I Want to Ride My Bicycle With A Basket

Ever coveted something ? something you really want I am not talking a chocolate bar or indeed a glass or wine or glass of refreshing water in the summer heat. I am meaning a real need , bordering on a healthy obsession and one that can not be quelled to you have achieved this. My husband says if I achieve this then I am channeling my inner wicked witch of the west , oh don't worry I have already given him the blank look and not washed his pants for 5 days . Not that I hold a grudge or anything by I do like to get my point across , it is a healthy obsession and it is one of a bicycle with a basket.


I need a bicycle with a basket , a whimsically magical need the more I look the more I want and I have just the lanes that I will take the bialy down. I would either call that bicycle Celia or Myfanwy. Long before 'Myfanwfy' was a David Essex song it was a poem by Sir John Betjeman and it is a beautiful , romantic poem awww sighs and I live on the edge of a park and I love Robinson marmalade . Isn't the half light of the day one of the most alluring of the day a light that draws you in and holds you in a warm moment of time.

As  I think that is a name that really suits a bicycle, the car is called Mrs Robinson and the car hates me ( I don't drive ) and it is trying to kill me I am sure of it but more of that in another post.

This is a card my friend Jane made for me as it was my birthday last week isn't superb ! and I love bunting as well I have a real weakness for it. And also I blooming well love tea so much I made 2 cups of tea and there is only me in the house.

Wondering where I would take my bicycle with a basket if I was to get it places like the which is just down the road for me , a fairy step away in a quiet unspoilt unless rolling countryside where the clouds skip along the horizon.

I so want a bicycle with a basket I so wistfully want.

It reminds me of a gentler way of life and idyll that can still ring true today and it would make me so calm of mind to have the wind whistling through my soul.

Wintery Days

Wintery, Wintery day , how you wave your silver ribbon through the sky

Taking stock of ordinary in your flaxon idyll days , I gaze wistfully betwixt the frozen solid ground and sky , I can think of no better flash of feeling on a cold and wintery day.

Reality Of Food Banks Hit Home

I suppose at this time of year you are meant to write something seasonal but as I stare at the keyboard I am wondering what to write. I have been in the house for 2 weeks bar going to IKEA twice and eating my weight in chicken soup I began at one stage to think how much chicken soup before I turn chicken. Friends have cheered me up for which I am extremely grateful and once again as I prepare to brae the world  I know then is another turning at the end of the Ikea path. After all IKEA is a poor person Narnia and they do a stonking deal on meatballs  , you can guess where I spent my birthday.

You hear much of paying it forward , it's not an original concept us human beings have being doing it for years , you are leaving your heart open to kindness and so in return you give it. For 2 weeks nearly 3 I've not seen the children I work with , nor have I seen my work colleagues, the trees , the grass the silvery, raspberry ripple sky. The undertones and overtones of my very world were caught short for me in this time , captured and immortalised only in my pictures and blog posts. 

So next time you are moaning about your mortal moans pick one thing that you can appreciate about the outdoors or anything in fact. There has been much in the press about food banks and quite frankly I though I was so far removed from this situation it was what happened to other people. Sadly no the reality of food banks hid me clean smack on the mouth when I discovered that but mother has been using a food bank , my mother doesn't live near me , one of her benefit s had been stopped and she had to use a food bank on more than one occasion.


I find it shocking in this day and age we are struggling in our own country for food , luckily this Christmas my mother is going to spend Christmas day with the Salvation army so I know she won't be alone. So I might having be bemoaning my lack of going out whilst being ill but least I had soup that I could have , I didn't have to scrimp and save saying up which bill to pay or sacrifice.


So if you can donate food to foodbanks I know people like my mother and others would appreciate it.


Reality has hit home so very hard.

What To Get Your Mother for Christmas

What to get your mother for Christmas ?

This a question which I always find it hard to answer , especially when it come to my mother as she doesn't want chocolate again , I know who in their right mind turns down chocolate but obey her I must. Also she doesn't want smelly stuff, clothes perfume or a nice pair of cosy slippers and if I dared even think about buying her one of those foot warmers that you plug in , she would disown me. Though quite honestly if anyone was to get me a foot warmer I would be really, really grateful!

My mother keeps calling me in peak hour , which is not good when you are a pensioner , so i keep reminding her not to do this ! I tell her that if she does want to call me then she do really have a phone package that allows her to do this. I am finding it is a bit of a groundhog day when it comes to this as I tell her to call her phone company to sort it out , she promises she will and yet it is not happening.

I feel that if she was on line with a phone package that combined with broadband then it would suit her down to the ground , so the first hurdle is to suit out a tablet for her . A tablet would so much better as quite frankly a computer would freak her out so the easier to deal with the better, it is 2014 and a gentle nudge is needed to bring her into the modern age.

And the prices of electronic tablets now is so reasonable (you can find many deals online at Tesco) don't feel like you are breaking the bank when you purchase one , so a whole family owning electronic  tablets is not unreasonable. So as soon as I get my mother on line I feel a bombardment of emails ensuing !  in combination with the phone calls no doubt. Also owning a electronic tablet will allow my mother to use a digital camera as at the moment she is using an old school camera. The world at her fingertips is a modern miracle at the the fraction of the price in comparison with a laptop or PC. I expect she will also be teaching me some technical tricks as well and who even know she make even get into blogging !







Written for Tesco

Easy Christmas Pudding Cookies

It is the time now to start preoaring for Christmas , it helps lighten the load and possible expense if you can get in hand some of the items you wish to share or consume over the festive period. And with this cookie dough you can freeze it up for up to a month , perfect for when you need that festive sweet fix, also an ideal rainy day activity to do with children if some how they get bored of their Christmas toys.




Ingredients

100 g softened butter
140 g caster sugar
300 self raising flour
2 beaten eggs
100g of bashed up plain chocolate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c

Mix 100g softened butter and 140g caster sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon

Then add 2 beaten eggs and 2 tsp vanilla extract and beat quickly to combine . 

Sift over 300g self raising flour and stir until the mixture is well mixed  adding the bashed chocolate at the very end. 

You might need to get your hands in at the end to give everything a really good mix and press the dough together. You could use a cookie cutter but this might prove hard depending on how bashed up your chocolate pieces are. In the end I shaped my hard and I am sure little ones would enjoy doing this as well. Press into chocolate buttons to represent the currants of a Christmas pudding. 

Place in the oven on a greased baking tray for around 12 - 15 minutes depending on your type of oven.
Leave to cool down.

Melt some white chocolate and drizzle over the cookie.

Wait for this to set then out of rolled icing craft the leaves and berries of holly.