Things are looking up!

 I spent time in the kitchen yesterday, firstly I made the oil pastry, it was so simple and quick.  I made a double quantity, halved it and froze it for use sometime next week, probably for a homity pie and maybe an apple pie for next weekend.  Then I made Prof Tim Spector's pecan and chocolate cookies, the ones he made on his What Not to Eat programme, the recipe is here Tim Spector's Pecan Chocolate Cookies | The Doctor's Kitchen.  They're very nice but I think need baking for longer than he says....they were very soft indeed and fell apart when picked up, even when cold.  They're very rich and satisfying, you couldn't eat loads of them at once, they'd fill you up!  It's because they're made with almond flour (I just whizzed up 200g of skin-on almonds in my little processor, not having any almond flour to hand), so lots of protein and healthy fats.  Husband really likes them too, although he claims not to like almonds and wouldn't have even tried them if I'd told him they had ground almonds in.  He actually thought they tasted of walnut, which he does like.

I made more bread dough, this time along with the strong white I added 100g fine oats and 50g dark rye.  It rose nicely overnight, I've briefly kneaded and shaped it and put it in a bread tin for the final rise before being baked.  I've got back into the swing of breadmaking now and aim to make 2 loaves a week.

There's a door-to-door minibus scheme run by the local council, I've discovered, you have to register with them and then ring to book your travel giving 24 hours notice.  The costs are very cheap, costs no more than £2.70 with a concessionary bus pass (which we both now have) for a return trip.  A very nice man rang within minutes of me signing up online, to check a couple of things - did either of us have any mobility aids (not yet!) and as I'd said Yes to husband having a carer, was it me or someone else?  I took the opportunity to ask him if they accepted dogs on the minibus, he said they positively welcomed dogs, as long as they were well behaved and on a lead.  So now we have transport in place for trips to the GP or local hospital once husband gives up driving in July, and we know we can get Betty to the vets when necessary.  And door-to-door service, how great is that?!  It's such a weight off my mind.  We'll try it out soon, just to see how it works.

We've had a few heavy showers (surprise surprise) this morning, but interspersed with beautiful blue sky and sunshine - how lovely it is to see the sun, makes me feel more cheerful straight away.  Our local weathermen said yesterday that we've had some quantity of rain every single day since the start of this year - don't we know it!!

I'm writing a shopping list for our monthly trip to Aldi next week, I buy lots of store cupboard staples in there.  Husband is happily settled in his armchair watching a lot of sport, with the Winter Olympics and 6 Nations rugby it'll be hard to prise him out of the chair to do anything.

My BB (Beautiful Betty) is completely back to normal now, thank goodness, it was hard seeing her so poorly at the start of the week.