Supermarket Free December

Well, today has been the first day of my supermarket free December challenge… and so far, so good.

You may say, it’s just one day… but it just so happened to be the first day out into town for ages.

I met up with Clothbot (Hi CB!) for lunch at the Alford Bistro – a very nice baked tattie with tuna and a nice little side salad for me, and scrambled egg on toast for the wee loon. We had a natter about this, that and the other, and then I went shopping.

First I went to the Howe Pantry, where the owner was very interested to hear of my supermarket free month. I bought eggs, a bottle of red wine – Belles roches Fitou 2002 – and it’s not bad at all! Oh, and a bottle of Fallachan … now this is an interesting one, it’s made from fermented whey, also known as Blaand and it’s a scottish creation. I’ve not tried it yet – apparently it’s best drank with strong cheese (surely the flavour isn’t that bad!!). If it’s good, then we’ll give it a go with the whey from our cheesemaking.

We then went to buy a paper, but there were 6 million schoolchildren in the shop and 6 million more queueing outside so we decided that we’d go up to the charity shop instead. We were lucky in there – what a bargain.. a lovely wooden fort for J for a fiver. I also got some nature books and a fab little book written by a Scottish traveller called Red Rowans and Wild Honey – by Betsy Whyte. It’s a sequel to The Yellow on the Broom so I’ll be looking out for that next.

Betsy Whyte was a traveller and this book tells the story of her struggle through life – hawking wares, fruit picking, tatty howking – any manner of work was acceptable, so long as it provided the next meal. I have a feeling that lots of folk could learn from this way of life. I’m looking forward to a good read.

It was a struggle back to the carpark with x number of bags in hand… and we completely forgot to go back to the papershop so I missed out on the Piper and the Press & Journal (IF ANYONE HAS a P & J and DOESN’T WANT it then please pm me!) – I kept a look out for Russel from Grampian Life Forum as if I’d spooted him I’d have asked him to help carry my bags… (I must be getting old!! – a shopping trolley is beginning to sound like a must have accessory!)

We spent all afternoon trying to put the fort back together again… funny, the man in the shop said we would :LOL

All in all, a good day – and a reminder (not that I needed one) that Alford is a friendly place… all the folk in the shops are happy to have a news and nothing is too much trouble… support your local village shops!!

~ by The Neepster on November 30, 2006.