A Birth day

"I know I did dream a little, but I only remember bits and pieces," Angus said, "so it must have been alright."

"Your porridge is great, Simone," Marcus said. "When my kids come this summer, I hope I can talk you into making some for them."

"My grandkids like porridge too," she said.

"Now tell the truth," Edward said. "The like her peanut butter and chocolate porridge."

"My kids would be utterly addicted to that, I'm quite sure," Marcus laughed. "They do live above Honeydukes, after all."

"Angus, this is your haystack thing?" Edward asked, tucking in.

"It is," Angus said.

"I like these a lot. I like the crispy hashbrowns with the egg and all the rest. Do keep this on your breakfast rotation every so often."

"Angus, I have a surplus of strawberries," Simone said. "I got a good deal on them, so I'm afraid I went way overboard on them."

"Boy, that's for sure," Edward laughed. "Our counters are filled with stacks of containers of strawberries."

"Can you help me do something with them?" Simone asked.

"I know a three year old that would probably eat them all, all by herself," Angus laughed. "I'm sure we could come up with all sorts of strawberry things. Shouldn't be a problem. And, we can always give some to the Fae to preserve for their people too. They would appreciate it."

Ruby and Aria chuckled and listened to Angus and Marcus taking between each other. Aria looked at Marcus when he mentioned his kids " that will be great" she said smiling a she ate her breakfast and enjoyed it ." these are good " she said eating the haystack thing that Angus made for breakfast. Ruby listened to Simone talk to Angus about strawberry's and how she had too many.

" oh defiantly, we can make jams purees and pancakes" she said then looked at Angus " do the Fae like strawberry's?" she asked as she ate a piece of her breakfast. She was happy that Angus has dreamt and not woke to pain or new marks.

"Of course," Angus replied when Ruby asked if the Fae liked strawberries. "They're foragers and vegetarians, with a sweet tooth that never quits. There are countless things we can make, Simone. There are some really good strawberry salsals, strawberry chutneys, strawberry applesauce, strawberry syrup. I even had a roasted strawberry barbeque sauce once."

"I told her there are some standards that wouldn't go amiss--strawberry scones, strawberry shortcake, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry ice cream, strawberry sorbet, strawberry sherbet, and countless others," Edward said.

"Indeed," Angus said. "Along with about 900 other things I've made for Abbey. If we serve her a meal without a berry of some sort, there is absolute hell to pay."

"How did she get so hooked on berries, do you remember, Angus?" Marcus asked.

"I do. I gave her some strawberry applesauce when we were trying to start some foods with her besides fomula, and I think the applesauce was one of the first things I gave her. And that was all it took."

"Is there anything she positively won't eat?" Simone asked.

"Cucumbers. Once in a great while she will eat a sweet pickle, but not a dill pickle, and she'll eat zucchini, but not a cucumber. She says she does not like the smell of them," Angus said. "And she is not a fan of dill either, but I think she associates that with cucumbers."

"Well, give her time," Edward said. "I think you've done exceptionally well with her because there are very few things that child won't eat."

"Khaat and Brian and I have always been on the same page that we didn't think it was good for her to get introduced to a lot of highly processed foods. For the most part, even when she does get sweets, they're homemade and as organic as possible, and I tried to have her in the kitchen and the garden with me so she could see what her food looked like from start to finish, and I just started to encourage her to help me as early as she could physically handle the tasks. We could do worse than have her over more when Caprice gets old enough to start learning those same things. If Caprice starts seeing Abbey eating fresh foods and helping to prepare them, I bet she'll follow Abbey's lead."

"It certainly is worth a try," Simone said. "I tried to do that with my grandkids, but their parents prioritized convenience rather than long term healthy eating, and so now, sometimes they struggle to get the kids to try new foods, but I keep hoping they'll outgrow a little of that. I think you might be on the right track, Angus, maybe."

Ruby listened to Angus and smiled " that's great" she said then heard Edward and Angus talk about the foods Abby would and would not eat and she chuckled " I've seen how Caprice peeks out over the top of the play pen when your cooking, she watches your every move," she said as she ate her food and glanced over seeing Caprice peeking onca again and chuckled . " take a look" she said softly to Angus.

Aria sat and ate her breakfast and smiled as she listened to them talking about Abby and how she would cook with Angus and how she won't eat cucumbers but everything else that was not a cucumber. This made her chuckle .

Angus looked, and he saw Ruby was right. "I guess when I get busy, I don't notice some things. I hadn't noticed that, quite honestly."

That's because, I think, you sort of are in your own zone when you're cooking," Marcus said. "I think it's a stress reliever for you."

"Well, that's probably true."

"Why don't you look up some of your best strawberry recipes for the girls and let them take care of the strawberries, and you and I can go help the Fae. I think they're finishing a bunch of little jobs so they can move into their new houses today," Marcus said.

"I'm going to miss cooking for them," Angus said. "On the other hand, though, it'll be a really good thing to see that they're able to be on their own again."

"Well. we still need to see if we can help Minos recover their treasure," Marcus reminded him.

"Yes. I plana on it. Minos was going to try to draw a map of what he remembers so that we might have a general idea of where we're looking."

"A map would definitely help," Marcus laughed.

"Do you guys mind doing the strawberries so I can help the Fae?" Angus asked Ruby and Aria and Simone.

Ruby looked at Aria who smiled and shrugged " not in the least " she said with a smile Aria nodded then looked to Simone.

"How about you?" she asked as she finished hr food and took the plate to the kitchen to wash " thanks for the breakfast Angus that was defiantly filling " she said smiling as she went and sat down with the babies. " I'll leave that to Ruby and Simone, some one has to be close to the babies if you guys are going on a treasure hunt" she paused and chuckled " you sure in another life you weren't pirates?" she asked " what with treasure hunting and all." this made Ruby chuckles.

"We're not leaving to go try to get the treasure today, Aria," Marcus said. "We don't have a map yet. Wise ruler that Minos is, he's making sure that his people have rooves over their heads and some food in their bellies before he goes back to hunt for gold. And he can't do that til he finishes drawing the map, so I'm afraid treasure hunting is probably a few days away yet. Today, we're only going to the backyard to help the Fae get moved in to their new homes. Angus and I can take the babies outside with us if you want to help in the kitchen. It'll be fine but you do what you like."

"In the meantime, though, we need to get the girls to school," Angus said.

"I can do that, if you don't mind," Victor said. "I can take them and come back and go to work."

"You feel comfortable porting them?" Angus asked.

"Yeah. It's no problem," Victor said. "It'll be straight there and straight back. I'll be back either right on time or a couple minutes late."

"It's fine with me, but you let me know if you have any trouble," Angus said.

"Okay," Victor agreed. The girls gathered their things, and Victor took them to Evan's. Angus got a blanket out for the babies to sit on in the grass and accio'd a few toys.

"I'll take some things outside so that they'll have some things ready in case they do come outside," Angus said, taking the blanket and toys outside for the babies.



"

Aria chuckled and nodded " all right" she said and looked to Caprice " no eating crickets or Fae" she said and chuckled seeing the look Caprice gave her. Now looking to Simone she smiled a she spoke " so what's first , jams or pickles?" she asked her as Ruby cleared away the empty plates and dishes from breakfast and refilled her mug with Coffee.

Ruby took out several large pans and placed them on the stove top ready to make the jams and chutneys with the strawberry's that Simone had spare. " bring over the fruit when you want we'll be ready." she said.

"Jams, I think," Simone said, motioning them to her side of the duplex. Angus cleaned up the breakfast table and set a washing up spell to wash the dishes. Then he and Marcus took the babies out, put them on the blanket, and set in to work to help the Fae.

Angus and Marcus did any and all grunt work that the Fae needed done. It meant it was a long, hot morning for them. Angus asked Sam, since he was recovering well, to look after the babies. Since Sam had nothing else to do, he agreed--especially since Angus agreed to cook something for him, whatever one dish Sam decided he wanted.

Sam became a bit creative, and he rooted out the old baby basket and used a few enchantments, turned it into a boat shaped basket, fastened some ropes to it, and suspended it from a tree limb, stuffed a couple pillows in the blanket, and had a new, bigger baby swing. He put the babies in it, and, after securing them in it, he set the basket swinging gently back and forth. Ili took time out from her duties to flutter over and sit on the edge of the basket to make sure the babies stayed safe.

"Well done, Sam! That's pretty amazing," Angus said, out of breath, from hauling a large load of paving bricks to do some additional bed edging.

"You like it?" Sam asked.

"I do, but more importantly, they like it. Well done," Angus said.

"Thanks," Sam smiled.

Ruby chuckled and nodded to Simone as she watched Angus and Marcus carry the babies out side to the garden " okay quiet time for us" she said and Aria chuckled as she brought out a bag of sugar and placed it on the counter next to one of the large pots

"you sure 'll need all this?" she asked and Ruby nodded her head to her.

"oh yes and maybe more , the fruit turns sour once cooked so the sugar makes it sweet again" she said poring it into the pot with water as they waited for the strawberry's that she sae Simone bring . Aria moved to help and placed them on the counter next to the pot . " I'll take the green bit off " she said as Ruby stirred the syrup  as Aria dropped in each fruit as she finished it.

Now once half the fruit was in the pan and simmering she stirred and stepped back " now we wait  for 5-10 mins until the jam has reached 105C on a preserving or digital thermometer, then we turn off the heat Leave for 30 secs, then we push it with our finger; if the jam wrinkles and doesn’t flood to fill the gap, it is ready. If not, we turn the heat back on and boil for 2 mins more, then turn off the heat and do the wrinkle test again. " she explained to Aria who watched as she placed a lid on the pan and moved to make a second batch of Jam the same way.

"I do think we'll have way too much jam" she said but then Ruby chuckled .

"won't matter becuse the main house will take some the Fae will have some Jessie I know will have some." she said and chuckled