Tuesday 14 October 2008

What To Do With Time on Your Hands

As regular readers will have spotted by the reduction in frequency of my posts, time is at a premium recently. So with a week of relative ease - well a week away from work at any rate - I have lighted upon a few things I have neglected.
  • I have sharpened all the knives in the kitchen - a task I enjoy and, for the boy scouts among us, a topic of great interest. There are many fascinating methods of achieving razor like sharpness, I prefer the DMT Diamond sharpening system myself, with its angle guide for those of us whose free hand angle maintenance is not sufficiently confident.

  • I have baked bread using the time consuming, flavour developing, old fashioned, sponge method rather than the 'speed is everything so chuck a ton of yeast in it' bread machine method.Yum!

  • We are cooking properly for every meal. This really is a luxury; I hoyed off to Sainsurys and picked up a copy of Delicious magazine. You are always spoilt for choice with Delicious, with more than enough recipes - if you have the time. Usually we avoid the magazine like the plague because it just makes you feel guilty as you chuck a jar of pasta sauce in with the mince on an average work day.

  • If the weather picks up, I am going to dig up part of our middle lawn to make a raised veg bed. We had to give up the allotment because we didn't have the time; but with a bed just outside the patio door we should to at least be able sow garlic this autumn, and then perhaps some beetroot and other easy crops next year.
And here is where, with the smoothness of a Radio 2 DJ, I move onto Catherine's kind comments over at her New Zealand based blog. You see she flattered me by recommending my blog among her favourites. Why is this relevant to my week off? Because the other thing I've been doing is catching up on my blog reading, so, by return, I can recommend some of my current favourites too:
  • Adventures of an Urban Cowgirl: This, together with my second choice, was one of the first blogs I read. It's the engagingly written account of a woman who moved to New Zealand. Like all the best blogs, it's the writing that does it.
  • Blunt By Name: Bill Blunt is an institution and his wry look at life through the spectacles of an aged, enbittered hack make this an enjoyable read (especially if you need to know a decent Wetherspoons near you)
  • Occupied Country: a fellow Mancunian with a great taste in music and always great pictures
  • Mr Woppit: Takes life seriously; in his own words - Emptying the nose of life into the handkerchief of derision
  • Mystic Veg: What I'd like to be able to do in the garden and more, from a fellow Oldhamer (a displaced one that is)
  • The Toy Cupboard: I like blogs that take a different twist on blogging. This is one of those, and my next choice is another. The Toy Cupboard features, well, a cupboard of childhood toys, memories and anecdotes - makes you feel warm all over (that is assuming your childhood memories haven't cost you thousands in therapy bills).
  • Diary of a 70s Teen: Exactly what it says - read it and remember what you were doing when...
  • Olga The Travelling Bra: An uplifting travel blog, great fun!


10 comments:

Unknown said...

Boy Scouts aren't allowed knives!
And don't get me started on what some poor school children were subjected to last week in the search for knives. Of course you were only searched if you travel by bus to school. They obviously don't walk to school in Wigan.

Kate said...

How interesting... I've visited or visit almost all those blogs you recommend Crofty!
And applause for your vegetable-growing, bread-making and knife-sharpening abilities. Three of the most essential activities in any home, I reckon. Ah, the simple life!

SnOwY bEaR said...

Hi Crofty
Thank you for the plug... so do you have a toy story to tell?
We would love to see you over there... if you don't have a picture of your toy don't worry we could probably find a replacement or you could adopt one from our cupboard :-)

& 70s has asked me to say a big thank you from her too.... she says that she will have loads of time to catch up on her favourite yet neglected blogs in the next 8 weeks when she is sitting watching day time TV with her arm in a sling :-)

Anonymous said...

Sir, your patronage has always been valued most highly. Congratulations on your blog, which always manages to entertain.

Best Wishes

Bill

misterwoppit said...

I had time on my hands last week at my parent's new farmhouse in France, where I spent a great deal of time chopping wood. A very cathartic and zen activity that left me with a feeling of manliness and a bad back.

Proper bread - good stuff indeed. Breadmaking machines are the Teasmaid for the 21st century - nothing truly satisfactory ever emerges from either.

misterwoppit said...

...and thanks for the plug old chap! Ditto Mr Blunt's comment.

Olga, the Traveling Bra said...

Thanks for your support! :)
And YES!!!...please smoosh your moobs!

misterwoppit said...

Moobs? Crofty? Surely not, what with all the hoovering and whatnot. All tha upper body exercise. Maybe a marse but no moobs, I'll wager.

Crofty said...

How very kind of you Mr W, however I must confess that there are bits of me that fail the wobble test.

Anonymous said...

Now then Sir. I don't recall seeing your application to the World Blog Council. There are many benefits to membership. However the details escape me just at the moment. I blame the 1992 St Julien, normally a fine breakfast wine. Must have been on the turn, what. Ah well....mmmm....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz