Baking day

I am working tonight, so today has been a bit of a marathon of baking and mixing lurid icing, in preparation for the flower show. Basically it is up to the Flower Show Committee members to produce the cakes which will be sold on the day to raise our funds, so I suspect today , a whole army of ladies (and me!) will be slaving over a hot stoves and mixing bowls in an effort to keep the hungry crowds satisfied

Who do you think you are??

I couldn't quite face the shrill voice of Ann Widdecombe who is guest presenting on LBC all this week, so I was fortunate to be able to watch last night's "Who Do You Think You Are?" while I was baking cakes for the Flower Show kitchen this morning. (Don't you just love being able to download your missed tv programmes from the BBC website?)
Who do you think you are? is often a contrived and well padded out "reality" tv show, but occasionally it surprisingly captures extraordinary human emotions and stories, and a "mystery" within actress' Kim Cattrall's own family made for some compelling viewing.
Kim Cattrall was born in Liverpool in 1956. Her mother, grandmother and two aunts were left in abject poverty during the 1930s when her grandfather disappeared from the family home, never to be heard from again, and the programme concentrated on the fate of this man and hoped to unearth the reasons for his behaviour.
However, what it actually did do in fact, was to illustrate just how ancient family secrets can damage and scar family members even three quarters of a century after they happened.
Kim Cattrall is an interesting individual. In many ways she mirrors her rather unreadable Samantha Jones character out of Sex and the City, with her rather aloof persona, perfectly modulated accent and unflappable ,polite behaviour, but amid the actor's "performance", the camera does capture brief moments of shock, anger and emotion as she unearths the reason for her Grandfather's flight...namely that he simply rejected his original family to form a bigamous second relationship, and it is these snippets of the real Cattrall, which I found to be the most fascinating viewing.
Cattrall, (using every dramatic pause in her repertoire) finally breaks the news of grandad to her mother and aunts , who then have their first opportunity in 72 years to see a photo of their father for the very first first time. Their subtle reactions, of hurt, anger and eventual closure is a revelation to watch and I found myself warming to these two generations of tough scouser women (and yes I am counting Cattrall as a scouser), who now lead comfortable and respectable lives
Cracking television!

Old Friends

We managed to catch up with Nia and George ( with Little George Beven) over in Liverpool this evening for an all too brief, but ever so welcomed reunion.We have not seen our old friends for an age, but as Nia said wistfully after a half hour of our arrival, our conversations felt as though we had only met a week or so ago!I wish we could have stayed longer but as Chris had to be up at 5.30am , we sadly had to make our apologies at 11.30pm for the drive home to Wales.They are a constant presence in our lives.....

Someone left the cake out in the rain........

I drove up to the shop this evening to buy some paracetamol and found myself listening to the song "MacArthur Park" on the radio. The surreal line "someone left the cake out in the rain" suddenly got me smiling as I remembered a "cake in the rain" incident from years ago, which at the time seemed just as bizarre as the Jimmy Webb song from 1968.
During my early years in Sheffield I was living in a tiny two-up, two down terraced house in Walkley and I was dating a girl (YES GIRL!) called Jane. She was (and still is) a bit of a sweetie and when I was working away on a course in Merseyside she very kindly re planted my garden for me and laid a perfectly flat and ever so green lawn!
Months later we split up (for obvious reasons!) and in a fit of scorned anger she sought out her revenge!,,,,did she cut up my best suit? ......nope!....did she pour my best wine down the toilet?......no!.........did she burn all of my disaster movie dvds?..........nope!.......I'll tell you exactly what she did.......
she half buried a sponge cake with bright green icing right in the centre of my new lawn!
Now I could see the funny side of this a week or so later , but at the time I was slightly miffed and totally baffled by this act of vandalism (and food wastage)...and Jane herself had to remind me that the said cake had been won by us as a couple at a pub raffle evening months earlier and she had in fact frozen it in her freezer.It was the only thing she could think of to use to comment on my behaviour.
Funny what you remember isn't it?
Jane remains one of my best friends to this date

Plant day

Chris has been off sick today, and has had a crabby and occassionally bored day in the cottage! I have taken the wisest course and have spent the day weeding and harvesting.
I collected the rest of the broad beans and have covered the cos lettuce from greedy beaks, as the sun seemed to have brought forth the wild daisies and the last of the sunflowers and sweet peas.
I may just have enough sweet peas to decorate each of the tea tables at the flower show, but have conscripted Joanne from the village to donate a few more healthier bunches. They will give the hall that "vintage" look when accompanied by the donated hand embroidered tableclothes we donated to the show two years ago!
This morning I collected a few items to enter in the flower show from my cousin and have bullied my Aunt Judy to enter several of the less popular domestic and flower classes.

i''ve just found my web cam!!!

If people think that I actually sit at a desk as I write this rubbish, please think again! This is me typing my blog on the couch this evening, with William trying every trick in his much varied repertoire to obtain my attention

I have just returned from Chicken course session 3,and still my students seem to be learning and enjoying themselves. I think that it speaks volumes that they still are making the effort to attend and all nine of them should be calling in to my field next week for their last practical lesson of feather trimming and vent checking!

I will make sure I bake them a victoria sponge and have Chris on hand with the tea tray! I will grab a group photo too!.....it will look good on my proposed chicken course web site!- cracking vindication of a job well done....tee hee....the group of August 09!

I have tons to do this week. I am working Thursday night. need to get shedloads of work completed for the Saturday Flower Show on Friday and before that we are meeting up with Australian Buddies Nia and George who are visiting family in Liverpool on Wednesday.

There are just not enough minutes in the day

I will have to get a better camera

We had a lovely evening at my brothers party even though the music wasn't quite to our taste Met up with Nephew Chris with his lovely partner Rebecca and our other Nephew pete with his ever cheerful baby Louie in tow. Louie has been taught to "sign" his needs as deaf children are,, which I thought was facinating, apparantly it allows pretalking children to communicate better and reduces frustration and bad behaviour.

He has a whole range of signs for different situations

Good food and too much beer!

Sunshine

We have more warm weather at last and true to form Albert has spent a great deal of his time sunbathing on the lane, only moving when the roar of farm tractors become too much.

I have spent the day strimming, Chris has had a sleep in as we are going to Andrew's big bash tonight...All the family are going so I hope to get a rare TOTAL family photo.

I have already enrolled 2 people on my next "Chickens for beginners " course too!