Forgaing makes

So the other day when we went blackberry picking Stephanie decided to make a fruit cordial with the berries she picked. Here is the cordial in the bowls;

Last night it was ready for bottling. Stephanie isn't here, but as she won't be back for another week I needed to get this in the bottles so that it doesn't spoil before she returns. So I set about separating the cordial from the fruit;

And then into sterilised bottles;

Not a bad amount of cordial for  the cost of 900g of sugar and a little tartaric acid. everything else was free. I had a taste and it is fruity very like squash, which I don't actually like but I had a little atste. Dylan had a glass and declared "it's better than Ribena, you can actually taste the fruit in it!"

High praise indeed from the boy who only eats fruit under duress! I can't wait until Stephanie gets home and has a try. I hope she likes it as much!

Run buddy challenge- August

To help me with motivation for my running I have decided to join the 100mile challenge set by run buddy. The idea is to keep a total on the miles that are run through August with the target being to reach 100 miles. I am not sure how well I will do, we are away for a fortnight in August, but I shall be taking my trainers, they will be shorter runs as Stephanie will join me. I am sure we can find some beautiful places to run though.

I like a challenge and this one enables me to run when I have time. I went for a run this morning with my lovely running group. Map my run followed me and decided that I ran 5.4 miles. I did this in less than 55 minutes. Running with the group really motivates me to push myself. It's a shame I don't have as much time to join them during term time but never mind. I didn't realise I could run that fast for so long as I managed today so I am feeling really pleased with myself. Partly as I went with the faster runners to make sure I pushed myself, also as I didn't know the route I didn't want to get lost! LOL Not that the group would leave me behind but pride won't allow me to have one of them sow down to be with me, so I sped up to be with them. I am planning on running the local park run in the morning so that will be another 3 miles to add towards Augusts total. A goal helps to maintain my focus, what helps you to remain focussed, whether it's running or another goal that you are working towards?

More summer fun.

This afternoon I had my nephew for the afternoon while my sister went to do some birthday shopping. He's gong to be 4 next week. I have never had him on his own before, only ever with my niece as well (his big sister). However she is away at brownie camp this week. So just a day with the boy. We had lots of fun, playing water guns, bubbles and making a rad mat for the car he brought with him.

It was lovely, so nice to have just him. He found it hard for the first 5 minutes, he is a mummies boy and doesn't like to separate bless him. Once I got the water gun out we were best pals!!

drawing the car mat, then playing and deciding that there were details missing.

 

He loved this so much that it went home with him, we added some more when we went back to his house later in the afternoon. It is now in his living room. We drew it on some old carpet underlay paper I had in the cupboard- nice a strong and takes a lot to tear it, so perfect for this kind of project.

 

It's a lot more fun to pop bubbles with a  water gun- brilliant for hand eye coordination, it takes a lot of skill.


I am loving the weather at the moment, I always enjoy the warmer weather but this year is the nicest summer for a while. Please let it continue, we have booked our camping holiday to Devon and Cornwall for a couple of weeks time.

how are you spending the days through the summer?

 

 

Warburton's deli thins- product review post

I have been lucky enough to be asked to review a packet of these;

I was sent a voucher which covered the cost of the Warburton's deli thins, I was able to choose which variety I tried. I choose the mixed herb and olive oil. I liked the look of these when I have seen them in the shop previously however at £1.60 a packet I was dubious. you get six sandwiches from these. So in my house I thought that would be 1 days worth of pack lunches. I was pleasantly surprised, they are very filling, I only had 1 sandwich worth, as did the teenager in each lunch as they are more filling than they look. Dylan had roast ham in his, I had salad and humus.

They were both very tasty. Well I didn't try his, and he didn't try mine but we both agreed how yummy they were. I only managed to eat half of the food pictured above in my lunch. I put the other in a sandwich box and ate it the next day.

So as we only managed to eat one each a day that would mean that the £1.60 makes 2 lunches in our little family of 3. Still a lot of money when you consider that that is only the outer- you still have to fill them.  A fabulous treat lunch though. I will buy them again, but they won't be a regular feature in our shopping basket.

I was sent the voucher to purchase the deli thins by Bzz agent. I received no payment for this review.

 

A little rant, and then a fab day

Today the teenager and I set off for our annual day out. we have to go on the M25 to get there. The M25 for those of you that know it, is a motorway with a variable speed limit. Today the speed limit was set at this;



So why did a flat bed truck decide the need to flash lights at me, honk his horn and make rude gestures in my rear-view mirror for driving in the left hand lane at 40mph. Mr driver if you happen to be reading this the road sign above means maximum speed of 40MPH. I was driving at 40 MPH in the left lane. I was sticking to a legal speed limit. See the least that can happen if I go over this is a letter from the police reminding me of what the speed limit is and a 'small' £100 fine plus points on my licence which then increase my insurance premium. Which, for me, is enough of a deterrent see, I don't have very much spare cash to foot these bills. The worst that can happen, well I have seen recreations of accidents I don't want to be responsible for one. I have seen a little lad run over from a car going at 20mph roughly, I have seen the damage that slow cars can make. I refuse to willingly go faster than is safe I could not live with myself if I knew I could have caused someone that pain through impatient, thoughtless speeding.


Ok I'm stepping down off of my soapbox now. I felt the need to air my thoughts on the subject.

I hope you have all had a good day, we did once we arrived at our destination. See Dylan and I do like to go fast and the adrenaline rush this can bring. Except, I prefer to do it in a safe environment- we went to Thorpe park. We had a fast and fun day riding all of the big coasters. However, we have agreed we would like to go to a different park next year, we have ridden all of these coasters several times and would like to try some new (to us!) coasters. we will need to save a little more though as we have our sights set on Alton towers, which is going to mean at least one over night stay as it is a very long way from here. Do you like rides? Where/what is your favourite?

foraging 2014

Yesterday saw the beginnings of our foraging for 2014. We were out walking when we spotted that the blackberries are black. Already! proof of the lovely summer we are having.

Running down the hill to get to the bushes
picking the berries.

 

our little basket was full very quickly. When we got home I froze a bagful or the winter, the children ate handfuls. Then Stephanie asked if we could make squash. So I dug out a book I know has a fruit cordial recipe, we worked together to follow this. At the moment we have 2 trifle dihes looking like this;

The picture is showing the berries up as very red- they are black lol. We have followed this recipe to make elderflower cordial previously, but never made it with fruit. I will let you know in a few days how it turns out!

 

 

Water fun

Yesterday we went to my sisters house. They were having some work done so couldn't come to mine. we took the paddling pool with us as we haven't had time to have it out since I bought it. It was a perfect day for it. The children had great fun;

They were very proud that they made 'chocolate' in the paddling pool!


It was a mud bath by the time they had finished, after hours of fun. Their giggles were fantastic to listen to!