Flapjack and a So-Called Fence

Thank you for the message of support on my last post. I'm sorry about the rant, it was a bad day yesterday and I just needed to let off a bit of steam. I spoke to some of my nice neighbours A & P this morning who told me that the fence is not a permanent one but something temporary until the rest of the work has been done. I do hope so because this was what greeted me yesterday, after the hordes of people had gone, and I went out to have a look at what they had put in place of the post and rail fence they ripped down.

Note the very attractive slope of the fence, the wonderful gap next to the wall and the extremely useful HUGE gap between the end of the fence and my gatepost! Such a professional job ..... NOT!!! I have no idea what their plans for this particular fence is are but I am sincerely hoping that A & P are right and that this is just a temporary measure.

So, today, after all the stress of yesterday, I was really craving something sweet. I'm on a very tight budget again this month, particularly as I have had to give up my market stall, so, I hunted through the cupboard to see what I had to make some cakes or cookies with. Lurking right at the back of the cupboard, there was a 1kg bag of porridge oats and a bag of very hard, lumpy, supposedly "soft" dark brown sugar. Who knows how long they've been in there but, never one to throw something away unless it's absolutely necessary, I immediately thought of flapjack. Deliciously sticky, oaty goodness to help relieve the stress of the weekend.

I have no idea where I originally got this recipe, it's been written in my note book for years so here is is, in case you have a craving for flapjack :-) I will post some pictures after they are cooked and chopped into slices if I remember. 

Flapjack

Ingredients

175 grams butter
175 grams soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
250 grams porridge oats

Method
Preheat oven to 150C. Lightly grease a 20cm baking tin.
In a large pan, melt together the butter, sugar & syrup, while stirring. When melted, remove from the heat and stir in the porridge oats.
Pour into tin and smooth the surface with a spoon. Bake for 35-40 mins or until the edges are brown and the surface has turned golden.
Place the tin on a wire rack. Cut into squares after 10 minutes, but leave to cool completely before removing from the tin.

I Think it's Time to Go and Live in a Field ..... where there are NO NEIGHBOURS!!!!

Most of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that in the past, I have had problems with horrible neighbours. One set of nasty, intimidating and just downright horrible neighbours who, for a long time, made living here very difficult. About a year ago, these neighbours packed up and left, returning only occasionally to sort out the place ready to sell. Over the weeks, after they left, things slowly returned to the nice peaceful existence where people chatted over the garden fences and stopped to say hello to each other as they pottered about their business instead of scurrying off inside to avoid seeing the neighbours. Then, towards the end of last year, the two flats were purchased by an elderly woman who, at first, seemed to be lovely. She was chatty, if a bit brusque and I had high hopes that the lovely peaceful atmosphere would continue. Until, that is, about 3 weeks after she bought the place, I came home to find the whole place filled with cars and vans and crawling with people all wandering about the place. Fair enough, I thought, the woman is readying the flats for renting and as such, I resigned myself to the fact that for the time being, there would be people around sorting things out. What I wasn't prepared for was the fact that these people, grandchildren and friends of the grandchildren of this woman, have no respect for other peoples property. This morning, when I went outside to the field to check the llamas, I found that yesterday, while the place was once again crawling with people, someone has hacked my honeysuckle plant and my beautiful climbing rose that were next to my front gate, to pieces. Now I understand that if there are tendrils of plants hanging over the fence they might need a trim but it's not as if these tendrils were hanging into someone else's garden or blocking the light or even as if there were very many of them or that they were massively long, they weren't. They were just hanging over my fence a bit onto the communal driveway, which is a kind of track. Now, I'm sure there are people reading this who are thinking "what's the big deal" or "if it's hanging over their property they have every right to cut it down" well it's not the fact that they did it it's the fact that they hacked my rose bush and my honeysuckle to pieces and that they didn't say anything to me. If they had said "do you mind if we trim it" I would have said of course. I would probably have done it myself if I had thought it was really that bad but it wasn't AND not only did they chop down my lovely plants but they left all the bloody brambles that were growing out of their side of the drive and didn't even bother to touch them! I really give up. I want to live in a field with nothing around me except cows, sheep and horses for at least a mile so I don't ever have to put up with this ever again. I think I am going to become a hermit, it's much less hassle!

An Update on my Horrible Neighbours.

For the last few years, my immediate next door neighbours have made my life completely miserable. They have done everything they could think of to make life difficult. They parked their cars in my field entrance so I couldn't get in to feed the llamas which meant I had to resort to climbing out of the kitchen window to get into the field, they made horrible comments over the fence when I was in the garden, meaning that even the simplest task such as hanging out the washing or mowing the lawn was turned into a complete nightmare and they they made the whole place look untidy with all the rubbish and junk they just piled outside their house. And their nastiness wasn't only reserved for me. All the people who live in our little community have suffered at the hands of these horrible people at some time or another and at one point, a community liaison officer was appointed to try and bring peace to the neighbourhood. Sadly to no avail. 

About three weeks ago, however, a miracle occurred. A white van appeared and over a period of about five days, they packed up their belongings and left. At first I couldn't quite believe that we had been so lucky .... that they had really moved out, but it's true. They have left. I have heard from a very reliable source that they will now be turning the house that they converted from two flats back to two flats and renting them out. This is a huge relief. I will now be able to actually go into my garden. I will be able to mow the lawn, play with my dogs, plant some veg or simply just sit and have a cup of tea without worrying about what they will say or do next. I won't have to peek through the kitchen window to see if they are out there chain smoking before I open my door and I won't have to run the gauntlet of their abuse when I feed my chickens. It's going to be very nice.

Today, however, is NOT going to be as nice! Today I am finally giving in to the demands of the market and I'm going to begin making Christmas things to sell on my stall! I'm not looking forward to it. I have put it off for as long as I can but I can't really put it off any longer. Today I will be making Christmas cards which means that today I will most certainly be very BAH HUMBUG!!!!! It's not that I don't like Christmas because I do, I love it in fact but I love it in December, NOT October. It goes against grain to make Christmas cards in October and it most certainly makes me twitchy when I see toys and Christmas decorations appearing in the shops in September! Still, I have to think like a business woman and if people want to buy Christmas cards in October who am I to say they can't! It's still weird though!!