Zoku - So Cool!

I feel hot and sticky, and I suddenly have this amazing yearning for one of these new gadgets…

The Zoku allegedly makes ice lollies [popsicles] in about 7 minutes without electricity [You keep it in the freezer so it is always ready for use]

And you can freeze juice/milk/yogurt etc etc to make amazing ices. Watch the video…

Except I suspect I am getting drawn into the advertising hype here – the striped ones are a more complex [and much longer] process.

After all, it isn’t going to stay hot and sticky like this much longer this summer, is it? And I have an ancient lolly mould set already.

Mine are about twenty years old, and work perfectly well [if you remember to fill them a few hours in advance] And mine have a sippy drippy catcher too.

So I really do not need to spend £39.95 at Lakeland to buy one. Do I?

No, I have just read this Which Review – and that’s put me off completely.

Good, I feel much better now, I have just saved myself almost £40!

WasteWatchers - Monday

Bob and Paul at the Church soon after 8am getting ready

Today’s theme was God the Creator – so lots of creating being done

[Ann looks worried though!]

The children made all sorts of things using pipecleaners, corks, straws, bottletops and pine cones. They also had lumps of playdough. [Drill holes in the tops first!]

I can recommend this one as an easy, cheap and popular craft!

I love Phoebe’s creature with big eyes

The youngest children made interesting people

The staff worked so hard – and looked good in their teeshirts

Our top age is eleven – after that, the young people become helpers – and we have made them the Task Force Group.

Part of the time they are working with the younger children, and sometimes they are in their own group with Jessica.

Some of them are doing the daily drama sketch with Tom [the Park Keeper]

 

And they have a special craft project of their own to work on [I shall be pleased to see how this progresses]

One of the younger children has taken the theme to heart already and came in a very appropriate teeshirt!

More pictures tomorrow! Thanks everyone out there who has said they are praying for us – today went really well. Now I shall rest my knee and Bob can rest his ankle [our sweaty teeshirts have been washed and hung out to dry – so that's everything sorted for tomorrow, I think!]

Pebbles, Pears, People [and a Palm Tree]

Everyone had a blob of Plasticene [modelling clay] at church this morning – the introductory Sunday for Holiday Club. We made things**

Pebbles, rocks, stones…

A rock can be destructive – used as a weapon – or constructive, used to build – and it may conceal precious ore, minerals or gems. What sort of rock are you?

Pears, bananas, oranges, other fruit …

God made a world of nourishing fruit for us to eat and enjoy. We are called to live lives that bear fruit for Jesus, and display the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

People - tall, short, fat, thin

We transformed our Plasticene into all these shapes.

 

The theme of WasteWatchers is all about a God who can transform things – turning stuff the world regards as rubbish into something beautiful for His Glory. That includes people.

Things are just about ready for tomorrow. We all learned the official WasteWatchers Song this morning. The group names are all ‘regions’ – so I have lent my igloo to the Arctic

 

and of course, the Desert needed to borrow that palm tree![previously mentioned here and here] so I put it up before the service in a corner of the Hall.

Posts may be a little sporadic over the next few days, depending on my exhaustion levels!!

**all the Plasticene was returned after the service, and the colours all neatly separated for future use, as Bob requested. What a well-behaved lot they are in our congregation.

To Love And To Cherish…

Yesterday a funeral - today a wedding…

…the church was full of balloons and flowers

 

And outside, more balloons on the trees. Here’s the bride and groom [Mel and Shane] together with Shane’s son. Mel went to school with our Liz, and her Gran and great-aunt are church members. The family has been in the village forever – and loads of people turned out to see the bride

They took the balloons from inside the church to the photo shoot at KM Castle, but I hope the green balloons on the trees are left there for the weekend – they go well with the green WasteWatchers banner!

A lovely service, everything went really well - may God bless them with many happy years of love and laughter.

Safe And Sound

Back home after a gruelling 300 mile round trip. Good to see so many family members, but a sad reason for getting together. There were lots of flowers – and my cousin wanted to take them to elderly friends, so I was glad we had gone for a basket arrangement. Much less funereal and easier to display.

A Little Something For The Weekend!

I won’t be blogging today as I am travelling 150 miles across to Yarmouth for the funeral of my Aunt [she was 96, which is an amazing age!] Fortunately I can meet up with my brother in Norwich and he will drive the last hour of the journey – but it will be a long and tiring day for all of us.

So I am setting up this post ahead of time. It is Mary Berry’s Three-In-One Cake Recipe which I made up last weekend. It was remarkably easy and I was very pleased with the results.

A great time-saving idea if you have family or friends to visit: an iced chocolate cake, a lemon drizzle cake and a dozen almond buns, all made from the same basic mix! Serves: About 12

BASIC CAKE MIX

6 large eggs
350g [12 oz] self-raising flour
350g [12 oz] caster sugar
350g [12 oz] softened butter
3 level tsp baking powder
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4.
2. Beat together all the ingredients until smooth in a large mixing bowl.
3. Divide the cake mix into two. Use one portion for the chocolate cake. Divide the remaining portion again into two. Use one portion each for the lemon drizzle loaf and one for the almond fruity buns.

CHOCOLATE CAKE

40g [1½ oz] cocoa powder
4 tbsp boiling water
Half the basic mix
A little icing sugar, to serve
For spreading and icing:
150ml [5fl oz] double cream
150g [5oz] plain chocolate, broken into pieces
4 tbsp apricot jam [I used marmalade!]
Two 17cm [7 in] deep sandwich tins, greased and lined with non-stick baking paper.
1. Put the cocoa in a mixing bowl, and add the water a little at a time to make a stiff paste. Add to the cake mixture.
2. Turn into the prepared tins, level the top and bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until shrinking away from the sides of the tin and springy to the touch.
3. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn on to a wire rack to become completely cold before icing.
4. To make the icing, measure the cream and chocolate into a bowl and carefully melt over a pan of hot water over a low heat, or gently in the microwave for 1 minute [600w microwave]. Stir until melted, then set aside to cool a little and to thicken up.
5. To ice the cake, spread the apricot jam on the top of each cake. Spread half of the ganache icing on the top of the jam on one of the cakes, then lay the other cake on top, sandwiching them together. Use the remaining ganache icing to ice the top of the cake in a swirl pattern. Dust with icing sugar to serve

LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
Half the remaining basic mix [a quarter of the original]
For the lemon crunchy icing:
50g [2 oz] granulated sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
450g [1lb] loaf tin, greased and lined
1. Add the lemon zest to the basic cake mix, and turn into the prepared tin.
2. Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown, shrinking away from the sides of the tin and springy to the touch.
3. While the cake is still warm, make the topping. Mix together the sugar and lemon juice, and pour over the warm cake.
4. Leave to cool a little and loosen the sides of the cake, then lift the cake out of the tin.

ALMOND FRUITY BUNS

50g [2 oz] sultanas [I had no apricots, used 4oz sultanas]
50g [2 oz] dried apricots, snipped into small pieces 25g [1 oz] ground almonds
The remaining quarter of the basic mix
A 12-hole bun tin, lined with paper cases
1. Add the sultanas, apricots and ground almonds to the cake mix and stir until well mixed.
2. Turn into the prepared paper cases and sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to the touch.

Top tip:The chocolate cake will keep for 3 days in the fridge, but the icing will lose its shine. The lemon loaf and buns will also keep for 3 days. All will freeze well for up to 2 months without icing.

A number of people have asked for this recipe – now you have it!! Have a happy weekend

The Green Green Grass Of Home…

This afternoon I went to Wigston, to collect some synthetic grass from the kind people at Dura-Sport, who have donated some offcuts so we can make the stage in the hall look like a Park! Jessica has been up ladders and painting props all day, and loads of other good souls turned up this morning to cut and count and bag up the crafts and back the notice boards etc.

You can tell that Ann is a Teaching Assistant!

What a brilliant team we have here – they all work so hard

And now I am off to a family funeral in Norfolk. Back tomorrow night!

Wednesday - WasteWatchers & Wedding

I spent the morning getting craft stuff ready for WasteWatchers, then Nev, our new Village Bobby came for a cuppa.

Bob has been doing all sorts of random things – like fetching down plastic balls and bunches of silk anemones from the loft space over the garage, arranging Bouncy Castle Hire and booking in more children for the Club. Yes the closing date was almost a fortnight ago, but the forms still keep coming!

After lunch I was fed up with counting pinecones and paintbrushes, so I decided to do some sewing…

… but you will have to wait to find out what it is, and why I have been doing it!

This evening we have a wedding rehearsal for our friends Mel and Shane.

Mes filles sont merveilleuses!!

Despite having studied to O level, and half a dozen holidays in France/Belgium and a husband who is half Belgian [and fluent in French] I am afraid my grasp of la langue française is not all I’d like it to be. So I try to read something in French now and then. Preferably Marie Claire Idees!

When Steph went to Paris a few months back, she returned with a gift for me…

You can see by the dog-eared corners that I have been reading it avidly. First I look at the pictures, then try to read the articles, then laboriously translate the craft instructions, and dream of having the time to create all these lovely things.

This morning I had a text – in faultless French – from Liz – to say she has picked up the next issue for me – as she is in France with Jon for a few days.

I shall look forward to collecting that when we visit the girls next month! But ‘personal’ sewing and crafts are strictly on hold for a bit – I have just sent two of my machines back to Bambers to be serviced, and the next few days I will be focussing on holiday club crafts.

In answer to PomPoms query earlier, the yarn I bought in Bangles’N’Tat in Ashby on Saturday was some Sirdar Crofter.

The blurb says…

“Crofter Dk is a beautifully soft, standard Dk yarn that has an incredible Fair Isle effect spray dyed onto the yarn - so the yarn knits as normal and the beautiful Fair Isle effect appears as you knit. You get the look of Fair Isle without the hard work!”

It is a blend: 60% Acrylic, 25% Cotton, 15% Wool – and I enjoyed doing the ribbing on Saturday evening whilst watching the golf – but I probably won’t have time to knit more before the holiday now.

 

I am glad Lee Westwood [from here in the East Midlands] came 2nd in the golf, and Paul Casey [from Surrey]  and Rory McIlroy [my current favourite] shared 3rd place with Henrik Stenson of Sweden. Louis Oosthuizen deserved his win – but somehow there would have been more excitement at the end if he hadn’t been so far out in front. Here endeth the Golf Stuff!!

Back to Holiday Club preparations…

The Pastor Took The Deacon To A Nightclub!

It was Monday, and the three of us went off to Sheffield. We had the obligatory Monday trip into Maplin…

…and then a few other places in order to get some more Holiday Club bits. I hadn’t really been to Sheffield before [apart from going to the Hairy Bikers Show in February when it was night-time and snowing!]

It is a great city, lots to see – and many people enjoying the hot summer sunshine

It was cool walking through the ‘Winter Gardens’ with all the exotic palms

The Cascades were lovely

We had a delicious lunch in the nearby Cafe Rouge

 

Then the Pastor took Chris [the Deacon and Church Secretary] and myself [the Sunday School Teacher and Lay Preacher] to a Nightclub!!

“I’ve never been in a nightclub before” said Chris [did she think that I had??]

Now, in case you are wondering about this, I probably ought to explain!

I know many of you are concerned for my spiritual welfare and would worry if you thought I was straying from the Straight And Narrow.

First, I would point out it was 2pm in the afternoon – not night-time!

Second, I was sticking very close

to the Pastor, and hoping he would look after me! Notice his furtive glance as he enters the club!!!

Finally, I should explain that this was all to do with a bit of PA gear – Bob had purchased it on eBay and the guy who was selling it works in Niche, and said it would be easiest if Bob could pop up to Sheffield to collect it. Hence the trip north into the wilds of Yorkshire.

We were in and out within five minutes, and called in on my aunt who lives on the south side of the city. I confess we only said we had been collecting PA stuff- not where it was located!

Home again, and an evening of relaxing with TV and knitting!!