Wordless Wednesday - A Walk in Wales

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Menu Plan Monday - Dec 10th

This week we have to do some Christmas baking. I don't know how we are going to manage but I really want to do it with Big Monkey so it's vital. The problem is that her attention span is still short and Little Monkey can't really help at all yet.
Perhaps I'll do it all by myself in the evening and just leave a tiny bit of dough for the Monkeys so that they think they've done it.
Any suggestions?

My parents are coming for a pre-Christmas visit this week. It's been about six months since we met so we are all looking forward to it. This is what will be on our table this week.

MONDAY Veggie burgers with boiled potatoes and veg

TUESDAY Leek soup from the freezer and leftover pasta

WEDNESDAY Savoury bread and butter pudding (A favourite of P.'s)

THURSDAY Savoury waffles

FRIDAY Potato, leek and mushroom bake

SATURDAY Cous cous

SUNDAY Roasted vegetables with rice (my mother's speciality)

Visit Laura to see what other people are cooking this week.

Thursday thirteen #5 The Ballad of Lee Cotton

I've just finished reading the novel "The Ballad of Lee Cotton" by Christopher Wilson and want to write a review for the Fall into Reading Challenge. I hope all you Thursday Thirteeners will enjoy reading something about this novel and perhaps even be inspired to read it as well. So this week I'm writing

Thirteen Things about "The Ballad of Lee Cotton":

1. Lee Cotton, the hero of this novel, is born in Eureka, Mississippi in 1950 just after a bull is found dangling from a tree forty feet up and before it rains bull-frogs. His birth is just as strange.
2. His full name is Leifur Nils Kristjansson Saint Marie du Cotton.
3. At a later stage he changes his name to Lee McCoy.
   
4. He is a black boy with "buttermilk skin, azure-blue eyes, and straw-blond hair". Identity conflicts are present throughout.
5. He lives through and is shaped by racial segregation and the Civil Rights movement.
   
6. He also hears voices. A gift he maybe inherited from his voodoo practising grandmother in New Orleans.
7. The plot is so weird and unusual I would love to write lots of details but I don't want to give anything away.
8. The British author, Christopher Wilson, wrote this book from North London. He never visited the American Deep South but spent three months virtually there through the internet.
9. "The Ballad of Lee Cotton"is just called "Cotton" in the U.S..
10. This novel was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize in 2005 and was described by the judges as "wholly original, utterly riveting and full of surprises".
11. It really is surprising and very funny. Lee is such a sympathetic character, you can't help but like him and wonder what's going to happen to him next.
12. This book is FUN. The plot is fantastically unrealistic but I never felt that it was too silly or unbelievable while reading.
13. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of weirdness!
    
    

Click here to read more TT lists. Or go to Callapidder Days to find more reviews for the reading challenge.

Wordless Wednesday - 5th December

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Menu Plan Monday - Dec 3rd

I've started knitting myself a cardigan and have hardly switched the computer on for over a week. This meant that I didn't refer back to last weeks plan very much and only followed about 2/3 of it. I hope to finish the cardigan soon and get back to posting a little more often, and checking this week's menu plan, of course.

MONDAY Creamy parsnip soup with baguette

TUESDAY Veggie burgers with potatoes, green beans, carrots and sweetcorn

WEDNESDAY Sweet potato curry from the freezer with rice

THURSDAY Moosewood Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

FRIDAY Pizza with lots of vegetable toppings.

If you're looking for more Menu Plan Monday participants check out Laura's blog. Have a great week.

Thirteen things I bought yesterday

Big Monkey had to go back to the doctor's (in the "big city" on the other side of the river) for a check-up yesterday and as P. had a day off work we decided to do some shopping we were very successful!
So here are thirteen things we bought yesterday:

1. A new keyboard - yes, at last I can use all the letters and punctuation marks I want without having to copy them from old documents!
2. Lots of picture frames to put family photos up in the living room. Our next project is to work out how many pictures we need of each size, choose them and get them developed.
   
3. Round bamboo knitting needles for the huge cardigan I've foolishly started. Why didn't I choose a scarf for Little Monkey to start with?
4. A ruler with paper trimmer. I gave my big guillotine away years ago as I didn't have enough space after the birth of Big Monkey and also didn't want her to find it and play with it. Yesterday I found a really small, safe replacement.
5. A grey polo-neck jumper for me.
6. Grey cardigan for me.
7. Green cardigan for me.
8. An advent calendar with a different tea bag for everyday for me.
9. Magnetic photo frames - to put photos in and give to grandparents some time.
   
10. Three wooden Christmas trees, they are really unusual. I can't wait to put them up.
    
11. A magic Christmas tree for the Monkeys to decorate on Christmas Eve (I had these as a child sometimes and loved them)
12. New specially soft flannels for me.
13. A cookbook holder, this has been on my wish list as long as I've been cooking and yesterday I saw a really smart one that doesn't take up too much space.

My normal shopping is just basic groceries, nappies and baby wipes and even when I want to buy things I rarely find things for me, I always just find things I know Big Monkey or the rest of the family would love. So it was really fun to buy things for me! Nearly everything was on sale or we got special discounts (everything apart from the advent calendar in fact) I also managed to resist the temptation to buy anything for Big Monkey.

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Wordless Wednesday - 28th November

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