JAM!

Josh's Mum hankers after being a housewife - you know the type, able to bake, make jam, make clothes, keep the house looking wonderful at all times, have time to spend with Josh (and me!) - but sometimes life gets in the way.  However, today was a good one for her!  She saw me sneaky pinching some blackberries from the garden so declared that we could make jam...I love JAM!

The first thing we had to do was wash our hands!

Then it was time to sample the blackberries!  BUT they were frozen!  Yep, she really had put them in the freezer - they were hard as bullets!  It transpires (big word!) that last year there was an absolute glut of blackberries - so Josh's Mum left some for the birds and picked some for the freezer - oh and used some for jam!  These are some of the ones from the freezer - they have to go to make room for this year's berries!

I smooshed and smashed them until they could go in the microwave - because today, we are going to try making jam in a microwave - first time for both of us!

While the berries were thawing out in the microwave, we found the "cheater's" sugar!  It is jam sugar, so already has pectin in it!  So - we weighed it out ready to go into the fruit when it was thawed.

When we had added the sugar the whole lot went back into the microwave to "jam up".  Josh's Mum asked me to take the lids off the jam jars so that she could put them into the oven to sterilise (another big word - means to make them really really clean!).

You can see the microwave next to me - and that is all the counter space in this tiny kitchen!  Really!  The other side is taken up by the fridge, cooker and sink!

Yummy - it smelled so fine when it came out!

Josh's Mum wouldn't let me decant (oh yes, another big word!) it into the jars in case I burnt myself.  She was also muttering about me dropping the whole lot and making a mess - but I am sure it was just because she didnt want me to get burnt!

I mean - if she had been bothered about a mess, she wouldnt have made this mess would she?  I have no idea what was going on with this photo - I just leaned forward to get a better angle....oooops!

Here I am with my special bread!  I can't wait until the jam is set and ready to eat!

Josh's Mum said she knew I wouldn't be able to wait - so she left some in the bowl for me to have when it cools down a little!  Yummy - you can see the stuff at the sides "jamming up" already.

Thanks for stopping by

Monkey Monkey x

Bedtime!

While I am staying over at Josh's house (Lulabelle is staying at her mum's house) I have to sleep on the sofa/settee/couch.  It is a very nice sofa - very comfortable and lots of room.

Well, there WOULD be lots of room - if it were not for Pickles and Popcorn sneaking in and grabbing the warm spots.  I don't really know how they find them - I wander all over that sofa trying to find a warm spot, but they just jump up and get in one straight away.  I know that they find the warm spots because when they get up for a little midnight snack I go and lie where they were - and it is always WARM.  Oh - don't mention the midnight snacks to Josh's Mum!

And sometimes, it gets even more crowded on here!  I was so desperately trying to have a lie in - but it wasnt meant to be!

Monkey Monkey x

My home office!

THIS is where I work at Josh's Mum's Laptop.  It really needs a good clean you know - I have found all manner of things in between the keys - in fact, when I am hungry, this is the first place I check for something to eat!

I am just shutting down Pop Pops page - Josh's Mum was looking at it a minute ago! NOW I can get on with doing some PROPER work!

Monkey Monkey

Fire!!!!

Josh went on a bushcraft course, last summer, at a wonderful outdoor activity place called Stubbers.  During the course he learnt how to use a knife, build a shelter and start a fire.

Josh and I decided we would start our own fire in the garden today.  I have to just add that this was under strict adult supervision, so don't try this at home!

First, Josh showed me how to roll the bits of newspaper up really tight.

We put the paper and some tissue into an old WOK that Josh uses for fires.  Josh's Mum said that we weren't allowed to dig out a fire pit in the garden - honestly, no fun at all!

Josh thought I did really well and gave me a thumbs up!  I would have given him a thumbs up back, but errrr, well you can see my problem with that!

Close up of fire, before flames.  My piece of paper is the really tightly rolled one in the middle, with the red on it!

Then Josh gave me his magic fire starter - you rub the two ends together and a spark appears!  But I wasn't very good at it - I kept doing it too slowly, or too quickly, or not hard enough, or too hard!

Josh was great at it though!

Did you think we had forgotten the wood???  Well, Josh told me that we had to put the wood on after we had got the paper alight - who knew?

For a little WOK, it was a very big fire!  Unfortunately, it was also very smoky and stinky!

But I found a solution!


Thanks for popping over

Monkey Monkey!

Wishful thinking.....

Did I ever mention that we live in a little cul-de-sac - or a CLOSE as Josh's Mum calls it.  Or a BANJO as one of the neighbours calls it!  Its kind of a little circle at the end of a road - so actually, I suppose it DOES look like a banjo!

Its relatively quiet down here and a lovely place to just sit and chill.

Until the music man comes with his van!  Josh tells me that it is an ice-cream van - but I just dont understand how a van can be made of ice-cream...I mean, it would melt wouldn't it?

It stops just down the road from our house.  But we must be last on his route and he has always run out of ice-cream by the time he gets to us. I don't understand how he can be MADE of ice-cream and run out of ice-cream.  Josh's Mum says that he only plays his music to let the children know that he has run out of ice-cream - to save them running out to him I suppose.  He is always playing his music when he comes down our road - sigh!

Thanks for calling by

Monkey Monkey x

Boris's Sky Ride!

We have been planning to go on Boris' (the Mayor of London) Sky Ride for a couple of months now - and finally the day has dawned. 

I wasnt too chuffed with how they were expecting me to travel to be honest with you!  And Josh's Mum wasnt too impressed with Josh's Dad's camera after she saw the colour on this picture!

We went up to London on the train - which was very funny - so many people trying to cram bikes on the train!  This was Josh, his mum and Frankie (our friend) and a random child cycling from Buckingham Palace - I didnt see the Queen, someone said that she had already cycled past!

We had to make sure we were well hydrated.  So, when we stopped I made sure I took on lots of water...even though I didn't cycle the first bit!

I had a slight issue with the fit on my helmet - Josh's Mum said I didnt need to bother wearing it as my head was soft anyway...or did she say that I was "soft in the head"???  She is normally really stern about cycling in helmets - she is always telling Josh..."no helmet, no bike!".

We also had a nice bar to eat. 

Josh and Frankie heard that they were giving away free drinks so went to get one for each of us...they gave them 4 each!   Josh's Mum kept muttering about water being better for them - I think they preferred the drinks they were holding!

I am a little short to cycle very far, but I was determined to have a go!  I put my hood up because I thought it might get a little windy.

I then realised that I really couldn't reach the pedals!

 It was ok though, Josh's Mum said she would pedal for the both of us.  Just between us, there was NO WAY I was going to be pedalling for her as well as me!   The bigger people were given bright yellow tabards to wear, so that everyone knew we were part of the official ride!

Now, don't judge!  We HAD cycled 10 miles!  Or 15km - I think that's how it worked out!

And by the way, it was very yummy thank you very much!  Now, I just need to find a slightly softer cushion!

Monkey Monkey x

All creatures great and small!

Let me introduce you to Pickles - he and I have spent some blissful days just sitting, chillaxing (!!) on top of the guinea pig hutch.  We were watching next door's dog, Penny.  I think she might have been having a fit!  She kept running around and shaking and jumping and barking!  Oh, Josh has just told me that this is perfectly normal behaviour for a dog!

When Penny isnt out, we just sit and chat!  Oh the things Pickles tells me!  You would NOT believe what goes on out here in the evenings - HEDGEHOGS! Yes, truely!  Snuffling and digging around.  Pickles said he tried to eat one once but it attacked him with little spears!

This is Gramarian and I having a little chat about grass.  Yoda is in the background - he doesnt talk about grass ever - only carrots - which is why Gramarian likes to talk about grass with me.  He is usually complaining that the grass is on the outside of the run and not the inside.  We just can't work out where the grass inside the run goes to!  Its so bad that Josh and his mum have to pick handfuls from the garden everyday to drop in the run...and then even that grass disappears.

Neighbours...everybody needs good neighbours, doo be doo be doo be dooooo da.  This is AMY and Penny.  I think Amy is quite dreamy - but her little doggy keeps interrupting whenever I try to chat to her!  Sigh!

Looking for ants!  There are some there, honest!  I moved some wood and there were hundreds of them.

But they didnt seem to have time for a chat!






Thanks for stopping by, more animals another day!

Monkey Monkey!

A friendly message!

Still no photos!  I am so sorry - Josh's Mum has been monopolising the camera all day!  While I was surfing on her laptop (don't tell her, she can get a bit sniffy about the things I look at!), I saw an interesting email from Chris.  Yes, I know, I shouldnt read other people's emails - ya da ya da!  AND YES, I WILL get in TROUBLE!  BUT - Chris's email had a message in it to me!  Oh wow - almost fan mail!

"I love Monkey Monkey – we have Clever Monkey who went to my sister’s school  until he retired along with her some years ago. He lives on a lovely smallholding on the West Coast of Scotland (with views of Ailsa Craig). He has a wicker basket where he and his friends hang out on top of a set of bookshelves in Vyvien’s bedroom. One terrible day they all had to go into emergency housing because their basket was discovered to have woodworm. Clever Monkey isn’t lonely at all because he and Beautiful Harriet, (a hen who was lovingly made by a family in Canada,) and several Teds, a Grey Rabbit and miscellaneous other friends tell each other very interesting stories all the time. Sometimes they get Vyv to write the stories into books for children to read. Then they love listening to Vyv telling stories about how each of them came to live at Mountain Hall. They specially like the ones about how some of them woke up when Vyv put in ‘The Last Stitch’.   They shout down out of the dormer window  to The Gnome who prefers to live on the side of the bird bath . The Gnome is a very hardy type who has travelled extensively, and once had a photo taken of himself sitting on an ice throne beside an upturned bucket."

Well of course, I am not sure that Clever Monkey was really clever - I am sure the children thought he was, but then little people try to eat pencils (I have seen them doing it - little gnaw marks all over the end of them, and slimy too - yukkk!) so I am not too sure that they are good judges of "cleverness".

Having said that, I would love to meet Clever Monkey - as long as he doesnt bring his basket with him - I think Josh's Dad might be a bit cross about that!  I would also like to have a long chat with The Gnome - he sounds like a very interesting fellow indeed.

Well, am going to go and try to prise Josh's Mum away from the camera so that I can get some photos done!

Monkey Monkey x