Rudders at Home

I’ve been busy recently. Very busy. Work has me in early and home late, so I haven’t had much time to sit down at home, let alone post to the site. However, just last weekend, I did take much appreciated afternoon off to celebrate my birthday.

It started when Paul brought home my birthday cake:

Absolutely yummy. Paul brought this home for me from Patisserie Valerie last Friday. Granted, that was October 31, but we were on our way out the door for my annual birthday trip. This year it was a bit low key, completely different from the year before. But that’s ok, because I had a fabulous time, and I finally got to celebrate Bonfire Night in the UK.

My birthday falls on November 5, which  in America is most often just a normal day, unless it happens to fall on an election day. Which it doesn’t this year. Close, but not quite. In the UK, November 5 is Bonfire Night. Bonfire Night – what is that, you ask? Well, it’s a holiday the UK has to celebrate the foiled plot of Guy Fawkes’ attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

The weekend before my birthday, Paul took me up to Derbyshire for my annual trip. We went there specifically to tour the house Chatsworth and go to their Bonfire Night celebrations. Not to mention enjoy the beautiful countryside up there.

Chatsworth celebrated Bonfire Night in style. Not only did we get to see this massive fire, but they also put on an impressive display of fireworks.

It was a great night. Not too cold, and only minimal rain. The event started at 6:30, and they had food vans selling pasties and sausage sandwiches, along with beer, tea and coffee. It was a bit of a carnival, with people on stilts all dressed up and then they also had performers who were juggling fire batons and all sorts.

It was a quick weekend, with the Saturday spent touring the house and exploring the gardens. I was having a terrible afternoon with the camera, though, and didn’t manage to get many pictures, which is a bit disappointing. It was a nice break and one I’ll definitely remember for a while.

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And these days, you’ll even hear me call them courgettes once in a while. But that’s only when I slip up. 😛

When I was home, it only took me a day to discover these monsters on the back porch. These are home grown in our family’s garden, and I just had to take a picture because I haven’t seen any zucchini this big in quite a long time. Also, it’s nice to have these weird little pictures from home – the zucchini table.

For scale, I reckon those blocks on the table are about a foot, or just over a foot long. And I don’t know what the story of the cabbage is, so don’t ask.

Later that week, mom and I peeled and grated a number of these. It was fun (I really mean entertaining) activity for us once we had our electricity restored to us. While she froze a a good amount of grated zucchini (I mean at least four or five bags with 2 or 3 cups each bag, maybe more – I’m not sure), she also held back four cups and made some zucchini bread for us.

Mom’s zucchini bread was, simply put, gorgeous. And while I munched it all up with the family, I couldn’t get it out of my head these past couple weeks. So, I guess you could say I was inspired when I returned to London. I’ve had my mind set on making some of my own since, and plenty to share with others.

Here are the fruits of my labor. I added in a broken up dark chocolate bar, because I’m saving my Nestle chocolate chips for something else.

Mom’s Zucchini Bread (makes two loaves)

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

2 cups flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsps baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix together and add nuts, raisins or chocolate chips as desired.

Bake 350 degrees fahrenheit (180 C) for about 40 minutes or until done.

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Well, I’m back in the UK and trying hard to get myself over my post holiday melancholy before returning to work tomorrow.

I’m not feeling particularly creative this evening, so I figure I’ll talk about the weather. There’s no denying that here in the UK fall is definitely upon us. That’s ok, though, because the weather had turned on my last day in the US. I don’t mind arriving to poor weather if that’s what’s going on back home as well. 😛 That way I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

The weather was so lovely when I was home we were able to have two cook outs. It’s so nice to have a fire in the backyard to cook a hot dog over.

If you are interested in the results of the guys’ big trip north, please head over to Rudders’ Ramblings. I’ve made Paul put up pictures. I’ll be updating things regarding my trip to Ohio soon, as well as some other random things that came out of my three week trip to the States. Stay tuned.

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Sometimes I forget how nice it is to drive over here. I avoid driving in the UK like the plague, but when I arrive Stateside I jump right in and go. Normally Paul and I don’t rent cars while we’re in the States, unless we have plans to travel. But, this time I rented a car for while I’m home with my mom and the boys are off on their trip. Mom and I are headed off to Ohio soon to visit the one of the largest communities of Amish in the world. I trust this Dodge Caliber will get us there safe and sound.

This is actually quite a reasonable car to drive. I’m loving it. it’s hard to believe that Paul and I saw one of these in our local mall the last weekend we were in the UK and exclaimed how huge it was. Somehow it doesn’t seem that big at all when I look at it from this angle!

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I’ve been home at my parents’ now for four days, and during 2.5 of them, we’ve had no electricity.

We got hit by a mighty powerful wind storm on Sunday night, remnants of Ike, making it all the way up here to the Northeast. Our power went out on Sunday night and we haven’t seen it since. Rumor has it we’ll get it back sometime tomorrow. We had no rain with the storm, just extremely high winds. There were trees down everywhere. I’d forgotten how storms like that work in places like this.

As the boys left us early Monday morning for the jaunt to the Canadian wilderness, my mother and I have had nothing but each other for entertainment. It’s been fun. I’ve been doing a lot of reading. But today, we took up an offer of a generator, because well, the deep freeze was becoming unthawed and the risk of losing so much food was getting to my mother. Probably not so much, but it makes things a bit more dramatic saying that.

The generator also means that I have a connection to the internet and can catch up on some quality reading. And to add a post to this little old blog here. So, here are some pictures I took in the back yard on my first morning back in the USA.

Here’s some poppies, or jewel weed. My mother discovered the real name of this plant was jewel weed a while ago. Apparently when it blooms, you’re supposed to stop feeding the hummingbirds because it’s time for the m to migrate. Who knew?

I grew up calling them poppies because if you touch the green pods on the plant, they pop and fly everywhere!! It’s a bit out of context on screen here, but if you’re six, or well, thirty even, it’s a very good source of outdoor entertainment.

Here’s a photo of some mums in the flower garden by our deck. It was pretty dewey out and the sun just glistened off the droplets on the flowers.

And finally, some black eyed susans for your viewing pleasure.

I hope our electricity comes on soon. Meanwhile, I’m going to go takeover Paul’s blog a bit and post some photos of them getting ready for their trip.

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