Star Gazing

 Afternoon All, bit of a random post this one (don't you just love those?). I thought I would begin with some truly remarkable flowers that I bought in the supermarket for £2. £2!?! I ask you!! Bargain in my opinion. There were lots of colours to choose from but I went for a bunch of nearly red ones with white tips and a bunch of nearly white ones with red middles as I thought they would compliment each other nicely, and don't they look fab in my fabric paper vase???
The vase is starting to look slightly tatty now though so I may need to jazz it up again with some ribbons or a lick of paint- apparently something terrible and wet happened to it whilst I was at uni so it has misshapen itself slightly, but never mind.
Did any of you look up last night? By up I mean at the nights sky. There wasn't a cloud to be seen and the stars were twinkling merrily away. I have a big thing about stars, even have glow in the dark ones on my ceiling, but it's the real life ones that I love best. Nothing better than sitting curled up in bed under a colourful ripple blanket gazing up into the nights sky spotting satellites drifting past (I saw two) along with the occasional aeroplane (my house is just off the Gatwick flight path). I can usually spot two constellations- Orion's belt and the saucepan. Can never seem to find Orion himself though, hope he isn't wandering around up there with his trousers round his ankles!

Eagle eyed readers may notice that a new favourite blog has popped up on the left hand side there- Silver Pebble, written by Emma. I first heard about this blog through Lucy at Attic24 as the two ladies decided to do a creative swap. I am very jealous of Emma's shed I have to admit and she makes lovely jewellery so do pop over and take a peek, I'm sure she'd love to have you round in her colourful garden!

It's been quite a lazy few days here, the weather has been gorgeous and I am starting to feel that summer has arrived (albeit a tad late!!). There are some lovely flowers in the garden too- I am especially enjoying the purple poppies which have suddenly popped up. We didn't really mange to get in much poppy appreciation time earlier this month as the rain and wind had taken the petals almost as soon as they had cautiously unfurled!

Today though has been quite busy. The cat seems to have found a wren's nest and has now brought in two baby wrens. The first one sadly didn't make it, but the second one was whizzed to the East Sussex WRAS (Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service) this morning and left in their capable hands.

Coming back home again I transformed myself into a Domestic Goddess (no mean feat!) and made a whopping bowl of cous cous, and tried out an Attic24 recipe for cheesy nibbles- I have sampled one already and golly they're good!!

The cous cous recipe is a firm favourite in this house and I make it quite often, varying the ingredients slightly depending on what is in the fridge/cupboard.
Generally it uses an entire packet of cous cous, several tomatoes, a half to a third of cucumber, big wodge of parsley (maybe some mint), chopped pepper, a dollop of butter, a bottle of Cesar salad dressing, pinch of salt and either some peperami or bacon (as in picture above) or sausage.
Very easy to make, just chop and chuck into the bowl along with some hot water until the cous cous is light and fluffy- mix every 5 minutes or so with a fork whilst you add in ingredients and then leave to let the flavours blend together. This recipe is best made several hours or even a day before as it improves with age.
I love the colours in it- just look at the pepper against the parsley! Talk about eye candy!

So I hope you enjoyed the random nature of today's post- more owls and crochet coming soon!!

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Edited to add: The Attic 24 inspired cheesy nibbles were a roaring success and didn't make it through the whole day. I added my own spin to the recipe by adding in a smidge of paprika to make the cheesy taste POP, and they were delicious. I now have another batch on in the oven to take to a friend's house this evening. I can guarantee they will be just as successful!!