Update - Inside And Out.

Overwintering sowing and growing, but first the weather. 

We've had bouts of biblical rain recently along with some terrific wind. However, today we have ish-blue sky with a light breeze hence I had a wander around my little patch of paradise today. There may be rain later... Anyhow here's what I found.

Shallots, garlic and onions were planted out by October 22 and the first two are showing nicely.

With the onions I have some interlopers in the form of peas left over from the summer so hope that I might get a cheeky harvest!

Garlic not doing as well as these two just now but hope it picks up soon.

In the poly house the carrots and kale are peeking through and the meteor dwarf beans in the troughs are doing very well. 

The meteor beans in the greenhouse were sown a little later than the others and think I might plant them in the empty bed in there when they are all ready.

A little surprised at how well the hardy sweet peas are coming on to be honest; I need to check when they can be planted out!

In the greenhouse the beetroot seems to be growing well but there are more leaves than anything else; not sure how that is going to turn out...

A quick look at the cabbages seem to suggest they have not been nibbled by anything recently, after I removed the netting.

Have to say I'm quite chuffed that I seem to have some growing happening so just hope that they turn into edibles!

Garden prep has seen chicken poo, compost and covering put on the corner veg patch. All that needs covering now is where the few leeks and swede are in the main patch.

Inside now. 

First Christmas present is wrapped and a number have been ordered so must wrap them as they arrive.

The turkey has been ordered so can forget about that until the day before Christmas Eve.

The sloe gin is being given a shake once a week now. 

Christmas cake was made at the beginning of the month; I'll feed it some booze this week.

Ordered, as usual, a few crating bits for the festive season and have so far made this tag on the left which can be used as a decoration or given as a gift. The piece on the left is something I love making; this will be used as a back drop on a decorated table or shelf but could also be framed as a gift.

Christmas is now just six weeks away. Eeeek! Lots of planning to be done soon but not quite yet.

It's Beginning.......

I know not everybody is getting ready for the festive season just yet but I am beginning to feel it, I have to be honest, hence the red text so I am pretty much going for it from now!

The odd thing has been collected/bought/made recently to give me a little Christmas spring in my step. In Aber on Sunday I saw this in one of the charity shops and thought it could be used as part of a display or to contain a present, though probably the former as we don't do that many presents.

I had to buy a new Christmas flower, Poinsettia, as last year's did not last like I normally get to do. This was £1.99 from Lidl and is a nice size which fitted in this green pot cover - just needs a bit of ribbon to brighten it up. 

I'm going to leave this with you for now and come back to it at a later date...

I had three Ikea milk bottles on one of the kitchen shelves that looked like this....

and here they are with a few crafting embellishments; I'm really happy with them.

The cakes have been fed again, although I might give it a miss next week as they are very moist so won't matter if they sit for a bit longer. This week I'll be buying the ingredients for my mincemeat which I'll be making after the weekend; this is a task which really makes be feel properly Christmassy! 

I'll also be checking I have all the things I need for this...



I have a pot of this on the side of the Rayburn practically all the way through the festive period. I don't necessarily smell it all the time I am in the kitchen, but when I go out of the room or somebody comes into the kitchen for the first time you can really enjoy the yummy fragrance. It really gets me in the mood when I have my Christmas music on whilst making my mince pies and just getting things ready. Eeeek!

Right, better get on.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Cake and Christmas. Eeek!

Good morning!

We awoke to a temperature of -4 - ooh nippy chippy as we say in our house. The boys went off to school after having warmed their gloves, hat and scarf on the top of the Rayburn. However I myself was kept warm by listening to the beginning of the BBC Radio 2 auctions with Chris Evans for Children In Need and the kindness of those giving money. There was a Christmas feel to the items being bid for along with some early festive music but I more than forgave them. This morning already £809K has been raised for Pudsey's piggy bank! Wow! Last year the total was £5.7 million

In other news I've been baking and creating. It was Jon's birthday at the weekend so I baked for him, and for the first time for me, a coffee and walnut cake.

I've been getting down to some crafting recently by making use of the fab value Christmas papers I bought recently. I love making tags which are big enough to give as a little gift or to use as a decorations around the house; the ones I currently have I think I made about five years ago so I now have a couple of those in stock and also started on a couple of cards. Jon and I don't send each other cards and I don't give them in general; I do like to give them to neighbours who have been helpful and kind over the year.

I also fed the Christmas cakes yesterday for the first time; here they were very well packed up after the mishap last year.

They are now packed away again until next week.

Right, I think that is it for me just now. Regular chores to do today but loving catching up with blogs to see how people are preparing for Christmas. Had a thought the other day to use the sugar syrup left over from preserving the apples to use for making apple vodka. Has anybody ever made apple vodka? I lots of people make flavoured drinks, especially 
Dawn and Tracey.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

This, That And The Christmas Other!

Well, just 7 sleeps to go to The Big Ho Ho!

Tuesday was my last post so here is what the last couple of days have involved; various things going on in and around the house. (You may want to grab a sherry and a mince pie as this may go on for some time!)

Thursday was the day for baking biscuits for the teachers; I made them and Alfie helped decorate them. I gave three teachers biscuits and the headmistress some of my mince pies and one of the Merry Christmas biscuits. The little bags are the ones I found in Lidl a couple of weeks ago and were just perfect then I made tags for the boys to write on and the job was done. Just had to hope the boys got them to school in one piece!

The boys and Jon finished for Christmas on Friday and the boys came home with cards and bits and pieces they had made in school. This was made by Harry and I decided the perfect place to put it was right on the front door. I LOVE it!

I made a no-bake celebratory chocolate tiffin for the boys and Jon being home for Christmas and it came out really well. It is quite sweet so you wouldn't want to eat a lot of it at once but lovely to have a nibble of with a drink or after a meal.

The boys normally have pizza and corn on the cob for tea on Fridays as they go to Youth Club and it is a quick tea. They like the sausage stuffed crust from Iceland but I decided to make it myself this week and it didn't look too shabby an effort.

Yesterday we went into Aber for lunch and some festive family fun and shopping. The boys were pointed in the direction of a couple of things Jon and I may like for Christmas and took them to the counter and paid for them by themselves! We came home with a few things such as my Kilner jam pan and half a dozen new jars; 

I'd have had to wait until my birthday in September if I hadn't got them now. I have not wrapped them and Jon's new reciprocal (don't ask) saw in the black and blue case is also not packed but very gratefully received as were my goodies.

At our last house I managed to keep the same poinsettia going for five Christmases, yes five! However the one I bought last year does not seem to have the same level of enthusiasm so was very jealous when I saw this big beauty in the Tesco cafe whilst we stopped for a warming latte.

In Lidl later on I saw these darling little poinsettia plants. 

Sadie, a life in the english rain , lovely blog to visit, here is where one of the Oxo box comes into the picture, literally! (Not the best quality photo.)

I haven't shown many photos of the outside recently but here is my garlic coming on really well....

and my onions, too.

I did manage to plant some daff bulbs in one of my small planters a while ago and look here!

I am always tweaking the decorations and the easiest way is to make something quickly. I can't get a good photo of the one of these I've made for the beam in the kitchen but this is basically the same apart form the ribbons I've used to attach the pennants to; really pleased with both - nothing like a bit of Christmas crafting.

I took Alfie to his last piano lesson before Christmas this evening and i am proud as punch. He will be taking his pre-test in March and has his books to start preparing for it in January. He only began his lessons at the start of September but he is coming on beautifully!! The books are not cheap, £17 for the latest three, plus £10 for each lesson but I truly think it is worth every penny for the results we are getting.  If he goes down to the cellar for something he just CAN'T resist playing a few notes which I flippin' love!

In other news, I promise this will come to an end soon, we have a booking for our letting room for Boxing Day for two nights - can you believe it? That will pay for a good chunk of the Christmas food bill for really not a lot of effort.

Right, I'm going now as the final of The Apprentice is on shortly.

I will have pictures of the finished parking space project soon as Jon has been working really hard on it for the last couple of days and it is looking fab.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Edith Making a Break For Freedom!

The weather is a little different to yesterday but not that bad; the blue is trying to peek through and the sun is ding its best to shine. 

Last week we were told the electricity would be off for a short time today so I took that time to do outside stuff. I had food for the compost bin to get rid of, some salad leaves to plant and a few other little jobs so chucked everything I needed into a box and headed to the Poly House along with a cup of coffee.

First of all I made a detour to Jon's shed and made this little sign. It isn't the most artistic item but I quite like it.

Next I went to collect the eggs. As I went into the enclosure I spied one of the ladies where she shouldn't be! Now I know the neighbour's side of the fence is a bit greener than the enclosure but that is not where she should have been; Chicken Stalag 17 the enclosure is not but she had somehow managed to get out; I checked all the fencing and she may have hopped over the top! It was Edith, matriarch of the flock, and the field next door belongs to the neighbour at the bottom of the garden. Lucky that it was Edith as she is the only one who will stand still whilst you pick her up so it was easy to put her back over the fence.

That done, I collected the eggs; five again today but there were remnants of a sixth egg in the box that appeared to have been eaten. Will keep an eye on that happening again.

In the Poly House I put in some radichio and mixed salad leaves. I was going to hoof out the salad leaves in the yellow tub in exchange for the squash plant but they seem to have rallied so will get a container for it at a later date.

The courgettes look as if teeny tiny veg are forming - very exciting!

Now in other news. Yesterday I got round to a bit of crafting as I had saved two baked bean tins and wanted to decorate them with faux vintage labels. I found some on Pinterest and went to work with my spray blue and trusty glue pot.

I have decided to use them for my stock cubes..

and the drinking straws.

Ok so I've vacuumed upstairs and have everywhere else to do, then will go clean out the chooks, after lunch, and I have the caravan curtains to iron.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Busy Busy Busy!

Good afternoon.

Just sitting down to have my lunch after a busy morning. I also have a few photos to share with you that I didn't get round to downloading.

I think I mentioned I was waiting for my Mothers' Day present well it has arrived and how pink is this?!

The logging supplies Jon bought home from work the other day are now neatly stacked on the woodpile, thanks to the boys, and these will hopefully keep us going until the weather is warmer.

Here are my lovely Mothers' Day cards from the boys. Bless them.

My Postcard Challenge is coming along quite well. I was a couple behind until yesterday but decorated two plain ones I had in my craft stash and here they are. Posted them, too.

I'm waiting for two deliveries and just one has so far come today. Up until the time we moved here I hadn't used regular washing up liquid for about a year I think. I just love using traditional, green household soap and soda crystals. I finally managed to get some soda crystals last weekend and today these arrived!

I managed to have 20 bars delivered for £8.57 and they will last me ages!

Then this morning I set to with a baking session. I know it seems as if I only bake these three things but they are firm favourites and I have extra in the freezer now, too.

Cherry and oat traybake which makes Jon close his eyes when he bites into it,

the slab that is my chocolate brownie,















and garlic bread from the loaf end crusts to go with bolognese or lasagne.

Well, I think that is all caught up now.

Lou. xx