This is Stripeycat

Saturday, 11 October 2014

Our weekend away - Cysgod Y Coed - 10th-12th October

Monday, 6 October 2014

Great thoughts are made under my cap...

Sunday, 5 October 2014

Saturday, 4 October 2014

Lennie and Stu came over for tea and brought these incredible print outs to colour in which work with the augmented reality programme Colar Mix - this pumpkin one was my favourite due to the seasonality but they were all fantastic - It's free to print off this starter pack and free to download the app - then all you do is view the image through the app and it comes to life!! - with your colouring in! - the pumpkins, for example get up and dance around in a circle! - MAGIC!

Friday, 3 October 2014

Friday

We had a lovely chippy lunch on Friday from our local chip shop - we tend to do this about once a fortnight and it's a real family treat. This fabulous place has grown beyond all recognition since it changed hands about eighteen months ago. It took them six months to get into their groove and establish themselves after the previous owner had left. Since then the fish in particular has been elevated to another level, the batter is crisp and crunchy whilst still being fried in 100% vegetable oil. People vote with their feet, and the queues you now get at this little place are all the evidence you need. Walsden's world famous Grandma Pollard's??? - PAH! - Stand aside.

Thursday, 2 October 2014

31 questions from River Cottage

1) River Cottage Everyday or the Bread Handbook
2) Toast (sourdough or soda bread) thickly spread with salty butter
3) Greens in Didsbury - Simon Rimmer's veggie place - we used to go for birthdays and anniversaries
4) Anything 'artificially' created to be low fat (ie.packed full of sugar fillers)
5) Oysters, Truffles, Lobster, Crab
6) Roast (chicken/pot roast brisket/nut roast)
7) Samphire
8) Free range chicken fillets oven baked with home made sorrel pesto, New potatoes and pan fried greens (courgette, leek, dwarf beans and shredded Chinese leaf) with a little pesto and cream.
9) River Cottage
10) Yorkshire Curd Tart - Jon
11) Blackberries (mushrooms with Dad)
12) White Russian
13) Took packed lunches
14) English cuisine is a melting pot now, but Italian if pushed.
15) Hugh F-W
16) Bread making
17) Classic Victoria sponge or Shaz's carrot cake
18) Blacksticks Blue or Brie de Meaux
19) Runner beans, Strawberries and herbs
20) Roast veggies - especially parsnips and squash
21) Liver 😭
22) Working on a farm (Mum was a chef)
23) The yard - huge rosebush, clematis, back wall
24) Bread
25) Norfolk - lots of local produce
26) Squash, Celeriac, Parsnips, Kale and 'greens' - love all my veggies.
27) Not a fruit fan I'm ashamed to say, though I enjoy apples and melons
28) The Chidiock cider circle drink off/any of the Christmas episodes
29) Thyme
30) Bianco style - garlic butter, cheese and herbs or Caprese - tomato, mozzarella and basil
31) Home made wholemeal toast with butter and a cup of filter coffee

Guilty nostalgia...

Chutney, cats and the horizontal child...

Made my second batch of chutney - four pots of marrow and ginger for Christmas time - used the BBC Good Food recipe this time. Tasted nice at the time of potting up so I hope a couple of months in the cupboard will help it mature and become even better.

The cats were helping.....not.

When I came up to bed George was sleeping diagonally across the whole bed...feet in the face again.

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Where did that month go...

September just disappeared like smoke and October is beginning, I'm way behind and need to fill in a tonne of photographs - but in the meantime, this was yesterday.