A Good Day

I helped with the Church Fair this morning.  It was okay.  Not brilliant, not amazing, but okay.  The hook a duck stall has gone missing, which was rather embarassing as I had splashed it's charms all over face book.  Still, the other stalls were there and a good time was had by all.  I was in charge of the roll tuppenny, where two pence pieces are rolled down a wooden groove and they are lost or, depending where they land, the win a prize.  I made £2.04, and while it was a drop in the ocean of the profits, lots of little kids had a great time!

Bear is being very bear.  He is well able to inhale three weeks worth of sugar in a sitting, and has set his sights on eating his bodyweight in sugar in a day, but today he refused an offer of a free cake (very politely!) and has just insisted on going downstairs and peeling and chopping carrots to snack on.  This week he is very focussed on healthy eating.  I have no idea what next week will bring.

Bear has had a good day.  He went to the big adventure playground with DH while I was at the fair, calling in for a quick play of the roll tuppenny game and an ice cream float (he wasn't entirely virtuous), before going out to see a production of the Addams Family by a youth theatre group.  It was a lot of fun, really well staged.  Then we had tea at his favourite cafe and now it is a quiet evening.

Bear has Expectations

It's all my fault.  First of all I let him watch Eat Well for Less.  I thought it be helpful when he was older.  Bear has approved the Tesco Wheat Biscuits but does not approve of the frozen berries.  He insisted on defrosting them, and it was a long and careful process using the microwave in ten second bursts.  I don't think that helped.

So he has Views on what he wants to eat, now he wants to cook it.  My kitchen is a state.  The main issue is that I am a dreadful housekeeper but it isn't helped by issues with the cupboards and all sorts of stuff emptied everywhere as the man still hasn't come to do the electric.  So I have to do some serious sorting to allow for bear to cook.  I have to move quite a lot of stuff around.  Ideally I would sort out the walk in cupboard first, but that's not going to happen in bear's time frame.  Then I need to clean.

On the bright side, my leg is still very bad and short bursts of activity will be great.  Also I have repotted Dilly and Dally.

This is Dally in her new homw.  I pruned them strongly before I repotted, so you are seeing Dally after she was cut back.  Here is the prunings.

I can't think of anything useful to do with scented geranium leaves, though it seems a shame.  Out they go.  

Influenced by Television

Last night bear was allowed to stay up later than normal to watch Eat Well for Less (scroll down to get the recipes instead of the programme links).  No matter what time of year, no matter when he goes to bed, he is up at the first cough of the sparrow so he needs to get into bed fairly early.  Last night he didn't go upstairs until 9pm.  We all thought it was worth it.

One of the items tested were wheat biscuits - brand name weetabix.  Bear piped up that he liked weetabix, could we get some in.  I love weetabix, but obviously can't.  Sigh.  Bear sometimes loves them but sometimes doesn't.  I've taken a risk and last night added a pack of the Tesco wheat biscuits that came top of the blind taste testing last night and some frozen berries.  I hope bear will eat them.  This is what they look like on the website.

Image taken from Tesco.com, where I got some, due to the tv programme

So more stuff has been added that we wouldn't have otherwise, but it's a lovely, healthy breakfast if bear will enjoy it.

It is lovely to catch bear out sometimes.  Bear was being very vociferous and insisting he would have always tried the cheaper version.  One of the things tested was the value muesli from Tesco that bear had utterly rejected.  He has conceded that he may try it again but with berries.  I shall wait and see.

Forty Two Days

Bear has just had his last day at school until 6 September.  That's a long, long time.

I am looking forward to the break from school uniform.  There will still be plenty of rushing around - next week bear has morning football lessons then in three weeks' time there is a sports type camp - but at least I will have a break from school uniform.  Bear's school shoes have held out until the last day of term.  They will not be fit for another week.  Fortunately I can't see anything coming up that will need them.  He will get new ones on 5 September.

Apart from the two activity weeks, DH has got a week off and bear has promised to teach me how to play minecraft.  We have threatened to record it and put it on YouTube.  Fortunately, from my point of view, we haven't got the equipment.  I don't think bear would appreciate the world knowing how often I called him a silly sausage.

Ewwwwwwww

Bear is watching a YouTube video on how to do first aid on a leech bite.  The man in the video used hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound.  Bear falls apart at antiseptic wipes.  He is not stoic.  I hope he never gets a leech bite.

Fortunately bear may get sidetracked by maps.  School had them do a project where they worked out the miles between various towns on a round trip of England - Manchester, Birmingham, London etc, twelve places in total.  Bear got happily engrossed in that, then last night got caught up in a huge atlas of mine.  It was £10 second hand about twenty years ago and it is a proper OS, very detailed, set of maps of the UK.  Bear loved it.

I would rather deal with a pile of maps than leeches.

Talk Me Out of It

I keep wanting to get veg boxes.  They are so full of promise and the pictures are amazing - but I never use them all.  I used to get them from Leeds Market, and the quality was amazing, but they don't deliver any more.  Unfortunately I have found a new supplier.

I really want to be good with veg boxes.  I want to get the box and rub my hands and plan all sorts of meals.  I want the inspiration to try new things, the joy of new flavours instead of the same old same old.  It won't happen, especially not at the moment.  I know that I will get a box, look at it blankly and reach for the frozen peas.  I really want a fruit box as well.  I know that I can shovel all sorts of stuff into bear, but his pals are more of a problem.  Sometimes I worry that bear isn't getting what for him are treats - celery sticks and cherry tomatoes - as his usual pal can't bear the smell of them.

Here is a picture I have found

I took this image from Goosemoor Organics who do local produce to local areas and it does look very reasonable and incredibly tempting.

The dog in the house behind has learned to yodel.  It is incredible.  It's a hound of some sort, you can hear when they go out as he grumbles.  Being a hound, the grumbles travel, but it doesn't sound in distress.  It sounds like a teenager complaining things aren't fair, but in a fairly musical hound-type grumble that isn't quite a howl.  Now the hound is getting into his stride.  He starts off with a few musical moans and then warbles.  Aowaowaowaowaowaowaowaow.  It could be worse.  It's not so long ago that the previous tennants were playing Tammy Wynnette, 120 decibels at 3am.  A hound yodelling is far more acceptable.  It is also a lot more musical than the Jack Russell next door but one who does not suffer in silence.  He does not do anything in silence.  The noise he makes when he gets a ball stuck behind the plant pot has to be heard to be believed.  He is an excellent warning system as he nearly explodes when a human goes past without giving him a cuddle.  He really is a sweetie, though.

Witch Hazel  - you are awesome!

Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff

We went to Temple Newsam again today.  There was a time traveller's fair, and the first thing we saw was a demonstration of Anglo Saxon bread making.  First they had the kids thresh the corn.  It was not very efficient, especially as the free range goats that wander around the Temple Newsam home farm took an acute interest.  They had to be repeatedly dragged off.  Then there was some very inefficient winnowing, separating the grains of wheat.  They kept referring to 'wheat husks' instead of chaff.  So here is the wheat/chaff

Then they had the kids take turns grinding the wheat in a replica stone quern.  They had some flour ready to show how the dough was made as, darn, it was hard to get white flour when using two rounds of stone rubbing against each other.  My respect for our ancestors grew!  Bear had a go at a shield wall, using this shield.

Hands, feet and legs all very swollen today.  I think it is time to take it easy.