad Autumn has arrived.