A Catch Up

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post. I've been a bit sporadic with my posting this year, so do really appreciate you all hanging on in there.

Half way through April already, it amazes me, but at least the better weather appears to be coming... I'm so ready for the summer, I hope we have a lovely, long summer this year (not too hot though) and can spend lots of time outside in the garden and at the park.

We've been a bit slow on the garden side of things this year, mainly because of the weather. Andrew went out the other day and used the jet washer on the patio after getting rid of all the bits of grass and weeds that grow between the slabs. He also found this plant growing in one of our containers. We didn't plant it, but it seems to be thriving.

I tried putting the photo into a reverse picture finder and it identified it as Impatiens even though it didn't actually look like the pictures it showed. I know a lot of you have beautiful green thumbs so if anyone can give me any information about it, I would love to know.

My boy has had a birthday since I last blogged. Big year for birthdays this year, Adam and I have had our big ones (Adam turned 30) and Imogen will be turning sweet 16 a week on Friday, then little Zackary will have his very first birthday in August.

Not impressed with Daddy's birthday

I didn't get to see my boy on his actual birthday as he went on a 24 hour fishing trip with a group of friends. He had lovely time even though it was very muddy.

I haven't done as much baking as I planned to, but did use up some left over bananas to make our favourite banana cake the other day.

I treated myself to a couple of new eggcups the other week, I think they're rather cute.

I recently read this book by C.L. Taylor, The Fear. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself picking it up whenever I had a spare moment. A good, pacey thriller, I recommend it.

I thought it'd be nice to round off with the flowers on my mantelpiece that my lovely Andrew brought home from the shops today.

It's quite late, so I'm off to bed and will make a start on catching up with everyone else's news.


Take care
xxx

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What a Wonderful Day

It was my birthday on Wednesday, a milestone one, I'm half a century! I had the most wonderful day, spending it with my favourite people, my lovely family who thoroughly spoilt me.

I had breakfast in bed, some tasty kippers. I couldn't remember the last time I had them, I'm the only one who likes them so it felt like quite a treat. I stayed in bed with a nice cup of tea to open my cards and some of my presents, I even had a badge to wear!

When I was ready, the curtains to the conservatory were opened to reveal a very special present from my parents. I was absolutely blown away, a new scooter covered in balloons and banners, what an amazing start to the day. It's more than just a scooter, it's trips to the park with little Zackary, dog walks, trips to the local shops and so much more.

I had a nice cosy afternoon with Andrew and we watched Oliver so I could warble along with all the brilliant songs. Adam came in the afternoon with Zack, Holly and Izzy came later on and we all sat down to a party tea prepared by Andrew and Imogen with all my favourite party food, homemade potato salad, gammon and lots of other bits and pieces.

It was made even more special by Zack being able to join us at the table in the new highchair we had just bought him, though he was more of an observer than participant as he had just eaten his own yummy pureed vegetables and isn't quite old enough for finger food yet.

Imogen had spotted these little '50' sequins so had bought them to scatter over the table, a thoughtful little gesture, my sweet girl. I've saved some for when I do some scrapbooking.

The perfect accompaniment to my birthday tea, a lovely strong cup of tea in a bone china cup and saucer, I drank few of these.

Adam has a friend who makes the most delicious cakes, so between them, Andrew had secretly arranged for Adam's friend, Laura, to surprise me with this amazing cake. The actual cake is the most scrumptious Victoria sponge, my favourite. Even the numbers and the 'balls of wool' had sponge in them, what a clever lady Laura is (and green is my favourite colour).

The lights were turned off while everyone sang happy birthday and the cake was brought through with these amazing coloured candles, the flames were all different colours too, I haven't seen candles like this before.

More cups of tea and some cake followed by lots of special family time, what a wonderful day I had.

I had the best day ever and received so many lovely presents, I'll show you some of them another time.


Take care
xxx

A Little Bit of Everything

 It feels like this past week has zipped past in a flash. We had a very successful parents evening at Imogen's school at the beginning of the week, it's a big year for her this school year as her GCSEs are at the end of it.

I had my first mammogram on Wednesday and will hopefully get the results in a couple of weeks. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the 2 mamographers (I believe that's what they call them) were lovely ladies and made me feel completely at ease (there really is no dignity in being a woman is there, but worth it to have regular check ups to keep you safe) and as an added bonus we didn't really have to wait long so the whole thing was over with in around 20 minutes.


I didn't really get anything done the week before so I really wanted to make some cakes this week. I've made these a couple of times and we all really love them, lemon cupcakes. I use equal amounts of self raising flour, caster sugar and butter (4oz of each), a pinch of baking powder and about a teaspoon of lemon essence and a couple of eggs. The whole lot goes in one bowl and is whisked until lovely and smooth

Distribute the mixture between 12 cupcake cases and I have the oven on Gas 5 for about 20 minutes (our oven isn't the best in the world, so you may not need as long).

The scrummy buttercream topping is made with butter and icing sugar with a tablespoon of lemon essence this time. They really don't last long once they've been made.

I've also done some knitting this week. Little Zack has already outgrown the cardigans I made him and Holly said she needed some the next size up. I found this pattern in a local charity shop and quite liked the diamond pattern on the blue cardigan.

 I found some lovely, soft white yarn in my stash and knitted it up for my gorgeous grandson.

The tricky part was finding some cute buttons. I have loads of buttons, but many of the sweet little wooden ones are more 'girly' in nature. I thought these little bunnies were quite unisex for him.

A bit more progress on the cross stitching. The top picture is from last time, the bottom half is now. It was good to use a bit of colour though I'm still just working on the snowman's hat, I am enjoying doing it even though progress appears slow.

Holly wanted to have a day back at work on Friday so asked if we'd have Zackary for the day. Obviously I didn't even hesitate and was all ready when she dropped my little firecracker off at 8am. He came in his little Ninja Turtle babygrow and was oh so gorgeous.

I'd bought a cheap baby bouncer chair second hand during the week so Zack would have somewhere to sit. He loved the rocking motion.

Mummy came to pick him up at 5.30 and he was tucked up fast asleep and exhausted after a day of playing and nanny singing lots of nursery rhymes. I'm pleased to report that he didn't wake up at all last night until it was time to get up this morning, so we did well tiring the little dot out. We're doing a babysitting stint this afternoon so mummy and daddy can go to Ikea, he may not be as tired out after todays visit as Imogen has him tucked up in his pram walking around the park, lots of fresh air, but also sleeping.

What's everyone else up to, I can't help but feel Christmas is slowly creeping up on us now...


Take care
xxx

Gnocchi and Cauliflower and my Poor Little Princess

What a week my poor girl had last week. It started at the beginning of the week when Imogen complained of a bite on her foot, by the time we picked her up from school on Monday evening (she doesn't finish until 6 on a Monday as there's a drama after school group) she'd had to take her shoe off and it had become really painful. The picture doesn't do justice to the amount of swelling there was.

Antibiotics and foot elevation were prescribed at the drs as well as a couple of days off school. Feeling much better and able to get her shoe back on, Imogen returned to school. Friday evening, after an evening spent with friends, Imogen went upstairs to get ready for bed... after a while my phone pinged. I nearly didn't look straight away as I was knitting and not expecting to hear from anyone, I had a peek and it was Imogen asking for someone to come upstairs because her knee has dislocated!

It was horrendous, this time it was her right leg and her knee had slipped out as she went to sit on her bed. Unable to reach her phone and knowing we wouldn't hear her scream from downstairs (it's not a big house, just a solid one. When the doors are closed and the TVs on you can't hear upstairs), my extremely brave girl had reset her own knee. I used to dislocate my knees when I was younger and it is the most excruciating pain, I have never reset my own knee, I am in awe of her.

So off to hospital on a Friday night, not ideal, but needs must. Unbelievably we were in and out in a couple of hours (don't think that's ever happened before). All strapped up and resting, waiting for it to settle down so she can start physio again.

So that's the latest news about my poor, brave daughter.



I'm not the most adventurous person when it comes to food, my palette is a bit limited, but I do like to try something different now and then.

I've heard gnocchi talked about a lot on cooking programmes, but have never tried it. Potato dumplings, sounds nice enough, so when we were in the supermarket and I saw some, I threw them in the basket. We had them with a seasoned cheese sauce and cauliflower

gnocchi cooking

I thought it would make a lovely accompaniment to roasted gammon

Not sure how I feel about gnocchi, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I'd made it myself rather than bought it? What do you think, does the premade gnocchi taste very different from the homemade? Don't think I'll be having it again.

Take care
xxx

Baking and Baby Photos and a mini Video

I can't believe we're so far through the summer holidays already they always seem to go by in a flash and this year has been no exception. I think the holidays have felt shorter than usual because of waiting for little Zachary to be born at the beginning, then illness (which I found very frustrating as it seemed to linger) and Imogen is older now and makes lots of plans with friends too.

It's already feeling a bit autumnal, the nights are slowly drawing in, there's been a chill in the air and summer seems to have left us early. It feels that the best of summer this year was back in May and June, it was an early summer and I'm so glad that we made the most of the garden back then, spending lots of time outside.

I've been baking some of my son Adam's favourite treats. I always make them 2 batches as Holly is a vegetarian and Adam loves his meat. Ham and cheese (just cheese for Holly) pastry bites, so simple to make and tasty to eat, whenever I make some for Adam I always make some for Andy too.

I started with some puff pastry and covered it with cheese (grated cheese goes further) and a nice smoked ham. Lots of seasoning, some oregano and garlic salt.

Roll it up, carefully so you don't lose the filling, lengthways so it makes a long roll. With a sharp knife, slice every couple of inches.

Pop in a lightly greased baking tray and brush with a little egg before sprinkling with poppy seeds.

They only take about 15 minutes (or cook until a lovely golden brown), oozing cheese, delicious.

They are so popular with Adam and Holly that I was sent a video when I was ill with Zack (and the help of daddy's finger on his chin) asking me to bring some to them, he even specifies, meat and veggie ones please! Took me a while to figure out how to upload this, but thrilled I managed it, you will have to turn the volume high though.

Here are some pictures of my gorgeous boys taken yesterday

I think this may be my favourite as little Zack here is the image of his father as a baby, the only difference being hair colour and size (Adam was a tiny little thing with dark hair). It makes me want to put my finger into the photo and stroke his little cheek... I am totally besotted!

Take care
xxx

My favourite Banana Bread

We had some bananas past their best so I thought I'd make some banana bread and this is my favourite recipe, not just because it's so simple, but it's the most delicious banana bread I've tasted.

Simply use, self raising flour, brown sugar, sultanas, a couple of eggs and of course bananas.

I had 4 quite large bananas, chopped them into a bowl and squished them. It's so much easier to mash them when they're past their best and going soft.

To my mashed bananas I added 4oz of sultanas

5oz of soft brown sugar

and 2 beaten eggs.

This was mixed into a nice gloopy banana smelling mixture

to which I added about 8oz of self raising flour.

It couldn't really be any easier so an ideal recipe for children to help with or make. The mixture fits into a greased 2lb loaf tin, I like to use liners too.

I cover it loosely with some foil as it's in the oven for a while I don't want it to go too dark on top. Pop it in the middle of the oven at Gas mark 4, I think that's about 180 in an electric oven (may be worth checking) for just over an hour to an hour and 15 minutes.

Onto a cooling rack, then sliced, butter is optional, a cup of tea a must! It tastes even better the next day as the flavour develops

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Take care
xxx