Cheats Waldorf Salad

You know I have never had Waldorf salad and I got to thinking which I tell you can be a very dangerous thing especially over a cup of tea , I thought about salad and how boring it can be and now we are entering into salad season I really do think salads could do with a pep up and taking to that next level.salad has never ever been so exciting and I think salads need to be more Bear Gylls less Danny Dyer!

Ingredients 

Enough walnuts for 2 crushed and a little bit extra to sprinkle on the salad

2 ts of Dijion mustard

2 chicken breasts thinly sliced( already cooked) but of course you could cook your own chicken breasts through

4tbp of Olive oil




Salad

Use a salad of your choice

red and green apple wedges

a splatter of mixed fruit

More walnuts enough for 2 again

celery cut into chunks

lemon zest and juice if no lemons perhaps use ready made lemon juice


Method

Heat some olive oil in a pan

Method brush the chicken with the Dijon mustard and coated with some crushed walnuts and cook the chicken through until thoroughly cooked if you are cooking them from scratch.You can of course use ready cooked chicken .




Cut up the celery into chunks and mix with the salad ingredients in a bowl. Mix everything together with with homemade mayonnaise or a very very good shop brought one.

The Outdoor Prescription

It’s been raining men .. it’s been raining forever and ever and I’m really beginning to think it’s down to budget cuts ~ weather austerity if you will.At what point does it stop being good for the garden I think the rain started when I got a new garden table then I’m afraid it was all downhill from there.

We are over half way #30dayswild celebrating all things wild and nature.The garden has been a labour of love over the past few years and it’s taken shape nicely.I’ve a wildlife pond and have tadpoles they don’t contribute to the household income though.Also we have tree bumblebee s in the bird box and they’re super busy collecting nectar.

I wanted a bird bath but didn’t want a whimsical fairy or a constipated looking frog set in stone .Neither was I prepared to pay over £100 for a stone one that had been hand craved by a monk called Dave.So as my husband and I walked round the garden centre with a lost purpose until I spied though he says he spied first some glazed plant pots and saucers that would be ideal as a bird bath and it was a combined priced of 21 pounds.You could do this cheaper by recycling stuff and upcycling suitable shallow containers etc. My husband up turned the glazed dish upon the glazed pot just fixing it with outdoor sealant ( but do pick up the whole thing by the pot )

Gardening gives myself and my husband a great sense of well being as when you're standing there gazing aimlessly out the window doing the washing it , it so takes away from the drudgery of the task in hand. To see the bird hopping across to the bird feeder and to see Dragonfly's dip into the wildlife pond without a care in the world and it satisfying to see that carefree life it gives a warm glow to your day.It starts with something simple life plating some seeds in the garden , a few forgotten plants in the forgotten corner of the garden centre , swapping plants from friends.Gardening makes feel feel hope for tommorow because sometimes just sometimes hope can slip away but Gardeing promotes hope for tommorow and gives a tremendous sense of well-being and achievement.

The True Lack Of Social Care

I am by no means an expert on social care I can only comment on what I know from my own family situation and it is a postcode lottery at times and meeting of panels to decide who gets what and where and quite simply it is not good enough.The constant battling of the system is not helping if social care was looked at properly and scrutinised that I am sure it would improve and even save itself money.

So here I am from 2018/2019 saying what needs to be done in regards to my own mother .And the things I’m saying will not cost much but with the situation left to fester from various agencies you ultimately reach a crisis.The system is failing the most at need there’s a safety net but it has gaping great hole in the middle.

I don’t know what the answer is but what I do know that basic social care is the pinnacle of human right.Social care should people to live their very best lives and they shouldn’t be scrambling for scraps.

Living On The Cusp Of The Countryside

I live on the cusp of the countryside it is there on my doorstep and I have my own tadpoles in the pond , tree bumblebees living in the bird box and house Martin s ( the birds and not the band ) I mean can you imagine the pop band House Martins outside your window.Since giving up work I’ve been busy in the garden with the help of my husband and working hard to make it both a wildlife haven and a garden we can enjoy.I've benefits of a garden from my own mental health well being to see a sparrow hawk dispatch Bob the wood pigeon but don’t worry we have Bob the 2nd.

I can amble where I like or bimble just as I did in my last blog post I can basically circle my house on a countryside route there is the march of progress of houses which I am not convinced is entirely a good thing.Developers do try and balance the green space with their building but I am sad when there is a loss of the green space on what should be green belt land.I expect in years to come way way in the future that a small patch of grass will be in a museum for us to all look at.Though I think that is somewhat a Dystopian future and hopefully not likely to happen !

I start my morning with a pond inspection of my wildlife pond and saying morning to the Tadpoles not invidaully but collectively as I would be here all day if I did, I rather hope they're not put out by this ? who knows do Tadpoles even bare a grudge ? Then I move on the bumble bees the the left of my house which are nesting on a nook of my neighbours house then onto my own bumble bees which are in the bird box on my house.

The Enemy And Ally Of Time When You Are Autistic

I am autistic and usually it doesn’t phase I work and roll with the punches and I saw I’m autistic as I see fit .I will not hide away from it but now and again there comes s situation where you feel the overload boiling up from your feet.You feel like the girl again who has forgotten their maths homework and your maths teacher is a crack commando and you end up in detention.

Sensitivity and autism do indeed come hand in hand but you know we just want kindness like everyone else.We are all human at the end of the day and some accommodations are just the basics of being human.I have found time is both my enemy and my ally in situations as sometimes I truly want the world to swallow me up. The passage of time allows me both to relax from the situation and offer a therapy by writing loosely about happens to me in such situations.

I really like being displaced it throws me and I have to throw an anchor out and hope it grounds me this could be anything from talking to someone to listening to classic musical I just have to work through my box of tricks to get back to where I need and want to be. I find social media can be a help I as I reach out tho those who know me and also other folk who are autistic.Reading the world helps as it allow s me to compute and quantify the situation of course there are occasions where it can go wrong but the path of life is a not always smooth.