Martha's Marvellous Munchies

I was puzzled.  Why temples?  Temples to friendship, ancient virtue, concord and victory - all wonderful things, to be sure, but why fill your garden with temples to them?  Was it merely that ancient Greece happened to be in vogue?  Did they make useful places to sit down as you roamed the many landscaped acres?  Or was there some other reason? As I scanned the Wikipedia article , (which, by the way, has more information than you'll ever want to know about Stowe), this line caught my eye: "...below which is the Temple family motto TEMPLA QUAM DELECTA (How Beautiful are thy Temples)." The Temple family.  Aha.  Light dawned. We had stopped at Stowe Gardens on the way back from my parents' house.  It is only a short distance from our usual route, and moreover, owned by the National Trust, so our membership entitled us to free entry.  A quick lunch break on a sunny bench fueled us up for the half-mile walk to the gardens.  Tob...

On Friday 11 September, British Members of Parliament discussed an Assisted Dying Bill, which would enable doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to patients with less than six months to live, if the patient requested it. No one could blame you. Save six months of pricey meds. Free up one of those hospice beds. One less mouth that must be fed. No one could blame... No one could blame you. Save your family from the shame. Free them from the waiting game. You won't even know their name. No one could... No one could blame you. Save yourself from all the pain. Freedom from that endless strain. Wouldn't it be more humane? No one... No one could blame you. Save yourself with one small pill. Freedom comes when all is still. All it takes is your free will. No. The bill was rejected, with 118 in favour and 330 against.

The highlight of the month was definitely our three-day beach holiday .  We also managed to catch up with some friends in Bristol, way back at the beginning of the month, and enjoyed a day at Ashby and Willesley Vintage Festival - lots of steam engines, old tractors and vintage cars.  Graham has been out and about with the boys while I've been at work, and now we are heading full tilt towards the new school term. Toby In the driving seat of our holiday camper van Shark mouth! - has just got into proper Lego.  We've dug out a couple of boxes of Graham's old Lego and I have relived those childhood hours of pawing through endless pieces to find that one black four. He made a helicopter and then drew a picture of it. - enjoys watching children's craft and cooking programmes.  The funniest thing is that he commentates like a TV presenter when he makes something himself.  "And today you will need two milk bottle tops, four pipe cleaners and a c...

Rhossili Beach, day. We arrived early.  The sea had reached its high tide mark and had just begun its long slow slide towards the horizon.  The morning sun lit up a sweep of pale sand, stretching from headland to distant headland, bounded behind by grassy dunes.  Ahead, the calm blue water reflected the unclouded sky above it, as lines of white foam pushed unhurriedly towards the shore. Walking, the immensity warped distance.  Even brisk steps, barefoot on the packed sand, seemed to bring the grey rocks no closer.  Finally I reached the goal and stood triumphant on the seaweed-coated mound.  As I retraced the wavering line of my own footprints, the stick-figure silhouettes ahead resolved themselves into colourful people, and then into my family, absorbed in tunnels, hills and holes. And wave jumping.  And shell collecting.  And making new friends.  And so many ands that Theo fell asleep in my arms on the way back to t...

This is really good.  And happens to use a few things which are growing in my garden right now.  Win win.  The original Waitrose magazine recipe, from which this is adapted, called it a salad, but it's more substantial than that word might make you think.   Roasted Tomatoes and Courgettes with Feta 1 small onion, finely chopped 250g cherry tomatoes, halved 1 red pepper, in fairly large dice 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1/2 tsp cumin seeds pinch of ground cinnamon 1 large garlic clove, crushed 1 lemon, zest and juice 200g courgettes, sliced into strips handful of basil leaves 50g feta cheese, crumbled Preheat the oven to 200°C.  On a large baking tray, scatter the onion on one side and put the tomatoes and peppers on top.  Drizzle over 1 tbsp of the oil and sprinkle with the cumin and cinnamon. On the other half of the tray, put the courgette slices.  Mix the other 1 tbsp oil, garlic and lemon zest and juice.  Spoon about hal...

I got this book out of the library in preparation for the summer holidays.  Of course, Toby being Toby, he instantly pounced on it and wanted to do every activity right that minute.  So we found a few that we had supplies for...  1) Milk planets!  Of all the bizarre things... but it was cheap and easy and actually worked pretty well.  The idea is simply that you swirl drops of food colouring in a jam-jar lid of milk to create a planet-like effect.  I think liquid food colouring would have worked better than gel, but we got some rather nice marbling. It also showed me how far Toby's concentration has come: a year ago he would have swished a few around and gone on to something else, but this time he spent a while on it and asked for more to do. 2) Gunge!  Cornflour (cornstarch) plus water equals shear thickening (ie it gets stiffer when you stir it) plus general gorgeous gloop.  An outside activity for sure. 3) Milkshakes!  F...