Sarah's Blog

Doesn't it feel GREAT?

I love a new year I really do. It's so refreshing to be able to put the old one exactly where it should be (i.e in the past) and move on. However, there is naturally a temptation to look TOO far the other way (i.e into the future) and start focusing too much on that.

As I said in a previous post, I have no resolutions and one reason for that is because it causes me to look too much into "what might be coming" instead of enjoying the here and now. We're not fortune tellers, we can't possibly know what is going to happen to us and, as such, there is little point in making plans for the future that are too concrete. Life, as we found out towards the end of last year, has a nasty habit of throwing you a curve ball and ruining your best laid plans. Sure, it's good to have little hopes and wishes but to say "by the end of the year I WILL have done xxxxx" is just asking for disappointment. You MIGHT achieve it but what if you don't? To be honest, I prefer to a) make reasonable "plans" that don't involve any huge life changes and b) accept that life frequently changes those plans for you and, if so, c'est la vie.

Now, before anyone huffs off thinking "uuurrggh! she's so UN-ambitious! She has no AIM in life!", let me tell you I do and it's a big one.

It's to be happy and have fun and enjoy life.

Be happy. Be responsible (as in pay the bills and educate my kids!) but, at the same time, keep a sense of childlike fun in life.

When I came to the end of last year I sat and thought about it - I sort of had a little giggle to myself as I realised JUST what made me (and my family) happy.....

• Playing. Someone (can't remember who which is shameful!) once said "You don't stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing". So true. For heaven's sake! Is there a rule somewhere that says you can't play silly games because you're over the age of 10?! No. We play guess who? (the verbal version as opposed to the board game), we Mario Kart and Mario Party against each other, we build dens out of blankets. We tell each other mad stories. In the summer, the kids and I play a totally brilliant game which loosely resembles "sticky glue" - this involves opening the back door to the garden from Rosie's room and the back door to the garden from the dining room. Then, I am the "glue" and the kids have to sneak round and round, through the house and back outside and not get caught by me and "stuck" the idea being that I have to stick both of them. Of course, we start off silently creep-creeping round but, gradually, the game gets more and more crazy until it disintegrates into hysterical giggling. Don't even THINK about saying to me "but you're 40!!". SO WHAT?!
• Wildlife/nature/the OUTSIDE. In the winter me and the kids will crowd around April's bedroom window (the one with the best view of the garden) and spot all the birds and watch the rain or snow. In the summer we sit outside on the path and hunt for woodlice and ants, we go bee spotting, we try to see foxes in the garden in the evenings, we walk bare foot on the grass and grow food and pick honeysuckle off the bush and suck the nectar out (you have to try that, it's gorgeous). Nothing gives us so much pleasure as what happens right in our own back garden.
• Walking. Having a favourite place (or places) to just WALK is heavenly. For us, we love Hengistbury Head, the New Forest and the river in Christchurch. When you find somewhere that just "clicks" for you, it doesn't matter what horrors life throws at you, you just feel calm when you go there.
• Food/cooking. Get out of the processed food rut. MAKE STUFF! We love taking raw ingredients and turning them into a gorgeous dinner or cake or bread or whatever. The process of cooking is relaxing and the business of eating it is one of the best things in life. It's better for you, quite often costs less and tastes better.
• Creating. Last year, in January, I made a scrapbook with one page for each month. Then, each month, I added something to it - a card I received, a memory of something nice I did, something the kids or Tim achieved .... the act of creating is calming and it's lovely to be able to say something GOOD happened every month, however small. I'm just about to make this years book. Painting is something else I enjoy - let me tell you, I'm rubbish but I do love my creations and am like a small child bringing something home from preschool! Creating something sets you free, temporarily, from whatever else is going on in your life. You're focusing, for a while, on that ONE thing.

Here's a sage bit of advice ;) Go ahead and listen, the song itself is enough to make you grin :)

"You work and work for years and years, you're always on the go

You never take a minute off, too busy makin' dough

Someday, you say, you'll have your fun, when you're a millionaire

Imagine all the fun you'll have in your old rockin' chair

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink

The years go by, as quickly as a wink

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think"

Christmas begins here

We were going to put up our tree today but, due to being very sad over the weekend (for obvious reasons), decided to go ahead and do it on Saturday to try and cheer ourselves up. It did kind of work and made us smile.

Tim and I had a nice meal Saturday night (a late Birthday meal!) and watched The Matrix (I got him the trilogy for his Birthday. Yesterday we went over his mum's for dinner again for his birthday and, again, put off from Friday for obvious reasons!

It's weird without Hemmy .... he's been with us for EVER and I still keep expecting him to come strolling across the garden or scrape madly on the back door to be let in or do his level best to trip me up when I get something out the fridge! It's also the first time, since we got together, that we haven't had a cat at all and that's weird too. One day, maybe in the spring, we'll get a kitten (I'd love a Silver Tabby but no way I could afford one!) ... a new "baby" for our family. Right now though, I couldn't even THINK about replacing Hem. Don't want to.

I've been "pottering" today - wrapping a few stocking presents, glitterizing fircones for a hallway shelf display I'm doing, making lists of presents I still need to get and food we need to get! I'm going to do one last REALLY BIG tidy up before Christmas but am going to wait until Tim is at work because I get on so much better without his lanky frame in the way heehee! Any case, it will be nice for him to come home to :)

We also promised the kids we'd take them to see the insane "road full of Christmas lights" in Poole like we did last year. Last year we did a little video of them which we won't bother with this year so if you want to see the insane "road full of Christmas lights" go here .... go on, you know you want to ....... *laughs*. Watch the video - it's at the end of it.

PS - Talking of insane Christmas lights you HAVE to watch this! Apparently, it's a charity thing which is just as well because otherwise they're neighbours would just LOVE them. House christmas lights set to some VERY irritating techno "music" (so brace yourself) - very clever though

Festive stuff .... mostly

Have been quite caught up in general "getting ready for Christmas" malarkey recently! We've been doing very well with our present buying and are nearly done - just waiting for a couple of bits to arrive from Amazon and Play and need to scoot to the shops for a few little things (stocking fillers mostly). I've also marzipand (marzipanned? marzipaned?) .... put marzipan on the cake! Oh, it did smell good when I unwrapped it! My cards are finished and just need to be distributed and I need to put the finishing touches to April's pink bunny toy puppet that I started AGES ago.

On Thursday it's Tim's birthday (me and the kids rushed around making cards this afternoon while he was out). I'm going to bake him a cake of his choice (probably Victoria Sponge I bet) - I do this on everyone's birthday now ... but no-one bakes me a cake on my birthday! Boohoo!

Anyway, after his birthday fun, it's time for a mega clean up and then ......

.... up with the pretties aka Christmas decorations! We're doing them next Monday .... so love the decorations going up! :)

Oh, and on a slightly LESS happy note, Hemmy's off to the vet on Friday ..... he's nearly 16 now, getting so old and, well, sad to say I think his days with us are numbered. He's still eating and stuff (JUST - his teeth are knackered) but ... I don't know, he just seems like he's fading :( Anyway, we're taking him to see if they can do anything about his teeth and just check that he's generally ok. We're giving him lots of loves and he doesn't go out much so he's got a nice blanket to sleep on in the kitchen (he likes to be near the cooker I think!) Lovely old cat .... insane, but lovely :)

Sweet 6

April Honey turned 6 today .... aaah! Time flies! She's such a cutey - capable of throwing terrible wobblies when she wants to and does a pretty good line in being a bad loser in games but you can SO ignore those things! This is because, on the flipside, she's massively caring (when I was ill a while ago, she comes up to me and puts her arm round me and rests her little head on my arm and says "why mummy sad?" She'll just sit there and hug you on and on. She'll draw you the cutest pictures, tell the daftest jokes and is always, always full of sunshine.

She did enjoy herself today I think - she had balloons, pass the parcel, books, DVD's and Zhu Zhu Pets (oh how she has longed for Zhu Zhu Pets!) I even made her cake to her exact specification - pink icing with Zhu Zhu Pets on!

Happy birthday little Honey-bunny ... Happy Birthday!

On a different note, a couple more snowy pics for you (are you bored yet?). First, Tim's TINY snowman - wheelie-bin-man! This poor thing got crash-landed on by a pigeon this morning and squashed!

Icicles! It was so cold that we actually had icicles hanging off our roof today ALL day!

Footprints in the snow. This is gorgeous .... April coaxed Tim outside to play yesterday afternoon and this is his big boot-print next to her little wellie print... so sweet :) As an added bonus we also got bird prints!

Advent calendars, snow flurries and ginger biscuits

Tim went out to buy Advent calendars today but, apparently, there wasn't much of a choice in our local Tesco. He came back with 2 Winnie the Poohs and 2 Hello Kittys. He fully expected that I would have a Hello Kitty (yes!) and that April, being a kitty fan, would have the other. Uh-oh! April discovered that the Winnie the Pooh calendars had not just chocolate but also stickers and magnets and she HAD to have one. Rosie, who wouldn't go near Hello Kitty if she was paid to, chose the other W-the-P which left poor old Tim with Hello Kitty! Ha! Ha! Ha!

They do looked cute all lined up though :)

We finally got snow today although not much. It just "flurried" on and off all day - didn't settle but it did make a nice view out of the kitchen window as I got on with some baking. I made ginger biscuits and they are JUST perfect with an afternoon cup of tea.

Ingredients:

120g softened butter

120g caster sugar

1 dessertspoon golden syrup

1 egg yolk

200g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon cream tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger

pinch salt

pinch mixed spice

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170c/gas 3 and grease a large baking sheet

2. Cream the butter and sugar together

3. Add the syrup and egg yolk and mix well

4. Sieve in the flour, salt, tartar, baking powder and spices and mix to form a stiff dough

5. Take small pieces (about the size of a walnut), put on tray and flatten slightly into a round. Don't put the "rounds" too close together.

6. Bake for about 12 minutes until golden.

Yum Yum!

Rosie has also been doing some baking - at Guides - they made little itty-bitty mince pies and very nice they were too :) They were still warm when she got home so we finished cooling them before eating.

PS - and, yes, Tim and I DO have advent calendars along with the kids - why not? I know a lot of grown ups would think it childish and silly - I just call it fun. There is no rule ANYWHERE that says the fun has to stop once you reach adulthood. I firmly believe the world would be just a BIT happier if people retained a sense of playful, child-like joy as they got older.

I really must be getting old!

Aaaah! Sunday! At one point my most hated day of the week (school on Monday!) now .... I'm starting to feel a strange contentment when Sunday rolls round. We've got the radio on (Nicholas Parsons doing "Just a Minute"), the gentle hum of the washing machine, April quietly playing Starfox Adventures on the Gamecube (a game I love as much for it's atmospheric music as much as anything), slightly steamed up windows because it's a cold day and the smell of Sunday lunch cooking (roast beef and yorkshire puddings). It's all "nice" and reassuring and gentle and homely and ..... right.

I need reassuring and gentle at this moment in time. Had to make an excruciatingly difficult decision about a member of my family (my brother) today that filled me with sadness. Not a decision I really wanted to make but one I felt I HAD to make based on circumstances and what is best for me and Tim and the kids. I found out something yesterday that made me feel like I was being sucked back into a whirlpool that, a few years ago, I climbed out of and felt relief. Yesterday I felt panicky and stressed again ....... the decision had to be made, however painful.

Tim and I are a lot different from pretty much everyone else in my family (although, thankfully, not HIS family). We're terribly old fashioned really - keeping to "traditional" routines, joining in with our kids and getting madly excited at Christmas and birthdays, bringing them up on a diet of "family traditions" (like me going out at the crack of dawn EVERY Easter to hide eggs for them to look for!) We try (go out of our way) to bring up our kids in a way which is peaceful ..... childhood is short, fleeting, it shouldn't be anything less than idyllic (or at least as much as we can make it) - the kids deserve nothing less. More than that though, LIFE is fleeting - I want MY life and Tim's life and the kids life to be HAPPY and relaxed. It can't be that way if things are stressing us and, so, hard decisions have to be made.

We've got our "way" of doing things and we're happy with that ... Nicholas Parsons and steamed up windows on a cold day and roast beef and all that ............. today is a little sad but that shall pass ....

Seeing spots

Today was the Pudsey Party at April's Rainbows group (in aid of Children in Need). We had 2 instructions - bring some cakes and make sure April wore something spotty. First request was no problem - behold spotty cakes :)

The second request wasn't so easy because april owns not a spot (ha ha) of spotty clothing apart from her wellies which would have been too hot (in any case they were caked in mud from bonfire night). Hmm .. what to do? what to do? Being ever such a resourceful mummy I came up with the idea of a big floppy spotty hair bow! Two strips of white fabric, sewn together and hand painted with spots!

April has fallen asleep standing up by the looks of it, but oooh! she's such a cute babba with her hair up like this :)

So, we all trundled off to the Guide hall and spent lots of money on cakes and putting coins on the cut-out Pudsey and watched April take part in the games (which were very loud!) Our favourite was "Beans" which we actually play at home sometimes and is SO funny. Maybe I'll video the kids playing it one day to show you the game in case you want to know .... SURELY you do?! *laughs*

Oh and don't forget, tomorrow night - Children in Need on telly! Tune in and donate if you can!

Operation Christmas Cake Phase 2

Uncooked

Some 4 1/4 hours later ..... lovely colour .... mmmmmm! Christmas cake! :) This was crazy - the cake wasn't cooked until fairly late in the evening which meant by the time we went to bed it wasn't cooled properly (went to bed early because Tim had to get up for work at 4.00 the next day). Soooo, I had to get up with Tim and put extra brandy in my cake, wrap it and put it away. At 4.00 in the morning! 4.00!!!

So, cake gone away now - wrapped up securely in greaseproof paper and tin foil and sealed in a cake box. Will have to briefly unwrap again towards the end of the month to "feed" with more brandy, otherwise it will be left until the first week in December when it will get covered in marzipan.

A hotchpotch of stuff

Firstly, I feel the need to apologise for the dreadful quality of the pictures you will view today - I don't know what's wrong with me but I haven't been able to take a good picture for days!

Anyhow, first a few from Halloween:

Rosie in the witchy dress she designed and (more or less) sewed by herself. She did it out of a couple of Tim's old tshirts and put gold glitter-glue bats on the front. Turned out pretty good I thought!

I woke up on Halloween morning to find this on my toilet .....

..... and this in my kitchen! Rosie had been busy before we even got up!

April made (with a little help from her mummy!), orange jelly pumpkins

.... and played a yukky Halloween game Rosie invented which involved pulling plastic spiders out of a cup of gunge (flour and water coloured blue!)

I made cupcakes and the kids helped me decorate them

.... and we all had tea by the light of the pumpkin :)

So that was Halloween :)

Yesterday I finished a sewing project I've been working on. I had to cross stitch a heart onto gingham - I've never cross stitched gingham before so it was a bit weird! More tricky than sewing onto Aida but it turned out ok in the end. I sewed the whole thing into a heart shape stuffed with toy stuffing and dried lavender (picked back in the summer) and hung it over the door leading from the hall to the living room. Cute :)

Finally today ........

What can this be all about?

.... of course! Operation Christmas Cake Phase 1! Soak the fruit in large quantities of brandy - phase 2 tomorrow :)

Sun rain sun

The weather people - they got it right! Hurrah! For once! It did rain - this morning - LOTS. However, by lunch time it had cleared up and was sunny again. Nice :)

Tim took April out on her own because she wanted to spend some pocket money - she brought herself a dinosaur toy. When he got back, we all went out to Hobbycraft (I could, easily, spend ALL DAY in that shop) and I got some felt and toy stuffing. Getting through vast amounts of toy stuffing lately what with all the teddy making. Then Tesco's to get stuff to make veggie soup and granary bread for dinner (Tim does the soup, I do the bread). Then home again before April went off out to Rainbow's.

Not the MOST exciting day in the work but fairly busy - I need to be busy as I draw ever nearer to my hospital appointment for my check up. Deeply fearful that, due to the endometriosis and ovarian cysts, Mr Pampiglione (gyno surgeon) is going to suggest .... hacking bits of me out :( I think it's a real fear .... I'm 40, not planning any more kids and with messed up insides :( Problem is, I don't want to go through with that - it's a big op with a pretty long recovery time. I've always been one of these people that says no ops unless it's a life saving thing. Anyway, what will be will be ..... just very nervous. Actually, scared half to death :(

To take my mind off this impending (or imagined!) doom, I've been sorting out Rosie's special birthday surprises (with a little help from my friends - thank you, thank you, thank you Natalie!!!) ... aaah! 5 days until she's a teenager! Sometimes I have to catch myself when I realise that, when I first started blogging, she was 7 and April was just about to be born! Unbelievable, time sure does fly....

I'm worse than the shops!

I got the October issue of Papercraft Inspirations today (probably my most favourite magazine) and it had a pack of free Christmas card toppers with it. Then I went to one of my most favourite websites - Brocante Home - and found Alison talking about Christmas planning.

Then I realised that I was feeling just EVER SO SLIGHTLY festive. Yikes! It's the 8th of September for heaven's sake!

I think this may have started the other day when Tim and I were discussing various activities we have leading up to Christmas and I mentioned that I have to make my cake at the end of next month. The Christmas cake making joys seem to come round EARLIER and EARLIER each year ... or maybe it's just me....

Whatever, I do LOVE this time of the year - all that snuggling up to my lovely hubby on chilly autumn evenings, yummy-yummy food (beef in red wine done in the slow-cooker mmmmm!), Autumnwatch on telly, jolly fun festivities (we do Halloween and Guy Fawkes night, as well as Christmas, in earnest in this house!) I adore the crafts that get done at this time of year too (especially the ones with the kids) and I always feel completely inspired to try something new.

I've been busy lately turning a pair of very big (as in TOO big for me, saggy-baggy!) jeans into a really nice, fitted pencil skirt. I can't believe how well the project turned out and I've ended up with something wearable instead of something that was destined for the charity shop. Very pleased. Will do some pictures at some point.

.... and I WILL post the crabapple jelly recipe too ...... dear me, I'm slacking!

This was today

Mostly. We started back to formal lessons again after a seemingly unending summer break. There was a printout of Van Gogh's Starry Night to gaze upon during work (he's our featured artist we're studying at the moment). We went from basic maths for April to logic for Rosie. We studied Madeline in literature (April) and reviewed grammar (Rosie). We did fun stuff about herbivores (April) and physics (Rosie). More about that on the homeschool blog though!

Today Tim was back to work so, as well as working with the kids, I did general houseworkey stuff and started sorting out some of the VERY summery clothes that will need to go away soon (although the weather, at the moment, is fantastic!) I also finished making my crabapple and cinnamon jelly today and am just sorting out the pictures to write that up. It's lovely making something out of your own garden :)

I also saw the first big house spider of the season - luckily it was outside the bathroom window not inside but even so .... *shudders*. I am SUCH a girly wimp when it comes to those particular spiders and always need Tim to deal with them. I remember, one evening, Tim had to go to church choir practice and I was on my own. A house spider shot out from under the desk, I screamed, grabbed a cup and put it over the spider (JUST, before it disappeared under the sofa!) but then didn't have the courage to move it! It had to stay there, under the cup, until Tim got home!

Recovered!

April has got over her fall from yesterday and, apart from a bruise on her wrist, seems perfectly ok - she was out enjoying the sunshine again, in the garden this time - finding stuff to put in her bucket :)

Talking of the garden, we've had a strange thing going on - birds eggs! We have now found 3 empty eggshells dropped on the lawn near our back door. Birds do this when their chicks hatch and they don't want the eggshells to be obvious to predators - they remove them from the nest, fly a little distance away and drop them. So, we assume, there is a nest of little chicks somewhere nearby - just seems very late in the year to be hatching chicks! No idea what bird it is - can't tell from the eggs, they're just very small and pure white.

Here's one we found yesterday (sorry for the blur!)

... and here's April with one she found today

Today, there has been much busyness in the kitchen. Tim helped me pick the last few crabapples and I got started on the cinnamon jelly (will post recipe and pics when finished), it's currently straining into a jug. I also made 2 loaves of bread and Tim made some yummy "proper" custard to go with pudding this evening - he's also got some soup to make. There are such gorgeous smells wafting around!

Tim also got asked to play piano for the BOS rehersals for their Christmas show - every Monday evening starting mid-September. Nice extra pennies for Christmas - always welcome! :)

Q - How many people does it take to change a Nissan Primera headlight bulb?

A - 2. One to change it and one on standby who knows CPR.

Yes, it would appear that you can, in fact, be killed doing this apparently benign job.

On our way home from the restaurant last night (more about that in a minute) we tailed Tim's mum in her car. On getting home, we got a text saying "your headlight's out!". Ooops. So, I checked Halfords this morning .... I have to choose between "gassed" or "ungassed" bulbs .... erm.... I then do a quick search to see how to fit them and find out that there is a chance of death (how, I don't know!)

Not sure why we bothered with all this when my brother is a mechanic and MOT tester! I guess I just feel sometimes that we should try and deal with small jobs on our own. Only, the possibility of being killed to death isn't exactly "small" is it?! Then there's the gassed or ungassed question .... ENOUGH! Phone James .... he laughed at the death thing and said "yeah, you can be killed". He's got a free slot between MOTs tomorrow so he told Tim to bring it down and he'll do the headlight ..... AND the break light we've had out for a few weeks (oh dear) AND the slightly dodgy rear numberplate. Job done :)

So, dinner last night. As I said, we went to the Alice Lisle in the New Forest - very gorgeous location (didn't see the donkeys this time!), nice playground for the kids (and Tim, but the less said about that the better!). We had crab cakes as a starter (very, very yummy) followed by cod in batter for Tim (basically fish and chips with mushy peas - mushy peas! yuk yuk!) and Dover Sole with lemon butter prawns and lattice potatoes for me. Mum in law had the same as me but, unfortunately for her, her sole didn't fillet properly meaning she had to sit there and pick it to bits to avoid the bones. Mine went ok though and I ended up with the cartoon style fishbone on my plate at the end *laughs* Wasn't overly keen on the lattice potatoes which were a bit greasy but the fish tasted gorgeous. Pudding was pear and almond tart.

Oh and yes, we did have fish followed by fish. We're such peasants.

Early in the day blogging

*Yawn* ... not quite awake properly yet. Haven't been sleeping well at night lately due to the excessive heat and have been sleeping later in the morning instead - strangely it seems cooler between 5 and 7 than it does in the dead of night! Also made much better this morning by the fact that it rained earlier so that's cooled things off a bit. Tim didn't take his raincoat to work - he saw the weather and said "oh, I think that rain is going to miss us". Silly billy ... he should know better than to trust the weather forecast!

We're off out for dinner tomorrow evening because it's father-in-law's birthday - to the Alice Lisle - went there last year - very gorgeous, very yummy food. Nice donkeys - last time I stroked a donkey just before we went in and the thing (which had clearly been rolling on the grass or something) leaned against me and got muck all over my skirt! What followed was a rather comical few minutes in the ladies trying to wash the dirty patch off my skirt and hold it up under the hand drier to dry!

Currently melting

It's hot .... Really, really hot. Cannot complain in any way :)

We lost the football (can't complain about that either - can't stand football!) We watched a bit of the European Grand Prix (including Mark Webber's whoops) then went to the shops for some food before coming back and watching Glastonbury. Glastonbury is cool this year - there has been some great stuff on - the Pet Shop Boys were brilliant last night! Currently watching Seasick Steve with his beat-up old guitar *laughs*

Had more lettuce from my veggie plot at lunchtime - it really is gorgeous! You can't beat the flavour of lettuce that has only just been picked! Debs (hi Debs!) emailed and asked about my container garden. I did blog about it a while back but here are some piccies from today:

Yes, that is an old washing up bowl! You really can grow stuff in anything - these are baby plants that will be transferred to the bigger plot as we dig up the plants that are ready to eat. I've already transferred a couple of the lettuce. I've got some radish in the smaller pots but they're not doing so well.

.... and here is my mad experiment - the sandpit veggie plot!

I simply continue to be amazed by how well the plants have done in this! I've got white onions at the front, then baby carrots, then sweetcorn (yes, really! It's growing astonishingly well!) then my gem lettuce. What you can't see behind the sweetcorn on the right is a couple of little baby lettuce plants that I've just put in there.

This seems crazy growing these things in such a small space given that we've got a huge garden but the slugs are a real problem. I still had a fight on my hands keeping them off my sandpit veggies but I won - here's what I did.

1. Salt. I put a ring of salt on the ground around the base of the container. I don't do poisonous slug pellets (because of the kids and birds) but I admit - I was upset about the thought of finding a load of dead slugs about the place in the salt. Do you know what though? I've had NONE! I've seen loads of live slugs on the ground OUTSIDE the salt ring but, I don't know, maybe they can sense it or something because they don't go in there!
2. Hay. We used some that we use for Jeff our bunny - I just put a layer of it in between each row of plants. Slugs don't like the dryness of it. Apparently you can also use straw, sand and crushed eggshells.
3. Salad. Yep, when we had some left over salad from a meal that had gone a bit limp, I chuck it on the ground near the plot. Basically, I think the slugs/snails have been stuffing themselves on that instead of my plants! I go out in the morning and find it all nibbled :)

So, a combination of these three things have saved my plants :)

"A mother's work is never done"

....according to Richard Scarry in his utterly cute Busy Town books. He was right - it isn't, but it's all good and enjoyable and fun although I did struggle to stay cheerful when I even got interrupted about 5 times while I was trying to eat lunch *rolls eyes*.

Been doing loads of stuff with the kids today from regular "school" work to crafts and just play. We've been enjoying the very warm weather and been outside lots (the weather that is, apparently, going to be totally baking by early next week!)

I also made an apple and sultana cake - very delicious - recipe after the picture!

Preheat oven to 190/375/gas 5 and grease an 8" round cake tine.

Ingredients:

7 oz/225g self raising flour + 1 teaspoon baking powder

1 oz/25g cornflour

4 oz/110g butter

4 oz/110g golden caster sugar

1/2 lbs/225g apples (peeled, cored and diced into very small pieces and blotted on kitchen paper to remove excess juice)

1 lemon (zest)

1 large egg beaten into 1 tablespoon milk

2 oz/50g sultanas

For top - demerara sugar

Method:

1. Sieve flour, cornflour and baking powder into bowl.
2. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
3. Stir in the sugar, apples, lemon zest and sultanas
4. Bind together with the egg/milk mixture
5. Spoon into tin and press down gently
6. Sprinkle top with demerara sugar
7. Bake for around 30-40 minutes (poke a skewer into the centre to see if it's done - it should come away "clean")
8. Cool in the tin before turning out onto a cooling rack.
9. Eat (preferably with a cup of tea!)

Tim got given another music job today - this time accompanying someone for a singing exam. It was through the same guy that gave him the Seussical part. This is soooo great - the more stuff Tim does like this the better - I'm really pleased for him :)

Oooo! and talking of music - The Proms starts on the 16th July (the day after my birthday in fact!) This is always much enjoyed by Tim and I over the summer months so I can't wait!

Anything else?..... Ummm... Rosie's off to camp with the Girl Guides in August! She's really looking forward to this - the camp isn't too far away but it's for 4 days and they are going out on daytrips and stuff as well. April's also out with her Guide Rainbow unit on the 8th of July on a farm trip so she's thoroughly excited about that too!

Finally, George Osborne's comment in his budget speech about people leaving the house at 6 or 7 in the morning to go to work while their unemployed neighbours sit at home with their curtains drawn. Two observations - firstly, maybe their neighbours can't get work - I'm pretty sure that not every unemployed person in this country is deliberately trying to stay that way. Secondly - 6 or 7 in the morning? Ha! Tim leaves the house at 4.45 in the morning! 6 or 7 would be a lie-in!

Oh how we laughed.

Food!

Last night we had (the first!) fruits of my labours and ate a homegrown lettuce! I'm so happy - it's the first time I've successfully grown food! Oh, and here's a budget-related bit of advice for you - if you want to save some money grow your own veggies (even if you just have a balcony you can grow stuff in pots - you can even grow some things indoors!) I brought a mixed packet of seeds from Asda - carrots, lettuce, sweetcorn and white onions. I've now got a plot FULL of these veggies and didn't actually use all the seeds (next year I'll make a bigger plot). We've got loads of stuff getting near to the point of picking and will do quite a few meals. Do you know how much that packet of mixed seeds cost me? £1.00. So, for £1.00 and a bit of (enjoyable) labour, you get a lot of food.

Anway, yesterday we also went out to the farm and picked 2 huge basketfuls of strawberries (to go with some that my brother gave us from his garden) .....

yum, yum, yum ... the little black things poking up are vanilla pods - good tip - leave your strawberries in the baskets and stick a vanilla pod in for a while and they pick up a slight vanilla-y flavour .. gorgeous :)

Tim is off back to work (his normal work as opposed to the music related work!) tomorrow - the show he did already seems like SUCH a long time ago! I really hope he gets the chance to do another very soon. Anyway, I updated my 2010 memory scrapbook for June with some Seussical related stuff - including my seat ticket :)

Teeny tiny garden

This was something of a mad experiment back a few weeks ago. I decided I wanted to try and grow a few veggies but wanted to do it on a small scale firstly because it's my first attempt and secondly because of slugs. Now, we actually have a big garden - a big, sprawling, crazy garden but the slugs are a nightmare and I couldn't face the hassle of trying to keep the slugs off my stuff on a large scale.

So, this is actually the base of the kids old sandpit which got a bit cracked - so, we added a couple more drainage holes, filled it with compost and planted. As you can see, quite unbelievably (!), it's going amazingly well! In this warm weather everything is really sprouting fast now, especially my Little Gem lettuce which I think will be the first thing we sample :)

I've got the lettuce at the back, then little sweetcorns (yum, yum, yum), then baby carrots and then white onions. That white patch behind the lettuce is actually a mixture of sand and crushed eggshell which is, apparently, good for keeping the slugs off - worked so far!

Oh, and just for good measure here's my tomatoes-for-Tim plant which is growing fabulously too. I don't like raw tomatoes (fine cooked) so these will be just for him :)

I'm amazed just how well this has all done - proof, I think, that you really DON'T need a huge space to grow stuff. If you haven't got much room or, like me you have but still want to garden on a small scale - you can still have yummy, yummy homegrown veggies :) I can't wait to try them - will let you know.....

Little Miss Organised

Poor old Tim has had a rough week this week! It started with being called in for overtime on Wednesday then he had some lorry driving training thing at work on Thursday (so he can drive the new trucks they're getting) and he was home really late. Yesterday he didn't finish too late but the traffic not far from here was crazy and he got stuck in it for ages and then had to turn round and take us straight back out again for Rosie's guide thing THEN he still had to go for church choir practice in the evening! Now, today, he's at work and it's absolutely chucking it down with rain so he's going to be soggy.

Soooo, I had a think this morning and decided to make him a nice slow-cooker chilli for dinner but had to scoot out and get some stuff so me and the kids got soggy too walking to Tesco! I've lost my rain coat thing and had to borrow one of Tim's but it couldn't have been more useless and when I took it off it looked like I hadn't worn a coat at all!

I've made the chilli, tidied up, wrapped up my brothers presents, fed the kids and ... well, I'm all up to date and sorted :)

Tonight I'm going to watch Eurovision - YEAH! Go Eurovision. Unbelievably tacky, crappy songs but OOOOHH! so funny! Worth watching just for the laugh it gives me :)