I have been away from my blog for nineteen days from today. It took me at least ten of those days to figure out how to not blog and just be.
It has been like going back home peeling away technology. I have found that I can use technology if I use it as a good book, not as something that is chained to me. As long as I am learning from it in a balanced away and not wasting my life scrolling.
I have been in and out of the garden. This past week the temperatures have gotten very hot and dry. I have planted only things that can manage without much care and water duties which Charles will be taking over for me soon.
I have once again straightened out the buffet drawer and cabinet which holds tablecloths, placemats and table napkins.
Some might call me a table napkin hoarder but how I figure it, is as long as it fits it can stay. :)
Charles helped me to organize the first aid cabinet and hang the fire blanket.
We took all of the bandage supplies out of the cabinet and thinned this down.
This is the bandage drawer. We just used up a entire box of 3x3 inch gauze bandaging a skin surgery wound on Charles with three times a day dressing change. So we restocked our dressing needs.
In the 1970's I was the neighborhood Mom's house that the children of the neighborhood would come to with skinned knees and smashed fingers as rumored that Tim's mom would fix it. I always gave them an extra sympathetic bandage so they could proudly go back out to show off their bulky bandage instead of a band aide.
Somehow the house and my brain were both jumbled with all of the history study experiments and I had to make sense of it. Charles and I are happy where we have settled in now and organizing has finally made sense.
Everything in its place and everything has a place.
We have started eating from the garden which is just wonderful to have the vegetables and fruits.
Planting the garden and caring for the seedlings was a lot of work but this is what happens when we stick with it.
Yellow squash. A small garden has taught me to use every bit of space that we can and it still will not be enough to put a lot away for winter but enough to eat fresh and put at least a little bit away.
It teaches me new things every year, it changes every year and so does life.
This year we added Hyssop, a perennial. The pollinators love it and that is what we need more of. I do recommend planting perennial plants to draw in pollinators.
I am still working on cooking "traditional" recipes from the British Isles. Not the ones in the cook books but those that are everyday meals at home. I am trying to find seven meals to use for a meal plan that I will rotate each week.
I just do not want to think about meal planning anymore, I just want to know what I am going to cook on the same days over and over. This was put in my head over a year ago by a blog friend from one of the British Isles and she said she could never cook all the varieties of meals like Americans cook. She said they ate simple meals over and over. That has helped me so very much. :)
If you are from any of the British Isles, or have handed down recipes from the British isles, that are strictly every day meals, it would be wonderful if you could share them in the forum under this post. This way we could "all" give them a try.
I love the names of the British Isle meals such as Toad in a Hole, Mince and Tatties, Rumbledethumps and so many more. :) It is my understand that each area has their own way of making some things with the same names.
I want to know :)
This is a traditional cottage pie and it is delicious. It was so yummy that I forgot to take a picture and it is now on our weekly meal plan that I have not finished.
Some of our non British meals the past couple of weeks. Pork loin, sweet potatoes and stewed cabbage. It is my understanding that the sweet potato was not common in the British Isles.
This was quesadillas, refried beans, cilantro, spring onions, lettuce, rice and we used yogurt.
This was chicken salad made from leftover Chicken with tomatoes from the garden and club crackers.
Diced chicken, dill relish, green olives minced, diced onion, Mayonnaise, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. But it can be made any way you like it.
Oatmeal / Porridge, coffee for Charles and hot tea for myself.
Remember the cucumber arbor a few weeks back?
It is doing well..
And this one is ready to harvest and there are "many" baby cucumbers growing.
My kitchen drawer is like the table napkin drawer, as long as it fits.
Our eldest girl Katherine will be 16 in December. She is slowing down but still able to get around most days.
This break that I have been on, I have had a lot of time to rest my brain and get things in order while waiting to have surgery. I have learned that my brain still thinks like I have always thought but now that I am older I am slower to do the things that I want and need to do.
I finally figured out that when I first started posting I was younger and had a lot of energy, now I am older and I have been trying to post at the same pace. I cannot do that anymore and still be the keeper of the home. I never want to post a "filler food" type of post so to speak just to put out a blog post. I feel that many bloggers and youtubers do this to keep a deadline.
I have decided that instead of completely throwing in the towel, when I come back from getting over surgery, I will not have a certain day or time to write a post but only post when I am nudged to post. I want to follow that nudge and we will see how this goes so I don't have any pressure to write a post, but to write just like writing a letter from home to family, which is you.
Surgery will be soon, Tim will do a short post when he knows I am doing well from the surgery.
My thoughts for this day is to plant a seed and watch it grow. That seed can be a vegetable, fruit or kindness.
Love your neighbors because we all need each other.
Do our best to not judge others because they are on their own journey, mistakes and all. None of us can say that we have not made mistakes.
Work towards a calm and happy home. Love, Grandma Donna
