Small steps to home grown produce

I’ve taken the first small steps towards starting to use my allotment today. I’ve bought a hoe, a pair of gardening gloves and some bulbs of garlic to plant! I also made a list of what I want to grow, and got it into some sort of plan so that I know which ones need to be planted first.

This month I need to clear the weeds that have accumulated since the last occupier used the plot last year, prune the gooseberry bushes, mark the sections of the plot so that I remember whiat goes where, apply for permission to put up a shed, lay some paving stones at one end, get a compost bin, plant garlic, plant rhubarb and order seed potatoes, fruit canes and asparagus crowns to plant in the coming weeks. Not much happening, really!

Procrastinating

I really should be typing up Handsome’s story, but I’m delaying the struggle to decipher. I’ve visited Ravelry, have bought my mother a triple dvd set of Elvis movies (bargain sale!) and I’m about to go and check my blog reader for new entries.

I’m planning a few posts in the near future about my favourite recipes. Having studied my search engine referrals (as I said yesterday) I’ve discovered that many people reach this blog looking for cookery advice. I’m not sure that I’m at all qualified to help in this regard, but I’m happy to share recipes for our favourite meals. Also, I’m going to put myself and my family to the great hardship of experimenting a little with the ‘cake in a cup‘ microwave recipe!

My son, the budding literary genius

When my elder son, Handsome, won the class merit cup recently it was suggested to him that maybe he’ll be a scriptwriter or an author when he grows up. He took this to heart and has started writing his first Doctor Who fan-fic.

As I’m a good and kind mother, I offered to type the ‘manuscript’ up for him. I started yesterday but gave up after the first page and a half, as it is something of a struggle to decipher.

As you can see, Handsome is in far too much of a rush to empty the contents of his brain onto the paper to bother about trifling things like legibility! So, my evening tonight will be spent typing up the remaining six and a bit chapters. Wish me luck! (I’ll be demanding commission if he ever gets published!)

I worry about people sometimes…

If you write a blog, and if you are as interested* in the statistics as I am (*for ‘interested’, substitute ‘mildly obsessed’ at your pleasure) you will know that you can see the search terms that people use to reach your mutterings. I am often surprised and amused by some of the things that people type into search engines and manage to follow through to my site. I sometimes type the same things into Google to work out how they have reached me, but usually with no success. So, I thought I would share some of my favourites from recent days and weeks, see what you make of them all!

“pig baby congratulations cards” – first of all, pig babies are called piglets, and second, if you are referring to a human baby, please don’t tell the parents that you think it looks like a pig – it is guaranteed to upset!

“david tennant and condoms” – eeeewwww, what are you thinking? Does this LOOK like the sort of site which would cater to this search request?? Move along!

“branagh or tennant hamlet” – Tennant, every time, of course! He’s cuter, and does ‘mad’ better!

“doctor who obsessed” – no no no, that’s my son, not me. And he doesn’t have a blog (yet), although I will pass along all well-meaning comments!

“grapple jam recipe” – Yay! I may be on my way to getting my own word in general use! I made grapple jam a couple of years ago – a very flavourful mix of grape and apple, of course.

“crochet my hand writing” – I would if I could, but I can’t, sorry.

“buckingham palace plan” – floor plan? Plan of what? I hope this is not linked to anything unsavoury!

“words to express excitement” – Woohoo! Yeehah! Weyhey! and Yippedeedoodah! spring to mind!

However, my mother’s blog routinely gets visits from people following much stranger search engine requests, such as “hardest granny”, “granny sex”, “salsa dancing granny” and “two grannies off to europe on bicycles” – she gets all the best ones!

The Lancet issues retraction of MMR ‘dangers’

I’m a little behind the times with this, but as I published a post a couple of years back stating my position about vaccination I decided I’d like to follow up with the latest news about ‘The Lancet’ accepting that the evidence of the MMR vaccine being dangerous was false. I was prompted into recording this news here by a blog post by Heather Spohr in which she mentions that she has taken part in a Momversation about The Lancet’s retraction.

Having been attacked by commenters to my original blog post on the subject (I later found out that a post had been written on the Environment Of Harm Yahoo group website encouraging members to attack me on my blog) I at last feel a little vindicated in supporting vaccination. I know that to a large extent the damage has been done – in that public perception of these vaccines may have been irretrievably harmed – but hopefully the uptake of the vaccines will get back to pre-scare levels soon.

Avatar

GG and I went to see ‘Avatar’ this evening in the cinema in Cardiff Bay. He’s been wanting to see it for some time so, thanks to the excellent babysitting skills of my friend Maria, I was able to offer to go with him.

There are many reviews of the film out there for you to read, so I’m not going to even try and write one here! Suffice it to say, I thought I’d made a terrible mistake for the first part of the film as it began in a very militaristic and combative way without really letting me make any connection with the characters. However, the plot warmed up after a little while, and once I began to feel some empathy with some of the people on screen, I enjoyed it much more. It was a good two and a bit hours into the film before I felt the need to look at my watch overwhelm me, and that’s the yardstick I generally use to determine how much I enjoy a film!

I’m glad I saw it, and glad that it was in the cinema (so I got to wear the really sexy huge 3D glasses!) but on the whole I don’t think I’ll be buying the DVD.

Starting everything, finishing nothing!

I’ve been in a bit of a ’starting fever’ recently, beginning several knitting projects without finishing any. I’m half way up one fairisle mitten. I’ve picked up a jumper for Handsome which I started months ago, and have done all but for the collar and the finishing off. I began a wrap with the yarn that Machelle gave me at Christmas. I looked at another wrap that I started, and a pair of fingerless gloves I wanted to make (but got no further with either of those!) and I started, and promptly frogged, a knitted toy for a friend.

I’m going to have a go at finishing Handsome’s jumper now, and then maybe I’ll do a bit more on the wrap. And maybe, if you’re very lucky, I’ll get round to taking some pictures of the WIPs tomorrow!

I hope you all have a lovely and relaxing weekend, doing whatever it is that you enjoy doing the most.

Eating in Stratford Upon Avon

Last weekend, when my husband and I visited Stratford Upon Avon, we were lucky enough to light upon three lovely places to eat.

We arrived at dinner time on the Saturday evening, so we didn’t want to have to go too far to find a meal. We were lucky that within a couple of minutes walk of our guesthouse we found a lovely Chinese restaurant – the Ripple Cafe on the waterfront overlooking the Royal Shakespeare Company main theatre. GG and I both enjoyed the Chinese buffet enormously, going back for seconds (maybe thirds, I can’t remember!). It was just what we needed on arrival to Stratford – quick, easy and very tasty.

Shakespeare's birthplace, Henley Street, Startford upon Avon

Both lunchtime on Saturday and lunchtime on Sunday we went to the Henley Street Tearoom. On the Saturday we went there as we didn’t want a large lunch. We had planned an early pre-theatre dinner, so as I fancied a cream tea we went to this tearoom. It is situated just opposite the entrance to the Shakespeare’s birthplace exhibition, and is linked to a tea and coffee shop behind called Bensons House of Tea. The staff in the tea rooms were all polite and welcoming. There was a huge range of different teas and snacks to choose from, but I was set on my tea and scones with cream so that’s what I had! And it was gorgeous – fresh and warm scones with plenteous amounts of jam and cream. On Sunday, we went back for lunch before leaving for home as GG’s mother had invited us to stay for a cooked dinner in the evening so again we didn’t want a heavy meal. We both had toasted sandwiches which again were served promptly and were very tasty. (And then we went to the shop and bought some tea and coffee to bring home – including the Stratford All Day Blend which I drank in the tearoom and really enjoyed.)

The food highlight of the trip though, had to be Sorrento Restaurant on Ely Street. We booked for a pre-theatre meal, and were welcomed by all the staff. The food was gorgeous, well presented and not too expensive for a nice meal out. I so wish that this could be my local Italian restaurant! I would definitely DEFINITELY go back to this one if I go back to Stratford!

£65 million for a piece of bronze? Craziness.

I’m watching the BBC ten o’clock news. I’ve just watched a piece about the sculpture which has created a new world record for the most expensive item of artwork to be sold by auction. £65 million (£58 million plus Sotheby’s fees) is ridiculous. How many mosquito nets would that buy to help prevent malaria spreading mosquitos in Africa? How many water filtration systems could that provide for third world countries? How many people could this sum of money help to start their own businesses and become less reliant on charity?

I know I’m probably in a minority, but I strongly feel that spending this amount of money on some static, unresponsive lump of metal is immoral. A huge fuss was made when the UK wide amount of money raised to send aid to Haiti reached £35 million, and that’s only half what someone has splashed out on something that will probably sit in a bank vault, or heavily guarded display case.

This is an excellent example of the huge divide between the richest and poorest in this world. According to Oxfam Unwrapped, this sum of money could pay to build 38235 classrooms or 151515 libraries, train 1,300,000 farmers, buy 812,500 cows or provide clean water for upwards of 72 million people. Hmmm, cold bronze statue/clean water for an entire country. Such a hard choice.

Is ‘live and let live’ not an acceptable way of life?

I rarely buy newspapers, but while I was out shopping today I bought the Guardian. While reading it, I came across an article about Pope Benedict and his remarks on a recent meeting with the British R.C. Bishops about how they should unleash their ‘missionary zeal’ on the UK in an effort to sort out our ‘unjust’ equality legislation that prevent people from adhering to the tenets of their religion in their every day lives. At first, I genuinely thought (bless me and my optimistic innocence!) that he was preaching the sort of tolerance and acceptance which is such a part of my Christian faith (for the sake of clarity I should state that I’m a protestant, although I believe that these are at the core of the whole Christian faith). But no. Apparently, the ‘unjust’ equality legislation is that which we have already recently gained in the UK with regard to homosexual couples and gay adoption as well as employment equality rights.

It made me so cross to read that. It made me angry that the Pope was essentially preaching intolerance for people of other beliefs and other ways of life. This is what leads us into so many conflicts. Surely in these troubled times internationally we need our civil and religious leaders to be talking about unity, tolerance, understanding and compassion. There is far more that unites the peoples of the world than divides us, but the last thing we all need right now is for such influential people to preach such hatred and send such divisive messages around the world.