Photo diary: week 38, project 366

True love lasts forever, claims Cressida Cowell. Eddie and I are reading the final volume of Wizards of Once now. But this line full of pathos could be argued.
Depending on the stage of your life, you might reconsider what your "true love" is. In high school and early Uni years, I was infatuated with a boy who had no interest in me whatsoever. I "suffered" silently, and at that time in life I believed it was my true love. Later I was deeply-madly love-struck again, and thought I found my true love, but I didn't. I can only smile, looking at that young me.
When I met my future husband, it was my true love, or so I hoped. But you know what, my boys are my true love. And that's enough of the word "love" for now, let's move onto more mundane things.

Tomatoes keep ripening, and I need to find the ways of preserving them. I won't be bothering with the tomato sauce, as skinning all those cherry tomatoes will be one hell of a job. I've read you can freeze them raw, and then add to cooking, though they won't be good in salads, as defrosted, they go mushy.
I might do a big jar of pickles too, with mild chillies and black currant leaves.

On Monday morning we had a surprise phone call from Sasha's school, saying that his class is temporarily closed until further notice. One of the members of the staff needed to take a covid test, and depending on the results, they would let us know whether the class would be re-opened.

That was quite a bummer. Being autistic, Sasha's way of thinking is rather rigid, he hates any deviations from the routine. He was all set for school. He needs messages re-enforced constantly, so all the weekend he kept pointing to the symbols of school to me, and the school transport, and I kept telling him he was going to school etc.

And then it didn't happen, and we didn't know when he would be able to go back to school. It's not the school's fault obviously, many are now in the same position, but when you don't understand the cause and correlation, the anxiety increases double-fold.

The start of the week was challenging for Sasha, and I hope we'll have a smoother week to come.

It was a PE day for Eddie, so he was wearing his PE kit on the way to school.

Having spotted a box of apricots with a reduced label at the Co-Op, I got it for the apricot tart with jam and flaked almonds. I used the remains of the Romanian peach jam, which I bought last week, to spread over the shortcrust pastry, pre-baked for 10 minutes. 

It was a lovely easy tart to bake, and my guys gobbled it up fast.

Passing by my favourite "ghost house" in the neighbourhood. Would so love to have a peek inside. It's completely overgrown from outside, and in the attic one of the little glass panels is missing. I can see a white dove going and out. I bet it's a total shithouse mess in that attic.
There is also an off-white lacy curtain billowing by the window, and I often imagine a thin white hand waving.
Thanks goodness, Sasha's school called that his class has re-opened.

I had a lot of things planned for Thursday morning, and to set me going, had a quick coffee at The Blue Boar with my husband, before he left for his office, and I trotted off to the Romanian shop again, as well as visiting a couple of charity shops in that street.

I bought a big jar of Romanian honey, some lovely cream and strawberry waffles, sharp-tasting sheep's milk cheese and a jar of zacusca (aubergine spread). 

Last week I wrote three book reviews. The Girl from the Hermitage by Molly Gartland will stay with me for a long time. I loved this book, it struck a chord with me, and the main character is my namesake. The publisher, Lightning Books have kindly promoted my post, in a thread of several tweets. 

It was our 24th wedding anniversary on Saturday. It was a simple ceremony at the registry office, with a few friends present (and our families informed post-facto). I didn't have a wedding dress, and put on my favourite blouse, with shoulder pads, well, it was the 1990s. Of four dearest friends present at the ceremony, three are gone now. 

When I look at our old photos, I think I look so stupidly happy. Who would have predicted how my future would unfold?! And here I am, so young, beaming from ear to ear, full of hope, and very much in love.

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Photo Diary: Week 26, Project 366

Annalisa Barbieri, The Guardian's Weekend columnist is a wise lady. I admire that she doesn't just give her own opinion on whatever problem she is discussing, but consults psychologists and psychotherapists, thus presenting a more focused and balanced reply. I don't always agree with what she has to say, but I follow her column with great interest.
In the latest article she gives advice to a lady who is very anxious about "returning to the world" after the lockdown. She says that our world has shrunk, and expanding it again - safely - can seem onerous for some. And that's how I feel as well. I go out shopping, as if going to the battlefield. My husband needs to go to his office in Oxford, and the idea of him travelling by bus sends me into a mild panic.
Sasha goes to school three times a week, and I keep worrying about the risks he's taking. It's unrelenting.

I was supposed to meet up with a friend for a social distanced coffee in town, but I felt so anxious and stressed that I asked her to postpone the meet-up. I felt guilty about it later.
I need to build up my confidence to expand my world and not to transfer my anxiety to my family.

Last Sunday was Father's Day. I baked a marbled ricotta cake, which turned out very tasty. Eddie did a lovely drawing of Han Solo for his Dad, and we've also chosen a gift for him in the book shop.
I thought of my late Dad, and how much I miss him.

This is one of a very few pictures where my Dad and I are together. We didn't have a camera when I was a child, and there are not many photos from my childhood. A different era, unlike these days, when everyone seems to record every bite they eat for posterity (myself included).

It was taken on the day my Mum was in the hospital, giving birth to my brother, while my Dad looked after me. In those days, fathers were not permitted to be present during the labour. If they were lucky, they would have seen a baby held by a nurse from a window.
With my short hair I looked like a boy, but at least, I've got hair in the photo, as apparently I was a baldie as a baby, while my little brother had long locks, huge eyelashes and was utterly gorgeous.
I'm so much older now than my Dad in this photo. Wasn't he handsome?!

On Monday Eddie did one of the school tasks on Seesaw - to draw a cover for The BFG. The teacher said it was amazing, and awarded him an extra house point for this work.

I was well-chuffed, seeing that Danilo Cortellini has visited my Insta page. Not every day famous chefs look at my pictures.

I was waiting for a hand saw delivery from amazon, which I ordered the day before, so when a thin long package has arrived, I just put it aside. When an hour later, another long package was delivered, I looked at the first one, wondering if I got two seesaws by mistake.
It was a bouquet, which my friend sent to cheer me up. I almost welled up.

Another screenshot - it was so hot, my brain was melting. I hate the heat, I cannot function properly.

Another hot day, made more unbearable by the inconsiderate twats, aka builders next door. They were rebuilding the conservatory, with the music on full blast all day. I'm not a vengeful person, but I did wish a series of calamities on them and the new owner.
My potted phloxes are not doing that well. One of the plants is being eaten by some bugs. I cannot see anything suspicious, but the leaves are pretty much destroyed. Any ideas on who might be the culprit?

The tomato plants in the greenhouse show the very first tiny fruit. I'm very pleased, as these are the tomatoes I've been growing from seeds, and they've been quite a challenge.

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Photo diary: week 27, project 365

We're over a half-a-year mark with week 27. It's been another mercilessly hot week, and I can't wait for a true English summer, with rain and milder weather. I'm so not made for the heat.

We're so lucky to live next to the fields by the river. Whenever possible, we walk into the town centre through the fields and over the bridge. It's such a tranquil piece of green land. As it is technically the flood fields, I'm hoping they will never build here, though of course the greed of the construction firms has no limits, they keep trying to get permission to build housing all over the green lungs of the town. 

Eddie likes to climb over the metal fence next to the bridge, and here he is, showing off his acrobatic skills.

The fields are a perfect soil for meadowsweet, and at this time of the year, the white flowers scent the area with a sweet perfume. On Monday I walked back from school through the fields and picked up a big bunch of meadowsweet to dry. My Mum drinks it as a tea, it is a herbal remedy for stomach problems.

This is my mini potted garden next to the back door and kitchen. The phloxes are in full bloom right now, and they have a wonderful scent. The lavender attracts a lot of bees, so I'm doing my bit for the wildlife too.

On Wednesday we went to visit Sasha's new school. It is out of town, and takes about 40 minutes by car (without traffic) one way. He seemed to enjoy the visit, but it was brief, and I'm not sure he understands that this will be a permanent fixture for the next couple of years. I'm worried he would miss his old school and teachers, but there is nothing to be done about it. We were lucky to get a place in this school, all the other schools for his needs are even further to travel.

I don't often post his photos on my blog any longer, but just wanted to share this image of a happy boy on a trampoline in his new school.

On Thursday Sash had a respite day, so Eddie and I didn't have to hurry home after school. It was very hot, and we popped into The Shake Shop for a strawberry milkshake and some vintage music on the jukebox.

I enjoy looking at the interior design photos on Instagram, and decided to join in. And now I'll tell you about how staged and fake the world of Insta could be.

This painting of a lady in a hat is my Mum's artwork. She knows how obsessed I am about hats, and she painted this copy of The Parisian by the Russian artist Deineka as a gift for me. The artwork is enamel on a metal frame, and I love it. It usually hangs on the wall in the sitting room. The old novels by Dumas are on the shelves in one of our bedrooms upstairs. The mug's place is in the kitchen cupboard. For the photo, I put them all together, first clearing out the space on a piece of old furniture in the entrance hall/room, where we tend to put our hats, mail, keys and whatever random things happen to be there.
And hey presto, there is the arrangement done just for the photo.

After I posted the photo on Insta, one of the interior design pages commented on it, saying to DM them, if I wanted to be featured. I had to laugh. Our house is a tip: there are books and toys everywhere, there is no way I'd be able to appear in anything, unless it's for How NOT to do interior design features.

I bought this poppy seed cake in the Polish shop yesterday. I love their bakes, and poppy seed cake reminds me of my childhood.

Photo diary: week 18, project 365

Another week, another mixed bag of good and bad days. There was quite a bit of aggro and stress, and I'm glad to wave Good bye to this week.

I can hear you groaning "Not another Gregg's sausage photo, please". Sorry. I've picked it as a Sunday photo because there is also Sasha seen in the corner. We popped into Gregg's, got the sausage roll, but they didn't have any seats available, so we went next door to Costa, where I got a latte and a drink for Eddie. Sasha was in Costa too, with his father, enjoying a slice of lemon cake with a Pepsi.

On Monday Sash had an overnight stay at a residential place. He goes there twice a month, and we tend to go out for dinner about once a month with Eddie, to give him a full one-to-one (or two-to-one) attention. He has chosen to go to Pizza Express. I like their pizza, and also had a 2 for 1 mains voucher, which made it even better. As we walked home past Witney Mill after dinner, the sky was bright pink and beautiful.

On Tuesday I treated myself to two new paperbacks in Waterstone's. I've read very good reviews of The Silent Companions, and just had to buy it. I stopped by in the vintage shop and took the photo of the book among their glassware display.

This year we had an abundance of red tulips, but only one purple tulip has survived from the year before. Last spring I had quite a few of those dark beauties.

On Thursday morning while waiting for a friend, I admired a new window display at Waterstone's for The house with chicken legs, which is a YA book, based on the Russian fold tales. It was a sunny morning, and I couldn't find a spot without reflections of the street.

Running to pick up Sasha from school on Friday, I snapped those dog statues. I wouldn't want them by my house, but like how solemn they look, guarding the entrance.

Today is pretty hot, and I was pottering in the garden, mainly weeding. Eddie was playing in the summerhouse. I also watered the tomatoes in the greenhouses. These are three of the tomato plants I bought last week.

Photo diary: week 17, project 365

It seems the weather can't decide what it wants to be. It was a funny week, with rain most days, but also very bright sunny spells, all changing rapidly in a matter of a few hours, from rain to sun back to rain.
The previous Friday and Saturday were so hot that Eddie asked me to buy him shorts for school. We bought them on Sunday, and jinxed it. It's been raining every day since Monday, so shorts remain untouched.
On Sunday Eddie and I popped into the local Gregg's. They already know us quite well, and reach for the sausage roll before I even open my mouth to place an order. So, here is our obligatory sausage roll photo of the week. I thought you might have missed one of them last week.

There are days when I take zillions of photos, and there are days when I hardly take any. Last Monday I only did photos of the Ravensburger What IF? puzzle for the review which is coming shortly. Rather than post a photo of the puzzle, I'm going to cheat and do two photos from Tuesday.
My friend Jen took me to two garden centres by car. We went to Bampton only to discover all the tomato grobags were sold out, and later we went to the Burford garden centre, where I got the grobags and tomato plants.
I love this beautiful statue in the garden, surrounded by magnolia bloom.

Meanwhile, my own garden is full of tulips, mostly red, but there are a couple of white ones too.

Teddy Bears of Witney shop always does topical window displays, like this one, celebrating the forthcoming Royal wedding.

On Thursday morning my husband and I visited the local vegan cafe for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. The cake looked better than it tasted, it was what I would call joy-free, rather dry and disappointing.

RAF Brize Norton is not that far from us, and you often see airplanes flying pretty low over our town.

Today Eddie and I had to do a lot of shopping, including buying new trainers for him at Clarks, as his current trainers got too small for him. £40 for child's trainers seems a total racket. We walked through the fields into town, it was empty, I was singing Walking like an Egyptian to Eddie and showing him the moves. He looked around, just in case someone might see his embarrassing Mum, but copied me.

Regrowing lettuce from a stem: is it worth it?

I often grow spring onions from onion bulbs on the kitchen window sill. When I was a kid, seeing these bright green spikes on the window, in the middle of winter, when everything outside was buried under a thick layer of snow, seemed like a mini miracle.
During the recent lettuce-gate, when lettuces and courgettes seemed to be in short supply in many supermarkets, I thought: why don't I try to re-grow lettuce from the stem, as I have seen online before. My point of reference was a blog post How to regrow romaine lettuce on Getty Stewart's blog.
It will be an interesting experiment. Just how difficult might it be and is it really worth it?

I go through phases, of when I crave fresh lettuce, and will happily eat it for lunch every day for a couple of weeks, then I lose any enthusiasm for it until the next time I fancy it again. Munching trough a small head of lettuce every day, I had plenty of material to play with, both cos and gem lettuce varieties.

The instructions seem to be pretty simple:
Take a fresh lettuce (cos, romaine or gem), and cut off the bottom part/stem at about 3-4cm high.
Place the cut off part into a shallow dish or cup, filled with water. Water must reach at about half way up the stem.
Place the dishes on the window sill, where there will be a bit of sunlight.
You will need to change water every couple of days.
In the first couple of days nothing is happening, but then you will notice new tiny shoots appearing in the middle of the stem.
Wait for about two weeks for some leaves to develop "properly". Don't expect a lot of salad.

This is the result of re-growing lettuce for 15 days or so. I have waited for another week to see if it is going to grow more, but the difference was minimal.
Enough to add to a bowl of salad with lots of other ingredients, or in a sandwich, though not for a whole family.
It was a fun experiment, and you might like to do it with children. This is also a lesson on patience.

Is it worth it? perhaps not, though you get some food for nothing.

Have you tried re-growing lettuce from a stem?

Grow your own salad giveaway (c/d March 12 March 2017)

In the last month vegetable lovers were left despondent by the so called courgette and salad shortage. Some supermarkets have limited purchases to three lettuces per person. I can't say I have noticed any shortage in the shops locally. There was plenty of salad and courgettes, though when I was doing a grocery order online at Tesco the other week, salad and courgettes were indeed unavailable.
It is a good time for garden centres though, with seeds' packets flying off the shelves.
Yesterday a friend took my younger son and me on a trip to Burford garden centre, for a cup of coffee and a good browse in their gardening section.
I bought several packets of seeds - a couple of varieties of tomatoes and some herbs like borage, fennel and chamomile. I won't be growing courgettes this year. They are considered to be the easiest veg to grow, but the snails and slugs love them too much, and I am not keen on using pesticides when growing vegetables.
I have read gardening advice that growing garlic and marigolds among the salad and vegetables prevents the slugs and snails, but our creepy crawlies haven't read this advice. I remember coming one morning after planting a whole lot of marigolds on the strawberry patch, only to find them half-munched and covered in sticky trails. I have tried coffee granules and crushed egg shells. The snails win the battle.
Basically, I gave up on growing courgettes.
I always have a good crop of tomatoes in the greenhouse, and will be growing them again this year. I grow them in big pots and grobags.

I am offering a selection of packets of seeds for one of my blog readers. Some of these seeds were freebies from gardening magazines.
The winner will receive 5 packets of seeds including Lettuce (red & green salad bowl mixed), the smallest lettuce Tom Thumb (with about 1000 seeds, so you'd have plenty of salad this summer), Lollo Rosso lettuce, sweet basil and St Valery carrots.

If you don't have a garden, herbs and salad are very easily grown in pots or grobags. I will direct you to a couple of useful blog posts written by Attachment Mummy - Balcony Gardening and How to plant a garden in a small space. It's incredible just how much you can grow in a small space.

To be in with a chance of winning, please enter using a Rafflecopter form.
The only mandatory step is answering a question - What do you grow in your garden/greenhouse, on your balcony, patio? If you don't, what would you like to grow given a chance?

Also if you win, would you like some seeds of bronze fennel (a must for all fish dishes) and borage (edible flower, lovely in Pimms or gin cocktails). Just say Yes next to your answer. I will gladly share those with you, as both packets I have bought have 100 seeds.

T&Cs:
The giveaway is open to the UK residents only.
Once the Rafflecopter picks the winner, I will contact them regarding address details, if they do not reply within 28 day, the prize will be allocated to another person.
Please don't forget to leave a comment, as it is the only mandatory step, I will make sure the winner selected by Rafflecopter has complied with T&Cs.

The giveaway will close on 12 March 2017 (at midnight)

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Photo diary: week 22, 366

May said Good Bye, leaving with a scent of the white roses, which at the moment take over my garden. The rose has climbed over a very tall plum tree and the blooms cascade down, such a glorious sight. 

On Monday Eddie and I had great fun, joining the Goosebumps watch-along. We're big fans of Goosebumps, and enjoyed watching the new DVD, and pretending how scared we were. Well, perhaps not always pretending, as gnomes and talking dummies do freak me out.

Mock-orange in the garden has such a delicate scent. The bees love it.

I  have planted ten different tomatoes (not from seeds, from mini-plants) in the greenhouse, and they are doing quite well, though it's still a long way until we have the first tomatoes).

We love our daily walks in the river meadows behind the old Witney Mill. It is such a serene spot, with the birdsong and fresh air.

On Friday our friend Jen took my boys and me out by car to one of our favourite haunts aka Burford garden centre. There is a lovely playground outside, where my guys enjoyed the swings, the climbing frames and the big tractor.

Saturday: I have baked a dozen of coconut-flavoured cupcakes with white chocolate frosting. I'm quite addicted to fresh coconut chunks (I can easily eat the whole box in one go, especially with a cup of coffee, mmm), so decorated some of the cupcakes with the sliced fresh coconut.

Burford garden centre

As always, after holidays I need a "holiday" just to recover afterwards. Our Italian journey was so stressful that my brain has not been functioning properly. I swear I thought the school was supposed to start last Monday, and I was stunned to discover that we had another week of holidays. On one hand, yay, brilliant, we don't need to get up early. On the other hand, how do I keep my guys happy and busy?
On Monday, as happens at every school break, our friend Jen took my guys and me by car to the Burford Garden centre.
There is a lot to see and explore there, and we usually start, visiting the toy shop which has a marvellous phone booth from Dr Who.

Sash loves browsing in the book corner... (all the photos in this post are a mix of our two visits, in February and April, that's why the clothes are different.)

 ...while Eddie runs from one toy to another, trying to convince me we must buy them. I pointedly refuse. The prices in that toy shop are eye-watering. And so are the prices of food in the cafe. £2.75 for a cupcake?! It must be baked with a golden dust.

Coffees for adults, soft drinks and cakes/biccies for the boys. We like to sit by the window.

After a mini-repast we go outside, and look at the plants. There are all kinds of shrubs and flowers, changing from season to season.

I absolutely adore looking at the china sections indoors, both modern, like Emma Bridgewater, and vintage.
The boys find it really boring, so I rarely have a chance to browse to my heart's content.

Back in February I was admiring this lamb pitcher, and didn't realise that Sasha was taking my photo exactly when I was taking a photo of the pitcher. I later found it on my iphone, which he was playing with. He loves taking photos (takes after his Mum, I guess).

This time I wanted to buy some tomato plants but the choice was very limited, and none of the varieties they had appealed to me. We like growing yellow or red cherry tomatoes, which Eddie loves eating in summer straight off the vine.

My guys love the playground outside the car park, and if it's not raining, they enjoy climbing on the wooden frames, tractor or just having fun on the swings. Sash always beams happily, when he's on the swings.

Eddie was proudly showing me his going-down-the-pole technique.

I first visited the Burford garden centre with my friend Trudy and her husband, long before the kids-era. The centre has changed a lot since those days, having expanded a lot. My darling Trudy is no more with us, but I think of her, looking at the beautiful flowers at the garden centre.

Adding this post to #Out&About linky which Alison from Dragons and Fairy Dust and I run together.

And also to the Friday Fabulous linky created by Leta aka Attachment Mummy.