Good for the heart

Vegetables and fruit - good for the heart, essential for a healthy diet. My pickings today will go towards my lunch and tea.

For lunch I shall make courgette and tomato soup with and onion and potato added for extra flavour and texture. Bung it in soup is always the order of the day so the onions will be softened in olive oil with everything else then added plus a veggie stock cube. Whizzed with a whizzer this will make 4 portions of soup, one lot today and one lot for tomorrow.

The courgette had grown quite large (very large), (along with 2 others), so I had to slice, de-middle then cube it.

My runner beans will be a veggie addition to our roast chicken tea with roast onions, tomatoes and courgette as another offering. Can't wait.

Later - we've just finished lunch and the soup was good. I think I'll write up this combination in my Foodie Filofax utilising my planner pages from I rescued from the CS. (See My Filofax Blog).

Also good for the heart is a really sunny day and guess what? It's a really sunny day today. We're off out to the garden centre this afternoon. Now that's good for the heart too. 

<3 b="">

xx

Hunt the pic reminder

Here's just a reminder about the Hunt the Pic which will take place in the week 19th to the 25th of September. The following people have said they would like to take part.

Joy

Thrift Deluxe

Carol

KC's Court

Tracy

Rachelradiostar

Jackie
Debbie

Here's a link to the rules of this hunt.

If you wish to join in just leave a comment below. I'll post another reminder the week before.

xx

Today I shall be mostly ...

enjoying.

The sun is shining.

xx

Now it's nearly 7 in the evening and I'm reporting back to say that so far I've enjoyed every minute - weeding the garden, pruning the fruit cordons, sweeping the path, picking tomatoes and grapes, eating the garden for dinner, dancing at the Tower, walking along the promenade, talking with friends, eating the garden again for tea, receiving a parcel in the post, discussing with DH, having a bath and now just chilling at the computer with crochet by my side (as well as the cat!) and novel tempting me, before watching TV, sitting with the cat and more crocheting. Happiness today for me but unfortunately not for everyone.

Crochet Pocket Travel Tissue Holder

I thought I'd post the instructions on how to make the crocheted tissue holders from yesterday's post. They are very simple and only take about half an hour to make. These tissues from Lidl have spurred me on to make enough for our music team.

Crochet Travel Tissue Holder

I used a 4mm hook and DK yarn and the crochet terms are UK so one UK dc is the same as US sc.

Chain 9

2 dc in 2nd chain from the hook.

1 dc in every stitch until the last stitch.

4 dc in the last stitch.

1 dc in every stitch on the other side of the foundation chain until the last stitch is reached.

2 dc in the last stitch. (This stitch contains the first 2 dc.)

The holder can now be worked in rounds - if so slip stitch to the first dc, or in a spiral by just continuing in dc. I continued in a spiral putting 1 dc in every stitch and going round and round.

Gradually the work will curl itself upwards.

Keep going ...

and going until the holder is as high as the tissues. Stop at one side.

Ch 1 and turn.

Dc to the other side. Ch 1 and turn.

Dc to the other side and ch 1.

From here decrease one stitch at the beginning of every row until you can decrease no more.

Chain 10 for the button loop ...

and slip stitch to attach it back to the flap.

Dc all the way round the top opening and slip stitch to the beginning of the button loop.

Sew on a button from the button box, insert a pocket tissue and you're done.

Bless you all.

xx

PS The stitch can be varied to suit your fancy from the beginning of the spiral - half trebles or trebles or combinations. Experimentation will produce individual holders. More than one colour can be used to create a spiral or striped effect. Just make it up as you go along. I'd love to see any ones that are made from this idea.

It's raining ...

… so it's a play day today and a 'stay at home' after I'd been shopping. I saw these in Lidl and thought of Christmas - as you do! I'm busy crocheting travel tissue holders for our music group and these are going to be ideal as they have more interesting covers than normal ones.

I also bought a pair of scissors for the kitchen as the ones we have already are blunt. These will be for best.

I'd run out of lemons for my lemon drink so they went in the trolley too. I hate to throw anything away so as it was play (stay at home) day I had a pleasurable morning recycling. 

The tissues went into the crocheted tissue holders and the lemons' bag I made into a wool holder by threading 'that pesky ribbon' from my dress through the top. 

The plastic scissor holder is now a handy needle holder and the label made a present label with another 'pesky ribbon'. My wool shouldn't tie itself into a knot now.

A warm welcome to my new readers and commenters I hope you enjoy popping by.

xx

Chop, chop

Being a short xxxx person I find that many longer length dresses reach to the floor on me and almost all full length dresses polish the floor. This alteration was simple as I just followed the line for the cut.

Chop, chop, hem, hem and the dress from the CB for £1.50 is now perfect for my 'petite frame'! I also chopped off those pesky ribbony bits that are supposed to help with the hanging up but invariably become a nuisance by poking out under the armholes. This dress is a soft jersey and is perfect for a bit of dossing about relaxing.

I spy

While taking a walk around the lake in the park I spotted ...

this wonderful tree branch that looks like the head of a strange monster.

My eagle-eyed friend, however, spotted something more interesting - this small turtle basking in the warm sun.

A bit further around the lake was another sighting. (He's in there somewhere.)

Will this picture help?

There he is - another turtle a little bit bigger than the chap around the corner.

It's good to see other creatures enjoying themselves.

xx

It all went to mush

It's 'grape season' at the moment and I'm busy chomping my way through the hundred bunches on the vine in the greenhouse. I thought I'd try grape juice the other day so here's one version. 

Take the grapes off the bunch and place in a container (not a bucket). There's no need to take off your shoes as a masher will squash the grapes quite adequately.

Mash away.

The resulting mush can then be strained through a sieve and the resulting juice - 

drunk!

It's a bit cloudy as I only filtered once and probably pushed some of the mush through the sieve but the resulting juice tasted just fine. I exercised my arm muscles too!

Cheers.

xx

From my feet

Looking down there is grass.

Ahead of me there are trees.

I'm walking on a little trail between them.

To my left there is a place of fun, fright - a climbing, zip wiring, tree walking area for intrepid adventurers.

To my right is a place for more genteel activity - a cricket ground plus clubhouse for a relaxing view of the game.

Behind left is the clock tower in the park and the running arena.

Above me are the branches of the trees, a blue sky and warming sun - very warm today.

Just the day for a pleasant walk in the park.

xx

Jolly old boating weather.

It's a good job it was because we had surprise visitors yesterday. They rang up the day before to ask if they could visit so we invited them for lunch - which was homemade soup and make your own sandwiches followed by trifle or strawberries and cream. They had the rest of the afternoon to spare so we took a walk to the park and ended up on a motor boat on the lake.

It was jolly old boating weather and very relaxing with somebody else doing the driving.

We even had time to listen to the singer and her group entertaining everybody from the bandstand.

A very pleasant day plus an added bonus in that we simply had to finish off the trifle when our visitors had gone. Can't have trifle wasted, can we?

xx

PS The rest of the strawberries are still in the fridge for today - with the cream of course.

Eating the garden

There's always one, isn't there?

But yesterday it was 2 great big courgettes.

The big one was cut up and put with garlic, tomatoes (home grown and half a tin of toms which were leftovers from the fridge), cheese and herbs into the oven until done. We ate half with out roast chicken and the other half will probably be made into soup.

The toms I used were yellow Ildi. I always feel as though I'm milking a cow when I harvest these into a waiting basket. I use 2 hands to pull them off and they then drop down.

The Ildi, with trusses of small fruit, are ripening fast now and have come early this year. There are waterfalls of yellow on one side of the greenhouse.

Above is a waterfall of green with over a hundred bunches of lovely grapes. I started eating them last week and intend to eat at least one or two bunches a day.

Perhaps I should juice some.

Right - shoes off!

xx