Gravy Tasting

Grandad Smith was apparently a great gravy maker. And mum was his taster.

Then mum was a great gravy maker and I was her taster. Then my children came along and stole my position!

Gravy tasting is in Megan's blood! Not literally! Sam's favorite thing, after roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings, is mopping up the gravy with bread. Another hand-me-down family tradition.

Now the kids are getting bigger, I think mum might have to get a bigger gravy saucepan. We can't get enough of it!

End of a night...

A great way to finish a Saturday night - I gate crashed a Meersbrook Mum's night out. Why did I only take 2 pictures? I don't know. I think they distracted me, but I did take 2 pictures of Ragi, Rachel and Becca. Unfortunately, Rachel didn't smile on one, and Becca and Ragi didn't smile on the other, although I do like Becca's pose!

Coincedentally, I've just downloaded a new toy (Photoshop) for a 30 day trial. This is VERY exciting for me (I know I need to get a life!) because of some tutorials I've seen on my new favorite web site Pioneer Woman! And Photoshop costs £600 so I'll never buy it! Anyway, here's today's trick! Two photos that weren't so good, merged into a better one! ...but don't look too closely!

It's got to be Bakewell!

After the initial compulsary trips to Micks and Hoopers for northern hair cuts and Costco for a cheap lunch, we wanted to make the most of the nice weather - where should we go? Has to be Bakewell! Again!

When we lived in Sheffield we spent weekend after weekend feeding the ducks and the fish at bakewell, so we all jumped at a trip back there.

We usually go a buy a cheap loaf of bread to feed the ducks, but most of it ends up going to the massive trout that sneak under the surface! This time though, we didn't make it to the shop, but it was still fascinating watching the trout lurking under the bridge!

Grandma Delores had given the kids some money to buy an ice cream and I think she would have approved of a Bakewell ice cream!

But you should never take your eyes off Leah, even when she's supposed to be posing for a picture!

On a sunny day, we would usually feed the ducks, then walk down to the playground and the kids would end up in the paddling pool, whether we brought towels and swimming costumes or not! But today we didn't make it there - we decided to walk the long way round behind the pavillion and along the river. here was too much nature around to distract us (and I'm not just talking about the dogs that knew it is spring!) - we didn't even make it to the playground what with trees to climb...

...and daisy chains to make...

and rivers to splash in... and river banks to lounge on!!

Great Grandparents

Lots of people don't even have Grandparents so my kids are really lucky to have 3 Great Grandparents. Top of my agenda for a trip to Sheffield is visiting my Grandma and Grandad and when we'd decided we were having KFC for tea, we knew we had to go and collect Grandma!We're all KFC fans! I love spending time with my Grandma, and really miss seeing her as often as I used to. She has a box of toys for the kids to play with, I love chatting with Grandma, so we all look forward to a trip Grandma's.

Meersbrook Bank School

Last weekend we took a trip to Sheffield, but most exciting of all (for Megan and Sam), we arrived early enough to go back to school to see their friends! Megan was bursting at the thought of doing this and couldn't wait to jump out of the car even though we were early and it was raining!

Despite the rain, Helen, Ragi, Susan and kids went to the park with us for half an hour - what a great start to our weekend. I feel really sad that Maisie and Lucy don't live down the road from us anymore - they're such good friends with Megan.

And Sam headed straight to the Spaceship tree (or pirate ship tree, depending on which game they're playing) with George and Benjamin like he'd been there with them yesterday!Love that park!

Who's the King of the Castle

Has to be Leanne!

More Sing it!

On Sunday, the Faggs came for dinner after church - Paul's been released and so he's a free man! Therefore, an afternoon of eating, dozing and singing was called for.

Its amazing how kids entertain each other - I've noticed that Josh is especially good at this - he's always full of fun ideas. Today they disappeared off into the garden and brick-layed a pirate ship! It turns out they found the pile of bricks from where Liam had taken down a little wall in the garden, and they built their own wall to make a ship. How clever is that!

Lets not go into the health and safety of letting four kids under nine play with bricks, but regardless, they had a great time!

Then the Sing It came out - you just can't help yourself! High School Musical has wormed its way into everyone's lives!

Cowgirl

A cowgirl should always be ready for any eventuality - any time of the night or day. Leah loves her cowgirl pyjamas, and tonight I found her prepared for trouble! You never know when you're gonna get ambushed...

Panic, panic, PANIC!

I know about food storage, I know about storing wheat and water, I know it all, but I haven't actually done anything about it!

And then in Januray, people at church told me wheat prices had gone up by 9 times. Grrrrr, why did I only buy 2 bags instead of 20 or 30 when they were only about £2.50. Does that mean they're gonna be £20/bag now?

Then the same people told me that there was a rice shortage. I don't always believe everything people tell me - scaremongering and all that, but then for the first time, the BBC was telling me the same thing. I've noticed my food bills are higher, but I thought I was being more extravagent (or careless) without realising!

So I've decided its about time I did something - how silly would I feel if I'd been told to get a good food store my whole life and then didn't and I really needed it. I already feel a bit silly (and annoyed with myself 'cause I love a bargain) about the wheat thing.

First things first, as The Sun said this week - Spaghetti Prices are Pasta Joke! Becks took Cynthia and I to Costco on a serious mission! And you wouldn't believe how much we bought! I say we, but I mean them! I'm quite impressed with my stash - 10kg bag of rice x 2, 500g bag of penne pasta x 12 and 500g bags of spaghetti (Liam's favourite dinner) x 16. Should keep us going for a while! I lost count of what my friends bought but I know they each bought 10 of the 10kg bags of rice! They spent over £500 between them! Don't worry Liam, my budget was much smaller (Liam and I converse through the blog now - no need for conversation over the dinner table any more!).

I'm happy with my stash, and Lorraine jumped right on the band wagon with me - she started surfing the net for evidence, of which she found plenty. She told me I need to stock up on vegetable oil too. That can be next month.

Depth of yellow field - see what I did there?

For my birthday last year, my lovely husband (he's mentioned a few times that this is becoming a Liam-bashing blog so I'm trying to be nice) bought me the camera I had been lusting over for months. I wanted to learn all the fancy techniques now available to me, but almost a year on, I'm not sure I've got very far - I'm feeling I'm still only skimming the surface. And this picture is a case in point.

Now we live in the country, everywhere I go involves driving through fields and fields of crops, and right now, the oilseed rape flowers are starting to come out. I love yellow flowers so on Sunday on the way back from Bradwell, I asked Liam to pull over so I could take a picture.

One of the things I've learned about since I got my camera is depth of field - how much of the photo in front and behind the subject is in focus. I'd never heard of this before, but I love how this can alter a photo - making people stand out from a background or showing more of their surroundings. The photos below aren't mine - this is my problem - I can't figure it out how to do it!

I want to be able to control this! I've read about it - I know its to do with smaller and larger f numbers - I see them on my camera, but I still don't get how you do it!

I tried to get all of my oilseed rape picture in focus, but I could only manage the narrow band across the middle. I used a few different setting, but they all came out the same - blurred at the front and back. I did only have a few seconds to try, cause I had a car full of freezing and cranky kids (and husband) but this is my goal for the week - hopefully I can figure this out, then on to the next photographic hurdle! Any advice?

Who's got the best job?

Phew, they're all back at school! I enjoyed the Easter holidays (mostly due to Helen distracting me for the first week) but it was REALLY great walking home from school alone this morning!

And now I stink of vinegar from cleaning my windows - the sun shines in our living room window at tea time and for the last week I've been cringing every time the sun works its way to the front of the house - the dirt shows up really badly! But not any more. I feel like I've spent the morning doing the equivelent of defumigating! I realise my children aren't bugs, I'm just saying its nice having them back where they should be of a morning!

Liam on the other hand really is a solicitor! He laughs 'cause sometimes I forget that HE can actually do the things you go to a solicitors for! I'm not sure what I think he does all day!

Anyway, to prove the point, today he's been to the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

It may not have been with the McCarteneys, but who cares! What a beautiful building to go to work in!

World's Biggest Cookie

...okay, not the worlds biggest, but quite big!

I think this was started by a trip to the Swannacks - Karen must have been baking cookies with Megan and Maddie and since then, Megan' s been asking if she can make the worlds biggest cookie. So we did for FHE tonight!

It may not be the biggest in the world, but Megan, Sam and Leah were suitably impressed.

Bradwell? Have you seen the weather?

I really didn't fancy it! When we got home from church, Liam said Lorraine and Phil had gone to Bradwell beach with the kids - did I fancy it? I certainly didn't! It was pouring with rain and anyway I had arranged to go for a walk in the woods near us with the Faggs (Paul got released as Bishop today so is a free man!). That sounded much more sensible - somewhere local so if it pours, you can nip home for a hot chocolate. When I hadn't heard from Becks by 3, I rang and she didn't sound too keen on dragging everyone out in the dodgy weather. So when Lorraine rang, all excited about their beach, we got our wellies on and headed for Bradwell (see the Essex map below).
I've been to Bradwell once before about 12 years ago, and as far as I'm concerned, there's only one thing Bradwell is famous - the nuclear power station which is right on the estuary! It really didn't sound appealing for a trip to play on the beach with the kids, but I do like Sunday afternoon outings and Lorraine was so excited about it! (It turns out the power station closed 4 years ago but it still dominates the landscape).

On the phone, Lorraine with her love of history, was excited about the church on the beach - St Peters. From a distance, it just looked like a big house, but when we got closer, you could see it was really old building (built in 654AD).

With some ace directions, we found Lorraine and Phil and their tent and bbq! I didn't realise they had gone so organised. We hadn't taken anything!

I'm really not sure about the tidal estuaries around here - I can't decide whether I love them or hate them but there's something very enticing about a scene like this. I MUST get some wellies 'cause I really fancied walking out a bit, but it was much too wet and soggy, even in my old trainers.

Vicky, Leanne and Rachel were most thrilled by these clay banks! Leanne was busy making a pot to cook on the bbq when we arrived. Beaches get you mucky enough at the best of times, but a clay-covered beach is ridiculous!

Lorraine and Phil were feeling particularly frisky today - must be the sea air!
ALL 6 kids had been quite happy playing in the clay and sand, and collecting shells, but you just can't take Liam to the beach and expect him to stay out of the sea. I don't think that has ever happened! I can remember visiting my Grandma and Grandad on the Isle of Wight in February one year, and he still couldn't resist a quick swim! Today was no exception...but when one starts, the rest follow! Well, some of the rest follow - I didn't even undo my coat the whole time we were there!

But even paddling isn't enough for Liam...and Phil it turns out...and Megan!

Wow! Look at them run, baywatch style!

As we didn't bring any towels with us (Lorraine had a hand towel but that doesn't go very far when they all jump in the sea!) there was only one way to get dry - running around!

The walk back to the car was pretty grim! Sand and clay stuck to every wet part of all the paddlers bodies! But we did all have a great time - I just wasn't prepared for a sitting-on-a-beach day! Now the weather's getting milder and we're living in the sunny south, I must have an emergency beach bag to hand!