Time to Build an Ark Perchance?

It's raining.... bet you didn't know that... it's like totally unheard of isn't it... rain in England! OMG!

I keep hearing people saying things like "How can we be in a drought when it hasn't stopped raining for a month?"  or "How can there be a a hosepipe ban when it's raining?"

I guess the truth is a lot of people don't understand things like water tables and saturation points.  OMG!!! Something actually did soak into my brain during those endlessly tedious geography lessons, my old teacher would be so proud. 

Anyway the lovely hubby and myself went out for a drive around our town "flood watching" in between downpours, it was obviously quite late and getting dark by the time we got out but I thought you never know so I took my camera and am I ever glad I did.  I snapped this picture of a mill (pure fluke and a good camera can do wonders). 

I love the way it almost looks as though it is floating on the water.  My hubby would be terrified living in that house, he as a mortal fear of flooding. 

I can see further trips flood watching... it was good fun, strangely!

Musings on a Feline

We have three cats in our house, Specs, Sooty and Ebony. There are no prizes for guessing what colour Sooty and Ebony are! All three are related, Specs and Sooty are siblings and Ebony is Specs daughter, father unknown as is often the way with cats, specially the slutty kind. All three cats have very different personalities, which leads to a definate pecking order. 

Specs thinks she is human and definitely looks down the other two, she bullies Sooty and absolutely hates Ebony hissing and spitting at her every chance she gets but she absolutely adores Daniel, my oldest son, he is HER human, his room is her domain and she constantly presents him with her trophy kills. I come a lowly second with Specs but that is only if Daniel is away or if she wants to get in his room and the door is shut.... See I know my place in this relationship, the affection she shows me is entirely a bribe to make me do what she wants. 

Sooty, or fatboy, as he is more usually known, is a laid back sort of chap, constantly on the mooch for food, loving human company, but usually from a distance, tolerating the odd cuddle, but only because he understands there has to be a payback for titbits and treats. He is the one with the loudest most persistant voice but the gentlest nature and is utterly thick, bullied by both the female cats, you give him a treat and he will sit there looking at it whilst one of the other two steals it...and then looks up at you as if to say "what happened there?" And then there is Ebony, the most angry, frightened cat on the planet and we have no idea why... Could be Specs constant abuse has made her skittish but she takes her anger out on Pie and myself, we can't even pass her in the hallway without her hissing and running for cover. 

You can see the hate...

The only person she seems to relax around is Conor. You can tell when the weather is bad because Ebony is indoors, she only comes in if the weather is bad or for food. Having said that, if you can calm her down she quite enjoys a stroke but you kind of don't bother as she is just hard work and even after stroking her for 10 minutes and even getting her to purr she will turn around and hiss at you if you twitch the wrong way. 

Whilst I can't imagine the house without them...actually thinking about it, no one using the furniture as a scratching post, no endless carpet of fur from Sooty yanking his out (weirdo) and no one hissing and spitting at me... hmmmm I may have to re-evaluate that statement... Nope even with all that, can't really imagine the house without them but I am grateful that none of them loves me enough to leave a headless mouse on my pillow.

Army Rations

I am a massive fan of one pot dinners.  Having teenage boys means needing to provide hearty and when I say hearty I mean hearty meals, they eat like it is going out of fashion!  And teenage boy cannot live on cereal alone, although they would certainly like to try... and do seem to be trying to prove that they can.

One of my favourite one pot meals is what we call Army Rations,  it's not particularly glamorous to look at but it's very tasty and filling and you can make lots of it for quite a low price tag.... got to be a good thing in this economy.

You will need:

500g Minced Beef
1 Large Onion or 2 small ones

1 Beef Oxo Cube

1/2 pint of Beef gravy

1/2 bag of 1kg Mixed Frozen Veg

Seasoning

Use a deep frying pan or a large pot for this, it starts off looking small but volume will increase hugely so you need the extra cooking space. 

Chop your onion and fry it to soften it in a touch of olive or vegetable oil and once the onion is soft and golden add the minced beef to brown it.   Add your oxo cube and stir.  

Once the beef is browned, add your seasoning,  a little salt, lots of ground pepper and I like to chuck in a couple of slugs of Worcestershire Sauce. You could also pop in some ground chilli if you like a bit of heat in your food.   Now put in half a bag of mixed frozen veg,  brand is unimportant, pick what you personally like, my personal favourite is the farmhouse style with broccoli and cauliflower in it. 

Stir the veg in and add your 1/2 pint of gravy, turn the heat down low pop a lid on and let it simmer away for 20 minutes. if you find you want more gravy you can always add more just before serving.

 

You can have this on its own or with lots of crusty bread or you can serve it with rice and my boys particular favourite with pasta.

New House - New Start

We moved in to our new house on the 4th December and since then it's been nonstop, I managed to get Pie's office decorated in about 3 days (go me!) although I have to admit it looked a lot better before he chucked, what looks to me, like a load of junk in there... but hey ho, not my room. I did what I set out to do and created a nice workspace for him.

Hopefully it will be my turn soon. Once Christmas is over with hopefully I will be getting the garage converted into a craft room... I can't wait, my own space at last where I can paint and sew and create to my hearts content. However at the moment it just looks like a store room. Boo Hiss!

When we first came and looked at the house we completely ignored the decor, all those things can be changed after all but having moved in and looked around my first thought was... why????

I love colour but I definitely cannot live with bright orange walls and a puce green toilet (no I am not joking)

Doesn't look as orange here as it is on the wall, trust me. It's orange !!!!


This week it has all been about painting, walls rather than dolls or silk, the through lounge is lovely and big and we thought at first we might put the wall back up between the two to give two separate rooms, but having been here for a week we have grown to quite like the sense of space and openness so we're going to leave it the way it is and just have a two tone effect to the painting to show the difference in the rooms.

I'm covering up the orange wordwork with crisp white gloss, I really like the contrast with the new paintwork. It may be a bit old fashioned and usually I quite like a matt finish to my glosswork but on this occasion I think it really calls for a gloss.

I think it gives a really nice contrast against the Sweet Caramel coloured walls.

Dulux Sweet Caramel in Matt

With luck the dining room will be done in time for Christmas, which will be great as we will have a house full of children. So now it's time to unpack lots of boxes and put things on the shelves in the newly painted dining room.

Benjie the rabbit is desperate to help although how he is going to reach any shelves to put things on is beyond me. Still at least he's cute.

Benjie Boobs - decorating assistant

And the old curtains are coming in useful as protection for the carpets during the decorating process.