Homemade Lemonade

Have to admit that the elderflower cordial I made this year was not a huge success so I'm glad to be back to the tried and tested homemade lemonade recipe which is always delicious.

The recipe could not be easier.

4 Lemons
682g of granulated sugar
30g citric acid
2 pints of boiling water

Peel lemons and squeeze juice. Mix in sugar and citric acid. Pour on boiling water. Cover and leave overnight. Strain and bottle.

You can buy citric acid from the chemist where they will ask you what you want it for. {I always think that if you were going to do something naughty with the citric acid it would be very unlikely that you'd admit it in the middle of your local chemist but probably best not to say making bombs.} 

I love this lemonade and I have a sort of unspoken rule that I only make it in the summer although you could make it all year round but then it wouldn't be such a treat would it ...? It is so refreshing and I've yet to meet a child that doesn't like it and I get to feel really smug when visiting children ask for more homemade lemonade in front of their mums. {Luckily they don't realise how easy peasy it is to make.}

Oh and you might be shocked at the amount of sugar you need but honestly you really do need that much and that is less than the original recipe ... imagine how much is in shop-bought cordials???

One man's trash is another man's treasure

I never mind having a stint on the bric a brac stall at the village fete because there are often some real gems (also some real tat!). Unfortunately, after the initial setting up of the stall, I had to go over to help in the beer tent and so I missed out on the "I'll just put this to one side" but I did manage to come home with a few things.

I love this little yellow dish - perfect for putting freshly laid eggs into. {Although Ed has yet to realise they are not hard boiled ones!}

I seem to be buying a lot of jelly moulds lately and although this isn't old and is made of plastic it is a good, easy mould and the boys and I are very taken with the idea of choosing between a star, Christmas tree, flower and heart. It produced a beautiful jelly on Sunday! Think it is my 'new' favourite jelly mould.

Now, quite why I bought these I'm not sure but I just thought they looked so lovely and because they hadn't sold at the end of the day there was the danger they might end up in the skip and I couldn't let that happen. They are well loved and well used and we will put them to use again in the summer holidays.

Well Done

Oscar did really well in his SATs so he should get a well done gift box but I was really thinking these might be good for those students who have suffered the long and hard journey towards GCSEs and A Levels.

Not long now to see how they have all done. I'm hoping lots of them will deserve one of these. Although perhaps I should have done an Oh Well You Can Always Retake box as well!

Fete Worse Than Death

That's not true because actually it's the loveliest fete ever!

Every first Saturday in July our village fete is held at the cricket pitch just behind our house and we love it. As it was Archie's birthday he got to have some friends over and so I had a LOT of boys running around but that is the joy of Fete day!

The children play traditional games like smash the china and have running races. There is a dog show. The raffle, bric a brac, book and cake stalls are popular and the teas and bar compete for custom!

As the day goes on people leave and come back and some of us stay the whole day (!) and in the evening we have the scrummiest barbecue. The children play games of football and cricket and the adults sit around chatting! Perfect.

 The girls do girly things.

And the boys do boy things!

The Straw that broke ... me into a smile!

I just love these gorgeous paper straws. For all those summer parties sitting in the garden sipping cordial or perhaps Pimms is more likely?

Please tell me you think they are as wonderful as I think they are!?!

Pink stripy ones.

Yellow stripy ones.

Blue spotty ones.

Red heart ones.

They are now on sale from nothonthehighstreet.

Bride and Groom ... please take your seats

Wedding season is in full swing and so here are my new Bride and Groom signs. They come in grey, purple and pink lettering. I guess I could do Mother of the Bride, Father of the Groom, Bridesmaid etc etc as well couldn't I - hope someone asks for that ...

London Day Out - Archie's Choice

The boys had a non-pupil day last week and it was Archie's turn to choose a day out so off we went to the London Dungeons. Oscar and I were not terribly excited about this but as I remembered going as a child I thought it was something we should do and he was so keen we had to.

My heart sank when we got there. I thought as it was out of school holiday season it would be quiet ... ha ha ha ... ! We were faced with a one and a half hour queue but then along came a saleslady who told me that if I wanted to go to Madame Tussauds as well I could bypass the queue and walk straight in. I didn't hear anything else but bypass. Luckily once in, and faced with spending a huge quantity of money, I came to my senses and said no and, even more luckily, I somehow managed to sweet talk my way in without having to go to the back of the queue!

I thought the London Dungeons was really good value for money and much better than I thought it would be. {I always find it is best to start with low expectations.}

We had lunch at Wagamamas which is our favourite place and then we walked through Borough Market which was amazing.

We had simply a brilliant day.