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.

Both Edie and Mo and also their little friend Bella who came all the way from London to visit us with her mum this weekend have been covered in insect bites. Beki thought that Bella had been bitten by fleas as they have a cat and I’d been telling my kids that it must be mosquitos but finding nothing in their bedroom or in the rest of the house despite the welts all over Mo’s front and Eden’s legs.

My daughter has been driven half mad each morning and evening with terrible sobbing and anger and its only as I’m taking her pyjamas off and getting her dressed that I can her legs are absolutely covered with fresh huge swollen white/red insect bites which she is clawing at with her nails.

Luckily I’ve had tubes of sting relief cream in the first aid box which seems to soothe immediately and also have had a bottle of antihistamine (phennagren) to give to them at bathtime to reduce the immune reation and to help them sleep through the discomfort of such an attack on their soft soft skin.

Poor little loves. I couldn’t understand what it could be and how there could be more each afternoon and morning yet I couldn’t find the cuprit in the house.

I mentioned it to my mum who told me she’d had a similar thing when she was tiny, always in the spring, which was always diagnosed as eating too much fruit (?) and suddenly I realised that I’d been seeing loads of midges swarming around each evening on various walks and in the garden and recalled from my childhood that they used to bite me on the scalp but one would never seen one doing it. Mum recommended I use insect repellent on her which was a top tip I may not have thought of.

I’ve just looked up midge bites and am very glad I found this as (a) its interesting (b)it confirms the diagnosis I’ve made about my kid.

(This article is about Highland Midges which must be a more tyrannical cousin of their soft Worcestershire cousins who only tasty unblemished four year olds)

What Happens When A Midge Bites?

http://www.stevecarter.com/ansh/midge.htm 

Biting begins at about 5 am, peaks at 7 am and falls to lower levels after 9 am. Peak activity in the evening can be anytime between 6 pm and 11 pm.

It is the pregnant female midge that bites in order to feed her developing fertilised eggs. As with other blood-sucking insects, the female midge has a well-developed, specialised mouth that allows her to pierce the skin of the victim with a pair of finely-toothed elongated mandibles. Blood is then sucked up by mouth parts that are rolled up into a tube shape. It is thought that the midge’s saliva is pumped into the wound to prevent the blood from clotting and the flow from drying up. This saliva induces in the victims a mild allergic or immune response causing him or her to to respond with immediate production of histamine which travels to the site of the wound. This causes the blood capillary to remain open for a few minutes, allowing the midge to feed on the blood meanwhile. During this time, the human body sends in white blood cells which start to eliminate any infection and repair the wound. The consequent swelling and itching of the bite are the result of the healthy human response to the attack.

A single bite can be little more than a minor irritation; however, midges are never alone - they cluster in their thousands, and it is likely that a human can be bitten many times in a few minutes. The bites are distracting and annoying, and there are tales of people being driven to madness by their unremitting attacks. The scratching of the site of the bite can lead to unsightly sores on the skin.

Some people are targetted far more than others, and this phenomenon has been a subject of scientific research for some time. Most mammals - and cattle especially - produce a complex alcohol when they sweat, and combines with carbon dioxide, acetone, lactic acid and water vapour that is naturally exhaled when individuals breathe. These chemicals, along with the heat also released have the effect of attracting midges. As if this were not enough, the female pregnant midge produces her own pheremone which signals to other midges that she is in the vicinity of a potential victim. She lands on her target and searches for some suitably soft skin above a blood capillary before piercing the skin. She will spend three or four minutes feeding on the blood, and it is during this period that the individual will become aware of skin irritation. The midge will remove about one ten-millionth of a litre of blood. For many people, they will notice an irritating raised and reddened area of skin which subsides over the next few minutes. For others, midge bites can be a major problem, with infuriating itching, bleeding sores and generalised discomfort.

At the beginning of April I planted my ‘early’ potatoes (a variety of spud which is ready to eat early in the season) and ‘main crop’ potatoes (a different sort which is ready later in the season - and bigger? I’m not entirely sure yet) in a couple of trenches (about 20-30cm deep) next to each other at the far end of the vegetable garden.

I left plenty opf space (30 cm) between them and a bit more between the first trench and the stumpy barely alive new raspberry canes. Bealers thinks I’m mad to leave so much room but I think we’ll be surprised how big they grow and we can always plant something little beside them. My theory was that I remember that potatoes need earthing up so the newly formed potatoes don’t get exposed to the sunlight and turned green while they are growing bigger.

I got the children to help me trowel in a couple of inches of well rotted manure before we pushed the seed potatoes in firmly and were about to cover them up with soil. I noticed that on the end of one trench there was extra room by the fence for me to dig another foot or so of trench so I could get more potatoes in.

As an experiment I didn’t line the bottom of this last mini-section of trench with any manure but covered the whole happy lot (about thirty seed potatoes) up as I wanted to get the kids in for some urgent tea & bathtime (they melt or are totally loopy and uncooperative if I miss their bedtimeby half an hour or so). I watered them in with a couple of trips with the watering can.

Anyway. This evening I noticed that the spuds have sprouted this weekend (and my sweet peas have become very poorly looking but that’s not interesting right now). The earlies are some thick blueish green foliage and the main crop  have lighter green leaves sprouting through the soil - BUT NOTHING GROWING IN THE BIT WHERE THERE WAS NO MANURE ADDED TO THE TRENCH!

No wonder man discovered manure being tremendous for the crops. I’m looking forward to finding out which ones taste better An hoping its the ones grown in poo as there are so many more of them…

We’ve just come back from an idyllic 4 days away by the seaside enjoying really special cloudless blue skies and warm temperatures but as soon as we got back home I felt so blue by what seemed to be an enormous mountain of chores staring at me from each room.

The kids playroom is looking particularly overcrowded, hectic and messy as do some of the other rooms and I find my self doing one small thing in one room, taking something to where it belongs and then getting distracted by another object out of place and start dealing with this. This is all compounded by the fact I have four days of washing to catch up on, the unused clothes to put away, an empty fridge and HUNDREDS of seeds that really need to be sowed this week!

Luckily the kids are on Easter holidays from pre-school so I can dedicate a few days to getting things straight, surplus clothes & toys identified to take to a charity shop, sowing seeds, doing an online food shop, hoovering, ironing and the like. Luckily I remembered to not feel overwhelmed by it all but to tackle it in a more methodical way than I am naturally inclined to do.

In order to feel like I’m getting somewhere in each room I’m going to set my timer for 15 minutes and do what I can in that time in each room of the house. I’ll grab toys, books, magazines that we have finished with to pass on to someone else, will put toys away where they can be found again and will generally straighten things up. I will do this as speedily as possible and after three 15 minute sessions I’ll have a good sit down with the children and have some fruit and water.

Now I’ve typed this post I’m no longer feeling daunted by it but relishing the challenge of getting it all done before my mum comes to stay on Thursday.

A good friend of ours has a top tip for dealing with post-holiday washing which I don’t need to employ this time but it is an easier option to dealing with the mounds of dirty clothes after a long family holiday. They take the whole lot to the local laundrette and ask for a big service wash. The next day they return to collect clean, dry and folded laundry. This costs less thanone of their holiday meals out. Genius I call it.

Having had a couple of abortive attempts at celebrating the 5th November in previous years since the kids were born we finally had a lovely little pagan-style celebration at the weekend with a small bonfire, a pumpkin with candles, sparklers and hot dogs. The kids loved it but only because we’d

(a) started the bonfire before it was actually dark (clever Daddy realised they’d be cold and knackered if we hung out to 6pm when they’d normally be sitting in a hot bath),

(b) wrapped them up really really warmly even though the sun was quite toasty before it went down,

(c) we had no fireworks (our fatal error in previous years had been to forget that kids find fireworks intensly frightening and naturally assume they are going to die) other than sparklers which they’d never come across before (the next day I overheard a sweet little conversation between the two little ones “I really bejoyed those sparklers last night. Did you?”),

(d) we made sure there was lots of food available including sweet stuff to keep their blood sugar levels high,

(e) we took the pumpkin lantern outside - they considered him a friend,

(f) we were all done and were inside watching a family film before the really big fireworks from nearby displays kicked off and enjoyed them through the windows.

Another post which starts with the disclaimer ‘Sorry to everyone who was shown this trick when they were mini and therefore thinks this as being another piece of obvious knowledge’…

But to all the people out there who, like me, weren’t born knowing that the best place to keep the role of bin bags is in the bin itself enjoy revolutionising your least favourite household chore with this lovely tip.

If you keep the role of liners under the liner which you fill up and then remove you will not only save yourself the minor irritation of having to stroll elsewhere to get the replacement (or relying on someone else doing so and them then forgettng to replace the bin bag so you then chuck a whole uneaten dinner into an unbaggged bin) BUT you also get loads of warning as to when the roll is going to run out and need replacing.

Bin bag bonus.

Contrary to my expectations I find it really tedious having to plan the family’s meals for the coming weeks. My repetoire of dishes we all like eating seems really small (husband and son not keen on vegetables, I can’t eat much wheat without being in agony afterwards, son doesn’t like anything with a ‘bitty’ texture, husband doesn’t like fish…).

We’ve got quite a few decent recipe books (Delia, Nigel Slater, Jamie Oliver and the like) but for some reason I find that the meals in there are not very inspiring - either they require far too many special ingredients (Jamie Oliver) or they are all too heavy (Nigel Slater) or more usually I just can’t be bothered to leaf through each tome to find 14 days worth of lunch/dinner possibiliities.

My solution? Ages ago I started a cutting file of magazine articles I liked. I was a real magazine addict but couldn’t store them all so started collecting any recipe which looked nice/easy and we’d all like to try (usually from Good Housekeeping or Country Living). I’d forgotten about this treasure trove until I recently unpacked the last box after our move in July. Had a flick through and suddenly had loads of tasty but EASY things to cook. Yay.

Tonight we are having lamb koftas which is simply minced lamb mixed with cumin, onion and fresh corriander, the other night we had falafels (very similar to lamb koftas only made with chick peas!), before that we had veg, coconut and lentil  curry, coming up soon we have a beef pie, salmon macaroni cheese, home made baked beans, poached chicken and so on.

The trick to taking magazine cuttings is to have a sharp knife/pair of scissors to hand where you usually read the mags (the bathroom in my case while bathing the children), an empty  box file to sling them in and then a lever arch file with loads of empty ‘pockets’ to actually file the articles every so often into their respective categories (in my case, gardening, cookery, things to do with kids and other misc.).

I’m really pleased I remembered my old files and had a flick through them as has brought joy to my kitchen but also as have just emailed the local Freecycle group to come and take a large box of Good Housekeepings off my hands. Will have to quickly go through and rip out anything of interest before they go to a new home.

Right better get squelching the minced lamb with the chopped onion and shaping them into long patties….

The other day we chanced upon a toy library when we had to go and pick up some business cards for my husband. It was tucked away on a little tiny business park but had bright coloured signage.

Today we went with proof of address back to join Borrowers Toy Library and all three of us were so impressed with the place and their system.

Family membership is £25 per year or £14 for 6 months membership. Once you are a member the family can borrow up to four toys from their massive selection for a fortnight.

The great thing is that they have a huge selection of outdoor toys the kinds that would very quickly clutter up a back garden if you bought any of them but with this scheme we can borrow large toys, enjoy them for a fortnight (or renew for a further 2 weeks) and then take them back. They have trampolines, climbing frmaes, mini diggers, go-carts, see-saws and so on.

Today we borrowed a lovely wooden fruit market complete with mini crates of minature wooden fruits and vegetables (I’ve seen something similar in wooden toy catalogues for sale and am aware that they cost a small fortune), a Winnie the POoh video, a wonderful wizard gown and hat for dressing up & Halloween parties, and an incredibly loud irritating keyboard with loads of buttons and pre-programmed rhythms & tunes.

They have every kind of toy imaginable organised into categories so the children can browse the musical instruments section, the ‘home and living’ section, games & puzzles, story tapes, cd-roms to use on the computer, baby and toddler toys etc.

They have a big notice up advertising the fact that they are able to loan single, double and triple buggies, high-chairs, baby bouncers, stair gates and so on.

Next to the til they have a lovely selection of arts and crafts materials to buy at very cheap prices (eg. £1.20 for a 10 x pack of 2007 blank calendars for the children to decorate, tissue paper, pva glue, paints, coloured card and so on).

I’m not sure if this kind of scheme is available elsewhere but would encourage families of young children to investigate as they are a brilliant way of keeping kids entertained with little expenditure and doesn’t add to the huge piles of plastic clobber kids these days seem to accumulate so quickly.

NB: On the back of the leaflet I picked up from the toy library it says to contact the UK Children’s Information Service (www.earlyyearsandchildcare.org.uk) to find out where your local one is located.

A simple swap to make life easy when bunging the ingredients in the breadmaker last thing at night especially when doing it after a nice bath and in fresh clean pyjamas when the last thing you want to do is get sticky ingredients all over you…

Although the recipe calls for tablespoonfuls of butter instead use vegetable oil.

The bread comes out exactly the same and veg oil is so much easier to measure by pouring from the bottle instead of scooping and having to stick fingers in to get it out (and as my friend pointed out to me the vegetable oil is less likely to get used up by hungry tooast eaters without the chief breadmaker knowing).

Until recently I was always the one cursing under my breath each time I parked at the supermarket and yet again FORGOT to make sure I had brought a 1 pound coin with me for the trolley deposit. Acres of trolleys waiting for me to put my two little children in and do my weekly shop and only a tenner on me. Grrrr and double grrrr!

Hoorah for Morrisons because they have had the sense to produce a nifty low-tech keyring which has a pound coin shaped token clipped onto it. I always have my keys on me so I now always have a pound coin sized token for the trolley which is miles better than dragging the kids into the store to buy one small item to get some change.

I paid £1 for it but they sell them on eBay for far less (and they don’t advertise a supermarket unlike my Morrisons one). I recommend getting some for all your stressed supermarket shopping chums

http://search.ebay.co.uk/trolley-token_W0QQfrppZ50QQfsopZ1QQmaxrecordsreturnedZ300QQpqryZtrolleyQ20token