Today

Whatever a day might bring…..

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Juicy Thirsty Thursday

DSC_0042 (2)For the last seven days, since I bought my juicer, I’ve been replacing at least one meal a day with veggie juice. Today though, I feel I have graduated in my juicing career by going green.  Yep, I’ve made my first green juice. Up until now its been all nice reddy, orangy ones made from carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and that sort of thing, But today I’ve faced my green = yuck fears and produced the handsome looking ‘broth from the bottom of the pond’ you see in the picture.

It actually contains three apples, a wodge of kale, a few leaves of spring greens, a couple of celery stalks and a bit of ginger root…  and, yes despite being quite disturbing to look at, it is really quite yummy!  In fact this is my second glass.  I should be fighting fit for my yoga class this evening.

Of course, the reason I bought the juicer in the first place was not quite so health conscious.  I bought it to make cider, and there’s 23 litres of it busily brewing in the kitchen.  Unfortunately that’s not ready to drink yet though, so in the meantime, here’s to a new healthy me!

Lechyd da! (that’s cheers in Welsh.  Gosh this blog is getting so educational!) (and no, I’m not Welsh) (nor am I vegetarian).

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Tweaking the blog on Thirsty Thursday

Wine_GlassesYep, I’ve been fiddling about with the blog again.  Following a prompt at the beginning of blogging 201 I set up a new feature, with the category of ‘Today’.  This, it seems, has been confusing to my loyal followers (well follower… my mum if you must know) as she thought it meant ‘my latest post’. Well, for once, I can understand the confusion, and that, together with the pressure of posting every day (thought I was up for it. Not sure I am. Not sure you can cope with me rambling everyday either), so I’ve changed it to ‘Asides’. It was hard finding the right term, but I think that might cover it. Basically, I’m just going to bung all the random, shorter, day to day stuff on here that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the site. We’ll see how it goes!

Anyhoo… back to Thirsty Thursday.

Actually hungry(ish) Thursday today, because I’m on a ‘sort of’ fast day (5:2 diet, remember?).  Had a liquid lunch. Not one of those nice alcoholic ones either.  Nope, I’ve been a good girl.  I’ve bought me a juicer! So for lunch today I whopped in a couple of carrots, a couple of parsnips, a few sticks of celery and a red pepper and whiz, bang, out came the juice. Actually, it was quite nice, more like a smoothie than veggie juice, and four of my five a day right there, so I’m feeling all healthy and holier than thou.

Fuelled with all those vitamins and goodness, I set about making some wine this afternoon.  Ok, not quite so healthy, but I like to think of it as fruit juice of sorts. So now I’ve got five gallons of Merlot, a gallon of Elderflower, and a gallon of Elderberry on the go.  Should be ready in about three to four weeks.  My goodness, I love those kits!

The other day we had some of the Peach that I bottled recently, and I have to say it’s rather yummy, though it would be extra nice if we were drinking it in the garden on a lovely summer evening instead of snuggled on the sofa in the darkness of late October.  Haven’t tried the Chardonnay yet, but that’s pretty reliable as a rule.  Might have a sip or two this evening…

Cheers!

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Whats the weather like Wednesday

Thanks to everyone who took the trouble to let me know what their part of the sky was doing this time last week.  It seems that pretty much everyone was having better weather than we were here in my neck of the woods (North Nottinghamshire, England.  Robin Hood country!)

Today has been a different story.  It’s been absolutely gloriously sunny and pretty warm considering it’s very nearly November.  I’ve had a great day visiting my daughter in Leeds, about an hours drive from me, and having a wander around lovely Roundhay Park. Hard to believe it’s in a city isn’t it?

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Tone up Tuesday

Well, you already know I dance ’round the bedroom on my own singing into my hairbrush, what can I say, it’s part of my exercise regime. I figure if I dance about for just three or four minutes everyday it must burn off a few calories (mustn’t it?) and justify eating that extra biscuit with my mid-morning cuppa.  My song of choice (thanks to Chris Evans at Radio 2) this morning was the one I share below.  Join in with all that arm pumping and pretty soon you’ll have biceps like…well, ok, like me.  Anyway, for your health and enjoyment today I give you Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.  And by the way, yes, I do love rock and roll!!

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Won’t somebody like me?

Yep, I’ve been a good girl and followed Blogging 201 instructions today and set up a facebook ‘fan’ page (and I’ve added the widget to my sidebar…aren’t I a whizz!).  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I know I haven’t got any fans.  Hopefully I’ve got friends though and some of you might care to like me (pleeease…don’t make me beg..)  Why don’t you stop by for a chat at my fb page here it’s a bit new and I could do with some company!

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Fab Friday

I was trying to think of a little bit of fabulousness to share with you today, and I remembered these photos that I took at the Trinidad carnival a few years back.  I admit, they aren’t the greatest photos in the world, but the colour and costumes are pretty darn fab.  I wish I could share the joy, noise, and chaos with you too, it was happily infectious and we had a fantastic win’in’ (fuelled by rum ;-)) day! Happy Fabulous Friday to you!

Tobago Feb 06 136 Tobago Feb 06 142 Tobago Feb 06 150 Tobago Feb 06 161 Tobago Feb 06 174

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Weather Wednesday

I’m always really thrilled when I look at my stats and find people from so far and wide have been peeking at my blog. It’s really exciting to know that my dumb words are filtering out to the four corners, and I was thinking that I’d really like to know a little bit more about what it’s like where you are.  So I’m going to start with the weather (I am English after all!).  You’re on my new Today page, so it would be great if you would just pop a comment in the comments box below telling me where you are and what it’s like outside your window today.

Here’s my starter:

I live in a village, just outside a small market town which lies about 35 miles North of Nottingham (where Robin Hood came from, actually I’m only a couple of miles away from Sherwood Forest!), England.  After the left overs of hurricane Gonzalo passed our way yesterday, causing high winds which had me chasing after the chairs in the garden in torrential rain, there are blue skies overhead this morning and the trees are still.  It’s really chilly though, probably the coldest day of Autumn so far, I don’t have a thermometer around, but I think it’s probably no more than 7 degrees-ish brrr… Winter approaches.

I’m excited to hear about your world, so I do hope you have time to drop me a line.  I’ll let you know what the results are next Wednesday!

ta!

 

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Cheery Tuesday

DSC_0064I might as well give up, I can’t find anything interesting to say about Today, except that the can-can was danced in Paris for the very first time on this day in 1858.  Well, that’s quite interesting I suppose, but I didn’t want my nice new Today page to be just ‘this day in …’ that’s been done. To death.

Nope, I was hoping for exciting, interesting things.  Brilliant stuff I’d done Today.  Hilarious situations I’ve been in Today. Crikey, I even suggested a theme for each day of the week in my blogging 201 post outlining my goals. Yep, it’s supposed to be Terrible Joke Tuesday.

Hmm…well, promising that may have been a bit rash, though I will share my favourite joke with you (yes, I know you’ve all heard it before, but that’s it’s charm…)

‘What’s brown and sticky?’

‘A stick!’

Well, while you hold your sides with mirth, I’ll try and think of something else to share about today.

I’ve been bottling wine, that’s what I’ve been up to today. My homemade slosh.  Six bottles of Peach and six of Chardonnay, made from kits.  It’s not bad actually, perfectly gluggable, and very cheap and cheerful.  It only takes less than a month to ‘cook’ too, so it’s easy to keep a good stock up.  As well as the bottles I bottled this morning, we’ve currently got bottles of Merlot, Elderflower, Cabernet Sauvignon, and I think there might be a Elderberry left too.  All good stuff.

However, lurking in the garage, I have two demijohns full of my very own, no kit, yes made with my own fair hands, Marrow wine.  Except it’s not marrow, it’s courgette.  What can I say, they’d grown massive while we were on holiday, so they looked like marrows.  All the same anyway.

But I do seem to have invented Brown Wine.  It’s certainly not red or white, or even rose. Nope, definitely brown. And muddy. Well, it’ll clear, won’t it?

Actually, I’m not holding my breath. It’s been in there for a couple of months and there doesn’t seem to be much happening. Still, I won’t give up on my baby, I’ll keep racking it (decanting into fresh demijohns) and will watch it closely. And frankly, even if it stays brown and muddy, we’ll probably still drink it. Anyway, it might just be a slow mover, and will be ready in time for Christmas 2015. I’ll let you know.

Cheers!