Jam Doughnuts

I have been busy as is usual. To busy to post on this blog until today, anyway. Time is just flying by at them moment. Baby brother is almost 9 weeks old now and it is the middle of May. Can anyone tell me what happened to April?!

My schoolwork is taking up most of my time. I could say I have a love-hate relationship with my work at the moment. I enjoy doing it, and doing it well, but at the same time it takes up so much of my day, time which I could be spending doing other things which I equally enjoy. Of course, school gets predecence over these other things.

However, I am managing to cram other things into my days as well. I have been tending my vegetables and my small vegetable patch. I have now planted beetroot, radishes, carrots, spring onions, and lettuces into the garden, and am waiting for the carrot (not the ones pictured!) and spring onions to grow. (I planted them last Thursday; it was raining!) I have also succeeded in growing some rocket. My tomatoes and peppers are doing their best to disappoint me. I should have several tomato seedlings by now but I have 10 or so. Hopefully I will have more soon. They are growing very slo-o-o-o-o-o-wly. Most of my pepper seeds so far have failed to germinate; I have only 1 seedling at the moment. I planted some courgette seeds on Monday and am now worrying that should they all germinate I will end up with more courgettes than I could ever need. I have also some beans and peas to plant, and am well aware that I am running out of time! Because I am behind with planting, we are almost certain to have an early winter… Anyway, I am enjoying watching all the plants grow; I was delighted when my carrot seedling began to look like carrots!

Also, sewing. I have managed to set up my sewing machine in our bedroom, in an attempt to encourage myself to sew more. I am still not doing as much sewing as I would like, but I am doing more than I used to be doing. Though I no longer have to get out my sewing machine in the dining room, I do have to carry up a stool to the kitchen. The answer, of course would be a fold down stool, to be kept in our bedroom. My sewing projects at the moment are simply clearing up my pile of unfinished/failed projects. That will be challenging for me!

My music lessons are going well. I am now Grade 3 on the violin and Grade 4 on the piano. Don’t ask me how I got there! Violin and piano practice have to be fitted into my already busy days.

I took my baby brother and placed him on my bed this morning to take some ‘in date’ photos of him. I pointed the camera at him and said smile. Guess what?! The little darling smiled. And when you add the fact that he was a little hungry at the time, that makes him even more adorably sweet!

Before I close, I will explain the title of this post. Last week I and my sister attempted to make doughnuts. My doughnuts (pictured) were very pretty to look at, but doughy in the middle. My sister’s, although not so beautifully round, were cooked all the way through. We have always fancied making doughnuts, but never have been able to because of my mother’s dislike of deep frying. At last, I decided to experiment with shallow frying them, and we have decided that this does work – you just need to be careful the middle is cooked!

Hopefully I’ll blog again soon. I should have plenty to blog about. However, I make no promises!