End of January

 Finally one of my amaryllis has opened, daughter got me this as a birthday gift, I asked for red, I do love colour at this time of year, there is a second bud on this bulb. My second amaryllis bulb is way behind, I have a couple bulbs in my greenhouse with shoots, hopefully more blooms to come.

My hyacinths have opened, nice white blooms, I purchased these already in their pot from Lidl, they have grown tall, once they go over I will plant then in the garden.

To add inside colour I have put out my fake tulips, I love these they look so real, and feel very spring like, other than my big poinsettia stems which are still out, all the silk seasonal plants are packed away until December. 

I adore turkey leftovers as much as the main meal itself, our crown fed 6 on Sunday, all three children had double helpings, I have loads for cold turkey sandwiches, and another favourite turkey pie, very simple, I shredded the turkey, added loads of cranberry sauce, we like the lumpy one, make a sage and onion stuffing mix and put of top for lid, bake in oven to heat up meat and cook stuffing. I made 4 pies, two for this week, two in the freezer, half of the slices seen here went into the freezer, not bad for just £11.00. 

I have read all Rob Rinder books, all set in the legal system, courts and chambers, everyone involved in huge cases, and always more than one case, here their main case is defending a activist from a murder charge, a crime seen by many people and caught on video, is she a murderous woman or a silly woman caught over her head. Book 9 read this year.

 

We made more great savings this week, we live in a hard water area, we are always fighting limescale, we removed the yellowing seals on our shower cubical and could not clean inside, we managed to track down replacements, I cleaned the edges of the glass panels and hubby cut down the seals, our shower now looks like new at a low cost. Hubby has a cracked tile to replace and some grouting, just small jobs. We have no big DIY plans for us to do this year, we will need to get someone in to sort our wooden floors.

The wind and rain overnight earlier this week from storm Chandra was horrendous, there was local flooding, mainly roads unable to cope with the volume of water, we managed OK, Lilly has become a bit vocal, she loves to be outside, and  is fed up being inside, I understand her frustrations, I feel the same.

Our MP Suella Braverman has defected to Reform party, locally her popularity is very mixed, she is known for jumping on any local success stories whilst being absent from any work, both hubby and I are not happy as we feel if an MP change their party a by-election should be called, I know we vote for the person on the ballot paper, but you do also highly consider the party as well. It's just another case of MP's working for their own agenda rather than the people they were elected to represent.