30.04.10 - I could have... but then I did!

I could have told you that I had written the best post I'd ever created,
I could have said that I had added the most beautiful photos I'd ever captured,
I could have said I'd taken hours, wringing out every carefully crafted word with blood sweat and tears - and you would have to believe me,
coz thanks to the 'eccentric spontaneity' of power cuts...... you will never know what was actually lost or the cussing and spitting from me that followed shortly after!!


But what I will share with you today is - I am a winner!
I won a delightful parcel of felty goodness from Angela.

Yesterday was a lovely, lovely day, first it was work (but that was just a brief inconvenience!) then I received a parcel, carefully wrapped and decorated, which when I unwrapped the tissue paper inside - I found this...................

What delicious crafty felt treasure is about to appear?

OOOOooooh! 

(I have to say at this point I squealed a fair bit!) 

(I think I may have stamped my feet too)

(I also suspect I clapped my hands together delightedly)

I couldn't wait to wear it.....

So, a huge thank you and **((Hugs))** for Angela for such a beautiful hand felted broach x

The rest of my day panned out really well later too, I met a wonderful friend for lunch and we laughed about things that should have made us cry, about husbands and children, about getting older and not necessarily wiser, about wearing sensible shoes, about gardening and just about everything in between.

I had to dash off to collect the boys from school, dash home to cook and get them ready for their music lesson and then get myself ready as I was off to a 'girl's-nite' birthday bash.  It again was a wonderful evening of chat and food and good friends  (got to stop all this - my waist line will definitely expand!)

So, despite me losing the posting-of-the-year due to a power cut, yesterday more than made up for it :)

26.04.10 - my kind of beautiful

Ribes flowers poking through the garden bench.

The glossy polished feel to beans.

The anticipation of that first cruch-bite into just picked radish

The warm aroma of freshly baked orange muesli muffins,

this time made almost entirely by Youngest

The quiet beauty of lichens

The gentle warmth on your face of the spring sunshine

The scent of foot-fall bruised grass as we walk through the countryside

The sense of freedom that comes with being on holiday,

the tang of the salty air and the delicious feeling of icy cold sea water on sun warmed feet.

These are just a few of the things that are 'my kind of beautiful'

What are yours?

Enjoy your day.

23.04.10 -

We had our annual 'seed-swap' last night.

It's where gardeners gather to exchange seeds and stories over mugs of tea and chocolate buns.

An eclectic mix of personalities and plant varieties. 

In a month or two, we all get together again for our annual 'plant-swap', I do love village life.

My mini haul.

I plan to sow these out on Sunday.

Things are growing.....

I usually get the boys to write the plant labels - mainly because I love finding the ones they wrote last year and I love the spellings that Youngest favours........

And, whilst on a wander around the seedlings and garden,

I popped down to the hens and found that Florence was busy at work....

As was Mrs Kiwi Johnson....

What a shame I have to go off to work,

never mind - it's Friday and there is a whole brand new weekend about to start!

 Woo-hoo!

21.04.10 - yes I did say 2

Yes, I did say 2 new recipes, but in my excitement of the 3 day cheesecake, I forgot to mention the salmon puff pasty pie.

A real cheat recipe.

1 sheet ready roll puff pastry - roll out onto a large pizza tray
slice onions and lay across base
slice mushrooms and toss over onions
shred salmon pieces - not too small - and sprinkle over mushrooms and onions
black pepper and salt to taste
knobs of butter
crumbled feta cheese to taste (lots in our case)

bake for about 20 minutes or so, check that the salmon is cooked.

Serve with a green salad and boiled potatoes - delish.

Sorry no photos - was eaten before I could take any! However I will be making it again.

Well that is recipe number - 23 with the cheesecake being number 22.

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21.04.10 - 'Appy birfday Ma-am, 52 things and ouch

Life potters on, the boys are back at school after their spring-break. Himself is back at work and I am still there!

It's difficult to juggle having time off during school breaks when we both work. Luckily we both have hours that means we can time share them during holidays and we are also blessed with a safety 'Granny-net'. My folks take the boys and spoil them rotten - but I suppose that is part of the job description when you sign up to be a grandparent.

***A fictional account of a grandie-care job interview***

• Got to be able to cook sticky buns/cheese toasties/chocolate cake with the grandies and not mind (too much) about the amount of icing/cheese/flour on the floor (or on the table top/the child/the cat/the carpet etc)...........check
• Got to be able to take the grandies to a tea room and let them choose something inappropriate off the menu (then gently persuade them successfully otherwise)...............check
• Got to be able to play tennis/chess/majong/dominoes/cards or all of the above at the same time...........check
• Got to be able to watch DVD and videos that they don't really find all that interesting (Transformers/cartoons/Bananas in pjs) and then be able to watch them again and again and again........check
• Got be there for grazed knees/sore throats/hiccups and other general snotty noses and off school ailments...........check (a reluctant one but still a check)
• Got to be able to do all of the above and then some.............check

Good - then the job is yours!

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On the continuing quest of....... 52 things that I have not cooked before, here are 2 more.

New York tall cheesecake (called the 3-day-cheesecake in our house) - sinful sinful sinful but oh so yummmmmmmmm.

When I first saw the pictures on the smitten kitchen blog I decided I would give it a try and quickly skimmed through the ingredients and thought - hmmm, next time we went shopping I would get the goodies. Maybe I should have done less skimming and more reading.....but never mind, I wrote down the ingredients down all inspired and ready to create. Himself, having seen the pictures, began to have fantasies about the cheesecake and was very encouraging.....

Did I mention the yum word?

In the supermarket, I tried to translate the American measurements to metric and was getting horribly confused. So Himself manfully stepped in (especially as he could see his cheesecake - as he was now thinking of it - was not going to appear). He converted the amounts and we decided that they were of huge (HUGE!!) proportions and we halved them.

Yumm (oops may have said that before...)

Anyway, after shopping (which we do in the evenings after work), I made the crumb base, which when I printed off the recipe and actually-read-it said the base had been chilled in the freezer, to speed up the making. Well, we'd just been shopping and the freezer was full, so it went into the fridge and I postponed it till the morning (you should have seen Himself's face, all hope was lost....)

The next evening - after work, which had been a late night surgery, I started the 'cheese' part, once again I had missed a crucial piece of information in the initial skimming of the recipe - it needed to cook for an hour after the initial 12 minutes - which was the only bit of timing I'd spotted - once again Himself was crestfallen when, at 11.15pm I took out the cheesecake and put it aside to cool.

It will be worth the wait, I told him.

I can't really repeat what he muttered under his breath - I pretended I hadn't heard!

So, last night, again after work and after cubs, so yes, late again, I putting the topping on and we all sat down and we had......a.......piece....of.....cheesecake....... aaaaaah yum. 

So - was it worth it? Well yes, but it is quite rich and I didn't make the full proportions and I did leave out the sugar in the biscuit base, it seemed unneccessary to add to an already sweetened base more sugar.

Will I make it again?

Yes

Only, I will try and start it earlier so that we don't wait three days for it!!

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Ouch

Over the weekend we went for a walk as mentioned in this post here, resulting in Eldest hurting his knee and leaving a small part of it forever high up on a hillside.

Though I'd share the rather colourful details of his peacock coloured knee.....

A couple of hours after the knee/rock/blood everywhere moment.

The next day when the bruising started to show,

some of that grey stuff is the sticky left over from a plaster,

but I am not allowed to go near to get it off!

 'Too painful' howls Eldest.

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And - before I forget - it's the Queen's birthday today.

18.04.10

Himself decided that he wanted a walk, and after a bit of discussion, it was agreed we would walk up this..........

Pen-Y-Ghent

We arrived and despite the wonderful spring sunshine, there was still a bitter wind licking around the hills. 

There were several parked cars still burgeoned with warmly wrapped occupants. Something so peculiarly English is to-picnic-in-the-car. I suppose it's because the weather can look beautiful but is still cold. It amuses me to see people sitting inside their cars, reading papers or doing the crossword, not looking at the view or talking to each other.

We stopped by a sinkhole - a huge hole that the boys explored while we sat out of the cutting breeze and watched.

If you 'enbiggin' the picture you will see both Youngest and giddy dog -  they are nowhere near the bottom of the sinkhole. The jumble of rocks jutting out behind them had caves beneath them - I stood at one of the cave mouths and felt sickened at the depth of blackness and the cloying smell of earthy damp. I listened carefully and I could hear a quiet metallic drip of water seeping through the rocks insidiously wearing them away.

The view from the top was hazy but still breath-taking. The wind cut through coats and made our eyes water.

We came off the top, following the ridge away from the heavily populated well-worn boardwalk and stone steps to a narrow ankle-twisting tussocky path. There were two fatalities on route.............

Eldest left half his knee on the ridge and I slipped into a hole and twisted my foot. He and I limped along whilst Himself and Youngest yomped along happily and Giddy dog just was - well just that - giddy.

Coz we were lagging along at the back we saw all sorts of things that the other two missed.

Grouse tracks left in the peaty mud on the hill

Four perfect grouse eggs, almost completely camouflaged in the heather and moss.

Moments before I fell up to my knees into a hidden ditch......

An ancient 'crook-latch' on a farm gate

The final view.

16.04.10 - busy hands and a request

Busy hands

Sunshine and smiles.

All of us,

busy.

Eldest designing a kite for his art homework

Youngest too was painting - slapping it on good and thick (and on himself...)

Himself putting the finishing touches to the recently decorated bathroom

- a masterpiece in the making

(Only had to wait five years for it - but it has definitly been worth the wait!)

And freshly made scones for the workers, so warm that the butter had soaked in

and the jam began to gracefully slide off as Eldest took the photo.

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Orange Muesli Muffins

For Earthenwitch coz she makes me laugh, coz she inspires me to try new and (occasionally kooky) recipes, coz I love how she see the world and she writes about it and coz she asked me so nicely!

4 floz orange juice

2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind

4oz wholemeal flour (or similarly brown and wholesome type flour)

2oz plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder (omit if you have already used self raising flours)

2oz brown sugar (I used soft brown sugar)

6 oz muesli

8 floz milk

2 oz butter

Extra muesli (4oz), brown sugar (2oz) and half a teaspoon of cinnamon to sprinkle on top  (sugar to taste, if the muesli is already sweetened you might not want extra sugar, but if you have a sweet tooth - go for it!)

• Pre heat oven to 210 deg c (190 deg c - gas)
• Grease a muffin tin (the recipe called for a 6 hole large muffin tin, but I found I made 12 - so may be my tin wasn't as deep or big)
• sift the flours and baking powder into a bowl, add sugar and muesli and stir
• make a well in the centre
• gently melt the butter
• add combined milk, melted butter and orange juice all at once
•  mix quickly until ingredients are only just mixed - ideally the batter should be very lumpy
• spoon mix into the muffin tin
• sprinkle muesli and sugar mix on top

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown and smelling heavenly every time you open the oven.

A sure way to draw my men in from where ever they are..... they linger around hopefully, waiting for when I can loosen the muffins and turn them onto the cooling rack.

It is usually at this point I use the back of the spatula to slap the back of their hands as they try to sneak an early taste....

15.04.10 - it's been long and slow

This week - this week has been long and slow, in fact so slow it's taken all week just to get to Thursday and there's Friday yet to do before the weekend.

We had Knit n Knatter (and 'K'nibble) last night, very pleasant evening.

Just a quick up date on WIPs and FOs.

Remember the pear from here, well I thought it was lonely.... see it wasn't a pair (pear) but a single

So, I crocheted a fruit friend for it....

Then, seeing it still wasn't a pair and felt just like a right lemon

(Sorry to all non English humoured readers - just poor puns here)

I made another fruity friend

So now a fruit salad was emerging, and I was inspired to make one more fruity friend

- only this one has created the most comments and reactions.................

I can't think why....?

I have even been asked if I could make one in PINK.....

Why??? - no don't go there, I don't, really don't want to know why!!

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On a less fruity note, I've just finished another guinea pig - this one is a birthday pressie, just needs wrapping up in time for tomorrow.  Then, to start another one as a commission - good thing I enjoy making them.

11.04.10 - weekend round up

Today - well today was 'an at home day', pottering around, planting out, weeding, cleaning, mowing the lawn and just generally enjoying the gentle spring warmth and quietly recovering from yesterday.

Yesterday?  - yesterday was brilliant. We took the bikes and set off for a ride along the Lune Estuary. Once again we parked at Glasson Dock which was heaving with day-trippers, icecream eaters and pram-pushers. We peddled out of the village as quickly as possible and soon we were flying along the cycleway with that wonderful clear coastal air all around.

The last few days of warmth has brought on the may blossom and the air was filled with it's gentle sweet scent.

We saw our first butterflies of the year, loads of ladybirds and bumblebees.

We rode on, up to some pools that have been created  from old clay pits and turned into a wild life area.

We stopped at the view point where the boys just had to have an emergency snack and their sandwiches were scoffed in record time.

We cycled on, into Lancaster and over the Millenium bridge - built at a cost of 1.8 million pounds on the site of a Roman then a Medieval bridge. Out of Lancaster and on and on, when suddenly we realised how late it was and how far we'd gone and how far we had to go back!

31.8km later, we returned to the car - saddle sore and creaky knee-d

.

Tired - but a good tired

Definately worth it.

08.04.10 - look what's growing in my greenhouse...

Annuals

Perennials

Strawberries

Vegetables

Cat

This particular variety is a purr-renial.