Flora and Fauna

Things have been reasonably quiet here and we have been busy working in the garden, tidying and planting onions and cabbages. We are like a couple of children as we plant them, this year being our first attempt at vegetable growing, we are so excited and can't wait to dig them up and try them. We have no idea how long that will be, I suppose we just keep looking and guess???

I thought I would show you this photo of Smokey, he had crept up to our bedroom and climbed up onto the bed and he had somehow knocked teddy down, or did teddy just go there for a cuddle. I couldn't resist taking the picture. Personally I think teddy just got cold and needed a warm from a friendly pussycat!!

I have now finished sewing the bias onto my latest celtic knot block so that is another toward the quilt! Only about 30 more to go!! Have I taken on too much I ask myself, probably is the answer but I do enjoy doing them and I will just have to break it up with doing other things in between. There are quite a few projects that I want to get on with, I just need to give them a bit of thought first. This is what I miss being here because I need to have a "like-minded" person to come around so we could "play" and get some ideas on the best way to do things. There is one particular thing I would like to make, and I can't say what it is, but I'm just not sure how to start. Oh Sharlene, I wish you lived a bit nearer :-)

The weather here has been fantastic, about 25 centigrade and the sunset the other night was beautiful. We went to Spain the other day to do a bit of shopping and when we stopped for a picnic there was this amazing grass hopper. I took the photo but he was about 3" long and had a lovely Jiminy Cricket face.

It Always Happens........

Today I had to go into my last post and read some of the lovely comments there saying how gentle my lifestyle is, and to be honest, it very often is even though we run around like headless chickens sometimes not knowing which job to do first, the thing is we can usually do the jobs in our own time which makes the differene, but..........

This afternoon sees the visit of the sewing group to our house and using "The Den" for the first time and when we do this, the person who is hosting usually bakes a cake or something. Well, I made some shortbread yesterday which turned out OK, but today!!!!! Why does it ALWAYS happen when you bake for someone else. I made flapjacks this morning (little oaty biscuits) and would you believe I couldn't get the damn things out of the wretched baking tray. While I was wrestling with this, my french neighbour came in, "What are you doing?" "What is that?" Well the taste of the crumbs were OK and she is a very brave lady and has asked me for the recipe. I'm sure I will have to leave the baking tray in soak for a week to get all the stuff off. I rescued enough of them for this afternoon and the birds can have the crumbs so if you see sparrows flying over not making a sound because their beaks are stuck together, you know they have come from my house!! Next on the agenda were cheese scones. Yes you've guessed it! These little blighters have come out like miniature ice hockey pucks and I have no idea what they taste like, I haven't been brave enough yet. Perhaps if I put enough butter on them they will be OK.

What I didn't say at the beginning was, I was going to make a sponge cake and I got all the ingredients together and realised I haven't got any eggs. Disaster! Richard is out all day helping a friend so I have no car to go and buy some, and my friend who has chickens is too far away for me to get on my bike. All cakes need an egg, hence the flapjacks and cheese scones. BIG MISTAKE. I can do no more, it will soon be time for them to arrive. Gentle lifestyle?? Not today it isn't.

Bonjour mes amis

Hello again. Now what can I talk about today? I will firstly show you some photos that I have taken, of various things because we have been flitting from job to job. First one is of this beautiful little lizard we found when we were digging over our little vegetable plot. I haven't seen one like this before. The line down the centre of his back was really very red. I will also show a photo of the squashes we have, quite a few of these red ones (kuri squash). Not a clue what to do with them so if anyone has cooked them before I would love to know. Also, while we were digging over the little plot, Smokey thought we hadn't got quite enough "manure" in there so he gave us a hand, or is it a paw? My leeks are doing really well and on Monday, at the market we bought some greens so they have gone in today. It will be interesting to see how we get on.

Today saw another french lesson and my goodness this was hard. We had to make up names and pretend we were going on a flight so had to give and spell our names and flight numbers and seats. Richard and I thought we would choose our family names, so I chose my eldest daughter's name, BIG mistake as it has 16 wretched letters in it, and Richard chose our youngest daughter's husband's name and we weren't sure how to say a double "n". We got through it and we learned a lot, but ..........

The weather here has been glorious, misty in the morning and a bit chilly but really warm during the day, so just perfect. Tomorrow sees Richard out helping a friend put a ceiling up in his barn so I will be doing a bit of cooking ready for the sewing group who are meeting at our house this week. I can finally show them my sewing room and if the weather is kind to us, it will be nice and warm because of the big windows. That's it for now, talk again soon.

Just a little chit chat.......

It has been a strange week really with not a lot to talk about. Richard has been very busy trying to get rid of all the draughts in "The Den" because we tend to spend all our evenings in there and it is rather cold at times. His finger has been rather painful and yesterday we went to have the stitches out and to be honest, it looks a mess. We are taking the next 3 days off just to see if he can get it looking a bit better than it does at the moment. Of course, if Richard is taking the time off, I have to as well, so I may have some photos of my quilting to post in a couple of days. I went off to my sewing group this afternoon and did some more and my latest block is coming along very well.

Here is me saying there is nothing to talk about, but some wonderful news, we had a hedgehog in the garden last night. It's the first one I have seen in the garden since we bought the house 3 years ago, so you can imagine how excited I was. I put out some cat food and now I am going to make up a "hedgehog house" to see if I can encourage him to stay. I am calling it "he" because he was very big. You can imagine what I will be doing this evening with my torch!!

If Jessica is reading this, Happy Birthday Jess. It is also my lovely mums birthday on Sunday and I am very sorry not to be there to share it with her, but hopefully they will be coming out to see us again, I can't wait. It's just a matter of finding the best way of travelling because mum doesn't like any kind of travel, and I can't blame her for that because I don't either, so sea crossing is out, we think plane is out, so what about a train??

Well I had better stop now because I have to admit that I have just written a whole lot of twoddle, and I don't want to bore you any more than I have to. I tried to take some photos this morning because it was stunning in the garden, the cobwebs were dripping with diamond dew drops and the mist was coming up off the field, in fact I think it was steam where the sun was really warm on the dew, but when I looked at the pictures it just didn't do it justice, so please imagine the picture for me. It is such autumn weather, chilly in the mornings and evenings but really warm during the day, so much so that I got a little burnt a couple of days ago. Talk again soon.

Oh to be Quilting Again

How very exciting to be able to write about quilting again. It seems such a long time ago that I mentioned anything about my hobby. The last couple of nights has seen me at my sewing cupboard in "The Den" (My daughter has named the room) and I have finally started another block for my quilt. If you remember, I am making a celtic knot design and I thought I would rave about the gadget that I use to make the bias tape. How easy it makes it.

The photos show the cut fabric being put into the gadget, then you pull it through and it folds into itself, you then iron as you pull the fabric through and you end up with a bias tape that you can make beautiful patterns with. I love doing this and find it very relaxing, though I think I won't hold my breath waiting for the quilt to be finished!! Well, it's time for the Archers so I will say night night, talk again soon.