Menu of the Day and Chat

LAST NIGHTS DINNER
Homegrown Cauliflower, Broad Beans, Peas n Garlic made into Curry
Basmati Rice
Side Dish of Grated Carrot, Celery, n Red Onion
Tzattziki (not sure of spelling, but that Greek yoghurt thing)

Tinned Pineapple n Walnut Maple Ice Cream (boo!)

The last 2 meals have been meat free. In this hot weather, meat slows you down too much. There are rarely any fat vegetarians.....

Supposed to rehearse with Scarabella tonight but got a text from Anna, who missed her flight, returning from France and is absolutely knackered. She's teaching today and said she could hardly keep her eyes open. I remember those shifts, working when not had enough sleep, trying to hold it all together...the night shifts were the worst, round about 4am when energy was low but having to carry on regardless.....

I received the dvd of 'Blackbird.' We mimed to the song and it was filmed at the college where Silva (who videoed us) is studying, using top range equipment, yes, in H.D!
At the beginning of the song, I especially, look quite artificially happy! We were trying for the relaxed, 'O it doesn't matter that we're being filmed' look. It gets better towards the end of the song, when we look as if we are really enjoying the whole process.

Silva has put in a background of trees, flowers, and, of course, a Blackbird, as we filmed with a green screen. Mr A thought it was a bit unimaginative and corny. Well, yes it is, but at least we've done it! I got 2 dvds. One to play through the tv and the other for utube, but I'll have to ask advice on how to put it on as that dvd won't play through the tv so must have a different format.

It's a very hot day, I've spent most of it indoors....Gwen's outside tied on a long rope, Minnie's crashed out, lying next to the laptop on the table, which seems to be her favourite napping place.
She gave Gwen a bloody nose earlier when Gwen tried to get too friendly. There's no messing with this pregnant cat! It was just a scratch, but Gwen will keep her distance in future.....

So, as I'm home tonight, I'll be cooking. Mr A usually has something simple, like egg n chips when he comes home from work and I'm not in.
There's lots of veg in the garden right now. The broad beans are delicious when cold with olive oil and lemon juice. The peas are sweet and lovely eaten straight from the pod.

The Sweet William has been a resounding success this year. They are a mass of different shades of red and pink, with some white flowers, standing tall and sending out a lovely scent. I've just planted out some Hollyhocks, not having grown them before. The slugs almost had them, so I resorted to the dreaded slug pellets, putting a barrier around them until they are established.
We are trying to be organic and not use them, but I weakened, rather than see the Hollyhocks eaten away.

It's now time to get arse into gear. Shopping to do, chickens to feed and water, garden to refresh....the list goes on.

The first pic shows Mr A standing in our bedroom, hammer in hand, on the earth beneath our house.

The second pic shows one of the see-through jellyfish that I saw on the beach. There were lots of them, around 20 or so. They'd been stranded as the tide went out.

Last pic shows Gwen relaxing in front of the Rayburn on her rug. The carpet in the foreground was brought back from Tunisia 4 years ago. It's made by a Berber tribe. The selling point was when the trader said that it was so sturdy that it would last at least 200 years!

DINNER LAST NIGHT - A GOOD 'UN

Vegetables sauteed then steamed. Homegrown Courgette, Purple Sprouting Broccolli, Garlic, shop bought Red Onion, n Celery

Side Dish of Homegrown Broad Beans, lightly cooked then gone cold with chopped Red Onion, Olive Oil n Lemon Juice with Homegrown Coriander, very delicious!

Beetroot on the Side

Feta Cheese cubed, Chopped Red Grapes n Jalepeno Peppers

Morrisons Maple n Pecan Ice Cream, huh! I won't say it again, but..........

Oh and I baked a mix of nuts and seeds: Walnuts, Pecans, Pinenuts, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflowers Seeds.
With a sprinkling of Soya Sauce and Sunflower Oil and roasted for about 20 minutes. I had to check it nearly every 5-10 minutes as they can get burnt very easily. The last batch got burnt and I had to throw the lot away. I guess it costs around £4 for a large amount of mix which will last quite a while. Well, maybe not last that long as it is very moorish.....

LAST NIGHTS DINNER
Pork Chops
New Potatoes
Homegrown Peas - yummy n sweet

Pancakes with Lemon n Sugar

It's been a long time since I made pancakes but what with the disappointing ice cream saga, I thought it would be nice to have something else for dessert.
I've a good cookery book that I use mainly for puddings which was written for Rayburn users. There's a lovely recipe for Banana Cake that I've used.
So, usually the first pancakes's a mess, and by the third one they are circular and easy to flip over.
The knack to cooking good pancakes is to get the pan really hot, like smoking hot and only use a little oil. Also only use 2 tablespoons of mix and that way you get thin pancakes.
Of course the first one was like pitta bread, too thick, the last one was perfect!

I make bread usually every other day in a bread maker, it's quick and easy. This time though, I forgot to add water! It started off as usual, so I left it to get on with it. I checked a while later only to find that it had stopped because there was only dry flour in there. I switched it off, chucked the ingredients away, they'd gone mushy, and started again. This time a perfect loaf.

The bedroom is now minus a floor, you can see the hard packed earth underneath the house.

I went to download the photos from my phone only to discover that I've got loads of pix on there that I'd already downloaded so need to delete them. It's a long process, as I don't want to delete the later photos on there. There's 178 photos on there! Maybe I'll download them all then delete the old ones. It'll still take a while and time's pressing, so no pix today.....

I'll be off to the shops soon, hoping to post the photos later today.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee:

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous” yes".

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions. And if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life
would still be full."

"The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house and your car."
"The sand is everything else---the small stuff"" If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued,
"there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with your grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18 holes .There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."

Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked."

"The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem,there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.

Yesterday was plastering day. One wall of the bedroom is being plastered. The plaster boards are on, so now it's the mixing of plaster and laying it on the wall. My job was the mixing. It's like making cake batter really but dirtier.
I had a large blender bit on a drill which would whizz around the bucket to mix plaster and water. I had to hold my breath as I poured the plaster in the bucket as I'm sure the fumes were really bad...
I wore my new boilersuit, it's a pea green and was very hot as it was boiling yesterday. Today it's in the wash, covered with splashes of plaster.

I must have had a surge of energy as after the plastering had been done and I'd washed all the tools, I turned the hose onto the steps in front of the house and gave them a good clean. There was years of gunge and grime to come off and I found it hard to stop, as more moss and grit kept coming off with the hose on jet setting which is quite strong.

We didn't finish till 8.30pm.

LAST NIGHTS DINNER
Spag Bog
Homegrown Purple Sprouting Broccolli
Beetroot

Morrisons Maple Pecan Ice Cream - nowhere near as good as (sob) Walnut Dream

Today the floor of the bedroom is being taken up. There were lots of bottles underneath, dating from the 20's, when the house was built. It's strange, looking underneath the house, seeing hard packed earth, there aren't any foundations on a wooden house.
So after the new floor is put in we can start on painting the walls. I'm looking forward to that part. Mr A doesn't always agree with me on colours, so we shall have to compromise.

In my room, (the music room,) I'm going to go to town though and choose what I want. It'll probably end up like a courtesan's boudoir! I love shades of red, (I have Mars in Aries.) There's embroidered Indian hangings, velvet cushions and a red carpet already.

Minnie continues to grow in her pregnancy, still as nimble as ever. She's on extra rations and as much milk as she wants.
Gwen's toy, 'Doggy,' is now in scraps and she still insists on playing tug of war with bits of it. There's a leg and another scrap which is unidentifiable. The bits are small, so it's hard to get a hold on them....

Last night, from about 11pm, we had the Mother of all storms here. I saw forks and sheets of lightening soar across the sky and the sound of thunder was so loud! The electricity went off with the lightening but came on again soon after.

I heard this morning about Michael Jackson dying in the night. How pleased he would be to know that there was such a tremendous display in the sky when he passed over!
RIP Michael. You were one of the best dancers, songwriters and performers I've seen.

Mr A arrived home around 11.30, having driven through the storm. We stood in the open doorway, lights off to better appreciate the show - and watched Nature at her most powerful.
Gwen was a bit freaked out at first, but after coming out to watch the thunder and lightening she calmed down.
Minnie was as cool as ever, just sauntering around, her swollen belly swinging from side to side, as if nothing dramatic was happening.

DINNER
Chorizo Rissotto. Delicious! With Homegrown Peas, Red Onion, Garlic, Green Pepper, Fresh Dill n Basil.
There were leftovers for Mr A when he got in. He also said it was a very tasty meal.

Guess I'm going to have to put pen to paper to let Morrisons know that they have made a big mistake in phasing out the Walnut Dream Ice Cream - there's no email address for them which would have been the easiest way to contact them.

Minnie is still pregnant. I got her some tinned Sardines, which she loves and make sure she has plenty of milk. If Gwen can get away with it, she'll pinch food from Minnie's dish. Still, Minnie eats from Gwens foodbowl, so I guess they are even.

Telly's crap these past weeks. I've found a new author - and he's good! He's called Bateman, no first name. I've now read 2 of his books. The last one, Mystery Man, is a very funny read. He's witty, droll with a touch of the ridiculous. Recommended.

Right. Time to water the hens, empty the compost bin, walk the dog and think about dinner.

DINNER
Scottish Scampi Tails
Oven Chips
Homegrown Courgette Sauteed in Butter
Asparagus

Some rather dull Ice Cream

It's a very tasty dinner, I thought I'd make the effort and cook something I really like, just for me. If Mr A was here he'd like it too. He's away working, back tomorrow night.

Another blisteringly hot day. I've finally shaved my legs and they saw the sun today, and the sun saw them.

I went to Morrisons web site to email a complaint about them withdrawing Walnut Dream Ice Cream only to discover that they don't have an email contact address, you can either phone or write - so I'm going to write. I've tried 2 other different sorts of ice cream and they aren't a patch on the ol' Walnut Dream.

Instead of the usual 5 Scarabellas, there were 4 of us for our singing rehearsal last night. Brenda is going to be away travelling for most of the summer, so the rest of us decided to learn songs with 4 parts so that we could still do gigs while she's away.
First we had to decide what songs we wanted to do for this one particular gig at the Swansea Fringe Festival, probably just be able to sing 4 songs. We each will bring a song to learn, so that we all get a chance to sing what we want to. Rhiannon's going to sing 'How Sweet It Is,' a classic soul song. Anna's going to learn a Spanish Latin-type song and Carol has quite decided what song she wants. I'm going to sing one of my songs, a reggae rhythmn song called Hummingbird. The others have heard me performing this song with the guitar so they know it.
I got some Sushi before rehearsal rather than the Potato Wedges with Chilli n Cheese. I shared it with Rhiannon who hadn't eaten it before and loved it.

Minnie cat got stuck inside a wall on sunday! Looking for nesting places, she crawled through a small hole in the top of the airing cupboard and fell down, in between the walls. Mr A heard her and realized what had happened. He had to break the wall to get her out. It was plasterboard, so using the hammer he could get her out. Don't know if I could have if he wasn't here.
I can't remember if I've told you all this already.....if I have, pretend I haven't.

The flowers in the garden are stunning. The Sweet Williams are vibrant in all shades of red and pink. Mr A planted them in a long row along the bottom terrace of the garden. They've grown really tall, about 3ft high. I've put some in the front flower garden, spread around, they don't look so good as all together in a row but pretty good. I put in Hollyhocks I grew from seed and the bloody slugs had some of them.
I put some slug pellets down, but Mr A isn't happy about it. I forgot that he hasn't used them for ages, going for organic. Whoops.....The Sweet Peas are just about to flower. Mr A made long tubs and planted them out the front of the house so they will grow up the wall. The Night Scented Stock is still sending out the most delicious fragrance every evening. It opens up at night, becoming a luminous violet colour.

As the rehearsal was on as the same time as I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue on radio 4, I'm listening to catch up now, as I'm writing my post.
Some people can do that, I find that I can't pay attention to the radio while I'm making up stuff for this. They've got a new panel member, Victoria Wood, who is one of our best comediennes, a very funny woman. I keep having to stop what I'm writing to listen to the radio, so this is going to take a while..

.........a while later.......

At the recycling part of Morrisons, they have a Salvation Army bin for clothes. At last, I've cleared out my drawers (yes, really,) and along with Mr A have made quite a hefty deposit of clothes into that bin.
I have a bag full of materials, which I fully intend to use with an old quilt that was my mothers. I want to add squares to it, and it's a project that has been waiting for a while....so any clothes I don't want but are made of nice material go into the bag. I managed to salvage a few bits that Mr A wanted to chuck, including 2 large handkerchiefs, clean and ready to be used. He said that he wouldn't use them, so I've taken them and will use them myself. Another thing he wanted to go was a black velvet bow tie. I thought it might look quite dashing, a la James Bond, but he says he won't ever wear it.

Last night we had another barbeque. As Mr A makes his own charcoal, there's loads of it so we barbie quite often. It was beefburgers. Real ones. At the party, neighbours brought some beefburgers to share. They were crap. Made with a lot of water, they spat and made the barbie smoke a lot so that we had to move it. With the ones I buy, there's no water coming out and they taste far far better than the cheap frozen ones.
Tip: It's always worth paying a leetle beet extra for good food.

Today is the Solstice - Huzzah!

Today is my grandaughter Molly's 16th birthday - Huzzah!

Today is Fathers Day, and I give thanks that I had such a great man for a dad - Huzzah!

DINNER
Barbequed Outdoor Reared Pork Chops
Potatoes with lots of Parsley and Butter
A small Lettuce from the garden

Morrisons Gorgeous range of Ice Cream, Somethingorother with walnuts, not a patch on youknowwhat.

Been busy renovating the bedroom, painting primer on the walls whilst Mr A is plasterboarding one wall.

We went to Focus for supplies, like plasterboard and while we were there I thought I'd see if they had something to clean our dusky pink leather 3 piece suite. It's more like dirty pink after Gwen has made herself comfy on it numerous times. So I got this bottle which said it cleaned and nourished the leather - exactly what I wanted. I'd cleaned it before with normal cleaner and it made the leather go brittle and hard.
It worked perfectly! So Gwen is now banned from the furniture and we bring her bed into the living room for her to sit in and take it into the kitchen at night for her to sleep in.
I also washed all the cushion covers......I always get a buzz seeing how good things look when they are cleaned after being neglected..(bath time soon too.)

My lovely grandaughter Molly is on holiday in Bulgaria with friends and is 16 today. She is one smart woman and seems unphased by anything life throws at her. Very pretty too.

Solstice day. There will be time in the day to give thanks to Mother Nature for all her gifts.

Fathers Day. Although he died in 2002, I am still so proud of my dad. He was a man who stuck to his principles all through his life. A Union man who still went to meetings when he was in his 80's. He always supported me. In all my wayward years, I could count on him, usually for money, when times were hard, and they did get hard. So, for my Dad, Happy Fathers Day.

I've got bread that kneads to be baked, lunch to be got, thanks to give to Mother Nature, so I'd better get on.

DINNER
Baked Aubergine, Potato and Red Pepper Casserole in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Erm....Bits and bobs to make up a Salad, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Onion and Olives. (Can't be arsed to go out to the greenhouse to get a lettuce...)

MOrrisons Walnut and Maple Syrup Ice Cream - I guess I can't really buy another sort till this has all gone, but it's nowhere near as good as the ol' Walnut Dream. I'll keep trying till I find another one I like.

Yesterday a few of us formed an A team in operation 'Fell that dangerous tree.' With Mr A chainsawing the offending trunk, Dave operating the winch, and 4 of us diverting traffic.
There were only 3 cars coming from our direction as the road isn't that busy. One of the drivers carried driving on past us.
I didn't know that he was going to reverse into a side road and yelled 'STOP!' in a very loud voice. It was so loud that Mr A heard me, 50 yards away and over the noise of the chainsaw.....As I've been singing for years, I can project my voice quite loudly. Very handy for singing in noisy places, not ideal for emotional ballads, but there you go!

Made an appointment yesterday to take Minnie cat to the vets. It's like going to the doctors, saving up the ailments till there's a little list.
1. She's defnitely pregnant, how soon will she be birthing kittens?
2. She's had a cough for a few weeks now.
3. Hard little knobs, looking like ticks on her front paws. Mr A spotted these and thought they were ticks at first and put white spirit on them prior to pulling them out. He then discovered they weren't ticks, but built in. He thought they might be warts. I thought they were just part of her paw. The vet said that they were part of her paw pad and normal.

After listening in to her chest and heart, the vet said that she had a slight heart murmer which was making her cough. Because she's pregnant, it's making her heart work harder with all the extra fluid being pumped around her body. It may resolve itself after she gives birth, but they'll check it out on her next visit.
She behaved very well with the vet, minimum fuss made by her and she started purring when I stroked her to calm her when she was put on the examination table.
She may give birth in a week! Her nipples are quite pronounced, so she's nearly due.
I got some medicine for fleas and worms for her. The bill was £37.50. I think £7.50 was probably for the medicine and £30 for the consultation. Well worth it, but I could have bought the medicine in a supermarket for a fraction of the cost. I'll do that in future....probably.

I put her in a box to take her to the vets and put it in the boot of my car, making small airholes. As I set off to drive I turned the radio on. There was a frantic sound of scrabbling from the back so I turned it off, as I thought it might be freaking her out.
When I stopped at the shops before going to the vets I checked on her, to see that she was ok.
She'd got out of the box! That scrabbling sound when we first set off must have been her getting out of it, she'd been sitting on the floor of the boot quietly for about half an hour.
She has to stay in the house after giving birth as she could get pregnant again quickly. As we want her spayed after this litter, I'll take her as soon as I can. I've put the litter tray back in the lean to, where it was when she first came here as a kitten. From the start she used it, never did any toilet in the house, (not like Gwen.) So I'm going to try and keep here in till she has the kittens, as she could have them outside somewhere and I might not be able to keep track of her. She does come in regularly though for food. She's been eating loads, and often eats Gwen's food too.

Yesterday, Gwen was spotting blood, a sign that she's on heat, so she's had to stay either in the house or tied up. Can't risk her getting pregant! I put a white sheet down on the chairs that she lies on. The amount of dirt, grit and blood spots on it showed me just how much filth she deposits on the furniture. So, I've moved her bed into the front room so she can sit in that of an evening then move it back into the kitchen where she'll sleep in it. I'm going try to stop her sitting on the chairs, something I should have done from the start instead of just letting her sit where she likes. The chairs and sofa are made of leather, and it's now quite dirty from where she's sat on it, so she'll have to be trained to the new regime of not sitting on the furniture.
At some point in the day, usually early evening, Gwen wants to play tug of war. She still plays with 'Doggy,' which was given to her as a soft stuffed toy. It is now a scrap of material, which is the bottom half of the toy, consisting of 2 legs. It's quite touching how she's hung on to that toy and treated it as her favourite plaything, even though it's on its last legs, (literally!)

Mr A has gone away to work, back monday, maybe tuesday. I texted him with Minnie's update from the vets. He had a shite drive to Manchester and was late for a meeting. He was knackered from yesterday, hauling a heavy winch up the stairs and lugging lots of stuff around.

DINNER
Sweet Chilli Sausages
Mash with Garden Broccolli Mashed in
Fresh Asparagus

Some other Morrisons Ice Cream, Maple Syrup, no where near as good as you-know-what

Mr A organised a community get together to act as stewards for a big tree felling. There has been a huge branch which has hung off another tree overlooking the road. It's dangerous cos the tree is rotten and could fall anytime, potentially killing anyone underneath. So he hired a winch, strapped up the offending branch and chainsawed it to safety. Us lot had to stop traffic from going past and redirecting it. We only had 3 cars go past. One of them was a bit surly and carried on as if to drive past us when I boomed out, 'STOP!' He was just going to reverse into a smaller road to turn round, but I didn't know that....
Anyway, a successful venture completed. Yay!

I've made an appointment at the vets for Minnie cat. She is obviously pregnant and has a cough which I think should be sorted. So I've got a box to take her in tomorrow.
Gwen has been spotting blood from her lady parts, the dog equivalent of a period I guess. I hope that means that she isn't pregnant. She could have got in the family way the time she went off down to the village on her own.....I hope not as she's only 8 months old.

I picked up some colour charts for the bedroom. It's a bit of a way off yet, there's priming to do, plastering one wall and relaying the floor, but I love imagining all the different colours and what ones to choose. It's a very light room with 2 large windows and a Velux, so it could take a darker contrast round the windows to lighter coloured walls. I'm looking in the brochure and imagining my bedroom looking good enough to be photographed and put in along with the other rooms on show.......

I was supposed to go for training with the WRVS today on the digital switchover, to be able to help people to do it who couldn't do it for themselves. Anyway, it was an early start and I'm not good in the mornings. One problem I have is the tendons on my ankles become inflamed and it's quite hard to walk without looking like Charlie Chaplin. With some Ibuprofen gel and a bit of time, they are ok, but I can't rush round first thing. So I've missed the boat on that one.

Finally, there's nothing on telly worth watching of late. I got into The Apprentice, Britains Got Talent and the other talent show, American Idol. I'm a bit of a pleb when it comes to telly, not like Mr A who doesn't like those sort of shows and prefers Newsnight and footie.