TODAY..........................

Is Midsummer Day

Is the Longest Day

Fathers Day

My 35th Wedding Anniversary

To celebrate I made some shortbread

Easy recipe to make, I make in ounces, because that is the way I was taught to remember it and make it, and besides it really doesn't sound right in grams!

2, 4, 6 Shortbread

2 ozs Sugar  (50grms)

4 ozs Butter  (110gms)

6 ozs Flour  (170grms)

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with finger tips, work well and as the butter melts the ingredients all gather together and the bowl becomes clean.

Place onto a floured surface and roll out about 1/4" thick and using a biscuit cutter cut out shapes and place onto greased baking sheet.  Keep doing this until all the mixture has been used up.

Prick the shapes with a fork and cook on 180 degrees, Gas 4 for about 15 minutes.  

When cooked take out of the oven, sprinkle with sugar and leave on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes to cool a little.

Amaryllis, chapter 4 -Week 11 - its been a funny week..........

I will miss it when it isn't there anymore.  This Amaryllis seems to have gone on forever and a day!

........but as you see it is coming to the end now...........  The leaves are starting to grow now too.  If anyone knows how to keep this bulb till next year please tell me...........

My flowers from mothers day last week are still going strong.  These photos were taken this morning.

This week I made and sent off two more seagulls to a new home in Essex.

I made a cheesecake, the recipe can be found on Frugal Queen's blog here 

I topped mine with blackberries we picked last autumn and froze, and used Morrison's Lime Marmalade because that is all I had.

Which watched the eclipse through the pinhole in a piece of card

and made pretty patterns with a colander 

Purchased another shrub for the garden.

Just a reminder that any of my Daffodils sold during March I will be making a £3 donation to Marie Curie Cancer Care Fund

That was the things that went right, the things that went wrong!  One husband lost his tooth, a crown he has had for years, normally if it comes out whilst eating he retrieves it makes an appointment with the dentist and it get put back, not this time..........no........... this time is got swallowed.  I did say he could look for it but would he want it back in his mouth........ and probably about time he had a new one.......... he is going to have a new one but at a cost!  Two, The fuel pump in the car has gone so another repair, car trapped in town, last time this happened he was across the road reversing into the drive, next thing I see the neighbours pushing the car onto our drive,

so we thought it was just a flooded engine because the car started straight away the next day and that was before we took the trip to Okehampton and thought nothing of it,we could have easily been stuck in Tavistock on a very wet day!  Three, The man was suppose to come and check the rampaging woodworm but never turned up at the allotted time, rang us past the time he should have arrived and said he wasn't coming our way because another appointment has been cancelled.  Husband rang them back and said he was going to take his business elsewhere, they are suppose to be coming next week now!  As they say watch this space!

Well that's September!

Does anyone know what happened to September?  I haven't been round blogland much.  I haven't really been making - in fact I really haven't done much.  I have sorted loads of old magazines some pre-dating the year 2000.  They were all cross-stitch magazines, I put about twenty bags of magazines and another load with hardback cross-stitching books on our local freecycle.  They were snapped up, I think because the people collecting them thought they were getting a bargain!  Well they were, but you cannot sell cross-stitch books at the local bootfair for even 20p here so I decided just to give them away!  They have gone and I feel better for it - it is amazing how I felt so much better for getting rid of things - it did actually feel like a weight had lifted - so more stuff is going to go!

Now I wonder................ no I best not if I want to stay happily married!  They are the collection of 78 rpm records, there is even two piles behind the Iceland carrier, In the Iceland carrier are the Christmas 78 rpm.  I cleared out the cupboard where I kept the magazines, guess where these have gone......!   Nothing stays empty for long in this house!

It was wet, dull and dismal yesterday, so yesterday afternoon I made Peggoty.  She is a dolly-peg (clothes spin)  Dressed in white, with a light green shawl.  She will be put in my shop soon, when I have finished a sister or two.

I made pie.

Apple and Blackberry.
We still have Blackberries at the bottom of the garden

I am still stitching

Still knitting

Mr Robin has been sitting on  the tree branch singing for a mate - nice to see him back in the garden.

We're having a heatwave......

new piece of embroidery which I started yesterday

..........but it is far too hot for me.  There was a wonderful breeze this morning whilst we walked round the bootfair, didn't purchase anything!  When we came home, quickly cut the front grass (only a small patch out the front) which took all-in-all about half an hour.  Then pottered about a bit and made lunch which can be found here, and life couldn't get better.............

  .......because the new Freeview channel 20 is currently showing the Joan Hickson's Miss Marple's twice a day on a Sunday!  Today it was the Sleeping Murder filmed all round Sidmouth Devon and in my husbands old place of work  I met Joan Hickson whilst she was filming this one!

the one and only Miss Marple!

My friend Jane's birthday

It was my really lovely best friend Jane's birthday today.  So as part of her presents I made her a gooey cake!  The cake is this one.  It has strawberry jam in the middle, and I leveled the top and spread with clotted and strawberries.

We sat in her garden drinking tea and

enjoying the cake.

Before we left I printed and cut all the names

and Jane picked one out for me.

The lucky winner is named..........................

Here!

Lilies Day - 20 and Sunday with really lovely friends

I think I will have to say goodbye......... they were lovely whilst they sat in the vase.  Their white petal glittering the sunshine as it shone through the window.  Their smell was out of this world.

But all is not lost

I still have these three for a while longer.  They were the last three to bloom.

YESTERDAY

I had one special gift for my birthday.  Our friends David and Jane asked me what I would like for my birthday.  Well I have got to the stage where I wasn't really sure what I wanted, so I said I would like an M&S voucher, I would add the rest and cook it we will have one of their meals for two for £10 but buying two lots.  So yesterday afternoon was wonderful,  Lovely friends and not much cooking for Sunday lunch which We rarely have these days!  We normally have a fish and chip supper with these friends

I also made a cake the recipe can be found here

It's next year tomorrow!

 It came and went in a blink of an eye!

We had great fun though, Robert and Anneka stayed from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day

I discovered how to make Puff Pastry Mince Pies, they don't look neat but they did taste nice.

Michael  and Lizzie had Christmas lunch with us on Christmas Day and Peter and Steph and Caitlin and Liam came Boxing day.  Michael and Lizzie left their presents for Caitlin and Liam.  Caitlin is in one of Nana's creations, poor thing it fits where it touches, I expect she will grow into it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wonder what next year will bring?  This year did not fair well for me personally.  Well it all started December 2011.  December 2011 new owners at my place of work.  Go back to work after Christmas 2011 to have my hours immediately cut! By Easter no job at all.  As they say things can only improve, not sure it has even after being at home for eight months.  Perhaps its because I haven't got my head round being at home yet.  Anyway I am looking forward to youngest sons wedding and a vintage fair both in March, which as we all know will soon be here!  Time does not wait for anyone!

  

I will be here

Saturday, 23rd March, 2013 

Trull Memorial Hall near Taunton, Somerset TA24 7JZ 

from 10am to 3pm

Now does anyone know how to stop this

Seagulls have their own characters but honestly...............

Even the crows have given up!

Since the last blog post.........

...................We have had Caitlin's third birthday last Friday (10th August).

Caitlin in her new gardening outfit we bought.

........and of course we cannot forget Liam!

think he was being called in to put shoes on!

Made Caitlin this cardigan which cost virtually nothing!  It was made from left-over King Cole Splash yarn used in other projects and I have enough blue to make Liam one.

Made Caitlin and Liam four 24" cushions and two toy bags from their old curtains!

Put my doubled-up magazines on eBay

Made some Scotch Eggs and Sausage Rolls

and Lemon Tart

(both recipes can be found here)

Restored this Dolly bed which is now in Sally's shop.

The bed was waxed with Lavender Wax Polish instead of being painted, the mattress is covered in ticking and I made the little quilt, the sheets and pillow case was made from an old pillow case, and the blanket from a piece of fleece fabric, and a finishing touch of a little Lavender Heart hanging from the bed head.

Bloomin' weather!

Yesterday we decided, the weather looked good ~ yes here in Somerset.  The sun was shining brightly!  We took ourselves off to A' La Ronde near Exmouth in Devon.  As we crossed the Somerset-Devon border on the motorway the weather changed dramatically.  The heavens opened, we couldn't believe it!  But we had a really great time there.  The house itself isn't very big and on a clear day you can see the sea!  This house is famous for the shell gallery but the public are not allowed to view it close-up because it is quite delicate, but there is a video, and you can view it through mirrors too.  Around one of the rooms there is a frieze of pictures made entirely of feathers.  Fascinating  place, it showed what people did before television.  Embroidery, Shell collecting, making pictures from different objects - great ideas that have been lost in time.

The weather was so atrocious, the curaters of the house are prepared, they make you feel very welcome, they take your wet coats and hang them up.

You are not allowed to  take pictures in the house, but the Laundry was in an outbuilding.

The washing machine

there is also a tiny sink just next to the this tub for delicates and hand washing

The soap powder

You grated the soap in to the hot water.

The pre wash tub

For really soiled washing

and for the clean wash to be taken to the spin dryer

The spin dryer

We were going to walk along the beach for awhile as we hadn't been to Exmouth in a long time, but you couldn't see the sea, so we came home back across the Devon-Somerset border into brilliant sunshine again!
We stopped off at Morrison's for a gooey cream cake, which is what we probably would have had if we had stayed longer

We like to share, sorry there was only enough for two, we had these with Earl Grey Tea

More pictures of A' La Ronde can be found here