Back On Track

The last couple of days have been much more fruitful!! I love Hallowe'en and all the bits and bobs that go with it. A couple of years ago we lost a lot of stuff in a flood and I was devastated when we thought the whole box of Hallowe'en decorations had gone forever. Luckily the best survived and it was lovely getting them out and dusting them down ready for the weekend. Some of the stuff in the shops is really tacky so when I find something lovely I really treasure it. Those diddy little pumpkins that Leo grew have really come into their own. "We" carefully carved and scooped them out (I have at least a pound of usable flesh for soup tomorrow) and they have made the most cute/ugly lanterns you could imagine. They're utterly dwarfed by the front door, but who cares!!! With a bit of luck some neighbours' children will come to Trick or Treat tomorrow night and we'll be waiting!!

Today I made a batch of cakes from "Feast" - the Ghoul Graveyard cake, but made as mini cupcakes. I have these little cake cases I bought from Lakeland, bright orange with pumpkin faces and the dark chocolate looks fab against them. I didn't add black food colouring - I don't think I could bear the consequences of Leo getting his hands (and face and everything else) covered in black goo. The icing is a bit gooey and tastes a bit sickly too, but the kids will love it. I'm afraid I'm a dreadful choccy snob and much prefer icing made with rich, dark chocolate!

I've also been weighing out dried fruit into kilner jars with less-carefully measured quantities of Jamaican rum sploshed in to soak the fruit. Sunday will be Christmas cakes and puddings day. Bunging the cakes together takes minutes - it's the hours of baking and steaming that finish me off!!

I'm making one of Rowan's favourite dinners tonight - actually, I think it's everyone's favourite. Spaghetti Bolognese!! Everyone has their own version and I've gradually developed my own over the decades. Being a veggie I use Quorn mince, but all the flavour is in the seasoning and herbs and fresh veggies - all smooshed beyond recognition as Saffie and Leo won't do bits! The "secret ingredient" is a teaspoon of dark brown sugar and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Don't ask me why, it just "makes" it! I always start preparing it after lunch and it just sits on the hob until supper time - about six hours later! Definitely a Friday night meal - there's something very comforting about pasta and a large glass of cabernet sauvignon on a Friday night. Hello weekend!!

Hallowe'en hiatus!!

Apparently a number of folks do actually read this blog - please do sign up as followers and leave comments. I'd really appreciate it!!!

It's half term here and everything is not so rosy. So far it's been a whirl of shopping and entertaining small children - and I ache all over now!! Early night for me tonight! I did go to my weight training class this morning and at 8:00am was down at the market buying the fresh fruit and veg, but beyond buying the lemons, oranges and apples for the Christmas puddings and cake I haven't got a lot further with the festive preparations. Traditionally October half term has always been the pudding and cake manufacturing week (allowing a couple of months for alcoholic maturation) and I still have four more days of it to go. The millionaire's shortbread I made at the weekend is going down very well though!!

Threw together two meals of dubious origin this week: fish pie made with the leftovers from sunday smooshed into a puff pastry ring and a creamy risotto made with the leftover houmous - very damn good actually!! Feeling stuffed to the gills now and with the lads out for their monthly lads curry night I might just collapse into a corner and start eating my way through the Hallowe'en treats - well, if it rains on Saturday night no one's gonna want them anyway!!!

Sugar Pie...

Just like buses, my baking sprees come all at once! Friends over for dinner today so a very good excuse to try new and old recipes. Both courses and the cakes for tea have been hideously cribbed from others - the one particular Domestic Goddess to whom I offer HUGE apologies for making her chocolate cheesecake (Feast, page 298) with white chocolate instead as one of the guests does NOT "do" dark chocolate. The main course was a delicious Italian baked fish dish (Waitrose, December 2005) with home grown potatoes lightly cooked in white wine, tomatoes and onion and then baked in the oven - the haddock (in this case) being added 10 minutes before the end. Great with green beans and fresh bread.

Yesterday was spent baking the cheesecake, making millionaire's shortbread (in my brand-spanking-new Pampered Chef baking tray) and, for some reason that completely fails me right now, making a batch of Raspberry and Crabapple Jelly! Stew fruit, sieve fruit, add same weight of jam sugar, boil and do saucer test, stuff in a sterile jar. Very nice, but a little tart. Luckily our crabapples are edible and a lovely red colour.

Jerry and Leo got down to the allotment and brought home the last of the potatoes - Leo's from his very own patch were by far the largest with the biggest weighing in at 450g!! (Those were used for the fish dish!)

I also made guacamole and houmous from scratch - they tasted lovely, but when I tried to photograph them they just looked like rather disgusting porridge!! The guacamole had a defitnite kick with a green chilli finely chopped into it, though I felt the houmous was a little bland. Some time ago I made one with roasted pepper added to it and it tasted divine!!!

It was great being able to serve up a meal that was partly a result of our own hard graft and partly from local shops only. (I get an Ocado delivery once a week, but that's mostly the really big, heavy stuff.) Maybe one day we'll be able to serve up a meal wholly from the allotment!

Back to nearly normal!!!

Ummm... did I say Thursday? Sorry about that - things kinda ran away with us!!

Rowan got home safe and sound early Wednesday morning. The journey to Heathrow was a bit hectic - where DO people drive to at 6:00am? - and I got so distracted by everything he had to say I forgot to pay for the parking on the way out. Obviously this happens a lot as they have pay stations by the gate! I didn't embarrass him too much, but I DID give him a big hug and I reckon that's my lot for a very long time!! He had loads to tell me (you'll have to read his blog) and we went out for a big cooked breakfast as soon as we got home. He hadn't had a proper piece of bacon or a real sausage in four months and was desperate for the real McCoy! On the other side of the Atlantic "bacon" is just those really streaky strips instead of luscious rindless back and "sausage" is frankfurters or slices of salami. He was looking a bit thin too after travelling for days on end and eating 99c Maccie D's (he DID get fed properly in friends' homes) so I was happy to watch him tuck in. If I was feeling a bit wobbly after a 5:30am start, goodness knows how bad he was feeling but he's done a lot of sleeping since!

Lara had looked after Leo for us and given him lunch so I made a batch of brownies to give her as a thank you (and had to practically bribe Leo to draw a thank you card - ungrateful child!) and I think they were VERY much appreciated! Back on 7th October I promised to post the recipe next time I made them, well two more batches later I really ought to, right? So here's the much coveted recipe for Chocolate Brownies - I don't even need to look in a book to write it!!

4 oz unsalted butter

1 1/2 oz good quality cocoa powder

2 large eggs

8 oz caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 oz self raising flour

4oz chocolate chips or chopped 70% chocolate

2 oz chopped nuts (optional) - pecans are nicest!

Grease and line 8" square baking tin. Preheat oven to 180C (170C if it's a fan oven - this is critical!!!!) Melt butter and stir in cocoa powder until dissolved. Leave to one side. In a large bowl whisk eggs and sugar until light and thick. Mix in cocoa mixture and vanilla extract. Sift over flour, chocolate chips (and nuts) and fold in. Pour into prepared tin and bake in centre of oven for now no more than 30 minutes!!! Cool in tin on a rack and then cut into squares. These were made with white chocolate chips - that sank to the bottom!!

It looks better if you can sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top after you've poured the mix into the tin, but white chocolate can brown horribly if you do this.

You may also need to adjust your baking temperature/time if your oven is a bit "quirky", but the brownies should be lightly crisp, the crust breaking easily on the outside and then chewy and moist inside. They're AWESOME served warm with ice-cream! (I just ate the crumbs after I took the photo and I can only assume I'm going down with something as I couldn't taste them!! Horrors!!!!!) Above all, don't worry about finding a big enough tin to store them in - they won't last long enough!!

Life's definitely been more relaxed since Ro's homecoming - the only time I had to MSN him was to ask what he wanted from the chip shop. A few potentially stress-inducing issues (long overdue water feature, misplaced passports and a horrendously misappropriated library book - now recovered) would have sent me over the edge a week or so ago, but merely caused a subtle frisson of anxiety. Yesterday I could have found the time to blog, but I guess I relaxed a bit too much. I really enjoyed making Broccoli Cheese for tea with a whole 9 oz of cheese in the sauce! Should help to build up Rowan and it's yummy!!

Leo's assembly this morning was tremendous fun and was followed by a chilled out coffee/hot chocolate with Saffie and also Lara and Denise. Pampered Chef goodies were collected, Avon goodies delivered to us, the sun's shining and half term's here at last. Ahhhhhhhhhhh...

The Morning After The Night Before...

So, that Giant Muffin recipe, huh? Well it's very simple really: Saffie had wanted to make a cake for Jerry for his birthday and as I'd gone to all the trouble of sanitizing the flowerpot we agreed to make him a HUGE coconut and cherry muffin. It was exactly the same ingredients as for the Blueberry Muffins on Friday, 16th October (substituting half glace cherries and half flaked coconut for the fresh blueberries) and the whole batch was carefully poured into the greased and lined flowerpot and baked at 180C for an hour and a half!!! He's taken it to work with him today (having had a day off yesterday) to much over the week so no feedback yet!!

We did have a lovely day with breakfast and dinner out, a bit of kid-free shopping and a nice lazy afternoon in the park. Leo had insisted on choosing Jerry a shiny yellow boomerang, which we took to the park along with the foam rocket launcher. Jerry wanged the rang around a good few times (though it didn't quite come back) and then it landed in a tree and not only couldn't we get it down (I even threw my purse at it!) we couldn't really see it either - yellow boomerang, yellow leaves!! Jerry was sent home in disgrace to get an 11' pole - seriously!! We have two and they belong to our Saxon tent. Luckily he managed to get it out after a good few pokes and we got a few odd looks as we walked back through town with our strange collection of stuff!

The meal our last night was absolutely lovely - a gourmet seafood meal at a local and very good Chinese restaurant where they really cosseted us - but I'm definitely feeling a bit delicate today!! I think it might be a combination of the rich food and anxiety over Rowan's imminent return. He's due in a Heathrow at 7:50am tomorrow and I'll be there!! He wants fish and chips for tea and I guess he'll need a full English fry up and a shower too!! There's a lot of folks here who'll be very glad to see him again!

Early night tonight and an early start tomorrow. See you on Thursday!!

Chuff, chuff, busy, busy, work, work, bang, bang!!

Yesterday felt like the longest day - with so many chores to do, thank goodness I'd got the laundry out the way on Friday!!

Saffie was going to a party and had asked to make her friend a giant muffin. This presented a bit of a problem on the giant muffin tin front. At £35 from Amazon I wasn't convinced this was the way forward until I remembered the stash of flowerpots abandonned after we'd tidied the garden. I found juts the right size and, with my daughter looking horrified over my shoulder, scrubbed it out with a wire brush, detergent and anti-bac. Sadly, after all these efforts, she found out her friend does not like muffins so she decided to make her Real Chocolate Chip Cookies instead. But the flowerpot was not yet redundant... More about that AFTER Monday!!! These are very easy too:

125g unsalted butter

65g soft brown sugar

50g caster sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

85g plain flour

15g good quality cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

150g good quality chocolate chips

Grease and flour baking sheets and set oven to 180C. (I use shallow patty pans to keep their shape!!)

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

Lightly beat egg and vanilla extract in a cup and gradually beating this to the mixture.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa over the mixture and fold in with the chocolate chips.

Spoon heaped teaspoons of the mix onto the baking sheets - spread well apart!

Bake for 12 minutes in the centre of the oven.

Use a spatula to lift them onto a wire rack to cool.

They're delicious while still warm, but you need to let them cool before you do this:

As if that wasn't enough we needed soup for lunch too and ever the one with an eye for a bargain I'd picked up a cheap butternut squash when I bought the also reduced blueberries. There was a handful of carrots left in the salad drawer and I have humungous onions from the allotment too. Basically there's no recipe for my Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup here. It's simply this:

Peel and chop onion, squash and carrots. Fry onion gently in a knob of salted butter and then add the other veggies. Add half a litre of Kalloo organic vegetable stock, a handful of chopped parsley and season. Bring to the boil and then simmer to within an inch of its life (or when you suddenly remember it's still there) Leave it to cool and blitz it with one of those wands. Heat it up again and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche.

It was actually bloody gorgeous and I really hope I can recreate the magic again. We had it with still warm French bread and lots of different cheeses. Followed by more blueberry muffins and the choc chip cookies that didn't make it to the gift package - cos they weren't pretty enough. Still tasted good though!!!!

We dropped Saffie at the party, bought large paper bin liners from Tesco (I hate that place with an unrivalled passion - I only go there when I absolutely have to) and then went down to the allotment with as many feed buckets and baskets we could lay hands on intending to dig up as many spuds as we could manage before 5:00pm. Luckily the ground wasn't wet and they lifted easily so we actually did amazingly well and only have about two rows of Maris Peer and another half row of Pink Fir Apple to go now. The Desiree were lovely and I've earmarked all the really good looking ones for Christmas dinner. They all felt a little cold and damp so I spread them out on newspaper in the conservatory to dry out before I bag them up tonight.

There are a HUGE number of them (you can't see the other pile spread out to the left of the plant) and we only just had enough buckets and baskets to schlepp them home in, so maybe it's just as well we couldn't get them all dug up, but we do need to get them all in before half term because of the frosts.

I have to say, it was all very gratifying despite the hard work involved. Jerry and I sank into beer and wine respectively and then into hot baths. Dad phoned for a good long chat and then I dozed off in front of a DVD - the 1975 version of "Survivors". Obviously not quite as riveting as I remembered!! Bedtime at 10:30pm!! How sad we are in our old age! Jerry joked that we actually get quite excited when we HAVEN'T got to go out!! (I must admit there's a real appeal in not having to don tights, heels, magic knickers and warpaint!!)

Visiting Jerry's mum today and it's his birthday tomorrow so I'll report back on Tuesday!

You'll gather from the general tone of this week's input that not a lot has been going on of any real note. Even my baking has been curtailed by activity in the kitchen - all the lights on one side weren't working and there were a few other problems so the guys who installed it came to fix it.

There was one short moment of frenzied activity. I'd got a new set of silicone cupcake cases with my groceries order and decided to give them a whirl, turning out a batch of rather successful Blueberry Muffins. They're so easy:

Dry Wet

280g plain flour 90ml sunflower oil

2 1/2 teaspns baking powder 250ml milk

175g caster sugar 1 teaspn vanilla extract

150g fresh blueberries 1 large egg

Preheat oven to 200C. Place cupcake cases in a muffin tin.

Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl and wet ingredients in another.

Quickly fold dry into wet - don't over mix, lumps are good!!

Two thirds fill each cupcake case and bake for 20 minutes. Ta-daaa!!!

Leo was a holy terror yesterday and trashed what could have been quite a nice day - we'd been planning to take him to the annual Charter Fair, just walking distance down the road, but his maHOOsive tantrum at the blood donating session, resulting in me wrestling him to the ground (thank goodness I wasn't still attached to the blood bag) and then dragging him kicking and screaming (snot, tears, the WHOLE ball of wax) in a headlock out of the Town Hall (with all the nursing staff looking on) certainly put paid to that!!!

My culinary offerings have been pants - not literally - apart from a rather nice risotto last night made with a large glass of white bordeaux. Jerry's boss does a shoot for a wine company every so often and we get the opened bottles - so they have to be used up rather quickly!! White bordeaux in the pot, red in my tummy - YUMMY!!!

At least the house it tidier and a lot cleaner too. It took three days to dry out the tent and various bits of kit and some of it's still drying in the conservatory. Leo DID help me sort out his toys (TV was banned too!!!) and now he's got nice tidy boxes full of rediscovered old friends and plenty of space to play with them. Because he was sent to bed early last night (as opposed to living up at the merry-go-round) Jerry and I got to watch "The Boat That Rocked" on DVD. Emma lent it to us. AWESOME film!!!

This morning I got my hair cut so I suppose it's not been too bad a week, though it could have been better! Leo chose a birthday present for Jerry - I hope he likes it!!! Can't tell you what it is yet - you'll have to wait 'til after Monday!!

Dead lift doom...

I should have mentioned earlier, but yesterday I stood on my head! Not as in unscrewed bonce and placed foot on it, but actually up-side-down with my toes in the air - all for a few seconds - but it felt great! I don't just DO this sort of thing (unless I've had too much to drink at a barbecue in which even I will undoubtedly show off my enduring ability to turn cartwheels - except that this only achieves acute embarrassment for those who aren't plastered) it took place during a Yoga lesson. When I'd done it the instructor said, laughing (at least, I hope she was!) "I've been trying to do that all week, you can't just come in here and just do it!!" I was so ruddy chuffed with myself that I grinned like a Cheshire cat for the rest of the session. I hasten to add at this point, I am NO yoga guru. I'm absolutely hopeless at balancing on one leg or anything else along those lines. I must just have a very strong head!

Anyway, as it often the case it came back to bite me in the ass this morning. Lara and I turned up at our SRT (studio resistance training - or weight lifting, to you) session only to discover that, because we have to take our little guys to school first, all the "best" places had gone. We managed to shimmy a bench for her somewhere near the back, but I had to go RIGHT AT THE FRONT!!! This, as any self-respecting school student knows, is a disaster as EVERYONE including the instructor can see what you're doing. No sneaky rests when it gets a bit too much. Worst of all my pitch was right next to the full length mirror. I was just mighty relieved that, being a short arse, the barre ran right across the middle of my reflection - just about at the squishy belly level. I pumped iron (plastic filled with sand) for an hour straight and actually felt a bit queasy afterwards. I sweated buckets too and then... hey, hey!!... THEN I went to the allotment and dug four kilos of potatoes!!!

Leo and I snuggled on the sofa this afternoon. Put "Stripes" in the DVD player and fell fast asleep. Aaaahhhh...

Freecycling... again... again...

Just to update you on the Freecycling saga - it's STILL ongoing. I haven't actually posted anything else yet - I'm still getting rid of the stuff I posted two weeks ago!!! There are three folks who are definitely on my list of "those to avoid" as they either didn't show up at all (even with gentle nudging) or arrived so early in the morning it was indecent - literally!!!! I was only in my undies!! Next time I will attack the pile of tut with a better plan or just schlep everything down to the tip! I'm sure it'd be easier. Ho hum...

Hastings Post Mortem

Ah, well! That could've gone better! For those of you who are holidaying in an idyllic paradise (you lucky sods) it rained here! We made good time getting to Battle and soon found our spot, but just as we unfolded our tent the heavens opened and it didn't stop for FOUR hours!!! The half dozen of us that had arrived early in the hope of setting up camp before it got dark sat huddled under Vince's bivvy until... well... it got dark! In the mean time we'd run a mission of mercy for two fish cakes and chips twice, a saveloy, plaice and chips, cod and chips and four mushy pea fritters - they're just awesome!! Leo stomped in every puddle he could find (one looked to be nearly a foot deep) and we discovered too late that he had splits in both his wellies.

Once it got dark and all the sensible folk arrived we got the camp set up, cars and vans emptied and the fire lit and suddenly it seemed very homey and appealing - except for the minor detail that everything felt slightly damp and even me poor bodran's skin had gone all crinkly!!! We sat around the fire and caught up on the group gossip, but most of us turned in early. Jerry only managed one beer and I didn't drink a drop! (Though I may have snitched a mouthful of something of someone, but I don't remember what or who) The night was filled with 1) screaming owls 2) screaming children and 3) adults screaming at screaming children! I've had better.

Saturday dawned bright and a little chilly but the sun warmed us up and dried out all our stuff. ONe of my favourite jobs is cooking brekkies for the vegetarians. Vince cooks mountains of sausages, bacon and black pudding for the troops while I tend to the veggie option. I have this wayward skillet that usually works extremely well, but frying eggs can be a bit of a skirmish and I have to jam the handle between my thighs while I crack an egg onto it! Makes awesome eggs though!! We shopped and dropped and spent a small fortune on yummy fabrics and some little gifts for the gang. By the afternoon it was baking hot and the warriors returned from battle slightly sunburnt to a meal of potage and boiled gammon or fried halloumi depending on your preference - all cooked over the open fire. There was a BBC film crew getting footage for a new Michael Wood history programme and I happily sat around with some of the others trying to look interesting while he interviewed various folk from our group and the chaps next door (who the director kept referring to as the "orangey people") Millie and I joked about ending up on CBeebies again in years to come. This goes back to an ancient schools history programme we got involved with, filmed at West Stow (and it was fun!!) that keeps rearing it's head on Boogie Beebies!! Having small children now we see ourselves quite a bit and so do our kids' friends!

Everyone was a lot more cheerful that evening though not enough to burst into raucous song. A shame really as that was the last gig of the season and the singing of inappropriate material is all part of the ritual - I heard the camp round the corner had belly dancing and hubbly bubbly. Some fun eh? BUT the home brewed mead did go down very well and so did the dutch apple cake and Jerry got to drink all his remaining beer. I also called Ro having not spoken to or messaged him for a good few days. (It's all very well this traveling around the world, but it's dead scary at this end!) As it turned out there was no ridiculously late night for us - 10:30, I think!!! - and not too bad a night's sleep either, compared to the one before.

Sunday was significantly cooler and the weather began to look a little more threatening. Leo got a "ride" in Russ's long(ish) boat and fell in love with a cuddly black rat! There was a skirmish at midday and Eve, Jane and myself were asked to be Valkyri - yes, really! Sadly we didn't have our Viking kits with us, but we put on a good show of choosing the most heroic warriors (already hand-picked, I'm afraid) and leading the poor sods to Valhalla. I think the crowd liked it - especially the bit where Bob referred to us as "wizened crones". Well, he won't be quaffing ale in the hallowed realm, will he? And that was the best bit really. After that things took a definite downhill turn as the rain came down and someone put the chicken soup ladle in the veggie soup and (almost) everyone started carping at each other. By the time we came to pack up, all our lovely dry stuff had had another thorough soaking and it was a dismal scene. The journey home was horribly tiring and we were forced to pillage a Little Chef for sustenance - except their menu was somewhat depleted. Ho hum...

So today has been dealing with all the fall out. Mountains of washing to be done, piles of kit to be dried out (and the mats from Marigold's rear), tent wrestling as an Olympic sport as Jerry and I gamefully jemmied the damn thing over the bannister rail to drip and all the usual day-to-day stuff on top of that. Maybe next time I should just stay at home with a good book...

1066 and all that

Another couple of days of frenzied activity as we prepare for that mecca in the average Viking's calender - Hastings!! For those normal folk who aren't sure, it was fought on 14th October so the annual re-enactment is usually the weekend before (or after) depending on how close. This year it's a Wednesday so I guess it could have been either, but we've got this one and as the forecast looks OK I'm not complaining! (After the biblical rain of Wednesday it's settled down to being clear skies and downright cold - not exactly freezing, but after a very balmy and dry September it might as well be!) So, I've been frantically mending shoes, patching kirtles (tunics) and trying to get odd bits of hand-sewing and nahlbinding done to the point that I took Jerry's socks with me for a cuppa with Sally!! However much time I think I've got there's always something I never get finished and this time it's my linen coif-of-sorts - to wear under my wimple, hiding very inauthentic hair and pierced ears.

Nahlbinding's strangely awesome. Dark age knitting, if you like, but not like any knitting or crochet you can imagine. The nearest I could suggest is a close weave blanket stitch that just goes around and around (and occasionally forwards and backwards) creating wonderfully thick and chunky socks and gloves. I have a yen to nahlbind a phone sock as well. BUT it's slow going - unlike knitting and crochet, which work along the yarn, with nahlbinding the yarn has to be pulled through (like sewing) every time and this makes it a more arduous task. Folks have tried to develop techniques for speeding it up but the end result is the same more often than not. Jerry's socks have come about as a solution to the problem of Dave-the-Vegan's boots which we bought off him after he left - the boots are a size 12 and Jerry's a size 10 so the gap has been filled with heel stiffeners (also made by me) and a monster pair of nettle green wool socks. He won't get cold!!!

Other chores to be done are packing Marigold (our campervan) with all the trappings of the modern Viking: canvas campaign tent (17' long - the stripped spruce poles have to go on the roof bars); sea chest containing costume or "kit"; baskets of cups, bowls and horn spoons; a cauldron and tripod; swords, axe, shields and helmet; pondliner groundsheet (it will be cold and wet!!); camping chairs; airbeds; cozy sleeping bags and mead!! And beer and wine and chocolate and cake and any small creature comforts to help through the chilly evenings - once the public have gone!

I also need to make some authentic bread - flat and round, but kneaded in the bread maker and buy a few pledges from Morrisons. The whole group divvies up the menu for the weekend so that everyone brings something(s) and hopefully no one goes without - though occasionally we've had things like the person who pledges the breakfast eggs not turn up until later in the morning etc! This isn't a problem - a small raiding party descend on the nearest supermarket for a quick pillage with their debit cards tucked safely in their leather pouches.

The kits are strangely comfortable and become part of you over the weekend - layers of natural linen and pure wool, col in summer, warm in winter. Makes you wonder why polyester was ever invented!! The kids look so cute in their mini kits and Saffron has decided that boy kit is the way forward for her - none of this silly girly stuff!! She dons a helmet and gets out onto the battle field carting a huge horn of water to tend to the troops. I could easily live in my kit - it's just so comfortable - though no the MOST attractive set of garments I possess!!

By the end of the weekend we might be slightly damp, but not stinky as the woodsmoke masks everything!!! As long as I have clean undies and a packet of baby wipes I'm happy!!! One of the best bits is the hot soak on Sunday night... ooooooooh, I can almost feel it now. See you Monday!!

Gardener's World

Well, autumn is definitely here now!! 5:00am it started raining and apart from a few breaks in the weather it's done nothing but rain all day!!! The wind has picked up too and the leaves are being pounded from the trees.

First of all should say that I'm not shirking my responsibility as a blogger - it's been a bit crazy this last couple of days and I've barely had time to check my emails, let alone write anything substantial!

Monday was an INSET day for Leo and I took him to a playbarn nearby with some of his friends for a frenzied few hours followed by a nice, calm and serene trip to a wonderful garden centre that I wouldn't usually go to, but I was on a mission! Two bay trees and matching pots to put them in. I had to rummage to find the right sized trees - the first one I saw was £145!!!!!! In the end I found two perfect dinky ones with lovely twisted trunks an two slightly egg-shaped pots to put them in. Also a couple of bits and bobs to hide in the pressie box and ten metres of net for the broccoli. The trees smelled divine as we drove home, but I was devastated to find that I'd bought the pots a couple of sizes too small, which could only mean a trip back at some point to get the right ones!!!!

That night when the house was nice and peaceful Jerry and I had a great MSN conversation with Rowan. He'd only just got up and we were off to bed!!

Tuesday felt like a Monday and started with the same level of stress and chaos. Everything was a struggle, especially Yoga, and the food delivery - some of which was swimming in beer! Although I'd planned to take the pots back to swap I was so relieved when a friend called me and asked if I was free for coffee. We duly chilled out with our Lavazzas while Leo provided the non-stop entertainment!! She loaned me a book and I gave her a bag of Pink Fir Apple potatoes - just about the rudest vegetable I can think of!! Hours of fun!

The evening was given over to my quilting group - nothing too energetic and we chatted about how well the exhibition had gone and plans for the next meeting. There was a fabric seller there too and I bought fat quarters towards the many quilts I'm hoping to make - SOON!!!! Luckily we wrapped it up a bit early and in no time I was on the sofa with Jerry eating chocolate brownies. Ooooooh, they're so good!! Next time I bake some I'll post the recipe with a photo - no time now!

So back to this morning and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down. Weight training today too and the prospect of dragging my sorry ass to the leisure centre was not appealing - I had hit the wall!! Surprisingly I got it together and Lara and I womanfully slogged through the routine... and felt a whole lot better for it. I dropped her off and headed to the allotment armed with the net and a pair of scissors. Those little brassicas are now very well shrouded and woe betide anything that tries to get under that net!!! Consequently I didn't get to shower until after Leo had been collected from Nursery, but he was happy to chomp away at his lunch while I stole a few minutes for myself.

Back to the garden centre and two monster pots and two HUGE bags of very smelly fertilizer later (and £40 lighter!!!) we headed home in yet more rain to dry ourselves off. There is still a lot of allotment work to do before the weather really clamps down, but this afternoon wasn't the time to do it!!! Instead I've spent hours chasing Freecylcists who haven't collected their stuff!! Honestly!!!!!!

Cheery, seasonal note to finish on though - as I drove home I could see the great balls of mistletoe hanging in the almost leafless trees...

Equilibrium!!

Yesterday we increased our carbon footprint by embarking on a major expedition to Bedford to visit Jerry's family. It had started out as a "why don't we go and see..." and then became "maybe we could take so-and-so to see..." and THEN "while we're there why don't we go and see..." We ended up seeing six relatives in all and had a very jolly time. Leo was a total nightmare most of the day demanding everyone's attention ( though he was very sweet about his late birthday presents) and by the time we got back home we were all a lot frazzled. Tired and emotional!!!

This gloriously decadent day was rounded off by watching Film Four - it looked OK in the brief, but turned out to be a dire parody of Matrix meets Bladerunner. It's name? "Equilibrium"! We went to bed and read... instead.

Today was time to restore the balance of nature! Mounds of washing, mending, wood to be collected, leaves to be cleared, bathrooms to clean... the list goes on. And it's Sunday too!!! We definitely had an appointment with the allotment and once a couple of folks had picked up their Freecycle bits and we'd had a good lunch of Cream of Celeriac Soup (butter, onion, celeriac, vegetable stock, milk, seasoning - cook, mash, blitz, done) bread, cheese and chocolate chip cookies we schlepped down there with three trays of purple sprouting broccoli seedlings and a number of toilet roll centres. WHY???? Well slugs hate cardboard - it's like sticking them on desert sand. Hopefully it'll keep the little blighters off me brassicas!! I spent over two hours planting 46 seedlings after hoeing and raking 40 square metres of soil (and lobbing trowel-loads of doggy do over the railings onto the railway embankment) and felt very smug for it. I will undoubtedly feel ruddy peed off if something(s) small and slimy takes a fancy to them!!! Jerry got to grips with the raspberries (I just can't do the spiders!!) and trimmed the grass around the edge of our plot. Leo had been used to excavating the new broccoli bed so he had to be relocated to the now defunct legumes bed. He was quite happy for most of the time and "helped" me pick the last of the pumpkins, but went a bit bananas toward the end.

Yesterday had been a good opportunity to give out a few bottles of last year's sloe gin and a few pounds of potatoes and in return we received (apart from a very nice lunch) a few pounds of cooking apples. I had a yen to bake Eve's Pudding for dessert and it was a HUGE hit particularly with vanilla ice-cream:

Apple base Sponge topping

Two large cooking apples 4 oz caster sugar

2 oz caster sugar 4 oz unsalted butter

Large handful mixed dried fruit 2 large eggs

Powdered cinnamon 4 oz self raising flour

2 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to Gas 4, 180 C, 170 fan

Peel and chop the apples and place in a greased 8" oven-proof dish.

Sprinkle over sugar, cinnamon, dried fruit and water and place in oven while making topping.

Beat sugar and butter together until light.

Beat in eggs one at a time and add milk.

Fold in flour and pour mixture over apple base.

Return to oven and bake until sponge is golden and firm to touch - about 45 minutes.

Serve with creamy custard or vanilla ice-cream. Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!

So after a very lazy day of playing a gentle game of one-up-womanship with my very lovely sisters-in-law and lazing about like a very lazy thing I feel that I've atoned for my sins by working my ladybits off!!

Life, the universe and everything...

So, Freecycling huh? It IS a great system, but I hadn't banked on one minor detail - 130 replies!!! It took hours sifting through the pleas and requests for this, that and the other (thank goodness, not too much of the other!!) and I felt I should at least say "I'm sorry, it's gone" to all the unsuccessful applicants. One or two odds and ends were only wanted by one person, which made life easier, but some of the stuff I could have given ten times over and some!! It was a dire experience and next time (And there WILL be a next time) I'll just post a few items at a time and deal with them. Interestingly enough it was the camping gear that was most popular. The "credit crunch" has hit hard and camping has become the new must-have holiday destination.

Segueing smoothly into another interesting and topical subject - Global Warming. Sitting down to lunch oday (briefly, between making Leo's sarnies and piling up goodies for Freecyclees) I opened and read Jerry's WWF magazine in preference to the local rags: protecting rainforests wins over "Man cleared over citizens arrest" every time! It was Tom Crompton's article that really made me sit up (www.wwf.org.uk/strategiesforchange) Can we ever alter our materialistic, wasteful habits enough or will it be a cataclysmic event that forces us into change? Can folks really be educated to change their day to day methods of living and working or will it be a major incident that compels us to accept that life WILL be different ie: when the oil runs out - and it will. We cannot - no matter what - replicate 50M years of creation of fossil fuels. In good old-fashioned supermarket speak " When it's gone, it's gone". And a lot of other stuff will be too. And no matter how we try to stick our heads in the sand and ignore it - IT'S OUR FAULT!!!

Reduce, Reuse, Freecycle!!!

Today is recycling day, in every sense of the word! At some point, ideally on my way to somewhere else, I need to take all the cardboard and plastic bottles to the tip plus a couple of bits and bobs that I'd be embarrassed to pass on to anyone else. Also the ever increasing heap of "stuff" that has accumulated in the outhouse needs to be dealt with too.

Freecycle is fab! It really is. I joined it about two years ago and since then have got rid of some very unlikely stuff (can you imagine anyone wanting a near knackered tumble dryer with a door that half hangs off?) and received some amazing stuff too. Bicycles, garden toys, tools and a plant stand that didn't quite live up to expectations, but does the job well enough. The first really good clear out we had made us realise just how much one person's rubbish can be another's treasure. One Sunday morning I got up early and posted the whole lot and within an hour almost every single offer had been taken! By Sunday evening most of it had been collected too. Awesome!! Today I've posted 31 items - one of which is a complete bathroom set and another a blacklight lamp!!

It's an amazing system that relies on folks being honest about their wares, honest about collecting the items (and not reselling them on Ebay!!!) , prevents tons of unwanted stuff ending up in landfill and provides many folks with an opportunity to get something for nothing - other than a quick trip to collect the item. Brilliant!! In the Wasteage it's an ideal form of recycling.

There is still a lot of our stuff that needs to be sifted through, sold or Freecycled or just taken to the charity shop - Baranardo's is our preference - but it's a start and as it only took two hours to drag out, list, measure, photograph (some) and post the whole lot it won't seem such an arduous task in future. There may be one more rug to go, but I thought my eldest son, David, and his lady, Emma, might like it for their office so they've got first refusal.

My friend, Sally, has just been for a very nice cuppa and a chat and is incandescent with rage at the rubbish teaching she is having to put up with at a writing class she's just started which must cost an arm and a leg. I only remark on this because Lara has also got bad teaching issues with her sewing class. Does Ofsted not have to regulate crappy teaching at all levels? If they can dictate to mums about their children's care then they should have an equal role in sorting out adult education and evening classes too!! Or maybe they don't interfere so much if you're paying for it? Hmmmmmm...

I'm rambling again! Right ho!! Off to the tip and on the way home from taking Leo swimming I must remember to uproot a couple of onions. I'd planned to cook a yummy risotto for supper last night only to discover that I'd forgotten the onions and didn't have any risotto rice either!! We ordered pizza!