Holidays and Trips

Well the school holidays have started. It's easy to know about this even if you don't have school age children. The rain has been tipping it down ever since my last blog which seems like ages ago. I think that most of yesteday was dry but it's back to wet again today.
The young ones arrived back from their trips, mostly exhausted but full of what they had done and seen.
K spent quite alot of time discussing the pros and cons of her accomidation and the standard of the food, (which was probably pretty good considering that she was in Tuscany). As usual D was much quieter and little information has been gleaned about where he was, who was there or anything else for that matter.
There has been quite alot of excitement since though. We learned that K is to take part in a trip to Taiwan next year as part of a "Connecting Schools" venture. it all sound very exciting and I will let you know more as we find out the details.


In the meantime, each student has been asked to raise at least £200 towards the costs of the trip. (Guess who pays the rest?) Soooo....... we have been busy with the baking and jelly making. At times we have reached almost factory proportions and this is just the start. One thing leads to another and the next thing you know, special requests have been made, new recipes have been tried and sold to a very willing bunch of people, mostly at my work but you never know we could go global.
D has been keeping the accounts. (He is very good at this). I didn't want to end up buying all of the ingredients and then all the money being taken for the trip, I've been had this way before. Actually I'm sure most of you will have been in the same position with school fundraising. You make lots of goodies and then buy them back at the school fete. Well not this time, oh no... they are too old for all of that. A much more business like approach was needed with proper working out and accounts and stuff.
I feel that this may go on for a while but so far so good.
Thought you might like the picture in the middle. D brought back the Sombrero for K as requested, but it seemed to fit Ducati better although I don't think she is too impressed!

White Horse and Cherry Jam

Well what a weekend it has been! First swimming in the lakes very early on Saturday. Then, yesterday, going to see a Classical Riding demonstration near Preston. It was absolutely fantastic although some of it was definitely beyond me. It was enough to sit and watch these fabulous horses being put through their paces. The riders were given instruction on how to improve the way they sat, although if I could manage to be like even the poorest of them it would be a miracle.

On Saturday evening Y and I went out to dinner. (No children remember). On the way back, I remembered that I had seen some cherry trees in a layby very, very near to us. Sure enough they were there and laden with fruit. Y was dispatched at once for tubs and containers. (This was after 10pm, I think he was humouring me!!!).
Today I spent ages pitting the cherries, hence the hands. AND NOW we have cherry jam with Kirtch which I happened to find in the pantry. Just the thing for an added something. Have to admit though that I was quite surprised when it actually set as it is supposed to be devilishly difficult.  To finish off I used some of my new labels, given to me by K as a birthday present.

A Day in the Lakes

Thought you might like a look at the pictures that I took this morning. As both of the young people are away we decided to make the most of it and head down to the lakes. It was a very wet morning as you can see, but we had planned an early morning swim at Rydal Water. Well when swimming you can't get any wetter. We made it there for just after 7am and had a fantastic swim in the water. (Not a lake this one!) We only saw 2 other people who were out walking their dogs. It wasn't even as chilly as you might have expected as it's been so warm and the water is quite shallow at the moment.
After the swim we meandered to Ambleside and had hot chocolate in the only cafe that seemed to be open before going to Lakeland to stock up on bits and bobs.
As the tourists started to appear we set off back home in time for lunch and blogging.

Bread and Verges.

I have been trying for quite a while now to get a sourdough starter going. It has failed miserably..... until now! First I gave up too early then I think I killed it off although I'm not sure how. BUT now we have one, a living breathing thing. AND on Tuesday we had our very first sourdough loaf. It is really very good, cetainly worth the wait. This is how it came along..........         

 First the Sponge. This smelt a bit like beer and was very sticky.

Then came the Dough, proper bread looking stuff. I quite surprised myself with this one.

  Then came the Loaf. How good is that?

Today, well stocked up on bread I have been have a bit of a poke around at some of the verges around about and here is what I've found.......

I know what some of them are but not all. There seems to be a bit of a pink theme going on. Must be the time of year. Hope to see you all again soon, sorry this one has taken so long.

It's Showtime!

We had a day out today at Skelton Show. We've never been before, even although we have lived in the area for more than 12 years. It really was a fantastic day out.

As this is a one day show there was plenty of time to look at everything.

We saw enormous vegetables, pretty flowers and plant displays as well as all of the live stock.

Most of the animals didn't seem to mind their pictures being taken and being peered at by hundreds of people but this cow doesn't look quite so sure.

Enough cabbage for an army of coleslaw makers.

A rest in the sun.

As perfect as it gets