The Wooden Hill

 Don't you just hate it when the wife says, "I have an idea". This particular idea came about when we decided that the stairs and main bedroom needed decorating. Wife decided that she would prefer the bannister and newel posts etc, rubbed down to bare wood and stained.

I did get a quote for some-one to do the job, however £1000 plus materials and it was a no-brainer, do it myself.

So I've started.

                                       

Using a rather well know paint stripper I have managed to get most of the paint off the bannister and posts and with a rough sanding they are starting to loook good. I've had to remove the spindles in order to get to the inside of the posts and that was a job and a half. Only broke one though which doesn't really matter, because rather than strip them down we will buy new ones and just stain them.

Now they are out it's crack on with the rest of the sanding and rubbing down. Going to take a little while but we're in no rush.

I'll let you know when it's all finished.

Coffee & Cake

 Who doesn't like a piece of cake with their coffee. All my life I have loved to bake, however since retiring I have got into the habit of baking a cake a week. Then the wife and I have a slice with our morning  (or afternoon) coffee.

This week it was a lemon drizzle cake, nice and fresh with a lovely sharp taste of lemon.

Heat oven to 180C / 160C fan. Gas 4

RECIPE

225g unsalted butter, 225g caster sugar, 4 eggs, 225g self raising flour, zest of a lemon.

For the toppin

Juice of one and a half lemons, 85g Caster sugar

METHOD

Beat the butter and sugar together then add the eggs one at a time, slowly mixing through so that they don't curdle.

Sift in the flour then add the lemon zest and mix well

I don't use a loaf tin, instead I use a 20cm round silicon dish. I line the bottom of the dish as it makes getting the cake out easier.

Put the mixture in the dish, level with a spoon and bake for 45/50 mins.

Test with a skewer and if it comes out clean, it's baked.

Don't turn the cake out yet. Mix up the lemon juice and sugar, prick the cake all over and then drizzle the mixture over the cake so that it soaks in all the way.

Leave the cake go completely cold so that you end up with a nice crispy, sugary top.

Turn the cake out and enjoy.

Garden Change

This week I have decided to have a change round of the garden in the front of the house. As we have off road parking most of the front is shingle. However there are a couple of area's that I have utilised so that we at least have something green there.

The photos shown here are of the garden as it is and has been for the last few years. A rather unruly bush, some marigolds, gladiolis that I tried planting directly into the shingle and a sort of miniature conifer patch. It was this that I really wanted to change as some of the conifers were getting rather woody and straggly.

 

The idea is to change out some of the conifers with grasses and alpine plants, leave the gladioli's in and also plant some fleabane daisies with them. The unruly bush needs some serious pruning and the pots need sorting. So far I have managed to change out the woody conifers but unfortunately rain has definitely stopped play.

It's starting to look pretty good, as soon as the rain stops and I can get the remainder of the plants in, I'll show some more photo's.

War Cabinet

 Over the years I have amassed a number of trophies and nick knacks. Some from sport, i.e. golf and petanque, some from my army days and the rest are gifts, some old, some new. Nobody ever really sees them so I thought that I would share them with you. Mainly so that I can get back into blogging, cos of course the first thing is that I need something to blog about.

Anyway, the first pic is of my "War Cabinet", lol, where I keep my bits and pieces.

In here is a miscellaneous amount of trophies, army stuff and things I have collected on my travels.

So starting with the first pic, these are my two recent trophies from Petanque. I started playing in 2019, just before lockdown. Great, I find a hobby I like and then can't play it because although it's in an open space it's also with up to 20 other people. Anyway, late 2020 we were able to start playing again, albeit with the 2m distancing and things took off from there. I love the game now and play twice a week, plus league games and a few competitions during the year. These two are from the Club Doubles which my playing partner and I won.

This pic is of glasses that I have collected. The stein was from Czech Republic, way back in 1997 when I went to stay just outside Prague with a penfriend. We visited the castle in Prague which also at the time housed the Czech Parliament. One day, the president arrives and Bozenka (my friend) just walked up to him and said hello and introduced me. I was gobsmacked when he shook my hand and then walked inside. I told her, in the UK you wouldn't get within 10m of the PM never mind shake his hand. Anyway, on the way home we called into the village bar, in Roudnice, and the barman gave me the stein to bring home.

Just a pic of a few golfing (and other) trophies I have won.

This one is special, The pewter mug was presented to me in 1981 when I left the Guards Depot after serving there for 3 years as a senior instructor. The brown mug was handmade in Cyprus in 1974 by a local craftsman. It has a large crack because my daughter dropped it, good old super glue. The glass e-type is because that is my all time favourite car and was given to me as a prezzie. I got to drive a vintage e-type a few years back when my children bought me a blue letter day for my 70th. I got to drive one around a race track. 4.2ltrs of pure muscle and growl. Bliss. The hip flasks are, 1 for winning the Charity Shield at Golf, the one behind is a simple Welsh Guard one and the last one is a memento from The Falkland Isles with the map and dates on it. The "nuts & bolts" motorcycle represents my love of cruisers and finally the brass snuff box belonged to my great grandfather which he used in the mines and has his name and date on it. William Jeffrey Jones 1888.

Hopefully you've enjoyed a peek into part of me and I haven't bored you too much.

Here I go again

 So, it's been a little while since I posted on here. Some health issues, plus a lack of focus. Anyway, I'm back with another attempt at letting the world at large know what I'm up to. First up is a visit to London that my wife and I paid back in June. Weekend of Sat 14th June. Some of you will recognise that date as the Kings Birthday Parade. To take it back a little while, last November 2023 I attended a re-union of old comrades in Weston Super Mare.

Lovely place, Marlene (the wife) and I lived there for some 10 years. Anyway, during the obligatory raffle I, with the greatest stroke of luck won the top prize, two tickets to the Kings Birthday Parade, on the actual day no less.

So, a weekend in London, see the sights etc and generally enjoy ourselves. I've done the troop a few times, both on parade and street lining, however Marlene has never really seen it except on TV. A fantastic weekend and even the rain at the end of the parade couldn't dampen our spirits. We had great seats, just to the left of Admiralty Arch so we could see everyone coming on to Horse guards Parade, all the carriages and oh so lovely to see Catherine, Princess of Wales arrive. Marlene was ecited because not only did she have ringside seats but she had her own personal tour guide as I was able to eplain what was going on and all the drill movements.

All in all, a wonderful time, happy memories for me and new ones for Marlene.