School today. 3 double sciences, all pretty straight forward, though no practicals left for me to do - shame. Science team running a rocket day with year 7's, lucky little blighters. I'd of loved that when I was their age.
Tuesday 15.3.10
Spent the entire day on the phone and doing paperwork. SOOOOOOO tedious. Still; had to be done.
Rewarded myself for being so diligent by going to the Knitting group with Sue.
Rhonas birthday. Phoebie had made a lemon cake. OOOOO it was scrummy.
Wednesday 17.3.10
Stop me now, because I swear that if I get my hands on our milkman I'll bloody kill the gurt ape.
Last night,in a botlte rack, along with the empties, we put out a note, protected from wind and rain by a yoghurt pot, saying we didn't want any milk today.
Look what what greeted me when I opened up this morning.
UNBLOODYBELIEVABLE
I had to wriggle out of the front door as he had put the yoghurt pot and a bottle behind it. WHY?
The note was ripped in two and thrown/dropped on the ground. WHY?
The empties, one of which he'd clearly picked up, were left behind.WHY?
I'm glad we hadn't gone away. With a note left on the ground for all to see and a load of empties hanging around in that mess, it's all too clear to passing trouble that a house is empty. Thanks DAIRY CREST, you've exceeded all my expectations ...... of how to totally screw up a business.
Feeling better now.
Spent the rest of the day blissfully gardening for my clients. Sunny, warm, with the birds singing and everything beginning to bud.
Felt so tired tonight that I wrapped myself in a blanket and watched TV (the computer actually). Now that's weird thing for me to do.
Thursday18.3.10
Hanging around waiting for the man to come over and fix the window on our motor home.
Nice day, so I decided to clean out the shed. As it's digital switch over next week, the old telly was off to the tip. Can't believe the amount of rubbish we've generated. Pretty embarrassing really.
Made 3 trips to the tip, then cleaned up the side of the house by taking my pant pots up to the garden plot. Now that area is ready to be turned into a log store in readiness for next winter.
Today is Debbies birthday, plus it's Mandys tomorrow and Sues next week. I never need too much of an excuse to make sweeties and this was less an excuse and more of a reason.
Chocolate 'cup cakes'
Gather together paper cases and decorations.
Take 400g (4 ordinary bars) of plain choccy and 50g (2oz) butter.
Slam the wrapped choccy bars, one at a time, hard onto the work surface, It will shatter. Phil, the vinegar and sugar lover gave me ths tip. When you unwrap your choccy bars,do it over the bowl, as they'll be in pieces.
Put very hot water into a pan. Put your broken choccy and the butter, into a bowl, choose your bowl and pan carefully, so they can be arranged like this. Avoid getting drops of water into the choccy as it will do weird stuff.
Get stirring.
Keep stirring 'til the choccy is smooth and runny. It's a good idea to slap the bowl a few times to get any air bubbles up to the surface, then skim the spoon across the surface and feel them burst as you pass over them.
Organize the cup filling area, keeping the choccy over the hot water. I find a couple of small teaspoons
are the best for filling the cups.
They're quite a nice round and swirly shaped and could be left like this to set, with or without decorations. I wanted mine to be flat topped so I jiggled a teaspoon in each cup of choccy to flatten out the surface - simples, though it was tricky to jiggle the spoon with one hand whilst holding the camera perfectly still with the other. There must be a use for a skill like that ........
Decorate each one and put them to set. You cold try the fridge for this: just a suggestion.
I decorated mine with choccy bits and edible glitter - so pretty!
All wrapped up and ready to eat.
Spent the evening feeling too knackered to go around to Debbies and eat gold plated cup cakes: that Alan's a marvel you know.
The dough hook arrived and after a brief game of Peter Pan; you know, Captain Hook? I made some bread with it. Heaven, home made bread again without any fuss.
You can't beat attractive buns - can you?
Before The day was over, I reorganized part of the kitchen. Just look at that gorgeous mixer....nice.
Friday 19.3.10
No teaching today. Nobody wants me, what am I going to do?
Did a load of stuff around town, beginning with a walk to Marios to say sorry. I missed my visit to him yesterday afternoon: completely forgot. Took him a card and some of my sweeties from yesterdays 'make fest'. Felt terrible. There's nothing I can say, or do, that makes it all right. I feel such a selfish bitch.
Nailsworth is a town set amongst a series of valleys which are linked by roads, obviousely, and also rustic footpaths. Even a miserable chore is sweetened when the journey is this good.
Took Debbies sweeties and card to Green Spirit where she slaves for her hard hearted boss, Mike. Only kidding. Checked out the seed potatoes in Gordons shop. He still has masses. If I can get on with some digging I'll be a happy girly. Did the bank, post office and charity shops. And then I came home.
MeWally helped load up an RSJ that came with the house and off I went again, in the rain. My last trip to the tip with a few remaining bits and bobs, including my one paddle wonder, with the intermittent fault, the bread maker. Now call me tight fisted, but I feel sure it could have found a home somewhere. Idiot. LOvely watching it shatter to bits when I threw it down into the giant skip.
MeWally bought wine. 2 Bottles came to 18 quid. He was a bit gobsmacked, but still paid up. One bottle was cheap, the other .... well, you do the maths.
I got on with making a Kharri (a milk based curry - probably) with home made naans. Here's how.
First Make up the naan dough - any recipe will do. I went for garlic, onion seed and mint (didn't have coriander). Set aside to rise.
The curry's straight forward. Use a recipe or make it up as you go alongFry spices and seeds for a bit, add milk and wter and simmer for half an hour.
If you use turmeric as one of the spices, your pot of curry will look something like this.I love the seeds floating on the surface.
Add veges and stuff, salt, lemon juice and simmer another half hour. Add Gram flour to thicken (or just flour).
While the last half hour of the cooking stuff is going on, make the naans.
Pull of snooker ball sized pieces and roll out to about 6in diameter. They need to fit into the bottom of the pan.
Shake off loose flour and put into a very hot, oil/fat free, non stick pan. Put on a tight lid.
Cook for a few seconds til it bubbles. Turn over.Lid on.
Allow the second side to singe.
Stack on a heat proof plate/platter and drizzle each one with butter as you go along.
You should end up with a meal something like this.
Cover the naans with something like a wok lid and put somewhere warm; in our case, on a trivet on top of the woodburner.When the curry's done, eat up.
MeWally serenaded me as I cooked. Ahhhh romantic.
Saturday 20.3.10
Had to be out of the house at a sensible time this morning so that we could catch the post to get rid of one the chairs. The other chair we took to Worcester, for a fee.
I don't like getting up early on the weekends.
Went for a walk around the garden this afternoon. It didn't take long as it's so small. Like everyone else my bulbs are the mainstay at the moment, with the Helibores adding a voluptuous splash of colour.
The Christmas Roses (Helibores) are really coming into their own now
After such a sunny week, the weather broke giving me the chance to snap this droplet covered Crocus.
The dwarf Daffs came out earlier this week. At about 6ins tall, they're a jewel in the bed; sounds uncomfortable!
These primulas have been in bloom for several weeks now, this is their third piccy.
The Daffs are about to burst into flower - watch this space!
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