'Ta dah' in May

Well, even in pandemic times there can still be ta dah moments at the end of the month - and not just the 'I successfully gained 6lbs in weight' kind.  Ahem.  Let's move on ...

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My first Ta Dah is really my grandson's achievement - but I'm going to claim some involvement.  When it was his birthday I bought him a butterfly raising kit.  It is a little collapsable net container in which you hatch butterflies.  At the beginning of lockdown I sent away for the caterpillars to start off the process and a few weeks ago a pot of caterpillar food with five tiny caterpillars arrived.  I handed them over to him to nurture and he's been keenly watching their progress from tiny caterpillars, to larger hairier caterpillars, to chrysalides and finally fully grown butterflies.  He's fed them fruit and leaves and yesterday was the day when they were ready to fly off into the wild.  My daughter filmed the great release and it honestly brought a tear to my eye to see the pure wonderment and joy in his little face as they fluttered, flew to the top of the container and then tentatively flapped their wings in the fresh air before taking their first steps of freedom into the garden.  

It's been a fabulous project and he has loved doing it.  If you are ever looking for a different kind of present for a small child, I'd really recommend it.

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I've read a lot of books this month.  Firstly our book club's choice of In Five Years  which I enjoyed, and showed that although you may think you have a five year plan, you sometimes really can't see what may be round the corner. Then I read The Sister in Law - set in sunny Italy, was great to read while sitting out in the sunshine in the garden, made it very easy to transport myself to the location.  Something totally different was Verity which actually made me gasp at the end - I do like a book which keeps me on my toes!  Finally, The Other Wife  which makes me wonder if all this lockdown is leading me back to psychological thrillers!  

I'm not just reading books but I am still learning Spanish on the Duolingo app on my phone.  Haven't missed a day yet ... 

By the time we're allowed to leave the country (and return without going into 2 weeks quarantine) I should be able to make myself understood.  At the very least I'll be able to book a table in a restaurant (if they are open) order a meal and drink, and get us booked into a hotel.  Anything else will be a bonus!

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My oven's been busy this month too.  I'm trying to 'only' cook one cake a week but it seems the more I bake, the more we eat ...

Coffee and walnut sponge - I froze half to save us from eating the whole thing!

I went into overdrive one day, rock cakes and a Victoria sandwich cake on the same day.  I promise you that half of the rock cakes were put straight in the freezer.

Chocolate cake with raspberry jam and butter cream icing - I actually gave a quarter of this to Rachel to save us from too much temptation

Something savoury for a change, cheese scones

Lemon and poppyseed loaf

In addition to all this, I've discovered how easy it is to make flatbreads and that means that a meze lunch is very easy to throw together to eat on the patio now - especially as I've tweaked a recipe for hummus which is so easy to make.  Ruth reminded me of how delicious beer bread is and I've also discovered a new way to incorporate lemon sorbet into an amazing pre dinner gin cocktail.  Did I mention about my waistline increasing by the day?  

Moving on ...

... I always felt that going into lockdown was going to be easier than coming out of it, on so many levels.  Trying to get our head around the fact that a teeny tiny bit of freedom may be just around the corner has me with mixed emotions - I'm so excited by the prospect of a little more normal life returning and a little bit anxious about how safe that will be.  I think this poppy in the garden yesterday sums it up perfectly

You can see it is almost making its bid for freedom.  Petals fully formed, straining against the protective pod that it's been hiding inside for weeks, having a little taste of fresh air, but not quite ready to burst into new found freedom.

Unlike me though, this morning I woke to find that it has shaken free and embracing the next stage!

I've found the normality of blogging a calming distraction from the craziness going on around and it makes me realise what a lovely community our group of bloggers are.  When I first started my blog as part of joining in a scrapbooking course run by Shimelle I didn't realise that years later, some of those original bloggers would still be in contact.  In fact recently I've received two lovely pieces of 'happy mail'

One very clever and appropriate post card from Ruth and a hand made card from Rinda (who has fallen by the blogging wayside unfortunately although remains on other social media). Rinda was the organiser of the first photographic scavenger hunt that I took part in, and whilst that no longer happens, I am thrilled that someone else has picked up the baton and this year's list was published this week on Patio Postcards.  Please do pop over there and print off the list, it's such a fun summer project and although we will have to stay closer to home to find things this year, it makes the challenge even more fun!  

In other news, cake of the week this week is lemon and poppyseed, I've used all the advice on Ruth's postcard

In the interests of my waistline I just have to remember rule number four - Serve just enough ... portion control is key!

Where we are spending our time

I thought I'd share a little viewing of where we're spending most of our lockdown time at the moment!

We've been so lucky with the weather so we've mostly decamped to the garden

Just look at the colour of that sky!  No filters involved and not a cloud to be seen.  It also appears that my hair is becoming blonder as the days unfold - which is weird because I've never been blonde before - perhaps it's just a different tone of grey?! Either way, I seem to match the tips of Coco's ears, what is it they say about dogs looking like their owners?

We decided to shower Coco yesterday as she was looking a bit grubby, so we washed her, dried her a bit in the house and then let her out in the garden to finish drying in the sunshine.  Her first reaction was to disappear into the foliage of the flower beds and start digging a hole - all our hard work spoiled in five minutes!

Would you like to see the garden?  I popped out there after breakfast to do a quick video to show you where we spend our time, I didn't think to put the cushions on the patio furniture so you'll have to use your imagination there!

Last night I discovered the perfect drink to enjoy while sitting out there enjoying the evening sunshine - a Saffron Sundowner.  Our friend's son is part owner of a local ice cream company based in Saffron Walden.  They make the most delicious ice cream and sorbets and  I found this recipe on their website.  First you take lots of ice, add 50ml gin, 80 ml sherbet lemon sorbet and 150ml tonic water.  Blitz until combined into the most refreshing, delicious flavoured drink, add a slice of lime, relax and enjoy.  

I'd love to invite you round to try it, but it may be some time before we can have more than one visitor at a time in our gardens!

Tales from the sofa

Or should that say 'tails on the sofa'?  Because that's where I've been spending most of my days.

I've realised that my humans must love me so very, very much because they can't bear to leave me on my own anymore.  Seriously, they used to leave me protecting the house on my own at least once a day, but weeks have gone by now without them both being out at the same time and I have to say I am loving it.  

Yesterday I got to have three lovely long walks over the park.  THREE.  The son of my humans arrived with his own little human and it was suggested that we all went for a walk.  I'd barely got my breath back from my post-breakfast trip but you know me, I'm never one to turn down a chance for extra walkies.

I have had a couple of personal appearances since I last wrote a blog post.  People do love to see my little face pop up on a Zoom call, I've even been a guest on an exercise class.  Although I have learned to leave the room now when I see my female human walk in the room wearing lycra leggings and a belly dancing skirt.  That's a sight that no-one needs to see.

I've been doing a bit of a work-out in the garden myself

Here you can see me doing keepy-uppies with an ironically named 'Paw Patrol' football.  Actually it's a trick of the camera angle but it does make it look like I have perfect ball control!

Keep safe and keep well everyone, and if you are lucky enough to have a little furry friend (even if it's a cat) make sure you stay home as much as you can to let them know how much you can't bear to be parted from them.

Coco 🐶

Discovering what we've missed

Sometimes you don't realise exactly how much you've missed something until it comes back.  I mean, I knew I was missing seeing little baby Max even with daily photos and a weekly zoom family chat, but it wasn't until this turned up on my doorstep on Friday

that I realised just how much I'd missed seeing him in the flesh (even from a safe 6' distance!) and I also realised I can't call him little baby Max anymore, he's a sturdy ten month old almost-toddler now!  It absolutely made my day to be able to walk over the park with them and have a proper chat and I hadn't appreciated that although I thought I was feeling OK, there is a big difference between OK and good.

Another very 'minor in comparison' thing that I discovered I'd been missing was a traditional Sunday lunch. I have been busy sourcing new recipes and ways of using up random kitchen ingredients, and it's been absolutely weeks since we had a normal proper roast Sunday lunch.

Roast lamb, baby Jersey Royal new potatoes, broccoli, carrots, leeks and homemade Yorkshire pudding, it was so nice to have something traditional again.  Even better, there's enough leftover lamb to make a lamb and chickpea curry for dinner tonight!

Another thing that we knew we were missing was a haircut - well now one of us (not me) is looking much tidier since our daughter let me borrow her hairdressing scissors.

I don't honestly trust Paul to cut my hair, I'd rather wait until I can have it done properly but  he was happy to let me loose on his {after all, there isn't much hair to work with in the first place!} and I am pretty pleased with my efforts.

So all in all, we are starting this week feeling a little bit better and remembering that we are now another week closer to getting back to 'normal' - tiny steps at a time.  Keep well and keep safe everyone x

More questions than answers

I had hoped that the TV statement from the Prime Minister on Sunday would not only show us a clear description of the next 'phase' of lockdown, but address a lot of the speculation that is going on at the moment.  I'm not sure that it did!

It feels like a lot of what we were told is open to misunderstanding - or interpreting the new rules as you would like them to be.  Life was in some ways easier in the morning when the rule was strictly, go out, have exercise with people you live with, up to an hour a day but it must be somewhere that does not involve driving.  

Which was not a problem, here we are enjoying an early morning dog walk in the sunshine, five minutes walk from our house.

Yesterday I had a message from our son - 'Can I come and visit you on Friday' - well, as if he had to ask, of course he can, we haven't seen him for weeks.  But now we're thinking that according to the new rules, you can only see one person from outside your household at a time, in the open air, but not in your garden.  So does he have to drive here, then one of us will go for a walk over the park with him, and then come home so we can swap and the other one can do the same?  Who knows?  That is probably what we will have to do and if it's the only way of seeing him, then I am more than happy to 'tag team'!

In other news:

Cake of the week is coffee and walnut

And the plants we are growing indoors from seed are thriving

I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the threat of an overnight frost being over and those runner beans can go out and stay out in the garden, I'm fed up with having to see this every time I go to the utility room to use the washing machine!

See those seedlings on the draining board?  Todays job is to repot them into individual pots ready for transplanting them into the great outdoors.  That should keep us busy - we'll have earned a slice of cake after that!

Keep safe everyone!

Fizz in the afternoon

Drinking prosecco at 3 in the afternoon, Winson Churchill giving a speech on the TV - it can only mean one thing 

The 75th Anniversary of VE Day.

We didn't have a street party with everyone 6ft apart, but we still felt part of it by having a slice of Victoria Sandwich Cake and a glass of fizz.