Wednesday 31 July 2013

31st July where has July gone?

I cannot believe that July 2013 is finishing today! Where do the months go?  Hopefully our hot weather might be returning after today?

We started the day with rain and this afternoon the seamist has burnt off and the sun is trying to come out from behind those grey skies!
 We are using my friend Carol's greenhouse now she is living in Wilts most of the time. These are the cucumbers and some lettuce I picked today. We have family for a meal on Saturday so will be making cucumber soup as a starter!

Tuesday 30 July 2013

30th July - Lucky Snapping - Extra week!

Thank you Kathi for providing us with a week 5 challenge this week. Sorry... I failed to deliver yesterday :( but here I am today :)

Monday 29th was no photo day, I had intended to take a photo at SW yesterday teatime but went with no camera or phone and instead of getting my stone award STS (stayed the same :(  Came home and ate and drank wine to compensate and of course put on LOL!!

Tuesday 30th  Grandchildren today so busy, busy.....rained all day and very breezy but not cold. We went to the gym am then played at home pm whilst I tried to sort out our house insurance, Why did I leave it all month until 2 days before renewal...because I hate the challenge to get a better insurance. I am sure if I was younger I would love it but not these days when I have plenty of time. Life seems so difficult these days in every areas and I am sure it is an age thing!  Anyway have cancelled the insurance renewal for £286 and found a similar cover for £170 so very happy and feel clever at 68!!!

Cannot do 1 photo today so here are today's photos
Breakfast with Grandad!
 Zac eating his marmite on toast!
 We went to the gym for a couple of hours am
 Graandad escaped to read the paper and have a cup of coffee, I found him surrounded by Mum's and children starting to have their picnics!!

Sunday 28 July 2013

28th July - Lucky Snapping quotation challenge week

This week was my quotation week and I chose a quote from Voltaire
" Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well"

Appreciate  the dictionary says means :  to be grateful, to understand, recognise, value in worth (not monetary), the act of enjoyment

I am so grateful for my health and appreciate that the medication I take these days for BP and underactive thyroid has made me able to continue to live a healthy life longer than my parents or grandparents.  I appreciate all the research that takes place for different illnesses to try and eradicate them and support and donate whenever I can.

I give thanks and appreciate all the men and women who have fought for our country in the past for us to have our freedom. I am proud to be British, to be able to speak my mind and to have freedom to worship as a Christian and to live side by side in harmony with others who have different faiths to mine. Tolerance is such a valuable attribute which should be appreciated.

I appreciate what values my parents gave me in my upbringing and hope that the future generation appreciate what we have given too.  Sadly I do not always see many signs of politeness and chivelry in everyday life.

I appreciate daily the wonderful world that my God created for us. As I write this the 'over done' hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful comes to my mind.

Well this blog must show some photos from this week even during a little rain!
The evening sky one evening as the sun set and the weather forecast predicted thunder and rain the following day!
Open Gardens on Tuesday shows the youngest (Xanthe 3)and the oldest (Margaret 93)visitor together, yes it had been raining!
It is lovely to have Xanthe's brother Zac with us every Tuesday now it is the school holidays 

I also met my oldest son Mark for coffee on Friday, here is my latest photo of him




Monday 22 July 2013

July 23rd - A Baby Boy!

Well Kate and William have finally had their baby today! Congratulations to them, I do hope they have some privacy for the next few weeks!

It is my quotation week this week but I will leave this tonight and today show some photos of Zachary today. He has started his school hols today so we have Xanthe and Zac tomorrow for the day
His mum took this photo today of all his freckles! I am so proud of him. He had an excellent report with excellent SATS above average!
On Sunday the family went to a garden centre where he met some eagles.
 They also have a new addition to the family, another cat that has been called Flump. She is so sweet, we met her on Sunday



Saturday 20 July 2013

July 20th - Lucky Snapping week 4 - Nostalgia - Food Memories

This week is Kathy's challenge week with us looking back at our past. food memories.
This week she asks us to look at food we have eaten as children, what we liked and hated and why. Family favourites and traditions we may have past on to our family

I was a end of war baby born in 1945. My memories as a child was we had an eating pattern during the week. On shopping day we started with a full nutritous meal but as the week ended we had' make do' meals such as egg on toast / or homemmade soup and a steamed pudding and custard. My mother only shopped once a week and it was make do at the end of the week.
I often laugh as I open a large tin of baked beans to eat alone or share with my husband. My mother had the smaller tins of baked beans and that tin was shared with 3 of us with one toasted slice of bread!

My mother had a baking day too. That day I would come home form school and she would have baked 3/4 different kind of cakes for the week which then went into all the tins to last the week (no freezer in those days!)  She was a good cook.  I still have her recipe book with all the homemade recipes for cough mixture/ lemonade drink, confectioners custard and cream etc during the 2nd world war, I have to confess I have never tried them. What I love is that in that recipe book are recipes that she wrote down when given by me and embraced when I went to train as a cookery teacher and for years later when I was teaching.

Foods were very nourishing but seasonal never as adventurous as those we have today from round the world and that we can buy all year round and also freeze. Like Anne and Kristina I had to eat everything that was on my plate and there was never an alternative!  For that reason I hated brussell sprouts and cabbage until I became an adult (I love both veg now!!)

We too had very little money for luxury food and drink. My mother never worked and was the housewife at home. Special treats were icecream which was bought at the corner shop and wrapped in newspaper and then run home to immediately eat for dessert and lemonade was only bought for special occasions such as a birthday party.

Desserts if we had one was mainly steamed puddings and custard, milk pudding (ugh!!) or cake but instant whip became a popular dessert on the weekly menu during the 60's. I loved butterscotch whip with banana slices in it,  one of my favourites!

Well what about school dinners. They made a lasting impression on some dessert foods I never eat- custard. milk puddings and blancmange! We had a school dinner and came home to a sandwich and cake every day, no 2 cooked meals a day. I do remember suppers which my parents had. Every evening there would be around 9o'clock  a cheese sandwich with HP sauce which my mother and father ate!! no wonder he had a massive heart attack at 60 and my mother a massive stroke at 63!!

Over the years with my career being a Home Economic teacher and therefore with a great interest in food and travelling too, I have loved trying and cooking foreign foods and my favourite is Italian food.
In France I always choose steak to eat out as the French cook it to perfection... but why oh why do they always serve it in restaurants with over cooked beans and french fries when their markets are full of such wonderful vegetables? (sorry Anne). Why also do Americans eat such rubbish fast foods and how difficult it is to eat vegetables there too?(sorry Joy)

Anyway over the years I have been a serial dieter. I suppose cos I just love food but now having discovered SW this way of eating suits both Peter and I...mind you at the moment we are trying to shake our bodies up and doing our hair dresser's 'boxer diet' of 6 days strict regime but sensible and healthy eating and 7th day anything we want to eat and drink, today is our 7th day and this week we have each lost around 6lbs!

I love tomatoes so here is my lunch today on my last 6 days I couldn't eat them as they were high in carbs(sugar!)
Foods we didn't eat this week were 2 desserts that I made and took to our housegroup social
Raspberry and white chocoate roulade with a coulis
 Mary Berry rich bread and butter pudding made with brioche and mincemeat

Now what  we have been up to this week as the UK is experiencing a wonderful heatwave with temps daily around 28/30C!

We took 2 Granddaughters out on Tuesday aged 17 and 3 yrs, everyone had a great time

On Wednesday we had our housegroup social where we said goodbye to Mary  as she and her husband Chris (our vicar) leave our parish after 18yrs




 Chris and I 
 Chris and Mary 
A wonderful sky on our hottest day on Thursday
 Our first cucumber nearly ready in my friend Carol's greenhouse. We have never grown them before!








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Saturday 13 July 2013

12th July Lucky Snapping week 2 challenge - LUCKY

This week is Anne's challenge week 'Let's Reflect' and from her word, SILVER LININGS it is letter L for LUCKY

Luck(y)or chance is an event which occurs beyond one's control without regard to one's will, intention or desired result.

  • Luck can be good or bad
  • Luck can be accident or chance
  • Luck applies to an entity
It is very easy to say to people good luck or I was lucky but I try as a Christian to sometime use the word blessings...good luck - may God be with you. The word comes from  15C Dutch word 'gheluc' meaning happiness, good fortune shortened to luc. German word is gluck.

So what am I blessed with, a lovely husband, family,(not always a blessing when there are problems!!) friends and most important good health..

At the moment the UK is having a summer heatwave so we can have an outdoor life after a long winter so my blessings this week were..
MONDAY  -  Temp in garden on Monday at 8pm!
I lost 21/2lbs at SW and came home with the recipe for SW Pimms,,, jug of diet lemonade and 2 capfuls of balsamic vinegar and fruit and mint, it tastes yummy!!!!
TUESDAY  -  Xanthe day so we took ourselves off to the beach after watering the garden




WEDNESDAY   -  A morning out with Peter, we had breakfast on the beach, a walk along Bexhill seafront and then coffee at another cafe before coming home,a perfect summer morning!
THURSDAY - was a scrapping class and I actually finished the LO in the 2 hr class. Another of talented Anita McDonald's class LO..... lovely to chat and copy once a month!! and I feel it may have got my mojo going as today Sat I feel like doing this week's WC on UKS!
FRIDAY  -  SUNDAY hopefully eating here each day!

How blessed I am!

Sunday 7 July 2013

7th July - Lucky Snapping week 1 -View and summer at last!

I am just making this week whilst I watch the tennis final and drink bubbly. This weekend has been a heat wave...summer here at last! The temp in the garden says 28C with a lovely warm breeze but I am glued to the TV inside!!

July poem says - " Hot July brings cooling showers,
                            apricots and gillyflowers"

I was going to look up what gillyflowers looks like, but Borqna has, thank you xx

Well we now def have hot July but I hope there will be no cooling showers except in our bathroom !!

HE'S WON!!!!!

Now my July views! 2nd July warm but sea mists swirling in
 An evening shot
This afternoon, facecloths drying on bench!!

 Front garden above in June and now poppies gone and rose bushes flowering in July below 
Flowers at the back of the house which faces SW and gets a lot of sun

And of course Xanthe last week at an Open garden out in the country. The cows got very frightened of her not vice versa!!




Monday 1 July 2013

30th June - my lost post! Xanthe's 3rd Birthday

Well don't know where my post went but def duplicated one post so here goes with the lost one all about Xanthe's 3rd birthday last Sunday! She is our 6th grandchild, the 2nd Granddaughter and we think the last!
 Here she was greeting us as we arrived and opening one of our presents
We were then treated to different outfits that she had been given! The lady with many outfits!!
1. Our present a woodland fairy outfit, the head dress she didn't like!!
2. She then wanted to be a princess from Cinderella!
3. turn the dress inside out and we have Snow white, no Wicked Queen thank goodness!!
Finally Auntie Jo arrived with the jewels!!
Look at my 'Pat from Eastenders' earrings. yes she loved them, but not the necklace, that soon came off!!
OK you want a smile so this is my best one!!!