Mia

You are currently browsing the archive for the Mia category.

Back in the real world

September 8, 2007 in Animals, Chicks, Mia, Turkeys by CiaranG | No comments

Despite the sudden explosion of techy posts on here, life in the real world goes on. The highlight in recent weeks was my sister’s wedding, which was a brilliant day. Mia, in particular, enjoyed it immensely, singing away to herself throughout the service. Afterwards she played the church organ and followed that up with running round and round the outside of the church at high speed with me in tow. You might think that would tire her out, but she later spend a solid four hours on the dancefloor at the reception.

Read the rest of this entry »

Impressionism

November 21, 2006 in Food and Drink, Mia by CiaranG | 1 comment

Today we’ve been painting. Mia wasn’t interested in the paper, and preferred to try and paint her own face, the furniture and all the books on the bookshelf. I didn’t let that spoil my fun though, and pictured right is my impressionist masterpiece entitled “Dodgem”. It is quite probably my finest work ever. I’ll be doing a limited run of 100 signed and numbered prints, so send your cash now if you don’t want to miss out. £100 should do, but by all means send more if you’re feeling generous. The highest payers get the lowest numbers.

Earlier in the day, we made a brief excursion to Knaresborough, but Mia wasn’t in the mood for being dragged around for the third day in a row, so we quacked at some ducks and came home for sweetcorn fritters, which Mia refused to touch. She also lobbed her banana across the room, so it was probably the fact that we stuffed her full of satsumas in the car that was the problem. The fritters were very nice though.

This evening, burgers and chips. My basic burger recipe consists of some mince, some oats, an onion, some mushrooms and a beaten egg all mushed up together. The mixture goes in the fridge for a bit, if you can be bothered, and after that you cook them (I like our George Foreman grill thingy for this) until they’re done. I’ve done the chip recipe already of course. Nibby made some stir fried veg to go with it, and Mia wolfed everything down except the green stuff, which she put in a pile under her legs.

Tomorrow I have to actually do some work. Ouch. The only thing that might save me is if the money for the prints all rolls in between now and morning. I doubt Monet had these kind of issues to deal with.

Here Hare Here

November 20, 2006 in Food and Drink, Mia by CiaranG | No comments

Another trip to Swinsty Reservoir today, for a longer walk. Mia put up with three quarters of a lap of the reservoir in the pushchair before insisting on getting out. We tried letting her walk, but that just ended up with her alternately stomping off into the undergrowth to tangle with brambles, and heading off in the opposite direction. We had her hooked up in some ‘reins’, but while they are quite good for stopping her bashing her face on the floor when she charges off on some giddy mission, they don’t provide any steering control. After 20 minutes of making no headway at all, the only alternative was for her to ride the rest of the way on my shoulders, which she seemed to be satisfied with.

In the afternoon, a trip to Harrogate for more shopping, and a visit to the library.

Tonight in true Withnail and I style, we ate hare (braised), gunned down on our behalf by our friendly gamekeeper, rather than Jake the poacher. The potatoes were sautéed.

Swinsty Reservoir

November 19, 2006 in Food and Drink, Mia by CiaranG | 4 comments

Today’s trip out, via the horse supplies shop, was to Swinsty Reservoir, north of Otley. For a change, we took the pushchair, which meant I didn’t end up crippled from carrying Mia for miles, and we actually covered some ground rather than waiting for her to inspect every single fallen leaf, which is what happens if she walks. In the end though, she got fed up of the pushchair and had to ride on my shoulders the rest of the way back.

As we were in a naughty mood, we decided to stray from the designated route, which was lucky because otherwise I wouldn’t have spotted the handsome old disembodied chap carved out of the keystone on one of the spillways between the two reservoirs. He’s positioned gazing out across Swinsty, and I’m guessing he’s some kind of Greek/Roman god of water storage, but I haven’t managed to identify him yet. He seems to be trying to break free.

If and when I do identify him, I’ll add him to the Wikipedia page I created about the reservoir when we got home.

Tonight we had butternut squash risotto for tea – it doesn’t sound very nice, but it is.

Testing Swings

November 12, 2006 in Food and Drink, Mia by CiaranG | 7 comments

This week, Mia has been testing the swings in three different counties. After much deliberation, the results are in and they make for interesting reading:

West Yorkshire – Funny
Derbyshire – Funny but dark and dingy
North Yorkshire – Funny

Yesterday was a vicious brute of a day, so it was nice to see sunshine and clear skies this morning – a chance to conduct the third test, pick up some of the stuff that had blown over around the garden, and clean out the chicken house. Being Sunday, some flesh is in the process of being roasted behind me. This week it’s part of a pig, though I have no idea which part, and it will come with roast potatoes.

Mia’s Music

November 11, 2006 in Mia, Music by CiaranG | No comments

Tonight I thought I’d document the strange musical tastes of Baby Mia over the 13 months to date, mainly because I think it might be something interesting to reflect on in years to come, when she’ll undoubtedly be assaulting my eardrums with something hideous. She’s only really been able to choose from what we listen to, given that she doesn’t watch TV and we rarely if ever have the radio on, but since we listen to a very varied range of stuff, from dawn until dusk, I think she’s had plenty of options. From the word go she’s always found ways of making her preferences very clear, culminating in her current habit of jumping up and down and shouting until the correct music is selected.

Read the rest of this entry »

Otley Chevin

November 5, 2006 in Mia by CiaranG | No comments

This morning we took a trip to Otley Chevin. Some exercise for us, and also for poor Mika who’s been cowering in a corner since Friday due to a lethal combination of pheasant shooting by day and fireworks by night. Mia loved it, particularly the leaves and acorns, while Mika was more keen on 10 foot long sticks, which as usual she swished around in a dangerous manner.

This afternoon I’ve been peeling apples for yet another massive crumble-making session. The garden is still full of apples, both in the trees and all over the ground. Walking out in the dark to sort the horse out inevitably involves standing on them and inadventantly kicking them around. Sadly there are only cookers left – all the eaters were gone yonks ago.

Guy Fawkes Night

November 5, 2006 in Mia by CiaranG | No comments

Not only do we not bother to mention Guy Fawkes much on Bonfire Night (see) any more, but we have little respect for even celebrating it on the right day, convenience being far more important. Our Guy Fawkes Night was last night, while many people had it on Friday night, but at least I’m writing about it on the correct day.

I’ve never been entirely sure whether to consider the night a celebration of Fawkes’ failure, or of his effort. On the one hand, I don’t agree with killing anybody or anything (I have to use ‘thing’ to cover animals*, strangely) for any reason. Perhaps the only exception would be ‘with their permission’ (which in the case of animals, it’s sometimes necessary to take as read, as many of us have had to do – R.I.P. Snoop), or of course, for my Sunday roast. On the other hand nothing is ever that clear cut and perhaps sometimes fire has to be fought with fire. For me, Fawkes’ murderous intent was mitigated somewhat by the fact that he was going straight for the source of the problem. In today’s world of course, the act would have been committed randomly on innocent people attempting to travel from A to B. If there’s a reason for this counterproductive insanity, I hope it’s more signifcant than the fact that you can no longer rent a cellar under the Houses of Parliament. However, no surprises at all that the driving force, as always, is religion. Anyway, I should probably have stuck to talking about fireworks – avoidance of this kind of thinking is probably why we call it Bonfire Night. When you’re in a hole, it’s best to stop digging, so…

As has been the tradition for the last 5 or 6 years, we went to the house of a friend who consistently holds what surely must be the most impressive display in Yorkshire, private or otherwise. It was Baby Mia’s second year in attendance. Last year, barely 3 weeks old, she slept through the whole thing. This year she fell flat on her face on the tarmac, and was inconsolable by all the usual means and only the fireworks saved the day, putting “Ooooh!” in place of “Waaaah!”. She’s forgotten all about the injury now of course, but she’s sporting a grazed forehead and bloody nose to make sure her delinquent parents don’t get to do the same. Normally I’m inclined to consider her many bumps and bruises as ‘her own fault’ (running around, as she does now, like a crazed lunatic) or ‘just one of those things’ but last night we had her wrapped up like a marshmallow man due to the cold, and she couldn’t even put her arms out quickly enough to save herself. Ouch.

*Houseflies are specifically excluded I’m afraid. There was a time when I tried to live and let live, but enough is enough.

Tickling the Alphabet Pal

October 23, 2006 in Mia, Nuts by CiaranG | No comments

I was intending to write about the Alphabet Pal, but a quick Googling reveals that so many people have beaten me to it that I might as well just link to them instead:

Other than this amusing trait, it’s a highly irritating beast which I’m sure we’ll come to deeply regret purchasing. If Mia didn’t like it so much, I’d have accidentally stepped on it already.

Newer entries »

Mia