Merry Christmas

A Very Merry Christmas to all.

This lovely centrepiece was on our 'Ladies who Lunch' pub table. Very simple - just a few baubles stuck together on a circle of card - yet very effective. Enjoy your celebrations.

xx

Christmas Tree overload ...

... on the way to the ballroom today. The first 4 were in the Winter Gardens ...

and these 2 magnificent trees were in the ballroom.

This one was outside on the way home.

All different and all beautiful. 

xx

Made a start on the festive season.

It's up. New LED lights after I'd spent about an hour trying to unravel the old ones which had seen better days. The bauble theme was red, gold and green and my crochet angel adorns the top. Love the reflections in the windows.

The banister is bedecked as is ...

the kitchen.

Still more to put up but Christmas has started in this house. Received our first Christmas card yesterday.

xx

Not again

Yes, it's not the kitchen window again. This side is changing more often as it's a working area. Working on a couple of things here - more pasta and the Christmas cake.

The pasta is an 'again' as the first lot was easy and it's getting easier. I just did one egg and 4oz flour to make my dough and put it through the machine to make noodles. My veggie stir fry has lasted me 3 days (again and again and again) and so did the noodles.

Here's the tray with the ingredients for the cake. (Christmas is coming round again very quickly. ) The recipe is just a simple 12, 12, 12 combination with 2lbs of fruit and various spices.

This tray is now waiting for the fruit to be fed with whiskey, gin and rum. It's all smelling good and I think I'll keep feeding me the fruit for the next few days!

xx

hic!

Night, night

Sorted out the back garden this weekend. The runner beans were pulled up and the pods spread out in the greenhouse to dry. Beetroot was pulled up and boiled to death.

The cucumber plants were cut down and the remaining cucumbers given away with some put in the fridge for me. Tomatoes were given a hair cut and ripe ones picked.

The grape vine was trimmed slightly but now left until its leaves fall off.

The leeks have been left in for us to eat over winter.

Finally the compost bins were emptied and scattered all over the garden. We won't need any manure this year.

The garden has been put to bed.

xx

Not the kitchen window

Since the kitchen was redecorated I've not put anything on the window sill so I don't damage or scratch the paint. There is only a hanging clay pot containing an 'odd' plant. So no Kitchen Window display now.

The decoration has now transferred to the wall opposite the kitchen window. The view underneath the cupboards is always changing as was the kitchen window view.

I've used white storage boxes in the cupboards for ease of accessing all the contents. Today I took down this box ...

to help me with the making of Mum's Savoury Mince.

There are many ways of making savoury mince - this is mine using onions, garlic, carrots, courgette, mushrooms, chopped tomatoes and of course - mince.

All the ingredients at the ready here with some additions of stock, Worcester sauce, oregano and gravy granules.

The mince, garlic and onions were fried up first and then added to a pan of tinned chopped tomatoes, stock, mushrooms etc.. This concoction was boiled and simmered for about 40 minutes along with the Worcester sauce and oregano. I don't add any extra salt or pepper but I did add a glug of soy sauce.

Here's the pot ready to start cooking.

The cooked savoury mince yielded quite a few portions and 2 large containers of it have been put in the freezer for another day. Today I had my savoury mince with boiled potatoes and tomorrow I'll spice it up more with a bit of chilli powder and flakes and serve it over rice.

The compost heap took care of the peelings and kitchen roll which was used to wipe out the wok.

xx

Last of the rhubarb

I've picked the last of the rhubarb today. The remaining stalks are starting to die off. Looks like the end of the crumbles. I've made this one with the addition of brown sugar.

It makes the crumble very tasty. I also use brown sugar in the crumble topping.

The crumble is made in the ratio of 4:2:2, 4 being the flour or a mix of flour and oats, 2 being the sugar (brown in this case) and 2 being butter which was rubbed into the flour.

Forgot to take a pic of the finished crumble because we ate most of it.

xx

PS Good job I've frozen a pile of crumbles already.

Eylash crocheted Christmas tree

Finished. It was really easy. I used 4mm needles as they were already lying around and some fuzzy yarn. 

Cast on 3 stitches and knit one row.

Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of each row until the desired length is reached.

My cone was the inside of a machine knitting cone. I have a few left that I kept as 'they would probably come in handy sometime'. They have now as ...

I have a few other fancy balls of yarn left. These came from the CS. I've started on the white and this time I'm using 5mm needles to knit it up even faster.

xx

PS The triangle knitted is an equilateral triangle. I shall have to experiment to see if I can do an isosceles triangle. Maybe I shouldn't increase every row for this.

xx

Little bits of home

Another autumn display in the bathroom.

Here's one in the kitchen on top of the wall cupboards.

Thinking of Christmas with this one. Bought some yarn from the CS and have started to knit a Christmas tree. I've saved some cardboard cones and thought I'd just wrap a triangle of silvery yarn around. May work.

xx

Not a good day

... for the seagull we found with a broken leg in our garden. The vet could only do one thing as the break was so bad.

So sad. We hope it wasn't one of our 'pets'.

xx

Tidying the garden

A major clear of the back garden today with the dwarf beans pulled up, the last of the potatoes dug up, courgette plants cleared and the last of the corn harvested.

The cobs were cleaned up and bagged for the freezer with some smaller ones kept for our salad for tea.

The runner beans will be uprooted tomorrow which will only leave the leeks and a few beetroot.

There's still colour from the poppies which spring up everywhere.

The Chinese lanterns are looking particularly vibrant nestled amongst their leaves. I shall pick them for displaying sometime. Autumn cometh.

xx

Heritage Tour

Took a tour of one of our local theatres today as it is a Heritage weekend. The Grand is a beautiful small theatre in the heart of town. It was only a short tour but we got to see behind the scenes - the dressing rooms,

the Fly deck, where all the scenery and lighting is controlled ...

and the stage. Here's a view from the stage showing the 2 circles and the gods.

The ceiling and walls are very ornate.

On the stage was some memorabilia about Kenn Dodd.

The stage gave me instant vertigo as it slopes towards the orchestra pit.

Lots more information was displayed around the theatre itself.

More information can be found here.

Back onto the promenade for a picnic sandwich, we were just in time to welcome back the many people who had just completed a sponsored Memory walk in aid of Dementia.

It turned out to be a beautiful day ...

after a very windy and rainy start. Can you spot me in the webcam picture below? I'm in there somewhere.

xx