OK, Update time.
The yeast is definitely active in the grape juice. The Snug (the snug is a tiny room with a couch, a beanbag and a TV in it, this is where John makes the wine, cider etc as he can regulate the temperature in there and sit with his wine whilst watching the game! ) The Snug is taking on a real cellar’y’ smell which is good evidently. The ginger beer is a raging success (Moscow Mule anyone or would you rather a Dark and Stormy?) It is still raining. Good for me, bad for the corn and bean growers waiting to harvest. Let them wait! My tiny herd is laying about in the barn, Daisy is practising her gate opening skills – That Cow! You should see her opening gates she is so naughty! All the catches are being changed to cow proof locks! Everyone else is out in the rain, those filthy sheep need a wash! TonTon and Mary’s Cat are fast asleep on the door mat on the verandah and the rest of the cats are out hunting (or sleeping as well who knows). The guineas are sat outside the dining room window peering at themselves in the glass and if those chickens don’t get busy and start laying again there is going to be trouble.
I am very lucky to have been tagged again for the fab Versatility award by two entertaining bloggers. Tandy who runs fantastic competitions that I am dying to join (but too scared). She makes great food using good clean ingredients and workingmom who is indeed a working mom (I can empathise) and fabulous mother who still finds the time to read and write (she really writes) and cook and do all that other good stuff. Thank you both!
I am thrilled to receive this award again because there are a few more people on my list who I wanted to nominate last time. So the list of people I am calling on is small but good! Also eclectic, something for everyone in this list so check them out when you have a chance.
Please see below for this small list.
And here are my SEVEN things.
1. I am not a cat person, I think they are pretty and photogenic and everything but I like them to live outside and look pretty in trees. My cats look especially beautiful laying in a patch of sun on a bale of straw in the BARN! In the winter they have been seen sleeping happily ON TOP of Daisy.
2. And this is a terrible admission and I just know I am going to be unFriended or UnFollowed but I don’t eat chocolate. I can eat plain unsweetened dark cooking chocolate but I do not have a sweet tooth so all those other chocolates and candies are not for me. Though just to prove me a liar, maybe once a year I will become desperate for a Snickers Bar. Me!! Who rages against processed foods. I grab it off the shelf. I buy it. I unwrap it and I eat it before the change is even in my hand. Then after a long stuggle trying to forgive myself I am done for another year or so.
3. My little VW diesel car runs on recycled cooking oil that I collect from local restaurants. Our John refines it in his workshop and all summer my car just beetles along on it. And No it does not smell like a fish and chip shop.
4 One winter I encouraged two of my grown sons to drag a garden seat out onto the middle of our frozen swimming pool, then they sat on the chair in summer clothes and bare feet, in sub zero temperatures with a cold beer while I took the photo. It is a very crazy photo, because a cat walked out there with them and sat on the ice contemplating his navel making the boys laugh out loud. Our John was standing by, shaking his head solemnly, with a grappling hook at the ready!
5. When I turned 35 I swore never to peel potatoes again. I just could not bear to peel one more potato! So I haven’t. I just cut out their poor miserable eyes and wash them a bit. Done.
6. I could never be a vegan or even a vegetarian for that matter because I HATE rules!
7. I have a terrible memory so I make lists about everything, then I forget to read them then I forget where I put them, and when I finally find them I cannot remember why I wrote them. Such a trial.
And so to the four new players!
Now I know there are rules but just joining in the fun is really cool. So I think you can nominate as many readers as you like up to 15. And if you want to, we are DYING to hear seven things about you. You may mention that sweet wee kitchengarden as having nominated you if you like!!
And this is what happens if you leave your cow out in the bad weather! Now look below for my wee list.
The Kitchen's Garden 
49 responses to “Frozen swimming pools, cats, chocolate, cows and other things”
Okay the whole pool thing with kitty, summer ideas and a grappling hook is hilarious. I want to be your neighbor!
Maybe you are my neighbour chris! You just never know!
Daisy is both beautiful and clever. No wonder she can get away with so many pranks! I suspect that if she’d been nearby enough in the days of the pool photo-op, she’d’ve moseyed right out onto the ice to join in the fun. I can see her lying back in a lounger and sipping a cool drink . . . .
Now, if you really rebel against Rules, then I should think you’d have room in your heart to grant yourself the allowance of at least an annual candy bar despite your general devotion to purer eating habits. Aren’t indulgences meant precisely for that sort of thing? Of course, I say this as one pretty well open to eating any inappropriate thing that I crave at any moment, so I mayn’t be such a reasonable adviser.
Oo.. rebel against rules i like that moniker.. c
Boy, can I relate to the memory and lists! I have given up and just walk around in a fog, remembering that I’ve forgotten something, but not remembering what- a mind like a sieve (or collander). My wife suffers from the same malady, but she makes lists and sticky notes that are everywhere! 🙂
I like the fog! but sometimes i end up in a room and cannot remember why I am there, so i have to go back to where i thought the original thought then i can remember why i went to where i went! get it? Yeah, i knew you would get it!
Huh!?? What were we talking about? 😉
You had me there for a minute too!!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/
Congratulations dear Cecilia, how beautiful to read you. I loved these photographs, especially when Daisy at five years old. You created such a beautiful world dear Cecilia, Thank you, thank you for sharing with us, this is my richness to know you. God Bless you all, with my love, nia
Thank you Nia, but i had better rush back and edit that should say 5 days old not 5 years .. she is TWO years old now.. must rush.. c
A Dark and Stormy please! And I hope you have a picture of one of the cats sleeping on top of the lovely and mischievous Daisy that you will share. I’m one of the list-challenged people as well.
You know I do have a photo of one of the cats sleeping with the cow, right under her chin, they are both sleeping, I will find it for you! c
Great to hear the wine making is going well. Daisy looks absolutely lovely.
She is a sweet and very spoilt cow, i am afraid she is turning into a pet! c
Oh look at Daisy. She is such a beauty and I love her brown color. Now you know what I’m going to say.. you definitely deserve this award :). You’re such an amazing blogger and I always enjoy visiting this blog. And I can’t believe we have the same dislike of peeling potatoes LOL. It can be tedious lol. Again, Congrats .. you deserve this award 🙂
Thank you kay, daisy says thank you too, If ever there was a cow who i could have working next to me in a kitchen it would be daisy! c
I think I just fell in love with you. Don’t worry I live many states away and Greg is quite handsome. But seriously, not liking cats, driving a VW (we have a 12-year-old Jetta in the garage), swearing off potato peeling six months ago, carrying lists everywhere. You just seem so fun!
Oh Katherine, and you are so clever, it WAS only six months ago that I swore off potato peeling, but I am not very good with numbers either, so I do have a wee problem remembering my age !! c
And Daisy is sooo cute!
And naughty katherine, don’t forget daisy is naughty and she looks at you with those big brown eyes and says.. who? me? I didn’t break it.. it was like that when i found it honey.. c
Daisy was such a beautiful baby moo-moo! You know you are killing me with all these things you are making. I love ginger beer!!!! I GOT NOMINATED!!! Happy happy joy joy 🙂 Now I need to figure out how to post and pass on. You deserve your accolades, Miss C.
You are welcome miss T, honestly, it is fun c
What a fantastic image of the calf in the snow!
It is a little plastic toy cow, that got left out last winter. It looks so real doesn’t it!
You hate chocolate & your abuse toy farm animals. To say that I’m shocked is an understatement. What’s next? You’re actually living in a high-rise on Michigan Avenue? To quote someone near to both our hearts, “You’ve got some splainin’ to do.”
see John .. honesty is not always the best policy! However in the interests of full disclosure, I will tell you that I purposely left the little toy cow (plus a few other lost toys) outside in pots of water in a subzero ice storm to see what would happen!.. I’m ‘splainin’, I’m ‘splainin’! Great view from up here! c
Wonderful, wonderful and huge congratulations to you..well deserved! I too am not a huge chocolate fan and people seem shocked when I tell them. Love that your car runs off recycled cooking oil – unbelievable! And Daisy is adorable…maybe I can work on Big Man to see if we can get a Daisy all of our own.