Friday 27 June 2014
Monday 16 June 2014
Soo's Date Loaf
A filling cake with no added sugar, fat or eggs. It has now become a welcome favourite at the end of several extended walks & never ceases to 'Hit the Spot'! Thanks Soo!
8 oz/225 g stoned dried dates, chopped
1/2 pt/275 ml water
12 oz/350 g mixed dried fruit
6 oz/175 g plain wholemeal flour
3 teasp/3 x 5ml sp baking powder
1 teasp/1 x 5 ml sp mixed spice
grated rind of 1 orange or lemon
1 oz/25 g chopped mixed nuts
4 tabsp/4 x 15 ml sp unsweetened orange juice
1/2 oz/15 g flaked almonds to decorate
Place the dates & water into a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat until soft. Remove from the heat & mash with a fork to make a smooth puree. Add the remaining ingredients except the flaked almonds, and beat together well, until evenly mixed. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased and base lined alb/900 g loaf tin & level the surface. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top & place in a preheated oven at 160ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until a skewer when inserted comes out clean. Turn out and cool on a wire rack. Best eaten within 2 days but I can assure you there won't be any left around after 2 days anyhow!
Freezes well.
8 oz/225 g stoned dried dates, chopped
1/2 pt/275 ml water
12 oz/350 g mixed dried fruit
6 oz/175 g plain wholemeal flour
3 teasp/3 x 5ml sp baking powder
1 teasp/1 x 5 ml sp mixed spice
grated rind of 1 orange or lemon
1 oz/25 g chopped mixed nuts
4 tabsp/4 x 15 ml sp unsweetened orange juice
1/2 oz/15 g flaked almonds to decorate
Place the dates & water into a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat until soft. Remove from the heat & mash with a fork to make a smooth puree. Add the remaining ingredients except the flaked almonds, and beat together well, until evenly mixed. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased and base lined alb/900 g loaf tin & level the surface. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top & place in a preheated oven at 160ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until a skewer when inserted comes out clean. Turn out and cool on a wire rack. Best eaten within 2 days but I can assure you there won't be any left around after 2 days anyhow!
Freezes well.
Saturday 7 June 2014
Mindfull Living
“Stop and smell the roses” isn’t just good advice—it’s also a powerful safeguard against stress. Mindfulness, or the practice of consciously and non-judgmentally observing the present moment, is linked to better wellbeing. People who are naturally mindful are more emotionally stable during the day and more relaxed at night.
Mindfulness can act as an emotional buffer, protecting you from the normal highs and lows of your day. People who are more mindful are able to stay somewhat separate from shifts in their body and their emotional state. They’re more observant, as opposed to reactive.
Luckily, mindfulness is a skill you can learn. So how do we become more mindful? Here are a few quick starting points:
Ease into your mornings
On an average weekday, do you abuse your snooze button before scrambling out of bed to barely make it to work/school on time. Rather than rushing through your morning agenda, take up to 30 minutes every morning to sit quietly and simply focus on your breath. When your mind wanders, come back to your breath. This gives your mind and body time to make the transition from a resting state to an active state. If sitting still for too long makes you squirm, meditating for even just five minutes is better than nothing.
Step away from your desk
You don’t have to be a smoker to excuse yourself from your office or home for a few minutes to mentally recharge. If you take a walk, observe what’s going on around you—the colour of the sky, the movement of the wind, and any physical sensations you experience. Mindfulness is the opposite of living your life on autopilot, and these mini-breaks will help train you to appreciate the here and now rather than being caught up in a lot of thoughts about the future & the past.
Take a real lunch break
We know it’s hard. The temptation to shovel food into your mouth while cruising the internet or reading the paper is hard to resist, but it prevents you from enjoying your meal. By paying attention to what you’re eating. Take time out to really zero in on texture and taste. You’ll enjoy your lunch more, slow down, feel more satiated & eat less!
Give yourself time to make transitions
In any given day, you might go from a career woman to a Zumba junkie to a domestic goddess. Rather than jumping from role to role, take a moment to mark these shifts. Doing so will help you get into the right mindset so you can better focus on the task at hand. When you sit down at your desk in the morning, for example, give yourself a full minute to centre yourself and conect with your world in that moment. Likewise, when you come home at night, try to consciously change gears. It’ll help you to be fully present for the people you’re around.
Listen up
We’re all guilty of zoning out in the middle of a conversation. And let’s be realistic —Starbucks ‘coffee-café chit chat’ isn't the most riveting but practicing mindful listening, where you focus on what the person is saying without judging or interrupting them, is a way of getting out of your own head, your own worries, your own woes & living in ‘present time’. Think of it as a vacation from your own thoughts.
Head Space:
Recently I have been using a great web site called 'Head Space' it helps demystify meditation & makes it easy to learn & fun to do. I can sure you that it really does work & within 3 days you will start to notice differences in your emotional stability, your feelings of, confidence & calm & your energy levels will be enhanced. Trust me on this one & give it a try:
http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/what-is-headspace.aspx
Mindfulness can act as an emotional buffer, protecting you from the normal highs and lows of your day. People who are more mindful are able to stay somewhat separate from shifts in their body and their emotional state. They’re more observant, as opposed to reactive.
Luckily, mindfulness is a skill you can learn. So how do we become more mindful? Here are a few quick starting points:
Ease into your mornings
On an average weekday, do you abuse your snooze button before scrambling out of bed to barely make it to work/school on time. Rather than rushing through your morning agenda, take up to 30 minutes every morning to sit quietly and simply focus on your breath. When your mind wanders, come back to your breath. This gives your mind and body time to make the transition from a resting state to an active state. If sitting still for too long makes you squirm, meditating for even just five minutes is better than nothing.
Step away from your desk
You don’t have to be a smoker to excuse yourself from your office or home for a few minutes to mentally recharge. If you take a walk, observe what’s going on around you—the colour of the sky, the movement of the wind, and any physical sensations you experience. Mindfulness is the opposite of living your life on autopilot, and these mini-breaks will help train you to appreciate the here and now rather than being caught up in a lot of thoughts about the future & the past.
Take a real lunch break
We know it’s hard. The temptation to shovel food into your mouth while cruising the internet or reading the paper is hard to resist, but it prevents you from enjoying your meal. By paying attention to what you’re eating. Take time out to really zero in on texture and taste. You’ll enjoy your lunch more, slow down, feel more satiated & eat less!
Give yourself time to make transitions
In any given day, you might go from a career woman to a Zumba junkie to a domestic goddess. Rather than jumping from role to role, take a moment to mark these shifts. Doing so will help you get into the right mindset so you can better focus on the task at hand. When you sit down at your desk in the morning, for example, give yourself a full minute to centre yourself and conect with your world in that moment. Likewise, when you come home at night, try to consciously change gears. It’ll help you to be fully present for the people you’re around.
Listen up
We’re all guilty of zoning out in the middle of a conversation. And let’s be realistic —Starbucks ‘coffee-café chit chat’ isn't the most riveting but practicing mindful listening, where you focus on what the person is saying without judging or interrupting them, is a way of getting out of your own head, your own worries, your own woes & living in ‘present time’. Think of it as a vacation from your own thoughts.
Head Space:
Recently I have been using a great web site called 'Head Space' it helps demystify meditation & makes it easy to learn & fun to do. I can sure you that it really does work & within 3 days you will start to notice differences in your emotional stability, your feelings of, confidence & calm & your energy levels will be enhanced. Trust me on this one & give it a try:
http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/what-is-headspace.aspx
Thursday 5 June 2014
Boot/hoe kit care for these 'April Showers' hitting us in June!!
How to Clean and Reproof Walking Boots and Outdoor Footwear
Walking shoes are possibly the most essential and personal piece of outdoor kit you can buy & they are worth looking after. So often, our wet shoes just get slung in a cupboard caked in mud and forgotten about until the next weeks outing. This does reduce their lifespan, and can cause uppers to rot or crack, soles to fall off and general unpleasant odours to form. (Faults caused by neglect are usually not covered by a manufacturer's warranty, which will stipulate that you need to show some respect for the product.) Thankfully cleaning and re-waterproofing your walking boots is both quick and easy with the right know-how! (To clean approach or walking shoes simply replace the word 'boots' with 'shoes' throughout).
Post-Walk Care
So you've come back from your walk and your shoes/boots are caked in mud and debris (often containing bacteria which just love to use your boots as a breeding ground and secrete leather damaging substances)...tempted just to sling them in the airing cupboard and be done? Hold your horses!
* Remove the laces and footbeds (stones stuck under the footbeds can and will eventually damage any Gore-Tex) You can hand wash the laces in the sink with some Nikwax Tech Wash or soap & then air dry.
* Thump the boots together to remove any loose mud.
* Run under a tap to remove any stubborn debris from the uppers and soles. If there's a stubborn patch, then a nail brush is ideal for removing it.
* Now you have mud-free boots which you can either dry (see below) for next time, or give them some proper TLC (which is the best way for longevity).
Cleaning
Nikwax Footwear Cleaning Gel is ideal for gentle cleaning of walking boots, shoes and just about any other footwear you've got lying around (including fashion trainers).
It's designed to be applied to damp footwear, so if you've dried them out make sure to wet them again. Then simply use the sponge applicator to apply a generous coating of the cleaning gel over the whole area. If there's stubborn patches, scrub with a stiff nylon brush like a nail brush. Rinse well in clean water. You can now either proceed to drying them, or ideally reproof them.
Reproofing
Reapplying waterproofing to the shoes/boot's is as easy as washing them, but you will need to use the correct product depending on fabric. There are many waxes and sprays on the market; boot manufacturers often make their own (Brasher's Conditioning Cream or Nubuck Sprays, Scarpa's HS12 cream) but I've always used, and been more than happy with the results of Nikwax's range. All Nikwax waterproofing products are suitable for anything containing Gore-Tex materials. Always ensure that your footwear has been cleaned before applying, and if using Nikwax make sure the boots are damp. (If using a rub-wax/cream or non-Nikwax sprays, check the label to see whether it should be applied to wet or dry footwear.) Once of the reasons Nikwax is so effective is that it's aqueous (water-based)...it therefore mixes with the water on the damp footwear and runs to where it's needed most.
Drying
So you've given your shoes/boots a quick rinse, or given them a thorough going over, either way they'll need to be dried. This is where many people fall foul and actually do their boots some harm. If dried too fast leather (which includes nubuck and suede) can crack. Ideally you want to fill the inside of the boots or shoes with newspaper or something else absorbent that won't leave bits behind. Leave in a warm, but not hot place to dry naturally. This is often a slowish process so don't be tempted to get the hair-dryer out. Never leave shoes/boots on a radiator or other direct heat source, as mentioned it can damage the uppers. It can also cause the glue holding the soles on to degrade, which will lead to them falling off. Once dried you can re-thread the laces and reinsert the footbeds, and then store in a cool, dry place until next time.
Internal Cleaning
So we've treated the outside of the boots, but they're getting a bit whiffy on the inside. In addition salt from perspiration is also being absorbed by the lining, which can damage Gore-Tex and also cause damage to uppers in non-waterproof shoes. There's a simple solution to this, and it really doesn't have to be done very often at all...when you've not got any trips planned for a while simply fill the boots with hand-warm water and add a bit of Nikwax Tech Wash (or similar). Leave to soak for 30 minutes or so and then drain, rinse and leave to dry as above.
This clears the salt, and also gets rid of those odours! For ultra-fast odour removal, there are anti-bacterial sprays on the market which will work.
Pro-Tips
* Keep toenails short, neat and free from jagged edges; this prevents damage to the internal lining.
* Always wear decent walking socks, cotton or 'classic' wool will hold onto moisture and are very likely to cause blisters.
* Remove stones, sticks and other detritus often, it can damage the lining.
* Avoid using dubbin for modern outdoor footwear. Modern leathers are usually of a very high quality, and are thinner and more supple than leather of 'ye olde days', and are much better served with newer technologies. Just because grandad did it doesn't mean it's still the best way!
Walking shoes are possibly the most essential and personal piece of outdoor kit you can buy & they are worth looking after. So often, our wet shoes just get slung in a cupboard caked in mud and forgotten about until the next weeks outing. This does reduce their lifespan, and can cause uppers to rot or crack, soles to fall off and general unpleasant odours to form. (Faults caused by neglect are usually not covered by a manufacturer's warranty, which will stipulate that you need to show some respect for the product.) Thankfully cleaning and re-waterproofing your walking boots is both quick and easy with the right know-how! (To clean approach or walking shoes simply replace the word 'boots' with 'shoes' throughout).
Post-Walk Care
So you've come back from your walk and your shoes/boots are caked in mud and debris (often containing bacteria which just love to use your boots as a breeding ground and secrete leather damaging substances)...tempted just to sling them in the airing cupboard and be done? Hold your horses!
* Remove the laces and footbeds (stones stuck under the footbeds can and will eventually damage any Gore-Tex) You can hand wash the laces in the sink with some Nikwax Tech Wash or soap & then air dry.
* Thump the boots together to remove any loose mud.
* Run under a tap to remove any stubborn debris from the uppers and soles. If there's a stubborn patch, then a nail brush is ideal for removing it.
* Now you have mud-free boots which you can either dry (see below) for next time, or give them some proper TLC (which is the best way for longevity).
Cleaning
Nikwax Footwear Cleaning Gel is ideal for gentle cleaning of walking boots, shoes and just about any other footwear you've got lying around (including fashion trainers).
It's designed to be applied to damp footwear, so if you've dried them out make sure to wet them again. Then simply use the sponge applicator to apply a generous coating of the cleaning gel over the whole area. If there's stubborn patches, scrub with a stiff nylon brush like a nail brush. Rinse well in clean water. You can now either proceed to drying them, or ideally reproof them.
Reproofing
Reapplying waterproofing to the shoes/boot's is as easy as washing them, but you will need to use the correct product depending on fabric. There are many waxes and sprays on the market; boot manufacturers often make their own (Brasher's Conditioning Cream or Nubuck Sprays, Scarpa's HS12 cream) but I've always used, and been more than happy with the results of Nikwax's range. All Nikwax waterproofing products are suitable for anything containing Gore-Tex materials. Always ensure that your footwear has been cleaned before applying, and if using Nikwax make sure the boots are damp. (If using a rub-wax/cream or non-Nikwax sprays, check the label to see whether it should be applied to wet or dry footwear.) Once of the reasons Nikwax is so effective is that it's aqueous (water-based)...it therefore mixes with the water on the damp footwear and runs to where it's needed most.
Drying
So you've given your shoes/boots a quick rinse, or given them a thorough going over, either way they'll need to be dried. This is where many people fall foul and actually do their boots some harm. If dried too fast leather (which includes nubuck and suede) can crack. Ideally you want to fill the inside of the boots or shoes with newspaper or something else absorbent that won't leave bits behind. Leave in a warm, but not hot place to dry naturally. This is often a slowish process so don't be tempted to get the hair-dryer out. Never leave shoes/boots on a radiator or other direct heat source, as mentioned it can damage the uppers. It can also cause the glue holding the soles on to degrade, which will lead to them falling off. Once dried you can re-thread the laces and reinsert the footbeds, and then store in a cool, dry place until next time.
Internal Cleaning
So we've treated the outside of the boots, but they're getting a bit whiffy on the inside. In addition salt from perspiration is also being absorbed by the lining, which can damage Gore-Tex and also cause damage to uppers in non-waterproof shoes. There's a simple solution to this, and it really doesn't have to be done very often at all...when you've not got any trips planned for a while simply fill the boots with hand-warm water and add a bit of Nikwax Tech Wash (or similar). Leave to soak for 30 minutes or so and then drain, rinse and leave to dry as above.
This clears the salt, and also gets rid of those odours! For ultra-fast odour removal, there are anti-bacterial sprays on the market which will work.
Pro-Tips
* Keep toenails short, neat and free from jagged edges; this prevents damage to the internal lining.
* Always wear decent walking socks, cotton or 'classic' wool will hold onto moisture and are very likely to cause blisters.
* Remove stones, sticks and other detritus often, it can damage the lining.
* Avoid using dubbin for modern outdoor footwear. Modern leathers are usually of a very high quality, and are thinner and more supple than leather of 'ye olde days', and are much better served with newer technologies. Just because grandad did it doesn't mean it's still the best way!
- Avoid washing outdoor footwear in a washing machine, it can damage the glue holding soles on!
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