Soledad's Journal

Which can be because of serious sleep deprivation. My nights are seldom longer than 6 hours, and in the last three days I didn't manage to take my usual afternoon nap. I'll try to do better from now on!

That said, it was a relatively quiet day. In the morning, even before Mum would get up, I quickly iced my cinnamon-and-nougat cookies and put them out on the balcony, so that the icing could harden out. By the time we had gone through our morning routine, the cookies were ready to be boxed. Yay! Two sorts done, four to six more to go. But I won't bake again until next week - or, at the earliest time, till Sunday.

After breakfast I had to clean out the lowest shelf of the pantry cupboard (literally, as it serves as a sorry excuse for an actual pantry in the kitchen), to sort my packages of flour by their 'best before' date. The same with cans of pineapple, mango, pureed tomatoes, green peas and sweet corn. Now I have a general idea what we have in reserve and what has to be used up first.

Writing-wise it was a good day, too. I've dug out my Enterprise DVDs and re-watched "Rogue Planet", thus getting the necessary details for the description I needed to write. My total is almost two full pages, which is fantastic progress, after the dry spell of recent days.

No actual crafting was done today, but I finally managed to take a halfway decent picture of my little felt box (after three failed attempts). You know, the one that started as a failed pincushion and got repurposed. It still isn't entirely finished (I need to fix the front loop), but I think it looks nice enough.



For lunch I did some express cooking: Tütensuppe (10 minutes), fried fish fingers (another 10 minutes) parsley potatoes (about 12 minutes, since the potatoes were boiling while I did the rest of the dishes). I sliced some cucumbers in lieu of a salad, and that was basically it. But Mum liked it, and I didn't have to waste half my day in the kitchen.

After lunch we went for a walk with Mum, and after that I talked to some friends on the phone (3 out of 5 actually answered the phone, which counts as a good percentage). So yeah, it was a good day. I'm just falling asleep on my feet every ten minutes. Every five minutes if I sit down. *g*

I've decided not to make such a baking extravaganza as before Christmas; but again, I do decide this every year. Still, this year I'll try to keep things a bit down.

So, the list consists the following recipes (so far):

1) Nutella bunnies

2) Coconut lambs

3) Easter eggs with lemon curd filling

4) Nougat-cinnamon balls

5) Toffee-hazelnut balls

6) A different version of these cookies - I'll replace some of the butter with pistachio paste and add yellow colouring to the meringue. With the help of some piping, the cookies will (hopefully) look like little chickens sitting in the grass.

That's the plan so far. Knowing me, one or two other items will turn up during the process, but I'll really really try to hold back.

As for preparation, I bought flour and sugar at Lidl today (6 kg of each), as they were considerably reduced in price - but only as long as they still had some of that particular brand. With that, my requirements are covered. Tomorrow I'll sort out my other baking ingredients to see whether I'll need anything else; I don't think so, but one can never know. I also bought some totally unnecessary chocolate decorations (bunnies, eggs and little hearts) to pretty up my biscuits, just because I couldn't resist. *g*

Other than that, we had choir practice, for which my friend Erica did not come. Bad luck for me (she was supposed to bring me a large bag of toilet rolls for crafting purposes) but she most likely had grandparent duties. Ah, well, I'll do some baking instead.

Well, not real blues, not exactly. Just lots of nervous tension, not knowing what to expect from tomorrow. I've emptied the balcony, putting everything out onto the corridor, so that one can actually move around (I can with most of the stuff still there, but a stranger might not), did the same in the kitchen, Mum did something similar in the living room, and I'll do what still needs to be done in my bedroom and the study/workshop/whatever, still called Granny's room. And then we wait. (I hate waiting!)

At least I did get an idea that allowed me to finish Chapter of "Hunter, Prey", and I also did some crafting. I repurposed the failed pincushion to a felt gift box that will serve well around Easter, or so I hope.

H. called in the evening, so there was family life as well. I just wish we had Monday afternoon already, so that I'd have the cleaning - with or without help, we'll see - behind me. *sigh*

Oh, and if anyone is interested in the recipe of the poppy seed-almond-lemon cake I baked yesterday, it's here.

And here is a suggestion how to gift-wrap them.

Both are in German, but I guess other people are better with Google translate than I am. The recipe is from a booklet called "Geschenke aus der Küche" (=gifts from the kitchen), which I bought in Vienna ages ago and totally forgot about. There are some other things I'll try out, I think.

Meaning that we had fish and chips for lunch. Lidl had British days last week and I bought a bag of frozen fish and chips, the half of which we had today. It was very yummy - and I didn't have any work with it whatsoever, just kip everything onto a baking sheet and shove it into the oven. Exactly the kind of cooking I prefer. We also had carrot soup from yesterday, so it was nice.

We're still a bit mentally exhausted from yesterday, and I had to go to the bank and to the post office in the morning. I combined it with grocery shopping and a visit to Tedi, where I bought some cheap pins and needles for the pincushions/sewing kits I'm planning to make later. And a small crafting kit to make bunnies out of pom-poms, which was totally unnecessary but I couldn't resist. So, if I ever get around to make these baskets, I'll have something to put into it. Aside from paper grass and tiny chocolate eggs, that is.

Speaking of which, I'm continually shocked how much the price of chocolate has risen in the recent years. A simple 100g bar of Milka chocolate costs almost three times as much as it did, say, before Covid. Not to mention coffee - and those are basic food items of survival in our house!

So, that was basically my day. I had to take an extended nap in the afternoon, in the hope that I'll regain higher brain functions (eventually); we watched some telly, and I've squeezed in a few minutes of writing just yet. Tomorrow I'll stay in and do some serious crafting, I swear!

Four of the six elephants left the house today. Emma and Lilly, the baby elephants, went to financial advisor guy's granddaughters. Ellie and Lola, the adult floral elephants went to my friend Elise's grandsons. Now only Fanny and Flora are left. Fanny will stay, as Mum has claimed her; Flora will go to a new home eventually. It's stupid, I know, but I was a bit sad to see them go, even though they had been made to be given away. They were so cute together. I hope their new owners will love them the way I did. *secretly wipes a single tear away*

Other than that, we had choir practice today. I'm not particularly fond of the pieces we are practicing right now, but, well, different people have different tastes.

Writing-wise I was more successful. I decided to leave the unfinished Chapter 3 rest a bit, in the hope that I'll get an idea how to tie up some loose threads and started Chapter 4, writing almost an entire page. That's progress, too.

Sorry for yesterday's whingefeast, folks. This hamster wheel that has been my life in the last 4+ years has gotten to me. But today I finally got to bake that date and walnut bread, and I gave the pincushion another try - it might actually work out this time, although it isn't finished yet - and my friend Evie called, so I managed to crawl out of the hole. Let's hope I won't fall back any time soon. *fingers crossed*

Today we had unbelievable 19°C! I was running across town all morning - food shopping, dealing with the phone bill, visiting craft shops and the likes - and when I got home, I could take Mum out for another walk without as much as a jacket. If the weather remains like this, we might try to get to the café tomorrow, as it is warm enough to make short rests on the three benches between it and the house. *fingers crossed*

I've bought some patterned felt - little white stars and hearts on a dark red background - for the Hello Kitty themed folding book and some tulle that I won't need till Christmas but you can never actually get them before Christmas, so I thought I'd lay in a stock well in advance. They'll keep. I also bought narrow lace trimmings - the ones crocheted by Grandma some 60 years ago are 10-15 mm wide and won't fit every project - and a bag of styrofoam eggs that I'm planning to decorate with leftover fabric scraps. We'll see how they'll turn out. I applied some stickers to the small candles; they're nothing spectacular that way but will serve as Easter gifts.

Actually, I took the lengthy bus trip to the Campona shopping centre because there's one of the very few newsagent's that sells German crossword puzzle books. Now I'm covered for the next 4 to 6 months. I'm just angry that they only sell the huge ones. I prefer the small books that one can put into a bag; these need an extra table to work on them. Ah, well.

Not much else got done today. I was too frigging tired for anything else but a bit of TV watching and a long nap in the afternoon (almost 2 hours, wow!). But that's okay. It was a good day, with lots of things dealt with. I also talked to the financial advisor guy who promised to drop by next Tuesday and help me upload some stuff I can't do alone. Clearly, it pays off to gift cute little elephants on one's granddaughters. *g*

... because the physiotherapist comes in the early afternoon, and later on I have choir practice. That consumes the entire afternoon and requires certain schedule changes, so that Mum would get two meals before I'd leave the house. That turns the rest of the day upside down, too, so yeah; Tuesdays are stressful.

Despite this, I've somehow managed to finish all the remaining lavender sachets in the morning and to write a whole page, too. Go me! Of course, this also meant no nap time all the day, so I'm accordingly tired now, but it was worth it.

Choir practice was a bit boring today. I'm not very fond of the pieces we are currently practicing. Still, it was singing, and it was meeting people, and that was good.

I didn't get the chance for napping in the last two days, so today I took two extended naps; it was glorious! There was no need to cook, we had leftovers, and all I had to do was to take down the dried washing. Well, Mum had her weekly shower, but that was a short affair.

Aside from being lazy and watching some TV, I finished another lavender sachet and did a bit of writing. I also typed up everything that was already written from Chapter 3 and posted Chapter 2 to AO3. That was a relief, as I won't have much time for such things in the next two days.

And now off to picowrimo to post the daily entry and reply to comments. :)

I've done the second half of the cleaning, which lasted all morning. Then I made two more lavender sachets and - instead of taking a nap like any sensible person - re-read an old Torchwood fanfic in the afternoon. There was some TV watching (half asleep), and I sent a very apologetic mail to my goddaughter, since I forgot about her birthday that was a week ago. *is ashamed*

I think I've deserved to do some comfort baking tomorrow. These cookies are on the baking plan. My Granny used to make them (with jam filling, not with chocolate), but I never found the actual recipe in any of her hand-written baking books. I'm very happy to have found this YouTube video and will give the cookies a try.