Picnics in the sunshine and foraging.

Last week in a true spur of the moment I took my dear son for a picnic. Sadly as Old Mother Hubbard seems to have taken over the kitchen we stopped off and bought sandwiches on the way. The sun was shining and it was truly beautiful.

We just sat together munching our food and watching the world go past. I very very rarely buy a magazine as they are far too expensive for my pocket but as a small treat we bought one each. My son bought one on aeroplanes (as any 12 year old would?) and mine was the latest copy of The Lady magazine. 

 We went here to Finchale Priory,  it is free to visit the property but you pay £3 for the car park. It is incredibly beautiful and well worth the visit.

 The picture above was the view from our picnic spot.

 We crossed the river to go for a walk in the woods.

 Magical !

 It was so hot that even I was tempted to dip my toes, although I passed.

 This tree seemed to go on for ever and ever.

We have also been foraging recently. Now we are not fortunate enough to live in the countryside but there are still plenty of foraging opportunities in the city.

 The above are Mirabelle Plums been made into wine. The smell of these are delicious, good enough to eat.

 Damsons !

What else would you make with damsons other than Damson Gin. I know I could have made jam but I honestly have so much jam in the cupboards that we made from strawberries in the summer that I will still be eating it next year.

I haver my eyes on the blackberries but they are not quite ready for picking just yet. 

All busy here !

Hi I hope that you had a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend. We spent the entire weekend in the back garden trying to transform it from a tip to a lovely place where we can relax. Sadly the weather had other ideas on Saturday and we had to battle through the rain at times until we were soaking and had to retreat indoors.  However is it so nearly transformed and almost ready for plants. 

I have also been finishing off some long overdue craft projects. I bought the seat below a few years ago and although it is lovely, it has never been right.

 I bought some dotty fabric and foam padding a few weeks back and set to and made a cushion for it. It looks better but will need a smaller decorative cushion made to go with it. Perhaps a knitted or crochet one, I can't decide.  Anyway its looking much better already.

Here is another project I have been working on too. In the winter I like to have my bedroom cold, and by that I mean no heating and the big window wide open to allow the air to circulate. Without this I feel like I am suffocating. This means that my poor hubby freezes, he he ! So I thought that I would crochet a lovely blanket to snuggle up with on the bed. I am just crocheting rows of double crochet and only doing two rows before changing the colour, this means that it is growing slowly and perhaps would have been better in Treble crochet to make it grow quicker. Either way its a lovely way to spend the evenings, have you seen how dark its getting now ? It was completely dark here the other night by half past eight !

Here is a sneaky peek at the delicious apples we have growing in the back garden right now.

Yummy !

Bye for now,

Blessings

X

Stop Dreaming, Start Living

The title of this post came about from a conversation I was having with my Mam yesterday. We were talking about her poorly laptop and what she wanted to be able to use it for, I said that I mainly use my laptop to find craft projects (that I never do) and read the many lovely blogs out there. The problem with this is that I find craft projects and blogs and the following happens,

"I could never do that, it will be too difficult"

"I wish I could do that"

"If only my home was like that"

"I wish my life was ......... "

You get the picture?

 I said to my Mam that I needed to start living the dreams I have and stop making thousands of excuses as to why I will never be able to do so and that only other people can do these things.
Is this making any sense ?
Well there you go, perhaps that was the motivation I needed to get back into blogging.

ACCOUNTABILITY !

I know from talking to other people that I am not alone in feeling this way so perhaps you might like to join in (if anyone still reads this ) and start living out your dreams.  I'd love to hear from you.

Blessings

X

There organised them chickens !

Can you guess the film from the above quote ?

I have been itching to get back to blogging recently and have had so many ideas floating around me head.

I have projects to be done around the house, for the family and others just for me. Projects like organisation, crafts, cooking and spending time with my not so little ones. 

I'll be back in the next couple of days to share some more.

Oh yes, click here to see which film it was.

Hi There !

Hi, I am trying to start afresh with this blog. I thought about not blogging at all or maybe starting a new one but for now Im just going to see how it goes. I know its been a while but rather than try and catch up I thought I'd just start from here.

 Like many people we have been enjoying much snow. Its lovely and beautiful but I am kind of hoping that we have seen the last of it for now, although looking at the forecast for the week ahead more may be on its way. I took this picture whilst out walking the dog, its only about a ten or fifteen minute walk from the house but the snow was so deep it took forever to actually get anywhere. I had to walk across the field to the right and the snow was so deep it was above my welly tops.

 Craft wise I have been making these little beauties, courtesy of a pattern from here . Pop over and have a look at this lovely blog. Please excuse the bad photograph, how difficult is it to take a picture of your own arm ? Good Grief! They are currently been packed up and winging their way as a gift.

I decided at the weekend that rather than pop out and buy more craft things that will never get used I would work my way through the countless kits and patterns and make something out of what I have already bought. It was hard today I can tell you, walking past the wool shop and seeing all of the lovely colours ! Im currently working on a cross stitch that I bought a couple of years ago. I havent done any cross stitching for ages, I'll post a picture later.
Anyway, if your still out there reading this then thank you for reading and I hope that I will have another post up in the next couple of days.

GOD Bless