New week

Lotus tea today, Korean, it's lovely.

We had a busy weekend (as ever) - Saturday went to shovel bag after bag of lovely old horse poo for the garden, and treated ourselves to a pub lunch afterwards (we'd worked up quite an appetite). The boy was really well behaved in the pub and it was lovely to spend time together as a family - it doesn't happen enough, really. I got tipsy on 2 pints and so we came home, looked glumly at the torrential rain turning the allotment to mud, and then watched telly and drank more cider. Fun.

Sunday, after a slightly slow start, for some reason, we spent all day in the allotment. Hubby earthed up the potatoes, manured up the squash bed, dug over the brassicas bed, swore a lot when he discovered the slugs have had half the contents of the seed bed. He planted out some of the squashes - well, a bit of everything really - turks turban, soya bean, cucumber, pumpkin, and so on...

I cut down the long grass around the raised beds, weeded most of the beds, including the bindweed that was wrapping itself around the nasturtiums, the evil thing. We planted out the sweetcorn and put up all the canes and wigwams, though we still want to add some support for the mangetout.

We tried out the new-from-last-weeks-boot fair bread maker and had a lovely loaf, so had bread, cheese and jam, sitting on a picnic rug in the garden, along with a few radishes from the allotment. It won't be long before we'll have broad beans either, so that's really exciting. We finally planted out the redcurrant bush too so that's going to be exciting as well, and I still can't quite believe we have a full row of parsnips, mmm.

After the boy went to bed, we finished watching 'A Cook on the Wild Side' at last, and I very-very-nearly finished knitting Rach's 'foxy' wristband, needed for the Expo next weekend. I should finish that tonight, as it's just sewing in ends, and then I can look into what next - birthday gifts? baby presents? something for me, or the boy? I can't wait. After doing Joe's Link gauntlets, and Jo's headband, it feels like ages since I knitted something for me...

Today I'm looking at MoneySavingExpert.com again - it's been a while - and reading up on breadmaking and that kinda thing. I need to get back in the swing of being Old Style :) Tonight when hubby gets home we're going to go do some work in the garden, then after the boy is in bed, we're going to sit in the garden and drink some special tea - maybe pai mu Tan, or lotus. We usually go out with a glass of wine, which then becomes a few glasses of wine, and before we know it, we've spent a fortune on wine for the week...so tea instead, nice posh tea. Much healthier and cheaper in the long run...and probably more soothing.

I'm also making the hubbys birthday list - he sent me some ideas and I'm adding some to them - although it's 2 weeks away, we'll be at the London Expo all of next weekend, so it'll be good to get this off to everyone and out of the way. I need to find our complete costumes and check them as I have no idea where the boys clothes have gone...

I have unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. I've put a load of washing on (I'll hang it up after I get the boy from nursery). I've tidied the kitchen. The breadmaker is on (again). And now to get ready to pick up the boy :)

blogging options

It appears blogspot / blogger, despite my lack of love for it, is the only place I can have a blog without getting so annoyed I stop writing it. Hmmph.

Potential things to cover (otherwise known as my life activities) :

Tea. Mmmmmm, tea. Currently in the house is jasmine, green sencha, kukichi, lotus tea, oolong, pu-erh, uki uki, gunpowder, dandelion, pai mu tan, white tea with acai berry, 'normal' white tea, and a few fruit ones too. We love tea. I plan to start making home-grown blends this year too.

Knitting. I'm obsessed. Ravelry is my favourite site, I'm currently working on 4 projects, most importantly is a little wristband for a friends birthday. I like small projects as I only started last November, and I have an energetic 3 year old, interrupting me as I type, who makes it nigh impossible to knit around him.

Family. My son is 3, and I'm a stay at home mum. He is quite a character, and has a rather good sense of humour, although he's a loon. I'm also married to a man who would have been best off in life being some kind of absent-minded professor.

Allotment. Ours is about 60ft long, and as we've got the neighbours too, it's almost the same width. We're out there every chance we get at the moment. Broad beans, peas, salad leaves, sweetcorn, courgettes, leeks, tomatoes, mangetout, parsnips, carrots, onions, garlic, beetroot, fennel, lettuces, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, aubergines, artichokes, asparagus, runner beans, french beans, beans for drying, soya beans, salsify, peppers, chillies, potatoes, cabbages, brussels sprouts, cauliflower...and fruit. Lots of fruit. and herbs.

Japanesey stuff. Whether it be watching anime, buying kimono, or just eating japanese food, this is our other main activity. Last night we ate japanese food (thank you hubby) and two days ago we were at Oriental City spending £75 in the supermarket and having a bento lunch. I read 2 mangas I got for my birthday, and in 2 weekends time we're cosplaying at the London Expo (as Ranma, girl type for me and boy type for hubby, and P-Chan for the boy).

Foodie stuff. I'm vegetarian and hubby just loves his food. We're hoping to become self-sufficient-ish (well I am, anyway, we're not planning on having our own cattle just yet) and we often holiday based around gastropubs in the area. We perve over Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (for me, it's not *just* about the food) and love those foodie shows that are seeing different foods around the world and things like that. We don't often get to eat at restaurants (a 3 year old, and no money tend to be the main issues) but we like trying out new recipes at home.

There's a few other subjects - music, books, gigs, money-saving, being green, films, and loads of other stuff really, but nothing else is quite as huge. Those are a few of our favourite things. :)