Yum! Yum!

This morning we went blackberry picking along the hedgerows of the lanes nearby. We had to reach high for where the ripe ones were, but we came back with a kilo of fruit!

Here are the hands to prove it.

With this bag of blackberries we made - 19 muffins ...

2 blackberry and apple crumbles (one cooked and ready for the freezer, the other awaiting tea-time) ...

and also enjoyed a very refreshing smoothie which was in no small part blackberry! All I had to buy was 2 cooking apples for the crumbles, everything else I already had. Hurray for free food and a day's activities all rolled into one!

Just about surviving ...

... the school holidays. Crikey, it's hard work with a 5 year old boy, an only child in a small village with no other kids. He's just a bit too young yet to cycle down to the next village and play with his friends on his own. Either I have to go with him, or more likely, I have to play/entertain him at home. He's very good at playing on his own and I love to see him totally engrossed in his own 'play' world, but as it's been raining constantly for 4 weeks now (except today - at last), it's been quite a challenge to keep the ideas and activities flowing.

Last week we had a week at Centerparcs. O.M.G. NEVER AGAIN. I could give you a very, very long list of the things I didn't like about it, but I wont. I think we just chose the wrong holiday for us - although, thankfully, the boy did enjoy it - it's just that his parents didn't!

Anyhow, today I'm chambermaiding between visitors. Rushing round with the hoover and stuffing the washing machine full. Have had absolutely no time for anything creative so far these hols, so I'm sort of feeling a bit strange really. My creative mojo has temporarily taken a holiday, me thinks. there is just no time in the day for my activities and by the evenings I'm too knackered. Oh, woe is me! Still, only 3 more weeks to go ...