Skip to main content

Monthly Munch: October

The big event was Toby's birthday, which somehow took over most of the month!  Graham's parents visited the weekend before it, when we had his party; then he opened presents on the actual day; then my parents visited the week after, which involved more cake and gifts.  We saw fire eating and live music at the local marina; survived all of us having colds at once; started attending a baby group in the village with Theo; painted a fence and made a Christmas cake.

Toby


- turned four years old!  (I feel like I've been saying he's "nearly four" for months now.)

He said the strawberry plants needed sheltering from the rain

- finally plucked up courage to try the big swings, and discovered he's really quite good at them.

-suddenly decided he would have a shower instead of a bath, which he has never done before.

- enjoys going kayaking with Graham...

The intrepid mariners set sail
...and playing on the playground in his lifejacket afterwards.

Hard a-port!
- drew a bus and said it needed to say London on it.  So I described the letters and he wrote them.


- still entertains his little brother


Quotes:
"Those people are talking tripe!" - about some actors performing Shakespeare

"I'm looking forward to Christmas." - as soon as his birthday was over.

Theo


- is still a smiley chap who now sits up extremely well

- says "mum-mum-mum" very plaintively when he wants something

Modelling a lovely coat made by my friend Sharon

- sees absolutely no point in trying to roll over

Why would I want to do that?
- but will happily pull himself up if you give him a hand, and is just able to stand up while holding onto a sofa or bed for balance.


Both boys keep taking their socks off, so there are constantly small socks lying around.  Here they're both trying the "one on, one off" look.

Thankful for:

- free electricity!  We had solar panels installed completely gratis.

- a visit to Hardwick Hall, which I've been wanting to see for a while

Recipe of the Month: Potato Bake


When I was trying to use up potatoes, I often made one of those dishes where you slice them thinly and layer them up to bake.  The layering stage seemed like a hassle, though, so recently I had an epiphany: why not just dice them and stir everything together?


3 largeish potatoes, in 1 cm dice
1 small carrot, diced
1 onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
100g / 4 oz Gouda or other firm cheese, diced
handful of frozen sweetcorn
250 ml / 1 cup chicken stock
mixed herbs and black pepper

Stir all the diced ingredients and sweetcorn together in a large casserole dish.  Season with herbs and pepper (I found it didn't need salt).  Pour over the stock.

Cover and bake at 150°C for 2 hours (or a higher temperature if you want it quicker).  Uncover and grate Parmesan or Cheddar over.  Bake for a few more minutes to melt cheese.  Serves 2.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Three Mile an Hour God: Spiritual Formation Book 10

"The affirmed life must not become either a lazy life or a happy-ever-after, easy life. The affirmed life is not a life of the power of positive thinking. To be affirmed by God means to live with danger and promise."   Kosuke Koyama's book Three Mile an Hour God was written out of the experience of the Second World War and its aftermath in Japan. As Koyama says in his preface, it is "a collection of biblical reflections by one who is seeking the source of healing from the wounds... inflicted by the destructive power of idolatry." The title speaks of a God who moves at walking pace - three miles an hour - and even, in Jesus, comes to a "full stop" - nailed to a cross. If we try to move faster than the love of God, says Koyama, we fall into idolatry. What is the book about? Three Mile an Hour God has 45 chapters, each a separate short reflection headed by a Bible verse. Some deal specifically with Japan, considering her role in WWII, the damage inflicte

National Forest Way: Ellistown, Bagworth, Nailstone

You may well say, "Where?" I'd never heard of any of these three villages before I planned to walk through them. Back in the 1970s, it would have been possible to travel between them underground. All three had collieries producing exceptional amounts of coal (Bagworth set a Guinness World Record). Nailstone and Bagworth collieries were connected in 1967, and Ellistown was merged with the other two in 1971. All the mines are long closed now. The railway lines have been taken up, the winding wheels turned into civic sculptures, and the pit sites transformed into country parks. It was a beautiful sunny day, but we'd had a lot of rain recently. Within five minutes of leaving Ellistown, I was glad I'd worn my wellies.   The way took me alongside a quarry site and then into a collection of woods: Common Hill Wood, Workmans Wood, Battram Wood. The colours of the trees in the November sunshine were beautiful. The path was a muddy mess. At Battram village I crossed a newly

National Forest Way: Normanton le Heath to Ellistown

This 9-mile walk took me through the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods and Sence Valley Forest Park, and into the heavily-quarried countryside south of Coalville (no prizes for guessing what was mined there!) I originally planned to walk from Normanton le Heath to Donington le Heath, which had a pleasing symmetry. But I decided to go a bit further, to the hamlet of Ellistown.   It was a cold morning. I'd been in shorts the previous weekend, but today there was a frost. I added a flask of coffee, a scarf and gloves to my kit, and set off. For a small village, Normanton le Heath has a surprisingly wide road. I parked there rather than using the car park for the Jubilee Woods. That meant I was at my starting point straight away. I followed a road past some rather nice houses, crossed a field, and entered the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods. The NFW leaflet told me that I was on the route of the Via Devana, a Roman road from Colchester to Chester. There isn't much left of it. a mosaic,