Ramblings

Wow this morning looked so magical it felt as if outside there was a stillness and all the trees were draped in this snow, but no more has fallen since Monday. When I got in the car the temperature was -9! Oooh thats chilly but the girlies seemed to merrily leave their bed for the great outdoors.

 

The news made me laugh this morning - the headlines being that we may all have eaten horsemeat either by consuming burgers or maybe sausages. I was just trying to picture our friends on the continent trying to understand why the British are so upset about this when they eat horse regularly. Yes I understand that all meat is supposed to be traceable and this obviously is not good but it did make me chuckle.

 

Realised as I was driving to work that last night was the first night I did not think about wanting a glass of wine! Mind you I was occupied studying the internet for cottages for our family to rent this June. Believe you me this is a tall order trying to find some where that sleeps 10 people, accepts pets, Saturday changeover, free the date we want and is geographical central for all our family! Just when you think you've found somewhere there's a problem such as the kitchen has the most minute cooker, or the dining room does not actually sit 10, or there are lots of small living rooms and not one room where we could all be together, or there is only parking for one car etc etc. No 3 child and myself have narrowed the choice down to three places and this will be up for family nominations over the next two days.

 

 Apologies for poor quality photo.

Only managed to do one round of crochet around my blanket. It needs a few more rounds in order for it to look wide enough to snuggle properly. I've decided that I think it should be compulsory for all homes to have blankies, perhaps I should write to my MP!  Recently I was in someones home and I was just soo cold and there was not a blankie to be seen! Shock, horror! This should be illegal!

Challenges

Well I didn't really think of 2013 as the year of challenges. I am now eleven days into being a dry athalon. Golly it is really making me appreciate how hard it must be for my clients who are trying to give up smoking. Always had lots of empathy for them but this challenge has given me more insight as to how it might feel. Have become SO aware of how much social drinking there is on television programmes. It really must be difficult for those who have to be permanently alcohol free - not for the likes of me doing it on a whim for a limited period of time.

Yesterday whilst ironing I watched the film "Julie and Julia". I have never seen it before and it was absolutely wonderful. Story is about a young girl(Julie) who decides to write a blog about completing a challenge of cooking 524 recipes in 365 days from Julia Child's book - "Mastering the art of French cooking". Then having a conversation with my friend Mrs A got me thinking. As you all know I own 126 cookery books - well actually one sneaked in over Christmas, not quite sure how! So the total is 127! The decision I have come to is I am going to cook a recipe from every cook book. The aim being that I will have definitely cooked something from every cook book I own, by the end of the year! Now you cannot be legalistic about this as I will be having 2 weeks away camping - probably in France - so there maybe some weeks when this will not be possible. I am thinking that if I average 2-3 recipes a week that should hopefully be about right in order to complete this challenge. But I am guessing my maths buddies will correct me if I have calculated wrongly!

So am going to start with the recipe I cooked at the weekend ( well actually I did two from the same book) and you have already seen the photograph of this book in a previous blog.


127 cookery books      1 recipe       126 books to go!

 Well might as well continue tonight with this challenge. On my own so can have something Mr P won't like.

127 cookery books      2 recipes completed       125 books to go.

Lastly thought I'd show you another pictures of yesterdays snow - today not so much to see.

Snow and Pilates

Woke up Sunday morning to  dusting of snow - was as if God had got some icing sugar and decorated the town with a little icing.

Sorry not the most exciting picture. Driving the minibus for church today was rather trying with the bus covered in ice and me having to use a step ladder to scrape the windows! This was then followed by a gamble as to whether the minibus had enough diesel, followed by a new convoluted route to collect the people. Then during the service one lady fell ill so I took her home, offered to drive her nearer to her front door and got stuck because someone had parked their car where they shouldn't have. Think the owner must have seen me struggling and came out and removed their vehicle - much to my relief! Phew!  Afternoon was spent feeding some yummy home made Chinese dinner to some old friends from Towcester. The rest of the day was spent crocheting all the squares together. Having done this now decided the blanket is not wide enough so will have to crochet round and around it till I'm happy! Picture to follow when I'm happier!

Perhaps I have not mentioned the fact that not only have I given up alcohol till mid February but also rejoined the local leisure centre. This morning I set my alarm early enough to go to the pilates class. But when I looked out the window this was the state of the car!

 Part of me wanted to escape back into bed but having got up was determined to go.

The street did look kind of magical and I was rather pleased to have been up to see it looking so.

Well I have never been to pilates before in my whole life. The tutor lulls you into a false sense of easiness and you find yourself thinking "oh this is ok - I can do this quite easy".  In the background is playing some soothing tranquil music. But then she sneaks in that this is the starting position and then you have to ........... Well I felt useless and when there is only about eight of you I certainly felt well aware of my incapabilities. When she comes up to me to try and put me in the correct position I begin to feel as if I'm an old lady with my arthritic knees and dislocated collar bone! But bless her she was full of patience and even showed me some other moves I could try instead! It's going to take a lot of courage to go again next week. I'm trying out new things and have been going swimming and also tried the zumba class - which I know I love as I've done this before. Think next week I shall follow the pilates class with a swim. But the class did seem a good idea to do first thing on an early Monday morning.

Thought I'd show you a few pictures of the back garden when I returned home.

For those of you who are really observant you will notice the same bird feeding station. Dad bought us two for Christmas - to put in both gardens!

Well it's no good I've avoided doing the ironing for long enough, must sign off.

Saturday Chilling

Well the chickens must have read my blog and have produced another egg. But there has been a gap of two days - so we do not know whether it's the same chicken laying or whether they've done one each!

So was it Milly or was it Molly laying? Or did they both co-operate?











Mr P has gone to watch his football team - Aston Villa play, but they have lost so many matches. Not sure why he is putting himself through such agony so have opted to make him a comforting dinner for his return. Thought I'd show you one of my favourite gadgets.

It's my potato squeezer. It is such fun to use - like going back to play school. Perhaps I like it so much because I never went to play school!

Look at those lovely small wiggly wormy morsels of potato - not a lump in sight.

Ta dah yummy mash to put back into the oven later on to heat and crisp up.

In the oven this pie is busy cooking - ooh it smells delicious. Should say it's just the meat part slowly baking and the pastry is added later on.

You may be asking which book this recipe came from and here it is. One of my 126 cook books!














Now the casserole is in the oven, mash made, washing in the machine time for ME! Going to continue putting together my granny squares and watch a nice murder!

Hopefully my next posting will be the blanket completed.

Eggs

EGG Number 1

One of the girlies has laid an egg - first one since last September!

Lets hope this is the start of more yummy eggs but what with the threat of snow I have my doubts.

Now for Egg Number 2

My first grandchild. No 3 child is 12 weeks pregnant and is due 22nd July. But going on the fact that all my four children were late, her husband was late and also his brother, me and my sister were late. So odds are this one is doomed to be born late. All the family is very excited and it must be soon time to start getting those knitting needles out and start on some of those cute patterns.

Roll on many more eggs!

Christmas and New Year - part 2

28th December we all parted and we began our 8 hour drive - taking No 4 back to Dumfries and Galloway, and then across the hills to Northumberland. This second part of the trip was rather hair raising due to severe winds and flooding. On a deserted  mountain road trees had fallen and parts of the road had excessive water. Just not what you want at 11pm after a 7 hour drive. But by midnight we arrived safely at our lovely cottage and all the  horrors of the journey dissipated. Sorry the photographs are rather displaced but I am trying to use my new laptop and transferring pictures from one computer to another is rather tricky! The above picture I took because I loved the way this man had no qualms about carrying his partner's handbag around Holy Island! I have a job to get Mr P to hold mine for a few minutes!

 

Of course you know me I just love taking photographs of the lobster pots! Call me "sad"!

Then I can never resist taking another picture of the upturned boats - the rope was huge!

Every trip to the cottage always never passes without an outing to Barter Books in Alnwick. I just love the atmosphere.

The roaring fires, filter coffee for 30p and cookies to help yourself to. Lots of lovely seating to idle away many hours.

The mural was painted by someone local.

New Year's Eve we saw 2013 in with our neighbours. after frequenting the newly opened village pub. Then the 1st day of January was one of our favourite walks along the coast to Low Newton, to the pub for a well deserved glass of mulled wine.  

Seems as if we were not the only ones out for a trot. How wonderful it must be to be able to ride horses across a beach.

Thought I'd show you some of the locals! The cockerel was a handsome brute - lucky girls!

But these two are very  new neighbours. They are my favourite - highland cattle, or I like to refer to them as "woolly bulls". Mr P says they don't qualify as highland cattle if they are not in Scotland but we are only a few miles away from the border! Have to say they didn't seem quite so cute when they came running up to me and only a shaky fence between us!

Wednesday evening was another trip to Alnwick to meet up with a friend for a meal. The lights were fantastic. Sorry but my camera does not seem to work well in the dark. 

We ate at the White Swan and had a very yummy meal. But what I didn't realise was that the Titanic dining rooms were filmed from here.

This cat was rather entertaining. We watched him sit for ages and then suddenly leap by this gravestone and come out with this mouse.

Oh dear - more lobster pots!

Tried to take a photo of some of the birds landing on our new feeding station - was very difficult as they did not seem to understand they were going to be shown to the world! I'm sure they would have posed more if they understood - rather than fly off as soon as I tried to click.

This is what I call absolute luxury! Sitting in front of the log fire, a glass of red wine on the go, crochet in my lap and a nice murder to watch on the TV. What more can a girl want?

Managed to complete 89 granny squares! But oh boy my shoulder was aching.

Forgot to show you this picture last time I was at the cottage I bought this curtain for a grand total of £1.50! I really like it - think it reminds me of France with their small curtains. Oh and the pole cost me 99p. What a bargain.

Time for another story about one of the locals. The white building to the right is the local pub and one of the houses to the left lives someone who visits the pub. BUT this person does not walk - NO. Reason being that this person isn't able to walk back so he drives because of the drink!

Another picture of our new feeding station. My dad got it us for Christmas. We get lots of birds and I really love idling away many minutes watching them feed.









Well I guess I have given you a flavour of our New Year. Oh just remembered Mr P had a small drama. He went out walking on the Cheviots and came back with something in his eye. Spent the evening with a rather sore eye - I offered to take him to casualty and he refused saying it'll be alright soon. He came to bed later on but then was up again unable to sleep. So at 2.30am he drove himself to the minor injuries unit at Berwick (where he's been before - but that's another story). The wonderful nurses dug out the remains of a fly behind his eyelid - after they'd given him some anaesthetic drops. He was back home in 45 minutes (20 of these to drive) with some cream. His eye was rather painful the next day. But would just like to publicly say thank you to those wonderful nurses who work at Berwick Infirmary.

Post Christmas Madness - Part One.

Hi All My Readers
Yet again another blog starting with an apology for taking soo long to write. I've been having a marvelous two weeks. Well it started with Christmas Eve and me going into super domestic goddess role.

Here is the turkey marinating in all sorts of goodies, overnight. The theory being that when you cook it the turkey remains moist.

Then here I am being very domesticated and making a gravy out of the turkey neck.

.
Christmas Eve No.2 and his wife arrived from Leeds - son full of cough and cold. Then Mrs A and hubby arrived for an easy dinner and pud (thanks to Nigella). It was a lovely evening and then Mr P and I headed out to a village parish church to enjoy the midnight communion service. This for me is the highlight of Christmas. The air always feels magical - can almost see Santa! I'm not quite sure how I stayed awake as I was so tired.

Christmas morning everyone was up before me. Forgot to say at 1.30am we were frying the joint of beef to seal it and put into the oven to cook slowly whilst we slept. Rather bizarre waking up to the smell of beef in the early hours of the morning. Thanks again to Nigella's Christmas book I was able to follow her timetable and go off to church without panicking re times. Mr P took a lovely service and then home to greet my dad who had arrived - full car of goodies. Can't remember opening any presies yet! Oh yes Mr P slipped into bed for  a quick snooze, whilst the dinner was cooking. Managed to accomplish the huge dinner for 2.30pm and have a sneaky glass of wine whilst cooking.

Just a sneak view of the quantities of food I cooked for Christmas dinner! Had to use two other tables for my family to help themselves to.


Once cleared up the first round of present opening started. There was a slight gap in time before No 4 and girlfriend arrived from Leeds. This then started the 2nd round of presents. Shortly afterwards No 3, hubby and dog arrived. Great excitement No 3 made an announcement to say she is pregnant with our first grandchild. Well we knew some weeks ago but it was to be kept a secret till today. Now means that I can legitimately get baby knitting. How exciting - a whole new world of crafting is going to open up for me. The baby is secondary in all this! No seriously we are delighted and know they will make brilliant parents. After all this excitement we all collapsed into bed. In case you are counting we now have nine bodies in the house plus a dog and a baby blob (known as "Nemo").

Boxing Day - Cranberry muffins for breakie and then a morning of games. Followed by the arrival of No 1 and hubby from Northern Ireland. All my babies safely gathered in - cluck, cluck. Needless to say we had another round of present opening. I like this rather than opening all presents in one go. What I need to say is that the family has become good at learning to wrap up presents for No 1 with one piece of sellotape. As she spends ages slowly unwrapping the paper! She's agonising to watch as she insists on not tearing the paper! Dinner was a family tradition of raclette. This is a Swiss tradition of cooking. It starts back in the summer when Mr P and I go to France and buy the raclette cheese for this event. It's a DIY meal as everyone cooks their own meat on the top of the raclette and then underneath a small pan is placed with the cheese to melt. The cheese is then used to pour over some new potatoes. So as well as the spuds and meat the meal is eaten with pickles and sweetcorn. It's a great sharing meal.
The evening was finished with No 3 playing the piano and the rest of us singing. The best moment was when my dad got carried away with the music and raced into the kitchen for a saucepan and wooden spoon to join in. It was a really special evening. Now have 11 bodies in the house!

27th December we said goodbye to my dad as he headed home. A long time was spent trying to sort out a family holiday together. Finding a house that can sleep all of us and allows dogs and is central to where we all live is a tall order. The holiday is still a work in progress. The evening was spent playing one of our family favourite games- "werewolf".

28th December. No 3's hubby had to go to work so they had to leave at 6am - while the rest of us were sleeping. Had the morning together and then it was time for us all to part. :(

We had a wonderful time and it is always so special when we can all meet up together.