Monday 28 March 2016

Review Of Me

I was offered a really special opportunity and I thought there's no way I could turn it down , it didn't require any key words , any links ( no follow) . No need to photograph anything in a special soft focus light with coffee beans scattered in random manner complete with home brewed coffee with the spoon just out of focus nestling in the brown sugar.







I can reveal I'm reviewing me 


Bobble hatted , country living , bicycling , history , archaeology , cat loving , tea brewing me 

I can be down through depression but lately I'm seeing the joy in things .



Life is like wifi sometimes we just need to make the right connections .

So I'll continue to reach out but I'm reaching out to like minded people more than than those treating me like their pet project .

Review model is avaiale through email on the about me page not for sale but available in all matter blogging.

This review is of course on going and further updates with ensue.



Disclosure I was provided with myself to review , I wasn't told what to write and I can come down from my Easter sugar high anytime I choose .

Friday 25 March 2016

Spring Here It Is

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Everyone Wants To Be A Cat

Everyone wants to be a cat ...


I suspect by now you are humming that well know tune from the Atristocats !



Cats do have a luxurious life , they are mini dictators / royalty wrapped up in a fluffy outer coating and I love them and I know many people love cats do.



Cats are therapy on legs , they make us laugh they make us cross , they make us smile and every other emotion you can think of. Hilarity is your cat making a hiss like a phantomine villain or watching them hunt a pile of grass / flower on your lawn.



Funny is the cat who isn't ready for the Monday morning grind and just flops back to bed which usually isn't their own.

I find my cats know when I need them and sometimes when I do they don't want to know but a rustle of the treat packet soon sorts that situation !!

Cats are aloof just like people sometimes think I'm 99 % cat 



Monday 21 March 2016

Bills Restaurant Nottingham

Bill's Restaurant Nottingham


Last Sunday after my son had been to his Holocaust orientation seminar having been to Aushwitz the other week , we decided to take him out to dinner . A few months previously I had won a voucher for Bills restaurant for £200 which I know is amazing and I was waiting for an opportunity to use it . We've all had a tough time as a family recently and in the past do we really want to put stuff behind us and create forever memories. There are many excellent Bill's restaurants round the country and when we are in London next we will be visiting Bills again.


Starters 

My husband and I had the prawn cocktail which was amazing , I love prawn cocktail ( I have to careful as I've a slight fish intolerance ) but as long I have my antihistamine with me I'm ok. I didn't take a picture of the prawn cocktail as I'm pretty sure you all know what prawn cocktail looks like ! This prawn cocktail was served with 

I did order some amazing cocktails ( mock one of course for J ) the cocktail I had was a rhubarb one and it was amazing.

Rhubarb Cocktail




Main courses 


Confit Duck Pie


A huge Chicken burger


Pecan pie Bills Restaurant
Pecan Pie anyone ?

Nottingham has so much to offer and it's a case of when are we going back again as there is so much to Nottingham luckily we are only half an hour away . Who knows it could be my sons university town in years to come which is approaching more quickly than I'd like.

Sunday 20 March 2016

My Sunday Photo

You can't appreciate nature and the countryside behind a computer or laptop you've got to get out and be interactive! So this morning I had had enough and went out into the wide world like I did before the depression and anxiety had a firmer grip of me . I'll not lie there are times I do struggle and I've had people try and point out if I should be blogging as it might be fuelling my insecurities .

Quite basically knickers to that . If you don't  understand what I do just ask plain and simply just ask .

Any way back to searching out the countryside and seeking the Hawk soar on the breeze ( alas no photos ) but you can imagine if you will . The Hawk was soaring as the peel of the village bells came across in a sound wave .





I'm back in my photography vibe and this week I'll be getting the Nikon out and taking some countryside shot s , I really wish I had worn my wellingtons as I nearly fell into a huge mound of frog spawn .
 

Thursday 17 March 2016

Easy Tomato Pasta Sauce

Pasta sauce is one of those sauces I'd rather not have from a jar and to make my own as its a brilliant emergency rescue tea or tea / dinner anytime . And I am readying my son for university even though he has cookery GCSE grade A 

Ingredients 

2 cans of tinned tomatoes 
or in my case 1 can of tinned tomatoes and a bottle of passata.This will make for a lot of sauce which you can obviously freeze .

1 medium onion thinly sliced 

1 tablespoon of mixed herbs / Italian herbs 

Salt and pepper seasonings 

2 cloves of garlic crushed

150 Ml of vegetable stock 

1 tablespoon of plain flour to thicken 

Couple knobs of butter 
Method 

1. Melt the butter in a pan and soften the sliced onion,  then add the crushed garlic , herbs. Next add the vegetable stock bringing to the boil seasoning with salt and pepper.





2 next add the tomatoes cover and simmer for 20 minutes. You could blend and make smooth if you so wish or leave it rustic which is cookery speak for leave it just as it is ! 


3 Simmer until thick adding in the tablespoon of flour then stir in the rest of the butter .


Use the sauce with spaghetti or smooth out over a pizza base 



Wednesday 16 March 2016

Finding Your Spring Style Quirk



Bowl of light, prefect for that Spring style quirk.



With Spring approaching I felt the need to jazz up the front room a little and my budget to be honest isn't huge , there is little hope of DIY Sos coming to my rescue , don't even think of asking 60 minute make over to come over. Today it was the trip to the mighty mega that is Ikea all roads lead to the wardrobe department where Narnia awaits. I have always had a style quirk a homely feel and not a style where I am afraid to use my objects and furnishings around me.

Solvinden covers on LED IKEA lights
SOLVINDEN covers on Ikea lED lights


I do think you can combine products from two companies , in this instance I 've combined a metal dish from Next which is a poppy flower  design and the lights are from trusty IKEA . The bowl itself was the most expensive purchase as £24.99 and I adore the light reflecting of it and it's definitely a statement piece and is a focal talking point .

The LED lights themselves which as mentioned are from IKEA were £8 and then £4 for the SOLVINDEN covers . Not all the lights are covered as I like to see some twinkly contrast this is my Spring style quirk .



Monday 14 March 2016

The Joy Of Expect

The joy of expect


I'm turning my thinking on its head , whilst the odd adage of it can go wrong it will go wrong ( is probably true )


 I'm going to expect joy which for an over thinker this is quite revolutionary , if I implode and then eat my own weight in cake is yet to be seen.

The joy of seeing the catkins upon the trees within the churchyard as the clock just goes past 3.

Church clocks strikes 3
Church clock strikes just past 3 


Also joy in updating a lighting feature in my front room say hello to when IKEA meets Next , the twigs with lights on have gone that was so 2015! Just a little change in say a light decoration can add a whole new dimension to a room . Ps I do also have some bunches of twigs as well that have little paper flowers on , I think this is an idea that people could develop and add to like paper butterflies , fairies etc.

Interior design feature a bowl of light
Bowl of light

Getting my shop soup maker was an utter joy , I'm in love with it ( and yes it's easy to clean and no it's not a device consigned to the cupboard )

Homemade pea and ham soup
Pea and ham soup

Joy of going out for a meal in the vibrant of Nottingam a city going through a real visual hip transform a nod of modern merging with the old .


Old buildings in Nottingham city , love the urban look of Nottingham
Old buildings in Nottingham 


Ohhh get me having a cocktail ~ rhubarb cocktail to be exact> joy .

Rhubarb cocktail prefect for Spring
Rhubarb cocktail


We were in Nottingham waiting for our son J after he had been to Holocaust orientation . The week previous he had been to Aushwitz and another concentration camp within the day . So it has been a pretty intense couple of weeks. So it's a joy to see him smile as he sees the biggest burger he's even seen in his life .

Buttermilk chicken burger
The biggest chicken burger in the world

Joy has been looking at new sinks and taps as the kitchen sink is in the 
middle of its death throws . It will of course be a new kitchen next year but that joy is yet to come .


Friday 11 March 2016

Morphy Richards Sauté and Soup


I've always wanted a soup maker , people tried to say you don't need one and that you can just use a blender . I say to those people 


"No "

I tried it once when trying to make a tomato soup and quite frankly it looked like a murder scene ~

I think the most searched for phrase that year was 

" how to remove tomato off ceilings "

 Obviously if I had access to google in 1991 it would have been 

" how to remove potato off a ceiling after using a pressure cooker "



 The first soup I've tried is pea and ham following the recipe within the instruction booklet , granted it doesn't have a creme fraishe swirl but a cracking effort for a first go.




The soup maker has a sauté function hence the name sauté and soup but I haven't tried this yet but I will as soup needs croutons every now and then . The soup maker also makes smoothies and milkshakes and I've had a few people see this as weird , not really you're not using your saucepan fur just one item unless you're my Nan who had a carrot pan.

I just love my Morphy Richards Sauté and Soup  RRP £54 It will not be a piece of kit consigned to the I'll never use again pile ~ like the juicer I once had.

PS It is very easy to clean and takes no time at all ! 

This to me is a bargain as someone sold me theirs half price ( it was new )


I'll be popping by with some soup recipes : aren't you lucky !!!!


Disclosure : The Soup maker has been living with me for 4 days now and long may the honeymoon period continue , my own review / declaration of love .





Thursday 10 March 2016

A blogger at Rest

Twas the night before  Friday and nothing stirred in the house

Except for a blogger tapping on a keyboard listening to Classic Fm 


Surveying all around her the blogger did declare all is calm and all is settled 


Not a review item in sight hurrah I do say 


Then the review  flowers did she spy with her perfectly capturing instagram moment content collecting eye


Though bereft of life they be


Capturing them in the soliloquy of time reflection is a necessity






So you see with us bloggers it isn't always a look at me reaction


Just the chance to write is food enough thought for me
















Thursday 3 March 2016

Slow Cooker Shoulder Of Lamb

Firstly before the lamb recipe :

The mews at 10 ( somewhere in the world ) 





Firstly I lost my bobble hat then found it but it's a very sad bobble hat as the cat has had a further go at it ~ sigh sad times if I can't be a bobble hat superhero as the bobble ( Pom Pom obviously stores my super powers which isn't colour coordination.









All hail Rollie is back in the bottom of the cat bunk bed , he just need a warm mat so he can warm his paws , you know when the weather is right if he's outside .



Ingredients 


Shoulder of Lamb 

Chunky carrots 

Any other veg 

3 whole onions 

1 teaspoon paprika 
 I whole clove of garlic ( remove obviously before dishing out stock unless whizzing into soup )

1 tablespoon mixed Italian herbs .

1 litre of lamb stock 


Method 


There's not really much of a method to this , I could make this method more exciting by doing some juggling but I can't juggle so that's a no to that then. Basically combine everything and leave in the slow cooker for  about 6 hours on slow . Please don't put a bobble hat in the slow cooker the bits will get stuck in your teeth .


You can be super clever and whizz up the stock for soup.





Tuesday 1 March 2016

The Hitchhikers Guide To Blogging

Every so often bloggers are inclined to declare " I'm giving up packing up my blogging toys "and disappearing into a puff of social media smoke.

Blogging has pretty much changed since I arrived on the scene some 5 years ago (well nearly 5 years ) . Blogging has got slicker, meaner, nicer, more niche , compartmentalised , more diverse and so many other adjectives ,I'll have to get my thesaurus out. I'm more than likely to drop said thesaurus on my feet those causing a injury , I kid you not I'm likely to do this.

The Off Day Catalyst 

I pretty attributed the catalyst of this situation to the toast I had yesterday , how I hear you cry can the humble piece of toast cause a cataclysm of events , well the shade of toast can do this .

When you place your toast in the toast in the toaster you have expectation and high expectation of  that :

 1 Your toaster will do the job .

2 Your toast will be the appropriate shade of ermmm toastyness to launch you upon your day whatever that may entail ( yesterday I was chief men pants buyer )

3. If I had , had happy toast like I did a few weeks ago , this indeed could be a very different blog post , I could be clutching an Oscar instead.




I think it's just a blogging stumble and tomorrow the toaster Gods will favour my blogging fortune , I think historians need to look back and see if toast has caused any wars.

Blog Me Like You Do

I do , I do love blogging .

It's very hard not to compare yourself to others at time , I have never succumbed to the green eyed blogging monster , I'm not that type of person . Blogging isn't a distraction technique of the Emperors new clothes with me what you see is what you get . I'm not one either for blogging praise in fact if I'm praised in any shape or form it has me running for the hills .

Blogging has provided me many wonderful opportunities of which I'm  .... grateful , I think I hope I'm a refreshing blogger ?! everytime I write a blogging grammar fairy dies , apologies if my grammar makes you twitchy .

I have been blogging as mentioned nearly 5 years , I'm one month short of this anniversary , I've never huff puffed ( unpaid journalism ) or caused a stir on mumsnet, though be still my beating hard I had a post on Gnome knickers re tweeted. This was a post about Gnome knickers ( people who steal Gnomes )


Perhaps if I had written the blog post with the title Game Of Gnomes that will have pulled the punters in  ? who knows ?


Not Giving Up 

I will conquer and blog on , at times I feel blogging is to commercial and I want my fluidity to show and not have review after review . I want my naivety back I feel as if I have opened the blogging Pandora 's box / reviewed it and pimped it within an inch of its life !

I'm currently topping up my tea levels.






Infact I've turned some offers of late including someone asking me to pay into their crowdfunding business of their item. In return I'd get the item and something tongue away > yet I have to pay ?!! how cheeky and rude ! . 

Breathe.


Breathing allows the yearning to blog to come back and it's own my terms it's not like I'm going to go extent like the dinosaurs for example the poor T -.rex couldn't even type no wonder he roared all the time he couldn't clap his hands at the dinosaur tea party !

" If you're happy and you know it , clap your hands "

Blogging has got so clogged it's certainly not as simple as it was and I just want the simplicity to come back just tad, I feel as if I need a Hitchhikers Guide to Blogging with the words :


"Don't panic "

Emblazoned on the front .

I'm not going any where but if I don't shake it up and say how I feel,once in a while I'll implode.

So I'm staying blogging and so is the cat .