Simple Days #4

Doing: ...Waving DH off on his 17 km ride to work this morning in the pouring rain. The battery on his electric motor-assisted bike got moisture in it a couple of days ago and shorted out, so not only was it pouring with rain, but he has to ride the whole 34km (somewhat hilly) round-trip with just leg power. That's environmental dedication for you :-)

... Moving the power monitoring meter from the kettle to the washing machine. I know it's a not-really-essential gadget, but I was able to buy this meter at 50% off at a sale recently (i.e. for $25) and I will be sharing it around friends and family when I am finished with it. You plug it in between the power point and an appliance and it will measure the energy it uses (it's essentially the same as the Kill-a-Watt meter available in the US). I've been plugging it into various appliances for a week at a time ever since, and it's been interesting to see the results so far - even more so when I have done everything in the house I suspect.

Making: Kate's Chocolate Syrup. Be warned: this stuff is wicked.


In The Garden: Measuring the rain gauge: 32mm overnight :-) The rain tanks have filled up a bit more which is great.

Baking: Crusty French bread to go with dinner.

Dinner: It's cold again, and wet, so dinner just has to be soup ;-) Tomato, bacon and lentil soup to be exact.

Contemplating: How to rearrange my not-very-big kitchen to accommodate all the bottles I plan to scrounge for my new Vacola bottling unit. I think I will have to store them all in cartons in the garage - which will in itself require some rearranging! Why are project home kitchens so stupidly small and/or badly arranged? No, don't answer that, it's a symptom of our society as a whole... and something that is going to come back and bite a lot of people in the bum in future I think. Argh, to have the luxury of starting all over, LOL! Drifts off dreaming of wood stoves, walk-in pantrys and root cellars...