A Photo For Friday (aka - My Aching Arse ...)

Yesterday I cycled from Firepool Lock to Maunsel Lock - total distance approx 19 miles.

I've got to say that for the last 3 miles or so my bum was aware of every single bump and rut in the cycle path despite my padded shorts and my new gel filled saddle!

It was a beautiful day though.  We took our time enjoying the sunshine and the countryside and stopped a while at the canalside tearooms at Maunsel for coffee and cake and I really couldn't have wished for a more perfect way to spend the afternoon.

so beautiful and minutes from my door!

After waving hello to Howard Jones in passing we carried on through the stunning countryside

My favorite spot along the way

This little guy joined us at the tearooms and hopped around our feet looking for cake crumbs

In more good news - it seems the gearbox in the van is not broken but rather the drive shaft had snapped which meant that the decimal point in the bill moved one point to the left and it could be fixed locally so Cornwall is back on for next week - happy days :-)

Sour Apples

The Bramleys have started to fall from the tree at the farm - it's too early - from the outside they look perfect, acid green and waxy skinned but they aren't fully ripe.  Inside the flesh is white and hard with a tartness that makes you screw up your face as it brings tears to your eyes.

I'm cooking them with plenty of sugar and cinnamon and adding handfuls of blackberries from the freezer left over from last years glut.

There are always ways to make the seemingly unpalatable slightly sweeter.

I'm not just talking about apples of course.

I'm not going to wax all poetic here (although you know I could ;) - you've got the analogy, I don't need to keep pushing it.

Yesterday could have been like munching through a bowl full of unripened Bramleys. If I were a superstitious person I might have suspected I'd got my dates mixed up and it must surely have been Friday 13th.


I posted an update on the Fudge Facebook page entitled 'Cheer You Up Tuesday' (because Tuesdays need a little help) - it's something I may or may not continue every Monday depending on whether I remember ( a little like my other initiatives really :) - for those who read this but haven't liked Fudges Facebook page this is the sketch I posted from Not The Nine O'clock News just because it makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI45Q_Rp11A

I'm not going to go into huge detail about yesterday - suffice to say it contained several impressive bangs (not all of the good variety) - a forklift truck - a tonne of gravel - an exploding gearbox - a severed wheel - a ruptured tyre - a shit load of stinging nettles and a lot of shovelling.

A series of unrelated events and incidents that left me scratching my head and thinking - WTF???

BUT!

Whilst I was running around stringing garlic around the necks of black cats and adorning myself with them and propping ladders against walls so that I could carefully walk around them SD made me a strong cup of tea, brought me a sugar covered donut, sat me on a bench in the sun and calmly started to sort out the mayhem.

Things ain't great - The trailer's pretty knackered (but it can be fixed) - the van's pretty knackered too but again, it can be fixed ...  for a price ...  probably a pretty high price ... and not in time for us to go on holiday as planned on Thursday ...

But SD's working on that too - there are ways and means and yes, we may have to amend our plans - we may not be able to do things quite how we wanted to - we may not venture as far as Sennen and Lands End and we may not be able to take Maudie the Monza with us - but we can still have fun - we can head for North Devon rather than Cornwall and we can sleep in a bloody tent or book into a B&B - We shovelled that tonne of gravel by hand between us and soothed our aching, nettle stung legs in the bath last night as we shared a bottle of wine because we're a team and we're still smiling.

Life is never all sour apples.

It's Getting All Passionate Over At The Lounge!

The Lounge is being hosted this week by one of my favourite blogger, Sarah at Slapdash Mama and the theme this week is PASSIONS.

What to include?  Where to start?  More importantly - where to STOP??

One thing I'm very passionate about is this:

Please don't make the mistake of thinking this is just an ordinary saucepan.

THIS my friends is my scrambled egg saucepan!

This pan is only and shall always only be for cooking scrambled eggs in.  It shall never contain beans, peas, meat or rice or anything else that might contaminate the flavour of my lightly scrambled eggs (the cooking of which I am also passionate about).  Anyone violating it by using a metal spoon rather than a wooden one is liable to be shot on sight (or shouted at very loudly at the very least!).

Moving on swiftly ....

To be honest, I'm passionate about many things.  Anyone who's read much of my blog already knows about my passion for the beach, for live music, for spending time at the farm with SD, the sun on my skin, for sunsets, my new found passion for cycling, for cooking and more specifically baking, for throwing myself into things without thinking and for accidentally exposing myself to my neighbours (something I have avoided doing for several months please note ;).

Add caption

I'm not a thinker or a planner - I'm a grab an idea and run with it as fast as I can kind of person leaving chaos in my wake but I'm having lots of fun along the way.

I'm passionate about my local community - about holding it together and investing in it's future when the world seems so transient and people drift in and out seemingly without a care.

I'm passionate about my photography most of which is taken on my phone because I'm too impatient to set up the camera and I just want to capture the moment.






I'm passionate abut fun and laughter and it's a rare day that doesn't see me laugh until I cry.

even when I have mad hair and the angle makes my bum look huge!

I'm passionate about the people I care about because without them the rest would be meaningless.

I'm passionate about passion - it makes my world go round.

WTF Are You DOING SD??

WTF are you DOING SD I hissed in his ear as he set off across the marquee at a gallop dragging me in his wake.

There's supposed to be a fast bit here he said sounding a little perplexed - no there isnt - yes there is - no there isn't - IS - no there fucking ISN'T - yes there IS - it goes: Da, da, dadada, diddle dee da da he crooned tunelessly in my ear.

Maybe it's now he said tightening his grip and thundering in the opposite direction warbling a little louder.

I gave up protesting.  By now we were the centre of attention anyway and short of punching him there was no getting away.

Rockin' Ricky carried on strumming  Elvis or Tom Jones or whatever the hell it was that he was singing and we continued to crash around like out of control cart horses.

SD's enthusiasm is pretty unstoppable after a few beers.  The other night he said, with some satisfaction, I might have bought you that car you like.

WTF SD???

For those of you who don't know - I DON'T DRIVE!!

We went to a classic car meet the other day and, out of all the Frazer Nashes, Aston Martins, Bentleys etc, the car that really caught my eye was the Messerschmitt.

SD had been surfing Ebay after a few drinks and stumbled across a Hudson kit car and asked me what I thought.  Very nice I said and thought no more about it until SD woke me up several hours later to tell me he'd left a bid on it.

WTF SD???

I'm fairly sure he had been influenced by Miss Mac telling him about a film she'd watched with her friend called 'The Human Centipede' (sounds like a horrible film where some weird guy sews people together, don't watch it!).

If galloping around a tent in the middle of a field serenaded by an aging Elvis impersonator watched by a crowd of bikers, low riders and farmers wearing wellies wasn't bad enough he now wanted me to ride him piggy back (which is the only way two people fit in that thing) around town WHERE PEOPLE KNOW ME with my knees jammed in his ears in something the shape and size a liquorice comfit (remember them??).

So, what else have I been up to .....  Well, this weekend specifically I've spent in a field with a couple of thousand other people (who were mostly not galloping or riding each other piggy back but who were mostly drunk at some point).  The sun shone, I singed the bits of my boobs that had so far escaped being singed, Miss Mac broke another deck chair - seriously, that girls a liability, I've no idea how she does it, she's a slim little thing with a penchant for landing flat on her backside in a pool of canvas in front of a crowd of people -

I don't know WHERE she gets it from!

I also learned that, in addition to not understanding that 'very nice' does NOT mean 'please buy me' SD doesn't understand women's clothing.  I made the mistake of asking him to do up the ties on the halter top I wanted to wear - he pulled the damned thing SO tight my chest shot up and smacked me in the face (which was on it way down) and left rope burns around my neck!

We took Maudie the Monza with us - I luff Maudie - she's a tiny retro (Miss Mac says old and tatty) caravan for Miss Mac and her friend to sleep in and so that we had somewhere to make coffee and cook breakfast etc.  We'd never used the fridge before and, to be honest, SD and I are both a bit cowardly when it comes to gas.  I've just about mastered lighting the rings on the hob but lighting the grill scares the shit out of me.  Like I said, Maudie is retro which means no ignition switch so you either have to use matches or get one of those ignition thingies (which I did).  I turn the gas on and while it's hissing like mad I wildly wave this thing about clicking it like mad totally convinced I'm going to blow us all to fuck in a great big fire ball!

The fridge is three way and, with no hook ups in the middle of a field and not wanting to run the battery down, we decided to switch it to gas.

I'll go outside and turn on the gas - you push that button to switch the fridge over and push the ignition said SD.

WTF???

Why do YOU get to be the one outside while I'm inside blowing us up?

We had a short and very terse conversation and then I took up my position, bum in the air, head on the floor, one hand on the gas the other on the ignition switch and GO!!!  Shouted SD - I start randomly pushing buttons - Is it lit?  shouted SD - I don't know!!! - Is the pilot light on???  I don't KNOW!!!  Sarah - is there a fucking flame or NOT???

I got up and ran away ....

I do love our weekends away - SD spends his time gossiping and making new friends networking - I spend my time singing my boobs and worrying about blowing us up - Miss Mac spends her time breaking deck chairs and rummaging the retro clothing stalls - it's a slightly bohemian way of life and I do sometime look wistfully at the photos my friends post on FB of their exotic holidays in 5 star luxury but then I wonder ...  do they laugh until they cry on a daily basis?  Do they hang out with a laid back crowd chewing the cud as they drink beer in the sun and singe their boobs?  Do they feel totally relaxed, completely content and so happy just being with the people they love?

I really hope so but I know I wouldn't swap what I have for anything.

A Photo For Friday

A couple of days ago a friend of mine said something about SD being pretty near perfect - after I'd finished laughing hysterically at this misconception I thought I'd write a post listing all his really fucking annoying habits little foibles just in case y'know that I've been perpetuating that myth or something ...

It was going really well and I was up to about number 37 on my list of things that SD says/does that are annoying to a lesser or greater degree when I thought that to be fair, I really ought to make a list of my little foibles too to give a balanced post.

Ok, so I'm now outstripping SD on about a 2 - 1 ratio so I've dumped that post because it's not interesting, or entertaining and can't possibly be accurate can it?

There is NO WAY SD is less annoying than me, I HARDLY EVER annoy myself for god's sake! (and I don't bite my nails ...  or write lists ... just saying ...).

I do bake though.

I had an urge earlier in the week to make Chelsea Buns - no idea where that came from - I've never made them before - can't remember the last time I ate one and they don't contain chocolate - most confusing!

Anyway, I gave in to the urge - looked up a recipe - added some grated apple to the filling because I buy apples religiously every week and end up feeding them to the chicken the following week - topped them with some cinnamon icing and ...

 VOILA
!

Actually really bloody lovely!