My husband and I had a day trip out to a lovely garden centre, where I had the most amazing trifle! I couldn’t resist it when I saw it in the dessert display. Fortunately, it also tasted as good as it looked.

Free Daffodil Bulbs

This particular garden centre do reward their customers well in different ways. If you are on their mailing list with the last mail-out you could use the envelope to fill with complementary daffodil bulbs. I took a photo of the stand as part of my weekly update.

What a kind gesture. I took some back for my dad as he enjoys pottering around in his garden and would appreciate them. I managed to pick up my first Christmas present here too, is it a little too early to start mentioning Christmas?

Stocking Up On Dairy Free Goodies

We had another supermarket trip to Tesco to stock up on dairy free goodies for my eldest for his lactose intolerance. His treat cupboard is fully stocked now so he is happy! We are sticking with dairy free as much as possible until we have experimented with the lactose enzyme supplement a little more. He really likes the Buttermilk brand and Tesco own milk free Giant Choc Buttons. This week he also found a vegan Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. So, he feels like he is living his best life again! It’s hard being a teenager on a restrictive diet but now he has some firm favourites it’s not so bad.

Vegan Cheese

However, vegan cheese is definitely letting the side down a bit, it smelt like stinky socks and didn’t taste much better! So, we probably need to sample a few different brands and hopefully find a suitable alternative. For the moment we are going to have our pasta without bothering with cheese sprinkled on top!

We will tolerate it on a pizza. But if you have any experience of vegan cheese or even if you know of a lactose free dairy version, I would love to hear more about it! My lovely vegan neighbours said they had a six month gap between dropping dairy cheese to vegan cheese, so they think that helped as they had forgotten what dairy cheese tasted like. Whereas its still fresh in my son and mines mind!

Lunch With A Friend

I went out for lunch with a different friend this week. It was a much overdue catch-up. As it had been her birthday that week, we then swapped cafes and I treated her to cake. I had a sponge with plum jam which was delicious (although probably not quite as amazing as my trifle!), and my friend opted for the banana bread with all the trimmings. That looked very good too!

Neighbours Catch Up

We were invited to our new neighbours house for a little gathering, no pictures from there as I was too busy chatting. I had such an enjoyable time catching up with everyone. I am blessed to be surrounded by the most wonderful neighbours.

Eventually I guess it should be our turn to host. But I still feel we need to finish sorting our house out first. The downstairs bathroom needs to be ripped out before we have guests! Although, we did once do an outside bingo for everyone and also organized a Beetle Run, both with prizes provided by us. So, for now, I am counting that as events we have done. Mind you seeing as we have been here eight years, I might have to do something else soon!

Bella

A picture of Bella looking adorable as she brings joy to every one of my days!