Saturday morning

I looked out half an hour and it was snowing hard.  It's stopped at the moment but I'm sure there's more to come.  It's settled on the grass, roofs and cars but not on the driveways - yet.  And it feels so cold, so icy in the wind.  Brrrrr.
I have to do a little bit of shopping which I will get done early but after that it's indoors for me, all day, in the warm and cosy, watching TV and crocheting.  That sounds so good.

Yesterday was busy, but not in the way I expected.  In the morning one of our specialist support teachers turned up unexpectedly so we had an impromptu meeting about an issue about which we all have concerns.  Then I got an email asking for a reference so I spent the afternoon (some of it anyway) pondering over that.  Playground duty was as cold as expected and the children had all decided to put on their coats, unsurprisingly!  After school there was a meeting and then it was home, James for me!

I've had a lovely two weeks while a couple of friends have been staying here but they're just getting ready to go, sadly.  I hope the snow stays off while they travel to their destination, although their car has snow tyres so they should be OK.  Thanks for coming, S and M.  Good luck!

For the first time in weeks I have no specific Thermione plans.  That doesn't mean I won't be using her.  Dear me, no.  The eggs are in a ready to boil, I have to make some Saturday Soup.  No idea what - yet - as I haven't checked the fridge but I suspect it will be centred around parsnips as I think I have some fairly old ones lurking somewhere in a corner.  Spicy parsnip and butter bean sounds quite nice, doesn't it?  I have to boil or bake some potatoes to make a topping for my cottage pie for dinner.  On Thursday I bought a fairly small pack of steak mince costing £2 and that evening I cooked it into a tomatoey mix with vegetables, a can of chopped tomatoes and various seasonings and herby flavourings - oh, and a small amount of left-over mixed beans in a chilli sauce (from a can).  It ended up jolly nice.  I had some with rice on Thursday evening, more with rice for lunch on Friday at school, some with pasta last night and will have the last lot with a potato topping tonight.  That's four good, tasty meals for a total cost that cannot be more than £3.50 in absolute total.  Can't be bad!

And I must make some bread.  I wonder if I have the right stuff for Mr Hollywood's bloomer that looked so very delicious last Monday.  I could watch the playback, just to make sure (any excuse!!!), couldn't I?  On a cold day like today boiled eggs and toasty soldiers for breakfast, warming spicy soup and home-made bread for lunch and cottage pie with veg for dinner sounds just the ticket, doesn't it?  Yum!

And it's started snowing again.