Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 49 Comments

Socks and Cakes

There is nothing better than sneaking into the open washing machine as it’s being loaded with clothes. Select a lovely sock and then leg it outside. Once the sock is outside then it’s lost to the wilds…

If only some other things could be lost to the wilds.

With the Great Bloggers ‘Festival of Love’ Bake-Off fast approaching it was time for another creation. Yes it was time to move to Def Con 3.

I tried to keep this simple. A basic sponge cake. Dairy and Gluten Free. Well it started well, with carefully measured out ingredients then the first disaster. For some reason my mind mixed up 20ml of tepid water with 320ml…. Talk about a mucky swimming pool. Not quite the smooth batter I was looking for.

I’m sad to say I panicked. I grabbed the flour jar and just poured. But why was the flour brown…. Yes I had grabbed the cocoa tin. Then I checked the next tin, this one had white contents. But as I poured it became clear this was caster sugar. By the time I had found the proper flour tin the cake mic was looking a right mess. Hawklad recommended that the best course of action was now just to randomly add more ingredients. So we added cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, orange peel and maple syrup.

The end result. Well it looks like a cake. Bizarrely it’s feels like a cake. As for the taste….. Well love can take many forms, but this cake probably isn’t one of those…

Do you feel the baking love.

We would love you to take part as well!! Please send your baking photos and baking ideas into:

CRUSHEDCARAMEL@GMAIL.COM

Already Mel is receiving so many fantastic submissions and the occasional disaster 😂😂😂😂.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 18 Comments

Visit

There’s a small garden which I like to visit every day on the dog walk. It has the most wonderful flowers. Never fails to deliver. Very relaxing.

Some visits are not so relaxing.

This is what happens when the bedroom door is left open. The pets pay a visit.

They sleep, humans not so.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 43 Comments

Bath

You know what boys are like. Any excuse to get dirty. Spraying food and drink everywhere. None stop partying. Any excuse for a game of football.

Well there comes a time when even a boy needs a bath, even worse a hair wash.

Well this one just did and he looks like a rather grand drowned rat….. And nothing better than drinking from your own bath. Boys will be boys.

Then there is only one way to get dry….

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 16 Comments

Nature

I don’t mind gardening. Yes it can be hard work but it’s mostly enjoyable and relaxing. Problem is that I’m not very good at it. My gardening attempts to make things worse. Over time I’ve figured out that the garden will always look better if nature takes control. With patience it brings you gifts. It always does. So amongst the weeds the gifts keep on coming.

Sadly the ‘leave it to Nature’ strategy doesn’t stretch to the lawn. Nature won’t cut the grass. It just keeps on growing. It becomes a meadow. A meadow without wild flowers, just prickly, stingy things. Balls get lost. Pets go missing. Mine and the dogs hay fever goes into meltdown. Yes the dog had allergies. He takes exactly the same antihistamines as I do. It’s such an odd feeling swallowing my tablet while trying to get the mad dog to take his. So the lawn needs cutting. That’s down to me. But I do leave Nature a few areas of grass to do it’s thing with. You never know what it will do. What wonders it might bring. And it does give the mad dog a great place to hide socks, my socks.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 60 Comments

Some people

An unexpected trip to the Vets this time with the big boy cat. So I was stood outside the car waiting patiently my turn to enter. The handful of pet owners kept looking at the traffic light entry system now in place. Waiting with a wide arrange of pets with owners who knew how this worked. The Vets are running late but they will get to us as soon as possible. The Receptionist keeping us informed of progress. All very polite, civilised and good natured.

Then it all changed. A car drove up with two dogs in the back. I must admit two very happy and well behaved dogs. If only the owner was….

First the owner ignored the one empty car parking spot and decided to squeeze between two already parked cars. This must have been about being closer to the entrance by all of 10 yards. Anyway it was an impressive parking achievement as there wasn’t really space for a third car. The owner squeezed out banging the unlucky adjacent car. She then ignored a returning driver politely asking if she could reverse out so the unfortunate driver could open the drivers side door more than 6 inches. The polite request was brushed off with a curt ‘I’ve got to get my dogs out’ comment. Eventually the poor driver was curved to climb in through the passenger side.

Then it was time to have a go at the nice receptionist. It was disgraceful that she had to wait and it didn’t matter that there were appointments before hers that were still waiting, she should be next and seen NOW.

Thankfully she was made to wait her turn. As my cat was seen I looked out of the window and gave reports back to the receptionist on the increasingly purple coloured and and clearly fuming person in the car park. Apparently this lady is always like this and according to the receptionist she isn’t the only customer sadly with this frame of mind.

Why

Is it so hard to be nice and polite to people. I really don’t understand some people.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 54 Comments

Charge

Can’t let Captain Chaos off the lead even here. He only has two modes will out. Head in all directions accept forward and CHARGE….

So Hawklad is busy building Lego sets. All about working on his fine motor skills. For some reason he likes to build these outside on the patio.

So there he was nearly completing an old Lord of the Rings building. All very intricate and delicate. Hours of work and then…..

My sister appearing at the back gate.

Captain Chaos is mad but goes the maddest of mad when there are visitors. Like DCs Flash, he was getting to the gate at near the speed of light. Two options. Go the direct and clear route OR head the longer and Lego blocked way. Only one option for a Lord of Chaos.

Lego everywhere. You wouldn’t believe how far Lego can fly and roll. Days later we are still on a recovery mission.

Oh what fun.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 78 Comments

Bad Pet Care

How difficult can it be to give a mad dog and a big fat boy cat, a worming tablet. The answer is VERY, it took ALL DAY…. In my defence it took the Vet 20 minutes to give the boy cat his last tablet. It goes in, but then comes straight out. The mad dog has an unusual ability to get his tablet stuck in his ear fur. In my defence the Vet also encountered that skill.

Today I tried everything. Putting the tablet in food. In treats. Chucking it down the neck. Seconds later the pesky tablet was back on the floor or stuck in the dogs ear.

Nothing worked until I went for the nuclear option. The dog was eyeing up a pack of donuts on the kitchen table. Well worth a go. So the tablet was rammed in half a donut and unbelievably this time it was swallowed in a nanosecond. Just the cat now. Sadly the donut trick is not going to work for our fat cat. But finally feline success. Hawklad was eating toast and the boy cat was doing his usual trick of trying to eat the butter. Worth a go. Coat the tablet in a dollop of better and within seconds job done.

So Pet tip of the day – have plenty of unhealthy food in the house for administering medication.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 61 Comments

Hot air

It’s early. I should be sleeping but I can’t. The mad dog wants to go outside and have is morning constitutional….. So without bothering to get dressed I dragged myself out into the chilly garden. Don’t laugh but the dog won’t do what dogs need to do without having someone stood next to him. So I stood bear footed on the damp lawn, looked the other way and whistled.

That’s when I noticed the hot air balloon. Right over the top of me. The balloonists got to see what I wear in bed….. Sorry about that.

By the time the dog

had finished. By the time I ran inside to get my phone, the balloon had moved on a bit.

Well that was a different start to the day.