In New Zealand we have a five plus promotion that encourages us all to eat at least five servings of fruit or vegetables per day. It’s surprising how many people don’t eat much in the way of fruit or vegetables. I know at times cost can be a factor. At other times it’s diet choice.
During the eighteenth century it was quite common for people to eat a diet consisting almost entirely of meat. Tourists from France and farther afield were very surprised at the lack of vegetables in the English diet. British seamen died in large numbers with scurvy, which is caused by a lack of vitamin C. We obtain most of our vitamin C in fruit and vegetables.
Today, I just scraped in eating cranberries with my porridge, 2 x mandarins, mushrooms, onion, garlic, red peppers and tomato on our homemade pizza.
I know it’s difficult to get kids to eat vegetables some times. I remember having to sit at the table and not being allowed to move until I’d eaten my vegetables. Luckily, my tastes have changed with age and I enjoy most vegetables these days.
Do you manage to eat five plus fruit or vegetables per day?
We went to the Farmers’ market last week. We haven’t visited for a while and there were some new stallholders plying their trade. One of them was selling fresh mushrooms and small mushroom farms in buckets. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at growing mushrooms so I purchased one straight away.
This is my mushroom farm on the day I purchased it.
We keep the farm in the lounge because it’s the warmest room in the house. It only needs a misting of water every two to three days and needs to be kept out of draughts and excessive light.
Here’s one of the mushrooms. Mr. Munro said I needed the kiwifruit for a size comparison. We’ve eaten about three of our mushrooms so far, and they were delicious.
The bucket is meant to produce mushrooms for 6 – 8 weeks under ideal conditions. It’s been very cold here but there are actually some tiny pinhead mushrooms appearing. At one stage we thought we were only going to end up with five mushrooms.
I’ve been watching a UK drama called Lost in Austen recently and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s based on Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. Here’s the blurb from the TV New Zealand site: Bored bank worker Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper – The Black Dahlia; As If; Hex) literally becomes lost in her favourite Austen book, after she finds a strange portal in her bathroom and swaps places with its heroine Elizabeth Bennet. As she gets to know the Bennet family and encounters the famous Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan – The Golden Compass), how can she keep this celebrated romance on track?
In the last episode, Amanda and Darcy had a moment and Darcy told her he loved her. Of course, Amanda is worried because he’s meant to marry Elizabeth Bennet, but she does get him to go into the pond and get his shirt wet. It was a very special moment for both Amanda and me!
I was thinking about sneezing the other day because I scared the dog with a loud sneeze. We’ve all experienced the prickling, tickling sensation that heralds a sneeze. Sometimes they explode out of nowhere at the most inconvient times, such as when you’re driving. I was curious so I googled sneezing…as one does.
A sneeze is your body’s way of expelling an irritant from your nose. It can be dust, pepper, cold air, allergies or viruses that cause the explosion.
When you sneeze you use lots of different muscles — your abdominal muscles, chest muscles, the diaphragm, vocal cords and muscles at the back of your throat. You also use your eyelid muscles since sneezing makes us shut our eyes. Remember that sneeze while you’re driving? Yep, not so good because you automatically close your eyes.
Sometimes we want to sneeze but it doesn’t quite happen. There’s nothing worse! They say one out of three people sneeze when they’re exposed to bright light. I haven’t found that. They also say it’s an inherited trait and runs in families.
On the whole, I’m a fairly healthy person. I don’t catch many colds or flu-type bugs. I think a lot of it is because I don’t have children. When we were kids we were always sick, and I’ve noticed that people with children tend to get sick more. There are a lot of bugs spread around at schools. At least that’s my theory.
My husband thinks we keep healthy because he puts garlic in everything and we eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. I know garlic has medicinal properties so he could be right.
The coldest part of our winter doesn’t hit until July and August, so it’s possible I might get sick yet. I’ve never had flu shots. Mr. Munro hasn’t either even though his employer provides them free of charge. My father usually has a flu shot as does my MIL.
Do you get sick every winter? Do you have flu shots? What do you think of my theories?
I’m reading Eloisa James’s Desperate Duchesses series at present—An Affair Before Christmas in particular.
I came across this paragraph about kissing that really made me laugh.
The next moment he pulled her so sharply into his arms that she felt her stays poke directly into her breasts; her brooch unhooked and fell to the stone floor. “Fletch!” she cried. He took advantage of that, and stuck his tongue directly into her mouth. Directly! And—and swept it about, as if she were some sort of cupboard he were cleaning.
“Awk, urg, no!” she shrieked, shoving him away. For a small woman, Poppy had a lot of strength.
My first kiss was very prim and quite proper. There was no cupboard sweeping involved. Thank goodness! I have kissed some frogs though.
My research on the Internet indicates there are a lot of people—teenagers in specific—who worry about kissing and the first kiss.
As a romance reader, I’ve been reading about overstuffed chairs for years. The description always stops me dead. I mean, they sound so uncomfortable.
Overstuffed? I had no idea what this meant or what to imagine in my mind’s eye.
I let my imagination loose. (as a writer, I’m good at that.) I came up with chairs with bulging cushions. Fat chairs. I pictured a man in a factory trying to force more stuffing in places it didn’t want to go. I imagined people falling off their chairs because of the excessive stuffing. And, I summed my conclusion up in one word.
Uncomfortable. That’s right. My opinion didn’t change.
I came across the term in one of the books I was reading this week. After my initial frown faded, I thought, right! I’ll google it.
And so I did.
I found a definition in the Free Dictionary.com: overstuffed chair – a comfortable upholstered armchair armchair – chair with a support on each side for arms
I found a photo of one on nextag.com
Imagine my surprise. All this time I’ve been sitting on an overstuffed chair, and I never knew!
The 43rd World Custard Pie Throwing championship was held on 22 May in Kent, Britain. Teams from as far afield as Germany and South Africa entered the contest, with all funds raised going to charity. The object of the contest is for the teams to throw custard pies at each other and the judges score their performance.
From the official site – teams are scored in the following manner:
Direct Hit – 6 points for a pie directly in the opponent’s face
Near-Miss – 3 points for a pie shoulder height or upwards
Body-Miss – 1 point for a pie on another part of the body
Misses – 1 point deducted for 2 consecutive misses
Amusing/Original – the judges can also award up to 5 points for the most original and/or amusing throwing techniques.
The winners were a team of cleaners. I couldn’t embed the video, but here’s the link to footage of the custard pie championship
I wish it was closer because I’d love to take part. How do you think a team of romance writers would go? Or a team of romance readers? Heck we could slug it out together!
I scanned the magazines in a bookshop today while I was waiting to meet a friend. I noticed a common thread in this month’s magazines.
One magazine cover shouted in bold letters, “Are Brains the New Sexy?” (well, as much as a magazine can shout). At least two other magazines included articles in a similar vein, discussing the benefits of brains over beauty.
I think beautiful people do start out with an advantage in life. There are certainly some industries where beauty is considered a necessity and imperfections are fixed with a scalpel. I like a face with a bit of character, and I think a sincere smile makes anyone look beauitiful. Personally, I think someone with intelligence is very sexy. Looks fade, but a good brain gets even better with time–sort of like a bottle of fine red wine.
What do you think? Brains or beauty or both? Are brains the new sexy?
Since I discovered romance when I was about twelve, I’ve been a voracious reader. There’s something about the romantic journey and the growing intimacy between a couple that hooks me, and I’m a real sucker for a happy ending. Some people call romances trite and predictable, but I find the predictability comforting. I like knowing the couple will end up together, and I live for the moment when they admit their love for each other.
I like romances where the couple openly state their love and say the three little words—“I love you.” I’m not as keen on romances where the main couple end up happy-for-now and there’s a hint the relationship might not last. For me, it’s important the couple commit to each other. In all of the books I write, the featured couple admit their love and say, “I love you” because that’s the way I like it.
What about you? Do you need the main couple to state their love or are you fine with merely a happy ending and the implication that they love each other? Are the words important?
. Here’s the blurb from the TV New Zealand site: Bored bank worker Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper – The Black Dahlia; As If; Hex) literally becomes lost in her favourite Austen book, after she finds a strange portal in her bathroom and swaps places with its heroine Elizabeth Bennet. As she gets to know the Bennet family and encounters the famous Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan – The Golden Compass), how can she keep this celebrated romance on track?
series or Eloisa James’s 
series or 
from my Middlemarch Mates world.
in particular.
