Holiday - day 5

The market was on again this morning and although I'd have enough to last me to next Wednesday I don't usually get to it before work so went to get a few more things to get me through to next Saturday.

Market spend:
164g turkey salami = 3.85 (23.50 per kg)
2 x litres milk = 2.40 + 3.00 deposit on bottles
1 x small yoghurt = 0.89 *
366g cheese = 3.26 (8.90 per kg)
2 punnets strawberries = 7.00 (first of the season - they had some on Wednesday but I was too late so went early today)
1 bunch (a kilo) rhubarb = 1.50**

*Unfortunately they've stopped making their own yoghurt, which was available in re-usable containers and although the yoghurt they are now selling is also from a local farmer and free-ranging, grass-fed cows, it's in a normal throwaway plastic container.  So I bought an extra litre of milk and one small yoghurt to start me off and will be back to trying to be organised enough to just make my own yoghurt. And I've told them why I won't be buying yoghurt from them anymore.
** From the florist - asked if they use chemicals or if it's essentially organic and she said they use an absolute minimum of whatever is necessary and since for rhubarb that's really basically nothing, I went ahead and got it from her rather than paying the 4.60 for the same thing from the organic farmer.  Sometimes I feel like he is just taking the piss to be honest - I am prepared to pay a mark-up for organic as it does involve more work but rhubarb?  That, in my experience, pretty much grows like a weed and doesn't need a whole lot of care - certainly not enough to justify a nearly threefold price increase.

Otherwise, today I have done very little.  I didn't make it out to the launderette yesterday evening after all, the storm kept up for a good while so I settled in to watch some internet telly.  So I went today and got the other sofa cover and a duvet that I use for guests washed.  I also stripped the bed and threw the bedclothes into the washing machine at home and that's nearly dry now after hanging for the last few hours so I'll put the same duvet cover back on this evening, which will save me having to iron it (I don't feel bedclothes really need to be ironed normally but it does make a difference to how much space they take up so if they're going into the blanket box, they need to be ironed).  I'll use the summer duvet and then all I'll have to still wash is the winter one I've just taken off the bed.  In fact, I am considering heading back out to the launderette now just to get it done and finished with.  There'll be a shower and clean nightie this evening, all the better to appreciate the freshly made up bed!

And as promised, here's the photo heavy part.  Some pictures of my living room from a couple of weeks ago.

 The pile of ironing (okay, it looks slightly worse than it is because underneath all that is my knitting bag too).

Complete with bits of paper on the floor - wonderful.  Actually they blew on to the floor because I had the window open to air the place out but having said that, they did sit there for at least a week before I picked them up.  There is a name for this which I read about in Tescopoly but I don't have my copy anymore (who did I loan it to?) - basically if there's a house with a broken window, it's more likely that other damage will be done and people will be less likely to keep things clean and orderly.  Similarly, if the place is such a mess anyway, what difference does it make if there's a couple of pieces of paper on the floor.

The big couch - not entirely cover in stuff but that's really only because I always kept space clear to sit on.  Since the desk was completely covered it has been months since this was the only place I had space to sit and use the computer as well.

And now for the after.  There are still areas of not a bit messy but lets face it, clearing the CDs away from near the stereo is never going to last for more than a few hours anyway until the next time I'm listening to something.

Lovely, lovely clear space and my lovely red cover back where it belongs.  I do prefer this one so much to the basic cream one.

No more ironing to do!  Although I've just put on a wash of what I've used this week thinking I might as well be fully ahead before going back to work on Tuesday.  Will iron all of that as soon as it's dry - I love to sit in this chair and read.

Still more to be done but two piles is more manageable than what was there before.  Hope to do a few minutes each day over the next few weeks.  And more importantly, not add to it, which means getting back into the proper habit of dealing with stuff as it arrives.

Here's something else that I still need to tackle but is just going to have to wait until I have more days off or an unexpected surge of energy - one of the big cupboards in the hallway:

Actually, the towels, tablecloths and so on are a bit more orderly already as I needed to sort them out to fit in all the stuff that had been languishing on the armchair of ironing.  I could probably do with decanting the plum vodka into bottles at this stage.

But the lower half of this cupboard needs some serious work.  I'm not really even sure exactly what's in there anymore.  The white plastic bag is a few bits and pieces I had nowhere to put and needed to get rid of out of the hall before some guests arrived for dinner at some stage and it has just sat there since.  I don't know if you can see it clearly but the jar of chutney which got knocked over last summer and leaked all over the place for a couple of weeks before I discovered it is in at the back there - I was sure I had cleaned that all up but apparently I didn't even get around to righting the jar.  So I really need to get in and clear that mess up.  What's in there is actually stuff from 2009 because since I hadn't actually gotten around to clearing out this cupboard last autumn, I never got around to putting away all of last summer's stuff.  That has mostly been sitting on top of the hallway table - covered by a nice piece of material whenver anyone was coming over.  At least I've used up a good bit of it now.  But long past time to be sorting this out I think.