Posts that Didn't Happen: March 2026

The month didn't start well, after the Idiot Abroad (aka Trump) started a war in the Middle East, and sent oil prices rocketing - unfortunately our oil tank was by then rather low, so the rayburn promptly went off!  

Then we managed to break the oil monitor when changing its battery (needing to keep an eye on how low the tank actually was) which had to be replaced too :(

In the garden, we decided to have a go ourselves at reining in the yew tree, which had bushed out quite a lot on the side near the house.  It wasn't an entirely successful exercise, as we couldn't get to one top branch, and another branch nearly took out Martin and wooden arch!

Still - it's better than it was - although we now have a huge pile of yew tree branches to deal with.

Early in the month I also headed across country to visit the folks for a couple of days, help out with medical appointments, and take Mum to visit an old friend.  

Stayed with my sister and brother-in-law (who's very into his Lego), and amused myself by hiding a small Lego knight mini-figure in his Home Alone display piece - will he ever notice??

Home to 'fluttering' noises in the rayburn flue.  We assumed there was a bird in there, and ended up partially deconstructing as much of it as we could in the hope that it would find its way 'down'.

Eventually all went quiet, so it either found its way 'up' or expired in the flue - hopefully the former!

In other news . . .  continued with a consultancy project; bought new smartwatches (mine now tracks my swimming lengths, so no excuse for losing count!); indulged in more Lego (adding the Viking Village to last month's Medieval Town Square); and Martin fitted a new inverter to the campervan (replacing a very noisy model we returned for a refund).

The end of the month saw us back across country for a 63rd Wedding Anniversary family party.

Had a lovely celebration weekend with extended family - also took Mum a Wade 'Treasure Trail' set I found online (like the one she remembers her Mum having).

The last day of the month saw us back home, where a shopping trip to town saw our newly MOT'd (if rather old) car, bashed up while parked in a local car park - starting a whole new saga . . .

It Wasn't Me!

It's been a while since the last rayburn generated 'Epic Fail' - this time we have rather too crispy chillies (went in green, came out black) - and the yell of anguish wasn't mine!

Wadi / Badi / Vadi

Basically these are dried spiced lentil dumplings - sun dried in India, but rayburn dried here in Wales. 

Prepped them earlier this month - soaking white lentils (urad dal), which were spiced and ground to a paste, then dished up into teaspoon sized droplets for drying.  The Indian sun may be quicker - these took nearly 3 days in the warming oven of the rayburn - but they should keep for around a year. 

Today they went into a chicken curry - most recipes said to deep fry them first before putting them into a sauce, but these went straight in - after around 2 hours they were just tender, so maybe the frying would have helped . . .

Tasty but a bit of a faff!

Epic Fail #2

Not quite as black this time - was aiming for potato crisps (using up a bit of leftover potato) - still inedible!

Epic Fail

Text from Martin:

"Whatever you left in the rayburn is ****** up beyond all recognition and tastes like charcoal????"

It was perfectly good red pepper when it went in last night  . . .

Oven Ready

It's been a really warm autumn so we hadn't felt the need for the Rayburn until the last week or so. Decided we should get it looked at professionally before it went on though, as we didn't have it serviced last year. The man came yesterday and hoovered it all out, replaced the wicks, chipped off carbon deposits etc., and now we have a lovely warm kitchen (seems to be burning better than last year).


In fact yesterday was a day of ovens - the motor on our nearly ten year old microwave had given up a couple of weeks ago. We'd gotten a bit fed up of having to rearrange the jacket potatoes manually so finally ordered ourselves a new one, which was delivered yesterday.

Dinner last night was (microwave) jacket spuds and sausage casserole (out of the Rayburn)!