Saturday was Wildlife Explorers so up and out earlyish. Davies and Scarlett went and did some drawing and then went out onto the reserve to look for birds. Davies is now 2 years too old for that session and Scarlett will be too old from next month and it’s showing as they are not learning anything new or being challenged but it’s Davies’ choice to still be there and there is no point in Scarlett moving up for the last couple of months so they will see out the time there before we go.
We arrived slightly early so went into the play area first and on the very wet grass I managed to slip over so had wet muddy knees :rolls: Ady and I decided to go for a coffee so sat outside for a while before getting too cold and retiring inside to the coffee shop. We racked our brains for birthday (and indeed Christmas) presents for Scarlett. She likes the idea of night vision binoculars so we’re keeping an eye out for some of those (not the Nat Geo or similar toy ones, a proper decent pair).
We collected D&S and came straight home as I was keen to get cracking on my dinner party preparations. So I got peeling and chopping veg and pastry making while Ady and the kids were outside clearing the patio and the garage a bit more. They came in and played a board game for a while and then went off to get some bits from Tesco for me.
I sat down with a cup of tea feeling quite smug to have already got the soup made and ready to warm and add final touches to, the pastry case for the pie made and blind baked, the toffee made and the apple filling cooked all ready for assembling, the veg roasted for the gratin and the rice all ready waiting for the stock to cook it in. So made myself a cup of tea and started running a bath.
Ady and the kids were gone for ages though and my stress levels started to rocket when the knock on the door I was expecting to be them was infact my parents, calling in for a cup of tea and then they did arrive home with the wrong cheese, the wrong liqueur and a load of sweets when the kids had had a load of sweets the day before as well and we always have sweets kicking around in the cupboard anyway because I tend to ration them out a bit. So I was horrid to Ady (wonder what my parents thought of being the ones sitting in one room witnessing a row in another?!) and was then clock watching and wishing they would go so I could dash back out to get the right cheese and right liqueur and maybe get a hurried bath too. Fortunately I’d not opened a bottle of wine while cooking as I’d half been tempted to do…
I got the rice on and dashed to the supermarket (again, so much for saving all that stress by going on Friday night!), got the bits I wanted, came home, assembled the gratin and made the cheese sauce, put the pie in to bake slowly, did open the wine and did have a quick bath. Ady redeemed himself by tidying up and lighting candles and making everything dinner party perfect, the kids set themselves up for a sleepover in Davies’ room with films etc. and finally when the guests arrived all was well.
It was Mike and Rose, the not-swingers and Kristianne also from Book Group who did that dreadful dinner with tofu and a dog.
Ady showed them the campervan at their request while I warmed some mulled wine, we had a bit of a chat infront of the fire and then I served the soup. It was very lovely – followed a recipe from River Cottage for butternut and (pea)nut butter soup with garlic, chilli and ginger, topped with pumpkin seeds and served with pumpkin seed topped granary rolls. That went down very well :).
Next I did the roasted veg and brown rice gratin as recommended by The Beans (and seconded by Michelle) and with a nod to Alison I did some purple sprouting broccolli for everyone else ;). I was most pleasantly surprised by it actually, there was real depth of flavour with the rice, veg and cheese sauce. K went back for seconds! 🙂 We still have about half the huge dish I made leftover and will be having it for dinner tomorrow night. I imagine everyone will be pleased to hear we plan to serve it with sausages – proper meat ones though! 🙂
We had a bit of a break then and savoured the variety of bottled ciders Mike and Rose had brought with them, following the autumn feast theme :). Conversation was all very grown up and included human rights, cervical cancer vaccinations, education, motivation and parenting. All very interesting and at times slightly heated :).
We moved onto wine and dessert; a toffee apple tart with cinnamon cream which was very delicious. Davies and Scarlett appeared a couple of times each but were really good and were fast asleep long before midnight (surprisingly!). Mike and Rose had left Chloe (Mike’s daughter) home alone (she’s nearly 14) and promised to be home by 1am so they all left just before 1am to adhere to that leaving Ady and I to have a cup of tea and watch some TV to wind down before bed.
It was a really nice evening. Not the sort we have with you lot who read this and could have been improved with a bit of bacon no doubt but a good one all the same.
Today a bit of a lazier start, I was woken by a cup of tea from Scarlett :). Davies and Scarlett were playing with the playmobile stuff (one of the boxes of toys we’ll be keeping) and we had a chilled morning. Ady and Davies went off to take some of the wrong purchases back to Tesco and visit the tip with a car load of rubbish, Scarlett ran herself a bath, had a happy half hour splashing away in there and chattering to herself before getting out, cleaning the bath round and tidying up the bathroom. She is doing a fine line in being Nearly 8 and Very Grown Up lately :).
I took that as my cue to go and do something useful too so went to tackle the playroom which is the holding bay for stuff we sort out but hasn’t left the house yet and was getting almost inaccessible to enter. I finished labelling up all the clothes and shoes for my friend’s Nearly New Sale, folded stuff or put it on hangers and have one large box and about 30 hangers worth of clothes ready for her to collect (fingers crossed tomorrow). I cleared several things which have already been on ebay / car boot sales and didn’t sell so have got them listed on freecycle, several have already gone. I stacked the books up and have listed them on ebay as one job lot, collection only, having had a quick weed out of some suitable titles for secret santa / birthday gifts for friends.
I now have another small pile ready to photo and list on ebay and need to ambush the kids rooms again but I think we are all but at the point where we need to start boxing stuff up and losing furniture ready for Dad to come in while we’re away. A load of phones we’d listed last weekend ended today and added another £100 or so to the running total so Ady and I set up a chain of wiping the memories of them and boxing them up ready to post.
Ady cooked dinner – MEAT! – which we all ate together at about 5pm watching Ratatouille and then we finished off the apple tart. The kids had a bath – it was supposed to be Davies’ but Scarlett ended up getting in too and they went off to bed early. Someone came to collect a wet suit we’d sold on ebay and I suspect we’ll be pretty early to bed too. Another productive weekend but it will be nice to have finally got everything cleared and not feel the pressure to be emptying the house when it’s all done.