Mud Cakes and Wine

  I am late with the meal plan again, we seem to be so busy doing lots but achieving not much is how it feels. Friday - The middle boy has a friend over for tea as it was his birthday a week ago. So it is pizza for every one Saturday - Quorn Burgers for myself and the boys Sunday - Mr MC&W is home from his golf weekend so it is a ready meal for us and Tortellini with veggies for the boys. Monday - Ceasar Salad for us and tomato soup for the boys. Tuesday - Super smokey bacon spaghetti Super smoky bacon tomato spaghetti Wednesday - Spiced Salmon traybake. Salmon with mash and peas for the boys. Spiced salmon traybaked sag aloo Thursday - Sausages in hot dog rolls

  I missed a week's meal plan and this one is a few days late. Everything has been a little manic here with birthdays and I have not been feeling the best. I seem to be getting better and back on top of things. It is Mr MC&W birthday on Wednesday so a mid-week treat for us. Friday - Ham, Eggs, and Chips a family favorite Saturday - Mr MC&W is on call all weekend so it's a ready meal curry thanks to Charlie Bighmas and a pizza for the boys. Sunday - Toad in the hole for us all Monday - Fish cakes for the boys. A freezer fish in sauce served with lentils and roasted veggies for us Tuesday - Chicken pasta bake. I found this and it looks lovely I will change the mascarpone for simple cream cheese. Chicken pasta bake Wednesday - Steak and Chips for us. The boys will have cheesy omelets Thursday - Quiche with green veg and baked potatoes. Boys will have it with baked beans.

  The meal plan is a little late this week, we have not even been that busy but everything seems to have gotten a little bit messed up. Friday - Fish, Chips, and Peas Saturday - Sticky Chinese Chicken Sticky chinese chicken traybake Sunday - Venison Steak with chips and peas. The boys have requested Pizza and salad. Monday - Fish cakes (from the freezer) with veggies for us all. Tuesday - Bacon and Passatta pasta Wednesday - Chicken and Mando Stir Fry Chicken mango stir fry Thursday - Steak Pie and veggies from the freezer and Quiche for the boys.

  I have collapsed with a cuppa after completing a gardening job I have been meaning to do for the last couple of years. This space is a small verge of scrubby grass, it is next to a layby on the other side of our fence. It always looks a mess and ends up full of peoples rubbish that they delightfully throw out of their cars. I have had a dream for a long time to try and turn this into wildflower verge.  Last weekend Mr MC&W mowed it and this weekend along with the help of my middle son we raked the whole area to remove 50% of the scrubby grass. This was a hard, exhausting and not pleasant job but I am sure worth it. I decided to water the area as it has been so dry, with the space raked and watered we were able to seed it. I bought from Chiltern Seeds 11 packets of Hedgerow perennial seed mix. Together we scattered the seeds. I know these areas are not the easiest to make work but I felt we had to give it a chance and see what happens. If we can have a verge of beautiful ...

  Another week has flown past, the youngest is exhausted and everything is a drama in the evening so it needs to be lots of simple meals and early so he has a good meal before he loses the plot. Friday - Pizza, and salad from the freezer Saturday - Ready meal for Mr MC&W and myself as he is playing golf and it is nice to have a weekend of cooking. Boys will have fish, chips, and peas. Sunday. - Spag Bol Monday - Waffles, bacon, and eggs Tuesday - One Pot Southwestern Chicken. This will be more like a BBQ style chicken taco for the boys. One pot southwest chicken Wednesday - Pesto Salmon bake Pesto salmon pasta bake Thursday - Roasted Broccoli and cauliflower tagine. Tortellini for the boys. Roasted broccoli and cauliflower with harissa-lentils

  The children are all back at school, the house looks tidy and remains tidy for more than five mins and the crisps are not eaten. The meal plan went well last week and the new salmon dish was amazing always nice when you find a new meal. Friday - Prawn Thai Noodles Saturday - Chilli Sunday - Dijon Chicken Dijon chicken with mushrooms Monday - Mango Chutney and Quorn Sliders Mango chutney chicken sliders Tuesday - Smoked Mackerel Salad. The boys will have Fish pie. Wednesday - Pasta, Mozarella, mint and fresh tomato sauce Pasta mozzarella, mint, fresh tomato sauce Thursday - Quiche (store brought), salad and new potatoes

The back border that I planted last year has been a mixture of success, failure and mind changing this year. Below this is what it looked like last year. We had such a wet winter I was not really expecting any of the perennials to come back. However, most of them seemed to. The Hellienum was a huge success to start with, producing lots of beautiful yellow bee-friendly flowers. They have in the last few weeks slowly started to slow down and we now have very few coming through. The alliums (I did wonder what they were at first) also were strong and full of bees. The astrantia and the aquilegia again produced a wonderful show.  The penestom were very poor this year, a few flowers but not many. The  Verbena bonariensis   did ok, we had more as it is self-seeded but did not have many come back. We brought this daisy-like flower, Mr MC&W chose it and I am not sure of its name, it barley flowered and looked dreadful this will be going. The hebes  Hebe Caledonia and...