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

Catch up part two

 Good evening, hope you are all well! 

During my little absence from here, hubby had two weeks annual leave. We would normally just take ourselves off to a holiday cottage somewhere to have a chilled out break, but of course everything is different this year, so we just decided to ‘go with the flow’ weather wise and have some day trips, taking advantage of the Eat Out offers. 

Well, we managed to have two of the most rainy weeks unfortunately. However we still had some good days out. On one of the more drizzly days, we just popped down to Exeter Quay for a bite to eat and a bit of a walk. Lunch was partaken in Puerto Lounge. It was relatively quiet, nice and airy, tables nicely spaced out and a lovely choice of Tapas for me! Hubby had a burger, as he doesn’t think Tapas fill him up, but I was very happy with mine (with a side of sweet potato fries!)

We walked our food off along the quay. It looks very dull here, but it is still a nice walk.

Twice, during the two weeks, we went to Teignmouth. The first time just the two of us and the second with our sin too. We parked at one end of the seafront, with my little car managing to get into the last tiny spot and strolled along the length of the promenade. 

We stopped by the pier to have a coffee in the sun, yes sun! Normally I would want to go onto to pier, but it was quite busy. There were a couple of cruise liners with their anchors dropped in the bay, P&O’s Ventura and Azura. It’s not a fantastic photo as it was a bit far for my phone camera.

When we reached the end of the promenade, we sauntered into town for lunch. I love these pastel painted Victorian houses. I love to imagine what they would’ve been like in their heyday! 

We had lunch on both visits at a really old pub, Ye Olde Jolly Sailor. It survived the French Invasion of 1690s because the French used it as their headquarters! Back to 2020 and the food was delicious. This was the view from the outdoor dining area at the back, looking over to Shaldon.

We also popped into Dawlish on the way from Teignmouth, but the weather was turning, so it was a quick walk to the beach and back. I love the black swans at Dawlish and the ducks always amuse me....bottoms up!

Sidmouth also featured in our away days. Walks along the seafront and coffees/cake, there is a pattern isn’t there! The red cliffs in this photos are a feature of this area. Unfortunately, at the other end of the beach, there has been a lot of cliff falls, so part of it is closed off, as there were people still walking close to the cliffs. 

 I’ve had quite a few dog walks with my friend and Bruce. Here is Bruce being my best friend while my friend is getting the coffee/cake. It might have something to do with the fact that ‘Auntie’ Ann has some gravy bones! 

And of course there have been lots of walks with my daughter & Bumble. We recently took a trip to Lydford Gorge and the waterfall there (something on Bumble’s bucket list) I hadn’t been there before and it was beautiful. Bumble had a whale of a time in the river and by the waterfall.She snoozed all the way home, with some not so little snores coming from the back of the car! 

So that’s about it. All caught up, I think, so I’ll just leave you with a photo of Karma taken yesterday morning, sitting on the fence post after racing around the garden like a loon in the wind. She had to sleep for hours to get over it, haha! 

Until next time, cheerio for now, Ann x

Catch up part one - domestic stuff and volunteering

 During my absence here, I was called up by the Blue across and allowed to come back to volunteering on a Friday. There was plethora of online paperwork to do with COVID before I returned, but to be honest is common sense. It was strange going back after such a break, particularly as I was the first and only volunteer for a few weeks. Of course, Blue Cross Fridays means Baking Thursdays! They’ve had freshly baked scones with jam and cream and a request for warm sausage rolls for a change. Here are a couple of the goodies, Toffee Cupcakes and a rather chocolatey cake! 

It was lovely to spend time with the cats again. Tigger was a lovely big ginger boy and so cuddly! Well, they are all adorable really......

The garden has been doing well and I’m just ripening up the last of the tomatoes. It was a bumper year for me this year....

My sunflowers were beautiful too. I grew 3 this year, not the mahoosive ones, these were about 6ft tall. The bees loved them!... 

I haven’t been the only baker in the house in recent times. Hubby tried his hand at Millionaires shortbread and Lemon Drizzle cake. They were both delicious and made their way around the golf course too. A little sustenance for his golfing buddies...

One of the things I find very relaxing, is jigsaws. I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but I find them very absorbing. They stop my mind being overactive. My daughter bought us the Peaky Blinders one ( we really enjoy this tv series) and the Allotment Shed was a present a few years ago, which I hadn’t got round to doing......

So that’s part of what I’ve been up to at home in the last month, as well as continuing regular Joe Wicks workouts, gardening, knitting etc. Part two will be some of our days out we’ve enjoyed while hubby had his annual leave. 

Thanks for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x

I’m still here!

 I’ve been bloomin’ rubbish at blogging since lockdown!  It’s over a month since I last posted anything. I’ve been taking photos, thinking I’ll post about that and that’s as far as it has got! I’ve not read blogs and have been on very little other social media. Just feeling a bit bleugh about things. 

Coronavirus is always at the back of my mind. I’ve been out and about quite a bit, but mainly in the open. We did go out for a couple of meals during the Eat Out to Help Out and the tables were always very well spaced out. I think if it were just hubby and I, I wouldn't be quite so anxious, but having a 21 year old in the house changes the dynamic, (even though he’s sensible, he does have a social life).  Hubby is back to working away from the home about once a week and has to do weekly Coronavirus tests. 

So, I’m going to pull up my big girl pants (again!) and work at chilling out a bit more. Soon, I will do part one of a catch up blog, full of photos about the things I’ve been up to and part two will follow. There’s probably too much for one post. Tomorrow, I am meeting up with my friend for our weekly walk (with her dog, Bruce) and ‘putting the world to rights’. This week we’re going to Exmouth beach, as the tides are right for a change. We’ll finish off with coffee and cake from a lovely little takeaway cafe and sit on the sea wall.

So, thank you for stopping by and I’ll pop a post on very soon, cheerio for now, Ann x