No More Egg and Spoon

On a walk in our local park recently I was really sad to see the diamond shaped flower beds around these evergreen domes had been grassed over.

These diamonds were our favoured course for many egg and spoon races during those times when the children were younger and we would pack up a picnic and a fill up a day of the school holidays with outdoor fun.

So many happy memories.

First Booty

We've been in Salisbury today.

A belated Easter get together with G's family.

People being poorly and rubbish weather last weekend meant a date to see each other was arranged for this weekend instead.

It just so happens that the car boot in the field near my mother-in-law has started up again and so G suggested we went up an hour earlier than originally planned and give ourselves a little time to have a wander round and see what we could find.

That plan got a thumbs up from me.

Here are my buys from the first car boot of 2016 and in the order they were purchased.

First up is this big pasta serving dish.

As well as pasta I'm thinking it would be good to use for serving up garlic bread which is always a welcome addition to a pasta bake type meal.

Mine for 50p.

Here we have S wearing the jumper I bought her for £1.00. Animal print and fluffy two of her favourite things when it comes to clothing.

As if I don't have enough brooches already but I couldn't resist this polka dot bird. Another £1.00 purchase.

This item will go towards my sister's bundle of birthday gifts. Two brand new Cath K dusters for £1.00.

Final purchase and also £1.00 was an Avon room spritz in orange blossom, a fragrance we haven't tried as yet. I normally stock up on these for using in the bathroom when they are on offer in the catalogue at that price but I haven't bought any for a while and we are down to our last one so I was really pleased when S spotted this just as we were leaving.

Just a handful of things bought and a real mix of items they were too and to include a present, a jumper which made S happy and something useful I would need anyway was a good result all round I think.

Edible Easter Flowers

This is how S and I spent half an hour on Easter Sunday.

Digestive biscuits, icing and a bag of M&Ms were transformed into colourful, pretty flowers.

Eiffel Day

Today is Eiffel Tower Day. The day marks he completion of the tower in 1889.
So now you know, what will you do to mark the occasion? Wear an outfit which has a dash of French chic about it, cook coq au vin for tea or croissants for breakfast, maybe even book a trip to Paris ?
Me, I think I'll watch the Maigret episode I recorded on Sunday evening and maybe indulge in eating an eclair.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to one and all.

As you can see the dresser has been given it's Easter makeover.

I've had a busy week. 

 I had to attend a two day training course, learning how to navigate my way around the computer system I'll be using in my new job, which I'll be going to for the first time this coming Tuesday.

S had to go to the breakfast club at school for these two days and thankfully she absolutely loved it.

She particularly enjoyed Wednesday because not only was there the pre-school early morning club but in the afternoon there was a treat of being able to watch a movie as a reward for good work over the term.

T finished on Wednesday and has been spending some extra time volunteering at the charity shop. Yesterday I picked him up after he finished and although I don't normally like listening to music in the car he played the Spice Girls and we sang along to it, very loudly and probably very out of tune!

Yesterday was a glorious day and I spent over 3 hours of it out in the back garden tidying up and cutting back and trying to restore some sort of order out there. Our garden really is a a big old mess, where is the Ground Force team when you need them?
G arrived home mid afternoon. He'd had a night away in Bristol with his mate K as they'd gone to see the Von Hertzen Brothers.
Last night our friends R and S popped round for a catch up. 
It was gone midnight before we got to bed and so the last thing I wanted this morning was to be woken up early.
Melvin the cat had other ideas as selfishly he wanted his breakfast and so around 6.30 he woken me up by gently batting my face with his paw. 
This evening G and I have a date at the opera. I'm just hoping I'll be able to stay awake for the whole performance!

Souper Cheesecake

I've been trying to make a dent in the pile of recipe ideas I have torn out of magazines.

S made this lime and ginger cheesecake and although hers didn't look quite as picture perfect it tasted just as delicious.

I baked some cakes but these weren't quite as tasty.

I picked up this recipe on a World War 2 day out at Manor Farm in 2012.

I shall share the recipe because it is an original one from that time period and if anyone needs to provide a donation to a WW2 event at school then it may be useful.

Put 2 cups of All Bran, half cup of golden syrup and 1 and a half cups of milk in a bowl and leave for about 5 minutes. Add 1 egg. Sift in 1 cup of plain flour and 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and half tsp salt. Mix well and then pour into cake cases. I think I baked 20 cakes with this mix. Cakes were baked at 200c, mine took a bit longer than the 10 minutes quoted in the recipe.

A while back I bought a copy of A Girl Called Jack and decided it was time I actually cooked something from out of it.

This week I made the Carrot, Cumin and Kidney Bean Soup which G took to work on Tuesday. I have to say the colour was awful but he said it was really tasty and his work colleagues all enjoyed dunking a little bread into it too.

Today he took in Simple Spiced Potato Soup pictured below.

Bunny Wreath

I do like a quick and easy craft project.
I was looking on my Easter Pinterest board for something which I could make for decorating our front door.
I bought a styrofoam wreath from a local craft shop, glued on a pair of bunny ears and then wrapped round 2 fluffy scarfs both of which were purchased from a branch of Poundland.
The original idea came from mrs b's hive and a step by step guide for making hers can be found by clicking on the link.