Mud Cakes and Wine

  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...

  The boys are back to school this Monday and it has thrown me with meal planning. The youngest is starting reception so only do half days for the first week.  It is going to be odd not having them about but I have plans for the time and must admit I am looking forward to some peace. Friday - Ocado has started stocking M&S so its an M&S curry for us tonight. The boys will have quorn nuggets, chips, beans, and peas Saturday - M&S lasagna can you tell I did not want to cook this weekend. Macaroni Cheese for the boys on request. Sunday - Ham, Eggs, and Chips for us all Monday - Tortellini for the boys and as a bake for us. This is quick, easy and they love it. Tuesday - Chicken burgers will be from the freezer. Wednesday - Mushroom Straonoff Mushroom stroganoff Thursday - Salmon and Broccoli Traybake I found this one and it looks really nice, the boys will have salmon, mash, and broccoli. Salmon, broccoli traybake mustard sauce