It's Saint George's Day! May you gain confidence to 'slay' your fears, doubts and thereby overcome any 'obstacles' that are causing you unhappiness..... and gyp!
(George and the Dragon stories...up on Wikipedia. I like the Wormingford one best)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon
Monday 23 April 2012
Friday 13 April 2012
That Blooming Dog
The dog did it...again.
Bulldozed the dog gate, just as Big Bro arrived..... Got WELL AND TRULY stuck this time. She was so pleased to see him...never saw the dog gate! lol
Well, he shoved and I pulled. Nothing doing. After ten minutes we still had a dog with a dog gate around her middle. We got a metal hacksaw out to try and cut off the bars. Nothing doing. So, he went in search of better hacksaw...searching my toolbox. Shuffled off to garden room where said toolbox is kept. Meanwhile, Cilla was not having it. What! no attention!....so she wiggled out of her metal tutu and toddled off in search of her audience! :o) Big Bro has come up with the idea of replacing the bars with wood. Good idea me thinks. Get on with it, then! lol
He is here to babysit our house and pets as we in turn are going to babysit Son No 1's place and his dog. He's away for the weekend...wedding. So, we have got a long weekend with......Sky TV, central heating and Grandchild of Min! I can finish off my next blanket in comfort. Yay Junior is all packed up, ready to go:o) Hope he's got those pizzas in for us! lol
Hope you have a lovely weekend. x
Bulldozed the dog gate, just as Big Bro arrived..... Got WELL AND TRULY stuck this time. She was so pleased to see him...never saw the dog gate! lol
Well, he shoved and I pulled. Nothing doing. After ten minutes we still had a dog with a dog gate around her middle. We got a metal hacksaw out to try and cut off the bars. Nothing doing. So, he went in search of better hacksaw...searching my toolbox. Shuffled off to garden room where said toolbox is kept. Meanwhile, Cilla was not having it. What! no attention!....so she wiggled out of her metal tutu and toddled off in search of her audience! :o) Big Bro has come up with the idea of replacing the bars with wood. Good idea me thinks. Get on with it, then! lol
He is here to babysit our house and pets as we in turn are going to babysit Son No 1's place and his dog. He's away for the weekend...wedding. So, we have got a long weekend with......Sky TV, central heating and Grandchild of Min! I can finish off my next blanket in comfort. Yay Junior is all packed up, ready to go:o) Hope he's got those pizzas in for us! lol
Hope you have a lovely weekend. x
Tuesday 10 April 2012
The Full Moon Thing
You can tell it's recently been full moon time.
Holy Moley...the mogs AND the dogs have been REALLY unsettled lately, especially at night. Has been driving me potty....sleep deprivation. They're just not themselves at the mo and are proper hyper and snappy.
I put Cilla to bed in the kitchen last night. Nice warm dog bed with woollen blanket, freshly laundered. All her food and water available. There is a dog gate, so I don't have to close the door on her. Anyway, this morning found that she'd squeezed through the dog gate bars like bloody Popeye, of eating spinach fame and caused havoc in the hallway....rubbish bag chewed open plus she'd relieved herself, too. Not being that pleased to behold such a sight first thing in the morning, I put her back in the kitchen! Well, she wasn't having it and became very stressed out and virtually bulldozed through the dog gate again....only this time she got stuck...one half of dog gate at right side, other at left...dog in niddle. Dog gate was like a bloomin tutu on her!! I had a walking dog gate in the kitchen. And it was only bloody 6.45 AM!!! She had managed to dislodge it from the door frame and so there's me, cursing away at the dratted dog and trying to get the blooming thing off her at the same time. Push, shove..... TEN minutes trying to shove her back, then forwards. Eventually got her free but my, she was proper potty...and I was well and truly peed off. Apparently, I woke up Junior with my yelling...and probably the neighbours, too. Maybe the dog can sense something in the kitchen. I don't know. At the moment, she won't leave my side. Neither will bro's dog but he's not as bad as Cilla, though.
I've been sussing out a few websites and blogs that talk about saving money. The frugal ones....seeing as I need to save up for a new dog gate now. I found one today where the authors reckon you can feed a person three meals for a £1 a day. Does anyone manage that, I wonder? Can't see how you can do that, unless you buy stuff in bulk and factor it out that way. Bet you lose weight. I ought to put the dog on a bloody diet after Dog Gate!! Anyway.....we're going to have a go. Luckily Junior likes porridge, so that's breakfast sorted. lol. 9p for that they reckon. Shall have to work on the remaining 91pence! When we figure it out I'll let you know what meals we've come up with. But, I can't work out how we'll get the old 5-a-day within the budget.
Talking of healthy... on another blog...The hedgecombers... there is a post about nettles...using them in a smoothie type drink...without blanching first so that the 'sting' is gone! Eek. Anyway, turns out it was not so bad....so...seeing as we have a new patch of said nettles at the bottom of the garden...I think I might have a go. The recipe is...2 bananas, water, some berry puree and the nettles, all whizzed up in a blender. Makes two portions, apparently. Could nettles be one of our 5-a-day? Can't see Junior going for that. Nettle smoothie. Don't think so.
Also, there was a tip on cleaning a manky glass oven door. I nearly had a cardiac arrest because it just looked like ours and I was getting a bit paranoid, wondering which creep had posted a sneaky pic of ours up on the internet to shame me into cleaning it. (maybe it's the full moon thing) The blogger got a load of bicarb of soda and added water to make a thick paste, slapped it on the oven door and glass and left if for a while. Scraped it off with a window paint scraper type of thingy and it came up really sparkly clean. We're def going to have a go at that. There's me thinking I'd have to buy one of those kits that cost lots of poundies and now I don't. Yay
Anyway, time for beddies. Shall have to have Klingon aka Cilla with me this time. Bugger! More sleep deprivation. (she sneaks on when I'm asleep and likes to lay on my legs...probably because they're pillow like...being so podgy! And believe it or not, not being able to feel/move my feet keeps me awake. You'd think being in the 'land of nod' that it wouldn't matter.... Work that one out!
Holy Moley...the mogs AND the dogs have been REALLY unsettled lately, especially at night. Has been driving me potty....sleep deprivation. They're just not themselves at the mo and are proper hyper and snappy.
I put Cilla to bed in the kitchen last night. Nice warm dog bed with woollen blanket, freshly laundered. All her food and water available. There is a dog gate, so I don't have to close the door on her. Anyway, this morning found that she'd squeezed through the dog gate bars like bloody Popeye, of eating spinach fame and caused havoc in the hallway....rubbish bag chewed open plus she'd relieved herself, too. Not being that pleased to behold such a sight first thing in the morning, I put her back in the kitchen! Well, she wasn't having it and became very stressed out and virtually bulldozed through the dog gate again....only this time she got stuck...one half of dog gate at right side, other at left...dog in niddle. Dog gate was like a bloomin tutu on her!! I had a walking dog gate in the kitchen. And it was only bloody 6.45 AM!!! She had managed to dislodge it from the door frame and so there's me, cursing away at the dratted dog and trying to get the blooming thing off her at the same time. Push, shove..... TEN minutes trying to shove her back, then forwards. Eventually got her free but my, she was proper potty...and I was well and truly peed off. Apparently, I woke up Junior with my yelling...and probably the neighbours, too. Maybe the dog can sense something in the kitchen. I don't know. At the moment, she won't leave my side. Neither will bro's dog but he's not as bad as Cilla, though.
I've been sussing out a few websites and blogs that talk about saving money. The frugal ones....seeing as I need to save up for a new dog gate now. I found one today where the authors reckon you can feed a person three meals for a £1 a day. Does anyone manage that, I wonder? Can't see how you can do that, unless you buy stuff in bulk and factor it out that way. Bet you lose weight. I ought to put the dog on a bloody diet after Dog Gate!! Anyway.....we're going to have a go. Luckily Junior likes porridge, so that's breakfast sorted. lol. 9p for that they reckon. Shall have to work on the remaining 91pence! When we figure it out I'll let you know what meals we've come up with. But, I can't work out how we'll get the old 5-a-day within the budget.
Talking of healthy... on another blog...The hedgecombers... there is a post about nettles...using them in a smoothie type drink...without blanching first so that the 'sting' is gone! Eek. Anyway, turns out it was not so bad....so...seeing as we have a new patch of said nettles at the bottom of the garden...I think I might have a go. The recipe is...2 bananas, water, some berry puree and the nettles, all whizzed up in a blender. Makes two portions, apparently. Could nettles be one of our 5-a-day? Can't see Junior going for that. Nettle smoothie. Don't think so.
Also, there was a tip on cleaning a manky glass oven door. I nearly had a cardiac arrest because it just looked like ours and I was getting a bit paranoid, wondering which creep had posted a sneaky pic of ours up on the internet to shame me into cleaning it. (maybe it's the full moon thing) The blogger got a load of bicarb of soda and added water to make a thick paste, slapped it on the oven door and glass and left if for a while. Scraped it off with a window paint scraper type of thingy and it came up really sparkly clean. We're def going to have a go at that. There's me thinking I'd have to buy one of those kits that cost lots of poundies and now I don't. Yay
Anyway, time for beddies. Shall have to have Klingon aka Cilla with me this time. Bugger! More sleep deprivation. (she sneaks on when I'm asleep and likes to lay on my legs...probably because they're pillow like...being so podgy! And believe it or not, not being able to feel/move my feet keeps me awake. You'd think being in the 'land of nod' that it wouldn't matter.... Work that one out!
Sunday 8 April 2012
Thrifty
I've sussed out how to send piccies from my mobile to my blog! Yay! Actually, it was Junior who should take the praise as she figured it out. We thought my phone was too old and dicrepit but, apparently it's not:o)
Have been trying to get some more recipes that are tasty and thrifty. Comes in very handy when you're as poor as a church mouse like me.
I've had this book forever and never really used it. I once was on a mission to list 100 things to make with potatoes and think I only got into the 20's. Shall have to finish that particular project but it's harder than you think. Anyway, I have been craving gnocchi after trawling many a vegan site. So, I had a go today. I'm determined to go the whole hog re the vegan thing. I've even found recipes for vegan goats cheese and mozzarella! Hope they turn out better than the bouncing squash balls that we ended up with when trying to make seitan! lol
Well, past attempts to make gnocchi have, ahem, not been that good and I was really hoping for better results. Stomach was hoping for better results, too. So, I had a bash at it today.
It says in the book to boil the little dumplings for 5 minutes, so Junior dutifully timed. 5 minutes was up and we fished them out. Tomato sauce at the ready. Yum
We got this!
The old stomach was deeply upset, I can tell you. Junior was rolling around the floor, peeing her pants! Still.........what's the saying? KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON....so I did...and got this.
Spinach Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce. This is the second bowlful.. I forgot to take a piccie of the first one and it's too late once it's gone down the hatch! I ate this bowful, too.
Gnocchi naked
Stomach was well happy:o) Are gnocchi supposed to be light and fluffy?...'cos these were. Mind you, I used self raising flour instead of plain as that's all I had. Tomato sauce was basic..toms, onions, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, dried basil, pinch of sugar and chopped up spinach. The gnocchi had chopped spinach in it too. I'm bloody good! lol
I'm trying to get my little home crafting business going a bit more than it has been of late.This is one of my crafting creations. Now with new owner. Junior wanted it REALLY badly as it was so soft and huggy but she couldn't afford the price tag! lol So, she's making one for herself.
Have been trying to get some more recipes that are tasty and thrifty. Comes in very handy when you're as poor as a church mouse like me.
I've had this book forever and never really used it. I once was on a mission to list 100 things to make with potatoes and think I only got into the 20's. Shall have to finish that particular project but it's harder than you think. Anyway, I have been craving gnocchi after trawling many a vegan site. So, I had a go today. I'm determined to go the whole hog re the vegan thing. I've even found recipes for vegan goats cheese and mozzarella! Hope they turn out better than the bouncing squash balls that we ended up with when trying to make seitan! lol
Well, past attempts to make gnocchi have, ahem, not been that good and I was really hoping for better results. Stomach was hoping for better results, too. So, I had a bash at it today.
It says in the book to boil the little dumplings for 5 minutes, so Junior dutifully timed. 5 minutes was up and we fished them out. Tomato sauce at the ready. YumWe got this!
Gloop
The old stomach was deeply upset, I can tell you. Junior was rolling around the floor, peeing her pants! Still.........what's the saying? KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON....so I did...and got this.Spinach Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce. This is the second bowlful.. I forgot to take a piccie of the first one and it's too late once it's gone down the hatch! I ate this bowful, too.
Gnocchi naked
Stomach was well happy:o) Are gnocchi supposed to be light and fluffy?...'cos these were. Mind you, I used self raising flour instead of plain as that's all I had. Tomato sauce was basic..toms, onions, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, dried basil, pinch of sugar and chopped up spinach. The gnocchi had chopped spinach in it too. I'm bloody good! lolI'm trying to get my little home crafting business going a bit more than it has been of late.This is one of my crafting creations. Now with new owner. Junior wanted it REALLY badly as it was so soft and huggy but she couldn't afford the price tag! lol So, she's making one for herself.
Crocheted woollen blanket made from recycled materials. Looks miles better in real life! I was sooo tempted to keep it.
Tomorrow's meal is Tamare Pie.....a sort of vegan sheperd's pie with bean and veg filling and mashed spuds with a hint of LIME on top.
Tomorrow's meal is Tamare Pie.....a sort of vegan sheperd's pie with bean and veg filling and mashed spuds with a hint of LIME on top.Mogs are crashed out. They are obviously worked too hard! lol
Saturday 7 April 2012
Clever and Not So Clever
Bad Mother!
Junior got a fiver for Easter, from dear old me. And a large bar of her favourite chocolate. She also got a tenner from her aunt this morning, so she is well chuffed...and far richer than me! Anyway, she's gone off for a mooch around (shopping without moi). Armed with her money, just incase she sees some nice nails....she's into the glue-on sort....growing her own is too much like hard work! sigh. Told her she won't be able to buy any because of the glue....as she might be deemed stupid enough to sniff the stuff. So, I'm betting that some form of lipgloss might make it back to Hill Billy House.
Well, after a morning of diligently clearing out, disinfecting, replacing litters with clean litter....I am well and truly pooped...'scuse the pun. So, armed with a nice cup of tea..after being suitably antibacterialised... I head off to the calm and relative peace of my bedroom for a spot of 'internet'. I am engrossed in Cut out and Keep and Grit adventures. Well, you know that feeling...of being watched..... I eventually turn around to find that the mogs have crept in...ever so quietly so as not to get rumbled and booted out. They are curled up together (looking very cute and smug) on my new T K Maxx candy pink and very posh quilt.
Bad Mother thing.....Well, Junior just happened to leave the last big chunk of her Cookie Crumble chocolate bar on the Wacom. (she'd been perusing the bus timetable) Can't be doing with that!!!...food on the pc bits.....tut tut....so bad Mummy scoffed it. No more crumbs. Wonder if she'll believe me if I tell her that the pooches got it? Nah!
The Cath Kidston type Easter egg decorations lasted until this morning. She'd ribboned them together, made a fancy Happy Easter placard and hung it..high up... on her bedroom door. Bad move. Didn't take long for the little acrobats to seek and destroy!
Dear Junior....Told you we'd get the ping pong things. Thanks for the ribbon too. Bart has been his usual not so bright self and munched some, just like he always does. He's even eaten some of your pink body scrubby thing that you hang in the bathroom. We think he's 'returned' them to you because he puked up outside your door. love, the Mogs xxx
Junior got a fiver for Easter, from dear old me. And a large bar of her favourite chocolate. She also got a tenner from her aunt this morning, so she is well chuffed...and far richer than me! Anyway, she's gone off for a mooch around (shopping without moi). Armed with her money, just incase she sees some nice nails....she's into the glue-on sort....growing her own is too much like hard work! sigh. Told her she won't be able to buy any because of the glue....as she might be deemed stupid enough to sniff the stuff. So, I'm betting that some form of lipgloss might make it back to Hill Billy House.
Well, after a morning of diligently clearing out, disinfecting, replacing litters with clean litter....I am well and truly pooped...'scuse the pun. So, armed with a nice cup of tea..after being suitably antibacterialised... I head off to the calm and relative peace of my bedroom for a spot of 'internet'. I am engrossed in Cut out and Keep and Grit adventures. Well, you know that feeling...of being watched..... I eventually turn around to find that the mogs have crept in...ever so quietly so as not to get rumbled and booted out. They are curled up together (looking very cute and smug) on my new T K Maxx candy pink and very posh quilt.
Bad Mother thing.....Well, Junior just happened to leave the last big chunk of her Cookie Crumble chocolate bar on the Wacom. (she'd been perusing the bus timetable) Can't be doing with that!!!...food on the pc bits.....tut tut....so bad Mummy scoffed it. No more crumbs. Wonder if she'll believe me if I tell her that the pooches got it? Nah!
The Cath Kidston type Easter egg decorations lasted until this morning. She'd ribboned them together, made a fancy Happy Easter placard and hung it..high up... on her bedroom door. Bad move. Didn't take long for the little acrobats to seek and destroy!
Dear Junior....Told you we'd get the ping pong things. Thanks for the ribbon too. Bart has been his usual not so bright self and munched some, just like he always does. He's even eaten some of your pink body scrubby thing that you hang in the bathroom. We think he's 'returned' them to you because he puked up outside your door. love, the Mogs xxx
Thursday 5 April 2012
What goes around....and all that
The weather's bonkers!
Last week it was really hot, yesterday we had loads of snow up here in the Hill Billies and now today..it's all gone.
The garden room roof is leaking. The cat litters are kept there and two just happened to be a direct hit for the leak! So, we now have trays of a concrete like substance...which I am tempted to use in a not so nice fashion!!!...see below...
I wish I could be as clever as the kid in Home Alone and think up ingenious traps for intruders. The other morning, I was in the back garden with arthriticky dog and two blokes came out of next door's back gate. This isn't that unusual as they have 'workmen associates' in now and again. They had walked up and down next door's garden and on coming out saw me and asked if I had any scrap metal. You know where this is going, don't you? Yes, turns out they had nicked a load of stuff , including a tv. Junior came down and told me that she'd just been in her bedrom and spotted them shinnying up our fence to, presumably, see what they could get but were confronted by half a dozen hissing, pissed-off mogs...(they growl when strangers are about/too close - they're great little warning 'machines. Bart (who is HUGE!) will actually 'bat' you one around the ear hole as you go past him, if he's up on a shelf or bookcase. lol) The thieves broke the top of our fence. Hope their bits drop off...and that it's very painful!!! When I asked not so nice neighbour about it, I got my head bitten off. Think she left her downstairs window open and so that's how they'd have got the tv, after having legged up over the gate and unbolting it. Not sure if she's reported it, though. Probably not. Anyway, I shall tell the police about it, as they tried to tresspass on our property and I have Junior to think about. Never see a cop about nowadays, though. What's the betting that I have to make an appointment to report the incident?
The hedge is definitely staying put. I think I have made my point re security. Hedges...prickly and not easy to climb over...v Fences...easy peasy to get over.
Junior has been given some of those decorated Easter egg type of decorations that you hang on twig arrangements....like you see in the flower shops, etc. They're in Cath Kidston colours..sort of. So, she'll be out today, foraging in our NEWLY TIDIED AND PLANTED UP back garden for the appropriate sized twiglets. Bet the display doesn't last over Easter and that tonight we will hear the sounds of the eggs being ping-ponged around the house by the Usual Suspects....Bart, Tinks, Popeye and Olive. You can almost hear them asking 'Anyone for a game of doubles?' lol
Meanwhile, I'm going to electrify the fence! We've also got loads of big paint pots. Wonder if I could rig some up as in Home Alone...so that next time Junior spots the Tea Leafs she can launch them for, hopefully, a direct hit on somewhere that hurts!!
Last week it was really hot, yesterday we had loads of snow up here in the Hill Billies and now today..it's all gone.
The garden room roof is leaking. The cat litters are kept there and two just happened to be a direct hit for the leak! So, we now have trays of a concrete like substance...which I am tempted to use in a not so nice fashion!!!...see below...
I wish I could be as clever as the kid in Home Alone and think up ingenious traps for intruders. The other morning, I was in the back garden with arthriticky dog and two blokes came out of next door's back gate. This isn't that unusual as they have 'workmen associates' in now and again. They had walked up and down next door's garden and on coming out saw me and asked if I had any scrap metal. You know where this is going, don't you? Yes, turns out they had nicked a load of stuff , including a tv. Junior came down and told me that she'd just been in her bedrom and spotted them shinnying up our fence to, presumably, see what they could get but were confronted by half a dozen hissing, pissed-off mogs...(they growl when strangers are about/too close - they're great little warning 'machines. Bart (who is HUGE!) will actually 'bat' you one around the ear hole as you go past him, if he's up on a shelf or bookcase. lol) The thieves broke the top of our fence. Hope their bits drop off...and that it's very painful!!! When I asked not so nice neighbour about it, I got my head bitten off. Think she left her downstairs window open and so that's how they'd have got the tv, after having legged up over the gate and unbolting it. Not sure if she's reported it, though. Probably not. Anyway, I shall tell the police about it, as they tried to tresspass on our property and I have Junior to think about. Never see a cop about nowadays, though. What's the betting that I have to make an appointment to report the incident?
The hedge is definitely staying put. I think I have made my point re security. Hedges...prickly and not easy to climb over...v Fences...easy peasy to get over.
Junior has been given some of those decorated Easter egg type of decorations that you hang on twig arrangements....like you see in the flower shops, etc. They're in Cath Kidston colours..sort of. So, she'll be out today, foraging in our NEWLY TIDIED AND PLANTED UP back garden for the appropriate sized twiglets. Bet the display doesn't last over Easter and that tonight we will hear the sounds of the eggs being ping-ponged around the house by the Usual Suspects....Bart, Tinks, Popeye and Olive. You can almost hear them asking 'Anyone for a game of doubles?' lol
Meanwhile, I'm going to electrify the fence! We've also got loads of big paint pots. Wonder if I could rig some up as in Home Alone...so that next time Junior spots the Tea Leafs she can launch them for, hopefully, a direct hit on somewhere that hurts!!
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