Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

Brighton rocks and stones

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Last night I watched Keely Hawes catch and prepare a cuttlefish on the River Cottage TV programme – ‘Three go Mad’. Reminding me of  my Grandma’s ever changing pet budgies as they had cuttlefish bones in their cages for their beaks. Today we are in Brighton and Bodhi finds about 7 cuttle bones within about 5 minutes. Wonder if Petsmart want to buy them or we could set up a stall on the beach – ‘All budgies catered for’! I treasure hunted for stones with holes-yes, I really do walk along any beach with my head down looking for stones with holes. My success was a heavy bag of 5 or 6 stones with holes, flints with  raggy holes lined with white, and a lovely sandstone worn to smooth perfection with a little hole I had to persuade a tiny pebble from as it was lodged in there. Off to Pizza Express who now serve a marvelous pizza with, you guessed it (didn’t you?!) – a hole in the middle! A hole filled with rocket/arugula …

Fields are not to be sneezed at, but in

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A village in the country is a lovely place to be, but it is making me sneeze like Mr Sneeze. The seaside was visited yesterday and of course, it was freezing! But we had the obligatory picnic on the beach. Shells were gathered, crabs were prodded and feet were sand exfoiliated. Today the field trip (literally) was along the creek which runs through and out of the village. We tramped alongside fields and got stung by nettles and scratched by thistles. Oh, and I sneezed. Dock leaves were deemed useless as a nettle antidote and we all went home muddy, itching and happy with our walk. This horseshoe was sideways in a tree. I put it the right way up, so that all of its luck doesn’t fall out. I just hope it didn’t loose too much before we ‘righted’ it!

Swings but no roundabouts

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Sun, rain, chilly, windy, driving stair-rod rain, sun and wind. Not all at once, but in the same morning! Cousins home today, but not before we got lots of TV program recommendations! 4 o clock show, Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab and Incredible Edibles among others. I have found Mock the Week, Gok Cooking Chinese and Secrets of the Streets to keep me entertained. Bacon sandwiches with proper bacon, ie. not streaky and fatty, for lunch and we have our eyes on the local chip shop for a meal in our future. I visited the local Church shop called ‘The Mustard Seed’ yesterday on the way to get the weekend papers. Treasure haul was some single and paired clip earrings and a pretty cameo I just couldn’t leave there.

Around the Seasons in 24 hours

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Yesterday had a distinct November feel about it, wind, rain and hats.  We ventured into Lincoln for a spot of High Street perusing and we were soon rewarded with clear skies. I invested in a £5.00 ($7 ish) ‘pay as you go’ phone from the lovely Carphone Warehouse.  Very nice young man set up my new communication and off I went a happy girl.  It took me while and a little bit of swearing to manage a text using the number keypad, but I managed to communicate successfully in the end! We stocked up on a few essentials – sausage rolls, cheese scones and pork pie from Curtis’s, hopped on WiFi in Burger King (yes I am that desperate) and all was well. Today the sun is out and we are heading to the green outside.  Everything really is so green here, I want to take lots of green photos and I will. Until the green photos, here are a few I have taken so far.

WiFi Free Teenager!

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We are here in the sunny (yes, I did say sunny!) UK. The journey was fairly stress free, lots of movies and a little sleep make for happy traveling children and Mama. Only slight problem is, and I am a little ashamed to admit to the conundrums it has created for me, I have no WiFi. So I have no imessage, no facetime, no SBCglobal e mails to my phone (yes I am a dim-wit who doesn’t know how to get to it via the interweb, especially interweb which comes from the wall/tower thingy from which I am operating). I can’t throw random photos onto facebook or update my blog very well – as I am currently demonstrating  I think! And my Twitter account refuses to recognise me…. So, although I am super happy to be here and I have already bought an armful of magazines, I am still behaving like a teenager with no WiFi….wah wah wah wah….

Packed and ready to layer

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Started today with a sunny and sweaty bootcamp class on the High School track. Exercising outside in St Louis is a brutal thing in the summer, but think of the toxins I sweated out. Oh, and the wine from last night! Dropped some jewels off at the fabulous ‘Screaming Mimi’ in Maplewood.  Go and check them out, lots of wonderfuls in there! Favourite sandwich stop for lunch – ‘Fozzies’ on Big Bend. I had the chicken gyros on pita with salad and feta and it was delish! Home to cram a last minute bargain t shirt in my suitcase for our UK trip. Got the shirt and a lovely scarf from ‘Mezzanine’ on Sutton Blvd in Maplewood. They are closing which is a shame as it is a lovely store to go and dream about affording anything in there. We also got a massive and fabulous glass vase for five dollars. I know this scarf is black and not exactly summery, but England is not exactly summery at the minute either. I have booked some …

I can’t stop mixing and knotting

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Macrame, 1970’s.  Not in my house!  I love to mix up some fabulous beads and then macrame them into wrap wrap wrap friendship bracelets.  They are light to wear and can be worn alone or with lots of bracelet friends! I use new, old, natural, vintage, trade and any other beads and buttons I can get my paws on.  I scour yard sales, estate sales, jumble sales, flea markets and antique shops for treasures I can use.  

Strawberry and cheesecake all in home made ice cream

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Lovely lovely lovely lovely home made ice cream lurks in my freezer! Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (from Kraft Foods) 80z cream cheese – softened 14oz can condensed milk 1/3 cup heavy cream 2 tsp lemon zest 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries 3 graham crackers (I used Trader Joes) broken up – I put them in a zip loc bag and bashed them quickly with a rolling pin Mix the cream cheese, condensed milk, cream and zest until smooth.  Freeze until almost solid (about 4 hours). Beat the cream cheese mix again until smooth.  Blend the strawberries to a sauce and add to the cream cheese with the graham crackers. Freeze until firm.  Take out of the freezer 15 mins before serving. Now, I want to try this with other berries like blueberries and even different cookies.  I will report back on my experiments!   Here are some more photos I took at the Lantern Exhibit at the Botanical Gardens.  I took these on my iPhone using Hipstamatic, Instagram and Shake it Photo.  

Here be Dragons..

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Up and at ’em this morning, freebie into the Missouri Botanical Gardens and into the Children’s Adventure Garden.  The dragons were a calling so off we went. We were welcomed by this firey friend.  I can imagine that these sculptures would be a glowing wonder at night-time, but with the sun glinting off them, they are spectacular. The day was hotter than hot even in the morning, but we hopped between shade and sun and drained the water bottle three times.  The Botanical Gardens is a joy to visit anyway, but the blooming water lilies, ever hungry Koi carp and the wonderful giant lanterns were a treat. My favourite dragons were the ones made with a massive assortment of white and blue traditional Chinese crockery.  Plates, bowls, big and small were lashed together beautifully to make a fantastic spectacle of a pair of identical dragons.

Jubilee and Jewels

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We are painting tags and flags for the catseatdogs jewelry party tomorrow. As it is also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we thought some hand painted flags and tags would be appropriate. There will be home made scones and sausage rolls and of course a cuppa for anyone who wants one! Jewelry, friends and sausage rolls…what better way to spend a day!