Sitting here watching hailstones bouncing off my path and thinking about the last 3 months of 2010, a sort of quarterly review in my head. Sitting here eating a strange combination of food....

Cheese on toast smeared with Indian mango pickle (hot and very salty with chunks of alleged mango, reminds me of a sight not seen since I worked on Women's Surgical...)

Chunk of Gorgonzola (with accompanying death smell) and cracker

Black olives

Lime jelly and evaporated milk (because only green or orange will do!)

Homemade Flapjack with seed mix (not chicken feed, despite what my work colleagues insinuated)

Washed down with coffee made by dh


I have spared you the picture!

My life on a plate.....

Lunch invitation anyone?!

A full on day!

Seed trays appearing on the windowsill is a strong indication that Spring has begun in earnest in the Hogben household! The hyacinths are perfuming the entire house alongside Andy's lilies which are still going strong almost two weeks after they were delivered. I ventured outside to check on the spinach which I had sprinklied liberally with slug pellets a fortnight ago and then promptly forgot about them.....yep still surviving...Rhubarb is doing its stuff and the cherry plum is unfurling it's leaves. The chickens, spotting my approach, start hopping up and down hopeful for corn to be thrown with gay abandon in their general direction...I oblige, Hattie makes her thank you noises, the others simple dive in....I collect 3 eggs, seems like a fair exchange.

Earlier today, having taken Dick to the bus station for 8am, I drove home, went into manic ironing mode until 9am when two of my work colleagues called for the weekly stride around the block. I always return red and puffing, but I need their committment to keep this up. Part of the problem is that I talk and walk which is tricky striding up Marsh Lane. I am always thankful for those moments when we have to stop and let a van go by so that I don't embarrass myself too much catching my breath....pathetic.. I stop briefly at S's house and she shows me her knitting, Yay, someone who doesn't smirk at the word. I haven't got a project at the moment and I realise I need one...

Then it was hey ho, hey off, it's off to the tip I go...up to my ears in cardboard and plastic, looking forward to the approaching kerbside collections....

Had a delicious lunch out in Mudford, with a friend. Our third attempt to make this happen! She has a story to tell, a story of hope and restoration, freedom and life, I wanted to hear it.

I came home to see the Yeovil Express had printed the Press release, the Western Gazette did it justice last week (page 8) Stuart and Harry the Monkey feature in the Express, glad The Entertainer got another mention!



The wine appeared with Alex who came to collect her excess baggage which we had divided amongst the team on our return from India. Seemed strange seeing her in the UK after three years with Asha in Delhi.




and finally the piles....which are still there...in some semblance of order. Appalled to discover there were still Christmas cards amidst the chaotic dumping ground that is my Out Tray....find myself slightly twitchy by all this lack of order. How did I let it get like this?! Team India took over once the New Year kicked in and the daily list making was kicked out...





Sat down with a big mug of Assam, realised the girls A and K were coming in shortly and I hadn't made them dinner, so got up, opened the kitchen cupboard for inspiration and a bottle of black bean sauce falls out, smashes over the worktop, spills everywhere, down the doors on the carpet, glass and black bean mixture...lovely... Mop up with kitchen towel, cut finger...not impressed..need bigger cupboards...need kitchen make over....need to get things into perspective...
Sounds of girlie chatter, front door opens, in they come. Thankfully, both are keen to help with dinner. I show then the pork stir fry strips and between us we concoct something, which includes the other unsmashed black bean sauce. I gradually retreat and they take over, I'm relieved, had no inspiration tonight!

Dick texts to say he is on the bus home. I'm still full of venison cassorole from earlier, so I sit here and type....read the Chancellor's budget highlights online and am still bemused...can't get the TV to work....and we are digital before anyone says...perhaps we still have to tweak something.....leave it for the man to do.

Finally, today I heard that Mike Pike, the guy who really encouraged my sons with their acting fifteen years ago, has died. A lovely gentle man to whom we already owe so much, thank you for recognising what you saw and having a quiet word with me...

Not In Service?

I was walking down my road yesterday and a bus drove past with "Not In Service" across the destination window....I found myself thinking how long could he get away with that sign on the front, just driving around Yeovil or wherever, enjoying the view, not having to deal with passengers, just cocooned in his little bus chuntering along...No kids crying, no one mucking up the seats, no grumbles, not having to stop and start on demand!

Could I have a sign like that, I wondered?! As someone choosing to discover each day, God's way of living, allowing Him to transform my life so that I start to look and act more like His Son....No, I'm in this for the duration....don't think a sign like that will somehow help the process!

Actually I prefer to imagine a sign that says "In His Service", take your seats, don't always know where the journey is taking us today, there may be some stops and starts, some crying, some messing up the seats, a few grumbles but come on, lets live it together, let's sing LOUDLY and Dance in the bus, check our maps, encourage each other to get out and explore, let others on, share our food and let's drink together, laugh ourselves silly. Let's throw out the questions, give up our seats to those whose need is greater than ours, learn to stand holding on to the loop thingy above when things get crazy and scary....

Sometimes it is tempting to flick that sign over and just drive that bus off into the distance, ignoring the requests to stop and let someone on who wants to do part of the journey with you, someone who wants to be "At Your Service, In His".

Call it random musings if you like!

Weights and measures

I can't believe that I have put up with them for so long....inaccurate by 3oz (old money) which I have tried to rectify by adding weights into the bowl before I weigh the ingredients, then in the case of flapjacks, fishing them out before the oats go into the saucepan.... The bowl that sits on the scale is too small for the quantities we have been weighing...really...the weights get mucky, some are going rusty...yes the time came along time ago, but I just carried on regardless...why do we do that?

ENOUGH! I looked long and hard in some of my kitchen cupboards and thought...hmmm for someone who enjoys having people around and wants to be intentional in this, I certainly need to invest in some kitchen equipment which is up to the job. Well the reasoning works for me! Now I'm not talking expensive china and cut glass (!) I have learned that if other people use your kitchen, you soon discover the following:

You can't find stuff in its usual place...a good game!
You discover ingredients you KNOW you didn't buy! Some of it written in a language you do not speak....
Things get broken...get over it....

So this week I have purchased THE MOTHER OF ALL KITCHEN SCALES! I knew I wanted scales that would do justice to weighing soft fruit for the jam making season (ooh errr listen to me Mrs Beaton eat your heart out) but I was unprepared for....***drum roll***

Quote..."Not only does it look the part, it measures up to an amazing 10kg (22lbs)"

Fippin' heck you could weigh a small child in that!

See for yourself!




So now it sits in my kitchen, all sparkly and shiny waiting for me to get out the recipe book and watch it's dial, rather that the precarious balancing act of recent days...

The former resides in the recycling bin awaiting a trip to the tip....and the Metals container...

The things you overhear

I popped into town last week to buy a birthday card after my dwindling stash at home was unable to come up with something "right" for that person. Whilst I was browsing I overheard this conversation:

Youth 1 to Sales assistant: "So what's the most popular thing for Mother's Day, what are people buying?"

Sales assistant shows him some items that are selling well....

Youth 1 "Yeah, she'd like that, what else is there?"

Youth 2 " not exactly original though is it, like you've thought much about it" or words to that effect...

I felt SO sad, not just because it seemed to be a case of "Oh it's Mother's Day, I need to buy stuff, something, anything, just to make her feel like I've remembered, yeah, she'll like that...", but because he could do something that would mean so much more to her.


This is what I wanted to say to him:

"Okay, how about this, tell your Mum, you are going to do something different this year for Mother's Day. Tell her your gonna take her out for coffee and spend some time with her, buy her a Danish Pastry and tell her you love her. Tell her that despite the fact that you may drive her crazy at times, actually you really appreciate everything she does for you and you may even try to do this again in the future, just because you want to, not because you feel under any obligation. She will probably have a little cry which she will try and conceal unsuccessfully, but she will probably tell her friends, it was the best Mother's Day present she ever had, even surpassing the first one you ever made at Pre School"

Yep, that's what I'd say to him....but then I'd have to turn that around because it works both ways and I know I still have much to learn too.

A quick disclaimer, this is a detached remark and in no way reflects my own feelings towards my boys and Mother's Day!