Deliciously Yorkshire

I picked up the free weekly newspaper off the doormat, as well as the half a tonne of Netto/Wilkinson promotional bumph that usually accompanies it, and was just about to put it in the recycling bin when I realised there was something else in the bundle; something that felt substantial.

Turns out to be a rather glossy promotional mag called Tuck In: Deliciously Yorkshire, devoted to promoting fresh yorkshire farm produce and chock full of rather marvelous recipes - including an interesting take on yorkshire puds (beer and rapeseed oil?) that I shall be trying out just as soon as I find the rapeseed oil.

Anyway, look out for some of them appearing on Forkd in the very near future - marmalade lamb might be first up.

Now who do I know who likes knitting socks?

I wouldn't actually wear them, I would just get them out occasionally and admire them :)

Sam in Sepia

He's my very own silent movie:-

I'm Dreaming of a White Easter

I got up at 4am to get Sam a bottle to find that the snow had arrived; rather than the pitch black of night, everything had that purple hue that comes with a night-time snowfall.

I have to admit that that I still find snow rather magical, and had quite a difficult job getting back to sleep after that; when I did drop off, I dreamt that it had all melted by the time we got up. It hadn't.



It was my turn to do the early shift, and I'm glad that was the case as I definitely saw the best of the snow; by the time Doug got up at 9.30am, it was starting to melt in earnest. As I type this now, the sun is shining and the snow is disappearing fast.


But the boys did manage to get out and play a bit in the snow before their cold hands and noses forced them back inside. They had a great time making a snow vampire (Jacob's obsession with Scooby Doo revealing itself again).

I'm just making easter sunday dinner - roast chicken, all the trimmings - and then we're going to have an indoor easter egg hunt. They've already been enjoying their easter eggs:-


And continuing with our easter theme, here is Jacob's offering from nursery:-


I think its supposed to be Calgary :) Jacob was giving me his take on the easter story as he'd heard it at nursery - it involved Jesus being put onto a cross and then his skin shut up in a BIG CAVE. He especially liked that bit, I think it reminded him of Scooby Doo.

Good Friday

Not much to write about this day except to say that "it makes Ben Hur look like an epic"; the weather forecast wasn't good enough to venture any further than into town, but we'd been given a free family ticket to the Merchant Adventurers Hall to look at the chinese screens that Sam's toddler group had helped make for chinese new year, so decided to go there.


We didn't stay long in the hall, as Doug seemed a bit embarrassed by the boys' noisy play as they charged round the undercroft. Jacob was fascinated at being told that the last time he'd come to the hall, he'd been in my tummy (I think that was how we whiled away the morning before Adrian and Solveig's wedding).


We let the boys run around a bit in the gardens before going to Meltons Too for a spot of lunch; we then headed back to the car park through the Museum Gardens, which were looking very pretty in a rare bit of spring sunshine.


Not much to write home about, which is why I'm writing this blog post. It will save us in a year's time from trying to remember what on earth we did last Easter :)

FA Cup Quarter Final, Barnsley v Chelsea, Oakwell Park

Arses.

Mothers Day in Whitby

It wasn't supposed to be particularly nice weather, so I had been promised a long lie-in and breakfast in bed. However, on realising that it was actually a rather nice day, Doug woke me up at 8am with a plateful of croissants and a couple of very noisy children to make sure I was out of bed in good time for us to have a day out.

We decided on Whitby for our destination as I've never been there and the seaside is always popular with the kids. The drive over the North York Moors was spectacular - the moors just by the rather strange concrete pyramid at RAF Fylingdales are an amazing terracotta and gold colour just at the moment.


We headed up to the Abbey first; it was incredibly windy, but the boys had a whale of a time charging round the ruins.


All very gothic, I can see why Bram Stoker used it as the backdrop to part of Dracula. No foundering ships on the rocks with giant wolves jumping ashore, luckily. By far the scariest thing we found all day, however, was the "Dracula blackcurrant and liquorice ice cream" on sale by the beach. I wasn't brave enough and stuck to cinder toffee ice cream, which was delicious.


As we walked round the town, there was a powerful and wonderful smell of fish and chips. I was cursing mightily that we'd had it for tea on Friday night and that a roast beef diner was planned for when we got back. We settled for a light lunch in an excellent milk shake bar that made wonderful shakes that consisted of ice cream, milk and the confectionary of your choice. Sam sunk a bog standard strawberry shake, but Doug and I were a bit more adventurous and tried a maltesers one; it tasted like chocolate malted milk and was delicious. As we left, someone was trying a creme egg shake - 3 creme eggs were being put in the blender - but I think that might have been a bit much.


We made it as far as the beach and walked down to the end of the jetty to the lighthouse; Jacob was rather taken by the dinosaur skeletons carved into the concrete floor of the jetty.


We made it back to the car just in time for the heavens to open as the weather that had been forecast for the day finally arrived. Back home for the aforementioned roast beef dinner, lovingly cooked by Doug (although he did get me to make the batter for the yorkshires) and a nice bottle of red.


A lovely Mothers Day and a yardstick for all such days in the future (Doug, Sam and Jacob take note).