So Excited To Show This!

OK, STARTED THIS POST A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO SO SORRY IF IT IS A BIT HIGDLEDY PICKLEDY (WAS GOING TO SAY ALL TO COCK, LANCASHIRE EXPRESSION, BUT DIDN'T WANT TO OFFEND - OOOPS!)


I am so excited to finally show you the cellar store room! In my wildest dreams I never thought I would get anything close to this.

The shelving came from the shed, some of which Jon no longer needed. I gave them a good scrub and where I couldn't get some sticky labels off which showed flanges and stuff previously being kept on them! I decided to use some of a gingham oil cloth I have to cover the edges.

I hope to find a suitable piece of matting for the floor at some stage. 

As you can see I have moved my preserving jars and bottles down there. (This leaves space in the kitchen cupboard for my Christmas stash.) The large crockery was taking up a lot of space so it is great to be able to move it somewhere else. 

We plan on having bins for the recycling and to store flour, rice and pasta down there, too. As you can see I have my measily collection of already preserved items sitting there proudly!

I am very pleased with the onions. 

The harvest? was just under 7lbs so I have some hung up, love the smell, some are upstairs to use as they grew a bit long like leeks or did not have tops long enough to hang and some in this shopping basket - doesn't look a lot but the basket is huge! 

The beetroot is out of the way under one of the tops and I plan to get it pickled by the end of the month, if all goes to plan! As well as pickling it I have a lovely thing I like to do as an accompaniment to cold meat which is beetroot cut into small cubes set in blackcurrant jelly. Trust me it is lovely and you can make it as thick or otherwise with the beets as you like. 

The curtains were quite simple to make and run on simple wires; great for covering up the less pretty stuff. With my craft bench being out of action at the moment, not for much longer I hope, I had to do the sewing them at the kitchen table.

We have moved the fridge freezer and small chest freezer in which means we are back to more space where the washer, drier and shoe stand is. The chest freezer will not be turned on until we have something substantial to put in it but the fridge freezer will be used for Christmas stock, drinks etc.

On Saturday in Aber I found this lovely letter rack plus some great vintage-looking paper for Christmas projects - zoom in and see some of the great images.

On Sunday morning I started off the mushroom kits we recently bought. This is how it looks before you put on the compost which will be tomorrow. I will post on, hopefully, positive progress!

In other news, during the week I took up the shamefull harvest of two swede, lost most of the seeds to the birds it seems? We had those with lots of butter and milk as part of our roast chicken dinner on Sunday; I also made bread sauce with one of our onions and my own bread!

At lunch time Sunday Jon brought one of the chickens inside as the day before he thought she looked a bit under the weather. Her eyes were a bit milky looking and not very bright and her comb was not the vibrant red it should be. We put her in this box and made her comfy with some water; she really didn't look well.

By the evening she had rallied a bit and we kept her inside overnight.

In the morning she looked quite a bit better so we have given her some laying pellets  but she is still in the kitchen. Jon said something that night which made me laugh; he said is this what we signed up for, chicken in the kitchen?!

POSTED SINCE THIS TO SAY WE LOST THE CHICKEN.

Ok it is now Wednesday evening and going to settle down with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx