Hallowe’en

 

We always do a pumpkin. Well, I say we, my husband has made it his job for the last several years and his offerings would put mine to shame, so I’m quite happy. The above pumpkin is this year’s. Nobody is really doing trick or treat for obvious reasons, so he decided he would do a more simple design ( it’s still far better than I could manage! ) So this year is the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

The following pumpkins are my hubby’s past extravaganzas....

Gandalf 

Peaky Blinders 

 A Game of Thrones character (don’t ask me which one!) 

Well, I’m just waiting for the announcement from Boris, so I’ll be off to see what the future holds, cheerio for now,  Ann x

Don’t mind if I do!

 A very belated post for yesterday! 

It was our wedding anniversary and we went out for a delicious meal at The Cosy Club. There are several Cosy Clubs in the UK and we’ve been to ours a few times. Ours is in town, in what was on old hospital, so there are very high ceilings and lots of space between tables. Ideal for current circumstances. Hubby had offered to drive, so he had a Blood Orange Mojito Mocktail (no alcohol) and I had an English Garden cocktail, gin based with apple juice and elderflower. It was VERY nice, so I had another one! 

The food was lovely and we ate far too much, but enjoyed every morsel. As we booked an early table, we were home at a decent time. We had to leave our table by a certain time for the next booking, which you can’t blame restaurants for at the moment. But not once did we feel rushed and were quite happy to relax at home for the rest of the evening. 

Oh, by the way, the Apple Streusel cupcakes we’re a huge hit. So I will be baking more of those :)

Hopefully today’s post will be on time,  cheerio for now, Ann x

Thursday baking

 So the boys and girls of the Blue Cross are going to be guinea pigs tomorrow, as I tried out a new recipe today, from a book I hadn’t looked at for ages. The cupcakes are called Apple Streusel cupcakes. The recipe was a little strange. I had to mix apple sauce with bicarbonate of soda which resulted in a bowl of apple fluffy stuff. A great bit of chemistry! The cupcakes have come out like they should, so I’ll find out tomorrow if they get a thumbs up. (I have put two back for hubby and son, so they don’t feel left out, haha) 

Cheerio for now, Ann x

My Sea Fix

 

In between my chores today, I escaped to the seaside for an hour, to get some much needed sea air. I pootled off to Budleigh, parked up on the hill and went for a little walk. The sea was fairly choppy ( but nothing like the Cornish coast has experienced today!) So the cobwebs were blown away well and truly, as  I crunched along the pebbles. I also treated myself to a bag of Pear Drops from the proper old fashioned sweet shop close to the beach....lovely!  Then it was back to the car and home to make shepherds pie, feeling refreshed x

Autumn leaves

 

I pulled over on the way to a garden centre today to take these. I absolutely love autumn and the rapidly changing colours of the leaves. It was quite windy and a bit of snowstorm in a leafy sort of way. This is also the way to Blue Cross, so I’ll look forward to seeing the trees change to more orange tones in the weeks to come. Ann x

Catch up from not so sunny Devon

 Hello everyone! I’ve left doing a post for a few weeks, as there hasn’t been much to report, so to speak. Does anyone else feel that the weeks are blurring into each other at the moment, in a mundane sort of way? It’s not that I was whizzing around, doing fabulously exciting things before coronavirus and I am going out and about (in a safe way) now, but just feel life is bumbling along. Perhaps I need another sea fix. Just to sit there and watch the waves roll in with a good dose of sea air does wonders. 

Anyway, my last visit to the coast was last week, when my friend and I went for our weekly dog walk. We went to Exmouth, as we often do. No dog restrictions now on the beach, but the tide was in and it was quite rough, being so windy......

 So, some of the walk was along the pavement and some on the safer parts of the beach. At the far end, the sea was spraying up on to the pavement, so we retreated to the cafe for hot chocolates and a bacon baguettes. 

I have been up in the loft again to declutter a bit more and found this......

A drawing by my daughter, age 5. Even at that young age, her love of dogs showed. Her castle has a little kennel outside! 

Now as an adult,  she has her own dog, Bumble, who has been recently thinking, ‘does my bum look big in this?’

I treated myself to some flowers to cheer myself up. I do love fresh flowers in the living room....

Blue Cross baking is continuing. The last two weeks they have been partaking in a coffee cake..

and Lemon and Poppy Seed Drizzle cake...

There aren’t loads of cats in the centre at the moment, as we are fortunate to have some lovely foster carers. So the cats can stay in an home environment, while awaiting their forever home. But here are a couple of puss cats that I had the pleasure of meeting on Friday. This cuddly boy, who curled up in my arms.......

and this gorgeous boy was getting braver by the minute and enjoyed an ear tickle or two...

They are both now in foster, so who knows who I will meet this week! 

So that’s me up to date! I’m going to try something different and see how it goes. I’m going to try a post a pic (and perhaps a comment) every day, in a way for my own benefit of finding a positive of each day, as there is so much doom and gloom about. So watch this space! 

Sorry if I’ve droned on a bit, but thank you for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x

Change of season

 Good morning from a damp, dismal Devon! Autumn has definitely arrived, dark evenings, chillier mornings and the odd storm coming through.

 But I do love this season! I love the cooler temperatures, the cosiness of the darker evenings and the trees starting to change their colour of their leaves before eventually shedding them. I love wearing my boots and big jumpers  (once it gets cold enough!), going for walks and skittering thought the fallen leaves and I love the ‘Soup’ season! 

I’ve had a couple of nice walks in the last two weeks. I met up with my friend & Bruce, as usual for a walk, this time in Haldon Forest. Not our normal walk, as my friend had pulled a muscle, so we took a shorter walk, one aimed with children in mind. It was lovely to do a different route. The weather was somewhat inclement, but a lovely walk nonetheless...

We found the Stick Man....

and a fantastic little shelter, a bit small for us! 

My second walk was with my daughter and Bumble. We went to Parke at Bovey Tracey which has a lovely river for Bumble to play in...

I just get mesmerised by the tree roots, nature’s artwork.......and also nature’s booby traps. I tripped over more than once! 

Back home, my sunflowers are looking very very sad now, after the horrendous weather we’ve had in the last few days. However, last week, one of them had a baby, how cute! 

I have been trying out some different recipes from one of my Joe Wicks books. This one was delicious, if a little bit too much of it. Low on carbs, high on protein (all good stuff, but it is a bit high in calories) so next time I’ll just eat a bit less of it...

Baking-wise, there has been scones for us and Blue Cross and a chocolate cake with chocolate buttons for Blue Cross last Friday. Nothing very exciting but they appreciated my offerings. Today I’m baking bread and possibly a cake. I have the day to myself, as hubby left for work at 7 and won’t be home until gone 10 tonight and my son is working too in the office upstairs. 

What other things have been going on in the last two weeks? Well, I completed another jigsaw. I thought this one would be quite easy being books, you know, just pick up a bit of title or picture and look on the box to see where it belonged. What I hadn’t realised, is that the books are duplicated, or more and sometimes had the same neighbours too! But that said, I really enjoyed it, once I got organised....

I also made up two hampers for an auction the Blue Cross Tiverton are doing for Blue Cross fundraising week. They are so curtailed this year, with what they can do, as is every charity. But hopefully they can get a few pounds in to the coffers. In past years, they have raised the most of all the branches, during this fundraising week. So I made a ‘Cheese and Wine, but Bring Your Own Cheese’ hamper.....

and a ‘Taste of the South West’ hamper...

and someone has been taking no chances in this awful weather!..

So that’s about it for the minute. I’m hoping to get some cardmaking done, more baking and knitting in the next couple of weeks. Oh, and I have booked our Christmas Day lunch at the Cranberry Farm, which is near my daughter’s house. Whether those plans will have to change, who knows! 

Thank you for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x