Weekend house and garden stuff - the art of finishing.

Two weekends ago we had a 'finisher' weekend. You know the kind? We'd had a number of projects on the go, for several weeks, and The.Time.Had.Come.

So on Saturday I dug out and replanted a large triangular garden bed while the Prof and the Gorgeous Boy finished this:



Being the first stage in our grand plan to Destroy the Neighbours via Greenery.

These trees are Flowering Ash, for the horticulturally minded, and will apparently grow to seven metres or so, given encouragement.

Yay! Go trees, go!

There, they already look taller.

On the Sunday, the Prof concreted and rendered the inside of aforementioned triangular garden bed (pics saved somewhere but too ugly to bother hunting down) in readiness for the fish pond of my dreams.

Meanwhile, indoors, I finished doing this - um - thing:


The notion of "something big for that really long wall" had been hoggling large sections of my brain and occasional slabs of dining table for three or four weeks while I worked out what on earth to do with these three bits of fabric that took my fancy back in the New Year Spotlight sale.

It was, shall we say, a learning experience. I now have all kinds of quilting fantasies that might or might not come true.

Fast forward to this weekend, when we finished another two projects (major reorganisation of Pea Princess' bedroom and the main living area) and when I, as usual, on Saturday morning wrote up the family menu for the week ahead.

Have I blogged on the family menu before? I don't recall, but I really should have. I do know that it is something I have in common with the lovely Emma of Hearth and Home.

I also know for an absolute fact that I am not the kind of person who can keep to a weekly menu plan. And, finally, I know for certain that, without The Menu, we would be eating takeaway three nights a week, serving four different meals on each of the four nights we did cook, and supporting a fridge jammed with food bought because it was in season or looked fab, but was destined to be thrown out by the bucketload when it went rotten or passed use-by.

I know all this because this is how life was working out in the House of the Ladies Lounge before I learned to lurve The Menu.

So, The Menu has been with us for over a year now and is probably deserving of a post all of its own. Let me just say that the interesting variation this week was that I grabbed a handful of cooking magazines (my porn collection) and handed them out to children and husband and told them each to pick something for the menu.

Here's what we ended up with:



And on Saturday night we kicked off with the Prof's choice, Moroccan Lamb Steaks with Yoghurt Dressing



Tonight was the Pea Princess' choice, Lime and Dill Ocean Trout


Tomorrow it's Gorgeous Boy's turn with Thai Beef Salad (he likes it for the tomatoes)


then on Tuesday it's back to Morocco (not the way I'd normally do it but good business management says you can't get people to contribute if you make the rules too prescriptive, and besides, I've already bought the Moroccan seasoning) with BBQ Pork Skewers with sweetened (?) Moroccan seasoning for Sparkle.


On Wednesday I get mychoice, Chicken with Lemon and Oregano


Thursday is usually "Cheese on Toast" on the menu board - which actually means Cheese on Toast some weeks but is more often a euphemism for leftovers from all this cooking. Friday is often takeaway but if we're not exhausted then the kids prefer making their own pizzas to having bought ones.

Of course, before we could get stuck into the menu this weekend there was another job that needed finishing so we could get to the dining table: - the number one, most important, cannot be avoided, weekend job for a family of five with both adults in full-time work - look familiar?



mtc

Bec