Well, the time has come to say goodbye to Herman. He has been with us for quite a while, getting smaller and smaller as I added less and less to him. We decided to say goodbye in style, putting some nice things with him and made gingerbread muffins. As the mixture was quite sloppy, I added a little more flour and managed to get a total of 16. The 4 not present on this photograph are currently baking in the oven.
I have also slowly been making our tea in the form of a large shepherd's pie (enough for 2 nights) which can cook after the Hermans have finished.
Just read our electricity meter and we have used quite a lot less than the week before – and we also used less than the week before that. Even in this recent cold snap, we have only had the heating/hot water on, for 1 hour morning and early evening. The wood-burner has kept us warm (7 logs each time). When we feel a little chilly, we both have microwavable hot bean bags which we heat and cuddle up with. Those combined with hot soup, hot drinks and hot meals see us through the day. With the weather set to turn mild for the next few days, we might even stop the evening heating and just heat the water when we want a bath.
Finally – do you have a 'to buy' shopping system, if so, where do you keep it? We like to use a blackboard but our kitchen doesn't have room to put one up. My creative hubby painted the inside door of one of our kitchen cabinets with blackboard paint and hey presto – one blackboard!
It gets a re-paint every year or two to keep it working properly.
What a great idea to use blackboard paint inside a cupboard, brilliant. My 'to buy' system is usually an old piece of recycled paper left by the kitchen radio. Yours is so much better and nicely stored away.
ReplyDeleteHey, that blackboard idea is just fab.
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