Just Humans Being...

Yesterday was a bit dull, but we got up & fancied doing some beachcombing... It was low tide & the beach opened out... Again we had the place to ourselves... Love it!  And we found some sea glass to add to our collection... What shall we do with it... Any ideas? Kay & Sime xx

About 12 years ago, I studied to be a Vegan/Vegetarian Nutritional Therapist & although I never did anything with it - I continue to love learning more about health & nutrition. I did a pre-nursing course at college, but discovered that I was (& still am) incredibly squeamish around blood, lumps, veins & wounds, so I went into social care instead... I did love food & nutrition classes, not just the cookery, but learning about the importance of a balanced diet & how meals should always be colourful to provide maximum nutrients. It's something that has stayed with me & has made me the picky person I am today - I can't bear to see a bland looking meal! I am fascinated by the foods which can have an impact on our health & wellbeing. So we have lots of books & the learning never stops, I give advice out to others & in some cases have helped family & friends to recover from various ailments, but when it comes to myself - I've been crap

We forgot the birthday candles... Still had a lovely time... And Hugo didn't mind!

Hugo is 15 tomorrow! What a difference a year makes... So because of work commitments of the older kidlets... We got together yesterday for a lovely meal... And then a film... A very enjoyable time indeed! Happy Birthday  Splendid Young Chum! Lots of love & snugs, Momwah & Popsy  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For a another trip down to the beach... The blue skies tempted us out again today & although we haven't had any frost here - it has still been cold! Lupschki watched us go while basking in the warmth of the sun in our living room window... We joined the coastal path which is 10 minute's walk away... The sky & sea just looked beautiful today... The cottage on the beach.  Now a holiday home owned by National Trust & it costs nearly £100 per night out of season & £300 a night in season! An elderly brother & sister lived there before - they had lived there all their lives & the cottage was falling apart.  They were tenants of NT & no work was done until they both had to left to go into care homes. We're sure NT do good work, but they are certainly good at neglecting their tenants & they only pay their holiday cottage cleaners a little more than minimum wage. (We were approached & turned them down)! The path on to the beach... Looking

We made our first ever batch of marmalade yesterday... After doing loads of research & having advice from Pattypan  - we took the plunge. We bought a marmalade kit from  Riverford .  This contained Seville oranges & lemons - along with a recipe, which we found a bit complicated, so instead we looked on our bookshelf... The recipe we eventually settled on was taken from:  Val Harrison's  book, We wanted to use brown sugar & this one looked easy to do - although now looking at it online, she's made some changes. Val now suggests to soak overnight, add a litre more water & to weigh the mixture before adding the sugar. It took about 8 hours to do from start to finish & we've ended up with 8 jars of a delicious, though a bit dry (more peel than liquid) mixture. It hasn't set that well, but it's quite thick & it'll be fine - just hope we got the sterilising right... We shall persevere & want to try adding interesting ingredients

I'm not sure whether we really save money on making our own bread... But we do prefer it & on the odd occasion when we've had shop bought bread - we realise just how good ours is! Through years of trial & error, a bread machine & bloody hard work, we've found for us the perfect combination of simple ingredients that work every time. It has to be  Shipton Mill  flour. We order an assortment in bulk every few months. For 2 small loaves we use 1 kg strong flour. (We love quite coarse flours or spelt)  We also chuck in a handful or two of seeds... Add 3 teaspoons of sea salt. 1/2 teaspoon of rose hip powder. 20g fresh yeast just crumbled into the flour or 3 teaspoons of dried yeast... And 700mls of warm water. We add the water slowly & stir with a metal spoon... Then knead the dough for about 10 minutes & leave to rise (covered with a damp tea towel) for 1 to 3 hours, depending on the warmth of the kitchen! This is after 2 hours in our cold kitchen.