Smallholding And Site Gloves Tips.

 I mentioned on a comment yesterday to Linda (Local Alien) how my finger nails felt like they were dropping off when I was picking vegetable leaves to feed the rabbits.

Then I remembered this gloves tip I was shown when I worked once picking up wood and rubbish on a derelict hotel site here in West Cork.

Get yourself a pair of surgical/ disposable gloves and put your hands in them:

Disposable gloves.

Then put your work gloves on over them:

Your work gloves can get wet or cold but your disposable gloves will keep your hands warm and dry all day.

This morning I remembered my gloves and my hands were warm as toast picking the rabbits their breakfast.

Two layers gardening!

Still As A Mill Pond.

 I went for a five mile saunter the other day or even last week.  It was a lovely calm day and a enjoyable Autumn walk.  What a difference a weeks weather makes.

Up on the hills in between the two bays I took this photograph of Bantry Bay and Hungry Hill in the distance over on Beara peninsula.  

The bay was still like a mill pond.  It was like the lull before the storm.  Who would think the bay is part of the Atlantic Ocean?

If only the weather could be like its been last week?

The snow arrived in sleet like flurries this morning.    No doubt Ireland will get it's share this winter? 

Hungry Hill today took from my garden.

I hope it is not like 2010 when we got the heaviest snow fall for fifty years and we were snowed in for a fortnight.

It was good to have a walk on the hills.  I didn't see a soul and I didn't even play any music on my mobile phone.   I am fortunate to live where I can walk for miles on  the Sheepshead Way.  It's even better when you meet someone and have a chat.  I suppose it's  like blog writing.  You enjoy talking to strangers who are friends you haven't yet met?

Ireland is such a beautiful country when it is not raining or windy.

Mulligatawny Soup.

 

J found a tub of this soup in the "Specials" section in Lidl today.  They must be just selling for the run up to Christmas.

It is one of those soups that you place in the machine that goes "ping" for two minutes.

It wasn't bad.  I think I might have a go at making it from scratch some time.

Mulligatawny sounds like the name of a town in the West of Ireland.

Mulligatawny Soup could be the name of a prog rock group?

I have lit the stove and we have snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

It is definitely soup weather.

I think I will make some of my homegrown and homemade leek and potato soup tomorrow.  I could add some parsnip, onions and tomatoes?  🤔

Anyone else buying soup or even making it?

Have The Supermarkets Been Reading My Blog About Freezing Onions?

 We went Christmas shopping the other day before the world and the wife descend on the shops.

Remember back in September when I posted a blog about us slicing and chopping our organic home grown onion bags an placing them in small freezer bags and putting them in the freezer?

Well we noticed now Dunnes Stores are doing the same and selling them for a Euro.

We made a chilli last night and took a bag of our readily frozen chopped and sliced onions and placed them in the pan.

We are getting like M &S with our ready washed and chopped veg.

Do you freeze your home grown onions and vegetables?

Oriental Turkey Plates And Thinking What To Eat For Christmas Dinner.

 We washed our turkey old serving  plates I told you about on Sunday:

 

Willow Pattern.  They originate in China but a lot were made in the Potteries in Staffordshire in England.  Farmers and Industrialists realised the land had a lot of clay.  This was/is not ideal for growing vegetables but ideal for making pottery like our plates.  There was also no shortage of coal to heat the kilns.

This red one has Japan printed on the back.  On further online research this tells me it was made between 1921 and 1941 and made for the American market.  So it is at least 80 years old maybe an hundred.

Some of the blue willow pattern plates look very old.

If only they could speak?  I wonder how my Christmas turkeys have been served on these plates?

It's a shame we are not big Turkey eaters and we don't believe in leftovers  or Turkey sandwiches and Turkey  curry for days.  Any meat left over the dogs get it.  Any vegetables the pigs get it!

What are you having for your Christmas Dinner?  

We will probably have steak again and an all day hot and cold buffet.  We have even had a chilli and a curry one year.  Oh one year we made homemade pizza with a curry topping. 

Hope you like the plates?  I think I will sell them some time or get plate hangers for some of them and hang them on a wall.  If I can find some vacant wall space that is?

We placed them in sealed polythene bags and are resting back on top of a cupboard.  

I think I am a bit of treasure Womble or maybe a Jackdaw?😃 Perhaps I should live in a second hand shop? Only trouble is I wouldn't sell anything I liked.

Some Of Our Oriental Collectibles.

 GZ over at Ook blog feaured an Oriental box on her last post.

Here's some Oriental items we have collected over the years from flea markets, car boot sales and charity shops:

Very old Tea urn.

Geisha girls and my reflection.

Mount Fuji.

Oriental vases.

We also have 4 or 5 large willow pattern serving plates.  Big enough for a big chicken or Turkey.  They are very old.  I will dig them out some time and wash them and show them you.

Any one else collect Oriental items?

Tight Wad Tea Choice.

 Here's how I picked my tea for tonight.

We walked around Tesco and went to their Reduced Section.  Here's what I found and I made my meal choice by looking at the price label:

Stuck for a food idea for tea?  Have a trip to your supermarket and look in the Reduced section.

Do you go looking for food bargains?