Time for a Fresh Fruit Salad

I started planning tea for tonight earlier on than usual being as it is such a hot day.  I do wish I was down in Cornwall at the moment. I am right off my food at present and I wanted something lighter for tea tonight. Last night for instance we had Baked Potatoes with grated cheese, butter and Coleslaw. Was not too much but enough and it went down very nicely. 

I have salad in the fridge that needs using up and have Prawns in the freezer and I have therefore decided that we are having a large Prawn Cocktail as starters for tea tonight, something nice and light and fresh. I shall add in a little cucumber and tomato as well as a cheat's homemade Marie Rose sauce (made up from salad cream, ketchup, a little fresh cream with a touch of homemade Tarragon vinegar).  Just peps things up a little bit. Served with a slice of bread and butter.  No doubt G will not be impressed however, cannot always cater for just him.  I am not really into fried food these days which he is, not that I have ever really been a big fan.

As we are having a light meal, we are also going to be having an old fashioned fresh fruit salad. It can be served with yogurt, Creme Fraiche, Cream or ice cream. The beauty of a fruit salad is that if there is anything left over for the following day it makes a lovely breakfast which is very refreshing and makes a good start to the day.  You can always pad it out with Croissants, pancakes or indeed some deli meats.

I have been and bought Apples, Pear, Kiwi fruit, Mango, Pineapple, Banana, Melon and seedless Grapes.  I shall make a light syrup (very light) with some Lemon juice in and then let the fruit chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.  That should do very nicely.  I have also added a tin of drained Peach slices as there are no Peaches here at the moment.  Another day I shall make a red fruit Salad consisting of Strawberries, Raspberries, Plums, Blackberries, Blueberries.  I need to eat more fruit than I do at present especially the Blueberries as they are good at controlling the anti-bodies that cause the inflammation in my body.

Today started at 3:00am when a little Jack Russell decided to go walkabout.  I was awake for two hours trying to get her to settle and back to sleep.  By 5:00am she had nodded off and me well I was wide awake.    It was a beautiful morning, lovely and quiet until about 5:30am when a sole motorbiker went up the main road and disturbed the sound of silence.  I stayed in bed another hour and then got up and started to do some work in the kitchen. Two hours later and I had to have a sit down and a drink.  Another hour after that I had to go and lay down and I nodded off for a couple of hours.  Now raring to go.  Went back into the kitchen for a little while.

I am now going to potter in the garden and do some more potting up.  I think I need more pots though.  Been and got the pots over 100 of them.  Also six more Lavender Plants two of which are the French Lavender.

G was going fishing today until he saw the weather forecast. He gets belted quite badly with the Sun so decided not to go.  He is going with his mate on Monday though.  I had prepared pack up for him, and so whilst I was out for the count he had the cheese and tomato buns that I had made up for him, for his breakfast.  

I had intended to be able to get to the old Herb garden today however real time got away with me.  Hopefully will now be tomorrow when I get to sort that out with tying the grape vine in (a bit late for this) and then weeding the actual border and sorting that all out.  I also need to start sorting out the boxes which are down the path here at the moment.  

I am also waiting for some dresses to arrive.  I do not have many dresses, lots of tops, trousers, jeans and skirts but not many dresses.  Trying to fix that back to how I used to be (a little bit more feminine) before drifting into wearing trousers and jeans.  The jeans will stay as they are so versatile with perhaps the odd pair or two of smart trousers. As a teenager I was a big girl, and did not like the look of myself in jeans that I had tried on in the shop.  I was not a happy bunny about this as I liked Jeans.  It was only when I went to College and was  up and downstairs all the time for classes, that I eventually shifted the weight and was able to buy my first pair of jeans. I was only a 26 inch waist at one time, the smallest I have ever been. I am always very self-conscious about how I look in particular clothes.  I do love clothes though at the end of the day. One of the dresses arrived yesterday and I am really pleased with it.  However being vertically challenged with my height and the loss of three inches in height does not always make the dresses hang right and they are a bit longer on me.  Hope some of the other dresses arrive tomorrow.

I had a trip to the CS today. I found a lovely two tier Crinoline Lady cake stand which came home with me, four Avocado dishes, four Beryl tea plates, four Beryl large square plates (steak plate?).  I also added to the DVD collection.  Three DVDs for £1.

I have been feeding some stray cats for the past couple of weeks.  One of them is an old gentleman who is extremely thin and skinny.  He has been coming regularly for the last week for a bit of supper.  Up to now he has not come anywhere near me, tonight he came to me and let me rub his ears.  He seemed grateful for the fuss. He is a beautiful grey colour and I have named him Smokey.  G does not know I am feeding him, and he will certainly not let me have another cat at the moment.  It may be that he does belong to someone but I think he is on the street as he is so painfully thin you can feel his ribs. He seems a bit tender on his hips as well as he hissed when I stroked his back.  Will keep an eye on him and hope he starts to pad out a bit.  Otherwise, if I think he needs some intervention, I will get in touch with the local Cats Protection group.

There are also two others that come, a Black and White one who is terribly cheeky. He is coming nearer but he has not come to let me stroke him as of yet.  He is always waiting for me.

Then there is a Black fluffy one who reminds me of my Poppy a beautiful cat but yet again very timid. She comes nowhere near but does come for a little bit of food.  None of the cats are particularly greedy and seem to encourage each other to eat and they seem to share willingly.  I leave biscuits and water for them especially in this hotter weather. I only feed once a day though.

I have just checked the weather forecast and it would appear we are due some rain showers.  No storms are predicted, but the rain will do some good.

Outline Plans for the next few days

Saturday:

I shall do more in the kitchen and in the garden.  Potting up is seriously on the cards.

Second greenhouse needs sorting and some containers need potting up as well as hanging baskets with flowers.

Sunday:

I shall do more in the kitchen and in the garden. Loads of potting up still to do.

Outline Plans for next week

Monday: 

G is fishing and so I will by necessity dealing with the back bedroom again trying to sort a bit more.  Hopefully I do better this time around.

Tuesday: 

We are going to the Tip to get rid of all the rubbish put there the other day, plus a load more stuff.  I shall do more gardening to complete the day as  a great chunk of it will be taken up with the backwards and forwards to the Tip.

That is as far as I have got at the moment.  It has been a tad busy.

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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