Beeting my way through Birbuary, a Sandwich Selection and a Serious Bit

Plus revealing my connection to The Joker and Mrs Doyle…

Hi coddiwomplers!

So we have now whistled through February, enjoyed an extra day, got very soggy and the landscape has transformed into vast wetlands. How are you?

It’s been a fun and interesting month though. Those who know me well, will already know that I see Beetroot as a Food Of The Devil, it’s up there with olives. I can’t bear the earthy taste of them, they line the inside of my mouth and it’s disgusting!

But the little blighters are good for you, they keep your heart and lungs functioning well (especially during exercise.) They are also said to be anti-inflammatories, lower blood pressure and are rich in antioxidants, among other things. 

Thanks to a wonderful book about skin health by a lady called Hanna Sillitoe, I have discovered a delicious beetroot sauce that can be used as a substitute tomato sauce (too many tomatoes aren’t good for eczema prone skin like mine) and I use that a lot. I’ve also discovered a delicious smoothie consisting of beetroot juice, banana and fresh ginger (the ginger and banana numb the taste of the beetroot which is a winner in my book!), which we have started to have with breakfast on a regular basis.

Beetroots never go down without a fight, they’re feisty! They can make their presence look like a scene out of the Texas Charinsaw Massacre film! (Handy Hint ALWAYS make sure the lid of your blender is secure!) and have image altering effects…I shall explain…

One morning I toddled off to my local supermarket (the one where “every little helps”) after breakfast and noticed everyone seemed extra smiley. It was a bright, sunny day and I thought that they were just happy because the sun was shining so I reciprocated and thought nothing of it.

It wasn’t until I got home and saw myself in the hallway mirror that I realised why everyone was smiling at me ...I resembled what could be the secret love child of The Joker from Batman and Mrs Doyle from Father Ted! It wasn’t horrendous, but there was definitely a healthy hint of beetroot pink smoothie around my chops. Whoops, lesson learned! I hastily washed my face and got on with my day. I’ll put it down to a Menopausal Hormonal Moment because that feels like a Good Idea!

Now back to this thing called Birbuary. This was a fun art challenge that I found on Instagram, with a prompt list to draw a British Songbird every day during the month of February to raise awareness of the plight of our songbirds as some species are in decline. Here are some of my efforts, some are good, others not so much. I enjoyed it though, none of them took more than an hour and I learnt a lot about the new coloured pencils I was using as well as some facts about the birds themselves.

Tim and I also managed a sneaky, impromptu mini-break to Sandwich last week and I’ve written a blog about our exploits here if you fancy a trip there. It too had a connection to Batman (this is becoming a habit.)

And now for the Serious Bit. March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. This is a campaign dear to my heart as this was the cancer that took my lovely Mum in 2012. Please, please make yourselves aware of the signs and symptoms, it could save your life one day or the life of a friend or loved one.

There is a wealth of information about this disease out there and I have also linked to one of my blogs about it here.

By the time I bounce back like a spring lamb (ooh, perhaps that’s a bit too ambitious!) into your Inboxes next month, we will have celebrated Easter, so until then, I wish you a great March and a happy Easter.

I have also been planning out some future blog posts about being child free and about being a “oneling”, so I hope to bring you the first of those too.

Until next time, thank you so much for being here and happy coddiwompling! Please feel free to comment and share this site with anyone you think might enjoy it as it would be fun to grow a Community with like-minded souls.

Wxxx