If cottage pie is beef,

and shepherds' pie is lamb / mutton, then what to you call a vegetarian version? (such are the enormous questions that plague my life LOL)

This one was made with Quorn, but sometimes I use lentils, and sometimes just vegetables, but I never know what to call it. The "mince" part came from the pot in the freezer that I had thought contained vegetable chilli...no labels..yep, I'm THAT rock and roll, I like to live dangerously! Luckily I left it out to defrost for a while and once I'd realised my error I still had time for a menu change. There was enough for a 2nd pie for later in the week too.
Cooked in my trusty little mini oven...dead chuffed with it.

We had heavy rain here overnight and the snow has all been washed away (hurrah, I was getting bored with it...at first it was "yaay snow" but by Friday it had turned to "not MORE snow" )

The sun even shone for a while yesterday...can't remember when I last put washing out on the line...before Christmas for sure. Queenie supervised, but it still didn't dry properly.

I also went shopping yesterday and splurged on a couple of white towels. I've had navy blue towels for about the last 12 years...they're great and don't show any boy dirt (haha) however they seem to coat the bathroom in dark lint dust. There was nothing actually wrong with them so it's taken me a long time to decide to replace them...I'm sure they'll still get used but while it's just me here, maybe I can save myself a bit of skirting board cleaning. I found these in Dunelm Mill marked as "Portugese Seconds"...really nice and soft and I can't for the life of me see why they're secionds.

Anyway, enough screaming domesticity...you all know that I'm a rubbish housewife so I'm not kidding anyone eh?

Cats are both well..Baldrick suffering no ill effects from his vet visit...here he is playing "trip hazzard" in the dark on the steep and narrow stairs...maybe he's harbouring a grudge after all!

On days where I don't have to be anywhere for meetings, I like to get out for a walk before starting work. It takes about 35 / 40 minutes to do a circuit of the village. I always do the same route and only ever see dog walkers on the way...they probably know  think I'm strange out walking with no canine.

Here are a few photos of the last of the snow...(and of course the creatures I chat to on my way round - the robin was really belting out his tune)

Right - enough snow, I'd like spring now please. I've managed to hold off sowing any seeds yet...I'm usually chomping at the bit by Boxing Day and the poor little blighters have to try to get ahead with minimal daylight...I'm hoping they'll appreciate the "lie in" and reward me for it...must get cracking in a couple of days though. I'm not going to buy any new seed (famous last words!) but try to use up all the seeds I have already..on the understanding that germination might be pretty poor...but hey ho..the slugs pretty much ate everything last year :(

time to sign off now

take care

^..^