Accrington Stanley....'Ooo are theyyyy?

Today was Todstock, and so it followed fairly obviously that we went to Accrington for at least a large chunk of the day :) There we picked up another preloved bargain from a lady in Church (this is an area within Accy, she wasn't the Vicar's wife or anything) of this fantastic Fisher Price rainforest baby mobile

It moves around and the leaves sort of flap and it plays soothing rainforest sounds (or Bach, Beethoven or Mozart) no disrespect to the classics but I like the rainforest sounds best :) anyway, I'm sure Little b will love it and we saved £30 on the price of it new from Mothercare.

From here we went down the road to Oswaldtwistle Mills which is possible the weirdest place I have ever been in. Part museum/part garden centre/part low-fi department store...it had a chiropodist next door to a psychic....???! We bought some blue and white stripey towels for the b and wandered round in bumbling disbelief, Jon appeared to be the only tall person in the mill and spent some time helping the more stumpy end of the population get their rubberised sandals with flashing heels (don't even try and comprehend....I was there and I struggled). We then called into an Asda by a lake (interesting feature) and collected the free huggies newborn pack I'd been sent vouchers for and came home in a huge downpour.

Once home I made some quick flatbreads to go with the carrot and cumin soup I made last night and then some simple focaccia with the rest of the dough. We also had our first stab at hot cross buns sans white crosses and they turned out brilliantly; as with the flatbreads I got the recipe from the River Cottage bread handbook again (my current favourite) and can very much recommend it, though next time I would certainly add much more spice and zest as I like my buns spicy ;) we also made up a bolognese sauce with extra pepper, mushroom and celery and then I had a wee rest while Jon did his magic with the bechamel and made a wonderful lasagne.