ʔAQ’WA

It's a good day to be indoors!

The Hider household has had fun making a Bug Hotel and an Elf Garden.  Bug Hotel Elf Garden

Heritage: very British! Nothing can’t be made better with a biscuit and a cuppa tea! Plain and peanut butter biscuits. Stars and hearts that hook on your cup (if you are being fancy or if they last that long!!)   

A lovely surprise from Mel landed on my doorstep last week to say thank you for helping her with a bit of design work.  So I'd like to say thank you Mel! Once I was convinced that they weren't too pretty to eat, they were yummy!

Can you spot yours?!

Answers next week!

This is my ‘When this is all over...’ pot I’ve been keeping since lockdown. Living on my own has given me lots of time to think and in the normal rat run of school life, I’m just too tired to do anything productive with my weekends. So I’ve started a pot of things I’m going to do once we’re out of lockdown and add to it every time I think: “I ought to try that when this is done” - from booking that weekend away and concerts to meeting up in real life with people I reconnected with digitally.

A late entry for the baking challenge but I saved my baking resources and energy for entertaining my daughter on this wet Tuesday afternoon. We made a carrot cake, using my mum and granny’s recipe. I’m sure this must count as one of our five-a-day! 

Since lock-down, I have been able to spend my weekends cooking and baking for some very happy housemates. It has been a good excuse to use my Moroccan ceramic bowls! Typically, my household is super busy during the day- all working from home, so it is nice to be able to sit down and share a meal, play some cards and wind down after a busy day. Tiana

No baking today and before I go for a run....I wanted to share this short video with you all........For those of you that know me well, you'll know how close to my dad I am; he sent me this....I hope you enjoy it........

My dog Denzil during the lockdown has decided to improve his brain, so has recorded an episode of University Challenge.   He can’t wait for it to start. Next stop Mastermind, specialist subject: dog biscuits. Author:   Trace Mann

This weekend I made Cheddar cheese scones.  Being brought up in the West Country (in a small village between Wells and Cheddar gorge), this kinda sums up my childhood and memories of baking with my mum!  Author: Lou Flower (TA) 

Mini lemon drizzle loaves  Recipe by Mary Berry Pretty confident these are better than Ollies'  Author:  Pat Johnson

Over the Easter holiday, my daughter and I set about a piece of the garden to create a vegetable patch. It was hard work as it was over-run with...neglect. We worked on it for a few hours a day and soon we had a barren, but well turned over, area to plant. The pictures are the veggie patch as a whole and the first shoots of lettuce (oh the excitement) and rhubarb. We have planted - new potatoes, peas, runner beans, carrots, marigolds (allegedly, an excellent companion plant to deter carrot fly!) beetroot, parsnips and French beans. I will let you know how we get on Laine

My first attempt at soda bread...may need refining and Irish potato farls, a staple in my house as a child for a weekend breakfast, and something I now have down to a fine art.

Here is my Jam and Coconut Sponge cake.  It has nothing to do with my heritage, I just didn’t have the ingredients for Welsh cakes. 

For my attempt at a ‘heritage bake’ I made my first ever apple strudel – it’s a bit of a cheat as I am not actually German in any way but my husband’s family are originally form the Black Forest so I stole his heritage – I have lived there for a bit and speak the lingo so that must count and I am definitely expert in eating Strudel! Lecker!

My obsession with garden lights continues.   I blame Pat Johnson personally.   I few years ago I went to a party at her house and noticed her solar light bulbs and thought wow I love those, and there it began.   So since then I have been adding more and more different lights to our garden to the point now where my son has said NO MORE LIGHTS PLEASE MUM. So I thought I would share a few pictures with you which doesn't cover all of them, but you get the picture. I'm not done yet though!! Author:   Trace Mann

Please find my Nottingham Goose Fair Gingerbread (not sure what it will taste like, it has to stand for 3 days to get sticky).

I learnt a new skill over the Easter - how to groom a very hairy dog.  Usually 2 hours at the dog groomers, about 6 for me!  A good investment - silent dog grooming clippers helped!  Stanley did sulk a bit but smelt and looked so much better.  Looked like a pup again but is 9. x

On Sunday in the Newton household we went for 'Best of British'.  The day started with a Full English and ended with a traditional roast - pork!   All washed down by rocky road made by our daughter Mia.