MERRY MEALTIMES.

Today was a little bit of all sorts,but it began with a very merry breakfast. Even Pa was sitting ready at the table by ten thirty, and we were all in a jolly mood, cracking jokes at each others expense and discussing the news with as much good humour as possible under the circumstances! Our meal was muffins and crumpets with butter and honey and home made strawberry jam.

After the dishes were done we went our separate ways for a few hours, I to the supermarket, my son to Richmond and Pa stayed in to dust his room....theoretically that is. Tesco was as you would expect during school holidays, full of kamikaze kids determined to be run over by any poor unsuspecting sap who is stupid enough to lose concentration for a few seconds. I did what I had to do and left as fast as possible. My next call was Home base to buy some more solar lights for the garden. These have proved to be very useful and also very pretty. They are quite small but they give off a good deal of light, very useful in areas where there is no power supply.

I arrived home about ten minutes before my son returned, Pa had done quite a bit of dusting but had not fed the birds or emptied the bins so we had to hustle about to get things done. Our shopping trips had been a success though and having replenished my supply of gelatine I made a milk jelly for tomorrow
MILK JELLY
2 pints of milk
1 lemon
two sachets of gelatine
1 tablespoon of sugar.

Remove the rind from the lemon in large slices being careful to avoid the pith, a potato peeler does this job best.
Pour the milk in to a saucepan add the lemon rind and heat gently until the milk begins to steam.
Pro about half a pint of the warm milk into a jug, add the gelatine and stir until it has dissolved then return it to the pan, stir again and cover with a lid. Leave for about an hour.
Strain through a sieve into a jelly mould of a clean bowl and allow to cool before refrigerating until set. This can take several hours so I always make mine the day before I want to eat it.
Serve alone, with lemon syrup or, my favourite way, with fresh fruit. I hope you like it as much as we do.

There was not much time for the garden today and perhaps that was well as I over did things rather yesterday. I did however plant a lovely Verbeena Bonarensis in the front garden and also some watering.
Tonight's dinner was a mixed grill which consisted of pork chops, sausages, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes baked beans and jacket wedges. We all enjoy this meal and it takes no real preparation which at the moment exactly fits the bill. We had just sat down to this repast when there was a knock at the door. A young friend who we have not seen for some time had come to introduce her fiancé. She has been seriously ill for some time and we were glad to see them both , we asked them to join us and drew up two more chairs. We were a very hilarious party joking and laughing as we ate. She had on a beautiful engagement ring and her fiancé was very entertaining. I was touched to be invited to the wedding and so pleased that things are going well for her as she suffers from a debilitating illness which almost wrecked her life. She is so very brave and so very young, I wish her happiness with all my heart.
About half way through the meal there was anther knock at the door, it turned out to be our next door neighbour who is used to dropping in and who we are always happy to see, so we put the kettle on again broke out the shortbread and made two pots of tea for our guests. With the addition of a new guest we became even more hilarious, and when they all left together at about seven thirty we all agreed that the impromptu party had been great fun and invited our guests back for breakfast next week.

I am toying with the idea of cutting my hair which is very long at the moment. I shall probably decide to leave it as it is a, I wear it in a pony tail so it is just a case of wash and blow dry. The last time I had my hair short was about thirty years ago and I seem to recall spending ages fiddling about with hair sprays, styling gel and curling tongues. This last being rather to make my hair curl in the same direction all over as without the weigh and length it has a tendency to fizz about . I think perhaps at my age the Wicked Witch of the West look is perhaps more appropriate than an antiquated Shirley Temple, don't you !