28 November 2011

little posy



Picked these this morning, just a weeny bit of colour left in the garden now.

and here's shelley

I felt bad all afternoon that Shelley hadn't been granted the same 5 minutes of fame as Mouser - so here she is...






aka Shelley-woo, Woo-woo, Wooga etc. As you can see she's cute, fluffy and likes to sleep, she's an indoor cat so the only creatures she's caught are spiders and any victims that Mouser has dragged through the cat flap for her to play with! She loves to play and has a variety of toys on strings that she calls out for when she fancies we should wave them around for her to boot with her dainty paws. She's also pretty good at hazelnut football and can dribble a nut around our hallway like a pro.

introducing mouser




This is Mouser, one of our two cats. He's called Mouser after his ability to catch mice (as you might have guessed) we also call him a variety of other names including mega-mouse, mouse-kin, mouse-pants, panda, mousey, magic-mouse etc etc. He's the best hunter I've ever encountered, little creatures I advise you stay away, he can't help himself. He shows his love to us by giving gifts on a daily basis; mice, rabbits, birds, and moles. We return the love by removing fleas, feeding and cuddling him whenever he asks.


P.S. I'm struggling to take any pictures since the camera broke, I'm down to D's mum's old camera or my phone. The light in here is terrible and so are any pictures I take!

23 November 2011

rosy mornings




Beautiful sky this morning, striped with red, I ran outside to take this picture unfortunately my camera is playing up so had to resort to my trusty phone again - this keeps happening! Really cold start to the day with a chunky frost on the car windows, I left for work well wrapped, the start of winter I think. Spent my lunch hour looking for new boots, nothing I liked really (well that wasn't hugely expensive) so settled for a pair of wooly tights! 

21 November 2011

apple cake

I don't know if it's the dark evenings, the cold weather or just that we have an abundance of apples (I mentioned them here) but I have a new desire to bake. I love cooking and always have but I've never been much of a cake maker. I was first spurred on by Anabelle's delicious looking French apple cake recipe, which I followed last weekend, unfortunately in our greediness I forgot to take photographs of my cake which was delicious but not quite as beautiful looking as Anabelle's. 


Then again this weekend I had the baking bug! I tried Alexis' recipe, as I was beating my batter I kept saying to D how I didn't think this was going to work, was my batter too stiff? Worry worry went my little head! But after the oven had cast it's magic it came out looking OK I think. Not quite like Alexis' but it's delicious and that's all that really matters.



So thank you Anabelle and Alexis for your yummy recipes!

sunday stroll

On Sunday morning we usually go to the car boot, but not this week. We fancied a change, our Sunday morning trip to the car boot was becoming a bit of a routine and I hate routine. Plus last week had been a bit of a disappointment as we came away empty handed - both of us! 


So instead we got up made bacon sandwiches using our own home-baked bread, then with full tummies we set off by foot for a little stroll around our neck of the wood. Well actually no woods at all, but plenty of trees, fields, hedgerows, railway line, a ford, and a river. We completed a big circuit chatting all the way, a lovely start to Sunday, a great way to spend time together, and discover a bit more of where we live.


It's funny when we lived in London we often went for lovely walks over the weekends and I guess we thought moving to the countryside we'd do more walking. Instead we normally find ourselves getting on with things; gardening, DIY - that sort of thing which of course we still found time for when we got back!

17 November 2011

november posy



I was reading Celia's blog last night, she'd just posted a wonderful posy of flowers picked from her garden. I thought about our garden and was sure I wouldn't be able to find enough to make a posy of my own. This morning I proved myself wrong, it didn't take me long to find this little bunch. When there is so little in flower in the garden (like now) I worry about robbing it and leaving nothing behind for the garden itself, but even being selective and only taking a little here and there I did OK - don't you think?

16 November 2011

early nights


I can't get used to these early nights, I mean it getting dark in the afternoon! Sometimes I look up and it's dark already. Today I was lucky enough to catch the sun just as it was slipping away.

15 November 2011

fireworks night




Should have posted this nearer the time, our local firework display which was accompanied by a cup of mulled wine.

14 November 2011

last of the windfalls


We've had so many apples in the garden this year, we've tried to find as many uses as we can for them and let as few go to waste as possible. Not only have we eaten a lot of apples, we've cooked them, frozen them and made them into cider. This is pretty much the last of them, which we will cook up; some to freeze, some to eat over the next week.

11 November 2011

waiting for a train




I spend quite a lot of time waiting for trains. D drops me at the station in the morning on his way to work, normally about 15 minutes before my train is due. I say Hi to the man in the box and make my way along the platform to the furthest bench to wait. I'm normally the first there, gradually people trickle round the corner onto the platform - never many it's only a small station.


Today I admired my new shoes, looked out across the fields, played with my phone and thought about my day ahead.

11:11 11.11.11


Like many people I decided to capture the moment, it was a last minute decision and a screen grab was the only way I could think. Hip Hip Hooray!

10 November 2011

all the way from japan


I'm so excited to have got my hands on some beautiful washi masking tape! I ordered it from UGUiSU online store, and it speedily arrived by air mail! Even the packaging was super cute and stuck of course with little strips of masking tape. The other little package in the top picture is a secret (a little pressie for D), wish I could show that as well but I don't want to spoil the surprise.


I choose the colours as I thought they would look good with brown paper or some paper bags I have hidden away somewhere with a wood grain print on. I love wrapping presents for people and I think with these tapes I'm going to have even more fun!

7 November 2011

big bunting, little bunting



I made this bunting a while ago, from the Boden catalogue, I thought it was rather sweet as they gave you all the lovely printed triangles - you just had to cut them out and stick on some string. It's been hanging in our lounge ever since.




Since they keep sending catalogues (and I've only ever bought one pair of shoes) I thought I'd best find a use for them. So why not make more bunting using all their lovely patterns, just little this time! Hence the pile of little triangles, just need to string them up.




Here they are fluttering around my desk, I've still got loads of little triangles left so might add a few more strings of them in the future.

5 November 2011

fancy that!



I've had a cold all week, so instead of going into the office and spreading my germs I've been working from home, till yesterday. Yesterday was my first day of leaving the house since Sunday, so I decided to make the most of it by popping across the river at lunchtime to the south bank. My first stop as always over there is the southbank centre shop, it's always full of lovely things and they change them quite regularly so it's always worth a visit. 


I fell in love with Donna Wilson's Meg cushions, another thing to add to my wish-list as well as gazing longingly at the Marimekko cups, plate and bowls. But I was good and resisted buying any of these lovely things apart from the little fancy pictured! How could I resist that, so small, so cute and so perfect for our tree!


After, I popped very quickly into the Royal Festival Hall where in the foyer was part of an exhibition 'Art by Offenders, Secure Patients and Detainees'. I had a quick wizz round and it was really interesting, I'm hoping to pop back next week and see the rest of the exhibition downstairs somewhere. 

3 November 2011

autumn inside and out



Took a quick wander round the garden, the orangey yellow leaves of the cherry tree are just stunning, an almost luminous golden glow they just keep catching my eye.  I picked the heads of the pansies as they are past their best and were dropped over, but even with their imperfections still beautiful enough for the table.