Frugal Friday…

Remember I said a while ago that I would pop up every now and again with one of these posts when something notable occurred to me to write about? Well, here we are - and it’s going to be another one on the subject of energy! 

After writing in my recent post about a year in the house on the subject of having to get used to not needing to load-shift electricity use to make the best use of a time-of-use tariff,  we promptly upped and jumped straight back onto one again! Not Economy 7 this time - with gas for our heating and hot water these days that would not be good for us at all, but instead one of the smart tariffs that our supplier (Octopus) offers. It’s called Agile - and we’ve really thrown ourselves in at the deep end here  as on Agile the unit price of your electricity changes literally every 30 minutes! 

The idea of Agile is that it directly ties your electricity prices to the wholesale rates - so when energy is at its cheapest to the suppliers it is also cheapest for the customer. This encourages those on the tariff to use more energy when the grid is greenest, and as little as possible when the draw from the grid is at its heaviest - usually 4pm - 7pm. On occasions when more energy is being generated than can be consumed, we can even be paid to use electricity, not something  you get on too many tariffs these days!  

The 30 minute changes are a lot to get your head around - you need to be prepared to plan use of things like the dishwasher and washing machine to make the best use of the tariff.  It’s worth it though - I got a full load of bedding washed and tumble dried the other night for pretty much nothing! It can also be a bit “roundabouts and swings” - while Sunday’s use averaged at around  16p/kWh, Mondays was very slightly above the current capped rate for our area thanks to an apparently rare day with relatively high rates all day. Meanwhile we woke on Wednesday morning to 3.5kWh used for a grand cost of 8p -  towels washed and tumble dried and the dishwasher run as well - but low and negative pricing meaning the lot cost us less than our usual overnight base load. 

Snapshot showing the prices in the early hours of 16/10/24

Looking at the average prices is the way to go for sure - that and working out minor changes that will have a decent result. On Tuesday evening for example had I cooked my tea at 6.45pm I would have been using electricity at 35p/kWh - holding off just 20 minutes dropped that unit price to under 20p, AND meant I was using energy when the grid was under less pressure, too. There will undoubtedly be times when we do opt to use the energy at the higher price, but there will be a lot more when we don’t I suspect! 

So you might be thinking “this sounds great - where do I sign?”  by now - but beware, it really isn’t as simple as that! For a start there is always a possibility that rates can shoot up - there is a cap but it is set at £1/kWh - and while it looks unlikely to happen, it’s important to accept that it could happen.  The mitigation on the concerns about that is that if there did look like being a point where it seemed the tariff was going to suddenly get very expensive for more than a short period, jumping back to the standard variable tariff should be easy and quick.  As said before, this is not a “set and forget” tariff either - you really need to be willing to get stuck in, plan use of appliances etc. on that note, having appliances that you can set on timers is also useful. On my experience so far if you could just shift use to the “standard” off peak times you would make a small saving. If you did that and avoided use during the peak time slot almost completely that saving would be slightly larger, but the best gains are to be made by really choosing to run as much as possible when prices are at their lowest. In short you need to be wiling to adapt your lifestyle a bit - and probably also be someone who likes a bit of a challenge! It’s not one to jump in to on a whim - I’ve been keeping my eye on the Agile prices for about the last 6 months, and MrEH has been in on the act for the past couple of months prior to us making the decision, too.  I have also been following the chat about it on the MSE Forum, as well. Only when we felt we had sufficient information to make a solid decision did we decide to take the plunge. We will now be keeping a super-close eye on our costs, in fact MrEH is planning to work on a bit of  spreadsheet to help with this! 

If you did decide that a switch to Octopus with a view to considering Agile might be for you (or even just a switch to one of their other tariffs) then what I can offer you is a referral code which would gain you as an incoming customer £50 energy credit, and as the referring customer I get £50 too, so win/win there. This post is in no way an advert for Octopus by the way, but we have been with them for a while, including making use of their “move home” service to carry our energy account straight to the new house last year - that went so smoothly we never had to even register with the deemed supplier here - the switch had happened by the time we got the keys! Overall we have been really pleased with them - when we have had cause to contact their customer services problems have been dealt with swiftly and efficiently, usually a good test of an energy supplier. If you did want to join Octopus using my code then clicking on this link will take you to their website and share the code too: https://share.octopus.energy/topaz-macaw-702 

I’ll report back when we have a few months of solid Agile use under our belts and let you know what we think at that stage, and any more pros and cons I have found. 

Robyn

One year on….

 Astonishing to think we have been in our house for an entire year now. I’m sure MrEH would not admit to any such thing, but I certainly still find myself wandering round it thinking “how on EARTH do we get to live somewhere like this?!”

Northern lights from the garden - 10-10-24

There have been differences large and small to get used to - a water meter and smart meters for energy (all excellent). Having to deal with things like getting a boiler serviced (long term readers may recall that our flat was all-electric, with a mix of types of storage heaters which only need attention when they go wrong, so central heating is still a novelty!) and even more outlandish, needing a chimney sweep! One of the biggest day to day changes relates back to the change in energy types - having spent the previous 20 years load-shifting to use as much overnight as possible due to our Economy 7 electricity set-up, it still feels extremely odd to notice after tea that the dishwasher is full, and just put it on there and then, or to make good use of a nice sunny Friday by getting all the washing done! 

Washing is another area where the house is such an advantage over the flat too - of course there we did have some outside drying space  by way of a lovely old wooden pulley rack on the balcony - extra useful because it was both under cover and open to the air, so useable at almost all times of year! Here though we have a whole whirligig line to fill - meaning I can do several washes on a “good drying day” and get the whole lot dry and ready to put away by that same evening. It also of course reduces the amount of damp washing hanging around the house when the weather is good, although we still have our trusty airer and dehumidifier for periods of less favourable conditions! That also gives an advantage on energy use too - and I’m certainly making less use of the “dryer” part of our washer-dryer. 

It’s tricky to really compare energy use as obviously going from a set-up which had only a teeny amount of gas use (just for the cooker) to one where gas is our primary energy source - providing room heating and hot water.  Also having only had one winter in this house - and a relative warm one at that - it’s been a steep learning curve not only around the best use of the thermostat and radiators, correct settings and timings etc, but also just how the house behaves in terms of heat retention, how fast it warms up etc. 

It will come as no real surprise I imagine that the biggest change of all is having the garden - something which we have wanted for so long, and yet gives us more joy than we could really have even begun to imagine. I’ve documented our efforts and results through the summer in the “in the garden” posts - with one more of those to come for this year I suspect. Small things though - like being able to simply wander outside with my first brew of the morning on a warmer summer weekend and sit in our very own quiet peaceful space. Of course we used to do that on the balcony too, but the garden is different somehow. Knowing that the things we grow, nobody will come along and weed killer them just because they can (that was a spectacular low point of having our outdoor space at the mercy of our local council!) or indeed just dig the up and steal them! (a former neighbour!) Hearing tales from our old neighbours of life in the flats certainly underlines to us what a good move we made, too. 

Possibly the final small joy is the simple thing of being just slightly further along the road from where we were before. We now occasionally head out when MrEH finishes work on a Friday evening to pop to one of our local pubs - not impossible before, but the 10 minute longer walk certainly made it a less attractive option. Being just that fraction over to the station as well for trips out and about.  Of course the flip side of that is being a little further from other things, but handily the advantages far outweigh the negatives! 

Robyn

September in the garden…

 Anyone know any good recipes using cucumbers?!  Yes - we have been thoroughly enjoying a glut of the lovely green beauties, and as there are only limited ways of enjoying them, it has been proving a bit challenging! So far we have only lost a couple to the compost, and are making all efforts to come up with ever more inventive uses for the rest!  Tomatoes have also been coming thick and fast - as well as eating those fresh we’ve continued cooking with them too - there are currently several tubs of oven-roast tomatoes with copious amounts of garlic and basil sitting in the freezer waiting for use. 

We got into a habit over the summer of wandering out into the garden most evenings after work where the weather allows it, just five or ten minutes pottering about, picking whatever is ready, winding down from the day and our commutes - a really nice way to move into the evening. The enjoyment that comes from being able to spend just a few minutes, and come in with a punnet of assorted veggies which will then help feed us is huge. We’ll definitely miss that as the evening light fades away ahead of the clocks changing. 

A big highlight of this month was digging up the first of our potatoes. We chose to grow Pink Fir Apple - a  maincrop variety we used to grow on the allotment years ago - it’s a really useful potato because it tastes fantastic whether boiled, roasted or eaten cold in salads, so it’s really versatile. The knobbly shape means they are extremely tricky to peel - not a problem for us as I very rarely peel tatties anyway, but might not suit everyone. 

That was the first lot - we’ve since dug all of the first row up as the soil over the top was beginning to thin and the potatoes were greening. We’ve already eaten some and they really are delicious! As well as the first row from the main bed, we had a limited amount from a sack which MrEH sowed with the leftover seed potatoes - seemed silly to see them go to waste, and we’ve harvested enough for a few meals at least from it - the compost hasn’t gone to waste either as it has been tipped out into this years main potato patch to enrich that. 

Now things are starting to wind down towards the colder months, we’re starting to think about tidying things up. As the cucumber plants in the grow-bag have stopped producing we’ve taken those out, and the same with most of the tomatoes although a handful of plants are still going where there still have small fruit which may yet swell a bit, but are currently too small to bother picking. We’ve stripped the plants that have been removed with the green toms set out on a windowsill to be ripened indoors - although some may be converted straight into green tomato chutney or used as an ingredient in piccalilli. We’ve been sorting things out in the shed too - finding homes for our camping equipment in the house, and making sure things like plant pots and saucers have storage space for the winter. 

This month marked a year of us being in the house - and the garden - of course, and it’s still just such a joy to have the space, to be able to grow things, and also to see it evolving too. In some ways the biggest change is actually at the front which we have taken from entirely slate & slab, to a mix of that and space for plenty of things growing, as well. Some edibles have even crept in out there as well - a couple of varieties of thyme and a Greek basil which I am hoping I may be able to continue to get leaves off through the winter. I was looking back at the picture of the front of the house from the agents listing the other day and the difference our efforts have made to the front of the house is huge! 

The one disappointment this year has been herbs which have not been particularly successful - I will revisit how I do things next year and also get a cage sorted out to protect the soft herbs from the squirrels and pigeons - both of those are major pests! 

Robyn

A Capital weekend!

 At the beginning of the month we had another of the Hidden London tours booked - Holborn this time, a chance to see the opposing end of the Aldwych branch having already done the Aldwych tour a few years ago. A couple of weeks beforehand we got an email through from the LT Museum telling us that  they were running their 1938 stock train on the top end of the metropolitan line that same weekend, and a plan was hatched…

Friday morning saw the usual gathering of like minded individuals lurking around outside Holborn Station on Kingsway. Within a couple of minutes of our arrival our tour guides appeared, and after some minor technical issues involving an iPad not getting a data signal, we were all checked off on a list, issued us with our lanyards and “Visitor” badges, and ushered through the barriers into the station. Around us commuters were heading off to the escalators - while we stepped through a door off to one side of the ticket hall and were faced with our first glimpse of the station’s wonderful tiling…

It never fails to astonish that features like this have just been left untouched even when stations have been refurbished a number of times in the time period since those areas were last used by the public. This tiling continued in various states of repair all the way down the long spiral staircase - such a treat to start us off! 

The main areas for exploring were of course the old Aldwych branch platforms - and there was certainly plenty to see. The photo above was taken just beyond the end of the old platform 5 looking along the running tunnel - you can see how the line changes its route and where the old second tunnel would have run. That platform is now taken up with small office type rooms which have over the years been used for all sorts of things including changing rooms. Indeed several still have signage visible on the doors confirming this…

I love the picture added by the Hidden London team for context, too! The highlight of these rooms was  room 8, for me - because of this…

Yes - another patch of beautifully preserved original tiling - this section clearly showing the station’s unique “chevron” pattern. Originally this would have appeared all along the platform, with the station name also appearing in the tiling too - and in fact in room 8 you can also still see just the “N” of “Holborn” too. 

More of the tiling remains on platform 6 - as well as a real piece of heritage in the shape of this sign…

Yes - the station used to have reference to “Kingsway” in its name! Look carefully around the edges and you can see more of the tiling too  - and elsewhere on the platform are lovely features like the “Exit” sign cartouches 

It’s not only tiling and signs that survive either - by some miracle in one of the old passenger tunnels this little gem can be seen…

Apparently this can be fairly accurately dated to the mid 1930’s - the number of “flights” on the arrow (a Mexican Arrow, for fellow tube geeks!) means it can be narrowed down to a block of pre-war years, but the fact that the line diagram does not show Down Street - closed in 1932 - reduces that window somewhat. In real terms though, somewhere about 90 years old - yet still vibrant and clear! All in all another fabulous tour - and for anyone else considering it trust me, there is plenty to see that I haven’t shown you here! 

Tour complete we - as is now traditional - repaired to the nearest decent pub for a beer and a bit of a debrief and natter about our favourite bits (him - the old running tunnel, me - the tiling of course!) before heading off for lunch, then we set off to be tourists for thr afternoon. MrEH gave me a guided tour of the Royal Courts of Justice - an utterly breathtaking building that it turns out any member of the public can visit - and then I took him to St Clement Danes church which I last visited probably about 40 years ago! We then met a good pal for a quick pint at the end of his working day - I found Neptune Brewery’s “On The Bounty” on the bar in that pub which I was delighted about as a beer that tastes like you are drinking liquidised Bounty bars is a wonderful thing! We wrapped up the evening with a few more beers in another favourite pub - this one was serving Hammerton Brewery’s “Crunch” which tastes like liquidised peanut butter so as you can imagine I was rather pleased about that, too - then headed off to find our bed for the night, at the Travelodge at Wembley. 

The following morning we were out bright and early for breakfast and then the short walk to Wembley Park station to catch the Metropolitan Line out to Amersham. While waiting we got our first glimpse of the reason for the trip, too… 

On the right is the gorgeous 1938 tube stock train from the London Transport Museum, on its way to Amersham to run passenger trips for the day. It stopped in  at Wembley Park on the way to pick up volunteer staff, and was certainly turning heads - even the driver of the current day train alongside was craning his head out of the window for a good look! 

Once at Amersham we browsed the Friends of the Museum stall - acquiring a few quirky oddments of tube history along the way, including a rather wonderful guide to the Victoria Line and the new automatic ticket barriers it was given - dating from 1970. Then it was time to board our chosen carriage- I had opted to book one of the end ones, feeling like we may well get a chance for a look into the cab that way, and we were certainly not disappointed on that…

The trip was from Amersham round to Watford and back - including going round the “North Curve” , a section of line normally only used by a couple of trains a day, very early in the morning and very late at night.  We had a short time stopped at Watford where the train invited lots of interest from passing travellers, before heading back the way we’d come. The 45 minute gave us all plenty of time to enjoy the marvellously comfortable refurbished moquette seating, admire the gorgeous glass lamps, and reflect on all the changes that had occurred since the carriage maps were produced! 

All in all it was an absolutely lovely trip -  the train is fantastic and it’s amazing to not only get to experience such a piece of history, but also to see how other people on the platforms we passed reacted to it as well - and also how some folk were simply so immersed in their phones that in spite of those around them reacting, pointing and smiling they missed it entirely!  Booking the budget hotel room for the night worked well too particularly as the travel back and forth would have cost us about the same - and it was great to have an afternoon of simply being a tourist in my own city as well! Definitely something we would consider doing again. 

Robyn

August in the Garden...

 The first part of this month was largely about scorching temperatures, not much rain and very regular watering being needed! (It's almost like we finally had a summer!) Thankfully we have managed to keep pretty much everything alive though, which allowing that we have been away for a couple of weekends in the middle of everything actually feels like quite a win. The water butt has been a godsend here too - the higher level of rain earlier in the year ensured that going into the warmer weather it was still lovely and full, and although we have used the hose just to make life easier when watering right round the whole garden, for just filling a can for smaller areas we've been using the water from the butt throughout. Lower temperatures and at least a bit of rain for the second half of the month was a bit of a relief though. 

As predicted, we've finally hit the point of a bit more harvesting of things this month. Our lovely chilli plant is still looking fantastic, with a decent amount of fruit on it, and still producing new flowers as well to our delight. Now it's just a case of waiting for them to arrive at the deep red colour which means they are fully ripe.

The tomatoes started properly getting their act together from the beginning of the month - the first little cherry tomato was ceremoniously cut in half and shared, but by the middle of the month I was picking a tub full each day and we were fully self sufficient for them. we've grown 3 varieties this year - all fairly mainstream reliable ones - "Minibel" are a little tiny compact bush plant - the seeds were as part of a "salad vegetable selection" and have proved excellent - good germination and a heavy cropper too. The other cherry tomato slightly larger "Gardener's Delight" - always a favourite, and always reliable, we've grown these many times before and they are always tasty. Finally there is "Moneymaker" - another reliable favourite we have grown before. As well as eating in salads and a handful for me with lunch most days, I’ve been including them in cooking too - including as part of the sauce base for a rather tasty lamb curry - so much tastier than opening a tin of chopped tomatoes! 

We noticed early in the month that the courgettes were still struggling - and a bit of investigation revealed that they were ridiculously overshadowed by our very enthusiastic potato plants! A bit of reorganisation of those, a quick shift of a grow-bag full of tomato plants, and some removal of the worst of the mildewed leaves from the courgette plants  has provided far better airflow and more light to the plants, and as a result they are now fruiting far better. A lesson learned from this year is around how we plant them in the future - the yellow variety we had this year need more space than we gave them, so the alternative might be to sow a climbing variety instead.

Cucumbers are still a success story - and while the three in the grow-bag are slowing down a bit now, the "extra" one we have grown climbing up a section of trellis is ramping up its efforts and keeping us supplied. We have come to the conclusion that this is definitely a crop we will grow as climbers next year - a single narrow trellis will take two plants, so two of those should keep us in cukes for the majority of salad season.

Beans too - both the runners and the bush beans have been producing a steady crop. You need to keep a daily check on these as otherwise they stop producing beans as they put their efforts in to swelling those that are ripening on the plant, which is not what we want! 

Herbs this year are still a bit hit and miss. My various sowings of basil are at last producing enough leaves to add to pasta dishes and that sort of thing, but nowhere near the amount I had hoped for pesto, sadly. The flat leaf parsley is flourishing now at least, and we're doing well with tarragon, rosemary and sage. My lovely trough of Coriander meanwhile started looking great, then promptly bolted before I could get so much as a leaf off it! For next year I am inclined to think that I may well consider buying herbs like parsley, basil and coriander in pots and just immediately potting on into bigger containers and see how that works, rather that growing from seed.  For the time being, I have given the coriander a haircut, and have sown a trough with half basil, and half coriander, to see if that will behave any better. It's also been covered with a sheet of wire mesh to keep the squirrels and pigeons from just digging it up! 

Overall the garden is still a source of constant delight, and it’s a rare evening or weekend morning when we don’t potter about out there for at least a bit - picking odds and ends, deadheading the sweet peas, or just marvelling in how productive we have already made the space. We’re feeding the birds of course, and get a nice variety down most days, and we’re seeing a good variety of bees and butterflies too which is a positive at a time when a lot of other gardeners are reporting a real decline in these vital little allies. Less popular mind you were the army of large white butterfly caterpillars which consumed our lovely nasturtiums down to the stalk in roughly 24 hours! Ah well, that’s gardens for you!

Robyn.

Local exploring...

During the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, like a lot of folk, we did a huge amount of exploring our local area, both on foot and then once a small amount of travel by car was allowed, slightly further afield. Also like a lot of other folk though, once things were relaxed and life began to get back to some sort of normal again, we went back to doing all the things we'd done previously, and the local exploring got pushed aside again. There are habits we have stuck to - we still go for a walk first thing on any weekday morning when we are at home, but those walks tend to be constrained by distance, as usually MrEH has to get home to start work at his regular time.  A few weeks ago though while I was away at the Royal International Air Tattoo (might write a bit about that in another post, we'll see) MrEH went off to look at an area he had seen mentioned on several local birding forums/websites - the old Golf Course over at North Weald. He was so taken with it that he wanted to go back to walk around a bit more of it, and so recently, we did exactly that. 

It's only about a 10 minute drive from home for us - and the parking is very easy, as the access is off a quiet lane, there is a small car park which serves the church, but in fact you could just as easily park on the road. Then it's just a case of going through the gate, and along a path leading to the golf course itself. Immediately the landscape opens up in front of you you are suddenly surrounded by wildflowers, butterflies and various bird calls. It's a mix of wooded areas, scrubland and more open heathland like spaces - I can only assume the bunkers have all been filled in as we didn't find any! There are also a couple of small areas of water, MrEH saw Reed Warblers around one of them when he was there the first time. The area is huge, and spans both sides of the busy A414, but handily there is a useful route under a bridge which carries the rushing traffic over your head - towards Ongar in one direction, and Harlow in the other. 

I can't recall ever having seen such a large number of wildflowers anywhere locally to us - with paths lined with  Bristly Ox Tongue, Ragwort, Thistles bearing their stunning purple flowers, Hawkweed, Wild Carrot, Teasels and much more besides. Right at the far side we emerged onto a farm field planted with beautiful blue borage - and regular crop locally, but always stunning to see. Of course with the flowers come the insects - crickets were absolutely everywhere, the entire walk was punctuated with the sound of them and I dread to think how many we must have inadvertently trodden on as we walked round! I don't believe I've ever seen so many Gatekeeper butterflies in one place before either, and that's before we come on to all the other varieties we saw!

We only walked just over 2 miles in the end, but there were plenty more paths we could have explored, and turnings we could have taken, and there was SO much stopping to look at things that just that short distance made a really good walk. There were deliciously ripe blackberries all over the place too -  we have already said we need to find a time to get back over there pretty soon with a box for some of those!

Robyn

Making good use…

 …of the things that we find..! I mentioned in my last post that we’d been doing a bit of foraging again, and that has continued this weekend with another batch of plums picked from trees literally just around the area we live. We’re lucky that when the town was planned and built, one thing factored in was lots of trees, and that included a LOT of plum trees, so within a quarter mile radius of home we were able to pick this lot…

I already knew I wanted to make another batch of plum sauce - this time a darker, more “Chinese style” version, so the first step was to find a suitable recipe. One for “Five spice plum sauce” seemed to hit the flavour profile I was looking for, although we hit an immediate stumbling block there when I realised too late we had no five spice powder - oops! Thankfully we DID have all the actual spices I wanted in there - cinnamon, cloves, allspice, black pepper and star anise, so we set to grinding them up where needed. I substituted a little over the half of the stated half-cup of water for light soy sauce, and left out the half teaspoon of salt that was called for as a result. Garlic - also not in the recipe - went into the mix, and once everything else was prepped we ended up with a pan-full like this… 

It was the simplest process from there - literally bring it to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 30 minutes or until the plums had collapsed, stirring frequently. Then pull out the whole spices - I had also used some rather elderly dried galangal root so we pulled that out too as it was quite fibrous-looking - before blitzing with a stick blender until smooth. MrEH had meanwhile been prepping the bottles for it - in our usual way, a thorough clean before pouring boiling water over bottles, lids and the ladle and punnet we were going to use for filling them, then it was a simple case of filling the bottles while they and the mixture were still hot. We got 4 decent sized bottles from a kilo of (free!) plums, with the other ingredients all being storecupboard stuff, and I reckon each bottle will do 4 stir fries, so this is feeling like very decent value indeed! The sauce is every bit as richly flavoured as I had hoped, with an underlying slight heat from half a teaspoon of (smoked, in our case) chilli flakes, and a depth of sweetness and umami from dark brown sugar and the soy. 

We still have at least another kilo of plums to use - so we will be back into the recipe books today to see what we might do with those! 

Robyn