Getting warmer! And a surprise present

 The temperature starts rising as from tomorrow - hoo-blimmin-ray!  It's forecast to be 9 deg, positively balmy in comparison to the hovering around freezing it's been for the past week or so.  I'm fed up with being cold - although we have our heating on pretty much all the time, and are fortunate that we can actually afford it, regardless of no winter fuel allowance, my fingers always feel cold.  My feet are warm, as I wear thick slipper boots - bought from M&S 2 or 3 years ago and one of the best things ever.

Husband got a belated birthday present today - a parcel left on the front doorstep (the delivery person didn't knock!), husband just happened to notice it when he came back from walking Betty.  It was from our American friend who postponed her visit yesterday due to the weather, she must have gone out immediately to the post office and paid for next day delivery.  It's a lovely Head Gardener mug, a delicious looking decorated chocolate cake and some money in a card!!  How lucky is he!  He suggested we go out for a meal with the money, nice of him but I'm not so keen, I find I'm not usually too impressed with the vegetarian offerings - they're either very bland and boring, or I think I could make them better myself at home.  I said perhaps he could put it towards another raised bed for veggies - that's another thing on our Needs/Wants list.  He agreed and was pleased with the idea.

We bought a large chicken which I'll cook for him tomorrow, and then see how many more meals I can make with it for him after that.  I'll have my homemade nut roast, and all the usual Sunday veggies.  I've been googling for more veggie meal ideas, we've got such a lot of veg at the mo, left over from the cheap supermarket Christmas veg (mostly frozen now), and of course the huge catering size bag of mashed potato we got from that TGTG offer.  I've got several tins of salmon and tuna, so fishcakes come to mind straight away.  I might also have a go at making some potato farl/pancakes, perhaps with mashed cooked carrot and grated cheese added.  Root veg mash of course, to top fish pies or a cottage pie made with some of the roast chicken.  Oh and colcannon, to use up some of the cabbage and shallots too - I'd love that by itself with a sprinkle of grated cheese, husband could have it with bacon or sausages - or more of the chicken.  Loads of ideas coming to mind now, veggies are so versatile.

Nothing very interesting on TV tonight, now that Strictly's finished - loads of game shows, which neither of us particularly like, or films we've seen dozens of times.....the TV programmers obviously think everyone goes out on a Saturday night!  Husband has recently discovered loads of films and box sets on iPlayer and ITVX, having got me to do the necessary registering online, so we'll probably have a look through those and find something to watch.  We don't have Netflix, Disney+ or Prime or any of those other things that require a monthly subscription, that's something I've never considered a necessity.  We might do in the future, however.