I am sat here with a cup of tea, having just caught up with the final Great Pottery Throwdown Programme and missing it already. I have enjoyed it so much and the final competitors seemed like old friends. I'm not surprised AJ won as they had skills right across the board. My couple of pieces of pottery made a few years back look a bit pathetic!
Today one of my cousins, S, and her husband came to visit again. We met up last year when they were staying in Pembrokeshire too. It's lovely to keep in touch with my family. I set to and made a Lemon Drizzle cake at breakfast time, then made a pizza as an alternative at lunchtime, but gosh, they arrived laden with a fabulous cold feast and I won't need to cook all week now!
The out of kilter feeling is worry over the mountainous rise in the cost of living - I needed Stork marg for baking this morning and a SMALL pack was £1.80! OK, it was in Co-op who are always dearer, but heck, the spreadable butter type stuff was eye-wateringly expensive - a large Lurpack was £5.85!!! A pound of butter would have been £3.30 by comparison . . . Think I will be stocking up on cooking oil as much of that comes from Ukraine apparently. Flour will be something else going through the roof. I've stocked up but need more room for storage.
We are having to pay motorway prices for fuel here in town - diesel is 169.9 pence per litre - about £10 a gallon now, so we shan't be going far and on sunny mornings I may walk into town and back (2 miles each way) for the daily paper, anything small and light we have run out of. I could do with the waist-reducing exercise but it is uphill most of the way home!
I ordered heating oil yesterday and they wouldn't quote a price. Delivery will be in 2 -3 weeks and we will just have to accept it is what it is, but Keith's illness makes him feel the cold more. I will have to cocoon him in blankets, quilts and a hotty botty.
Then you watch the news about Ukraine and we have NO problems compared with the poor people who are being bombarded, murdered and their homes blown to smithereens. Praying seems futile . . . It's starting to feel like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have just ridden into view.
I’m feeling out of kilter alongside you today. It was lovely that you met up with family. It takes your mind off things. Lemon drizzle cake is always a winner.
ReplyDeleteHello Janipi. The Lemon Drizzle cake went straight into the freezer when my cousin and her husband went. Tam enjoys it so I will bring it out when she is over next. I think everyone is feeling disturbed right now.
DeleteI am feeling a bit wonky what with the way prices seem to be skyrocketing. We live in scary times and I wonder how on earth our children will exist with these crazy prices and constant changes in interest rates. We will help out where and as we can.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got to meet with family and the lemon drizzle cake sounds lovely.
God bless.
I thought of going to Hay for the oat bread flour I like, but then we worked out what the fuel will cost and are staying put. I think, even with £5 postage on top, it is worth ordering from Wessex Mills online.
DeleteI think we all pray in our own manner of such things--and all are feeling perplexed, anxious, wondering 'what next?'
ReplyDeletePrices here are rising--gasoline and diesel most noticeably, staple food supplies as well. We keep a well stocked pantry--always have done--can only do our frugal best!
I need to become very frugal now - a pastry jacket for little bits of cooked meat that don't make a meal on their own, or they can go into a soup. Outings will have to be of the local kind - no jaunts up to Ludlow or Oswestry or perhaps even Malvern for Antique Fairs. Hotty botties and blankets instead of an extra hour of heating. Thank heavens we are moving towards Spring now.
DeletePrices are rising at a shocking rate here in California too, it can make us all feel out of kilter, combined with hearing the news. I stay informed and am a member of groups that work to improve things, but often I need to take a break from the news, these are dangerous times. I hope the month of March is kind to all of us.
ReplyDeleteCompared with the people of Unkraine, we have no problems at all - we have food in the cupboard, a roof over our heads, heating (for the moment) and no bombs heading our way. I cannot imagine how terrifying and desperate life is for them.
DeleteJust remember back to the arrival of the first repatriation flight from Wuhan to UK early on in the pandemic. They boarded four white coaches from a company called Horseman...the irony s not lost on me, or you I am sure.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I wasn't paying much attention at the time (though I can see the coaches in my mind's eye and think I was amazed that they could persuade the drivers to drive them - I even remember they weren't wearing masks!) Ironic indeed.
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