Lose Weight and Gain Health

Beside The Seaside With Grayson Perry

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have had a lovely day today. My day involved only a small amount of work, lots of sunshine, a trip to Margate and a day out with Rebecca.

I started this gloriously sunny day with a large green smoothie featuring 6 very ripe bananas, swiss chard from the garden, frozen blueberries, an avocado, blue green algae and hemp milk. I shared this amount with Harvey. Well it was meant to be green but it looked grey! Some coconut sprinkled on top helped make it look a bit more appetising and Harvey and I both enjoyed it. I went to Ramsgate to go through some work we are having done. Matt is staying at the house and is busy painting the shabby bits – it will look great when he has finished. Rebecca came to see me in Thanet today which made me very happy. She came on the train to Ramsgate and after watching Murray lose the French Open (disappointed !!!) we strolled over to the Marina and had lunch in Miles Bar where we had a window seat over looking the marina. We had the same meal actually; chunky chips, a side salad and we shared some olives. Mine was washed down with a very quaffable bottle of Sol lager. The sea was a lovely colour today and as always, we enjoyed watching the boats pottering about in the marina. After lunch we headed to Margate. Our destination was the Turner art gallery. We went to see the Grayson Perry exhibition and I was completely fascinated by his work. Rebecca was a great person to go with because she knew lots about his work and had even met him before! This was an excellent exhibition, which mainly featured ceramics, etchings and textiles. I was stunned by his versatility of mediums and styles and loved some of his techniques, in particular the collages of cuttings from print glued on to a sketchbook and then water-colour applied and blended in with the collage. I also really liked the etchings. It really was worth a visit. The large space on the ground floor hosted a large cymbal arrangement – as you do. We had a cuppa before heading home – fresh lemon and ginger with a little honey. This beach was quiet and so was this but Margate Main Beach was full of people enjoying the warmth and sunshine. Thank you for visiting Rebecca, I had a really lovely day which was very much needed. I should have been hungry when I got home as I didn’t eat much today but 2 apples did the trick for supper so I left it at that.

I have another wonderful day to look forward to tomorrow too 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Art, Exhibition, Grayson Perry, Green Smoothie, Margate, Ramsgate | Leave a comment

Keeping Going

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

This has been a very tough week for so many reasons. I have noticed that when I am tired it is harder to eat healthily and I am tired at the moment. There is a lot going on in my life, not all of which is positive, and I am working 6 days most weeks so there is not much time to relax. I have made some bad food choices recently but they have been occasional rather than the usual plummet to the depths. Consequently I was happy to be weighed today and to see I had only put on 1 pound in the last 2 weeks. I keep going up a pound one week and down a pound the next at the moment but that is so much better than usual where I might put on half a stone and then give up. So I was inspired today to keep going with my whole foods and plant based diet with no cheats. Year to date weight loss is 25 pounds.

I played tennis today and it was incredibly hot and muggy so I was very thirsty when I came home. I made a green smoothie with 4 frozen bananas, hemp milk, spinach and swiss chard plus 1 tsp ‘Supreme Greens’. I think this made a perfect post workout meal. I had 2 glasses of lovely green smoothie. I was incredibly busy at work today so just made a simple lunch with these Piada I bought in Waitrose. The ingredient list is minimal, unlike most wraps which are full of rubbish. I bought the Violife (vegan version of Cheddar cheese) in the local health food shop, Vegetare. I heated a wrap in a large non stick pan and laid some Violife and fresh tomato on top. When the wrap was warmed through, I wrapped the bread around the filling and enjoyed it very much. I had a second one and added some Dijon mustard to it which was a good enhancement. Last week Harvey chose some Quorn in the supermarket. He wanted something that looked like meat and chose this because Mo Farah eats it apparently! I am very happy to eat food that doesn’t resemble meat at all but Harvey is doing so well with our nearly vegan kitchen that I was happy to oblige him. I made a bolognaise sauce to have with wholewheat tagliatelle and naturally packed it full of vegetables. I fried up some onions, red pepper, celery and sweetcorn. I noticed, when I was checking ingredients that Quorn contains egg white so I didn’t want to eat it. I put half the vegetable mix in to a saucepan with a tin of tomatoes and half the packet of Quorn and simmered it for 10 minutes. Harvey really enjoyed it.

I added a large Portobello mushroom and tomatoes to the frying pan with the other half of the fried veggies in it and simmered it for 10 minutes.Plus a green chilli from the chilli plant.
It was very tasty indeed. I served it with some fresh coriander and basil. Yummy. Harvey enjoyed his bolognaise too.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bolognaise, Green Smoothie, Smoothie, Vegan | Leave a comment

A Beachside Walk and a Charitable Bake

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

The weather has been so changeable this weekend but we have made the most of it and spent many a happy hour outside.

After working in our house in Ramsgate all morning, Harvey and I set off in to town for lunch. We had a pizza and then set off to walk along the beach to Broadstairs. It was a sunny but not particularly warm day so perfect for walking in as not too hot and not too cold. When the tide is out, as it was on Saturday afternoon, we could walk along the beach which is so enjoyable.
There are so many places to stop and look at and as we were not in a rush, we took our time. There is Broadstairs in the distance. Love this little driftwood sculpture. We had tea and cake sitting outside The Old Curiosity shop; these charming buildings were our view.We walked through the alleyway opposite as I had never been through there before.
Time to head back to Ramsgate and we hoped the rain would hold off until we were back. Is this a dog fish? Does anyone know? It looks a bit like a shark. 2 of these were on the beach. The clouds did become blacker but then rolled away so we were safe from a drenching. By the time we got back to Ramsgate the sun was shining and the sky was blue again. It was a beautiful walk. I always enjoy a stroll along the beach and this was a good length walk with plenty to look at along the way. The company was tip top too, Today we did some baking. Our near neighbours, David and Annette, were opening their gardens for charity – Heart of Kent Hospice – which you can find more about here

I offered to bake a contribution for the cake stall. I had seen a yummy sounding/looking concoction on eatgood4life.com

She made ‘Peanut Butter and Chocolate Blondies’ which looked amazing. Look at the original recipe http://www.eatgood4life.com/peanut-butter-and-chocolate-blondies/ Banana and Peanut Butter Oaties

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups oats
6 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce (I used a tub of pureed apple and prune baby food)
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 cup chocolate chips + 2 tbsp (I used very dark chocolate to keep the recipe vegan)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

the original recipe also called for 14 vegan peanut butter cups but I didn’t have any so went without them or any alternative.

Method

Preheat oven to 180 °C and line a 9 x 13 baking tray with baking parchment paper
In a food processor, add the rolled oats and pulse until they are pulverised
Place in a mixing bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
Add the bananas, apple sauce, peanut butter and maple syrup to the food processor and pulse until it is liquefied.
Add this mixture to the oat mixture and combine.
Add 1 cup of the chocolate chips (and the peanut butter cups if you are using them).
Spread the batter in to the prepared baking tin – the mixture will be thick and put the 2 tbsp chocolate chips on top.
Bake for 30 minutes, transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool

My oven doesn’t cook very evenly! The recipe on the blog I linked to above made a chocolate sauce to drizzle over the top. Mine didn’t turn out too well so we went with what we had. They were quite dense so only small pieces were required. They may not be sweet enough for people used to eating conventional sweet cakes and biscuits but if you are used to a healthier, low sugar diet, they are sweet enough and very enjoyable. They all sold! I had a wonderful day, helping out at the tea stall for a couple of hours and then chatting to people who visited the garden. I enjoyed seeing everyone and in particular, Rebecca and Beryl who I hadn’t seen for many months and who are both missed very much.

Well done to Annette and David who both worked very hard, working their beautiful garden and preparing for the day. And well done to everyone who volunteered to help run the event and to all the visitors who braved the inclement weather and turned up. Over £1,000 was raised from Little Nut Hall alone which was a great result.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Beach, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Vegan, Walking | 2 Comments

Gary Yourofsky and Ticehurst

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have not blogged for a while due to too many other things needing my attention. Such as my little cherub’s birthday.

Today was glorious and I had a near perfect start to the day. I woke up when I was ready to wake up (instead of when the alarm told me to), we only had fun on our agenda and both of my children were at home.

I did spend the first couple of hours alone in the veggie patch. I had a lot of seedlings to plant out and to keep me company I had Gary Yourofsky.

Not literally! Gary is a vegan activist and a superb orator. I was listening to his speech on You Tube called’ The greatest Speech You Will Ever Hear’. I highly recommend it to anyone. He talks with great passion about why you should be vegan: for animals, for your own health and for the planet. I admire his oratory skills and passion. There is a section of the speech where he shows a graphic short film of life in slaughterhouses. It made me cry. If you eat animals, you should watch it, particularly if you eat cheap mass produced meat. You should know where it comes from. There is a warning in the speech when he is going to show the slaughterhouse film so you can skip it if you want to hear his speech but can’t face the film.

If you want to hear a great speaker, explaining why being vegan is such good idea, you can find his speech here but do be aware it contains a graphic film.

I was very busy out in the veggie patch. I planted some green beans and lots of spinach in to the bed with the purple beans, broad beans and mange tout. Loads of rocket in the bed with the mizuna and celery.I had already planted out the courgette plants earlier in the week.
By the time I came in the sun was shining brightly and we all had a fruit salad for breakfast. Nothing more was needed but ripe, sweet fruit.Our garden was looking fantastic. We have lots of rhodedendrons and azaleas so the garden is always stunning in May.
I seem to be too busy, always rushing about. Recently I have been on several long car journeys with Lara and Harvey and we whizz through cute little towns and villages, with never enough time to stop and look at them. So today’s agenda was to drive to one, park, walk around and find a bite to eat. We chose Ticehurst. So many cute little cottages near the centre. I am always amazed at how many churches we have in this country and how old they are. This one is 14th Century !!!! It is incredible that such a building was constructed in such a small village so long ago.
Ticehurst also had an interesting range of shops but they were all closed. Luckily the pub wasn’t closed so we went inside. This is The Bell. It was a warm enough to sit outside so we did, in their pretty garden. This part of the garden leads to the little rooms you can rent out and stay in. This is the path to the ‘Honeymoon’ room. Last night’s visitors were leaving when we arrived and they all said it was a wonderful place to stay. This is a fire pit in the evening which would be really good fun to sit around.
Back under the archway was where we sat for lunch. As usual, no vegan options so I had vegetables; new potatoes, broccoli, fries and a salad. Unfortunately I didn’t ask for no butter so I failed to have a vegan lunch. I did manage to resist dessert and just had a coffee.

This evening Lucy came round for supper which was lovely as I haven’t seen her for ages. We had a green salad. These greens came from the garden; mizuna, broad bean tops and baby swiss chard leaves and I added some spinach too.

I bought these wraps from Waitrose yesterday. I have not tried this brand before but I liked the look of them because they are organic and because they only have a short list of real ingredients. The amount of non food items in a standard wrap is dreadful.I spread the wrap with humous, lined up the raw veggies in the centre, rolled it up like a sausage, placed them on a baking tray and baked them in the oven on 200° C for 10 minutes. Really quick and easy to prepare and really tasty. I served them cut in to half but you could also make pinwheels out of them by slicing them thinly. We had baked potatoes. I par boiled the potatoes for 10 minutes, drained them and then coated them in a little olive oil, thyme, paprika and garlic and baked them in the oven on 200°C for half an hour so they crisped up.

Instead of a salad dressing I made guacamole with an avocado, lime juice and a chopped tomato. A simple supper but a tasty one.

Enjoyed with a glass of Prosecco.

I really enjoyed my day, I hope you did too.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Gary Yourofsky, Ticehurst, Vegan, Veggie Patch | 3 Comments

International Hummus Day

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I saw today, thanks to my chum Lucy, that it is the 4th International Hummus Day. I had never heard of such a thing before and coincidentally, I had hummus today, which I rarely eat. That was before I knew it was hummus day.

I took most of my food in to work with me today. I had one of the champagne mangos I bought yesterday (minus the large slice Harvey had).

with some strawberries and grapes. That was breakfast. Some smokey hummus which I was not that keen on. It was worth a try but I prefer the usual sort as I like the garlicky flavour which was smothered by the smokiness of this. I had it with leftover rice, carrots and peas, tomatoes, celery, cucumber and coriander. There we have it, a day’s food in a bag off to work. I was much too busy today and didn’t get home until 8:30 pm. I was so glad I took my lunch to work or I am not sure what I would have eaten as I had no time to get anything. Getting home late meant I needed something quick and easy so the frozen banana, frozen pineapple, strawberries and kale were turned in to nice cream. Not bad.

I am pleased I ate well today because the office was filled with cookies and cakes today but I resisted them all, even though some were left on my desk !!!!!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 80/10/10, Nice-cream, Vegan | 3 Comments

Vegetable Sushi

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I made a very green and very drinkable smoothie for breakfast this sunny morning. 3 bananas, 2 kiwis, half a large bag of spinach and a cup of coconut milk.

I went to Wholefoods at lunch time to buy some fruit. Wholefoods is expensive but some of their products, such as mangoes, are so superior to the supermarkets I feel I can justify the cost. Wholefoods mangoes are properly ripe, sweet and juicy. I fancied some sushi for lunch; I went to Wasabi and bought a vegetable box. I have never had one before and it was a good choice. I really enjoyed it. In the afternoon I had 2 apples. I bought some strawberries in Wholefoods. These were for Harvey rather than me. He likes them with a little bit of coconut sugar. I made a very simple supper. I mashed a ripe avocado with some lime juice, which I ate with cherry tomatoes, cucumber and lots of coriander. I served the avocado, tomatoes and cucumber with some brown Basmati rice, peas and carrots. I like warm food and raw cold food mixed together. This was a quick and easy meal to prepare and simple and satisfying to eat.

It was good to get back on track after all the excesses of the weekend.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Brown Basmati Rice, Green Smoothie, Mango, Strawberries, Sushi, Sushi Rolls, Vegan, Wholefoods Market | Leave a comment

We Love Lucy

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

We have all had the most fantastic weekend celebrating my sister Lucy’s birthday. We stayed in an incredible house called ‘Stonehall’ in Portland, Dorset. Stonehall is a church and vestry which has been tastefully converted in to luxury holiday accommodation by friends of my sister’s. There is a mixture of old and new, traditional and contemporary but mainly comfort and space to relax.

This is the shutter in my bedroom. It was all so charming. The little stone staircase linking the church to the vestry. One of 2 downstairs kitchens. The upstairs balcony in the church.One of many seating areas; this one is underneath the balcony in the church. The huge fireplace in the church where I spent many happy hours, sitting and chatting and quaffing far too much wine. A seating area upstairs. The large upstairs kitchen and sitting room. View from the upstairs kitchen window. Breakfast time. View from the upstairs terrace. On Saturday morning I went for a lovely walk along Chesil Beach with Lara, my sister Abi and my neice Charlotte. We walked a long way along the ridge of Chesil Beach.
We then walked back beside the sea and headed to the cute huts, seen here in the distance. This was a beautiful place to walk and even more so when the sun finally came out. We wanted to walk further but we had a party to help prepare for. This is Stonehall – what a stunning place to return “home” to. The converted church made a spectacular venue for a party. Lara expertly made scones for 50 with the assistance of lots of little helpers. We had so much food. Quiche, an amazing salad (recipe from ‘Polpo’) made with courgette, rocket and parmesan, potato and radish salad, a green salad, peppers, olives, houmous, tzatziki, a roasted vegetable, chick peas and couscous salad, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and guacamole. Well, that is what I ate. There was also a tuna salad, hot smoked salmon, meat pies, home cooked ham and roast chicken. Far too much to drink. Plus cheese. The cheese was awesome. I was certainly not vegan this weekend!

Neither was I any good at my diet as I ate far too much of everything. I particularly ate too much cheese and sooooo many cakes. When everything was ready we enjoyed some bubbles and waited for the other visitors to arrive. We had about 50 people for lunch to celebrate Lucy’s birthday. Me and my lovely sisters – Lucy is on the right. This was the perfect venue for hosting a large lunch. There were so many cosy little spaces to sit and eat and chat and drink. I loved catching up with Aunties, Uncle, cousins and some of Lucy’s closest friends. More tea vicar? Yes please, and another scone with clotted cream and jam.

In the evening, some played cards,

others played snooker. In the morning, after a leisurely breakfast and time to read the papers, we went up the hill to admire the view over Portland and Chesil Beach. The Olympic sailing took place here and this sculpture of the Olympic rings commemorates the great event. I think we have all enhanced the sculpture. We also went to the lighthouse at Portland Bill. This was a very dramatic place to walk. Superb examples of coastal erosion. Such a pretty place too. It was very sad packing up to leave as we had such a lovely time. Lunch was easy though because we had so many leftovers.

Thank you VERY much Lucy and Trevor for hosting such a wonderful weekend. It was a real privilege to be there and to celebrate with you all.

Stonehall is available for rent and you can find the details about it here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Birthday, Dorset, Party, Portland, Stonehall | 2 Comments

Polling Day

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Today is the day we vote for our next Government. Well hopefully it is; according to the polls it is so close we may not know in the morning who has won so there may have to be another coalition or even another election later in the year.

This is a 2 day catch up blog.

Yesterday I began the day with a large fruit salad. 1 pink grapefruit, 1 orange, 1 kiwi fruit, 1 fig and a handful of blueberries. This was very enjoyable indeed. And so colourful and pleasing to the eye. I treated myself to a gorgeous latte from Timberyard mid-morning. It was a busy day so I grabbed a veggie bowl from Chipotle for lunch. Hard to see what there is underneath all that lettuce, guacamole and sweetcorn. There was brown rice, 2 types of beans and roasted peppers with chilli sauce. Yummy. I was going to have a large plate of roasted veggies for supper but I was invited up the road to join Annette and David for supper so off I went. What a lovely treat that was. We had home made Puttanesca sauce (tomatoes, olives and capers) with pasta and a huge green salad made with lots of leaves from their garden. I had a great evening and it was even better for being unexpected and just up the road. The red wine was enjoyed too. Thank you very much Annette and David.

Today I had 4 apples for breakfast and another soy milk latte.

I went out for lunch with Owen from work. he found an organic vegetarian Italian restaurant round the corner in Holborn called Amico Bio . I stupidly left my glasses in the office so I couldn’t actually read the menu which was frustrating. So I asked the waitress to recommend something that was vegan. She was incredibly helpful and made several suggestions and I went for this one:

Piadina integrale di seitan e vegetali, salsa di peperoni rossi, insalata di carote, finocchi e cetrioli
Seitan and vegetable kebab, pepper coulis, carrots, fennel, cucumber, yogurt and cucumber dip £10.00 (Vo)

She served it with vegan mayonnaise instead of yogurt. Well I think this was what it was – hard to tell when you haven’t read the menu. Whatever it was, it was delicious. I loved it. I just had water with the meal and an espresso afterwards.

I really enjoyed the food and the waitress was excellent. I have no idea why there was only one other table occupied in there. I hope it is usually busier in there as I want to go back.

I made a large smoothie for supper with 2 frozen bananas, fresh pineapple and blueberries.

So 2 ok days with the diet. The huge portion of pasta and too much red wine wont have helped lose weight but it was all so very pleasant I don’t care. I can be better then ever next week, but I do have a huge party weekend lined up. I can’t wait 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Fruit, Organic, Vegan, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Curry Night

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I ate a big variety of vegetables today and some fruit.

Watermelon and grapes for breakfast. This is half a mini watermelon and a bunch of grapes. I felt peckish mid morning and had some pecans and sultanas. I went out to Food For Thought at lunch time and bought a kale and potato soup which was very good. I will try and make this at home. Plus a salad box. This is the view from my desk. I am lucky to have a desk beside the window, particularly since I work in a large open plan office which is a very deep building so most people are surrounded by the office and other people. I get to see the sky and trees and life outside. I always like light and shadows and the trees and buildings look lovely in the sunshine. At home I made a quick and easy cauliflower and potato curry. This cauliflower was £1 and the potatoes were similar so that was a very cheap supper. The recipe is from Sophie Grigson’s ‘Vegetables’ cook book. Cauliflower and Potato Curry

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cm piece ginger, roughly chopped
2 chillies, deseeded and chopped
3 tbsp groundnut oil
500g potatoes, cut in to 2-3 cm chunks
1 cauliflower, broken in to florets
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
6 tbsp passata
salt

Method

Put the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and 3 tbsp water in to a blender and blitz until smooth and set aside

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the potato and cauliflower until they begin to catch a little.
Lift out of the pan and reserve.
Add the mustard seeds to the pan. When the seeds begin to pop add the onion mixture and fry over a moderate heat, stirring continuously until thickened (3 – 4 minutes)
Add the remaining spices, passata, 600ml water and salt.
Bring to the boil, return the cauliflower and potatoes to the pan, cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

I ate mine as it was, served with coriander.

This was simple but delicious. I ate about half of it and am looking forward to the rest another night.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 80/10/10, Cauliflower, Potatoes, Vegan, Vegetables | 5 Comments

Phenomenal Support

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Harvey and I had a much too short but oh so very splendid visit to the Dav’s in Leicestershire this weekend. Lara was there when we arrived which made it even better.

On Sunday morning I made a large green/brown smoothie with spinach from the garden, a bag of red kale, a couple of handfuls of frozen mixed berries and 2 dates.

It just fitted in to the new blender by Magimix which I was very impressed with. It is cheaper than the Vita Mix but seems just as good if not better. It has a glass jug which I liked and the jug is square so easier to scrape and the bottom comes off which makes it really easy to clean. When my Vita Mix conks out I will seriously consider one of these. The smoothie tasted good too! I needed that after the multiple glasses of bubbles and wine I had enjoyed the night before.

This is the giant spinach.

Which sits in one of my very favourite veggie patches – BJ’s. It is really well designed and an absolute pleasure to potter about in. I think I need to go back in June to help eat some of those strawberries! When one lives surrounded by beautiful countryside, you don’t have to get in the car to go for a walk which is lovely, especially when the sun is shining.

This is a 300 or so acre field of wheat. There are some huge farms around here. This was one of those days where the clouds hung in the sky, all white and fluffy, and the sky seemed huge. It was beautiful. I love Spring with all the flowers

and the blossom out.

Shame I have just missed the wisteria being in full bloom – it was nearly there.

After a very cloudy morning the sun came out at lunch time so we could have a BBQ !

It was even warm enough to eat outside too which was a real treat.Now I do confess to thinking I was going to just eat fruits and veggies this weekend, which would have been fine. I don’t expect people to cater for my lifestyle choices or go to any extra trouble on my account. So I was just thinking I would eat what the others eat and leave out the meat. Oh how wrong I was!

My wonderful hosts had thoughtfully planned menus around me and bought so many things that I could enjoy that I know they would never eat or drink, such as soya milk, soya cream and this tofu so I could have tofu and vegetable kebabs on the BBQ.We marinated the tofu in soy sauce and garlic and threaded them on to skewers with red onion and peppers. Served with a salad I had a mighty fine meal.
I was not expecting to have a pudding I could eat but I was wrong again. Helen made an incredibly delicious rhubarb jelly which I enjoyed with some soya cream. It was absolutely gorgeous and so I had to have seconds. I just had to. After a large meal we set off for a walk along one of the canals in this part of the world. I have never (as far as I remember) seen a canal in operation before and I was fascinated by how the barges move up or down hill. It is a simple but brilliant design. We could see a barge in the distance heading our way and we decided to sit and wait so we could see how it moved from the lower level of the water to the higher level.

There are many fields of rape around here and they are currently in full bloom.Very striking and colourful. Here comes the barge so the water level needs to be adjusted which is achieved by opening one set of lock gates by using a special key so the water begins to pour through from the bottom of the gate.

When the water level is low enough the gates are opened and the barge moves in to the lock. Note how low the barge is and it needs to get up to the level of the water beyond the next lock gate. This is achieved by closing the lock gate behind the barge and then opening the next lock gate further upstream. With the barge in the lock, the lock gate behind the barge is closed so the water can no longer flow downstream. As the water enters the lock, the barge rises.

So simple and so clever.

Once the water is level, the lock gate in front of the barge is opened and it moves through and upstream. Even easier with so many willing hands, helping to open and close the gates. We continued on our walk. This really was a delightful walk.

Back at the house there was even more completely yummy and vegan food. A home made soup which was excellent, with a slice of wholemeal bread.
Followed by roasted veggies, new potatoes and green beans. I did then eat about 5 more servings of the new potatoes with Salad Cream as they were perfectly cooked and full of flavour. Followed by a definitely non vegan but very tasty lemon pudding. I do like a homemade pudding and they are rarely experienced in our house so I enjoyed one very small serving.

Thank you so much to Helen and BJ for the phenomenal support you showed of my vegan eating. Thank you for buying me so many wonderful things I could eat and for making so may nutritious and delicious home cooked meals I could enjoy too. We loved our visit and just wish it could have been for longer.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 80/10/10, Barge, Canal, Spinach, Vegan, Vegetables, Veggie Patch | Leave a comment

Lose Weight and Gain Health

Beside The Seaside With Grayson Perry

Keeping Going

A Beachside Walk and a Charitable Bake

Gary Yourofsky and Ticehurst

International Hummus Day

Vegetable Sushi

We Love Lucy

Polling Day

Curry Night

Phenomenal Support

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