Festive Beginnings

Hello lovelies, 

thank you for all your thoughtful comments on my previous post. It's nice to be able to share concerns as well as joys some times. Thankfully I'm still relaxed about taking local walks by myself..... it's one of the most important things I do for my wellbeing, physical and mental. I don't think that's overstating how much benefit I get from being outside just noticing the seasons and small details.

Obviously sometimes it's more photogenic and inviting than others.

 Oh my, we've  some beautiful weather since we last talked. On Monday morning I couldn't wait to get outside as we had the rare treat of a blanket of snow.

 A frozen wonderland.

I was certainly glad of these mittens I made last winter. Touching the cold metal with bare hands would not be pleasant . 

They have my own phone photography adaptation too. This is rather strange looking but means I can use my phone without removing my mitten. It's easy to draw my hand back inside the mitten too. It looks funny but works great.

The icy sunrise was beautiful.

and the world looked like Narnia.

Of course I had bird seed in my pocket to leave on suitable fence posts. I always put these picnics where there is tree cover so the small birds will hopefully be safe from birds of prey....though I appreciate they have to eat too.

Here I followed the footpath through the remnants of the horse paddocks. They have now moved a bit further on.

 

This huge field can be a boggy mess in winter but on Monday it was a crunchy glory. A space to breath, feel small, and wonder at the "mother of pearl" sky.

Snow clung to every surface.

and I do love this sort of scene.

Snow in the trees but not on the roads, ideal.

It was just a light dusting and warmer temperatures soon saw it disappear completely. This was Tuesday. The garden is looking more open again as I had to remove all my sad Cosmos which the snow has finished off. 

I've been moving the more tender of my plants to sheltered positions. This cordyline looked pretty sad after spending last winter outside so I had put it in my arbour.

Just look at this amazing firework of a plant. I love it's colour and form.

It's looking really healthy at the moment and I'm not sure the arbour would be enough protection so I moved it into the potting shed on Tuesday. There's a growing collection of things I don't want to succumb to the winter weather in there. It's not heated but I hope they will be happier than outside at least.

Most of my pelargoniums are in the conservatory, which does have some underfloor heating to keep the chill off. 

They flower happily all winter in here and brighten the darkest months. I just love going in here on a mildish afternoon and removing the dead flowers and brown leaves. It smells a little like summer and is the gentlest of winter gardening.

Midweek it was time to turn the calendars over on to the final month of 2021. I love this Robin on my recycled  Carolyn Carter calendar so much.

On Thursday the colour of the berries caught my eye and I picked a few to look at them more closely. Rosehips, hawthorn berries and sloes from the blackthorn.

So much colour compared to Monday.

Indoors the colour is growing too. We have a mix of Christmas and birthday vibe going on at the moment as youngest turned nineteen this week....Nineteen! 

We always used to leave the tree until a week after his birthday but he was keen for it to go up this weekend so it has.

This weekend I've been busy trying to straighten up the house again, as well as  making a start on the Christmas decorating. I have had my first mince pie though. I saw somebody online making little puff pastry mincemeat parcels with ready made pastry and though it looked worth a try.

Super easy and they looked good. Eldest said he likes my mincemeat better than the bought stuff. Bless him. 

I liked it too, which was a relief as you may recall I experimented by omitting the suet this year. I will made some proper shortcrust pastry mince pies next time but these were nice for a change.

And a little treat after my Covid booster vaccination today....for which I am very grateful.

Wishing you a healthy and happy week ahead lovelies, chat soon.

Jacquie x

Keeping Cosy

Hello Lovelies,

I can't quite believe it's Saturday morning again already. The weather has really changed in the past few days and this morning I felt the need to light the fire for the first time this Autumn. We won't put up our Christmas decorations until next weekend  (would be later if it was my choice...I'm trying to hang onto autumn and I don't like to focus on Christmas until mid  December really😊) but I'm happy to have a few fairy lights up already to add to the cosy vibe.

This was the garden at about 9am. We had snow! I say had as it's already melted but wasn't it pretty! 

Ideal weather to get in the in the kitchen and do some baking again. There's currently a gingerbread cake  in the oven. I have some black treacle that needs using up so I've been on the look out for recipes that need some.

Today I decided to look in this book which mum passed on to me. I wonder if any of you remember the TV series this book was produced to accompany? It was a 70's series and I only have the vaguest of recollections.  

Any cake with plenty of ginger is ideal for cold weather I always think.

It certainly has been chillier here but Thursday brought my most favourite walking weather. 

Frost and sunshine.

 I dropped youngest off at work and headed to the start point of a walk not far from there. I parked on the roadside but was soon out in the countryside and the only person around. It was gorgeous.

A bit further along the path I noticed a group of men walking towards me. They seemed friendly enough as we crossed paths but struck me as a bit out of place. It didn't help when they stopped walking when I was still only a bit past them. I hurried on and was happy to spot a lone figure up ahead. He stood still (on his phone) until I passed him. He was at a folk in the path. Oh dear, that stuck me as odd too.

It was all innocent I'm sure, but on Thursday morning I suddenly felt really vulnerable. My imagination told me something horrible was about to happen and it didn't make for a happy walk. This track seemed to go on for a long time and I think I would have jumped in the hedgerow if a van had appeared.

I stuck to my original 4 mile route plan as I didn't know an alternative and I didn't want to double back. It's a long way when you are wondering what's around every corner and looking over your shoulder a lot.

 

I think the recent horribly sad cases of women loosing their lives while just being outside must be affecting me, but I don't want to live in fear. I will be avoiding this area, unless I have company, for a good while though. 

Sorry if that was a bit heavy, I just felt the need to share. I hope you don't mind. I don't want to add to anybody else's worries but I think being honest is important too. 

My cake is now out of the oven, it smells amazing.

Here is the recipe, in case you fancy making one yourselves lovelies.

As it's better after keeping for a few days I also made some simple shortbread biscuits.

HERE'S a similar recipe . I roll the dough into a sausage and cut into 5cm sections. Once they are on the baking tray I squash them with the back of a folk. It's very easy and I like the biscuit shape it creates 

I think that's a good morning's work...Lets call it that 😉, though it's really a joy to spend time baking. Especially when the temperature is 3 degrees Celsius outside and the wind is howling.

Whishing you a happy weekend lovelies, I hope life is treating you kindly and you can enjoy whatever you are doing.

Jacquie x

Fresh and Gentle Days

Hello Lovelies, 

this morning I'm baking a cake so I thought I'd write a post whilst it's in the oven. I do love a bit of Saturday morning baking. I'm trying THIS recipe and hopefully I'll have a nice picture of a finished cake to add to the end of this post. It smells good at the moment so I'm feeling optimistic.

 

I'm sorry it's been a while since the last time I was here. My evenings have been rather taken up with the Autumn inspired blanket I've started. It's the first blanket project I've made this year and I'm feeling optimistic about this too. 

The title of this post was inspired by a comment from Suzie ( at ambling along Suzie) over on Instagram. I think it perfectly describes the weather November has brought us over the past couple of weeks. 

It's way too mild for this time of year really, but so wonderful to enjoy the fabulous shades of autumn without a lot of cold, wet, gloom and wind.

 

Here I was out with mum on Monday afternoon. We often set off with no real plan and see where we end up :0)

When we come across a view mum fancies painting we stop and she sits in the car and gets to work whilst I go for a walk.

 I can see why she was inspired by this honey coloured squat little church.

And thankfully there were plenty of footpaths for me to explore.

And if I come back before mum is finished I get sent away to explore a bit more. This time I found mushrooms 😊

I love mum's watercolour painting of the autumnal scene. 

We also stopped off at a couple of pretty villages on the way home. Everywhere was looking so nice.

 

I couldn't resist a low angle shot of these lovely fallen leaves here.

Autumn has been so inspiring to me this year. Here is the start of my blanket, made using the colours I'm seeing everywhere at the moment.

 It's just three round granny squares made in solid colours and I'm joining as I go.

I'm balancing time spent sitting with my hook with time spent outside locally. The days are short but consequently the sky is often dramatic by mid afternoon.

and especially at sunset. I could see the autumn shades in this sky too.

so here's where I'm currently up to with my blanket, especially for you my lovely blog readers :0)

Looking down on it you can see it's a bit of a homage to my love of patchwork! Middle son's girlfriend introduced me to a website called Stitch Fiddle which allows you to plan out this sort of project.

 I've worked through lots of variations of designs. I've plumped for a sort of Irish Chain (I think). 

I'm sure the quilters amongst you will know a better description. For whilst I love patchwork and quilting it's not something I have much experience of doing.

So far I'm feeling hopeful that this crochet version will turn out well and I'm really enjoying working to a plan as it stops all that procrastination I suffer with when working with random shades.

Oh, almost forgot....here's the Farmhouse apple and fruit cake ( I used mixed fruit instead of sultanas) fresh out of the oven. Mine only took and hour to cook, so something to bare in mind if you decide to give this a go.

 

Hopefully I'll be back with a review of how it tastes very soon :0)

I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying Saturday. Thank you so much for all the kind comments on my recent posts.

Jacquie x