Scone Anyone?

My internet went down on Friday and couldn’t be repaired till today so I’ve been unable to post.  Didn’t make it to the antiques fair either because I had to wait in for the engineer on Monday.  So no new Netsuke for me.  In fact, I had a bit of a lazy weekend as I had picked up a virus from my son and felt too tired and achy to do anything more than potter around.  Never mind, it was an ideal opportunity to indulge myself by putting my feet up and reading.

Usually I don’t have much time to read other than on the bus to and from work, and for 10 minutes or so when I go to bed.  So I normally have 2 books on the go at once – my ‘bus book’ and my ‘bed book’.  The bus book obviously has to be quite light so I can carry it around!  I’ve stopped buying fiction.  I make a note of books I want to read, check out the city library’s online catalogue and order them to be picked up at my local library.  If it’s on the shelf of another library it costs nothing to do this.  As well as the cost, it also means I don’t have a house full of novels that I can’t bear to part with even though I know I’ll never read them again!

This is my ‘bed book’ at the minute, lent to me by my manager at work (and good friend).  It’s set in medieval England at the time of Stephen and Matilda.

 

At over a thousand pages it’s heavy even for bedtime reading and I’m expecting to have quite muscular arms by the time I finish it!  Last night I only managed 3 pages before I fell asleep (with the book still in my hands!).  At that rate it’ll take me years to get to the end!

I also spent some time sorting out bits of paper I'd collected to put into my various notebooks - this is my knitting projects book where I write down any ideas I have, yarn details, pattern alterations etc and also stick in pictures that inspire me.

And I made scones.

Actually, it was a cheat.  I used scone mix from a catering pack that I bought mega cheaply from http://www.bigbrandsforless.co.uk/.  They were having a' buy one get two free' sale at the time so I have loads of the stuff in the cupboard. We'll be well sick of scones by the time I get through it all! I added some bicarb as the mix was past its best before date and the raising agent probably wasn’t as effective, and a handful of dried fruit.  Cost about 25p altogether. They lasted about 15 minutes so we're obviously not sick of scones yet!

I’ve also been doing a little research into using less toilet roll/kitchen roll/paper hankies – sounds like the height of meanness but the alternatives make much more sense.  More to follow…