I haven’t blogged since the end of January – I am ashamed to say. However, I have been busy, so maybe a review of the last 3 months and a few photos will suffice – and I have a new follower – welcome Vanessa!
A quick look at the diary should remind me of what has been going on, but there is virtually nothing there for February – perhaps that is why I didn’t blog? Moving on to March, a lot of events have disappeared. Hmmm. I use an electronic diary on my mini iPad so I suspect that updates are to blame, because I know that I did things in March.
OK so one of the main events was entering the WI Reading Aloud competition. We had a team of four, three to perform and one to manage us. We had never done this kind of thing before, although one of our number, Sarah, had done recitals at Uni. Sarah agreed to do the sight reading which turned out to be a passage from an historical novel about Catherine Howard, and she did very well. Maddy performed the set poem – “Abra Cadabra” by Grace Nichols, and I performed “Going, going” by Philip Larkin. Out of six teams in our particular heat, we thought we had done well; we were more animated and passionate than the other teams and the feedback featured the word “excellent” at least three times. We were, however, very disappointed by our numerical score that placed us fifth out of six. We all felt that it didn’t really matter that we wouldn’t be in the final because the Finals would be held on our WI meeting night, and we have a jolly interesting speaker coming that night. Imagine our surprise when we were informed that we were through to the finals. The other heats had four teams, and there can only be six teams in the final, so either this is a fluke or the other teams were “not as good as us”, if you take my drift. Anyway, there you have it, we will miss a talk on the Kindertransport, but have a second opportunity to shine. We are aiming to win, we know what to expect now. And we will be on a proper stage and inf front of a big audience all this on 19 May, watch this space! L to R that is me, Maddy, Sue and Sarah.
Another exciting happening was being voted to be our Delegate to attend the Royal Albert Hall for the WI’s Centenary Annual Meeting. In the presence of the Queen and the Princess Royal (I won’t be meeting them so no curtseying to practice). I am expecting this to be an awesome experience, expenses paid, too. This takes place on 4 June, but there is more, dear readers. On 2 June, there is a WI Centenary Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, and I get to go to that too! I am not sure if Buck Palace quite knows what it is doing by allowing 6,000 WI members in to the gardens, and I am convinced Newcastle Central Station will be in shock when the Northumberland contingent converges there at 10am on 2 June. Maybe we should warn them…Photos will follow, with more details, early in June. What to wear is the big question!
At long last we have some decent weather so garden work is taking off; in previous years, I have been in a panic about keeping up with Spring, but not this year. Rest assured, it has started now, we have sunshine at last. And how lovely to be able to dry the washing on the line instead of indoors.
We had a great week in Hawkshead at the end of March. The weather was fine and cool, except for one day when we woke up to two inches of snow. The first photo is Wednesday, the second is Thursday.
The baking has been going reasonably well. I seem to have the day to day granary bread cracked. I practiced wholemeal bread yesterday and I thought it was fine – it certainly looked good, but deep inside it is a bit doughey. It just needed five minutes more in the oven.
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Seville orange marmalade…
Home made butter…
Don’t you think it looks sooooo yummy and rustic? Well let me tell you it tastes bally awful. Doughey and pasty, yuck. I’ll toast a slice tomorrow and if it is as disgusting then, it will be consigned to the bin. And I’ll revert to water instead of milk. Like the mouse? Oh and if I do get my hands on Paul Hollywood, I promise you I won’t waste the opportunity.
rosiehv 