Getting inventive with veg, and I'm not a (verbal) punchbag

 I realised this morning I've done hardly any cooking for weeks now, mainly due to the hot weather, all I do is prepare and serve cold stuff mainly, with maybe a jacket spud or a fish fillet of some kind.  What cooking I have done has been pretty basic....ok I did make scones and an apple cake whilst our guests were here, but that's about all.  For meals I did a prawn salad with homegrown potatoes and salad veggies one day, a bought pizza (which I added some extra toppings to), bought oven chips and more salad another day.  Most of our meals have been salads since we've had all this hot weather, I really don't feel like cooking - who does?!  And now I've more or less got out of the habit of cooking.....it'll come as a bit of a shock when autumn and cold weather arrives and I've got to start making hot dinners again.

Our French beans are finally going over, the plants are going yellow and there are quite a lot of (overgrown) huge beans with very wrinkly pods.  We were going to just pull them all up and chuck them in the compost bin, but I thought it seemed a waste to get rid of the actual beans, even if the pods aren't edible now.  It occurred to me that the beans inside the pods should be perfectly edible, so that's what I'll be doing tomorrow - shelling the remaining beans then boiling and freezing them, we should get at least a couple of meals worth.

I was chatting to our neighbour earlier, she said exactly the same thing as me - she's telling her other half not to grow so much produce next year, it's all far too much for just 2 people, same as I've been telling husband.  It's all very well them growing tons and tons of stuff, but when they keep picking armfuls of it all and simply dumping it on the kitchen table, us wives groan and think 'oh no, not again!'.  We were both laughing and saying that being presented with 10 so-called 'mini' cucumbers that are the size of small rugby balls all at once is no joke - it's not like we can cook and freeze them (no I don't like cucumber soup).  I told her about the local little zoo accepting bags of surplus veggies, she hadn't realised they did that and thought it a brilliant idea.  Like me, she said her freezer is now full of prepped garden veggies, to the point where there's no more room.  She's also made several jars of chutneys but said she's still got some left from last year.  We're now getting loads of tomatoes, which I don't really mind as I do like them roasted, drizzled with olive oil and thick syrupy balsamic vinegar on sourdough toast, makes a lovely lunch with some mozzarella.  I must have a sort out of the freezer tomorrow, I think I can probably make enough room for another few tubs of tomato pasta sauce or soup.

Husband's sister messaged me earlier, she's now got herself an electric mobility scooter as her daughter, who's a slim dainty little thing, was finding it hard to push her wheelchair.  She's also had a discussion with her cancer nurse, who is arranging for her to have another scan to see whether her lung cancer has progressed, before going over treatment options once more.

Husband seems to be getting more and more bad tempered just lately, he's bitten my head off several times the past few days.  I know he's got backache (so have I!!!) and he's not good with pain, but I've told him he can't keep taking it out on me.  He just scowled and muttered under his breath.  I've needed the patience of a saint this week - and I'm no saint!