Lately

Let's have a little catch up of things which have been happening chez J&J shall we.


From the kitchen we have produced three things never cooked in there before.
S made sweet potato cookies. She decided to bake these as part of her homework on Zimbabwe from a traditional recipe found online, earning herself some words of admiration from her teacher. Very nice they were too.
I made British style patatas bravas, which earned a mixed reaction. One loved it, one tried it but didn't like it, one refused to eat it. Sound familiar? 
The last new thing on the menu was a whipple-scrumptious fudgemallow delight for Roald Dahl day. Oh my. 

I was very pleased when Friday evening rolled around and I was home with my feet up. It had been a busy week. I really felt like a glass of wine but we didn't have any in. What we did have cooling in the fridge was a Snowball. I had bought them a couple of weeks ago as it was something I had wanted to try. Out came the very infrequently used champagne saucers, the drink was poured and very quickly quaffed. I thought it was delicious. This now begs the question, do I try Advocaat on it's own? Any advice? 

Whilst (kind of) on the subject of glasses I wanted to show one of my latest purchases. 
I had an afternoon out with my sisters at the end of August, it was to spend time together on the anniversary of when we lost our dearest Dad. 
We went to a vintage and antique emporium where I found this little gem. It's now my glass of choice for my morning orange juice.

I've been very organised and sorted out all of C's birthday presents from the stash of items I have accumulated for her. I have a fair amount of things towards her Christmas present and for her birthday in October I think I counted 15 items for our budget of £10. I shall be wrapping them soon and will make sure I photograph them as I go. I have also decided on the gift for my other sister T whose birthday is in November and I'm really pleased with the theme running through it. This candle is part of it and when I have bought all the items I'll share it here.

Last week at book club our read for August was given a thumbs up by all. Black Hills was something a bit different and an enjoyable read but I felt it was about 100 pages too long, I got a bit bored with the two main characters trying to sort out their relationship when you know how it's going to end. Also whenever I looked at the cover I started singing 'Take me Back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota, to the beautiful Indian country that I love' from the film Calamity Jane. And as much as I love Doris Day and that movie I was getting fed up with it!
In contrast this month we have The Spinning Heart which is only 160 pages long. Or should that be short. This should mean I have some time to read another of the books G gave me for my birthday. 
I have read the Phryne Fisher one already. G bought me that because we were hooked on watching the TV series on Netflix which was hugely entertaining. My next one will be The Year of Living Danishly.

We didn't go booting this weekend and the weekend before we only went to provide a bit of support to my mum and sister who were there selling so I only had time to have a mini wander and make a couple of purchases. A checked shirt for T and a sequinned top for S.

The lady who was on the pitch next to my sister didn't want to take any of her things home and gave me this length of Christmas fabric which she said is used to hang from a mantle. She said it had originally came from Denmark. I think I may wrap it around the metal base of the tree to hide it's ugly legs.

We were hoping to go on a wildlife walk at a local nature reserve at the weekend but when we got there for the advertised time we found it had already started. Weekends over the next couple of months will probably be a bit quieter as there seem to be less events on as we head into autumn, so it was a little disappointing we had missed this one. 

Pink Dress

I'm blogging much later in the day than I intended but it's been such a full on day that 9.30pm really is the soonest I am able to get out the laptop and let you know that today has been teddy bear day. And to mark the day I wanted to share this little bear of S's.
All those years ago when we were waiting to meet S our social worker suggested T send her a little something. A special gift from her new big brother.
She suggested a cuddly toy of some description, something to help make a connection before the face to face introductions.
T chose this littlest of all bears for S and her foster carers said from the moment it arrived it never left her side.
If they went out the bear went too, inside a tiny handbag which looked like a glasses case with carrying handles.
One day after they had been out food shopping they arrived home to find the bear had been lost. Cue tears. Lots of tears.
S's foster dad was immediately despatched back to the supermarket on a bear finding mission and thankfully she was found. Phew.
She is without a doubt one of S's tiniest and certainly most treasured bears.

Festival of Food

Saturday morning saw me, G and S hopping on a train and then hopping off again just a couple of stops along the tracks as we were going to Hamble for 

the Festival of Food.

We had a walk of a mile or so from the train station to get down to the quay and this took us along the Dani King Cycleway. Dani King was part of the Team GB Cycling team and won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in the team pursuit. Because of this the post box situated in Hamble square was painted gold, I completely failed to get a photo of that.

Hamble has a long association with aviation, this is reflected in the naming of some of the roads and details of the housing within those streets.

Further along the road is a small statue dedicated to the Air Transport Auxiliary 

with a plaque explaining their vital part in WW2. Unfortunately the black engraving has started to fade which, out of respect, I think should be attended to.

S and G were sat waiting for me down at the quay, would you believe I was waylaid taking photos? Not of the gold post box though, how could I forget to do that?

Once back to being a band of three again we headed over to sample our way around the various food and drink stalls.

We needed to buy something tasty for lunch and after trying fudge, various cheeses, chocolate stout and ham we settled on a steak pie and another filled with egg, bacon and sausage

one of these sun dried tomato loaves (although I would have preferred the cheese and watercress one) and a chunk of nettle and wild garlic cheese.

All were delicious.

This was our view as we sat on the quay enjoying our lunch. All very pleasant sitting in the sun and watching the boats sail past.

S and I spent a little time watching one of the stall holders make apple and blackberry muffins before

we set about answering the clues to a quiz based on the houses, pubs and shops leading from the square down to the quay.

Pork with Rarebit Topping

Yesterday was Welsh Rarebit Day and I knew exactly which meal I would be cooking for G, T and S.
Thankfully it's one enjoyed by all of them, a definite plus knowing there won't be any food issues come teatime.

The topping is made by mixing 100g of grated cheddar with 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon each of Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce.

It works just as well as a topping for grilled turkey steaks.

Nice and simple.

Year 11

Today was T's first day back at school.
Year 11 for him now, his last year of senior school.
How did that happen?
This morning I had to leave for work before anyone else was awake so this photo opportunity comes courtesy of G.
Such an important year ahead. Today T was up on time, left on time and even had a smile on his face as he left. 
I hope the rest of the year goes as well.

Year 6

This morning as S went off to begin her new school year she had a smile on her face. G said that she was still smiling when she came home again this afternoon.

The first day was a good one.

Finishing Up

Here we are on the last day of the school hols.

S returns to school tomorrow, T will return on Thursday after his school has an inset day and Wednesday is given over to the new Year 7 pupils.

Most of the things we've done I've already posted about but there are just a couple which need to be recorded.

The children spent much more time than ever before amusing themselves or spending time with friends. In fact S isn't at home today, she is having one last day out with L's family at a local farm.

T has volunteered at the charity shop alot.

I must admit to being a little concerned he wasn't socialising with friends so much but he has made a good set of friends at the shop and he is learning the life skill of having to work alongside others.

To help raise extra funds he came up with the idea of customers being able to pay £1 and soak the staff with a bucket of water, in the end over £30 was raised.

This opportunity did not pass us by, only because we do like to make contributions to charity where we can you understand.

I'm hoping the uploading of the video of S and my mum giving him a soaking works.

As I mentioned at the start of the summer break, this was the first year I wouldn't be off with them due to my change in employment.

Thankfully things worked out well.

S went and stayed with Grandma, she stayed with my mum, was invited to friend's and I had arranged some swaps with a friend.

G would look after S three times and we would look after her 5 year old four times.

The age gap was a bit tricky at times but once at the park they both enjoyed themselves.

One morning was spent at a local country park, the one where we do the Halloween trail, so we could do the summer trail.
In the rain.
This holiday it was a common theme.

As well as the biscuit baking there was butterfly cake making inspired by the purchase of chocolate chip cookie spread.
They didn't last much longer after this photo was taken.

One evening we played Mario Karts on the Wii where everyone laughed at how inept I was and I'm really pleased to say we even managed a couple of sessions of good old board games. 

T and I had a Piranha Panic contest and the three of us had fun with a game of Cluedo. I got my guess wrong, T solved the murder and S was only one step behind him.

 S proved to be a dreadful cheat when we did the egg and spoon, got very ratty during a game of draughts (which I found hilarious!) and despite saying he didn't want to play T enjoyed the card game Pit, something we hadn't played before.

A bit of something for everyone.