TARRAGON & THYME

After a busy day at work I came home to this from the OH.  I'll give him dozey doe! ATTENTION.. Please join me in Remembering YET ANOTHER great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes to the belly. He was 71. Dough boy was survived by his wife Play Dough, three children, John Dough, Jane Dough, and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the Oven. The Funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 mins Dough!

I went for an amble round the shops at dinner and I am quite chuffed because this dinner time I managed to pick up four fruit bushes at £1 each from the £shop.  Two Tayberry bushes which I am quite delighted about as you don't very often see this fruit about.  I had a couple before and I used to go down the garden and pick the fresh fruit to have on my breakfast cereal it is absolutely delicious and if you get the opportunity to either buy some or try some they really are scrummy.  The other two are Gooseberry bushes.  I am still on the look out for some more as this is a household that loves Gooseberries and fruit of any description.  So will have to see what turns up.  Am after Raspberries, Blackberries, Blackcurrants, Blueberries, Redcurrants, Whitecurrants, yellow raspberries and some small fruit trees; would quite like plum, pear and peach trees. Looks as though I am going to have a lot to do come the weekend, but that will keep me out of mischief, or ...

I have to say I am missing my extra hour in bed this morning and since I got up its been a very busy day. The house was tidied in readiness for my mum coming, the roast pork was put on to cook in the oven, for the first hour it is always put on gas mark 8 to get a nice crispy crackling  - I don't use salt at all.  The floors were scrubbed clean with an old fashioned mop and plenty of boiling water soap powder and a squirt of bleach. I prefer the old fashioned dolly mop you can really get a rythm with it, and with lots of paws paddling around everything has to be clean.   Mum arrived and I sat down and had a chat with her inbetween cooking dinner and all its accompaniments.  Then we sat down to dinner we had roast pork, with lots of crackling, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and home made apple sauce with lashings of tasty gravy.  It was delicious.  All three plates were quickly cleared.  Served with my home made ...

I love gardening as the rhytmic movements of digging, and planting always calms me down and gives me quality time in which to think, but be productive as well.  I love plants of all types and as I had a small win on the lottery during the week I have bought myself some plants for the garden (£10). We have a plant stall on our local market that provides plants at very reasonable prices and I spotted yesterday on my Friday scoot round the market that they had strawberry asparagus red onion sets and shallots as well as rhubarb plants 4 packs for £5.  So with a little extra added  I ended up spending £15 on some plants to re-stock my garden this year. I have managed to obtain the following 3 packs of 8 Florence Strawberry Runners - Late Crop  = 24 plants 4 packs of 4 Asparagus plants Connovers Collossal = 16 plants 2 Packs of 2 Red Champagne Rhubarb crowns = 4 plants 2 x 500g packs of Red Onion Sets 1 x 500g pack of Golden Shallots I also went to Wilkinsons and picked...

This was sent to me this evening - I quite liked it and thought you might too - It's from Missy Pup's original owner: Inner Peace   *If you can start the day without caffeine, *    *If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, *    *If you can resist complaining and **boring people with your    troubles, *    *If you can eat the same food every **day and be grateful for it, *    *If you can understand when your loved **ones are too busy to give    you any time, *    * ** **If you can take criticism and **blame without resentment , *    *If you can conquer tension **without medical help, *    *If you can relax without liquor, *    *If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, ** *       *...Then You Are Probably .......... *    *The Family Dog! ** *  * **And you thought I was going to get all spiritual didn't you....

I will be taking part in this tonight will you?  Here's the link for further information http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/campaign/earth_hour/  Just need to find the candles and the matches. Catch you all later on Pattypan xx It was lovely just to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet without the noise of the TV on.  Might make this a regular event - especially when I am on my own.

Bit late in the morning I know, but I have spent the best part of the evening from about 7.30 p.m.to about 12.15 a.m. teaching my friend how to cook.  The practical has helped  - she had never made shortcrust pastry from scratch and by hand before, tonight was the first lesson. We made two batches of pastry.  Out of one batch we made jam tarts (or schoolboys earholes as my darling father used to call them) and a large egg custard for her partner.  This was blind baked another technique she has learned tonight, and I have had her making home made custard for the tart filling with fresh ground nutmeg.  Scrummy.  Its cooled down and is now in her fridge waiting for tomorrow night's tea.  then we made a dozen plain scones which she says she will be making again as they came up nice and light. The same rubbing in technique for the pastry and the scones and also for crumble mix.  I had her in hysterics though when I bashed the dough out  sharply wi...

Hello, Just a quickie I am off to my friend's this evening.  Supposedly she wants to have a go at making home made Egg Custard - well that was the plan last week but it may well be something else by now.  Her intended is rather partial from what I can gather.  I think to be on the safe side I had better take some home made vanilla sugar and my nutmeg grater with me, and oh a pie dish.  One never knows with Eve.   I have had a King Prawn Balti curry for my tea which was rather yummy - its not often that we have takeaways these days so it was a bit of a treat.  We do try and abstain as it can get quite expensive and I would rather put the money somewhere else i.e. on ingredients so that I can do my own thing. Its been a lovely day here today but has gone chillier again tonight.  Have a lot to do tomorrow so am hoping the weather is good as I want to bottom the front room out and open the windows up to let the fresh air in. We are having a state visit...

I met with my crafty friends today, two of them I meet up with nearly every Wednesday lunch hour just for a mooch, a chat, finding presents for each other's family members  and putting the world to rights "warts n all friends" who are always there offering gentle encouragement in the background.  We headed for Lewis' as we always have a look around the craft department although it is not as good as it used to be. (we are limited locally by not having many craft shops in the area and those we do have you certainly need transport for - not everyone has access to transport).  Today however they have had a move around - they have upped the department to a small corner of the floor.  We know the floor manageress quite well and she came over to ask if we liked the new layout etc. I think we sorely disappointed her because we are not really taken with the new lay out.  We knew what we were looking for we just couldn't find it. There was little there that we were intere...

Its been another busy day at work today and I should have been out this evening but my friend has the toothache (hope she feels lots better soon) so it has been put off until tomorrow night. Unusually tonight when I got home I was absolutely ravenous and I had a fancy for some Scampi, home made chips with tartare sauce served up with Bread and butter.  Scampi is not cheap and I sort of blew the budget out of the water by going and getting some but sometimes you just have to have a little of what you fancy - it does you good! I was in need of comfort food.  (If I go anywhere new and have a meal the first time I always order something I know just to see how they cook it and if they cook it well I go on to explore the rest of their menu). When I got back I went looking for a couple of larger potatoes in order to make the chips and I came up with this whopper. It took a bit of peeling but eventually got it all sorted and then chopped into chips. chunky chips. It is a bit of a ...

I love needlecraft always have done, although was not terribly good at it to start with.  We all have different learning capacities; sometimes I am quick as a whistle and learn something ever so quickly another time I am sadly lagging and don't get to grips with things until I have worked out how to do it for myself - I keep persevering time after time until I get things right. (the intelligent way of exploring all the boundaries of the medium in question) I aim high (touch of perfectionist in me) - sometimes though you need to practice practice practice until things actually go right and I give myself a right royal whipping in the process. Its unrealistic to be "perfect" straight off that takes time, patience and practice.   However, I was made to feel inadequate, not good enough where needlework was concerned by a teacher at school.  I was slow, and my work was good, but I was lagging behind the rest of the class, so the teacher used to take things off me and tak...

Well the computer is in situ.  The above photo only shows part of the room.  I still have lots to do including the decorating which we haven't got to yet, but at least we can use the computer in a state of some organisation. Ideally I would like some shelves built into the corner, but will have to wait and see how things go.  The idea being that I can put all the programmes, and consumables for the computer on the shelves, so that it leaves the desk as uncluttered as possible.  I now have to restore the essential filing to some sense and order now at long last have been able to get at the filing cabinet.  Another job - huh!  Well it needs doing so it will be another job well done. It will be nice to restore order to the chaos.  If I keep at things a bit at a time I will get there in the end.  I also have space to work so think will go back to the once a month accounting evening also.  I like being able to find things and having them sorted. ...

Well I got my lie in this morning, not much of one but a lie in all the same.  Don't know why but I always tend to wake up the same time on a Saturday and Sunday as the time I get up during the week! Very frustrating.  Anyway I snuggled down under the quilt and went back to sleep for a little longer, and then had to get up - couldn't lie in any further.   We lost my Ginger Tom Tyson last night couldn't find him anywhere and the back bedroom door had been open so I was fretting in case he had gone in and got stuck under some of the boxes as we had a slight landslide!  I need not have worried - we couldn't locate him but Missy Did.  He was behind a chair in a corner of my bedroom fast asleep.  Apparently to add insult to injury after being located OH said he started snoring.  Unusually he was there all night.  Here are some photographs I have taken to him outside this morning in the Spring sunshine. The rest of the day has gone very quic...

I have had a busy day not doing what I normally do, but now we have the flooring down in the small room which is to become the study/craft room I am trying to retrieve the computer table and chairs, as well as the computer, the scanner the printer, all the printer consumables such as cartridges and paper from the large back bedroom where anything and everything disappears.  Bit like the land of Narnia except you don't walk through a wardrobe! Mine's probably more in line with a modern day black hole! I have a lot of craft magazines (they are slowly being sorted as to which ones I am going to keep and which ones I am going to get rid of) which I am having to move so that we can get the computer and table in situ, and I have side-lined one or two with projects for a later date.  I know I promised.  Trouble is if I don't pick them out and put them in a safe place I will not find them again.  Here are some photographs of the projects I have in mind - but I have load...

Its Saturday I am home and I was hopeful of a lay in this morning, after another busy week but no such luck. No peace for the wicked although I am stiill trying to work out what I have done wrong.   However the sun peeping through the cream blind in my bedroom has put paid to that; seducing me and speaking of a lovely day to come and one where the daylight cannot be wasted so I am downstairs. The birds have also been singing their hearts out - I love to hear them. Tyson has gone - he loves these lighter days and does not have a moment to spare and all the animals are fed.  I am awake, downstairs with a Jack Russell curled into the small of my back as I tip tap away at the keyboard preparing this post.  Its nice to be on my own (apart from the company of my animals) space to recharge and put my random thoughts into some kind of order.  Squeak has now joined me - her and Missy are never far away when I am home both good friends but both like fuss from mum and if you fu...

Well that was an interesting programme and one I fully subscribe to as eating food is not about just eating to survive but real food is all about good flavour .  I only caught this programme by chance - I understand that it commenced last week but in case you missed it you can catch up here  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00zn6jq/Great_British_Food_Revival_Gregg_Wallace_on_Potatoes_and_Clarissa_Dickson_Wright_on_Pork/ I intend to play catch up on last week's episode on iplayer probably at the weekend when I have a little more time I think this consisted of making bread with the Roux Brothers and also the Hairy Bikers preparing a vegetarian dish. Where I can, I buy from my Butcher - although occasionally I do use the supermarket - not by choice. I prefer the Butchers, but I cannot get to the Butchers under my own steam as I do not drive. I am hoping to have another bash - depends on whether or not my GP will clear me to have another go or whether or not he tells me t...