Domestic days

I have enjoyed quite a bit of cooking the last few days - a lemon curd marathon yesterday produced six jars, and today I have cooked and bottled in vinegar a large number of beetroot for the FH's lunches. He loves to have some crispbreads with salad and beetroot. He likes all manner of pickles and vinegary things, which I can't abide, so they are his and his alone...

The YFG has been to the optician this morning and given a year's guarantee, and I picked up my new glasses, and some contact lenses to try. I had some last year and they dry my eyes out terribly so I haven't worn them much, but these new ones are supposed to be different - and they are more expensive - so now I need to check out Lensway's website and see if I can get them any cheaper!

I treated the YFG to a few streaks of a very subtle colour in her hair this afternoon, after borrowing a streaking cap from my friend who does our hair. We had bought a semi-permanent colour this morning and she was itching to try it out. She was going to do a skin test before we did it for real, but didn't read the instructions properly and mixed the stuff up completely, which they then say you have to use "immediately" so we took a chance and used it. To be fair, it hardly touched her head at all as she had the cap on, so it wasn't as much of a chance as it would have been doing her whole head. She now has some subtle tones of warmer colour through her dark blonde hair. I can see it because I know it is there, but I doubt a stranger would realise!

The EFG had a wonderful day at the Botanic Garden in Cambridge yesterday - I was very surprised to find out that there were only 7 of them on the course as I was imagining that she would have about 15 or 20 people there. The EFG made a friend of a girl from Lincolnshire, from Boston, so that girl must have had quite a journey to get there. They did all sorts of things with bread (yeast being an organism) and fermenting other things too, and walked around the garden. She says she has even been inspired by the garden with some new ideas for her art homework, so double whammy there - biology AND art!

The FH is getting a little bored and fed up with his caring duties, and given that he tells me that UJ has been hoeing the garden today, I guess that he won't need to be there much longer, although there are still some things that UJ needs a hand with. By the end of next week, though, I am hoping that the FH will be home. Really hoping! We are missing him here too.