When I was 10

I heard someone say once that the things that you like to do when you were ten years old are the things that would be your dream job.

I grew up in a household where the aim was to be as self sufficient as possible, my mum and dad were often called 'Tom and Barbara' I remember endless weekends going to chop huge trees with my mum and dad for our Rayburn, our house was decorated with my mums paintings, and home made furnishings, my mum is a bit of a designer I have to say, so it always looked amazing, as she has an amazing eye for colour, and can pretty much make anything she wants too. One Christmas I had a huge dolls house made for me, which was the envy of all my friends, it had everything in it, and the whole thing had been made by mum. I think alot of it was because money was tight, but I never knew any different.

I would like to share here a small ice cream anecdote, my mum told me and my brother that the reason we couldn't have icecreams from the icecream van was because it had anti-freeze in it, I have never to this day been able to eat a Mr Whippy, lol, I'm sure she only told us that because she couldn't afford them, but it worked!!!!

Anyway, back to the point, when I was ten well all my childhood really, um, actually, its not really changed, I would spend endless hours creating little gardens and planting seeds, weeds mostly I expect, and sewing clothes, they never fitted of course, and making shoes, I spent endless holidays making shoes, he he. I even remember going to a corn field when I was about 8, got lots of ears of corn and  ground my own flour, I also used to get up on sunday mornings every september about 6am and go on my own roaming throug the fields mushroom picking, hmm, as I'm writing this, I'm thinking that I was quite an odd child.

I was pondering this thought this morning in bed, mainly because I lost my switch card about a week ago, I knew it was at home, but I decided to see how long I could last without it, I had about 10 pounds in cash so it was going to be a bit of a challenge, (especially seeing as most of that would go on Sophie guapita's food and milk), but to be honest it wasn't too bad at all, I cooked lots of yummy things, and had to be inventive, made a tonne of pesto with all my basil plants, made myself sandwiches for work ( half of which contained pesto), which were a million times better than the ones from the cafe, I even found some old goats cheese in the back of my fridge and made wonderful grilled portabello mushrooms, with roasted peppers , pesto topped with goats cheese, obviously my veges are not quite ready yet but they will be, but it got me thinking about all the things I plan to make in the summer. like some cheese and wine. I have lots of 'how to make cheese' books and a cheese press so I think its about time, I'll start with soft cheeses like ricotta and then mozzarella and then go from there, and I promise I'll document it all here on my blog.

I ran out of petrol so I've been walking a little more than normal, but I'm loving it, even in the rain, even though I insist on wearing sandals.

So what made me chuckle was that I ran out of soap, and then I remembered the soap I made last year, which contained lavender from my garden, and some which I bought on my honeymoon, but we won't go there or I'll probably cry, anyway, so I cut a huge chunk off it and its fabulous, not quite as bubbly as normal soap, but it does the job wonderfully. I thought I'd take a pic for you;

As I was washing with my hand made soap this morning and planning my first batch of award winning cheeses and the blends I was going to spin into yarn for a self striping cardigan, I chuckled to myself thinking about how much like my mum and dad I am and how if I was ten years old I would be doing exactly the same thing, and unlike when I was a child, where it was a nessesity to grow our own veges etc, I can now drive 10 minutes not even think twice about buying all my treats from Sainsbury's, but damn, it doens't seem half as exciting as when you make it, knit it, sew it, brew it, grow it yourself does it?  he he.

Quick garden update, this is roughly what my vine looked like three weeks ago;

 

and now looks like this, how exciting would it be if I got some grapes this year?