That Friday Feeling....Oranges and Lemons

"Oranges and lemons,' say the bells of St. Clement's

"You owe me five farthings," say the bells of St. Martin's

"When will you pay me?" say the bells of Old Bailey

"When I grow rich," say the bells of Shoreditch

"When will that be?" say the bells of Stepney

"I do not know," says the great bell of Bow.

Here comes a candle to light you to bed

And here comes and chopper to chop off your head!

I've had this famous nursery rhyme in my head all week for a good reason. I've been making things with an oranges and lemons theme this week. First of all, there's the Oranges and Lemons bag: 

£9.00 & p+p available in my Etsy store

Then I have also been making some gorgeous patchwork cushions with the same design as well. 

£16 & p+p for the cover, £20 incl cushion 

So it seems only fitting that this week's Friday Feeling theme should be Oranges and Lemons. There are some lovely items available on Etsy but here are my picks for the week:

Cute little felt hearts from Smika

How lovely are these napkins from LittleBirdsBoutique?

I love these sweet little boards from Recy

So what little snippets can I find you today? 

• The phrase 'Oranges and Lemons' may be traced back to the 1600s when there was a square dance called 'Oranges and Lemons'. The actual tune and lyrics are not known but it's suspected that the lyrics are similar to those that we presently know.
• The 'bells' referred to are all the names of churches within the city of London. 
• You are a 'cockney' Londoner if you are born within earshot of the Great Bell of Bow - which is not actually located in the area of Bow, but is actually the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. The original church actually burnt down in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt and destroyed during the Blitz and wasn't rebuilt again until the 1960s. As it's actual location is within the heart of the City of London, it is unlikely that anyone is actually born within earshot of the bells as it's not a residential area. And for a number of years it was impossible to be born within earshot as there were no bells! So Cockney Londoners are usually thought of as those from the East End.
• The tune of the nursery rhyme is meant to sound like the indvidual bells ringing which all have their own distinctive tune and pitch.
• There are various theories as to what the rhyme means, including representing the difficulties that Henry VIII had with his many wives, describing public executions and references to child sacrifice. However these are mostly totally unfounded as the last two lines about the execution were added at a later date to the original lines. 
• It is thought that the last few lines may have been added by children around 1783 when public executions at the Tyburn gallows drew crowds of up to 100,000.
• St Clement Danes' church bell now plays the tune of Oranges and Lemons as it's ring. 
• In Orwell's 1984, Winston cannot remember the whole of the nursery rhyme, with different parts provided by different characters throughout the novel with the final two lines coming very symbolically at the end of the novel. 

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Homemade milkshake

Last week Tesco totally messed up my usual order - they substituted fresh fruit for frozen fruit and because of the packaging, I didn't realise until too late... we ended up with loads of squishy fruit in the fridge which I had accidentally defrosted without realising it was meant to be in the freezer. Yuck. There went my great yoghurt with fresh fruit breakfasts...

BUT! I came up with a plan... I used to make my own fruit juice quite a lot. I'm not lucky enough to have a juicer machine but it's fairly easy if you have a blender. So I made up some fruit juice (yum) and then had a bit of an inspiration.... MILKSHAKE! ooooh....

I'm not a fan of milkshakes generally as they tend to taste very artificial - well certainly the ones at MacDonalds do, and also I'm not a massive fan of ice-cream either. But surely, homemade milkshake can't taste artificial? And it doesn't HAVE to have ice-cream, does it? So I decided I would make my own personalised version.

Looks good? Tastes good too...

Thought I would share the incredibly complicated recipe with you:

Summer Fruits Milkshake

Ingredients:
3/4 glass of semi-skimmed fresh milk
about 4 tablespoons of summer fruits
teaspoon of sugar.

Preparation:
1) Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl / measuring jug and whizz up with your blender. If it tastes too milky add a bit more fruit or a bit more sugar.

You can drink it straight off, but I'm a bit fussy about things being too thick and bitty so:

2) Pour the mush through a sieve into a glass - you will need a spoon to move the pips out of the way and allow the milkshake to pass through and I had to do it in 2 bits, emptying the extra pips out of the sieve in between.

Voila, tasty homemade milkshake. OK fruit'n'milk drink. But still probably quite healthy and a lot better for you than shop bought stuff as it has no extra ingredients in it. Enjoy!


Oh, as a side-note: I also made raspberry and fruits of the forest milkshake. I'm sure you can use any fruit you wish to really. Although apples tend to puree so possibly not them, and I can't imagine orange and milk being a good combination...