Just beeing...

Welcome to my new follower Jille - glad to have you aboard the Norfolk Express.

No, it is not a spelling mistake before you ask! The back of our bungalow faces south and gets very hot, hence the large electric blind we use in summer to keep the bedrooms cool. Every year, little solitary bees lay their eggs in any holes they happen to find. This year, DB made them a log home and as they don't seem to mind facing south, that is where we put it.

This morning I was weeding a soon to be planted tub and could hear the bees droning overhead. I looked up and there was not only one going into a hole, another (different size) was coming out of another one. Dead centre, an egg must have been laid recently and the hole has been filled in with wax. Aren't bees just great.

These bee log things cost a fortune, DB just used one of the logs designed for the fire, drilled pilot holes then did each hole using a 1cm bit. We weren't sure whether they needed to be more smooth inside so just left it to see what the bees made of it. Seems they are fine!

A different kind of being was needed the other night. We had our tea but were still a little hungry so I microwaved us some suet pudding which we ate with some golden syrup poured over. It was a little too much so another time, I shall use less of everything.

Anyway, for this one I used 4oz S.R. flour, 2oz of vegetarian light suet and enough cold milk to bring it together enough to drop off the spoon. It was placed into a buttered pudding bowl, covered with pierced cling film and microwaved for 4 minutes on almost full power. I'm not sure what that equates to as all microwaves vary but probably 900/1000. When you serve it (this is probably enough for 3) pour over whatever you fancy, syrup, honey, jam, custard etc. Start to finish 6 minutes, couldn't be easier.

This is also a very quick way to make 'dumplings' to eat with stew, far lighter. You would need to add salt and possibly some dried herbs and use WATER instead of milk.