April activities

At last we have had some better weather....much drier and sunnier but still with lower than usual temperatures.   The garden has had a bit of a tidy up, the patio, path and garden seat has been cleaned with my new Karcher machine - absolutely brilliant.  Took about an hour and a half as opposed to the best part of a day before with the old machine!  Might do the front driveway one day.

I have made my first batch of sourdough bread and very tasty it was too.  I now have a starter which I will have to nurture so I can make some more soon.

This weekend we had our friends Marian and Roy to stay.  They like historical things so we took them to a diving museum at Stokes Bay near Gosport.  The verdict was that it was quite interesting, especially as they got talking to an 'old boy' that was an ex-diver which brought it all to life.  Whilst they were all in the museum I was walking Lucy along the seafront and into a nearby park.

We also visited Farley Mount, near Winchester:

Cookie and trouser making

Last weekend we met up with some of my cousins at Hilliers Arboretum in Romsey and then went back to Daphne's house for a superb late lunch.   There were not many flowers out this year - mainly daffodils.

As ever, I wanted to take a little something with a bottle of wine so decided to make some yummy oat and cherry cookies.

I wrapped them up in red tissue paper covered in transparent polka dot paper to make them look extra good.  Very nice they looked too.

Today I am going to start making a pair of trousers.  Not because I want to but because I just cannot find trousers that are a good fit for me. After trying on endless numbers of trousers in various shops and ordering some online, I have given up.   I even wrote to M&S to vent my frustrations but doubt that will make them change their sizes or styles.  Speaking to other ladies of around my age I know I am not alone in my views but we just don't think the people who run these organisations are hearing what we are saying.  It is very difficult to buy material with a little stretch in in that is suitable for making ladies trousers.  The colour choice is extremely limited and I have ended up with khaki - the lightest colour I could find.  Not ideal but it will have to do.  Whether what I produce will be wearable we will have to wait and see!

Will winter ever end?

It has been the coldest March in the UK since 1962.  Normally, by now, I would have dug and tidied the garden, seen all the spring flowers bloom and started cleaning the patio ready for the summer BBQs.  My daffodils have finally bloomed but there is no sign of my tulips.  I think they have drowned.  I have been thinking what to plant in my minute vegetable patch this year.  It needs to be things that won't get eaten by the slugs and can compete with nearby trees and bushes.  I am considering a rhubarb crown - not that I eat a lot of rhubarb but I am sure I can make a few things with it and freeze the rest.  That would half fill the plot, the other half of which currently contains a blueberry bush and a handful of winter cabbage plants that are, at last, coming to life.  I think I will see what happens to the the weather over the next week or two before I decide.

Today I made a sour dough starter as I have wanted to make a sour dough bread for ages.  By pure coincidence, Paul Hollywood was on TV yesterday evening demonstrating his version of such bread. Maybe that has spurred me on to do it at last.  I am quite intrigued by what the bread will taste like.

Today the news is full of the life of Margaret Thatcher who died yesterday.  She was quite a character and, whatever you thought of her politics, she must have been very determined and strong to have become prime minister and stayed in office for 12 years.

Since my semi-retirement last November I have been remarkably busy.  I think my work is likely to quieten down for the next few months so I might have time to try a few new things and think about the rest of my life....who knows?