Day 91 - OAP Weekender

Hello darlinks!

I hope your weekend has been fun filled!

Lovely man and I ran away to be OAP's this weekend (Old Aged Punks).  The Sex Pistols Experience - a really highly rated tribute band - were playing at the Robin in scary old Bilston town.  The venue has a b&b attached to it and so rather than having the hassle of catching late night public transport or paying out for cabs, we stayed over.  We treated ourselves to an Indian meal before the gig and then tottered back in time for the bands to come on.

There were a couple of support acts, the second one being The Screaming Abdabz  - who played a very short but very good set of souped up 50s rockabilly/rock 'n roll.  They were very good and we shall certainly be looking out for them when they play around here again.  I was quite surprised to see so few people at the venue, although there were just about enough there to generate a decent enough party atmosphere.  I tend to forget that the people who were original punk rockers are now circa 50 years old and are probably preferring to be at home bouncing grandchildren on their knees than listening to foul mouthed, noisy upstarts!  Ah we had a good time though.  The Pistols tribute were bloody brilliant; looking, sounding and acting like our heroes(!); the lead singer looking uncannily like a young Mr Rotten down to the wall-eyed stare and razor sharp retorts.  It was all over far too quickly though, and to our amazement everyone just disappeared (apart from man and I and another couple who wanted to squeeze as much out of the evening as possible, making half hearted attempts to storm the dance floor to some old classics).  As the staff were sweeping up around us however it detracted from the ambiance somewhat and thus defeated, we took our weary gin soaked bones (in my case that is) to bed!

Because I KNOW that you are intrigued and want to see what I'm rabitting on about this short Channel 4 doc will put you in the picture.

In other news - I bought flowers - they look pretty impressive don't they? Gladioli looking like weird stag antlers and gorgeous happy smiley sunflowers.

This is an early birthday present from Lovely Man

And this is a new sign for our kitchen - cos well, that's our life ethos really!

Rock an' bloody roll eh readers?!!

Day 90 Unwinding and Unravelling

It's been a very slow news week here at Peapods hence the absence. I'm not feeling 100% and I'm hibernating. 

Today I shall be mostly unravelling my ripples.  Goodness knows what I've done  but instead of beautifully straight edges it looks like this 

Stop laughing!!

It's all gone horribly wrong and looks like a mess for a mad dog. 

Sniff.  

I may be gone sometime!

Day 89 - Birthday BBQ

Hey there

I just remembered that I didn't mention the birthday boy's BBQ!

My darlin' man had a not insignificant birthday last Saturday.  The weather was looking a little dodgy and so we were very pleased that we had bought two gazebos the day before.  We got both of them for less than £40 and I know they will earn their keep in the future.  It was actually lovely all day.  The sun shone and it was dry - then just before everyone was due to arrive the bloody heaven's opened and we had a proper deluge!  I was a tad stressed, but the man in his usual laid back manner refused to be fazed by it and sure enough it brightened again and we had a good few dry hours.  It did start raining towards the end of the evening but everyone was sheltered, we had fleecy throws and crocheted blankets for those who were feeling the chill and so the evening went without a hitch.

We had the usual burgers, sausage, chicken and corn cobs, but we also did a huge tray of pulled pork which was a complete hit with everyone.  For pudding there were anarchy cupcakes (I only remembered to take a photograph when there was one left but they looked great - shop bought cup cakes topped with all manner of Sex Pistols logos, album covers and anarchy symbols printed on rice paper - the E of Bayness is a magical place!!).  I also served a HUGE Eton mess in tiny vintage glass cups (thanks Paula!!) which was declared a hit too!

Unbeknown to him, I had arranged for one of his sisters to pay a surprise visit (oh the glories of Facebook!) and his face was a picture when he opened the door to her.  They hadn't seen each other for a couple of years and so it was lovely to see them reunited.  I hadn't met her before either and it was good to meet another of his siblings.  He is one of nine children - I think I still have around six others to meet yet.  I had mentioned that he hadn't got many family photographs and to my delight she had made up a very special photograph album for him which featured him from baby to man and also precious photos of his parents.  I know he was very touched by this.

Not looking bad for fifty is he?! I'm a lucky gal! 

Rude word alert!!  

My man and my brother!

The lights are going down - but the huge hollow ball candles
did a good job of casting a lovely glow (and warming hands too!)

Anarchy cupcakes!!

This was the card I had done for him!

All in all a successful evening and a memorable one for him surrounded by people who love him.  Perfect :)

Day 88 - Sunday Wistfulness

Can you feel it bloglies?  (Stop that!)

There is something about the air quality. Something tangible about the faint nip in the breeze. I feel it every year around this time.  Something inside me. Something definite but inexplicable.  But it's there. A restless feeling but similarly a yearning to be at home. The shadows are lengthening. The spiderwebs are thickening. The thistle down fairies are everywhere.  It's just out of reach of my outstretched fingertips but the change of the season is but weeks away. The wheel is turning. Autumn is coming. And I shall welcome it with arms wide open.  

Today has been perfect. We've had nothing to do but potter.  I felt a strong urge to bake and cook wholesome food for my family. 

A sweet spicy curry crammed with veggies from the allotment. 

A chicken Balti with a little more bite. 

I needed to use up some eggs and so used some in sweet treats. Squishy squidgy rich chocolate brownies. 

And a coffee and walnut cake 

Three lines of washing has been line dried in the fresh breeze and smells divine. 

A stroll down the field to look for blackberries wasn't very successful. The fruit was tiny and full of grubs. 

We left them for the birds. 

The field made me feel a bit sad today. There are acres of beans but they're all black. Look!

It looks like a post apocalyptic scene from a film set. I'm not sure why the crop has been left like this or whether it's intentional and the beans are to be dried for animal feed. 

They're like tiny broad beans.  Any clues?

The cob nut trees are loaded. I took a terrible pic tho as I only had my phone so you'll have to take my word for it!!

This little fella seemed happy enough.  If only all his friends who seem to be resident in my garden would join him!!

Back in the garden the blue hydrangea is changing colour into a delicious faded lilac.

And Charlie cat lies in the dappled shade of the Rowan tree.

I want to share a song with you. It's from the Long Road Out of Eden album by The Eagles.  It's a song that always evokes the same Late Summer/Early Autumnal wistful feeling in me. The lyrics are clever and perfect. It appears that they didn't make a video to it so I've chosen one which is made by a fan, who uses some nice photographic images to illustrate the lyrics.

Day 87 - Mucho Randomness

Happy Friday my lovelies!

I'm just back from my bestie's house full of THE most wondrous veggie curry and good coffee.  A good old chinwag, a few laughs and plotting on how we can Rule The World and turn it into a giant commune of peace loving, vegetable bartering, skills trading, generally lovely people was a good way to unwind after a fraught old boring worky-week.

Other highlights of my day have been watching a squawking, surprisingly vicious aerial battle between a seagull and a heron over the canal this morning on my way to work.  The old barge-dwelling bloke walking his dog with his cuppa in hand, chuntering away to himself.  Coming home to a cuddle from the man and knowing we have two lovely days away from smelly old worky-work.

I have Galaxy Ripples in my house.  Well - I did.  Once.  *looks sheepish*

KTT has "his band" here this evening.  We are not allowed to call it a 'sleep over' because 16 year old fellas don't 'DO' sleep overs. Okay?  Just so as you know like!   They've had a barbecue for which KTT went shopping this afternoon.  I had a slightly panic stricken phone call from him this afternoon because he was lost in the barren wastelands of Asda in search of burgers.

"Mom - where would I find the burgers?"
"In a freezer love",
"There's no freezers in Asda".
 "Really?"
"No. I've found bacon though"
"O...kay...."
"Oh.  Would they be in the Frozen section?"
"Mmm.  Well I think they might possibly might be.  Possibly".
"Oh.  Ohhh okay I found em. Thanks.  Bye".

D'oh!!

In other news, King of the Lottie, aka my green fingered brother has produced this lovely lot:-

 

Guess which lucky blogger has a  freebie carrier bag full of vegetable goodness then?! Whoop whoop!!

I had to share this picture with you that he took of his, erm, interestingly shaped pink fir apple potatoes.  Please click on it to enlarge the photo and tell me they don't look as if they're breakdancing!!

Tato-tastic!!

Tee-hee! 

Ta-ta!  

Day 86 - A balanced diet.

It's the law.

If you're on holiday at the seaside you have to have:-

Freshly cooked Fish n Chips on the seafront.

and

Ice-cream.  In various guises. 

Between us we sampled Rum n Raisin, Choc Malteaser, Lemon Meringue, plain Vanilla

and these babies! (not all at once I have to say!)

Which one was mine do you think?

It could only be ..........

I can resist anything but temptation! 

Day 85 - Seaside Sunsets

I do like a good sunset.  We sat for a while on the first night we were there with a glass of ice cold cider waiting for the sun to go down.

Pah!

It started off okay - the skies looked suitably moody and I liked this rather jaunty shot of a seagull in sillhouette.

Ooh look - It's happening!

Erm. Oh no it isn't!! 

Oh well - better luck next time. 

On the last night of our hols KTT decided to take himself back to the apartment so we treated ourselves to a takeout coffee and went to sit in one of the many shelters along the seafront, snuggled up against the brisk breeze and watched this happen.

Sigh.

Simple pleasures :)

Day 84 - Cardiff Castle

Hello again bloglies!

Thank you so much for joining me in my little corner of blogland.

Last Wednesday, we decided to go Cardiff, this being just 30 minutes back down the track from where we were staying.  Cardiff is absolutely HUGE!  Unfortunately Lovely Man and I don't really 'do' the big corporate High Street shops and I feel completely out of place in huge shopping malls.

Luckily, there were lots of lovely little alleyways to explore with some quirky shops and cafes so we were all happy!

KTT was less happy when we decided that we'd go to have a look at the Castle whilst we were there.  We gave him the option of going off on his own or coming with us and he took an absolute age to decide what to do.  In the end he opted to come with us but I think that was more for our benefit than his and despite reassurances that he must make his own decision as to what to do and whatever that decision was would be fine, I do think he did what he thought we would want him to do.  Nearly 16 is such a bloody difficult age!  He looks like he's in his 20s but he's really not and that's the conundrum.

Anyway, the Castle itself is lovely and we enjoyed looking around.  Lovely man in particular as he's a bit of a history nut, particularly military history.  There was a big military history installation there and so that was ideal.  There was a replica 'Brown Bess' musket on the wall which one of the curators encouraged us to lift. That in itself was heavy - but then he fetched the real thing which was twice as heavy! Good grief - I do pity the poor fellas having to carry those around as well as all their kit!

Standing on it's lofty perch

A view from the moat across to the apartment rooms

From the ramparts

The castle was used as an air raid shelter in the war

long, long, dark corridors used to house and protect hundreds of people

Stunning old trees

A view of the Millennium Stadium from the castle ramparts

My gammy knees wouldn't let me climb the steps of the old Castle so I 

sat nursing a cup of tea whilst the boys went exploring.  It makes me laugh

that Charlie is standing so well back - he has a terrible fear of heights!

Inside the apartment rooms, the interior decor was 

absolutely stunning - all gold filigree and stained glass, painted and unpainted

wood carvings.

The incredible ceiling in the Arab Room designed by William Burges.
Click on the next photograph to see a little more information.

It's quite astounding that this amount of work went into a home at that time.

Puts our little flat pack boxes to shame eh?!  

Ah well - just think of the dust!!