Half a Century...

Yesterday was my 50th birthday...I don't set much store by birthdays and don't tend to celebrate in any big way. I'm just grateful to still be here, one way and another, and tend to take life very much one day at a time.

A few weeks ago, when I came home from changing my library books, David announced that my daughter had phoned and was in a bit of a quandary...apparently, on my birthday, she and her husband  were due to go to a Very Important Meeting in the Mess and needed someone to look after little Freya. David told me that Lizz had been very apologetic about 'lumbering' us with baby-sitting on my birthday, but no-one on the camp was allowed to take their children and baby-sitters were at a premium etc. etc....David had taken a unilateral decision, knowing I'd rather play with Freya than anything else, and said that of course we'd go over, as we had no particular plans for my birthday.

So we left home after breakfast yesterday and got to Lizz's around noon. When we walked in, it was to a chorus of 'Happy Birthday', and not only had Lizz laid on banners and decorations and a lovely spread, but she had arranged for my son, his fiancee and their little boy to be there as well!

It transpired that David had been in on it from the start and is worryingly good at keeping secrets...!

We had a lovely time, just being together and enjoying each other's company, and eating the gorgeous food and playing with the grandchildren.

Then there were presents; wonderful warm gloves, slippers and scarf, and fun toys (which we enjoyed amusing the grandchildren with!) and a very novel lavender-filled owl micro-hottie, and some beautiful flowers, and a gift box of Lush bathtime treats (I adore Lush!), and a mug with an illustration from the Ladybird  book 'The Party' (you have to be over 50 and British to really appreciate Ladybird books!) and even a curl from my granddaughter's first haircut! I can honestly say it was probably the most enjoyable birthday I've ever had.

I am so blessed!

Unfortunately, because I had no idea what was going on, I didn't take my camera so I can't show you pictures of my miraculous little bright-eyed grandson who was born so prematurely and is now just beginning to take his tentative first steps, or his beautiful mummy whom we adore as she is so very good for my darling son, or my gorgeous son-in-law who humours us ageing lunatics so patiently, or my amazing and crafty daughter who arranged it all, or my sweet little granddaughter with her blonde curls and her pretty party dress, or my beloved (deceitful!) husband, who is the light of my life!

In future my camera will live in my handbag!

The Hole With Potential Presents....Hallowe'en Lanterns

Inspired by the clever lady at Blueberry Heart (I would add a link if I wasn't a technoclutz!) I decided to have a go at making some Pumpkin tealight holders for Hallowe'en. They were very simple to make, just a spare jar covered with orange tissue paper stuck on with watered down PVA glue, and with pumpkin features added. The Hole with Potential offered them a suitable home...

My dear friend Jayne then sent me a little plastic pumpkin with a flickering LED inside which took pride of place in the middle of the collection ...

Here they are with the tealights lit after dark...and the Hole with Potential has begun to seduce us with its usefulness...

Boo! Buns and a Rant!

The cooking bug got me last week and I decided to make sure we had a supply of Boo! Buns in for the little darlings should they come a-Trick or Treating. Any excuse to make sure there are sweet things in the house to mark the turning of the year...!

Boo buns!

Erupting Pustules

 The Boo! Buns were made in conventional  bun cases, and the Erupting Pustules (I consider that if the Ancestors come visiting they may not look pretty any more...) in bargain priced bat print cake cases from Morrisons. These were of the size that seems to be so popular these days, ie enormous! 
For heaven's sake people, if you're into dainty old-fashioned tea parties, could you really see Jane Austen or our own dear Queen (God bless 'er!) getting her gnashers round one of these vast American-style monsters? No, she would nibble on a proper English fairy cake baked in a bun case, not a juggernaut of a muffin!  Also, from the point of view of tea-time etiquette, you can conceivably get away with having two (or three!) small buns in different delicious flavours, whereas you'd look a complete gannet if you scoffed more than one Monster Muffin!  Ipso Fatso!

The Unexpected Fireplace...

Last December we had a chap in to help David fit insulation and plasterboard to the worst of the walls, and then to skim over with plaster. The job ran over by a day or two, and we were due to travel South for a few days, so it was agreed that Mark would have the keys and complete the job while we were away. The night before we were due to leave, I was overcome with panic in that we didn't know what lurked behind the blocked up fireplace in the sitting room, which would be plaster-boarded over and plastered by the time we got back...

My total paranoia about the old fireplace being full of rubble, soot and dampness got the better of me, and we knocked a small hole through into the cavity which revealed...rubble and damp soot. We cleared it out as best we could, and sure enough it was duly boarded over and plastered while we were away.

A year has passed. When the wind is in a certain direction you can hear the soot fall down the chimney. And we cleared out such a lot of rubble and soot from a very small hole...

We are fast approaching the last leg of our great renovation project, and the long-awaited doing up of the sitting room which has had bare walls and a bare concrete floor since we moved in.

The paranoia returns...

If there is still rubbish in the cavity it will encourage damp and once we have decorated it will be there FOREVER...

So David put on his mask and rigger gloves and plugged in his hammer drill and angle-grinder and cut a hole. A great big hole. a hole the size of a fireplace. And we cleared out all the rubble and all the soot and made certain that the marks on the floor in front of the chimney breast were oil marks and not creeping damp. And we looked into the hole and saw that it was good...

 
Of course, we were going to cut a piece of plasterboard and fit it and skim it, but this hole is calling to us.
"I may not be functional as a fireplace since I don't have a chimney, " it purrs, seductively. "You need a focal point," it insists.
.
And we keep on looking at the hole, and discussing the hole, and it begins to look more and more like a hole with Potential.

Watch This Space...

All shopped out, or Everything's Coming Up Lemons!

Well, I have fallen seriously behind with my bargain-hunter's reports since we haven't done a proper shop for a fortnight owing to health problems etc.  Because we have been so lucky with bargains in the last couple of months, we have a well-stocked pantry, so we haven't had to worry too much except for the odd loaf of bread or half-dozen eggs. Perfect!

 A chance find by David of some cut-price lemon and sultana pancakes in Morrisons has rekindled my love affair with lemons. He has promised to bake me a lemon cake for my upcoming birthday (Oh yes, he cooks as well as everything else! What a guy!), so I had to set to and  make some Lemon Curd for the the filling. The only ingredients were unwaxed lemons (juice and zest), sugar, eggs and butter, and it was not as complicated as I had always believed. Also, my mixing bowl fitted perfectly into the the top of the stockpot I use for jam-making, creating a perfect double boiler! The result was wonderful, possibly the best preserve I have made so far, and so far removed from the commercial version as to be on another planet! It isn't a long keeper of course, so one jar got opened almost immediately so I could make some lemon curd tarts which also failed to keep very long...!