Irish Times

Hello!

I spent my 46th (eek!) birthday in Belfast.

We walked for miles and miles and miles around the City, ate good food, visited Giants Causeway, and all in all had a fine old trip.  Here's some pics!

Belfast's smallest house - one up and one down.  A family of five
lived here in times past, allegedly the caretaker of the Baptist Church to
which the house is adjoined.

On the first day we were there, after a lovely Irish breakfast in a little cafe, we hopped on a bus and got delivered to the Titanic Quarter where we had a saunter around the dock.  

We had booked a couple of bus tours - the first one being a ticket which was valid for 72 hours, where we were allowed to hop on and off a sight seeing bus at our leisure.  Hm...  Not convinced by this one to be honest.  I'm not good at being shepherded anywhere and prefer to make my own way to see things at my own pace.  However, because we were only there for three days, I thought this may be a good way of seeing a lot of things in a short space of time.  Sadly the bus was a little antiquated and the guy who was doing the commentary spoke so quickly (on a malfunctioning microphone) that I was getting more irritable by the second and wanted to escape!  We saw the murals and the peace wall, the Shanklin Road and the Falls Road.... but I couldn't really hear what he was saying above the white noise of the microphone.  I do think they need to make a few improvements to their equipment as the tours aren't exactly cheap.  It wasn't explained when we got on that we were able to just ring the bell and get off whenever we wanted to either so I felt a little like a hostage until we decided that enough was enough and escaped at the docks!

The city landmarks of The Samson and Goliath gantry cranes

The sleeping giant in the distance against moody skies

Can you see him?  Enlarge the pic to see a little better

The new Titanic museum - we didn't go in as we're tightwads and 

refused to pay the entry fee of £30 for the two of us! We enjoyed walking 

through the gift shop and surrounding areas just as much.

Me. 

 Honestly.  Being all graceful like. 

A mahoooosive "Airfix"-like scale model of the Titanic

The Nomadic - the last surviving ship of the White Star Line

The Big Fish - a sculpture celebrating the regeneration of the River Lagan.  Each ceramic 'scale' is printed with
a story about the history of Belfast.  He looks a bit sad though doesn't he?!

We had coffee in the Havana Cafe (and gorgeous key lime pie - cos it was my birthday!)

They only charged us for the cake so we scarpered sharpish!  hehehe.. not before taking a pic of

their impressive ceilings though.  Lovely building.

Later in the evening after a quick shower and a rest back at the hotel, we took ourselves out for 

dinner. Cath Kidston had put on a birthday display in her shop window just for me.  How very kind of her!

A rubbish photo of my dinner (well - some of it!)

We went to a Chinese buffet restaurant and tried lots of different dishes

Mussels in black bean sauce, sushi, prawns, sesame toast and chilli and garlic king prawns

 on this starter plate!  

I think Blogger is getting cross with so many photographs and has gone on strike - I'll report on the Giants Causeway tomorrow. 

As ever, thank you so much for your visit.

Much love xx

Happy Friday

Happy Friday lovely readers, followers, lurkers and passers-by!

I'm doing a bit of a happy dance this evening (well - I'm waving me legs around feebly!) because I have finished work for a week.  Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!

I found this pic on my phone earlier that I'd forgotten about.  It was taken a few weeks ago of the scraggy bit of buddleia which has self seeded itself in the tarmac and stands at the entrance to the business park where I work.   I was amazed to see literally 'swarms' (hmm what do you call a lot of butterflies?  a swarm? a herd? a flutter?)  Anyway.... the flowers were absolutely smothered in Peacock butterflies.  I've never seen so many in one place.

Five butterflies on this patch alone - one is a bit of a blur on the bottom flower bract  and another with closed wings on the top most flower - click on the pic to enlarge it.

Yet more changes at work mean that I've been allocated three guys to work for.  I was delighted and a bit touched when I was called down to reception early this afternoon to received these gorgeous flowers from them in lieu of my birthday next week  - the photo really doesn't do them justice.  I've honestly never seen such a beautiful bouquet. Its full of alstromeria, golden rod, yellow roses, orange gerberas and gorgeous sunflowers (my favest fave flowers!) and some very interesting orange flowers that I don't have a clue about!  Definitely 'my' colours - a wonderful autumnal bouquet and a very much appreciated gift.

And finally, my little potato family.  Allotment potatoes are far more interesting than supermarket ones don't you think?!  hee hee... and yep - I really did tie a bit of ribbon around Daddy Tato.  Cos that's how I roll!

We are family - I've got all my tatoes with me! 

Bit of a random post here this evening but you should be used to me by now!

Have a great weekend!

A mere trifle, m'dear....

I went to Mum's for tea after work today.  As I won't be seeing her on my birthday (for, I think, probably the first time ever!)  she had made me a 'pre-birthday' sundae, crammed with allotment berries.  It was delicious!  

She said she had been inspired by the Trifle making on GBBO last night.  

Bless her face!

It really is the little things isn't it?  That was the sweet part of my post - it all goes sour from here on in - step away now if you don't want to read it!

I'm going to be a bit controversial now.  

Birmingham Public Library.  Have you seen it on the news or in the press?  

Well - if you haven't.... its this:-

The library has more than 200 public access computers, theatres, an exhibition gallery and music rooms.

• It can hold 3,000 people
• It has nine floors - three of which are out of bounds to the public (!)
• It has a brown roof garden with wild flower meadow (as all good libraries do).

And the cost (which was agreed at the beginning of what progressed to be a double dip recession)  A cool £189 million.  Mostly borrowed with a small amount of funding being donated.  This at a time when Councils country-wide were/are closing public libraries to save costs, and indeed just last year, Birmingham made cuts to its library service, felling the number of full-time staff from 260 to 161 and opening hours were reduced by a combined 139 hours each week. 

The Dutch architect Francine Houben (from the company Mecanoo) says: ""The 5,357 circles on the outside frieze of the building reflect the city's industrial heritage - the craftsmanship, the factories, the canals, the jewellery quarter."

So... we have a Dutch architect to thank (because there is, of course, a complete DEARTH of qualified architects in the Midlands, nay the UK, probably) for creating this impressive structure which looks (in my very humble opinion) like a giant cheese grater.

  

It was officially opened by Malala Yousafzai, the teenager shot in the head in Pakistan by the Taliban for championing women's rights who was treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.  Um....Why?  No-one is denying that she experienced something that no child ever should and fair play to her for standing up for her rights.... but still... why her?

Ah - that's because all the well deserving local Brummie characters/business entrepreneurs/world renowned musicians/charity stalwarts or general all round good eggs of the great city of Birmingham were obviously all on holiday.   Of Course.  

Is it me?

Back to School and my Bad Baking Dilemma

Back to school for KTT today, just 12 days short of his 15th birthday.

This level of relative smartness will not last!  Nor will the 'getting up at 6.45 and making Momma a cup of coffee' like he did this morning!  I really thought that I may have woken up to a parallel universe or summat! Particularly when he ventured out of the front door before 8am.  Weird I tell you.  Weird!!

In other news.....  by way of several money off/free delivery vouchers and a smidgeon of witchcraft, I placed an online order with one of the big supermarkets recently, the upshot of which is that I was able to get £60.00 worth of shopping for £45.00.  It was ok - saved a load of hassle, particularly as we were due to go out in the evening and it saved us traipsing around town.  When unpacking however, we found that rather than the one large pot of natural yoghurt  I had ordered and paid for - they had sent three!   Well that was very nice of course and never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I resolved to make something with the 'overspill' so to speak.

I so wish I hadn't bothered!

I made a Lemon Yoghurt loaf cake from a recipe I found on t'interwebnet thingie.  Erm.......... this is how it turned out.

Bloody digusterous it was!  It took about a hour and a half to cook - it was supposed to be around 45 minutes.  Ugh!  

Whilst that was cooking - I made this.......... from another recipe I found on the t'internetweb thingie.

It's inedible.  Just smells and tastes of bicarbonate of soda, despite the blog from whence the recipe was 'borrowed' professing that this was a the loveliest, squidgiest chocolate cake know to man.  Well PAH!  It wasn't.  It was vile!

So. As well as one "free" large pot of yoghurt - I also wasted flour, half a pound of decent marg, flour, 5 of my  Leia's precious eggs, 2 fresh lemons, caster sugar and some very bliddy expensive cocoa powder.  This was my karma for not calling the supermarket and returning the 'gifted' yoghurt.

Mary and Paul would not be best pleased with my efforts.

Anyone fancy a pot of natural yoghurt?  Free to a good home!

Monday Smiles

Greetings Lovelies

These images, shared on Facebook, made me go WOWWWW!!

French photographers Laurent Laveder and Sabine Sannier craft fantastical photographs using the moon. Their book Quartier Libre, which is only available in French, pairs the poems and musings of 19 authors with their photographs.  Wow indeed!

Gorgeous aren't they?

September Day Book

FOR TODAY

Outside my window... I have just witnessed THE most amazing sunset... y'know one of the ones that you look at and feel truly blessed to have experienced  The skies were lit up with soft bands of deep pink, orange and bronze.  Mackerel skies; fluffy bands of clouds, the landscape changing by the second as I gazed upon it  The sun has descended away now, exhausted after its adventures in paint box land.  Phew!  It was emotional!

I am thinking... that the 1st September has been a stunningly beautiful day and hope that it bodes well for the rest of the month.  My favourite time of the year is just beginning and there is siren song being played out in the hedgerows surrounding the field, beckoning me to see what bounties are hidden within.  


There is the slightest, teeniest,hint of Autumn hanging tangibly in the air.  There has been a mist over the fields for the last couple of mornings and the dew drop decorated spidey webs are plentiful.  The wasps are plentiful and excitable, drunk as skunks on the ripening plums and apples and hedgerow bounties of  overblown blackberries.

I am thankful...that I have just five days left at work and then I am FREEEEEE for 9 whole blissful days

In the kitchen...the remains of our pulled pork and apple and blackberry crumble dinner ....

I am wearing...Dita Von Teese perfume.  Oh yes I am.  And I smell gorgeous! ;)

I am creating...nothing at present - however I have created a 'winter' canvas in the last week.  I'll share it with you soon. 

I am going..to bed!  Very shortly indeed and as soon as I have this posted as I have been a very neglectful blogger of late.  Saying that, maybe better not to post at all than to bore you all more rigid than usual with tales of my mundane working week. 

I am wondering... whether I am coming down with something yuksome as my throat seems very dry and scratchy and I've felt a bit heavy eyed all day.  Hope not!  I don't have time to be ill this week. And I'm also curious as to where the two Morris Women were headed yesterday afternoon, all raggetted up (just made that word up!) and faces blackened and bells a jingling, walking nonchalantly down Stourbridge High Street.  Hum.  

I am reading... Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries II (again!) and delighting as usual in his descriptiveness, and, something light before sleep, Sue Townsend's "The woman who went to bed for a year" which has been 'ok' so far.  

I am hoping...that there are many, many more days like today.

I am looking forward to... a trip to Belfast and Giants Causeway with LM a week tomorrow.

I am learning... that fasting three days a week is doing me the world of good and am so pleased that the new regime of intermittent fasting is definitely the one for me.  My energy levels are on the up and there is an added bonus of a stone in weight gone already.

Around the house... dog hair tumbleweeds (the dog is moulting like Billy-O"), far too many cushions, clutter, mess and unfinished projects which are beginning to get on my nerves!

I am pondering...how nice it would be to get rid of absolutely every stick of furniture in the house and start all over again from ground zero.

A favourite quote for today...
"There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood" - Bliss Carmen.
One of my favourite things... Days like today... warm (but not hot) sunshine, a slight cooling in the air, home baking... just 'being' here at home.  

A few plans for the rest of the week: tidying ,working, finding out a suitable flight bag which will satisfy Easy Jet's pedantic hand luggage restrictions and trying unsuccessfully to pack it with the smallest, daintiest things imaginable which, lets face it if you're my size, just ain't gonna happen buddy! 

A peek into my day...  See photos above - and in celebration of the most wonderful time of the year (in my eyes) we went blackberrying, picked a pot full and the same were turned into oaty apple and blackberry crumble as soon as we got them home.  Crumble.......... mmmmm!! 

http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.co.uk

Veggies have feelings too.......

Oh yes they do :(

"google image"

You can have your cake.......... but you can't eat it!

Hello my Lovelies

Apologies for my short absence - I've had quite bad eye strain and needed to be away from the computer screen for a while.

Last week saw us celebrate Lovely Man's birthday with a BBQ  for family and friends.  I'd been sneaky and had a cake made for him by a local cake maker extraordinaire "Marzipan Moon and Sugar Dust Stars".   Click HERE to see other examples of her fab work

I wanted a replica of his famous beloved jacket if at all possible and Jules, the very clever owner of the aforesaid shop, did me proud!

The Jacket .....

The cake - I love the little studs she put all around the edge of the cake board - all edible!

The birthday boy looking very pleased! 

The first thing he said when we surprised him with it was......."Well you needn't think I'm cutting it!"

He did though - although we have preserved the little jacket - for what I have no idea!

See you soon!

Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley grow ...

"Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow

Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow

Do you, or I, or anyone know

How oats, peas, beans, and barley grow?"

So goes the children's simple little song, but as the Wheel of the Year has turned again in the last few days, we are once again witnessing planting coming to fruition and harvest is just around the corner.  

We decided to play truant from food shopping yesterday and took ourselves and the mutt on a yomp over yonder fields.  The weather was perfect for walking; dry (after torrential downpours the night before) and bright, with a breeze which was strong enough to blow the branches around but also gentle enough to cool the air, making our walk refreshing and pleasurable.

It was a day of huge skies:-

Promises of autumnal feasts:-

Ripening harvests:-

Of dappled sunlight:-

Eye-popping yellow wildflowers, loads and loads of them, absolutely smothered with bees and butterflies - shame the varmints refused to stay still for more than a millisecond!

More wildflowers ....

Of hide and seek and 'where's Dad gone?;

A thistledown blowing day. 

And home-made pizza for tea!

See you soon 

With love xx