Night time visitors

Last night was one of those nights when despite being tired and having walked for a few hours in the morning, I just couldn't get to sleep. I have entrenched insomnia and some nights, I know I am not going to go off.

Jumping out of bed I made my way in the moonlight to the kitchen for a small tipple of a liquer in some milk. Sounds disgusting but it usually works - (tut tut I hear you say) well, needs must and all that jazz and quite frankly, I'm long past caring.

Anyway, I was sitting up in bed reading a book and having a drink (like you do) and saw something black near the skirting board. I had previously seen a small dead spider in the same place and thought nothing of it. A few minutes later, it seemed to not only move but was larger - which was odd, as I knew it was dead and only small.

Eventually I gave up and got out of bed, got a small torch, and put on my glasses to investigate. The black moving part was a large bunch of ants, who had (and still were) snaking their way along the bottom of the skirting board to 'feast' one presumes, on said spider. By now, I was wide awake again and telling the ants in no uncertain fashion just what I thought of them.

I was blowed if I was going to wander out to the garage in the middle of the night to get some ant powder so investigated in the kitchen and brought some salt back. I gave the whole heaving mass plus stragglers a good dollop. They stopped dead in their tracks and I was just about to turn away when they exploded out of the salt and ran in all directions.

Moving swiftly back to avoid them running onto me and up into my nightie, I then spent about 10 minutes squishing them with the spoon handle I had brought with the salt! I don't like killing things but there was no way I was going to get to sleep wondering how many more of the wee beasties were coming in.

After about 10 minutes or so, I had sorted them out and returned to bed with my book and booze. Eventually I went to sleep and slept through until 8.00 am.

Drat

Our family research trip to Wales has ended up costing us more than we paid for the holiday house - just! I think I mentioned how many pot holes (on A and B roads) we managed to not avoid. DB said he felt the car was vibrating as we drove home but as most roads are not very smooth, I wasn't sure.

Upshot is, he took it to the garage to be checked out:

One damaged rim. We need a whole new wheel and tyre and it will cost just over £300. Bummer!

A different kind of crumble

As we are rabbit and gerbil sitting for a friend (the pets are still at her house), she said to help ourselves to some rhubarb so we took 4 stalks. I made a crumble as per normal but had a little bit of cinnamon cereal leftover from our holidays (don't normally buy fancy cereal), so that was also crumbled in:

Rhubarb and apple finely chopped plus sugar:

Also the crumble had some wheatgerm and oat bran added before being put on the top:

Fresh out of the oven - we shall eat this over 3 days:

For a quick lunch we had leftover potatoes, brie plus some salad and a chilli mayonnaise dressing:

Just beeing...

Welcome to my new follower Jille - glad to have you aboard the Norfolk Express.

No, it is not a spelling mistake before you ask! The back of our bungalow faces south and gets very hot, hence the large electric blind we use in summer to keep the bedrooms cool. Every year, little solitary bees lay their eggs in any holes they happen to find. This year, DB made them a log home and as they don't seem to mind facing south, that is where we put it.

This morning I was weeding a soon to be planted tub and could hear the bees droning overhead. I looked up and there was not only one going into a hole, another (different size) was coming out of another one. Dead centre, an egg must have been laid recently and the hole has been filled in with wax. Aren't bees just great.

These bee log things cost a fortune, DB just used one of the logs designed for the fire, drilled pilot holes then did each hole using a 1cm bit. We weren't sure whether they needed to be more smooth inside so just left it to see what the bees made of it. Seems they are fine!

A different kind of being was needed the other night. We had our tea but were still a little hungry so I microwaved us some suet pudding which we ate with some golden syrup poured over. It was a little too much so another time, I shall use less of everything.

Anyway, for this one I used 4oz S.R. flour, 2oz of vegetarian light suet and enough cold milk to bring it together enough to drop off the spoon. It was placed into a buttered pudding bowl, covered with pierced cling film and microwaved for 4 minutes on almost full power. I'm not sure what that equates to as all microwaves vary but probably 900/1000. When you serve it (this is probably enough for 3) pour over whatever you fancy, syrup, honey, jam, custard etc. Start to finish 6 minutes, couldn't be easier.

This is also a very quick way to make 'dumplings' to eat with stew, far lighter. You would need to add salt and possibly some dried herbs and use WATER instead of milk.

Free asparagus

The asparagus I was given Wednesday had its ends cut off and stood in cold water overnight to refresh it. I made some chicken and vegetables in a white sauce (minus the cobbler)via this recipe chicken and vegetable cobbler

The nice ends of the asparagus were lightly cooked and added to the sauce. We had half last night with some pasta:

and the rest will be served tonight. The end bits were lightly boiled then whizzed up, strained through a sieve and the resulting stock used to make some vegetable soup:

The soup also had chicken stock cubes, carrots, pepper, potatoes and onion in it plus some tarragon and a dash of spicy chilli sauce in the bottom of each bowl. We have enough left for another meal tomorrow. Also on the go today is another 900ml batch of yoghurt.

On the kitchen windowsill, I am growing some cress and radish seedlings (the cress is slower on the left). When ready they will be a useful addition to a salad or sandwich or something 'snacky':

Finally, despite the weather, the garden is springing into life. Here is a picture of our front gravel garden, taken through the window in the north facing lounge - brrr...

Identified at last

On my walks II page from last week, I had asked if anyone knew what one of these were:

No-one responded but luckily, B. had looked for it on-line and it is a Butterbur - (Petasites). We had first seen some of them whilst in Wales and although I had always seen lots of its leaves whilst out walking, this was the first time I had seen it in flower. So now I know.

Here are some more lovely wildflowers we have found whilst out walking in the past few weeks. These are two different types of orchid, we think fragrant and common spotted but you may know differently!

Huge groups of these have been noted - water avens - (Geum Rivale):

Here is some Cuckoo Flower or Lady's Smock - (Cardamine Pratensis):

There were also a few large patches of this but I have no idea what it was:

After we got back from our walk yesterday, we nipped back to B's. as she had a present for us:

Two large bunches of home grown asparagus from a friend of hers - how lovely.

Blood...

Today was another donation day but this time, in the morning rather than the afternoon. I was glad to see that they now have the new sit in chairs (rather like climbing into a giant version of a baby rocker thingy majig!)

The one they used also had a padded foot rest and I asked for the back rest as I had slightly tweaked my back. Once in, they pull the front up to lay you down. Once finished they half sit you up to check you won't faint, then pull you fully up to get out. All in all, a much more comfortable experience.

I gather they will be replacing all the old uncomfortable tables with these shortly. Had a drink and a mint club biscuit, waited for DB to finish and sup, then left after making reservations for 4 months time. Today was my 42nd and DB his 39th (he was ill a couple of times so couldn't donate) but came along for support.

Having watched Beechwood Grove gardening programme, they recommend (if you are able) to put an open ended cloche over some of your strawberries to bring them on. I have now done this and hope it helps especially with the forecast for the next few weeks not being brilliant - could we dire end of May. You can check it out on the BBC Forecast page.

Finally, to cheer you up after that little bombshell, here is a lovely picture of my apricot flowered Japanese quince