berries, babies
We're buried in berries here at the moment. Wild blackberry bushes grow all over the place here, and it seems that we're the only ones interested in picking the berries from them. There are bushes all along the route we often walk along, as well as on the outside of the parking lot for the University here. After spending a few days picking there, we discovered some more bushes this weekend at the field where the local car boot sale is held. We visited yesterday and cleared another bucket + bag. Our freezer is filling up quickly!
So far I've just made a cobbler out of them, but if anyone has any other recipe suggestions, please share! Caveat: I am not making a pie crust from scratch unless you've got a relatively easy recipe for one. We do not have any form of ready-made crust here (though I have seen phyllo dough in the freezer section, US-style pie crust is nonexistent) so that is not an option.
This morning was the first ultrasound. I've had ultrasound scans before, for previous cysts in my ovaries, so even though the letter for my appointment told me so, I already knew the routine: "Arrive on time with a full bladder, then wait in pain for an extra half hour because our appointments will already be running late by 9:30am." Okay, maybe the letter only mentioned that first bit.
I've no idea how they managed to be so far off-schedule, by the way, because it was a VERY short visit. There was a cursory run-through of "hey everything is in the right place, look there's the beating heart, spine, flailing arms" followed by a proclamation of the adjusted due date (15th Feb instead of the 11th, the fetus is assumed to adjust his/her calender accordingly) and a quick print-off of the pics which we had to pay 3 quid for (??? it's not even like they're on proper photo paper! Just the first of a long line of things they know we'll pay for because it's omg our baby, I guess.)
Seeing the baby, the beating heart, flailing arms and all, was the coolest thing ever. It really made the whole experience a bit more 'real', as up until this point, I've really just looked like I'm packing on the weight. Which I did a bit in the first trimester to be honest, but now there's a baby in there too! omg indeed!
So here he/she is! No, we won't know the gender until the detailed scan in October. :
So far I've just made a cobbler out of them, but if anyone has any other recipe suggestions, please share! Caveat: I am not making a pie crust from scratch unless you've got a relatively easy recipe for one. We do not have any form of ready-made crust here (though I have seen phyllo dough in the freezer section, US-style pie crust is nonexistent) so that is not an option.
This morning was the first ultrasound. I've had ultrasound scans before, for previous cysts in my ovaries, so even though the letter for my appointment told me so, I already knew the routine: "Arrive on time with a full bladder, then wait in pain for an extra half hour because our appointments will already be running late by 9:30am." Okay, maybe the letter only mentioned that first bit.
I've no idea how they managed to be so far off-schedule, by the way, because it was a VERY short visit. There was a cursory run-through of "hey everything is in the right place, look there's the beating heart, spine, flailing arms" followed by a proclamation of the adjusted due date (15th Feb instead of the 11th, the fetus is assumed to adjust his/her calender accordingly) and a quick print-off of the pics which we had to pay 3 quid for (??? it's not even like they're on proper photo paper! Just the first of a long line of things they know we'll pay for because it's omg our baby, I guess.)
Seeing the baby, the beating heart, flailing arms and all, was the coolest thing ever. It really made the whole experience a bit more 'real', as up until this point, I've really just looked like I'm packing on the weight. Which I did a bit in the first trimester to be honest, but now there's a baby in there too! omg indeed!
So here he/she is! No, we won't know the gender until the detailed scan in October. :
