Sunday

Good morning, gentle readers.  I've just peeked out and now I know why I felt a bit chilly overnight.  There's quite a heavy frost at present although it might, of course, have thawed by the time the sun comes up.  I tend to 'sleep hot' so have a fairly light quilt which usually is fine for my needs.  However, on cold nights or on nights when I'm not 100% like last Friday it certainly isn't enough.  Feeling just a bit chilly is as miserable as feeling too hot in bed.  I think I need to commandeer the cellular blanket that my dad uses when they come to stay and just throw it over the quilt.  That should be enough to make the difference.  Ideally, I'd get a silk quilt, like Diane, but they are very expensive and I think I can make do.

I'm looking around at a somewhat jumbled living room at the moment.  Yesterday I started using the Vax and got about 2/3 of the carpet cleaned.  The trouble is, it's a large room and I had to move the furniture around to clear spaces for cleaning.  I am really very pleased with the results and am raring to start the last two sections.  I didn't move the really heavy stuff like the sideboards and the wall units, but everything else was pushed and pulled around.  I also took the opportunity to move the furniture to where I want it for over Christmas, which means I won't have to do it later when time is short and the pressure is on!

I found the Vax really easy to use after the initial feeling of slight  awkwardness passed.  It's just like dyson-ing in slow motion really.  I was worried about saturating the carpet, but that didn't happen.  I was worried about how long the carpet would take to dry but it took about an hour and a half to be completely dry: it was walkable on straight away but I kept the furniture off until it was properly dry.  This made for slow but steady progress.  All in all, a big success and I am planning to do the whole house over the next few weekends - the bits that show anyway!

Apart from that I soaked a bowl of soup mix and in the evening made a vegetable broth with the mix plus all sorts of veg I had in the fridge.  It all went into a big pan (the veg was prepared and chopped up) with some cumin, some smoked paprika, a bouquet garni, some water and some marigold - quite a lot of marigold.  Later I also added salt and pepper.  It's made a very substantial, thick, filling mixture which will do me for school lunches this week.  I might cook some chicken bits and add them to the individual portions too.

Today - well, I have washing to do, an observed lesson to plan thoroughly - two lessons, in fact - a living room floor to finish off and I want to make cranberry flapjacks.  Beth and Alex are round for lunch and we are having the soup with grated cheese and croutons followed by apples and flapjacks.  In fact, I'd better go and start the flapjacks now as I do have a full morning one way and another!

Dad's garden last weekend - I love the colours.