Oh what a beautiful blue

I've just a few minutes before setting off, I've got to make the most of a gloriously dry and frosty morning. Before I go, I thought I would waffle a bit whilst I finish off my huge mug of coffee as well as say hello to my new followers - welcome to my little corner of the world x

Following on with the success of the Halloween alternative of 'Chase the Pumpkins', the village organisers have gone straight into 'Spot the Poppy's...

 '.... and yes, I realise there is a completely incorrectly used, surplus apostrophe however, I am just typing it as it has been written by the organisers.  

Every time I read it, in my head it continues with .... 'Spot the Poppy's ..... spot the poppy's what?' sigh.

Any hoo, I am now in the process of making card 'poppy's '  - not 100% sure how I will display them, if I could be sure that we would get a spell of dry weather (the display has to be out from today until the 12th) then I would adorn the tree in the front with a cascade of them, however, this being a) November, b) the north of the UK and c) the north of the UK during November - you get my drift.... any way, best be off as I have work to do, can't be late :)

LATER

Well, I'm back for a quick lunch then off to the next job - it is such a gloriously beautiful day it truly blows the dreadful stuff out of the water. The sky is wrapped wall to wall in the most delicate clear blue, the sort of beautiful blue your eyes can see to forever and back. The occasional cloud drifts by in a soft gentle haze, gone are the angry vindictive storm clouds of the last few days. The trees - still and quiet, resting after their violent dancing are now bare and naked.

At the front door when I returned was a package, a book I had ordered a little while ago - from an alternative source (so not the omnipresent amazon), I am so looking forward to reading it. Leafing through the pages you can see this book has been definitely preloved and has probably been read by several different people which feels rather delicious - as if I am sharing in a secret book club and our collective readership is the bond.

Yesterday's deluge was time well spent. I had bid for (and won) a package of festive fat quarters and had sent the message out to the boys and their girls that festive face masks would be made. 

There was such a flurry of comments and choosing of fabrics. After what felt quite a 'bun fight' the decisions were finally agreed, I wrote down everyone's chosen colour combinations then I started cutting them out.

Each mask needs four pieces - the front, inside and two folded sections which one covers your nose and the other is beneath the chin. Then there is the little sleeve which holds the pipe cleaner to help shape the material over your nose making a closer fit.

Only one of the four requested two identical masks while the others requested various combinations of the fabrics. I am so glad I wrote down all their instructions.

Any hoo four were completed yesterday - minus the elastic and I just need to top-stitch the final four, then all eight masks can have elastic bands cut and I will then post the whole lot out. My boys and their girls might be out in the big wide world, but I can still do something for them to make their day a little easier. xx

Listing somewhat

Morning!

Another driech and damp day - to look through the window is to see a pale grey nothing with dank and dripping trees. 

Our weekend of high winds and heavy rain has stripped nearly every leaf from the trees taking all autumnal colour, leaving skeletal branches and twigs scratching at the nothing-sky. I have had to postpone today's work as it was outside and reschedule for a hopefully drier Wednesday.

So it means I will have to make my own colour and cheer today. I've written myself a list whilst drinking cinnamon coffee.... it goes a bit like this.....

• look after the incontinent fire (yes you read correctly, an oxymoron that - incontinent fire.... )
• mend palazzo pants, co-op bag, finish XXXX's dress, finish journal cover
• find brooch clasps
• fold up halloween bunting (only if dry) ✅
• varnish tall pot
• finish autumnal door wreath
• finish sorting out yarn spaghetti
• front window troughs
• find mini frames
• Sort out November's words etc ✅
• Wash dog bed (in the washing machine right now)✅

Some of my list is easily do-able with very little effort giving me the satisfaction of a ✅ where as others require a little more application...... so, I shall finish my coffee first then work my way through.  Am I the only one to add things to a list just so I can ✅ them off ??!

So, what's on your Monday to-do list? 

How are you going to make your day full of colour?

Do you write lists and more to the point do you actually complete them? (I never do - coz I always add more as I go along!)

And talking of lists, here is the Words for November 2020

Houseplant/s
Ring/s
Harbour
Window
Sky
My own choice
We will show and share our stories - Friday November 27th.

Thank you everyone who joined - those who posted their photos and shared their stories - thank you for letting us into your lives and your corner of the world. Thank you to those who popped in and said hi and commented - your comments are always a delight and most welcome.

We all need contact and conversation at the best of times and let's face it - this is not particularly the best of years, however, we can make the best of what we have and not let ourselves be squashed by all the rubbish that is out there. We can all make a difference even if it is only for ourselves, our families or our immediate surrounds, if we all do that - then the world will be a better place.

Have yourselves a good (and positive) Monday (with just a little bit of sunshine on the side please!)

Ah delightful - the rain is thundering down again and lashing against the windows - the new troughs won't need watering then will they (see a positive for everything :D )

Going the distance.....

The evening should have be filled with small witches and Draculas, 

giggling princesses and mini monsters

But 2020 has made some changes and we

have had to change too.

No knocking at the door, no yelling of 'trickle treeeeeeeeeet' but we certainly saw and heard excited little folk as they followed the trail around the village as they 'chased the pumpkins'.

We celebrated our Samhain by escaping the house and walking beneath a turbulent sky 

with a boisterous wind.

Storm Aiden had raged through the night and most of the morning, but after lunch,

the storm began to abate.

We wrapped up well,

took a flask, fruit cake and biscuits and walked up on to the moors.

Despite a sharp and flying fast shower,

it was a good walk,

It was a good time to be outside,

feeling the air,

tasting the tang of autumn,

On our return I reached my 1000th mile - 

I have walked one thousand miles worth of walking since the 1st of January,

two months earlier than I managed last year.

To celebrate we sat in the shelter of a small valley while Moss played in the stream.

We drank tea and nibbled the biscuits and fruit cake.

Happy.

 And the biscuits?

Oak leaf shaped ginger biscuits - fancy the recipe? oh, ok.... give me a mo....

350g/12oz SR flour

10ml/2 level tsp ground ginger

100g/4oz butter

175g/6oz light brown sugar

60ml/4 level tablsp golden syrup

1 egg - beaten

Oven - 190 deg c/375 deg f

Soften the butter (I used the microwave), add the sugar, syrup, ginger and stir well

Add the beaten egg, stir again.

Mix in the flour then knead lightly until well mixed and a lovely pliable dough.

Place in the 'fridge while you wash up

Roll out (dust surface and rolling pin with flour) and cut the biscuits.

Space out well on the tray and bake for 12 - 15 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a rack before scoffing with a mug of coffee.

nom nom nom

October's Link up Party!

 

Hello hello hello!

October has been and has almost gone, so it is time to share our photos and stories with this month's Scavenger Photo Hunt!

Just follow the link to add your post for  October and if you fancy joining it next month - it is really easy, just follow the list of words supplied at the beginning of each month adding a photo and a few accompanying words. Enjoy!

The link up party will stay live until midnight Sunday when it will then close.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

October's words and pictures :D

Welcome to this month's words and photos - hope you enjoy!
 

Sweet Treat

Peanut butter & oat biscuits - so quick to make and even quicker to eat! Recipe HERE

utter Starts with a ..... W ....

Wheel. Yes, that wheely is a rubber tyre being used as a nest. The bird is a black backed gull and if you think how large a car tyre is ... shows how big the bird is. However, that is not the whole story..... let me show you another image and see what you think now.....

See that rather small black speck on Queen Rock - the sea stack? Well that is the wheel-nest..... The stack is 80 foot tall and on the very tippity top .... a tyre. Apparently it has been there for years. It could not have been a lucky throw because the distance is too great, so someone with climbing know how scaled that chalk stack and took a car tyre for good measure....... 

(I have just done a little research and it has been there since the 1960s!!! There used to be a traffic cone there too but that has gone now). There was also a King Rock but that too has long gone, swallowed up by the sea. I have just found another photo - taken 12 years ago when it had a gargoyle cemented on top! HERE

The mind boggles.

Reading Now

Word Perfect by Susie Dent - except it isn't - apparently it is full of errors. Eldest pre-ordered a copy before he moved and when, several weeks later, it landed here at home, the delivery company just lobbed it over the front garden wall and the parcel was absolutely sodden after a soggy night out. I eventually found the parcel, rescued the book which was fortunately still dry - unlike it's container which just collapsed into a papery mush. I let Eldest know (now living away in his new home) and he filed a complaint regarding the delivery service. Only to be told that he would be getting a new (and error free) book as soon as it was printed. So now I am reading and enjoying Eldest's book :) next on my reading list is .... Human kind - A hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

Hobby/crafting

During lockdown, when life changed direction somewhat, I rediscovered my sewing machine and found my sewing kit - with a bit of a practice (cushion covers for both the house and the van) I found that I rather like sewing. Not clothing - no - that's not me (it might be sometime, but certainly not now) No - I am still more of a crafter and sewing is just another element to crafting. So I have played with Boro stitching, visible mending, fabric journals, toys and masks.... many masks. It feels good being able to gift a mask that you have made and you know they appreciate and wear - I have found the easiest and most successful pattern - the 3D mask - HERE. I have shared it before however, it definitely is worth a look (and do put up with the video explanation - it is worth it for the 30 seconds of instruction!)

Something Purple

Last year in September, when we were out and about - these made us smile as we passed by.  Instead of the usual black bales of silage on this farm we saw these large purple 'faces' with their features made with huge stickers. They were a charity fund raiser - if I remember rightly it was for a children's charity.

My own choice

On Sunday we were walking, it was a brisk crisp day, a wonderful change from the previous very wet Saturday. Our route was as people free as we could make it and during the seven or so miles, we only spoke to two separate people and saw a dog walking family someway off in the distance. But what we did find .... was this little completely out of season little beauty. Tucked deeply into moss and grass and on a bank facing the sun, this spring flowering primrose was cheerfully flowering in autumn...... did it not get the memo? Or has it decided that 2020 was so rubbish that it would to start again :D What ever the reason - it made my heart sing and it was such a delight to find (Well spotted Himself!)

Well, that's my lot - I'm off to see what the other lovely photo hunters have come up with for October's photos and stories, hope you do too :D

Spinning a web of threads and yarns

I could hear the rain and the wind before I even opened my eyes. The room was filled with a dim grey early morning light, making me bury myself even deeper beneath the duvet. 

It took a determined small cat and a large mug of tea to make me surface. Pepper who - when let upstairs first thing in the morning, takes it upon herself to ensure every last person, still in bed, is awake. She is so persistent that even the most lazy-lie-in will give in and sit up.

Sipping my tea, watching the world through the window, as the wind thrashed the trees back and forth,  did nothing for my 'get up and go', preferring to stay wrapped up listening to the radio, however, tea drunk and Himself and Pepper ready for breakfast made me drag myself out of the snug warmth of the bed.

Breakfast eaten, washed up and put away - we went grocery shopping - oh I was so glad to be wearing a mask, the wind and rain whipped around and my face felt safe and warm behind the blue batik fabric. Once home the weather really upped it's bad behaviour, so we gave up all outside thoughts and chose to be warm and dry by the fire. We planned quiet things, reading and listening to music, sewing and chatting, resting and unwinding. Not things we often do.

However. It did not take long for me to get 'itchy fingers' so I started my slow-sewing.

 A small hand stitched Ted. Teeny tiny stitches to hold together teeny tiny pieces of fabric. He was stuffed with snippets of cloth and trimmed off waste thread from all my recent mask making.

Although not finished yet - needs eyes and a nose - I am rather pleased with the end result. I even managed to 'joint' his arms and legs so they move, making it easier to sit or pose (will do a 'photoshoot when he is complete).

With trimming off the final thread - I realised that I had generated more little snippets of fabric and ends of threads - so decided to make a little fabric 'tub' to hold all the little pieces that seem to come with sewing. A quick rummage in a pile of left over fabrics revealed a long narrow piece of upholstery material - perfect.

A break to do some baking - we needed something to help brighten the still rather dreary weather....... a batch of fruit scones slathered in butter and grape jelly with a piping hot mug of tea....

Bliss. Strangely (or not) they did not last long and I managed to hide a few in a tin to have later.

The fabric tub - a mix of sewing machining and hand finishing kept me quiet for the afternoon. 

I am looking forward to filling it with all the snipperty bits whilst I am sewing. (there is a proper name for one of these little containers - if you know what it is - please let me know). ****

By this time Himself was ready to eat again (he has hollow legs!) so again a break off from crafting while we went into the kitchen to start supper.

A friend messaged me asking if my Halloween window display was finished .... finished? finished? I have not even started it yet! So I raided my stash and laid it out on the table to see what I could make with what I had.

This year's trick and treating - like everything in 2020 - is different, windows are decorated and children, accompanied by their parents, wander around the village following a map hunting for the pumpkins. Instead of the little mini monsters and princesses knocking on the door for sweets, they are given by the parents when the decorated windows are found.  What I had not realised was the displays are to be up all week to give parents and children space to walk around the village in safety. 

Which means my window had to be up and ready by midday on Sunday - So ...... I crocheted the quickest (and let's be honest) scruffiest spider web. 

Bit of denim and hessian, four pipecleaners and suddenly there was a spider. Two bats out of black paper soon followed, some leaves and fairy lights finished the inside display.

Outside I quickly hung some black bunting and added a small pumpkin - grown by Eldest in the greenhouse before he and his lovely gf moved. Just a simple face and for contrast - black paper inside to make the eyes and mouth show up. Final addition was a salt lamp to give that lovely orangey glow. I was, I have to admit, a bit disappointed in the final result and was in a bit of a grump for a while.

If anything - I felt like he looked - :(

Then after a really good (and tiring) afternoon walk, when we returned, I lit candles, switched on lights and the window display suddenly looked a whole lot better.

So - that was our weekend - it flew by faster than a bat on a mission..... The display has to remain up all week, hopefully little grumpy pumpkin face will last that long.

Hope your weekend was good :) Here is to an equally good Monday xxxxx

***thread catcher - seems there is a whole world of patterns and ideas for them out there - whodathunkit?!

Simple pleasures

Last weekend was a time for chores at home, the sort of simple jobs I procrastinate over, then once I finally get round to doing - wonder why I took so long to get started ...... 

Time to replace the tired pots of sunflowers, sweetpeas and calendulas which have spent their summer

along the kitchen wall.

I found some very reasonably priced zinc buckets and Himself added drainage holes in their bases.

It didn't take long, and now I have winter colour and planters along the back wall.

They'll soon settle in and fill out while the weather is still 'reasonably' warm.

Mask making - this time with a seasonal twist, I will be posting some of these off as soon as I can.

This must be the easiest and most fool proof pattern yet - this is the one I will be sticking with from now on.

Pattern HERE

Jam making - well, grape jelly really. 

The greenhouse grapes yielded over 2 kilograms of fruits - added to about 500gm red currents...

boiled together with 710gms of pectin enriched sugars....

gave me five full jars and a half-ish one (presently sitting in the fridge) They are now labelled up and ready to eat. A soft rose coloured jelly with a delicious tangy fresh taste - perfect on toast and scones - can't see this lot lasting long :)

 Simple jobs that once done bring pleasure - there are more that needs doing but - pah - not just yet!

Are you a procrastinator? Do you have jobs waiting to be done? Go on, tell me, reassure me I am not the only one (I am procrastinating now - should be showering and getting ready for a morning stint of volunteering at the community store - but ... phfff, still sitting chatting to you!)

Have a lovely Tuesday xxxxxx