Teatime

A little diversion to the Ram for tea....

Canal dreams

After some fairly boring nominal tasks (recycling, bank) we paid a visit to Stubbing Wharf, It was the first time I had ever been there and so Jon led the way up the steps at the back of the pub to the canalside picnic tables. It was lovely to have a little drink and sit and watch the water. J wrote his Mum's mother's day card and we laughed up our sleeves at the strange little man in the field adjacent to the canal practising his golf strokes, BADLY.

Shopping for plants

We had a trundle around Gordon Rigg, picked up a nice rhubarb plant, some compost, seed trays and propagators and had a little bask in the sunshine looking at those beautiful hills. What a setting for a garden centre, we're so lucky.

Sadly not enough room in our little yard for fruit trees, but one day.

Look at those hills.....

Top Brink

Toby

Monday brought the first day of Jon's week off (hurrah!) and a visit from Suz and Toby. I can't believe how much he has grown since we last saw him, time is flying.

It was such a joy to give him a cuddle, and it wasn't half bad to see his Mum too :)

Golden Wedding

On Saturday we attended Jon's parent's golden wedding anniversary at Rookery Hall in Nantwich. There was 25 of us for the meal and I was introduced to a variety of Aunties and Uncles I have never met before. Mum and Dad B seemed to have a wonderful time and I really enjoyed seeing the nieces and nephews again.

Oh, and the lemon tart with popping candy? Inspired!

A long weekend

I seem to have done nothing but post music videos of late, It's weird the phases of the blog...sometimes it's all photographs, sometimes nothing but poetry, or recipes, or perhaps links and links and links. I never plan for this, it's just what pops into my head at the time.

It feels like a Sunday night here because Jon has been off today, he has had a long weekend to use up annual leave and it has been wonderful to have him home. Yesterday we ordered a lovely selection of seeds from sow vegetables including three types of tomato - sungold, moneymaker and black russian, our favourites from last year - courgette and french bean, and some borlotti, swiss chard and radish. We already have a large pack of the other obvious candidates - including lovely herbs and rhubarb, that were bought for us, along with some planters as wedding presents.

As well as this seed-fest we also ordered our potatoes, again from jba seed potatoes and opted for a kit including the old stalwarts Desiree, Estima, King Edward and Maris Piper plus, a second kit with Pentland Javelin, Charlotte, Maris Bard and Blue Belle. I find myself wildly excited at the prospect of not 4 like last year (see below) but *8* different types to try, all sitting pretty in their planter bags. It's the small things.

Coming up next weekend is Jon's parents golden wedding anniversary and as they are due to go away for a mini-break prior to us all meeting up, we decided to send them an early present which arrived this morning....

It seemed somehow poetic to get them a pair of trees, to mark the fact they had been a couple for fifty years, and absolute thumbs up to Marks you did us proud. They were so very very touched and so incredibly happy, I couldn't be more glad we decided to send them.

We also, last but not least, wrote a large number of thank you cards, to thank people for their fabulous and thoughtful wedding presents, for coming to the reception through the snow and the suppliers for being incredibly special. A bagful of these went into the post this afternoon, a small selection are to be hand delivered and a final 8 need copies of our photographs, but we're getting there.

Supermoon

For Dad and St Patrick

Heartbeats

Flapjacking

Pam the Jam from River Cottage has just recently brought out a new cake book which is most definitely on my wish list, but until then, I am enjoying the recipe excerpts on the RC webpage

• 175g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 150g demerara sugar
• 250g medium porridge oats
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 tbsp desiccated coconut (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Place the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a large heavy-based saucepan. Heat gently, stirring often, until the butter has just melted and the sugar is still grainy. Remove from the heat and pour in the porridge oats, salt and desiccated coconut, if using. Mix together until evenly combined. Turn the mixture into the prepared baking tray, spread evenly and firm down well with a fork or the back of a spoon. For a soft and chewy flapjack, bake for about 20 minutes until a light-medium golden colour. Give it a bit longer if you prefer a crispy, well-cooked flapjack.

Run a knife round the edge to release the flapjack, leave for 5 minutes, then mark into bars or squares. Leave in the tin until nearly cold before cutting into pieces and removing to a wire rack. The flapjacks will keep in an airtight tin for up to 10 days.

Sunday morning

Camera noir

Orbs of the lost souls?

and I was reminded of how much I adore this song

The future's bright...

The future's orange...

Tonight we went to the pub, after the now traditional game of Liar's dice and vodka. The band was shockingly shit and the temperature was baltic. We sat and talked with a chap that G knew and his son. The latter got into a diatribe with J about spiders and made me laugh so much I was nearly sick. When we got in I made cheats cheese on toast and then left the boys to it with the 360 and went to bed with the cat.

Three faces of Jon

More images using the retro camera app, this time of my dearest husband.

The Pinhole

The little orange box

The Baerbl

Sadness

So I was searching for images under the moniker of sadness and found this...

after which, none of the other images seemed relevant, so I am posting this alone.

I've had two pieces of sad news in less than twenty four hours and am thinking about all those involved. I hope that positive progress and improvement can be had in both situations and meanwhile I am keeping a birdhouse in my soul.

****UPDATED****

I am so very glad and thankful to say that both parties are responding to treatment, and although this is not a quick fix and will, in both cases be a condition for life, It is just very wonderful that recoveries are being made.

Knit one crochet one

Tonight I attended my first knit club run by someone I am lucky enough to call my friend, the very talented Rachael Elwell, who taught me how to crochet in straight lines and I made a little red pouch for my new phone :)

Desirable

Did I tell you I've got a new phone? For a day or two it didn't quite sink in, but then It took over my life, so I would like to introduce my HTC Desire HD in all it's glory and here, are some photographs of the beautiful blue skies over Tod today that I have taken using my retro cam 'app' - I'm soo down with the kids don't cha know!?

Oh, and word up to the sunshine.