Shaddy.

SURPRISE......HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHADDY.

Today's post is just for you. For being such a lovely Lady, my friend and just because you are you. And; I am still flatly refusing to believe you are the age you admit to. No one as vibrant as you should be defined by numbers, it's simply rude!!!!!!



I do hope that the Butler is looking after you. Yeah I know that he is Gerard Butler, but he owed me a couple of favours and I called them in. I mean after all what girl wants one of those stuffy old fashion types of butlers, when you could have Gerard for a few hours!!!!

I do hope you like the flowers, but come on girl get your glad rags on.


Knowing how much you enjoy a sweeping staircase I ordered this one in especially for you. Only you are allowed to sweep up and down it all night long if you want. But do be careful if you decide to slide down the rail. Oh it's okay to do it as Gerard will catch you at the bottom. Promise. Now that's going to be irresistible now isn't it...........go on I dare you!!!!!

As you are such a popular girl I had an enormous table laid out for you on the beach, (I know you love to be outdoors) so that every body you know can join you on this your special day.

These guys will cook anything your little heart desires. You name it and they can make it for you. Oh the joys of the blogsphere where all your dreams can come true.

In the meantime Gerard will be happy to open your champagne, only the best pink champagne for you my darling and while you sip away on it, you can also read The Times with the headlines for the day you were born.


I baked you a cake, well because it simply wouldn't be a birthday without a cake don't you know.
And; as I am still not believing your age I decided to put roses on it instead of candles.
I do seem to remember Shakespeare saying "A rose by any other name is still a candle".......lol

When the party is over I hope you will enjoy sleeping in this lovely room with it's wonderful French feel to it and I hope you have the sweetest dreams

To help you relax I have told Gerard that he must draw you a bath, in order for you to completely relax.......because......

Tomorrow you are off to this delightful retreat by a lake with a boat as I know you like to go out on lakes and fish lol. Well if nothing else it might help the juices to flow so that you can carry on with your creative writings.


Have a wonderful day Shaddy and you know that if I could really do this for you I would.

Much Love
La
xXx

visit Shaddy at Paper Cut Screams she's lovely, adorable and I'm proud to say my friend.

Looking For Unicorn Teeth.

Hello Lovelies,
Hope your all well today.
It's been a good day here in my mad hormonal life.

Kitten (Patricia) as I said before (I think) has been out of work for a few months now and has been fairly fed-up with it all. She started a course on Monday set up by the job-centre and something to do with the Government.
By yesterday at at2:30 I received a text saying "Woohoo I've got a JOB! X" (she always puts a kiss at the end of a text). It's such good news for her.

Okay, so it's not a great job and under normal circumstances she wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. But as she put it, it's better have a job and work, then look for a job while she has a job.
Kitten will be working in a warehouse distributing luxury fashion goods. In many ways it's up her street as she is young and funky and has expensive tastes. It will be starting at the bottom but the chances to rise in the company are good.

We had a small nightmare today mind you, as Kitten has to have safety boots with steel toe caps. However as I have said before, she is tiny and that includes her feet. Despite the fact that women do work in industries that require safety boots it's like trying to find Unicorn teeth. She was meant to start on Monday, but having spoken to the woman running her course and being so upbeat about the job, the woman phoned the company this morning and then got a reply saying that they would like Kitten to start tomorrow (Thursday) at 7am. Not a problem........much.

I spent ages on the computer and the phone trying to find these boots. We got them, however they were on the other side of London. Any one whose ever tried to get to the other side will tell you what a nightmare it is. Even using public transport it can take two hours. We didn't have 2hrs. The shops we needed to go to close at 4pm, they keep construction industry hours. They tend to open at 6:30/7am and close at 4pm.

The nearest person was Francis(with an i), he was 13miles from the store, took him 2 and half hours to get there. Luckily I had phoned ahead and sorted most of it out and left my phone number. They were kind enough to phone me at closing time to find out if Francis (with an i) was just about to walk through the door, they knew they were important to us.
As it was I had just spoken to him and knew he was struggling. I explained where he was and they said he was so near someone would wait at the shop for him. He got there at 5pm and they were true to their word.


Next came the trip home....nightmare for him. as he never got back until 7:45pm. He had ,had to head out to the most famous car park in the whole Universe or to give it it's real name the M25, the motorway that circles London. I managed with traffic updates to get him home another way.
Luckily Kitten rather likes her boots and his favourite football team won tonight, but I don't think he liked the 6hrs driving around and through London.

Lets hope her job goes well!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also today I cooked a big pan of Carrot and butternut soup for my freezer and a massive pan of of spaghetti bolognese. After feeding the boys the spag bol, Kitten took off with 4boxes of spag bol and 4 tubs of soup.
Now I'm going to have to cook it all over again, still at lest she will eat well, so that's one less thing to worry about. Now all I got to do is get her up at 5:30 am for her new job as she is worried she won't get up. I have also just noticed that it is now Thursday lol..

Beginning to think that the hunt for Unicorn teeth might be a tad easier.

Much Love
Lia
xXx

The Three C's....carrot, camera, common sense.

Hello My Lovelies,

Just a quick one today as you know from my last post that I headed off down The Thames River today to go sea-glass and sea-Pottery collecting, got some lovely stuff but you'll have to hold on until tomorrow to see it as it needs a scrub, in order to look it's best for you all. Now don't go getting impatient even the worlds top models like to look their best for their photo's.

Instead and because I had to get up so early, so as to get where I needed to be for low tide I thought I would share with you my own recipe for Carrot and butternut Squash Soup.

This is a wonderful warming soup, just what you need after a morning on a freezing cold Thames River. Was really mad at myself this morning as I forgot my camera and the mist was beautiful; along with the wading birds and the river it's self, it was really magic there today.

INGREDIENTS:-

Olive oil.

1 large onion.

1 1/2 lb of carrots sliced............. I don't peel carrots I just wash them.

1 butternut squash..... peeled, reseeded and chopped. (my one weighted about 3lb)

2 to 3 garlic cloves peeled and crushed.

1 1/2 pints of stock, Chicken or vegetable. (I use knorr chicken stock cubes because they don't have chemicals in them that effect my fibro, so they are very good.)

Nutmeg, sage and thyme, to your taste. Alternatives are chillies, curry powder, cumin and coriander.

Salt and black pepper to taste. (I always use sea salt for health)

METHOD:-

Using a large pan , as this makes heaps. Heat a little oil in the pan, over a medium heat. Add the onion and gently fry them until they are soft and translucent.
Add the sliced carrot and mix well. Once mixed with the onions and half of the stock. Bring up to a gentle boil and let it boil for about 5minutes. After 5mins add the butternut squash and the remaining stock.
Add the garlic, adding the garlic at this stage will give it a nice gentle garlic flavour.
Add the nutmeg, sage and thyme. I think this is better if I leave you to work the amount out for your own tastes, as we all differ. Also because you may be using different herbs and spices to me.
I try to use fresh herbs wherever I can. But dried will do the job.
Add the salt and pepper to your requirements.
Bring back up to a gentle boil, then turn it down in order to simmer the soup and slam the lid on, leave it for about 20 to 30 minutes.
To see if it is ready.....push the point of a knife into a slice of carrot and squash to see if they are cooked through.

Using a stick hand blender, blend the soup until completely smooth with no big lumps.
Now is the time to adjust any seasoning, spices or herbs that you have used.
Also check that it is of the consistency you like, if not either add more stock or water.
Bring the heat back up and serve.

You can serve it with a dollop of crème fraiche, natural greek yoghurt, or be naughty and use cream.
I often serve it with home made cheese scones or some nice crusty grannery bread.

ENJOY




This is a great soup for any of you who are on a diet or health concious as it is low in fats, but high in vitamins and fibre.

Why the title of this post
1 Carrots... this started as a carrot soup years ago and one day I threw in a squash that needed using and the rest is history, but the kids still call it carrot soup.
2 Camera...note to self..TRY TAKING OUT THE HOUSE SOMETIMES D'UH
3 Common sense, remember camera and Wellington boots. The Thames River is very muddy and my hiking boots are now a total mess.

Much Love
Lia
xXx

Direction........ Lost

Hello Lovelies,

As some of you know I'm a little bit obsessed with sea-glass and recently discovered that there is a growing market for sea-pottery, as sea-glass is running out. Mind you that does greatly depend on who you are talking to, as I have no worries finding it and I think it's a case of word of mouth.
I'm going to go off to Cornwall camping this Spring, as I have found out about a couple of really good beaches where you can find good quality sea-glass. I would tell you about them but I am sworn to hold the secret till my death or old age which ever comes first. Mind you there's no guarantee that I won't get dementia and blurt it out.

I meet a really nice man digging a big hole down by the tide lines of a beach who was doing what they call "bottling". It's a bit of an odd thing to do, but you can dig up bottles and all sorts of ceramics dating back to the 16Th century. There are places along the Thames River were there are heaps and heaps of this stuff just buried a few feet down ready for the taking.

Basically what happened was that for hundreds of years London's rubbish was taken down the Thames and dumped along the shores further down. Now people go along and dig it up and I have also found some great bits that have simply washed up on the shore.
I go mostly for the sea-glass as you can imagine not all bottles, glass and ceramics survived intact and often after a storm or a big dig you get a lot washed up. Which is good for me as I can add to the collection. The banks of the Thames River are very muddy and I don't do mud, unless I am camping in Wales lol.

Back to the man in the hole...anyway he told me about a really quite and remote beach a long way down the Thames River that is very remote and quiet. So following his advice I went in search of it, after that is swearing in blood to never tell publicly where it is or how I found it.
I did indeed find it, wasn't easy but I eventually did, Aided and abetted by my sister "E" who seems to be totally dyslexic when it comes to reading a map or directions. At one point she had it upside down...no wonder I went around in circles for 2hrs.

We got lost....a lot,..... a hell of a lot. However some times getting lost isn't actually getting lost, it's just life redirecting you to a place you would never have thought of going to. As was the case when in December 2010, we set out to find this secret beach.
Instead we found a place that is so utterly charming and beautiful.

We took these photos while there and I will tell you more about it in another post soon.



We did eventually find the beach and I am off down there tomorrow, as we have had some storms of late and there will be a fair amount washed up on the beach if I am lucky.

Much love
Lia
xXx