Holiday in the New Forest

Hello there, just waving hello to you all, thank you for your lovely comments last time. Some holiday photos and health news at the end of the blog. 

 

In May this year, we went down south to Hampshire, we stayed in The New Forest. The boys and their partners camped with us for a few days. We celebrated Nat's birthday with a meal (it was back in April). It was a good to see my parents and the in-laws graves. Angus flew the plane in the campsite lol, it was an open event for the campsite - to celebrate 80 years Victory in Europe. Holmsley Campsite is set in the grounds of a disused airfield. It has a lot of wartime history with a book written about it too. 

Stalls set up for entertainment

Walks close to the campsite

A detour past the horses to...

a disused railway, nice and flat.

Leaving the track...

chatted to a German couple cycling, wondering about the 'cattle grid' signs. We said they stop any animal, horses, cows crossing. They are all free roaming in the forest and some roads.

The money tree, where people wedge a coin in for luck.

The play park back at the campsite.

                                                      

Travelling in the motorhome to...

"Oooh a pup cup, for me!"
 
"Yes Angus, it's for you"

Tall Trees Walk, I love it there. I've shared photos of the Tall Trees before.

 A stop in town for supplies. In the distance on the right, are two donkeys (right of red car) that tried snatching my 'ripped' bag! The animals are wild and free to roam. We aren't to feed them, they are however always inquisitive. It's hard to park with a huge motorhome (we hire one), so I walked down the road a bit. 

Next time, I'll put together some photos of our next stop before home. We visited The Peak District. 

Health Update.
My dietitian is appealing to my GP to refer me for testing of Histamine (& sibo), Salicylates and Hydrogen Breath Test. It's been a few months of emails back and forth... still waiting for news. 

Last month, a lady came to our WI to talk about her allergies. She's had them her whole life, she's 50 years old now and glad to be alive! Her allergies require an epipen and a trip to the hospital. I was amazed when she used the word diarrhea two or three times! I spoke to her afterwards and said - that's been my life, at least once a week for the past 30 + years.

Though I don't have allergies... life threatening emergencies. I do have intolerances that aren't solved through FODMAP testing alone. It's not Coeliac either. I've never known what causes my debilitating symptoms, and they are definitely debilitating. It leads to feeling washed out, fatigue and sometimes brain fog. I always say, if I knew what caused it, I'd stop eating it. 

Thanks to my dietitian mentioning Histamine intolerance, I've been investigating histamine, salicylates and glutamates. I purchased a cookbook called Food Friendly (Australia RPAH experts) the recipes are absolutely bizarre. They aren't just weird, they're completely lacking in 'normal food'. At the moment, I'm eating foods in the low and moderate column. Overall I feel lots better. I still get end up eating 'wrong things' though I'm working out what they are slowly. Bananas (not sure why), too many cashew nuts - that's a Fodmap issue - I have the Monash App tailored to my tolerances. It tells me that I can eat 2 cashew nuts per meal, so I could have 6 over the day. Some may think, well don't bother with the cashew nuts, but it's the only nuts in the low and moderate columns that are safe to eat. The other nuts and seeds are high or very high. It's nice to have a bit of variety.
 
The book recommends that you make 5 very basic recipes first' as you'll use these a lot. If I don't make these, then food will be very bland... no condiments, no dressing, no stock/gravy... nothing! I love 'all' the condiments, dressings, mayo and lashings of gravy drowning my food.

So I'll need to make the basics: mayonnaise (no lemon and made with rice bran oil, no olive oil, or veg oil),
pear jam 
pear chutney (pealed pear is low, peeled golden delicious is moderate), no onion, no spices and no black or white, cumin pepper is allowed.
The only ok herbs are parsley but only a pinch and chives. Spring onion and leeks are ok.
Stock & gravy is tricky due no onion, herbs, hvp and yeast extract.
Lastly 'Lemon Cordial' which hasn't any lemons in it at all. I've yet to try making the basic recipes as I've not felt great and at times low energy due to food issues eg realising that bananas and cashew nuts are an unrelated problem for me and eggs (except baked in a cake or brushed on pastry) are an unrelated problem for me.  
I made a stir fry one day, once I felt a bit happier with the 'idea of cooking from the book'. Soy sauce is out, as well as Chinese five spice. You just have to make it work with the ingredients allowed.

There's no use bleating about it, I've gone through a strange grieving process - realising that I just can't eat all the things that I want to. They don't do me any good anyway. I'm always hopeful and always trying different things in the hope that it may help. One day the dietitian will contact me, either with news about testing or she'll hopefully help with a proper elimination diet.

Well that's a lot of rambling, take care and have a lovely weekend. 
Cx

Finish & Start:: Five on Friday

Hello there, a few recent finishes and a walk today. I thought I'd try a Five on Friday post today and see if anyone is interested in joining me. I still remember when Tricky used to host these on Fridays. It was always fun to see who'd joined in and go visiting new blogs. 
The first two photographs were taken at Knit & Natter in the week. I'm knitting a shawl now and reading 'Five Little Pigs' by Agatha Christie for the Read Christie 2025 Challenge  I may not read every month's book choice, just if I can get the book from the library in time. 

1) Finish:: Crochet baby blanket, intended for a charity make but... it's still at my house at the moment!
The bold colours are Rico baby cotton dk Grey blue, Mustard, Red, Plum and Blueberry. The cream is Stylecraft Bambino dk Clotted Cream. 
3.5mm crochet hook
The Ripple pattern is in this book I missed off a few inches in length. The border edging I made up my own, as I didn't fancy the scalloped fussy edge in the pattern. 
My edge has 2 plain cream edges, top and bottom a blue yarn to fill in and straighten the edge. Then 2 rounds in different colours and another round of slip stitch. 

2) Start:: Put the kettle on and make a cuppa. This is the photo that went on the church Facebook page to advertise the coffee morning
(My cat mug, Mark's Land Rover, Johnny's Guitar mug)
This week I started going to 'Movement To Music', it was a lot of fun. There were routines to 'wake up your brain' first, stretch out your muscles, help balance and general just 'move to music'. We finished with a cuppa, chatting with the next group to arrive for Line Dancing.  

3) Finish:: Holy Island by L J Ross - for the December bookclub read. A murder mystery with pagan ritual killings. My copy was on Kindle, generally I go with the cheapest, World of Books or Kindle. 
The reviews on Goodreads were quite poor but as it was for the bookclub, I felt that I should read it. I was hoping that the sisters could've resolved their issues, but overall I thought it was a good story. It's the first in the series of DCI Ryan Mysteries. 

4) Finish:: Another book for the bookclub, this time it was my choice. I borrowed this one from the library. Shay, the main character, cares for her parents and looks out for her adult children, typical of my generation. There are several stories interwoven, unravelling dramatically and resolved at the end. I enjoy reading Milly Johnson's books, there have been several of her books chosen for the bookclub. 

5) Finish:: A walk with Angus, at a local beach. The water is a long way out but thankfully it's not all grassed over with muddy dunes. Angus loved running up and down on the sand. He paddles quite happily without going in the main sea. It was a cold day with plenty of frost about.
Sadly the last two photos, the sun shone through the camera lens. The pathway leads you from the carpark to the sand. The sea is visible to the eye but lost in the glare. 
 

Thank you for visiting today. 

What are you making at the moment? 
What are you reading? 
Until next time, have a good weekend x

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