WHAT A SILLY SATURDAY SWIZZ!

Hello Lovely Blippers,

Penny Penguin and Zappi, our new Silly Saturday Gang member, here - and we want to tell you about a real Swizz that happened here this morning.  In case you don’t know what a “Swizz” is - ha ha did you see that that rhymes - it means “a swindle or a disappointment”- and we certainly had a Swizz this morning!

When we all looked out of the landing window, on our way downstairs, we could see a lot of white and we thought “Yippee, it’s been snowing!”  So we rushed out into the garden, some with our hats and trousers on and some with scarves, but some of us didn’t even have time to put any warm clothes on.  Mind you, Leighton and JH Ted were lucky because they still had their Christmas garb on and you can see how lucky Puss ’n Boots is with all that lovely knitted stuff, which we understand came from a lovely Blip friend, of Mrs. HCB called Annieone, who lives in Southern Ireland - how clever is she!  We were both OK because we LOVE the cold weather but some of the Gang were moaning and were quite grumpy.  In fact, Baby Jay even laid down in what we thought was snow and kicked his legs in the air - how silly is that?  We think that dear Admirer would have laughed if she could have seen him doing that.

When we got outside, we were very disappointed to find that it wasn’t snow, but just fleecy covering that Mr. HCB had put over his chrys - chrysan- chrysanth - chrysamthemums - phew that’s a long word for us to say and write!   When we asked him what that was all about he said that he had done it to protect the plants from the frosty weather.  We knew it was frosty because our bottoms got very cold, but as we said, we are used to this sort of weather, but lots others in the Gang were asking when they could go indoors and have some Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows!

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a good New Year and most of all, we hope you were KIND to those around you - and we even made up a little poem for you - which we were singing to the Tune of Jingle Bells - go on, try it and let us know how you get on! 

Being KIND is wonderful
Being KIND is good
In fact, try and be EXTRA KIND
Because you always should!

Love to you all from Penny Penguin and Zappi, her new friend xx

P.S.  We can smell that Mrs. HCB has made some Bacon, Lentil and Sweet Potato soup - inspired by Rainette’s lovely husband called Geoff, so perhaps we will have some of that instead of Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows - after all, it is almost lunchtime.  

P.P.S.  Lots of people have mentioned the soup, so Mrs HCB has kindly said we can share the recipe.

MRS. HCB's BACON, LENTIL AND SWEET POTATO SOUP - 
made in her Morphy Richard’s Soup Maker 

250g Bacon medallions – chopped and any fat removed 
1 Onion chopped 
Garlic – 2 cloves chopped
Sauté the above for 2 minutes in soup maker
Add:
200g Sweet potatoes – diced
200g Split Red Lentils

Boil 1.5 litres of boiling water then add
2 Knorr Chicken or Vegetable stock cubes
2 heaped teasp Smoked Paprika
2 Tablespoons Tomato Purée

No need to add Salt and pepper - the bacon will be enough

If you don't have a soup maker just boil it all up for about 20 minutes, after frying off the bacon and onions, then blend well and enjoy!