June : Part 1

So onwards to June which always starts off with a celebration.

'28'

1st of June was our 28th Wedding Anniversary.  Got a dozen gorgeous red roses, and we  went over to Castleton for the night, which was really nice.  The Castle Hotel where we stayed was a bit disappointing, not quite the delight inside that it appears from the outside, but we made the most of it. We did have a lovely meal at the Bulls Head over the road though and at least we didn't have far to walk to our hotel!!

Castle Hotel

The girls exams are all finished and done now. Jenny has finished her finals - woo hoo.  She looks very tired but happy to be all but done with university now.  We have one last trip down there for her graduation towards the end of the month.  It will feel really strange not having to make the journey up and down to Cambridge once a month. She has a job in London to look forward to however, which we are all very excited about and no doubt we will be spending the next couple of months helping her to look for accomodation in the big smoke.  

Becky likewise has finished her exams - yeah! We have  a series of university open days coming up, so lots of visits around the country over the next couple of weeks.  Her list is Durham, Warwick, Oxford, Manchester, York and Dublin. 

First gig of the month was Elvis Costello at Sheffield City Hall. Brilliant night.  He has a wheel of fortune (with selected songs) which he invites members of the audience to come up on stage to spin. He will sing whatever the wheel stops at, unless it's a jackpot, in which case the person who spun gets to choose.  Great night. 

The Elvis Wheel of Song

 

I had a lovely night out at my friend's 30th birthday party last night. The theme was Speakeasy and we were required to dress up in 20's attire.  So we all got our flapper on and had a wonderful time.  The venue was Maison Mesame in Chesterfield.  It was lovely, gorgeous decor, fantastic garden, and the food and service  were second to none.

The lovely Helen

Some Flapper

The weather has been fairly mixed so far this June, but I decided that as we are not likely to see any frosts this side of autumn I would visit the garden centre and get my bedding plants.  Have spent a lovely afternoon in the sun clearing and deweeding the top patio, as well as potting lots of petunias, geraniums, violas and labelia.  I remembered to put the slug pellets on this time so hopefully they will last a wee bit longer this year.

Before

After

2013

So, here I find myself halfway through 2013 without one little post made.  It's all good, it means life has been busy, which also means life has been exciting.

So a quick recap of the year so far.

January saw The Gathering and a meet up of 50 or so amazing people who make up a group called The Wasting Land.  Grown from the early seeds of a website and community called Distant Warning this year we celebrate our 10th anniversary as a group.  The logical place to have a get together was The Gathering, an annual music event in North Wales which celebrates the music of a band called The Alarm and their lead singer Mike Peters.  What can I say about the weekend. It was very emotional.  I'd taken it upon myself to organise a party for us all on the Friday night.  There were a few logistical problems when we got to North Wales, food to buy, a room to set up, all those things associated with preparing for a good night.  So I was a little on the fraught side when things kicked off around 6pm although a few select beveridges helped to chill me out. It was a great night with some lovely folks and something I will never forget.  

The whole weekend was special, as well as the music we did a dip in the sea for the Love Hope Strength charity on the Saturday morning, great way to dispel a hangover whilst raising some cash for a worthy cause. 

Play it Skinny

Mad People

Saturday night's alright...

Chilly Sunday Morning Wasters

February we celebrated Becky's 18th birthday with a trip to Dublin.  Most things that could go wrong, did go wrong, starting with us missing the flight out there early on the Wednesday morning.  Fortunately our car was at East Midland's Airport so it was a change of tack and we headed off to Anglesey to catch the ferry over to Dublin.  After the initial shock of missing the flight, we quickly decided to turn the disaster into an adventure and we stopped at Tesco in Conwy to get  bottle of champagne and some nice snacks so we could toast Becky in the middle of the Irish Sea.  So instead of arriving around 9am in Dublin, we got to our hotel in Sandymount at 7pm.   We had a lovely few days in and around Dublin, got to see Of Monsters and Men a band Becky had wanted to see.  Another band we had tickets for, Fidlar, cancelled their gig, so that was a bit of a bummer as the whole trip had been organised around them. 

RAW at the Guinness Factory

Guinness Factory

The trip home was not uneventful either.  Becky and I flew home, whilst Simon got the ferry back as he needed to pick the car up from Holyhead as we'd gone over as foot passengers.  We did catch the flights back, without incident, but on the train home from Derby Becky asked  if I had housekeys.  I didn't. Simon had the only set we had taken on holiday with us.  This was Saturday and Becky's actual birthday.  We had arranged to go to Fancy's in Sheffield to pick up her birthday cupcakes and to have a spot of lunch but we were locked out of the house.  Our kind neighbours let us rest in their house for a couple of hours while they went to the garden centre, then Becky and I decided to decamp to the pub for some Vodkas.  Becky wasn't well impressed at this stage - she was desperately tired as we had been on the go since 5am - and was going out clubbing with her friends that evening.  As the afternoon progressed she got messages from this friend and that to say they couldn't make it - her birthday celebrations were going down hill very fast.  I felt so bad for her. Simon got home about 3.30 and let us all into the house with our cases, we promptly turned around again and headed out to Sheffield to Fancy's for something to eat and to pick up the cakes.

Happy Birthday Becky

March was predominantly gig month and the busiest month so far this year socially. It started with a birthday gig in Cardiff to see The Alarm.  I've always wanted to do a 1st of March gig in Wales but never managed it so far.  It was great to have a meet up with some of the Wasters as well as a trip to see Simon's Dad.  Wonderful weekend all round.  We also got a chance to present Mike with a cheque for the money raised back in January when we did our dip in the sea.

 

Love, Hope, Strength Wasters

Next up we saw Stiff Little Fingers ably supported by The Men They Couldn't Hang.  Great night.  SLF are a band I have loved for almost 30 years yet this was only the second time I've seen them play.  We managed to get tickets for a warm up gig Kasabian were doing at the Dome in Doncaster.  Another disaster waiting to happen when the tickets were left at home, so we missed the beginning of the gig as Simon had to go back for them.  Then Becky felt ill towards the end of the gig so I took her out into the fresh air until the show had finished. They were so good though, and it was great to see them with a smaller crowd.  We also had tickets for Stereophonics in Doncaster.  I was ill so Becky used my ticket.  Apparently I didn't miss that much!  Finally Black Rebel Motorcycle Club played in Leeds at the end of March.  They have a powerhouse of a drummer and I forgot how the force of it goes right through your body.  It had been a few years since I'd seen them and good to hear their new stuff.

We also managed to fit in a weekend in Whitby with our amazing Stockport friends.  Great weekend with lots of fun and loads of laughs.  The Wigglers did some fantastic cover songs at The Station on the Saturday night - top night.  Loved every minute.

The lasses

The lads

The Wigglers

April was all about kittens.  We got 2 additions to the family called Dandelion and Burdock. They are mad as hatters and have really added an extra dimension to family life.  I didn't think I was ready for another cat yet after Pepper had died, but Jenny and Becky mounted a campaign which involved bombarding me with for sale adverts of the cutest kittens they could find via email.  Of course I capitulated and am so thankful that I did.  We have two of the most insane but cutest little kittens ever and I love them to bits.

I managed to squeeze in another couple of  April gigs seeing Frank Turner in Leeds and Birmingham.  Leeds co-incided with Record Store Day - which saw Becky and myself queing outside Crash Records in Leeds at 5 o'clock in the morning in the pursuit of vinyl.  Madness!!

Another of what was now becoming a monthly event - a mini-Waster meet up at the Frank gig in Birmingham. A great night with Nikki and Simon and copious amounts of Sailor Jerry Rum made for a fun time!

Wasters do Brum!

Wasters do Rum!

Just so you know that the music isn't always about established bands, its good to support what is happening in Sheffield and when I got an invite down to the launch party of The Monday Club's debut album (thank you Jonathan!) I was keen to check them out.  The Monday Club have a great sound, as do The Downtown Roots who were one of the support bands. Was a lovely night and good to catch up with Jonathan again, even if the music took the place of any coherent conversation!

May brought my final assignment for my course - the longest one yet so the most challenging for me so far.  The last block of the course was called Place and Leisure.  It looked at holiday destinations at the turn of the century and now, significant places of interest such as Stone Henge as well as learning what different philosophers deemed to be the best way to use our time and leisure time.  

I've thoroughly enjoyed this year's module - I loved the variety and the challenge that studying various topics brought.  I've discovered things I've never heard of like the Benin Bronzes.  I'm not much of a one for reading about wars, but studying Stalin opened a back door for me to sneak in and gain a better appreciation of that kind of literature also.

May has also brought A level exams for Becky - and Jenny put the finishing touches to her project for her final's at uni, as well as revising for her exams in June.  So a pretty tense time all round in the Woods household. 

We did manage to fit in a visits to Cambridge to do some punting with Jenny, and another visit to Newcastle to see Eileen, Richie, Les and Micky.

Punting with Jenny & Becky

Newcastle with Micky & Eileen

  

My lovely friends, and fellow Wasters Michele and Rev were over from the states.  We squeezed in a late night  meet up with Michele, her husband Dietmer and mutual pal Rue around Manchester Airport the night before they were flying off to Germany for the second leg of their holiday.  So pleased I took the time out to meet up with them, they are so lovely.  Rev was over from Oregon later in the month which saw another mini-Waster Gathering of Rev, Rue, Liz, Glenn and myself and friends Chris, Babs, Bridgett and Terry. It was absolutely wonderful to catch up with our more far flung members of the gang who we don't get to see often enough.

Rockin' Rev (front right), Wasters and Friends

May couldn't escape without us having at least one gig and it came in the form of The Everley Pregnant Brothers who played a cracking set at The Devil's Arse - aka Peak Cavern out in deepest, darkest Derbyshire.  With the lovely Sheila and Paul as company, it was a right laugh and a great way to end the month.

With Shaun from The Everly Pregnant Brothers

Just writing this and looking back at the past six months I realise what an incredibly privileged person I am to know so many lovely, lovely people, and to get to enjoy some of the best of times with them, what an incredible year it has been so far.

  

Life has been busy ...

... and I didn't realise it had been so long since I last posted here.

I've taken on some extra hours at work helping to set up a new clinic to monitor people who have had fragility fractures, ensuring that anyone over 50 who has had a fracture is offered a bone density scan (DEXA Scan).  The aim is to catch folks who may have osteopenia or osteoporosis and get them onto a treatment pathway early.  That's added another 10 hours to my working week, which is tiring but has been so enjoyable.   We started collecting the data in June but had to go all the way back to January, so it has taken until now to get up to date.  Intense but worth it as we're now just working from the previous week, so hopefully from here on in things will be a little less mad.

As if that wasn't enough I decided to embark on a Humanities Degree in October as well!!!  Yes, I am a crazy woman!!!!!  As I'm studying part time, I decided the only way to cope would be to do it over 6 years.  So far it's been great and I have 2 assigments done and dusted.  I'm just awaiting the results of the second - fingers crossed I have done ok.  

This first module is 8 months long and covers a wide range of stuff that comes under the headings of Reputations (Cleopatra, Stalin, Dali Lama, Dr Faustus), Tradition and Dissent (Plato, poetry, Christianity, Ireland and music), Cultural Encounters (the art of Benin, changing relations between Africa and Europe, From Greece to the Middle East, and Seamus Heany) and finally Place and Leisure (leisure, purpose and the meaning of life, sacred space and landscape, leisure in the Roman villa and the seaside). So an absolutely huge variety of subjects to cover there.  Some will be very in-depth, some we just skim over the surface - but it's all hugely interesting.  So that is just the first module - then I have to decide what to follow it up with in October 2013. 

With trying to fit in a social life as well, the usual round of autumnal gigs, and pre-Christmas visits to family in Wales and Newcastle, I've almost met myself coming backwards.  There has been little time to catch up on housework, so yesterday I had a mad, whirlwind of a cleaning session through the house, and barely any time to even think about doing anything craft-wise.

When I haven't made anything for a while I start to crave a creative outlet.  So subconciously I have been building up to doing SOMETHING - although I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be.  After a mad long shopping session this morning looking for party clothes (urghh) - I decided to reward myself with visit to Hobbycraft.  I wasn't intending buying anything there, honest, just wanted to browse through the ailse and get a bit of a creative fix.  However, I've got some little gifts for the folks at work and wanted to save a bit of cash on gift bags, so was really pleased to find some blank white gift bags in, would you believe it, ailse one!  How fortuitous!!  I also found some plastic Christmas stamps for £1 each, so bought a couple of those and a red stamp pad and I was off and running.  

As you can see below I've decorated the front of the bags with a stamped scandanavia snowflake design and made some stamped tags to attach to the handles.  It was so nice to finally do some crafting and I feel all fulfilled now.  I was hoping to get down to making some Christmas cards as well, but I think realistically I am going to have to send some shop bought ones this year.  Maybe I will get an evening or two to sit down and tackle them, but I've decided not to put myself under any pressure.

So now you know why I've not posted in a while.  I'm pleased that as yet I haven't had any mad panics or been overwhelmed by the workload.  I made a decision when I knew I was going to be studying that the only way I could manage all of this was to compartmentalise my time.  So  when I have a study day, I focus completely on studying, then put it out of my head until my next study session.  When I'm working I concentrate on work etc ... so far the plan is going great!

Foodies!

Here's a couple of low-fat but very, very, tasty recipes that I've made this afternoon.

The first is Sweet & Sour Chicken and the recipe comes courtesy of the Hairy Dieters (Bikers) which you will find here

It's surprisingly quick and easy to make - and from all accounts tastes as good as a take-away:

Serve with a small portion of boiled rice.

Edit: This one went down so well with the husband (and that's a tall order!) that I'm going to make a quorn version of it for myself later in the week.  

The next one is a Baked Ratatouille and is a Weight Watcher's recipe, although I've tweaked it a little bit to my own taste.  Here's a photo before I cooked it:

Ingredients

1 red onion

1 clove of garlic

4 oz aubergine

1 courgette

1 small tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tsp mixed herbs

1 tsp capers

3 tbs breadcrumbs

1 tbs sunflower seeds

I didn't have sunflower seeds so I used pumpkin seeds and pine kernals instead - they both have a lot less calories than sunflower seeds so that's a win/win.  I also doubled up on all the ingredients as I had a huge aubergine to use up - so the ingredients above are for one very generous portion, whilst the photo shows at least two.

How To

1. Pre-head the oven to 180c

2. Slice onions, crush garlic, chop aubergine and courgettes into 1" cubes.

3. Combine these with the tinned tomatoes, capers and herbs in an oven-proof dish

4. Mix breadcrumbs and seeds and sprinkle a layer on top of the vegetable casserole.

5. Bake for 40 minutes. Cover with foil once the top begins to brown to save burning.

Serve with pasta or baked potato or eat by itself for a light meal.

Herbs & Spices 

Megarelly slow start to the day ... felt completely drained of energy and lacking in any get up and go. I've probably been too much of a busy bee over the past week or so. 

So took it easy until I started to feel better ... which was about 4pm!!! 

Still - burst into action once I was up to it and whizzed around the house. Back to work tomorrow and the only thing left on my week's 'to do list' is my ironing but I'll do that while watching telly tonight.

Was sorting through some boxes and found a big box of herb seeds I'd been gifted for my birthday. I hadn't exactly forgotten about them, more was at a loss as to where to plant them as the only available bit of garden seems to have morphed into Pepper Cat's toilet and ... well ... ratatouille a la cat pee doesn't really appeal. !!! 

Simon had the bright idea of putting them in a container so it was just a case of finding one the right size, as you have to plant them box and everything. Found a nice curver box in the garage which was perfect - so finally got around to planting them. Hopefully better late than never.

I look forward to reaping a tasty crop of assorted herbs! 

 Box 'n' all

 

All nicely tucked in for bed.

 NOW GROW !!!

PS - I lied about the Spices.

My very industrious and creative weekend!!

Friday. I re-painted the bathroom ceiling - not very exciting to look at but we get terrible mould - so I cleaned it all down, and have used anti-mould paint.  Shoudn't see another spec for 5 years!

Saturday. I refurbished my garden bench - 3 years out in all weathers has left it a little worse for wear.   Took me the best part of the day but I'm so pleased with the results.

Before

 

During

 

After

Sunday.  Linda, one of the nurses in our office is 50 next week.  We've had a collection and as her and hubby John are in Cornwall for their hols next week, we thought we would treat them to a meal at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant.  So it has fallen to me to make a nice little wallet and card to give her.  

Pretty pleased with that little lot - and feel like I've put my week off to good use!  In fact I'm off to put me feet up now and read my book!

Satisfied!

I have satisfied my creative urges for the day!

I've been a little buzzy bee sewing away all afternoon and evening.

Here's today's spoils!

Here's the little heart idea I mentioned in my last post.  I've mounted it on some dark red felt (the lighting isn't too good here) and used some thick cotton ribbon as the hanger. 

As well as hearts I adore Roosters and have been wanting to make a rooster hanging for the kitchen for a while.  This is the stitched piece which I have literally just finished.  It needs pressing and mounting.  Not sure whether to put it on a black background or red - I'll try both and see how they look.   I'll report back when its' all finished.  I really enjoyed making this - the rooster design I found on the internet but the border was my own idea.

A finally I did another little heart possibly to mount or I may put it in a frame that I have waiting to be used.

Crafty!

Isn't it always the way.  The day before I go back to work inspiration strikes with a nice little craft idea.

I took some embriodery on holiday with me back in May and wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with the finished result.  I decided to make it into a wall hanging - so backed it with some nice green material and made a hanging rope from some string plaited together.  That's wasn't my inspired idea - but it has led me on to thinking about making some smaller hangings.  If you know me, you'll know that I love hearts, and my idea is to make some small hangers with red embroidered hearts on.   So that's this afternoon's tasks. I'll post a piccy up when I've done my first one.  I think I might make a start on some Christmas ones also ... 

Meanwhile here is the one I did today:

 

Sunday

Spent most of the morning and early afternoon cooking. We intended going out for a walk into Derbyshire around 4pm (weather permitting) so I decided that I needed to make the lasagne for tea early and ready just to heat up for when we got back.

Well, one thing led to another, and I had some avocados to use up - so the first thing I did was pull up a recipe for guacamole that I'd found recently.

I've never tried making it before but was really pleased with the results, so much that I had half of it for lunch. Healthy and raw! I'll get there in the end!!

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 red onion,finely chopped
• 1 tsp chili (I used another frozen chili cube!)
• 2 tablespoonsCoriander
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 ripe tomato

How To Do

Cut avocados in half. Remove seed. Scoop out avacado from the peel, put in a mixing bowl. 

Mash the avocado with a fork

Add the chopped onion, coriander, lime juice, chili and salt  and mash some more.

Keep the tomato separate until ready to serve.

Remember that much of this is done to taste because of the variability in the fresh ingredients. Start with this recipe and adjust to your taste.

Pop in a dish with an airtight lid and put in fridge until you need it.

Just before serving, add the chopped tomato to the guacamole and mix.

I got a bit carried away and also a made a huge pan full of butternut squash and red pepper soup (thats lunches for me and Jenny sorted for the next few days) and some stuffed peppers.  Finally the thing I set out to do, I made the lasagnes!  A meat version and a veggie version. As I'm trying to stay away from dairy food, the stuffed peppers are for my tea which I might serve with the rest of the guacamole from earlier, and the veggie lasagne will do Jenny for tea today and tomorrow.

Oooh I feel all organised now!

The Stone Roses Save the Day!

Quite a pleasant day today! Becky is off on a field trip with school next week - to Whitby I believe! She needs some wellies so her, I and Jenny trooped off to Meadowhall yesterday to see what we could find. I half expected everywhere to be sold out as we have had so much rainfull this month (as of Thursday it was the second heaviest rainfall in June since 1910 - and may have gone into first place by now as Friday and Saturday were horrendous). 

We were really pushed for time though as Simon was taking Becky on a mystery tour (more of that later) so after a quick bite of lunch, Jenny went in one direction and Becky and I in the other. Walking past Republic a rail of Stone Roses t-shirts caught Becky's eye - they were reduced, and she's been after one for ages, so I thought I would treat her. The queue was really long and I was concious of the time, and that we'd still not bought what we came for when my eye caught shelves of trendy wellies over the other side of the shop. Ha ha - they had leopard skin or union jack wellies - Becky opted for the Union Jack ones. Cool Britannia. 

So panic over, and the Stone Roses (t-shirt) saved the day as we still had about an hour to spare so had a nice wander around doing a bit of window shopping. 

So we got back, and as Simon and Becky haven't been seeing eye to eye on much lately ( exam fever and uni choices, having a tidy bedroom and 'how many gigs are you going to this week?'!!!) - Simon decided that it would be nice to have some one to one time with her so organised a mystery tour. 

He took her to Starbucks (her second favourite place on earth) then to the cinema in Sheffield - they're both big fans of chick flicks and I think they saw The Five Year Engagement. Afterwards, the ultimate in Becky treats - her actual favourite place on earth - Nandos. I think that did the trick they were actually communicating normally when they got back. 

Jenny wanted to go to the cinema too so we headed off in the opposite direction to Chesterfield to see Men in Black III. Great film, with a really, really nice ending that I wasn't expecting. Made me go all 'ahhhh' and gooey. 

Food today was Cornflakes (and more rice milk!! Lunch was a very naughty but nice pizza hut deal, and tea was pasta with marscapone and tomato sauce. I'm not anticipating having lost any weight when I way in tomorrow again. I have incorporated some exercise this week though, which can't be a bad thing. Two cycle rides on Tuesday and Wednesday and a 3 mile walk on Thursday and again on Friday. I feel thinner, healthier and fitter, but the scales don't seem to be budging much! Oh well!!!