The Joy Of Expect

The joy of expect

I'm turning my thinking on its head , whilst the odd adage of it can go wrong it will go wrong ( is probably true )

 I'm going to expect joy which for an over thinker this is quite revolutionary , if I implode and then eat my own weight in cake is yet to be seen.

The joy of seeing the catkins upon the trees within the churchyard as the clock just goes past 3.

Church clock strikes just past 3 

Also joy in updating a lighting feature in my front room say hello to when IKEA meets Next , the twigs with lights on have gone that was so 2015! Just a little change in say a light decoration can add a whole new dimension to a room . Ps I do also have some bunches of twigs as well that have little paper flowers on , I think this is an idea that people could develop and add to like paper butterflies , fairies etc.

Bowl of light

Getting my shop soup maker was an utter joy , I'm in love with it ( and yes it's easy to clean and no it's not a device consigned to the cupboard )

Pea and ham soup

Joy of going out for a meal in the vibrant of Nottingam a city going through a real visual hip transform a nod of modern merging with the old .

Old buildings in Nottingham 

Ohhh get me having a cocktail ~ rhubarb cocktail to be exact> joy .

Rhubarb cocktail

We were in Nottingham waiting for our son J after he had been to Holocaust orientation . The week previous he had been to Aushwitz and another concentration camp within the day . So it has been a pretty intense couple of weeks. So it's a joy to see him smile as he sees the biggest burger he's even seen in his life .

The biggest chicken burger in the world

Joy has been looking at new sinks and taps as the kitchen sink is in the 

middle of its death throws . It will of course be a new kitchen next year but that joy is yet to come .

Morphy Richards Sauté and Soup

I've always wanted a soup maker , people tried to say you don't need one and that you can just use a blender . I say to those people 

"No "

I tried it once when trying to make a tomato soup and quite frankly it looked like a murder scene ~

I think the most searched for phrase that year was 

" how to remove tomato off ceilings "

 Obviously if I had access to google in 1991 it would have been 

" how to remove potato off a ceiling after using a pressure cooker "

 The first soup I've tried is pea and ham following the recipe within the instruction booklet , granted it doesn't have a creme fraishe swirl but a cracking effort for a first go.

The soup maker has a sauté function hence the name sauté and soup but I haven't tried this yet but I will as soup needs croutons every now and then . The soup maker also makes smoothies and milkshakes and I've had a few people see this as weird , not really you're not using your saucepan fur just one item unless you're my Nan who had a carrot pan.

I just love my Morphy Richards Sauté and Soup  RRP £54 It will not be a piece of kit consigned to the I'll never use again pile ~ like the juicer I once had.

PS It is very easy to clean and takes no time at all ! 

This to me is a bargain as someone sold me theirs half price ( it was new )

I'll be popping by with some soup recipes : aren't you lucky !!!!

Disclosure : The Soup maker has been living with me for 4 days now and long may the honeymoon period continue , my own review / declaration of love .

A blogger at Rest

Twas the night before  Friday and nothing stirred in the house

Except for a blogger tapping on a keyboard listening to Classic Fm 

Surveying all around her the blogger did declare all is calm and all is settled 

Not a review item in sight hurrah I do say 

Then the review  flowers did she spy with her perfectly capturing instagram moment content collecting eye

Though bereft of life they be

Capturing them in the soliloquy of time reflection is a necessity

So you see with us bloggers it isn't always a look at me reaction


Just the chance to write is food enough thought for me

Slow Cooker Shoulder Of Lamb

Firstly before the lamb recipe :

The mews at 10 ( somewhere in the world ) 

Firstly I lost my bobble hat then found it but it's a very sad bobble hat as the cat has had a further go at it ~ sigh sad times if I can't be a bobble hat superhero as the bobble ( Pom Pom obviously stores my super powers which isn't colour coordination.

All hail Rollie is back in the bottom of the cat bunk bed , he just need a warm mat so he can warm his paws , you know when the weather is right if he's outside .

Ingredients 

Shoulder of Lamb 

Chunky carrots 

Any other veg 

3 whole onions 

1 teaspoon paprika 

 I whole clove of garlic ( remove obviously before dishing out stock unless whizzing into soup )

1 tablespoon mixed Italian herbs .

1 litre of lamb stock 

Method 

There's not really much of a method to this , I could make this method more exciting by doing some juggling but I can't juggle so that's a no to that then. Basically combine everything and leave in the slow cooker for  about 6 hours on slow . Please don't put a bobble hat in the slow cooker the bits will get stuck in your teeth .

You can be super clever and whizz up the stock for soup.

The Hitchhikers Guide To Blogging

Every so often bloggers are inclined to declare " I'm giving up packing up my blogging toys "and disappearing into a puff of social media smoke.

Blogging has pretty much changed since I arrived on the scene some 5 years ago (well nearly 5 years ) . Blogging has got slicker, meaner, nicer, more niche , compartmentalised , more diverse and so many other adjectives ,I'll have to get my thesaurus out. I'm more than likely to drop said thesaurus on my feet those causing a injury , I kid you not I'm likely to do this.

The Off Day Catalyst 

I pretty attributed the catalyst of this situation to the toast I had yesterday , how I hear you cry can the humble piece of toast cause a cataclysm of events , well the shade of toast can do this .

When you place your toast in the toast in the toaster you have expectation and high expectation of  that :

 1 Your toaster will do the job .

2 Your toast will be the appropriate shade of ermmm toastyness to launch you upon your day whatever that may entail ( yesterday I was chief men pants buyer )

3. If I had , had happy toast like I did a few weeks ago , this indeed could be a very different blog post , I could be clutching an Oscar instead.

I think it's just a blogging stumble and tomorrow the toaster Gods will favour my blogging fortune , I think historians need to look back and see if toast has caused any wars.

Blog Me Like You Do

I do , I do love blogging .

It's very hard not to compare yourself to others at time , I have never succumbed to the green eyed blogging monster , I'm not that type of person . Blogging isn't a distraction technique of the Emperors new clothes with me what you see is what you get . I'm not one either for blogging praise in fact if I'm praised in any shape or form it has me running for the hills .

Blogging has provided me many wonderful opportunities of which I'm  .... grateful , I think I hope I'm a refreshing blogger ?! everytime I write a blogging grammar fairy dies , apologies if my grammar makes you twitchy .

I have been blogging as mentioned nearly 5 years , I'm one month short of this anniversary , I've never huff puffed ( unpaid journalism ) or caused a stir on mumsnet, though be still my beating hard I had a post on Gnome knickers re tweeted. This was a post about Gnome knickers ( people who steal Gnomes )

Perhaps if I had written the blog post with the title Game Of Gnomes that will have pulled the punters in  ? who knows ?

Not Giving Up 

I will conquer and blog on , at times I feel blogging is to commercial and I want my fluidity to show and not have review after review . I want my naivety back I feel as if I have opened the blogging Pandora 's box / reviewed it and pimped it within an inch of its life !

I'm currently topping up my tea levels.

Infact I've turned some offers of late including someone asking me to pay into their crowdfunding business of their item. In return I'd get the item and something tongue away > yet I have to pay ?!! how cheeky and rude ! . 

Breathe.

Breathing allows the yearning to blog to come back and it's own my terms it's not like I'm going to go extent like the dinosaurs for example the poor T -.rex couldn't even type no wonder he roared all the time he couldn't clap his hands at the dinosaur tea party !

" If you're happy and you know it , clap your hands "

Blogging has got so clogged it's certainly not as simple as it was and I just want the simplicity to come back just tad, I feel as if I need a Hitchhikers Guide to Blogging with the words :

"Don't panic "

Emblazoned on the front .

I'm not going any where but if I don't shake it up and say how I feel,once in a while I'll implode.

So I'm staying blogging and so is the cat .