My Lucky Dip Life!

Look what I found in my veg patch!  Isn't it pretty? After a very slow start to the season, when nothing seemed to be growing at all it seems that FINALLY things are getting underway.   Here in the Netherlands we've had an extremely cool start to the summer, days of rain and miserable, cold, grey skies.  Not surprising really that everything was so slow to get started. This beauty is a variety of courgette called   Zucchino Romanesco .  Super.  Awesome.  Wonderful!  Probably the best tasting courgette you can grow! We all agree that their flavour is excessively good.  Here is the validation.  My 6 year old does not usually touch courgette.  Her little nose wrinkles up sweetly in distaste and there is always an argument that she "just taste ONE bite"... However she is a keen gardener so didn't need to be coaxed into trying "courgette from the garden" as she had "spotted it" herself on her morning reconnaissance of the veg pat

At our school, we celebrate Juffendag, "teacher day" every year.  This is when all the teachers celebrate their birthday together and the children get to have a day of fun away from studies.  Teacher Day usually coincides with the end of the school year and is very much looked forward to by my two girls. I wanted to make the teachers something useful as well as include a contribution from my girls and here is what I came up with.  I got the idea from this  super blog.  I loved the idea of embroidering an artwork done by my girls, but I wanted to make more of a beach bag than a book bag.  Isn't this sweet?  It is a mermaid drawn by my 4 year old... yes a mermaid, really!   Here is a boy mermaid drawn by my 6 year old - note the "bra". This lovely mermaid princess also drawn by my 6 year old. This happy sunflower drawn by my 4 year old As much as I loved this idea, I wasn't going to be hand embroidering these drawings as I work so

Making Jam! Why is this Blog called "My Lucky Dip Life"?  Because I never know what surprise life has in store for me....take today for example.  I was all set to start this blog with a post on some beach bags I've recently made as gifts for school teachers (more on those later)... but I got a little distracted by making some Red Current Jam with berries I had "going to waste" in the fridge and hey presto! Something new and exciting to do in my day!  I had no intentions of making jam, but they really needed using up.   Honestly, who can eat those tart little gems without some kind of sweetening?  Here it is, bubbling away on the stove.  Why are there no pictures of the fruit as pretty as jewels glistening in a bowl? Well,  I didn't really have any intentions of blogging about my tiny amount of jam, but it looked so lush bubbling away... I couldn't help but take a few pictures! I got the jam idea off the excellent blog David Lebovitz .  W