Tiny Changes In 2022

Boy do I hate the winter. Shorter daylight hours mean less work and making the most of the natural daylight, now that I have cut back on using lights. And it's cold, but so far this year I have been able to keep on working. The heating is still set to its winter allowance (5pm...

The Importance Of A Freezer

The freezer is probably my most valuable tool in the kitchen. It enables me to over buy on yellow sticker items and store them for another time. Most of my freezer is currently full of blanched vegetables, pre-cooked apples and rhubarb, frozen foraged blackberries and pre-made soups and casseroles as well as a host of...

Portfolio Careers, Foraging And Side Hustles – Is This The Future Of Getting By?

As price rises continue to bite, I have realised that foraging for free food (as well as yellow sticker deals and loyalty card offers) are increasingly filling a growing gap in my budget and is the only way to keep my budget the same without putting less food table. This autumn, I have gathered enough...

Pie Charts, The Inequality Of Singledom And NY Resolutions

My New Year resolution for 2022 is to get out more, preferably hiking in the countryside around where I live or venturing further afield on genealogical explorations. I find it very easy to become set in my ways. I am quite lazy and comfortable hiding away, getting on with work. The pandemic and the realisation...

15 Minute Neighbourhoods – Help Or Hindrance To The New Work From Home Community?

I have recently been reading about 15 minute neighbourhoods. A 15 minute neighbourhood is defined as: '...a place where you can easily access all of your day-to-day needs—like food, education and outdoor space—within a 15-minute walk from your home.' I am lucky. I don't always have great things to say about Denton, but there is...

Vegetables As Desserts

One of the things I like about mostly shopping for yellow sticker items is the Russian roulette of meal preparation that comes with it. You never know what you're going to get. I am an adventurer in the kitchen and not afraid to mess about with ingredients or make swaps depending on what I have...

They Tried To Gamify Litter Picking

I have always said that if recycling was a gold mine everyone would be doing it. And that's part of our problem with wanting to save the planet, we need to incentivise some of the requirements to make it attractive. Not so long ago, over on my business blog, I wrote about the problems with...

Getting By, Getting On

I am reminded how quickly the seasons change. I can't even imagine what summer felt like. It's 6.46pm on a Sunday evening. I am in my pyjamas, with an additional jumper layer, fluffy socks, slippers, my dressing gown and I am wrapped in my trusty Slanket, my hands cupping a steaming mug of camomile tea as...

Early Winter Snow And An Upgrade That Got Down Graded

Friday night brought Storm Arwen and a dusting of snow to Manchester. Since Thursday, day temperatures have barely reach 6 degrees and the nights have dipped to minus 2. Then on Sunday it snowed all day. This is not the start I wanted to a more expensive winter, bills wise. I am watching the costs,...

Mushrooms! Mushrooms! And Yes More Mushrooms!

This year everyone seems to be talking about foraging for mushrooms. It's not something I've ever tried, mostly because identification seems like a tricky thing and I don't want to end up in hospital or worse. But I was staying at my parents in Kent in early November, and they have had a lovely display...