Happy Eastes Sunday /Gardening against the odds

Happy Easter Sunday! Whaddya think of my biscuit then? masterpiece eh! well the girls, their friend and I had fun doing those yesterday afternoon, kept us entertained. This morning however I have been doing other things.

The morning started with my lovley REM sleep being disturbed by a very excited daughter wielding an Easter Egg, all good, the Easter bunny has done his job well. REM 0, Kids 1. So dh distracted the kids by letting them eat an egg each and I got half way through my friends 'Kick Ass' Graphic, before an almighty crash signaled the end of 'A's plantpot and stand (very sad as inherited from his deceased mother) and one very upset dd1, as she realised the significance of what her dancing had done........

Fastforward a few hours, graphic finished (yay) and breakfast out of the way, I decide to pot on a few of our attempts at the growing of veg and flowers for the year.

Above are our lettuce seedlings, nestling in garden fleece, in a hope they may survive.

This is when I discover that a) its blooming freezing outside, despite a mixture of sunshine and showers and b) that dd2 has been attempting to kill several of the plants all by herself....it's enough to drive you to chocolate (and more coffee) I tell you!

Below is a picture of a surviving sunflower, dd2 has discovered that you can happily kill them by slotting your finger nails through the stems.......she's also re-discovered the naughty step and an unhappy mummy, I'm hoping she's learned her lesson?

So in the end I managed to pot on the remaining few Sunflowers, (shame dd2 killed the best 3, sob, sob) 6 Tomatoes and 6 Sweetcorn as well. The results are displayed on our dining room table below, with a variety of other flower seedlings still waiting to grow. I've dragged the table in front of the window in the hope that this will assist the growth, should the sun every escape the cloud for 5 mins?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to whom ever is out there reading this blog!
Today has been a busy one so far, but as Meri is away I thought I'd pick up the batton and post for the 2nd time this year about our baking adventures!

A, the girls and I whizzed to Beeston briefly this morning, and whilst dh did things at the Bank, we legged it around Wilkos to get big pots for our seedlings to transfer into (more on that in another post), I then snuck into Cafe Nero for a quick frappe latte, so dh had no choice but to join me :-) mwah haha...then grabbed some cupcake cases from Sainsb's and dropped A back at work in Ripley.

Got home, grew another child from down the road immediately, so I thought right, I know what will keep the kids entertained, a spot of baking! told them, they all ran a mile, seems playing mums with babies is what they'd rather be doing today. So I baked in peace instead!

I've created some lovely chocolate biscuits for them all to decorate later this afternoon, when their friend gets back from swimming, we have lots of sprinkles, eggs, and a variety of coloured icing to knock up, which they can spoon over to their hearts content.

I also knocked up the lovely vanilla cupcakes that you can see in the picture, what do you think of my piping, not bad for my 1st ever attempt eh? dd1 did the box at school, it says to mum on the other side, alas the chocolate goodies that were in it seem to have disappeared before I got a look in?! and the smaller daffodils, now in the cup, were on dd2's easter bonnet (which was minimalist, as I only realised about it all the day before, ahem) I'm sure the friends we have popping by tonight will help us shift this abundance of cakes, failing that I doubt very much that we'll struggle, in fact I may just try one now, with some lovely Mocha coffee that my mum brought me back from the Caribbean, mmmmmm.

Well, my family are going to benefit from my slightly foul mood this afternoon if nothing else. Normally, well no actually, not normally these days (as I have kids, who hamper my mood loosing abilities these days) but in days past, when someone has aggravated me enough to get me into a bad mood, I've been known to go and stomp the hills for a few hours/miles until I'm feeling fresh as a daisy again, full of lovely clean (ish) air and nature and its wonderful calming effects. This afternoon however, as I have the kids in tow, I cannot do that, (if I did it'd be fruitless, as the whinging a 3 and 5 year old can produce when being asked to walk up a hill to admire a view, is beyond the limits of comprehension) so between random shouts of 'mummy' and screams of 'she did this, she did that' I've attempted to therapeutically bake my way to sanity.

This has mainly worked, bar me just attempting to have 5 mins with the cat on my knee to write this, during which time I've upset dd1, as I asked her to leave me alone, just for a few minutes, so she's now stomping about upstairs very loudly.....

So what's put me in a mood, my dearest daddy of course. The only person in the world who can possibly wind me up so much (although dh comes a close 2nd some times, but I can divorce him right? so he's never managed to hit the mark quite like an errant parent can, dd1 is possibly thinking this about me right now too....) Anyway the issue arose, when I asked my dad to meet me at the hospital and look after my kids for 15-30 mins in the canteen, so I could go and see my gran, his mother, who I've not seen for a week, due to visiting hours starting at school finish time and ending at the kids bed time (which is just about when dh gets home, if he's not working an evening) He said no to meeting me at the hospital............he did say I could travel an hour to his, drop the kids, go to the hospital (half hour back where I'd come from, then back to his to get my kids, then an hour home) surprisingly I said no, or should that be NO!

He is now going to the hospital to visit her, himself with my mum, but has refused to look after my kids for half hour when he's there, so I can see her too. I tell you, WTF is that about then? other than him behaving like a child? a very selfish one at that......my mum tried to offer to have them with him, but he's told her she can't? I don't want to cause WW3 between them, so I've just left it and come to grrrrrrrrr at home on my own.

The result of my Grrrrrrrrr so far has been Apple and Blackberry Crumble for dh, Apple Muffins for the girls and I (and Richard if he wants some too) plus a now rising loaf of bread, which needs another kneed soon, before it hits the oven. (I'm gonna kneed that Grrrrrr right out of my hair)

The house smells lovely and Autumnal now, lots of cinnamon spice (which incidentally was the first smell to hit me, when I got to Meridians this am) The girls had fun baking the muffins with me and coating them with cinnamon sugar, so its not been all bad for them either, particularly as they get to feast on them shortly too!

We also picked up some Pumpkins for carving today too, although its a bit early for that, on Meridians recommendation we went to the farm that sells mainly apples and 'woot' only £1.00 per pumpkin, so we have two adorning the fire place now, I guess its a spot of crafting next then, after all October is the month to 'do' Halloween.