Becoming Domestic

My lovely friend Bryony came over yesterday and sympathised with me about the huge number of fruit flies swarming around the kitchen as she had a similar experience last week. The children and I had returned from a long weekend away while Bealers was doing a long mountainous camping trip to find the plate of onions rescued from the garden had become a breeding ground for the aformentioned insects.

I thought I was doing a great job chasing them around with my spider vacuum and catching a few at a time but I feared they were multiplying faster than I could expel them. Luckily Bryony had a simple solution which has worked an absolute treat. Her advice was to first find the source (hers had been a rotten banana which must have escaped when she was putting groceries away under her kitchen cupboards, mine were the onions) then make a very simple trap using…

1. An empty plastic bottle

2. A small piece of banana skin (had to fish one off the compost heap)
3. A cone of paper (reused a drawing kindly supplied by Edie)

Put the banana skin inside the bottle, make a paper cone with a small whole to fit inside the bottle neck and fasten on using tape so flies can’t get out around the edge of the paper. Within a few hours the kitchen was clear of flies and they were all having a jolly old time feasting on the banana skin but couldn’t figure out how to get out.

I shall release them near to the compost heap where there is no shortage of rotten fruit to eat and new friends to mate with.

We made homemade potato crisps which were very nice and tasty - they tasted almost exactly the same as a shop bough packet of kettle chips. We flavoured them with salt and pepper. It was quite a lot of effort for a smallish plate which was devoured in seconds but at least the kids now know how the things are made.

We thinly sliced unpeeled potatoes by using the vegetable peeler *around* the cirumference of the potato to give us a nice round shape crisp rather than peeling shaped, fried them in a deep pan in olive oil in batches (to prevent the whole lot from sticking together) and removed them with a slotted spoon before they became too golden, left each batch to drain on kitchen roll and then seasoned with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Oh dear. More than a few people have moaned at me for not writing & have asked me why I haven’t.

I’m not sure if why I haven’t written can be attributed to some of the things that have happened in the last month or so - I’m pretty sure they’re all contributory factors.

1. A month ago the kids broke up from pre-school for the summer, the day their summer holidays started so did the biblical style rains which resulted in our small riverside town being horrifically flooded & while we were personally unscathed (other than not able to get to our family business offices) we watched dramatic scenes being filmed outside our house, local people being airlifted, our employee Iain’s car had to be abandoned in flood water and several friends with young children are now refugees while their beautiful homes are officially condemned having being filled to waist height with filthy flood waterfor a couple of weeks.

My husband posted on his blog some of the pics we took during the week of the flooding

http://bealers.com/2007/07/23/the-island-that-is-upton/

The above two pics are taken from outside our house (whichis situated on a slight hill).

I was really weepy and physically felt symptoms of shock throughout the period. Even now that the flood waters have subsided the fact that the surrounding fields stink to high heaven and the skies are filled with huge numbers of mosquitos, the neighbouring caravan sites still have upturned caravans waiting to be taken away to scrap is affecting me. I no longer love living here and feel lucky that we are tenants in a rented house and are able to move to higher ground. I’m still saddend by all of i. I read today about the many farmers who lost all their winter feed crops and have 1 bale in their barns instead of 8000. I drove past our favourite pub which had recently undergone a massive refurbishment, its doors are closed to business.

2. Looking after two energetic, talkative four year olds all day and every day whilst pregnant is exhausting me. I miss the break of going to our office three days a week. Trying to get through the office admin at home with them playing noisely next to me isn’t as easy as I’d hoped it might be especially as one of the twins talks A LOT (I mean really a lot). The house never seems to be tidy and I feel like I am walking through treacle with every movement. I recall that when I was pregnant with the twins I used to stroll into the meeting room next to my desk, lock the door and take an afternoon nap. not much chance of that now although I must confess I’ve allowed the children more tv watching than usual and can occasionally nod off for 5 minutes kip before I’m required by them for something urgent.

3. The terrible constant of heavy rain we have had for all but a few days this summer have meant that instead of being ouside in the garden playing or tending to the flowers and vegetables we are all cooped up, washing takes an age to dry inside and as Nirvana / Kurt Cobain once said ‘Weather changes moods’. I’ve collapsed into bed early each night and even thinking of interesting things to write here has been a challenge let alone finding the time and energy to sit and write. There must be so many small businesses who depend on summery weather for their income who will find it hard this year. The same sodden load of washing has been dripping on the line for about 4 days now.

4. Vegetable garden has become a lost cause although not totally abandoned as we are still enjoying beautiful potatoes, onions, runner beans, courgettes, sweet peas and courgettes. The tomatoes failed to crop at all well and the few that the plants have managed have are still very green and hard due to the lack of sun. Its comical to think that for the past four years I enjoyed a relative glut of cherry tomatoes in our little tiny warm, sunny London garden - so much so that we were making great vats of pasta sauces to freeze. This year we’ve not had one yet. I know I’ve got many years of more gardening ahead of me so I mustn’t despair but it seems sad when at the beginning of spring we looked forward to so much fruitfulness and bounty. Ah well at least we’ve got a local greengrocer!

I was jolted back into writing by lovely comments made yesterday by Juggling Mother about my plans to have a thrifty pregnancy which came at a great time. I’ve just spent a week in hot sunny London with the twins visiting very special old friends and some very new little friends too. Meeting the three new babies made me realise that I’ve been refusing to get very excited about this pregnancy as was scared of disasterous things occuring but suddenly it felt nice cuddling such tinies, seeing such good friends who have known me for so many years (just six friends amounting to a grand total of 73 years of quality friendship) was an absolute tonic & perked me right up.
NB: Today I had an ultrasound scan of the baby in-utero and was really relieved to see the tiny person residing inside me looking well formed, giving healthy kicks and can beging to feel like the danger period is over although I refuse to count this chicken until it is actually hatched.

I hope to write more frequently about little bits and bobs and feel rubbish that I stopped. In summary I’ve been way tired/ low and lacking inspiration.

Sorry!