Otherwise I’ll get too behind and forget stuff.
Saturday A far too early start given the lateness of the night before but we had to be up for Wildlife Explorers. We are *always* late and I was determined not to be so got everyone up, fed and out way earlier than normal. Just as well as there were loads of little hold-ups for road works and despite leaving half an hour earlier than normal we were only 10 minutes early. We looked around the shop for a while, talked to an expert on hand about binoculars and then dispatched the kids at WEX. They did grass sweeping and found lots of little bugs and beasties.
Ady and I debated walking or sitting in the sunshine with tea and coffee and the hot drinks won :). It was very lovely sitting looking out over the reserve chatting – no interuptions from anything :). We’d driven past my parents on the way and Dad had been outside with a bloke he’d gotten round to cut the hedges so we’d stopped briefly and said we’d call back on the way home. So we did just that. Dad shoved £20 at me and told me to go and get some lunch so we walked up to Sainsburys and bought all sorts of luxury luncheon items then walked back and made lunch for everyone. Frazer was there too and joined us and it was very nice :). I explained in more detail about the whole WOOFing idea. I’m fairly sure Dad thinks we’re bloody mental, well actually I know he does because he told me so, but is supportive of us chasing dreams and will help which is the most I’d have hoped for. He’s already offered to store all our furniture which is one worry / expense to not have to think about.
There have been some waterworks going on locally which have created a problem with their water (and all their neighbours) coming through contaminated and undrinkable unless boiled so Dad has been flushing it through by over flowing his pond which cleans the pond out and drains off the unusable water. He did that and we all sat by the pond enjoying the sunshine while Tarly made boats out of leaves and rescued all the ants getting caught in the flood.
We finally left when the kids started to get a bit annoying to each other. A quick stop at Aldi on the way home for some binoculars and some bits for dinner. Davies and Scarlett had a bath, I dealt with lots of washing, we took some pictures of the quail chicks and brought in a bantam chick to compare size. I read some Alone on a wide, wide sea and the kids were in bed and actually asleep at a fairly sensible hour. Ady cooked a very lovely steak for dinner.
Sunday A much needed lie-in for me. Ady and Davies played chess in the garden, Scarlett played with the birds and I did more laundry processing. I’d realised we only had pastry left to make and we’d finished the flour section of the River Cottage family cook book. I read about pastry to the kids out in the garden as they were eating ice lollies and then we came in and did some making. Having made soda bread, several loaves using bought yeast, our sourdough starter yeast and turned the same dough recipe into pizza we decided to finish the chapter by making flatbread. We quite often buy wraps or tortillas. Davies made the dough and kneaded it and after resting it Scarlett did the rolling out and I cooked them. They were eaten up for lunch and declared delicious by everyone.
While we were resting the dough we also made the component parts for a lemon tart for pudding tonight. Scarlett made the pastry and Davies the lemon curd. This involved weighing, cutting up butter, rubbing in, seperating egg whites and yolks and kneading for Scarlett, zesting lemons, juicing lemons, seperating egg whites and yolks, weighing and cutting up butter, sugar for Davies and then cooking the sauce (which he did on one ring while I was cooking the flat bread on another). Lemon curd left to cool and set, pastry put in the fridge to rest.
We had lunch and then I wanted to nip into town to get a card for my Mum’s birthday tomorrow and a gift voucher for her. We did that and then Ady did some lawn mowing and hedge cutting, Scarlett rolled out and baked blind her pastry case and Davies mixed cream into his lemon curd to make pie filling. Pie constructed they decided they did want to glaze it later before serving so we put it back in the chiller. They went off to tidy their bedrooms and I cooked a roast dinner.
We watched Countryfile and then the end of Peter Pan while eating dinner. We glazed the tart under the grill and ate loads of it with cream – it was utterly delicious :). Then we watched an episode of River Cottage Treatment. Davies is really into it but Scarlett got upset about some lambs being slaughtered. We had a long chat about meat eating, how it’s killed, how it’s kept and what my opinion is about it all. Both the children really like meat and Davies is very clued up and realistic about where it comes from and how we get it. Scarlett does know but sometimes chooses (as do most meat eaters in fairness) to not think about it too much. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she ends up vegetarian eventually and would support that and make it as easy as possible for her.I’d far rather a conscious vegetarian than an ignorant meat-eater.
Davies and Scarlett went to bed, Ady and I watched a programme about foxes and having finally caught up on blogging I’m off to bed.