When you are pregnant everyone asks you the same question - how can you give up alcohol for nine months? Well, I have a dirty little secret - I could give up alcohol for nine years and still feel absolutely fine, I don't really miss it at all.
At first it does help that the thought of drinking any basically makes you want to puke more than the feeling of being awake makes you want to puke (there is a basic underlying nausea during waking hours for the first 12 weeks, you just learn to deal with it after you realise it won't go away!) but after that I can safely say that I've had no problems sticking to a little tipple now and then.
But one thing that makes me very sad is that I can't fully indulge in my first love - cheese! The rules are a bit hazy on cheese and I have to be honest I didn't take as much time as maybe I could to understand all the soft/hard, pasturised/unpasterised rules but basically it comes down to this - I can't eat all the cheese I want to eat so why make it more complicated, stick to the hard stuff and tough it out...
But today I went to La Fromagerie. Do not fear, I didn't crack and have any cheese that I shouldn't but I was surrounded by the promise of cheese to come, of the plates of cheese that I can enjoy once my baby has decided to join me in the world. I sat and devoured my delicious cheddar dreaming of the day in the not so distant future when a perfect triangulation of events comes together - baby has arrived, I've worked out how to dress myself and leave the house during daylight hours, I can eat a full rosta of cheese all over again - and hoping that that day comes soon.
http://www.lafromagerie.co.uk/
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Messing about on the River
Was out today on my friend's barge. It was so lovely to be sitting on the deck enjoying some cheese and wine.
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Thursday, 16 July 2009
A van called Thomas...
There is a new love in my life. The boy is fully aware of what is going on, in fact he has fallen in love too.
His name is Thomas. He is a 1977 Bedford CF van. He is blue. He is vintage. He is wonderful!
He does have his faults. There is a hole in his exhaust, so he is noisy. His speedo may or may not be working right now (I don't want to get in trouble of have anyone looking for the van to take it off the road based on this blog!) so we know we aren't breaking the speed limit on the motorway but on smaller road it is a bit of guess work - does this feel like 30 mph?! His reverse lights don't work, which just means that one of us has to be outside of the van whenever we decide we need to manouver...
But there is so much that is right with him. A little sink, a gas stove, a double bed, lots of cupboards that are now full of mugs and glasses and plates and tea and coffee. Little cupboards in the back doors that are now full of treats. Ugly curtains and a roof that extends so you can stand up without bashing your head, even if you are as tall as the boy.
We've already been away on a jaunt - a week in France. It was great, Thomas loved being on the road and we loved showing him off. Waves from all the other campers, integrated straight into the camping community, we felt like the OAPs we really are at heart.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Working the land...
Last year the boy and I grew tomatoes, courgettes, lettuce, a bucket full of lovely potatoes and an array of herbs on our balcony. At the time it was just his balcony, but now we are co-habiting in bliss I can claim ownership of this little stretch of 'land' outside our kitchen window.
This year we have claimed some land of our own. My Grandmother lives in North London and over the winter, before my Grandfather died, we spoke to them about taking over their greenhouse, fruit cage and a small patch of overgrown earth right at the end of their garden. They are happy to have some young people, enthusiastic and giddy at the sight of so much space to work with, to take it all in hand.
It was a tall task but once you are bitten by the growing bug there is little that you can do. The desire to have some land, something that you can dig and grown in is just too much. The idea that we couldn't grow anything this year was just too much to bear, or being confined to the balcony again when this wonderful piece of land was available. I'm also quite particular, I'm only interested in growing vegetables, growing something just to see it flower seems overwhelminly pointless, if you can't eat it then why would you bother?!
Throughout March and April we have been preparing our patch, ready to sit back and watch everything growing. the fruit cage has raspberries, strawberries (in their own raised bed), red- and blackcurrants and somewhere in there some blackberries. I say somewhere in there, the whole of the ground was covered in weeds and a bramble had come over the fence, possibly from the alloments that back onto the garden, possibly from next door, or possibly both! The boy spent whole days with the thickest gloves we could find on pruning everything that looked vicious and thorny. Talking to my Grandparents it appeared that they had had a blackberry bush but confusion with the gardener meant that it had been dug up. But then, in amongst the current bushes we found treasure, two small shots with no thorns, growing up from in amongst the brambles. We have high hopes that this is the blackberry my Grandparents planted, a thornless variety to save my Grandmother's arms from a similar fate to the boy's! It has been carefully weeded around and has begun to grow - watch this space!
Gardening is a cheap pursuit, a few good tools go a long way. But not that we would know as we are surrounded by the most amazing array of tools. My Grandmother's greenhouse has pots: terracota pots, pots that she made herself, plastic pots that she has saved, trugs, a little stand to kneel on when you are planting, trowels, forks, tools to plant out seedlings, canes to prop up tall plants, hanging baskets and more. The garden shed is an aladdin's cave of everything that a gardener needs. Every tool and gadget, garden wire, plant food, the netting for the fruit cage, spare clips for the greenhouse. Everything is perfectly placed, tidied away, even though it is years since anyone used these implements for gardening they are laid out like someone was in there just yesterday.
And so, yesterday we went to check on progress, plant a few last veggies and weed amongst the fruit. This year we are growing strawberries, raspberries, red and blackcurrants, maybe some blackberries, potatoes, broad beans, mange tout, onions, spring onions, carrots, courgettes, aubergines, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, chillis, rocket and parsley. On the balcony we have a dwarf apple tree and our herbs have come back all over again. We are going to add a few tomato plants and some lettuce that we can pluck, freshly grown, to add to our meals. It is hard graft but watching things grow is just about as exciting as the summer can get!
This year we have claimed some land of our own. My Grandmother lives in North London and over the winter, before my Grandfather died, we spoke to them about taking over their greenhouse, fruit cage and a small patch of overgrown earth right at the end of their garden. They are happy to have some young people, enthusiastic and giddy at the sight of so much space to work with, to take it all in hand.
It was a tall task but once you are bitten by the growing bug there is little that you can do. The desire to have some land, something that you can dig and grown in is just too much. The idea that we couldn't grow anything this year was just too much to bear, or being confined to the balcony again when this wonderful piece of land was available. I'm also quite particular, I'm only interested in growing vegetables, growing something just to see it flower seems overwhelminly pointless, if you can't eat it then why would you bother?!
Throughout March and April we have been preparing our patch, ready to sit back and watch everything growing. the fruit cage has raspberries, strawberries (in their own raised bed), red- and blackcurrants and somewhere in there some blackberries. I say somewhere in there, the whole of the ground was covered in weeds and a bramble had come over the fence, possibly from the alloments that back onto the garden, possibly from next door, or possibly both! The boy spent whole days with the thickest gloves we could find on pruning everything that looked vicious and thorny. Talking to my Grandparents it appeared that they had had a blackberry bush but confusion with the gardener meant that it had been dug up. But then, in amongst the current bushes we found treasure, two small shots with no thorns, growing up from in amongst the brambles. We have high hopes that this is the blackberry my Grandparents planted, a thornless variety to save my Grandmother's arms from a similar fate to the boy's! It has been carefully weeded around and has begun to grow - watch this space!
Gardening is a cheap pursuit, a few good tools go a long way. But not that we would know as we are surrounded by the most amazing array of tools. My Grandmother's greenhouse has pots: terracota pots, pots that she made herself, plastic pots that she has saved, trugs, a little stand to kneel on when you are planting, trowels, forks, tools to plant out seedlings, canes to prop up tall plants, hanging baskets and more. The garden shed is an aladdin's cave of everything that a gardener needs. Every tool and gadget, garden wire, plant food, the netting for the fruit cage, spare clips for the greenhouse. Everything is perfectly placed, tidied away, even though it is years since anyone used these implements for gardening they are laid out like someone was in there just yesterday.
And so, yesterday we went to check on progress, plant a few last veggies and weed amongst the fruit. This year we are growing strawberries, raspberries, red and blackcurrants, maybe some blackberries, potatoes, broad beans, mange tout, onions, spring onions, carrots, courgettes, aubergines, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, chillis, rocket and parsley. On the balcony we have a dwarf apple tree and our herbs have come back all over again. We are going to add a few tomato plants and some lettuce that we can pluck, freshly grown, to add to our meals. It is hard graft but watching things grow is just about as exciting as the summer can get!
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