Today

Whatever a day might bring…..

by

Thirsty Thurs….ummm…Friday

DSC_0130Yeah I know, Thirsty Friday doesn’t work quite so well, but I had to share this one with you.  Saw this in the shop yesterday and couldn’t resist. After all I like beer and I like rum (yes, I do like Pina Colada’s…) so what’s not to like about rum flavoured beer? Not only that, it’s got a scary skull on the bottle and it’s halloween time… perfect (‘cept I couldn’t wait for actual halloween to drink it..and I generally don’t approve of halloween – yes, I’m a grumpy old biddy).

Anyhoo, as you can see I have now sampled a bottle and can give you my results:

Meh. Yeah, it’s ok.

It has a somewhat honey’d rum flavour – a bit sweet.  Personally, I’d rather have a nice pint of real ale by a log fire in a traditional English pub, or an iced lager on a summer’s day, or even better, a big ol’ rum cocktail whilst watching the sunset from a soft sanded Caribbean beach.

But hey ho, it was quite nice to down a bottle while being diverted by the new series of Big Bang Theory last night (yay, it’s back!).

Have a good weekend! 🙂

by

Thirsty Thursday

DSC_0082Today’s thirst quencher is…

Lavender Milk

Yeah, I know, it looks like a glass of bog standard milk, but believe me, it isn’t.  It is light, frothy and fragrant, like drinking a cloud suffused with flowers.

It’s been my number one non-alcoholic summer drink since I found the recipe in a magazine last year, and I drink gallons of it, choosing to forget the sugar content, and convincing myself it must be healthy.

I pick the lavender heads from my garden (sorry bees) and making the syrup fills the kitchen with their scent. The syrup lasts for ages if kept in the fridge, so I make a biggish batch and it lasts for half the summer 🙂

To make the syrup just melt 100g of sugar in 100ml of water. Once the liquid is clarified add the flowers of 10 lavender heads (stalks removed) and leave for a minute or two on a very low simmer.  Remove the liquid from the heat and leave to infuse for about 40 minutes or so.  Then you can strain off the liquid into a sterilised container, seal it up, and store it in the fridge.

To make the Lavender Milk you need:

A handful of ice-cubes

As much milk as you fancy (i use semi-skimmed, but it’s your choice!)

Lavender syrup to taste

You can, of course, mix it all up in a glass, but I just bung it all in the blender and give it a good ol’ whizz.  Bob’s your uncle… A glassful of Summer!  Enjoy x

by

Monday Motto

Oh, I do love a Latin motto, and this one is one of my favourites:

Nec Aspera Terrent

Which apparently means ‘difficulties be damned’.

I’ve picked up this translation from the Wikipedia page on the Kings Liverpool Regiment, who, along with other regiments, use this as their motto, but other sources, such as that on the Latin Discussion forum, suggest it’s more literal translation is ‘and the rough doesn’t deter’ or ‘and the tough stuff doesn’t scare [us] off’.  They all mean roughly the same I guess, and I like the brevity (and alliteration) of Difficulties be Damned, so I’m plumping for that and will be saying it at every opportunity this week! 🙂

Have a great Monday everyone!

by

Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Busy!

Since my post yesterday bemoaning my broken Sooty eggcup, it has come to my attention that some of my wordpress friends have not heard of Sooty (stands back in horror…!)  This seems astonishing to me, but then, he has been around in England since before I was born (blimey..I hear you say…), created by Harry Corbett in 1948.  His TV show has been aired since the early fifties.

Sooty is a glove puppet (don’t tell him.. he thinks he’s a teddy bear…) who attempts magic with his magic wand, and is an occasional xylophone player.  Together with his friend Sweep, and the goody-two-shoes panda, Soo, he gets into all sorts of mischief without saying a word – Sadly Sooty is mute. Sweep does squeak, and Soo speaks in an annoying school-marm voice (I never did like Soo). I’ve pinched the show’s catch-phrase for the title of this post – Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Busy,which was always accompanied by a wave of Sooty’s wand of course.

When Harry Corbett retired in 1976, his son Matthew took over Sooty’s errmmm…glove, and on his retirement in 1998 he found a replacement in Richard Cadell who is still to be found on TV with his puppety friends.  These day’s Sooty is quite modern and even has his own website http://www.thesootyshow.com/

I’ve had fun browsing through some of the old shows to be found on youtube, but think this one pretty much optimises it as I remember it, though as a kid I watched it in black and white.   Simple times….enjoy!

by

Thirsty Thursday

DSC_0153

Ahh, the thick, stand-yer-straw-up-in-it, fruit smoothie!

A handful of frozen mango, a handful of frozen pineapple, a banana and a splosh of orange juice bunged in a blender and hey presto, yummy tropical smoothie!  Mind you, it’s so thick it does make your eyes pop out just a little when you try and suck it up the straw!!

Oh, and if it wasn’t 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and I didn’t have yoga later on, I might just add a splosh of coconut water and rum too!! 😉