Being Creative

Down but not out

Although I had made some rather grand plans for International Downshifting Week, in actual fact it turned out to be a bit of a wash out. I had planned to try out several of the Downshifting Week website's Top Tips for (Downshifting) Success but became increasingly frustrated as the week went by, once Sod's Law had dictated that I devote my time to other things. Sometimes that's just the way it is, I suppose, but it did leave me feeling somewhat 'digalon' - a wonderfully emotive word we picked up in Wales, meaning 'downhearted'. From early on the Sunday morning, I spent my week initially looking after poorly people and most of the rest catching up with all those mundane, but nonetheless essential, tasks that I had neglected whilst looking after said poorly folk. Apart from a happy hour spent capturing my tulips on camera between downpours on Wednesday, the week had whizzed by before I knew it with seemingly little to show for it and even less to blog about! Having said that, my mum and I had had a really good chat about family and local history whilst travelling to Reighton the week before (the idea behind Tip 9) and we scored a double whammy on Friday, when Si' took the day off from work (Tip 10) to help me dig the allotment (sort of 5). We didn't get anything planted that we could eat but we did add to our compost heap, dig out a lot of dandelions and come home with some of our first rhubarb of the year. To be fair, virtually all of my cards have been handmade (Tip 8) since February and those that haven't have come from those I've stockpiled in the past, rather than bought for the occasion. Equally, it was analyzing our time and finance budgets originally (Tip 1) that encouraged us to cut up our credit cards (Tip 2) and downshift in the first place. So in many ways now, rather than "dipping our toes" into downshifting, we are already in it up to our necks but with the most positive of connotations!

The lining of my cloud, however, wasn't blue but silver and some very nice things happened last week, too. On Thursday, Carrie - one of the poorly ones - came round for a bit of TLC, just as I was taking a batch of ginger biscuits out of the oven. If ever one dreamed of a 'domestic goddess' moment, then that was it! While she was here, I showed her my tulip photographs, the dogs followed and I was able to take the precious picture of Carrie and Hector having a cuddle that's at the top of this post. Si' usually has more luck than me in photographing the dogs so both Carrie and I are delighted with this one. We let two more allotments to two lovely couples, who seem very keen and Ivy, of Lemon Cake fame, sent a jar of home-made lemon curd and a lemon cake. We reciprocated with a jar of pink grapefruit marmalade, which I've yet to write about. I have a James Martin recipe for lemon syllabub - from his book, Desserts - in which I plan to use the lemon curd. Happily, I have a profusion of mint, growing on the allotment, for the garnish! In addition to the tulips, I photographed some of the Spring greenery that suddenly seems to be bursting forth. My phography skills are still very much at the 'point and shoot' stage so I was pleasantly surprised at how well they turned out.

Yesterday evening, not long after we'd got back from the allotment, we had the most amazing thunderstorm. The torrential downpour that ensued began with hailstones before turning to rain that made a river of the road outside. I was sorry that we hadn't had enough time to repair the guttering on our allotment shed; we could have filled our water barrels several times over, I should think. This morning, I went up to the allotment to check for damage but all was fine, if unbelievably soggy. The water, in addition to the recent warmth, had brought the bluebells right out and the rhubarb appeared to have doubled in size overnight. Looks like we are set for another glut! This reminds me of Julie, of the inspirational blog, Little Cotton Rabbits, who has very kindly added me to her blog roll and who mentions cold rhubarb crumble as being one of her favourite things to eat. If you have not already visited her site, I have put a link in, and I'd like to welcome all those people who have found their way to Being Creative from her blog. I don't do a lot of knitting myself but I do have some very nice recipes - that are only featured after being tested personally - on the Recipes page. Those and an awful lot of rhubarb!!!

At one time, not being able to achieve what I set out to do - like my plans for Downshifting Week - would have caused me a lot of stress and anxiety. Now I'm learning to accept that following the sign that reads 'Diversion' , far from being a source of frustration, can be an adventure in itself. I might have been down but I'm nowhere near out and am already back on my feet and ready for the next round. Ding, ding!

A dance of delight

We interrupt this week's advertised schedule (International Downshifting Week) not to tiptoe through but to perform a veritable dance of delight through the tulips on my allotment that I have grown myself! All too often I forget to plant them but not this time. I put them to bed in their little brown jackets in the autumn and I can hardly believe how different they are, considering how indistinguishable they were from each other when I bought them. I followed Sarah Raven's advice and planted them in a trench 12" deep lined with 2" of grit. This is deeper than is normally recommended but for several good reasons. Firstly, it seems to prevent the tulip bulb forming baby bulbs, which sap the parent of it's strength and prevent flowering. Secondly, even the largest tulips will not need staking as they are anchored so deeply in the ground and, thirdly, once they've died down, you can plant anything from a 3.5" pot on top, without disturbing the tulips underneath. Finally, at that depth, squirrels and mice are deterred from digging them up.

 

I only planted a few of each variety this time, to see which ones I liked best. I can then order them in bulk this autumn for serious cutting material next year. The Orange Emperor, above, is particularly stunning. I went to photograph them in the sunshine yesterday but it was too windy, so I brought just one home and snapped it inside this morning before the rain set in. After lunch, the rain stopped, the sun came out and there wasn't a breath of wind, so I hurried out to take as many 'Spring' photos as I could before the camera batteries ran out! I was then able to get my Orange Emperors, in situ, as I'd planned originally.

Don't they look beautiful with the sun illuminating their petals? I'm afraid that the writing has faded too much to read on some of the labels, so I can't give varieties; others just came as mixed bags. Here is another gorgeous one from just such an assortment.

I remember reading the novel, Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach that is based on the very real 'tulipomania' that struck Holland during the early seventeenth century. People from all walks of life neglected their work to buy and sell tulip bulbs for ever-increasing sums and those who had invested most heavily were left penniless when the market inevitably crashed. Thankfully, I have not reached the obsessive stage yet but you can see how their beauty could capture a person's heart.

Pretty in pink (and white)

and getting to the heart of things

au naturel

or displayed at their best in a vase

In fact, they are all so lovely that I can see I will have problems all over again in the autumn deciding which variety to have more of. All this success, though, bodes well for the dahlias. If I can achieve this with tulips then the future has got to be bright - if not orange - for their even showier relations. The pots for starting them off in are ready and waiting. Time is of the essence!

The edited highlights

This week I was all set to devote my attention to International Downshifting Week, which runs until Friday. I had promised the Country Living readers that I would be experimenting with the Top 10 Tips for (Downshifting) Success and then reporting back here with the results. But isn't it strange that you spend time planning for something like this, and then when you come to do it, the script has changed? Not so much changed but late additions to it have been made, and you can find yourself wondering how exactly you will fit it all in. Also, I had envisaged tackling one of the tips each day but, as it turns out, they've rather tended to merge into each other. So here I am presenting the 'edited highlights' of Tip 6. With all the rushing about over the last three days, the thing I have been short of is time to write it about it. Just a touch ironic for a downshifter, don't you think?

Tip 6: Cook a meal using seasonal, local ingredients, preferably organic

On Saturday morning, we had made our plans to go to Retford Farmer's Market. Whilst I was writing Saturday's post, I had a phone call from my son, Adz, and we made one of those 'spur of the moment' decisions for him to visit for the weekend, and for us to meet him at Retford station, since we were going anyway. We usually take one or other of the dogs to the farmer's market with us because we feel it's good for them to get used to being among larger numbers of people. Since we are trying to get Hector more accustomed to travelling in the car, it was his turn. Retford Farmer's market is only small but the town has a bigger weekly market than our own, which makes it worth the trip. Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese ( favourite of the chef, James Martin) has a stall, as does Tuxford Windmill, who were featured in the April issue of Country Living, on the 'Made in Britain' regional food pages. The reason I haven't included the windmill on my Sustainable Shopping typelist, is that they don't do mail order at the present time. The chap told me that what they produce currently is met by demand from within a ten mile radius so I was delighted to hear that they were doing well. The stall we particularly go to Retford for is the mushroom one. Their stock changes each month, presumably because certain varieties are in season and by the time we got there, at just after eleven, they had almost sold out. We bought 100g of shiitake, another 100g of eryngi and a mixed box full of weird and wonderful types. If you are mycologically inclined, you may be able to identify them from the picture. The total cost was £4.90, for enough to feed the two of us. At first I was concerned that I'd spent a bit much but even with the bread and additional items, like the lemons, it still cost less than fish and chips twice and was undoubtedly better for our health! Next time, I think I would make it go further with some of the cheaper button or flat mushrooms. We cooked them according to Nigel Slater's recipe, 'Pan-Fried Mushrooms', on page 57 of The Thirty-Minute Cook. He says you can use any sort of mushrooms and it will taste delicious. Ours certainly did, particularly so with chopped parsley and lemon juice sprinkled over as they were served up with crusty bread! Interestingly, Adz - who doesn't like mushrooms - had a frozen pizza, cooked in the oven and our mushroom dish was served up on the table at the same time as his. Which just goes to show that cooking from scratch can be as quick as ready meals, if you choose the right recipe. If you want to grow your own mushrooms, The Organic Gardening Catalogue has a good selection.

I almost forgot to mention the pudding - raspberry muffins - and Adz did like those! The recipe is on the recipe page and purely in the interests of research (rather than greediness) I've now tried making them with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, all of which were yummy! If anyone out there tries the strawberry ones, please let me know how they turned out?

Do they know it's Spring(mas)time at all?

Despite the continuation of the less-than-lovely weather, things in the garden are starting to grow. Although I have spent more time on the allotment, I'm afraid my forays into our own garden have been mostly to clear up after the dogs. We had a (marginally) warmer day at the beginning of the week and whilst hanging some washing out I noticed, to my shame, that not only had the hostas come through but were beginning to open their leaves. How did I miss that? Some of them need dividing and I try and do it while the leaves are in bud, normally, or I end up losing a few leaves when I cut the plant up. Oh, well; if they didn't have a few leaves to spare I don't suppose I would be dividing them, would I? I've always grown hostas in pots since we lived in Wales and they proved to be the gastronomic equivalent of caviar to the slug and snail popuplation there. The pear tree is bravely displaying a veil of delicate-looking white blossom and new green leaves. It must be tougher than I think because, despite my concerns relating to the effects of a late frost, we nearly always have more pears than we know what to do with! I wouldn't normally cut blossom for the house, as it is quite short-lived and I'd rather eat the pears, but the pieces above were overhanging the neighbouring allotment, which has now been let. I was concerned that the new tenant might poke his eyes out on them, so I did a bit of late pruning.

 

It's my mum's birthday tomorrow and so on Wednesday I joined her on her annual expedition up to Yorkshire to stock up on plants for her garden. The nursery we visited is at Reighton, just below Filey (and Scarborough) on the coast of North Yorkshire. I'd heard mum rave about it in the past but have never been able to accompany her before because of work. With Lucy in the second week of her holidays, and therefore able to see to the dogs, I seized my chance. The weather forecast for that area was better than for our corner of Lincolnshire - with the promise of sunny intervals - so we had high hopes of shedding some of the Michelin-man-style layers we've grown used to wearing lately. No such luck. Although the sky was overcast, and there was no rain, the east coast had laid on one of it's infamous east winds, which in the summer is described as 'bracing' but at this time of year could be more accurately described as 'Siberian'. We went to look round the green house first, that housed young tomato, pepper and aubergine plants alongside bedding plants too tender to go outside yet. Even out of the wind I was frozen, despite four substantial layers of clothing (including a thermal vest) under my waterproof coat. Mum chose a few tomato plants and then we thawed out a little over a cup of hot chocolate and 'elevenses'. I never used to take food out with me on journeys, subjecting myself to the vagaries (both in price and quality) of train and other snack fodder and usually getting ripped off in the process. Nowadays, I get a little thrill, not only in being able to take something with me, but that usually it's homemade, too. Today we were eating the last of the Being Creative cakes - specifically the letters, C, R, A, and B - themed to accompany our seaside outing!

While we were eating them, we were joined by this little chap, who clearly wanted the crumbs. Fluffed up like a little ball, he, too, was clearly feeling the arctic chill. I have never been three feet away from a robin before, not even on the allotment, and I felt quite in awe of his fearlessness. He was not even deterred when I took the camera out to take this, so we rewarded him by scraping all the bits out of the paper cake cases to create 'elevenses' of his own!

Then we went outside again. Suffice to say, we now had to endure with the wind chill factor, but to concentrate solely on how cold it was is to miss the overall feel of the day. The nursery is huge. An area that hosted every variety of soft fruit bush gave way to two 'fields' of potted plants, first perennials and then shrubs. Once I got past trying to manouvre a wheelbarrow (for my prospective purchases) with numb hands, I realised that my mum had been entirely honest about the nursery's pricing policy. Almost every perennial, in a 3 inch pot, cost fourty pence. Fourty pence? I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! Gardening books are always keen to tell you that it's best to plant in groups of three, or five, but this was always beyond my budget, even when I worked full time. You can see, from the photo above, that we are not talking weedy little specimens here but stong, healthy plants, with roots growing through the base and in need of re-potting. Five Nepeta - Six Hills Giant were going to cost me less than I normally paid for one! I began to panic, slightly. All this space to cover and so little time! Having abandoned the cumbersome wheel barrow, I spent the next few hours working my way methodically up and down the rows. Luckily for us, my mum drives a transit van (for her business) so we weren't short of room; I have to tell you that, between us, we covered the floor with plants! At that price, I decided to buy some to pot on and re-sell at the car boot, the idea being that this would help to fund my own purchases. I 'invested' the last of my leaving collection from work so I really will have to make it work. Watch this space.

We didn't leave the nursery until we were practically thrown out and since it now seemed a lifetime since lunch, we headed into Filey in search of fish and chips. The sun had come out mid-afternoon and I just managed to capture the last rays illuminating Filey Brigg. We ate our fish and chips sitting in the van, overlooking the beach, and finished off with the last two Being Creative cakes - 'A', for aspidistra for mum and 'B', for something totally unrepeatable for me! We set off for home tired, replete and, at long last, WARM!

The Three R's

Si' has been returning home of late with a spring in his step and a happy smile on his face. Given that he does a rather stressful job this is not what I'm used to. Perhaps he has found a new love and I should be worried. He has and I'm not! In the autumn, when we had finally made the decision to downshift, we invested in a new chainsaw. I think I've already mentioned that we are planning to install a woodburning stove this year and the cost of running it can be kept to a minimum if we can source our own timber and cut it up ourselves. Where Si' works, they had to have some big trees felled, as they were leaning at dangerous angles over adjoining property. Naturally, you would expect to incur cost for having professionals in to take the trees down safely but it was going to cost yet more to have them sawn up and removed. So Si' is saving his employers some cash and getting us some free wood into the bargain. I don't wish to sound like a government health warning here, but if you are thinking of using a chainsaw yourself, and you've never used one before, do get yourself booked onto a proper course first. Si' used to manage woodland on contract in a previous life and took a course himself when he was starting out. Luckily, the new chainsaw came with all the necessary protective gear as a free gift but normally you would have to factor this in on top of the cost of the chainsaw itself. It goes without saying that if you want to cut up wood on land other than your own , you should seek the permission of the landowner first. They might be glad to let you have the wood from their fallen tree for nothing if you are willing to cut it up and take it away.

One of the things we are discovering about our newly downshifted state, is that lack of cash forces you to come up with all sorts of ways to cut costs and that many of these are also greener and more healthy for us. The wood that Si' is cutting only costs us for the fuel it takes to cut it up. He is already travelling to work anyway so fetching it does not necessitate extra travel. He gets good exercise splitting the logs, loading them up and unloading them at the other end and psychologically he feels better for both the exercise and the fact that he has a nice stack of wood drying for next winter. The three R's originally stood, as we all know, for reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic but they have gained an additional meaning in the more envirinmentally-conscious present day: reduce, re-use and recycle.

Reduce

One of the first things we did after deciding to downshift was to cut up our credit cards. Actually, that's not quite true, as we have each retained one each for direst emergencies but we did clear our balances and have stopped using them as a source of everyday funding. Four months on, I now wonder what I used to buy with them. I think it was probably all the little treats and extras that go with being constantly busy, purchased to make ourselves feel better. I certainly don't miss them, what they bought me, or the nagging doubt in the back of my mind that it would all have to be paid for some time. Also, I think remembering to make the payments on time is an additional stress in itself. Now I think very carefully about what I buy and, more often than not, conclude that I really can live without the set of pink-handled spatulas I spotted in the shops last week! Cutting our own wood to burn next winter also reduces our dependence on the big energy suppliers and their sudden hefty price increases and buying our fruit and veg from the market cuts our supermarket bill. Growing our own fruit and veg saves us yet more.

Re-use

Whatever I'm doing now, my mind is constantly working to find other uses for things that are 'leftover' from other things; in essence, the by-products of what we buy. If I can save money at the same time then so much the better. I have a lot of both jam and pickle jars, mostly donated by friends and relatives, which I use when making my own preserves and I've also started saving glass bottles, from sauces and juice, with a view to making my own this year. Plastic bottles are washed and cut in half for mini-cloches for the allotment; newspapers are saved for composting or for that ultimate in re-cycled handicrafts, papier mache. Old plastic 3-litre plant pots are lined up ready to start my dahlia tubers into growth and I've decided to hang on to my seed and bulb catalogues when I've finished with them as a source of brightly-coloured decoupage material. Si' brings home wooden pallets from paper deliveries at work, for building compost containers, and the peel from our fruit and veg, excess cardboard and old egg boxes make up the compostable contents of his labours. I suppose the ultimate in re-using are my shopping basket and 'bags for life', like the lovely pink one from IKEA, above.The basket was a gift and I think I paid about 50p for the bag, which is extremely strong and gets used for carrying picnics and stuff to our little caravan, as well as for shopping. Library books, too, are re-used by each person who borrows them. The following tips are two I've incorporated into my own routine. Toothbrushes, after being given a thorough soaking, can be used for cleaning limescale off taps in conjuction with some salt and vinegar. I tend to wrap strips of kitchen roll, soaked in vinegar, round the taps for a few minutes first if the scale has really built up, and use the toothbrush to scrub off what's left. It might be a good idea to test this on an inconspicuous area first, though it's always worked fine for me. Lemon skins are useful for deodorizing chopping boards after cutting up foods like fish or garlic. I suppose, ultimately, we are only limited by our imaginations in what we choose to re-use!

Recycle

When I was growing up in the early seventies, I can remember the 'rag and bone' man coming round every so often to collect up pieces of old junk that nobody wanted any more. Although it was his way of making a living, I suppose he was an early form of recycler. You don't tend to see rag and bone men nowadays but recycling on a large scale has become the norm which most people, either by their own willingness or through local council arrangements for domestic waste collection, participate in. When I've finished chitting my potatoes in the cardboard egg tray shown above, it will become a valuable constituent of my compost heap. Likewise, all receipts with bank details on, or those pre-approved credit card application forms that drop through the letter box with irritating frequency, are shredded to try and prevent identity fraud. They, too, end up in the compost heap. I've been quite pleased, of late, to discover that our local council now recycles cardboard drink cartons. We drink quite a lot of juices and now feel we can do so with a clearer conscience. In the autumn, I was horrified to see leaves being swept up in municipal areas, like parks and cemeteries, and sent direct to landfill in plastic binbags. I collected quite a lot myself, before they could reach them, and have a big container (made from the aforementioned wooden pallets) in which they are left to rot down to make my future potting compost. Another saving! Both those who donate to, and those who buy from, charity shops are doing their bit for recycling; even nearly new items can be had for a fraction of the original purchase price. It's only relatively recently that I've come to realise the value of my mother's line of business. She deals in secondhand and vintage items, has done so for thirty years, and effectively makes her living finding new homes for pre-loved goods. Car boot sales, salvage yards and auction houses (for old, rather than new goods) all extend the life of items that, in many cases, would have ended up in landfill.

My own excuse for the clutter that fills our attic is that it's all waiting to be 'reduced' through 're-use' or 'recycling.' It think it sounds very worthy but it hasn't, as yet, managed to capture my attention. What I need is the motivation of some warmer weather and an imminent car boot sale to recycle some cash!

Colour and cupcakes

Hurray! My hand has healed sufficiently to have the dressing removed and, though it is still a little sore, this has given me a wonderful sense of liberation. I can wash my hands properly (yippee), unscrew the top of my own hot water bottle (wow) and even walk my dogs again (yeeeessssss)! If you begin to wonder, as you read the post below, why it is listed under 'Handmade', rather than 'Home-made', it's all to do with intention. Mine was to have a jolly good time experimenting with different shades of colour; the fact that we could ultimately eat what we produced is purely incidental!

Just before Easter, you will recall that I made my first batch of cupcakes, using Kate Shirazi's recipe from her book, Cupcake Magic. At the time, I only had Supercook liquid colours to tint the icing with but, on advice from Kate, subsequently invested in several little pots of Sugarflair gel colour in the primary shades. I calculated that from these three I could also create pink (with less red colour), green (blue and yellow), orange (red and yellow) and purple (red and blue). At the same time, I'd also bought a block of sugar paste and it has been quietly occupying cupboard space ever since. My original plan, when I bought it, was to make lots of fancy little shapes to adorn future batches of cupcakes, but as I was busily looking for something in a kitchen drawer, I came across my little set of pastry cutters. I have always been a bit of a sucker for quirky bits of kitchen paraphernalia and these cutters are in the shape of tiny alphabet letters (about £3.99, from Tesco). So Plan A gave way to Plan B as I decided to cut out the paste, with the cutters, to form words. Then I thought that I might as well make another batch of cupcakes, anyway, to display them on.

I broke off small sections of paste and added the coloured gel with a cocktail stick in tiny quantities. Then I kneaded it to transfer the colour evenly throughout. Sometimes I needed to add more gel, for greater depth of colour, or to create a better overall colour when mixing two together. The green and orange mixes came out really well but the purple turned out to be a muddy mauve, so Lucy and Siffy - my artistic directors - 'disposed' of it safely! The paste got quite soft, and even slightly sticky, after it had been handled for a while, so I put it in the fridge for half an hour to harden up. When I ordered the Easter egg mould last month, I also ordered a special sponge pad, about six inches square, designed for rolling sugar paste on without it sticking. The paste did, however, still stick to the little rolling pin, so I had to dust it with cornflour anyway. Once I'd rolled the icing to the required thickness, I dusted the cutters with cornflour, also, so that the resultant letters would be easily released. I did this with a flat, blunt- ended paintbrush and I used the same brush to gently push the paste letters out of the cutters. As I cut them out, I arranged them on a plate to make sure I was cutting the right number of letters and alternating the colours well. Once they were done, Siffy suggested photographing the letters as they were, to begin with. It is entirely a coincidence that some of the colours of the letters match those of the plate in the picture above!

Once the glace icing had dried on the top of the cupcakes, I was able to stick each letter onto an individual cupcake. Then I got my camera out and the fun began. I started off in the south- facing window of the upstairs sitting room, where I take most of my pictures, but the light was starting to fade there so I thought I'd try the garden. On route, throught the kitchen, I stopped to make a cup of tea, and noticed that light was being reflected off the garden wall and bouncing in through the kitchen window.

I had baked the cupcakes in silver foil cases and the relected light appears to give them tentacles, like jelly fish!

The light in the garden was brighter, but flatter, so I went back inside and played around with different coloured backgrounds.

I began with yellow....

then blue...

then green, and finally....

...pink!

Having played around for so long, I then found lots of interesting effects you can use on Adobe Photoshop Elements. You will have to wait for another thrilling 'Handmade' installment next week to read about those though, I'm afraid. This Saturday (the 19th) sees the start of International Downshifting Week 2008 and I've promised Country Living readers that I'll be trying out one of the Top Ten Tips for (Downshifting) Success each day next week. Making your own greetings cards is one of the things suggested. And before anyone leaves me a comment to say that there are only seven days in the week, and ten tips, I shall be picking those which are achievable in my circumstances, as I would also encourage you to do. Much as I would love to keep a few hens, my tiny town garden is just not big enough and I can't cut up my credit card, as I no longer have one, and feel all the better for it (see next post). Now that I've finished this post I must turn my attention to today's tea. Given that the Being Creative cupcakes have completed their star turn, I think I can safely say that our pudding is taken care of!

Happy hounds

Being something of a technophobe, it took me quite a while to get to grips with Typepad, and the various aspects of creating a blog, but my confidence has increased as I've progressed. And I'm finding new things out all the time. Only last week I discovered that I can look at the statistics for my site, i.e. how many visitors I've had, where they reached me from (search engine/country/typed url), what pages they have been looking at and at what times of the day or night. In case that concerns you, it doesn't give any information about who is reading it or any of their account details whatsoever. So you can breathe out, now! For myself, I find it really helpful to know which parts of my blog are proving to be most popular and, now I've said that, I bet you want to know, too? If someone is looking for the first time, they go through all the pages, one by one, presumably to get a feel for the site. I deliberately wrote these when I first started out, as an introduction to each of my categories. I think it helps to give a flavour of what the blog's about and I also did it because, with seven categories, it's quite difficult to have a recent post for each one on the main page. I tend to write about whatever I've been doing, or thinking about, at the time so if I've been doing a lot of cooking, there will be a disproportionate number of Home-Made posts. Other people find me via search engines when they are searching for something in particular; for example, 'cupcakes' has been a quite frequent topic recently. I must be doing something right though as, increasingly, people are coming direct to my site and these make up the majority of my 'hits'. I enjoy analysing figures - an 'anorak'-type tendency in an otherwise creative mind - and some posts/pages are particularly popular. A lot of people look at the Home-Made page and the Recipes one. 'My cup(cake) runneth over' has been probably the most popular post but that is the one that gets the most referrals from the search engines. When visitors from the Country Living forums began looking a couple of weeks ago, there were a lot of visits to the Dog Blog page. If you were one of them, the following post is for you!

Pictured above, and at the top, is Hector, my eight month old deerhound puppy, who likes nothing better than to snuggle up in the comfort of my now-empty duvet, whilst I am writing my current blog post. He'll potter in at some stage (our 'upstairs' sitting room, where I'm typing, is in the next room), looking suitably bleary-eyed and then, seeing that nothing of interest is happening, will toddle off back to bed! The reason for the paucity of Dog Blog posts is that I always like to have a couple of pictures to illustrate each post with and Hector, in particular, is very hard to photograph. Once he's fully awake he likes to be 'busy' and it's hard to capture him a in a moment of stillness. As soon as you get the camera out he wants to know what you're doing and comes to investigate. He's also incredibly nosy and will spend ages looking out of the windows of the upstairs sitting room watching the world go by. A big incentive for this is that we live opposite our vets, so there's always lots of comings and goings but he's just as happy to watch people, or pigeons, come to that. Last weekend, we took him back to the breeders to see his mum. They had the most wonderful time chasing each other round the large garden, so much so that Hector slept all the way home, all afternoon and all evening, only rousing himself for his tea and post-prandial jaunt.

Zephyr is somewhat easier to snap by virtue of him being something of a couch potato. Here he is looking rather regal in his 'blogging' chair. We have an old armchair up here and at this time of year the morning sun shines directly onto it. He is quite happy to sit their, basking while I type, till breakfast time. Though I have had more time each day, while Lucy has been walking the boys, I have really missed our morning strolls. Things are turning green outside in my absence and it's normally the time I think of ideas, or find inspiration, for my posts. This afternoon, while Hector and Zephyr are napping, I'm going with a friend to visit a fellow allotment-holder who is currently recuperating from a slight stroke. We are taking blackcurrant jam, lemon cake and flowers from his allotment so that he can still have the enjoyment of them in his absence. At one time I never would have had the time for such a visit, let alone take hand-made gifts. I have such an awful lot to be grateful for!

A silver lining

Last week I had a little accident. I wasn't going to mention it but thought that readers might be asking themselves why, at the beginning of April, I wasn't jabbering on about growing and getting to grips with my allotment all the time. I cut my hand whilst out dog-walking on Tuesday of last week; only a little cut, mind, but it did look like it might need a stitch or two to help it heal. The local minor injuries unit steri-stripped it instead of stitching, bandaged it up and sent me home, saying I must keep it raised and rested for 24 hours. So no washing up (I said). You musn't get it wet (they said). What about dog walking (me)? Absolutely not until it heals (them). Si' leaves for work quite early in the morning, so the dog walking has fallen to Lucy, who has been an absolute star about it. Within half an hour of being home I wanted to scream. How could one little cut - that didn't even hurt - prevent me from doing so many everyday and necessary things? Si' will tell you that he christened me, 'Mrs Impatient Patient', as I grumped around for a good hour, getting on the nerves of my only-too-happy-to-help family! I fretted about the washing up. My family create dirty cups in the same way that a conjuror pulls rabbits out of a hat - frequently and as if by magic! Then I worried about the washing and got agitated over the allotment, whilst constantly chastising myself for my carelessness. "What about my blog?", I screamed inwardly, as by now everyone else had left me to grouse on my own, in the hope that the storm would soon blow over. Then I thought, "what about my blog?" No washing up, no dog walking, no serious housework; I could see my day unfolding with all these things taken care of and leaving me lots of time for about the only thing I was still allowed to do. And so we arrive at that silver lining moment, where adversity is turned on it's head to become almost a blessing. Even in our downshifted state, time is not an endless resource, as you replace a lot of things you would formerly have paid for with your own labour. So to have a few days of virtually uninterrupted time was a novelty, to say the least.

Twenty four hours later, I had my dressing changed, and while I still had to keep it dry, and not do anything too strenuous, I no longer had to hold my arm in the air to prevent my hand swelling up! It was at this point last week, that I wrote about looking for the photograph of my sister and myself. Here we are, pictured above, on Christmas Day 1967. This followed on from my rant of the previous day about home-made jam. On Friday, I was able to accompany my sister's card with a nice long letter, and a photocopy of the Rayburn instructions. By Saturday, Lucy was on holiday and we were able to make a team effort with the blueberry muffins, to be repeated on Monday with a blackberry version, which were equally delicious! At this point, I remembered that we had a large pair of rubber gloves in the cupboard under the sink and, held on with a rubber band over my bandaged left hand, with a normal small glove on the other, I was able to help wash up. In the meantime, I had plenty of time for pootling about, catching up on all those niggly little jobs that somehow I'm always too busy doing other things to get round to.

By yesterday, I was indulging in a veritable flurry of activity again, in the belief that they would be relieving me of my bandage later that day and that I would be good as new. I cleaned the cooker, juiced and cut up the peel of sweet oranges for marmalade (no mean feat wearing rubber gloves), washed all the dogs fleeces and baked a lemon cake. At six o'clock, we trotted back to the minor injuries department, where they cut off my dressing and pronounced me ......not quite healed and in need of another dressing (though not, thankfully, a bandage) for a few days more. And, by the way, I musn't get it wet. Grrrrrrrr!

Success

I first found this piece at the front of a book I was reading and it made a great impression on me, although I can't now remember which book it was that I got it from. I typed the piece out and stuck it on the wall of the school library I ran until earlier this year, where several other people saw it and asked for a copy. What I think makes it so interesting is that at no point does it equate success with money.

Success

To laugh often and much;

to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gandhi famously said, "My life is my message". I am working towards making my message this kind of success.

Some I made earlier

Sometimes, I think it takes a bit of experimenting to find the right recipe. Recipes that work perfectly well in one oven can be a complete disaster in another and it also comes down to personal taste; what one person finds too sweet, another will not find sweet enough. I suppose, then, that when I'm trying recipes out, I'm looking for one that cooks well and on which we have a consensus, as a family, that it is worthy of a repeat performance.

Blueberries are a fruit that take up rather a lot of space in my freezer. This is because they were on offer at my local market some weeks ago; I think it was two punnets for £1.50. I can't remember the punnet size - we did weigh them at the time - but I do recall that we ended up with about 7 pounds weight, in total. Since that time the search has been on to find blueberry recipes, in particular, the perfect blueberry muffin. I don't like most of the muffins bought in shops; they are far too sweet, even for me, and I consider myself to have a sweet tooth. The only exception is the lemon and white chocolate variety from the shop with the persuasive television advertising but at 79p each they are  beyond my pocket now. A few weeks ago, Lucy and I tried a recipe from a little booklet that came free with a cookery magazine. The actual recipe was for blueberry and white chocolate, which sounded really tempting, but ended in resounding disappointment. They were very hard on top - too long at too high a temperature in our oven - were dry, and tasted of nothing in particular, apart from the odd hint of white chocolate. I'd defrosted the blueberries first, which was a mistake as they then began disintegrating in the mixture, even though I stirred them as gently as I could. As we put them on to the wire rack to cool, I noticed that each muffin left behind its own little ring of congealed fat in the tin - totally unappetising!

So it was back to the drawing board, and I found a recipe that I'd torn from a copy of Easy Living magazine quite a while ago. This recipe uses buttermilk and I knew I'd used that before in a recipe for something else, quite successfully. I got mine from Morrisons, priced at 31p for 250g, actually 9 fluid ounces. I added a bit of ordinary milk to bring it up to the 10 fluid ounces the recipe requires. The oven temperature for it was also cooler. You need bigger paper cases for muffins than for fairy cakes and these are readily available from supermarkets, online or at sugarcraft shops. You also need a muffin tin. I bought a non-stick one from Ikea for under a fiver. You can put the mixture straight into them, or use cases as described. This time I used the blueberries straight from the freezer and I did use butter, as opposed to Flora which I use a lot for baking, as that is what the recipe recommended. All muffin recipes will tell you not to spend much time stirring the wet (and melted) ingredients into the dry and that the mixture is meant to be rather lumpy. Really, you could get away without using an electric mixer altogether for most muffins, just whisking the wet ingredients together with a fork, or hand-whisk. Being on the cooler side, my oven took an extra 5 minutes or so to cook them but we were really impressed with the results.

As you can see from this picture, they were golden on top and rose properly - none of that 'sinking- when-you-take-them-out-of-the-oven' malarkey. Inside they were quite light and the blueberries had stayed whole during cooking. The finishing touch was sprinkling demerara sugar sparingly over the top just before putting them in the oven. It gave an extra bit of crunch when you bit into them. I got 16 muffins with the mixture, rather than the 12 suggested, filling the cases two-thirds full. They are best eaten on the day they are made, according to the recipe, but ours were fine two days later, having been stored in an airtight tin. I'm awarding top marks to Easy Living for another great recipe (the meringue one on the Recipe page is theirs, too). So where is the recipe, then, I hear you say? On the Recipe page, I reply, as fast as my little fingers can type it up! If you haven't got blueberries, you can also use raspberries, blackberries or strawberries. It's drizzling again today and Lucy is on holiday from school, so we're going to try blackberry this afternoon, another soft fruit that's not in short supply here!