Another week in paradise.....

Ok, not paradise, but a very sunny south west! Nothing hugely exciting has happened here, probably as in most places, but my days have been pretty busy. With the weather being so lovely, and blowy at times, washing has been taking hardly any time to dry on the line..........

 I’ve been taking advantage and washed all the throws in my living room. I have quite a few, much to hubby’s disgust. But apart from being cosy, they cover up a multitude of sins on our sofa and chairs. When I went out in the garden to pick in the dry throws, I spotted Karma hiding in a box I had put on the garden path.......

 It wasn’t quite the reason I brought the box out, but it was fun watching her hiding and stalking flies! We often get another feline visiting our garden. A gorgeous tabby called Teddy who lives two doors up. He is a Blue Cross rescue and I remember playing with him and his kitten siblings when volunteering. Unfortunately Teddy has gone missing. Our neighbour/friend and her daughter are so upset. He’s been gone three days now and despite everyone checking their sheds/garages, various Facebook posts and advising all local vets, there has been no sign of him. We’re all praying he’ll turn up soon. It was his 1st birthday two days ago and he’s such a lovely chap.

I haven’t baked any cakes this week, but our rhubarb is growing nicely, so I made a large rhubarb crumble and a smaller apple one for my son who doesn’t like rhubarb.......

Having no access to a hairdresser hasn’t been too much of a problem for me, but my son was missing his regular visit to his, so asked me to cut his hair (gulp!) He has it clippered in various gradients called a fade. Well, I did my best! It was a bit of a challenge knowing where his beard finished and his hair started, haha! So he helped me out there. He only wanted the sides done, thankfully, but I don’t think it turned out too badly (this was taken early the next morning, so excuse me in the background).........

We’ve been taking an evening walk mostly. Sometimes just my son and I, but when there are the three of us, they need to take a football with them (?!?) Boys!......

Today the weather has changed and we have heavy rain, the first since lockdown. I’ve just done PE with Joe Wicks and am about to go up into the loft to take another container of ‘stuff’ to sort through. I’m doing a bag/container a day. Apart from that, it will be a pottering sort of day today, along with baking a cake of some kind.

We have at least another three weeks of lockdown, so I hope you are all ok and thank you for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x

More baking and making

Although Easter is going to be a strange affair this year, with just the three of us here, I thought I ought to at least make an effort. So I put up my trusty ‘all occasions’ tree on the the mantelpiece and hung the little eggs I had bought a month or two ago. Very muted and understated, but that’s how I feel at the moment........

But the mantelpiece is not without colour. When I ventured to Tesco last week, this little rose was half price and the scent is gorgeous!.........

Baking for this week (so far) has been orange and dark chocolate chunk cupcakes.......

and I tried my hand at bread rolls. Not a massive success. They tasted fine, but nothing like the round rolls they should have been..........

Just one card made this week. A birthday card for my friend who owns a bike shop. I stamped the image and used ProMarkers to colour. I stamped a couple of this image, as I really like the quirkiness and it lends itself to use different colours........

When today started, it was very dull, not what was forecast at all. So I got on with sowing some seeds. Two types of tomatoes, pumpkin, leeks and peppers were sown first, then Gazanias, Cosmos, Sunflower, Phlox and Sweet Sultan. For all of these, I used old rinsed out juice and milk cartons. An idea I saw on a zero waste Facebook page........

My Basil, coriander and Flat Leaf Parsley had more salubrious containers. These Wrendale herb pots were a Mother’s Day present this year..........

The sun is now out, it is quite hot and mid afternoon. So I’m going to get my deckchair out and absorb some vitamin D. Not much prep for evening meal tonight as I picked up some lovely pies at the farm shop today, while I was getting my eggs, cheese and flour (yes flour!) , so I have a bit of free time.

Hope you’re all having as good a day as you can, given the present circumstances, thanks for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x

Keeping myself occupied

This is a photo heavy post. My days have the usual cooking meals, washing, ironing, other housework and PE with Joe Wicks. But writing every day just about them, would be a very boring blog indeed. There’s been a few times that I’ve felt quite anxious about the current situation and that’s when I’ve made a concerted effort to put my big girls pants on and be creative or productive.

I love baking and miss my weekly bakes for the Blue Cross, so I made a chocolate and vanilla traybake this week......

Yesterday, I took my exercise as a walk through the lanes where I live. There’s a LOT of new builds now, but thankfully we still have some lanes. The birds were singing away, particularly a very tiny one perched on a wire. He had a huge set of lungs on him!.......

The hedgerows are starting to look beautiful........

I wonder who lives in there?....

I finished the cot blanket I was knitting for the baby bank..........

I’ve now made all my Easter cards and have really enjoyed ‘playing’ with my stamps.......

I’m hoping to spend time in the garden this weekend, read some cookery books, bake and read. Hope you have a safe and sunny weekend, cheerio for now, Ann x