Blooming Marvellous

The summer has been a real wash-out so far this year.  It has rained nearly every day and hasn't been particularly warm either.  Hopefully we will have a lovely late summer for August and September as it would be nice to use the garden at least once before the Autumn sets in.

Despite the rain I am loving the beautiful honeysuckle that is growing aroung my magnolia tree.

And the magnolia is also now in bloom.  Only a few months later than expected!

As well as the lovely flowers in the garden, I have been blessed with a wonderful bunch of pink stargazer lillies (my favourites) which were a gift from my neighbour Nia.

Not only do they look stunning but they make the whole room smell lovely too!

I have been laid up in bed the last couple of days with an upset stomach, hoping to feel back to myself by tomorrow as the olympic torch is due to pass our house and lots of people are planning to go to Hove Park to enjoy the festivities.  I understand it is forecast to rain but expect we shall go anyway as such things happen only once in a lifetime.  Just hope I can get home from work before they close the roads!

The end of a busy week

Went to Church this morning and then came home and baked some cakes for my friend Chitrani who is having a cake sale to raise money for the A21 Charity which rescues and shelters women trafficked from Europe for the sex trade. 

I made some simnel muffins (fruit muffins with a nugget of marzipan in the centre).

I also made a lemon iced fruit gingerbread cake.

These are my sorry attempt at rock cakes.  I was in a rush and think I added too much milk to the cake mixture as they are more disc shaped than rock, hopefully they taste OK though.

Was quite a nice evening as I dropped the cakes over to Chitrani's house and was invited in by her and her husband Mohan for coffee and a chat which was very enjoyable.

Then I called into my mum's house to pick up a delicious roast dinner that she had cooked for me and the family.  The roads were really quiet, probably because most of the county was glued to the television watching the Wimbledon final as Murray had made it through.  I am not a tennis fan (although Seb plays really well) and have no idea how the scoring works or whether a ball is in or out.

Was just clearing up after dinner when my friend Vicky called and we had a lovely chat catching up on all the news and gossip from the last few weeks.  The Olympic torch is coming past my road in a week's time so we have arranged to meet up at the local park for the celebrations afterwards.

David and I are enjoying watching the highlights from the Tour de France each day.  Bradley Wiggins took the yellow jersey yesterday and we are hoping that he might keep it to the end of the tour and ride into Paris wearing it.

Sky have a really strong team this year.  There have been several dramatic crashes in the last week and many of the top cyclists have had to abandon the tour from their injuries.  Really enjoying watching the progress of new tour rider Peter Sagan.

Seb is disappointed that his school trip to Butlins has been cancelled tomorrow because of an outbreak of measles.  There is an activities week happening instead and he is planning on joining the cycling trip on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

My team have been called to a meeting at work tomorrow - not sure what it is about but I am not expecting good news.  Heigh ho!

Strawberry and Vanilla Jam

The last couple of weeks have been so busy that I simply have not had chance to Blog.  I have been looking after Little P and Baby H every Wednesday and Friday and I have definitely missed having my days off as that is when I usually clean my house, do my weekly shop, banking, clothes shopping and other chores.  The house has definitely been a little dustier and untidier than usual but after a blitz yesterday evening it isn't looking too bad now. 

It has certainly been challenging having the three children together but there have been a few amusing moments as well.  Nat and Little P are the same age but it is surprising how many people seem to assume the three children are mine, despite the fact that Nat is so fair he is nearly albino and the other two are black.  Of course it isn't helped by the fact that little P keeps calling me 'mummy' - after all thats what he hears Nat calling me and he clearly hasn't yet grasped my name. When asked whether they are mine I now have a wicked temptation to say yes and declare that the two boys are twins just to see the reaction.

Last weekend, when I should probably have been cleaning the house, I spent a lovely afternoon with David and Nat picking strawberries in readiness to make Strawberry and Vanilla Jam. 



The strawberries were abundant and it took no time at all to collect bucketfuls of them.  Nat managed to trip over and knock over my bowl of fruit and then he scrabbled around on the floor squashing strawberries into the ground so he wasn't terribly helpful.

We picked about 10kg of strawberries and it took me the rest of the day to cook and bottle the jam.  I made three batches which all turned out differently. 

The first batch was possibly the most successful, qthe second is more of a strawberry syrup as it is a little runny.  The third was somewhere between. 

However, I had great fun making it and most of it will probably end up being given away anyway.

Today I have been helping my mum make sandwiches and serve afternoon tea to her Red Hat ladies.  I have been on my feet all afternoon serving drinks and washing up so it is nice to finally sit down and enjoy five minutes to myself and write my first blog for July!  I'll try not to leave it so long until the next one.