Instructions: clicking on a picture gets you a bigger one.

(Note: I'm glossing over all the other branches of the family, otherwise it gets too complicated).

Rosemary went back to university to do a masters degree and now works for RARE lecturing on conservation and then visiting the students' countries all over the world to help them implement their conservation projects.
Hope to post more photos soon such as Billie's wedding to Ben, Cath and Mitty's children Tom and Eve and, soon to be photographed, Eileen's wedding to Paul.
Watch this space!

A Prizewinning Recipe
Before buying our motorhome, we did a lot of research by talking to people and buying motorhome/caravan magazines. There was a competition in Motorhome Magazine where participants had to submit a recipe for a two course meal that could be cooked in a motorhome (ie, on two small gas burners). The recipe also had to have an interesting name. Eileen had this simple but delicious recipe for a chicken dish and we cooked up the name 'Honeypot Chicken'. She decided on a fruit brulee for the sweet course and sent off her entry.   SHE WON!!
The prize was an all-expenses-paid day at the 'Get Up And Go' caravan and motorhome show in Exeter, at which the 'personality' chef Ross Burden would demonstrate the winning dishes.
Train tickets duly arrived in the post and off we went for a fun day in Exeter.    
Here is the recipe for Honeypot Chicken:-

Ingredients to serve 2
2 fresh chicken breasts thinly sliced
3 tablespoons of clear honey
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons of boiling water
2 tablespoons of flour to coat chicken
salt and pepper to taste

Vegetables
2 medium sized carrots cut into thin strips
1 medium onion cut in two then thinly sliced
half a leek - use the greener end and slice into thin rings
half a red pepper thinly sliced
vegetable stock cube
half a teaspoon of mixed dried herbs
6 tablespoons boiling water

Noodles - 1 layer of thread egg noodles - 4 minute kind

Method
Put honey and Worcestershire sauce in a shallow pan and heat gently.
Coat chicken slices in flour and place in the hot honeyed sauce, stirring gently to coat the pieces.
Add the 4 tablespoons of boiling water and cover the pan.

With the lid on, the chicken will take only about five minutes to cook.

Place 6 tablespoons of boiling water into a medium saucepan. Place the vegetables in the pan. Crumble in the vegetable stock cube, making sure it dissolves in the small amount of water at the bottom of the pan, then mix the vegetables well into the liquid. Cover and cook on medium to low heat.

This is an alternative method to stir frying or steaming vegetables. Needs no draining and is tastier. Takes only seven minutes.

Place the noodles in a fairly large bowl, cover with boiling water and leave to stand for four minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain before serving.

This does not take up a burner on the cooker, which is an important factor as most motorhomes have only two burners.

Presentation

Place the noodles around the edge of a round serving dish. Place the vegetables with the liquid into the middle. Scoop the chicken in the honeyed sauce onto the top of the vegetables.

This can be presented on two separate dinner plates if a large serving dish is not available.

British Stamps are Unique

Have you ever noticed that there is something unique about British postage stamps? Look at any one and you will see that there is NO NAME OF COUNTRY! Surely every postage stamp must give the name of the country? But not British stamps! Click the picture to find out why.  

Lobengula's Treasure  

The African king Lobengula was a very fat man and every year on his birthday his subjects had to bring tributes of gold and diamonds - enough gold to balance his weight - and gifts of ivory. He reigned for 25 years and in that time amassed a fortune - and there was very little to spend it on. When the British South Africa Company overran his country (Matabeleland, now part of Zimbabwe) in 1893 they found no trace of Lobengula nor of his treasure nor anybody alive who could tell them anything about it.

Lobengula was chief of the fierce Matabele, a breakaway Zulu tribe, and his personal bodyguard swore 'loyalty unto death'. They would obey his every command without question, even if it meant certain death. Rumours say that they carried him and his treasure away to the north and hid it. When it was all safely hidden, Lobengula ordered the officers to kill all their men - which they promptly did. Then Lobengula ordered the commander to kill the officers - which he did. Finally Lobengula himself killed the commander. Lobengula died within a year (they say of a broken heart) without ever revealing the secret location of his treasure. He certainly never spent any of it and although the ivory is not worth much today, the gold and diamonds must be worth a fortune. Many have searched in vain for that huge treasure, but it's just one more secret locked in the heart of darkest Africa.

Eileen's Fish Venn Diagram.

 

 

This is not the end! It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it IS the end of the beginning.

Winston Churchill