Ta-daaaaa!!!!

I bought these chunky stemmed wine glasses from Homebase at a bargain price of 1.49 each, and I had them tucked away to use as candle containers once I had bought the wax and accessories.  Then I completely forgot I'd bought them!

So when Andrew suggested making candles as Christmas gifts for some friends, I suddenly remembered these glasses and thought hhhmmm this just might work.  The tealight holder is one of the set of three that I bought a few weeks back and have had up in our bedroom but haven't used yet.  So I thought why not use those to experiment pouring candles?

They look fantastic as a set, reasonably inexpensive to make, so we will light them tonight and see how they look and take another pic.  If they look good and burn well, then I'll go out and buy some more glasses and tealight holders.  I'll potentially have SIX sets to make so I need to buy more wax.  Hopefully other people will see them on display in our friends' homes and ask where they can get them from, and it may drum up a little bit of business for me :D

A real bed at last!

Before I returned to Aus in March, Andrew & I went out to look at beds.  We found the perfect bed at Dreams but didn't have the money for it, so our health really suffered for it!  Last Sunday after we watched Zack play soccer Andrew told me to go with Helen and Paul back to their place, and he took off without telling me where he was going.  I hate surprises so I was really annoyed with him by the time he arrived at Helen and Paul's just in time for dinner.  It was only then that he told me to go outside and look what was on the back seat of the car.  Helen came out with me and when we looked, the back seat was filled with brand new pillows, mattress cover, quilt, quilt cover set and extra linen!

The linen is called 'Cosima', it's not my ideal choice but it was really the only choice as I wanted something neutral.  It will do for now until my Margaret Muir linen arrives from Australia.  The headboard is called 'Orlando' and while I first liked it back in March, I have changed my mind (I'm a Sagittarian, what more can I say?) and I'm not so keen on it anymore.  At least I can cover it with a different fabric later on.

The bed was delivered yesterday and we put it all together before dinner, we couldn't wait til after dinner as we were too excited!  I think we both had a good night's sleep, usually it takes me ages to wake up properly and I feel quite groggy, but this morning I felt quite bright and not at all like the zombie I usually impersonate for the first two hours of the day!

In other news, I have applied for a job as a part time waitress at a deli cafe in Shaftesbury.  Fingers crossed they give me a call to come in for an interview!

Fun!

As an early birthday present from Mum and Dad, with the money they gave me I decided to buy some candle making materials and give soy candle making a try.

So I saved up some glass jars, bought some soy wax, wick, wick tabs, wick pins, thermometer and a jug, and set about attempting my very first candles.

The first candle I poured was okay until I started meddling with the wick and it popped out.  Luckily I had another jar on standby so I was able to pour the wax back into the jug, then pour it into the spare jar.

The whole process is fairly easy, but I think I need to get a double boiler rather than stand the big jug in a pot of steaming water (same principle, just very awkward and a risk of splashing hot water on myself!).

But, in all, I think I did okay for my first attempt.  The real result will be known when the wax has set and I light the wicks for the first time.

The kit.

Letting the wax cool to 55 degrees before pouring

The two completed candles, already showing signs of cooling.  I can't wait to light them!

Yesterday, Andrew & I met up with our friends Chris and Ros and their 5 month old baby Tristan.  We went for a walk along the canal at Bradford-on-Avon, past the Tithe Barn, then back to the cafe where we started our walk from.  Fortunately, there was still one table left inside the very cramped canal boat that is moored by the cafe.

Boys outside the 14th century Tithe Barn

Canal boats

Heading to the cafe for lunch after our strenuous stroll

Just departing the canal boat/cafe - it was a tight squeeze for seating and to get a pram in also.

After lunch Andrew and I dashed off to Mells to watch our nephew Zac play soccer.  Here he is in action.  His team won 6-1, with two own-goals by the opposition's goal keeper.  Poor little kid, but he took it all in his stride and everyone had alot of fun.  Well, the kids did, I was standing on the sideline shivering in the wind because I forgot to wear some long-johns under my jeans!

Zack in action.  The defender looked scared and rightly so, Zack is a strong kicker!

Andrew's sister Helen invited us over for a roast dinner and a pudding after the match.  After dinner we played two different card games that I'd never played before (I generally don't play well so I don't like playing!), I won the first round of games and got beat by one card in the second round.  I got the hang of the first game (beginner's luck!) but the second game completely bamboozled me.  I forgot to throw out a card and it ended up costing me the whole game, I still didn't know what I was doing in the end!

House and garden

The door to the right (with the planter boxes in front of it) used to be the front entrance to our place but when the 3 houses were converted into two, the door to the second house (where the little picket gate is) became the main entrance.

The front garden bed that took about 3hrs to weed and clean the path.  I'm not finished yet :(

The back garden.  Before Andrew moved in we had a nice big vegetable plot all ready to be planted with a summer crop.  But he let the weeds take over, mainly stinging nettle, and that is a real bugger to dig out!  I've decided that Andrew's punishment for creating so much weeding for me is a good whipping with some stinging nettles.  I started weeding a patch this morning (just behind the wheelbarrow there) and cleared about 3 sq metres of weeds.  I'm stuffed already!

Looking down the side of our house, we've got the greenhouse and a storage shed.  Not that exciting but thought I'd throw this one in.

If you've noticed something strange happening....

I have just been having fun trying out new templates on this blog.  I found a website where I can download free blog backgrounds (just click on the link in the top left corner of this page or type the address into the address bar), and I just can't make my mind up which one I like best.  So be warned that there might just be a new background every time you visit!

While the rain held off today I managed to get a little bit more gardening done, I have finished the 2nd 1/2 of the garden bed at the front of the house and took away a big wheelbarrow full of weeds.  Yesterday I had two wheelbarrows' worth of scrambling roses, blackberry, English ivy, nettles and goodness knows what else.  It is starting to make quite a nice burn pile!

Then I started scraping the footpath with a square mouthed shovel to lift up all the moss and grass that had almost covered the concrete.  I think doing that was more exhausting than pruning and pulling weeds, I felt stiff and sore for the rest of the day and I'd only worked for about an hour.  The war has only just begun on the garden though, I'm sure the blackberry will be back in force by spring.  I even found it growing directly out of the stone wall - the mongrel stuff will grow anywhere.

So the garden is looking quite forlorn now as there isn't much left of it - just a few clumps of grasses, some snowdrops that I accidentally started chopping into with my new garden hoe (pffft!  that's what the Poms call a garden hoe, but it's a tiny little thing compared to the big hoes we can buy in Australia - where's a Bunning's when I need one??), some nasturtiums that are growing in a big wooden trough and some gnarled old shrub that I have pruned back so hard there is probably one twiggy little branch left on it.  I'll give it til late spring to start getting shrubby or it will be mulch!

And after all that talk about gardening, disappointingly I have no pic.  I will try to post one tomorrow.

Spinach & Feta tart

The weather is crap outside so what a perfect day to bake.

1tsp olive oil
1 large red onion, sliced
300g spinach (use packet frozen spinach if you want to make this even quicker)
1 sheet of ready made shortcrust pastry
3 large eggs, beaten
300g feta cheese, diced or crumbled the choice is yours

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, gently fry the onion til tender.  Add the spinach and cook til wilted.  Set aside.
Line a round baking tin or ceramic dish with the sheet of shortcrust pastry, leaving 2-3cm hanging over the edge.
When the onion/spinach mix has cooled, squeeze to drain the excess liquid out, put it in a mixing bowl then add the beaten eggs and feta cheese, mix it all up (eave a little egg to brush the pastry when it comes to the final stage of preparation).
Pour the mixture into the pastry shell and fold the edges over.  Brush the pastry with the remaining egg, and bake it in a 180C oven for about 40 minutes.

We both had a slice of this for dinner tonight with Welsh lamb cutlets, some steamed vegies and mint sauce.  There is still enough tart left over for lunch tomorrow and possibly on Sunday too!  Next time I make this I think I will add some diced bacon and a few slices of tomato to the top of the tart before I fold the pastry over.

Gold Hill

Looking up Gold Hill's cobblestone street.

Cottages lining one side of Gold Hill.

 Unless you are lucky enough to have a parking space on your property, you have to park on the street.  For the people who live past the point where these cars are, this is as far as they are allowed to take their cars.

Gold Hill is a dead end street so many residents actually reverse their cars all the way up the street so they can just drive straight out again later.  The street isn't wide enough for a 3 point turn unless you own a motorbike.

Finally made it back to the top.  I'm not sure what the purpose is of the wall on the right, maybe it belongs to the abbey which is further up the hill.  I think Gold Hill gets busy in the summer because they have a designated walkway to keep the tourists under control.

When you get to the top of Gold Hill you can reward yourself with a refreshing drink or lunch at the Salt Cellar.

Gardening

Today's forecast was for a fine day - the sun was meant to peek through the clouds for a while this afternoon but all I've seen is white cloud.  It has been ok for gardening so I've been outside to do a little bit of weeding and tidying up.


I bought some Fiskar pruners last week for our mowing day, and the pruners seized up within 15 minutes of use!  So I took them back to the hardware and exchanged them for a new pair a few days later.  Only for exactly the same thing to happen this morning!


I went back to the hardware store, exchanged them again but for a different brand this time (cheaper store brand) and what do you know, they are fine.


I managed to get some weeding and pruning done eventually, but I don't have any pics to show you, I'm not inspired enough by the little progress I've made.


With my £8 refund in price difference for the faulty pruners I was able to buy 3 red glass tealight holders and a bag of 50 tealight candles.  The daft thing is though....  I don't have anything to light them with!  I just didn't think about it.  So once I have a lighter, I'll light the candles and take a piccy to add to this post.

Red always goes faster

When I get too old to walk great distances, I can see myself getting one of these:

How funky is this little gizmo?

There is at least one of them that I have seen while walking up the high street in Shaftesbury.  I wanted to take a photo but thought it might be a bit intrusive so I found one through google.

Shopping trolley

I am contemplating buying my own shopping trolley.

Whenever I go into town to do grocery shopping I tend to walk up the high street first, go to the bank and then stop at all the different shops on my way back down before going into Tesco to do the rest of my shopping.  By the time I get to Tesco I've just offloaded up to 10kg of bags (I take my own cloth reuseable bags) into the trolley before I do the rest of my shopping.

Rather than damage my back and shoulders, it would be more sensible to put my purchases into my own funky trolley... wouldn't it?




£20.99 on Amazon

Just kidding.

I see enough of cows, I don't want a trolley that looks like one too.

But I know you'll like this one Susie, coz it's Blue and it's a Cow.
For 62.00 from Airboxmedia, it's all yours.

Pounds, that is.  Not dollars!

Leekes

• This one is foldable and has an insulated cooler bag and two side pockets.

It's red so it goes faster and it's PVC, so it should keep the rain out.

Also from Leekes and also £35.00

Exactly the same as the striped one, from Leekes.

This has a bit of an Audrey Hepburn feel doesn't it?

£15.24 from Amazon.co.uk

Kidding again!

5 years

I just realised that today marks the 5th anniversary since I had a stroke.

Alot has happened since then, both good and bad.  Probably the toughest 5 years of my life.  I'm just grateful that I had my family, closest friends and my hubby to support me through it all.

I love you all xoxo

Domestic bliss

I've been in the UK for three weeks already.  Time really has flown by!

You probably think I lead a pretty boring life at the moment, in some aspects that is true but on a whole, I am happy to just be here and right now I'm actually enjoying being on "domestic duties".  I've never really been one to enjoy housework but because we have so little stuff to clutter up the house, it's fairly easy to keep clean!

The house was freshly painted and carpeted before Andrew moved in, so it's basically a blank canvas waiting for us to fill in.

I don't have alot of equipment in the kitchen so I'm rather excited with yesterday's purchase while I was out shopping:

This has to be one of the most practical kitchen tools I could ever want.  I needed a blender to puree a big batch of leek & potato soup I made yesterday, so I got this set from The Art of Cooking, a great little kitchen shop in Shaftesbury.  I can see myself doing alot of shopping there over the next couple of months!

Not only can I puree soups, I can make smoothies and thickshakes, guacamole and dips, mix cakes, or I can chop up awkward stuff like nuts, herbs & onions to my heart's content.

Neigh-bours

I've just befriended two donkeys who live directly across the road from our house.

Sweety & Grumpy (not their real names - I just made them up)

The white (actually grey) donkey has already earned the name Grumpy because he's just that.  For some reason he doesn't like Sweety and was constantly biting him.  Grumpy didn't fancy being patted either, but Sweety loved me for rubbing his face.

Here they are, fighting again.  When I meet their owner I'll ask where she got them from (don't worry Mr J, I'm definitely not thinking of getting a donkey!), I just have a feeling that they were abandoned donkeys that were adopted from a donkey shelter.  Could explain their constant fighting, or maybe donkeys are just like that?

Helen and Zach were here a short time ago, we had some Dorset apple cake for afternoon tea.  They didn't stay long as they were only here to pick Pam up and take her home to spend a couple of days together before Pam flies home to Australia.

Pam and I went to the hardware store again this morning, I had to exchange some garden pruners that I bought on Saturday as they had seized up.  While we were there I also bought a pretty red flowering Azalea for a bargain at £1.99:

Gardening, shopping, entertaining

Andrew's best mate Andy came over on Saturday to help mow the lawn and tidy up the garden, as it hadn't been touched in a few months and consequently looked like a jungle.  Luckily we had good weather and got alot done, because on Sunday it poured with rain.

I took Andrew's mum Pam into Shaftesbury to do some shopping before helping the boys in the garden.  There was a market in the town hall (pictured below) so we had a quick browse around and I bought a verrrry yummy Lemon Drizzle Cake for £2.75 and brought it home to share with the boys for afternoon tea.

Shaftesbury high street with the town hall on the right (if you can't see the whole pic due to the size of your PC monitor, you might have to click on the photo)

Copyright  © Joe Dunckley

Shaftesbury's high street has lots of lovely shops that I haven't explored yet, but there is alot to look at.  There is a butcher, a few jewellers, a pharmacy, a few charity shops, cafes, gift stores, clothing stores and a fantastic kitchenware store where I'll be able to buy just about anything I need for my kitchen (including a shortbread dish for you Suse  - just like the one I saw in Bath!  I think it was £10.75 in the shop in Shaftesbury).

Last night we had Helen, Paul and Zach over to dinner, and to keep with the family theme we had some beautiful Welsh lamb which was supplied from Andrew's 2nd cousin Gareth's organic farm, Tyn-y-Coed (translates to House in the Woods), in Wales.  I don't have any pics to show, but the lamb was cooked to perfection and was so tender that it fell off the bone.  There wasn't a scrap left by the time we finished!!  Sorry to tease, but I promise that if any of my readers come to visit me, I will cook a Welsh lamb roast for you.

How's that for bribery.

Jack

Jack thinks he owns the neighbourhood.

Any time the milkman, postman or in fact anyone turns up and Jack's owner Charlie isn't home, Jack gets pretty hostile, barking ferociously and gnashing his teeth.

Well, to be fair, he is extremely territorial when he is at home in his own yard, but once he is outside the yard and in public with Charlie apparently he is ok.  It actually makes me sad, not because I'm scared of dogs, but because Jack feels the need to behave that way.  I have to wonder what happened to him as a puppy to make him so hysterically territorial.

Give it time and I'll win him over.

Delivery!

I think the new doorbell is my lucky charm.

Our new Aerobed finally arrived today by a friendly chap from UPS (listen to me, I'm already using terms like 'chap', 'cheerio', and 'tootle-pop!' and I've only been here two weeks).

It doesn't look like a king size when I'm standing next to it but I laid on it for 5 minutes and it was pretty spacious.

It's as simple as that.

So now Andrew's mum Pamela has somewhere to sleep for the few days she will be here with us.  We still have to sleep on the sofa bed so Andrew will have to put up with my snoring (rather loud apparently!) until we can have our new bed to ourselves.

Not much else exciting to report, it's dreary and a bit cold today, yesterday started off the same way but ended up nice and sunny, the day before that was glorious.

Tomorrow I thinking I'm taking Pam into Shaftesbury, it's the nearest town to where we live that has a supermarket.  In fact, it has two which I only discovered the other day.  Shaftesbury is one of the oldest towns in the UK (I think I read that somewhere) and most of the shops are lined along the "High Street" (as most of the main streets seem to be referred to here because that is where the majority of the retail shops are).

So what we refer to as the retail shops or shopping centres, the Brits refer to it as "high street" even though, geographically, it may not be the highest elevation point of the town the "high street" is in (ok, so now I'm just taking the piss out of the Brits - or to use the local terminology, "taking the mick").

Savvy?

What more do I have to do?

Yet another day when the Aerobed hasn't been delivered.

Oh yes, courier person was here alright.  But didn't deliver.

I put the note on the front door, as requested by the UPS customer service lady, saying that the courier could leave the parcel at the front door if nobody answers (but please knock LOUDLY).

Courier person wrote a message on my note that because MY note wasn't signed or dated, they couldn't leave the parcel.

F*******K!!!!!

And just to top it all off, Andrew was only about 50 metres away while this was happening, crossing a herd of cows over the laneway (that goes past our house).  He could hear Jack (the mental unfriendly dog next door) going off his head at someone and out of curiosity he left the cows and hurried up the lane, only to see the courier van reversing from the front of our place and take off.  So there's Andrew, running after the van, arms gesticulating wildly, calling out to the driver to stop.  Either the driver didn't see/hear him, or he possibly saw the lunatic chasing him up the road and put his foot down!

So Andrew came in after he'd finished work for the morning, rang UPS and told them what had happened, and demanded that they send the courier back ASAP.  But it is "company policy" *blah blah blah* that they don't return to the same address twice in the same day.

By the time I got home, the woman who'd called me yesterday called again to find out why the courier hadn't delivered and was very apologetic that she hadn't told me to sign and date the note.  Tomorrow we start afresh, she is despatching the parcel, I am going to be home ALL DAY and just to make sure I know when the courier person is here, I have installed a doorbell which I bought today, the ringer is above the loungeroom door leading into the kitchen so I will be able to hear it:

I think I've done everything I possibly can to make sure this bed gets delivered to me tomorrow.  I am not going anywhere, I'm staying put while Andrew is off to Swansea to pick up his mum so she can come and stay with us for a few days.  Hopefully there will be a bed for her to sleep on before she gets here!

At least most of my day went to plan.  I made it all the way to Nunney by myself to visit Grandma, although I did get a little bit side tracked along the way by going straight rather than turning right at one roundabout.  But I quickly realised that nothing looked familiar along the road so I turned around at the next available driveway and headed back.  I stayed with Grandma for an hour, went to the shop to buy her some fruit and popped into the post office to post a birthday card (sorry Susie, it's going to be late!  I should have sent it alot sooner, especially with the postal strike at the moment).

Then on the way home I called into Homebase hardware for the doorbell and Sainsbury's for some groceries.  And I'm proud to say, I didn't get lost once on my way home.  That's quite an achievement considering that I didn't have Andrew or a SatNav to guide me.

What a disaster!

Our new Aerobed still hasn't arrived.

Several phone calls later and it will be delivered today.  Only this time, I can leave a note stating that if nobody is home the courier can leave our package at the front door.

Why didn't they just do that earlier???  Ggrrrr.....

I have spent 5 days at home waiting for this bed to arrive.  Today I can't wait around for it as I'm heading to Frome to visit Grandma (Jones), I should have seen her three days ago but I've been stuck here waiting for the bed.

Even if it does arrive today, we will only be sleeping on it for one night, then Andrew's mum is coming to stay so we are relinquishing the bed to her for 3 nights and we are back on the sofabed.

Late night post

Today was the day of Gran Mary's funeral in Swansea, Wales.  It took almost 3hrs to get there and another 3hrs to come home.  If Andrew didn't have to work tomorrow we probably would have stayed in Swansea for the night.  Andrew gave a lovely eulogy for his Gran that got a few chuckles out of family & friends who attended, and alot of people complimented him on his eulogy after the chapel service and burial.

Tomorrow I am expecting the UPS delivery of our Aerobed, so I'll be calling the UPS head office in the morning to make sure that they know I am going to be home and this delivery guy has no excuses for not delivering.  What a farce this has become!  I can't wait to hear his reason for not knocking on our door yesterday.  I am going to buy a doorbell from Homebase hardware store for £10.99 so that all future deliveries can't be missed!

Pizza night

About once a month Andrew likes to have his friends over for a pizza night.  Last night we had 5 guests over, so I was busy the whole day preparing all the ingredients then at 6pm I put the pizzas together and by 8pm everyone had arrived so it didn't take long for the pizzas to cook in our new fan forced oven.

And as a welcome back/housewarming gift from Natalie I got a lovely Begonia plant which I immediately put on the big window ledge in the lounge room as that is where it will get the most sunlight:

Despite being a plant lover, I'm not usually very nice to indoor plants, I have a habit of forgetting to water them.  We've already got 6 varieties of plants dotted around the house and I have probably watered them once since I've been here.  I think I need to be a bit more attentive from now on.

The fireplace got its much-needed spruce up today.  I swept down as much soot as I could, then vacuumed it all up, gave the grate and guard a good scrub and put them back.  It's not perfect but it's a start.  For some strange reason there is black paint dripped over the guard - I scrubbed off as much as I could without damaging the brass.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to put a little bit of money aside to buy some red candles for the fireplace, as we won't be using it for wood burning.  Price's have the best quality candles and there is a store at Clarks Village in Street, so I'll be making a special trip over there to grab some soon.