Think I would like to retire............

and play house again. Following on from the last post, I went to work on Thursday and again Janet asked how I was and I said nothing changed the cold and cough were still with me, and then thought in for a penny in for a pound quickly asked if I could have Friday off.......? Janet thought a bit and said I could - well I felt like a child, you know when you say I don't feel well, that's OK you can stay at home today, and all of a sudden as if by magic you are well again and by midday I had a skip in my step, as I went home. We didn't set the alarm for Friday morning, we don't need it as we automatically wake up before the alarm at 6am these days, but this Friday morning I looked at the clock it said 7am, I must have been tired and unwell, we both overslept by an hour! That is not 'normal' for us! Alex said the car was booked in for its MOT, so he said he would pop into work as well. I had the morning to myself.

I thought I would make Butternut Squash Soup and Homemade Bread!

Butternut Squash, Carrots, Potatoes, Leek, one pint of liquid,

water or stock, a few Italian herbs and pepper, and salt to taste

Leave to cook slowly until all the vegetables are cooked.

When cooked just turn off heat leave till needed.

When needed liquidize, reheat till hot and serve.

The cream is optional!

I though at the same time I would resurrect my bread maker, I haven't used it in a while!

8 fl oz warm water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoons caster sugar
7 oz White bread flour

7 oz Wholemeal bread flour
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon quick yeast

Follow your Bread maker instructions

mine tells me to put the ingredients in in this order.

On Saturday I made a cake, the first in ages

Remembered to take photo after half was eaten!

I mentioned in my last post I am doing a craft fair at the end of November, so I thought I would make a start.

I made this Stocking.......................

I here - honest............

Coughs, colds and a mammogram........
For the last two weeks, if I haven't been sneezing I have been coughing (mostly at night - so not a lot of sleep!) and last Friday a mammogram, every time I go I say 'don't you dare find anything else wrong with me', ten years ago this coming Christmas Eve I found a lump! An ordinary lump but there it was and it is Christmas so I tried to forget about it till the hospital appointment came through. The appointment came through very quickly and it was diagnosed as one easy to treat, but I still had to have a mastectomy! The lump 4cm was in the cleavage! My friend Jane who kindly came with me for the mammogram thinks I'm terrible because I make jokes, like walking lopsided and my mammogram only takes half the time to do!! I just don't do ill very well, I 'm a bit of a pain when I'm ill but being ill for nearly a year took the biscuit! I was not happy because I did not feel like doing anything, I was suppose to rest, that is what my body was telling me do, my brain had other ideas! It was then I discovered daytime television, I wasn't impressed but I watched it because I didn't feel like doing anything else (I don't watch it anymore!)! I call my breast cancer one of those horrible "glitches" on the horizon!

It's feeling ill with the cold as to why I haven't blogged for well over a week - but I'm here now trying to create things for a craft fair I'm doing in November, I should have thought about it sooner, but other things cropped up like our son's wedding, so now I must get down to making crafty things now - any ideas...........?

Sweet Chestnuts

alas far too small to roast over an open fire!

My very bright red rose that I accidentally dug up back in the spring and that has been in a bucket since then - note to self must replant it soon!

I just love this delicate rose don't you?

I did, I did........

...........I made it! I went here today.

Met lovely Sal

and also met lovely Helen

We had a good look at all the stalls, lots of interesting items, I think I wanted everything!

Afterwards we had a good look round Totnes, mostly in the charity shops.

And had lunch here

No pictures today! I'm not happy either! We were away from our computer for precisely five days for our sons wedding and a short break (my last post). On our return no emails, the ones I am receiving I received well over hundred times, spent one and half hour on Sunday afternoon on the phone only to be told they could not verify our password till Tuesday, rang Tuesday their lines were down! Rang this afternoon still no help - apparently their servers are down till further notice! So if I owe anybody an email Sorry.
I tried to upload photos on one of my other blogs only to be told my photos were corrupted - why..........? I'll try again tomorrow!

Was it really a week ago when.........

We had a long week-end in September

Chapter 1 - The Wedding

Last Thursday, I spent the whole day washing ironing, packing, tidying for a wedding and short holiday. Everything was ready to go, all we had to do was to get some petrol for the car and pick up a dress from the dressmakers. So early to bed! Printed off AA Road Maps (more about these later). We have a SatNav too, but we looked at the maps and decided it might be just as easy without the SatNav! NO!

Friday morning woke early, case and bags put into the car, ate breakfast and left home precisely 7.20am to collect Granddad in Okehampton an hour and forty minutes away.
First part completed and left granddad’s house about 9.15am for the journey to Tetbury in Gloucestershire, Kingscote Barn to be exact! We checked the print outs (again more about these later!) Eventually we found where we were going after ending up down a muddy track to a Lavender Farm! Met Michelle and Lizzie and collected Caitlin’s dress, and made our way to the Premier Inn at Stroud, just five minutes down the road - huh! We missed it twice because the place could not be seen from the road! Anyway Peter half an hour behind us found it first and waited for us - well we had the dress!

Peter had his SatNav too and he was actually using his (the reason we didn’t use ours was because the sucker that sticks to the windscreen had been broken off accidentally so the passenger has to hold it!)
We found our rooms and, washed and brushed up and changed and went off to the wedding.




The venue was beautiful, hidden away in a valley. All the guests gathered in the foyer of the barn. We met friends and relatives and chatted for a while then everyone gathered in the main room and had our “important” talk from the registrar about not taking photographs whilst the ceremony was being performed or throwing confetti, but we had bubbles to blow, very entertaining for Caitlin and other young children at the ceremony. When the ceremony started two Flower Girls and a Page Boy (Lizzie’s cousins) walked down the aisle first followed by Michelle and Sophia (Lizzie’s Sisters) then Lizzie and her dad, she looked so radiant wearing a cream strapless dress. Just as the ceremony got to the solemn bit, the vows etc, Caitlin decided she had had enough sitting quietly, wriggled, screamed and mummy and daddy decided to take her out. A few minutes later they returned with a smiley Caitlin and a pink wafer biscuit!

Michael & Lizzie signing the register and smiling at Caitlin

After the ceremony, everyone left the room, for drinking, chatting, drinking, photographs more drinking while the room was being prepared for the wedding breakfast. The food was wonderful, a bar-b-que.

Then the speeches from Lizzie’s Dad, Alex (Michael’s dad) (Si and Ewan Best Men) The speeches were lovely and emotional, and very funny!

As the evening wore on the tables were cleared again more chatting and drinking and more evening guests arriving, and a live band, at this point we decided it was time to leave. The band was a Reggae Band, they were excellent but extremely loud!!! We must be getting old! The cake was cut, Chocolate and Kirsch, very yummy, we took ours with us to eat the next day.

Saturday morning, Peter knocked on the door and said he was going for breakfast. I said you’d better collect granddad. Oh! he said, granddad is eating his and we are just about to have ours! We caught them up with breakfast and sat and chatted for a while. Then Jennie arrived to take granddad home for us. After we sent granddad on his way, Peter, Steph and Caitlin left, we thought we would look stay and look around Stroud for an hour or so (very nice, small shops market etc.) because we were going to have a few days in Bath and the journey to Bath from Stroud was only about fifty minutes……….

Chapter 2 - Bath


Did I say fifty minutes? Two and half hours later, (MAJOR jam on the A4) we arrived at the Francis Hotel via the Toll Bridge at Bath Easton and yes, we used the SatNav from Stroud and did we need it! We arrived about three o’clock. Went to our room, had a cup of tea and then felt revived enough to walk round the town a bit just to stretch our legs.

Sunday after breakfast we went round the town again via the Circus. Walked up to the Assembly rooms and back into town stopping at Sally Lunns for a Bun for lunch. Bought some fudge from the Fudge Kitchen. We also went to look at the Weir and walked over Poultney Bridge.

The oldest building in Bath

Sally Lunns

LUNCH!

Pouring the boiling sugar fudge mixture onto cold marble

Guess who's window!

Monday again after breakfast we walked round the town again, looked in the other charity shops that were closed on Sunday, actually didn’t see much, I am beginning to feel charity shops are no longer charity shops but……..I don’t know how to describe charity shops now, but I feel they are not charity, shops. The shops sell new stuff and since Mary Portas has changed them to be this way I don’t seem to find anything I want. Found Cath Kidston’s shop, but didn’t see her Lion but there were loads of other Lions around the City. We saw the photographs of Britain by Air and also visited two museums, the Roman Baths and the Costume museum which has an exhibition of some of Princess Diana dresses.

Roman Baths - Bath

Chapter 3 - The Journey Home

Tuesday we packed for our journey home. I was hoping to go to Nostalgia at No.1. Remember me talking about the maps I printed off? Well, I went to put the postcode into the SatNav and it was only half there and read BA2 Timsbury and the map with the red arrow just stopped in the middle of no-where. (I didn’t check the print off properly because I have never had a half a post code before.) Alex agreed to drive round, and round, and round but we couldn’t not find it - I was pretty miffed about it. I even stopped at the local post office and asked, and the lady behind the counter and a customer both said they never heard of it, and a little later I managed to ask the same lady as seen in the post office in the Co-op the same question! She said if it is vintage I would know about it, I did explain the BBC had recently been filming there too, but never mind I will get there one day, I will I will….. So we continued our journey home via Montacute, to another museum, yes you guessed it we didn’t have much luck there either, Tuesday, the only day of the week this museum is closed!!! But we did have nice lunch in the pub next door to the museum. Onwards to Taunton, where we stopped to return Robert’s I-Pod. He has a knack of managing to have to return things just before the guarantee runs out, but because we bought it for his birthday the guarantee is in our name and they wouldn’t accept it at another Comet in Bristol where he lives, so when they ring, a trip to Bristol to return it to Robert! Shopped in Sainsbury’s and after eating glorious food at the Francis we are now back to Fish Fingers and Chips - He!He! Then home - there is nothing like your own bed!