Just Popping In To Fill You All In .......

Some flowers photographed in my garden recently

Thanks so much to each and every one of you for the blog comments & messages to both my email & Facebook over the past week. I’m just popping in to say that things are quietening down this end, and I plan to start blogging again soon – hopefully I’ll have some time over the weekend (or early next week) to get started again !

I know that you are all wondering exactly WHAT things were going on in my life …. I don’t want to elaborate because I choose to keep very personal things off my blog, but it has mainly been to do with my son (who’s just turned 1) … long time readers of my blog will know that he has been born with a severe congenital condition which is going to require one (or more) operations over the course of his childhood, the first one of which is being performed in December, and we received some (not great) news relating to that recently, which is what I was referring to by ‘personal issues’ on my blog.

Farm wise we’ve had some issues about crops, planting, work related stresses etc which anyone will have in any job so nothing new there – but coupled with other ‘stresses’ (above), it all got a bit much.

We are also (and I hinted earlier this year about some ‘big news’) in the process of trying to buy 2 acres of land to build a family home on, between the farm and the city so that our daughter can start attending school full time, using the farm as a base for weekend’s/holidays and my husband will commute when he has to – but we are having lots of delays with that. Land in Africa is never an easy issue, and we were hoping to be much further ahead in the land purchase than we are right now - which just adds to the stresses !

Other news keeping me busy – after several years of requests from local people here , aswell as a demand for tourist accommodation in this area, I have finally relented (‘Never Say Never !’) and am in the process of renovating and upgrading our farm guest cottage as a proper self catering unit, for both local and international guests. So, I have been very busy lately getting a website off the ground and marketing/advertising the cottage.

I have been inundated with Tanzanian travel queries coming through the blog lately, too …. well, at least 3 emails a week with people asking me all sorts of questions about travel in Tanzania and whilst I love helping people out, I must admit this is getting a bit much for me now (I am not a travel agent/advisory bureau !) …. giving out endless info, input on where people should stay/visit whilst here and answering all sorts of other Tanzanian travel related questions (many times from people who are not even regular readers of my blog but have just happened upon it that day, other times I spend time composing detailed replies – often to never get a reply or so much as a ‘thank you’ from the person who emailed me !). So, I am hoping to channel all similar requests in future through the new website, where I can refer people to local businesses here who can help them with what they need. (There’ll be a new page/link appearing on my blog soon to explain this.)

So, that is all my news for you today, and if you’d like to have a look at my new website, you can find it over here -:

KILIMANJARO SELF CATERING ACCOMMODATION

Thanks so much everyone, for understanding my reasons for 'freezing' the blog for a while, and for all being here for me as I get back to blogging again soon !

Back Blogging Shortly .....

Just a quick post to say that I'm going to 'freeze' the blog for a short while .... but will be back blogging again shortly. Have had a bit of a bad week with bad news and other stuff going on (some personal, some work related) - everything always seems to always happen at once ! As a result of this news - and other stuff - I have a lot going on in my 'real' life at the moment (as opposed to my 'online' life !) & have to take a short blogging break. Hope you all understand. I promise I'll be back soon ! Lynda xx

(posted via email)

Healthy Oat & Date Muffins

These Healthy Oat & Date Muffins make a tasty tea time treat, and freeze well too

These Healthy Oat and Date muffins make a great breakfast or tea time treat. They are also nice for school lunch boxes.

As they only stay fresh for a couple of days, when I made these last week I wrapped each one individually in plastic film & froze them. Now all I have to do is remove one from the freezer and defrost it before putting it into my daughter’s lunchbox – which is great for those days when I’m in a hurry, or for when I’m running short of lunchbox ideas !


Healthy Oat & Date Muffins

1 ¼ cups Flour (I use white, but you could use wholemeal or a mix of both if you like)
¾ cup Oats (breakfast/porridge variety)
¾ cups Dates, roughly chopped (& stones removed)
½ cup brown Sugar
3 ½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
1 Egg, beaten
1 cup Milk (I use Skim/Fat Free)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
¼ cup Sunflower Oil

Mix the flour, oats, dates, sugar, baking powder & salt together in one bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the egg, milk, vanilla essence and oil. Then blend the wet & dry ingredients together – stir just to blend, do not over mix (the mixture will be a little bit lumpy, but don’t worry). Place spoonfuls into lightly greased muffin cups at bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for around 20 minutes until done. Makes 12 decent sized muffins.