T-Bird Anni Rides Again

In no particular order here is the weekend!

My tent behaved pretty well considering we did have some proper rain (as opposed to a gentle summer shower) but dripped a bit through the zip on the "window" due to a really stupid design - it’s a mesh window with a zip round it that has no flap to stop rain working its way through the teeth and dripping onto my groundsheet.  Nothing serious but mildly irritating.  The fabric was a bit clammy by the end of the second night and I suspect that Kessingland type weather would have defeated it.  I’m going to get some Nikwax and do it and the Hobbit Hole (which is probably due a good doing judging by the way it was beginning to hold water a bit), assuming of course there is ever a few dry days for me to put them up to do! 

The company was lovely, it was great to catch up with people which I felt I missed out on at Kessingland with the awful weather keeping most of us holed up.

The food was wonderful and I was amazed to see Aprilia polish off Jan’s lovely bolognase with visible "bits" in it.  As promised here is the link for the chocolate cake (I used sunflower oil instead of marg in this and just left it for 10 minutes rather than standign there stiring and waiting for the marg to melt) and the frosting for the top (although I used orange juice instead of water this time and totally forgot to stir the margarine through, it’s even richer and more adictive with the marg or butter in the frosting!!!)  And just in case you don’t already have it, here’s the Chocolate Oatie recipe (also known as Preacher cookies)  I never add the peanut butter and usually use soya milk instead of normal milk, it gives a better taste and somehow seems more likely to set than normal milk.

The weather was mixed but there was enough time when it wasn’t actually raining for varying groups of children to charge round the garden.  Naturally this has lead to Aprilia coming home slightly second-hand but the scratches didn’t seem to bother her and the sore ankle is aparently now better for the most part, just a bit stiff if she sits still too long.  I will confess to being neurotic about the ankle as the last one that was presented to me looking like that was broken!!!  But to be fair, that one didn’t look better after an ice pack and hers did.  and I reserve the right to forget all the First Aid I ever knew when I am hormonal and it is my child

There seemed to be a lot of slightly fragile children about, I’m sure a lot of it is just down to the total lack of sunlight this year which is making most people a bit under parr.  Aprilia seemed to swing from totally frantic to catatonic in a rather startling way.  However C came to the rescue by letting her share the PC alcove and play with her on the PC for a while.  She just doesn’t *do* lots of noise and crowded-ness as a rule (although of course she seemed to cope perfectly well with it at Sparkies!) which makes me wonder how well she would have coped with school or on the flip side if school would have tought her how to deal with it better?  I think not.

Roxy coped remarkably well with all the hoards invading her home, she’s a lovely dog, almost makes me want to have one (but only almost….) 

 I am going to wait until Wednesday to upload the pictures as I just can’t get Flickr to play and I suspect it is my PC that is sulking rather than Flickr!