The World Wind of Life

As you can tell by the title of today's post the world wind of life has caught up with me again. The kids have gone back to school, I've gone back to colloge and my nose has been once again welded to the grindstone. It's not that I don't like being busy it's just that, some times, life takes over, hurtles out of control and I end up hanging on for grime life with out a clue as to where I'm heading. This week has so far been one of these weeks and today feels like the first time, in ages, I've had 5mins to myself with out the the need to do, be, go or get something or some one. A mothers lot is never finshed or is it? Could I just be going at it the wrong way. Should I be hyper organised and would it help or just end up stressing me out to the point of meltdown. Or just chill and let life run outa control and go with the flow. Choices choies. It's never easy, is it.

Mess

I'm sitting here surrounded by the biggest mess in the history of house work and I can't be bothered to do any thing about it. You see we've started the mammoth task of emptying and packing up the house as the date for it to be bull dozed is ever drawing nearer.

Tbh I'm a big hoarder books, Cd's, DVDs, craft stuffs and jewelry yep the house is busting. I've also managed to pass on this bad habit to the kids and believe you me they're just as bad. We have stacks of stuff to go up on Freecycle and even more to go to the charity shop and I've only just scratched the surface. So I'll be up to my eyes in it for the next few months and do you know what
we still haven't got any where new to live yet.

It's raining. it's pouring.......

As you can tell it's raining and I have to go go out and I don't want to. I do love the rain but I hate having to go out and do things in it but as I have to walk the dog, bring in yesterdays soaked washing, get the veggies and pay some bills all in the next hour it looks like I'm going to have to get wet.

A new friend and old friends

We made a rather nice new friend the other day. Bracken alerted me to his presence as he was jumping about in the green house, when I went in to feed the tomatoes. He looked rather dehydrated so we took him out and popped him in our rather makeshift pond (the kids old sand pit) he had a little swim then off he went to find a new home.

Stella was really happy to have her two friends over for lunch yesterday. They lived a couple of doors away until a few weeks ago and Stella has missed them lots since they moved as she spent most of her free time running between they're house and ours. So chat, some lunch, a bit of light reading, dog walking and a spot of foraging and a trip to the park all and all a good day.

New camera

We finally bitten the bullet and bought our self's a new camera. It's another of these things that I've been putting off doing as we never seem to have much luck when it come to them. I lost mine, then we're bought, one as a prezzie, when we had Kyle but it only seemed to work when it fancied, then Pete bought me a cheap pocket digi one which eat batteries like they were smarties and our old style rechargeable batteries wouldn't fit into it. So fingers crossed that this one will be happy and healthy and have a long and fruitful life.

The things you find....

when you least expect it. A copy of "The Tassajara Bread Book" for £1 in one of the city centre charity shops. It's been sitting on my Amazon wish list for a while know and I kept meaning to pop it into my basket with every order, I put through, but something kept stopping me. So I was both happy and surprised to find. I must say it's a beautiful book, well written with lots of tasty looking recipes to try out on the family.

Other finds were a couple of Jacquline Wilson, a TinTin adventure, Mary Popins (which I've never read so will be taking on holiday to read to Stella) all for Stella and the new Artemis Fowl paper back.

Hobbits, birthdays and another Amazon order.

Thing have gone rather Lord of the Rings round here as we seem to be rediscovering our love of all things Hobbitish. Stella and I have been relistening to our muchloved audio book of the Hobbit while Kyle and I have rewatched the Lord of the Rings trilidgy on Dvd. Also much listening to a new copy of Led Zep 4 which is heavily infulenced by the Hobbit and LOTR. I've forgotton how much I love the Hobbit it makes me smile and want to run off and live in one of those wonderfull hobbit holes that was built for the LOTR film but sadly my plans for a life as a Hobbit have been dashed as Stella said no as daddy's to tall, to live in a Hobbit hole, so we'd have to leave him here.

We've had three birthdays in the last week me, Kyle and our wonderfull puppy has turned one. I'm now the grand old age of 38 and the gray is showing more and more every year and I got some lovely prezzies from the family. Kyle has turned 14 and is know bigger than me. Oh what happened to my little boy who would hold my hand and sit on my knee? Well he's know a rather kool teenager, fab to hang out with, a wonderfull sence of humor and a very kool taste in music.

Kyle, for his bithday prezzie, chose to have a weeks game camp at the "Games Workshop". He so loves model making, painting and all thing War Hammer and to be honest I think it a great hobby for kids his age. We also ordered him a couple of Dvd's form Amazon and a book just as a little something to open on his birthday but they took ages to come with one not apearing untill after his birthday even though we'd ordered then a over fortnight before. Next time, I think, I'll try a month.

The Waitings Over

Well the Amazon order finally arrived and guess what it some of it was wrong! Pete's' tee shirts were right, my book order was right but the shoes I had ordered were the wrong size. I had ordered a size 7 pair of fuchsia pink (to match the lovely fuchsias I'm growing) prima crocs But they sent me a size 9. I could have paddled up the Tyne in them they were so big. I love crocs prima shoes. I managed to grab a still bagged brand new pair from the charity shop last year but have sadly worn them so much that I've put a hole in the bottom.

My book order I relay happy with. I ordered Permaculture in a Nutshell by Patrick Whitefield, Circle Round by Starhawk, Dianne Baker and Anne Hill and Food For Free by Richard Maybe in a handy pocket sized edition. I've started on the Permaculture book first and so far it's very interesting. Food for Free is one of those books that you have a well loved copy of, let someone borrow and you never see again. So this time I'm keeping this copy all too myself. Circle Round will need a bit more time to digest, i think but I'm looking forward to reading it as I heard so many good things about it.

Stovies

I don't know if it's because i haven't been home for a while but I have this sudden need to eat something Scottish. Goodness knows where these sudden cravings have come from. May be it's the distint lack of artery clogging amimal fats that are missing from my diet or the need to want my teeth to fall out, all by them selfs but all I want is some chips with brown sauce and a can of Barrs Red cola, I'm even dreaming about the veggie hagis supper I will get from a certain famous chippy I know of. Well I can't have any, of those, so there. But what I have been able to pull together is a veggie version of every Scottish childs favorite Stovies. It's one of those dishes like Scouce from Liverpool, Colcannon bubble and Squeak that if you ask any Scotts person how to make it you get a different anwser form each person. Wars have been fought over lesser things. My grannie would make it with sausage, my friends mum with minced beef and I've even read that there's a versions with chicken and fish. Any way here's mine

Lorna Veggies Stovies

4 med potatoes peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
3 carrots peeled and chopped
large onion chopped
stock made up
oil
couple veggie sausages I used frozen Quorn as they keep their shape well but you could use Relate chicken/beef style pieces

Put around a table spoon of oil into a heavy pan and brown off the sausages then add the onions and fry till clear. Add the potatoes and carrot fry for a couple of Min's then cover with stock. Put a snug lid on top and leave to cook for around 40Min's.
Proper Stovies should be on the dry side with little or no gravy.

I can't take it...........

The problem is I've become addicted to Amazon. It's brill, fab, wonderful but the waiting for the parcels is driving me nuts. I mean I'm lying on the door mat, slobbering, waiting for the postman to to drop something on to the mat. I can remember feeling the same way, when I was little, coming up to my birthday. It's that feeling of anticipation that you get when you know something good about happen but you so have to wait for it.

The other thing I'm enjoying about Amazon is the price difference between them and high street stores. I just can't believe how cheap things are and also the choice between buying new and second hand. I also love the fact that they seem to have every book, CD and DVD that I've ever wanted all in the one place and I don't have to pay a fortune just because it isn't in the top ten or best seller lists.

Next is Ebay..

Mary Mary

I'm quite pleased with the way the gardens coming on. The potatoes, onions, beetroot and peas are doing realy well. The carrots are so so and we can't decide wither we have salad or a patch of weeds. The plants in the green house are small but are doing very well. I've also picked my first radish, which was pot grown and the herbs patch and potted flowers all look amazing. But if I'm going to be honest I think Stellas sunflowers are doing the best.

We have pretty rubish soil and should have realy done some work to get it in better condition but of Pete's knee problem last year we never got round to it.

Half term heaven

We've managed to have a relay busy half term this time. Mainly because the weather's been so good here. We started off with the VegNE stall in town then a trip to the Taste Festival at which we bought some local cheese from The Northumberland Cheese Company and some jam and lemon cheese mmmmm.

The Sunday and Monday were spent doing the garden and catching up on the washing and Stella had her first sleepover at her friends up the road.

Tuesday was fantastic, we took the dog to Whitley Bay beach and walked from there all the way to North Shields. We did stop half way, at Cullercoats to have chips from the chippy but what made it relay special was that Pete managed to finish early and meet up with us on the way to the beach. We didn't get home till half ten with two shattered kids and one knackered puppy.

Wednesday we did the Orange Wednesday film offer and we went with Ruth, Ian and Josh to see the adaptation of the Neil Gaiman's book Coraline in the new 3D. Stella had borrowed and read the book, from Ruth and relay enjoyed it so was very excited about the film. We all relay enjoyed the it, it looked beautiful, the story was good but the 3D was a bit of a let down.

Thursday we went to our local garden centre to see if we could track down some grow bags. We'd tried all weekend to get some but for some reason there seems to be a shortage of them in the NE. It's a lovely walk along a footpath then over a couple of fields so we took Bracken with us. The farmer had just cut the grass in to lovely straight rows so the dog had a fantastic time jumping over the piled up grass there and back. We didn't have any luck tracking down grow bags though they, were all sold out so we bought some sorrel, lovage, a pot geranium and some lobiella for the garden instead.

On the Friday we decided to rest well rather pot out the new plants, tidy the house and do more washing. I knew my friend Ruth was going to pop over as Josh was having a tidy out and had some Goosebumps books books for Stella. When she turned up she had a supprise for us, two lovely grow bags. She had also bought some bedding plants which she split with me and I passed on what I had left over of the Lobiella.

We did our usuall Saturday stuff Stella went to dance class well rather we tried to get todance class but the bus didn't turnup so we were realy late and decided to forget about it and leave to the following week. Then we went shopping.

Sunday was again spent in the garden. I got out the 99p paddling pool we've had for years and put Stella in her UV suit and let her loose in the garden. Kyle even came and joined in and had loads of fun playing with Bracken and the pump action water pistol. Even 13 year old boys will allow them selfs to have fun when there's a pump action water pistol around. It was such a lovely day that we even eat dinner alfresco.

I love weeks like this it's nice to just be able to do things with the children with out the pressure of having to get up early or the routine of school. Roll on the summer holls and lets hope we have some of that promised good weather.

National Vegetarian Week

To celebrate National Vegetarian Week VegNe will be holding a stall in the Granger Market Newcastle. Info, leaflets and general chit chat will be availble all day.

This weeks list........

I have a plan to do a list at the start of each week of things that need doing. Some things might get done and some may not. I also might need to add to the list as the week goes on.

1 Track down a small bag of Aurtarky dog food for mutley.
2 Tidy out some of the junk in Stella's bedroom.
3 Get Kyle to tidy out some of the junk in his bedroom.
4 Put the box of stickle bricks up on Freecycle and what ever else appears out of the kids rooms
5 Sow some more tomatoes as the last lot don't seem to be germinating
6 Wash the couch covers
7 Henna my hair
8 Tidyout and dust the books
9 Cut the grass
10 Cut the hedge
11 Watch the rest of "Elfin Lied"
12 Get some elastic for the top I'm making Stella

Let's see how many get done, I'll tick them off as I go.

Monkey Girl

I think I have a monkey for a daughter. We went out with the lovely people of VegNe for a picnic, the other Sunday, and Stella and Zarah spent most of the time climbing the trees in Saltwell Park. Vicky, who was kind enough to organise the picnic, sent me some lovely photos of the girls in varions states of monkeyness.

The Flicks

I've been promising the munchkins a trip to the cinema for the last couple of months. It's really hard to find a film that they both want to see. Kyle likes the standered SF/action/anime and Stella likes Disney/singing/slushy/funny/anime so apart from them both agreeing on anime there's not a lot of choice.

In the end we choice "Race to Witch Mountain"a remake of the 70's Disney film. Lots of SF/action for Kyle and Disney/slushy and funny for Stella. They booth seemed to really enjoy it and it didn't have that dreaded lull, in the middle that so many films have nowadays, where the plot seems to vanish and they stick in twenty minutes of filler to pad the film out.

To make it a more frugal trip we used the Orange Wednesday offer and took along our own snacks. In the end we ended up paying just over a £10 for the three of us to go the the flicks.

Veggies

We finally managed to get most of the veggies planted this weekend. The potatoes, onions and carrots all went in nicely and this weekend it's the turn of the peas. I've quite a lot of things in the green house, sitting in pots and trays but they seem to be taking an age to germinate. Think it must be this northern weather. It's so changeable at the moment one minute hot the next freezing and the last couple of days have been like pea soup foggy.

Busy, busy, busy

I haven't updated the blog of late as I've been so busy for the last couple of weeks. There's been lots going on and some major and some not so.

The first day of the holls was spent at the Saltwell Park show . I was supposed to meet up with friends but my phone decided to play tricks on me and we never got to meet up with them but Stella and I managed to have a nice but cold afternoon. In the way home we poped intothe local charity shop and I found some more silver. This time it was a necklace.

I spent a lovely Sunday at the NEVG ( North East Vegan Gathering) . I managed to miss the talk on HE as I was too busy blethering and eating some lovely food but I did manage the talks on Vegan Ethics and one on the Vegan Soc by Patricia Tricker who's a trustee of the vegan soc. Next year I'm hopping to take the munchkins for the whole week as Micklewood Park is a lovely place and there loads of kids for them to play with and lots of outings for them to go on as well.

I was hanging the washing out on the Monday and heard a snuffling and looked down to find this little fella stomping around the garden. We go realy close to him and managed to take some realy nice photos. We also found that the bats are back. We took the dog for a walk at twilight and encountered 5 of the little dears. I love them. They amaze me the way they swoop around. They look so soft and gentle. I don't know how anyone could be frightened of them.

Charity shop bargains

Here's some of this week bargains

Some lovely silver earings £1.75, some books for Stella £1.50 and some wooden and unusal knitting needles £1 the lot.

I also manged to bag a brand new yoga bag with mat, block and strap for the grand some of £3 and much to my amazment, when I tipped it all out, I found a yoga DVD hiding at the bottom of the bag.

It's a good thing.

It's a good thing that I don't mind being froogle as some things are sent to try us and I thinks one of them is a mobile phone that dosen't want to work. It's been having a bit of a tanturn for a couple of weeks and I hapened to mention it to Pete in the passing. 5 mins later I was informed that a freind of ours has a nearly new mobile up for grabs and do I want it. Oh yes please and oh joy oh joy. Actullay she had two and offered me the pick of both.
I've had to move my number, from one servise provider to another but in the process I've gained 300 free texts and £1 credit bargin.

Productive Weekend

This weekend we have been very productive. I've been busy trying to learn how to knit. It's something I've been meaning to do for years but never quite get round to it. So what has spured me on all of a sudden I hear you ask well It's the lovely Clare at "Border Stories " fault. A few weeks ago she posted a lovely photo of her little boy wearing the most fab stripy jumper and I thought I can do that, so out the needles have come again and this time I'm determined to do it.

Kyle and I also cleaned out one of the the food cuboard. I must admit it one of those jobs that I've been avoiding for the last few months. I gave the orders and Kyle did all the sorting out. We've filled the recycle bin with old glass jars and found a couple of horrors lurking at the back of the cuboard but it's all clean and done know.

Pete has been busy fixing up our green house for planting out the seedlings. We aquired, the greenhouse, from a friend who waited months for one to be posted on freecycle only to find out that he's moving and the new house's garden is to small for it. Pete's never put one together so last weekend he was given a crash course in green house building and this weekend, while shoping for seeds, he managed to blag a load of free wood for the base. All thats left now is to wash the glass and pop it in and hey presto a lovely green house and all it's cost is a tube of silcone.

That's tea sorted.......

I got a rather nice surprise today five boxes of Cauldron sausages were delivered to my door step. I forgot that I was due some more to taste test and that they were coming today so that's tea sorted.

Taste testing or doing consumer surveys is a great way to get free bee's out of company's. I've had several lot's of soap powder, washing-up liquid and fabric conditioner. I only do the eco products so there isn't as many opportunities as for non eco ones but I still do ok. This is the first time I've done food and I'm hoping to do more over the next few months.

My veg box also can today and I was rather disappointed to find that the company that supplies their organic free range eggs has stopped doing them. It seems the cost of the organic corn has shot up in price so the company has decided to pull the organic line. It's such a same there eggs were one of the reasons I went with this box scheme.

Pasties

I made a quice tonight for tea and had rather a lot of pastry left over so rather then throwing out the pastry I decided to try and make some mini cheese pasties for the lunch boxes tomorrow. They turned out rather well If i do say so my self and makes a nice change from sandwiches.

I'm also on a mission to use up all the veg box before the new one arrives on Thursday. I love my veg box. I get realy excited before it arrives as I can't wait to see what I've been brought.

Frugal Visit and a lovely dog walk.

One of my favorite thing to do is to find froogle visits for me to take the children on and one of our favorites is the Baltic Centre for Contempary Arts. Evey Saturady and Sunday, betwween two and four, they have a open crafts for children. We've gone a couple of times and realy enjoyed it and been quite creativein what we've done. So yesterday I thought I would take Stella along to the craft and pop in to see the Yoko Ono exhibit. The craft went well. Stella did a lovely drawing of the Baltic which is know exhibited in the childrens centre at the Baltic. Then we decided to go and see the Yoko Ono exhibit. It wasn't up to much. In fact if you have kids don't bother. The one bit that looked fun, a glass maze, was only open to over sixteens plus quite a bit of the exhibit was only open to over eighteens, so all and all a bit of a dissapointment.

On the plus side I did come home to find Pete and our friend John had erected our free, thanks to John, green house. Can't wait to get the glass in so I can get on planting.

To day has been much better. We took the dog for a walk around a small dean that has just been cleared outside the village. I took Stella's carmera but had it on the wrong setting so the pic's are rather blured.

Are BOGOF's frugal?

I went to the vets yesterday to pick up some flea treatment for the cat and dog. When I got home I discovered that the flea treatment must be on a BOGOF. Woooohooo, I thought, free flea treatment. Just what a froogle lover like me wants or is it. Problem with this is that when my six month old border collie takes her next growth spurt she'll be under-covered and I'll be left with flea treatment that I don't need.

So this got me thinking about BOGOF offers and are they frugal or are they just a big con. I know some are fab, like buy one toilet roll get one free or buy one chocolate bar get on free. But there are some rather silly ones, take food for instance. If you live on your own do you relay want the BOGOF cucumber? Would it not be better for them to offer the cucumber at half price, saves money and proberly waste. What I've also noticed is that it makes me want to buy things I don't relay like or need. Take Eco products they never seem to be on offer but the big branded goods do. So the froogle side of me wants to buy them but the greenie in me screams nnnnnnoooooooo. At the end of the day the greenie always wins but it does get you thinking that maybe this is just another way to get you sucked into buying all the things that you relay don't need.

Where to start?????

I've been meaning to start a blog for the last six months but life just seems to get in the way of my creative ramblings. My main purpose in staring this blog is to talk about how I live my life and the adoption of a Froogle life style. Maybe that will change once I get started as you never quite know where that yellow brick will end.