Saturday should be a day to relax.
When Elly was small it was difficult at times to rest because she was always busy, busy, busy! It was necessary to keep a beady eye on what she was doing.
At least we didn’t have this problem:-
I try to follow a great variety of blogs on a daily basis. I learn from all of them and enjoy adding something to the conversation by way of a comment. There are times when I feel the subject is complete, so I don’t comment. Some topics are way out of my league and I refrain from adding my meagre two pence worth.
This is a tiny sample of the mutterings I made on Twitter or the Blogosphere this week.
When you sit in a room all alone your problems fill the space. Listen to doom and gloom all day and you get depressed. Turn up the music and dance!
The trouble with long arms is that the words often get lost between my brain and my finger tips.
The colour is only in the wrapping (skin)! Peel that back and we are all the same - two lungs, one heart etc., and the blood for all of us is red. I was born & raised in Ireland with a mop of rich auburn hair. My skin was very pale almost white with the biggest freckles you ever saw in summertime. Would you call me piebald?
I have lived long enough to experience tightened belts and lean times. I never lived beyond my means nor fell for the god of greed. My needs are simple, a roof over my head and food on my plate. Money as the Beatles sang, ‘Can’t buy me love’, or indeed happiness for that matter.
This last comment for today was in answer to You can’t buy style
That may be a luxury house but I doubt it would ever be a comfortable home. I have been in ‘magazine pages’ like that, but I am much happier when I can call at a back door and share a coffee at a well used kitchen table.
Gary came back with another post with food for thought for all of us.
I think you all guessed I was having a little fun last week with it being April Fool’s day. Today I have more serious hints for you.
Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter between each dish.
If you have a toe fungus problem use one part vinegar to one part warm water and soak your feet. This repeated over the course of a week will clear up your toenails.
To remove the smell of garlic, onions, or fish from a cutting board wash with lemon juice.
Poached fish will be firmer and whiter if you add lemon juice to the cooking liquid.
Feeling flat in the afternoon? Mix two teaspoons of Angostura bitters in a glass of tonic water and sip. The mixture of the quinine in the tonic and the bark extracts in the bitters will refresh and revive you.
It was supposed to be one of my rest days. However, I was awake in time to hear the shipping weather forecast at 5.20 am on BBC Radio 4 . I lay and listened until about seven fifteen before hunger pangs got the better of me.
Going to the kitchen, I filled & boiled the kettle then set my muesli covered in orange juice, a side bowl of dried fruit & nuts, the mornings medication, a beaker and a coffee pot filled with boiling water on a tray. Back I went to bed with my feast. I was determined to stay in bed for a couple more hours. Tobias was patiently waiting to amuse me when the food was finished.
The calm was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Wrapped in my dressing gown I went to investigate. With a bunch of keys like those of a jailer I undid the locks and opened the door expecting to see the Post man with a large letter or parcel.
It was not the Post man.
It was a young man. He had my address. He seemed surprised that I was not expecting him.
Ok! So this is where you come in….
Which of you asked the Environmental Health Department to come and FUMIGATE my house????
I told the guy he was a little early and he offered to come back.
“You are 363 days early” I said. “April Fools day has passed for this year!”
He was not amused.
I was!
I finally convinced him that he had the incorrect address and sent him on his way.
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I got figgety and had to get up. I needed to clean something, anything to rid myself of the feeling that my house was dirty. The sun was shining so I went outdoors selected a task and set to work. Several hours later I had this to show for my pains:
Never mind the state of the bucket it had served well for about 30 years. The brown stuff inside it came from the spouting at the front of my bungalow . Don’t tell Elly I was climbing a ladder, she will kill me. In the past cleaning the spouts would have taken me about two hours all told. It took me most of the day this time, I move more slowly now and needed to stop for rest several times. I managed to clear up and put everything away before the rain started.
I have been resting ever since! No! I will not climb up to clean the spouts at the back, as it is as high as a two story house. I will find a toyboy to do that job for me.
I came across these low cost recipe suggestions that I sent to Elly when she was away at University. I know several folk at college who might find them handy to ring the changes. If there is an ingredient you do not like then change for something you do like. Students seldom bother with kitchen scales so I have not given amounts. Experiment. That is how all the best dishes started.
Pulse Dishes
Tuna & Bean Salad: drain a can of cannelloni beans and toss with flaked tuna, sliced onions, French dressing and parsley.
Black-Eye Bean Lasagna: Mix two cans of drained black-eye beans, a jar of tomato pasta sauce, then layer with sheets of no-cook lasagna. Top with cheese sauce and grated cheese. Bake until golden.
Potato Dishes
Baked Potatoes: Bake the potatoes in oven or microwave. Cut along the cooked potato and fill with Grated cheese, baked beans or tuna fish sweet corn & mayonnaise.
Tuna Fish cakes: Mix mashed potatoes with canned tuna fish, beaten egg and seasoning to taste. Press into cake sized patties and shallow fry until golden.
Potato Cheesies: substitute grated cheese and a little pickle for the tuna, and prepare as above.
Rice Dishes
Mushroom Risotto: Sauté sliced mushrooms and onion in butter, add risotto rice, then chicken stock in stages. When the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed, stir in grated cheese.
Pilau: Fry one onion and add pre-cooked rice, with left over cooked meat, vegetables and curry paste; heat stirring through.
Kedgeree: Boil Rice with curry powder and stock, drain. Stir in cooked flaked smoked cod and chopped hard-boiled eggs. Keep stirring until hot.
Chinese fried Rice: sauté sliced carrot, mushrooms, bean sprouts & peppers. Add five spice powder, soy sauce and drained cooked rice and stir-fry.
I wonder how many times these guys get a mention today?*
Another photo from my archive from a day at the Michaelmas Festival in Tinnahinch during September 2008.
*In the Christian calendar, the Sunday before Easter and first day of Holy Week, commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. St Mark’s Gospel, relating Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, tells how he was hailed as the promised Messiah by the crowds (Mark 11:9–10).
a la Going like Sixty
Who has been tagged several times recently to try Memes. He complained that the questions were all suitable for 20 something females so I and some others called his bluff to write his own Meme. He did. Now I suppose I have to take my canal barges out of my mouth and give it a try!
Midlife Meme
MySpouse
Is your spouse/significant other alive? If yes, how can you tell? NO and no idea.
What is your position in the menopause moment? Life is full of men who pause!
If you are post-menopausal, were there casualties? She went to live in another country! Hi daughter! *waves*
Getting any? What or who is Annie any?
Does your spouse/so have the heartbreak of psoriasis? He was a smoothie.
Ever applied medication to your spouse/significant other. Did s/he know it? Yes, and he enjoyed it.
Have you used anything that was “ribbed for your pleasure?” A scarf!
MySpice
Cash, Debit, or Credit? Give me credit for having the cash!
Have you ever smashed your car so bad you couldn’t drive it? Who’s fault? No, but thieves broke into my present car twice and I had to live without it for a few days each time.
When is the last time you flipped your mattress? Slide top to bottom every two months flip over every six months. That reminds me…. *runs off to bedroom*
Any Pecker Tracks? What happens behind closed doors stays there.
Do you think George Snuffalopagus is a stud? Never heard of him.
Speaking of muppets, which would be your favorite spicy muppet and why? Not into muppets, spicy or otherwise.
What is your favorite spice? Anything but ‘old’!
MySport
Do you play a sport? Which one? Scale of 0 to 10 (10 is pro) how good are you? No and no.
Are you a good sport? I hope people find me so.
Do you sport facial hair? (sex doesn’t matter) We all do (baby down)!
When was your first french kiss? Yes! Yes! Yes! A kiss in France. Kissed a French man. Like me the other kind has been around since Adam was a boy, so don’t ask.
Are you a good whistler? Nope! It is even worse than my singing.
Do you like sports drinks? NO! They are all aspartame & water.
Now can you do better than that?
Time to reveal the answer to my mystery outing yesterday. I was here:
Glenoe Waterfall, Co Antrim
From the car park, the path leads through trees. There is a network of paths and steps, slippy and uneven in places, that meander up and down the sides of the valley to give good views of the waterfall. The land is owned by The National Trust.
This last one is for the Flickr folk!
How to get there: On the B99, 4 miles south of Larne. Bus route 170.
The sun had got its hat on, so I went out to play….
I spied these little flowers as I was on my way.
And the last one for today:
Anyone guess where I was?
