On The Way To Beach Combing.

On the way to beach combing we stopped at a service station and in the car park were loads of these little mini motes. I have no idea where they were going as we couldn't find any drivers to ask. But there were at lest 20 of them in the car park. Looks like it was fun.

My Boys.

This took place between my boys today, while I was on my way down the stairs.
Callum was looking in the down stairs hall mirror.

Ashley-"You checking out how ugly you are boy" laughing as he said it and checking out his self.

Callum-" No! Just how lucky I am"

Ashley- "How so?"

Callum - "I'm the same age as Harry Patch was when he joined up"

Ashley- "Yer, but he didn't go to the front till he was 18"

Callum - "7 months from now I'll be 18"

Ashley - "Horrible thought that, being on a front line at 18 and people trying to kill you"

Callum - " Brave men"

Ashley -" Brave men, indeed and men still doing it"

Callum -"I'm not that brave"

Ashley - " Me neither little man, but thank God for those who are"

Callum- "Yeah, bless them, every bloody one of them"

Ashley - "Past and present"

Callum - "Past and present"

I just thought I would share it with you.

Tribute - Let's Not Forget Them.

We as a Nation, buried Mr Harry Patch today, in a beautiful and moving tribute, as befitting our last Great War Hero.

We Salute them all. Let's nor forget the sacrifice of a generation

Beach Combing

I'm going off beach combing at some point today with my sister, but first I have to get the stuff ready.
Due to the unpredictable summer we are having here, I am dressing for a heatwave, but taking every thing I need for a monsoon, knowing my luck I'll be on the beach when tsunami hits the south coast.

Camp stove, kettle and tea things...this is a must, I'm British and must be topped up with tea at 4hourly intervals, I think you'll find that this is the law, that all British people's must be topped up with tea in order for us to cope with birth, death and marriage, British weather, the credit crunch, fire, flood, unexpected visitors, the loss of a pet, parent or loved one,road tax, tax in general, in fact just about anything really.

Camera and Batteries.... note to self DO NOT FORGET THE BATTERIES THIS TIME!!!!!!

Food....this is to accompany the buckets of tea.

Sunscreen....OK OK you can all stop laughing now. I'm British and I haven't seen the sun since the heatwaves of 1976 and 2003. A single sun ray may grace us with it's presence and I don't want skin cancer.

Umbrella....I said I was British, I never said I like getting wet!!!! We don't actually have webbed feet, it's a myth spread about by others who live in the sun or at least have seen it since 2003.

Jumpers, coats and boots.....required for the monsoon weather I am expecting.

Mobile...in order to call the coast guard when tsunami hits south coast.

One of My Favourite Cartoon Characters.

Is 46, too old to still be liking Top Cat. This is without a doubt one of my favorite cartoons. I still know all the lyrics to the theme tune and can often be found humming or singing it, (well I call it singing, but the family say it sounds more like Misty cat as got her tail caught in a blender).

Here is the lyrics for you all to sing along to the you tube with.

Top Cat!
The most effectual Top Cat!
Who’s intellectual close friends get to call him T. C.
Providing it’s with dignity.

Top Cat!
The indisputable leader of the gang.
He’s the boss, he’s a pip, he’s the championship.
He’s the most tip top, Top Cat.

Yes he’s a chief, he’s a king,
But above everything,
He’s the most tip top,
Top Cat. Top Cat!

I loved Top Cat when I was a kid, he was one of my earliest hero's.
My favourite character was Benny The Ball.



See Wikipedia
if you want to know more (I was amazed that the series had a Wikipedia page .

Free Books

The Library of Parliament has been called "the most beautiful room in Canada".

The only part of the original Centre Block to survive a fire in 1916, the Library was saved by an employee - M. MacCormac - who closed the iron doors at the entrance of the building.

Built in the Victorian Gothic style (starting in 1859 and completed in 1876), its collection and services are used daily by Canadian Parliamentarians. Their work is done within the library's architecturally stunning surroundings, which include a parquet floor made of oak, cherry and walnut, and a beautiful lantern dome roof.

The interior and exterior of the library, which is featured on the Canadian $10 bill, were extensively restored and upgraded between 2002-2006.

Ok folks that's today's lesson over, however, I do want to tell you about Project Gutenberg click here

This is a place to get free e-books, I found it by accident today, while searching for some thing else to entertain myself, some times it really is good to be a dyslexic.

I spent loads of time today down loading books and had great fun doing so.

Here is some of the titles that are for free.

Charles Dickens: A tale of two cities, Oliver Twist.

Jane Austin: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma.

Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass.

Sir Aurther Conan Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Herman Melville: Moby Dick.

James Joyce: Ulysses.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly: Frankenstein.

Bram Stoker: Dracula.

Mark Twain:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A Connecticut Yankee in King Auther's Court.

Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre.

Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights.

P. G Woodhouse: My Man Jeeves.

Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Jules Verne: Around the World in Eighty Days.

E.M Forrester: A Room With a Veiw.

Charles Darwin: On The Origin of Species.

The Bible, Old and New Testaments, King James Version.

So as you can see a wide range of classics there for you to browse and so many , many more. They cover every thing from children's, science, crime,war, religion, every thing from Art to Westerns. Books can even be downloaded to palm organisers to smart phones, so if you like to travel light or space is a premium when travelling you need never be without a good book.

They also do audio books, CDs, DVDs, and digitized sheet music, you can even volunteer to help out with the web site. How fabulous is that!

Remember people,

Life's a journey, travel it well and take a good book for the boring bits!

Carpe Diem

Today's weather report is this.......there is no weather, I have cancelled it.
Finished, El fin, Fin, Finito,

Or rather I'd like to grab it by the scruff of the neck and shake it very violently and ask it what the hell is it playing at and that it should get on with the day at hand and give us some much needed and well deserved good old fashioned summer days, just like I had as a kid.

The comic Billy Connolly one of my favourite comics, says "There is no such thing as bad weather-only the wrong clothes"

I am unsure as to whether or not to dress for a heatwave or a monsoon.

Seize the day, I'm gonna grab it and kick it's backside and tell it to get it's blooming weather act together.

Just A Little Funny

A man went into confession one day. “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned,” said the man. “What have you done?” asked the priest. “I housed a refugee during the second world war.” “That is not a sin,” replied the priest. “You don’t understand,” replied the man. “I made him pay rent.” To which the priest replied, “Well, that wasn’t very charitable, but I wouldn’t say it’s a sin.” “Then, Father, may I ask your opinion of something?” “Of course,” said the priest. “Should I tell him the war is over?

Lime Green and Hot Pink

I was woken up by this little mouse this morning,
Who had arrived at my house in the little lime green and hot pink box.
He said he wanted to show me this lovely kitchen in his castle.


So we went off together to his lovely paper castle.
I really liked this wall paper and the little mouse asked me if I wanted to see more of his castle.
So we wandered round his little castle starting in the lounge.
He said that if I came to stay, I could have this room to sleep in.
And he gave me some flowers.
We had some brunch on his terrace,
with his little friend, flora the pink pig.
We ate cup cakes,
a lot of them.

Afterwards we had a little rest on his cushions, well we did eat a lot of cakes.
He showed me some fabric and asked me if I could make him a quilt with it, which I said I would be happy to do with that fabric.
We past even more pretty hot pink and lime green flowers.

He showed me the room that Flora, the pink pig sleeps in.

Then he showed me his bedroom
But sometimes he gets bored in one bedroom, so he has two.
Then we went and had more cakes with all his family and friends, in his great big hot pink and lime green dinning room.


It's ok I haven't gone mad, well not completely, I just went to bed thinking about lime green and hot pink. This was due to Liz, over at finding Life Hard. Click to find Liz here. Liz is funny and smart, I love to visit her.
You see Liz is thinking about a lime green fridge, which reminded me of a dinning room I had that was lime green and hot pink, everyone told me I was mad to put the two colours together, but most were surprised at how well it came out.
I just thought it would be fun to show the two colours together. tee! hee!

An Answer For Shaddy.

In one of my comments from a blog buddy today Shaddy over at Paper Cut Screams, asked me what exactly was in the photo that appears just under the bubble wrap. I have forgotten to put up the rest of the photo's, but it is from our day out in Hastings.
On one part of the beach, which by the way is a pebble beach, are some huge boulders that have fallen down off the massive cliffs that are along that part of the beach.

When we were there that day, we decided to go long to that part. Strictly speaking your not actually allowed on that part, because of the falling boulders, but I have been going there my whole life and have never seen one fall, mind you I do tend to stay by the shore line, after all you never know.

When ever I go back there after big storms, I do notice that some more have fallen and over the years I have seen this part of the beach change, because of coastal erosion, as I child I played on that part and so did my children, but I doubt that my grandchildren ever will and I would never go there with my kids now, even though they are grown. I know it's a bit naughty, but I do love that part and I always see other people there, some with their children even though there are signs warning people.

So the answer to the question Shaddy, is that it is one of the big boulders on the beach and I happened to like it because it had a big heart shape in it.
Also,if you haven't visited Shaddy's blog then pop along for a visit. Shaddy is a wonderful weaver of words and her photo's are simply lovely:) click here


I will also put up some more photos of Hastings, when I remember where I put my memory stick......oh the irony of not being able to remember where I put my memory stick!
All I do know is that I put it some where safe.

Recipes

I was sorting through a box I have with old recipes in today and realised that a lot of them are from various family and friends. Some of whom aren't with us any more and I found one that is dated 1888 and it is the oldest recipe in the box that I have full of them. It belonged to my grandmothers, grandmother....too many greats for my brain to work out. It is for a cake fruit recipe, that I grew up with, it has a couple of variations to it, but is used by my family as an every day fruit cake and also as a special cake for weddings and Christmas. Or as a gift to friends at Christmas.

Any way I got to thinking, when was the first recipe written down, so I went and did a little digging and found out these facts for us all to enjoy.

HISTORY.
The history of recipes can be traced back to the Egyptians, maybe a little further; however I am unsure of this, but I do know some of the earliest recorded recipes date back to the ever resourceful Egyptians.
The Egyptians left us old cook books that were in the form of hieroglyphic recipes for preparing foods.

Historians tell us that most ancient recipes have in fact been found in the form of stone tablets
One of the earliest recipe that has been found, is the one written in the Sumerian Language; that tells of the baking of bread, this bread is then used to make a drink in a form of a beer. It is when drank meant to be make the drinker feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful".

In about 25BC, the time of the Romans, Apicius wrote down a number of scripts or rather recipes. This is the first recording of meals being separated into courses of "starters, entrees and desserts". What we now think of as a very modern way of eating.
In his 'scripts' Aspicius mentions the facts that Roman chefs use many herbs that we take for granted today i.e. Rosemary, Basil, Fennel and Parsley.

By the 1400s, the Crusaders were bringing back foods, spices and herbs from the Holy Lands, these included all the herbs already mentioned. With the new foods, spices and herbs recipe books started to come into their own. Many of these early recipe books are now in the hands of private collectors.

With the advent of easier ways to print books, more and more households had their own recipe books and in many cases these were added to by various members of one family and in some cases found their way into print. There was also the chefs of big houses, Kings and Queens and hotels who invented recipes which are also common places recipes of today.

Television also brought us many chefs, spin offs, books, videos, and dvds. Today we have the Internet where we have hundreds of thousands of recipes at our finger tips and just a click away.


(Sumerian is the first known written language. Its script, called cuneiform, meaning "wedge-shaped". The Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Created by the Sumerians in the late 4th millennium BC, cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. Over time, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract.)

A to Z of London.

Here's a little laugh for you.

A girlfriend of mine called round today for coffee and I had just finished a conversation with my Callum, who had asked me to make some rice to go with tonight's chicken dinner that I had made a little over a week ago (he's a little fussy about food, but is in general very good). This rice had been based on a paella dish and I had managed to hide the peppers, by chopping them extra, extra small. This is how it went.

"Mum, can you do that rice with the peppers I don't like, but I like the rice, you know the flavour"

"Well, I don't really have all the right ingredients, but I don't fancy going to the market, so I'll try to endeavour to make you something similar"

"Ok Mum, you endeavour, ha ha"

Knock on the door, Callum opened it, as I headed for the kitchen.

"Hi little man, Ya Mum in"

"She's endeavouring ha ha"

"But her cars here"

"I know, I told you she is endeavouring"

"Well I hope it's not raining there, she has had some bad luck this year with the weather; and anyway where is Deavouring, she never said she was going away again?"

At this point Callum could not contain it any longer and just fell about laughing.


By the way we have always called Callum "Little Man" and his elder brother Ashley has always been "Big Man", funny really as Ashley is about 5ft 11in and Callum is 6ft 4in.

Some one once asked Ashley, what it felt like to have a little brother who was taller than him and he replied,
"It really isn't an issue for me, he's still my little brother, but what annoys me about it is when people like you seem to think it's some sort of life time achievement for my little brother to be tall. I'd like to see him, with the intelligence, drive and ambition he has, aim higher that that as a goal"

Well said that man :)