Baby Steps!

It's been a funny old week all told, one step forward and three back, two forward and one back, but I think, taking all the forwards and backwards, we may be slightly forward!!

On Tuesday we dropped Kindle off at the vet at eight (in the morning!! A usually unheard of time for us pensioners!) and then we headed towards Riebeek-Kasteel, a village about 100 kms from us. Why? Read on. About 10 kms out of Vredenburg, we heard a bang from under the car, it sounded as though a stone had been flung up into the wheel arch by the tyre, but as we couldn't see anything and the car didn't wobble at all, we carried on to Hopefield, a little town that has a cafe that sells the most delicious toasted sarmies (sandwiches). As it was breakfast time, we decided to pop in, buy some bird food in large sacks like farmers do, and grab a sarmie to keep our strength up. It was 3 degrees!!! That's cold!! But with snow on the mountain tops, we understood why!

Snow dusting the mountain tops!

And we saw that we had a puncture!

Tins!

I may have mentioned this before, but I am a collector of note! So is Rob I might add. My children call it 'my junk' and have promised to bury it all with me! Along with my Beatles records!

And since I have been working at the Hospice shop, I have managed to broaden my interests and collections! I have old jugs and coffee pots, meat mincers and kitchen utensils.

And TINS!

My collection!

Yes, Another Cook Book!

I am one of those strange people who hate cooking but love cook books! I have a vast collection (I think I have mentioned this before) and regularly page through them to find exciting things to make, that is if I was going to make anything exciting!

The first recipe (or is that 'cook') book I really remember well was one that was given to my mum by her close friend when we left England, way back in the middle of the last century! (That sounds scary, but it is true!) It was written in 1960 by an American lady called Peg Bracken and was called 'The I Hate to Cook Book'. Mum regularly made a particular chicken dish called 'Saturday Chicken', an easy and delicious recipe that calls for a tin of mushroom soup, cream and chicken pieces and that's basically it! She made it for special occasions and when (if) people came for dinner, and she usually made a lovely cream cheese tart to follow. It became a favourite of mine too and I cannot remember how many times I have made it and shared the recipe with friends over the years. Funnily enough, I think that the first time I ever made it on a Saturday was just the other day!! Even Rob commented! There is a 'Sunday Chicken' too, that's a curry version of Saturday!

The book has been well used obviously!

A Collector by any other Name!

I like to think of myself as a Collector.

A serious collector of Memorabilia, or as my children would say, 'a hoarder of junk!' I love 'olde worlde' things and our kitchen is a showcase of days gone by!! (Except the things that really matter, like a stove, fridge, freezer, hot water, microwave, washing machine...............)

My favourite things are coffee or tea pots and old enamel jugs and bowls and various kitchen gadgets. Rob collects old wireless sets, so between us we never leave an Antique (aka junk) Shop empty-handed.

And we both love tins!

Tins above and an old radio below.