Woah, this past three weeks. It hasn’t just been Matt’s knee op, it’s been everything all at once. I’ve been a nurse, a house sitter, a dog sitter, a cat sitter, a hen keeper, a house mover, a patient. Amongst it all, the food blogger had to hang back and deal with life. It never rains but it pours.
The thing is though, apart from seeing Matt in pain, the rest have been really lovely things. I mean, who wouldn’t want to cat sit for the cutest kitty you’ve ever seen? Anyway, this all means that we need a catch up and you’re about to start reading the contents of my brain, in a blog post. It’s a bit scatty but if we sat down for coffee, this is exactly what I’d say. If you stick with me, I have some cute, heart squishing photos of spring lambs.
Let’s start with the big one. I now officially live with a boy- it’s not half and half, or just for weekends anymore. By the end of this week there won’t be any of my things at my Parent’s which is going to feel rather odd. My Dad asked me if I’d come back for sleep overs, I think he’ll suffer with empty nest syndrome more than my Mum will. I put my money on them getting another dog before the year is out. Speaking of a dog…
Fynn is the most sensitive dog I’ve ever met. For Matt, the first few days post-op were really rough and this wonderful dog knew to be very careful not to knock him. After worrying that looking after these two together might be a disaster, I was proven wrong. The boisterous play time they normally have was switched for side by side napping; Matt on the sofa, Fynn on the floor below him. I felt like a proud parent, he was an absolute star.
The little breaks outside with Fynn restored my sanity and gave Matt a chance to hobble about the house independently without me watching over him like an overprotective Mother. Win, win.
Side note: remember when we used to have physical copies of photos? I can’t even remember the last time I had some prints made, photos just linger in my dropbox until I accidentally discover them again. I vow to have some printed for my new office.
I’m so fed up of medical dramas. As soon as one thing resolves and I get back on track, something else happens. Because of the medication I take, I have to have my blood monitored regularly and lately things haven’t been right. The treatment that’s been keeping my hearing loss stable and hushing up other problems for 18 months months now, suddenly doesn’t agree with me. I’m waiting on a phone call from my nurse to find out what’s next. To say I’m anxious about stopping these drugs completely is an understatement. My head is a flurry of ‘what if’s.
I’ve had so many ‘near miss’ recipes lately and it’s frustrating as hell. They’ve been really good, but not amazing and for that reason they won’t make it on to the blog yet. A few more tweaks, a few more tests and you can have them.
Something I read on Reddit recently, really sang true to me; “you only stop improving when you don’t want to or you don’t know how”. In other words, some projects are never done and I guess that’s the case with my hot cross bun development. They missed Easter because I’m still not happy enough to share them on my blog. They need to be even softer, my bun shaping needs work, the glaze needs tweaking, and they need a little more spice.
I promise you a knock out hot cross bun recipe in the run up to next Easter, by which point hopefully I’ll have saved up enough to justify buying a Kitchen Aid. When that happens, there will be bread recipes galore!
I thought about going sugar free. Did you spot something gold and bunny shaped peeking in to the photos above? Then you’ll know that didn’t happen. Lindt gold bunnies are the future of Easter gifting, in case you didn’t know. As a child, did you ever imagine how much better easter eggs would be if they were really thick? Well, gold bunnies are hefty in that department and I couldn’t resist them.
After a thorough taste test, I can tell you that the green ribbon (hazelnut) are crazy good and loaded to the brim with crushed up nuts. They taste exactly like the Lindt spread that I was obsessed with back in December. All of the Easter stock is 50% off on the Lindt website at the moment if you fancy trying some. No more for me though.
Maybe the sugar free thing will happen when I get some more normality and routine in my life again. If you’ve ever managed it for 30 days, I’d love to hear how you got on and if you noticed any differences. I need some motivation!
I didn’t kill the plants. If you were reading my posts back in October, you might remember our yard makeover plans and how I’d planted lots of bulbs in preparation for Spring. After months of wondering if I’d planted them upside down, too deep or just all together messed it up, we have life! First shoots appeared, then whole leaves and now we have towering buds. At some point over the next two weeks we should have gorgeous tulips to look out on to. There’ll be photos no doubt.
We have lambs. They’ve been munching through the wild garlic carpet under the woods in my parent’s field. Of course this has led to so many jokes about their pre infused flavour, but I can’t bear to think of them like that.
This pair have the sweetest ginger socks! Don’t you just love seeing them bound about the fields? I always wonder how such agile, energy fuelled little beings grow up to be sheep.
I’m going to leave this ramble there. I’ll be back on Sunday with the smoothie recipe that everyone has been asking me for on twitter. Before that though, leave me your life updates in the comments. Let’s make this a proper coffee conversation, not just me typing in to the ether.
kerrycooks says
What a good dog Flynn is!
James H says
Nice buns! …woof!