Category: Stuff I love!

On Saturday morning I made a cup of tea in my insulated mug, packed a bag with a cinnamon roll in it, and then drove over to my parents house. Now that we are allowed to exercise in groups (staying 2m apart of course) we had decided to have a run. My brother came along too, and at 9.15 the three of us ran a 5k, taking in some of the Jersey Farm parkrun route.

Of course I had on my “it’s still parkrunday” top- very glad I purchased this. The fabric is really good too- really nice and airy so perfect for hot days (I prefer a t-shirt to a vest as it’s better to keep your skin covered, but often the fabric is quite thick).

Once back, we went through the garage and into the garden. Dad had set out extra tables, so him and Mum sat at one table, my brother at another and I had the final table. I’d brought my own breakfast so I had no need to touch anything that wasn’t mine. We sat around for a few hours, and it was so lovely to catch up in such a relaxed way. Luckily the weather was good. Mum and Dad have loads of bird feeders in their garden, and lots of nesting boxes, so we saw a fledgling sparrow, goldfinch and blue tit.

Once home, we then headed out to meet Andy’s parents on a walk around some local woods. It has been nice to see people in person, but I felt very paranoid about staying away after being in work and such close contact to children all week.

On Saturday night we watched 13th, which was a film about racial inequality in the USA- it’s from a few years ago but very relevant to now.

On Sunday I wore my St Albans half marathon top because it was also on Sunday 15th June, but 5 years ago. It was soooo hot outside and I took lots of walk breaks, and regretted the choice of top because it’s quite thick fabric. I’d been inspired to have a go at making elderflower cordial after a child in my class made some and then a friend had a go, so I took a bag with me and kept an eye out for the flowers. I did a bit more of the 20/20 route, seeing more lovely fields and woods.

At one point I ended up in a little village and saw a postbox and got very excited but it was just an ER one!

On the way back I picked some elderflower for the project to begin later.

Then to breakfast! We had some John Lewis vouchers so decided to get a waffle maker. This was our first attempt and I was very impressed. The only trouble is deciding which toppings to go for- I had banana and chocolate spread on one, and oatly creme fraiche and maple syrup on the other. Super tasty.

Then it was on to make the elderflower. It’s got to sit for 48 hours infusing away after the initial cooking. It does smell really good though.

I didn’t realise until I read the recipe that it’s the pollen that gives it the flavour, so you don’t rinse the flowers, you just check they are free from bugs!

We did some gardening but it was baking, so I also sat in the shade having an iced tea- I made up some Peach Cobbler tea, left it it to cool and then topped with almond milk. It’s so good.

I had put some plants in the little hanging pots and put them up on the trellis, and even though the lights didn’t come on until around 10pm, it just looks so pretty now.

Do you like elderflower? What would you top your waffles with? We are planning on recreating the hummus and avocado one next week.

Last week felt easier, having already been through it once already. Monday was yoga in the morning and a walk in the evening, Tuesday was a run in the morning and a walk in the evening, Wednesday was a run in the morning and yoga in the evening, Thursday was a run in the morning and a walk in the evening, and Friday was a walk after work. The early alarms felt much easier this week, and I really like getting home and not having to rush to get changed and head out again.

I made pizza one day (using the sourdough starter) and banana bread another day because what else do you do with three brown bananas?

My eye pillow came in handy for yoga.

Sadly Disneyland Paris announced that the half marathon weekend in September has been cancelled. We had worked out the logistics so that I could do the 10k and half – Andy was going to get the Eurostar on Friday morning and collect the bibs (as you have to get them the day before), then after work on Friday I would get the Eurostar, we’d be there for the weekend and travel home on the Sunday afternoon. We still have the train booked, so we are not sure if we will still go (apparently they are opening on 15th July), but we can’t get a refund for the train so we may as well wait and see.

We had booked a weekend in Helsinki for the end of July, but we got a refund on the flights this week as they have cancelled most of the flights each day. It’s disappointing but I am not sure I want to go on a plane anytime soon, and things might not be open anyway so it would not be like a normal weekend away.

Our Studio Ghibli show was postponed to August 2021, and our Ash concert (originally put back from March to September) is now in Feb 2021. It seems that rapidly anything scheduled for the autumn is going to be pushed back further.

We finished watching The Last Dance (really enjoyed that, even though I had no idea about basketball and had to ask Andy all sorts of basic questions like how many in a team, how many points do they get for the net etc)- I like a sport doc that is good even if you don’t know about the sports.

We then started watching the thing about Peter Falconio (the backpacker who went missing in Australia) but somehow ended up watching the episodes in this order- 2, 4, 1… no idea why as we used the Channel 4 i-player thingy so you would think it would direct us to the first one first! It jumps around a fair bit in time, so we only realised after watching 2!

I was inspired by a friend to have a go at elder-flower cordial, so I spent some of my runs hunting for it. I found what I thought was some, and took a piece  home to check, (it was) but it wilted quickly so I realised I’d need to pick it on the same day as making it- a weekend project. I did see some lovely sunrises, and despite all the rain, most of my runs were dry (a little drizzle on Tuesday).

On Thursday Andy was watching a live podcast, so I decided to watch Mary Poppins returns- I feel as if I am snuggling up under a blanket when the  film titles start- it’s such a comforting film (and catchy songs, apart from the stupid product placement song…).

On Friday I baked some cinnamon rolls in preparation for Saturday (a socially distanced run with my dad)- I was really looking forward to it, and it properly made it feel like the weekend was here. We allowed ourselves the next Queer Eye episode too- don’t want to burn through them too quickly!

Do you have anything booked that you are hoping won’t get cancelled or postponed? Are you a banana bread fan? Any good TV recommendations? 

Last weekend started as always, with a run (listening to WMN), the parkrun quiz (10/15 that week) and then pancakes.

The weather was lovely first thing, but it soon clouded over. Never mind, a good time to get on with all the weekend jobs (cleaning, tidying, washing etc). Early afternoon we decided to have a walk, as there was a higher chance of rain at 4pm. As we were out we could see huge dark clouds in the distance and heard a few rumblings of thunder. We got home, washed our hands and then the heavens opened. It was crazy, with torrential rain, hailstones and lightning overhead. I don’t mind rain, but I was very glad we were home before that!

I made some rosemary roasted nuts (from the Fearne Cotton book- so many fab recipes in there) and then we settled down to begin our project- the WDW Lego castle. We listened to a podcast while we worked, and basically finished the first layer.

On Saturday night we watched The Lovebirds (with Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani), which was a comedy film (reminded me a bit of Game Night) and quite funny.

I also found out that parkrun UK used one of my photos (in my new apricot top)!

On Sunday I decided to run a bit more of the WGC 20/20 route. I went past the golf course and then instead of turning right (like last time) I followed the signs left for around a mile before turning back on myself, and finishing the loop. I found fields and woods only a few miles from home that I’d never been to.

Just wonderful.

Once home  (and I’d had a shower and breakfast) Andy’s parents popped over to sit in the garden, although sadly after around 30 mins it rained so they had to go home.  I was a bit worried about it, because of being back at work (in an enclosed space with children, exposed to all the germs from those families etc) I feel I am now more likely than ever to have picked it up, but it was their choice and we made sure to sit a long way apart.

I made some Chelsea-style cinnamon buns (a sort of mixture of two recipes, using the dough from the cinnamon bun recipe and adding in the dried fruit filling), and we had one in the afternoon after a few garden jobs.

In the evening we finished watching The last Dance, and then somehow the weekend was over.

Do you have any weekend rituals or routines at the moment? Do you tend to stick to the same routes or do you like exploring new areas?  I have such a bad sense of direction that often I have to get out google maps on my phone to work out where I am, and I also worry about accidentally ending up in a field of cows or something. This 20/20 route is fairly well marked with only one confusing part (a sign for a public footpath but then closed gates in front of houses with no clear path through).

So this week was back to being in work all the time instead of the rota system we have had up until now. I did some yoga before heading in on Monday morning.

Tuesday morning run scenes and Monday night dinner

And if anyone says re-opening of schools, then please picture Ross from Friends as he screams “We were on a break“- because schools were never closed! Anyway, on Monday Andy made a katsu curry for dinner (using quorn pieces)- with lots of pickled cabbage and some edamame beans, it was very tasty (and I am not usually a curry fan). The weather was due to be warm and I didn’t really want to be running at half 5 in the evening, and I’ve enjoyed my early morning runs so far, so I decided to set the alarm for just after 5 on Tues, Wed and Thurs for early morning runs. As I need to leave by around 7.20, I could only fit in 4 miles, so no Tuesday 10k for me. I do like the start to the day- the first ten minutes after waking up I do question my sanity, but once outside and moving I feel so much better. I wasn’t sleeping much anyway so was often awake at that time, so I figured I may as well make the most of it. The bonus is that when I get home, we can have a pot of tea and maybe watch some TV, or have a walk and catch up on the day.

Although on Tuesday around 2 miles in I thought that my shoes felt strange, and I then realised I was wearing non-running trainers. The drawback of running at 5am perhaps. I felt totally mortified though because I posted a pic on Instagram of my shoes, and then saw everyone was doing a Black Out Tuesday in solidarity with George Floyd and all of the protesters. Everything felt so trivial all of the sudden- being at work I just had not thought about anything that was happening in the wider world that day. I signed up to the Brooks challenge where they are donating a dollar for each signup for the Equal Justice Initiative (their website also has lots of useful information). I listened to the latest JVN podcast where he talked to a DA about how they can fight police brutality and made good points about making sure you use your vote (council elections, the police commissioners as well as general elections). I thought a lot about the film Just Mercy (based on a true story of a lawyer trying to help someone on Death Row, linked to the EJI), which must be one of the last films we went to see before the lockdown. The British Podcast email had a collection of educational ones to listen to, and Change.Org sent a list of petitions to sign this week. But of course there is a lot more to do.

On with the rest of the week…

We found a Pudding Stop sticky toffee pudding in the freezer so shared that for pudding and it was delicious.

I was excited to see some big flowers on my courgette plants, and now we actually have some teeny courgettes growing too.

On Wednesday I took part in the global running day earning some Strava badges and also getting some shoes out of the box (I’ve had them for a while as I bought them in the sale). Yoga was back on, and I really enjoyed the session. I’d bought an eye pillow from the Hitchin Lavender farm, so had that on during the final relaxation and I really could have fallen asleep on the floor of my office.

Thursday morning run scene and a hot chocolate for the evening

Despite the weather starting off warm, it was windy and rainy and cold- we have to have all the doors open at work (to keep the fresh air coming in) and even though I was wearing a thick jumper and long sleeved top (in June!) I was so cold, so once home and after dinner we had a hot chocolate to warm up. We also found this Tony’s bar lurking at the back of a drawer so opened that too.

On Friday a big box of packet of biscuits (the ones you get in B&B’s) appeared in our staff-room from some lovely parents. Now our planning time is on a Friday afternoon (due to the bubble system you can’t have another teacher taking your group) and I had an online meeting, so I headed home to tea and biscuits while doing the virtual meeting. As someone who is not great at technology I was quite impressed with how the meeting went. I’d made some sourdough the night before and shaped it in the morning, so that was baked ready for Friday night dinner too.

I also really fancied some pb chocolate brownies, but after the bread baking (and we went out on a walk) I didn’t really have time, so I used a mix from the Superfood Bakery, and just added some peanut butter to it. Then it was time for Queer Eye as the new series dropped on Friday- hooray!

I made the mistake of checking facebook after that, and saw that our local paper had reported that the clock tower was going to be lit up in purple for Black Lives Matter. A good thing, only you would not think that from the comments. I know you are not meant to read the internet comments, but some of them were so nasty (the people whinging that all lives matter-I liked one reply which was something like “save the whales doesn’t mean kill all other animals…”). And the hypocrisy of people complaining about the protests, when a few weeks before for the VE day weekend lots of people were out having street parties (when that wasn’t allowed) doing congas and all sorts… To be fair there were plenty of people trying to explain (leading to some heated arguments), but it did shock me the number of people who were perfectly OK with having their racist views on a public place like that.

How has your week been?