Worst Window View

Oh where do I start with the view from my window. 

I live in what was once a quaint little village, nestled on the edge of the vast wilderness that is Dartmoor, in Devon.  Picture in your mind, chocolate box cottages, windy roads and lanes, horses clip clopping along the streets and the odd primrose and daffodil sneaking out of the hedgerows.

  Well that was then and this is now... my quaint little village has become a commuter village... my lovely little town now has a road going round the outside to try to protect it from traffic and development.  My once lovely view of undulating hills and an old paper mill is now distinctly different from that picture postcard idyll.

 This is the view I used to have...

 

This is my pretty ex-stable now house.

 

and this is the view from the top three windows....

 

I just couldn't believe my luck when my view of a church, stream and pretty trees, became obscured by a indian restaurant/supermarket car park, which was then joined by the delights of a Tesco express and their car park.    I think you have to agree I do have the worst window view.  The skip is a just a wonderful addition to the overall vista.  That's only temporary obviously; temporary since last October, when a milk delivery lorry knocked down the wall.  I don't think waiting 6 months for the listed wall to be repaired whilst everyone takes advantage of the free dumping ground is too bad, all things considered.

This blog post is in answer to a call from Wooden Blinds Direct to showcase the worst view from a window as part of a competition.  If I don't win, then I truly feel sorry for whoever beats me!

My 1st Website competition

Asking someone to think back to the first web site they built, is a bit like making us remember back to days of shoulder pads and flares, dodgy haircuts and summer holidays spent camping in Bognor Regis... painful.

Frontpage, that scourge of many a would be website designer was my weapon of choice. (It was that or Hot Metal, which had come free with a copy of PC Pro or some such monthly magazine).  Easy to use and manipulate if you were savvy with the office suite, but not so user friendly if you were viewing the pages online.  Windows 95 had just arrived and amazed by how evolved it was on my little pentium with a whole 16gb of ram and connected to the world wide web by my 56k modem, I set about building my homage to Buffy and Angel and all things sci-fi.

At the time it seemed so clever, full of  every free line of code to do something that I could find, but when I think about it now, quite painfully sad and one dimensional.    I had a free hosting account on a server which was a bit dodgy, but it allowed me to host animated gif's.  They were really clever and they didn't take any programming expertise as I could just upload them like a picture.  In those days, I was all for free code, free ideas and flying by the seat of my pants.  The page was not professional in any way shape or form, but I loved it, it was my baby and I spent many hours looking at ways to improve on it, until it was a mismash of different styles all clustered around a black background.  I don't have many of the gifs saved on this pc anymore....

 

But some of them were amazing!

 

There were words flying in from all angles as the pages loaded, fonts of every shape and style clustered together like an advert for "how not to write a web page" and links that glowed and spun when you clicked on them.  I showed absolutely no respect for anyone waiting for the page to load as for me less is more was not a concept that I understood.

 

The website evolved over time to become far more polished and user friendly.  I learnt to make sure that it was compatible with all browsers, discovered Macromedia Dreamweaver and Invision power boards and ran a succesful forum from it for years.  I laid it to rest about four years ago, destined to live on only in my memory and now just build and look after the website for work, which is hosted on 123.reg.  It is because of them that I am writing this trip down memory lane as part of a competition they are running, the details of which you can find here:  http://www.123-reg.co.uk/first-website-competition.shtml , although I suspect that I may soon find myself one bored and lonely evening building another just for fun as thinking back has made me yearn for something more than just my little blog... now I wonder what freebies do they have?

 

 

Pancake Challenge

I love pancakes, my children love pancakes so I look forward to pancake day each year and often set about my design for my pancake days even weeks in advance.  This year I thought I'd try something different and go for a 3D pancake as opposed to my normal decorating a flat pancake. 

His name was Polar the pancake bear and he was very very tasty.  I also made Grizzly the pancake bear out of chocolate ice cream and white chocolate buttons but he was eaten before I could take a photo!

He's actually very simple to make.  His belly is actually made up of ice cream and strawberries, covered in two pancakes.  Head is a scoop of ice cream, with a banana nose and banana ears.  The chocolate drops on his nose and ears are just plain blobs (technical term) of nutella and  his eyes are made from nutella too.  His paw was shaped with a tea spoon and again blobs of nutella made the paw prints.  The Sweet Dreams was written on using strawberry squeezy ice cream sauce. 

Incredibly simple and delicious. 

Now to start thinking up next years creation....


This post is for a competition http://www.confused.com/gas-electricity/articles/pancake-challenge-competition. 

Share your family photos.....

I love Tots100, they always give these little challenges that give me ideas for blogs.  This month it was to share a family photo and write about why it is your favourite.

This was for me a challenge and a half.  I think my children actually thought I came complete with a camera shaped hand for the first few years of their lives as I was never without a camera of some shape or description.  As they have got older, they now realise that it isn't joined to me permanently but I still take an inordinate amount of photographs on a daily basis.  So you can imagine choosing just ONE photograph has put me under an awful lot of strain and it's been an agonising decision. 

I have two children so choosing a photo, unless I went for the family shot meant I had to decide on one child ahead of the other as well.  A decision not to be taken lightly.  The family shot was out of the question.... I only work well on one side of the lens.

So without further ado I present to you my one favourite shot.

This is M at the ripe old age of 6, in the garden with her rabbit Toffee.  It's not a majestic sweeping vista of some far flung corner of the globe.  She isn't doing anything spectacular like taking her first steps, performing in her first ballet show or winning a showjumping class on her pony.  She is just in our little back garden playing with her rabbit. 

What makes it so special for me is that we'd only just got Toffee when this was taken.  He was still really nervous of us and didn't really like us to get too close.  Maddy sat very patiently for ages, holding out a piece of sweetcorn tempting the rabbit to come over to her. The look of sheer joy on her face that she has succeeded at being the first to get the rabbit to come to her for a cuddle means so much to me and makes this my favourite photograph of all time. 

This post is Dawn's entry into the Printerpix Photo competition.

Cottage Pie... made the diet way

I love good hearty english food, but I also like to be relatively healthy at the same time.  Cottage pie has always been a favourite in our home.  It's quick and easy to make, and one meal that I can guarantee everyone will eat without moaning. 

It's a great way to get hidden veggies into the kids as well - so in my opinion it's a "double prizes" kind of dish.

My cottage pie is so simple even my 17 year old teenage son can make it.

Mince meat, potatoes, leek and carrots are the mainstays, but then I add whatever is left hanging around in the crisper drawer of the fridge.  Onion, leeks, even courgettes have found their way in.  There is no wrong or right with this one.

To make it healthy: I mix a bit of sweet pototo with normal potatoes for the topping and use a spoonful of creme fraiche instead of butter to mix up the mashed potatoe to a lovely consistency.

The meat I cook using the leanest mince I can find, and drain it well.  Oil is replaced with fry light  and instead of heavy stocks, I use onion gravy with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  Before you say "urgh"  it's a basic in every spagetti bolognaise sauce, so not as odd as it sounds and gives the sauce a lovely sweetness to it's taste.

 

Apres meal.. not alot left.

 

RECIPE

 

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 medium carrots, chopped

500g mince the leaner the better

 

2 tablespoons tomato purée

300ml onion grave

1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs

dash Worcestershire sauce

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste if you must.  I use cinnamon instead.

For the topping:

1kgg, peeled and diced potatoes or potatoe/sweet potatoe mix

dollop of creme fraiche instead of butter

4 tablespoons milk

 

 

 

1. 

Preheat the oven to 190 C / Gas mark 5.

2.

Heat the oil/frylight in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Add the onion, garlic and carrot and cook over a medium heat until soft. Add the mince and cook to brown. (drain well to remove any excess oil from the mince). 

3.

Add the tomatoe purée, onion gravy, mixed herbs and Worcestershire sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper/ cinnamon.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

4.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in water until soft. Drain and mash with butter/creme fraiche and milk. 

5.

Spoon the mince mixture into a casserole dish. Top with the mash and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

 

 

 

This blog is as a result of a post on foodies 100. What we need are some good hearty recipes that are healthy too. Our latest competition with our friends at Morphy Richards is calling out for your delicious recipe recommendations that have a healthy twist in conjunction with Morphy Richards.  www.morphyrichards.co.uk

 

 

 

Something for everyone

Something for everyone

My children have got to an age where family days out are becoming a thing of the past.  No longer do they beg to go off out for the day with mum and dad on the weekend, but instead either try to fester in their bedrooms or work out ways to escape us if we drag them forcibly outside into the fresh air for any longer than a few minutes.  M is now 12 and T at 17 wants to live his own life, but occasionally, just occasionally something comes along, catches their interest and they actually find themselves agreeing to a day out with mum and dad. 

 

So it was with a spring in my step and joy in my heart, (I did say it had been a long time since we'd been out as a family -  I forget the pain, its like childbirth) that we set off in the car for a day trip.  M true to form and like any other 12  year old insisted on bringing her friend along, but I was in such a good mood that I agreed much to her surprise.

 

And what I hear you all ask, was the magical place that elicited such a response from my brood of sullen teenagers? What nirvana had I discovered tucked away in a hidden corner of England? Were we off to the Utopia known as a free sweet shop?.  Nothing quite so elaborate actually but I had got hold of tickets to Eden, well the Eden Project in Cornwall to be more precise.

 

The day was threatening rain, not such a surprise as it was the United Kingdom, I suppose, but not disheartened or put off by the cold wintery day, we donned waterproofs and headed off.  Considering how close we live to the Eden Project, I have to admit this was our first visit in the day time. Like a lot of locals we go in the summer to their impressive range of live gigs and have wandered round the domes at night, but we have never taken the plunge of a day out there.

The beauty of the Eden project should never be underestimated, leaving the impressive entrance behind and heading out for that first look over the scene below is always breathtaking and even in winter, with storm clouds over head and a distinct lack of flowers in bloom the vista before us was stunning. 

 

The huge biodomes dominate but that isn't all there is to Eden.  They also have a stunning educational section, which is fun and interactive for all ages.  We all had a go at pumping water, turning cogs and fiddling with knobs and levers.  My son couldn't resist dressing up as a bumble bee in the tots corner.

Eden's real beauty is it's appeal to people of all ages and all walks of life.  Very few people would normally think "ooh yeah, I'm going to look around a garden today", especially my teenagers, but here their eyes lit up and they wanted to go and look at plants, learn about the rain forest, explore and indulge their senses in a feast of trees and foilage.  The biodomes are a wonder, with a great mix of education, fun and interest.  There are spaces to play, places to run and hide, things to touch, smell and see.

 

 

When we went, the ice skating rink was up and running.  There were people handing out free gnomes to good homes,.We took home Egbert and Eddard for a pledge to think about how we could conserve energy and resources. There were reindeer to look at and father christmas was in his grotto.

Egbert & Eddards family members

The shop was full of interesting gifts and ideas for christmas presents and we saw lots of people just coming to go to the shop rather than paying the entrance fee into the project itself.

My only gripe about the whole day was the bakery cafe.  The hot food, which was needed on such a cold day, was barely warm. By the time we had managed to get it onto plates, walk to the till, pay and then queue again with our receipt to collect the drinks at another till point with another queue, it was cold.  I expected the prices to be worse than they actually were, but if I was going again, I suspect a packed lunch would be in order or perhaps a visit to one of the other eateries.  T indulged in a crepe at the ice rink and declared it the best thing he had ever eaten, so we may have just chosen badly.

The Bakery

 

All in all, the day was a great success, even in the most miserable of weather you can be warm and happy in the domes and no matter how busy you never feel crowded or cramped there.  You are free to wander at your own pace and set your own agenda.  There is no right or wrong way to spend a day at Eden, as long as you enjoy yourself - and remember which fruit you parked your car in.  At the end of a long day, the last thing you need is an argement as you leave about whether you parked in grape or banana as the car parks are vast.

 

Thank you to Britains Best Days Out with Tots100 and Money Supermarket for giving me the opportunity to review the Eden Project.  If you have little kids, big kids or no kids at all have a look at their website which is here and get yourself down there,  you won't be disapointed.

These hands weren't made for doing dishes....

My dishwasher has just died on me.  In the words of Monty Python it is a dead dishwasher, it has ceased to be, it has curled up it's washing capabilities and turned it's knobs skyward.

I loved my dishwasher, it was sleek, silver and positively sexy, but now it is a useless piece of aluminum wasting space in my kitchen.  Unless I want to switch it on and listen to it churm round for five hours to do a wash and then have to rinse everything off and dry it myself that is.  The engineer has looked at it, and can't find a cause, but did say for him to start trying to repair parts I'd have to pay even if they didn't fix it and it would probably work out cheaper to buy a new one.  So I'm on the hunt for a new dishwasher and contending with WASHING UP, all at the same time.  It is too much for me to bear. 

I've got quite attached to loading my dishwasher, and then unloading it again.  My sink is small and useless, I have to angle plates into it at a particular angle and then jiggle them around to get them submerged in the water.  The sink was not one of my greatest ideas in life, I have to admit... far more style over function, but hey I had a dishwasher, what did I care that it wouldn't fit a large saucepan.  Now I find that every night, instead of spending ten minutes loading, I'm spending twenty minutes cursing and moaning, hunting out tea towels... again most of which are useless at drying as again style won over function.  Tea towels in my house were for drying your hands and looking pretty hung over the oven door.

My dishwasher on the other hand was lovingly researched before purchase.  I checked out lots of different websites, review sites, blogs and wandered round showrooms before deciding on a fantastic Zanussi dishwasher and it has been a loyal servant until now.  So I hate to criticise it or blame it for saying enough is enough, but it has left me rather in the lurch, and now the hunt begins for another.  It needs a quick wash function - I'm impatient; it needs to be large enough for a family who eat home cooked meals, not pre packed microwave food and it needs to look right (can't forget the style even when I'm looking for function).  If anyone has any ideas, give me a nudge, I'm easy to find now I'm tied to the kitchen sink or alternatively I'll be at the supermarket buying pre-packed microwave food to save on washing up and paper plates.