A box full of savings...

 

I haven't bought anything from Approved Food for a while, but they tempted me back this week with a £5 voucher (which almost paid the delivery charge). I've learned my lesson and calmed down from my initial order with them...that was all about " gosh, can't believe it's that cheap...I'll try it at that price!" I still have a couple of tins of creamed corn left in the cupboard...if anyone has a recipe that makes it taste good please let me know Hahahah!

This time I've been more sensible and bought things that I use all of the time .

Josh look!!! Strawberry Ribena at 75p a bottle...such a shame they didn't have it while you were over ( Josh can't find this out in Oz)

Cop the size of that pack of scone mix! I wouldn't usually buy a mix for scones, but at £1.49 for 3.5 kg I figure the price I would have paid for ingredients justifies me being lazy:-) Ditto for cake mixes..quick and easy..and let's face it, I'm partial to a bit of cake!

 

So here we go...£26.29 (inc delivery) paid for £96.60 RRP worth of kit meaning I can have posh squash instead of smart price (not that there is anything wrong with smart price) and lazy bhaji mix..I certainly wouldn't have paid £1.55 a packet, but 25p is fine.

 

So it was a tin of broken mandarin pieces for pudding this evening..instantly transported back to childhood...although I would NEVER have been allowed to eat straight from the can...shhhh..don't tell.

 

 

 

Those were the days my friend....

A friend loaded this photo on facebook today...I had completely forgotten about this day. I held a barbeque in my back garden, took a rug out onto the decking, and as we wore posh frocks and dinner jackets so rarely, decided to make it a posh BBQ. It was so funny to watch all of the neighbours twitching their curtains as everyone arrive in their best bib & tucker. I think this was probably June 2000. I used to hold a lot of parties in those days...maybe that's why I'm content to stay home now having partied so hard in previous years.
Left to right Me, Teresa, Jenny, Esther & Steph - all looking reasonably classy early in the evening ...though probably more squiffy by the end of it. There is probably a corresponding photo of the lads somewhere too.
It's a bit of a happy / sad photo really...happy times with friends, sad as T died unexpectedly last October...never thought the baby of the group would be the first to go..heart attack at 41. You just never know do you?
Anyway, this isn't a miserable post...I'm smiling as I remember the evening...the singing, the dancing...T sloshing red wine over the floor and dancing with pads of kitchen towel roll on her feet to mop it up LOL (thank goodness for wooden floors eh?) ...haha...now I'm remembering lots of other things that she would do and make me laugh...sleep tight little clown :-)

Misty, frosty mornings..

On days where I have no meetings...I try to get out for a bit of a walk and get the blood flowing before I sit at my desk all day with my arse going to sleep.  It's pretty much always the same route (either in one direction or the other) as there's a limit as to how far I can go and still be back and ready to roll before 9.
This morning was a misty & frosty one...cold, but rather beautiful I thought...

 

Too early for the snowdrops to have opened up much...

 

 

but the watery sun through the mist gave the river a monochrome arty feel..

and the frost on the plants always makes even the mundane look pretty..

this holly almost glitters....

 

and isn't this delightful? (cinquefoil I think)

 

 

Frosty fields where a few weeks ago were floods...

 

 

And frosty hills that were covered in snow a few weeks ago....

That's me all wide awake and off home for a cup of tea and a bowl of porridge before I start work :-)

The REAL Fernanda

 Here she is...the REAL Fernanda...not her stunt double.

I'm keeping her in the run this week....I would like her to have a pretty firm idea of where home / safety / bed is before I let her range around the garden but if the weather is reasonable at the weekend the girls can have a good scratch around in the garden.

She's a friendly little soul and is already happy to eat mealworms from my hand and be petted a bit...and she's already given me 4 beautiful olive eggs (are you listening to this Mo & Yolko? Yes eggs! a fair exchange for the lovely treats I bring you daily...)

Now, if I can get her to eat big, fat, disgusting slugs too she could be my hen in shining (black) armour and save the garden this year too.... oh well, I can dream .....

Sunday Sun & Snowdrops

The glorious clear blue skies on Sunday tempted me to leave my chores and wander off on a long walk down the valley ( haha..like it takes very much to tempt me away from chores!) Just look at that sky...I wandered along happily in a pure ELO moment singing "Mr Blue Sky" to myself.

 

 

The river is still running pretty high, but within its banks....

 

 

but the ground underfoot is still squodgy...don't forget your wellies!

 

 

Doesn't all of the moisture make for some beautiful mosses though?

 

 

But far and away, the stars of Sundays walk were the snowdrops!

 

 

A glut, a surfeit, a profusion...

 

A fulsomeness...

 

an abundance...

 

A luxuriance...

 

 an exuberance of snowdrops.....

 

Bastard fags!!

I was going to tell you about my lovely walk amongst the snowdrops yesterday, but the sad news of Richard Briers death announced today changed my mind. (Maybe I'll upload those photos tomorrow) The bastard fags took my Mum too...she was only 66 years old. I read that Richard was diagnosed 5 years ago...Mum had a similar amount of time...searches on the internet seem to show that 5 years is about the average prognosis.

Richard gentle words when speaking about the bastard disease are kindly understated....
"I get very breathless, which is a pain in the backside," he told the Daily Mail.
"I haven't even got the strength to garden any more. Trying to get upstairs - oh God, it's ridiculous.
"The ciggies got me. I didn't think it would go quite as badly as it has. It's a bugger, but there it is. I used to love smoking."

He really isn't joking when he says trying to get upstairs is ridiculous...just going up to the loo becomes an impossibilty and you're left helpless and undignified. Mum felt a huge amount of guilt that she had brought it on herself, and the medical profession ensured that message was hammered home at every opportunity !! (I'm not going down that route as it just makes me angry...and that won't help )

I gave up smoking nearly 2 years ago..I may or may not have done it in time..we'll just have to wait and see.  All of us smokers have to make our own decision on when to give up....if you watch someone you love becoming inexorably incapacitated ( and bless 'im "I haven't got the strength to garden" kind of makes light of what emphysema did to him and all other sufferers) and then, rather selfishly, think of how you would handle it,  it makes you give some serious thought to trying to give up (again)

I think maybe there needs to be more publicity ...Liz Dawn has bravely spoken out ...all the time I smoked I thought that the danger was lung cancer...and I never knew anyone that died from lung cancer in my family or friends, colleagues and aquaintances families...so I didn't worry too much ( I could get hit by a bus haha)...it seems to me the real threat sneaks up with being a bit out of puff, the need to sit and rest a little more often (sit and have a fag?) and by the time you realise how serious it is...it's way too late.

Rest in peace Mum, rest in peace Richard , and everyone else taken by the bastard fags. A huge hug and respect for what they are going through to anyone suffering now. And if you are still smoking I wish you the strength to give them up ...took me MANY goes...drugs and the quit smoking people worked for me in the end.

Anyway...enough misery moaning...I'm going to pour myself a big glass of elderberry wine and I promise to be more chirpy tomorrow

KKWF ^..^

The Chicken has Landed!!

and we shall call her "Fernanda"......this isn't actually a photo of Fernanda...it's her stunt double. I picked her up late this afternoon ...popped to Hungerford to meet the girlfriend of one of my customers who had kindly brought her down with her from Bristol ( Abby was going to a meeting with her new employer in Hungerford...it wasn't a special journey for 1 chicken)  I wore a red anorak so as to be easily recognisable and the exchange was done in the library carpark...yup...those are the sort of deals we're doing in carparks here on the Berkshire/Wiltshire borders - none of your shady shennanigans here LOL. 
Yolko and Mo weren't wildly impressed with their new roomie...well Yolko wasn't  anyway (Mo is such a softy she wasn't all that worried ) but all were distracted and played nicely once I'd thrown in a couple of handfuls of mealworms :-)  They only had half an hour before bedtime so no time for fistycuffs (or enough light for a real photo)...hopefully they'll all be fine in the morning and I'll take a photo of the real Fernanda :-)  She is alledgedly the illicit love child of an Araucana and mystery partner so probably an olive egger.

Maybe she'll lay an egg and Mo & Yolko will feel guilty about their "pet" status and decide to join in and earn their keep :-)  haha...I live in hope.

Happy Birthday Precious Firstborn!!

‎24 years ago at 5 to 5 in the morning you came into the world and made me your Mum...fell in love with you instantly and am so proud of the wonderful man you have grow up to be. Happy Birthday My Beauty! Hope you have a wonderful day:-) Love you all the way to the stars and back and twice round the moon :-)

 

A "virtual" walk for Josh...

At Christmas time, we were going to go on a long walk, but each time we had the opportunity the weather was miserable and it got dark SO early that the one time we went out for a long walk we had to cut it short. Friday evening the sunset promised a nicer Saturday (and you know what they say - Yep, red sky at night, shepherds pie!) so I thought I'd take that walk and put it on here for you.

It was bitterly cold  but a lovely day yesterday as I walked up through Loves Copse.

 

There were lots of signs of badger activity..

and something had been having a good root around here...

The snowdrops up on the hills aren't out yet..

 

but they won't be long...

 The gorse is in bloom of course ( Don't they say "when gorse is out of bloom, then kissing is out of fashion" ?)

Here's the view down the path to Aldbourne...it's the same view as my banner, though not quite as lush as on a misty May morning.

 

Here's the view on the path the other way, walking towards Hilldrop

 I thought the tractor looked cool sillouetted against the sky

 and I rather liked these too...

Look at that glorious blue sky...it was completely clear at 11, but it's after 12 here and some clouds are starting to gather now.

Look...a perfectly manicured hill with stripes!!

It wouldn't be a walk with me if we didn't stop for a chat with the creatures, now would it?

 Back down in the valley where it's more sheltered the snowdrops are out..

Lots of birds were flitting around the hedgerow, chattering away...if you look carefully, you can see one perched in the middle...most of them were far too quick for me to photograph

The nettles are just starting to grow through too.....soon be enough to forage (I like them with pasta in a creamy sauce)

 There you go, my beauty...a 2 hour walk and you didn't even get puffed out climbing up and down (and up and down) the hills .

 

 

Oooooo Presents!

Oh no, sorry...what I meant was Ewwww Presents!

 

Clearly Queenie, my feline fiend, (I know - not a typo!)  has read the BBC article about US cats and their murdering impact and feels that she needs to raise the bar! I normally get 1 token of her never ending esteem per week, but she has now upped this to a DAILY ritual. Yesterday it was dead mouse on the bedroom floor. She was trying to "de-fur" it when I discovered her, and I sent her prize off to the seaside with a watery ceremony.  Today we have bird remnants in the bedroom. As I can find no body, only feathers, I can only assume that the poor wee mite became a dietary supplement.

 

 

 

 

 

 It was clearly something pretty..look at those beautiful flashes of yellow on the feathers ( goldfinch? greenfinch? siskin?)

 

I'm not really moaning, although I don't like it, I've always kept cats, and they have always been allowed outside during the daytime, and I understand that it is natural for them to hunt. I also accept that some people prefer to keep their cats in. We all make the best choices we are able to for our pets. I guess it's just that Queenie is my first young girlie cat for a while (Mog who died 2 years ago last October ,hunted lots in her younger years but not much as she got older) The boys never seem to be very interested in hunting at all - or maybe it's just my boys :-)

The closest Baldrick gets is to wander around with his ball with a bell in, in his mouth, growling like he's protecting his prey LOL soppy boy!

Needless to say, he wasn't going out in the snow last week, unlike "Miss Murder"

 

Perhaps we can come to an agreement whereby she hoovers up after herself.......