Three Minutes On Thursdays

I have just lent my copy of this book to Mags [still available from Amazon and other people]

I mentioned the book in a blogpost a few weeks ago. Just after I read it the first time round, I was with some people on their yacht for a day. [The only time I ever went on an ocean going yacht] It was clear to them that I was not cut out for seamanship – so I was sent down to the galley to prepare sandwiches for lunch. Bearing in mind Edith’s encouragement to enrich everyday life,I cut them into neat triangles and arranged them on a plate.

When the others came down to eat, I was teased mercilessly about ‘being posh’ because of the way I had presented the food. Me? posh? It wasn’t me who owned an ocean going yacht!

But despite the snide comments, I still think Edith’s ideas were good ones. Making An Effort with a meal is a way of showing love to the diners. And it need not take a lot of time.

During the Thursdays of August, I am going to share a few ideas, none of which will take more than 3 minutes to prepare – but will add a little extra sparkle to meal times. I am not promising anything radically new, and lots of you do these things already – just sharing things that work for me.

Please feel free to join in and add your Three-Minute-Thursday ideas for brightening your dining. And as it is summer, that includes meals in the garden, round the BBQ, or from the picnic basket – as well as formal sat-at-table, and casual on-your-lap foods.

Highland Fling!

I called in at the church on Tuesday morning to see how the Senior Citizens were enjoying their Holiday@Home. They were having a great time! The premises have undergone an amazing transformation and everything is Scottish through and through, this year’s theme being ‘Highland Fling!’

After all, the older generation have always loved a bit of Balmorality!

Slightly more relaxed and colourful nowadays. Here is the main church hall [easy chairs have just been vacated as people have  gone to the dining tables]

I do like a nice bit of bunting!

Let’s have a close up of the fabulous backcloth

Waiting for lunch

Here come the servers [all the staff wearing the tartan sashes made by Susan and co at Sewing Club]

…and here is Janet, who has been the brains behind the whole enterprise- and who assembled a wonderful team of hard-working staff to provide 3 days of joy for the OAPs of our community.

Thank you everybody who has been involved in this event! They have enjoyed crafts, games, food, an outing, entertainments, music, singing, laughter…

Will ye no come back again?

Or maybe, this week, they should be singing…

Carry the lad that’s born to be King…

 

Entertaining Our Irish Visitors

Sunday Evening ; Other adults go to church, whilst I stay with the boys. I let them play with the Garden Giants Draughts Set

I don’t think they quite understood the rules!

Monday: Off the National Space Centre. Wonderful!

This summer is the NSC Summer Of Lego – so we definitely scored highly there with the boys. Bob enjoyed himself too.

Then on to Bradgate Park for a Picnic. Oh! Deer!

Bob left the party at that point and went back home to start cooking. We went into the city to see the Richard III exhibition - and then home for Bob’s fabulous BBQ, via KM Castle.  I was too hot and tired to take more pictures. I hope Mags’ pictures come out [apologies that M isn’t on any shot – she was there, honest!]

We had a brilliant time with Mags and Her Men – the boys are growing up fast. We seemed to cram an awful lot into just 40 hours

• The hottest day followed by the wildest thunderstorm.
• Taking interest in the death of a former King, and birth of a future one.
• Visiting a centre for space age technology, and the home of a Tudor family, and a 15th C castle.
• Watching Sherlock, and the Simpsons.
• Long conversations about….everything.

Fabulous!

Tuesday; breakfast and departure [via the Air Conditioning Placer in Loughborough, to get the car A/C fixed and make their long journey a little more bearable] And their holiday trip is over. Please come again, friends, when the weather is a little cooler!

Fraise Heureux

William Morris designed a print called “Strawberry Thief”  It was inspired by the Morris family's attempts to grow strawberries at their home at Kelmscott, but being thwarted by thrushes who would creep under the netting to eat the berries. Morris insisted that the birds be left undisturbed. Did this make the strawberries sad?

When I first started reading “Fraise Lachrymose” blog, this was the design of the header. That was a long time ago now…and Mags and I have become really good friends [and Mags has changed her header to a cool retro print] We have move from ‘blog-following’ through ‘blog-friendship’ to the point where we have visited each others homes, and left our two exceptionally tall, guitar-playing spouses to their own devices while we go off and have our own incomprehensible conversations. And Mags’ friend Catherine taught me to crochet when I was on holiday in Belfast.

When I was sorting through my Stash recently, I found some forgotten fabric which I have had for ages waiting for a Special Purpose. I suddenly knew its destiny…it has now become a [somewhat belated] birthday gift – a cushion for Mags’ special Reading Chair. Thank you Mags & family for being such good friends!

Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along!

There’s a space between two chairs at Cornerstones which needs a small table [for 2 cups of coffee, and my book, and Bob’s tablet]

What I really wanted was one of these bobbins. I blogged about them back in May – and their £330 price tag.

Anne [from Marmalade and Catmint] said they were for those with more money than sense, and Mags said “Bet Bob could make you one”. She knows he cannot resist a challenge like that!

When Sandie [of Sandie’s Patch] moved house in April, she’d generously offered me some bits and pieces of sewing stuff she was decluttering. “And can you make use of this chipboard table?” she said. And look what happened…

First Bob took the table and made a circular base ready to screw on [using some scrap wood which was in the garage]

Then he covered the sides with a cylinder of stiffish card [also lurking in the garage. I spent £3 on some red corduroy fabric, purchased on Leicester Market. I cut the fabric very carefully, hemming top and bottom and sewing a vertical seam. Then I slid the resulting tube over the card cylinder.

The wooden base was screwed into place. Then Bob found a picture of a Sylko label online, enlarged it, and applied it to the top. He covered it with a number of layers of PVA glue.

And here we have our bobbin coffee table, ready to go to Cornerstones.

Thank you Sandie for the table, and Mags for the challenge.

I am sure you will both agree that Bob has done a brilliant job! £3 is a lot better than £330, don’t you think!

Think Pink!

My ‘knit something for charity each month’ campaign is going well. This month I have used up the pink wool in my stash [there wasn’t much!] to make three scarves. Fat Dormouse suggested I might like to join Vicki’s campaign to make pink scarves for women fighting the battle with breast cancer. [details here]

July is a busy month – so just three scarves, but all different patterns. The first one was from my brilliant Debbie Bliss Book [blogged about here]

The second was simply a moss stitch with a fringe, the yarn was dyed in shades of pink, deep pink, peach and violet. The third was a crochet ‘ruffle’ design – in deep pink with a pale pink edging. It came out very similar to the ‘sea-lettuce’ scarves I knitted a few years back.

Here are my three scarves, on a folding chair in the garden, styled as per Debbie Bliss!

I loved doing the DB pattern – it is a sort of ‘fan-and-feather’ design. She uses two colours to emphasis the rippling stripes, but I think it works well in one colour too.

Buzzing About

My turn to do Sunday School this morning – and our summer theme is "Bible Stories which have animals in them”

I’m returning to an old favourite- Samson, the lion and the bees. They are portrayed on the Golden Syrup Tin, where it says – as it has since 1883 - “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”

Among other things we will be collaging sparkly wings and black and yellow stripes on cardboard bees, and making minibooks of the story

I am going to teach the children the more modern translation of the verse from Judges

“Out of the strong came something sweet,

out of the eater came something to eat”

Bees, and honey, I like – the wasps which have been buzzing about in our loft, I am not so sure about.

Heirlooms

This excessive heat is causing me to wilt! It isn’t particularly good for cut flowers either. The bunch I received last week has gradually drooped, and after frequent changes of water and trimming of stems,  I was left with just a few golden blooms.

But don’t they look gorgeous re-arranged in this little green Hornsea “Heirloom” pattern Jug?

Having found the large Hornsea jug and sugar bowl last Saturday morning at the Great Village Yard Sale, my afternoon perambulations yielded this piece for 50p.

The embroidered mat is a real vintage treasure, a gift from an elderly lady in the church some years ago. The stitching is minute. I suspect it may date back to the 1930’s.

Worrying About Inflation…

Is she going to leave us here all weekend watching Bob’s repair to the airbed, do you think?

Dunno – but it is far too hot to do anything more energetic!

OK Bok!

Slight confusion this week, when I walked past the market in Norwich - there were buckets of flowers on display

They were labelled “BOKS £5”

I thought of springboks, the African antelopes, and of bok choy, the Chinese cabbage. But I couldn’t make sense of it

Then it dawned on me, the sign should be read b O K [bouquet]

Now wondering, is this abbreviation in common usage? I’ve not seen it before. I must check out flowers on Leicester market sometime.

This Time Next Week…

I have been given some dosh by MoneySupermarket.com to host a BBQ as part of their 2013 Charcoal Challenge. The Worship Group at church have been working very hard lately, so we decided to invite them round. More details [and photos] will be posted after the event

Thankyou to MoneySupermarket.com for their brilliant idea!

Feeling More-ish?

A couple of weeks ago, the Crazy Kitchen had a post about eating places in Norwich – and I liked the look of Moorish, a falafel bar in Lower Goat Lane. So Bob and I tried it out for a fast, early lunch on Monday before returning to Leicester.

The food is freshly made daily, and there is a wide selection of falafels, dips and salads – with sauces and pita bread –and drinks.

You can sit outside, or upstairs [the photo below taken from the staircase to show the serving area

I loved the wallpaper upstairs – and here are pictures of our lovely fresh salads and glasses of mint tea. A huge pile of freshly chopped and sliced goodness, a few falafels, and cool minty yogurt sauce.

It was a delightful meal on a really hot day. Thanks, Crazy Kitchen for the recommendation. Service was good, and prompt, portions were generous. Prices start at £2 for basic Hummus+Pitta, and falafels begin at £3.60 [3 falafels, hummus, + 2 salads] There is a kid’s menu, and a choice of hot and cold drinks. I can recommend the mint tea!

Going Ape In Norwich

On Monday morning when we were in Norwich, we were amused by the charity ‘Gorilla Trail’ being hosted this summer.

We did not see all the gorillas – but here are a few of them

They are quite large, as you see…

Village Treasures

On Saturday morning we had some spare time [our timetable for work at Cornerstones had to be changed as we waited for the Wickes delivery] so we walked round Swanton Morley and looked at the Yard Sale. It was a village wide event, in support of the Parish Church. Sellers paid a small fee to be involved, and then their addresses were included in the leaflet which was sold to buyers for 50p. ‘Genuine’ sellers had an orange poster [last year a few people joined in who had not paid up. Shame!!] It was a great opportunity for people to have a declutter.

About three dozen homes were involved – and refreshments and excellent cakes, were on sale at the church and at one home at the opposite end of the village.

One house – which has a very large garden also had their workshop [full of old vehicles being restored] and the ‘museum’ open for people to have a nose round.

That was quite fascinating

Can you see these things in the two pictures?

• the WW2 helmet
• the flat iron
• the magic lantern
• the two swords
• the horse’s bit
• the safe
• the height gauge
• the carousel
• the sheep shears
• the railway,man’s lantern
• Thomas the Tank engine
• the leather hat

As we walked round the village, we bumped into a few old friends – and I also met the son of one of my old schoolfriends for the first time [sadly Jane and I lost touch after Uni, and she died a few years ago] I met a couple who had retired to Norfolk from Leicester in the 1980s and wanted to know what the place is like now, and another couple who had known my father very well. Lots of great conversations – but did we actually buy anything in the yard sale?

The morning’s selection [and plenty of change from my £10 note]

A Hornsea jug and sugar bowl

A basil plant

A Dereham Baptist Church bicentennial mug [I never got one at the time of the event]

Pair of Boden shorts

A silk tie

A pair of ‘Wolf’ cutters

And an Oscar![you never know when you will need one of them]

The bookmark came from my neighbour, whose little daughter suffers from Ataxia-Telangiectasia.  A-T is a progressive genetic condition which causes severe disability and shortens lives, and Justine was collecting for the charity [website here] It is fairly rare, and I promised I would blog about it to help raise awareness.

On Sunday, as we drove to church, we spotted a few people who were continuing their sale for a second day. If you wanted baby clothes/toys/old handbags/plants/books/videos and curtains, it was definitely the village to visit! Even more fun than a Boot Fair

The only downside was that whilst visiting the far-flung houses, down the back lanes, I brushed up against the long grasses on the verges. This caused some sort of allergic reaction, exacerbated by the heat. By Sunday, my legs looked like they have been smeared with raspberry jam! Fortunately it is subsiding a bit now, and the itching stopped once I took anti-histamines.