Wisteria

At long last the sun has come out and along with it, this Wisteria. 



This isn't in our garden but belongs to our neighbour over the road.

 

The building was part of a blacksmith/wheelwright.  There was an opening above the double doors so that the long lengths of iron that formed the cartwheels could be posted through and stored. 

Still swimming the Channel

I am still diligently swimming twice a week and am noticing a positive change to my silhouette, not to mention my fitness.  I managed to reach my goal which was to swim half a mile in half an hour.  Then I hit a bit of a plateau.  It wasn't getting any easier and I was getting a bit bored.  So my swim buddy and I decided the new challenge is to swim three-quarters of a mile in 45 minutes.  This equals 48 lengths. It also means that we can't waste time having a chat in between lengths! 



My best-to-date is 40 lengths in 40 minutes, so watch this space.  Ultimately, I want to be able to swim a mile (64 lengths) in an hour.

According to my swimming log, I am now 59% accross the Channel.  Go me.

Smooth

My mother-in-law has recently celebrated her 70th birthday.  She has always wanted to go to Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, so as one of her presents her younger daughter arranged for the females of the family to go for Sunday lunch.

I have to admit that I am not a fan of Jazz, but on the Sunday we went, a gentlemen called Gary Williams was singing and he does a lot of swing - Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and other 'Rat Pack' stuff.
 
 

It was such a brilliant way to spend a day - I would thoroughly recommend it just for the experience, even if the music isn't your thing.  I actually really love all those Rat Pack songs and was surprised at how many I knew thanks to my mother's constant singing when we were growing up! 

The Patriot Girls opened the show and they sing close-harmony, a bit like the Andrews Sisters.  We also were treated to a bonus of 'Dean Martin' as one of the girls is married to the guy who played Dean in the Rat Pack Show (apologies, but I don't remember his name) and he joined Mr Williams on stage.

 
We were asked not to take any flash photography, hence the lack of photos - also, I am not sure that my in-laws would appreciate me sharing their post-champagne images!
 

 

The meal was fine - not gourmet - but you are really not there for the food and it was so dark that you couldn't actually see what you were eating.  It came in at a very reasonable price too, so well worth it.

 

 

The venue is very intimate and Mr Williams worked the crowd well - he even came over to wish my Mother-in-law a Happy Birthday and the audience sang to her - what great birthday treat.

 

Caution is required on the stairs down to the toilets though - not sure if it was her heels or the champagne but one of our party did a swan-dive from top to bottom, with her fall being broken by an elderly old gentleman who was celebrating his 82nd birthday. He sustained minor injuries and was eventually able to return to the audience, as did our relative!! 

 

 

Kevin update

Jamie checked in on Kevin a couple of times recently and as you can see he is making good progress.  He is now quite happy drinking from a bottle and as a result is filling out nicely.  His cold has cleared up and he even has a little buddy to keep him company.  Perhaps we should call this one Perry?

 

5:2 Black Bean Salad

This is a filling lunch that is quick to prepare and comes in at just under 100 calories:

25g celery (1 calorie)
50g cucumber (5 calories)
50g orange pepper (18 calories)
50g cherry tomatoes (9 calories)
50g drained black beans (50 calories)
20g low calorie balsamic dressing (14 calories)

Chop vegetables,  mix everything together, season well and add some fresh basil.


 

5:2 Chicken Cous Cous

On fast days, I have to admit that some evenings it is a bit of a struggle to come up with a dinner that looks like it is enough for an average person to eat and not designed to leave Thumbelina feeling a bit peckish.  Yes, I am missing carbs and this meal goes some way to address that yearning.

 

Fry:
50g chicken breast (55 calories)
100g finely diced onion (24 calories)
100g cherry tomatoes (18 calories)
in
1 teaspoon olive oil (40 calories)
 

 

Meanwhile prepare 25g uncooked cous cous (95 calories) with boiled water and add about 10g sultanas (30 calories)
 

 

When the chicken and veg are cooked as you like them, add to the cous cous and season well.  Sprinkle with plenty of fresh coriander. 
Total calories = 262

If the craving for carbs is still too much to bear go to bed early and dream of toast, potatoes and pasta.  After all, you can eat plenty tomorrow!

 

Smoked Salmon Risotto

A few weeks ago we went to a local restaurant for dinner, and for my starter I had Leek and Hot Smoked Salmon Risotto. 

It was heaven in a bowl - each mouthful was creamy and lemony and just delicious.
I thought I would try to recreate it at home:

Smoked Salmon *
Leek
Arborio Rice
Garlic
Chicken stock
White wine
Lemon

 

Finely chop the leek and saute in a little olive oil with the garlic.  When soft add the rice and give it a good stir to coat well. Let it cook for a couple of minutes and then add about half a glass of white wine.  I usually inhale deeply at this point as the smell is SO GOOD.
 

 

Add most of the stock and stir. 
I really can't be doing with keeping the stock hot and adding only one tablespoon at a time and stirring continuously through the whole process.  I think the results are fine if you do it my way and just bung it in.

Add more stock if required.
Season well and add in lemon zest.
Take off the heat and add in the smoked salmon - it semi-cooks in the residual heat,
 

 

A squeeze of lemon was all that was needed to finish off

*I love the fact that Waitrose call it 'essential', as much as I like smoked salmon, I don't believe it is a staple food?!

We need to talk about Kevin

Kevin came to stay on Monday.  He had been abandoned by his mother during Sunday night and by Monday morning he was suffering with hypothermia.  He is about 6 weeks old, but is only half the size he should be.  His mum is a cull-ewe, which means she has reached the end of her breeding life and should not have been having any more lambs.  No one told her, hence Kevin arrived.

 

He urgently needed warming up, so I tucked him up in the kitchen with a hot water bottle and covered him with a rug.  He had a runny nose and eyes and you could hear him rattle with each breath. 

A six-week old lamb should be bonny and plump, but Kevin was scrawny and had a nipped in tummy. He needed feeding up, but after six weeks with his mum, was very reluctant to take to a bottle.

I persevered over Monday and was up early to make sure I had time to feed him before work on Tuesday morning. Jamie and I popped home at different times during the day to check on him, and try to tempt him to have more milk. We were worried that if he didn't get his appetite back, he wouldn't make it.



We put him in the garden, where he gravitated straight over to Dave II, thinking he was joining his flock.

 

He was happy grazing for a bit but still very reluctant to have a bottle of milk.  In desperation, Jamie gave him some hay.  Kevin spent the rest of the day happily chomping away. 

When we came down on Wednesday morning, Kevin had eaten nearly all his bedding and was wandering about the kitchen looking for something else to eat!  He even downed about half a pint of milk. 

 

Having made such an amazing recovery, he was definitely well enough to go back to the farm.



I think he looks rather like Shaun the Sheep!

NB: Apologies for the poor photos, most were taken without the flash as I didn't want to startle him.
Although he looks rather sweet he was a very stinky lamb.

 

Swimming the Channel

As part of my master plan to become more healthy, I have taken up swimming again.  My dad taught me to swim many, many, many years ago and every Friday evening our family would go for a swim at Hatfield Pool and afterwards we'd get fish & chips. 

I am swimming twice a week and have seen a huge improvement in fitness and stamina already.



After just six weeks, I am able to swim half a mile, in half an hour.  I have found this website where you can read tips to help improve your technique and log the number of lengths completed.  To date I have crossed 22% of the channel!
 

 

I will do everything in my power to avoid bingo-wings and no, I am not having fish & chips afterwards.

5:2 Vegetable Soup

As promised, here is my recipe for Vegetable Soup, 5:2 style:

2oz celery - 2 calories
6oz carrots - 54 calories
5oz onion - 30 calories
8oz courgette - 40 calories
garlic - I don't think a clove or two registers on the calorie scale?


 

I usually bung the whole lot through my food processor which only takes seconds to chop, although it makes for more washing up, but I feel this is the lesser of the two evils.

I put the chopped veg in a large saucepan and add:

390g carton chopped tomatoes - 72 calories
lots of basil - 0 calories
 

 

I add enough water to make up to about 3 pints, which is roughly 2 refills of the tomato carton.
When the vegetables are well cooked, I blitz with my stick-blender.  Half goes in the freezer for my second fast day and the other half goes in a flask to keep my going during the day.
 

 

I tried various combinations before I settled on this recipe.  There was no loss in flavour by not sweating the veg in a little oil first, and opting to use water rather than stock knocked out a few more calories.  This final version is quite satisfying and not too thin or watery.  If you try it, do let me know how you get on.

Eat, Fast & Live Longer

Every magazine or newspaper I pick up is banging on about 'Eat, Fast & Live Longer'.

Well, I'm about to join them!

I haven't seen the Horizon programme that was presented by Michael Mosley in which he followed the 5:2 diet but I have heard about the health benefits associated with this way of eating.  Apparently if you deprive your body of calories it stops producing a growth hormone call IGF1.  We in the West have access to far too much food and as a result we don't stop producing this hormone.  This means that we are constantly producing new cells.  This is fine when we are young and still growing, but once we are adults it is beneficial to put our energies into repairing cells rather than just create new ones.  It is thought that following this way of eating will lessen your chances of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer and may also help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's. 
And, if you should need another reason to give it a go, it also aids weight loss.

The idea is that on two, non-consecutive days you drastically restrict your calorie intake to 500 for women and 600 for men.  The other five days, you eat as you would usually do.



I started to follow this way of eating about half way through November and in five weeks, I lost 5lbs.  I decided to put it on hold over Christmas as I knew fasting wasn't for me over the festive period!  Since we've gone back to school, I have resumed and have lost the 2lbs I put back on over Christmas, plus an extra 1lb.  It works out that I am losing about 1lb a week.

But the real bonus, is that I feel really well.   In a perverse way, I look forward to my 'fasting' days.  I have a sense of achievement for every day that I stick within my calorie allowance and I know that every single thing I eat on those days is considered and healthy. 
 

 

This is a typical lunch on a fast day.  Just a great big bowl of salad, packed with flavour, looks beautiful and not an ounce of fat within sight.  On fast days, I certainly manage to hit my 5-a-day, reduce my caffeine intake and I don't feel overly hungry during the day.  The biggest challenge for me is to restrict my tea and coffee, as I can't drink them without milk and having milk does cut into my calorie allowance.

This salad comes in at 80 calories.

I will be sharing some of my tried and tested 5:2  recipes and tips over the next few weeks, which you may want to try even if you aren't adopting the diet.

If anyone has experience of this lifestyle, I would love to hear about it.


 

Salt & Pepper Squid

This is so easy and so delicious - if you like squid! 



You need:
Squid
Cornflour
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Pepper
Oil for frying.



Slice the squid into rings. I bought mine frozen in Waitrose, and would imagine most supermarkets stock it, or a Fishmonger, if you are lucky enough to have one near you.

 

Mix about a tablespoon of cornflour with plenty of salt and pepper - you need plenty of seasoning, so don't stint on the salt and pepper

Heat about 1cm of oil in a frying pan and fry the squid in batches, for about one minute.  Drain on kitchen paper.

 

I made spicy potato wedges to go with.  Leave the skins on the potatoes and cut into wedges, roll in olive oil and Hot Smoked Paprika.  Again, use more than you would think as it loses some of it's intensity during cooking.

Serve with salad and a good squeeze of lemon.

Olive

 
I don't think that I have introduced you to Olive. 

After Pam died, Gwen was confused and lonely.  Chickens are not meant to live a solitary life and Gwen badly missed her BFF.  They would spend all their time together and if one trotted off to a particular part of the garden, the other would always follow, usually concerned that she might be missing out on something good to eat.

Jamie was adamant that we would not get another chicken, given how much garden-damage they inflict, but after two days of Gwen searching the garden in vain for her companion, I could not leave her to be so sad. 

"You MUST give me the number of  all your farmer-friends" I demanded.  "I'm going to start phoning round to see if anyone can spare a chicken to keep Gwen company"

"No can't do that" he said "I've phoned everyone I can think of already!"
 
 
 

A few days later there was a knock at the door. 
 A friend of Jamie's was standing on the doorstep holding a hessian sack.  He reached in and pulled out a startled little hen.

 

I believe she is a Sussex Silver.
 

 

She's a funny little thing.  She is very nervous and won't come anywhere near us, belting off in the opposite direction every time we go in the garden.  She has stout little legs and isn't the prettiest chicken I've ever seen.
 

 

But she does keep Gwen company and she even lays the occasional egg.

White

The snow on Monday was a surprise to me as the weather forecast showed it missing our little slice of England and almost as soon as it arrived, it had gone.  What a disappointment.

Today we had the real deal!



BBC Weather said the snow would begin at 8.00am. 
Bang on cue it started and within 15 minutes everywhere looked like Narnia
 

As I can just walk up the hill, I did make it into work, but knew that we would have to close the school, as the roads were becoming impassable. Only a few children turned up and they were delighted to be sent home again.

 We had already decided to keep our girls at home, as past experience led us to believe their school bus wouldn't make back for their homeward journey. Obviously they both protested in the strongest terms and demanded that I find alternative transport for them ....

 

What really happened was a text- and facebook-frenzy to organise who would meet where.  And a gaggle of giggling girls, not wearing enough warm clothing, appeared.  One of whom had a sledge.  The girls trooped off and came back periodically to change into dry clothes and leave large amounts of snow on the hall floor and dripping clothes on the radiators.

Jamie, my husband, made it home early having checked and fed the sheep in his care.  His journey back home took an hour and half instead of the usual 20 minutes.  He invested some time this afternoon in channel hopping/sleeping.



I spent the afternoon baking and will share my labours with you another time.

I reckon we had about 5 inches of snow.  The chickens were most put out and spent the whole day marooned on the deck.  I put their food and water within easy reach and they didn't so much as put a claw on the snow.  As dusk fell, they remained stranded.  Olive decided to roost on the log-splitter and Gwen fluffed her feathers out until she looked almost perfectly round.  It wasn't until Jamie cleared a path to their coup that they retired properly for the night.

Molly, eldest daughter, also roosted, but on the sofa.  Clearly a surfeit of fresh air, which is alien to her, caused an immediate need for sleep.