Juicers and UFO'S

I'll tell you something, People, you very quickly get out of the blogging habit if you let too many days go by without posting! I kept meaning to sit down and get this one started, but had no photos, and such a lot of STUFF nagging away at the back of my mind. This morning I read a very timely post from Lisa at Bobo Bunn, who said she realises she has been writing huge posts and including way too many photos, and each prospective post seems a hurdle if you want to keep up the standard. So she decided not to try. And I thought, what a good idea! So my future posts may be a little shorter and feature fewer piccies. Or they might not. Depends. You know how verbose I can be when I'm on a roll!

Right. Pictured above, is the innards of our little kitchen freezer (there's a bigger one in the garage, with trout and dead game birds languishing away.)  Apart from Jim's ice cream, a spot of pasta, some wholemeal wraps and some frozen fruit, all the other containers are full of juice. Even the one which reads 'apple sauce'. Oh, and two cartons of homemade soup. Oh, and a Ready Meal (I blush, I blush!)

Without getting too much into the boring stuff, I have regular blood tests because I'm on medication for my wickedly underactive thyroid. Earlier this year my GP said my liver markers were a bit raised, which he wasn't too worried about as everything else was fine. I lost a stone in weight over the next 3 months and my re-test was much improved. Then came The Foot situation, followed by The Back situation which between them meant I stopped swimming, was sitting around a lot and frankly, eating cr*p. Weight went back on...with dodgy thyroids you can put on in a week what it has taken months to lose. Without trying.

At Burwell this year I got talking to a friend who has had some liver problems and she spoke to me about non-alcoholic fatty liver syndrome. Bells rang. So when I got home I looked up some names she'd given me and so began researching the subject. I've cut out sugars, refined carbs and most processed foods. And begun juicing. We had a juicer years ago - it lived, as do so many, in the cupboard and seldom came out. We gave it away. As a retirement present Jim bought me a Kenwood Chef Titanium mixer which came with several attachments. Not, however, a juicer. So having looked at some cheapo's and some you'd need a 2nd mortgage to buy, I decided to get the Kenwood juicer, and have been very pleased with it.

That's it next to the steamer. You still have to assemble, dis-assemble, and wash the thing, but it's much easier to do than the old one, and has a wide necked funnel so there is minimal chopping of fruit/veg. And the pulp, dpending what it is, either goes on our very healthy compost heap, or becomes a smoothie or base for a dessert. (Not the kale and celery one, OBVIOUSLY!!)

I already had a book on juicing.

But naturally I went to youtube for further information and came across the English guy who seems to be a bit of a guru..Jason Vale. This led me on to discover the Australian guru Joe Cross, writer of the book/film 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead' which I would love to see...the dvd is the wrong region, but the film is releasing in the UK next year. I found his take on the whole juicing thing very interesting and quite inspirational to be honest, though I am not into gurus on the whole! Another name you may be interested in re livers is Dr Sandra Cabot......google these names if it strikes any chords with you.

So the upshot is, I make juices every two to three days, and have 2 a day. I'm not doing a juice fast, but in conjunction with the rubbish I'm not now eating, my spotty face has cleared up, I'm feeling more energetic, am slowly losing a bit of weight and have lost the midriff discomfort I was experiencing. It is not my intention to start writing about health and weight issues (boring) or to become a Juicing Evangelist, but several people have asked me to mention the juice thing so I have. I might add that we eat a mostly wholefoods kind of diet, and have a good proportion of meatless meals, so it has not been a huge change in the kitchen arena for us.

On the TEXTILE front....yeah, I know, it's what this blog is supposed to be about, right? Well, there are a few things bubbling under. I should have done a craft fair last Sunday but the weather was awful and it was to be held outdoors. Wind/rain and textiles do not go together, so Yvonne and I declined this time though we will do the Christmas Fair. I have some Christmas felt tree decorations to make:

And I have two snuggle quilt tops waiting to be layered up and hand quilted.

And two only-just-started quilt tops to be cracking on with...remember these?

This is the basket quilt which requires a heck-of-a-lot of small squares to link the basket blocks.

And this is the FIRST block of the lovely English Medallion Basket quilt which I was desperate to begin over a year ago! I got this amount of work completed while we were in Ireland...not a lot! So a fair amount of textiley stuff needs to be going on Chez Textile Treasury I think. However, we need to planning our next visit to Kiwi-land very soon, so we can get ourselves booked up for the New Year.

Also, on the music front:

The Mollies will be dancing out at the Museum of Rural Life at Gressenhall for Apple Day in a couple of weeks, and I have a few melodeon related events happening over the next couple of months, not forgetting my lessons. So lots of really nice stuff in the offing.....not to mention all the boring bits too! Retirement, eh? Slow down, chill out, kick back, vegetate...........I don't think so!