#Baking + #StDavidsDay + #AmWatching + #Knitting And #Crochet Projects + #Lockdown Exit Plans

Mam and I made some vegan rice pudding last weekend.

 

I haven't had a decent bowl of rice pudding in years, and definitely not since becoming vegan.  But between Mam making herself some recently, and a friend talking about it, I ended up really wanting some.  So we made some using coconut milk and coconut cream.  Here's a photo of a bowl of it, just because.

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We also made some flapjacks, because I've got a lot of oats and Mam fancied making some.  Plus, I do love flapjacks.  We decided to put some chocolate on top, and tried to be lazy with putting a chocolate coating on the top by just sprinkling the vegan chocolate drops on top rather than properly melting them first, which didn't work quite as planned, so some parts of the chocolate are melted better than others.  But here's a photo of it still in the pan - before we cut it in to squares:

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March 1st was St David's Day (Dydd Gwyl Dewi).  St David, for those who don't know, is the patron saint of Wales.  To celebrate, Mam and I made Welsh cakes.  This was our first time making vegan versions.  Here's a photo of them:

And here are the daffodils featured in that photo a couple of days later, once they'd opened up properly:

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We also did a St David's Day pet photo shoot with Lilie, Izabel, Logan, and Artemis.

 

Mollie would have been included in the photos too, but she doesn't do photoshoots, and decided there was no way she was even coming out of her bed with all three dogs in the house.  Not that I blame her.  Besides, it was daytime, and she's never enthusiastic about getting up for anything in the day at the best of times.  Chinchillas are nocturnal, after all.

 

Anyway, here are the photos:

 

 

The shawl Lilie and Izabel are wearing was a baby shawl Mam brought, which is aesigned for a baby or toddler to have as part of the traditional Welsh costume.  Their bonnet was made by my Mam... It's the closest we could do to the bonnet or hat a little girl would wear while allowing for dog head shapes being different, and their ears needing space.  Logan's bowtie is a red hairbow.

Oh, and - for the benifit of anyone who knows tortoises shouldn't eat daffodils - I want to assure you that Artemis wasn't allowed to get any closer than she was in the photo to the daffodils, and was only out of my hands on that spot for long enough for my Mam to snap the picture (I literally let go long enough for the shot when Mam told me she was ready to take it, and then scooped up the tortoise).

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I watched a movie called "Flora And Ulysses" recently.  It was very entertaining, but with a really sweet ending.  Only one thing spoiled it for me: William.

William is a blind character in the movie.  He's suffering from temporary blindness caused by stress.  Now, I don't know if they intentionally took all the myths about blind people and tried to make a joke out of them, or if they genuinely didn't have a clue that the myths about blindness are generally a load of rubbish.  Either way, how they did William's character was not only not funny, but it spoiled the movie for me.  Seriously people, if you're going to include a character with a certain disability, talk to someone with experience with the disability first, get your facts right, and learn what's appropriate to use for comedic material as regards that disability and the person's struggles because of it.

 

I loved everything else about it - there was even one scene with William I actually found funny - but because of how they portrayed William's character, it barely scrapes a four out of five stars from me.  And the only reason it gets four is that loving the rest of the movie means I can't bring myself to lower the rating to three stars.  It's a shame when something like that spoils an otherwise awesome movie.

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I've also been watching the "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" series, which I'm loving.  It's different to the books - which I'm a big enough fan of that I've read them multiple times - in that some of the stuff we learn later in the books was going on behind the scenes is shown to the audience as it's happening in the show, but otherwise follows the books much more closely than the movie.  I struggle to only watch a single episode of it at a time, so am already almost done with the whole thing, even though I only started watching it on the weekend.  This show definitely gets five out of five stars from me.

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I finally finished my tea cosy!

It wouldn't have taken me so long if I was spending more time each week working on crafts.  But it's done now anyhow, and here's a photo for anyone who'd like to see it:

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Now I'm making a knitted toy I plan to gift someone, and working on finishing my crochet scarf.  Officially the crochet scarf is meant to be the main project now, but since I knit a whole lot quicker than I crochet, the knitted toy is coming together more quickly, and already about half done (the scarf is maybe about a quarter done - if that - at this point).

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We're sort of still in lockdown here, but they're working on taking us out of lockdown slowly.  Numbers have been relatively low as regards infection and death rates from the virus (here in Wales especially) so the hope is that a slow end to lockdown will mean this really is an end to lockdown.

Of course, the whole of the UK still can't agree on things entirely, so how the process will be working naturally differs depending on where in the UK you live.  It's also subject to change if anyone in charge decides it's not working (in other words, if numbers start rising again).  The situation is to be evaluated at each stage to see how things are going.  But, wherever you are in the UK, the plan is basically to have all restrictions lifted by the Summer.  The Prime Minister gave a date in June, but since his dates apply spacifically to England, and I can't find a dated "roadmap" for Wales, I can't be sure what the Welsh government's date deadline is.  To be honest, I think they're hesitant to give one in case they can't stick to it, which is sensible.

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I have to admit, I don't envy them the job of attempting to balance the needs of the economy with the threat of the virus.  Things like this are why I'd never want to be in charge.  Sure, making the rules might sound fun, but - as is often said - "With great power comes great responsibility."  And I don't think I'd like to be the one with that kind of responsibility resting on my shoulders.

 

Mind you, though I don't envy those in charge the task of figuring all this out, that doesn't mean I like or agree with certain decisions they've made.  I'm just not convinced I could do better, and wouldn't like to try.