Junk food feast

Yesterday, Tony and I fancied pizza for tea.  It turned into a bit of a junk food feast after our weekly shopping visit to Aldi.  I dread to think how many calories we ate  (don't tell me please) but it was such a nice change to just throw a pizza and a garlic bread in the oven and toss a little salad together. We have been so busy with the darn hedge and are thinking that next year we might start to replace it with a golden privet.  The Pyracantha is a painful menace when we have to cut it back. We need to do it while we are fit enough. No point in waiting till we are old and possibly frail. If we remove a section at a time and plant privet it will be a lot easier and safer to keep trimmed.

Pizza... 99p from Aldi. Very tasty indeed

Fresh orange juice and loads of ice

Garlic bread... 32p from Aldi. This surprised me at just how nice it was

Honeycomb ice cream, sliced and crushed strawberries, whipped cream and crushed meringue.

Blimmin typical

Yesterday while Tony was at the footie match I spent several hours cutting back the Pyracantha hedge... It's not called Firethorn for nothing.  We've just been to Aldi to do the food shop and would you believe that they are selling extendable loppers?  They would have saved me a couple of hours very hard prickly work and some nasty scratches if I had them  yesterday.  I wanted to lower the height of a small part of the hedge
This morning I spent a couple of hours chopping and snipping all the trimmings into smaller bits so that I can bag them up for the recycle.. It's flippin hard, thirsty work in this heat.

Bubbles

My friend Marian popped in this morning with a gift for me.  Marian paints the most beautiful pictures and I happened to admire some bubbles that she had painted. Look what she brought for me today.

I have been browsing You Tube  (again)….  This one is for  Frugal In Norfolk.. (have a look at her blog)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ajp_DvjbW4

And oh my word this is gorgeous..... Wouldn't it make a beautiful gift for someone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fhZk_gQIc

The prison

My friends and I thoroughly enjoyed lunch at the prison. The staff (inmates) were lovely, polite, friendly young men and the food was lovely. The portions were very generous too so I haven't needed any tea. There is a small shop selling handmade garden ornaments and plants and I bought two purple kale plants which will feed us right the way through the winter. It was nice to be able to buy them individually. I don't want to have to buy a pack of twelve kale plants from the garden centre.  Tony is off out to the pub tonight so I might have an early night and read my book

I'm going to prison

Now I bet that made you splutter your coffee all over the place. Today I am going with some friends for lunch at a nearby open prison. There is a café  there which is open to the public and we have been told that the food is great.. It's prepared by the inmates and is intended to give them a skill for when they leave.  A car valet while you wait if desired is £20.  I will tell you all about it tonight.

A lovely treat for tea

My friend rang me this morning to ask if I was too busy for a run out to Northallerton. She had some things to pick up and would be glad of my company..... I was ready like a shot and off we went.  It's market day there today and I spotted the most amazing fish stall. Everything was spotlessly clean and beautifully presented....  I have treated Tony and I to a pair of  Whitby lobsters for tea. We both love lobster and it is a very very rare treat. Then we popped into Stokesley and bought some of the sweetest strawberries that we have eaten in a while.  They are locally grown, as are the tomatoes that I bought. The other day we enjoyed a couple of huge corn cobs... absolutely fresh and British. We love to use as much locally produced stuff as we can. It might cost a little more but the flavour is superb and we are helping the local economy.

Plant propogation

Lat night while Tony was watching TV I set to and made a few macramé plant hangers.  I wanted to make a three tier one so that I could change the display of plants..... so I did.   I have also made a couple to hang under the pergola next year.  I want to grow some tumbling tomatoes and the pergola will keep them warm and dry if we have a horrible wet summer.
Many plant cuttings will root in water if you leave them long enough. The leaves on the Spotted Laurel and the Osmanthus are gorgeous. I have popped them into pretty glasses and will enjoy them on display while they root.

They are so pretty

Thee tiered plant hanger

A mamoth task

We are finally finished with cutting back the hedge. It is a mammoth task and the clearing up afterwards takes as much time as the actual cutting back. We have to chop up the pieces of hedge into much smaller pieces in order to fit it in the recycle bin...it will take a few weeks worth of recycle bin to get rid of it all.  Tony might take it to the local waste disposal centre on Sunday as we don't really have room to store all the bags of green waste. We plan to do it all over again in September and will drop the hedge by at least a foot so that we can keep on top of the cutting... my neighbour was a bit disgruntled and said she would put up a six foot fence if we do... We shall see whether she does or not.

Just look at all the growth that the hedge put on this year

And look how the lavender has taken over the path

Cooking and baking kinda day

I've come over all domestic goddessish today. By seven thirty I had cooked a pan of pasta to make pasta salads for Tony's packed lunch.  He can have it tomorrow and Wednesday.  Then I went off out for a walk with my friend Kath.  We had a cup of coffee and a natter when we got back and then Kath headed off home. I whipped up a quick batch of cakes and some strawberry rhubarb jellies.... I think I have earned a sit for a while before I go and tackle some more of the hedge. The cakes took two minutes to cook in the microwave and though they don't turn golden brown they are fluffy and light and absolutely delish

Recipe

1 egg (65 grams)

60g sugar

60g butter

60g self raising flour

quarter teaspoon of baking powder.

Cream butter and sugar together then add the flour, baking powder and egg. Give it a thorough mixing  and then divide it up between six or eight paper cases.  Microwave for two minutes and then leave them to cool before decorating however you prefer.

Recipe

I block of strawberry jelly

4 sticks of rhubarb

splash of water

Put the rhubarb and water in a glass jug and cook for two or three minutes in the microwave. When it is soft and nicely cooked, stir in the jelly.  Give it a really good mix and then divide into four small dishes.  I have tried it with other flavours of jelly and they are all equally nice.

Roast pork

Oh how I wish you could smell the roast pork that I am cooking.  My mouth is watering at the thought of a lovely roast dinner.  It's been a glorious blue sky and sunshine sort of day and Tony and  I have really worked up an appetite today.  It's that time of year when I am finally sick to death of just how much growth the Pyracantha hedge has put on.  It is at least three feet taller in places.  The hedge is about six feet tall when we cut it back and it's so nice to see the skyline again.  We are thinking of cutting it down to about five feet next month as it is becoming a heckuva a chore every year.  Usually I am the one balancing on a chair chopping at the darn thing while Tony is off at the footie. This year I obviously can't do that so Tony is getting a good taste of how hard it is.  He usually swans in when It's almost done and tidies up the raggy bits that I missed.  He has said three times this weekend that we will cut the height down a bit more in September  :-).