Busy Busy

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur to be honest, but on Friday I finally handed in my essays and came home to get on with some serious feltmaking.
Once I'd been to work.
And cleaned the house.
It's amazing how much filth can accumulate in one small house when its two occupants are both up to their eyeballs in deadline fear. Our place had suffered, and I know this is going to sound insane, but I actually set to work scrubbing the bathroom tiles with a massive grin on my face at the pure, unadulterated joy of having the free time to do it. Result: one spangly bathroom.

And as for making? Well, with all that cleaning and soap dispensing, I have only managed a few minor makes, and my main achievement this weekend has to be this rather delicious Warm and Spicy Potato and Mango Salad that we had for tea, shown here in my favourite pink melamine mixing bowl.



To make (because I heartily recommend a warm salad to ease into spring):
Chop and boil about four potatoes
Meanwhile, mix together:
1 avocado, diced
1 mango, diced
Lots of lettuce, chopped/torn
1/3 cucumber, sliced
3 spring onions, finely chopped
A couple of carrots, sliced
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
A handful of chestnut mushrooms, quartered or sliced

Once the potatoes are boiled, rinse them and put them back in the pan. Do not throw joyously in immediately.
Mix together:
1 tsp honey mustard (I prefer seedy, some go for smooth)
1 tsp honey
Juice of 2 lemons
A good shake of Herbes de Provence1 chilli, finely chopped. I used a dried kashmiri chilli, which I rehydrated by mixing it with the mustard-honey-lemon juice, but use whatever form is your favourite

Pour this juicy mix into the potato pan with the aforementioned spuds. Put the lid on the pan and shake it like an exquisite cocktail. Now you can mix it with the rest of the salad, stir and serve, ideally topped off with a couple of slices of grilled halloumi.
Photograph.
Devour.

And to add some joy to my rather text-heavy post, here's a photo of some light-up rubber ducks. Enjoy.