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Autumn is on its way...
How does the song go again... colchiques dans les pres fleurissent, fleurissent, colchiques dans les pres c'est la fin de l'ete. No fields around here to check if the little purple flowers which announce the end of summer have appeared. In the meantime I will follow our garden's lead and pretend it is still summer. If the straberry plants can flower and try for a secondcrop in September I don't see why I should start wearing a fleece over my t-shirt while cycling to work. Still, I might be wearing my bike helmet tomorrow and for a few weeks as I was I only avoided becoming the victim of concer induced concussion by a couple of inches on my way to work. Funny how a horse chesnut falling from a tree can appear a lot scarier than a white van coming at speed towards you. |
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22.9.04 01:37 |
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Quick update
Good news. The choir master has had a word with the vicar who decided tat his church is about welcoming people and as long as we can make it to a few Sundays The Boy can go and sing. The Boy was very exited at the news. Now all I have to do is break the news gently to The Boy's Father and make sure I do not mention it to my own father. Thegarden still does not think it is autumn yet: The proof in pictures
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25.9.04 00:11 |
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Too much activity for a Saturday morning
While I am sipping tea in my shiny pyjammas, Him Indoors and his mate are outside fixing the leaking roof. They are banging and I can hear riping noise and occasionally Him Indoors pops his head through the door and asks "are you sure you don't want to see the size of the grubs living in our roof?". So far I have ansewered yes I am sure and no I don't want to see them. The Boy is pottering about improving the layout of his train set. Like Hime Indoors he pops his head through the door regularly and asks if I want to go and have a look or if I want to hear a joke. I think they are trying to tell me something. I think what they are trying to say is why don't you join our frenzy. Still resisting. I have made a mental list of all that needs doing and can't decide where to start. I know it cannot all be done today but I need to do as much as I can before the days go darker and I slip into winter mode or what Him Indoors calls my "can't be bothered to do anything grumpy git mode". The list goes as follows: * Tidy up a bit (Him Indoors' threats of hiring a skip have been getting more vocal recently, especially since I lost my car keys and it took 2 hours of searching to find them). * Prepare the garden for winter. * Washing + ironing so Mount Vesuvius does not erupt in the living room again. * Strip the door to the upstairs toilet and get my chisels out to prepare it for refitting. * Sand and oil the kitchen worktops. * Finish my niece's jumper + my Mum's shawl. * Make The Boy's new pyjammas before he has outgrown the pattern and the piece of material I bought turns out to be too short. * Nag The Boy so he makes a start on his homework. * Tackle the pile of clothes which need mending (mind you I'd have to find the zips I bought and that would mean tidying up). Well I suppose I could just start with making the men a cup of tea and getting dressed... |
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25.9.04 10:57 |
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What ARE you doing?
Is the question I asked him Indoors tonight when I saw him run up the stairs with a washing bowl full of water. Simple... testing the roof does not leak. I am happy to report it doesn't. Did I do any of the tasks listed on saturday ? Well I did the washing and half the ironing. I stripped half the door only to decide it was not worth the effort of finishing it. Too damaged, too many holes bearing witness of mutiple handle changes. I can't face the amount of prep work which would be required to make it look almost presentable. Started in the garden. Cleared a couple of the veggie beds and ate the autumn fruiting raspberries (well there has to be advantages to working in the drizzle). Then decided to abandon the list in favour of taking The Boy for a swim. Not bad methinks. Big resolution for winter is to up the exercise in order to get some happy hormones flowing to counter the effects of the grey weather. All I need now is somebody to do the exercise with (I am less likely to skip it if I feel I would be letting somebody down). Big resolution number 2 is to try and spend less time playing Tetris with Him Indoors. Mind you it has an advantage. while we are playing we are missing so much I would have hated to watch on the television, like the dirty bomb programme so many were talking about today, it's almost worth zombiefying myself staring at little shapes raining on a screen. Maybe I should be scared of the next terrorist attack in London (I live under the Heathrow flight path, I take the tube and the train) then again I already spend my life worrying about other stuff (motherhood related neurosis, dodging the trafic daily and that's even before I have been ask to climb a ladder or pet a dog) I really can't add any more to the list. I thought I would try and do something which would cheer me up instead of wondering if I should worry that my next takeaway will have been laced with ricin and I thought, why not a meme ? I almost did the 200 questions meme posted by chaising daisy then I realised I would be saying yes to so few of the questions it would be embarrasing. Instead I went for an old meme with a knitting slant from Knitting Goddess #9 . 1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer high-end/natural fibers or is it all the same to you)?
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28.9.04 00:01 |
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. 100% cotton is tough on the fingers.|
I don't believe it
I just noticed the add above the latest entry was for "almond flour, the perfect substitute for flour in low carb recipes". Just how stupid do they think people are (then again I once heard somebody say they had had a healthy breakfast since they had had a blueberry muffin - yep the last time I looked cake was a healthy breakfast option, not - so I am not so sure)? Powdered almonds is a nice substitute for flour in baking if you want a lovely almond flavour in your cake. Almonds are also rather high in fat and as such high in calories. If you want to lose weight... DON'T EAT CAKE or have a small piece as an occasional treat and make sure it's the nicest homebaked cake you could find that way industrial artificial tasting, easily available cakes are less likely to appeal. Facts about low carb diets: They only make you lose weight because by making food boring they are making it self limiting (protein are fairly self limiting as well). There is no magic power at play, people just eat less (it's all very nice to say you can eat all the butter you want but without bread to spread it on you are hardly likely to stuff yourself with it) and guess what, when it comes down to it the forbiden foods are pretty much the same as those on the low fat diets (saussages - contain rusk wich is carbs, off the list of ok foods; same with chips; pizza; cake; biscuits; doughnuts etc) so no rocket science just the same no-nos. Ketosis is a toxic state. Your brain perform less well burning ketones that sugar and just because something makes you lose weight it does not mean it is good for you (cancer and amphetamines are 2 examples). Dr Atkins made his fortune selling nutritional supplements. A proper diet should mean you are not nutrient defficient. Throughout the world there are combinations of foods which have allowed us to evolve as a species. Somehow humans have found a way over centuries to combine foods to obtain the best chance of producing the right amino acids to benefit our bodies (before the advent of biochemistry which confirmed that the traditional dishes of the world owe their ingredients lists to more than taste alone). For example the combination of couscous and chick peas or rice and lentils or bread and cheese or corn and red kidney beans. Any diet which proposes to dissociate foods or suggests that entire food groups should be dropped goes against the knowledge acquired so far.
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28.9.04 01:52 |
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