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The chair is restored to its fifties beginnings.
We are visiting the in-laws for lunch tomorrow and I have baked a Simnel cake to take with us for tea. And we’re next door for curry tonight so my culinary duties are not required ‘til Monday, when I shall make Nigella’s Chocolate Egg Cake – we can’t have Easter without one!
The sun is shining between snow flurries so I am off to play in the garden. Spring may not have arrived but the garden is awake and in need of work.
Happy Easter, whatever you're doing!
I thought of posting a picture of our new wood burner but it isn’t quite what I was expecting and has yet to produce the promised performance, largely due to our lack of suitably dry logs and middle-sized kindling. It turns out it is also a gadget and thus a Man’s Job to deal with. This is a Good Thing: I am no longer responsible for clearing out the old fire each morning and fetching in the wherewithal to relay the fire for the next night – I am restraining myself from sweeping the flags in front of the wood burner, mostly!
It is good to share, but sometimes it is useful to have clearly defined roles. Now that Husband is around all the time I am doing my best to not do jobs that need doing because, now he’s here, he can help. I am very capable of making work for myself by criticising the way other people do them; hence, for example, it is my job to fill the dishwasher as I can make the most efficient use of the space inside, sadly this means that it is therefore usually my job to empty it and put everything away! The good news is that I have started simply queuing items for the dustbins/recycling by the back door rather than delivering them to the appropriate container in the garage, and generally this works as the garage/greenhouse combination are this families equivalent of a shed, clearly a male domain. With most household tasks I blink first, no one else minds about the cleanliness/ tidiness/urgency of a chore as soon as I do – and my tolerance levels are fairly high (i.e. it has to be dirty, not just a while since it was cleaned).
We have friends coming to share a take-away curry supper with us this evening. Their house is always noticeably cleaner and tidier than ours. They both work and, I’m told, both do the housework – though she does all the cooking. When I suggested to Husband that we’d better run the vacuum round he said it would be good for Gunnerfriend to see how real people live… I may have to take Eldest shopping to avoid acting having noticed that the house needs work.
Just time for an update on very pleasing progress on my latest upholstery project.
Eldest is home from her second term at university, eating me out of house and home and complaining it’s cold – it is: Husband and I wear more layers than ever and often keep our coats on during the day. We have ordered a wood burner to be fitted next week and have some hope that it may provide the miracle our neighbours describe!
I’m meant to be having a fete meeting, I’ve made the cake, but only four of us could come so we’ve called it off. Youngest will be pleased, she likes Lemon Drizzle Cake.
It’s quite a useful recipe:
A 5 fluid ounce carton of yoghurt – the measure
1 of vegetable oil
2 of white sugar
3 of self raising flour
3 eggs
The zest of a lemon
Put all the above in a food processor and blitz. Pour into a base lined 10” springform tin and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 140°C.
When it comes out of the oven prick the surface all over with a fork or a cocktail stick and sprinkle over the juice of your lemon and a satisfying amount of caster sugar. Leave to cool then remove the tin and serve.
(I expect there’s a litre equivalent, but it’s the method that counts!)
And the chair is on the mend:
