You Can Grow Your Own Wayyyyyyy

I'm still growing things in the garden and I'm managing to not kill them!

My little garden patch is coming along nicely, pretty soon I'll have things to pick that I can eat... and that makes me VERY happy. Last year's garden attempt was a complete failure, but it seems to be a different story this year. Maybe I'm growing up?!

Growing strawberries! Get the cream!

Growing yellow African carnations (I think) Blatantly purchased because they were called African something...

Growing courgettes! Oh my!

Attempting to grow blackberries! Mmmm crumble...

Growing teacups!

 So there we are. I was thinking about why last year might have been such a garden disaster and here's my list of how to grow plants in a small garden without killing them:

1. Don't scrimp on the compost, yo. If like me, you have bad soil - mine is almost clay in places, I dug up a small paving slab the other day - then you NEED compost. Take advantage of multi-buy offers. Dig a hole twice the size of the plant (twice as deep, twice as wide) and fill with compost so it's level with the surrounding soil...

2. Wiggle the plant pot container in to the compost to make the shape of the plant. This saves throwing compost around the plant like a crazy woman and getting compost down your nails, ladies! HA! Like I care about that, I'm just lazy.

3. Before you wiggle the plant out of the pot and into its new home, dunk the plant base in water for ten seconds at the roots. This way I like to think that the plant is going into the soil satisfied and not feeling thirsty. It works for me.

4. Plant the plant in the ready made perfectly shaped hole in the compost and pat down then cover over with MORE COMPOST.

5. Throw slug pellets down to stop the little sluggy blighters munching on your new planty friends.

5. Water daily then after a week add some plant food to your watering can.

Ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The perfect Hen Party Do Thing in York

I've been to York to celebrate the fact that my little sister Beth is getting married in less than three weeks!

YIKES! That is exciting!

It was so much fun to get the whole female side of the family together - there's a LOT of us - and reminisce about the GOOD OLD DAYS when we used to punch each other in the face and bully each other and steal each other's clothes and toys...ah those were the days.

I got a bit squiffy over the weekend and am ashamed to say I got the gin tears thinking that it really doesn't feel that long ago that we were all little kids, and now here we all are married, about to get married or grown up enough for full time employment. I love my sisters, all three of them (and my brother of course) but I can't believe we're all old enough for this now. It feels like we're playing grown ups.

So here's a few snapshots from the emotional weekend that was Beth's amazing hen do in York:

We stayed in a huge house with an indoor pool via https://www.airbnb.co.uk/ and had a fantastic boat cruise all to ourselves via http://mai617.wix.com/pinkmooncruises. I highly recommend both and would love to do it all over again!

Mum & Dad

I forgot to say, last Sunday was Fathers Day but it was also my Mum's Birthday.

I thought that was pretty weird. If I was any good at maths, I could figure out the probability of that happening.

But I'm not.

Happy Parents Day Of Some Sort!

Mum

Dad

Hanging out with Hilary Devey...

Oh it's just been another *regular* week of hobnobbing with the celeb world, I tell you. I've been to London on a day conference, and happened to meet HILARY DEVEY, from TV's Dragons Den fame and got a free copy of her 'Bold as Brass' book signed. Lovely lady and very inspirational.

Me and my new Bezzie mate Hilary. I'll wait for your call, Hilary!

'To Katie' That's me!

She had one of those 'hang on a a minute, I've had an idea and I can't believe no one else is doing it already' moments. Unlike many other people who might think 'oh this idea is SO obvious that there MUST be a reason that no one is doing it already' Hilary actually looked into it and built her haulage business from nothing. She wasn't born into a rich family, she didn't have a wealthy husband, she was a single mother with a nerve of steel and a vision.

It was pretty inspiring to meet her. Thank you London.

In other news, I always love going down to London, but I sure love leaving it again to come back to beautiful Yorkshire. I find London so stressful, I know my way around (roughly) but it's the tourists that drive me MAD. Yes, I understand that London NEEDS tourist to get by, but do they HAVE to spend so long at the top of the escalators wrestling with their suitcase handles? Do they not realise that by stopping suddenly at the top it causes the rest of us behind them to topple backwards like dominoes?

And why do the ticket barriers come as such a surprise to people? No, you're right, standing in front of the barrier is the perfect place to hunt for your ticket... I'll wait for you to figure it out because I have loads of time.

Plus, I was publicly humiliated because my new weekend bag got STUCK IN THE TICKET BARRIERS WAAAAAAAAAA and the ticket man was really slow to help me so everyone hated me in the queue behind and I just wanted to turn around and shout 'I'm here on business! I'm one of you but one that lives in the North!'

Anyway, a good time had by all (all of me anyway) and a swift gin-and-tonic-in-a-can sorted everything out on the way home. Thank you Gin.

YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE! YORKSHIRE!

A beautiful mess-y fringe

I've got two new exciting things in my life; a fringe and the A Beautiful Mess app on my iPhone. Both are a lot of fun.

I love making doodle photos on the train to work in the morning; I like to think other people might think I'm doing something really serious on my phone (answering a super serious email, doing my tax returns etc.) when I'm actually just doodling away on photos.

P.S. I haven't had a haircut in almost 7 months on account of LIVING IN KENYA. When I was done at the salon I was like 'It looks really different' and the hairdresser said 'No, it just looks healthy' No tip.

Compost and teacups...

Look at my little garden! I've got flowers! I've got a palm tree! I'm growing blackberries, strawberries, courgettes and chillis! I've even got little teacups on sticks and a solar powered hedgehog!

I've got a new obsession. I'm in the garden as much as possible while the sun is out. My neighbours are getting worried because I was still out there at 9.15pm tonight.

Still, I guess there are worse hobbies, right?

How To Make Lemon Curd Biscuits

Ahhhh biscuits. Such a naughty treat.

I had some time on my hands on Sunday afternoon and I was home alone with ingredients. So I decided to make biscuits.

Lemon curd biscuits.

Do you know, I really struggle with lemon curd, I never know what to have it with, so I usually end up eating it from a teaspoon straight from the jar. How uncouth.

So, if you've never made biscuits before, here's an easy biscuit recipe to get you started.

You'll need:

An oven, preheated to around 190 degrees
150g plain flour
110g butter - unsalted or whatever you've got
55g caster sugar
A tiny bit of water
Lemon curd - don't be silly, shop bought is just fine

You'll do:

Mix the dry ingredients together - flour and sugar. Sieve the flout if you can be arsed, I didn't

Add in the butter - ah ah ah put the wooden spoon down, get your hands in that bowl and mix it all together

Sprinkle some flour over the worktop or chopping board

Roll out the dough to a thin consistency, around 5mm - 1cm is fine. I didn't have a rolling pin so I used a tin foil tube, What?!

Use a cutter, or an egg cup to cut into shapes

Press your thumb into the middle of the biscuit before going in the oven to create a dip

Bake in the oven for around 12 minutes. Turn tray halfway and remove as they start to go brown

Spoon a little lemon curd into the dip created by your thumb

Pop back in the oven for a few minutes

Leave to cool before sampling as the lemon curd will scald your tongue (ahem, not spoken from experience...)

Enjoy!

Now, I admit, I didn't take a photo but they are DELICIOUS! Ok ok if you insist, I'll make some more and take photos. Just for YOU of course!

Welcome to the biscuit club!