Wednesday 31 May 2017

The Gift Of Friendship

What's Friendship to you ?

What's the gift of friendship to you ?


Friendship is a myriad of things to me and I've had many friends over the years but I like where I'm at right now bit like porridge in the 3 little bears not too hot , not too hot but just right. Any friendship to me has to be the right friendship. I heard the term 


" Time Poor "

The term intrigued be and I thought how could anyone been time poor but then again I don't see anyone saying 

"Time Rich "


I think with friends and family I'm 

" Time Enriched "


And the gift of friendship doesn't have to be a spa trip with bells and whistles ( although that would be very nice !)

And I was really taken back by a friend online ( and I've met her in real life ) when she kindly sent me a card to cheer me up ( due to my impending job redundancy ) . You think it's only a simple card but let me tell you it's these little lifts that truest make the heart soar giving you hope.


Hope is way you need when your heart sinks and these litte lifts bring you back from the brink , it might me 

" that dress really suited you , you beautiful "

I find compliments very hard to take but they are most welcome as I can reflect on them , I'm reflecting a lot at the minute.


 

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Love A BBQ





Love a BBQ I do , and the other day we all went to the in laws BBQ and it was lovely especially as of late we have all had a really busy time and the teen is just about to start his A levels eek . So it was brilliant for him to get together with his other teenage cousins and my brother in law got the Chimera roaring as you will see from the photos don't worry he didn't lose his eyebrows.



 

I love this kitsch sauce holder from the Range  and I love fun , I'll certainly be buying one for myself , life after all does need a little fun in it and at only £1.99 it's a bargain. Purchase of this item does not ensure sunshine but who needs sunshine all the time ?!






Red is an ideal colour to coordinate your BBQ with !

 




I find the above picture an absolute dream as it my teen helping my sister in laws mum with her technology and it is inspiring to see the patience teenagers have and some of society really shouldn't be so quick to write them off.

Friday 26 May 2017

School Life In A Blink Of A Eye

School life .


It's a bit of whirl really and it really really does go in a blink of an eye and of course as a promise to my son not to embarrass him on his last day ever of school so this is why I've posted on Facebook and why I'm writing this blog post.



When you came through for the charity fun run at school by buying a Sherlock Holmes costume then making up lost relatives on the sponsorship form !

He has always been part of this blog #willingly

The times I have had to take him to a cookery blog event where the cooking bug rubbed off on him and he took GCSE cookery . Update he's never cooked a meal at home yet but the cookery skills I'm assured do lay dormant.


















He's off later to a prom at a fancy pants race course its the last big hurrah before university , I am fully aware of Freshers week I understand it that it is very civil and just a series of tea parties really . I mean you can't get carried away with tea and cucumber sandwiches can you now .




I have received the travel together rail card so we can go visit the teen at York , I tell you I will be virtually camped at Betty's tea rooms.

   
The Pramshed

Thursday 25 May 2017

One Thing To Do In Derby On a Rainy Day


If you're in Derby and it is raining which lets be honest about the weather lately is likely to happen. I live just outside Derby and I pop in when I need to and the other day I needed to pick something up from town . In Derby we've a number of museums and one of these is Pickford's House Museum of Georgian Life and Costume is in Derby, England. It is named after architect Joseph Pickford, who built it as his family home in 1770. It was opened as a museum in 1988. The building is Grade I listed. 

The museum is free which is a bonus in these economic times , the museum has an immeadiate afffect as soon as you work up to it and I love the Georgian era. I am never happier than when I am visiting a museum I have been enthralled with museums since childhood, I spent hours in them as a child . And I still spend hours in them it is somewhere I truly feel myself and I feel I truly belong, and it helps that the Derby museum house are ever so friendly and knowledgeable , as soon as you set foot in the museum they talk to you .





 
  




You can even use a 1930's bathroom , there is also an Edwardian bathroom you can use as well.

 



There is even a quaint Georgian garden which is really most exquisite for saying how close you are to the city centre it really is a little green oasis.






I just love this little undercroft underneath the house with the door leading inside it is what I love to think of as a secret door.

 

Friday 19 May 2017

A Cereal Mystery

I will be the first to admit that I never thought I would be writing a blog post about a humble bowl of cereal , well a bowl has to be humble doesn't it , they don't have grandiose ideas now do they ?. For years and years we have been buying our son the same type of cereal buying quite a few boxes at a time . We were very puzzled as to why he wouldn't try any other cereal we had asked him to but no no avail , I had visions of having to make emergency cereal runs when he goes to university later this year ~ oh my how would he cope ?


He's going to be away for 3 years of course we will let him home , oh my goodness did that mean filling the garage with his favourite cereal as well . But it appears I shouldn't have been panicking about any of this as he has simply for all these years just been eating the constant supply of the same cereal we were buying and the reason he hadn't been eating any other cereal was that the same cereal magically kept appearing . This is rather like the magic porridge pot but instead with cereal.


It is funny how things occur if only I had known years ago I could have avoided the various panic trips to the supermarket to make sure that the supplies of his ( what I thought was his favourite cereal )never ever did run out.


If tea runs out in this household then there will well and truly be a panic in this household as I love my tea and this in turn has been taken to the teen , of course I will be sending him to university with a box or 2 or tea bags . Every visit I will bring him tea bag and I think I can see where this is going to go there is going to be a teabag mountain some where in the UK.





Tuesday 16 May 2017

Pasta Gammon Twice Baked



What do you do with a glut of pasta and Gammon well the answer is of course eat it ! But seriously it's how you go about it that's the first easy part.

Ingredients 

Leftover Gammon

Leftover Pasta 

Left over pasta sauce / or can of tomato that has some residue in it 

A few tablespoons of plain flour 

Anything else you want to add , I added salad beans ( Barlotti beans etc )


Method

In a oven proof dish place the salad beans etc.

Next add the chopped up Gammon.

Then add the pasta.

Then add some water to the left over sauce jar ( use a resealable container if you aren't using a jar )

Give the jar a good shake.

Then add a tablespoons of flour to the jar , give another good shake.

Pour the mixture over the pasta.


Place in the oven on 180c for about 20 minutes.

Take out sprinkle some cheese on it and leave in for a couple minutes more to allow the cheese to melt.

This is a perfect supper dish or a money saving dish for anyone !





 

 

Balancing The Scales Of Mental Health

Tipping the balance of mental health , tipping the balance of mental health can occur if the odds you feel are stacked against you . And you'd think that being told that my teaching assistant job being restructured that this would happen , I was only told yesterday and currently I am galloping through the various emotions of disbelief , tears , upset and anger . There is nothing to be done it is part of the modern way of things and budgets and restructuring are sadly a way and fact of life.

But though I am losing my job as teaching assistant and it's a job I have truly loved I have to get knuckle down and look for something else to make up the shortfall. I did walk to school today alright not 100 % but ok hoping it together that was until I reached near my school and then I got upset . I know I will continue to get upset but it will lessen and  at the moment I feel as I have no energy .


I don't feel the same as I did when I had my breakdown , yes it is a bit of a struggle to get motivated but I was only told the news yesterday about losing my job. I feel that documenting my feelings help me through it and will enable me to cope , I am stronger that I ever was even tough depression and anxiety will always be apart of me it is going to get control of me at this moment at time . I am keeping one step ahead and the difference is this time I have more a support network in place and I am very much sharing everything with colleagues even the cat , cats are very good listeners except when they turn their back on you and escape through the catflap.

I feel a bit lost which is rather like trying to tidy up after a toddler you never quite get it sorted , but eventually you do as they learn to tidy up for themselves .

But I will come through it , I will find my way again ...

Friday 12 May 2017

Jack And His Cat Manifesto




I sit here before you to talk about my cat manifesto , I do believe it was leaked on line but there isn't anything in the cat manifesto that we can't achieve. You'll see form my photo that I am connecting with nature * ps not a mouse tail . Of course with the sad death of Rollie our party leader I have had to step into the political affray.

Did you know Abraham Lincoln loved cats and he kept 4 of them at the White House , perhaps there is a power crazy cat sitting on Donalds Trumps head ?


1. EU will someone left the door open so of course we will go out then come back in then go out again and so it goes on .


2. Nationalising cats after all there is power in those paws .

3. The right to knock random stuff off any surface.

4. What is yours is mine whether I need it or not ~ I own everything.

5. There is no word "NO "

6. Free tuition at the University of Cunning.

7.  I pledge more cardboard boxes .




8. I am not a pacifist I will launch weapons , claws , tails * sitting in front of the television.

9.  Smoked salmon in the bowl of every cat ~ no longer will you go hungry and have to put up with an empty bowl.

10 Naps 23 hours a day on a chair of your choice.



Of course I may backtrack on a policy promise here or there , you brought a whole case of the cat food I like ~

"I don't like it anymore "




You want a plant and a cat impossible "you cannot own both , the plant is going down unless you kill it first "

Popping to the loo ? then I need to come to and paw the door wide open * oh is there workmen in the house oh dear I am so sorry.

Thursday 11 May 2017

Creating Your Familiar Footsteps

Where my feet travel carries the memory of me where ever you go what ever we go ~ familiar  footsteps  , I'm loving walking and where ever I go I believe I leave an imprint a little piece of me that I'll keep returning to. And I know when my son goes to university it's really a copy of my own feet going further a field . We've all been to York as a family and I took myself up to Bettys tea rooms last year and a jolly meander round.




And I know when the teen goes to I feel that he is safe as he will be walking in familiar footsteps where we have all walked as a family ~ familiar footsteps.



And as we have been up and looked round York University to look at the archaeology course he will be be studying as well as the accommodation , I will safe in the knowledge that he will be treading familiar footsteps. Though when it is Freshers week ( looks at sky ) the familiar footsteps could have a little bit of a sway maybe.




It matters not the weather nor the season where you go , I go we go familiar footsteps is what carries me through where once a imprint in the mud stood I have the memory of you in our familiar footsteps.


The crunch of leaves makes me smile for knowing that familiar footsteps have been here to , no matter if you are near or far away I have memories of you .


Often I am in the wake of familiar footsteps as I am talking pictures or just pondering , I always capture my families familiar footsteps as we walk our memories.


You have to let them fly when they go to university you have set them up in their familar footsteps and to see them smile in their own confidence is something very special indeed.


You can create familiar footsteps all round the world like we did here in Washington DC it doesn't matter that I am not in the pictures as we we were all together in our family footsteps.



Amsterdam where I was made to walk blooming miles though I did protest a little at the time as Mr T does like to walk everywhere do gets to see everything it was creating our familiar footsteps.



So don't be sat reading this go get out there and create your own familiar footsteps especially as it is #nationalwalking month.

Tuesday 9 May 2017

National Walking Month Time To Get Out And Enjoy The Outdoors

 
You can walk anywhere and everywhere ( just so long as you're not trespassing !) I enjoy walking in all sorts of places be in from cities to countryside , you'd be surprised that walking in cities can be relaxing as often there are hidden green oasises.

 


May is National Walking Month. National Walking Month is a campaign to promote the benefits of walking and to get everyone walking, no matter what your level of fitness is.  Walking is simple and free and one of the easiest ways to be more active, lose weight and become healthy. And as we've a teenager going to university we will be saving money as parents as the teen will be stopping on campus and he'll will be walking everywhere to ! - bonus.


 


A 20 minute walk can boost your mood and as I suffer from depression and anxiety I truely believe in getting out there and exploring , I love being an intrepid explorer, I always view places as I'm the first person to ever set foot there. 






I love the challenge of my environment and varying where I walk from flat places to those with more of an incline as this is helpung increasing my stamina. You don't need fancy equipment to start walking just make sure your footwear is applicable for the surface/area you're going to be walking and decent socks ( especially if you're going to be strolling over hill and dale)


  


So once this month is over I urge you to keep walking and why not take your camera with you , this is something I love to do . You'll see this in particular from my Instagram I find it a wonderful visual prompt esoecially if I'm feeling down in the dumps.