Today has been a good one for work. It's been sunny all day and not too cold. I've got lots of things done so I'm in a good mood. There were a few mishaps but they turned out alright in the end. Mishap number one was my attempt to bake an Ardeche chocolate and chestnut cake. A little while ago I bought some tins of chestnut puree at an almost give away price. I found a cake recipe on the web and today I gave it a go. I was a little sceptical about not putting any flour in the mixture but I double checked the recipe and looked at several others which didn't have flour either so I went ahead. The resultant cake was a little on the stodgy side, more like a chocolate brownie, probably because I don't have much control over the oven temperature on my rayburn. Next time I'll add some flour which should lighten up the cake a bit.
Most of my day has been spent outside working up at the scree garden. Having decided to spruce up the paintwork on the buildings up there, today's job was the least pleasant one of brushing away cobwebs, scraping off loose paint, sanding down and washing everything to be painted. I took a car load of junk down to the dump and came back with a mirror and a small metal box. I always like to have a browse around the items put aside for resale. Today I counted 12 assorted golf bags many with clubs, just thrown out! Back home I was able to paint on the first coat of masonry paint. It was only after painting a row of bricks that I realised the instruction 'stir well before use' should have read 'stir very, very well before use'. My initial stirring had not been thorough enough and I had been using rather watery paint. Providing the rain holds off I should be able to get all the various coats of primer and gloss done by the week-end.
Just scraped through with another 2 lbs off this week. One of the things that has made it possible for me to stay on my diet is the fact that I hardly cook any family meals. Peter has never wanted an evening meal during the week, sometimes he has a light snack but he prefers to eat a good breakfast and a late lunch. Good thing too as I have never seen my role as the happy home maker who rushes home from her work to get her husband's dinner ready each night. It was different when I was at home with the children and even when the boys were at college I would make them a cooked breakfast every day. This was more because I knew they didn't eat during the day. If I made them sandwiches they didn't get eaten and if I gave them lunch money they saved it for 'more important' things. Now the only one at home is Linas and at 23 and unemployed he is perfectly capable of cooking his own (and Peter's) meals. Peter does cook as well and I do normally (when I'm not on a diet) cook on the week-ends.
Most of my day has been spent outside working up at the scree garden. Having decided to spruce up the paintwork on the buildings up there, today's job was the least pleasant one of brushing away cobwebs, scraping off loose paint, sanding down and washing everything to be painted. I took a car load of junk down to the dump and came back with a mirror and a small metal box. I always like to have a browse around the items put aside for resale. Today I counted 12 assorted golf bags many with clubs, just thrown out! Back home I was able to paint on the first coat of masonry paint. It was only after painting a row of bricks that I realised the instruction 'stir well before use' should have read 'stir very, very well before use'. My initial stirring had not been thorough enough and I had been using rather watery paint. Providing the rain holds off I should be able to get all the various coats of primer and gloss done by the week-end.
Just scraped through with another 2 lbs off this week. One of the things that has made it possible for me to stay on my diet is the fact that I hardly cook any family meals. Peter has never wanted an evening meal during the week, sometimes he has a light snack but he prefers to eat a good breakfast and a late lunch. Good thing too as I have never seen my role as the happy home maker who rushes home from her work to get her husband's dinner ready each night. It was different when I was at home with the children and even when the boys were at college I would make them a cooked breakfast every day. This was more because I knew they didn't eat during the day. If I made them sandwiches they didn't get eaten and if I gave them lunch money they saved it for 'more important' things. Now the only one at home is Linas and at 23 and unemployed he is perfectly capable of cooking his own (and Peter's) meals. Peter does cook as well and I do normally (when I'm not on a diet) cook on the week-ends.
